Chapter 24 4. Balance: Yuchi Gong from the non-Wagangzhai Group

In Li Shimin's Tang army, most of the main generals such as Shan Xiongxin, Qin Shubao, and Xu Shi came from the Wagang Group, and they controlled the actions of the Tang army.On the one hand, this provided Li Yuan and Li Shimin with a large number of extraordinary military talents, leading the Tang army to start an invincible campaign; but on the other hand, what disturbed Li Shimin was that these people came from the same team after all. Once the same hatred against the enemy, it is bound to form a considerable force.Every time Li Shimin thought of this, he felt that he should vigorously select military talents. In the first year after Li Tang was established, a brave general appeared in front of Li Shimin's eyes.

After Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty in 618 AD, Liu Wuzhou, who was entrenched in Shanxi relying on Turkic forces, took the initiative to attack Datang.Liu Wuzhou proclaimed himself emperor one year before Li Yuan. He was originally the largest separatist force in the northern region. Therefore, Li Yuan's proclaiming emperor made him unable to sleep peacefully. So at the suggestion of his right-hand assistant Song Jingang, he sent general Lu Chongmao to attack Jinyang, intending to attack Jinyang. South development, to seek the world.Li Yuan, who had just established the Tang Dynasty and was still immersed in the joy of becoming emperor, was sure to win Liu Wuzhou's attack this time, so he sent a large number of troops. Crusade Lu Chongmao.Who knows that Lu Chongmao is not only very brave himself, but also one of his generals, Yu Chigong, is even more brave. He defeated the Tang army several times and captured Tang army generals Dugu Huai'en, Tang Jian and others.Seeing the enemy approaching step by step, Li Shimin hurriedly led his army to meet the enemy.

Li Shimin and Lu Chongmao's army confronted each other in Jiangzhou. At this time, Lu Chongmao looked at the mighty Tang army and had heard about Li Shimin's military strategy for a long time, so he couldn't help feeling flustered.Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin's army to suppress the border, and at the same time issued a security order to Lu Chongmao, promising him a high-ranking official and generous salary, and promised that if he rebelled against Liu Wuzhou and defected to Li Yuan's account, he would be the governor of Xiazhou, and he could also be regarded as a big official in frontiers.

As soon as the army was stationed in Jiangzhou, Li Shimin received a tip, saying that Lu Chongmao had agreed to surrender.Li Yuan was very satisfied with this, and he said to Li Shimin: "You see, the prosperity of the world is for profit. Lu Chongmao was just a commander in Liu Wuzhou's army. Now I promise him a governor of Xiazhou, and he will join us immediately. , we can take down this team without a single soldier.” Li Shimin disagreed with this. He said: "The most important thing about being a man is integrity. Liu Wuzhou trusts Lu Chongmao very much. He entrusted him with such an important task, but he turned to us because of the temptation of a little profit. I don't think this is the case. What's the point of a human being?"

Li Yuan smiled and said, "For us now, victory in the war is the key." Li Shimin didn't want to say anything about it, but he heard Li Yuan say to the emissary: ​​"Go and tell Lu Chongmao that a man in his army has captured many leaders of our army. If he wants to surrender, he must kill that man first." Come on, bring his head, and only then can the hatred in my heart be relieved!" Li Shimin hurriedly asked, "Who is it?" Li Yuan said: "This man's surname is Yuchi, his name is Gong, and his name is Jingde. He not only captured your uncle Yong'an Wang Li Xiaoji, but also captured Tang Jian and Dugu Huai'en. It's really abominable. If you don't kill him, I won't be able to get out." This bad breath!"

The envoy took the order and left, but Li Shimin could not agree with his father's approach.But he couldn't argue in court, so he had to withdraw sadly.However, just as fate was playing a joke, on the second day, surprising news came from Lu Chongmao's army: Lu Chongmao failed to kill Yu Chigong, but was killed by him instead! Li Yuan was shocked when he heard the news, and asked the emissary, "What about Tang Jian and Dugu Huai'en?" The envoy said: "When Yu Chigong found out that General Lu Chongmao was going to kill him, he went ahead and killed General Lu. Now he has taken Tang Jian and Dugu Huai'en to Huizhou."

When Li Shimin heard the news, he couldn't help but secretly rejoiced, and praised Yu Chigong for being so brave and alert.He asked Li Yuan for orders: "I am willing to lead the army to fight him in Huizhou, and I will surely capture him." Li Yuan was surprised and angry when Yu Chigong escaped. Seeing Li Shimin pleading for orders, he asked him to lead an army of 100,000 to pacify him, and repeatedly told him to bring Yu Chigong's head. Li Shimin led the army to Huizhou. He fled in a hurry by Yu Chigong. Before he had the opportunity to deploy his camp, he asked Yin Kaishan and Qin Shubao, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, to attack quickly. The unprepared Yuchigong was caught off guard and fled Hui Zhou went to Puban.Li Shimin chased after him, and attacked him from a small path, and beat him to pieces.Successive defeats made Yu Chigong wake up when he heard Li Shimin's name. In the process of running away, he couldn't take care of everything and let the prisoner Dugu Huai'en escape.

