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0064 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
中央アジア踏査記 : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / 64 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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than upon the scattered and comparatively small oases of
the Tarim basin. But the distances separating these western
territories of Central Asia from China were great. Relying
upon the protection thus afforded, the people of Farghana
after a time treated the Chinese missions with scant regard.
In the end they robbed and killed some imperial envoys
who had been sent to secure a far-famed local breed of
horses for their master.

Chinese prestige required prompt punishment of such an
offence, so a punitive expedition was dispatched in 104 B.C.
against Farghana. It ended in complete failure. The large
force sent became exhausted by the difficulties of the route
followed across the 'Salt Marsh', i.e. the dried-up salt sea-bed
of Lop (Fig. 8), and by the want of supplies beyond, long
before its remnant reached Farghana. There it was utterly
routed while besieging a town. When in its retreat it regained
Tun-huang, we are told "only one or two out of every ten
soldiers were left". To repair so signal a defeat all the resources
of the Empire were strained. By 102 B.C. the Chinese General
Li Kuang-li was enabled to set out once more from Tun-
huang with a fresh army of sixty thousand men supported
by a huge train and commissariat.

This time the Chinese power of intelligent organization
triumphed over all the difficulties of Nature. The force of
thirty thousand men with which the Chinese general reached
the capital of Farghana sufficed to secure victory and the
submission of its people. The prestige of China was so
strengthened by this great feat that all the small states of
the Tarim basin accepted imperial sovereignty. Henceforth
Chinese control of the great natural highways, provided by
the strings of oases in the Tarim basin, remained practically