Chapter 12 Chapter Twelve

In December of the first year of Xianqing (AD 656), Yingsuo River (near Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan). He Lu gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and horses from Shu Nishi and other tribes, preparing to fight Cheng Yaojin to the death.The cold air of midwinter wraps people's faces, and the shiny weapons emit a cold light.Standing on a high place, Cheng Yaojin glanced at the enemy who had already prepared, stepped down from the high platform, and asked, "The enemy is right in front, who dares to attack?" "The general wishes to go!" "Su Dingfang, how many people do you want?"

"five hundred!" Amidst everyone's discussion, Su Dingfang had already brought five hundred elite cavalry to kill the Western Turkic Army waiting neatly for Tang soldiers.He Lu obviously underestimated Tang Jun's strength too much. Under the leadership of Su Dingfang, five hundred warriors rushed around and quickly tore a hole in his formation.After knocking down dozens of people in a row, the Shunishi tribe knew that the situation was not good, so they turned around and ran away immediately.This was originally a battle of disparity in strength, there is no need for everyone to work hard for He Lu!

During the wild escape, the Western Turks were beheaded by the five hundred elites and killed more than 1,500 people, and captured horses and weapons stretching across the mountains and fields, which is invincible.Cheng Yaojin was very satisfied with Su Dingfang's actions. Su Dingfang suggested that our army continue to pursue and must force He Lu not to invade.But someone raised a different opinion. After Su Dingfang went down, he came to Cheng Yaojin alone to offer advice. His remarks were as follows: "Although the thief is broken, our army is also damaged. While the loss is still small, we should immediately Stop blindly attacking! The subordinates think that it is best to form a solid formation at the moment, put the luggage in the center, and let us surround it for protection. It is so safe, the general thinks, if the enemy comes, we will fight, and if the enemy does not come, we will wait. With military exploits, this plan is unparalleled in the world!"

His name is Wang Wendu, and he is jealous of Su Dingfang. Wang Wendu was daring, seeing that Cheng Yaojin didn't show an expression of agreeing with him, he suddenly lowered his voice and said: "I also got the emperor's secret decree to say that. The emperor knows that the general treats the enemy with courage, so let me restrain you." Cheng Yaojin nodded, and said something to thank the emperor. "Entrepreneurship and conservation, is it difficult to mature?" Wei Zheng said: "It is difficult to keep it." Cheng Yaojin knew that the emperor would definitely not let a lieutenant general supervise a general, let alone let the general be the chief of the army without trusting the general.Alas, look at those old generals, because of the failure of the last battle, they ended up with a lot of misfortunes, so just let it go!

Cheng Yaojin believed in Wang Wendu for the time being, and handed over all the power of soldiers and horses to him.Wang Wendu won the power and began to withdraw the army at lightning speed, waiting for the day lily to cool.All the elites used to attack the enemy retreated, and the rear troops also surrounded the luggage. Such a situation always reminded people of a group of misers protecting food.Director Wang was very satisfied with what he had done, and he ordered everyone (mainly Su Dingfang) not to act without authorization. People are always hungry. When marching and fighting, the food they brought was quickly eaten up.Some people were dissatisfied and were suppressed by Wang Wendu.A few days later, nearly half of the horses starved to death, and people temporarily survived by eating dead horses.Wang Wendu swallowed a mouthful of bitter water calmly, and suppressed everyone's discussion.Su Dingfang couldn't take it anymore, he jumped out and walked towards Cheng Yaojin's tent. "We came out to beg for thieves, how can we become self-defense now? Sitting on guard is naturally poor, and we will definitely lose if we encounter thieves. You are like a coward, what merits do you use! Besides, the Lord takes the public (Cheng Yaojin is the Duke of Lu) as the leader General, how could it be possible to send another adjutant to give you orders, there must be fraud in it!"

