During this period, the Abbasids largely lost control over the region, and powerful princes divided one side of the country. In Central Asia, the descendants of some of the great Parthian nobles, founded the Samanid dynasty. It was a Persian regime that believed in Celestialism and was culturally Persian.

This dynasty was one of the first attempts by the Persians to establish a political power with the help of the Celestial Religion. Medieval Persian historians called it the revival of the Persian Empire. They also resumed their missionary work in the East, trying to expand their influence.

To the northeast of the Samanid dynasty was the Qarakhanid dynasty, founded by some exiles after the dissolution of the Uighur Khanate. At this time, there was a struggle for the Khan throne within the Qarakhanid. Around 954, during the reign of Chai Rong of Later Zhou Shizong, Satuq, the nephew of the Great Khan, accepted the persuasion of Samanid missionaries to convert to Tianfang. With the strong support of the Samanid dynasty, he overthrew the rule of his uncle. It is generally believed that this was the beginning of the acceptance of the Celestial Religion by the Turkic tribes.

However, the turmoil of the Qarakhanid attracted the attention of the Western Regions city-state Khotan. Taking advantage of the turmoil, Khotan sent troops to attack the Qarakhanid and captured the eastern capital of Shule. Since then, the two sides have been fighting continuously, and the city has changed hands several times.

For the Qarakhanids, the situation was not good.

To the northeast, is the Liao State. In the east, it was the Uighur regime of Qocho and the return of the Shazhou to the army. In the southeast, there are the Tibetan tribes on the plateau. Now that even an oasis city-state can gain the upper hand in a battle with itself, these few people can't be provoked even more.

Always in your own capital, with someone else's tug-of-war, this is not a long-term solution. Therefore, the Khanate was in dire need of a new pioneering direction.

Beginning with the Turkic Khanate, almost all previous regimes were centered on the East. Even after being driven to the Western Regions, the ambitious Great Khan always wanted to fight back.

But accepting the Heavenly Sect gave everyone a new idea - since I believe in other people's teachings, then I can completely join the hegemony of the Heavenly Sect world, why do I have to go to the East to fight hard?

I can't beat Khotan, can I beat you?

Satuq Khan, who had an epiphany, immediately launched a war against the Samanid dynasty, who had preached to him.

The Samanid dynasty was one of the overlords of the Celestial world, controlling a large area from the two river valleys of Central Asia to Persia proper. In short, very rich.

This war made the Qarakhanid gain a lot, and thus formed a path dependence: if the east suffers a loss, there is no need to be afraid, go to fight the Persians to make up for it, and it will soon recover. The war on the Western Front lasted until 992, when Hassan Bogra Khan invaded Bukhara, the capital of the Samanid Empire, and the Samanid dynasty began to come to an end.

It was also because of these results that the Qarakhanid had the confidence to engage in a decades-long tug-of-war with Khotan.

And the battlefield on the Eastern Front was much more tragic. In order to resist Khotan's western crusade, a large number of adult male members of the Khan's court were killed in battle, including the Samanid conqueror, Hassan Bogra Khan himself.

At the height of the war, none of Satukh Khan's male grandchildren survived, and they had to rely on women to take over. Even Hassan's sister was killed by the Khotanese in a war of revenge.

However, the resistance of the Qarakhanid was still much stronger than that of Khotan. Satuq's great-grandsons persuaded the faithful everywhere to launch an expedition to support them. The four imams led volunteers recruited from Ghazni, Khorezm, Baghdad and other places to join the war. This time, the counterattack was finally successful and the city of Khotan was attacked.

Khotan was a city-state, and the Qarakhanid could lose the capital many times, but losing it once in Khotan was fatal. The Khotanese king relented and surrendered to the Khanate, ending the regime of the Yuchi clan.

But the victor did not enjoy the joy in the end. Some Khotanese troops, unwilling to surrender, fled the city and, with the support of the Tibetan tribes, set up ambushes on the roads.

The Qarakhanid was unprepared and was attacked on the way back to the division. Historians have documented the battle, lamenting that "the mujahideen were killed like an avalanche." In the end, the expeditionary force was completely annihilated, and all four imams were killed.

This kind of lose-lose victory made the war untenable.

After that, the Qarakhanid cooperated with the Song Dynasty and launched several raids against the Western Xia, but the combat effectiveness of both sides was very limited, and no effective results were achieved. For the Liao State in the north, the Qarakhanid actively joined the other party's tributary system, and finally because of his obedience, he got the opportunity to make peace and married a Liao princess who believed in Buddhism.

The Qarakhanid was very proud of this, and persuaded the other countries of the Heavenly Sect to come together to pay tribute. Even acting as a matchmaker, I want to introduce the Ghaznavid Dynasty to come and kiss.

In addition to his father-in-law, the Khanate was also very respectful to the Northern Song Dynasty, and he was directly called "uncle" in his letters. Obviously, with the support of his father-in-law and uncle, life is much more secure.

But the Heavenly Sect World can't be at ease.

Qarakhanid's "new thinking" set a disastrous precedent. Since then, the nomadic tribes that had been wandering in the Western Regions and Central Asia have followed suit. Everybody doesn't go with the hard rolls in the east anymore.

During the Tang Dynasty, the Iron Gate Pass in southern Central Asia blocked several Turkic invasions. But now, there is nothing the Persians can do. The Turkic entrants scrambled for an opportunity to move south and invade the Persian hinterland.

The Turkic languages they used replaced the original Indo-European languages of Central Asia, and the Persians never regained their former poising. The Persian regimes were eliminated one after another, and the Turkic warlords ran amok and vied each other for supremacy, causing serious damage.

Guo Kang also didn't know if the Persians would regret why he had to go to the mission to pull people in the first place.

This series of events also had a long-lasting impact on the Heavenly Sect world. The caliph of Baghdad has become a puppet completely, and even the lord of a city cannot sit still. Over time, a strange system was formed that somewhat resembled Japan. Powerful Turkic warlords would reach Baghdad and force the caliph to proclaim himself sultan in order to establish hegemony over the entire Celestial world.

The caliph was caught by the warlords every day, and he was miserable. Some people really couldn't stand the domineering military leaders, and even violated the ancestral teachings and ran away from home. But in the end, they can only accept reality.

And the reason for this is actually the Tang Dynasty and the Liao State, which were inadvertently concocted.

Later generations may not have heard of these unpopular histories. But in Guo Kang's era, these are all issues that are closely related to many people.

If nothing else, if he gave it to an old Persian pedant who knew history, he said that he was actually a very peace-loving person, always docile and weak, and very good at fighting. Then the other party will most likely think that he is angry with yin and yang, and he will be half angry.