The appointment of the Great Khan was often regarded in later generations as the same as paying tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty.
It seems like they came to participate in an event lightly, and then the tributes received real rewards, and the suzerain country paid gold, silver, brocade and silk to gain a name.
In fact, this is absolutely not the case!
For example, the tribute system of the Central Plains dynasty was definitely not about just coming for a trip, donating some melons and two dates, and then running away after making enough money.
In fact, tribute is a very serious matter and imposes great constraints on both parties.
This is not the kind of behavior that later generations imagined, begging a godfather at the wine table, or even some behavior of begging a 'godfather'. In this era, paying tribute is not a godfather, but an adoption.
After the tribute is paid, the suzerain can intervene in all the domestic affairs of the tributer. It just depends on whether he wants to interfere.
Although this system was broken in the mid-Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it was actually a sharp sword in the past.
There is a saying in later generations that if you are strong, you have been there since ancient times; if you are weak, you put aside disputes. This is actually very close to the tribute system.
If the tribute system is strong, if you say a bad word, the father of the clan leader will spank you.
If you are weak, you stand on the moral high ground, summon and drive your surrounding countries to oppose you, and then block your supplies and blockade you, so that your royal family will die and become an international orphan.
According to the rules of the grassland, it is even more strict to recommend the Great Khan.
The Great Khan you recommend must come when the Great Khan recruits you to fight. If the Great Khan asks you to pay tribute, you must pay tribute. Of course, if you have trouble, the Great Khan will solve it for you.
And because there is a rule on the grassland, which is to convene a meeting to recommend the Great Khan, you don’t have to come, but if you come and don’t agree with the recommendation, it will be like a challenge and you will fight to the death.
Therefore, everyone who arrived at Yanqi City today had already decided to elect Zhang Zhao as the Great Khan.
.
.
Near the sea, the sun was rising, and the election meeting was about to begin. The leaders of each department had already gotten up early, and after eating a sumptuous meal, they gradually walked to their assigned positions.
Zhang Zhao set up eight-color flags near the sea. Each color of the flag represented a tribe.
The three parts of Yinshan's Xijiasi are in cyan.
The two parts of Geluolu in the Land of Seven Rivers are black.
The parts of the broken leaves are red.
The Bashmi of the Eagle River is green for the Uighurs.
The Gaochang Uighur tribes are white.
The Saman Persians are blue.
The buildings in Huwen City and Anyuan are white mixed with red.
The rest of the Bashmi people, Long family people, Ganzhou Uighurs, Dadan people, Dangxiang Zhuqiang who belong to Zhang Zhao's country, together with the Han people, stood under the purple flag symbolizing the headquarters of the Great Khan.
At the same time, the entire coastal lakeside was filled with eminent monks from various temples holding swastika flags.
From Ningyuan to the Qingtang Plateau to all over the Western Regions, everyone came.
This is not only a meeting to elect the Great Khan, but also a grand religious ceremony.
However, the election meeting was about to begin, but Zhang Zhao had not shown up yet because he was meeting some old friends he had not seen for many years.
The representative sent by the governor of the Suiye Guo family and the great Nestorian figure Guo Xuanqing turned out to be the prudent great figure Guo Xuanli who had strongly opposed returning to the east.
I haven't seen him for more than seven years. Guo Xuanli has not aged much. Apart from his gray beard and hair, he is still as energetic as before.
The reason why Guo Xuanqing sent Guo Xuanli here was because Guo Xuanli missed his two sons, Guo Guangsheng and Guo Guangcheng, who had left with Zhang Zhao, so he simply took his family and prepared to move back to the Central Plains.
The person who was most reluctant to return to the East suddenly became the first one to actively want to come back. It must be said that things in the world are always unpredictable.
"Li Guoshou didn't send anyone, so it must be his sixth uncle who did something wrong, right?"
Zhang Zhao looked at Guo Xuanli who was talking to his two sons and asked with a smile.
Zhang Zhao married Guo Waner, the little wild cat of the country, so he also called Guo Xuanqing his sixth uncle.
Hearing what Zhang Zhao said, Guo Xuanli showed a bit of a dumbfounded expression on his face. Guo Xuanli knew the temper of Zhang Tianwang very well.
Despite the sweetness of his words, when it was time to take action, he was not soft at all.
This was the case when he pushed Guo Xuanqing up and got himself down.
"After the envoy arrived at Suiye, Xuan Qing deliberately delayed five days to see the envoy, and then notified Li Guoshou three days late. It is estimated that Li Guoshou's envoy is still running to Yanqi desperately."
Zhang Zhao's plan of dividing and conquering the Ye Guo family and Li Sizhong's descendants, as well as the deputy governor of Talos, Li Guoshou, has now begun to take effect.
