Chapter 25 Politicians' masks and oaths

Li Mi heaved a long sigh of relief after receiving the letter of appointment from the Eastern Capital Court.He was finally able to mobilize the elite to deal with Yu Wenhuaji with all his strength. Li Mi knew that Yu Wenhua's biggest advantage now was his army. After all, these hundreds of thousands of people were originally Yang Guang's guards, and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.But Yu Wenhuaji has two biggest weaknesses: one is that he himself is not capable, and the other is that his army is short of food. In order to make full use of these two weaknesses, Li Mi thought of a plan—to make peace with Yu Wenhua.

Sure enough, Yu Wenhua and he got the trick, and let the soldiers let go of their stomachs to eat and drink. He believed that Li Mi's three major granaries would be opened to him soon.But soon Yu Wenhuaji realized that he had been fooled.Because one of Li Mi's subordinates committed crimes and fled, he took refuge in him and told him everything about Li Mi's conspiracy.Yu Wenhuaji was furious, and immediately led his army across the Yongji River to attack Li Mi's camp in Tongshan (north of Huaxian County, Henan Province today). Since the Sui army had run out of food, in this battle, all the generals and soldiers of the Sui army were determined to fight to the death, and the attack on Wagang was unprecedentedly violent.From Chenshi (7:00 am) to Youshi (7:00 pm), the Sui army attacked wave after wave without stopping for a moment.Li Mi led his troops to resist, but was shot by a stray arrow during the fierce battle, fell from his horse, and fainted immediately.The attendants on the left and right scattered and fled for their lives, and the Sui army immediately swarmed up.

Seeing that Li Mi was about to die under the chaos of swords, the Wagang Army was about to be defeated in a blink of an eye. At the moment of life and death, someone desperately saved Li Mi's life, and also saved the defeat of the entire Wagang Army. He is Qin Shubao. When everyone ran for their lives, only he stood by Li Mi's side and blocked the surrounding Sui soldiers with his own strength, so Li Mi escaped death. After Qin Shubao rescued Li Mi, he immediately summoned the remaining troops, reorganized the defense, and repelled several attacks by the Sui army.As it was getting late, the soldiers of the Sui army who had fought fiercely all day were exhausted, so Yu Wenhuaji had to lead his troops to withdraw from the battlefield.

In order to solve the food shortage of the army, Yu Wenhuaji entered Jijun (now east of Qixian County, Henan Province) to search for food, and at the same time sent people back to Dongjun to force the local officials and people to pay the military rations.The officials and people in Dongjun refused to accept, so Yu Wenhuaji's men arrested them and tortured them severely.Wang Gui, the Tongshou of Dongjun, couldn't bear it, so he secretly sent Xu Jingzong, the Tongshisheman, to meet Li Mi and ask for surrender.Li Mi immediately appointed Wang Gui as the governor of Huazhou, and left Xu Jingzong as the secretary of the marshal's office to work with Wei Zheng.

This Xu Jingzong became one of the main staff under Li Shimin's account in the future. Together with Du Ruhui, Fang Xuanling, Yu Shinan, Kong Yingda and others, he was called the "Eighteen Scholars of the Qin Palace". He and others jointly edited "Sui Shu". When Yu Wenhuaji learned of Wang Gui's rebellion, he realized that it was difficult for him to gain a foothold in the Central Plains, so he had to withdraw from the Eastern Capital battlefield and lead his army northward, preparing to develop toward the north of the Yellow River. But along the way, there were generals who fled with their troops and went south to surrender Li Mi.Among them were more than 10,000 Lingnan elites led by Chen Zhilue, thousands of Jianghuai warriors led by Fan Wenchao, and thousands of Jiangdong warriors led by Zhang Tonger.Yu Huaji was unable to stop it, so he could only continue northward with 20,000 remnants, and finally reached Wei County (now southwest of Daming, Hebei).

Li Mi knew that Yu Wenhuaji had done nothing, so he left Xu Shiji to guard against his counterattack, and then led his army back to Luokou. Since Li Yuan and his sons and their political and military groups raised troops in Jinyang, whether they went south to Hedong, west to Guanzhong, or conquered Chang'an and established the Tang Dynasty, they have been smooth and invincible along the way, and have almost never encountered any setbacks. God always seems to be on Li Yuan's side. However, in July of the first year of Wude (AD 618), that is, two months after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, this kind of triumphant situation was broken by Qin Emperor Xue Ju on the battlefield.

At that time, Xue Ju personally led a large army to advance to Gaochao (zhi, east of Jingchuan County, Gansu Province today), and a small group of vanguard troops had already rushed to Binzhou (now Binxian County, Shaanxi Province) and Qizhou (now Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province), coming very fiercely.However, Marshal Tang Jun and Qin Wang Li Shimin contracted malaria at this critical moment.Li Shimin had no choice but to order the army to dig deep trenches and build high fortifications, and temporarily handed over the command of the army to Na Yan, Marshal Shi Liu Wenjing, and Sima Yin Kaishan. In the hinterland, after a long time, there will be a shortage of food and grass, and the soldiers will be exhausted. Therefore, if he comes to challenge, you must not fight, and when I recover from illness, I will defeat the enemy for the lords!"

