Where does the Hexi Corridor include? What is its origin? Why didn't Qin Shihuang capture Hexi Corridor?

Hexi Corridor is a strategic passage from Longxi (now southern Gansu) to the western regions (now Xinjiang), with an east-west direction and a total length of 1000 kilometers. The Yellow River and today's Loess Plateau are in the east, Helishan Mountain, Longshou Mountain, Alashan Desert and Mongolian Plateau are in the north, Qilian Mountain and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are in the south, and the western regions are in the west.

Hexi Corridor is also called Gansu Corridor, because the whole territory is in today's Gansu Province. After the Yellow River flows through Gansu from Qinghai, the whole Gansu Province is divided into two parts. Hexi Corridor starts from the Yellow River in Gansu and ends at Yumenguan in the westernmost part of Gansu, including Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang in Gansu today. From the map, it is roughly all the areas in the northwest of the Yellow River in Gansu, because there are mountains, valleys and north-south directions.

According to legend, during Dayu's flood control period, a map of China was drawn, which divided the world into Kyushu, where Yongzhou refers to the west, including parts of Hexi Corridor. In Shangshu Yugong, it is said that Heishui and Xihe belong to Yongzhou, and the Heishui here is located in Heihe River, which is 10 km west of Zhangye City, Gansu Province, and belongs to Hexi Corridor, indicating that China people knew Hexi Corridor in Dayu period, but the center of China was in the Central Plains at that time.

During the Shang, Xia and Zhou Dynasties, the whole Hexi Corridor was inhabited by nomadic people, including Qiang people, Rong people and Yue people. Although Huaxia knew there was Hexi Corridor, its power and core did not develop westward in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Although Zhou Muwang's westward expedition to Kunlun reached the Queen Mother of the West, which should be today's Xinjiang, Zhou Muwang only attacked Xirong and returned to the Central Plains after the war.

From the late Warring States to the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, most areas of Hexi Corridor belonged to Yue people, and a few areas were inhabited by Rong people and Qiang people. After Qin Shihuang unified the world, the northern grassland was the territory of Xiongnu. At first, the Huns were not as powerful as the Yue people. At that time, Xiongnu Khan Tou Man sent his son for many years to Yue as a hostage.

Only two years after Qin Shihuang unified the world, he launched a war to conquer Baiyue in the south. In Qin Shihuang's view, Baiyue was the priority of China's conquest, because Baiyue was also a farming nation, similar to China's customs and habits. It took Qin Shihuang almost nine years to completely conquer Baiyue. During this period, Qin Shihuang also launched a war against Xiongnu in the north, sent general Meng Tian to attack Xiongnu, recovered the whole Hetao area, and set up four counties in Hetao area.

Why didn't Qin Shihuang develop westward and open up the Hexi Corridor?

There are two main reasons:

First, there is no time.

Qin Shihuang must know that there is a Hexi corridor in the west. But in 15, when Qin Shihuang unified the world, Baiyue was the first priority to conquer and Xiongnu was the second priority to attack. It took nine years to fight Baiyue and two years to fight Xiongnu. If Qin Shihuang could live ten years longer, he should start studying Ren Yue people in the west. Unfortunately, Qin Shihuang died in 2 10 BC, and he had no time.

Second, there is no army.

After Meng Tian conquered Xiongnu, he began to build the Great Wall on the northern border to guard against Xiongnu. The Qin dynasty had no redundant troops to launch large-scale foreign wars. You know, it took 500,000 troops to conquer Baiyue and 300,000 troops to attack Xiongnu. These troops can't be used for fighting any more. If you want to wage war against the Vietnamese who are entrenched in the Hexi Corridor in the west, you must use at least 300,000 troops and recruit soldiers.