Li Guoshou and Guo Xuanqing had a small quarrel every three days and a big quarrel every five days. If they hadn't restrained each other, they would have captured Shiguocheng (Tashkent) long ago.
However, this is exactly what Zhang Zhao wants to see. In the past, he used Nasr and Hamid to kill each other and wiped out half of Samampos' main force at once, which was a bit too much.
Now let Guo Xuanqing and Li Guoshou fight with each other, so that he can send a large army to take control in the future, and then use the abilities of the two families to expand their territory.
"The third uncle should live in Liangzhou from now on, so that Guangsheng and Guangcheng can fulfill their filial piety.
Also, ask the deputy envoy to inform the sixth uncle when he returns. Wan'er has nothing to do. If there is no good news next year, let the sixth uncle send Ting'er over."
Zhang Zhao vaguely remembered that Guo Wan'er had a little cousin named Jing'er who was only nine years old at the time and already showed the appearance of a beautiful woman.
This Guo family is the Nestorian Knights he prepared, the God's Punishers in Western Europe. Now Guo Wan'er can't give birth to a child.
Guo Xuanli quickly nodded in agreement. Guo Ting'er was not yet seventeen years old, but she was already an outstanding beauty in Suiye Country.
It was originally discussed that it would be sent to Zhang Zhao, but now that Zhang Zhao has spoken out, it will have to be sent to Guo Waner whether she can give birth to a son or not.
Guo Xuanli followed his two sons out, leaving only two old men with tears in their eyes. They were Zhang Zhao's former loyal servant Zhang Zhong and his cousin Song Zhongyi who stayed in Ningyuan.
"Brother Zhao!" As soon as Guo Xuanli left, old Zhang Zhong knelt on the ground with a thud and started crying loudly.
Zhang Zhaoze quickly helped him up. If we talk about loyalty, the person who is most loyal to him in this world is old Zhang Zhong, although his ability is a bit troublesome.
"You're fifty-six this year, right? You're almost sixty years old, why should you kneel down? How about your eldest son? Do you want to send him to Liangzhou to follow me?"
"Excuse me, sir. I still remember my servant's age. He is fifty-six. It has been more than six years since I left my husband. When I came here, Hua Niang was still discussing with my servant. When brother Shun grows up, he will be sent to him.
Come to you."
Old Zhang Zhong is getting older and looks much older than before. He has followed Zhang Zhao for decades, but finally in his later years, he enjoys wealth that is difficult for ordinary people to have.
He married a lovely wife who was more than 30 years younger than him, and she was also old-hearted and had a house of beautiful concubines.
Ningyuan is in charge of Zhang Zhao's private farm of more than 400,000 acres. Even Zhang Zhao's aunt, Princess Fengtian, asked Zhang Zhong for his opinion on everything when she was in Ningyuan and respected him very much, because Zhang Zhao can be said to be the old Zhang Zhong.
Bring the big one with one hand.
The old boy now has four children, and he is really full of energy. In Ningyuan, even Zhang Zhong's servants have become officials, which can be said to be an extremely prosperous situation.
"Cousin, your weight has increased so quickly! You must weigh 170 pounds, right?" Zhang Zhao helped old Zhang Zhong up, and Zhang Zhao laughed at Song Zhongyi again.
This nephew of Zhang Zhao's biological mother injured his leg in the battle of defeating the famous Persian general Adulal by the Medicine Killing Water, and later did not return eastward.
Zhang Zhao gave him thousands of acres of land, granted him an official position, and started enjoying himself in Ningyuan with a few soldiers from the capital of Hanshan who also did not return eastward.
Song Zhongyi smiled sheepishly. After not fighting in these years, he could be said to have enjoyed his time in Ningyuan.
With six wives and concubines, not only do they own nearly 10,000 acres of land, they are also engaged in trading business, and their weight has long been out of control.
"Thanks to Mr. Erlang, he is no longer one hundred and seventy kilograms now, but more than one hundred and eighty kilograms. But Mr. Erlang is still the same as before."
Just as he was still conversing with the two of them, Guo Tiance came outside to report that the recommendation meeting was about to begin.
Zhang Zhao could only signal the two of them to come back later. In the evening, the brothers who used to be in Shandu would definitely have a good gathering.
.
.
The rumble of drums sounded, and Zhang Zhao rode on a six-horse carriage, which belonged to the captured Jie Lipijia.
However, the yellow luogai umbrella on the roof of the car is not a fake made by Jie Lipijia, but a collection of Li Shengtian.
The various tribes who came for the election had already arranged their flags according to the pre-arranged flags and stood in different regions.
But the herdsmen on these grasslands don't have any discipline.
