In the middle of winter, the desert is filled with wind and sand, covering the sky and the sun. The area around Yu Dujun Mountain located in the north of the desert is inevitably baptized by the cold current from the extreme north.

For all Central Plains dynasties, the barbarians from the desert were always the main border troubles that could be killed. Even if they could be able to go north and sweep the caves when they were strong, they would often breed again after decades, and then go south and plunder, which was unbearable.

The reason why these Hu bandits were killed was that geographical factors accounted for a large part. In the traditional Central Plains dynasty, the northern border was often bounded by Yinshan Mountains, and the Yinshan Mountains across the south of the desert was also the geographical boundary between farming and nomadic production.

The Yinshan Mountains are located from east to west, blocking the cold wave from north to south. Although Heshuo and other places in the south are quite desolate than the Central Plains, they are nourished by the Yellow River and still do not lose the conditions for farming.

To the north of Yinshan Mountain is a vast desert with barren land and harsh climate, making it difficult to maintain the survival and reproduction of large tribes, and often becomes an area where the Central Plains agricultural regime is difficult to rule.

However, after crossing the desert, the landform characteristics changed again. The Yu Dujun Mountain system in northern desert is also generally the east-west direction, and its impact on the barriers of cold waves and the formation of landforms is not inferior to that of the Yinshan Mountain system.

Therefore, with Yu Dujun Mountain as the center, a vast grassland that reaches the North Sea in the north and reaches Hexi in the south.

The grassland in the north of Mo is the birthplace of many Hu tribes in the north, as far as the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Dingling, Rouran, the Turks, Tiel, and other tribes in modern times, including the Uighurs, Mongolia and other northern Hu tribes in later generations, all developed and grew from this grassland.

Therefore, the Mobei grassland centered on Yu Dujun Mountain is the fundamental sphere of influence of many northern nomadic regimes, including the Turks. Only the nomadic forces that unify the tribes in the Mobei grassland are qualified to have the strength to cross the vast sand dunes and go south to carry out plunder against the Central Plains dynasty.

The direction of forces derived from such a geographical pattern has been repeated over the past thousands of years.

In the prosperous Han Dynasty, when the Central Plains dynasty was overwhelming, various nouns representing glorious border merits, such as Fenglangjuxu and Yanran Legong, all of which were pointed to Yu Dujun Mountain, which was the core of the geography of the Mobei Grassland, was just different titles from different periods.

The Yu Dujun Mountain, which gave birth to countless Northern Hu forces, naturally became the common origin of the Hu Hu in the north, and had a meaning and status similar to the holy mountain. Being able to set up the Yayu Dujun Mountain is also the common dream of all Northern Hu tribes, and it represents the authority and power that commands the Hu Hu in the north.

Although for the Central Plains dynasty, the Chilechuan area south of Yinshan was the place where various events occurred most frequently with the Huhu in the north of Mohe. However, as the center of the Hanhai, Yu Dujun Mountain truly determined the rise and fall of the forces in the north of Mohe.

As early as the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Turks, which originated from Jinshan, the western foot of the Dujun Mountain of Yu, moved eastward into the core area of ​​the grassland regime, and since then began its glorious rise.

The Turks were just an inconspicuous small tribe on the grassland, but at that time, Ashina's tribe continued to unite and annex other weak tribal forces, and finally joined forces with the then Western Wei regime to defeat Rouran and gain control of Yu Dujunshan. They set up their teeth here and officially declared that they became the new grassland overlord and started their century-long grassland hegemony.

Although under a series of diplomatic operations of the former Sui Dynasty, the Turks divided into the East and West Turks with Jinshan as the boundary. Although the Eastern Turks no longer control the Western Regions, the Yu Dujun Mountain, whose tribal origins have grown, is still firmly in control, and the Husband in the northern part of the Mobei region can compete.

Due to the obstruction of the Western Turks, there was no room for further expansion into the Western Regions west of Jinshan. The Eastern Turks had no choice but to strengthen their plunder in the southern part of the desert. In order to maintain a shock to the new Tang Empire, the Eastern Turks Jie Li Khan even transferred the tent to the southern part of the desert for a time. This dynamic lost control of the fundamentals.

