Li Ji's troops didn't pursue. His mission had already been accomplished, and he had delayed the Eastern Turks for a day. There would naturally be other troops to pick them up. Moreover, they had just fought a great battle and were all very tired.
Now, they began to clean up the battlefield, collect the spoils of war, bury pots, cook rice, and eat horse meat. When they saw so many horse corpses, their hearts ached. How many were there? The royal caravan was still behind them, and it would take at least five days to get there.
Five days. Damn, the meat had long been stinky. Now that the weather was getting hotter, there was no way to preserve it. Now the Tang soldiers wanted to cry but had no tears. Since the new distribution system was introduced, the Tang soldiers were becoming more and more stingy.
If it was before, he would not want anything other than gold, silver, and some knives. But now, everything was money.
Of course, not only were there dead horses on the battlefield, but there were also many live horses scattered everywhere. These naturally had to be brought back. They were all money.
Li Ji was leisurely cleaning up the battlefield, while the Turkic horses of the Jieli Khagan's troops fled all the way to the Yin Mountains. When the troops and tribes in the direction of Iron Mountain heard the news of the crushing defeat, they were in chaos. They didn't know whether to chase after the Jieli Khagan's troops or flee elsewhere.
The Tang army was also speeding up its march. If one looked at the map, three armies would surround the Yin Mountains, while two armies would surround the Eastern Turks heading toward the Iron Mountain.
The next day, the right army caught up to the tribes. None of the tribes that had brought their livestock with them escaped, because they simply couldn't run fast. After a small battle that was not equal to the losses, the Turks lost another three thousand or so people, and finally chose to surrender.
The Tang Dynasty army left behind a portion of its troops to hold the captives and escort the tribes. The other troops began to pursue the fleeing tribes. After a night of rest, Li Ji's troops also began to pursue.
Some of these fleeing tribes might have found other tribes to submit to, some might have been caught up by the Great Tang army and eventually become captives, and some might have died on the grasslands because they had no food to eat.
The only difference this time was the timing of the destruction of the Turks. Furthermore, because of the lack of military strength, Li Jing did not only bring three thousand cavalry with him like in the past, nor did he need to experience the cold and snowy weather. This time, he brought twenty thousand soldiers to press down on the Yin Mountains.
Jie Li Khan was now like a frightened bird. When he heard that the Tang army was catching up, his first thought was not to organize the army to fight, but to escape. He hurriedly led more than a thousand cavalry to escape to the west.
After Jie Li Khan fled, the morale of the Tu Jue army dropped greatly. After fighting for a while, they managed to escape, and the remaining Tu Jue surrendered to the Tang army led by Li Jing's general, Zhishi Sili.
When the Jie Li Khan was about to flee to Tuyuhun, he was stopped by Chai Shao's army and captured by Li Daozong's army. If he hadn't shouted that he was the Jie Li Khan, he would have been killed. At that time, he only had around a hundred people left. When he was surrounded, he shouted," Don't kill me, I am the Jie Li Khan. I surrender, I surrender."”
From the first day the Tang army entered the grassland to the day Jie Li Khan was captured, it had been more than three months.
After capturing the Khan, the Tang army did not stop their military operations. Instead, they continued to sweep through the grasslands and capture the fleeing Turkic soldiers and tribes.
Li Shi Min didn't want history to repeat itself, where the Eastern Turks were wiped out and the other nomadic tribes benefited.
In history, Xue Yantuo and the Huihe had taken the opportunity to annex the Eastern Turkic tribes, so they wouldn't be given a chance now.
While the Tang army was sweeping through the steppe, it had also tyrannically told the other tribes that the Great Tang had already razed the Eastern Turks to the ground. The land and population of the former Eastern Turks were now the territory and people of the Great Tang, and if any other tribe dared to invade the Great Tang's territory and steal its people, the Eastern Turks would suffer.
This time, the Great Tang had captured more than one hundred and thirty thousand Turkic soldiers and more than one hundred thousand Turkic tribesmen. This was far more than the total of one hundred thousand people in history, and it had also indirectly reduced the number of people Xue Yantuo and the Huihe tribes had taken over, greatly slowing down their growth.
Moreover, the Tang army would always patrol the grasslands and settle any tribes that were not under their jurisdiction.
