The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 974
Zhang Shigui was born in Lushi County, Hongnong. He was born in a general family and was the son of Zhang Guo, the governor of the Sui Dynasty.Although he has a 20-year-old son, he himself is not yet forty. He is at the peak of his life. He is tall and burly, with a face like copper.

Although he also gathered people in his hometown to fight against the Sui Dynasty in the vigorous wave of anti-Sui, but in the era of grass-headed kings everywhere, he only took the post of chief executive, and did not claim to be king or emperor. First, he had little ambition; The second is that Hongnong, where he lives, does not have the conditions to be king. Bingzhou in the north and Guanzhong in the west are owned by Li Tang.He survived in the cracks of the three major forces, so that the three major forces wanted to win him over.

Faced with the three major forces competing to win over, Zhang Shigui first ruled out Zhu Can. This guy Zhu Can and his army can eat people, and they are not as good as animals. Sooner or later, it will be destroyed by others; followed by Wang Shichong. When Wang Shicheng was in charge, he and the Kanto gentry unanimously protected Yang Tan from ascending the throne. The support of the Kanto gentry for Yang Tan at that time was not weaker than the support of the Guanlong nobles for Li Yuan, and because Yang Tan belonged to Yang Guang. He is a pro-grandson, so the momentum at that time was indeed higher than Li Yuan, and the strength was not much worse than Li Yuan, but the reason why Wang Shichong and the Kanto gentry were able to get together was because of Yang Tan. No matter which side is a little stronger in the future, the other side will not be able to accept it. Sooner or later, they will part ways due to unequal interests. The seemingly huge strength and potential will be exhausted in the internal struggle. In addition, Wang Shichong is surrounded by Li Yuan, Yang Tong, Li Mi, Xiao Xian, and Zhu Can. No matter which side he attacks, the other four princes may stab him, so Wang Shichong's environment is not much better than Zhang Shigui's Hongnong, which is destined to make it difficult for him to make great achievements.

Li Yuan, on the other hand, is just the opposite of Wang Shichong. First of all, the support of the Guanlong nobles is Li Yuan himself, not the puppet established at that time. Stable the rear, whether it is Guanzhong, Bingzhou, or Yizhou, there are dangers in the Guanshan Mountains, which belong to the category that only he can fight the Guandong princes, and the Guandong princes can't get in; although Li Yuan is surrounded by Yang Yu, Liu Wuzhou, Guo Zihe, Zhang Changxun, Liang Shidu, Xue Ju and other forces, but apart from Yang Tong and Xue Ju, everyone has a common master like Turkic, and Yang Tong is restrained by Turkic with millions of soldiers. As long as the master and servant join hands to kill Yang Tong , then the rest hardly poses much threat to Li Yuan... So no matter from which aspect, Li Yuan has a better future than Wang Shichong.

In addition, Zhang Shigui had a relatively deep relationship with the Dou family. His father, Zhang Guo, was recommended by the Dou family to be the governor. Therefore, when Dou Gui sent a letter, Zhang Shigui surrendered to the prosperous and promising Tang Dynasty as a matter of course.

As for Yang Tong, Zhang Shigui didn't think about it at all. First, Yang Tong didn't recruit him as an anti-Sui element; Shibi Khan, who has millions of master stringers, fights fiercely, and will die sooner or later.

But now, not only is he living a good life, but all kinds of death have become reality one by one, and he is about to kill the Tang Dynasty that Zhang Shigui was most optimistic about before.

This time Zhang Shigui took the initiative to attack Xue Wanjun, but he actually had two intentions. One was to break the passive situation of being approached step by step by the Sui army, and take advantage of the favorable timing and location to wipe out a part of the Sui army, so that the Tang Dynasty could have a breathing space; The second is to advance by retreating, allowing himself to attract the attention of the Sui army, so that Hou Junji in the south has time to retreat calmly, but he never imagined that Hou Junji is still in Panshi County, not to mention his loss of troops.

