Battle of Talas 751 AD - Part 2/2

 

The two armies lined up on the flat plain next to the river Talas,

 not far from the city bearing the same name.

 Accounts of the battle differ greatly, but according to the most consistent estimates by modern scholars, Ziyad commanded up to 40,000 troops.

 He placed archers in the front, with several rows of spearmen just behind, and a mix of heavy and light cavalry on each flank,

 as well as a contingent of light cavalry along with his own heavily armored bodyguard contingent in reserve.

 Meanwhile, Gao took to the field with 30,000 troops.

 He mirrored the Abbasid formation, with his crossbowmen in the front mixed with regular archers supported by heavily armored Tang spearmen in the center, and nomadic mercenary horsemen on each flank,

 while the Ferghana contingent and his own bodyguards were further back.

 As the vultures circled above, the two commanders cautiously contemplated their moves.

 What happened next is a matter of debate, but according to one account, Gao ordered his projectile division forward to probe for weaknesses in the Abbasid line.

 Ziyad responded, and a brief exchange of projectiles followed.

 Thanks to superior missile technology, Tang crossbowmen soon prevailed and the Abbasid archers

 were forced back.

 Gao promptly ordered his spearmen forward!

 The Tang commander relied, not for the first time, on the Empire’s well drilled professional troops.

 The trees rattled as the disciplined Chinese heavy infantry rumbled forward in unison, packed in a tight formation.

 Close behind, mounted mercenaries followed in support of the infantry.

 Ziyad moved his numerically superior infantry forward, hoping to slow down the enemy’s advance, and give his own cavalry more room to maneuver.

 As the gap closed, the troops in either line gripped their weapons and braced for impact!

 As the opposing armies interlocked, hacking and stabbing at each other, the scent of blood

 quickly filled the air.

 Meanwhile, Gao signalled his cavalry on the flanks to gallop forward and encircle the Abbasid infantry.

 Ziyad immediately sent his heavy and light cavalry divisions forward to alleviate the pressure on his infantry and repel the Chinese advance.

 In the center, the better armored Tang spearmen pushed their counterparts back, their packed formation proving effective against the Abbasid footmen.

 On the flanks, Ziyad’s heavier cavalry stopped the nomadic horsemen in their tracks, but Gao’s merceneries held strong in the face of an assault from a superior enemy force.

 The Governor of Samarkand then sent his reserves forward, aiming to break the stalemate!

 He ordered his cavalry to aim for the immediate flanks of the Chinese infantry.

 But Gao, meanwhile, moved his own reserve up the field, negating the efforts of his opponent.

 Both armies matched each other’s strength and neither would waver.

 Tiredness, however, was what eventually forced the two commanders to withdraw and rest their troops.

 A similar stalemate continued for two more days, with sporadic skirmishes and head on clashes, but neither side was able to make any significant gains.

 The other account of the battle, however, claims that the two armies stood in battle formations.

 for four days without engaging each other.

 Perhaps neither side wanted to risk losing their army, aware that it would take a while to get reinforcements in

 this remote frontier region.

 But… perhaps unbeknownst to Gao, prior to the battle Ziyad had established contact with a contingent from one of the Turkic Karluk tribes, living in the steppes further east, recruiting them into his ranks.

 As small groups of riders trickled in for a couple of days,

 the Muslim commander concealed them in the tall grass across the Talas river.

 Then, on the fifth day of the battle, Ziyad knew he was ready!

 He ordered his archers and spearmen forward, with cavalry following close behind.

 The Abbasids advanced at a strong pace, while Gao had his troops slowly move forward into position.

 Projectile contingents of the two armies began exchanging volleys of arrows, with the Chinese getting the better of their Muslim counterparts.

 The earth groaned as the mass of Abbasid troops moved forward to meet the enemy head on!

 As the infantry in the center clashed, cavalry divisions on the flanks widened their lines, trying to outflank each other.

 Soon, however, the Abbasid cavalry managed to force the Chinese mounted troops into a brutal static melee, as Gao’s nomadic mercenaries couldn’t feign retreat without exposing the flanks of the infantry in the center.

 “Now is the time!”, Ziyad cried out, signalling the Karluk mercenaries to attack!

 Emerging from the reeds, the nomadic riders galloped forward!

 A handful of Tang officers spotted the enemy on their flank, but with nearly all of their troops engaged, they desperately tried to form a line with men from their own retinues.

 Moments later, arrows from the east started whizzing overhead.

 With the Talas river behind them, the Karluk horsemen charged head long into Gao’s flank!

 The morale of the Tang troops on the left broke and many tried to flee, fearing an encirclement.

 Ziyad urged his men on, not wanting to allow the enemy to escape.

 The Governor of Samarkand outwitted the Tang commander and now the Chinese troops began falling in their thousands, as the Abbasid army scythed through their formations.

 With very few survivors left, Gao ordered a retreat…

 However, Chinese sources contest this outcome, claiming that it was not Ziyad’s superior diplomacy and tactics that won the day.

 Rather, the Tang account of the battle claims that the Karluk mercenaries were not across the river, but were in fact under Gao’s command, laying blame on them for the defeat, after they treacherously switched sides mid-battle, and attacked from both flanks.

 If this were true, Gao’s 10,000 infantry made up only a third of the Tang army, and would stand no chance

 against 20,000 Karluks.

 But in actuality, it’s most likely that both the Tang army and the Abbasids had contingents of Karluks in their ranks,

 and that Ziyad managed to launch a surprise attack on the last day of the battle.

 Whatever the case, of the 30,000 Tang troops that fought at Talas,

 only a small percentage survived.

 In the aftermath of the Battle of Talas, the significance of its' outcome was not immediately clear.

 Strategically speaking,

 the battle was a tactical draw.

 Gao's plans for a renewed invasion never came to fruition,

 since the Tang Empire temporarily withdrew most of their troops east to deal with growing unrest in the north and south of the country, as well as Tibetan incursions that put further pressure on the Empire.

 Meanwhile, the eastern expansion of the Caliphate was halted.

 While the Abbasids could've theoretically pressed their advantage after such a crushing victory, at that time their supply lines were still not fully established, thus sending a large army east would not have been a prudent move.

 As a result, the Abbasid-Chinese border stabilized.

 But, the Battle of Talas seems to have gone largely unnoticed, by contemporary Chinese

 and Abbasid chroniclers.

 Nevertheless, it had important consequences.

 The Chinese Empire was no longer in any position to interfere in Central Asia, which meant that, in the wake of their victory, the Abbasids were there to stay.

 And while the Turkic and

 Persian population of Central Asia certainly did not convert to Islam right after the battle in 751 AD, by driving out the Chinese there was no longer a counterweight to the Muslim presence, which allowed the Abbasids to gradually spread their influence across the deserts, mountains and steppes of the region.

 Within the next 250 years, most of the formerly Buddhist, Hindu,

 Zoroastrian, and Nestorian Christian tribes of Central Asia had all become Muslim.

 But, perhaps most significant of all, among the prisoners captured after the battle, were Chinese artisans,

 skilled in the art of paper-making.

 Soon, paper mills appeared in Muslim urban centers across the Middle East, and over the coming centuries the technology spread to Europe as well, fueling advances

 in science and theology.

 And... with the promotion of commerce, industry, and the arts, the prestige of the Caliphate would spread across the known world, under the banner of the Abbasids...