Chapter 9 Chapter Nine: Tong Yehu Was Killed by the Western Turkic Tribes and Fled to Xue Yantuo

Chang He was given three hundred bolts of silk. The disaster in Guanzhong was finally dealt with, and Li Shimin wanted to be quiet for a while. For the past three years, he has been walking, running, and working hard every day like a wind-up alarm clock, until he was exhausted to death.However, being an emperor is not something you can do if you want to, and you can’t do it if you don’t want to.It is Li Shimin's most gratifying thing to be able to realize the dream of making the country rich and the people strong by relying on ability.There was one thing that made Li Shimin, who had been tired for several years, excited again.

This is a letter signed by Zhang Gongjin, the governor of the acting state.In the letter, Zhang Gongjin only mentioned one thing, he begged Li Shimin to attack Jieli.To this end, he also listed the six major advantages of Datang Fachieli. The alliance with the bridge is a shame that Li Shimin has always been unwilling to mention.The Turks have been strong and prosperous for so many years, and now they have formed a great Turkic Empire stretching from the Bohai Sea in the east to the Tianshan Mountains in the west.More importantly, Li Shimin also promised that he would always use money to support Xieli.Isn't this Li Shimin's real idea, resting and recuperating, isn't it just to get rid of their control one day?

However, is now the time to crusade against Xieli? All the officials were arguing about this. Turks have been around for so long, and I haven't had time to introduce them. So, let’s introduce the Turks first! Turks, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, have been active at the southern foot of Jinshan (Altai Mountain). The Turks were not powerful at the beginning. In the 5th century, they were slaves of the Rouran tribe.The so-called Rouran is actually a certain tribe of the Xianbei tribe. In the history of our country, they have countless cute names, such as: Zhuzhu, Ruirui, Ruru, Zhuzhu, Tantan...

Rouran people do not regard Turkic people as friends. Turkic people are slaves of Rouran who are responsible for forging iron for them.Therefore, for a long time before this, the Turkic people were also called "forged slaves". In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Taiwu suddenly became angry and ordered the army to smash into Rouran many times, beating Rouran to pieces.Rouran was defeated, the grassland was still a grassland, and Rouran's defeat only gave the Turks a chance to rise.The Turks built their own tribes and rose on a large scale. In 552 A.D., the Turkic soldiers turned against the invaders, defeated Rouran with a large army, and occupied the entire Mongolian plateau.

It was at this time that the Turks became powerful. The Turkic comrades managed to unify northern Xinjiang and became the strongest on earth. Pei Ju, who made people hate him but couldn't find his fault, came. Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty adopted Comrade Pei Ju's opinion and used tactics to successfully split the Great Turkic into two parts, east and west.The two parts are hostile to each other, and civil wars continue.In comparison, the Eastern Turks have the greatest connection with the Sui and Tang Dynasties.At this very moment, Jieli, the leader of the Eastern Turks, is enjoying Li Shimin's offering, looking south to Chang'an covetously.So, how did Li Shimin respond?

The answer seems to be very simple, long distance and close attack. West Turkic means "far", and Eastern Turkic means "near".After Li Shimin raised Xieli and his staff until they were full of brains and stomachs, Xieli actually forgot the peace agreement, tore up his face, and went south again to burn, kill and loot.Therefore, Zhang Gongjin's letter was by no means accidental.East Turkistan developed well and was very strong.Xieli is considered the best among the Turkic Khans, but like the two Khans Shibi and Chuluo, his other characteristic is that he often speaks without counting.

God hates the kind of people who don't count their words, so after some serious consideration, God decided to silence Jieli severely. This is also one of the main reasons why Zhang Gongjin wrote the letter. Turkic is a great empire composed of countless tribes, and each of these tribes is very shrewd.The principle of their work is the same as that of many people, whoever looks rich they follow.When the East Turks became powerful, they went to the East Turks for cover and protection, and when the West Turks became powerful, they went to the West Turks to seek cover and protection.In this way, the contradiction between the east and the west is very intensified, but since the khans on both sides are more reliable, so one plus and one minus running back and forth, the strength of the east and west Turks is equal, and there is no need for both sides to use force.

At that time, the tribes covered by Jieli mainly included the Xueyantuo tribe, the Huihe tribe, and the Bayegu tribe... But recently, Xieli was surprised to find that these tribes ran away one by one, without even bringing their heads back.What's even more frightening is that there was no one on the way from West Turks to East Turks. What created such a scene? Here, we have to understand the leading comrades of the Western Turks. It is because he is too strong, not that Xieli is not strong enough. The Khan of the Western Turks was named Tong Yehu. At the time when Jieli was coaxing, Ye Hu, the governor, was not idle. He knew that Jieli was not easy to fight, so he decided not to fight east, but sent troops to the west.You know, further west is the famous Persian Sasanian Dynasty and the Byzantine Empire.To say that Byzantium may not be too domineering, then call this country the Eastern Roman Empire!Comrade Tong Yehu has never had time to look around because he was invited by Emperor Heraclius of the Eastern Roman Empire to launch a war against Persia.In this unprecedented western war, Comrade Tong Yehu became famous in the first battle and helped Eastern Rome win a decisive victory.

