Chapter 12 2. King Qin of Yanmen: Soldiers never tire of cheating

After Emperor Sui Yang gained the throne by killing his father and brother, for a period of time, his rule continued the policy of Emperor Wen, which can be regarded as Qingming.Although he became more and more brutal later on, wasting people's power and arousing public resentment, he still had a certain prestige in the army.This point was fully reflected in the Yanmen Pass incident in August of 615 AD. The most shining figure in this incident was Li Shimin. In exchange for full applause. In 615 A.D., Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty had a whim and said to Xiao Yu, his minister of internal history: "I am bored in the palace, why don't I lead all my ministers out of the palace to inspect the great mountains and rivers, and have some fun by the way? Happy?" Xiao Yu originally wanted to stop him, but Yu Wenshu, the general of Zuowei, grabbed his sleeve and shook his head quietly.

Everyone knows that Yang Guang is a master who likes to play. With his playfulness, even if the sky falls, he can't stop him.Therefore, Yu Wenshu, Xiao Yu and others, together with Prime Minister Su Wei, did not stay. It can be said that the Sui Dynasty politicians came out in full force and went to visit the mountains and rivers.But Yang Guang never thought that when his play team came to Yanmen Pass, they encountered the army of Turkic Shibi Khan. Shibi Khan was originally related to the Sui Dynasty by marriage. Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty once married Princess Yicheng to him, hoping to exchange for the peace of the frontier through marriage.However, since Emperor Sui Yang succeeded to the throne, he had turned against the Turks several times, and even killed Shibi Khan's most valued envoy, so the two families had been feuding for a long time.This time when Emperor Sui Yang came to Yanmen Pass, he was surrounded by 300,000 powerful Turkic troops led by Shibi Khan without any precautions, which made Yang Guang at a loss for a while.

In the meeting hall, Yang Guang hugged his seven-year-old son Yang Gao and looked out the door blankly, listening to Prime Minister Su Wei's report: "There are about 100,000 defenders in the city now, but The food and grass are only enough for 20 days, once the food and grass run out, we have nowhere to go." At this time, the general Fan Zigai, who has always been known for his bravery, stood up and said: "It's better for us to bring thousands of elite soldiers to protect His Majesty and break out of the siege." Su Wei hurriedly said: "No! Riding and archery is the strength of the Turkic people. For us, the best way is to defend the city. If we open the door to break through, we can only die! In the past few days, the soldiers They also open the door to fight, but they fail every time, can't they see how big the odds are?"

Fan Zigai said: "But according to the current situation, it's not a perfect strategy for us to wait!" At this time, General Yuwen of Zuowei said: "Your Majesty, considering the current situation, we can only issue an edict to order the troops from all over the country to rush to the king's rescue!" Yang Guang nodded helplessly, and said, "It seems that this is the only way to do it!" Li Yuan, the prefect of Yuncheng at that time, frowned after receiving the edict delivered by the emissary, because at this time Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was trapped, and his subordinates strongly suggested that he take the opportunity to rebel against the Sui Dynasty. Although Li Yuan had this idea, he thought that now not the right time yet.He said to Li Shimin who was standing behind him: "This time King Qin, the troops from all over the country may not be so active, but you must not slack off. Now I will order you to take the army horse from Yuncheng and go to fight with General Youtunwei Yunding Let's join together and go straight to Yanmen Pass to rescue him!"

Although the heroic Li Shimin is only sixteen years old, he has always yearned to one day be able to fight the enemy on the battlefield. This is the first time he has been ordered to go to the battlefield. He suppressed the excitement in his heart, bid farewell to his father and rode straight to the barracks.However, after reuniting with Yun Dingxing, Li Shimin discovered a problem. Although the troops were rushing towards Yanmen Pass every day, they were always not in a hurry.He was deeply puzzled, so he came to the general Yun Dingxing to ask what happened. Looking at the young man in front of him, Yun Dingxing couldn't help but smiled and said, "Young man, what are you in such a hurry for? If you're late for a day or two, nothing will happen."

The fledgling Li Shimin couldn't understand the thoughts of these veteran officials, so he had to follow him all the time.When the troops finally arrived at Yanmen Pass, Yun Dingxing also started to have a headache when he saw the fortified barracks of the Turks. Every time Emperor Sui Yang issued an order, although they had to obey, the soldiers complained a lot about it, because Yang Guang issued an order every time it was extremely urgent, but the reward promised after completing the task was never in place.This has caused many people to become more and more slack. Yun Dingxing, as the general, had complaints in his heart, but he still led his troops to rescue him from afar, but when he saw these sturdy Turkic cavalry, he couldn't help but gasp Tone, because he still has nothing to do with how to defeat the enemy.

Yun Dingxing asked all the generals under his tent: "Do you have any good strategies to defeat the enemy?" Everyone bowed their heads and remained silent, planning to wait for the troops of the other King Qin to arrive. They all made up their minds, and there was no reward for meritorious service anyway, so no one wanted to make meritorious service. Only the young Li Shimin said enthusiastically: "The subordinates have been observing the enemy camp for several days, and they already have a good plan, which I would like to dedicate to the general!" Yun Dingxing hurriedly asked: "What's a good strategy, let's talk about it quickly."

