How the Turks unified the Mongolian plateau from a small tribe and then expanded into the Caspian region of Western Asia

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Author: Iron rides like the wind

If we were to rank the nomadic peoples who ruled the Mongolian plateau in the past by the criterion of world influence, I think that if the Turks could rank third, then no one could call it second (the first is undoubtedly Mongolia). Because it is the only nomadic empire in history that can fight from the Heilongjiang River valley to the Caspian region of West Asia (it is doubtful whether the Huns in Europe are Xiongnu), and there is still a West Asian power to consider it as a father, it can be said to have a sense of existence.

So how did the Turks achieve such great achievements? Let the author take friends to see the process of their "getting rich".

Figure 1 Rouran and other parts

One. The first step of the nomadic empire: the unification of the Mongolian plateau

If a small tribe wants to become a novice village and eventually become a large nomadic empire in northern Sebei, the first step must be to defeat other competitors and become the rulers of the Mongolian plateau. For the fledgling Turks, it only took about 7 years before and after, and the process was really smooth and a little too much.

In addition to your own ability, luck is also quite important. When they debuted from the foot of the Altai Mountains in the mid-6th century, the Turks faced their eldest brother Rouran, who had enslaved themselves for hundreds of years but now had sunset in the western mountains, plus a scattered cousin Tiele tribe, and the weaker Murwei and Khitan tribes, while the Western Wei and Eastern Wei in the south set their sights on unifying the Central Plains. This is undoubtedly a very favorable situation for the emerging Turks.

In a class where they are all scum, it is difficult for you not to take the first exam. The Turks first conquered the Tiele forces that wanted to attack Rouran in 546 AD, and then the Turkic khan Tumen asked the Rouran khan Anapi for marriage under the pretext of rescuing Rouran. Anapi still regarded the Turks as slaves to strike iron for himself, and sent messengers to scold Tumen. Tumen was furious, ordered the envoy to be killed, and asked Western Wei to marry the princess and succeeded. In Tumen's plan, it was already an arrow to turn the former boss to the ground.

Under the pretext of being humiliated by Rouran's messengers, in 552, Tumen united with the remnants of Gaocha in the Western Regions, sent Turkic cavalry to attack Rouran's army, directly attacked Anapi in the northern part of Huaihuang, and then occupied Rouran's land, and the remnants of Rouran fled to Northern Qi and Central Asia. At this point, the Turks became the new leaders on the Mongolian plateau. Tumen established the Turkic Khanate, established himself as the Khan of Ily, and became the "Emperor Taizu" of the Turks.

After stabilizing the situation in the northern Mobei Plateau, the Turks began to set their sights on the Western Regions, and still maintained good relations with Western Wei (Northern Zhou).

Figure 2 Turkic cavalry

Two. Troops enter the Western Regions: Break the turtle

Tumen died without even sitting in the position of the leader, and one of the great khans who succeeded him was Ashinayandu, son of Tumen, known as the wooden pole khan. He once overthrew the rule of Rouran with his father Khan, and honed his outstanding ruling and military skills in the war of blood and fire.

The remnants of Rouran fled to the Western Regions in the last Khan Deng Shuzi, occupied the Guizi and other Tianshan South Road areas, and befriended Tuyuhun, another powerful force in the Western Regions. Determined to eliminate this "remnant of the former dynasty", the Mujian Khan first sent troops to defeat Tuyuhun's army in 554 and plundered his territory. He then quelled the rebellion of the Chi Bone tribe in the northwest (the predecessor of Cho Cans) and stabilized his large rear.

During this period, the Turks intervened for the first time in the Central Plains: helping Western Wei attack Northern Qi, only to be defeated by the powerful Northern Qi army Yushuozhou.

Figure 3 Western Wei (535-556)

After doing all this, the wooden pole khan began to strike. In 555, he personally led an army into the Western Regions to attack the Rouran people, and Uncle Deng, who had been frightened, was still able to resist, and ran to the territory of Western Wei, a good friend of the Turks. Prime Minister Yuwen Tai originally wanted to take him in, but at this time, the already powerful Mu Pole Khan began to threaten Western Wei: If you don't kill Uncle Deng and the others, then the friendly relations between our two countries can only end.

