Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 490: Pseudo-Qi Orthodoxy
Turkic Khan's tent.

The big tent was not a temporary camp like in the past, but a city in the process of taking shape, with city walls, roads, and houses.

In the south of the city, a large number of people gathered at this moment.

Among these people, there were slaves in shackles and free people covered in furs, with different skin colors, old and young, and a mixed composition.

There were tens of thousands of these people. On high ground, there were armored knights holding longbows, staring at those people with fierce eyes.

These tens of thousands of people are busy.

Some were digging the foundation, others were carrying stones.

The old men struggled to move the stones, and if they slowed down a little, officials would whip them with long whips.

Most of the slaves were Han, Khitan, Xi, people from the Western Regions, etc. They were almost naked, with only tattered pieces of cloth to cover their bodies. They were covered with wounds and kept repeating the work at hand.

But there were still a considerable number of Turks who worked with these slaves. They had clothes, but they still could not escape beatings.

Those officials wearing tall pointed hats were quite fair in their work and truly treated everyone equally. No matter whether you were a captured prisoner or one of their own people, their attitude was equally tyrannical and cruel.

Thanks to everyone's efforts, a brand new pagoda is appearing in the south of the city.

The pagoda is estimated to be quite tall. Judging from the foundation alone, it may be much taller than the Khan's palace in the city.

There are also many craftsmen, who are wearing chains and are carving various Buddha statues for the pagoda.

A huge group of people were repeating their work. From time to time, someone would fall down due to exhaustion. The officials would go up and beat them. If they found that the person could not get up after being beaten again, they would drag him away and bury him together.

The cold wind whistled past, as if an evil ghost was laughing.

Several kind and benevolent old monks were discussing the surrounding supporting buildings of the huge pagoda, completely ignoring the wailing of the laborers.

The wailing sounds would be heard from time to time, trying to blend in with the chanting of the great monks, but they would often give up halfway and stop abruptly.

The newly appointed Tuoba Khan stood on the city wall. He was wearing a luxurious black fur coat, followed by several fully armed warriors and an elderly monk beside him.

Tuoba Khan had a kind face, with a bright light in his eyes and a hypocritical smile on his lips.

He looked at the project in the distance and smiled at the old monk beside him.

"Master Huilin, the wise men in my country told me that building a pagoda is useless, it costs a lot of money, and many slaves and civilians died. They asked me to stop building it, but when I saw this magnificent pagoda was about to be built, I didn't listen to them."

Monk Huilin said hurriedly, "Khan, these words are all ignorant. The reason why Qi was so powerful was because the king worshipped Buddha. The Buddha's teachings were boundless, making it so powerful that no one dared to provoke it. After Qi was usurped, its national strength was not as good as before, and it no longer dared to go on an expedition."

"The Khan is worshipping Buddha now. If he can continue to promote Buddhism in the country and practice compassion, the country will surely prosper. In the future, he may be able to go south to establish a country and accomplish something that even the Emperor of Qi could not do!"

Tuoba Khan could not help but ask: "Can I also reach the level of a heroic emperor?"

"Of course you can!"

This Khan had two hobbies. The first was that he liked Buddhism, and the second was that he admired Gao Yang very much.

He felt that Gao Yang was a true heroic emperor and wanted to emulate him to achieve great things.

Well, to some extent, he is relatively successful, but he is born with defects. Although he does some ridiculous things, they are too normal compared to Gao Yang. They are similar in form but not in spirit.

After he came to power, he did not rush south to fight a war, nor did he expand in all directions.

The previous Khan was a man of great talent and strategy. Although he did not gain any advantage over Hulugu, just looking at the fact that he could fight with Hulugu, one could tell that he was very talented. Through a series of successful military operations, the previous Khan digested the legacy of the previous grassland empire and successfully turned the Turks into a strong and wealthy country with hundreds of thousands of troops.

When it came to him, the strategic goal of the Turks was interrupted. Tubo Khan no longer thought about expanding the territory in other directions or taking in other tribes. His eyes were almost only on the Central Plains. Perhaps it was because all the surrounding areas had been defeated by his predecessor, and only the Central Plains was left for him.

He did some looting and then promoted Buddhism and the like.

All previous looting operations were initiated by this Khan.

However, the two places were far apart and information was blocked, so Hulugu didn't even know that the person on the other side had changed.

Monk Huilin was from Hebei and had been captured by the Turks. Because the new Khan was a proponent of Buddhism, he was pardoned. He then began to suggest that the new Khan build pagodas and study Buddhist scriptures.

Huilin already knew how to communicate with the Khan.

He said seriously: "The heroic emperor believed in Buddhism. When he was in power, he built many pagodas and promoted scriptures. Therefore, he was protected and won every war. He was victorious in every battle. Later, he was defeated by the State of Chen because the people of Chen valued Buddhism more. The heroic emperor also knew this, so after being defeated, he vowed to surpass the people of Chen and built more Buddhist temples."

"In the Central Plains, pagodas can be seen everywhere, everyone knows the scriptures, and the temples are filled with believers."

