Chapter 40 Expedition to the Turks, revenge for five years

At the beginning of the 7th century AD, the Tang Empire was undoubtedly the most powerful country in the world at that time. Since the first year of Zhenguan (AD 627), Tang Taizong Li Shimin has led the Tang Empire on a road of strengthening the country with great efforts. In just over ten years, there has been a scene of prosperity—whether it is political clarity, The prosperity of the economy, the prosperity of culture, the stability of the society, the prosperity of the people's livelihood, and the growth of the population all show the remarkable achievements of the Tang Empire in terms of cultural governance.

However, the prosperity of Wenzhi does not necessarily bring about the strength of the country. In this regard, as an emperor who came from the battlefield of blood and fire, as an entrepreneur who used his sword to level the heroes and rule the world, Li Shimin knows better than anyone that to create a prosperous and powerful empire, It is necessary not only to have a Chinese dress, but also to have a martial arts backbone. In other words, what Li Shimin pursues is not only the brilliant literary rule of "ruling the world with clothes hanging down, and the car and the book are the same" (Li Shimin's "Martial Arts"). Xingwugong Qingshan Palace")'s illustrious martial arts.

God did not treat Li Shimin badly. History has not failed Li Shimin. Faced with his grand ambitions, God has given him extraordinary favor, and history seems to be extraordinarily generous. In the fourth year of Li Shimin's administration, an era that shook the world and overwhelmed the world was upon him. In the yearning and looking up, suddenly came. This is the era of Tian Khan that made countless descendants excited and fascinated. In the fourth year of Zhenguan, that is, in 630 AD, the era of Tian Khan officially kicked off. The first opponent to be conquered by the Tang Dynasty was the once prosperous East Turks.

Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Eastern Turks have been the most powerful enemy of the Central Plains dynasty in all dynasties.During the Daye period of the Sui Dynasty, the Eastern Turks reached their heyday during the reign of Shibi Khan. There is no such thing. Looking highly at the Yinshan Mountains, I have the ambition to belittle the Midsummer.” ("Old Tang Book · Turkic Biography") In the last years of the great cause, the Central Plains were in turmoil, and the world was divided. Millions of cavalry from the East Turks repeatedly waited for the opportunity to invade the bandits.Wherever his soldiers went, the city walls and palaces were burned to the ground, and all the wealth and children were emptied.And the contending heroes from all over the world also attached themselves under the protection of the Eastern Turks, such as Xue Ju, Liu Wuzhou, Liang Shidu, Li Gui, Dou Jiande, Wang Shichong, Gao Kaidao and others, "all became ministers in the north and received the title of Khan" ("Tong Dian" Volume 197).Even when Tang Gaozu Li Yuan raised his troops in Jinyang, he had to rely on the power of the Eastern Turks and use them as Austrian aid.

After the establishment of the Tang Empire, Jieli Khan came to the throne, still unscrupulous, "inheriting the wealth of his father and brothers, the military and horses are strong, and he has the ambition to mausoleum China", he invaded south many times and penetrated into the hinterland of the Tang Dynasty. "Gaozu made the original decision of the Central Plains, and he did not hesitate to give a plan. Every time he is generous, he bestows invincible ideas." However, Jieli became more and more serious. ("Old Book of Tang Turkic Biography") If such a powerful foreign aggression is not eradicated, the Tang Dynasty will not be peaceful for a day.

The one that made Li Shimin feel ashamed the most was the Weishui alliance in the ninth year of Wude. At that time, Li Shimin had just ascended the throne, and the political situation was not stable, so Jieli Khan personally led more than 100,000 cavalry to approach Chang'an.Li Shimin was forced to sacrifice a large amount of gold and silk in the treasury, and signed an alliance with Jieli under the city, in exchange for temporary peace. Li Shimin, who was once invincible and invincible on the battlefield, absolutely never thought that he would be blackmailed by the Turkic people helplessly when he just became emperor, and he was blackmailed once.

