Chapter 23 Turning the Tide: Guo Ziyi Solo Riding League Huihe

When the border battle report came, Daizong urgently summoned Guo Ziyi and asked him what strategy he had to defend against the enemy.Guo Ziyi said with confidence: "Pugu Huai'en won't do anything." Daizong was quite surprised and asked him why. Guo Ziyi said: "Although Pu Gu Huai'en is brave, he is mean and ungrateful, and the soldiers do not support him. Besides, the soldiers under Huai'en's command are all the former subordinates of my ministers. They will not bear to confront me with swords. It's hard to do anything." Daizong was very pleased when he heard the words, and immediately ordered Guo Ziyi to lead his troops out of Fengtian (now Qianxian County, Shaanxi Province) to defend against enemies from the west.

In late September, Pugu Huai'en led the retreating coalition forces to approach Binzhou (now Bin County, Shaanxi).He immediately sent someone to warn Guo Ziyi, and Guo Ziyi immediately ordered his son Guo Xi to lead tens of thousands of horses to rescue Pinzhou. In early October, Pugu Huai'en's vanguard arrived in Yilu (now Changwu County, Shaanxi Province), but was repelled by Bai Xiaode.A few days later, Pu Gu Huai'en led an army to Binzhou and began to attack the city. Bai Xiaode and Guo Xi fought hard against the city. On October 6th, Pugu Huai'en realized that Binzhou was not easy to conquer, so he led his army around Binzhou and approached Fengtian.Upon hearing the news, the imperial court immediately declared martial law in the capital.Guo Ziyi's generals called for battle one after another. Guo Ziyi said: "The enemy army has penetrated into our hinterland and is eager for a quick battle. Our army should stand firm and never take the initiative to attack. The enemy thinks that we are timid to fight, so our guard will naturally relax. Only then will we have the opportunity to fight against the enemy. Break it down. If you attack now, if you lose, the morale of the army will be scattered. Anyone who dares to say anything about fighting will be killed immediately!"

On the night of the seventh day, Guo Ziyi chose a dangerous terrain south of Qianling and ordered his soldiers to build a strong camp. At dawn on the eighth day, the army of regurgitation arrived in Fengtian.Pugu Huai'en originally thought that Guo Ziyi was not on guard, but when he saw it here, he found that the Tang army was already in full swing.Moreover, the camp outside the city and Fengtian are at the corner of each other. No matter where the vomit army attacks, they will inevitably fall into the danger of being attacked by the enemy.Especially for troops that have been put together temporarily like the vomiting coalition forces, there are inherent problems in coordination and cooperation. Once the troops are divided, the situation will definitely be more unfavorable.

Therefore, when the Huihe people and Tubo people saw the formation Guo Ziyi set up for them, they were immediately shocked. After waiting and watching for a long time, they finally dared not attack and retreated without fighting. Guo Ziyi seized the opportunity and ordered Li Huaiguang to lead five thousand cavalry to pursue him until he reached Mating (now in the south of Binxian County, Shaanxi). On October 13th, the Tutu army retreated to Binzhou.Pu Gu Huai'en was not reconciled, and attacked Binzhou again, but after seven or eight days of strong attack, he still failed to conquer it.At this time, the food and grass of the allied forces were exhausted, and Pugu Huai'en had no choice but to lead his people across Jingshui on the 21st and fled westward.

Pugu Huai'en's first military operation ended in vain. In September of the first year of Yongtai (765 A.D.), Pugu Huai'en once again gathered hundreds of thousands of troops including Huihe, Tubo, Tuyuhun, Dangxiang, and Nula, and invaded in three ways: the Tubo army attacked Fengtian (now Shaanxi) from the north road. Gan County), followed by the Uighur Legion, and Pugu Huai'en led the Shuofang Army to the rear; the Dangxiang Army attacked Tongzhou (now Dali County, Shaanxi) from the east road; the Tuyuhun and Nula Army attacked Zhouzhi (now Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi) from the West Road .

Guo Ziyi urgently reported to Emperor Daizong: "The Hulu are all cavalry, and they are marching at such a speed that they must not be taken lightly. Please order Fengxiang Jiedu envoy Li Baoyu, Huapu Jiedu envoy Li Guangting, Binning Jiedu envoy Bai Xiaode, Zhenxi Jiedu envoy Make Ma Lin, Henan Jiedu Envoy Hao Tingyu, Huaixi Jiedu Envoy Li Zhongchen and other ministries dispatch troops quickly to guard all important military positions." Daizong immediately issued an edict.However, except for Li Zhongchen's department who immediately set out after receiving the edict, the other feudal towns were slow to respond and did not send troops in time.