Therefore, the Tiel tribes headed by Xue Yantuo fell to the Tang Dynasty because they could not bear the oppression of the Eastern Turks.

At the same time, Jie Li Khan's nephew, Tuli, who commanded the Eastern Hu tribes, also betrayed Jie Li Khan. Then all the powerful soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were out, and the arrogant Jie Li Khan was directly defeated in the south of the desert. The Eastern Turks' demise ruler could not return to Yu Dujun Mountain until his death.

In the battle of the Tang Dynasty to defeat the Eastern Turks, under the exquisite strategic arrangement of Emperor Taizong of Tang, there was no need for Lao Shi to reach Yu Dujun Mountain on an expedition. However, this gave Xue Yantuo the opportunity to use the power of the fox to pretend to be the tiger. Xue Yantuo used the power of the Tang Dynasty to defeat the Eastern Turks and set up Yayu Dujun Mountain, hoping to become the new overlord of the grassland, and the intention of being unofficial was already obvious.

Therefore, more than ten years later, the Tang army went north again and completely wiped out Xue Yantuo. Since then, there is no strong Hu troops in Mobei who dared to provoke the power of the Tang Dynasty.

This situation continued until the late period of Emperor Gaozong. The remnants of the Eastern Turks rose up to rebel against the Tang Dynasty because they could not withstand the troubles of years of war. However, they were suddenly destroyed and were directly defeated by Pei Xingjian in the south of the desert.

However, as the Gu Dulu brother of the Asuna Shu clan, his momentum gradually grew stronger because he caught up with the great opportunity of Emperor Gaozong Bintian and the chaos of the Tang Dynasty.

Once he had gained a certain power base in the south of the desert, Gu Dulu immediately returned to the north and sent troops to plunder and expel the Tielite tribes that divided the Yu Dujunshan area under the control of the Tang Dynasty, and set up Ya here again. It was because if Ya Yu Dujunshan was not set up, it would not be the orthodox of the Turks and could not inherit the legacy of the Eastern Turks.

Since the Kaiyuan period, the Tang Dynasty has been in chaos. Even if there are some foreign wars, it is mainly targeting Tubo, a new opponent that has risen on the plateau, to solve the border problems of Longyou. However, the strategy for the north has stopped in the south of the desert and has not made any deep strategy for the northern desert area.

Although the establishment of the Shuofang San Suicheng City allowed the Tang Dynasty to regain the strategic initiative in the southern part of the desert and made it difficult for the Turks to frequently move south and plunder, their interference and influence on the northern part of the desert were not large.

In the past few years, the Tang Dynasty has been a domestic and external practice, and Mochu, who retreated to Yu Dujunshan, did not waste his time. Although he could no longer go south to plunder, he also gave him time to re-establish hegemony in Mobei.

There are many Hu tribes in Mobei, but few are truly powerful. This is also because of the past rule of the Tang Dynasty, some powerful tribes such as Uighurs and Qiezi migrated to the south of the Mohe to settle down, and they did not want powerful opponents such as Xue Yantuo to appear in Mohe.

This also gave Mochu the opportunity to merge and grow. Although he was defeated and fled north, he finally had the experience of confronting the Tang army head-on. In addition, the original construction system of the Turks, both combat power and organizational power were far beyond the reach of tribes such as Mobei.

Therefore, in the past few years, there have been some tigers in the northern part of the Mobei region, and the atmosphere of monkeys calling themselves kings. Under the constant plunder and annexation of the Hu tribes, these Hu tribes had to accept the jurisdiction of the Turkic tent again, gathered in tribes of all sizes around the tent of Yu Dujun Mountain tent, and integrated them to more than 100,000 tents.

The living habits of the herdsmen in the north of the desert were also greatly affected by the weather. At the turn of summer and autumn, the glaciers melted and the water and grasslands were abundant. Many tribes moved away from the water and grasslands, which were widely distributed between the rivers and grasslands between Yu Dujun Mountain and the North Sea.