It takes time. In addition, all kinds of work in the Qin Dynasty were installed, and people were needed to repair the Great Wall, the ancient tombs, the Epang Palace and the straight roads. Coupled with the sudden death of Qin Shihuang, there was no chance to launch the Western Expedition. Lixian and Tianshui, located in the west of Xianyang, Gansu, are the birthplaces of Qin, and their ancestors all lived here. It is impossible for them not to know that there is a vast world in the west, but Qin Shihuang didn't have time to do it when he died.

After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the theory of "serving Huang Lao first" was true until the early days of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, due to the aggression of Xiongnu, the Western Han Dynasty began a war against Xiongnu. When the Huns were recuperating in 70 years before the Western Han Dynasty, they began to grow stronger in the northern grasslands. Under the leadership of modu chanyu, the Xiongnu unified the Mongolian grassland, defeated Donghu and Yueshi, occupied the western regions, and forced the countries in the western regions to submit to the Xiongnu, and the Hexi Corridor was controlled by the Xiongnu.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty appointed Wei Qing and Huo Qubing as generals. After a series of wars, such as the Battle of Hexi, the Battle of Monan and the Battle of Mobei, the Huns were defeated, making them afraid to roam in Monan and Mobei. However, the first battle of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty against the Huns in Hexi regained the Hexi Corridor, and the battle of Hexi was twice. The two battles in Hexi were basically launched against the Huns along the Hexi Corridor.

In BC 12 1 year, Huo Qubing led more than 10,000 cavalry from Longxi County, first arrived in Jincheng (now Lanzhou, Gansu Province), then crossed the Yellow River, crossed Lingju (now Yongdeng, Gansu Province), crossed Wushaoling (now Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Wuwei City, Gansu Province), and went all the way west along Hexi Corridor to Yanqi Mountain (now the junction of Shandan County and Yongchang County, Gansu Province)

In the Second Battle of Hexi, Huo Qubing started from Beidi County, crossed the Yellow River through Ningwu, Ningxia, then crossed Helan Mountain to the north, crossed Badain Jaran Desert, bypassed Juyanhai (now northwest Inner Mongolia), and invaded Hexi Corridor south along weak water, attacking Hunhunxie Wang and Xiutu Wang in the upper reaches of weak water between Qilian Mountain and Helishan Mountain. This time, Huo Qubing made a big detour, first going north and then south, and attacking the Xiongnu's flank.

The Han Dynasty controlled the Hexi Corridor for the first time, and set up four counties in the Hexi Corridor, namely Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang, which belonged to the secretariat of Liangzhou in the Western Han Dynasty. Since then, the Hexi Corridor has been ruled by the Han Dynasty, so how did the name Hexi Corridor come from?

The so-called Hexi refers to the west of the Yellow River, because the whole Hexi corridor area is located in the west of the Yellow River, and the Yellow River flows into Gansu from Qinghai, dividing the whole Gansu province in two, while the part of Gansu west of the Yellow River is the Hexi Corridor, which is the northwest of Gansu, so it is called Hexi.

The so-called corridor refers to the road from Lanzhou, Gansu to Yumenguan. The terrain is the same as the corridor, with high in the north and low in the south. The southern part of Hexi Corridor is Qilian Mountain with an altitude of four or five kilometers, and the southern part is Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is also a high altitude area. The northern part of Hexi Corridor is composed of Longshou Mountain, Heli Mountain and Mazong Mountain with an average elevation of about 2500 meters, and the northern part is Badain Jaran Desert and Tengger Desert.

The original intention of the corridor is a long and narrow corridor connecting the two areas, while the terrain of the Hexi Corridor is valleys, hills and plains surrounded by mountains in the north and south. Most importantly, Hexi Corridor was the only corridor connecting the Western Regions and the Central Plains at that time. At that time, Chang 'an, the capital of Han Dynasty, passed through Guanzhong, arrived in Longxi, then crossed the Yellow River, along the Hexi Corridor all the way to the west, and went out of Yumenguan, which was the western regions at that time, which is today's Xinjiang. That's Hexi Corridor.