A month was spent in war, disaster, pain, and anger. This month can be said to be the most chaotic and unbearable period from the Tang Dynasty to the time after Li Shimin pacified the northern Turks.
Starting from New Year's Eve, after the Garqin Tomb conquered Taozhou like a demon descending from the world, the western frontier of the Tang Dynasty fell into endless disaster. This enemy commander, who used his troops like a ghost, penetrated deeply into the hinterland of the Tang Dynasty alone, and he was able to do so without any fuss.
The thief who broke into the house started playing hide and seek with the owner.
First of all, after he attracted Yuchi Jingde's main force stationed in Songzhou, he did not meet him at all. He wandered back and forth in the vast and complex land between the four states of Tao, He, Yuan and Qin, hiding in Tibet and east of Qishan Mountain. Killing people, setting fires, and robbing homes is like a rogue horse descending from the mountain. Soon, Li Shimin sent General Li Daliang to lead an elite army of 100,000 people from Guanzhong out of Huoguan to conquer. The military offices in the western frontier of the Tang Dynasty also received orders from the imperial court, and they all gathered under the command of Yuchi Jingde to come to the Qishan area to annihilate the Garqin. Mausoleum.
At this time, Galqin Ling, who had already figured it out, resorted to a trick that no one had expected - breaking it into pieces!
Before Yuchi Jingde and Li Daliang's troops could encircle them, his 100,000 cavalry were like fireworks exploding in the sky, split into dozens of strands, and spread wildly in 40,000 directions to escape.
Each of their troops ranges from a hundred to a thousand, and like poison seeping into the blood, it travels in all directions and penetrates into every pore. They all have a tacit understanding not to follow official roads and not approach towns and military mansions to avoid pursuit and suppression. , specializes in sneaking between mountain wild roads and rural tribes, committing murder, arson, rape, rape, kidnapping and torture wherever he goes.
The Western Xinjiang area suddenly fell into boundless chaos and panic. The people of the Tang Dynasty became angry when they talked about it. Hundreds of thousands of people in the four states in the Qishan area fled their hometowns and fled in haste to Guanzhong.
Yuchi Jingde and Li Daliang were like smashing ants with hammers, saying nothing. Although a lot of "small teams" were eliminated piecemeal, in one month, less than 20,000 troops were killed in total.
At this time, most of the main forces in the Garqin Mausoleum strangely appeared in Songzhou, where Yuchi Jingde was stationing troops!
This cunning fox suddenly transformed into a loach. When Yuchi Jingde deployed his troops and opened a large encirclement net to launch a decisive battle to eliminate him, he was actually across the Shu mountain trail seventy miles west of where Yuchi Jingde's army was located. , passed by it!
When Yuchi Jingde and Li Daliang led their troops to attack them, what awaited them was a cloud of smoke dropped by the Garqin Mausoleum like a ninja hiding - dozens of small groups of people fleeing in all directions to cause harm. These small groups of people make noises in the east and west, and do all kinds of evil. They are small in number, move cunningly, and are very mobile. They are very difficult to catch, but they cannot be suppressed.
For a moment, Yuchi Jingde and Li Daliang's lungs were so angry that their heads were about to spin. The two discussed it and decided that Yuchi Jingde quickly returned to Songzhou to save him without waiting for the fate of the imperial court - that was the gateway to the land of abundance in Sichuan and Sichuan!
Li Daliang, on the other hand, stayed to lead the army and command the local prefectures and counties, eliminate the remaining bandits and comfort the people affected by the disaster.
In just one month, the people in Western Xinjiang felt like they had gone from heaven to hell, which was even more frightening than during the war in the late Sui Dynasty. Because at that time, although there were many separatist regimes and wars were frequent, the Tibetan kings in various places still understood the purpose of "putting the people first" to some extent and generally did not abuse the people wantonly. But right now, this Galqin Mausoleum is like a living demon who has come to the world and cannibalizes people without spitting out their bones!
…
One can imagine how Emperor Li Shimin has been feeling in recent days. From the day he ascended the throne, even when he was killed by the prairie lord Jieli Khan and his army on the outskirts of the Great Wall, he was not as embarrassed and embarrassed as he is today!
