Chapter 25 Megatron Central Asia: The Edge of Gao Xianzhi

Gao Xianzhi, a native of Koryo, was born in Jiangmen, followed his father to Anxi when he was young, and was awarded the title of Guerrilla General because of his father's shade.Gao Xianzhi was known in history as "beautiful, good at riding and shooting, brave and decisive". He was promoted to a general in his early twenties because of his military exploits. A good story. Gao Xianzhi served under the command of Tian Renwan and Gai Jiayun, the military chiefs of Anxi, but he was never reused. It was not until Fumeng Lingcha was appointed as the military governor of Anxi that he appreciated Gao Xianzhi's talent and promoted him repeatedly.By the end of the Kaiyuan period, Gao Xianzhi had been living in Anxi as the deputy governor, and the military and horse envoy of the four towns and the deputy envoy of Jiedu.

Although Gao Xianzhi at this time was already the second in command of the Anxi Tang army, he was not yet a famous general.What really made him famous in the Western Regions and the government and the public was the battle of thousands of miles to attack Xiao Bolu. Little Bolu Kingdom is located in the northwest of Tubo, about in the northern part of Pakistan and Kashmir today, between the four towns of Tubo, Central Asia and Anxi. hot spot.Xiao Bolu was originally attached to the Tang Dynasty, so he was repeatedly attacked by Tubo.In the twenty-fifth year of Kaiyuan (737 A.D.), Tubo sent troops to Xiaobolu again, forcing it to surrender, and married a Tubo princess to King Xiaobolu, thus firmly controlling this strategic location, and at the same time cutting off the Central Plains. The connection between more than 20 small countries in Asia and the Tang Dynasty has the potential to dominate Central Asia.

There is no doubt that if the Tang Empire wants to regain control of Central Asia, it must first regain Xiao Bolu. However, from Tian Renwan to Gai Jiayun, and then to Fumeng Lingji, Anxi military chiefs for three consecutive terms had sent troops to conquer Xiao Bolu, but each time they returned without success, Xuanzong was very dissatisfied with this.In the sixth year of Tianbao (747 A.D.), Fumeng Lingji recommended Gao Xianzhi to Xuanzong.Xuanzong immediately issued an edict, appointed Gao Xianzhi as the envoy of the battalion, and led 10,000 cavalry to expedition to Xiaobolu. In April of the sixth year of Tianbao, Gao Xianzhi led his troops to set off from Anxi Duhufu (the seat of the government in Kucha Town, now Kuqa County, Xinjiang), and marched southwest along the northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, passing through Bahuancheng, Gosede, and Shule. Crossing Congling (Pamir Plateau), Bomichuan, and finally reaching Telmanchuan, and advancing to the military fortress Lianyunbao (northwest of Kashmir) controlled by the Tibetans, the entire march took more than three months.

Lianyun Castle is the only place to pass through to Xiaobolu. There are more than 1,000 Tubo troops stationed there. In addition, there is a Tubo military camp built on the mountain fifteen miles south of the castle, with 8,000 to 9,000 troops stationed.That is to say, the Tubo defenders in Lianyunbao area totaled about 10,000 people, roughly equal to Gao Xianzhi's troops.The Tubo army guarded against danger and waited for work with ease, while the Tang army had just traveled for more than 100 days and was exhausted. The situation was obviously extremely unfavorable for the Tang army. However, the Tang army also has an advantage, that is, the Tubo army would never have thought that the Tang army would run thousands of miles and descend from the sky, so the Tang army could seize the opportunity and catch Tubo by surprise.

Gao Xianzhi's troops divided into three groups, and at dawn on July 13th they joined forces outside Lianyun Castle.There is a river called Polechuan in the local area. At that time, it was flooded and it was difficult for the Tang army to ford.While Gao Xianzhi sent people to search for the shallow water in the river, he ordered all the soldiers to carry three-day rations, pack lightly, and prepare to forcibly cross the river.The soldiers looked at the rushing river and said Gao Xianzhi was crazy. Leaving aside how to cross the river without boats, even if you can barely cross, if the enemy army in Lianyunbao notices and beats the Tang army for a "half crossing", wouldn't all the 10,000 people throw them into the river to feed the fish? ? !

