Chapter 8 8. The power of gods and ghosts, the pawn of war

In the vicissitudes of the end of the Sui Dynasty, "anti-kings" from all walks of life appeared on the stage with their own abilities, but they could form a certain climate, so that they later threatened Li Yuan and Li Shimin, only Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande. Wang Shichong is not from the Wang family, but changed his name only because of his stepfather Wang Shou.In his youth, Wang Shichong was eloquent and eloquent, learned the law well, and was widely involved in biography and military art.With these accumulations, in the political arena of the Sui Dynasty, Wang Shichong made great progress, from Zuo Yiwei to being a member of the Ministry of War.In the end, what gave Wang Shichong a chance to make a fortune was that during his tenure as Jiangdu Cheng, he observed his words and feelings, flattered and flattered him, and won the favor of Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty.At the same time, he was not a man of courage or plan. He once led the army to quell the Jiangnan uprising launched by Zhu Xie and Guan Chong in response to Yang Xuangan, and suppressed the uprising of Meng Rang, a peasant rebel army in Qi County, showing extraordinary military talent.The combination of all these provided the foundation for Wang Shichong to develop into a generation of heroes.

After Li Mi captured Xingluocang and occupied Luoyang, according to the good situation at that time, whether he led his troops west to Chang'an or south to Jiangdu, he could quickly overthrow Sui Yang Emperor and seize power.But he didn't. After Luoyang was occupied by Wang Shichong, Li Mi was very angry. He vowed to take back Luoyang from Wang Shichong.He had "more than a hundred battles" with Wang Shichong, which delayed the opportunity of the war and consumed a lot of strength of the Wagang Army. He was finally defeated by Wang Shichong and was no longer able to march.However, the power of the Tang Dynasty was booming, Li Yuan had already proclaimed himself emperor, and Li Mi had no chance to stand up.The course of history has thus changed.

After the fall of Luoyang, the eastern capital, Emperor Sui Yang looked around, and it seemed that only Wang Shichong was trustworthy, so he was sent to suppress it, and Wang Shichong rushed to Luoyang.At first, the situation was not as good as expected, and Sui Jun was not Li Mi's opponent.At that time, the Wagang Army was supported by heroes all over the world, and Li Mi, who had just become the leader of the rebel army, was also full of pride.The arrival of Wang Shichong coincided with the incomparable vigor of the Wagang Army, so they fought and failed repeatedly. Wang Shichong looked at the Luoyang defense map in the military tent, frowning.Although he had always been pretentious, he was appointed at this time, came to Luoyang with nothing, suffered several defeats in a row, and could not explain himself to Emperor Sui Yang, which made him anxious.The candlelight in the tent flickered, just like his mood.

Zhonglang general Cui Zhihu saw Wang Shichong like this, he couldn't help feeling guilty, he clasped his fists and said, "General, I was blocked by the villain Li Mi when I sent troops today, please write a letter to the emperor to punish me, and my subordinates have no complaints." Wang Shichong waved his hands wearily, and said: "A temporary defeat is nothing to worry about. When I wait to send troops at this time, it is the time when Li Mi's morale is at its peak. It is not the fault of you few that I cannot advance for a while." Cui Zhihu said: "But...for the past few days, Li Mi has captured several of our generals and captured thousands of people, and our camp has also repeatedly retreated. If this continues, the emperor will definitely punish him, and I'm afraid it will be bad for the general at that time!"

Wang Shichong rolled up the map and said, "Victory and defeat are common in marching and fighting. What's more, Li Mi's wisdom is far-reaching, and he is not comparable to Zhu Xie and Guan Chong. General Cui doesn't have to worry too much. It's better to go out with me to see the scenery. " At this time, the outside of Luoyang city is already as dark as black ink, where is there any scenery to see?Wang Shichong was already dizzy because of thinking about the several failures in the past few days. He wanted to stand on a high place and blow the wind to relax his tense nerves.

Cui Zhihu followed behind Wang Shichong, and the two walked slowly along the military defense.Wang Shichong said: "General Cui thinks why our army loses continuously?" Cui Zhihu said: "After Li Mi captured Luoyang, he first opened up warehouses to help the people, and then recruited people bravely. All the 'rebels' from all walks of life came to join him. Now he is full of ambition. Our army is different, coming all the way from Jiangdu, After losing the Xingluo warehouse, food and grass were collected from other places, and the soldiers did not eat well, and were very tired from the long journey, so..."

Wang Shichong nodded gloomily, and Cui Zhihu hastily added: "But it's more about the ineffectiveness of the subordinates in fighting." Hearing Cui Zhihu's words, Wang Shichong laughed instead, and said, "Actually, what you said just now is correct. We came at the wrong time, and happened to meet Li Mi when he was most proud. It's like meeting the sharpest knife. where it is impossible to be undefeated." The two walked while talking, and arrived at the gate of the camp after a while.Wang Shichong looked around, and saw the little lights of fire outside the dark camp gate fluttering in the wind.He asked his followers, "What is that?"

