Chapter 9 Li Shimin single-handedly divorced Khan's army

On August 1, the seventh year of Wude, the army led by Turkic Jieli and Tuli Khan began to storm Yuanzhou (now Guyuan City, Ningxia), and soon broke through the outer defense line, and the battalion went south, approaching Chang'an.At the same time, in order to contain the Tang army in many ways, the Turks sent troops to attack Xinzhou (now Xinzhou City, Shanxi), Bingzhou and Suizhou (now Suide County, Shaanxi), and their vassal state Tuyuhun also sent troops to Shanzhou (now Ledu County, Qinghai) ). The situation is critical. On August 9, Chang'an declared martial law. At this time, the Tang army who went north to defend against the enemy also encountered unexpected difficulties.Due to torrential rains and floods in Guanzhong, many roads and bridges were blocked, which made the march more difficult, and the supply of food, grass and supplies in the rear was not available, which made the already sluggish morale even more depressed.

On August 12, the Tang army and the Turkic army faced each other head-on at Wulongban in Binzhou (now southwest of Binxian County, Shaanxi).The Turkic army quickly seized the favorable terrain to form an array, and the generals of the Tang army were terrified.Li Shimin realized that a fierce battle was inevitable, so he said to Li Yuanji: "Now that the Hulu is approaching, don't show cowardice. You should fight with him. Can you go into battle with me?" A sneer slipped from the corner of Li Yuanji's mouth: "The Hulu army is so powerful, how can they fight rashly? If they lose, it will be too late to regret!"

As expected, King Qi really came here wholeheartedly watching from the sidelines. With the enemy at hand, the deputy commander blatantly took an uncooperative attitude towards the coach, which undoubtedly dealt another blow to the originally slack military spirit.The history books do not record the situation of the other generals who accompanied the expedition this time, but we can see from the unfavorable situation Tang Jun is facing at this time, combined with Li Shimin’s unexpected actions later, the reaction of the other generals is likely to be the same as that of King Qi—intentionally or unintentionally. Adopted a passive stance of war avoidance.

Li Shimin at this moment is obviously isolated in a sense. The King of Qin, General Tiance, and General of the Twelve Guards, who used to have absolute control over the army, suddenly became a polished commander. If you can't even control your own subordinates, why fight? The Turkic army outside is eyeing, and the internal situation is so difficult, what should Li Shimin do? At this moment, Li Shimin, who played against common sense, made another unexpected move.He said to Li Yuanji nonchalantly: "Since you dare not go out to fight, then I will go alone, and you can stay in the camp and watch the battle."

Before King Qi could react, Li Shimin had already led only a hundred or so soldiers and galloped towards the enemy. When he came to the Turkic army, Li Shimin shouted loudly to Jieli Khan: "Since the Khan made peace with the Tang Dynasty, why did he break the covenant and go deep into our country? I am the king of Qin. If Khan thinks he can fight, he will come out and fight me one-on-one." ! If you want to outnumber the few, I will fight you with these hundred people!" Jieli Khan was immediately puzzled by Monk Zhang Er. What is this kid playing?Actually brought only a hundred people to fight?And actually use this crappy aggressive method to force me to fight him one-on-one?Did he already lay an ambush, trying to lure me into my pocket?

Jieli Khan believed that there must be fraud in this, so he stood still, smiled and did not answer. Next, something even more surprising happened to Xieli.Li Shimin actually led his hundred cavalry and approached for another distance, and sent someone to run to his nephew Tuli Little Khan, babbling and not knowing what to say.Jieli Khan stretched his ears suspiciously, and finally got a general idea—"You used to swear to me that you will share the difficulties and rescue each other in times of emergency, but now you are leading troops to attack each other. Why don't you have a sense of incense!"

Jieli Khan turned pale with shock.Could it be that this kid Tuli has been having an affair with the Second Prince Li and Tang for a long time?No wonder he insisted on going out with me this time. It turned out that he had planned it long ago, and wanted to take advantage of the battle between the two armies to lay a black hand on me!It's so hanging... Fortunately, I was calm when I was in trouble, and didn't rush out just now, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. Thinking about this, Xieli turned his head to look at Tuli, only to see that he was silent, with an expression of no money here.

At this moment, Li Shimin approached again, and was about to ride his horse across the river ditch between the two armies.Jieli Khan immediately sent someone to tell Li Shimin: "Your Majesty, there is no need to cross the river. I have no other intentions. I just want to reaffirm the former alliance with your country." Seeing the figure of Jieli Khan leading the army to retreat in a hurry, Li Shimin heaved a long sigh of relief. This time it was finally over, but the Turkic army did not retreat, and the danger still existed.What to do next? Li Shimin knew that the quick-witted fool can only come once in a while, and it won't work if he comes again.To make the Turks retreat, military action must be taken.Even if there is no way to fight the Turkic army head-on, it is necessary to put pressure on them appropriately.At the same time, Li Shimin felt fortunate that this successful deception allowed him to grasp a fatal weakness of the Turkic people, that is, the contradiction between the Great Khan of Xieli and the Little Khan of Turks.

As long as this contradiction is used, both military means and strategic means are used to further drive apart the relationship between the two khans, which can make them suspicious of each other, and eventually force Jieli Khan to withdraw his troops and surrender without fighting. At this moment, although the continuous autumn rain still shrouded the sky over Wulongban, the haze that had been lingering in Li Shimin's heart for many days was swept away. Li Shimin immediately held a military meeting. He looked around the generals of the Tang army who had no fighting spirit, and said with confidence: "The weapons that the Turks rely on most are bows and arrows. Now they are camping in the wild, and the continuous rain will gel the strings on the bows and arrows. If you can't play it, it's like a bird with its wings broken; while we live in a dry house that can be fired, the knives and other weapons are still sharp, if we don't attack now, when will we wait!"

