The dispute between the Central Plains and the Turks has a long history, which can be traced back to the dispute between the Han and the Xiongnu in that year. The war between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu lasted for a hundred years, after which the Xiongnu split, and the Southern Xiongnu Hu Han Evil Dan Yu married the Han palace lady Zhaojun, began to annex China, and gradually Sinicized. The Northern Xiongnu gradually moved west under the military pressure of the Han army. In addition, the Xiongnu also had some other branches, living and multiplying in the vast northern steppes, and the Turks were one of them.
At that time, the Joran Khanate was strong, and the Turks had to be enslaved by it and served as "iron workers" for them, but their power gradually grew. In 546, the Tiele tribe attacked the Ruoran Khanate, and the Turkic leader Ashina Tumen led a crowd to defeat Tiele. Tumen thought that he had merit and asked Lord Rouran to marry the princess. Lord Anaru not only forbade it, but also insulted: "Er is my forged slave, how dare I speak!" Tumen was furious, killed Rouran's emissaries on the spot, broke off friendship with Rouran, and proposed to Western Wei instead. Yuwen Tai, the ruler of Western Wei, readily agreed and gave Princess Xu of Changle to Tumen, thus establishing a close relationship with the Turks.
The Turkic head territory gate never forgot the insult of the rouran lord Anahu, and sent troops to attack Rouran, and the Rouran lord Anahu committed suicide in defeat, and Rouran declined. Tumen was greatly famous for a while, established a Turkic regime, and called himself The Khan of Yili. After the founding of the Turkic state, the tooth tent was set up at Yudujin Mountain (also known as Yudujun Mountain, the north mountain of Hangai Mountain in present-day Mongolia), and the wolf was used as a totem, and the banner in front of the tent was called "Wolf Head Da ling". After the death of Yili Khan, his son Yi Khan succeeded him, and soon Yi Khan died, and his brother Muzhan Khan succeeded to the throne. In 555 AD, Mugan Khan eliminated the remnants of Ruoran. In 556, he joined forces with Western Wei to break through Tuguhun and drive the Khitan to the east and the Khitan to the north; later, in the west, he united with the Sassanids to destroy Persia, and dominated the north of the desert for a time.
Although the Turks constantly invaded the Central Plains to plunder the wealthy population, they still maintained good relations with the Northern Zhou regime. In the third year of Northern Zhou Baoding (563), the Muzhan Khan gathered 100,000 fine horses and joined the Northern Zhou general Yang Zhong's infantry of 10,000 to attack the Northern Qi important town of Jinyang (present-day southwest of Taiyuan). However, when heavy snow fell on the day, the joint troops did not win. Later, Muzhan Khan married his daughter to Emperor Yuwen of northern Zhou as empress. After the death of Muzhan Khan, his brother Tuobao Khan succeeded to the throne. After Yuwen Yong unified the north, he once wanted to use troops against the Turks, but he died on the way out of the Turks. Relations between the Northern Zhou and the Turks were strained for a time.
In February of the first year of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (579), the Turkic Tuoba Khan suddenly sent someone to request a relationship with Northern Zhou. The reigning Northern Zhou Emperor Yuwen Yun was busy having fun and did not have the energy to deal with northern affairs, so in order to win over the Turks, he agreed to the peace request of Tuo Bao Khan and chose Yuwen Fang, the daughter of Yuwen Zhao (Yuwen Tai's son) the King of Zhao, as princess Qianjin, and planned to marry Tuo Bao Khan as his wife. However, Yuwen Yun also proposed an additional condition: that is, to ask Tuo Bao Khan to capture Gao Shaoyi, the king of Fanyang of Northern Qi, as a dowry to Northern Zhou. Tuobo Khan did not agree. So Princess Qianjin and her relatives were shelved.
The Turks did not stop there, and in May of that year, TuoBao Khan sent an army to invade the territory of Northern Zhou and Prefecture (present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi), which was actually a threat of force. On the one hand, Yuwen Yun reconciled with the Turks and expressed his willingness to continue to build the Great Wall with the people of the shandong (referring to the east of the Taihang Mountains) states.
On the second day of February of the following year, the envoys of the Turks arrived in Chang'an, and the marriage of Princess Qianjin began to unfold in full swing. In May of that year, Yuwen Yun suddenly fell ill and died, and Yang Jian unexpectedly became the regent and began to take charge of the government. However, The Empress Ashina of the Northern Zhou Wu Emperor Yuwen Yong was still alive and had already been honored as empress dowager, and princess Qianjin and her relatives were not stranded. In June, Princess Qianjin was escorted by The Duke Yuwen Shenqing of Runan, and The Sergeant Sun Sheng (the father of Empress Dowager Taizong of Tang and The famous minister Sun Wuji) to the Turks and relatives. The beautiful and talented Princess Qianjin thus embarked on a long road of yellow sand, and used her young age as a tool to maintain friendly relations between the two countries.
