Li Shimin, one emperor through the ages

Chapter 58
During the discussion of "the gains and losses of governance since ancient times", Li Shimin only sent Yuchi Jingde to lead 20 elite troops to fight Turkic Jieli in order to complete his established discussion.He also knew that Xieli's 20 troops could not be repelled, but he could only send so many troops at that time.The treasury of the Tang Dynasty was indeed almost empty.After hearing that the two sides fought in Jingyang, although Yuchi Jingde defeated Jieli bravely, but did not hurt his main force, Li Shimin already felt that the situation was not good.Sure enough, within a few hours, Jieli Khan continued southward to Chang'an and sent envoys to court to blackmail him.When Li Shimin met Jieli's envoy, he ordered his subordinates to detain him before he finished speaking.After finally waiting for the results of the court discussion, he rushed to Weihe in a hurry.Seeing that Jieli had reached the north bank of the Weihe River, Li Shimin knew in his heart that the situation was worse than he had imagined. As long as Jieli crossed the Weihe River, Chang'an would almost be in his hands.

This Xieli, tall and big, fierce and brave, once killed a lion with a single palm, has a high prestige among the Turks.As an ancient nation on the northern border of China, the Turks gradually became stronger than the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou Dynasties.By the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, the Turks, who had already controlled hundreds of thousands of troops, were split into two parts, the east and the west, due to the internal occurrence of Mao Dun, and their power was once weakened.At that time, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, who had unified China, took the opportunity to attack the Turks on a large scale, defeated the Eastern Turks, and made them a vassal.The Western Turks also declined very much under the attack of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, and were forced to retreat to Mobei.After Emperor Yangdi came to power, he abused the power of the people and conquered Goguryeo three times, resulting in a great reduction in military strength, but the Turks gradually regained their vitality.In the later period of Emperor Yangdi, the world was in chaos, and the Eastern and Western Turks took advantage of the situation to rise up and plundered the northern border of the Sui Dynasty many times.At this time, in order to protect themselves and eliminate the enemies in front of them, many leaders of the Sui Dynasty raised troops and uprisings turned to Turkic for a while, which enabled Turkic to take advantage of the chaos and develop rapidly.When Li Yuan raised troops in Taiyuan, because of his serious lack of strength and fear of Turkic attacks, he sent Liu Wenjing as an envoy to Turkic. support.Because of this dependence on Turks, Turks have been bullying the Tang Dynasty.After Li Yuan became emperor, although he gave Turks a lot of rewards, he still couldn't satisfy the Turks' desire.The Turks held their own merits, and every time they sent envoys to Chang'an to ask for property, they were very rude.Li Yuan, on the other hand, endured it all the time because the country was first established and the world was not at peace, not daring to turn against the Turks.

In February of the second year of Wude, Turkic Shibi Khan died, and Li Yuan mourned for him. He abolished the court for three days and ordered all officials to hang his envoy in the hall.In June of the following year, Chuluo Khan, who succeeded Shibi Khan, also led an army to help the then King of Qin Li Shimin attack Liu Wuzhou.In the autumn of this year, Chuluo Khan died of a sudden illness, and Li Yuan once again "stopped the court" to express his condolences, "order all officials to hang him in the hall."

After that, Jieli Khan, who succeeded Luo Khan, inherited the legacy of his father and brother, with strong soldiers and strong horses, and lightened the Tang Dynasty.In view of the fact that the national power has not yet recovered and the people are still not happy, Li Yuan still dare not go to war with the Turks, and only uses a large amount of property to stabilize the Turks.However, Jieli was arrogant in his words and never tired of begging, always revealing his ambition to rule the Central Plains.Li Yuan couldn't bear it anymore, and finally met the Turkic soldiers in Yanmen.Because it was a plan to fight, Li Yuan defeated the Turks this time, beheading more than ten thousand enemies, and Jieli was defeated in embarrassment, and for a few years, he never dared to show his face again.

Unexpectedly, now that Li Shimin first boarded the Great Treasure, he would appear again.Moreover, the attack was menacing, bringing 20 cavalry with them, and they made a big move to flatten Chang'an and avenge the Yanmen a few years ago.

Li Shimin and Yuchi Jingde tightened their ropes and walked slowly along the river bank, one behind the other, a thrilling plan was forming in Li Shimin's mind.At this time, on the opposite bank of the river, after listening to the report of his subordinates, Jieli also brought dozens of warriors to the river, and along the river bank, he and Li Shimin rode together.

