Qin's campaign against the Xiongnu

Qin's campaign against the Xiongnu
Date 215 BC Location Ordos region Result Qin victory
Belligerents
Qin empire	Xiongnu
Commanders and leaders
General Meng Tian	Touman
Strength
Reported as 100,000 or 300,000 troops[1][2]	--

In 215 BC, Qin Shi Huangdi ordered General Meng Tian to set out against the Xiongnu tribes,^[3] situated in the Ordos region, and establish a frontier region at the Ordos Loop.^[1] Believing that the Xiongnu were a possible threat, the emperor launched a preemptive strike against the Xiongnu with the intention to expand his empire.^[1]

In 215 BC, General Meng Tian succeeded in defeating the Xiongnu and driving them from the Ordos region, then he seized their homeland.^[4] After the catastrophic defeat at the hands of General Meng Tian, the Xiongnu leader Touman was forced to flee far into the Mongolian Plateau.^[5] As a result of the northward expansion, the threat that the Qin empire posed to the Xiongnu ultimately led to the reorganization of the many tribes into a confederacy.^[6]

General Meng Tian was instructed to secure the frontier with a line of fortifications, which would become known as the Great Wall of China.^[7] Fusu (Prince of Qin) and General Meng Tian were stationed at a garrison in Suide and soon began with the construction of the walled defenses, which would be connected with the old walls from the Qin, Yan, and Zhao states.^[8] The Qin walls ran from Liaodong to Lintao, thus enclosing the conquered Ordos region.^[4]

See also

• Qin's campaign against the Yue tribes

References

1. Cosmo 1999, 964.
2. Ebrey, Walthall & Palais 2009, 51.
3. Grousset, Rene (1970). The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press. pp. 26–27. ISBN 0-8135-1304-9.
4. Beckwith 2009, 71.
5. Beckwith 2009, 71–72.
6. Cosmo 1999, 892–893.
7. Higham 2004, 221.
8. Cheng 2005, 15.

Bibliography

• Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691150345.
• Cheng, Dalin (2005). "The Great Wall of China". Borders and border politics in a globalizing world. Lanham: SR Books. ISBN 0-8420-5103-1.
• Cosmo, Nicola Di (1999). "The northern frontier in pre-imperial China". The Cambridge history of ancient China: From the origins of civilization to 221 B.C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47030-7.
• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Walthall, Anne; Palais, James B. (2009). East Asia: A cultural, social, and political history (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-547-00534-8.
• Higham, Charles F.W. (2004). Encyclopedia of ancient Asian civilizations. New York: Facts On File. ISBN 0-8160-4640-9.