Zhang Shigui realized that he was too aggressive, so he hurriedly withdrew his troops, but Xue Wanjun refused when he wanted to retreat, and began to press forward step by step. At this time, it seemed unrealistic to ask Hou Junji for help, because he seemed to expect himself to go rescue.

It was also unrealistic to ask the Jin Yuan army for help. The Jin Yuan army was [-] new recruits that Li Yuan had just brought in. If they left the city, it would be exactly what Su Dingfang wanted. Besides, if Jin Yuan could go south to Ziyang, why not destroy Su Dingfang first?
After Zhang Shigui realized that he was helpless, he had no choice but to save himself. He ordered Yuanren Division to retreat to the west of Chemen City, which was connected with Ziyang City.

Puci City is the county seat, and it is also the most convenient place to cross the Anju River. This section of the Anju River is the most gentle, and the river bed is not wide, so it is easy to cross the Anju River with a raft.It’s just that although Anjushui is natural to destroy the river, since Emperor Wen unified the world until now, central Shu has not been threatened by enemy struggles for a long time, and there is little need for defense. In addition, Yang Guang’s center of gravity is in Sisai, and Li Yuan’s center of gravity is in the north. It has not been repaired for decades, the city wall is very old and thin, and even collapsed in many places.

After Zhang Shigui returned to Puci City, the first thing he did was to organize the soldiers and civilians to clean up part of the city wall of the collapsed and rotten bridge, and then piled it with sandbags to build a relatively simple defense system. A line of defense. At the same time, he ordered his son Zhang Zhen to lead troops to train night defense battles to prevent the Sui army from capturing the city at night.

As soon as it was dawn, Zhang Shigui, the general of Puci Tang Army, came down to Anjushui Wharf for inspection with more than a hundred personal guards. It's not that the opponent doesn't have ships, how can Zhang Shigui have time to form a defense line?But even so, the situation is still very serious for Zhang Shigui.

"Father!" At this time, his son Zhang Zhen came behind him.

Zhang Shigui looked back at his son's haggard face, and asked in a concentrated voice, "How are the soldiers training?"

"Reporting to father, my son has been training night offensive and defensive battles for the past few days. But it can only be said to be a small success." Zhang Zhen's voice became lower and lower.

"'Small achievements'? Do you know how many people will die if they are small?" Zhang Shigui's eyes gradually became serious, and he said in a deep voice: "This is just training. If it is a real battle, it will be completely different. Our army Weapons, equipment, combat experience, and morale are not as good as those of the Sui army, so you must train according to actual combat requirements, and let the soldiers treat them as actual combat."

Zhang Zhen argued: "Father, my child understands the truth of 'a small difference is worth a thousand miles', and I also know that the so-called 'small success' is not responsible for the wealth and lives of the soldiers, but an elite soldier who can recruit and fight well is not responsible. What can be practiced day and night... so time is the most scarce and precious thing we have. However, we are wasting time for nothing all the time, and my child is powerless about it."

"Why do you have the heart and power?" Zhang Shigui looked at his son strangely. Among the young heroes of the Tang Dynasty, if you only talk about martial arts, Zhang Zhen is definitely one of the best. Even Li Daozong, whom Li Yuan valued very much before, is also a match for him. The standard is that Li Daozong has learned a lot, not only in martial arts and the art of war, but also in law, etiquette, government affairs, etc., which is why he stabilized Zhang Zhen.

More importantly, Zhang Zhen has always been by his father's side, so he also has sufficient experience in leading troops to fight. He has both ability and experience, but he still lacks the courage to break the rules. It can be done very well, even better than those experienced generals, but if there is no one to command, there is no ability to deal with and solve various unexpected problems for the time being. This is a lack of experience and experience, which can be made up for with time.But in the future, if you don't break the limitation of thinking, it will be difficult to become a unique talent after all.