If it wasn't for the major accident that happened next, which reversed the whole situation, the Tang Dynasty would probably have to go through another severe war test after the Tubo invasion two years ago, and the Xijing Chang'an would probably fall again. , Daizong Li Yu is likely to flee again in embarrassment.Fortunately, this accident happened very timely - Pugu Huai'en died. Just as the multinational coalition forces rushed all the way to Chang'an, Pugu Huai'en suddenly fell ill and was immediately transferred to the rear. He died in Mingsha (now Zhongning County, Ningxia) on the eighth day of September of this year.

After Pu Gu Huai'en died, the multinational coalition forces immediately lost their connection and began to act separately.However, the Shuofang tribe led by Pugu Huai'en changed their masters several times: first, Zhang Shao, who was imprisoned by Pugu Huai'en, escaped from prison, gathered the old troops and seized the command; then the general Xu Huangyu killed Zhang Shao, He took over the Shuofang army; not long after, general Fan Zhicheng killed Xu Huangyu and seized the command again. On September 15th, the 100,000 Tubo army suddenly arrived at Fengtian City, and the capital was once again terrified.

When the Tubo people were marching out of the city, the guard general of Fengtian and the envoy of Shuofang, Hun Yu, took advantage of the unsteady foothold, and suddenly led 200 brave cavalry into the enemy's formation.Hun Yu took the lead, slashing left and right, and the Tubo tribes were terrified, and they were all invincible.After a while, Hun Yu captured a Tubo general and galloped back with him on horseback. The 200 Xiaoqi who accompanied him were not injured.Seeing this scene, the generals of the Tang army on the top of the city immediately boosted their morale. On the 16th, the Tubo army began to attack the city on a large scale. Hun Yu led the people to defend to the death. Within a few days, they fought more than 200 people of Tubo size and killed more than 5,000 people.Seeing how brave the Tang army was, the Tubo people had no choice but to leave the camp.

At the same time that Hunyu was trying his best to reject Tubo, various soldiers and horses of the Tang army had entered strategic locations to garrison: Guo Ziyi led the Shuofang army to station in Jingyang (now Jingyang County, Shaanxi Province), Li Zhongchen stationed in Dongwei Bridge (now south of Gaoling County, Shaanxi Province) Li Guangjin was stationed in Yunyang (north of today's Jingyang County, Shaanxi), Ma Lin and Hao Tingyu were stationed in Xiweiqiao (southwest of Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province), Li Baoyu was stationed in Fengxiang, eunuch Luo Fengxian and general Li Riyue were stationed in Zhouzhi, Tonghua Jiedu envoy Zhou Zhiguang Stationed in Tongzhou (now Dali County, Shaanxi).Finally, Emperor Daizong Li Yu personally led the Sixth Army of the Imperial Guards to station in the forbidden garden.