The entourage hurriedly said in panic: "Return to the general: it's the soldiers paying homage." Wang Shichong asked again: "Worship? What is the worship?" The follower explained: "Today is July and a half, and it is the Ghost Festival. According to the custom, on this day, the gates of ghosts will be opened, and many ghosts will come out to beg for food, so they must be sacrificed with dishes, wine and rice, in order to be safe. And In the past few days, we have lost a lot of soldiers. So the soldiers also want to pay homage to their comrades..." Cui Zhihu scolded from the side: "Nonsense! Where are there ghost gates, ghosts and gods in this world? If there are, let those ghosts and gods capture Li Mi back, so that we don't have to waste any more effort. Why don't you stop them?"

The attendant said in a low voice: "All the officers and men in the army believe in this. Everyone must pray for safety before going out, and also offer sacrifices on solar terms and birthdays. The subordinates also tried to stop them, but they scolded them. We had to let them go Sacrifice outside the camp, so as not to cause fire." Cui Zhihu said to Wang Shichong: "Oh, these people don't think about making progress, and they look forward to the blessings of ghosts and gods every day." He personally bowed and retreated, but Wang Shichong was lost in thought. On the second day, a Dharma platform was suddenly set up in front of Wang Shichong's big tent.A wizard with disheveled hair sat on it, holding a mahogany sword, with his eyes closed, chanting words.

Wang Shichong summoned all the generals and staff, and ordered all the soldiers to line up in front of the camp.Everyone was confused when they saw this scene.I saw Wang Shichong striding to the front of the formation, and said loudly: "Everyone, I am ordered by the emperor to lead an elite army to Dongdu, intending to put down the Wagang rebel Li Mi. The army has not advanced for several days. God showed that it turned out that Li Mi’s life was not exhausted. Now it’s different. Last night Zhou Gong entrusted me with a dream and told me: Li Mi’s life has come to an end. He ordered me to sacrifice the altar today. Law!"

As soon as the words fell, the wizard suddenly began to tremble all over, shouted loudly, kept waving the sword in his hand, and shouted in his mouth: "The upper body of the gods, Wang Shichong obeys orders!" Wang Shichong bowed down in front of the altar, and the soldiers behind him saw this posture, and they all bowed down with a "crash". I only heard the mage say: "Li Mi violated the destiny, and now it is the end. Your army has not been able to advance for several days because he made the last resistance. As long as these days pass, the odds of winning are all in our army. I order you to wait Swinging at Luoyang at noon today, I will surely defeat the rebels and declare my imperial prestige!" Wang Shichong responded loudly: "The disciple takes orders!" I saw the sorcerer trembled and shouted again, and then fell limply on the altar.Seeing this scene, the generals raised their weapons one by one and shouted loudly: "Wave Ge Luoyang, declare my imperial prestige! Swipe Luoyang, declare my imperial prestige!" Wang Shichong couldn't help but feel elated when he saw such excitement.He said loudly: "Now, God bless my court, I will definitely be able to cut Li Mi under the horse! Pass down the order: All the generals will bury pots and cook food, prepare troops and horses, and march to Luoyang at noon!" The sergeants who had been defeated for the past few days saw the spirit possessed with their own eyes, and clearly stated that they would definitely win Li Mi this time. They were all very excited. Reunited with family.The originally sluggish morale suddenly rose, and everyone actively prepared weapons, and everyone was smiling, as if the next step was not to fight, but to go home. Wang Shichong turned around and returned to the military tent, ordered people to remove the altar, and sent away the wizard who had been found overnight.Cui Zhihu, who doesn't believe in ghosts and gods, followed in and said in bewilderment, "General, what's going on? My subordinates don't understand." Wang Shichong smiled and pointed to the soldiers running back and forth outside the tent, and said to him: "You just need to look outside, don't you understand everything?" Cui Zhihu looked at the soldiers outside, then at Wang Shichong's inscrutable smile, his frown slowly unfolded, he couldn't help cupping his fists and said in a low voice: "The general's trick!" With the appearance of the oracle, the morale of the Sui army suddenly rose sharply. In the next few battles, each of them was extremely brave, as if with the help of a god.Wang Shichong commanded the Sui army to defeat Li Mi's Wagang army, shattering the dream of Li Mi's leader.The ashamed Li Mi tried to commit suicide, but fortunately was stopped by Wang Bodang, so he had to go to the Tang Army in the end. And Wang Shichong also started from Luoyang, proclaimed himself a Taiwei, and controlled the Yue King Yang Yu in Luoyang.After Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was killed, he first established Yue Wang Yang Yu as the emperor, and then forced him to abdicate. In the second year after Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty, he readily accepted the throne. The regime opposed to Tang. The strategy of gods and ghosts is a method often used in ancient Chinese wars. Although the means are not very clever, they often achieve amazing results.