But the problem now is that Zhang Shigui has already given him the direction. According to past experience, Zhang Zhen should be able to complete it very well, but now he actually said 'intentionally powerless', which surprised Zhang Shigui.

"Father, I don't have a capable general. I can't teach so many soldiers a method of warfare that they didn't know before in just a few days by myself." Zhang Zhen expressed his difficulties.

"This..." Zhang Shigui felt depressed.Since Li Yuan started his army, the Tang army has been in a predicament that every Sui Dynasty must be defeated. Even if it has not won even a local war, the result of repeated defeats of the Li and Tang Dynasty is not only the territory, population, popularity, soldiers, but also There are a large number of generals capable of recruiting and fighting. Now the Li and Tang Dynasty, there are no generals available, not to mention the commander-in-chief level, even the inferior generals have lost all casualties. It is difficult for the remaining generals to provoke the leader of the army. .

Although Li Yuan achieved brilliant results in the struggle against the Guanlong nobles, the Guandong gentry, and the southern gentry, he made a lot of money, and evenly distributed their land to tenants and slaves, and was widely supported by the low-level people.However, the army of the Tang Dynasty was established on the basis of the nobles of Guanlong, such as Dou Gui, Dou Kang, Dou Cong, Chai Shao, Li Zhongwen, Liu Hongji, Li Gaoqian, Li Anyuan, Changsun Shunde, Sang Xianhe, etc. The generals are either the children of the Guanlong nobles, or the disciples, fake sons, generals, and slaves of the Guanlong nobles, and the high, middle, and low generals who make up the skeleton of the army are mostly such people.After Li Yuan won the civil war, he was worried that such people would follow Dugu Qingyun, Dugu Yanyun, and Dugu Wudu and rebel, so he carried out a thorough bloodbath on the lieutenant generals.

There is no exact statistics on how many unjust cases Li Yuan, Li Yuanji and his sons have created and how many innocent people have been killed. However, as a campaign of repression that Li Yuan believes is related to the fate of the country, its scale and scope are overwhelming. It is said to be rare in history. After entering Shu, considering that the army's endurance was close to the limit, and at the same time the purpose of the bloodbath was basically achieved, the wave of suppression began to ease, and even gave favors to some people to varying degrees. to a group of people.However, Li Yuan did not fundamentally realize that the bloodbath in the army would have a huge harmful impact on the army and the Tang Dynasty, so the aftermath continued until the eve of the Xuanwu Gate coup.

Although in this process, some people of insight believed that this would indirectly help the Sui Dynasty to bring down the Tang army, but Li Yuan felt that Yizhou's natural closed environment and poor road conditions made him not have to worry about the Sui Dynasty's attack for a long time to come. , You can eliminate internal worries, train a strong army, and develop people's livelihood with peace of mind, so you didn't stop there.

After the loss of foreign wars and the purge of Li Yuan, except for the Dou faction which is still lingering, the Guanlong nobles are on the verge of extinction; The attack and damage of the Tang army were countless times higher than those of the Battle of Bingzhou, the Battle of Guanzhong, and the Battle of the Eastern Expedition.

The main manifestation of the harm is the huge loss of the backbone of the army with rich combat experience. In the case of a shortage of middle-level and low-level generals, some low-level military officers have been promoted several grades, and some commanders who command ten people are promoted to those who command 200 people. A school lieutenant, even a general who commanded thousands of people, and some school lieutenants became the commander-in-chief of an army in one leap.

No matter how the potential of these newly promoted generals is estimated, it can be seen that these people are not qualified for their current positions just by looking at how they have led the army to a mess during training, but this is also understandable, they are all Small military officers who have suddenly ascended to high positions, now let them leapfrog to lead troops, which is not much different from forcing immature children to do adult work. Nowadays, only training will lead the army into chaos and cannot quickly form formations. If it comes to war, And how can you adapt to the situation?

Therefore, what Zhang Zhen said at the moment "there are no capable generals" undoubtedly pointed out the most critical point of the entire Tang army.

