The 6 War Steeds of Taizong Emperor 昭陵六骏 The Early Military Career of Li Shimin

A warrior prince's pride: Prince Li Shimin was one of the founders of the Tang dynasty and one day would ascend to the throne as the Taizong Emperor. He was a lifelong warrior and had a special fondness for horses. At his massive Zhao Mausoleum 昭陵 in Shaanxi China, Taizong commissioned six of his favorite war steeds to be depicted near an altar for memorial purposes.

Taizong loved these horses so much he wrote poems for each of them to accompany the reliefs. Each of the six horses he chose to depict represented a meaningful phase of his early career as a front line general for his clan. Not only were they representative of a specific period of his adolescence but also the different enemies he fought in many parts of China's diverse biomes.

The steeds (1.7m x 2.0m each) interestingly all bore foreign names which were not Chinese but rather transliterations of Turkic or Central Asian terms such as Tegin and Shad, indicative of the horses' possible origin as gifts or tributes from the Gokturks to the Tang. Some of the horses were exotic and may have been Przewalski's horse or breeds from as far as Caspians and Arabia. Their names were: Telebiao (特勒骠), Qingzhui (青骓), Shifachi (什伐赤), Saluzi (飒露紫), Quanmaogua (拳毛騧) and Baitiwu (白蹄乌).

The culture of northern China in the 7th century was intimately familiar with steppe customs. Not only did the warrior aristocrats of northern China have direct blood from Xianbei (Proto- Mongol) fore-bearers, but the Gokturk royal family had Han Chinese blood from their Chinese empresses. Though the two sides often fought each other, there was also a high level of exchange between northern China and the steppes. In the last days of the Sui dynasty the Gokturks played a major role in supporting dozens of Chinese rebels and used them to wage a proxy war against the teetering Sui dynasty. One of those rebels they supported was no less than the Li family who founded the Tang.

THE SIX PRIZED STEEDS

"Since I engaged in military campaigns, those war chargers which carried me rushing on the enemy and breaking the line, and which rescued me from perils, their true images should be portrayed on stone and be placed left and right of my tomb to demonstrate the righteousness of "curtain and cover."

An eager teenager dying to make his name rode Baitiwu. Upon him, the 20 year old prince raced with him over an arid landscape. A storm of yellow loess dust powder and yellow green pastures. It was near the beginning of Li Shimin's career as a warrior prince, and the story of the six horses began with a chase scene. 

BACKDROP

A picture of calamity: the year was 617, a momentous year in Chinese history. For over two decades most of China's countryside was devastated by the tyrannical misrule of Emperor Yang of Sui. Nearly a million had died in his disastrous attempts to invade Korea and the construction of the Grand Canal. More millions would die in the famines that devastated the countrysides. Massive rebellions erupted across the realm- leading plundering bands numbering hundreds of thousands, and of those who had sprung up against the government, many were brutally slaughtered by the imperial forces. While this was happening, the detached Yang spent millions from the state treasury building lavish palaces for himself. That same year, events in northern China that would change the fortune of the realm for the next 3 centuries. 

THE CHANGING WIND

The powerful Duke of Tang, and guardian of northern China: Li Yuan, rebelled against Yang in 617 and marched against the capital with his clan. Both he and his children were formidable generals, and together, they decisively swept aside the Sui imperial garrison at Huoyi 霍邑 (modern Yuncheng, Shanxi,) and forced Yang to escape from his capital at Chang An. Yang was soon killed by his mutinous generals and China was plunged into anarchy. China now belonged to an ocean of warlords.

WAR OF SUPREMACY

Same stripes, like the Li clan, the Xue family also had been military administrators in the

latter days of the Sui empire. Dissatisfied with Sui tyranny, in 617 Xue Ju and many conspirators

killed the other Sui ministers and opened up the granary in Gansu to the poor. There is strange 

symmetry with his rebellion and that of Li Yuan and his war- like children. 

Immediately following Li Yuan's entrance into Chang An, he chose his 2nd son, the 20 year old Li Shimin as his vanguard against another warlord by the name of Xue Ju in the west. In the Gansu region west of the new Tang capital at Chang An, Xue Ju had also rebelled against the Sui and declared himself emperor of a new dynasty called Qin earlier in 617. Like the father and son duo of Li Yuan and Li Shimin, both Xue Ju and his crown prince Xue Rengao were also dangerous cavalry commanders. In total, the Qin army numbered in the hundreds of thousands, if Xue was not checked immediately, he would pose a direct threat against the Tang capital.

YOUNG PRINCE

Though at this point Li Shimin had been but one of his father's trusted generals- leading his cavalry in conjunction with his brothers to victory at Houyi, it was here where he made a name for himself as commander against a proven regional warlord with nearly equal forces as the Tang. For the western campaigns the two sides would regularly put some 100,000 soldiers on the field. Li Shimin would soon make his name as the hammer of the Tang in destroying an escalating series of powerful warlords across northern China.

