Chapter 22 21. Fighting Tongguan small test edge

The battle between the Eastern Wei and the Western Wei started from Emperor Xiaojing's accession to the throne in the first year of Tianping (534 AD) of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and continued until the eighth year of Wuding (550 AD) when the Eastern Wei Dynasty was replaced by the Northern Qi Dynasty. Basically, there were small battles every year. The scale of a three-year battle.The fundamental reason for this is that they both regard the other as a hypocrite, do not recognize the legitimacy of the other's regime, and wish to put the other to death immediately. As far as orthodoxy is concerned, each side has its own reasons.The Eastern Wei still occupied the capital of the former Northern Wei and the center of its rule. Except for several states in Guanzhong and Longxi, and He Basheng’s Jingzhou, most of the other states professed their vassals to the Eastern Wei. The Wei Shou who wrote the "Book of Wei" was the Eastern Wei— The ministers of the Northern Qi Dynasty naturally regarded the Eastern Wei Dynasty as orthodox; the Western Wei Dynasty held the last emperor of the former Northern Wei Dynasty. In terms of "emperor lineage", its orthodoxy should not be questioned, so it took the Western Wei Dynasty as the orthodoxy and still called it Wei.

In fact, Gao Huan did not dare to deny the throne of Emperor Xiaowu in the slightest—Emperor Xiaowu was originally supported by him. If Emperor Xiaowu mobilized the troops in Guanzhong to deal with him in the name of rebellion, it would indeed give him It caused a lot of trouble.The problem is that Emperor Xiaowu died after staying in Chang'an for less than half a year, and Yu Wentai became Gao Huan's regicide, and Gao Huan did not recognize his successor at all. The death of Emperor Xiaowu was his own tragedy, but it was difficult for people to feel sympathy for him.He ran from Luoyang to Chang'an in order to be the real emperor with real power in his hands, but how could he do whatever he wanted under the fence of others?Yu Wentai's attitude towards the emperor is respectful, and he wants to enshrine him as his political capital.Emperor Xiaowu found sadly that his identity as a puppet had not changed, but only the manipulator behind the scenes. Unfortunately, Pei Xia's prophecy came true.Frustrated, he "willed to degenerate" and made his three cousins ​​princesses and stayed in the palace to enjoy and even incest.Yu Wentai resolutely opposed Gong Wei's ugly behavior, so he joined forces with several other princes to arrest and kill Princess Yuan Mingyue, who was beloved by Emperor Xiaowu.Emperor Xiaowu was furious, I only have such a small "hobby" (although it is very perverted), and you, Yu Wentai, are still interfering!The conflict between the monarch and his ministers became more and more open.Yu Wentai poisoned the wine and sent Emperor Xiaowu to the west.

In the first year of Datong in the Western Wei Dynasty (AD 535), Nanyang Wang Yuanbaoju, cousin of Emperor Xiaowu and elder brother of Princess Pingyuan, ascended the throne in Chang'an as Emperor Wen of the Western Wei Dynasty.Emperor Wen was a more obedient emperor, and he handed over all the power to Yu Wentai. Yuwentai quickly conquered Cao Ni in Lingzhou and placed the entire Guanzhong under the rule of the Western Wei Dynasty.Even so, the Western Wei Dynasty was inferior to the Eastern Wei Dynasty in terms of territory and population. To compete with the Eastern Wei Dynasty, it had to strengthen the country and enrich the people, and comprehensively rectify it from the inside.Since the Six Towns Rebellion in Guanzhong, there have been frequent wars and bad governance, and the people have had no rest.Yu Wentai ordered relevant departments to refer to the experience of various dynasties, and promulgated 24 new regulations, which benefited the people.Yu Wentai's brother-in-law, Wang Chaoshi, served as the governor of Qinzhou, and was seized by the officials for corrupting the law. In order to clarify the law, he personally intervened in the case, asked for a heavier punishment, and gave Wang Chaoshi to death.

His biggest coup is to reuse the talent of Su Chuo.Su Chuo is a Han Chinese who lives in Guanzhong (northwest of today's Wugong in Shaanxi).His specialty, according to history books, is called "you are good at arithmetic", according to modern terms, it is to understand economics.Talents who really understand economics are in high demand even today, let alone in the Western Wei Dynasty 1,500 years ago.Su Chuo not only understands economics, but also knows ancient and modern times, and has excellent eloquence.Yu Wentai talked with him and asked about the way of the rise and fall of the world, and he responded fluently, which made Yu Wentai amazed.Yu Wentai worshiped him as Daxingtai Zuocheng, and participated in confidential affairs.Su Chuo formulated a set of copywriting procedures to promote accounting and household registration standards in the Western Wei Dynasty.This is the origin of China's millennium "accounting" system. This alone is enough for Su Chuo to go down in history.