Among the senders were He Ruoyi, the Marquis of Jianwei, who was on a secret mission, and Yang Jian told him that he must bribe Tuo Bao Khan with a lot of money and persuade him to capture Gao Shaoyi and return to China. He Ruoyi did not fail in his mission, and after arriving in Turkistan, he successfully made TuoBao Khan move his heart under the temptation of heavy gold. Tuo Bao Khan pretended to ask Gao Shaoyi to hunt and let He Ruoyi capture him unexpectedly. Gao Shaoyi was then escorted back to Chang'an. The ruling Yang Jian was busy dealing with the open guns and dark arrows of the Northern Zhou Yuwen kings and the rebellion of Wei Chiyi outside, and he felt that Gao Shaoyi might still have the value of use in the future (Gao Shao's father Gao Yang and Yuwen Tai were sworn enemies), so he did not kill him, but exiled him to Shudi. Gao Shaoyi died of illness in Shudi.
Less than a month after Princess Qianjin left Chang'an, her father Yuwen summoned the Hongmen Banquet to assassinate Yang Jian, but was killed by Yang Jian. Half a year later, Yang Jian deposed Zhou as emperor, changed the name of the country to Sui, and set the capital Chang'an, and was historically known as Emperor Wen of Sui. After Yang Jian ascended the throne, in order to consolidate the throne, he wielded a butcher's knife and killed the Imperial Family of the Yuwen Clan of Northern Zhou. For princess Qianjin, who was far away in Turks, she not only lost her homeland, but also lost all her relatives.
After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian regarded the Turks as a great enemy, and deeply felt that the northern frontier was terrible, but the Central Plains were still unstable, and he really did not have enough energy and troops to attack the Turks, so he had to order the construction of the Great Wall along the border, and sent the pillar state Yinshou Town Youzhou (present-day Beijing), and the chancellor Yu Qingze Town and Prefecture (present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi), with tens of thousands of troops to guard against the Turks.
Dramatically, just as Yang Jian was wary of the Turks heading south day and night, the Turks suddenly quarreled over the Khan's throne. When Tuobao Khan was seriously ill, he said to his son Anluo: "My brother passed the Khan's throne to me, not his son, and I have always been grateful. Now that I was going to die, I decided to pass the Khanate to my brother's son, Da Luo Ben. After the news spread, the Turkic chieftains believed that Da Luo's mother was a lowly person and could not be obeyed. The chieftain, who was powerful and brave, openly declared his support for the Khan's throne and threatened that if Da Luo was to become khan, he would lead his troops to stand on their own. In order to avoid a Turkic split, Tuobao Khan eventually passed the Khanship to his own son, Anluo. Da Luo was not convinced again, bent on causing trouble. Unable to restrain Da Luo, He was quite self-aware and took the initiative to give up the Khan's position to the most prestigious photographer. The photo thus ascended to the khan's throne, known as Sha baoli Khan, also known as Yili Khan, Judujin Mountain. Sha Baoli Khan also took the initiative to let the Sage of TheUra as the second Khan, the Da Luo Ben as the Apo Khan, and the Sha Bao Li Khan from his father to the Datou Khan, living in the west. In this way, the four khans were divided on all sides, but Sha Bao was deeply popular with his bravery and martial prowess, and the four ministries still regarded Sha Bao as the Great Turkic Khan, and there was no division for the time being.
After quelling the internal turkic contradictions, Sha Baoli Khan inherited Princess Qianjin of Northern Zhou as his wife according to tribal customs. Princess Qianjin resented Yang Jian for destroying her mother country and killing all her clans, and wept day and night, asking Sha Baoliu Khan to avenge her. Shabaoliu Khan also felt that the Sui Dynasty did not treat the Turks as favorably as in the past Northern Zhou, and was resentful, and immediately led the Second Khan, Datou Khan, Apo Khan and Greedy Khan, including his own five Khans, with 400,000 troops, and launched a large-scale attack on Sui. The Turkic cavalry was huge and drove straight in, and the counties of Sui Wuwei, Tianshui, Jincheng (now gansu), Shangjun, Yan'an (now Shaanxi), and Honghua were ravaged by The Turkic iron horses, and all six animals were exhausted.