"Ah!" Zhang Shigui sighed, thinking back then, there were so many talents under my Tang Dynasty, Qu Tutong, Li Xiuning, Li Zhongwen, Li Xiaogong, Dou Kang, Chai Shao, etc. Needless to say, there were also Dou Cong, Liu Hongji, and the eldest grandson. Shunde, Shi Danai, Murong Luohu, Li Anyuan and others were also strong generals. In terms of the number of generals alone, they were no less than those of the Sui Dynasty.

Looking at today, Zhang Shigui and Hou Junji are already top-notch in the Tang Dynasty, but in the past, the two of them were not even qualified to be the leaders.

Now it’s fine if there are no generals, but what’s even more exaggerated and frustrating is that even the most basic middle and low-level military officers in the army don’t even have a few decent military officers. , It is also a mob that can be defeated in one blow.

Thinking of this, Zhang Shigui's fighting spirit aroused by the establishment of the defense system gradually faded away.
How can we fight this battle?
"There are very few generals, captains, brigade commanders, and captains who are familiar with the battle formation and have rich experience in battle. The new tactics will become more chaotic as they are practiced. My child thinks it is better not to practice." Zhang Zhen suggested again.

"Naturally you have to practice!" After a pause, Zhang Shigui saw that his son hadn't left yet, so he couldn't help giving him a strange look, "What else do you need?"

Seeing that his father's soldiers were all around him, and they were far away, Zhang Zhen plucked up his courage and said: "Father, I don't know if I should say something or not."

"If you want me to surrender, you don't have to say anything." Zhang Shigui knew his son's thoughts very well.

"But father, Xue Wanjun has more soldiers than us. Whether it is combat power, fighting spirit, morale, experience, or weapons and equipment, they are countless times higher than ours. We don't even have room to resist, and no amount of conspiracy can move them at all."

"Of course I know that we are bound to lose, and I also know that Datang will not last long." Zhang Shigui sighed, "This is because Yang Tong has the heart to play cat and mouse. If he wanted to, he would have killed me as early as the Battle of Guanzhong." Datang was wiped out in one fell swoop, now, needless to say."

"Since father knows, why should he..."

Zhang Shigui said in a deep voice: "It's true that the luck is bad, but the Holy One and His Highness the Crown Prince are heroes of the world..."

"Father's words, forgive me for not agreeing with my son!" Zhang Zhen interrupted his father's words very bluntly, and said: "Father said that the Holy One is a hero. How dare you ask the Holy One what he has done to benefit the common people in the world?"

For a while, Zhang Shigui really couldn't find Li Yuan's meritorious achievements, so he could only perfunctoryly say: "When he was a Sui official, he conquered rebels and made many meritorious deeds; when he was an emperor, he governed the place and made the place safe."

"If this can be regarded as benefiting the common people? All officials in the world can do it!" Zhang Zhen was taught by Zhang Shigui, and he is not so easy to fool. As a soldier, countless people died in war or hunger and cold. As for killing the enemy and making contributions, I really don’t want to compare the two emperors of the Sui and Tang Dynasties!”

For most of his life, Li Yuan did not have many political and military achievements. For the benefit of his family, he colluded with the Turks to deal with Yang Yu and Xue Ju, who had a bad relationship with the Turks. Zhang Zhen felt that comparing Li Yuan with Yang Yu, That is insulting Yang Tong and the title of hero.

The muscles on Zhang Shigui's face twitched, and he wanted to refute, but he couldn't find anything to say, so he could only say in a deep voice: "As a man, we must not be disloyal, and as a minister, we must not be disloyal. In the grace of knowledge and encounter, how can we turn our backs because of wealth?"

