Puppet qaghans, the Turkic title for ruler, and military garrisons were installed to administer the newly acquired territories.

The Tang dynasty achieved its maximum territorial extent as its western borders reached the eastern frontier of the Umayyad Caliphate.

Turkic culture and language spread into Central Asia, as did artistic and political influences from the Tang dynasty.

[7] The nomads were driven out of the Ordos region and southern Mongolia and Taizong was declared a Great Khan by the defeated tribes, who surrendered and submitted to Tang rule.

[10] Tang military campaigns expanded further west against the remaining kingdoms of the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang beginning in 640.

[11] The nearby kingdom of Karasahr grew wary of the Chinese troops stationed at Gaochang, now under Tang domination.

He led a revolt against the Tang and migrated westward, declaring himself Shabulou Qaghan and ruler of the Western Turkic Khaganate.

[18] He also gained military experience as a leader of a regional militia during the civil war fought between the transition from Sui to Tang.

[20] The Uyghurs were allied with Tang China, who had supported their revolt against the reign of the Xueyantuo, a tribe of Tiele people.

[21] Porun joined Su Dingfang as a vice commander of the Uyghur cavalry in the military campaign against the Western Turks.

[23] His troops left Ordos in March and arrived in Kyrgyzstan in November, a journey spanning 3,000 miles across steppes and desert.

Su avoided stopping at the resource rich oasis states, and historian Jonathan Karam Skaff speculates that the Chinese troops may have relied on livestock for food instead of a supply train, a tactic used by the steppe nomads.

Nomadic alliances were formed through distributing war plunder and ensuring the security of tribal property, and grew tenuous when rulers failed to deliver their promises.

[26] Su Dingfang recruited tribes to side with Tang, and these former tribal vassals of the Western Turks contributed additional soldiers.

[28]Gaozong received Helu's plea and agreed to his request,[28] despite a Tang law ordering the execution of captured rebel generals and kings.

[21] The Amu Darya valley, the Tarim Basin, and the area beyond the Pamir Mountains, all former suzerains of the Western Turks, were placed under Tang control.

Central Asian art incorporated Tang stylistic features, like the sancai three color glaze used in pottery.

[7] The sheer size of the newly conquered lands made it difficult to govern through the Tang military garrisons.

[27] The Tang emperor Gaozong appointed two puppet qaghans to rule over the Western Turks, who were later overthrown in a rebellion that began in 662.

[36] Tibet invaded the Tarim Basin in 670, but Tang forces regained the area in 693 and Kashgar in 728, restoring the Anxi Protectorate and Four Garrisons.

[41] At its maximum extent, Tang expansion brought China into direct contact with the rising Umayyad Caliphate.

[36] Following the Arab defeat of Sassanid Persia in 651, the Caliphate began its expansion into Central Asia, competing with the Tang's sphere of influence in the region.

Kusrau was able to bring the western tribes temporarily under his rule, but was defeated in 690 during an invasion by the Second Turkic Khaganate, and he too was forced to escape the region with his loyalists.

Later attempts to install puppet qaghans failed, and the title was reduced to a symbolic position in the Tang court.