There is no clear record of the number of the Xiliao army. It is only known that there were only 2,500 people on the left and right sides. Yelu Dashi personally led the Chinese army and guarded the exit of a canyon, using the terrain to defend the rear. There are also an unknown number of local vassal soldiers in the canyon.
When the battle began, neither side used any tricks, but directly attacked in three directions. In the first round of confrontation, the two sides were evenly matched, but when regrouping, Sanjar keenly discovered that there was a gap between the Xiliao center army and the right wing.
Sancar immediately seized this opportunity and ordered the left wing to charge to open a breakthrough. The Seljuk army was so numerous that it broke through the communication between various departments in Xiliao in one fell swoop and pushed the central army of Xiliao to the left. Seljuk's center and right flank also pressed forward, preparing to surround the opponent.
However, the scattered right wing of Xiliao did not break up, but continued to fight and detoured to the left of the Seljuq army. After discovering the changes on the battlefield, Yelu Dashi did not try to rescue, but chose to believe in the combat effectiveness of his subordinates. He commanded the central army to fight against the entire Seljuk army, and let the left wing also circle sideways to outflank the right side of the Seljuk army.
In this way, the two wings of Xiliao took the opportunity to complete the detour and successfully used thousands of people to capture the opponent's 100,000 people.
The main Seljuk forces, including Sanjar himself, were squeezed into the canyon behind the Xiliao army formation, and the vassal light infantry defending here also took the opportunity to attack them. Under the siege, the Seljuk army was defeated and scattered, and Sanjar escaped with only a dozen followers. The corpses of the Seljuks lay scattered for dozens of miles. The commanders of the left and right wings, a large number of nobles and Sanjar's wives were all captured alive by Xiliao.
The result of this battle caused a strong shock to the world of Tianfang Sect.
There is no clear figure for the losses of the Seljuq army on the battlefield, but later generations estimated it to be about 30,000 to 50,000 people. But the biggest problem is not the loss of ordinary soldiers.
In order to increase the certainty of victory, Sanjar deployed backbone troops from various places. The "Historical Encyclopedia" records that this time, 12,000 religious scholars died in the battle alone. He said with emotion, "There is no greater war in the history of Tianfang Sect, and there is no such war in Khorasan." It’s more casualties.”
These people are the real grassroots managers of the Tianfang Sect's regime. They can be said to be the basis of governance for each dynasty. They are roughly equivalent to the priests and knights in Europe. The losses of ordinary soldiers can be replenished, but the losses of these people cannot be recovered in the short term.
Sanjar's family fortune and prestige, which he had worked hard for all his life, were all lost here. After that, he was even kidnapped by some tribes and became a puppet.
The Seljuk dynasty collapsed again, and Xiliao became the de facto overlord. Even the caliph was bullied by the Turks and had to go to them for mediation.
The subsequent "Shogun Sultan" was succeeded by Khorezm. However, this was probably the weakest sultanate. While dominating the world of Tianfang Religion, they also paid tribute to Xiliao and relied on Xiliao's military power for a long time.
Khorezm could not defeat the Gur dynasty in Afghanistan, so Xiliao sent troops to invade Afghanistan and help him defeat the Gur army; Khorezm also failed to defeat the remaining Seljuqs in Persia, so he also asked Xiliao to send troops. Help him settle it. As a result, just like this, relying on paying tribute and asking others to fight on their behalf, they successfully "went to Luo" to Baghdad.
The only good thing is that Xiliao did not choose "new thinking" like the Turkic tribes. They are still very traditional in staring at the East, thinking about fighting back home every day, and are not interested in going to Baghdad to capture the Caliphate, and they have not caused an impact that will shatter the outlook of the Persians and Arabs.
The deeds of Yelu Dashi spread to Europe and he was regarded as a mythical figure. There are rumors among the Crusaders that there is a priest king in the East who is extremely powerful and will help everyone kill the heretics. This myth has been widely believed for hundreds of years and has had influence into modern times.
Guo Kang himself was actually inspired by Yelu Dashi.
In Mongolia, the Western Regions and Central Asia, people actually cannot tell the difference between Han and Khitan people. For example, in the Mongolian language, there is no separate vocabulary to describe their differences. The official translations of the Yuan and Ming dynasties also make it very clear: Khitan in Mongolian, Han in Chinese, pronounced Khitan. It's the same word.
Further afield, in the worldviews of Persia, Arabia and Eastern Rome, the concept of "Peach Blossom Stone" was formed, and it was believed that starting from the Mesopotamia region of Central Asia and heading to the east, all were "Peach Blossom Stone" lands. The Karakhan dynasty in Central Asia all considered themselves part of the Peach Blossom Stone - they believed that the area from Central Asia to the Western Regions was the "Lower Peach Blossom Stone", the Liao Kingdom was the "Middle Peach Blossom Stone", and the Song Dynasty was the "Upper Peach Blossom Stone".
The origin of this word is not very clear, but the scope is very obvious, which is the former territory of the Tang Dynasty.
For people who migrated overseas in this era, the Tang Dynasty is a concept that has long since disappeared but is ubiquitous. The Liao and Western Liao further carried forward the influence of the Tang Dynasty, and finally formed the situation that Guo Kang sees today.
People in the west may not know the origin of his Guo family. But just looking at his face is enough - for a long time, Persian warlords would spend a lot of money to hire Khitan survivors brought from Xiliao to serve as generals here. It doesn't matter whether you have sufficient military literacy or not. Because as long as you brush your face in front of the formation and let the enemy realize that there are Easterners in this army, you can deter them.
When Guo Kang first came to this world, he also thought it was outrageous: the Karakhan prince who lived in Bukhara would repeatedly claim "I am Chinese" everywhere for fear that others would not know.
There was a general under Timur named "Khitan Batur". It is difficult to explain why a Turkic Mongolian calls himself a "Han warrior", but these days, everyone is happy to do so.
It was difficult for people of his time to imagine this situation. At that time, I'm afraid it would be considered too embarrassing "wolf warrior" behavior.
Guo Kang complained about this phenomenon to Tuo Huan and others, and it turned out that he spoke smoothly and even used words that did not belong to this era. Unexpectedly, Tuohuan likes this word very much. He calls himself the "Khitan Warrior Wolf" every day and brags about it when he meets everyone.
Strictly speaking, the four noble families participating in the meeting today all have questionable backgrounds: the Guo family is from the Yanyun Guo family, the Li family is from the Shatuo Li family, the Shi family is from the Turkic Ashina family, and the Cao family is from the Zhaowu Cao family in Central Asia. . According to the viewpoint of the Southern Song Dynasty, which claimed to be Han orthodox at that time, none of these four families were serious Han people.
Therefore, although he is called the "Han Shihou" by the locals, it is not easy to say whether it is true or not. In this case, instead of accepting the theory of the Song Dynasty, it is better to continue to follow the identification of "Peach Blossom Stone-Tang".
When it came to Rome, the scope expanded even further. Today's Nanya Army, even the Greeks can be regarded as "Han Shihou".
It's just that these Greek nobles have neglected their martial arts for too long and can only deceive each other and hold them back. They are not very good at fighting. Li Xuanying once suggested that they all use the Chinese surname Zhao. Therefore, there are no such high-level generals yet.
