Not only did the rebels in the Great Sui see this opportunity, but even the alien races in the north were ready to take advantage of the gap when the Sui army had no time to take care of it, and went south to fight the grass valley and improve their food. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The alien race mentioned here is the nomadic Turkic people of the north. The Turks were divided into two branches, the ****** and the Western Turks, and after the Western Turks were defeated by the Sui army, the ****** grew stronger, and gradually took charge of the grasslands in the northern part of the Saibei region, and their strength was greatly improved.

During the Sui Dynasty, in order to deal with the powerful nomads in the north, Emperor Wen adopted the divisive strategy of Changsun Sheng, using the means of harmony to divide the Turks into two, and each attacked each other, so that they all had to rely on the powerful Sui Dynasty and could not attack to the south. The threat of Emperor Wen and even the northern nomads to the Han people in the Central Plains was vividly remembered by the five chaotic Huahua in the previous dynasty, and he did not dare to relax at all.

Since ancient times, there have been several things on the grassland that have to rely on the Central Plains, one is pig iron; The grassland does not produce iron, and if there is no iron ore, they will not be able to forge weapons and iron tools, so this is why the cavalry of the grassland is generally leather armor, and almost no heavy armor appears, because a set of iron consumed by heavy armor is estimated to be able to forge dozens of spearheads, where are the grassland people willing to waste.

The second thing that must be relied on is table salt; Salt was a scarce commodity in ancient times, only the salt farms along the coast could dry salt, the grasslands did not produce salt at all, and salt was a necessity to maintain health, which had to be exchanged from the Central Plains, and the only things they could get their hands on were livestock, such as cattle, sheep and horses.

Of course, the people in power knew the importance of salt, so they also controlled the Turkic people by controlling the inflow of salt, which was like a shackle around the neck of the steppe people, making them feel uncomfortable, and they wanted to conquer the land of the Central Plains without being constrained by people, but this was also unlikely, they could not defeat the Sui army.

the third is tea; Although tea is not a necessary thing for survival, it is not as important as salt, but for the grassland herdsmen, this kind of thing, which was originally drunk by the nobles of the Central Plains, has become their necessity.

After the large-scale popularization of tea, tea in the Central Plains gradually became richer, so it was gradually sold as a commodity to foreign peoples, such as the Silk Road, such as exchanging cattle, sheep and livestock with the nomads in the north.

The main food of the herdsmen on the grassland is the meat food of cattle and sheep, among which the sheep is the most common, and after eating too much mutton, there will be a great smell all over the body, not only that, the taste in the mouth is also very uncomfortable, which makes people's appetite greatly affected, and tea can clear this taste, if you add the mare's milk and goat's milk of the grassland, make milk tea, it is not only a drink, it is simply something that must be drunk after eating the staple food.

The strength of the people was not very strong, but with the support of the Sui Dynasty and the defection of the Tiele tribe, the strength of the Shibi Khan began to gradually expand, and he was originally dissatisfied with the Sui Dynasty, because the Sui Dynasty minister Pei Ju believed that the Shibi Khan's troops were gradually becoming stronger, posing a threat to the Central Plains Dynasty, so he proposed to Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty to disperse the power of the Shibi Khan, and prepared to marry the younger brother of the Shibi Khan, and named him the Southern Khan. This practice reminded Shibi Khan of his father Qimin Khan, at that time Emperor Wen used this method to marry Princess Yicheng to Qimin Khan, and then let the Turks themselves fall into infighting, and then split into two, and finally could only be controlled by others, and he tried his best to avoid this ending, and he did not want his strength to be weakened, so dissatisfaction with the Sui Dynasty gradually accumulated.

At this time, Shibi Khan had an army of nearly 500,000 in his hands, of which about 300,000 elite soldiers. As long as they can ride war horses, pull bowstrings, and wield scimitars, regardless of men and women, young and old, they can be called warriors, so if the number of steppe nomads exceeds one million, then it is a great threat, and the army is likely to reach two or three hundred thousand, and if in the Central Plains, one million people according to the standard of seven households out of one ding, at most twenty or thirty thousand troops, the difference between the two is huge.

Shibi Khan was about to send men south to plunder, aiming for iron, salt, and cloth, and if he had the chance, he wanted to get some craftsmen.

Shibi Khan lived in the Sui Dynasty, when he was a child, Qimin Khan was beaten only more than 100 people, it was the Sui Dynasty that took them in and placed them, and it was the Sui Dynasty army that helped them resist the attacks of other Turks, so Shibi Khan was very envious of the weapons equipped by the Sui soldiers, whether it was the armor of the Sui army or the bow and crossbow of the Sui army, he was very envious.

The armor of the Sui army was mainly two-crotch and Mingguang, and the structure of the two-crotch was improved compared with the previous generation, and there were some small changes in the shape. Generally, the body armor is made of small armor pieces in the shape of fish scales, and the length has been extended to the abdomen, replacing the original leather armor skirt, so it can not only resist slashing and sword slashing, but also can be stabbed to a certain extent.

The hem of the body armor is a meniscus-shaped, lotus-shaped nail plate to protect the lower abdomen. These improvements greatly enhance the defense from the waist down. The shape of the Ming Guang Kai is basically the same as that of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, except that the leg skirt has become longer.

Therefore, when fighting against the grassland army, the Sui army often took advantage of it.

Because of the lack of skilled craftsmen, the bows and arrows made by the steppe people are vulgar, and the range is mostly within a hundred steps, which is fifty steps closer than that of the Sui army, and it must be within fifty steps to have lethality, and even so, in front of the Sui army wearing strong armor, the bows and arrows of the grassland cavalry are simply useless, while the bows and crossbows of the Sui army can easily shoot through the leather armor equipped by the grassland soldiers, and the battles between the two sides often cause a lot of casualties to the Turkic cavalry with bows and crossbows at a long distance. The counterattacks of the Turkic cavalry did not make much difference, and only had a slight advantage in close combat, and their riding skills were better. However, because the Sui army was neatly formed and the order was forbidden, the Turkic cavalry could hardly take advantage.

When he was ten years old, Bujia Khan led a large army to attack the Sui army, but was defeated by the Sui army general Shi Wansui, and his father Qimin Khan told him: Do not fight with the Han people in the Central Plains in the future, especially do not fight with them until they have their bow and arrow and armor skills.

Shibi Khan used to remember this sentence in his heart, but now that he has a heavy army, his fear of the Sui army is gradually disappearing, and his heart gradually becomes arrogant, and he wants to take a group of craftsmen from the Sui Dynasty to help the Turks improve their equipment.

Shibi Khan sent his son Ashina Shibaobi to lead an army of 100,000 to prepare to attack the two counties of Lishi and Taiyuan, and Ashina Association led 50,000 troops to prepare to attack the two counties of Shuofang and Lingwu.

The movement on the Turkic side is so big, it is impossible for Emperor Yang of Sui not to receive information, at this time Yuwenshu's 50,000 Xiaoguo army is in the east of the river, and is about to prepare to cross the Yellow River, and Qu Tutong, who had crossed the Yellow River before, launched a second attack on Tongguan, but seeing the border of the Turkic army, if both of them are transferred to attack Tongguan, then the Turks will have no resistance, and they may go deep into the south, and they may even threaten Luoyang!

Therefore, Yang Guang could only order Yuwenshu to return to Taiyuan, and then transferred Qu Tutong's army to Hedong again, preparing to resist the 100,000 troops in the east of the Turks.

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