Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 129 The willful and casual Fang Jieshuai

The Hou Turkic tent has been destroyed, and the burned remains can be seen everywhere in the snow amid the howling north wind.The corpses of unknown people with unknown deeds during their lifetimes had been frozen like ice sculptures and were piled together haphazardly by the Uighur people. It looked very scary.

In front of the monument of Viga Khan, a tall figure stopped here.He was wearing a leather armor that was common in the Tang army, with a cotton-padded jacket underneath, and a red cloak draped behind him.

Holding a helmet made of camel leather in his hand, his eyes were staring at the clearly visible ancient Sogdian letters on the stone tablet, like ghostly symbols.

I can't understand it at all!

"Come here, give me this stone tablet and scratch off all the words on it!

Not one left! "

The person who spoke was none other than Fang Youde, the governor of Youzhou in the Tang Dynasty.He set out from Qikou, and along the way he had conquered the Pugu tribe, the Basimi tribe (the Abesi tribe), the Qibi tribe, the Bayegu tribe and so on.These tribes all agreed to send people to Lingzhou City to participate in the alliance in the future, and respected Emperor Li Longji of the Tang Dynasty as "Khan of Heaven".

The Pugu tribe even dispatched a cavalry team headed by Pugu Huai'en to assist the Tang army, work for Fang Youde, and help the Tang army integrate the remnants of the Turkic Khanate.

Only Uighur, one of the nine surnamed Tiele, is powerful and unruly, and has not expressed his stance yet.Of course, they didn't fall out.

Now, Fang Youde is camping at the Bijia Khan Monument, waiting for the Uighur envoys to come to discuss the alliance.

Why alliance?

Of course it was to unite to deal with Tibet, at least not to hold Datang back.

When necessary, these grassland tribes must serve as "mercenaries" of the Tang Dynasty and participate in the war against Tubo.

This is the power of diplomacy.

It relies on its own strength to extend the distance of power projection to the limit.

For this alliance, Li Longji personally brought the Minister of Rites and relevant people to Lingzhou, and imitated Taizong's deeds at that time, and swore an alliance on a stele in Lingzhou.

From September to October of the 20th year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty (646), Taizong integrated Mobei and invited thousands of envoys from the grassland tribes to a grand alliance.

Therefore, the leaders of the Tiele tribes distributed in northern Ningxia, Qinghai, and Inner Mongolia learned that the king of Tang was going to Lingzhou in person to meet and accept the surrender. They all personally led their teams to Lingzhou or sent envoys to arrive.

On the occasion of the alliance meeting, Taizong was in high spirits, so he wrote a five-character poem impromptu, and ordered a stonemason to carve the poem on a stone tablet to record the event. It was known as "Taizong Lingzhou Leshi" in history.

This was the pinnacle moment of Zhenguan. Li Longji always used this incident as an example, thinking about rebuilding the glory of the past.

This time Fang Youde wrote a letter to persuade Li Longji to visit Lingzhou City (also called Shoujiang City) under the control of Shuofang Army to participate in the alliance after the destruction of the Turkic Khanate.Brother Ji was so happy that he agreed almost without thinking.

Li Linfu and others tried hard to persuade him to no avail, and finally agreed that Ji Ge should go to Lingzhou at a suitable time next year.

But Brother Ji is the emperor, and it is impossible to leave those finishing matters to him.Therefore, what Fang Youde is doing now is to quickly resolve the things that have not yet been resolved after the destruction of the Turkic Khanate.

No matter big or small!

"Jie Shuai, this monument stands here and is quite eye-catching. If the inscription on it is erased, it is inevitable that some evildoers will talk nonsense in the future. How about... just knocking down the monument and smashing it into pieces, once and for all."

Zhang Xun beside him suggested calmly.

"This stone tablet is evidence of the alliance between the saint and the Turks. How can it be destroyed at will? The Turks betrayed the alliance first, and we fought back later. This is justified.

Destroying the stone monument will inevitably lead to unfavorable facts and is not advisable. "

Fang Youde, who stood tall and straight, waved his hand, obviously disagreeing with Zhang Xun's bad idea.

It's cool enough, but it's too rough.

"Order the craftsmen to write on the stone tablet: Li Longji, the sage of the Tang Dynasty, destroyed the Turkic Khanate here."

Fang Youde ordered calmly.

"Well, I will take care of it now."

"Well, let's go."

Fang Youde waved his hand, signaling all the soldiers around him to step aside.

After everyone left, Fang Youde stepped forward and touched the stone tablet where the alliance was held.

"You are already a Khan, and you still come out to act like a monster. You really don't know how to live or die."

A sickly smile appeared on his face, and he continued to murmur to himself: "Yes, next, An Lushan will be left. After An Lushan is solved, I can retire and return to my hometown."

For a moment, Fang Youde's heart was filled with an inexplicable emptiness.He no longer knows what the meaning of his existence is after solving these things.

At this moment, there were footsteps behind him.Fang Youde turned around and saw Yan Gaoqing walking over cautiously and saying, "The Uighur envoy is here, and his attitude is very bad."

"Take me to the handsome tent!"

Fang Youde frowned slightly and his face darkened.

