A person who has lost his homeland is like a cuckoo who has lost a garden.

- Uzbek proverb

Ali was packing up in the tea shop when he suddenly heard the sound of fighting and crying outside. He rushed out the door, only to see a crowd of men, women, and children running forward in terror, shoes, hats, and raisins scattered all over the floor.

Knowing that the situation was not good, Ali hurriedly turned around and returned to the store, locked the door with a lock, and joined the fleeing crowd.

Ali followed the fleeing crowd to the Khitan Gate (i.e., China Gate), the east gate of Samarkand City, and saw that there was already a large population of black oppression.

The common people huddled tightly together, their necks hunched, their eyes revealing panic, like a flock of sheep waiting to be slaughtered in a livestock slaughterhouse.

At this time, Ali began to worry about the safety of his family, and wanted to find his father, mother and sister in the crowd. However, he was weak in the crowded sea of people, and he couldn't move his steps at all.

A group of Mongol soldiers on horseback surrounded the common people, fiercely pointed their long knives at the unarmed people, and drove them out of the city like a flock of sheep until they reached the banks of the Zeravshan River.

The Mongol soldiers jumped off their horses, looked for the Khwarazm soldiers from the crowd, and then pushed them to the river one by one, waving their swords in a flashing cold light, and the heads of the Khwarazm soldiers were separated from their bodies, and then rolled down to the grass. The body of the soldier who lost his head fell to the ground with a "plop", and streams of red blood spurted out from the severed neck.

The people standing in front of them were so frightened that they quickly closed their eyes and began to pray in a low voice.

Some of the women and children began to cry out in horror.

Ali had never seen such a bloody scene, and he trembled with fright and his lips were numb. He hid in the crowd and began to think about his relatives again: I don't know where they are now? Are they well?

The Mongol soldiers continued to slaughter those they believed to be Khorezm soldiers until their wrists ached excruciatingly. They washed the blood from their hands by the river, then sat down on a few makeshift carpets that served as dining tables and began to enjoy Khorezm's finger lamb, pilaf, pomegranates, grapes and milk tea.

After having eaten their fill, the Mongol soldiers continued to massacre the soldiers of Khorezm.

After they finished killing the soldiers, they began to select and slaughter civilians who did not like the eyes.

The corpses in the grass were piled up into a hill. The clear waters of the Zeravshan River were also stained red with the blood of the people of Khorezm.

The sun set in the west, and finally set. It was starting to get dark. The Mongol soldiers stopped killing, but they decided not to allow them to leave the place because they were afraid that the civilians would take revenge with their swords when they returned home.

The common people were so frightened that they sat on the ground, groped for a little food from their pockets, and distributed it to each other to fill their hunger, and their hearts were also at peace.

A kind old woman took out a piece of naan and broke half of it and gave it to Ali.

Ali thanked the grandmother, then took the naan and ate it in a big gulp.

The old grandmother reminded in a whisper: "Eat slowly, chew and swallow again, don't choke." ”

Ali nodded shyly.

After he finished eating the naan, he arranged for the old woman to rest on the pole of a poplar tree with her back. He took off his girdle and put it over the old woman's body.

The old woman stretched out her bruised hand, took Ali to her side and sat down, and the two of them covered Ali's robe together.

Ali's heart was very disturbed, and he couldn't sleep for a while. He lifted his face, which had turned from white to miserable white, and looked up at the silver moon and sparse stars in the sky. He longed for a pair of eagle-like wings to fly away from hell and to the peaceful moon.

Ali fell into a dream in a trance: he dreamed that the great and brave King Mahamat had returned with his brother and the army of Khorezm, and drove the Mongol army of invaders out of the city of Samarkand and back to their homeland of the Mongolian steppe......

Suddenly, Ali was awakened by a shout.

Ali opened his eyes and found that it was already dawn. He picked up an oval pebble and put it in his pocket as a weapon for self-defense, and then scrambled to his feet, standing on tiptoe and looking ahead.

A young Mongolian officer and a Khorezm man were standing on a high place and talking.

The Mongol officer did not appear to be very old, in his 20s at most, and wore an armor made of cowhide, with a scabbard studded with gems from his waist. He straightened up and announced something loudly to the crowded citizens of Samarkand.

Ali couldn't understand what he was saying because he spoke Mongolian that Ali had never heard.