What's more, at that time, the Tang Dynasty had a weak foundation and an unstable foothold, while the Turks in the steppe had strong soldiers and horses; but now, the Tang Dynasty has become a peaceful country with rich people and strong people, and is known as the Great Celestial Dynasty!
He, the powerful Khan of heaven and respected by all the barbarians, was slapped several times in the face by a Tibetan kid in front of everyone in the world!
Only he himself knows how it feels.
Late at night, when the lights were still bright in the Wude Hall Hongwen Hall, all the officials entering and exiting were running at a trot without any hesitation. The atmosphere in the museum was even more tense. More than ten central ministers, ministers, and important ministers were all present, following Li Shimin and standing in front of a map of the earth.
"Is there any battle report from Yuchi Jingde?" Li Shimin's voice was a little deep, revealing dignity and suppressed anger.
"Your Majesty, I received a report from Li Daliang this morning, saying that General Yuchi had led his army back to Songzhou and fought a battle with Gar Qinling in Songzhou. But... he was defeated." Chu Suiliang replied.
"Losing?" Li Shimin frowned, "How did you lose?"
"It's not a bad loss..." Chu Suiliang said with some hesitation, "Garqin Ling obviously has no intention of fighting. After all, his Kunlun cavalry is not well adapted to the terrain there after entering Shu. It will be difficult to fight against the Jiannan mountain infantry. It was cheap, but they met on a narrow road. The Kunlun cavalry mainly relied on mounted shooting to suppress Yuchi Jingde, and then quickly captured the weak guard post and fled to the southwest. Most of Yuchi Jingde's troops were pursued by infantry. Not as good as that.”
When everyone heard the news, their hearts were in their throats!
After breaking through Songzhou, the soldiers and horses of Gar Qinling will face the naked Sichuan and Shuzhou counties!
"It seems that Yuchi Jingde is probably old." Li Shimin did not roar angrily, he just said this lightly, but everyone felt cold in their hearts.
"Your Majesty..." Fang Xuanling raised his hand and said, "This cannot be entirely blamed on General Yuchi. As the saying goes, care leads to chaos, and chaos leads to confusion. The Garqin Mausoleum caused chaos in our territory of the Tang Dynasty, and General Yuchi must have Feeling distressed and angry, he wanted to extinguish the thieves as quickly as possible, but in the end, Gar Qinling came prepared and fearless, but the Kunlun cavalry had extraordinary combat power, and the number of men and horses was better than that of Yuchi. It is reasonable for a general to win or lose a battle."
"Whether we can beat them or not is one thing. What makes me angry is that Yuchi Jingde and Li Daliang, a pair of veteran generals on the battlefield, are actually like two big children, being led around by the nose by Gar Qinling. "You're kidding!" Li Shimin snorted, "I don't understand how a barbarian general from Garqinling who lives on the plateau knows the battlefield terrain of Western Xinjiang, Sichuan and Shu with ease, than our own generals? , easier than entering and exiting your own bedroom!”
"The Gar Qin Ling carefully planned in advance, and then attacked with preparedness and unpreparedness. It's nothing more than this." Fang Xuanling said, "I will give you an inappropriate example. Huo Qubing of the Han Dynasty also used this kind of tactics in the past. They traveled across the grassland and defeated the Huns. The difference was that the Huns were nomadic people and had no city passes, but the Garqin Tomb destroyed the city and the village with ease. He is a rare military genius!”
"Xuan Ling's words are quite objective. Putting aside his position, Gal Qinling is indeed a superb military genius. He has used the tactics of surprise soldiers to the extreme!" Li Shimin nodded, but his eyes were sharper when he said approval. He said, "Huo Qubing in the Han Dynasty swept across the Xiongnu and sealed the wolf as Xu. We ourselves didn't learn this skill, but the Tubo people learned it from Gar Qinling. Well, he did it in front of hundreds of millions of people in the world. The faces of my people and foreign nations are slapping me!”
"Your Majesty, you don't have to be like this. The winning and losing military strategists..."
"Okay, no need to comfort me." Li Shimin waved his hand and asked, "Is there any news about Lanzhou and Yumen Pass?"