Seems to have thought of something bad.

Soon, the Uighur envoy was brought to the Tang Army's Chinese army tent and met with Fang Youde.

The envoy wore a fan-shaped crown and a red round-collared robe that only reached his knees. He bowed and saluted.

The gesture of saluting was there, but the attitude was a bit perfunctory.

"The envoy is here to discuss the alliance?"

Fang Youde sat on a high stool, put his legs on another high stool, and asked impatiently.

"Coming back to Fangjie Commander, our main force, Pei Luo, has to personally lead his troops to pursue the remnants of the Turks. Time is tight. Can the alliance location be changed to Qikou?

Lingzhou City is a long way away, and our Lord is worried that it will delay military and state affairs. "

The Uighur envoy asked in a calm tone.

This request is extremely unreasonable, and Huihe also knows it.But having said that, isn't this the rule of asking for a high price and paying back when you get there?

"What if the handsome guy doesn't agree?"

Fang Youde narrowed his eyes and asked.

Unexpectedly, when the Uighur envoy heard this, he responded unceremoniously:

"I heard that in the Tang Dynasty, the kings and ministers each acted in his own way, the emperor decided the policy, and the officials and generals implemented it.

It's natural that Fang Jieshuai will be strong and strong, but for such a major military and national event, wouldn't it be better for Jieshuai to write back and ask the Emperor of Tang for instructions?
If Commander Fang agrees but the Emperor disagrees, wouldn’t Commander Fang be in a dilemma?
Hurry up and go to Chang'an. It won't take more than a few days to get there and back.I can wait, or I can go back and report to my lord. "

The Uighur envoy's attitude was very clear: Aren't you just a general leading troops?It’s not your turn to say anything about the alliance!
The Huihe people are confident, but they are not without support.

The influence of the Uighurs has penetrated deep into the north of Shazhou and even the Western Regions. If they unite with the Tubo people, the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty will face great pressure.Although the Uighur people's behavior is a thankless and unrewarding act, it also shows that the Uighur people are not lambs to be slaughtered.

They have the ability and means to fight back.

All the generals in the commander's tent glared at the Uighur envoy, but they did not dare to act rashly.Before Fang Youde spoke, they would do nothing. This was the harshness of Fang Jieshuai's military management.

"you are right."

Fang Youde stood up, walked step by step to the Uyghur envoy, and stared at the Uyghur man who was a head shorter than himself.

This Uighur envoy was also bold. He looked at Fang Youde without showing any signs of weakness.

This time he was not brainless, but wanted to test Datang's attitude towards the alliance.If the Tang Dynasty was determined to carry out this grassland alliance, then it would not care about the Uighur envoy's "rudeness".

After all, this little bit of face is nothing compared to real money, cattle, sheep and livestock!
However, at the moment when the Uighur envoy was stunned, Fang Youde fiercely pulled out the short knife from his waist and stabbed it directly into the abdomen of the Uighur envoy!

Then the handle of the knife rotated, and there was no life for ten!

The Uighur envoy had a distorted face. He never expected that Fang Jieshuai, who was quite skilled in commanding and fighting, would be so devoid of martial ethics!

Use such obscene means to attack and kill the messenger!
Soon, he fell down with his eyes wide open, as if he didn't understand why such a thing happened.

"Come here, the Uighur envoy assassinated me, but he was not good at studying and was killed by me. He sent the assassin's body to the Uighur tent and told Pei Luo: The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty is the most respected person in the Nine Five Years, and he is right to assassinate me. The Tang Dynasty was disrespectful and disrespectful to the emperor.

However, this may not be his original intention, but that the people below are hating Datang and have evil intentions.

For the sake of the alliance, I will not care about this trivial matter.If Gu Li Pei Luo compensates our army with 950 horses to show respect for the saint of Tang Dynasty, and do it immediately.

Then I can treat this matter as if it never happened and won’t do it next time.

If not, it is open to question whether Datang will invite Huihe to this alliance. "

Fang Youde pointed at the corpse of the Uighur envoy and told lies. Yan Gaoqing, Zhang Xun and others in the commander's tent were all unfazed and had no objections at all.

In the army, as long as whoever can lead the soldiers of the three armies to win the battle and finally be able to implement the rewards for their military exploits, then he is a god-like figure, and his words are more effective than the words of the emperor.

And following Fang Jie Shuai Hun, one sentence can be summed up as follows: die slowly in battle, make more meritorious service in war, never default on rewards, and be a soldier with dignity!

After the body was dragged away, Fang Youde looked around at the crowd and argued as if nothing had happened: "These Uighurs just need to be cleaned up, don't you think? If we clean them up, they will be honest for a while."

"Jian Shuai is wise!"

All the generals saluted together.

"Well, we will break camp today and aim to return to He Ya Zhang. We will first march fifty miles along the river to see if Pei Luo, who is strong in strength, understands the enemy."

Fang Youde ordered casually.

So the generals went about their own business, as if they were numb to such "willful" military orders.After all, no matter how big the matter is, it is not as big as sending troops across the defense zone to the next door town.