However, Liu Wenjing and Yin Kaishan did not heed Li Shimin's warning. As soon as he walked out of Li Shimin's big tent, Yin Kaishan said to Liu Wenjing, "Your Majesty is worried that you will not be able to deal with Xue Ju. That's why you said that. But when Xue Ju heard that your Majesty is ill, he must take it lightly. We should take this opportunity to show everyone." This remark hit Liu Wenjing's heart, so he immediately led his army to line up in the southwest of Gaochao, preparing to fight Xue Ju.Xue Ju was overjoyed when he heard that the Tang army was going to fight. While lining up in front, he sent a surprise soldier to go around behind the Tang army.

On July 9th of the first year of Wude, Xue Ju defeated Liu Wenjing in Qianshuiyuan (now north of Changwu County, Shaanxi).All the generals of the Tang army were defeated, more than half of the soldiers were killed, and the generals Liu Hongji, Murong Luohu, Li Anyuan and others were all captured.Li Shimin had to lead his troops back to Chang'an.Xue Ju took advantage of the victory to occupy Gaochai, and piled the corpses of the Tang army into a high platform to show off his military power. This was Li Yuan's first disastrous defeat since he started his army.Liu Wenjing and others are naturally unforgivable.After returning to Chang'an, Liu Wenjing and Yin Kaishan were dismissed by Li Yuan immediately.

The defeat of Qianshuiyuan was beyond the expectation of Li Tang's court, but just three days later, another unexpected surprise erased the shadow in Li Yuan and everyone's heart. That is the surrender of Guo Zihe. Guo Zihe had no ambitions in the first place. Since he launched an army in Yulin County (now Tuoketuo County, Inner Mongolia) in March last year, he has been sticking to a corner of Yulin for more than a year, basically without any development.Although he claimed to be the King of Yongle, he resolutely rejected the title of "Son of Pingyang" given to him by the Eastern Turks at the beginning of his army. It can be seen that he is relatively low-key-at least lower than Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shi who readily accepted the canonization of the Turks. many.