15
The clear river water is gurgling, and the blue sky and white clouds reflect it.Li Shimin looked at the Wei River flowing eastward for a long time, then turned his head, glanced at a group of Turks who had been peeping at him across the river, and suddenly shouted:

"Listen, Jieli Khan, in the third year of Wude, your uncle and nephew followed me personally, willing to return the land of Wuyuan and Zhang Changxun's tribe to the Tang Dynasty, and then he broke his promise and repeatedly broke the contract and disturbed him? Did you get a bargain later?"

After hearing this, Jieli Khan knew that the next question referred to his Yanmen defeat, and was very annoyed for a while, so he answered loudly:

"Ben Khan is here to avenge Yanmen, and to step on Chang'an, so that you, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, can also taste the taste of failure?"

"Don't you cherish our former friendship?"

"Qiyi, you Tang people, you killed tens of thousands of Hu people before Yanmen Pass, what kind of yiyi is there?"

"Xieli, do you know why there was a Battle of Yanmen?"

"..."

"You don't speak, I'm here to answer for you. It's because you Jieli is a villain. Your desires are hard to fill. Datang has given you everything you promised, and you want more. That's why the Battle of Yanmen happened. Isn't it, Jieli?"

Seeing that Jieli was still speechless, Li Shimin continued: "Xieli, do you know why you were defeated in the Battle of Yanmen?"

"Ben Khan only had 20 cavalry at that time, but you came with 20." Jie Li laughed loudly when he said this: "Now, the situation has changed. Do you know how many cavalry Ben Khan brought this time?" 20, a full [-] cavalry!" After finishing speaking, Xieli laughed triumphantly.

"Do you know how many cavalry I have now?" Li Shimin asked sternly after Jie Jie laughed.

When Jieli heard this, he felt at a loss for a moment.He has heard people say that the Tang Empire now has 80 troops.But he also knew that the 80 troops were going to guard various parts of Ruo Da's country, and it was difficult to concentrate on dealing with his Turkic cavalry from the north.Therefore, Xieli calmed down a little, and replied:
"No matter how many iron cavalry you have, you can't beat the 20 elites brought by Ben Khan. By tomorrow, Ben Khan will definitely step on Chang'an City and let you kneel in front of Ben Khan."

Li Shimin laughed wildly when he heard this, his voice soared to the sky and shook the clouds and shook the mountains.After laughing, Li Shimin reined in his horse and jumped to the river, shouting loudly:

"Young man Jieli, I don't want to use the strong to bully the weak. You just let the horse come over. I will fight you alone now. If you are afraid and want to come here, I will only fight with a hundred horses. Quick! Quick! Hurry! Little man Jieli, come across the river quickly, don't wait until tomorrow!"

Turkic Jieli, survived among tigers and wolves, experienced many hardships and dangers, was bold and brave when encountering difficulties, but also cautious and suspicious.Originally, he had already discussed with his nephew Tuli that when he arrived at the Weishui River, he would take a short rest and immediately rush across the river.Now, seeing Li Shimin alone, looking so awe-inspiring, he couldn't help feeling suspicious.At this time, the nephew next to Jieli looked at Li Shimin and asked him:

"This person is Li Shimin who captured Dou Jiande alive and forced Wang Shichong to surrender."

"It was this man who brought down more than half of the world in the Tang Dynasty, and suppressed all the kings after the Sui Dynasty one by one. This man is not only good at fighting, but also cruel and vicious. Killing his brother, forcing his father to give way, dare to do anything." Jie Li widened his eyes and said, "I never thought that he would become the emperor, and in this situation, he dared to challenge me one-on-one. It's really unbelievable."

"According to my nephew, the Han people who became emperors are all greedy for life and afraid of death. If Li Shimin dared to do this, he must have set up an ambush," Tuli said.

"My nephew's opinion is exactly what this Khan wants. Pass down the order, the troops set up camp, and send several teams of warriors to go deep into the enemy's rear, find out the enemy's situation, and then make a decision."

The two uncles and nephews said, leading the accompanying riders back to the camp, ignoring Li Shimin's roar.Li Shimin saw Jieli's uncle and nephew talking about it, so he quickly retreated, hurried back to the horse camp, and said to Yuchi Jingde:

"Send many strong troops quickly to patrol the river bank day and night, and we must not allow Hu Qi to cross the river."