But the military order was like a mountain, and the soldiers had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow Gao Xianzhi. To the great surprise of the soldiers, after walking along the river bank for a short distance, they found a place where the water was shallow enough to cross. As a result, all 10,000 horses and horses crossed Pole River safely without wet flags or saddles.Gao Xianzhi laughed and said, "If the enemy attacked while we were halfway across, our army would definitely be defeated. But now that our army has crossed the river safely and assembled into a battle formation, Lianyun Fort is a gift from God. !"

Afterwards, Gao Xianzhi ordered the whole army to attack Lianyun Fort and the southern barracks at the same time.Faced with the Tang army's sudden attack, the Tubo defenders were terrified, but they still resisted tenaciously by virtue of the dangerous terrain and solid fortifications, such as locust arrows and huge rocks and trees, causing certain casualties to the upward attacking Tang army. The frontal attack was blocked, so Gao Xianzhi immediately summoned Li Siye, a general in the army, and ordered him to lead a Modao death squad to bypass the frontal enemy, climb up the cliff from the back mountain, and catch them by surprise.Before Li Siye left, Gao Xianzhi gave him a death order, requiring him to resolve the battle before noon.

The so-called Mo Dao is a long-handled broadsword with two blades. It is an important weapon for the field infantry of the Tang Army. It can not only cut people, but also split horses. attack power.The Modao team under Gao Xianzhi's command is the most elite unit in the Anxi Tang Army, all of them are well-trained and brave; especially this Li Siye is a famous general in the Anxi Tang Army who is good at wielding the Modao. It is precisely because of the super fighting power of the Modao team that Gao Xianzhi will put it into battle at this critical moment. After Li Siye was ordered, holding the battle flag in his hand, he led the Modao team to climb up the mountain from a dangerous place, and suddenly appeared behind the Tubo defenders.At the same time, Gao Xianzhi personally led the army to carry out another frontal attack.The Tubo people were attacked from the front and rear, and Li Siye's Modao team killed them from behind. They had no danger to defend, and the morale of the army suddenly lost.The Tang army fought more and more bravely. From Chenshi (seven o'clock in the morning) to Sishi (11 o'clock), they wiped out more than 5,000 Tubo defenders and captured more than 1,000 enemies. The rest of the Tubo people fled.

The Tang army won a complete victory in this battle. Not only did they successfully capture Lianyun Fort, but they also captured more than a thousand horses and countless military equipment. Although Gao Xianzhi's expeditionary force succeeded in the first battle, it was tantamount to exposing their whereabouts and combat intentions to the Tibetans.If the established strategic goal-conquering Xiaobolu was to be accomplished, the Tang army would have to go deep into the Tubo sphere of influence without the enemy being aware of it. The danger it faced was self-evident. The lieutenant soldiers began to feel fearful.

Especially Bian Lingcheng, the eunuch who was sent by Xuanzong to oversee the army, became more and more frightened as he thought about it, and dared not go any further. But Gao Xianzhi would not back down. If he doesn't conquer Xiao Bolu, he will never ask for money to withdraw his troops. This is the difference between ordinary generals and famous generals.The reason why a person can become a famous general lies not only in his ability to defeat powerful enemies, but also in his ability to overcome his inner fear.As a philosopher once said: Courage is not not being afraid, but doing it even when you are afraid.