Such shame and humiliation is nothing more than an ugly scar, which has been deeply etched in Li Shimin's memory since then, and often appears before his eyes. "If you want to take it, you must give it!" Li Shimin is always waiting for the day when he will wash away his past shame and eradicate his external troubles. That day is coming soon. From the first year of Zhenguan, the East Turks, which used to "control millions of strings and rely on the mausoleum in the summer", went from prosperity to decline almost overnight—— On the one hand, Jieli Khan favored and trusted his ministers, which led to political chaos. The northern tribes such as Xue Yantuo, Huihe, and Bayegu, who originally belonged to the Eastern Turks, rebelled; on the other hand, the Eastern Turks encountered unprecedented serious natural disasters. , "The country is snowing heavily, the ground is several feet flat, sheep and horses are dead, and people are starving" ("Old Tang Book Turkic Biography").Such a huge predicament of natural and man-made disasters, internal and external troubles made East Turkistan quickly show signs of national subjugation.

In addition, the Eastern Turkic royal family had a serious split, which made the situation worse. This fatal split stemmed from the rebellion between Jieli Khan and Tuli Little Khan's uncle and nephew. After Jieli Khan came to the throne, Tuli Little Khan sealed off the domain in the north of Youzhou and ruled over the eastern part of the country.In the first year of Zhenguan, severe snowstorms made the tribes of the Eastern Turks unable to make a living. Therefore, the Xi, Qi, and Khitan tribes under the control of Tuli Khan rebelled one after another and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. Tuli had no way to stop it.Jieli was very dissatisfied and angrily denounced his lack of control.This created a rift between the two sides.Soon, Jieli failed in the war against the rebel tribes in the north, so he recruited Tuli to go north to suppress the rebellion. Unexpectedly, Tuli suffered another disastrous defeat and fled back with only a few light cavalry.Jieli was so angry that he imprisoned Tuli for more than ten days and punished him with whips.The relationship between the two deteriorated seriously, and the uncle and nephew began to have their own calculations.

Tuli was full of resentment at first, and then a heart of rebellion.And Xieli also had a complete distrust of Tuli, and in the following days repeatedly recruited troops from him, trying to weaken his strength. Tuli realized that Xieli was boiling the frog in warm water, which would kill him sooner or later, so he must not sit still. In the crisis, Tuli naturally thought of a life-saving straw, that is, the king of Qin who was "brotherly" with him in Wulongban, Binzhou, and now the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin. There is no place to stay here, but there is a place to stay.Thirty-six strategies, walking is the best strategy.

In April of the second year of Zhenguan (AD 628), Tuli submitted a secret form to Li Shimin, requesting surrender.Jieli soon got the news, and immediately flew into a rage, and immediately sent troops to attack Tuli. Tuli hurriedly sent envoys to ask for help from the Tang Dynasty, and Li Shimin asked his officials for advice.Both civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty believed that the time was ripe to deal with the Eastern Turks, and they should take immediate action.Du Ruhui, who was Minister of the Ministry of War at the time, even strongly advocated that the Turkic civil strife should be wiped out in one fell swoop, otherwise there will be no regrets.