"Father believes in loyalty, so the child naturally has no dissent. The child also believes that those who are loyal should be repaid with loyalty, but the Holy One is a courtier of the Sui Dynasty who was highly valued and valued by the two emperors, Wen and Wu. If you talk about loyalty, it should be him." It is right to be loyal to the Sui Dynasty first, but he turned against the Sui Dynasty. This is disloyalty to the king; Loyalty..." Zhang Zhen said with a little resentment: "Besides, what kindness does the Holy One have for father? At the beginning, it was nothing more than a fancy to Hongnong where father was, and after giving it to him, he immediately threw father to Yizhou as an idler How can there be any kindness? But later he had no ability, so he gave Hongnong to Wang Shichong in exchange for Wang Shichong not stopping him from fighting Zhu Can. The key is that the main one is now, not the sage, but a disgraceful means He not only killed his younger brother's family, but also secretly killed his honest and righteous elder brother, blamed the Sui Dynasty, and even killed the emperor. Is this kind of beast worthy of father's allegiance?"

Zhang Shigui's face was gloomy and watery: "Who said the Holy Majesty is dead?"

"Everyone says that the sage in the palace is a fake, and it's the same reason as Wang Shichong's abdication of fake Yang Tan." Seeing his father's ugly face, Zhang Zhen said, "Anyway, the fact that he killed his brother and brother cannot be dismissed, no matter how many more A father, as far as he is concerned, has many debts, and it is said that Princess Pingyang led troops for Emperor Shengwu in Luo County, with the purpose of avenging his father and brother."

"Who did you listen to?"

"Father, I..." Yesterday his family friend Xue Li brought a few friends and secretly found Zhang Zhen. After talking about the past, he directly explained the purpose of coming and asked him to persuade Zhang Shigui to surrender to the Sui Dynasty.Zhang Zhen didn't want to be buried with the Tang Dynasty at first, so of course it hit it off, and he listened to Zhou Qing's bad idea, and used various methods to attack his father's confidence in resisting the Sui Dynasty and his loyalty to the Tang Dynasty; He had been leading the army for many years and had been stable for a long time, but at this moment, facing his father's eyes full of doubts, his aura suddenly became a little chaotic, and he seemed to be on the verge of collapse.

Fortunately, he is a person who has studied the art of war, he knows the truth of being prepared, and he prepared for himself a way out, so he took out a folded paper from his bosom, handed it to Zhang Shigui, and said: "This is the child who came from this day. The one in the issue of "Half Moon Talk" not only analyzed the death of the Holy Majesty in an orderly manner with sufficient reasons, but also the declaration of Princess Pingyang and Li Daozong to crusade against Li Shimin."

Zhang Shigui took it and read it carefully, and said, "How do you know it wasn't written by the Sui Dynasty?"

"Hundreds of thousands of Sui troops are about to hit the city of Chengdu. Does my father think that it is necessary for the Sui Dynasty to attack the reputation of Li Shimin, who killed his younger brother?" After this time buffer, Zhang Zhen slowed down.

"Then what do you want me to do?" Zhang Shigui suddenly turned his head and glared at his son, "Your grandmother, mother, brother and sister are all hostages in Chengdu, and Master Yuan Ren and the newcomer Duan Lun are watching us closely; if we surrender, we will What about my family? Do you think I haven't thought about it?"

Zhang Zhen asked again: "But when we fight against the Sui Dynasty, we will definitely lose. What about these tens of thousands of soldiers? What about their families?"

"Don't say any more!" Zhang Shigui waved his hands upset

At this moment, he suddenly saw his son-in-law Duan Lun approaching, he winked at his son, and reprimanded him: "Stop talking too much, go and train the soldiers!"

"Here!" Although Zhang Zhen was reprimanded by his father, he was very happy in his heart, because he had seen a glimmer of light, and his father's last sentence "Do you think I haven't thought about it?" They are all hostages in Chengdu City. If there is a way to rescue their relatives, my father will have no worries.But he also saw Duan Lun sent by Li Shimin, he didn't dare to say anything, he saluted and hurried to Puci City.