After a series of policy reforms by Yuwentai, the situation in Guanzhong, where there are few people and narrow land, has improved; at the same time, in the Eastern Wei Dynasty, Gao Huan was also busy consolidating his power and cleaning up the sect. In Kanto, Gao Huan had no match.He sent Hou Jing to Jingzhou to attack He Basheng. He Basheng was defeated and fled south to Liang State (Liang Wudi treated He Basheng well, and later let him return to Guanzhong and put him under Yuwentai's tent).He sent Lou Zhao (Lou Zhaojun's younger brother) and others to attack the disobedient Yanzhou Governor Fan Zihu, and it took little effort to break through the city and kill Fan Zihu.Gao Huan personally led the army to attack the "Jihu" Liu Lisheng in the north. He first defeated Liu Lisheng's main force on the battlefield, and then pretended to make peace with him, raided his remnants, and wiped out this force that had plagued the northern border for many years.

Gao Huan was fighting abroad, but he didn't expect that something happened in the backyard of his prime minister's mansion.When he rested and returned to Jinyang, a servant girl reported to him that the 15-year-old eldest son Gao Cheng (Gao Huan was named King of Bohai, the eldest son Gao Cheng was the prince's son) had an affair with his father's concubine Zheng Shi, and had Two maidservants testified. Gao Huan suddenly became furious, thinking back to the early years of homelessness, Gao Cheng, as the eldest son, was the only one who suffered with him, now that the old man is enjoying the blessings, he can finally take a few beautiful women as concubines, and indulge in the house, Gao Cheng actually wants to share How decent is a piece of soup!He immediately called Gao Cheng to beat Baibai, locked him in a small black room, and took his anger out on his wife, Lou Zhaojun, and put her under house arrest, not allowing mother and child to meet.This was not enough, Erzhurong's daughter Erzhushi (that is, the empress of Emperor Xiaozhuang, Gao Huan took her into the mansion after entering Luoyang) gave birth to him a son Gaoyu, who was very fond of him, so he wanted to abolish the unworthy Gao Cheng, Feng Xiaogao is the son of the world.Gao Cheng and Lou Zhaojun were terrified and went to ask Sima Ziru to help mediate.

Sima Ziru's eloquence, as introduced earlier, is one of the best under Gao Huan's hands (should be pulled to argue with Su Chuo in the west, haha).He ran to Gao Huan unhurriedly, pretending not to know, and begged to see Lou Zhaojun.Gao Huan reluctantly told him about his family's ugliness, and after a few days, he replaced Gao Cheng. Sima Ziru sighed, and said: "Every family has scriptures that are difficult to recite. My son Xiaonan also had an affair with my concubine. This kind of thing must be covered up, and you can't talk about it. Concubine Lou is The king’s first wife supported him when he was still a girl. Back then in Huaishuo Town, the king was beaten by his superiors and his body was shattered. She guarded your bedside day and night and took good care of him. Later, the king escaped from Ge Rong and went to Bingzhou to go to Erzhu Rong, your shoes were worn out on the road, and she burned horse manure at night to mend them for you. Have you forgotten the little things of kindness in the past? Now the king is prosperous, his daughter is married to the emperor, his son inherits the great cause, and the leader of the army is Lou Zhao. He has made outstanding achievements, so how can he easily shake the position of the son of the world? What's more, how can you easily believe the words of the maid?" (I like and admire this passage of Sima Ziru very much. It's perfect. As soon as he came up, he compared his heart with his heart, and instantly shortened the distance with Gao Huan. Then he was emotional in a small way, reasonable in a big way, and finally gave Gao Huan a step down. No matter how hard-hearted a person is, I'm afraid they can't stand this The "offensive" of soft and hard foam.)

After Gao Huan heard this, he sent Sima Ziru to investigate again.Sima Ziru forced the two maidservants who testified to retract their confessions, and threatened the maidservant who had reported to commit suicide. He came back and said to Gao Huan, "It really is a false accusation!" Gao Huan summoned Lou Zhaojun and Gao Cheng.Sima Ziru won a generous reward and became one of Gao Huan's most closely related ministers. (From another aspect of this matter, we can also see Gao Huan’s failure in educating his children. Gao Huan’s strong Xianbei culture created his treacherous and forbearing style of dealing with things, which was conducive to chaos but not conducive to governance. Its roots lie here.)