From this point of view, Tong Yehu Khan is also a very remarkable figure.Under his leadership, the Western Turkic army was powerful, even stronger than the Eastern Turkic army led by Jieli.It is normal for those tribes like weeds to rush into Tong Yehu's camp one after another, and Xieli should also understand that he is not as good as others. However, in the past two years, things are changing. Although Tong Yehu is a capable person, he is cruel by nature.In the second year of Zhenguan (628), his uncle couldn't stand his tyranny and stabbed him to death.The uncle of Tong Yehu was not a very good person. After he became the leader of the Western Turks, he proclaimed himself "Mohe Duhou Quli Tuppi Khan" (that's a mouthful).Although this person is old, he has low morals and low expectations. Such a person suddenly became a great khan, and no one is convinced.

Western Turks couldn't hold back. run! The tribes attached to Tong Yehu took advantage of the chaos and fled one after another. The sharp-eyed Jieli noticed that many tribes attacked each other, and more of them ran to the Xue Yantuo tribe. However, even some unpopular tribes headed north and threw themselves into the Arctic Ocean. Even if he died, no one would join him, Xieli. Why is that? What exactly is this for? ! As I said, God hates the kind of people who don't count their words, so after some serious consideration, God decided to silence Jieli severely. It all started with that one disaster.

After a series of political betrayals, Xieli's actual strength has not weakened, which is also the basic condition for his self-confidence.But, unfortunately, God seems to have lost his temper in the sky above East Turks. There has been a drought in the past two years near Chang'an in Guanzhong. , It fell for a month in one breath, and the heavy snow caused disasters, burying the grassland. Xieli fights by relying on horses, well-trained sharp weapons, and flexible bows and arrows. Now, the ice and snow that is as high as a person on the ground has swallowed up the entire vastness of the grassland.The sheep and horses had no grass to eat. After a long time, almost all the cattle and sheep were starved to death. This is not a big deal, if the sheep die, they can be raised in the next year, and if the horse dies, at most they will stop invading south and recuperate, and it will be enough after two years. But what if people starve to death? ! What do you propose? Terrified, Jieli said, "Grab it." Jieli's first thought was to grab it, and if he didn't have it, he went to grab it.He led the hungry soldiers and horses to the border of Shuozhou with difficulty, and showed off his might on the border of Shuozhou.This is really a half-foolish decision. In order to prevent Datang from making a surprise attack, Jieli didn't dare to go deep into the robbery. When he ran to the edge of Shuozhou, he realized that he had actually driven himself to nowhere. There is a dilemma. Is the contract still to be fulfilled? ...Yeah, what the hell should I do now? Finally, Xieli discussed with everyone, in order not to let Tang Chao think that we are going to rob, then let's say that we are here to practice martial arts! As promised, Xieli led the army and began to practice martial arts at the border in a decent manner. Ghosts can know what he wants to do, but Jieli takes Li Shimin and the people of Tang Dynasty as fools, and even declares to the outside world: Let's exercise our muscles and bones first, we are out to hunt.This kind of mentally handicapped trick, if you have the face to embarrass yourself in front of Li Shimin, it can only make everyone watch the joke with their mouths pursed. In Chang'an, many meetings were held to discuss how low Xie Li's IQ was, and the atmosphere was very harmonious. But in Li Shimin's eyes, Xieli is as difficult to deal with as a wolf. Seeing through his plan does not mean defeating him. Sometimes it's like this, you know what the opponent wants to do, and when you really fight, you find that it is really difficult to win.The Turks are nomads in the north. They cut at the touch of a knife, and run away after grabbing something. What can you do with them?Therefore, we must wait patiently, and we can only win if we fight against powerful opponents with patience. To fight with humans is to be more vicious and wise than humans; to fight with wolves is to be more tolerant and cunning than wolves! Zhang Gongjin's letter played the role of stirring up waves with one stone.Taking advantage of the decline of Xieli, ministers wrote to ask for an attack.According to the past practice, when the enemy is starving and skinny, it is almost the time for surprise soldiers to win.However, this time, Li Shimin did not agree to do so in the face of the soldiers and horses of the Eastern Turks who were so hungry. He delivered a speech that was childlike in its innocence: We have just formed an alliance with him, and now we continue to betray him because of unbelief; to take others' disasters as our own happiness is because of inhumanity;Even if all of Xieli's subordinates betrayed him and all the animals died, I still can't beat him, and I must wait until he is guilty before launching an attack. What happened to Li Shimin?The answer is, Li Shimin is fine, we can understand the above passage like this: Just forming an alliance with others, and now betraying them will be very detrimental to the future reputation of Datang; attacking while others are in danger of disaster will wipe out all horses, but what