However, Li Shimin did not send troops in a large scale in the end. Because he knew that with the national power of the Tang Dynasty at that time, it was not enough to launch a large-scale war to pacify the Eastern Turks. But he also knew that this was an opportunity to weaken the Eastern Turks anyway. Therefore, Li Shimin will never do nothing. While dispatching Qin Wutong to lead troops to meet Tuli, he locked his target on another person. For more than ten years, this person has been entrenched in the northern border of the Tang Empire, and has spared no effort to act as a thug for the Eastern Turks, and has always been a problem for the Tang Dynasty. He is Liang Shidu. Among the heroes competing at the end of the Sui Dynasty, Liang Shidu can definitely be regarded as the only remaining senior. As early as the spring of the thirteenth year of Daye (AD 617), that is, before Li Yuan and his son raised their troops, Liang Shidu had already ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in Shuofang (now Hengshan County, Shaanxi Province). Expand the territory, but live for a long time.When all the competing heroes in the Quartet had been wiped out one by one by Li Yuan and his son, Liang Shidu was still alive and kicking.Until the Tang Dynasty had been established for a full ten years, Liang Shidu was still at ease in his independent kingdom, and he never meant to be out. But in the second year of Zhenguan, Liang Shidu's good days came to an end. Because Jieli Khan was too busy to take care of himself, he could no longer cover his little brother. Li Shimin first planned to "peacefully liberate" Shuofang, so he sent a letter to Liang Shidu, telling him his interests and persuading him to abandon the dark and turn to the bright, but Liang Shidu refused to shed tears when he saw the coffin.Li Shimin decided to eradicate it by force, and handed over the task to Shi Liumin and Sima Liu Lancheng, governors of Xiazhou (now west of Hengshan County, Shaanxi), and ordered them to find a way to pull out the nail that had been stuck in the northern part of the empire for more than ten years. Er Liu is very strategic.The first step they took was to harass, sending light cavalry into the border of Liang State continuously, trampling and destroying its farmland and crops, making people panic. He pushed up and down, and successfully alienated the relationship between Liang Shidu and the officials.Since then, Liang Guo's national power has gradually declined, and there are endless people who return to the Tang Dynasty.The country's famous general Li Zhengbao and others planned to launch a coup d'état, hijacking Liang Shidu and returning the country to the Tang Dynasty. Unexpectedly, the incident was leaked and Li Zhengbao fled to the Tang Dynasty. After this incident, Liang Guo became more and more suspicious of each other.Er Liu realized that the time was right, so he submitted a request to send troops.Li Shimin immediately dispatched Chai Shao, General of the Right Guard, and Xue Wanjun, a young supervisor in the palace, to lead his troops out, and at the same time ordered Liu Min and Liu Lancheng to fight together. Prior to this, the Eastern Turks had wanted to abandon Liang Shidu and make a deal with the Tang Dynasty in exchange for the Khitans who defected to the Tang Dynasty. But this proposal of the Turks was flatly rejected by Li Shimin. Li Shimin said: "The Khitans and the Turks are two different races. Now that the Khitans have belonged to the Tang Dynasty, what qualifications do you have to claim it back? Liang Shidu, as a Han Chinese in the Central Plains, invaded the land of the Tang Dynasty and humiliated the people of the Tang Dynasty. You Turks People protect him. I launch a crusade, and you will intervene. But he is just a fish in the pot and cannot escape my palm! Even if he cannot be eliminated for the time being, I will never use the people who belong to Datang and He exchanges." Jieli Khan became angry with embarrassment and decided to protect Liang Shidu.When the Tang army approached Shuofang, the Turks immediately sent troops to rescue.Tens of miles south of Shuofang, the Turks and the Tang army launched an encounter.The Turks were defeated in this battle, and Chai Shao took advantage of the victory to encircle Shuofang. The Turkic army did not dare to rescue them, so they could only wait and see from a distance. On April 26th of the second year of Zhenguan, Shuofang City ran out of food supplies and had no means of returning to heaven. Liang Luoren, the cousin of Liang Shidu, had to assassinate Liang Shidu and surrender the whole city to the Tang army. At this point, the separatist regime that had survived for more than ten years under the protection of the Turks finally came to an end. Next, Li Shimin can go all out to deal with the East Turks. In the winter of the second year of Zhenguan, the northern tribes who rebelled against the East Turks elected the leader of Xue Yantuo, Yi Shiyinan, as Khan.Although Yi Shiyi was very eager in his heart, he refused repeatedly on the surface.Because this matter is no small matter—once he establishes himself as a Khan, he will be at odds with Jieli Khan and become the most important enemy of the Eastern Turks. There is no room for maneuver or retreat, so Yi Shiyinan dare not act rashly . At the very least, before gaining the support of the "international community" clearly, Yi Shiyinan didn't want to be a rash rafter. At that time, the