Hearing Huilin's words, a gleam of light flashed in Tuoba Khan's eyes.

"I only regret that I was not born in the Central Plains, in the hometown of the heroic emperor!"

Huilin glanced at him secretly, without saying anything, with a complicated expression.

Tuoba Khan has made up his mind, "I will send more people to complete this pagoda as soon as possible. If it can really help me win, I will build more pagodas in the future!"

"By the way, I also hope you can help me take the precepts. From now on, I will eat vegetarian food and chant Buddhist scriptures!"

"Good! Good!"

Huilin agreed readily.

The Turks entered a new era under the leadership of the new Khan.

Soon after, Tubo Khan really took the precepts and became a Buddhist disciple. He then began to promote Buddhism in the country. He sent people to look for those monks who had been driven out, hoping to get some Buddhist scriptures. After obtaining these scriptures, he copied them and promoted them in the country.

At the same time, he also found a member of the Zhou royal family, Yuwen Zhong, the Duke of Tianshui. When the Han Dynasty destroyed the Zhou Dynasty, a large number of Zhou people fled to the Turks. Yuwen Zhong was the son of Yuwen Dao, who was the elder brother of Yuwen Hu.

He ordered Yuwen Zhong to become the emperor of Zhou, and at the same time asked him to gather the fugitives of Zhou and restore the Zhou Kingdom.

At the same time, he also ordered to contact people from Qi, hoping to attract some old people from Qi and rebuild Qi.

After searching everywhere, he couldn't find anyone willing to rebel, nor could he find any royal family members, so he had to give up for the time being.

At this time, Hulugu also returned to the border. This time, he changed his usual behavior and began to send small troops to harass and attack the Turkic army. At the same time, he sent people to win over the small tribes under the Turkic army and persuade them to turn against him.

When Tuoba Khan learned that the Han State had begun sending troops to attack and harass him, he was very angry.

He decided to hold a sacrifice after the pagoda was completed, and then march south in large numbers to show Hulugu and others what the boundless power of Buddhism meant!

Both sides began to actively prepare for war. Hulugu secretly moved food and supplies to several important cities on the front line and concentrated his troops, hoping that the Turks would come on their own.

Tuoba Khan also mobilized the people to actively build pagodas, recite Buddhist scriptures, and wait for his miracles to appear in wartime.

This is how we survived the winter.

Both sides have completed their preparations.

On Hulugu's side, the elite troops from different regions had completed their training, and food and heavy troops were stockpiled in several important areas on the border. The knights launched several attacks and severely damaged the enemy's camp, which aroused the anger of the Turks. Several of their tribes secretly reached an agreement with the Han State.

On the side of Tubo Khan, the pagoda was completed and was taller than the royal palace. It became one of the wonders in the Turkic territory. He ordered that everyone who encountered the pagoda must go around it and not pass directly through it, and even he had to dismount. The monks in his country also successfully brought back Buddhist scriptures such as "Nirvana", "Avatamsaka Sutra" and "Dasa-sambodhisattva Vinaya" and promoted them in the country.

Both sides were ready to start a new round of confrontation.

The reason why Tuoba Khan admired Gao Yang was that he himself was more warlike. He was arrogant and did not agree with the views of his brother and father. The attitudes of the previous Turkic Khans were more cautious, especially after being defeated by Gao Yang, and their strategic vision was always good.

Because Qi was too powerful, they decided to follow Zhou to fight Qi. When Zhou started to become powerful, they began to waver, letting Zhou take action first while they watched from the sidelines, avoiding attack if possible. However, once they saw an advantage, they would immediately pounce. Once Qi started to weaken, they would quickly change their position.

Although this is morally flawed, from the perspective of national interests, their choice is correct: to balance the two countries, to help the weaker one, and to strengthen themselves through the war between the two countries.

Tuoba Khan did not oppose their strategic conception. He believed that it was right to help the weaker party. However, he did not rob more things every time and only engaged in small fights. This would not do much to enhance his national strength. Instead, it would easily cause an imbalance between the two countries. Once one of them unified, wouldn't he be beaten?
By the time of his death, the Turkic nation was extremely powerful. As a result, he became more and more arrogant and even began to emulate Gao Yang's strategy of conquering all the nations.

In order to fight back against Hulug's attacks and sabotage, Tuoba Khan summoned his relatives and prepared an army of nearly 100,000. Of course, there were only more than 20,000 elite troops among them. They were divided into two routes. One route was to attack Hengzhou, and the other route was to wait for the troops from Youying and other places to support Hengzhou as usual and then take the opportunity to launch looting on these two areas.

In the Battle of Laozhangren, the Turks would attack a place, the local soldiers would defend it, and the troops from other areas would come to reinforce, and then the Turks would withdraw. This has become a routine.

Tuoba Khan wanted to break this convention. He wanted to pretend to attack Hengzhou by force, and when the enemy gathered heavy troops here, he would launch a surprise attack on their empty places!

As soon as winter came, the Turkic army came to attack.

Tuoba Khan personally led the team to attack Hengzhou, and the task of looting was given to his nephew.