Li began his campaign against Xue Ju vigorously. Within days of entering into Gansu Li dealt Xue a crippling defeat and forced Xue to retreat in panic with his whole beaten army. Half of the 100,000 strong Qin army was destroyed outright and it was recorded the Xue was so astonished by the scale of the damage that had been inflicted upon him that he asked his advisers if he should surrender to the Tang. However, the warhawks of his camp won out and convinced him to fully resist against the Tang forces. After licking his wounds, in the summer of 618, Xue Ju launched another invasion on Tang's Jing Prefecture (涇州) near eastern Gansu. In response, Gaozu again sent Li Shimin to resist Xue Ju. Li Shimin would suffer his first defeat there. 

Li would establish a strong defense and refused to engage Xue Ju, but at that time, he was afflicted with malaria, and his subcommanders had to take command of the Tang troops. However, Xue Ju ambushed them at Qianshui Plain (淺水原, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), crushing Tang forces and inflicting 50%-60% casualties. Li Shimin was forced to unpack and withdraw back to Chang An, in turn, western Shaanxi was annexed by the Qin. This would be Li Shimin's only defeat until the Goguryeo campaign of 645. However, following Xue's victory, he would suddenly fall ill and die- leaving his entire domain to his son Xue Rengao.

 Li would come back three months later with a replenished army. Against the Tang, Xue deployed some 100,000 soldiers and marched towards the Tang forces. However, when he found the Tang encampment, Xue was greatly frustrated.

THE BATTLE OF QIANSHUIYUAN

Instead of offering battle, Li Shimin sited his army upon the brow of a very defensible hill. The Tang camp was well fortified and nearly unassailable, and most of all it was well provisioned and brimmed with supplies for an extended stay. Despite taunts and goading, Li never offered battle. What followed would establish a typical battle pattern for Li Shimin's early military career. 

For nearly two months, the two sides were locked in a watchful stalemate. Xue's massive army soon became frustrated at the fruitless wait, daily the morale decayed, and supply dwindled. Worse yet, for the new ruler of Qin, Xue was questioned by his officers. 

BAITIWU 白蹄乌

Baitiwu 白蹄乌 ridden in 618, carried the then Prince Li Shimin about 200 li day and night, or roughly 100 kilometers. It's shown in a flying gallop. Despite the Chinese name of Bai 白 or "white," the name is a transliteration of Turkic. Instead the horse was full black in body and only had small amount of white near its four hooves.

Hills and shallows, the battle (or more precisely the two battles of Qianshuiyuan) happened  along the southern shores of the Wei river. Li picked a strong position and exploited the   terrain to full effect. Through the terrain Li also dictated the timing of the battle.

Though Xue was a capable warrior, in terms of leadership he was not as influential as his father. Shortly after his father's passing, Xue Rengao entered into conflicts with many of his father's generals, including 4 of the most senior commanders. All the while, Li kept a continual watch on the demoralized foe outside his fort. On November 29, 618, when the worn out Qin army was short of provisions, Li launched a assault. Thinking that the Tang had finally offered battle, Xue immediately commited his forces against the Tang forces, but it was a trap. 

Instead, Li had took advantage of the obscuring natural terrain of the crest of the hill along with the shallow waters around it and covertly maneuvered his forces into two prongs, a hammer and anvil that is poised against the by now vulnerable and out of formation Qin columns. When Xue took note of the real direction of the full Tang assault it was too late, he had been lured to the hammer blow. Li's charge crashed into the Qin army before it was able to reform and soon the Tang infantry refilled into the wedges the Tang cavalry had just created. The pierced Qin army was utterly smashed and quickly collapsed into a headlong route. 

Xue escaped with only a portion of his forces, while Li personally chased them in a hot pursuit with some 2000 riders. Upon his horse Baitiwu 白蹄乌, Li rode some 200 li day and night, or roughly 100 kilometers without changing horses. The ride was such that the landscape of Gansu changed from the green mountains nearing the Shaanxi boarder all the way to the yellow powdered loess plateaus westward along the Wei river. Teal green mountains to a desert like clime, all the while the Tang forces pursued. 

Finally, Xue Rengao was forced to withdraw into the city of Gaozhi along the Wei river. But once he did, his soldiers began to desert their posts and surrendering to Li Shimin en masse. The Tang were famous during their ascension for their clemency in receiving the surrenders of many defeated foes and soon the entire city was on teetering on the point of mutiny against Xue Rengao. After the Qin surrendered Li pardoned the Qin soldiery and incorporated many of them into the Tang army, Xue Rengao himself was delivered back to Chang An and executed, but several of his brothers, and many of Xue's former generals and ministers where pardoned and enrolled into the Tang army as officers.