It's not that Gao Xianzhi doesn't know the danger of going deep alone, and it's not that he doesn't feel afraid, but he knows - success is when others choose to give up, you choose to persevere! Gao Xianzhi did not force Bian Lingcheng, but let him and 3,000 wounded and weak soldiers stay at Lianyun Castle, while he personally led more than 6,000 soldiers to continue marching towards Xiaobolu. Three days later, the Tang army arrived at Tanju Ridge in the Pamirs (northwest of Gilgit, Kashmir).The mountains here are towering, rugged and steep, and the natural conditions are extremely harsh. The soldiers kept complaining during the difficult march.Moreover, just forty miles in front of Tanju Ridge, there is a Hu people's castle named Anuyue, which is also attached to Tubo.Under the influence of exhaustion and fear of difficulties, the dissatisfaction in the hearts of the soldiers finally reached the peak, so they stopped one by one, and asked Gao Xianzhi one after another: "Where is the commander taking us? You see, this road is traveled by people." ?!" Facing the angry soldiers, Gao Xianzhi said calmly: "The city ahead is Anyuyue City. I guess they will open the door and surrender when they hear the news of our army's arrival. You don't have to worry." As soon as Gao Xianzhi finished speaking, a sentry came to report that more than 20 horsemen in Hu suits were coming from the direction of Anuyue City.After a while, Hu Qi was brought in front of Gao Xianzhi, and said to Gao Xianzhi and the soldiers present: "I heard that the Tang army is coming, and the Lord Anuyue sent me to meet the general, and cut off the Poyi River ( The rattan bridge on the upper tributary of the Indus River) is ready to break off diplomatic relations with the Tibetans." When all the soldiers heard the words, they immediately turned from worry to joy, and all the complaints just now were wiped away. Gao Xianzhi smiled, and ordered the whole army to immediately cross Tanju Ridge and march towards Anuyue City. Actually, this is a play played by Gao Xianzhi. The so-called Anuyue city lord welcomed the Tang army and broke off diplomatic relations with Tubo, which is purely fictional.These twenty or so Huqi were not from Anuyue, but were pretended by Gao Xianzhi.He expected that all the way here, the endurance of the soldiers would definitely reach the limit, and Xiao Bolu was already close at hand, Gao Xianzhi would never allow himself to fall short, so he secretly arranged this scene to give everyone a shot in the arm. This white lie certainly worked well. But the question is, will the Anuyue people really surrender?If they refused to guard behind closed doors and Gao Xianzhi's lies were exposed, wouldn't his prestige in the army be completely wiped out? This possibility is very high, but Gao Xianzhi has no choice. He could only bet—bet that the Anuyue would really surrender. The God of Destiny finally sided with Gao Xianzhi.Three days later, when the Tang army crossed Tanju Ridge and finally appeared under the city of Anuyue, they saw the Anuyue people lined up to welcome them, and a city gate that was completely open to them. Gao Xianzhi asked the soldiers to rest in Anuyue City for a day, and the next day, he ordered his general Xi Yuanqing to be the forward, and led a thousand people to quickly advance to Xiaobolu, and conveyed the following message to the king of Xiaobolu: "We will not occupy Your city will not destroy your bridges, it is just to borrow a way, and the goal is Dabolu Kingdom." Of course, King Xiao Bolu would not be easily fooled by Gao Xianzhi, but he had no strength to stop the Tang army. In desperation, he took the queen (Princess Tubo) and his subjects to escape from the royal city and hid in the mountains, where he was going to wait for Tubo reinforcements. Xiao Boluren's reaction was not what Gao Xianzhi expected.Before Xi Yuanqing left, Gao Xianzhi gave him an opportunity: "Xiao Bolu heard that the Tang Dynasty soldiers are coming, and its monarchs, ministers and people will definitely hide in the valley. You should launch a propaganda campaign and call on Xiao Bolu's subjects to come out of the valley. As long as they surrender, Just reward the silk and satin, and explain that this is the imperial edict of the Tang emperor, as for those ministers who are close to Tubo, you must arrest them and imprison them, and wait for my disposal." Xi Yuanqing followed suit.Most of Xiaobolu's subjects immediately surrendered to the Tang army, and the king and queen fled into the grottoes in the mountains.After