primary representative of the "international community" was of course the Tang Dynasty. To be this khan, Tang Chao's attitude is very important. But what Yi Shiyinan couldn't imagine was that when he was dreaming of Khan, a special envoy of the Tang Dynasty named Qiao Shiwang actually sent him a canonization edict from a thousand miles away. True!This edict was issued by Li Shimin, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, not only canonized him as "Zhenzhu Pijia Khan", but also bestowed him with "drum flags" (giant drums and banners) that symbolize power and majesty.Yi Shiyinan was very excited, and immediately sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty to pay tribute. At the same time, he ascended the throne of Khan, announced the establishment of the Xueyantuo Khanate, and established the royal court under Yudujun Mountain (now Mongolia Hangai Mountain). Since then, Xue Yantuo's power has grown unprecedentedly, "from Mohe in the east, West Turk in the west, Shaqi in the south, and Julun River in the north; .” (Volume 193) In the autumn of the third year of Zhenguan (AD 629), Yi Shiyinan sent his younger brother Tong Teler to the Tang Dynasty to pay tribute, and Li Shimin gave him a sword and a whip.The relationship between Tang Chao and Xue Yantuo quickly entered the honeymoon period. Obviously, what Li Shimin adopted was the strategy of "making friends from afar and attacking closely".He took the initiative to canonize Yishiyinan, recognized Xue Yantuo's independence, and established an alliance with him, making it clear that he wanted to make Eastern Turks fall into the predicament of being attacked by enemies. Faced with such an unfavorable strategic situation, Jieli Khan was terrified, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and surrender to the Tang Dynasty, and asked to marry the princess of the Tang Dynasty, "please repair the son-in-law ceremony" ("Old Tang Book Turkic Biography"). Everyone knows that this superficial low profile is nothing more than an expedient measure for the Turkic people.Once the situation eases and the national strength recovers, the Turks will never give up their aggression against the Tang Dynasty. The kings and ministers of the Tang Dynasty naturally knew this well. Zhang Gongjin, the governor of Daizhou (now Daixian County, Shanxi Province), urged the imperial court to send troops, and listed six reasons for the inevitable demise of Eastern Turks: "First, Jieli indulged in lust and violence, punished the virtuous, and was close to treacherous men; second, Xue Yantuo and other tribes defected one after another; thirdly, Turkic Khan, General Ashina Sheer and others were accused by Jieli and had nowhere to go; fourthly, the northern part of Saibei suffered from frost for many years, and the Turkic people were short of food; fifthly, Jieli Li did not trust the Turkic people, and handed over the power to the foreign Hu people, and the foreign Hu people were capricious. If the army suppressed the border, there would be internal changes; Take the risk to protect yourself, if the Tang army goes out of the fortress, the crowd will surely respond." Zhang Gongjin's judgment on the situation is both comprehensive and accurate, which can be described as hitting the nail on the head. Li Shimin realized that the time was ripe to conquer the Eastern Turks, so in August of this year, he appointed Li Jing, Minister of the Ministry of War, as the commander of the Northern Expedition and was responsible for forming an expeditionary force. On November 23 of the same year, the expeditionary force was assembled, and most of the generals were famous in the world.Li Shimin ordered the army to be divided into six groups: with Li Jing as the marching chief and Zhang Gongjin as the deputy chief, go out of Dingxiang Road; Bingzhou Governor Li Shiji and Youwuwei General Qiu Xinggong go out of Tonghan Road; Zuowuwei General Chai Shao goes out of Jinhe Road; Wei Xiaojie, governor of Youzhou, came out of Heng'an Dao; Xue Wanche, governor of Lingzhou, came out of Changwu Dao; Li Daozong, king of Rencheng, came out of Datong Dao.The six-way army totaled more than 100,000 people, all under Li Jing's command, and aggressively attacked the Eastern Turks from all directions.Among them, the main force responsible for the frontal attack was the troops of Li Jing and Li Shiji. The six-way army was like six gleaming sharp swords stabbing at Mobei at the same time.This time, the Tang Empire is determined to win with all its best. East Turks are destined to be doomed... On November 28, Li Daozong, king of Rencheng, won the first battle and defeated the border troops of the East Turks in Lingzhou (now Lingwu City, Ningxia). On December 2, the little Turkic Khan fled the Eastern Turkic Khanate and arrived in Chang'an to meet Li Shimin, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin proudly said to his courtiers: "In the past, the Supreme Emperor used the common people as his vassal to the Turks, and I was always heartbroken. Now Shan Yuji (knocking his head) is almost ashamed." (Volume 193) At the end of the same month, Ashina Yushe, an important general of the Eastern Turks, also led his troops to surrender. Tuli is the number two figure in East Turkic, and Ashina Yushe is Xieli's confidant general. Their surrender means that Xieli has deserted all relatives and has completely become a loner. The demise of Eastern Turks is just around the corner.