Li Shimin said: "In the past few days, our army has been stationed outside Yanmen Pass, but the Turkic army seems unmoved. It seems that they don't take us seriously. This is mainly because we only have 100,000 people, and But the Turks have 300,000 people, so they are not afraid at all. If the troops of the other King Qin arrive, the emperor may wait anxiously in the city. Therefore, my strategy is to cooperate with the inside and outside, and use suspicious troops to defeat the enemy!" As he spoke, Li Shimin presented his thoughts one by one.Although the generals have been on the battlefield for a long time, they all praised it as a clever plan.Yun Dingxing ordered to carry out, and asked Li Shimin to start deploying with a large number of troops.

Li Shimin came outside the barracks and divided the troops into three groups: the first group carried the army horse battle flag. Although they didn't have to fight every day, they had to run back and forth outside the camp, causing the dust to fly. It is not clear how many people the Sui army has, and the area they run is expanding by one mile every day, making the Turks think that the Sui army has reinforcements coming every day; They planted all over every mountain; the third group of men and horses beat drums day and night to boost morale and intimidate the enemy.At the same time, Li Shimin trimmed the barracks where he was stationed in a strip shape, and laid them out word by word, making the Turkic soldiers who didn't know where they were going to think that the Sui soldiers were numerous and powerful.

Yun Dingxing patrolled the camp on horseback and asked Li Shimin, "Is this useful?" Li Shimin said: "Don't worry, general. As far as I know, Shibi Khan is a very suspicious person. This suspicious strategy will definitely shake his army's morale, and his subordinates have other clever strategies." After setting up the camp, the next day, Shibi Khan received the news that the Sui army had reinforcements every day, and it seemed that there were already three to four hundred thousand people.He went outside the camp and took a look: the camp of the Sui army stretched for several miles, and flags were flying on the hills in the distance. The roar of war horses and the rumble of war drums could be heard endlessly. It seemed that there were indeed many reinforcements!Seeing this, let’s look back at the situation of the siege: Although the Turks were good at riding and shooting, the Yanmen Pass was solidly defended, and the Sui army was good at defending, so the progress of the siege seemed to be no progress for a while.Thinking of this, Shibi Khan couldn't help frowning.

Just as he was racking his brains to think whether to advance or retreat, someone suddenly presented a letter from the Da Yan family. This Da Yan family was Princess Yicheng who was married to Turkic by Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty. When Shibi Khan opened it, he couldn't help being surprised.It turned out that when he went out to conquer Yang Guang, some tribes in the north had already set his sights on his city.The letter from the Da Yan family was precisely for this matter, saying that a foreign race wanted to raise troops in the north, and it had reached the point where swords were on the verge of breaking out. Originally, he was already worried about the continuous reinforcements of the Sui army. Now that he received the news, Shibi Khan didn't dare to imagine what would happen to him if he was attacked by the enemy, so he ordered the troops to withdraw and hurried back to rescue the city. After two days of sounding drums and waving flags, the morale of the Sui army was high. Seeing that the Turks had put away their battle flags and wanted to escape, they rushed out in one go and captured thousands of Turkic deserters. Yun Dingxing saw that he didn't send a single soldier, and scared Shibi Khan away without any damage. His joy was beyond words, and he said to Li Shimin: "My nephew is really a clever strategy to repel the enemy! It's just that our suspicious soldiers have deployed Two days, why did the Turks suddenly withdraw until the third day?" Li Shimin said: "Although Shibi Khan is a suspicious person, the Turkic people are brave and warlike. Although he knows that our reinforcements are coming, he still does not give up. So, I added another plan to the suspicious soldiers. " All the generals hurriedly asked: "What's the plan, tell me quickly and listen to it." Li Shimin said: "The first emperor once married Princess Yicheng to Shibi Khan. Many people know about this. Over the years, although the Sui Dynasty and the Turks had feuded against each other, Princess Yicheng missed her homeland and has been secretly helping us. Therefore At the same time that I was setting up the formation, I sent a letter to her, asking her to write to Shibi Khan, telling him that there was an alien invasion from the north. Through internal and external cooperation, Shibi Khan was afraid that he would be attacked by the enemy, so will leave in a hurry.” After listening to Li Shimin's explanation, everyone knew that there was such a move, and they couldn't help but look at this young man with admiration. When Yang Guang found out that the Turkic army had withdrawn, he took Yu Wenshu, Su Wei, Xiao Yu and others out of the city to see that it was Yun Dingxing who came to rescue King Qin with troops and horses. He couldn't help being overjoyed and said to him: "This time, General Yun You have done a great job in rescuing him, and I will reward you heavily when you return to Chang'an!" Yun Dingxing knew that Yang Guang just said so, and when he returned to Chang'an, he probably had forgotten this promise, but he still knelt down and thanked him. The Yanmen rescue incident was Li Shimin's first appearance on the battlefield, and it can be said to be his first victory.The significance of this victory is not only that the 300,000 Turkic troops were retreated without bloodshed, but also that Li Yuan was valued in the eyes of Sui Yang Emperor Yang Guang.Relying on his superhuman wisdom and strategy, Li Shimin showed extraordinary military talents, which provided a good opportunity for Li Yuan to raise troops later, and Li Yuan got a powerful assistant.