Duan Lun and Zhang Shigui saw the ceremony, looked at Zhang Zhen's back, and asked with a smile: "I heard the general scolding the young general from a long distance away, did he make the general angry?"

"He said that our army had never been exposed to night battles before, and the sudden training made the soldiers uncomfortable and only made some achievements. He also said that there are too few generals and schools who are experienced in actual combat, and the more they practice, the more chaotic they will become. He suggested that I do everything as usual." Zhang Shigui sighed. : "I also know that what he said is not unreasonable, but fighting at night is precisely one of the most powerful tactics of the Sui army. If we don't carry out targeted training, if the Sui army raids at night, how will we respond? So I reprimanded him a few words and asked him to continue practicing."

After hearing these words, Duan Lun couldn't help sighing: "We have trained a group of soldiers over the years, but we quickly lost them all. There are few soldiers who are good at fighting, and there is no way to bring the old to the new. The tactics you practice are more than just night battles?"

Zhang Shigui couldn't answer this topic, so he asked instead: "General Duan is not in Chemian Town, could something have happened there?"

"Yes, and no!" Duan Lun said: "Although Ziyang City has been taken back, another group of rebels have occupied Ziyang and Niutang County in the south of Puci. When Bian County was taken back, the loss was not only the army rations, but also a link between us and General Hou Junji, so I want to ask you what you mean: we are closer to Niu Biao, and the pressure is not as great as that of Hou Junji. Is it possible to destroy this rebellious army?"

Although this army was dominated by Zhang Shigui at the beginning, Li Shimin first arranged for Yuanren Division to take away the logistics and other supplies, and now Duan Lun was appointed as Zhang Shigui's deputy general and sent away part of the army. Trust Zhang Shigui, after all the Tang Dynasty has been reduced to this level, it is normal for Zhang Shigui's loyalty to Datang to waver.

Zhang Shigui also knew why Master Yuan Ren and Duan Lun came here, but there are some things that everyone needs to know well, and it is difficult to end it if they are spoken out.

He silently considered Duan Lun's suggestion for a while, then frowned and said: "Although this group of rioters has threatened us, and it is necessary to eliminate them, General Han Liang has suffered from the rioters. We can't be too careless. Send a general who is good at fighting to lead the army, or let Zhang Zhen lead a mixed force of recruits and veterans, and use this battle to train troops."

Duan Lun nodded and said: "The general's words are not unreasonable, but the humble officer thinks that the matter is of great importance, and the young general wants to train the soldiers in new tactics, and he has no skills at all. It is better for the humble officer to lead the army to defeat the enemy."

Zhang Shigui suddenly realized that Duan Lun clearly didn't want to lead an army by himself, so he used the excuse of suppressing bandits to take away another soldier. If he successfully wiped out the rioters, he would gain prestige and a firm foothold in the army, It can also weaken one's own influence, and at the same time make contributions, which can be described as killing four birds with one stone.He couldn't learn the powerful skills of his father, Duan Wenzhen, the old minister of the Ministry of War of the Sui Dynasty, who led troops to fight, but this calculation won countless times.

But in terms of national power, Zhang Shigui also believed that it was necessary to annihilate this group of rebels, and he had no reason to oppose it. After weighing the strength of the enemy and us, he said: "In this case, our father and son will guard Puci to prevent the Sui army from coming. As for the cattle, how many soldiers do you think the general needs?"

"[-] soldiers, old and new, what does the general think?" Duan Lun asked with a smile, his intentions were just as Zhang Shigui had expected, seeing that he was so upbeat, he told the number of troops that Master Yuan Ren had determined for him.

"Yes." Zhang Shigui nodded, 1 people is the limit he can divide, if there are too many, the Sui army cannot be defended at all.

"Let's go prepare for the humble job." Duan Lun's goal has been achieved, without saying much, he immediately bid farewell to Zhang Shigui, and is ready to lead his army to Niudao City, and attack Niudao City in one fell swoop.

(End of this chapter)