After Song Jingang was defeated at the gate of Jiexiu City, he led more than a hundred cavalry to escape from the battlefield. They crossed the Fen River by boat and escaped back to Mayi via a small road.
The officials and people in Mayi City had heard the news of the defeat ahead. People panicked and the city was in chaos. Many dignitaries hitched their carriages, packed up their belongings, and prepared to flee the city for refuge.
Song Jingang rushed back to the Song Dynasty palace after a long journey. He turned over and dismounted in the courtyard. As soon as he walked into the hall, Liu Ruolan came out from the back hall after hearing the news. When she saw him, she threw herself into his arms like a swallow in the forest. She choked with sobs and said: "Husband, thank God, you are finally here." Back!" Song Jinjiang patted her back gently and comforted: "Madam, I'm sorry for making you worry."
The couple lingered for a while, and Song Jingang took his wife's hand and walked to an Arhat bed and sat down. Liu Ruolan wiped the tears from her face and said, "Husband, how is my brother?"
"The emperor has already gone to the Turks." Song Jingang said, "He sent someone to bring me news, asking us to go to the Turks too. The Tang army is about to attack, and Mayi City cannot be defended. Let's take care of it tomorrow. Set off early in the morning.”
Liu Ruolan was silent after hearing this. Song Jinjiang looked at her and said apologetically: "Ruolan, I'm sorry, my husband is incompetent, so you have to wander around and endure hardships."
"My husband's words are wrong." Liu Ruolan said sternly, "In the art of war, victory or defeat is a common thing for military strategists. My husband is a hero in this world. He has only suffered a temporary setback at the moment. He will definitely regain his strength and show his power again in the future. Furthermore, as the saying goes Tao, if you marry a chicken, follow the chicken, if you marry a dog, follow the dog. Once I marry you, you will go to the end of the world, and Ruolan will be with you for the rest of your life!"
After hearing this, Song Jinjiang clenched his wife's Rouyi in emotion: "Ruolan, with your words, I feel relieved!..."
Half of the more than 100 cavalrymen brought out by Song Jingang were separated on the way. He dismissed most of the servants in the Song Palace, leaving only a few capable servants, plus the remaining cavalry, a total of seventy or eighty people. They hitched up a dozen carriages and loaded them with food and supplies. The motorcade left Mayi City early in the morning and meandered all the way north.
Mayi is located between Yanmen Pass, the "No. 1 Pass in the World", and the Tiger Killing Pass of the Yanbei Outer Great Wall. The Qin Dynasty general Meng Tian expelled the Huns outside Yanmen Pass, built a city and raised horses, and Mayi got its name. Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up an ambush in Mayi to lure and annihilate the Xiongnu army, which opened the prelude to the war against the Xiongnu. The Mayi Ancient Road from Yanmen Pass to Shahukou is a trade route that has lasted for thousands of years and has witnessed the glorious history of the Silk Road.
The convoy went all the way north and arrived at the Shahukou Pass, an important pass on the Yanbei Outer Great Wall. The Shahukou is located on the edge of the Mongolian Plateau and the mountains of northern Shanxi. After passing the Shahukou, you enter the endless grassland beyond the Great Wall and step into the territory of the Turkic Khanate.
Although Song Jingang had never been to the Turks, one of his soldiers had been on an envoy to the Turks. As a guide, he led the convoy towards the Turks' Khan Court. After entering the Saibei grassland, you can often see excellent pastures, herds of cattle and sheep, and Turks grazing on horseback. There are white clouds floating in the blue sky, and horses are running under the white clouds. The beautiful scenery of the grassland is really refreshing.
Like the Huns, the Turks are nomadic people who rely on animal husbandry as their occupation. They live in pursuit of water and grass. They eat meat and drink cheese. They wear their hair in ruffles, and most of their clothes are made of fur, which is strong and wear-resistant.
The convoy traveled for a day. At dusk, a group of cavalry suddenly appeared in front, numbering about two to three hundred people. This is the Turkic cavalry. They galloped towards them and surrounded the convoy. The Turkic soldiers on horseback wore armor, carried long knives at their waists, and held spears in their hands. Each man had one or two wild goose feathers stuck on the top of his helmet.
The Turkic soldiers all looked fierce and stared at this group of Han Chinese with unknown origins. A man who looked like an army officer rode forward and asked, "Who are you?" Song Jingang hurriedly stepped forward and said with a smile: "Shi Bi, we are subordinates of Dingyang Khan. We are here at the Khan's Court. Go to Dingyang Khan."
Shibi means general in Turkic language. The officer seemed to have some knowledge. He nodded and said, "It turns out they are Liu Wuzhou's subordinates." Then, he ordered, "Everyone on the carriage, please get down. We want to inspect the carriage."
At this time, Liu Ruolan had already got off the carriage and was standing next to her husband, clinging to him tightly. Following the officer's order, many Turkic soldiers dismounted and stepped forward to inspect the carriage. However, Song Jingang's soldiers stopped them from inspecting the carriage. Not wanting to suffer the immediate consequences, Song Jingang calmly waved his hand and said, "Let them search."
The so-called inspection is just another word for robbery. The Turkic soldiers came forward and rummaged around, picking up good things and taking away all the fine gold, silver, silk and mink furs, then mounted their horses and rode away.
The housekeeper walked up to Song Jingang and said with trembling lips: "Sir, the Turks have stolen all the valuable things. What should I do?" Song Jingang sighed and said, "Forget it, money is something external to the body, just take it away. Grab it."
Fortunately, the Turks did not take away the food on the carriage. They still had something to eat and could continue to move forward. When it got dark, the team set up camp, buried pots and cooked rice. After resting for the night, they continued on their way the next day.