Gao Xianzhi arrived, he beheaded several ministers who were close to Tubo, and then sent troops to seal off the mountainous area.At the same time, Gao Xianzhi also sent someone to destroy the only passage between Xiao Bolu and Tubo - a vine bridge on Poyi River. A few days later, when a Tubo reinforcement army rushed to the bank of the Poyi River non-stop, the rattan bridge had long since disappeared, and the Tubo people could only stare blankly at the rushing river.The width of the Poyi River is about the same as the range of an arrow. The Tibetans rushed to repair the bridge immediately, but a whole year has passed since the bridge was completed. Since the Tubo people were beyond their reach, Xiao Bolu completely fell into Gao Xianzhi's palm. After more than ten days of carpet search, Tang Jun finally captured King and Queen Little Bolu in a hidden cave.At this point, the Xiaobolu regime, which was close to Tubo, finally collapsed.Gao Xianzhi fostered a new government that was pro-Tang, completely controlled Xiao Bolu, achieved the strategic goal of this campaign, and fulfilled the mission entrusted to him by Xuanzong. Although the scale of the long-distance raid on Xiaobolu was small, it was of great strategic significance.Because this campaign re-opened the communication channels between the Tang Dynasty and the Central Asian countries, the Tang Empire regained control of Central Asia, and it also greatly dealt a blow to Tubo's expansion ambitions. The victory in this battle established Gao Xianzhi's status as a famous general of the Tang Dynasty. In August of the sixth year of Tianbao, Gao Xianzhi led Xiao Bolu King and Queen back to the court.Gao Xianzhi, who returned from victory, couldn't hold back the joy in his heart. When he arrived at Bomichuan, he sent a fast horse to enter the court first, and directly presented the victory report to Xuanzong. If Gao Xianzhi was the top leader of Anxi Tang Army, there would be nothing wrong with doing so.But the problem is, he still has an immediate boss, Meng Lingji.Gao Xianzhi skipped over his boss and went directly to the emperor to win the victory, obviously he didn't take Fumeng Lingsha seriously. Fumeng Lingji was furious because of this. After Gao Xianzhi came back, Fumeng Lingji not only didn't say a word of praise, but pointed at his nose and cursed: "Korinu who eats dog dung! You officials are all because of who got it, and you don't want to be punished by me. You are good at playing good books? Kolinu! Your crimes should be executed, but I can't bear to hear you because of your new merits!" (Volume 215) You shit-eating Koryo slave!Who gave you your official position, and you won the victory without waiting for me to deal with it? !Damn Gao Linu, you should be beheaded in terms of crime, just because of your new achievements, I can't bear to kill you! Facing this boss who was full of obscenities and almost lost his mind, Gao Xianzhi was speechless, so he kowtowed to the ground and kept apologizing. However, Gao Xianzhi at this time is no longer the Gao Xianzhi of the past.No matter how furious and jealous Fumeng Lingsha was, he couldn't restrain Gao Xianzhi's sharp edge. In other words, at this moment Gao Xianzhi had obtained a higher status in Xuanzong's mind than Fumeng Lingji. In addition to Xuanzong's appreciation for Gao Xianzhi, another person also helped Gao Xianzhi at a critical moment. He is Bian Lingcheng, the eunuch who supervised the army in this expedition to Xiaobolu. Although Bian Lingcheng flinched when he arrived at Lianyun Fort, and played almost no role in this raid, in his own opinion, he also had a part in the victory of this battle.Now that Fumeng Lingcha is suppressing Gao Xianzhi, it is tantamount to suppressing him, so Bian Lingcheng immediately submitted a secret report to Xuanzong, claiming that Gao Xianzhi went deep into the enemy's country and made great achievements for the country, but now he is being squeezed out by Fumeng Lingcha , anxious all day long, it is wronged. As we all know, since the middle and late period of Kaiyuan, Xuanzong has become more and more rejoicing. He has always favored and cared for those generals who can show their power in foreign lands and establish frontier achievements.Now that Gao Xianzhi has gnawed down the hard bones that the previous three envoys had not gnawed, Xuanzong naturally looked at him differently.After receiving Gao Xianzhi's success report, Xuanzong was thinking about how to reward him, but now he suddenly received a memorial from Bian Lingcheng