After hearing this, Yuchi Jingde understood, and immediately arranged the inspection carefully.

For the next three days, the detectives sent by Xieli were either caught or recovered. The specific situation of Tang Jun was still unclear.At this moment, Cheng Zhijie's [-] cavalry came surging like waves.The next day, more than [-] infantry led by Qin Shubao also arrived.This time, Xieli's detectives saw it all.When Xieli knew that Cheng Zhijie had arrived with his cavalry, he was even more astonished. Not only did he not dare to cross the river rashly, but he retreated to set up camp thirty miles away from the bank of the Wei River.At this time, Xieli deeply thought that Li Shimin set up an ambush to lure him three days ago, so he couldn't help being angry and afraid.After being overwhelmed with fear, thinking of Yanmen's defeat, he eased his attitude and sent envoys to negotiate peace with Li Shimin.

At this time, although Li Shimin had 17 iron cavalry and 13 infantry, his strength seemed to be greater than that of Xieli, but if he really wanted to fight Xieli, it would be difficult to win.What's more, the national treasury is empty, coupled with the drought and locust plagues, it is really not worthwhile to have a lose-lose situation with the Turks at this time.For this reason, Li Shimin had been restless for a long time, and he was unwilling to eat. Now that the Turkic envoy came to talk, Li Shimin personally comforted him.After several negotiations, Li Shimin and Jieli finally reached an agreement, and the two sides "set up an alliance on a white horse" on the Weiqiao to ensure that brothers will get along with each other in the future and will not go to war again.

When Taiyuan raised troops, Li Yuan served the Turks as a minister, but now, Li Shimin is commensurate with the Turkic brothers. Thinking about what happened in the past ten years, Li Shimin was filled with emotion.

On the day when the Turks returned, Li Shimin stood on the Wei Bridge, watched the Turks go away, and secretly swore in his heart: "I must work hard, work hard, and make the country strong. In three years, I will be ashamed of myself." , no longer threatened by the Turks!"

160,

Returning to the palace from the tense war by the Weishui River, Li Shimin did not feel relaxed at all.He knew in his heart that to govern the country well, first of all, there must be a group of good officials who have the same heart as him.After repeated weighing, he was determined to do this matter drastically.

The first thing is to let the veteran retire. Li Shimin quickly found an opportunity: because of a small matter, the veteran Chen Shuda and Xiao Yu had a dispute in the court.Strictly speaking, such disputes are of course not allowed in the court, but as two senior officials, what's the point of arguing?
Li Shimin didn't care what others thought, he held onto this trivial matter tightly and made a big fuss, using the excuse of "noisy court" to let Xiao Yu and Chen Shuda go home at the same time to reflect.Chen Shuda felt that something was wrong, and he didn't want to say anything more, so he stayed at home silently, enjoying the family happiness by himself.Later, when Li Shimin wanted to use him, he refused to return to the court because of his old age and sickness.He missed the past, and occasionally went to see Li Yuan, the Supreme Emperor who moved from the Tai Chi Hall to the Da'an Palace.However, Xiao Yu, who has a strong temperament, was deeply unhappy. When he wrote the letter, his words were sparse, which seemed to be disgruntled.Li Shimin smiled bitterly after reading his book, and had no choice but to let him stay at home longer.It wasn't until later that Li Shimin once went to Da'an Palace to pay homage to Li Yuan's birthday. After Li Yuan interceded, Li Shimin restored Xiao Yu's official title and allowed him to return to the court.Unexpectedly, on the third day after Xiao Yu came to court, he fought fiercely and angrily with the minister in front of Li Shimin.Li Shimin couldn't bear it anymore, he couldn't laugh or cry, and finally dismissed Xiao Yu again for "disrespect".From then on, Xiao Yu never had the chance to enter the court to discuss politics.In the 21st year of Zhenguan, Xiao Yu died of illness at the age of 74.The court often issued a posthumous posthumous title of "Su", and Li Shimin believed that Xiao Yu's nature was too guessing, and he was too taboo. Finally, the posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous title was "Duke Zhenxiang", which was given to Sikong and buried with Zhaoling. This is a later story.

(End of this chapter)