Seeing Cheng Yaojin staring forward with dead eyes, Su Dingfang suggested: "At the end, please imprison Wang Wendu, and gallop to report to the capital!" Cheng Yaojin responded twice, and sent Su Dingfang away.A few days later, Tang Jun was cornered by himself.A living person cannot starve himself to death, Cheng Yaojin decided to march towards Hengdu City. Hengdu City, in the southeast of today's Kazakhstan, was the territory of the Western Turks in the early Tang Dynasty.The army of the Tang Dynasty marched to Hengdu City. The soldiers and civilians of Hengdu City were probably frightened by the Tang army's formation, so they did not resist and surrendered out of the city.When they saw Tang Jun swarming into the city frantically and began to deliver things to their mouths, they were so regretful that their intestines turned green.Surprisingly, most of those who surrendered were ordinary people in the city. After defecting to the Tang army, the Tang army treated them well.

Wang Wendu put forward his own magical insight: "I have seen through this group of people. They are afraid of us now, so they surrendered. After we return to the army, they will definitely rebel again. Our army might as well kill them all and take them. Their things are also considered a miracle! (This is a master who serves me, but he is also a thief. It is better to kill them all and take their wealth.)" However, what was even more amazing was that Cheng Yaojin nodded and asked Wang Wendu to do it immediately.Under the leadership of Wang Wendu, the army killed all those who surrendered and achieved brilliant results.The battle of Hengdu City was successful, but obviously, Wang Wendu, a guy who can't write a pen and can't fix chaos in martial arts, doesn't understand the army's records and all generals are not the same.As for the record, they will only record all the situation truthfully, and report directly to the emperor when they return to the court. What's more, the soldiers and soldiers of the army have their mouths.

When Li Zhi learned that the battle ended with the killing of 1,500 enemy troops and the massacre of all the residents in the city, he was furious and immediately ordered Wang Wendu to be killed and Cheng Yaojin removed from office.It's really not easy for the old Cheng Yaojin.He wanted to keep his title at the expense of innocent residents.This old hero who was famous in Wagang was finally lost because he was afraid of losing his official position.Fortunately, Li Zhi couldn't bear to dismiss him all the time, and after a while, he was promoted to governor of Qizhou. Cheng Yaojin didn't want to go, so he asked to retire (begging for bones), and Li Zhi agreed.

In the first month of the second year of Xianqing (AD 657), there was a solution to the Helu problem that troubled Li Zhi.The imperial court recommended two people to him, the right guard general Ashinamishe and his brother Zuo Tunwei general Ashina Buzhen.Both of these two were Li Shimin's best friends. They came to court during the Zhenguan period, and now they finally have a chance to show themselves. Li Zhi is peace-loving, and he wants these two Turkic generals to appease the old people and seek bilateral stability.Of course, the attack on He Lu must not be relaxed. Li Zhi directly arranged for Su Dingfang to lead the army to conquer.Together with Su Dingfang, there were soldiers and horses from Huihe and other tribes led by the governor of Yanran (now Hangai Mountain in Mongolia), Ren Yaxiang, and the deputy governor Xiao Siye.

what is this? This is a veritable motley army! No hurry, Su Dingfang said calmly.Back then, the peasant army was even more disorderly than following the Xia King Dou Jiande, so what is it now?Besides, Su Dingfang didn't like large-scale attacks. Although he was followed by a mighty army, he always liked to use the elite to carry out surprise attacks. Even if he lost, he would not lose a few people.It should be noted that in Su Dingfang's dictionary, the words "disparity in military strength" have never existed. The army marched towards the foothills of Jinshan (Altai Mountain), where there was the Chumukun tribe attached to Helu.

