Tidings of high gravity reached the ears of King Khosrow Anushirvan regarding the eastern borders. Intelligence brought word that the Khaqan of China—a formidable and ambitious monarch of Turanian lineage—had descended upon the Hephthalites with devastating force. For seven days, the combined hosts of Chaj, China, and Khotan had not unbridled their warhorses, leaving two-thirds of Ghatafar’s Hephthalite forces wounded or dead. So severe was the collapse of Hephthalite power that their shattered remnants scrambled to seat a claimant of Bahram Gur’s blood upon a fragile new throne, while the ruler of Chaghan submitted to the Khaqan's overwhelming ascendancy.
Deeply troubled by the shadow falling over the eastern marches, Khosrow ordered the grand hall decorated and summoned his supreme council. Among those who assembled by the throne were Ardashir, the Mobad of Mobads, alongside the noble scribes Shapur and Yazdegerd, and the most battle-tested counselors of the realm. Khosrow addressed the assembly: 'Unwelcome news has come from the marches of Turan, Hephthal, Chaj, and Khotan. The Khaqan, stemming from the fierce lineage of Afrasiab and Arjasb, has shattered Ghatafar and now exalts his head to the sun. He presses upon lands that pay homage to our crown. What is your collective wisdom? How shall we confront this rising storm of the Turks and the Khaqan of China?'
The wise elders arose, offering blessings upon the King. They declared that the Hephthalite realm had long been an Ahrimanic hotbed of treachery and that their destruction was nothing less than the righteous retribution of the Just God for their past betrayal—the foul murder of King Peroz, that radiant lamp of Iran. Yet, concerning the victorious Khaqan, they warned that his arrogance was indeed dangerous, but urged the Shah not to personally march his grand army into distant Khorasan. They cautioned that leaving the heartland of Iran unguarded would invite the Roman legions to cross the western borders and ravage the empire.
As Khosrow listened to the measured words of his lords, he perceived the true sentiment underlying their counsel: accustomed to decades of peace and luxury, his nobles harbored little desire for a grueling campaign in foreign sands, preferring the comfort of the court over the blood-soaked trials of war.