In early May, the Tang Dynasty and the Turks finally agreed on the exact date for the alliance, which was May 28th, which was considered an auspicious day by both countries.
The Turks have no astronomical calendar.
They usually hold a large-scale alliance meeting every one or two years in June or July of the year. The tribal leaders on the grassland who are qualified to participate in the alliance meeting will bring gifts and respond to the call of the Khan.
Alliance at the foot of the Holy Mountain.
It was a grand gathering on the grassland. During the alliance, the khans would worship the gods and organize various activities to enhance the friendship among the grassland tribes.
Tribal leaders will also take the opportunity to express their loyalty to the Khan, show the strength of their tribe, marry other tribes, etc.
Of course, during the Grassland League, the Turkic nobles would use this to formulate a series of policies and publicize them widely.
The alliance with the Tang Dynasty does not fall into this category for the Turks. The choice of the end of May gave the Turks themselves a relatively ample time to raise troops.
In the past two years, the Turks have been ready to make a move. In the seventh year of Yuanzhen of the Tang Dynasty, it was finally the time when they could no longer hold back, and the alliance with the Tang Dynasty became a very important time point.
The outcome of the alliance will directly affect the Turks' strategic planning.
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Compared to the Turks, who were busy preparing for war, the Tang Dynasty was relatively relaxed.
May 28th is the time to break ground, gather people, pray for blessings, and travel far to the north. Look at it, it is simply a good day chosen by God.
After choosing the date for the alliance, the list of entourage was soon placed on Li Po's desk.
Li Po ticked off the list. There were a lot of things going on in the DPRK this year, and the chief officials of the three provinces and six ministries were no longer with him. Instead, he selected people from among his deputies.
The leaders on Zhongshu's side were Cen Wenwen and Liu Zhenghui, on the Shangshu Province's side, there was one minister from each of the six departments, and in the Menxia Province, Du Chuke, the minister's minister, was the leader.
There were also people from the Nine Temples accompanying him to serve as advisors. They were headed by Dou Dan, the minister of Sinong Temple, and Gao Biaoren, the minister of Honglu Temple.
There are also miscellaneous people who specialize in serving the emperor's daily life.
The generals of the Wei Mansion chose Dou Cong and Wang Zhibian to accompany them. The Yulin Army that protected the emperor's northward march was still led by the imperial concubines Ashina Rongzhen and Luo Shixin, with four of the eight Yulin generals.
There were more than 4,000 Yulin troops accompanying him, and including those waiting for his entourage along the way, there were almost 10,000 people at the place. For the emperor's trip, this number of people was relatively small.
Of course, the danger still exists, and we cannot take too much precaution against the Turks. Therefore, in the east-west direction, Xue Wanjun, the general manager of Lingzhou, Qu Tutong, the general manager of Daizhou Marching Army, and even Yu Wenxin, the general manager of Youzhou, who is far away in Hebei, will lead their troops.
Press forward, watch for Turkic movements, and be ready to react at any time.
Some of the elite soldiers of the Tang army stationed along the road in Shuofang and Yulin will join the emperor's northbound team, while others will follow from a distance, ready to respond to the northbound team's retreat at any time.
In other words, even before the emperor set out from Chang'an, the thousands of miles of border with the Turks in the north had already become tense.
The Turks also would not allow their Khan to take risks. The powerful Turkic tribes drove their cattle and sheep south one after another and stayed on the grasslands near the border of the Tang Dynasty. While grazing, they watched silently.
The mountains and the Great Wall in the south stretch like giant pythons.
The Khitan, Xi tribe, Mohe and other tribes in the northeast all felt the tense atmosphere. Regardless of the fact that their cattle and sheep were still very thin, they abandoned their chosen pastures and migrated north.
Naturally, most of them didn't know what was going on. Fortunately, they were not recruited by the Khan, otherwise these tribes would become cannon fodder at the forefront of the army marching south.
During the pre-Sui Dynasty, the Turks and the pre-Sui Dynasty plus Goguryeo divided the tribes in the Northeast into three parts.
When Yang Guang conquered Goguryeo, among the millions of troops there were many Khitans and Xi people who came to participate in the war at the call of the Sui Emperor, and some Mohe savages also came to join in the fun.
They did watch the great excitement. Yang Guang treated them well and did not let them attack Liaodong City during the war of attrition.
When it was time to retreat, the tribesmen also returned to their own tribes and brought Yang Guang's poor performance back home.
So when Yang Guang went out for the second time, these tribes ignored him, and later they all defected to the Turks who seemed more reliable.
In the early days of the war in the Central Plains, in order to cooperate with Shibi Khan's southward strategy, they carried out several large-scale raids on Youzhou.
At that time, when Li Po led his army on the Feihu Road and left Zhuojun in the east, Luo Shixin, Liu Jingsheng and others led the Turks to surrender at the foot of the Black Rock Ridge at Feihukou and annihilated the Xi tribe's army of more than 10,000 people.
The invading grassland tribes were actually the northeastern tribes who had taken refuge with the Turks.
Later, the reason why Dongfang Khan Ashina Duowen developed a desire to be independent was actually due to the rapid expansion of his strength due to these tribes in the Northeast. In addition, many former Sui ministers in Hebei led their troops to flee north, leaving the Turks
The Eastern tribes have gained even more momentum.