Of the great horse that gave him this hard won victory, Li Shimin wrote of Baitiwu in his poem: “Holding the heavenly sword and riding the horse with speed chasing the wind, we rode to conquer Gansu and Sichuan.”

TELEBIAO

Telebiao 特勒骠: ridden into battle in 618. Li did not remove his armor or the horse saddle for 3 full days during the battle. The horse has yellow and white hair on its body and a black mouth. Its name is originally 特勤 Teqin, derived from the Turkic term Tegin: a name that usually referred to Junior Princes of the Ashina royal family. 

Only a month later after the victory at Qianshuiyuan, report came in from the old Tang home base in Shanxi and warned that Li Yuan's old headquarters were attacked by his old nemesis, the fierce agrarian rebels Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang (both former rebels against the Sui,) had launched a major combined offensive with Gokturk backing against Tang in the Spring of 619.

Liu Wuzhou was a Sui military governor who had served the Sui but sensing the 

waning of Sui power in 617, soon murdered the local Sui magistrates and rebelled. Like

many prominent rebels of the era, he purged the Sui officials and opened up

the granary for the peasants. To buttress his power base. He immediately looted the

local Sui palace and pledged his loot, and his service to the nearby Gokturk Khagan. 

Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang were both fierce anti-government rebels who had

dealt serious defeats to Sui imperial forces. Originally, Li Yuan, the patriarch of the

Li clan was tasked with uprooting these rebels from northern China. Li's inability

to completely eradicate the Turkic- backed Liu Wuzhou was one of the main 

reasons he rebelled against the Sui government.

Liu Wuzhou and Song captured Shanxi's capital of Taiyuan in summer 619, expertly cutting off the city's water supply and forcing Li Shimin's younger brother, Li Yuanji, who had been in charge there to flee in panic. After taking Taiyuan and making it their capital, the two rebels continued their devastating offensive southward. Li Yuan initially sent a force against the him, but by winter 619, Liu and Song had crushed that army and taken over nearly all of modern Shanxi. What's worse, Liu's regime was completely backed by the looming Gokturk Khaganate.

For his supplications to the Khagan, the Gokturk Khagan- Shibi Khan made Liu the "Dingyang Khan"— lit. "the Khan who rules over the Yang clan." It was created as a direct insult: (Yang was the name of Sui's imperial clan.) Shibi Khan also bestowed on Liu a great banner with a symbol of a wolf's head, as he had done so to his own local princes. Liu then declared himself emperor of the territory in modern Inner Mongolia, turning the entire region into a Gokturk vassal state. 

A troubled history: Shibi Khan remained an implacable foe to both the Sui and the 

Tang regimes. By the late 610s, the Sui and the Gokturks have heavily meddled in each 

other's affairs for over three decades. In the chaotic Gokturk civil war which split up the 

empire in two, the Sui under its founder Emperor Wen had supported various Gokturk 

princes against each other. However, after Wen's death, the fortune of northern China 

and that of the Gokturks were reversed. For the next two decades, the Gokturks would 

repeatedly support various anti-government rebels in northern China. During the 

chaotic years of 617-620, they would support more than a dozen 

rebels across northern China. Including the Li clan of Tang.

Conspiracy: In spring 619, Shibi Khan was planning a launch a major incursion into Chinese territory, and he had Liu and another rebel ruler, Liang Shidu the Emperor of Liang (modern Ordos Desert) to the immediate west of Tang's territories, to join him, but Shibi Khan soon died, and the Gokturk pincer attack never materialize. However, his anti- Tang proxy war policy was continued- and further expanded by his successors Chuluo Khagan and Illig Khagan in the 620s. Virtually all who warred against the Tang were supported by the Gokturk Khagans. Illig Khagan would take the proxy wars further in 626 by personally breaching into the Tang territory and summon Li to face him right outside the Tang capital of Chang An. 

Shocked at the development, Li Yuan considered abandoning the northern region- the former homeland of the fief of Tang altogether. However Prince Shimin strongly opposed doing so and offered to personally lead an army against the two rebels. Li Yuan agreed and commissioned him with an army.

LIGHTNING JABS IN THE FROST

 Li did not remove his armor or the horse saddle for 3 full days during the battle. 

Prince Shimin crossed the Yellow River, but just like at the battle of Qianshuiyuan, Li Shimin refrained from committing to decisive battles, choosing rather to engage in prolonged skirmishes, probing actions, and duels while waiting his foes supplies to run out. This too, unnerved his enemies, whose morale plummeted in the harsh winter clime without them knowing if Li would offer battle. However Li shored up his own supplies and prepared for a fatal blow. During the wait, Li would regularly dart across the region and crush any possible support for the rebel army. In the early spring of 620, Li suddenly appeared and utterly destroyed a Sui loyalist in the region that still held out against the Tang forces and was parlaying with Song's forces for an alliance. Later in the spring of 620, he waylayed a major supply column for Song's army. Severing the supply line to Song's forces. 