The Basimi and Gaochang Uighurs of Yingsaochuan were better off, after all, they were deeply Chinese, but the Xijiasi and the Geluolu people were a complete mess.
The two sides had some grudges to begin with, and for a while they were noisy, yelling at each other, grabbing mud, stones and even horse manure from the ground and throwing them at each other, making it as messy as a big brawl.
And with Zhang Zhao's appearance, the leading silver swordsman was wearing a brocade robe and holding a sharp Shang Fang sword, which frightened these tribes and did not dare to move.
Immediately afterwards, the drummers on both sides wearing spotted floral clothes also began to play elegant music.
Guarding Zhang Zhao were the elite Yulin Guards from the left and right sides of the Liang Kingdom, the armored cavalry and iron horse capitals, and the elites from each town army. In addition to the thousand armored palace guards from the Khotan Jin Kingdom, there were a total of 3,500 people.
These 3,500 people, all covered in iron armor and with tall horses on their backs, immediately shocked the tribes who were in a mess just now and knelt on the ground in fear.
Not to mention anything else, these 3,500 armored infantry and cavalry are not something they can fight against.
In addition, the cavalry from various tribes in the Liang Kingdom who followed Zhang Zhao also arrived.
Just near the sea, the army of the Liang Kingdom demonstrated how their elite archers covered the army and drove away the opponent's light cavalry. The heavy armored infantry of the Chinese army used bows and crossbows to shoot at the enemy's front.
Step forward to break the formation, and finally the armored cavalry will complete the actual combat drill of the final strike.
A series of flowing clouds and flowing water, the formation changed in just a moment, the bows and crossbows fired thousands of arrows, the iron cavalry advanced like a wall, the light armored cavalry and the horse archers were strong and swift.
Even the three tribes of Chigas, who were originally lured by the wealth, were frightened. The leaders knelt on the ground and knelt down to worship.
After the performance of the Liang Kingdom army was completed, all the troops also performed the riding and shooting skills that the prairie cavalry is best at, in front of the great sweat in their hearts.
Although it is far inferior to the Liang Kingdom's army, it is still quite tough.
Zhang Zhao immediately rewarded the leaders of various tribes and allowed them to have a tax-free opportunity of 500 guan once a year and send their cronies to participate in merchant trade.
He also expressed that he would select a proton army of 400 people from the descendants of the leaders of various tribes to accompany him around.
This is also the practice of the grassland people. It is not punishment, but preferential treatment.
The tribal leaders were very happy. After performing the procedures that should be followed in the election meeting, each tribal leader contributed a piece of firewood, and finally gathered together to burn it in sacrifice to heaven.
This is the so-called burning, and this custom is found in the Central Plains and grasslands.
Finally, in front of the sacrificial fire, the Uighurs of Gaochang, Longjia of Suzhou, Basimi of Yingsuachuan, Geluolu of the Land of Seven Rivers, the three tribes of Yinshan Jiajiasi, Suiye tribes, and the Turks of Huwencheng
Wait for eleven.
Zhang Zhao was officially elected as the Great Khan of the Grassland, his title was Qiudoufa, and he was called Qiudoufa Khan.
How about playing?
Zhang Zhao immediately expressed his disapproval!
Because Qiudoufa is an ancient Rouran language, also known as ancient Mongolian, and its original meaning is to drive a carriage with both hands, so the artistic conception of Qiudoufa Khan in Chinese is the master who controls the world.
But Zhang Zhao was not happy. First, the first Qiudoufa Khan was Rouran Khan Yujiulu Shelun. Although he was also a hero, his name was not obvious.
Second, now that the world is dominated by the Turkic-speaking steppe peoples, you have given me the title of Khan of the Rouran language family. You want to fish in troubled waters and reduce the gold content. I am afraid you are overthinking and playing word games in front of the Han people?
As soon as Zhang Zhao said no, Dongdong's war drums began to beat, and tens of thousands of soldiers beat their armor with their swords.
In an instant, gold and iron clashed, and the desire to kill arose.
The leaders of each department were sweating profusely, and they quickly started to discuss again, and finally decided to give him the title of Yinli Khan, whose full name is Nipu Yinli Khan blessed by Tengger.
Yinli means territory in ancient Turkic language. In Chinese terms, it means swallowing the world and sweeping all directions. Nipu is a prefix, which means shining brightly.
Therefore, after one hundred and eighty years of vacancy, Zhang Zhao was supported by various tribes near the sea and was given the title of Yinli Khan Nipu, or Yinli Khan for short. Translated into Chinese, it means the Great Khan who illuminates the world and unifies the world.
Uh! However, as Zhang Zhao listened, he felt that something was still wrong.