Su Dingfang didn't talk nonsense with them, and led the elite to rush in directly, killing Chu Mukun into Chu Liukun.Chu Mukun was surrounded by the army behind him, and all of them became prisoners.When the nearby Qijinlan Dulu and others heard about this, they came to surrender one after another.Jinjin is similar to governor and governor; lazy Dulu is a person's name and transliteration, so you can also call him lazy dulu. Comrade Lan Dulu has more than 10,000 tents, and there are several people in each tent. After these tens of thousands of people were appeased by Su Dingfang, he picked out more than 1,000 strong soldiers and horses to go further west with the Tang army. go.He Lu, even if you have a million soldiers and don't know how to appease, how can you defeat my righteous army of the Tang Dynasty? Some people always say that there is no justice or injustice in war. Xue Rengui pointed out the ambiguity of this sentence.Xue Rengui, who was the right leader at the time, did not follow Su Dingfang to the expedition, and he stayed at his post all the time.When Su Dingfang killed He Lu, he said to Li Zhijin, "The Niyu tribe has always refused to accept He Lu. They were attacked by He Lu before, and their wives and children were snatched away. Now Tang soldiers go to destroy He Lu's tribes. If they are captured If there are wives and children of the Nishu Department, it is best to let them go and send them home. This will make them understand that He Lu is a thief, and Tang is a parent. People will die and spare no effort!" After hearing this, Li Zhi was overjoyed and followed it. Sure enough, after the Nishi tribe welcomed their wives and children, they heard that the people of Tang sent them home. They were overjoyed and rushed to plead for orders, vowing to live and die with the Tang Dynasty. Everyone had a common goal, which was to destroy He Lu! Western Turks, Helu, hundreds of thousands of troops. The vanguard of He Lu's army were soldiers from other tribes, and He Lu hid at the back.Su Dingfang traveled to the west bank of the Yihe River (Irtysh River in Xinjiang). Seeing that He Lu was waiting here, he set up his battle.He carefully observed He Lu's formation, and personally ordered 10,000 troops from Tang and Huihe, as if he wanted to hit He Lu's heart directly.The hundreds of thousands of Western Turkic troops began to respond vigorously, preparing to surround Su Dingfang. Su Dingfang smiled, and slowly arranged everyone to line up without arranging war horses. These thousands of infantry, following Su Dingfang's instructions, stood motionless on the southern plain with a large spear.It is said that if He Lu's people really come to attack them, they just need to huddle together and resist desperately.Everyone didn't quite understand the purpose of Su Dingfang's doing this, and He Lu didn't understand it even more. He Lu saw that Nanyuan had infantry, and cavalry killed infantry on the plain, just like a butcher with a butcher's knife cutting pigs in a pigsty.Being able to make such a formation shows that the leader of the Tang Dynasty was a guy with a low IQ. He Lu's cavalry rushed to the front of the Tang Dynasty infantry excitedly. Just when they were not far away, the Tang Dynasty infantry suddenly changed their formation and huddled together like a wheel.After a fierce battle, the Tang Dynasty infantry suffered very little casualties, and the circle remained motionless.Immediately afterwards, He Lu, unwilling to be left out, ordered the army to launch the second and third attacks one after another. In Beiyuan, Su Dingfang and his cavalry watched what happened in Nanyuan coldly. He Lu was very angry at the infantry that Nanyuan couldn't attack by force, and he insisted on pulling out this stubborn stubble! He Lu set off a fourth round of offensive climax.During the fierce battle, the Western Turks who were in charge of the attack first felt a commotion behind them, and when they looked back, they realized that it was Su Dingfang who led the cavalry from Beiyuan to kill them.The Turkic soldiers in the back hugged their heads and ran away, mobilizing the people in the front. They trampled on each other, and when they saw Su Dingfang coming to kill them, they ran away in a hurry.Su Dingfang's cavalry chased for more than 30 li with long spears and Mo Dao, beheading tens of thousands of enemy soldiers. He Lu has a lot of backbone. He ordered the ten surnames of the Turks to station a hundred miles away from the Tang army, and prepared to continue fighting against Su Dingfang tomorrow. But everyone didn't understand He Lu's explanation about "bone integrity". Everyone only knew that He Lu had done many immoral things, but the Tang Dynasty sent Ni's wife and children back home and gave them a lot of money.Do you want everyone to believe in a person who likes to talk back and forth, or to believe in a person who is trustworthy in doing things? Think about it all! He Luyan ordered all the tribes to meet Su Dingfang's challenge on the second day. Everyone said that it was necessary to rush to the Tang army, but what was different from the past was that everyone used to hold weapons in their hands, but this time they pointed to the sky with both hands.The first action was the five tribes including Hu Luwu. He Lu begged everyone to stay, but everyone still liked the gesture of pointing to the sky.Immediately afterwards, the rest of the soldiers and horses put down their weapons one after another and defected to the Tang army.He Lu was flustered in the wind, he said: "Ah Ha Lu is so angry, Qin Bi Ashina's arc, there is no way out for seven miles of rubbing!"