The Turkic hegemon on the Asian continent at that time, the Sui Dynasty was newly established, and it was impossible to match it in terms of strength. However, although the Central Plains regime has never been able to effectively resist the nomadic cavalry, its history of political conspiracy is far richer than that of the nomads. Since ancient times, the great powers have gone from prosperity to decline, and most of them have caused disasters and chaos, which has given foreign enemies an opportunity to take advantage. Under the serious situation of the Turks moving south on a large scale, Sun Sheng, who was already a lieutenant of the Sui Dynasty Fengche, proposed a strategy to break the Turks by means of a counter-plot.
Changsun Sheng was a very famous figure at that time, with superb riding skills and exquisite archery, and the Turks heard the sound of their bows, called "thunderbolts", and saw their horses, called "lightning". During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, he once escorted Princess Qianjin to marry the Turks, stayed in the Turks for nearly a year, often communicated with the children of the Turkic nobles, and was very familiar with the turkic internal situation and the situation in the mountains and rivers. He believes that although the Turkic struggle for the Khan's position did not evolve into infighting, there were still opportunities to take advantage of it; especially under the strong position of the Datou Khan in the west, the gap between the Inner Gap with the Sha Baoli Khan in the east had been revealed, which could split the east and west and trigger a civil war; and the brother of Sha Baoli Khan, Luo Hou, had ambitions and was jealous of Sha Baoli Khan; Apo Khan was supposed to be a Turkic Khan, but his current position was under Sha Baoli Khan, and he had always been dissatisfied. Changsun Sheng suggested that he take the initiative to send liaison offices to Luo Hou to try to alienate the Turkic departments and cause civil strife, and finally achieve the purpose of "guessing at the beginning and the end, and being distracted from the heart", so that it could not be attacked and destroyed.
Yang Jian took The advice of Changsun Sheng and sent his servant Yuan Hui out of Yiwu (present-day Hamisi, Xinjiang) to give the head of the Datou Khan a wolf, showing respect. The emissaries of Datou Khan came to Sui, and all kinds of courtesy were above the emissaries of Shabaoli Khan. Yang Jian also ordered Sun Sheng to be a cheri general, and he left HuanglongDao (黄龙道, in present-day Chaoyang, Liaoning) to contact the Khitans, Xi, Xiao, and other ethnic minority tribes, and asked them to lobby Luo Hou and lure him into annexation.
The counter-plot was very effective, and the Turks soon began to be suspicious of each other. Shabaoliu Khan wanted to take advantage of the victory to go further south, but Datou Khan not only disagreed, but also withdrew with his own men and horses. Changsun Sheng also made a counter-plan, deliberately luring the son of Sha Baoli Khan to dye it and tell Sha Baoliu Khan that Tiele and other troops rebelled and wanted to occupy the Khan's tooth tent. Sha Baoli Khan was deeply afraid of the instability of the rear, so he hastily retreated.
After Yang Jian unified the world, in order to counterattack the Five Khans of the Turks, he ordered Yang Shuang, the King of Wei, to be the marshal of the march, and went out in eight ways to attack the Turks. Yang Shuang's governor Li Chong and four other generals left Shuozhou Province (朔州道, in present-day Shuo County, Shanxi), encountered Sha Baoli Khan on the North White Road of the Great Wall, and broke the Turkic soldiers, Sha Baoluo Khan abandoned his armor and absconded, and there was no food in the Turkic army, and many people died. Dou Rongding, the governor of Sui And Qin Prefecture, rode 30,000 out of Liangzhou (梁州, in modern Wuwei, Gansu) and met the Turkic Apo Khan, who was repeatedly defeated. Dou Rongding's general Shi Wanzai challenged the Turks on a single horse, beheading the Turkic cavalry generals, and Apo did not dare to fight and led the army away. In Dou Rongding's army, Changsun Sheng also devised a relationship between Apo and Sha Baoluo, and persuaded Apo xi to join forces with Datou to reject Sha Baoluo, and Apo Khan sent envoys to the dynasty.
When Shabaoliu Khan heard that Apo Khan had sent envoys to Sui, he was greatly panicked, and he had always been afraid of Apo Khan's fierceness, so he led his troops to attack Apo's northern yating, killed Apomu, and destroyed Apo's army. Aposi Bendatou Khan, Datou sent Apo to lead the army to the east, and the original followers will ride 100,000 horses, repeatedly break the sand bowl, and restore the homeland. The Khan of greed was friendly with Apo, and was deposed by Sha Bao and removed from the Khanate position, and the head of the West Benda was. Sha Baoliu observed the tribe from his brothers and rebelled against Apo. From then on, Apo Khan and Sha Baoliu Khan fought each other endlessly, and in order to gain the support of the Sui Dynasty and avoid being attacked by the enemy on their stomachs and backs, they each sent emissaries to Chang'an to seek peace. All this infighting was exactly what Emperor Wen of Sui wanted to see, and it was precisely what he painstakingly managed, so naturally he did not answer this, but just sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight.