However, in the era of the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties, when heroes were fighting for hegemony, a low-key and unambitious person could easily be eliminated. Rather than being eliminated from the competition and end up with nothing but death, it is better to get out of the competition voluntarily, at least you can save the rest of your life and the wealth and wealth of your children and grandchildren.It is precisely because of this consideration that Guo Zihe made a wise choice-to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. The Li Tang court immediately appointed him as the governor of Lingzhou (now Lingwu City, Ningxia). Later facts proved that Guo Zihe's choice was correct.When the separatist heroes in the four directions were defeated one by one and wiped out, he was able to rise step by step and keep his wealth and status.Soon after his return, Guo Zihe was granted the title of Duke of Jinhe County. During the reign of Wude, he was given the surname Li and worshiped General Youwuwei; (637 A.D.), he moved to be the Duke of Yi; in the first year of Gaozong Xianqing (656 A.D.), he was transferred to the governor of Qianzhou; he lived until the first year of Linde (664 A.D.).Although there is no record of his birth date, but a little calculation shows that he was definitely over eighty years old when he died. So, it's a smart out. After Li Mi expelled Yu Wenhuaji from the Central Plains, the people of the Dongdu court were happy and excited. Only Wang Shichong gritted his teeth and said to his soldiers: "The people in Yuanwendu are just a group of sharp-edged officials. In my opinion, they will die sooner or later." Li Mi's hands! Ever since we fought against Li Mi's Wagang Army, we have killed countless fathers, brothers and children. Once we become his subordinates, we may die without a place to die!" The soldiers were very worried after hearing this, and Yuan Wendu was more worried than them.What he worried about was not Li Mi, but Wang Shichong. When Wang Shichong's words reached his ears, Yuan Wendu immediately negotiated urgently with Lu Chu and others, and decided to act first, laying an ambush when all the officials went to court, and killed Wang Shichong. Once the politician's mask is torn off, it will inevitably be a bloody life-and-death PK. However, Yuan Wendu, Lu Chu and the others never expected that the people who were about to splash blood on Dongdu were not Wang Shichong, but them. Because their assassination plan had just been drawn up, Duan Da, who had always been as timid as a mouse, was worried that he would not be able to catch Wang Shichong, so he simply told him the news immediately. Wang Shichong sneered - just because of this group of pen-players, they also want to fight with Lao Tzu? In the middle of the night on July 15th of this year, at midnight, Wang Shichong suddenly sent troops to attack the Hanjia gate of the palace.Yuan Wendu heard the change, rushed into the palace, "invited" Yang Tong to Qianyang Palace, sent troops to guard, and then ordered the generals to guard the palace gates and attack Wang Shichong.General Ba Yegang received the order, just led his troops out of the palace, and immediately dismounted and surrendered as soon as he met Wang Shichong.The generals Fei Yao and Tian Jie (du) met Wang Shichong outside the palace gate, but they gradually failed.Seeing that the situation was critical, Yuan Wendu was going to lead the forbidden army out of the palace from Xuanwu Gate, and went around behind Wang Shichong to attack. But what happened next was unbelievable. Duan Yu, the Changqiu supervisor (supervisor of eunuchs) who was in charge of the palace gate, claimed that he could not find the key and could not open the palace gate.And Yuan Wendu, who was in a hurry, was helpless in the face of the "Iron General".It wasn't until the sky was getting bright that Yuan Wendu turned around, ready to leave the palace through the Sun Gate at the other end. But it was too late. When Yuan Wendu arrived at Qianyang Hall, Wang Shichong had already broken through the Sun Gate and entered Miyagi with his soldiers. Sure enough, as Wang Shichong said, people like Yuan Wendu can only play with their pens. If they want to use a knife with Wang Shichong, they are definitely courting death.Even an "Iron General" on the Xuanwu Gate can't do anything, even if he gets the key and leads the troops out of the palace, can Yuan Wen beat Wang Shichong? He can only die faster! As soon as Wang Shichong entered the palace, everyone realized that the time of death had come, so they ran for their lives. One of the "Seven Nobles", Huangfu Wuyi, Minister of the Ministry of War, left his wife, wife and children, hurriedly opened the right door, escaped from Dongdu, and went straight to Chang'an.But Lu Chu hid in the Taiguan Office (the Palace Food Department), was found by Wang Shichong's soldiers, and was hacked to death. Wang Shichong drove straight in and began to attack the Ziwei Gate in front of Qianyang Hall.Yang Tong sent people to the Ziwei gate tower to question why Wang Shichong brought troops into the palace.Wang Shichong got off his horse and apologized, saying: "Yuan Wendu, Lu Chu and others want to harm my minister for no reason. Please kill Wendu, and I am willing to accept the crime." Duan Da immediately ordered Yuan Wendu to be arrested and handed over to Wang Shichong. Yuan Wendu glanced at Yang Tong and said, "I die in the morning, and it will be Your Majesty's turn in the evening." The fifteen-year-old little emperor Yang Tong couldn't stop crying, so he could only wave his hands and ask people to take him out. As soon as Yuan Wendu went out, he was chopped into meat sauce in an instant.Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu's sons were all arrested by Wang Shichong and hacked to death.Duan Da passed on the emperor's order to open the palace gate to welcome Wang Shichong into the palace.Wang Shichong's deputies will immediately take over the power of the palace guards, and then enter the Qianyang Hall to meet Yang Tong. The pale little emperor pointed to Wang Shichong and said, "You killed without permission, and you didn't report it. Is this the way to be a minister? Could it be that you want to kill me with the military power in your hand?" Wang Shichong prostrated himself on the ground, weeping bitterly and said: "My minister, Meng Xiandi, was promoted, and he was smashed to pieces. There is no reward! Wen Du and others harbor evil intentions and want to call Li Mi to endanger the country. Because the minister is unwilling to cooperate with him, they are deeply suspicious of each other. Forced, there is no time to report. If the subject has two hearts and fails His Majesty, the world, the sun and the moon will prove it, and the subject is willing to be executed by the whole family, leaving no one behind!" Finally, the little emperor was completely moved by Wang Shichong's oath and oath, so he ordered him to go to the palace, talked with him for a long time, and then took him to meet the empress dowager.Wang Shichong untied his hair, spread his shoulders, and repeatedly swore to the Tianmeng, saying that he would never dare to have two hearts.On the same day, Yang Tong promoted him to Zuo Serve, and made him the governor of all internal and external military forces. At noon on the 16th, Wang Shichong arrested and killed Zhao Changwen and Guo Wenyi, and then personally patrolled the city to appease the soldiers. So far, four of the "Qigui" died, and one escaped, leaving only the powerful Wang Shichong and the cowardly and incompetent Duan Da. From then on, the Eastern Capital court completely fell into the palm of Wang Shichong.He ordered his elder brother to serve as the internal history order, and let his children take charge of the military power. At the same time, he let his cronies take charge of all the key departments of the court.For a time, Wang Shichong's power was poured inside and out, and the government and the opposition all flocked to him, and the little emperor Yang Tong was completely emptied. After just over half a year, Wang Shichong abolished Yang Tong and became emperor himself.I don't know how the former little emperor Yang Tong felt when he thought of the scene when Wang Shichang swore the first oath during the last days of confinement? Maybe he can only sigh——Wang Shichong's oath is too fucking unbelievable! But then again, asking politicians to be trustworthy is basically the same as asking sluts to be chaste. Politicians are generally not to be blamed for being shameless in such matters, only those who believe them to be blamed for being ignorant. However, what if the little emperor Yang Tong is not ignorant? Political power grows out of swords and guns! Even if Yang Tong doesn't believe in Wang Shichong's oath, he still has to believe in this universal truth. Therefore, whether you believe in Wang Shichong or not, Yang Tong's ending is the same.