That night, Li Shimin dispatched troops and quietly approached the Turkic barracks in the heavy rain.At the same time, he sent a special envoy to sneak into the enemy camp secretly, found Tuli Khan, and had a secret talk with him.History books do not record the content of this secret meeting, but Li Shimin must have thrown a very attractive olive branch to Tuli.So when the Tang army was approaching the Turkic camp, Tuli had happily signed an alliance with the secret envoy sent by Li Shimin. The Turkic army never expected that the Tang army would suddenly appear in front of them on this rainy night, and the entire barracks was in a panic.Jieli Khan originally wanted to fight, but when he thought that there might be some conspiracy between his nephew Tuli and Li Shimin, he immediately retreated.

After some ideological struggle, Xieli finally decided to withdraw. Because he never wanted this nephew with bad intentions to stab him in the back when he was fighting Tang Jun. Although Xieli was very unwilling to retreat at this moment, he had no other choice but to send Tuli and another prince Ashina Simo to the Tang army camp to discuss peace with Li Shimin.And Tuli took this opportunity to formally form an incense alliance with Li Shimin. Afterwards, the Turks withdrew their troops, and the near-miss battle of Wulongban finally came to an end.With his extraordinary courage and strategy, Li Shimin performed a classic "The Story of a Lonely Hero". Not only did he force back the Turkic army without bloodshed, but he also successfully forged a political ally. Added a wonderful touch. Perhaps because Li Shimin's performance was so wonderful, many people have always thought that the battle of Wulongban was too exciting.In addition to making people feel incredible, it seems that there is a serious underestimation of the Turkic IQ.In this regard, Mr. Hu Rulei also raised the following questions: First of all, the Turks came here with the intention of a decisive battle. How could they use their superior force to frighten the people of the world and make peace easily?Shimin's personal role seems to be exaggerated too unreasonably.Secondly, it is certain that the people of the world have resorted to countermeasures, but what exactly is the content?In the end, Shimin's attitude towards the two Khans is significantly different, which can be summarized as Latuli Dajieli. What is the basis and conditions for adopting such a strategy? In this regard, Mr. Hu Rulei, based on Mr. Chen Yinke's textual research, confirmed that "about before Ke Chang'an, the people of the world followed the Turkic customs and made an appointment with the Turkic Khan as 'Xianghuo Brothers'" (this may only be an informal oral agreement ).Therefore, the reason why Li Shimin won without a fight in Wulongban is not difficult to understand-"This is a reflection of his policy of division among the Turkic upper class, precisely because Shimin had already predicted in the second Khan that Only by using chess pieces can we achieve the effect of 'nephew and uncle' in this incident and achieve dramatic results." (Hu Rulei's "Li Shimin Biography") As for the specific content of Li Shimin's secret envoy to implement countermeasures against Tuli, there is no record in the history books, and Mr. Hu Rulei did not put forward his views, but we can fully infer what Li Shimin conveyed to him from the standpoint of the little Khan Tuli. Information. According to "Old Tang Book Turkic Biography", Tuli Khan commanded dozens of small tribes "north of Youzhou", but due to "excessive taxation", "all tribes complained a lot".It can be seen from this that, as the direct son of Shibi Khan, Jieli's elder brother, Tuli not only failed to inherit the throne of the Great Khan due to his age, but now even the little Khan's seat is not secure. better off.Under such circumstances, Li Shimin is likely to make a promise to Tuli: as long as he has a good relationship with Li Tang and closely cooperates with Li Tang in all military and diplomatic actions against Turks, then Li Shimin can guarantee that he will serve as a strong foreign aid for Tuli, It is possible to safeguard his interests, help him consolidate his position, and even help him regain the position of the Great Khan if possible. For his own benefit, Tuli Khan certainly had no reason to reject Li Shimin. No matter what method Li Shimin used, in short, the "Battle of Wulongban" was indeed won without a fight. Undoubtedly, Wu Longban's wonderful performance made Li Shimin take another step forward on the high-altitude suspension cable leading to the peak of power. We don't know what kind of eyes Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, and Li Jiancheng, the prince, will look at him when Qin Wang Li Shimin triumphantly returns to the court again.But one thing is certain, the flames of jealousy and anger in their eyes must be burning hotter than ever before. And what kind of mood is Gaozu Li Yuan at this moment? First of all, of course, he felt relieved, because the vicious Turkic people finally left, and the capital Chang'an finally turned the danger into safety.But in addition to being relieved, Li Yuan must also feel more helpless and uneasy, because the halo on King Qin's head became brighter, and of course his threat to the prince was also greater. However, what can Li Yuan do? In addition to doing everything in his power to restrain and prevent King Qin, what else can the old emperor do?After all, the King of Qin is the unique military trump card of the empire, and now there are frequent border troubles. As long as the threat of the Turks is not eliminated, the King of Qin will be indispensable for a day.Although the Li Tang dynasty did not lack generals, the problem was that Li Yuan would be very worried about handing over the military power to any general with a different surname.To take a step back, even if King Qin is not the mainstay of the empire, he is still his own son—the palm is flesh, and the back is flesh.As long as he did not openly take the act of usurping the throne, Li Yuan could only painstakingly maintain the status quo and maintain the balance.On the one hand, he must follow the principle of "establishing a family to grow up", and always maintain Li Jiancheng's position as the crown prince, preventing Li Shimin from crossing the threshold; He disapproved of the prince and King Qi's taking drastic measures against him because of his status and status. All in all, the only thing Li Yuan can do is to level the bowl of water as much as possible. But at the turn of summer and autumn in the seventh year of Wude, we suddenly discovered that the bowl of water in the hands of the old emperor was shaking violently in the escalating political PK of his sons... No one knows when it will suddenly capsize.