Yuwen Tai was jealous of the Turkic forces, and decided to return the Turks who had helped him attack the Northern Qi people, and handed over Deng Shuzi and others to the Turkic messengers and kill them all. In this way, the Western Regions Guzi and other places originally occupied by the Rouran people became the territory of the Turks, but some of the Rouran people continued to flee west and eventually ran to Europe.

In the following year, the Mujian Khan probably thought Tuyuhun was a bully, and decided to beat it up again, borrowing from his in-laws Western Wei. Yuwen Tai sent Liangzhou Shi Ning to send troops to help, defeated the Tuyuhun army in the Qinghai region, and captured He Zhen He Shutun and other places. As for Gaochang and other states, they had already paid tribute to Western Wei before, so the wooden pole khan did not touch them.

Figure 4 Turkic Khaganate, Sassanid Dynasty, Sada

Three. Into the river: Strike together

After destroying the remnants of Rouran, the Mudao Khan faced another nomadic empire that had been entrenched in Central Asia for hundreds of years, the White Huns. The wooden pole khan keenly discovered its deep hatred with the Sassanid Persian Empire, the overlord of West Asia, and contacted the Persians with a strategy of long-distance and close attack, trying to fight together.

He was the hegemon of Central Asia, occupying most of the Western and Indus Valley at its strongest, and forcing Sassanid Persia to claim the title of subordinate Nagon, but now the kingdom is declining. Persia had long wanted to find an ally to fight against the Bandada, and the Turkic khanates in the east were undoubtedly the most suitable targets.

Just then, an event that became the trigger for the war: the envoy sent by the wooden khanate to Persia was intercepted and killed by the Bada people. The nomads regarded the killing of messengers as a diplomatic insult of the highest level, and the Wooden Pole Khan sent his younger brother Murdimi Khan to lead a ferocious 100,000-strong Turkic cavalry to attack the region of the river and continued to send messengers to contact Persia. This Murdian Mi Khan was the greatest contributor to the Turkic Western Expedition, and it was also he who laid the foundation for the later Western Turkic Khanate.

Figure 5 The Sassanid dynasty or Sasanian dynasty, also known as the Second Persian Empire

The first lord of Sassanid Persia, King Kusa I (also translated as Kusa and I), immediately signed an alliance with the Turkic emissaries, agreeing to jointly attack and divide the land of the Emperor. When the army of Mōdian Mi was engaged with the Bada people, Kuth Lao I wisely signed a peace agreement with his old enemy, the Byzantine Empire, to transfer the elite forces of Syrians, Caucasians and Armenians on the western front to the eastern front to cooperate with the Turkic attack.

At that time, the capital of the city of Bukhara in Central Asia was the first large city built by this nomadic tribe that had not built a city for a long time, and the walls were hundreds of miles long. It seems that the city defense is strong, but in fact, the source of troops used for defense is insufficient, and the combat effectiveness is not as good as the elite troops of Turkic and Sassanid Persia. In 557 AD, the Turkic cavalry entered the outskirts of the city of Bukhara, met with the elite Persian infantry cavalry, and fought with tens of thousands of cavalry led by the Khan Jafar for eight days and eight nights, and finally defeated Jafar and fled. The city of Bukhara thus fell into the hands of the armies of both countries.

According to the pre-war agreement between Persia and the Turks, the Turks could swallow the entire region of the river, while Sassanid Persia occupied all the lands south of the Amu Darya River. However, in 567 AD, the Khan pursued and killed the Khan Gafar, taking part of the remnants of the Muda as his subordinates. This is undoubtedly an act of betrayal, indicating that the Khan of Murdian Mi has decided to turn his face with Persia.

Figure 6 Sassanid heavy cavalry

Four. Matari seashore, confronting the Persian state

Why did Murodian Mi suddenly turn his face with Persia? This was also caused by the old Kuth. When he was allied with the Turks, he married the princess of the Khan of Murdian Mi. However, he saw the strong combat effectiveness of the Turkic cavalry in the battle of Bukhara and became wary of the Turks. At that time, the Sogdian nobles of Central Asia asked Murdian Mi for permission to operate silk trade in Persia, and Muro Dian Mi sent two waves of messengers to negotiate with Kuth Lao I, but the envoys were poisoned by Kuth Lao by order of most of them. This is the same as the killing of the Turkic mission by the Bada people, and it is the most serious diplomatic insult to the Turks.

