Chapter 31 Pie from the sky: Pingding Hexi

In the summer of the second year of Wude, just as Wang Shichong proclaimed himself emperor in the eastern capital, the Tang Dynasty also won a major victory in the northwest battlefield - pacifying Ligui in Hexi. The victory came without effort. To be precise, it's like a piece of pie that fell from the sky. After Li Gui raised his army in Wuwei in the thirteenth year of Daye, he claimed to be the King of Daliang in Hexi, and became a major separatist force in the late Sui Dynasty. Together with Xue Ju of the Western Qin Dynasty, he became the main threat to the Li Tang Dynasty in the northwest.In August of the first year of Wude, Li Yuan sent an envoy to contact Li Gui, and issued an edict to call him "Congdi" and form an alliance with him to deal with Xue Ju.In the winter of that year, Xue Ju and his son were defeated. Li Gui took the opportunity to proclaim himself emperor, and sent troops to capture Zhangye, Dunhuang, Xiping (now Ledu County, Qinghai Province), and Fanghan (now Linxia City, Gansu Province), occupying the five counties in Hexi.

Faced with the rapid growth of Li Gui's power, Li Yuan decided to adopt the method of canonization to appease him, so in February of the second year of Wude, he appointed Li Gui as the governor of Liangzhou and the king of Liangzhou.However, on the issue of whether to accept the canonization of the Li Tang court, the Xiliang court had a disagreement.Li Gui's own opinion is: "Tang Tianzi, my elder brother, is now in the capital. One surname cannot fight for the world. I want to lose the title of emperor and be ennobled by him." Cao Zhen, who shot, objected. He said: "The Sui Dynasty lost its deer, and the whole world pursued it. There is more than one person who proclaims himself king and emperor! Li Tang proclaimed emperor in Guanzhong, and Xiliang proclaimed emperor in Heyou, without hindering each other; Now that you have established yourself as the Son of Heaven, how can you degrade yourself again!"

Li Gui accepted Cao Zhen's opinion, and then sent Shangshu Zuocheng Deng Xiao to Chang'an to submit a letter of credence to Li Yuan, which claimed to be "Emperor Daliang's minister Gui", and expressed that he did not accept Li Yuan's canonization. Li Yuan was furious and immediately detained Deng Xiao.At that time, Li Yuan had already decided to pacify Xiliang by force, but the problem was that the new Tang Dynasty still had to face many powerful enemies: Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu in the north, Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande in the east, Xiao Xian, Lin Shihong, Shen Faxing in the south... In this situation, Li Yuan simply couldn't spare to deal with Li Gui.

The only way is to be patient for the time being. At this moment, Li Yuan never imagined that a victory would come from the sky in just three months—Li Gui, who was well-equipped with soldiers and provisions, would be pacified overnight. Everything started with a memorial received by Li Yuan in early May. This memorandum was handed over by a courtier named An Xinggui, to the effect that his younger brother An Xiuren served as the Minister of the Household Department in Xiliang, and he was quite valued by Li Gui. He was willing to use this relationship to lobby Li Gui , Knowing his interests and persuading him to surrender to the Tang Dynasty.

After reading the memorial, Li Yuan couldn't help laughing.He wanted to put it aside for a while, but then he changed his mind, no matter how unrealistic this idea of ​​An Xinggui was, it was still loyal after all.The Tang Dynasty has just been founded, and the world has not yet settled down. Of course, the enthusiasm of the courtiers who are eager to serve the court should only be encouraged, not discouraged.Even if you don't adopt his suggestion, at least you should meet him and give some words of encouragement.So Li Yuan then summoned An Xinggui and said to him: "Li Gui has a strong force and is guarding a dangerous point. He connects Tuyuhun to the south and East Turks to the north. I'm afraid I won't be able to conquer it with a large army. Just rely on your empty words. How can he be defeated?" acceptable?"