Even after doing this kind of thing, Zhang Xun and others believed that Fang Youde could do other things except treason.

……

In the winter of the 27th year of Kaiyuan, Tubo sent troops to attack Shanzhou and fought against the Anren Army at the forefront of the Tang Army.The Anren Army had over [-] troops and was the ace army set up by Guo Zhiyun, the governor of Shanzhou and the ambassador of Longyou Jiedu in the seventh year of Kaiyuan.

The Tubo people came with ferocious force, and the Anren army fought and retreated. After briefly repelling the Tubo people, they retreated to Suirong City (Huangyuan County, Xining City, Qinghai Province) not far to the east.This is west of Shancheng (Xining City), east of Qinghai Lake, bordered by Qilian Mountain to the north and Laji Mountain to the south. The territory has high mountains and long waters, steep slopes and steep cliffs, and the terrain is dangerous and towering like a pass.

The Anren army blocked this place for more than ten days, and the Tubo people did not make any progress, so they had to retreat to the east of Qinghai Lake.

Soon after, Tibet continued to exert force in the area south of Shanzhou.

During the Kaiyuan period, the Tang army made some gains in the western plateau of Kuozhou, south of Shanzhou, extended its troops to the plateau area, and established several small military towns there as outposts.

They are: Jintian Army guarding Hongji Bridge on the Yellow River, Wuning Army guarding Baigu City, Weisheng Army guarding Wanxiu City, etc.

This is the eastern edge of Dafeichuan and is the first line of defense for the Longyou Jiedushi envoy against Tibet.

The Tubo people exerted their strength again, and the three military towns were again lost in a short period of time. The remaining soldiers retreated to the Jishi Army garrison in Kuozhou.

Then the Tubo army pointed directly at Kuozhou and fought against the Jishi army guarding Kuozhou.

The Jishi Army has a total of [-] soldiers, which is slightly less than the Anren Army, but the location it guards is the main transportation route from the snow area to Tianshui since ancient times, which is very dangerous.

More than [-] elite Tang border troops gathered in Longyou, and after five days of bloody battle with the Tibetans, the Tibetans finally retreated.

The unusual behavior of the Tubo people made Longyou Jiedushi Du hope to have trouble sleeping and eating. He wrote a memorial to the court, stating that the Tubo people were ready to move in the Longyou Jiedushi's defense area, and seemed to be testing the defensive weakness. This The behavior is very strange.

Du hoped to predict that the goal of the Tubo people was probably Shibao City (called Iron Blade City by the Tubo people) that was captured by Xin'an King Li Yi through a trick!
It is hoped that the Tang army can increase its troops in Longyou and strengthen the defense outside Shibao City.

However, because of the previous incident, Brother Ji had a prejudice against the "unopinionated" Du Hope, so he hated the whole family and didn't take the memorial written by Du Hope seriously.Now his thoughts are all on Lingzhou.

Forming an alliance with the various tribes of Tiele on the grassland and reviving the glory of Emperor Taizong is what Ji Ge wants to do most at the moment.

……

Although Anaye took careful care of him along the way, Fang Chongyong still occasionally felt cold due to the wind and snow on the road, so he had to temporarily stay in Jiuquan City, the capital of Suzhou, to recuperate.

After he recovers from his illness, he will go to Dunhuang, Shazhou to take up his post.In order not to offend others, Fang Chongyong asked Yan Zhuang to report to Shazhou with his seal and report that he was ill and could not travel.Otherwise, if an official leaves his post in a different place, it will be a serious crime to overstay the deadline!

Because of his father Fang Youde's relationship, Fang Chongyong received attentive care from Shi Jixian, the governor of Suzhou, and he was given a recuperative residence in the best villa of the largest family in the city.Everything you eat and use is carefully selected.

If Fang Chongyong didn't trust people he didn't know, he would probably have more than ten servants around him.

To be honest, Fang Chongyong's treatment was much better than when he was in Ganzhou.It can be said that he is "diligent and ready" and responds to all requests.

Showing courtesy for nothing is either cheating or stealing.Although Fang Chongyong was ill, his mind was still clear. The longer he stayed in Suzhou, the more he felt that something was wrong.

While Fang Chongyong was slowly recovering from his illness, but at the same time hesitating, a letter came from the court!
This postman who delivered official documents through the post system came from Dunhuang and could not find Fang Chongyong. After getting Yan Zhuang's reminder, he wandered all the way and finally found Fang Chongyong and his party in Jiuquan City, the capital city of Suzhou next to Ganzhou.

In front of the hospital bed, Fang Zhongyong weakly said to Anaye who was taking care of him beside him: "Read the official document."

"Wang Huailiang, the governor of Shazhou, was dismissed from office due to a crime, and Wai Lang Fang Chongyong, a member of the Ministry of Rites, temporarily took his place and handled his affairs. Another appointment will be made after the court fills the vacancy.

What does it mean? "

Anaye asked doubtfully.

"It's not interesting. I'm going to sleep first. Don't wake me up when Brother Ji comes."

Fang Chongyong was too lazy to complain. Now he was taking sick leave to let himself be quiet first.

Let’s talk about Brother Ji’s bad things later.

(End of this chapter)