Han Khan

Chapter 114: Tang People in the Karakhanid Khanate
The Karakhanid Sara and his brother Ilhan fled from Karakhanid Khanate, just like how Your Highness led us to escape from Dunhuang!

It's just that Your Highness had divine help. Under the inspiration of the gods, he established the Jinhan tribe and the Holy Religion, conquered many Hu people, and incorporated the Hu people into the Jinhan people through military merit.

At this time Zhang Sheng stood up and walked to the holy flag with a serious expression, with a firm and solemn light flashing in his eyes.

He stared at the flag quietly, then turned around without hesitation and cast sharp eyes at Sarah and Ilhan sitting on his right.

"The Tang Dynasty has collapsed, and this is an irreversible fact.

If you still insist on going to Datang, I will not be able to stop your decision.

However, the grasslands are now in chaos, with tribes constantly fighting each other.

The Khitans in the east took the opportunity to plunder the tribes in the northern steppes, making the situation increasingly tense.

In addition, the hatred towards the Hu people in the Central Plains is growing day by day. If you want to cross this grassland alone and reach Luoyang or Chang'an safely, it is undoubtedly a pipe dream.

Even if you successfully reach the Central Plains, there will also be a situation of fighting among various warlords. How can you stop those who want to harm you with only a hundred or so soldiers under your command?

Now that the Tang Dynasty has fallen and the order of the world has collapsed, where is there any truly safe place? "

Zhang Zhongxian took over Zhang Sheng's words and said to Sarah:
"Yes, Miss Sarah, Ilhan Teqin, we are originally from the Tang Dynasty. We also left the Karakhanid Khanate and crossed the Jinshan Mountains just like you.

We followed His Highness who was inspired by the gods, all the way from Dunhuang, through the vast Gobi and desert, and finally arrived at Jinshan.

If the Central Plains were really peaceful and safe, how could we Tang people end up in the barren Mobei?"

Zhang Xibao also said:
"You'd better stay in my Jinhan tribe. If you two delicate young men like Sarah and Ilhan go to the Central Plains, they will be directly abducted by the local vassal states. Hahahaha!"

Upon hearing this, Sarah immediately protested:
“General, why do you have to make fun of us? In today’s battle with the Ubili people, we were the first to lead our soldiers in a bloody battle with them.

During the battle, he also killed several Ubili people with his own hands.

My daughter and my brother are not talented, but we are proficient in Chinese, Chinese classics, and horse riding and archery!"

Zhang Xibao wanted to say something, but looking at the girl in front of him who was as brave as any man, he smiled awkwardly and stopped what he was about to say.

He wanted to say that you, a Hu woman, were too bold to speak to me, a general of the Jin Han people, in such a way.

But after hearing that these two people had also been learning Han culture since childhood and looked very similar to the Han people, and seeing that His Highness was quite fond of these two people, he said nothing more.

At this moment he suddenly heard His Highness say:
"Oh, how did you learn the Tang language and Chinese characters? Are there many Tang people in the Karakhanid Khanate?"

Zhang Xibao and Zhang Zhongxian immediately looked at the two men upon hearing this.

Sarah looked at Ilhan and signaled that he should answer.

Ilhan, who was only 10 years old, was still a teenager, but he had also learned literature and martial arts since childhood. He looked not only gentle and elegant, but also very strong. He immediately stood up and replied respectfully: "Your Highness, in the ancient city of Suiye of the former Tang Dynasty, and in the city of Talas beside the Yaosha River, where my father Khan was stationed, there are more than Tang people.

On the south bank of the Yasha River, the Samanid-ruled cities of Kangju (Samarkand), Bohe (east of Bukhara), Tuozhe (Tashkent), and the Abbasid Caliphate further west also had many descendants of Tang craftsmen.

Hearing what Yilhan said, Zhang Sheng, Zhang Zhongxian and Zhang Xibao were all shocked.

They didn't expect that there were still Tang people and their descendants living in the land far west of the Pamir Mountains.

At this moment, Zhang Zhongxian seemed to have thought of something. He immediately bowed to Zhang Sheng and said:
"Your Highness, I have heard that when Gao Xianzhi, a great general of the former Tang Dynasty, was the governor of the four Anxi towns, he led an army of 50,000 Han and Hu people from the four Anxi towns, and together with his followers, the Karluks and the Bactrians, a total of more than 100,000 troops, they fought a great battle with the expeditionary force of the Arab Empire in Talas.

However, the Arabs, who had been well prepared, had been waiting for the Tang army near Talas and had bribed the Qarluk people with a large sum of money, causing the Tang army to be defeated. In the end, only about a thousand Tang soldiers returned, while the rest were killed in battle and the survivors were looted by the Arabs.

Four years later, the Anshi Rebellion initiated by An Lushan and Shi Siming gave the Tibetans the opportunity to move north and occupy Hexi and the four towns of Anxi.

Afterwards, the whereabouts of Guo Xin, the Grand Protector of Anxi, the Jiedushi of the Four Towns, and the Prince of Wuwei, became unknown.

But at that time, there were tens of thousands of soldiers in the four towns of Anxi and various cities under their jurisdiction, plus their families, the population must have been over 100,000. It is impossible that all of them died in the battle.

So, in the end, there must be many Tang people or Tang people's descendants in the Western Regions, but we don't know how they are doing and whether they have been assimilated by the Hu people. "

After hearing this, Zhang Sheng hurriedly sat down. After thinking for a long time, he asked Yilhan:
"How are the Tang people living under the rule of the Karakhanid Khanate?"

Ilhan glanced at his sister because he was a little unsure how to answer.

The kneeling Karakhan girl bowed to Zhang Sheng and said:
“Reporting to Your Highness, before my grandfather Pang Teqin established his tent in Balasagun and proclaimed himself Khan, the Western Regions and Hexi were ruled by the Tibetans and the Karluks, and the road to the east was cut off, so he could not return to the Tang Dynasty.

They were under the rule of the Arabs, so their lives were very difficult.

Why do you say that?

After the Arabs occupied the area west of the Pamir Mountains, they would widely spread their Arab teachings wherever they conquered, forcing the locals to convert to Arab religion and take Arab names.

Therefore, the Tang people who stayed there were either oppressed and enslaved by the Arabs, or they had to resist if they did not want to be slaves. If their resistance failed, they would be brutally massacred by the Arabs.

Moreover, the leader of the Arab Empire, Caliph Abbas, ordered the Arab governor who was in charge of Transoxiana and the Seven Rivers Steppes to deal with the local Tang people separately.

One was to recruit all Tang craftsmen;
The second is to strictly prohibit all Tang people under his rule from practicing martial arts and possessing weapons;

The third is to order the Tang people to change their names and require them to be named after the Arabs.
The fourth was to forbid the Tang people from continuing to worship Buddha, saints and ancestors, and order all Tang people to convert to the Arab religion, saying that the Tang people's ancestor worship was idolatry.

Therefore, they asked the Tang people to destroy the golden statues of Buddha and the tablets of their ancestors, and not to worship their ancestors. They could only believe in their true gods, otherwise they would be killed without mercy. Many Tang people were unwilling to be humiliated and gathered together to resist the Arabs.

Hearing this, Zhang Zhongxian slammed the table angrily, and Zhang Xibao smashed the wine glass in his hand to the ground.

(End of this chapter)