Hello everyone, today Shangguan will talk about the Ili River Valley, the Ili River Valley, the first ethnic group to appear on this grassland with abundant water and grass is the Sai people. From 176 BC to 161 BC, after the Meat Zi people who originally lived between Dunhuang Qilian were defeated by the Xiongnu, they moved west to expel the Sai people and occupied the turks river valley of the Ili River, known as the Great Meat Zi.
In 138 BC, shortly after Emperor Wu of Han ascended the throne, he sent Zhang Qian on an envoy to the Western Regions with the purpose of uniting with Dafangzi to fight against the Xiongnu. But the big meat at that time, tired of war, rejected this proposal for a joint attack. It wasn't long before the Wusun people, a vassal state from the Xiongnu, rose up and joined forces with the Xiongnu to defeat dabuzi. Therefore, the Dabuzi people continued to move westward, and the Wusun people established the historically famous Wusun state in the Turks Valley of the Ili River, and the Karachun grassland became the imperial playground of the Wusun king. Because of the richness of this steppe, the Kingdom of Wusun was able to produce Pegasus and became famous all over the world.
Around 110 BC, the Han Dynasty allied itself with Wusun. In 60 BC, the Han Dynasty established the Western Regions Capital Protectorate in Xinjiang to administer Wusun and other states, and Ili and other places were officially incorporated into China's territory. The Usu are the main members of the group of present-day Kazakhs, and the Usu means unity and union in Kazakh. More than 500 years of wusun history has left too many indelible cultural imprints on this land, and a large number of Wusun herds are still preserved to this day.
The kingdom of Wusun is the place with the most records in ancient Chinese history of marrying princesses far away, and the Han Dynasty successively sent Princess Xiaojun and Princess Xie to Wusun and relatives. In 105 BC, King Wusun offered a dowry of a thousand good horses to Han, and Emperor Wu of Han was greatly amazed when he first saw Wusun horses, calling them Tianma. Emperor Wu of Han was well known for his fondness for horses, and later he obtained a more robust compound of sweat and blood horses before he renamed the Wusun horse to Xijima.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty married Princess Xiaojun to King Wusun, and after The Death of Xiaojun, the Han Dynasty married princess Xie. Princess Jieyou lived in Wusun for half a century, and went through the three dynasties of Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Zhao of Han, and Emperor Xuan of Han. Princess Jieyou has always been active in the political arena of the Western Regions, actively cooperating with the Han Dynasty, curbing the Xiongnu, contributing to strengthening and consolidating the relationship between the Han Dynasty and Wusun, and composing a song of sorrow and joy with her homeland with her life.
In Ili, in addition to enjoying the natural scenery and reminiscing about the ancient history, you can also enjoy the games here. Horse racing is often held here, and the runners are very young children, and every time the horse race is attended by many tourists, the scale is spectacular. Most of these young players are in their teens, with childish and red faces, and it is impossible to imagine from their age that they came to participate in horse racing. But when the horse race whistle sounds, the horse race becomes thrilling, these horses gallop like off-string arrows, and the children become alive, and there will be a lot of applause and exclamation from the audience, at this time to understand what a nation on horseback is.
After visiting the horse race, there is also a wonderful wrestling match, these wrestlers are tall and strong, when the referee shouts to start, the two wrestlers are tightly grasping each other, competing with each other, after a few rounds of a violent fall, the other party immediately fell to the ground, this is Mongolian wrestling.
After enjoying the scenery of the grassland and watching the competition, you can also go to the yurt to taste milk tea, and then you will eat delicious lamb. These lambs are stewed in clean water without any condiments, placed directly in a basin, next to salt or pepper and eaten directly. Although it is a stew, it has a delicate taste and a strong aroma. You can imagine coming to this endless prairie, admiring the blue sky and white clouds, seeing the scene of cattle and sheep in the wind-blown grassland, and looking down at the steep Kuaksu Grand Canyon, and looking at the mysterious Tianshan Mountain capped by ice and snow.