Sassanid Persia is a powerful country after all, and the old king of Kuth is also the lord of heroes, and he knows that if he wants to fight the Persians, he will lose a lot, so he continues to play the method of long-distance friendship and close attack, and in 571 AD, he sent envoys to the Asia Minor Peninsula to contact Persia's old enemy Byzantine Empire, which facilitated the situation of the two sides joining forces to attack Persia. This was not only for the purpose of fighting with Persia, but for the nomadic Turkic people, trade with other peoples was also an important pillar of the survival and development of the nation, and helping Sogdian merchants to achieve their goals was also helping themselves.

Figure 7 Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine king Justinian II initially misunderstood the Turks, thinking that they had just come to trade with him and wanted to refuse their demands. As a result, the Turkic messengers repeatedly declared that they had come with the aim of jointly dealing with Sassanid Persia, and if we could form an alliance, then you and I would be able to obtain cheap silk through the silk trade of the Sogdian merchants, which would be a great benefit. Byzantium and Persia also had a long-standing grudge, so the two sides signed a treaty against Sassanid Persia. The room point drew a gourd in the same way, and used this trick on his own in-laws again.

In the same year that the alliance was formed, Muro again personally led an army of 100,000 troops to the west of Sassanid Persia, pushing the front further west from the central river. He first bribed the Abhez, Banjar, and Branjar tribes around the Caspian Sea, all tribes forced to submit to Persian rule. Later, in the name of protecting these tribes, he threatened to pay tribute to him and return the tribute that these tribes had previously given to Persia.

Figure 8 Turkic heavy cavalry on steppe murals

The elder Kuth was not a generalist, and flatly refused the request of the room. The chamber was broken and led an army to attack the Surle region in the Caucasus mountains west of the Caspian Sea. Unexpectedly, the Persians built strong fortifications in this generation, which thwarted the attack of the Turkic cavalry. At this time, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II also struck, caught the Persians by surprise, and captured Armenia and other regions.

Although he did not capture the castles of Surle and other passes, he captured parts of the northwestern Caspian Sea to the shores of the Black Sea, and its western territory was almost connected to the Byzantine Empire. Justinian II's army fought several battles with Sassanid Persia, and both sides were exhausted.

The Mindimi Khan died a few years later, and his successor, the Datou Khan, clashed with Sassanid Persia, and the domestic Mujian Khan also died after subduing the Khitan and Xi tribes on the Great Wall. Before it was divided into east and west by the Sui Dynasty in 583 AD, the Turkic Khaganate had become a vast nomadic empire stretching east to the Pacific coast and west to the Caspian Sea and even the Black Sea.

Figure 9 Turkic figures in Central Asian murals

Summary: Three points are destined, seven points rely on hard work

The fact that the Turkic Khaganate was able to become the first nomadic empire to fight from northeast China to the Caspian Sea in Western Asia is a model of the Turkic people's good luck combined with their own struggle.

Regarding good luck, this point was already said in the first part, the Turkic debut was followed by a group of already declining or weak chicken opponents and neighbors, none of which were particularly difficult enemies to deal with. This is a bit like Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire, which also rose under the conditions of the decline of the Jin Kingdom, Western Xia and Southern Song Dynasties at that time, and the collapse of various parts of northern Mobei. If he encountered a unified and powerful Central Plains dynasty, Genghis Khan would not necessarily have done much. Similarly, if the wooden pole khan and the Murdimi khan were placed in the 13th century, it would not necessarily be impossible to unify Mongolia.

The second is to work on your own. The Turks built up a powerful cavalry force at the beginning, which was ahead of their contemporaries in terms of harness, arrows and other equipment and tactics, and had an advantage in combat effectiveness. At the same time, the previous generations of Turkic leaders were wise and decisive, able to fight, able to make timely decisions favorable to the khanate, thus pushing the country step by step to become strong.

Whether it is a country or an individual, if you want to make a career, luck and hard work are indispensable.

Reference: History of the Turks