After autumn, the climate turned cold, and the grassland was flat and there was no way to block the cold current from the north to the south. The tribes moved to the valleys in the south of the mountain to set up tents for the winter.

Whenever this time comes, it is also the time when the tribes donate tribute to the tent. The troops led by the tent shuttled between the tribes settled at the bottom of the hills and valleys, and took their cattle and sheep supplies to the tent.

The remittance of this type of material has naturally made the tribes miserable, but if they resisted and suppressed, they would not have such power. If they still wandered outside, it would not be just a loss of some property, but a storm that could be a catastrophe.

The situation in the Turks this year is even more severe than in previous years, because the news of the Tang Dynasty's army's northern expedition had long been spread by word of mouth by word of tribes who were traveling south, and the requisition of personnel and materials by the dental tent was several times heavier than in previous years.

"This is a hell of weather!"

In the camp in the valley, an old man with gray beard cursed about the heavy snow and clear weather while directing the tycoons in the tribe to clear the snow on the felt tent.

He looked at his eyes and found that there was thick smoke rolling out of a felt tent not far away. He was shocked and walked forward, asking the clans to cover the cracks of the smoke with thick felt cloth. At the same time, he walked into the smoke-filled tent and cursed: "The day before yesterday, the tent was banned from smoking and fireworks, so you don't want to die!"

There is naturally not much firewood or charcoal to keep warm during the winter on the grassland. The main fuel is dried after cattle and horse manure. However, this type of fuel has extremely large flue gas and is not dispersed. This is the best detection mark on the open grassland.

In order not to allow the Tang army to easily find the tribal settlements, after the winter, the tent urged all tribes to strictly prohibit fireworks from keeping warm this winter, hoping to use this to deceive the Tang army scouts.

Keeping warm in the cold winter is also a luxury. Even if ordinary herders collect fuel, they must hand over it to the public and are not allowed to keep it privately. This felt tent is where the old man's son lives. The old man's official is Tutun, who is in charge of several tribes and thousands of tents, and is similar to the governors of the Tang Dynasty and county magistrates and other people in charge of the seal officers.

"The child's hands and feet are frostbite. If he doesn't keep warm, he may not be saved..."

Hearing the old man's scolding, a middle-aged man with a hunchbacked figure emerged from inside. He pointed to the little dolls wrapped in the leather felt with a sad face, and his face was full of heartache and resentment: "Instead of waiting for death with coldness like this, it is better to meet the Tang army early and fight for life and death!"

"What are you going to fight? The strong soldiers in the clan have been recruited for seven or eight years. A few days later, Meilu will come to search and requisition again, and our troops will send 500 troops..."

The old man looked sad. Since the beginning of winter, the frequent recruitment of teeth has left few strong men in the tribe. Even if he, the leader, has struggled, the ordinary herders will naturally be even more miserable.

When the civilians filled the fire pit with snow blocks, the old man looked at the poor child in the tent and sighed: "If the child can't survive, it is because he was born in a bad life. It is not worth taking risks for this. If it only attracts the Tang army, it will be over. If it is noticed by the guards patrolling the tent, the tribe will probably be implicated..."

Although the fire was extinguished in time, the sound of horse hooves rushing in the fields outside the valley soon after. When the cadres and soldiers in the valley heard this, they all changed their faces and changed their colors. The few male men gathered together and each carried their knives and bows to alert them.

The visitor was several guards from the Armenians who were directly under the tent, but they did not pursue the matter of illegitimate fireworks. After rushing into the tribe, the old man summoned him and said, "There are Tang army scouts in the south. Quickly summon people and go to surround and kill together!"

After saying this, the warriors hurriedly left, and they had to go to other tribes to inform and mobilize personnel.

The old man felt relieved and quickly ordered the tribes to prepare for horse feeding. His son next to him was a little unhappy and advised him before entering: "Why don't Aye do this diligent work? The Tang soldiers are strong and they will die sooner or faster..."
Chapter completed!