Li Yuan was very happy when he heard the news that Li Shimin had won again and again, and he felt even more happy when he saw Dugu Huai'en who had escaped again.He asked Dugu Huai'en to lead 50,000 troops to meet Li Shimin, trying to defeat Yu Chigong in the shortest possible time, and to avenge his shame. Just when Dugu Huai'en was about to lead the army to set off, Li Shimin, who was leading the troops at the front, suddenly came back, and Li Yuan hurriedly met him.When Li Shimin saw Li Yuan, he took out a letter.Li Yuan asked suspiciously: "What is this?" Li Shimin said: "You will know it after you have seen it."

Li Yuan opened the letter and was shocked.It turned out that this was a letter written by Tang Jian, who was captured by Yu Chigong, to Li Yuan.In the letter, Tang Jian told Li Yuan that after he and Dugu Huai'en were captured by Yuchi Gong, he once heard Dugu Huai'en say that he would escape in the future, so he did not want to be ruled by King Tang again, intending to rebel.Now that he really escaped, and Li Yuan gave him a large number of troops, I am afraid that he is about to plot rebellion, so Li Yuan should be more careful! Li Yuan folded up the letter from the enemy camp and said to Li Shimin: "Thanks to Tang Jian's letter, otherwise when Dugu Huai'en leaves tomorrow, I'm afraid we will have another enemy."

Li Shimin said: "That's right! But father should not only thank Tang Shilang, but also one more person." Li Yuan said suspiciously: "It was Tang Jian who tipped off the news, who else should I thank if I don't thank him?" Li Shimin said: "Tang Jian was captured, and now he can send the letter in such a timely manner. Doesn't my father feel that he should thank the person who let him go?" Li Yuan said, "You mean Yuchi Gong?" Li Shimin said: "It's him! Tang Jian begged Yu Chigong to send this letter to me in the prison camp, so I could send it to you in time. Therefore, if Dugu Huai'en can be captured this time, Yu Chigong also It's meritorious."

Li Yuan thought for a while, and said: "You are a joke, he is our enemy, how can we thank him!" Li Shimin said: "We have been confronting Yu Chigong for so long, and we have never seen Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang come to support him. And recently I have defeated him again and again, and now he has fled to Jiexiu. This time he is willing to let him go. Someone sent me a letter, it seems that he actually has a heart to surrender." Li Yuan said: "He has captured several of my generals, and I will not accept his surrender." Li Shimin said: "The so-called everyone is the master. He was originally Liu Wuzhou's general, and he should have captured my soldiers. The blame can only be blamed on our own lack of tactics. How could my father think it was his fault? What's more, Since you can recruit a spineless Lu Chongmao, why can't you recruit a brave and good fighter?" Li Yuan lowered his head and thought about Li Shimin's words, it seems that this is exactly the reason.Datang has just been established, and it is the time when there is a large demand for talents, how can I give up this fierce general just because of a moment of enthusiasm?He was a little ashamed of his irrationality just now, so he said to Li Shimin: "Then you mean to recruit him?" Seeing that Li Yuan was wavering, Li Shimin said happily, "Yes! Now that our army is pressing down on the border, Yu Chigong's resistance is getting weaker and weaker. This time, he let Tang Jian send us a letter. I'm sure I can succeed in recruiting." At this time, Yu Chigong resisted the approach of the Tang army on the one hand, and on the other hand saw that his lord Liu Wuzhou not only could not save him, but could not protect himself. He fled to the Turkic who had always supported him, but was killed by the Turkic Khan.Seeing that his situation was over, he couldn't help sighing inwardly: It seems that Tang Jun's victory is already doomed.Thinking that he was about to be defeated, he came to the prison and said to Tang Jian: "We are each masters. Now Liu Wuzhou has been killed, and I am about to be defeated. So I won't kill you, let you go." Tang Jian thanked Yu Chigong and said to him: "The general is brave and invincible in the world, but the one he is loyal to is not a credible king. Now my lord has proclaimed himself emperor in Chang'an, and everyone in the world has heard the news and is defeated. The world returns to his heart. The general is not as good as Wouldn't it be a good thing to abandon the dark and turn to the bright, and serve the King of Tang with me?" Yuchi Jingde said: "I have defeated Tang Jun several times, I'm afraid they won't accept me." Tang Jian said: "I would like to introduce you to the general." He came to Tangying and praised Yuchi for his bravery, bravery, benevolence and righteousness.At this time, Li Yuan was no longer angry with him because of the defeat, and with Li Shimin's persuasion, he finally agreed to recruit Yu Chigong. In 620 A.D., Yu Chigong descended to Tang Dynasty with the two cities of Jiexiu and Yong'an where he was stationed, and became a general under Li Shimin's banner.In the Li Tang military group, he is one of the very few non-Wagang generals. In addition, he is extremely good at fighting, so he has won the trust of Li Shimin and has become an important part of the balance of power within the military group. of jealousy.Shi Qu Tutong, Marshal of the Tang Army, was worried that Yuchi Gong's excessive favor would lead to self-respect and repeated situations, so he suggested to Li Shimin to reduce his military power, but Li Shimin refused.Because in Li Shimin's mind, the possibility of Yu Chigong appearing to support himself is far lower than that of the generals of the Wagang Army.