Having made his enemy wait in the darkness and swiftly jabbed away each of the foe's strength, the foe was left in a deadly stupor. In the summer 620, Li Shimin, believing Song Jingang's army to be worn out and completely ran out of food supplies, launched a major counterattack with a full bellied army. Li first concnetrated his attacks on Song's regional commanders, and then, after many have been blown away, closed in and attacked Song directly. Here is where Li's abilities as a vanguard general was shown prominently. Li defeated Song's prolapsing forces many times, each bitter blow rips apart bits of Song's defeated army, turning many former Song generals into Tang captives. 

Li Shimin gave a relentless chase, and once on top of his horse Telebiao fought and gave chase for 3 full days. Eventually, Song's forces disintegrated, and whole swaths of Song's former lieutenants surrendered to their Tang pursuers along with low ranking soldiers.

Aside from crushing Song's army, Li Shimin also met one of most loyal generals: the gruff Yuchi Jinde (Yuchi Gong) in these battles. Though at this point Yuchi Jinde had only been a ruffian and a lesser officer serving Song Jingang, under Li he would become one of Li's best champions and bodyguards, eventually securing Shimin's ascension as the Taizong Emperor in 626. Li's lightning jabs did it's work, and Song's army was destroyed. Northern China and western China now securely belonged to the Tang, and hundreds of thousands of Liu and Song's men were enrolled into Prince Shimin's army.

Upon hearing of Song's defeat, Liu immediately abandoned Taiyuan in panic and fled northward back to his Gokturk patrons while Song's army crumbled before Li Shimin's onslaught. Li Shimin relentlessly pursued him, expelling him first from Shanxi, then chased Liu's army further until all of the northern China- the home base of both Liu and Song fell into Tang hands and both rebels generals had to fled under the protection of the Eastern Gokturk Khagan. Liu would serve the Gokturk Khagan for some years before being executed by him. 

But the demands of the state did not provide Li with a respite from war. Within only months, fresh from his crushing victory over Liu Wuzhou, in August of 620 Li Shimin received orders from his father to crush Tang's entrenched foes in central China. Thus Li, with an army of 50,000 men, began his advance from Shanxi towards Luoyang. Here, the Tang made its bid for the most prosperous and most densely populated province of China.

SALUZI 飒露紫 "AUTUMN DEW"

Saluzi 飒露紫, or "Autumn Dew," in Turkic also known as "Whirlwind Victory": was one of Prince Li Shimin's  favorite warhorses which he rode against the enemy warlord Wang Shichong. Saluzi was described having a majestic air and had a coat of purplish mane.

Ambitious Usurper of Henan: the half Sogdian Wang Shichong 王世充 was a Siyu huren 

西域胡人, or "Foreigner from the western regions." During his early career he enlisted in one of the elite "Soaring Hawk" units, which were the most prestigious imperial cavalry vanguards of the Sui dynasty. He rose rapidly through the ranks by putting down many rebellions and was greatly favored by the tyrannical Emperor Yang of Sui. 

In one of the major battles of the post-Sui anarchy, Wang ambushed Li Mi: one of his major 

rival warlords at Yanshi through an ingenious night time maneuver. Despite being 

outnumbered and severely lacking in cavalry, Wang utterly destroyed Li Mi's forces and

made him the undisputed ruler of all of Henan. 

When the Sui crumbled to anarchy and Emperor Yang was strangled by his own generals. Wang made his bid for power. First he rode with his elite corps to Luoyang at the heart of the empire- where the last heir of the Sui dynasty still struggles to maintain power. There Wang pledged his loyalty to the beleaguered young prince and eternal service as a Regent. However he quickly stole power for himself and had the Emperor assassinated, strangled to death by his own cousins. There- in Luoyang he gathered the imperial regalia and proclaimed himself emperor of a new dynasty called "Zheng." Henan, the breadbasket of the realm and the densely populated heart of imperial China became his domains. 

THE SIEGE OF LUOYANG

What came for Wang was faster than anything that he could have ever anticipated. On August 620, immediately after Prince Li Shimin's overwhelming victory over the rival Liu Wuzhou in the Tang home province of Shanxi, Li and his 50,000-strong army left Shanxi and raced directly for Luoyang. Despite the sheer size of Henan which was comparable to that of an European country, they advanced with lightning speed. Within a month- by September the Tang troops had already smashed all of the Zheng defenders outside the city's walls and sent the shattered remnants back to the metropolis. Having secured a foothold, Li immediately blocked all the exits of Luoyang with military precision and began to establish a ring of fortified camps and siege equipments that strangled the great city. The usurper Emperor of Henan was trapped. 