Because of the infighting, the strength of Sha Baoliu Khan was greatly reduced, and his wife Princess Qianjin also had to take the initiative to show goodwill to the Sui Dynasty, and wrote to the Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian, asking himself to change his surname to Yang And ask for Yang Jian's daughter. Yang Jian did not forget that Princess Qianjin was a royal family of the Yuwen clan, and she was her great enemy who did not share the heavens, but out of the needs of political interests, she also had to push the boat along the water and encircle Princess Qianjin. In September of the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Kai (584), Yang Jian sent Kaifu Yi and the third secretary Xu Pinghe to send an envoy to Sha Baoluo and rename Princess Qianjin as Princess Dayi. As a result, Sha baoli Khan began to communicate with the Sui Dynasty.
After the Turkic infighting, Apo Khan developed his power in the west and gradually became stronger, calling the Western Turks. Since then, the Turks have officially split into two parts: the Eastern Turk Shabaoli Khan and the Western Turk Apo Khan. The division of the Turks fundamentally changed the strategic confrontation between China and the Turks. The Sui Dynasty continued to adopt Changsun Sheng's divisive strategy: long-distance and close attack, alienation of the strong, and support of the weak, with considerable results -- the Turkic ministers fought endlessly for many years, and the threat to the Central Plains was greatly reduced.
When the Eastern Turk Shabaoliu Khan died, he suspected that his son Yongyu Lu was cowardly and feared that he would not be able to confront the Western Turks, so he passed the Khanate to his younger brother Chu luohou for Mohe Khan. After the death of Mohe Khan, Yongyu Lu, the son of Sha Baoliu, eventually succeeded to the Khan's throne, with the title of Dulan Khan. Another of Shabal's sons, Dyegan, lived in the north, called Tuli Khan. Dulan Khan remarried his stepmother Princess Dayi, and Yang Jian, in order to show his favor, gave a priceless jade screen in the main palace of Empress Chen as a gift to Princess Dayi. Unexpectedly, Princess Dayi thought of her mother country from the demise of Lord Chen Hou, infinitely sad, unable to help herself for a while, and wrote a long poem on the screen:
Rise and fall and other twilight, the world is like duckweed;
Glory is difficult to defend, and the pool platform will eventually be leveled.
Rich and noble? Empty self-written Danqing;
There is no music in the wine, and the strings are sung.
Yu Ben's royal son, drifting into the Yu court;
Seeing success or failure, embracing the sky.
Ancient times are like this, not my only name;
Only Ming Junqu is partial to the distant marriage.
This is the voice of a weak woman, with both the feeling of being in the air and the grief of the rise and fall of her country.
Yang Jian was greatly annoyed when he learned of this, and feared that Princess Dayi would continue to encourage Dulan Khan to attack Sui and decide to eliminate Princess Dayi. Changsun Sheng sent people around to spread rumors that Princess Dayi had committed adultery. Although it was difficult to distinguish between true and false, it annoyed Dulan Khan. Just at this time, Tuli Khan again requested intermarriage to the Sui Dynasty. Yang Jian then told the emissary, "As long as you can kill Princess Dayi, I will marry the princess to you." For his own benefit, Tuli Khan did his best to stir up dissension and lobbied his brother Dulan Khan to kill Princess Dayi. In order to strengthen the determination of Dulan Khan, Yang Jian also specially sent four Central Plains beauties. In the face of lies and temptations, Dulan Khan finally wavered.
In the thirteenth year of the kai emperor (593), Yuwen Fang, an ambitious and commendable Princess of the Xianbei tribe, finally fell under the sword of her husband Dulan Khan. The sky is vast and the grassland is boundless, but there is no place for this weak woman. Her dream of revenge and restoration, after going through hardships, finally only drew a tragic end with blood.
Since the founding of the Sui Dynasty, Yuwen Fang has been a major problem for the Sui court, and Yang Jian desperately wanted to get rid of it quickly, and finally got his wish. As far as her personal fate is concerned, Yuwen Fang's ending is tragic and very sympathetic. However, from the perspective of the pattern of the Central Plains, her death meant a major victory for the Sui Dynasty and was an effective result of Yang Jian's strategy to alienate the Turks.