In order to boost morale, Emperor Daizong issued an imperial edict on September 21, claiming that he would personally conscript the emperor. The emperor made a high-pitched statement, saying that he wanted to conquer in person, but some people only wanted to escape. This person is Yu Chaoen, the commander of the forbidden army. Ever since he heard that Tubo's 100,000 troops were attacking Fengtian, Yu Chaoen began to plan to escape.He was going to flee to the river with the emperor, but he was worried that the officials would object, so he decided to use force to force the officials to submit. One morning in the court, civil and military officials stood outside the palace gate for a long time, seeing that the time for going to court had long passed, but the palace gate did not open for a long time.Just when everyone was puzzled, the door suddenly opened, and Yu Chaoen came out with a gloomy expression, followed by dozens of Imperial Army soldiers with their swords out of their sheaths. Which song is this sung? All the officials looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Immediately afterwards, everyone heard Yu Chaoen announce in an unquestionable tone: "Tubo has repeatedly invaded the capital, and the emperor is driving to patrol the river. What do you think?" All the officials were astonished. But they all knew that Yu Chaoen's sentence was not a question, but a statement; he was not asking for everyone's opinions, but announcing his decision. For a moment, the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty were silent.At this time, a man surnamed Liu suddenly strode out of the queue, facing Yu Chaoen and said sharply: "Is the Imperial Envoy (the general name for eunuchs at that time) trying to rebel? Now that the capital is surrounded by armies, you don't want to be united?" Do your best to resist the enemy, but want to coerce the emperor to abandon the ancestral temple and the country, what is not rebellion?" As soon as this remark came out, Yu Chaoen was at a loss for words on the spot. He was shocked and angry, but after thinking about it for a long time, he couldn't think of a reason to refute, so he walked away. Hu Sanxing, a man from the Yuan Dynasty, wrote a comment on this place: "Give me Liu Jun, who stands in a temple, is upright, has such a heroic performance, and his name is not even found in the history books. I don't know that the Tang Dynasty set up a history museum. What is it for?" Sincerely! Although historians in Chinese history have a tradition of writing straight books and defying power, this is only an abstract spirit, and there are probably only a handful of historians who can act in accordance with this spirit.Most historians take the emperor's salary and look at the faces of high officials. When making historical records, they may follow a certain customary rule, that is: those with big black hats should not only record their words, but also record their deeds. , you must keep your name; as for the small Wushamao, it would be worthy of you if you can record your deeds truthfully, what more do you want? Famous to stay in history, eternal? Go dreaming! From the middle to the end of September of the first year of Yongtai, the Guanzhong area had been torrential rain, which caused great difficulties for the Tubo army to march.Seeing that Tang armies from all walks of life had already built an iron wall around Chang'an, and the weather was so bad, the Tubo people had to give up their plan to attack Chang'an, turned around and attacked Liquan (now Liquan County, Shaanxi), planning to make a last grab and leave. At the same time, the Dangxiang army burned, killed and looted in Baishui (now Baishui County, Shaanxi Province) and Pujin Pass (now the East Yellow River Ferry in Dali County, Shaanxi Province), and fled after a few days. At the end of September, after looting a large amount of money and tens of thousands of men and women, the Tibetan army began to retreat northward.When they met the Huihe army when they traveled to Binzhou, the Tubo people immediately came up with the idea of ​​Chang'an, so they joined forces with Huihe and turned around to besiege Jingyang (now Jingyang County, Shaanxi). Since Pugu Huai'en was dead, Tubo and Huihe refused to accept each other and wanted to be the boss, but they almost turned their faces, so they camped separately and guarded each other. At this time, Guo Ziyi was stationed in Jingyang. He knew right away that this was an opportunity—an opportunity to disintegrate his opponent, to subdue him without a fight. Guo Ziyi immediately sent envoys to the Huihe military camp, hoping to turn the war into a treasure with Huihe and attack Tubo together.The Huihe people looked at the envoy and said half-believingly: "Is Guo Gong really here? Are you lying to me? If he is really here, why don't you come out and see him?" The envoy brought back the words of the Huihe people, and Guo Ziyi said to the left and right: "Now the enemy is outnumbered and we are outnumbered, so we cannot fight head-on with them. At the beginning, Huihe made alliances with us several times. Now I personally go to the Huihe camp to renew the previous alliance with them. , will be able to go down without a fight." When the generals heard the words, they unanimously asked Guo Ziyi to choose five hundred fine cavalry as guards.Guo Ziyi said: "This is hurting me." Then he jumped on the horseback.His son Guo Xi stopped him by holding the reins and said, "The Huihe people are tigers and wolves, and your lord is the marshal of the empire. How can you gamble with your own life?" Guo Ziyi said, "If we go to war with them today, not only will our father and son die together, The country will also be in danger. I sincerely go to the alliance, if they can accept it, it will be a blessing to the world; if they can't accept it, even if I die, the whole family can be saved." Guo Xi yelled sharply, "Go away!" Afterwards, Guo Ziyi went out of the city with only a few soldiers, and came outside the Huihe camp and shouted: "Guo Ziyi is here to visit." When the Huihe people heard this, they were surprised and suspicious. We just said it casually, but we didn't expect him to come. Generalissimo Yaoge Luo (Dengli Khan's younger brother) couldn't believe it.He immediately ordered the army to line up, and then stood in front of the formation on horseback, bowed and arrowed, with a look of vigilance. What happened next was even more unbelievable—Guo Ziyi rode into the camp alone, and while riding his horse towards Yao Geluo, he "removed the helmet, released the armor, and threw the gun", that is, put the helmet on his body, All armor