The Northern Tang China army (4407) contains the following note regrading their compulsory Fubing infantry:
Quote from: Book 44–Tang China, pg.28Note: From 630 CE, bubing spearmen are only complusory if any infantry are taken.
How does this rule interact with external allied contingents? Specifically:
[1] If an all-cavalry Northern Tang army enlists an external allied contingent which contains infantry, are Fubing compulsory?
[2] If another army (say Silla Korea, for example) contains infantry, but enlists as an external ally an all-cavalry Northern Tang contingent, are Fubing compulsory?
(The "any infantry is taken" clause may or may not look at allied contingents, though perhaps it depends more than I'd prefer on how much wishful thinking is involved.:P)
Sorry for the nit-picky question, but thank you for the answer!!!
It is a fair question.
Tang - If an allied contingent to the Tang contains infantry then the Fubing are compulsory.
If another army takes a Tang ally, then the Fubing are compulsory if the Tang allied contingent includes infantry.
I'll look to tighten up the wording in the list.
Richard
This note seems to come in about in the 2020-1 release. I guess this represents the ad hoc expeditionary armies from the guard commands (zhechongfu sp~?), this seems reasonable from 636~. I would hypothesise that these would be short lived and were abandoned after contact with the Tibetan Empire and Eastern Türk. The last example of this <that I think of> is the Battle at Dafei in 670. So, I would say that this note should be restricted to between 630-670.
Given the Tang settling into a more defensive stance on the northern frontier it does segue neatly in the Later Northern list where the 'sturdy lads', bingmu & fangding, replace (when re-registration of soldiers and their dependents in the garrisons) the Fubing.
Minor point really - feel free to ignore.
Quote from: lionheartrjc on February 24, 2023, 09:12:02 AM
It is a fair question.
Tang - If an allied contingent to the Tang contains infantry then the Fubing are compulsory.
If another army takes a Tang ally, then the Fubing are compulsory if the Tang allied contingent includes infantry.
I'll look to tighten up the wording in the list.
Richard
Sorry to necro this thread, but I have a follow-up question:
If an
internal allied contingent of Northern Tang includes only cavalry, but the main body of the army contains foot, is the Internal Ally required to take its share of Fubing (per the Tang with Allies case) or can the Internal Ally bring all cavalry (per the Tang as external ally case)?
Thank you for all the helpful input on all the extremely nitpicky questions! : )
If main army contains infantry then any internal ally must take compulsory Fubing and vice versa.
Richard
Quote from: lionheartrjc on April 27, 2023, 06:11:36 AM
If main army contains infantry then any internal ally must take compulsory Fubing and vice versa.
Richard
That's what I suspected, but I thought I'd double-check.
Thank you, Richard!!!