A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 614: No Father and Son in the Heavenly Family

After the snow in Shuozhou,

It exudes a dazzling beauty amidst the snow-covered landscape.

The mountains dance like silver snakes, and the plains gallop like wax elephants!
Li Yi welcomed Li Shimin into Mayi City.

"Generals Cheng Yaojin and Niu Jinda have already led three thousand cavalry into Yunzhong City."

The two rode side by side, their faces beaming with the joy of victory.

Li Shimin nodded, "This expedition beyond the Great Wall was a great success. You deserve the greatest credit for personally leading the expedition."

They rode their horses all the way to the Grand Administration Office, which had by then been renamed the Shuozhou General Administration Office.

We sat around the stove, first brewing a pot of hot tea to warm ourselves up.

Li Shimin held a warm teacup and said, "His Majesty's decree has been delivered to Yanmen. Just as Feng Deyi revealed, he wants me to go south to quell the rebellion."

Li Yi observed that Li Shimin's emotions were quite stable when he said these words.

“I have told the envoy that the war is not over yet. We have already persuaded Yuan Junzhang to surrender, seized the two prefectures of Yun and Shuo, captured the special minister Ashina Simo, killed more than a thousand Turks, and captured nine thousand.

Next, Khan Jieli might send troops to seize Mayi, so I cannot withdraw my troops for the time being.

Li Yi nodded.
These were all countermeasures they had agreed upon beforehand.

"Zheng Yuanzhu has also come. His Majesty sent him to the Khanate of Dingxiang to negotiate peace. The terms he offered were very generous, including continuing the marriage alliance and further rewards." Li Shimin said this with some dissatisfaction.

They won battles on the front lines, but the imperial court always hesitated and couldn't be firm.

"Has Jieli not reacted yet?"

"No, messages travel slowly in this heavy snow."

The main reason was that Li Yi and his men launched a night raid on Mayi, and Yuan Junzhang, working in tandem with them, wiped out Simo in one fell swoop, and no one escaped.

If too much time passes and Jieli loses contact with this side, he will definitely notice something is wrong. But it's still early, and with the heavy snow in the dead of winter, Jieli naturally assumes it's just the weather.

"Yaojin and Jingde were all shouting that they should take advantage of the Turks' unpreparedness and launch another surprise attack, saying that they should directly attack the Khanate of Jieli."

I felt it was too risky, being 400 li from Mayi, and with such cold and heavy snow, so I didn't agree.

Li Shimin sipped his tea.
"The cold winter and heavy snow do present an opportunity, but your decision is correct. We have just taken over the two prefectures of Yun and Shuo, and it is not advisable to take too many risks."

Even though they had achieved successive victories against the Turks, both Li Yi and Li Shimin were well aware that the Turks still had a significant military advantage.

Especially in field battles.

Since the Tang army rose up, it has been in short supply of warhorses and cavalry.

In recent years, after pacifying the forces of Xue Ju in Longyou and Li Gui in Hexi, some land for raising horses has been acquired, but cavalry cannot be trained overnight.

However, the constant warfare resulted in heavy losses of warhorses, which severely limited the Tang Dynasty's cavalry.

The Turkic cavalry completely outmatched the Tang army in both quantity and quality, which is why the Tang army has been so passive along the long northern border in recent years.

Each time the Turks invaded, they numbered in the hundreds of thousands, making it difficult for the Tang army to engage them in open battle. They could only passively defend the city.

Defending the city was a last resort for the Tang army, but it was also a way to barely resist the Turks.

“Next time, as long as we are prepared, there will always be another chance,” Li Shimin said.

This time, the heavy snow led to the border region.

They seized the opportunity, firstly to take advantage of the Turkic defeat and retreat to quickly recover Daibei, and secondly to use the war to avoid being summoned south by the emperor.

"Is Zheng Yuanzhu still going to the Khan's court?"

"Yes, he said he was acting on imperial orders."

Li Yi thought for a moment, "If he insists on going to Khan's court, then we still have something to do."

Li Shimin understood the meaning behind Li Yi's words.
This expedition beyond the Great Wall went too smoothly; Yuan Junzhang surrendered, and Simo and other Turkic soldiers were wiped out in one fell swoop.

If Jieli were to be terrified and actually reach a peace agreement with Zheng Yuanzhu, then Li Shimin would have no reason to remain in the northern frontier.

So we still need to do something.