Song Jingang rode for a long time and got tired, so he got off the horse and followed the convoy forward. Liu Ruolan also got tired of sitting in the carriage, so she got off the carriage and walked forward with her husband.
There is no so-called road on the grassland. The convoy follows the ruts, which are the "roads" left by the convoy in front. At this time, I saw a tent sitting on the road ahead. Seven or eight Turkic men, women, and children were walking around the tent and crying bitterly. Each of these Turks held a sharp scimitar in their hands. Every time they circled the tent, they slashed their faces. The blood oozing from the edge of the knife was mixed with tears and flowed down together. They looked very scary. people.
The convoy stopped. Liu Ruolan held one of her husband's arms tightly, her delicate body trembling with fright, and asked in horror, "Husband, what are they doing?" Although Song Jingang had never been to Turks, he had heard about this custom of Turks, so he Explained: "They are paying homage to their relatives. When their relatives die, the bodies are parked in the tent. The relatives walk around the tent and cry. Every time they walk around, they have to cut their faces, seven times in total. The knife is the only thing that’s done.”
Turks are barbaric and ferocious in character. They are proud of dying in battle and ashamed of dying due to illness. After a Turk died, he would kill a horse and then burn the body together with the horse's corpse. The ashes would be buried in the ground and a wooden sign would be inserted as a mark. This person had killed someone during his lifetime, so he placed a stone on the cemetery. On the stone was carved a portrait of the deceased and the scene of the battle in which he participated. The more stones there are, the more people he killed during his lifetime.
The motorcade continued to move forward, getting further and further away from the tent. Liu Ruolan couldn't help but look back twice, with an imperceptible expression of disgust on her face. Song Jingang had nothing to do along the way, so he told his wife about the history of the Turks.
It is said that the ancestors of the Turks were a branch of the Xiongnu who lived in the West Sea (now Qinghai Lake) area for generations. They were later destroyed by neighboring countries. All the men, women and children in the tribe were killed, leaving only a ten-year-old boy, a soldier. Because he was so small, he couldn't bear to kill him, so he cut off his feet and arms, and then abandoned him in the grass. There was a female wolf who fed the boy meat every day, so the boy did not starve to death. When the boy grows up and mates with the female wolf, the wolf becomes pregnant. Later, when the king of a neighboring country heard that the boy was still alive, he sent an envoy to kill the boy. When the envoy saw the wolf nearby, he also wanted to kill the wolf. The wolf panicked and fled to a mountain in the northwest of Gaochang Kingdom. There is a cave in the mountain, and the wolf gave birth to ten boys in the cave. When the ten men grew up, they married wives and had children, each with a different surname. One of them, Ashina, was the most virtuous and was recommended as the king. The tribesmen built a wolf-headed banner at Yamen to show that they never forget their roots.
Later, the Ashina clan led 500 households to join Rouran and became their iron-forging slaves. They moved to the southern foot of Jinshan Mountain (today's Altai Mountains). Because the shape of Jinshan Mountain resembled the helmet "Doudou" used in battle, it was commonly known as "Doudou" for Turks. Take Turk as their clan name.
The Ashina clan initially had only a few hundred households. After several generations of multiplication and expansion, the Turkic tribe grew to tens of thousands. In 552 AD, the Turks defeated Rouran and destroyed their country. They established a Turkic slave regime in the Orkhon River basin with Mobei as the center. When the Turks were at their strongest, their territory extended to the Liaohai Sea (today's upper reaches of the Liaohe River) in the east, the Caspian Sea in the west, the North Sea (today's Lake Baikal) in the north, and the Amu Darya River in the south, that is, the entire Mongolian Plateau, Xinqiang, and Central Asia. within its territory. "Khan" is the supreme leader, his descendants are called "Tele", and the generals are called "She". The areas under their jurisdiction are "Tuli" (east) and "Datou" (west). The Khan's court tents are in the east and west. The upper reaches of the Orkhon River between the two regions.
In 583 AD, the Turkic Khanate split into two parts: Eastern Turkic and Western Turkic. Among them, the Eastern Turkic Khanate was the direct descendant of the original unified Turkic Khanate, so the Eastern Turkic Khanate is still often called "Turkic" directly.
At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the brutal conquests of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty led to the outbreak of a peasant uprising. Civil strife and divisions seriously weakened China, while the Turks became stronger due to internal unification, starting from Khitan and Shiwei in the east and ending in Tuyuhun and Gaochang in the west. The country surrendered to the Turks. There are more than a million Turks who control strings, reaching an unprecedented level of strength that "the Rong and Di are so strong that they have never been seen in ancient times".
The convoy traveled on the grassland for more than twenty days, and there were more and more dome tents along the way. On the hillside and beside the river, dots of white felt tents can be seen everywhere. They look particularly dazzling against the green pastures. It seems that they are getting closer to the Khan Court, the heart of the Turkic Khanate.
The Turkic Khanate was located in the upper reaches of Dujin Mountain (today's Hangai Mountain), the Saleng River (today's Selenge River) and its tributaries, the Egen River (today's Orkhon River) and the Duluo River (today's Tula River). On the vast grassland. As the center of the empire, the Turkic Khanate is surrounded by mountains and rivers, with high ground and clear air, and vast pastures with rich water and grass.
In the afternoon of this day, Song Jingang and Liu Ruolan were walking with the carriage like they had been the previous few days, chatting while walking. At this moment, in a pasture on the left front, there is a group of horses galloping on the grassland. Several Turks are riding horses, holding horse poles in their hands, chasing the horses.
Liu Ruolan put her hands on the awning, squinted for a while, and suddenly pointed with her hand and said: "Husband, look, that person seems to be my brother." Upon hearing this, Song Jinjiang looked up and looked into the distance: "Which one?"
"He's the one closest to us."
