The 50,000-strong Tang army led by Marquis Lan Yu set up camp not far from Lake Balkhash. The army camp was on a flat, open area, with the famous sacred mountain Bawa Peak in the Western Regions to the southeast.
Just as the arrival of Subati, the envoy of the Wusun Kingdom, made Lan Yu, the Marquis of Anxi of the Tang Dynasty, who was originally full of momentum to conquer Wusun, hesitate, a cavalry force of more than a thousand men quietly arrived at the other side of the foot of Bawa Peak.
A tall, burly foreign man with a face full of fat, accompanied by several fierce-looking followers, climbed to the halfway point of Bawa Peak, where he had a commanding view of the distant Tang army camp.
The leader was none other than Batel, son of Timur, the Great Khan of the fallen Turkic Khaganate, and the leader of the Guli tribe, a remnant of the Turkic forces.
"Report—"
"Reporting to the leader, we have ascertained that the one who just entered the Tang army camp is Subati, a special envoy sent by Tibis, the King of Wusun!"
At this moment, a Turkic scout dressed as a herdsman hurriedly arrived at Batel's side and reported the information he had just gathered.
snort!
Hearing the scout's reply, Batel snorted coldly without even looking up, muttering to himself, "I knew Tibis wouldn't just sit and wait to die."
"But, in many things, he has no choice!"
With that, Batel waved his hand and asked sternly, "Have you all clearly remembered the distribution of the Tang army's camp?"
"Understood, Chief!"
The other Turkic men accompanying them responded in unison.
Batel nodded and said, "Let's go. I'll personally pour you a farewell drink when we get back to camp!"
Soon, Batel and his group returned to their temporary camp at the foot of Bawa Peak. The more than 1,000 Turkic cavalrymen had already changed into the armor and equipment of the Wusun cavalry, and even the weapons they used were the Western Region scimitars most commonly seen by the Wusun cavalry.
Clearly, Batel, the leader of the remnant Turkic tribe Guli, planned to stage a "switcheroo" to muddy the waters of the Western Regions, so that the powerful Arab Empire could take advantage of the situation to launch an eastward expedition and fish in troubled waters.
In fact, the mastermind behind the war between the Wusun Kingdom and the Xiaowan Kingdom was Batel.
He secretly trained assassins, and then, under the guise of King Maimaiti of Xiaowan, sent assassins to the capital of Wusun, Chigu City, to assassinate King Tibis of Wusun, and used the assassins to frame Xiaowan.
Then, when the Wusun king Tibis's army pressed on the border, intending to demand an explanation from Xiaowan, Batel secretly stirred up trouble, provoking a war between the two countries.
Taking advantage of the chaos of battle, he led a group of Turkic soldiers, dressed in the uniforms of the King of Wusun's guard, into the palace of Xiaowan Kingdom. There, he slaughtered more than 300 members of the royal family, including King Maimaiti, and framed Wusun Kingdom for the crime.
This led to the scene in the central command tent of the Tang army where the envoys from Wusun and Xiaowan each presented their own version of events.
In reality, it was all Batel's doing behind the scenes.
The reason he did this, to provoke a war between the Wusun and Xiaowan kingdoms, was that only in this way could he get Lan Yu, the Marquis of Anxi of the Tang Dynasty, to send troops, thus gradually falling into the trap carefully designed by Batel.
Several years ago, his country was destroyed by the army of Chen Huai'an, the then King of Jin. He then fled all the way to Batel in the territory of the Arab Empire. He longed to return to the northern desert and to find Chen Huai'an to avenge the murder of his father and the destruction of his country.
Batel, who was living under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, had been trying to persuade the Abbasid rulers to launch an eastern expedition. Finally, he succeeded the ambitious new ruler, Safah, and his wish came true.
However, when an empire launches an eastern expedition, it is essential to have a "just cause." If the cause is not legitimate, the words will not be credible, and if the words are not credible, the expedition will not succeed.
For more than a year, Batel had been traveling between the Western Regions as a merchant to collect intelligence and cultivate his power. Finally, in the first year of the Zhaowu reign of the Tang Dynasty, he got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
When the Tang Dynasty launched its eastern expedition against Goguryeo, more than a third of the dynasty's army was tied up on the Goguryeo peninsula. This gave Batel an opportunity to persuade the Arab Empire to launch an eastern expedition.
Batel's plan to return to the Mongolian steppe, with the help of the Abbasid Caliphate, was generally divided into two steps.
The first step was to provoke a war between Wusun and Xiaowan, so that Lan Yu, the Marquis of Anxi of the Tang Dynasty, would lead his troops to destroy Wusun, thereby causing Wusun to seek help from the Arab Empire and giving the Arab Empire a legitimate reason to launch its eastern expedition.
The second step was that after the Abbasid Caliphate gained control of the Western Regions, he led the remaining Turkic forces back to the northern steppes and, in cooperation with Liu Ziyu, the Earl of Wuyi who guarded the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun on the border of the Tang Dynasty, separated the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun from the map of the Tang Dynasty. In the end, he cooperated with the Arab Empire, which was on an eastward expedition, to gradually erode the territory of the Tang Dynasty.
So far, everything is going according to Battelle's plan.
Tonight, he's determined to add fuel to the fire and not miss this golden opportunity.
In the afterglow of the setting sun, at the temporary camp of the Turkic cavalry at the foot of Bawa Peak, a sacred mountain in the Western Regions, a unique send-off ceremony was being held.
Twelve hundred Turkic soldiers stood in neat rows, each holding a bowl of mare's milk wine.
The tribal chief, Batel, stood at the front of the three armies, holding a bowl of mare's milk wine in his hand.
His sharp gaze swept across the face of every Turkic soldier at the front of the ranks, and he roared in a booming voice, "Warriors of the Guli tribe—"
"Today, under the protection of the Eternal Heaven, illuminated by the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers, and witnessed by the sacred Mount Bawa, you will launch a night attack on the Tang army camp;"
"This is not only a war of revenge, but also a war of honor for our Turkic Khaganate as it returns to the northern deserts;"
"You bear the responsibility not only of avenging your people who perished at the hands of the Han Chinese, but also of fighting so that the descendants of the Guli tribe can return to the northern grasslands to graze their livestock."
Batel continued emotionally, "But, my warriors, please remember this: tonight you represent the cavalry of the Wusun Kingdom. If you are unfortunately captured by the Tang army, you must insist that you were ordered by King Tibis to launch a night raid on the Tang army camp."
"As for why, I think there's no need for me to repeat the reasons!"
"In short, although you will die tonight as Wusun people, your souls will forever coexist with the Eternal Heaven!"
"Come on, raise your hands and drink the mare's milk!"
brush!
At Batel's command, the 1,200 Turkic cavalrymen in the temporary camp raised their wine bowls.
Batel shouted sternly, "Drink this bowl of wine, and let us fight the Tang army to the death!"
"A fight to the death!"
"A fight to the death!"
One thousand two hundred people roared in unison.
"Dry!"
Batel tilted his head back and downed the wine in his bowl.
"Dry!"
The 1,200 Turkic cavalrymen followed their leader's example and drank the wine in their bowls!
Bang!
Bang, bang!
Then, Batel smashed his wine bowl into pieces, and the other Turkic cavalrymen followed suit, smashing their wine bowls to pieces as well.
Batel waved his hand and said sternly, "I, Batel, and the 300,000 members of the Guli tribe, stand with the Eternal Heaven, our spirits are with you!"
"Warriors, let's set off!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com