But An Xinggui said in a confident tone: "My family lived in Liangzhou (now central and western Gansu), and several generations have enjoyed prestige, and have been respected by Han people and barbarians. My younger brother An Xiuren also deeply loves Trusted by Li Gui, there were no fewer than ten An family members who held important positions in the Liang Dynasty. I went to lobby and Li Gui would be the best to listen, even if he didn't accept it, it would be easier for me to attack by his side." Hearing what he said, Li Yuan's thoughts immediately changed. He felt that An Xinggui didn't seem like a boastful person.Since he is so confident and doesn't need to use the court's soldiers, why would he not do it?

A few days later, An Xinggui returned to his hometown Wuwei (now Wuwei City, Gansu Province) in his own name. Li Gui thought he had returned from rebellion against the Tang Dynasty and was overjoyed, so he immediately appointed him General of the Left and Right Guards. But Li Gui absolutely did not expect that this An Xinggui would become his gravedigger in a blink of an eye. After An Xinggui gained Li Gui's trust, he found an opportunity to test him when there was no one around him.An Xinggui said: "The area of ​​Liang State is only a thousand miles away, the land is barren, and the people are poor. Now the Tang Dynasty started in Taiyuan, captured Hanqin (central part of Shaanxi) and contained the Central Plains. Can do it! Your Majesty might as well return the land of Hexi to the Tang Dynasty, then the merits of Dou Rong in the Eastern Han Dynasty must be reproduced today!"

Li Gui suddenly stared at him with thoughtful eyes, and said, "I have strong mountains and rivers. Although they are powerful, what can they do to me? You were an official in the Tang Dynasty before, could it be that you wanted to repay Li Tang? The grace of knowing you, came to serve as a lobbyist to induce surrender for them?" An Xinggui hastily fell to the ground to apologize, and said: "Your Majesty heard that: 'If you are rich, you don't go back to your hometown, it's like walking in brocade clothes at night!' Now, all the children of your family are trusted by His Majesty, and they are full of honor and celebration. How dare you have more ambitions! I just want to offer something to His Majesty." It's just a fool's concern, how to decide is entirely up to His Majesty."

After An Xinggui left the palace, he realized that persuading him to surrender had failed, and the next thing he had to do was to launch a mutiny. On the same day, An Xinggui and his younger brother An Xiuren sneaked out of Wuwei City. An Xinggui did not brag to Li Yuan, the An family and their brothers did raise their arms in Liangzhou, and there were many responders.In just a few days, they pulled up a sizable army of mixed Hu and Han, and began to attack Wuwei.Li Gui was furious and led his troops to fight in person, but was defeated by the An brothers, so he had to retreat to the city and stand firm.An Xinggui led his troops to besiege Wuwei City, and shouted around the city: "The Tang court sent me to kill Li Gui, and those who dare to help him will slaughter the three clans!"

An Xinggui's fierce offensive combined with psychological warfare quickly destroyed the fighting spirit of the Xiliang army.The soldiers and civilians in the city rushed out of the city and went to An Xinggui.Li Gui didn't expect his army to be so vulnerable. Seeing that the situation was gone and there was no way to recover it, he had to take his wife and children up to the beautiful jade girl platform built not long ago, buy wine and drink, and bid farewell. On May 13th of this year, An Xinggui invaded Wuwei, captured Li Gui alive, and declared Hexi to be pacified. The reason why An Xinggui was able to defeat Li Gui so easily was because the hearts of Xiliang had long been scattered.