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More than ten or twenty years passed suddenly. Yang Guang, who turned the Central Plains into a pot of porridge, has long since passed away. The tribes on the grasslands of western Liaoning are still thriving, but most of them have fallen under the rule of the Turks.
No matter how much influence the Central Plains Dynasty wanted to penetrate, it would not be something that could be accomplished in a year or two.
Yu Wenxin, the general manager of Youzhou who was in charge of Youzhou, had been in office for three years. Every year he was thinking about how to take Yingzhou back, and he was constantly dealing with the Khitans, Xi people, and even the Turks in the northeast.
But the situation is not too good. A few years ago, Ashina Duowen led the Turks to drive away the Shiwei people who moved south, which can be said to have won the hearts of people in all parts of the Northeast.
Now even if Ashina Duowen went to Liaodong, the tribes in the northeast would not dare to act rashly because they saw no signs of the Turks' weakness.
This year, the news that the Tang Dynasty destroyed Goguryeo was deliberately spread to the grasslands by Yu Wenxin. It is said that the attitude of the tribal leaders has improved a lot, but it is absolutely impossible to make them obey orders like the former Sui Dynasty.
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In the former Sui Dynasty, it took several wars and decades to establish prestige outside the Great Wall. While intimidating the Turks, it also gained the respect of many grassland tribes.
In this aspect, Datang was obviously far behind, and had not established such a strong appeal on the grasslands of Northeast China.
Yu Wenxin followed the same path as when he was in charge of Yanmen. On the one hand, he restored the people's livelihood in Youzhou and strengthened the defense of various passes. On the other hand, in accordance with the court's plan, he set up a border market in the north of Youzhou to conduct trade with the grassland tribes.
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There are quite a lot of good things in the Northeast, the most important ones being all kinds of furs and medicinal materials.
Don't worry about cattle, sheep, horses and the like. The grassland tribes are miserable. Even if there is no ban from the Turkic royal court, most of them will not trade these things with you.
As a feudal official guarding the border, Yu Wenxin also looked down upon this small amount of wealth. What he cared about was the exchange between the Tang Dynasty and the grassland tribes.
In the past, officials in the Sui Dynasty who had gone through the wars at the end of the Sui Dynasty had a broad vision and were wary of foreigners. However, this did not prevent them from taking enlightened measures, instead of being like some officials who later became aware of the trouble.
First think about closing yourself off and blocking communication.
Through the border market, Youzhou officials can easily detect the movements of the tribes in the northeast and try to win over those tribes that show friendship.
This place is too far away from the Turkic royal court, and Dongfang Khan Ashina Duowen has just lost power. For Yu Wenxin, the general manager of Youzhou, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
At the end of the sixth year of Yuanzhen's reign, when the good news of the war in the East China Sea came out, Yu Wenxin also wrote to the central government, thinking that he could send envoys to the Turks in the east to lobby.
Whether it is instigating them to inherit Ashina Tawen's "legacy" or doing something else, it is very convenient.
The imperial court did not adopt his opinion because the Tang Dynasty's national policy towards the Turks had long been established, and now it was afraid that the Turks' stalls were not big enough, so there would be no need to cause trouble to the Turks in the northeast.
The immediate benefits are nothing. The imperial court has a long-term plan. As for winning over the Khitans, Xi people, and Mohe people, Li Po actually doesn't care much.
When the time comes, those messy tribes in the Northeast will be another source of slave trade, and Datang's infrastructure construction needs them very much...
In order to realize the blueprint he had in mind for a long time, there was a huge gap in the population at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. Even if he captured all the people from the surrounding small countries, it would not be able to make up for the more than 40 million people lost in the wars at the end of the Sui Dynasty.
difference.
The wars at the end of the Han Dynasty and the wars at the end of the Sui Dynasty were two catastrophes for the land of China. In total, more than 80 million people died during the wars.
In both times, the Central Plains lost about two-thirds of its population, and the cruelty can be imagined.
Later, whenever wars broke out in the last years of the dynasty, it was generally the same. No one knew how the Central Plains nation could get rid of this tragic reincarnation.
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By mid-May, everything was ready.
The Xinglin Banquet after the imperial examination was held in the Xinglin Forest outside Chang'an City, and the Empress personally hosted the banquet to entertain this year's Jinshi.
However, this scientific examination in the seventh year of Yuanzhen did not include the palace examination. The imperial court directly approved Master Xu Yu, the top scholar in the Ming Dynasty's political science, as the top scholar in this science.
At the Xinglin Banquet, the Empress proposed to select the two youngest and most handsome Jinshi at the Banquet as the Flower Visitors. The selected No. 1 Scholars would be given clothes, crowns, and seals by the Empress herself.
He gave warm words of encouragement and ordered the living minister and the Ministry of Rites to record the current grand event in detail for future effects.
At the banquet, the Empress happily asked the Jinshi to compose poems to commemorate the banquet. The poems left by the Jinshi were selected and stored in the library of Chang'an Academy for people to view.
After a series of tricks, the drunken scholars were dizzy when they left. Everyone could really feel the respect and expectations of the imperial court for them...