Page "Cavalry" Paragraph 44

On many occasions the Chinese studied nomadic cavalry tactics and applied the lessons in creating their own potent cavalry forces, while in others they simply recruited the tribal horsemen wholesale into their armies ; and in yet other cases nomadic empires proved eager to enlist Chinese infantry and engineering, as in the case of the Mongol Empire and its sinicized part, the Yuan Dynasty ( 1279 – 1368 ).

The Chinese recognized early on during the Han Dynasty ( 202 BC-220 AD ) that they were at a disadvantage in lacking the number of horses the northern nomadic peoples mustered in their armies.

Emperor Wu of Han ( r. 141 BC-87 BC ) went to war with the Dayuan for this reason, since the Dayuan were hording a massive amount of tall, strong, Central Asian bred horses in the Hellenized – Greek region of Fergana ( established slightly earlier by Alexander the Great ).

Although experiencing some defeats early on in the campaign, Emperor Wu's war from 104 BC to 102 BC succeeded in gathering the prized tribute of horses from Fergana.