Ⅱ.Han Dynasty

　　In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the war-torn Han Dynasty was in extreme social and economic disrepair, and the ruling class was full of internal contradictions, so it was unable to fight back against the Xiongnu's encroachment, so it eased its relationship with the Xiongnu by means of rapprochement and gifts of silk and silk, in exchange for a brief period of peace. However, the Western Han Dynasty's policy of "peace" could not satisfy the greed of the Xiongnu slave-owning aristocrats. The Xiongnu often invaded the border counties of the Han Dynasty and killed and plundered the people. The Salt and Iron Theory reads: "Since the rise of Han Dynasty, we have made peace and made peace with each other, and the monarchs are very generous; however, we do not change the rules with the reason of heavy quality and thick bribe, and the violence and harm is very serious", "Xiong Nu has made peace with several families, but often violated the covenant", "repeated faithlessness, and a hundred covenants and a hundred rebellions. A hundred rebellions." After more than seventy years of rest and recuperation, the Han Dynasty became increasingly rich and powerful. In 140 B.C., Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took the throne. At this time, the country was full of strength, and after the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion", in which the "kings with different surnames" and the "kings with the same surname" were betrayed, the centralization of power was greatly strengthened, and the Han Dynasty began to plan a counterattack on the Xiongnu. In 138 B.C., Zhang Qian was sent on a mission to the Western Regions with the aim of uniting with the Yuezhi to attack the Xiongnu. Although the purpose of this mission was not achieved, it brought back a wealth of information about the Xiongnu and the Western Regions to the Han Dynasty. In 133 B.C., the Maiyi Campaign was the beginning of the fight against the Xiongnu, and it was the turning point of the Western Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu from "peace" to war. In the Battle of Henan in 127 B.C., the Han Dynasty recovered the "land of Henan". In the spring of the second year of Yuanhao (121 BC), General Huo Zaiwei led an army across the Qilian Mountains to attack the Xiongnu in the Hexi Corridor. In the summer of the same year, Huo again entered the western part of the Hexi River and attacked the Xiongnu. The victory in the Battle of Hexi caused the Xiongnu to lose the Qilian Mountains and Yanzhi Mountains, which were rich in water and grass and suitable for herding animals. The Xiongnu was badly hurt, and a song said, "Losing my Qilian Mountains made my six animals not reproduce; losing my Yanzhi Mountains made my women colorless." The Xiongnu in the western part of the river were struck twice within a year and were no longer able to support them, and Shan Yu shifted the blame to the incompetence of King Hunxie and King Huitu, "wanting to call for their execution, Kunxie and Huitu were afraid and sought to surrender to the Han." They sent someone to contact Li Xi, a general who was building a border fortress along the Yellow River, and Li Xi immediately appealed to the Emperor. Emperor Wu of Han was afraid of their fraudulent surrender and sent Huo Zaiwei to welcome them, at which time King Huotu reversed his decision and was killed by King Hunxie, who collected his people. Huo Zaiwei also made a prompt decision, led the army into the Hunxie King's camp, "beheading its desire to die 8,000 people", as far as possible will be its people across the river to the east, this time the Xiong Nu surrendered to the Han Dynasty, a total of more than 40,000 people. The Huns were escorted to Chang'an, where they were received by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who conferred the title of Marquis on the Huns and several of his close associates, and resettled the Huns in the former five counties of Longxi, Beidi, Shangxun, Shofang, and Yunzhong, outside the former fortresses. The Han Dynasty set up Wuwei and Jiuquan counties in the same year, with Dunhuang under the jurisdiction of Jiuquan County. In the sixth year of Yuan Ding (111 years ago), the land of Wuwei and Jiuquan counties was divided and Zhangye and Dunhuang counties were set up. And at this time will be the Great Wall from Jiuquan construction to the west of Dunhuang, in Dunhuang County, west of the city, set up Yumen Pass and Yangguan, the western region into the Hexi and the Central Plains of the gate, complete the "list of four counties, according to the two passes," the situation. From then on, the Hexi region was formally included in the Han Dynasty.
        Dunhuang was carved out of Jiuquan County because of its important geographic location, which made it easy for the Han Dynasty to expand the irrigated agricultural area and further control the western region militarily. Dunhuang was initially a very small county, but it developed rapidly. At the time of the Western Han Dynasty, Dunhuang County was under the jurisdiction of six counties, namely Dunhuang, Heian, Xiaogu, Yuanquan, Guangzhi, and Longle, including today's Dunhuang City, Anxi County, Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County, and a portion of Subeimeng Mongol Autonomous County, with a total area of about 80,000 square kilometers. The specifics are as follows: Dunhuang County, where the county is located, in today's Dunhuang City southwest; Median County, Median water to Median named, mainly distributed in the Median tributaries of the lower oasis, the four boundaries of the east to Median water, south to the Daxue Mountain, north to the chaotic mountains, west of Guangzhi County, roughly equivalent to today's Anxi County, around the Bulunji; Effect Valley County, was originally a fishery, the Emperor Xiaowu of the Han Dynasty, Cui Buyi for the fishery of the lieutenant, teaching manpower to get the grain field, because of the hard work to get the valley, so it is called Effect Valley, some scholars say that it is a good place, so it is a good place. So the name is effect valley, some scholars test, its location to the present Dunhuang City, twenty kilometers northeast of the yellow ditch township Daijiadun castle ruins; Yuanquan County, because of its more springs and named, the Eastern Han Dynasty was renamed Spell Springs, roughly in today's Anxi County, the east of the four ditch around the area; wide to the county, roughly in today's Anxi County, south of the township of Broken Township around the area; Longle County, because the county south of the 180-mile long le hill and named in today's Dunhuang City, the area of the South Lake Township. The name of the county was Longle, because of the Longle Mountain 180 miles south of the county.