If Sima Zi is stronger than domestic affairs, he is an amateur in war.In the second year of Tianping (535 A.D.), he attacked Tongguan in the Western Wei Dynasty together with Dou Tai, the governor of Taizhou, and Han Gui, the governor of Taizhou. Defeated. Gao Huan decided to come to meet Yu Wentai in person.In the third year of Tianping, the god of heaven was not beautiful, there was a famine in Guanzhong, and the dead were everywhere.At the end of this year, Gao Huan led the armies of the Eastern Wei Dynasty to crusade against the Western Wei Dynasty. Gao Aocao attacked Shangluo (now Shang County, Shaanxi), and Dou Tai attacked Tongguan.Gao Huan's Jinyang Army erected three pontoon bridges at the Yellow River Ferry at Puban (now west of Yongji, Shanxi) in the north.The first battle between East and West Wei began.

Gao Huan's strategic policy is to use the Jinyang Army to attract the main force of the Western Wei Dynasty to the Yellow River, and Dou Tai will take advantage of the emptiness to attack Guanzhong and take away Yu Wentai's lair. Yu Wentai garrisoned in Guangyang, north of the Weishui River, and he saw through the formation of the Eastern Wei army at a glance. He summoned all the generals and said: "The enemy is attacking from three sides, and building floating bridges to gain momentum is precisely for our army to be fooled. Since Gao Huan raised his army, he has always With Dou Tai as the vanguard, the soldiers have won many battles and are very arrogant. I, Yu Wentai, am not afraid of him and want to settle him down. Once Dou Tai is defeated, Gao Huan will retreat without fighting!"

The generals were puzzled and said, "Gao Huan is near the other side of the Yellow River, and Dou Tai is far away at Tongguan. If you are not careful, you will regret it too late! It is better to divide your troops to resist." Yu Wentai chuckled, and said, "Gao Huan attacked Tongguan many times, but I didn't go out of Bashang; this time, he deliberately underestimated our army and thought that I would not dare to attack easily. Why worry about taking the opportunity to attack? Although the enemy After building a pontoon bridge, it will take some time to cross the Yellow River. I will advance with light cavalry, and within five days, I will definitely be able to take the head of Dou Tai!" Su Chuo and Da Xiwu, who joined the army in the middle army, agreed with Yu Wentai. Strategy. When Yu Wentai returned to Chang'an, there were rumors on the road that he would give up Tongguan and surrender Longxi.After seeing Emperor Wen of the Western Wei Dynasty, he quietly led his troops to the east, and two days later he appeared in Xiaoguan, southeast of Tongguan, outflanking Dou Tai's army.Dou Tai was taken aback, and hastily set up a battle array against the mountain.Before the formation was formed, Yu Wentai's light cavalry had already rushed to the front, and the Eastern Wei army was completely killed and injured. Dou Tai was unable to break through and committed suicide in embarrassment. In spring, the temperature turned warm and the ice on the Yellow River was too thin. Although Gao Huan's army had a pontoon bridge, it could not cross the Yellow River quickly. Facing Dou Tai's failure, he was powerless, and finally withdrew the pontoon bridge and retreated back to Jinyang. Gao Aocao's cavalry of the Han army on the South Road had a good record. Gao Aocao took the lead and was invincible.After taking down Shangluo, he planned to enter the customs from Lantian and go straight to Chang'an. Gao Huan sent a letter to inform Dou Tai of his defeat and ask him to withdraw his troops.Gao Aocao reluctantly retreated with the whole army, and Shangluo was recaptured by the Western Wei Dynasty. (Gao Aocao's ability to fight tough battles won Gao Huan's appreciation. From then on, he took on heavy responsibilities in the wars of the Western Wei Dynasty and cooperated with Gao Huan's main force.) In the Battle of Tongguan, Yu Wentai tried his edge for the first time and won a complete victory at a very small cost.Looking at this battle, Gao Huan originally wanted to divert the tiger away from the mountain with a superior force and surprise Guanzhong, but Yu Wentai retaliated with a counterattack.The two battle wits, and Yu Wentai takes the lead.It is a little regrettable that the two failed to compete face to face on the battlefield. Gao Huan was not convinced by the loss and was bent on revenge.The Eastern Wei army is always ready to go, ready to make a comeback, and a big battle is imminent.