In the end, Ashina Yang Huan accepted his nephew's advice and stayed in the Turkic royal court, asking Ashina Qiuluo to command the army.
Moreover, the distance from the foot of the Holy Mountain to the foothills of the Tianshan Mountains is not short. Ashina Yang Huan, who had just returned from Yunzhongbei, was indeed afraid of the difficulties on the road and no longer insisted on joining the army in the western expedition.
Ashina Qiuluo's wife and children all stayed in the Turkic royal court obediently. Ashina Qiuluo did not mention this at all. This was a tacit thing.
The Turkic nobles who led the army all left their adult sons with the Khan in order to reassure the Khan, and Ashina Qura was no exception.
He actually wanted to take his father-in-law to the west. Ashinadu must be a well-known hero among the Tiele people. Even though Ashinadu must be old, as long as his figure appears, the Tiele people
You will be afraid of this lion, and no one will dare to act rashly in front of him.
The Yi Nan of the Xue Yantuo Tribe had just inherited the position of leader, and now he was just a Yehu Khan. He should be easy to subdue, but there were others in the Tiele Tribe, and Ashina Qura felt a little unsure.
But in the end, he didn't tell Khan about it. The Western Expedition was about to begin, and he didn't want to increase Khan's suspicion of him.
Just as he thought, as soon as he led the troops and set off, Ashina Yang Huan recruited Ashina Dubi to go to the royal court, leaving him no chance to regret.
…………
And in the far western region, on the Broken Leaf River.
The Western Turkic king's account was located here.
After Tong Yehu succeeded to the throne, after clearing out the confidants of Shegui Khan, he immediately moved the Western Turkic King's account from Sanmi Mountain to today's Suiye River.
There is actually nothing to say about this. Shegui Khan led his army to the eastward expedition and returned with a disastrous defeat, which shook the Western Turks' rule in the Western Regions and led to instability in the countries in the Western Regions.
The Western Turks' rule in the Western Regions still follows the ancestral tribal alliance model, and they are elected as masters by various countries in the Western Regions. The power of the Turks here is due to the overwhelming advantage formed by years of war.
Most of the nomadic peoples in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains are minions of the Turks. The few soldiers and horses of the countries in the Western Regions cannot be compared with the fierce nomadic tribes.
If all countries unite, they might be able to compete with the Turks.
It is a pity that since ancient times, the large and small kingdoms in the Western Region have been like a piece of scattered sand. When the Rouran people came here, it was like entering a paradise, just like the Turks came here. Even without them, the Persians in the west were still like wolves and tigers.
The history of the Western Regions is one of unification accompanied by endless chaos.
Unification is because there are always people who can break into this place and let the countries in the Western Regions worship them. The confusion is that these kingdoms in the Western Regions spend every day annexing each other, but there has never been an opportunity for unification.
The main reason is not that the countries in the Western Region are powerless, but that the ethnic groups here are too complex. It is located at the intersection of West Asia and East Asia, and the number of races is unimaginable to outsiders. It seems that everyone who passes by here must leave some people behind.
The most abundant thing in the Western Region is not gold, silver and precious stones. The most abundant ones here are all kinds of merchants. They travel among various countries and communicate with Persia. Their footprints can even reach as far as North Africa and Eastern Europe. In the east, they are doing business with the Central Plains Dynasty.
Bringing precious wealth such as porcelain and silk from the east, gold and gems from the west, and so on, brought a kind of abnormal prosperity to the Western Regions. There were not many things produced, but the wealth was increasing.
Many things that are rare in the East and the West can be seen and touched in the Western Regions.
Of course, the Western Regions are not without their own specialties. They produce jade, various associated minerals, and ironware. In some places, silkworms can be raised, but they cannot weave the exquisite silks as in the Central Plains.
More than half of the countries in the Western Regions have a half-farming and half-grazing production method. There is not much to say about their customs. They are just a hodgepodge. They are described in the history books of the Central Plains, but they are all vague. The main reason is that they cannot be distinguished in detail.
The prosperity of the Western Region comes from commerce, and it also benefits from its geographical location connecting the east and west. However, being invaded at any time also comes from this.
However, in the past few hundred years, the Western Regions were still ruled by the grassland barbarians who swept in from the northeast. The wind and sand in the Hexi region made the influence of the Central Plains Dynasty in the Western Regions intermittent and unable to last long.
The darkest days of the countries in the Western Region were under the rule of the Rouran people. They were serious primitive people with disheveled hair, covered in dirt, drinking blood from their hair, and full of barbaric atmosphere. Wherever they passed, they brought only death and harm to people.
suffering.
This short-lived tribe quickly collapsed under the constant attacks from the Central Plains and the Northern Dynasties. Many people later did not even know that they had ever appeared.
Next came the Turks and Tiele people, who soon gained dominance in the Western Regions and fought with the Central Plains people.
There is no way to unify, and the languages are diverse. Even if the Turks have the power to govern, such a place cannot give birth to its own history.
All descriptions of the Western Regions must be found in the historical annals of the Central Plains.
Most of the countries in the Western Regions during the Pre-Han Dynasty no longer exist today, leaving only a few countries such as Khotan, Qiuci, Gaochang, Yanqi, and Cheshi.