As for suppressing the rebellion in Jiangnan, Li Yi believed that it could have been done without Li Shimin, since Li Shimin never actually went to Jiangnan to take up his post.

The stalemate in Jiangnan won't last long. Li Xiaogong has Li Jing, Li Shiji, and Li Daliang under his command, all of whom are capable fighters. In addition, there are Ren Gui, Zhang Zhenzhou, and others. It's about time to break the deadlock.

Li Shimin's southward journey at this time would likely have been too late.

More likely, they will remain hidden away in Chang'an.

It would be better to stay in Daibei for now. Firstly, Li Yi believed that Jieli would not be content with such a great loss, and he would definitely make a comeback next year.

After years of chaotic warfare, Daibei is now riddled with holes and is indeed difficult to deal with Jieli. The Tang army cannot simply retreat to a few major cities every time Jieli marches south.

Let the Turks plunder the prefectures of Daibei and take the people of Daibei as slaves.
Even the Tang Dynasty couldn't withstand such continuous bleeding.

The defensive tactics against the Turks definitely need to change, and ideally, there needs to be a commander like Li Shimin to oversee the overall situation.

“I think we can launch an attack on the Turks before Zheng Yuanzhu leaves the pass. Of course, we can use the pretext of attacking the Sui Dynasty, rather than attacking the Turks.”

Li Shimin recited the two words Li Yi had said: "Conquer the Sui Dynasty."

The "overthrow of Sui" was not referring to the Sui Dynasty under Yang Guang, but rather to the puppet Yang family court supported by the Turks.

Yang Zhengdao, the Prince of Sui, was a child who was not yet born at the time of the Jiangdu Mutiny. He was the grandson of Yang Guang and the posthumous son of Yang Jian, the Prince of Qi.

Yang Zhengdao was born on Yuwen Huaji's journey north after assassinating the emperor and was raised by Empress Xiao. After Yuwen Huaji's defeat in Hebei, Yang Zhengdao and Empress Xiao fell into the hands of Dou Jianqian.
In the third year of the Wude era, Princess Yicheng, the Khatun of the Turks, persuaded Khan Chuluo to send troops to Dou Jiande and bring them to the Turks.

Chuluo Khan and Qatun also assigned the officials and people from the Central Plains who remained in the Eastern Turkic territory to Yang Zhengdao for governance, re-established the Sui Dynasty, set up officials, and followed the Sui Dynasty system, commanding more than 10,000 followers. Later, Liu Wuzhou was defeated and killed.
At the Khan's request, the Khan allowed Yuan Junzhang to lead Liu Wuzhou's former territory and troops to submit to the Later Sui Dynasty, and appointed him as the Grand Chancellor of the Hedong Circuit.

Now that Yuan Junzhang has surrendered...
But that puppet regime of the Later Sui dynasty still exists.

The Sui King Yang Zhengdao was only four years old, while his grandmother, Empress Xiao, was already fifty-five.

"It is said that the Imperial Seal of the Sui Dynasty was in the hands of Empress Xiao."

"Now that we have captured Yunshuo, we should take advantage of the victory to wipe out the remnants of the Sui Dynasty. Your Majesty can send troops across the Great Wall to attack these remnants of the Later Sui Dynasty."

Li Yi refused to send troops to launch a surprise attack on the Khanate of Jieli.
Now they say they want to send troops to suppress the Later Sui Dynasty.

However, Empress Xiao and Yang Zhengdao's small court was located in the Dingxiang Khanate of Jieli.

Li Shimin could easily understand the underlying meaning in those words.
If it's a fight against Jieli, then it's a real fight. It requires a stealthy operation, a surprise attack from hundreds of miles away, a decapitation strike, and a fatal blow.

It is possible to send troops to conquer and suppress the Later Sui Dynasty.
It's really just a sham battle. It's all bark and no bite. They just send a few troops over the outer Great Wall, make a quick round, and come back.

"That's right. We send troops to attack the remnants of the previous dynasty, and no one in the court can criticize us for it."

Fighting the Later Sui Dynasty is very different from fighting the Turks, especially now.

But the effect is the same.

Jieli had suffered a great loss and returned to the grasslands filled with resentment.

Now the Tang army is pushing its luck, first secretly seizing Mayi and annihilating 10,000 of their troops, and now they have broken through the outer Great Wall and attacked their Khan's court.

Even if only some scouts appear near the Khan's court,

This is absolutely something that Jieli cannot allow.