All the ideas were good, but Hulugu's initial goal was not to repel the enemy.

When the Turkic army was rushing towards them, Hulugu asked his generals to prepare for battle.

Tuoba Khan came with a large army and just stopped to set up camp, before he had time to launch an attack, Hulugu launched a fierce attack first. He arranged generals in several important cities and led elite soldiers to rush out and attack the Turkic troops in various places.

The two sides started a fierce battle outside the Great Wall.

Tuoba Khan obviously did not expect that Hulugguang would send troops to attack him. According to the opinions of the wise men under his command, the Han Kingdom should be implementing a policy of self-cultivation and preparing to destroy Chen, and should not go to war with him. He could only think that this was Hulugguang's personal behavior!

Tuoba Khan hurriedly ordered his nephew to stop looting and come to help him. Hulugu's army would definitely not be too large, and this was the best time to get rid of Hulugu.

The Turkic camps were scattered all over the place, with a total of more than a dozen locations. The time when the fighting started was different in each place, so it was impossible to judge the enemy's strength in time.

Tuoba Khan was about to fight with Hulugu, but he soon found that his judgment was wrong.

Hulugu actually had quite a few troops at the border. After defeating the Zhou Kingdom, the court summoned a lot of elite troops to strengthen the border defense. The elite troops under Hulugu should be the largest among all places, and he had stockpiled a lot of food. It might not be enough for a military expedition, but it was enough for a quick battle at home.

The Han army attacked suddenly, and everyone was holding back their anger. It was a rare opportunity to achieve something great, and no one dared to hesitate.

Camps are being breached faster than ever before.

Tubal Khan learned of the enemy's attack in the morning, and by the evening he had received the sad news that several armies had been annihilated.

The Turkic army was based on different tribes, and each tribal army was commanded by its own leader. The organizational management of the army had not yet been completed.

Tuoba Khan hurriedly led his elite troops to the rescue.

Outside the Great Wall, the two sides were fighting in a melee. Hulugu set out according to the enemy's military system and divided his own troops into several groups. They fought against each tribe separately. If they encountered a stronger tribe, they would gather together and separate again after the battle.

Hulugu was personally in charge, constantly dividing the battlefield, interrupting the opponent's communications, and taking the initiative to attack to seek opportunities for battle.

However, Tuoba Khan seemed to be struggling a bit when facing Hulugguang.

He wanted to use the same trick again and disperse the army completely, making it difficult for the Han army to decide the direction of attack. However, the Han army was also in a dispersed state at this time. If the army was completely dispersed, it would be bitten and eaten by the enemy. But if it wanted to gather, the gathered Turkic army would not be able to confront the Han cavalry head-on due to organizational defects.

Most of the Han army stationed at the border were from the Old Six Towns. Riding and shooting were their common skills. Whether it was riding or archery, the war horses under their command, or the tactics of the cavalry, they were not inferior to those outside the Great Wall, and they were even ahead in terms of weaponry.

Tubo Khan personally led a large army to provide support, but once the other side discovered that the main force of the Turkic army had arrived, they immediately went back to defend the city.

The Han army on the other side will launch a fierce attack.

And if Tuoba Khan turns around to attack the other side, this side will pounce again.

For a moment, Tuoba Khan couldn't tell who the hell was a nomad.

Isn't this a tactic from the outside?

The two sides fought for only four days.

Within four days, Hulugu annihilated six tribal armies. His offensive was fierce and his soldiers fought with all their might, and some of the tribes that were dragged in began to rebel.

These tribes surrendered later and had suffered all kinds of humiliation. Now they were protected by the Han army, so naturally there was nothing to say. They took up their weapons and started to turn against the Han army.

On the sixth day, Tuoba Khan had no intention of continuing to fight, and hurriedly ordered his nephew in the distance to leave everything behind and evacuate!
This war lasted a very short time, and it can be said to be the shortest war among the several major wars between the Han and the Turks.

It only took seven days from the formal meeting between the two parties to the end.

During these seven days, Hulugu launched crazy multi-line attacks, fiercely attacking day and night, and defeated more than ten enemy tribes of all sizes, killed more than 23,000 people, and obtained countless livestock, supplies, and flags.

Tuoba Khan led his confidants and fled back to the royal city.

He suffered such a great defeat just after taking office, and sent so many tribes away. The domestic situation changed drastically, and Hulugu also sent envoys to the leaders of other tribes.

Hulugu said: This wave of Tuoba Khan's problems is indeed very serious.

The two countries should have lived in peace, but Tuoba Khan took in the Zhou people and frequently sent troops to plunder, which was really inappropriate. He hoped that the Turkic tribes could elect a new leader, hand over the Zhou people who were left behind, abolish their emperor title, and the two countries could establish peace again.

Tuoba Khan was not the son of the previous Khan, but his younger brother. His position was not stable to begin with, and because of this military defeat, internal strife immediately broke out.

As for Hulugu, at this moment he was reporting the good news to the court while continuing to send people to contact many forces outside the Great Wall to prepare for the next war.

(End of this chapter)