Kur-Shad uprising
Father of Kur-Shad, Shibi Qaghan, miraculously restored the state to its former power. But the snowfall and famine that started during the time of uncle of Kur-Shad, Illig Qaghan, brought the end of the state. Finally, after Illig Qaghan was captured by the Tang Dynasty, the Göktürks came under Tang rule. Emperor Taizong appointed princes from the Göktürk dynasty as rulers of all Turkic tribes. Thus, he thought of using the Turks in the Tang army when there was a war. Thus, the Göktürks began to live under the Tang Dynasty, which is now a Chinese state. However, Kur-Shad never accepted this situation. He absolutely swore that he would save the Göktürks. He formed a team of 40 loyal fellow warriors for the liberation struggle. The aim of this team was to kidnap Emperor Taizong of Tang. Later, all Göktürk tribes would be asked to be released in exchange for releasing the Emperor, and then the Göktürk state would be re-established and regained its former power by fighting. That was the plan. If you made such a plan with 40 people, normally people would laugh at you. But Kur-Shad was not joking, he was absolutely determined about it. The attack plan of the team that would make this attack on the Chinese palace in May 639 was as follows. When Tang prince Li-Ching left the palace, Kur-Shad and his 40 warriors would immediately run through the open doors and run towards the Emperor's room, take him and immediately flee the palace. Since Kur-Shad was already in the rank of a commander subordinate to them in the eyes of the Tang Dynasty, he could come unnoticed near the palace. The night Kur-Shad planned the attack, a mishap occurred and because it was raining, Li-Ching did not leave the palace and the doors were not opened. Kur-Shad argued that it was not appropriate to cancel this attack and decided to carry out the attack anyway. Indeed, he gave the order to attack, and 40 warriors attacked towards the Chinese palace. There was a very bloody battle going on before the gates, hundreds of Tang guards were killed one by one against 40 soldiers. Kur-Shad and his 40 soldiers, who entered after the guards at the gate died, continued to fight with the other guards, who were immediately alarmed. The palace's guards were so numerous that when one of them died, 10 more would come in its place. Afterwards, Kur-Shad, who killed hundreds of palace guards with his 40 soldiers, realized that it was impossible to capture the emperor and immediately left the palace. 40 soldiers, who broke one of the walls to leave the city, immediately moved away from the city and continued their movement towards the Wei river. Meanwhile, the Tang army of thousands of soldiers was after them. In the end, Kur-Shad and his 40 brave warriors, who returned without crossing the river, started to fight against the army of thousands, even though they knew they would die. Although 40 people had to die immediately, this war lasted a long time and Kur-Shad resisted for a long time. Hundreds of this Tang army also died. As a result of the long bloody war, all 40 warriors died and only Kur-Shad remained. Kur-Shad continued to fight alone. Even though he knew he was going to die, he continued to kill Tang soldiers. Finally, he died as a result of dozens of sword blows he received. Even though this struggle was unsuccessful, Kur-Shad inspired all other Turks and all other Turkic tribes prepared their swords to become independent again. As a result of this event, the 3 sons of Etmish Beg, another Göktürk prince, would re-establish the Second Turkic Khaganate and avenge all these events from the Tang Dynasty.