we want is people's hearts, not land; Betrayal is not necessarily a good thing for Datang, and it is not necessarily a bad thing for Jieli not to be arrogant. I have to wait until Jieli makes a mistake before attacking in one fell swoop. The highest kindness is like water, and the great wisdom is like a fool. This is the real wise man! Be arrogant, Xieli! According to Li Shimin's plan, Jieli really started to act. When Tong Yehu was alive, he wanted to marry Li Shimin as his son and daughter.In this matter, Xieli did a rather dishonorable job.Since the task of marrying a daughter-in-law is to welcome the daughter-in-law from the Tang Dynasty to the West Turks, they must pass through the East Turks on the way, which made Xieli very proud.He sent someone to say to Tong Yehu: "You have to be good, you have to live on my territory to welcome the princess of the Tang Dynasty!" Moreover, Comrade Xieli sent someone to deliver such a sentence, and nothing else Said that it made Tong Yehu very helpless. The failure of the marriage between Datang and Western Turks was due to Xieli. After Tong Yehu was stabbed by his uncle, all the tribes of Western Turks joined Xue Yantuo's tribe.Xue Yantuo's tribe elected their own Khan, who pointed to Chang'an in the southeast, and said, "We used to be officials of the Tang Dynasty, but now we have to pay tribute to the Tang Dynasty. How about that?" Chang'an.When parting, Li Shimin gave the envoy a sword and a whip, and solemnly said to the envoy: "Use them to deal with the affairs of the tribe. Those who commit serious crimes are cut with knives, and those who commit small crimes are whipped!" The envoy Xue Yantuo was terrified, thinking that the emperor of the Central Plains was very energetic.As for Comrade Xieli, after hearing that Xue Yantuo had surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, he was even more frightened.Seeing that Xue Yantuo was showing weakness, he was also ready to show weakness, and asked to be a minister to the Tang Dynasty and asked Li Shimin to give him a marriage—he wanted to be Li Shimin's son-in-law. However, Xieli, a Turkic leader who is not self-serving and is dedicated to hurting others, has just done a great event that caused a sensation in the world as soon as he sent the invitation for peace.Not long after becoming a minister, Jieli couldn't bear the loneliness, and helped the warmonger Liang Shidu go south to make a massive invasion.I really don't know what Xieli thinks, does he feel that his life is very ordinary?Li Shimin didn't expect this day to come so soon, and held another meeting. Like Zhang Gongjin, others also very much agree with the six musts to win Xieli at this time: Jieli indulges his desires and acts violently, condemns the loyal and the good, and is fond of the treacherous and the sycophant; Xue Yantuo and other tribes all rebelled, and the second one; Tuli, Tuoshe, and Yugushi are all offended, and they feel ashamed, three things; The frost in Saibei is early, and the rice is scarce, four things; Jieli segregates his family, entrusts all the Hus with relatives, and the Hus repeat themselves. Once the army comes, there will be internal changes, five things; When the Chinese entered the north, there were a large number of them. It is better to hear the news and gather together, to protect the dangerous mountains, and when the army goes out, they naturally respond, six. All in all, these six items are enough to prove that going to Xieli is the only choice.After discussing for a while, Li Shimin decided to launch a full-scale attack on Xieli after comprehensive opinions! In August of the third year of Zhenguan (629), Zhang Gongjin set off as the deputy commander of the conquest of Jieli.The commander-in-chief of this operation was named Li Jing.After accumulating strength for ten years, today, just today, Tang Chao launched an attack on this hated Eastern Turk. The army marched northward, approaching Jieli. In September of the third year of Zhenguan (629), the chiefs of Bayegu, Pugu, Tongluo, Xi and other tribes analyzed the situation and led the crowd to surrender. Jieli was even more isolated and helpless. In November, the Turks, unwilling to be lonely, invaded Hexi, and were surrounded by Suzhou Governor Gongsun Wuda and Ganzhou Governor Cheng Ren.The Turks didn't get a penny, but more than a thousand people were hacked to death. Li Shimin felt that it was not enough to deal with a big guy like Xieli just by setting up a commander in chief and a deputy commander. In order to achieve the effect of a full-scale attack, he set up the army into four groups. These four paths are one, traveling separately and cooperating with each other.The generals in charge of the four routes are all extremely brave generals of the Tang Dynasty, extremely powerful, wise and brave. The first road is Li Ji, the general manager of the Tonghan Road and the governor of Bingzhou; The second route is Li Jing, the marching chief of Dingxiang Road and Minister of the Ministry of War; The third route is Chai Shao, the general manager of the Jinhe Road, the governor of Huazhou, and the husband of the heroine Li Niangzi; The fourth route is Xue Wanche, the marching chief of Changwudao and the governor of Lingzhou. There are more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in the four armies, all of which are under the control of Li Jing. Xuanjia iron cavalry, mighty army! Jieli: I am a boy, 50 years old, Turkic, please protect me! Li Shimin: Uncle, you sent it to the wrong place.