and weapons were thrown away. The Huihe chiefs looked at each other and said in unison: "It's really Guo Ziyi!" Then they all got off their horses and bowed respectfully to Guo Ziyi. Guo Ziyi dismounted from his horse, walked up to Yao Geluo unarmed, and said, "You have made great contributions to the Tang Dynasty in returning to Hehe, and the Tang Dynasty treated you well. Why did you break the covenant and invade in a large scale? The stupid behavior of helping the rebels with kindness! Pugu Wynn betrayed the king and abandoned his mother, what benefits can it bring you? I come here alone now, and I will do whatever I want, but my subordinates will be with you Fight to the death!" Yao Ge Luo never expected that Guo Ziyi would take such a risky move.Now that he comes alone and unarmed, this courage alone is enough to make people awe-inspiring; while he himself is facing a big enemy and is on the verge of a sword, losing to the opponent first in terms of momentum.In other words, although the two sides have not yet fought, Guo Ziyi has already won the first round without a fight. Yao Geluo laughed a few times, and said with embarrassment: "Wynn lied to us, saying that Tian Khan was dead, that you were also dead, and that there was no one in the country, so we dared to come. Now that we know that Tian Khan is here In Shangdu, Duke Ling is here to lead the army, and Huai En has been killed by the sky, how dare I, Cao, fight with Duke Ling!" Guo Ziyi knew that although he had the moral upper hand right now, he could not make the Huihe people retreat based on morality alone.To put it bluntly, if you want to defeat others without fighting, you must not only understand them with reason, but also lure them with benefits! This time, Guo Ziyi has prepared a generous gift for the Huihe people. Of course, this generous gift is not ready-made, and it needs the Huihe people and the Tang army to get it together. Because things are with the Tibetans. Guo Ziyi said: "The Tubo people are cruel and innocent. Taking advantage of our civil strife, they invaded our frontier fortresses, burned our prefectures and counties, and took away our wealth and children. This time, the wealth that Tubo looted was incalculable. This is a gift from God, so it would be a pity not to take it? From your point of view, I think for you, and I personally think that there is nothing more beneficial than this." Yaoge Luo's eyes lit up when he heard the words "the looted wealth is incalculable, and horses, cattle, and livestock are all over the mountains and plains". That's right, instead of being an enemy of the Tang Dynasty and robbing each state and county through hard work, it would be better to rob all the things that the Tubo people robbed!Grandma, why didn't I think of such a great thing that saves worry and effort! The more Yao Geluo thought about it, the more beautiful he became, and he quickly said with a straight face: "I was mistaken by Wynn and almost made a big mistake. I am really sorry for Ling Gong. Please give me a chance to contribute, and I will definitely defeat the Tubo people. In this way, we will redeem our sins." Guo Ziyi rode alone, and with a few words, he calmed down the menacing coalition forces. In the Tang Dynasty, the two parties swore an oath and shook hands to make peace.An imminent big battle disappeared in smoke. When the Tubo people got the news of the alliance between Tang and Hui, they were terrified and fled from camp that night.The Tang and Hui allied forces pursued together and smashed the Tubo army in the western suburbs of Lingtai (now Lingtai County, Gansu), killing more than 10,000 people, recapturing a large amount of money, and rescuing 4,000 captive men and women. Afterwards, some of the brave generals under Pu Gu Huai'en knew that they could do nothing, so they surrendered to the court one after another. At this point, the Pugu Wynn Rebellion came to an end. The scene of "Guo Ziyi's single-riding alliance to Huihe" has since become a classic example of a soldier who surrendered without a fight in the history of Chinese warfare. Pugu Huai'en was defeated, and the Huihe people and Tubo people also left. Daizong Li Yu finally breathed a long sigh of relief. However, can the world be peaceful from now on? In the deep winter of the first year of Yongtai, Emperor Daizong Li Yu stood on the palace of Chang'an, which had suffered all kinds of disasters. He stood in the middle of the history of the Tang Dynasty in the 289th year. The field of vision gradually drifts away—whether it is the prosperity and glory of the past, or the helplessness and desolation of the past, they have all turned yellow and withered, and have passed away with the wind. In the years to come, can the Li Tang dynasty stay away from the catastrophe of blood and swords, and can it regain its former glory? Li Yu didn't know. He only knew that the Great Tang Empire at this moment, compared with the Great Tang Empire before the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, was completely different and completely different. Li Yu clearly remembered that in the 13th year of Tianbao (754 A.D.), that is, the year before Anlushan launched the rebellion, there were more than 9 million household registrations and a population of more than 52.8 million.However, in the second year of Guangde (764 A.D.) after the fall of Shi Chaoyi, the results of the census presented by the Ministry of Household Affairs were: the total number of households in the country was only 2.9 million, and the total population was only 16.9 million. Yu Wan.In other words, after the Anshi Rebellion, the total number of households in the empire decreased by more than 6 million, and the total population dropped sharply by 36 million, a total loss of two-thirds! Thirty-six million... What a shocking number! No, this is not a number, this is 36 million flesh and blood lives, this is 36 million vivid souls!But they disappeared in such an unprecedented catastrophe and disaster, and were wiped out by the ruthless hands of the history guy... Li Yu felt a kind of helplessness and sadness that soaked into the bone marrow. He didn't dare to think about it any further. He could only pray to the sky silently, praying that the Li and Tang Dynasty would be able to achieve peace in the world and emperor Zuo Yongchang in the years to come. At this moment, the bitter north wind is galloping and whistling on the Longshou Plain, and thick clouds are rolling over Chang'an in all directions.In the vast expanse of heaven and earth, the Great Tang Imperial Capital, which has gone through catastrophe, looks extremely small and lonely...