The Khorezm man translated aloud to the townspeople: "The supreme Emperor of the Great Mongols, Genghis Khan, accepted the advice of the Khitan advisor Yelu Chucai, and with a sincere heart, he forgave all our Sartars in Samarkand. Now the Venerable Lord Badr announced that a skilled craftsman would come out and stand on the left, and a man with no manual skills, but in good health between the ages of 15 and 40, would stand on the right. The rest of the families sent one person back to get the money as ransom. Those who have paid enough ransom can go home with peace of mind. ”

When the people of Khorezm who survived the catastrophe heard this unexpected good news, they immediately broke the long silence and restraint, hugged each other excitedly, and congratulated themselves on their liberation.

Ali excitedly told the old woman the good news.

A string of tears flowed from the old grandmother's desperate eyes, and she said in a loud voice: "My little cat Nini is still waiting for me at home." I've been separated from it for a day and a night. I've got to go back and feed it. ”

Ali knew in his heart that according to the rules announced by the Mongols, he was about to be separated from his grandmother, so he seized the time to entrust the grandmother to a nearby pair of old people, and asked them to go home with the grandmother.

The craftsmen formed a long line on the left, and were subsequently incorporated into the Great Mongolian Artisan Army, where they were separated from their wives and sent to the far east for the use of the royal and noble families of the Great Mongolia.

Healthy men between the ages of 15 and 40 who had no manual skills also stood in a long line on the right. Ali was also rudely pushed into the ranks by a vicious-looking Mongol soldier.

A Mongolian officer shouted, leading them to a Mongolian tent not far away. There, he incorporated these sturdy Khorezm men into the Tama Red Army, the secondary army of the Great Mongol State.

After marrying and paying the ransom, the rest of the old, weak, sick, and disabled women, and children fled in a panic from the Zerafshan River beach and went to a corner of the city designated by the Mongol soldiers, where they concentrated and lived under the surveillance of the Mongol soldiers.

Ali later learned that the Mongol soldiers had selected 30,000 craftsmen from among the civilians of Samarkand, who were rewarded by Genghis Khan to his sons and relatives, and that 30,000 strong men had been captured to form the Tanma Red Army.

The Tanma Red Army was a great invention of the Mongols. They specially organized a temporary army of prisoners to fight with the Mongol army, and ordered them to rush to the front when they charged, serving as cannon fodder and a human wall for the Mongol soldiers.

After Genghis Khan learned the information that Aladdin Mahamat, the king of Khorezm, had fled, in order to completely eradicate the threat of the Khorezm Empire in order to completely eradicate the threat of the Khorezm Empire, Genghis Khan immediately ordered Yelu Ahai to stay in the city of Samarkand, Jebe and Subutai led 30,000 cavalry to pursue Aladdin Mahamat in two directions overnight, and Jochi, Chagatai and Ogedei led their armies to attack Urgench, the old capital of Khorezm.

Ali and a group of captured Khorezm youths underwent daily military training under the command of Mongol officers, learning to march in formation, riding horses, archery, and sword dance. Ali is intelligent, attentive and eager to learn, and he knows how to learn as soon as he learns.

One day, he was concentrating on practicing archery on the grass.

The young Mongolian officer named Badr quietly walked up behind Ali, watched his archery practice for a while, and then stepped forward and asked through the interpreter: "Hey, Khorezm, what's your name?" ”

"Ali." Ali replied with his head bowed.

"How old are you?"

"16 years old."

"What was your occupation before?"

"Merchant."

"It turned out to be a standard Sarta. Do you have any other specialties besides business? ”

"Cook."

"Do you know how to make pilaf?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Our great Genghis Khan loved to eat pilaf made by your Sartas. Will you follow me? ”

“……”

The Khorezm interpreter told Ali: "Lord Badr is the chief of Genghis Khan's guard. You must not refuse him. Otherwise, he will cut your neck like a sheep. ”

Ali slowly raised his head, and saw that the Mongolian officer in front of him was not as short and rough as other Mongolian soldiers, but revealed a rare shrewdness and nobility, so he nodded hesitantly.

A smug smile appeared at the corner of Badr's mouth: "Okay." Come with me. ”

Ali put down his bow and arrows and followed Badr and the interpreter away.

From then on, as a remnant of the Khorezm Empire, Ali followed Genghis Khan's guards on the vast land of the former empire, cooking and cooking tea for Genghis Khan, the founder of the Great Mongolian State, day after day.

The Mongols did not trust Ali at first. Whenever he had prepared a meal, the Mongols always let him take the first bite and serve it to Genghis Khan when they saw that there was no problem.

Ali thought to himself that when the Mongols returned to their country after the war, he would be able to leave them, return to his own home, return to his parents, and resume his old happy life.

What Ali never expected was that from the day he joined the Tanma Red Army of the Great Mongolian Kingdom, he had already started a strange life that he had never expected, and could not be predicted at all, and his whereabouts were erratic, and he ended up in a foreign land.