"Back to your majesty... Yes." Chu Suiliang carefully took out a military report to Li Shimin and said, "The King of Jiangxia in Shanzhou came to report that Qin Mubai had recovered Yangguan and wiped out the tens of thousands of Tibetan troops who attacked it in one fell swoop. ”
"Oh? Total annihilation?!" Everyone was shocked.
Li Shimin grabbed it and glared at Chu Suiliang, "Why don't you report it early!"
The ministers felt a little relieved and finally relaxed a little. After all the bad news in the past few days, I finally received some good news today. At the same time, some people were talking about how Lanzhou could suddenly "annihilate the tens of thousands of Tibetan troops who were attacking the key point in one fell swoop" if Lanzhou had always had a small number of troops.
"That's it! This Xue Rengui is really a blessed general of the country!" Li Shimin's face finally showed a hint of joy, and he took a long breath and said, "I have been defeated and suffered many disasters in the past few days, so Qin Mubai can give me some comfort. !good!"
The joy is beyond words.
Seeing the emperor showing a little joy, all the ministers laughed happily, but Chu Suiliang couldn't laugh - he also had another military report in his arms, which was about Hou Junji and the general. In the Feichuan incident, Chang Sun Huan was also killed!
He really didn't dare to show this military report in public. Otherwise, Chu Suiliang would really be afraid of driving a few people crazy when his anger turned to joy, and his joy turned to rage right away. It would be better to wait until His Majesty the Emperor calmed down a little, and then play him secretly!
Besides, Changsun Wuji is still there! If he wants to know that his precious son was killed by Hou Junji... I really don't know what will happen!
At this time, Changsun Wuji, who had been silent for a long time, spoke, "Your Majesty, I thought that the Garqin Tomb raided all parts of the inland and caused harm. Although the noise was fierce, it was still a scabies disease at best. Now that he has broken through and gone south, what happened? What are we going to do? What if he takes Sichuan and Sichuan as his king, or massacres my people?"
"Yes, this is the top priority right now - the Garqin Mausoleum. What does he want to do next?" Li Shimin said.
The ministers immediately became quiet again.
Fang Xuanling, who was good at strategy, pondered for a moment and then said with cupped hands: "Your Majesty, I think that the Garqin Tomb will not continue southward and go deeper into the direction of Yizhou and Chengdu."
"Then where do you think he will go?" Li Shimin asked.
"The road to Shu is difficult. If the cavalry of Garqinling enters Shu, no matter how brave the Kunlun cavalry are, they will be seeking death. Because most of the roads there are narrow mountain roads that are difficult to cross on foot. Don't talk about riding. The reason why he wants to attack Songzhou is just to break through the barrier and escape. "After breaking through the barrier, Gar Qinling can take the road to Songzhou and turn to the west." The Jiacheng and Jiaochuan areas are originally the homeland of the Di and Qiang nomads. The tribes are usually scattered in the city and there are few cities. It is easy to break through Jiacheng and go west to Jinchuan. Then go north along the river to Jiuqu of the Yellow River and the southern foot of Jishi Mountain. We have arrived at the great plateau of Tubo! In this way, Galqinling has made a big circle and returned to its old nest. "
"What Xuan Ling said coincides with mine. As early as the beginning of the Taozhou incident, I concluded that Garqin Ling would escape sooner or later. He is not that stupid. He would really go straight to Guanzhong to destroy our Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin raised his finger and pointed at the big map, followed the route mentioned by Fang Xuanling, and sighed heavily: "What a tricky marching route, what a thorough battle plan! This Garqin Mausoleum is really not good." Simple! Our emperors, ministers and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were all humiliated by him, how can we save our face!"
"Your Majesty, hasn't he escaped yet?" Fang Xuanling said, "I believe that General Yuchi will definitely not let the tiger return to the mountain easily. Although the battle of Songzhou failed to capture Gar Qinling, he is after all The expeditionary force went deep alone, and the old soldiers of the division were exhausted and lacked supplies. As long as General Yuchi woke up in time, he would no longer chase after Gar Qinling and be led away by him, but suddenly divert his troops to the northwest and advance to the Jinchuan River area. If we intercept and attack it, it is possible to win a big victory!"