THE RACE TO CLOSE OFF LUOYANG

A man of Central Asian ethnicity depicted playing horse polo

According to the New Book of Tangs, Saluzi was ridden by the 21 year old prince during the siege of the great city of Louyang. Although Wang's formation was beaten up, Wang Shichong's elite cavalry spotted Li's banners, and also saw from their position that Li was extended from the lines in a poorly guarded bulge. They rushed forward and began to shower a hail of arrows against the Tang Prince. 

An arrow pierced the horses's breast and the prince was thrown to the ground. In the critical moment Li's general Qiu Xinggong came to rescue, fought the foe with arrows and he stopped the enemies from advancing. Then he jumped off the horse and extracted the arrow hit in Saluzi and gave his own horse to Li Shimin, after Li drove back to his lines, Qiu Xinggong continued his battle against Wang's soldiers. After several continual rounds of fierce fighting, Wang Shichong's forces were finally defeated and pushed back into the city. 

Recalling this event when it came time to build his mausoleum, Emperor Taizong ordered the scene of the General pulling the arrow out of Saluzi to be rendered in stone. In which Qiu Xinggong is shown removing the arrow from Saluzi who stoically bore the pain. The relief of Saluzi was the only one to feature a human figure, which depicts a Tang warrior in riding robes wrapped over his lamellar armor. In describing this majestic steed, Li Shimin wrote: “Like a swallow in purple, it gallops; its body flying in the air, a spell wraith. It quakes the ground and its might shakes the battlefield.”

CONSOLIDATION OF HENAN

Immediately after Luoyang was completely surrounded. Li immediately divided up his forces and sent out detachments to the countryside surrounding the great metropolise. Of which- most of the towns, forts, and local garrisons are still under the direct control of Wang's kinsmen. After all of the Zheng forces in the capital are trapped, Prince Shimin divided his 50,000 and sent out detachments riding hard towards the city's south, east and north with the aim of dislodging all of the local Zheng garrisons and detaching Wang's center from any possible reinforcements. 

It was not difficult for the Tang forces to find many recruits as they raced through the countryside, since Wang had been an unpopular ruler in the eyes of the locals. Most noticeably, the monks of the nearby Shaolin Temple threw in their lot with the Tang forces, together, they assaulted and took a key Zheng fortress at Baigu Fort, or Cypress Valley Fort. But the siege had dragged on for several months by this point, right when some of Wang's kinsmen were completely uprooted from Henan, another giant army appeared from the eastern horizons. For Wang Shichong had not been idle, and had requested the powerful warlord of Hebei- Dou Jiande to rescue Luoyang at the head of a massive army that numbered some 100,000 soldiers. 

Implacable Insurgent of Hebei: Dou Jiande 窦建德 Tall and charismatic, Dou was described as both honorable to his neighbors and his community while being deeply resentful of the corrupt court. Hebei repeatedly suffered from flooding and famine during the latter days of the Sui dynasty, and the local government was both brutal and corrupt. In 611, Dou's entire family was slaughtered by Sui officials, including his wife and children. After escaping to the wilderness, Dou befriended many honorable bandits Wuxia 武俠 who were forced into such an existence and swore brotherhood to them. 

After this Dou became a wrecking ball to the Sui government. He repeatedly destroyed many Sui garrisons and defeated some of the most powerful Sui generals on the field. After absorbing many local Sui remnants. Dou gathered a massive personal army of outlaws and Sui remnants under his leadership. He would proclaim himself the Prince of Xia and make Hebei his stomping ground. By the time of the Battle of Hulao, Dou and his army would have been veterans of a decade of battles against the best of the Sui military. With him moved the combined might of Hebei, which numbered anywhere from 100,000 men to nearly 120,000, vastly outnumbering Li's 50,000 who were beneath Luoyang's walls.

QINGZHUI 青骓 "Stallion of Qin" 

Qingzhui 青骓: Li Shimin's steed in his 621 campaigns against the warlord of Hebei Dou Jiande. Depicted with five arrows stuck in his body, with one in the front and four arrows in the back. Although his name is written in Chinese using the character of Qing or "青," synonymous with "blue" "pure" and "cleanness" (as in the Manchu "Qing" dynasty.) The origin of the name has nothing to do with the color but instead was a transliteration from the Turkic word for Çin, pronounced "Chin," for the far west. "Daqin" was the ancient Chinese name for Rome and the Byzantine empire- later specifically refer to the region of modern Syria. As such his name would be closely translated to "Stallion of the Çin Region."

A DEADLY ALLIANCE

The army Dou Jiande 窦建德 had raised for this undertaking was immense, and truly showed both the charisma and experience of Dou as a commander.Though Dou had started out as merely one of the bands of rebels who were forced into outlawdry, the charismatic Dou soon united all of the rebels under his personal command and went on to destroy multiple Sui imperial columns. In the end, he incorporated many of the Sui remnants and officials he had defeated into the ranks of his vast army. He soon made himself the "Prince of Xia," effectively the sole ruler of Hebei. 