calling for grievances on Gao Xianzhi's behalf, of course Xuanzong was very dissatisfied with Fumeng Lingji. Immediately afterwards, Xuanzong issued an edict calling Fumeng Lingji back to the court, and at the same time promoted Gao Xianzhi to be the Jiedu Envoy of the Four Towns of Anxi, as well as Hongluqing and Yushi Zhongcheng, completely replacing Fumeng Lingji. After Gao Xianzhi conquered Xiaobolu, Tubo was extremely unwilling, and ordered the Shiguo in northern India to attack Xiaobolu, cutting off Xiaobolu's transportation channel.Xuanzong got the battle report and immediately entrusted Gao Xianzhi with the task of pacifying the Shiguo. In February of the ninth year of Tianbao (750 A.D.), Gao Xianzhi dispatched troops and successfully defeated the Kingdom of Qishi, and captured its king, Bo Temei. . So far, Gao Xianzhi's reputation has shaken Central Asia. At the same time, his inherent shortcomings began to be gradually exposed. Although Gao Xianzhi is a wise and brave person, he has two major shortcomings: one is cruel, and the other is greedy for money.With the increasing fame and fame, Gao Xianzhi's desire to kill and possess also intensifies. Shiguo (now Tashkent, Uzbekistan), located in the Syr Darya River Basin in Central Asia, unfortunately became the victim of Gao Xianzhi's desire at this time. As the power of the Tang Empire in Central Asia became stronger day by day, Shi Guo wanted to attach himself, so he sent envoys to Gao Xianzhi, requesting to sign a peace treaty with Datang.Gao Xianzhi agreed without saying a word.At the signing ceremony, both the host and the guest were very happy, and Gao Xianzhi also showed great sincerity and enthusiasm.But at this time, Shi Guo's envoys would never have imagined that Shi Guo had become a lamb waiting to be slaughtered in Gao Xianzhi's eyes; and this so-called peace treaty was no different from a tender death notice. In Gao Xianzhi's view, Shi Guo is a piece of fat that he sent to his door, of course he was happy to swallow it in one gulp. In December of the ninth year of Tianbao, Gao Xianzhi brazenly tore up the peace treaty and personally led troops to invade Shi Kingdom. At this time, Shi Guojun and his ministers were still immersed in the dream of peace created by the paper treaty, and they had no defense at all. In addition, their military strength was already weak, so they were defeated by Gao Xianzhi in just a few days. After Gao Xianzhi occupied the Shi Kingdom, he not only captured the king, ministers, soldiers and all the young and middle-aged men, and brought them back to the country, but also did two things that were completely criticized: one was to massacre the city, and the other was to plunder. Gao Xianzhi slaughtered all the old, weak, women and children in the capital of the Shi Kingdom, and then looted all the wealth of the Shi Kingdom. Among them, there are more than ten dendrobiums of diamonds, five or six camels to pull the gold, and the rest of the BMWs and belongings are not counted. its number.And the most embarrassing thing - all these wealth fell into Gao Xianzhi's personal pocket. There is no doubt that this is an out-and-out war of aggression.The purpose of Gao Xianzhi's launching this war was not for the country, but purely to satisfy his bloodthirsty and greedy personal desire.In other words, this war not only did not improve the national interests of Datang, but caused great damage.Because from then on, the moral image of the Tang Empire in the minds of the Shi people, and even all the people in Central Asia, was completely destroyed. As an excellent general from Goryeo, Gao Xianzhi is undoubtedly well versed in China's art of war, but he obviously didn't learn China's benevolent ways.To set up the banner of justice for a country, it may take several generations to work hard for hundreds of years; but to cut it down, it only needs a general who is only interested in profit, and a senseless war driven by personal desires.The Stone Country War was the culmination of Gao Xianzhi's glory in his life, and it was also a turning point in his military career. From then on, the goddess of fortune will go away from him, and his dazzling edge in a series of foreign wars will gradually fade until it shrinks and dies; and the god of misfortune will accompany him like a shadow until the end of his life. In the second year after Gao Xianzhi destroyed the Stone Kingdom, he encountered Waterloo in his military career in an ancient city in Central Asia. The name of this city is Talas. His opponent is Dashi in black.