Li Shimin shook his head and waved his hand, "Fortunately, it is easy for us to talk about war on paper here. When we actually arrived at the front line, Yuchi Jingde had been repeatedly played by Gar Qinling, and he was furious and feared that he would be fooled again. What if he sent his troops to the northwest to set up an ambush? Jinchuan River, what should I do if Garqinling suddenly turns around and fights back to Shu instead of coming to fight with him after he realizes it?"
"What your Majesty said makes perfect sense. With the fighting style of Gar Qinling, this possibility cannot be ruled out." Fang Xuanling also frowned in embarrassment, "It is small to intercept the enemy, but it is important to protect the people. Look at it this way Come, not only was Your Majesty in Chang'an too late to issue an edict to mobilize troops, even if Yuchi Jingde thought of this, he did not dare to attack rashly and leave Shu for fear that the Garqin Tomb would return and cause disaster to Shu. -Then he can only watch the Garqin Mausoleum and walk away!"
"Hey! - Such a bastard!!" Everyone in the room sighed in annoyance, clapping their fists and stamping their feet.
Li Shimin's face became even more ugly. He held his hands behind his back and bit his cheeks tightly, and a few words popped out between his teeth - "Unless Tubo is annihilated, today's shame cannot be washed away!"
At this time, Changsun Wuji said: "Your Majesty, I have thought about it from the beginning. The reason why the Garqin Mausoleum raided the interior and caused this chaos was not just for simple revenge or destruction."
Li Shimin frowned and said, "Tell me your opinion."
"I'm a humble minister, so I just talk about my humble opinion." Changsun Wuji said, "In the battle of Dafeichuan, the Garqin Mausoleum suffered heavy losses and the vitality of Tubo was greatly damaged. At the same time, his own reputation and status in Tubo must have been greatly affected. His sudden attack on Songzhou to bring chaos to the western frontier has two purposes. One is to keep us too busy to quell the chaos and have no time to fight, so that he can give Tubo a breathing space to recover. In addition to the huge losses in the prefectures and counties, Aren't there hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring into Guanzhong? How much manpower, material resources and time does the court have to spend to resettle the victims and rebuild the damaged homes? This is the biggest difference between the nomads and the people living in the Central Plains. We can’t just get on our horses and follow others. We have a city, a land, a house, and we live on the land.”
"It makes sense." Li Shimin nodded in approval, "The Gar Qinlings killed people and set fire all the way to deliberately create disasters, which caused heavy losses to the Tang Dynasty. In fact, if it were a war period, the people would not suffer such huge damage, because they We will take precautions. The more we are unprepared, the greater the losses. Now we have hundreds of thousands of victims who have fled from Western Xinjiang. I will leave it to you to personally supervise the settlement of the victims. , you continue."
"Wei Chen received the order." Changsun Wuji accepted the errand and continued, "The second intention of Garqin Ling is very obscure, but quite sinister - he wants to alienate my monarch, ministers and generals."
"I have thought of this!" Li Shimin took over the words and said, "Because I am indeed angry, whether it is towards Qin Mubai, Hou Junji, or Yuchi Jingde and Li Daliang. Gar Qinling expected that as long as he If he succeeds, the court will definitely punish those who have failed in their duties. Who will bear the brunt? - General Qin Mubai of Lanzhou and others! He wants to use my hands to remove the thorn in his side!"
"Your Majesty, your Majesty!" Changsun Wuji bowed his hands, "Perhaps this is the real intention of the Garqin Mausoleum! Not only to win over a powerful enemy, but also to force the Tang Dynasty to change its strategy against Tibet!"
"Then he underestimated me too much!" Li Shimin snorted coldly and said, "Qin Mubai was at fault, Hou Junji was guilty, Yuchi Jingde and Li Daliang also fought poorly and deserved punishment, but I am not stupid yet. For that matter - being used by his Garqin Ling to kill people for him, how is this different from 'self-destruction'?"
"My emperor is wise!" All the ministers sang together.
But Chu Suiliang was secretly wiping his hands with cold sweat - Your Majesty, Your Majesty, and Changsun Wuji, if you saw this other military report in my arms, would you still be able to say what I just said