The respective territories of Tang of the Li clan (Pink), Wang Shichong's Zheng (Yellow), and Dou Jiande's Xia (Orange) in 620. The Li family of Tang controlled mostly the northwestern sectors of the realm, Wang controlled the resource rich central five point of the empire at Henan, while Dou controlled the equally populous and fiercely turbulent province of Hebei. Comparatively, both Wang and Dou controlled the most prosperous, populous, and well defended regions of the empire, composing nearly 60% of the empire's population and respective industries. 

If combined together, Wang and Dou's alliance would unite two of the most populous and richest provinces in China in one coalition- not to mention two of the most experienced commanders of the post-Sui anarchy. After all, the combined population of Henan and Hebei composes some 60% of the empire's population.

When the many Tang generals heard that Dou had decided to throw his massive weight to come to Wang's aid, they immediately pleaded for Li Shimin to withdraw, but Prince Shimin stubbornly responded that  should he pull out his siege lines and withdrew, Wang would recover and again be a major threat in the future. He would not pullout the siege works from Luoyang.

THE SUICIDAL RIDE TOWARD HULAO

Li Shimin immediately placed his younger brother Li Yuanji in charge of the siege operations and rode off some 60 miles (97 km) eastward from Luoyang with not even a fraction of his forces but a fraction of a fraction of his total forces. 

From the pool of some 50,000 forces entrenched around Luoyang, Li only picked 3,000/ 3,500 of his troops and rode out in late April to confront Dou's colossal army of 100,000. Among Li's 3,000 included no less than 1,000 of his most elite bodyguard cavalry: the Xuán jiǎ jūn 玄甲军: or "Jet Black Armor Cavalry" clad from head to toe in black armor. Between them and the oncoming army, only an ancient pass stood in its way: called Hulao~ or "The Tiger's Trap."

Because entrance into Luoyang could only be achieved through several predictable passes, Li immediately forced marched his 3,000 and raced toward Hulao ahead of Dou's arrival, occupying the pass on the 22th of April. Upon garrisoning the fort, Li immediately began to fortify it and also garrisoning the few narrow mountain passes surrounding it. It was the perfect spot, one of the only places to hold an army nearly 35 times his size.

What happens next conforms exactly to Li Shimin's usual battle pattern. In his previous battles at Qianshuiyuan and battles against Liu Wuzhou in Shanxi, Li Shimin was known for racing headlong to secure a strategically vital spot. From there, be it upon a bluff or in this instance a fort, he would entrench the area until it's impregnable, well stocked with supplies, and securely connect with a supply line. 

THE FATE OF QINGZHUI

When Xia forward troops arrived first, Li Shimin's best warriors surprised and defeated them, with this tactical upset, Li then sent Dou a letter suggesting that he withdraw, pointing out that the conflict Li was engaged in with Zheng had nothing to do with Xia. But Dou would not do so. Soon, the whole of Dou's massive army appeared. Their ranks were so long that the giant army stretched for miles.

Yellow earth characterize the Hulao region that flanked the south bank of the Yellow River. 

Everywhere is the ubiquitous presence of flaky and yellow- gray dust, be it the sediments 

upon the dry cliffs or the yellow powders one kick up from under their boots.

Over the next few weeks, Dou repeatedly marched to Hulao and offered battle, deploying his 100,000 in battle formation as long as 10 kilometers. Li Shimin, however, was content to remain in his powerful defensive position from which his numerically inferior force could easily hold the Xia forces at bay. For more than a month, the two armies repeated this ritual in tedium. At this point the Xia's moral had fallen greatly. Daily, Dou's supplies dwindled with nothing to show for.

The pre-dawn of May 28th, 621 was warm and brightened with the first fingers of the late spring sun. Nearly a month had passed since Dou staked his camp at Banzhu. But alarm soon raised throughout the entire Xia camp. The Tang had been raiding the Xia supply lines.

Dou quickly ordered his forces to gear up and chase the raiders toward Hulao's gates with full speed and likely without a breakfast. The unsettled soldiers, roused before dawn soon took up their positions in the marching ranks and soon, several snaking columns of Xia forces began to stream along the south banks of the Yellow River toward the Sishui River from several paths, kicking up mighty cloud of dust along their way.