There are three reasons that led to the disintegration of people's hearts in Xiliang and Li Gui's rapid defeat. One: kill heroes. The person who was killed was named Liang Shuo, who was originally one of the main planners when Li Gui raised his troops. He was the Minister of the Ministry of Officials in Xiliang at that time. , especially An Xiuren, Minister of the Ministry of household affairs, has always been at odds with him.In the subsequent open and secret struggle between the two sides, An Xiuren designed to frame Liang Shuo for rebellion, causing Li Gui to poison Liang Shuo at home.From then on, Li Gui's cronies and former staff were all in panic, fearing that they would be killed by Li Gui, and the atmosphere of terror permeated the entire Xiliang court. Second: build the Jade Girl Terrace, which is a waste of money and people. Last winter, a wizard told Li Gui: "God will send the jade girl down from the sky!" It means that if you can welcome the jade girl, you will be blessed by heaven.Li Gui immediately mobilized his troops, exhausted the treasury and built a magnificent jade girl platform, and looked forward to the arrival of the jade girl devoutly.But in the end, the jade girl disappeared, but Xiliang was full of dissatisfaction. The third: Wrong decision-making, ignoring the civil disaster situation. Not long after the completion of Yunv Terrace, a severe famine occurred in Xiliang, and tragedies of cannibalism were widespread among the people. At that time, the treasury was empty, and Li Gui had to use his personal resources to provide relief, but it was of no avail.Li Gui had no choice but to convene a court meeting to discuss whether to open a warehouse for food relief.The ministers headed by Li Gui's old department and Zuo Servant Cao Zhen all believed: "The country is based on the people. If the foundation is not established, the country will be in danger. It should be opened immediately. You can't just sit back and watch the people eat each other." Another group of ministers headed by Qing Xie Tongshi expressed their opposition.These people were originally the old officials of the Sui Dynasty who guarded Wuwei. They were forced to surrender after being arrested by Li Guixing's troops. The hearts of the people did not really submit, so they all wanted to take this opportunity to arouse public resentment and bring down Xiliang, so they all Said: "Taicang, as the country's strategic reserve resource, can only be used at a critical moment. How can it be opened for a few ordinary people? Cao Zhen's suggestion is obviously to buy people's hearts, and it is not really based on the national plan." Li Gui The balance in my heart finally leaned towards Tongshi Xie and refused to open a position.From then on, "the scholars were resentful and resentful, and they wanted to betray them" ("Old Tang Book·Li Gui Biography"). And everything that happened in Xiliang undoubtedly reached An Xinggui's ears through An Xiuren's channel.That's why An Xinggui believed that Li Gui's demise was a foregone conclusion, so he proposed to Li Yuan a plan for Pingliang with confidence. After Li Gui was captured, he was escorted to Chang'an together with several of his younger brothers and sons, and beheaded in the downtown area. Faced with this sudden victory, Li Yuan was really pleasantly surprised, and immediately appointed An Xinggui as the Marquis General of Youwu, Shangzhu Kingdom, Duke of Liang, rewarded 10,000 pieces of silk and satin, and appointed An Xiuren as Marquis General of Zuowu , Feng Shen Guogong. After hearing the news of Li Gui's demise, Deng Xiao, a Xiliang envoy who had been detained in Chang'an not long ago, immediately asked to see Li Yuan. Although the Lord has lost his country, he is not sad at all.On the contrary, Deng Xiao felt a little lucky.Because Li Gui is not dead, he will never have a bright future.And now he can finally turn to his new master in a legitimate way. This is called a person who knows current affairs is a hero. At the court meeting the next day, when Deng Xiao danced and expressed his heartfelt congratulations to the new master, Li Yuan kept looking at him blankly without saying a word.It wasn't until Deng Xiao stopped his dance in embarrassment that he heard Li Yuan say coldly: "You are an envoy, and when you hear about the country's death, you are happy without sorrow, in order to flatter me. If you are not loyal to Li Gui, are you willing to work for me? "(Volume 187) From this day on, Deng Xiao was never hired by Li Tang's court. Maybe for the rest of his lonely and impoverished life, Deng Xiao will always be troubled by such a question-why he flattered him so cleverly, but also got such an unlucky result?Why is it that a smart person who knows the current affairs will end up in such a bad way? The second year of Wude was really a year full of surprises for Li Yuan and the entire Tang Dynasty. Because many things fell from the sky. However, what falls from the sky is not always a pie, sometimes there is a thunderbolt. In September of the second year of Wude, Li Yuan and his ministers were all stunned by a thunderbolt from the blue sky-Taiyuan was lost! Who is so damned that he lost the Land of Longxing in the Tang Dynasty? It's Qi Wang Li Yuanji!