The authority of the Turkic Khaganate and the authority of his Great Khan, Jieli, had been seriously offended, and he had to retaliate immediately.

Regardless of whether it's a genuine or feigned counterattack, he needs to make a show of force and demonstrate his stance.

This was exactly the attitude that Li Shimin and Li Yi wanted.

Jieli adopted this retaliatory stance.
Daibei immediately entered a state of war, and the Hedong Expeditionary Army naturally could not be withdrawn. Li Shimin, as the marshal of the expeditionary army, also had to remain to oversee the operation.

The tens of thousands of soldiers in the Hedong army camp could not return to the capital.

To put it nicely, this is called having an army to bolster one's own power; to put it bluntly, it's like harboring bandits to bolster one's own power.

They need time.

To seize the throne, one must possess both literary and military skills.

The literary approach, like Yang Guang, involved trying to ruin the crown prince's reputation, causing the emperor to lose faith in him and issue an edict to depose him and appoint a new crown prince.

This is the ideal, but also the most difficult.

Even though Li Yuan had promised Li Shimin that he would be made crown prince, the emperor reneged on his promise once the Turkic crisis was resolved.

If words fail, resorting to force is even more difficult.

If we use literature, then we only need to deal with the crown prince.

But if he were to resort to force, it would mean that Li Shimin's real target was not the crown prince, but the emperor.

Just like the mutiny at Yanmen Pass last time, although it happened suddenly, if one is bold enough, it's not impossible to turn the commotion into a real mutiny.

It was also possible to use the chaos of a mutiny to have the crown prince die in the midst of the chaos.

But if you do that, no one can withstand the emperor's wrath.

Unless they take down the emperor as well.

The Xuanwu Gate Incident
It's not that killing the Crown Prince and the Prince of Qi meant Li Yuan had no choice but to install Li Shimin as emperor.

On the contrary, the main battlefield of the coup that day was inside the palace. Li Shimin sent his trusted confidants Yuchi Gong and Hou Junji to first control Li Yuan, and then ambush the crown prince.

Finally, Yuchi Gong carried his blood-stained spear to the dragon boat on the lake and told Li Yuan that the Crown Prince had been executed for plotting a rebellion.

When the prime ministers asked Li Yuan to make the Prince of Qin the crown prince,
Li Yuan had no room for resistance whatsoever. If he did not make Li Shimin the crown prince, he would die suddenly. In the end, his death would be blamed on the crown prince, Prince Qi, who would be accused of regicide and rebellion, and Prince Qin would be accused of suppressing the rebellion and killing the treacherous officials.

If Li Shimin hadn't been able to control Li Yuan, even if he had killed all of Li Yuan's remaining sons, Li Yuan wouldn't have made him the crown prince; he would have simply killed him.

There are no fathers and sons in the imperial family, and no kinship in the royal family.

At this stage,
Li Shimin harbored ambitions to become the heir apparent, but he was only thinking about how to change the emperor's attitude and have the emperor depose Jiancheng and install him in his place. He had no intention of killing his brothers, imprisoning his father, or staging a palace coup.

Li Yi is now telling Li Shimin about the Xuanwu Gate Incident, which Li Shimin finds difficult to accept.

However, by taking the opportunity to lead troops outside, one can build one's own trusted inner circle. In Chang'an, countless eyes are watching, but on the frontier, the situation is completely different.

“Your Majesty, I spoke with Simo before, implying that if he was willing to step forward, the Tang Dynasty could support him to become the Great Khan of the Turks. However, I think he was somewhat tempted, but ultimately lacked the courage.”

Li Shimin said, "His Sogdian appearance is such that even the Ashina clan of the Turks said he was a bastard. Even if we support him to become the Great Khan, not many people will support him."

Li Yi laughed and said, "That's precisely why we chose him to support. If he were an ambitious and prestigious person, then supporting him to become a Khan would surely turn him into an ingrate."

The purpose of supporting a new Khan was merely to sow discord among the Turks and to act as a troublemaker.

If the Turks could support Yang Guang's grandson, Yang Zhengdao, to become the King of Sui, then the Tang Dynasty could certainly support Ashina as the Turkic Khan.

"We can try to persuade Simo again, but if he really doesn't have the courage, we shouldn't force him. We can find someone else."

"That's true." Li Shimin nodded. "What do you think of Ashina Shibobi, the Little Khan of Tuli?"

(End of this chapter)