It took hours but by the time the sun had risen around 08:00, Dou had deployed his army for battle along the eastern shore of the Sishui river beside the Pass. The massive battle formation that they would take was as long as 10 kilometers. Per usual, it was an hourly affair until all the soldiers were arrayed for battle. However, the Tang troops did not come forth to deploy for battle; instead they remained in their strong defensive positions and watched. An hour, then another, then several passed. Apart from skirmishes between the two armies' cavalry, the two armies maintained their standoff from about 08:00 until noon, when the Xia troops began to show signs of thirst and weariness. It must be remembered that this day, they were forced out and rushed out. By noon, lunch hour had approached, and the Xia army had began to grumble, much of Dou Jiande's soldiery were hungry and tired. 

Li Shimin saw that discipline within the Xia army had began to break down. their morale plummet, and soon sent out 300 cavalry of his cavalry under Yuwen Shiji in a probing attack. When Li saw that demoralized Xia ranks had recoiled from even this probing assault, he soon gained enough confidence for an all out assault. Per his favorite tactics, Li Shimin soon called for his horses for an all out assault.

SACRIFICE

In the oncoming battle of Hulao Pass, at least 3 of Prince Shimin's warhorses would be slain. The horse itself was depicted with five arrows stuck in his body, with one in the front and four arrows in the back. Emperor Taizong commented of his horse Qingzhui: “As quick as the shadow of lightening and as smart as knowing the will of the heaven; with it flying speedily, I was crown in the battles.”

Flying upon it with my robes fluttering, I was supreme in the battles.

SHIFACHI 什伐赤 "THE HIGH PRINCE"

"Shifachi" 什伐赤: ridden during the decisive Battle of Hulao in 621 against Dou Jiande. Its name derives from the Turkic term Shad (Şad), which meant "Prince," or "Royal Governor." His relief depicts the horse stuck with many protruding arrows.

Li soon summoned Qin Shubao, Shi Da Nai, and Cheng Zhijie, his best warriors to his side, each a proven warrior who had been personally inducted into Li's bodyguards. The men prepped their equipment and horses then readied themselves to rapidly cross the Shishu River and charge into the Xia host. 1,000 rushed off against a host several dozens of times its own size.

THE CHARGE THAT FORGED 200 YEARS

From the distance, they came, a small but impressive wall of 1,000 blacks, each warrior encased in heavy black armor festooned with cords of many colors. At their head rode Prince Li Shimin himself, their ominous banners fluttered behind them, deforming along with their streaming cloaks . They must have came like a mirage, at first slow, in a practiced pace. Then, as they got closer, they picked up speed and soon galloped in a suicidal charge and plunged toward the disordered ranks.

3,000 vs 100,000. the Battle of Hulao- or the Battle of the Tiger's Trap Pass on May 28, 621 was one of the most decisive battles in all of Chinese history, the climax of which was decided by a deadly charge with one of the principle commanders- Prince Li Shimin of Tang leading from the front. 

The Blacks smashed into the Xia ranks like a meteor and easily shredded through the first ranks of Xia infantry they encountered, scattering many. Soon, entire units of the Xia army began to collapse, one after another soon turned into a formless mob of screaming men. Masses of men in the hundreds soon began to scatter from the Tang assault, crashing back into their own lines and toward Dou's own camp. Li and his cavalry quickly converged toward Dou's center. Near the Shishui banks Li and his pursuing cavalry found the camp of Dou and his ministers and charged directly right into the horrified Xia ranks. 

THE CLIMAX OF HULAO

At the height of the battle, Li and his 1,000 charged directly into the heart of Dou's army and unfurled the Tang war banner right in the stunned sight of both armies. Along with the raising of this dreadful beacon. The remaining Tang forces rushed in with blood thirsty vigor, and it was soon after this moment that the Xia army was completely broke. 

Men soon began to rout in all directions. Struck by a spear jab, Dou escaped for some nine miles but was caught by a Tang general Bai Shirang (白士让) after he fell down from the horse and brought back to Li. The battle ended there. In total: out of Dou's great 100,000 men army, 3,000 were slain by the Tang army, while some 50,000 men were captured. Li's army of 3,000 had destroyed an army of 100,000. After Hulao, Tang supremacy was cemented across northern China, and soon, all of the Chinese realm. Despite being outnumbered nearly 30 to 1, Hulao proved to be one of Li Shimin's most decisive battles. Hulao made the Tang the undisputed ruler of China and cemented its rule in as a hegemonic power in Asia for the next 2 and a half centuries.

Perhaps befitting this horse, his Old Turkic derived name of Şad/ "Shad" meaning "Prince," or "Royal Governor," a name that much befitted the prince's war steed. 

QUANMAOGUA 拳毛䯄 "SAFFRON" / "SPELL FORCE"

QuanMaogua 拳毛䯄 "Saffron Gold" or "Spell Force" : Li Shimin saffron colored steed during the 622 campaign against Liu Heita. He is depicted striding forward while being stuck with 9 protruding arrows showing the intensity of the battle he had endured. It's name is derived from the Old Turkic Khowar which meant "spell power" or "spell force." 