Tana was a young Eastern Turkic girl. She was only eleven years old, but she was already the main labor force of her family. Her parents were elderly, but they were only slightly over forty. They were ordinary Turkic herdsmen and were aging too quickly. She had a six-year-old younger brother and an older brother, who had died in the war with the Great Tang.
At that time, their family had been caught on the way to Iron Mountain. Because they didn't move quickly, they were quickly caught, but the Great Tang had quickly arranged for their family to be settled.
They were given 100 sheep, two horses, eight cows, and a meadow. Tana didn't understand what they meant at that time, but she heard clearly that they all belonged to their family, and they would get 20 yuan tax every year.
She didn't know whether they were to pay taxes or not. In the past, they had worked very hard just to make a living. But now, the officials of the Tang Empire told her that these were all their family's. She immediately looked at these livestock like an old hen looking at her chicks, looking at them strictly.
Now that the tribes were scattered, Tana only wanted to work hard to support her family and raise her brother. She had taken a fancy to a carriage at the government office, which could be used to transport things when she went to the market in the future.
So, she sold twenty sheep at home. She wasn't worried about not being able to pay taxes next year. She still had eighty sheep. The lambs next year would be enough. Then, she bought a carriage, ten bags of wheat, some salt, tea leaves, an iron pot, and a lot of other things. Then, she rushed home. The wheat she bought was enough for her family to eat until next spring.
The officials also said that someone would come to help her build a new house in a few days and that the money for the construction could be paid off in a few years. She did not understand any of this. When she heard that this kind of house could be burned with black soil, it would be very warm in the winter and the cattle and sheep would not freeze to death. She did not care about the money. She only cared about how her family could survive, so when she heard this, she immediately agreed.
Tana was now herding livestock in her family's pasture on her horse every day, while her parents were at home taking care of her younger brother and doing light work. According to the merchants of Tang Empire, they would also buy wool next year.
The Turkic captives, leaders, and headmen had all been locked up in solitary confinement. These people were to be forced to work until they died. The ordinary Turkic soldiers were now being arranged to build houses. The Great Tang had told them that they would be forced to work for three years. After three years, they could choose to join the Great Tang army and receive the same treatment as the Great Tang soldiers, or they could choose to return home and peacefully become herdsmen.
As long as their families were captured by the Tang army, they had been well settled. The houses they were going to build now were built for the herdsmen.
Thus, the captured Turks did not resist. In order to completely rule the steppe and prevent the nomads from rebelling, Li Shimin had gone all out and invested a large amount of manpower and resources to settle the nomads.
Li Shimin planned to build a small stone fort within 50 miles and a large stone fort within 200 miles. He also planned to build a large city on top of the three surrender cities in history. He planned to build a total of seven cities in Erenhot, namely Qikou, Chifeng, Tonglian, and Xilinhot, so that he could rule the entire grassland.
Of course, this was Li Shiming's idea. He could take it step by step. He would start from the castle. The small castle would station a squad of soldiers and patrol the surrounding 50 miles. The big castle would station a company of 250 people. Li Shimin would use this method of settling the herdsmen and setting up garrisons to slowly spread out.
The Eastern Turks of the Jie Li Khagan had been wiped out, and the steppe had calmed down. The Jie Li Khagan himself had been escorted back to the capital, and Princess Yicheng had been captured. In history, Li Jing had killed her because he was afraid that she would bring instability, but this time, Li Jing had not killed her. Instead, he had given her a letter personally written by Li Shiming. In the letter, Li Shiming had hoped that Princess Yicheng could return to his homeland, and had mentioned that Empress Xiao and Yang Zhengdao were now living freely in Chang 'an. Due to Emperor Yang Yang's extravagance, the people of Great Sui were in dire straits. The uprising army was everywhere, just like how after Qin unified the six countries, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rose up. Those who lost the hearts of the people lost the world. There was no need to bear the burden of rebuilding Great Sui.
But in the end, Princess Yicheng still chose to commit suicide. As the princess of the royal family, she had lived her entire life for the Great Sui. During this time, she had saved Emperor Yang, Empress Xiao, and Yang Zhengdao. After the destruction of the Great Sui, she had hoped to rebuild the Great Sui through the Turks, but now that the Eastern Turks had been destroyed, she had lost hope and the will to live.
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