　　 In order to guarantee the security of the Hexi region, the Han Dynasty also established a whole set of military defense system here. After the second year of the Yuanxian period, the Great Wall from Lingju to Jiuquan was built; in the fifth year of the Yuanfeng period, the Great Wall from Jiuquan to Yumen was built; and in the Tianhan period, the Great Wall from Dunhuang to Yanze was built. And in the Great Wall along the line of beacon flint pavilion barriers, "the Han border county beacons look forward to smart, Xiongnu for the invaders less favorable, and hope to return to violate the plug". In addition, also in today's western Gansu Province, between Dunhuang City and Anxi County, Longle Mountain, is the main post for the horse delivery. In order to consolidate this military stronghold, the Han Dynasty migrated the poor and prisoners from the mainland to settle here, and conscripted a large number of soldiers to guard the area. The object of migration to the west of the river, according to the "Book of Han - geography": "its people or to Guandong under the poor, or to revenge too much, or to backsliding against the dead road, family migration." That is to say, these people were mainly peasants with no means of subsistence, criminal offenders and political prisoners who had committed treason. In addition, there were some who migrated to Hexi voluntarily, and also some who stayed voluntarily after the expiration of their service in the cantonment garrisons, as well as the uncounted ethnic groups who were forced to migrate to Hexi. The migration of people from the Central Plains changed the ethnic structure of the Hexi region, brought more advanced production technology from the Central Plains, and promoted the development of agriculture in the Dunhuang region. In order to solve the food problem of the many immigrants and soldiers, the Han Dynasty implemented the Tuantian policy in the western part of the river. Tuantian is a measure that combines military activities with agricultural production, and guards and cultivates the land, as well as agriculture and soldiers. Garrisoning was one of the corvée duties of the Han farmers, so the Han government conscripted a large number of peasants to garrison or cultivate the frontier and newly occupied areas in the name of garrisoning. In the name of cantonment, they guarded the borders on the one hand and engaged in agricultural production on the other. The scale of cantonment in the border counties in Han Dynasty was very large, and in order to facilitate the management, no special management institutions and organizational systems were set up. The harvests from the cantonments not only solved the problem of sustenance for the border defense and supplied the emissaries and merchants traveling to and from the Silk Road, but also could be sold in the market to regulate the situation. When a disaster occurred in the interior, it was also possible to allocate the grain accumulated in the cantonment fields for disaster relief. Tuantian in the west of the river enabled the feudal mode of production to be carried out in the region, and achieved the desired effect, with sufficient grain stores in the border counties, strengthened garrisons, and curbed the plundering of the Xiongnu slave-owning cavalry. By the first year of the Tai Chou (104 years ago), Li Guangli's western expedition to Dawan, Dunhuang County was already an important military base that could arrange for 60,000 soldiers, 100,000 oxen, and 30,000 horses to go to the front line.
　　At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, while the Central Plains were in turmoil, the Hexi region was relatively stable, and many large clans from the Central Plains moved westward to avoid the turmoil. At the beginning of the first century A.D., there were a lot of people from Sanfu (Jingzhaofu, Zuofengyi, and Rufufeng) area who went to the west of the river. After the Han Book - Kong Fen biography, recorded Kong Fen because the world is in turmoil, want to find a stable and affluent place to serve their mothers, so they chose the Hexi; After the Han Book - Dou Rong biography of the record Dou Rong from the political, economic and military considerations, that the Hexi rich, elite food, the terrain is dangerous, is a chaotic world, "self-preservation", The land is a place of "self-defense" and "seed-saving" in the chaotic times. Dou Rong served as "Zhangye subordinate state lieutenant", borrowing the prestige of his ancestor's brother who had served as an official in Hexi for many generations, he made friends with local officials and contacted the surrounding Qiang Hu, so that "the Hexi opened and closed to it". Later, Liang Tong, the governor of Jiuquan, Xin Tong, the governor of Dunhuang, Shi Zhao, the governor of Zhangye, She Jun, the governor of Jincheng, and Zhu Zeng, the governor of Jiuquan, together promoted Dou Rong to be the "general of the five counties of the western part of the river". Under Dou Rong's rule, "the upper and lower regions were close to each other, and they were rich and prosperous. Repair troops and horses, practicing war shooting, bright beacon and flint of the police" "scarce again invasion, and Bose Qianghu are shocked to serve the pro-attachment, stabilization, Beidi, Shangxian displaced people to avoid the murder of the starving, return to the unending". The arrival of the great tribes not only brought a lot of productivity and advanced production technology to the west of the river, but more importantly, brought the culture of the Central Plains. After the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor, paid great attention to Dou Rong, who had "the richness of the western part of the Hexi River and the land connected with Longshu", and specially "gave Rong the seal of the book" and "authorized Rong to be the herdsman of Liangzhou." However, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the eastern part of Hexi was often invaded by the Qiang people, while the western part was relatively safe. At the same time, the northern Xiongnu was on the rise, while the Eastern Han Dynasty was declining. The Xiongnu regained control of the western region, the Han Dynasty's rule in the western region gradually collapsed, instead of the Western Region Protector in charge of the affairs of the western region of the protection of the Western Region deputy lieutenant stationed in Dunhuang, Dunhuang governor became the actual person in charge of the Han Dynasty's military action in the western region, Dunhuang became the Han Dynasty's control of the western region of the military and political centers at that time.