On the day that the Battle of Hulao was won, Li Shimin released nearly all of the 50,000 prisoners he had captured from the battlefield. He only retained Dou and some of his senior commanders and ministers. However a small portion of Dou's senior officers and Dou's own empress escaped from the battlefield and raced back to their homeland in Hebei. 

After parading Dou and many of his commanders before Louyang's besieged walls, the stranded warlord Wang Shichong relented and surrendered to Li with his officers. Li pardoned Wang and his family along with many of the ministers, however Li had some of them who he regarded as treacherous and untrustworthy executed. Henan and Hebei were both surrendered to the Tang forces. With both Wang and Dou captured, Li returned to Chang An and was given a triumphal parade where he rode in a golden armor, and flanked by 25 of his best generals. However it was also in Chang An that the Tang inadvertently prolonged the realm wide civil war in a moment of ruthlessness. 

Li Shimin's father, Emperor Gaozu did not trust either Dou nor Wang and had both of the leaders killed off. Despite Li Shimin's protests, Dou was beheaded in the Chang An market square. Also despite Li's previous promise of safety, Gaozu officially acknowledged Wang's pardon but allowed him to be assassinated while he was en route to his exile. Due to the decisive nature of this duplicitous act, Gaozu provoked an immediate rebellion against the Tang.

Liu Heita was one of Dou's cavalry commanders, and when words reached 

back to Hebei that his master Dou was killed, many of Dou's officers, including 

Liu re-emerged and fermented a rebellion against the Tang occupiers. 

Although most of the mid to junior level of Dou's officers were pardoned by Li Shimin on Hulao's battlefield and were allowed to returned to civilian life in their home towns, Dou's execution would spark a rebellion in the immediate months following his death. Liu Heita was one of Dou's cavalry commanders, and when words reached back to Hebei of what had transpired, many of Dou's officers re-emerged and fermented a rebellion against the Tang occupiers. 

After rallying many of the rebels under the leadership of Liu Heita, the Hebei rebels assaulted the Tang garrisons and ejected all of them out of the province by the year's end, including repelling two of Gaozu's own brothers and some of his best generals. 

With the re-emergence of a defiant Hebei, many of Dou's former soldiers re-enlisted against the Tang. Worse yet, they allied themselves with the Eastern Gokturks against the Tang forces.

In response, both Li Shimin and his younger brother Li Yuanji were ordered to crush the rebels. Li Shimin raced straight for the rebel army and after a series of fighting maneuvers cut off Liu from his Gokturk allies. After Li isolated the rebel army, the two armies stalemated across the Ming River for more than 60 days. Both sides tried to attack each other, without success. 

Meanwhile, Li Shimin set up a dam upstream on the Ming River. When Liu attacked, Li Shimin had the dam destroyed, and much of Liu's army was drowned while the survivors were captured. Liu was able to flee, but the rebel defenses collapsed behind him. Liu fled to the Eastern Gokturk Khaganate and Hebei again fell into Tang hands. In the poem commemorating Quanmogua, Li Shimin commented: "The essence of the moon was its cradle, this heavenly horse flies high in the sky; in the rain of arrows, it gallops and clears the front."

But Liu would continue being a thorn against the Tang. When Li Shimin again returned to Chang An, Liu slipped back to Hebei with Turkic reinforcements. This time, in Li Shimin's absence, he again defeated many of the local Tang commanders and drove them off Hebei, Li Yuanji was unable to stop him and soon Hebei was again able to completely cast off the Tang yoke. Gaozu was forced to send his princes against Hebei again. 

This time though, Li Shimin did not come because he was embroiled into an intense rivalry with his elder brother Li Jiancheng, who regarded Li Shimin as a threat against his position of Crown Prince. In the jostling between the princes, Gaozu sent Li Jiancheng against Liu instead. This time the twin princes of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji prevailed and smashed Liu's forces. As Liu fled, he was arrested and brought back to the Tang forces. The two princes in revenge had Liu executed in the former rebel capital.

In 1914, American smugglers broke apart two reliefs, one of which was "Saluzi" 飒露紫, or Autumn Dew, the other being "Quanmaogua" 拳毛䯄 which meant Saffron Gold. The two horses were shipped back to America, where they are now in the possession of Penn Museum.

When President Nixon was planning his meeting with leaders of the Chinese Communist government during the Cold War (1972), the return of Saluzi was once considered by the U.S. as a potential diplomatic gesture to show goodwill. 

The last of the rebels, Liang Shidu of modern Inner Mongolia (and a vassal of the Easter Gokturk Khaganate) was defeated in June 628, marking the end of the civil war. However, with Tang's consolidation of China, the Eastern Gokturk Empire attacked China in 628 after Li Shimin ascended the throne as the Taizong Emperor. With the coming of the Gokturks came the age of massive clashing empires.

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