Most of these small countries that have existed for a long time are located in the eastern part of the Western Regions. They were influenced by the civilization of the Central Plains, and some were founded by the Han people.
Because they have quite similar political systems, they have always supported each other and are able to exist today.
Most of the small countries in the southern part of the Western Region were established by South Asian businessmen. Their forces are distributed along the foothills of the mountains in the north and south of Congling. They are the most chaotic places in the Western Region. They have language barriers, dark races, and weird behaviors.
They were very unpleasant to look at, and no country in the Western Region was willing to associate with them.
It's just that Buddhism is very powerful, and the monks who preach in South Asia are very popular. Of course, this is not actually the influence of Tianzhu, but that Buddhism became popular in the Central Plains and affected the countries in the Western Regions.
Countries such as Khotan, Kucha, and Gaochang all use Buddhism as their state religion.
To the west of the Western Region is Persia in West Asia, and West Asia where the Byzantines from Eastern Europe migrated. The countries established by the Eastern European race as the main body, the ethnic groups are even more mixed, and it is basically impossible to tell who their ancestors are.
Naturally, the north and central areas were dominated by nomadic peoples, mainly Turks and Tiele people, who had strong fighting power, so they had the right to rule in the Western Regions, and all countries in the Western Regions had to worship them in order to achieve peace.
Tongyehu Khan moved his tent to Suiyechuan, which is the heart of the Western Regions. He was really afraid and stayed away from the eastern region of the Western Regions to avoid retaliation from the Turkic royal court.
Secondly, Suiye River can better rule the countries in the Western Region.
…………
In the fifth month of the Yuanzhen period of the Tang Dynasty, Tong Yehu Khan issued a sweat order in the Yazhang of the Western Turks, summoning the kings of the Western Regions to the Yazhang to discuss matters, and at the same time sent Shijie to the Tang Dynasty.
More than two months have passed, and there has been no news from Datang, but the atmosphere in the Western Region has become increasingly tense.
After the Turkic King's Account no longer allowed merchants to go to Mobei, rumors spread wildly among the countries in the Western Regions. The Turkic King's Account did not deny it. In June, he ordered all countries in the Western Regions to send troops to the old place of the Western Turkic King's Account, north of Qiuci.
gathered in the Sanmi Mountain area.
At this point, even an ordinary shepherd can tell you who the enemy is this time.
The Western Region, which had been generally peaceful for several years, became turbulent.
…………
Suiyechuan, Western Turkic Yazhang.
Tong Yehu Khan, whose name is Ashina Koda, is the younger brother of Shegui Khan and the grandson of Bujia Khan.
In the Central Plains, he was a standard royal child, but now he has ascended to the throne of Khan and became the ruler of the Western Turks.
Ashina Ko is in his forties, almost fifty this year. He has been in power for eight years. Based on his achievements, he should be considered a very accomplished king.
What he inherited from Shegui Khan was a mess. Shegui Khan led his army in the Western Expedition and failed miserably. Because his strength was greatly reduced, the countries in the Western Regions were in constant turmoil.
When Ashina Koda came to the throne, he first purged the confidants of Shegui Khan before and after the fight for the throne. In fact, almost all of those strong competitors were his brothers and elders.
In the following years, troops were sent out one after another to put down the rebellions in various countries in the Western Regions, and the kings of the Western Regions bowed their heads again. One of the most fierce battles occurred in the second year of Yuanzhen of the Tang Dynasty.
Ashinako personally led his army south and captured the Tocharo King's City, completely wiping out the largest resistance force in the Western Regions.
It is unclear who the ancestors of the Tocharians are. They should be indigenous to Central Asia. They used to live in the Tarim Basin. There are some records in the history books of the Central Plains. The name Tocharian is a transliteration of the Turkic language.
Later, the humanoid creatures in the west buried several mummies in the desert, and used the Tocharians as evidence of the Greeks' eastern expedition, saying that they were a mixture of Asia and Europe, and even their names were far-fetchedly related to Greek.
Together, their archeology is so haphazard.
It's just that today's Tochara is just one of the small countries in the Western Region. They have mixed with the people of the South Asian subcontinent, have been living south of Congling, and established the Tocharian Kingdom.
Because of their geographical location, they were relatively close to Tianzhu and were very dissatisfied with the rule of the Turks. A few years ago, the Turks destroyed the royal city. Before the Turks left, they established a puppet regime and set up Tutun there to control the country.
Supervision.
By the third year of Yuanzhen of the Tang Dynasty, which was the year when the Tang Dynasty carried out its final unification war, Tong Yehu Khan had roughly taken control of the Western Regions and sent envoys to form an alliance with the Tang Dynasty.
Of course, unifying the Western Regions was not achieved by attacking only Tochar. Ashina Koda also conquered the branches of the Tiele tribe such as Geluolu and Uighur.
At the same time, it also reformed the governance structure of the Western Turks, granted kings of various countries the title of Jielifa, and became vassal officials of the Western Turks, almost equivalent to the princes of the Central Plains. They were then administered by Tutun, collecting taxes from various countries, recruiting soldiers, etc.