Dragon fights in Tang Dynasty

The Bashui River in September is undoubtedly extremely beautiful. Although it is the dry season, the river is still gurgling and flowing. The wild chrysanthemums on the bank of the river are blooming brilliantly, and the golden yellow leaves are floating in the wind. Like colorful butterflies flying, occasionally a fat fish jumps out of the water, which can always stir up ripples all over the river.For thousands of years, the beautiful Bashui River has always meandered in the south of Chang'an City like this, but today's Bashui River is a bit unusual-quiet, too quiet, not to mention those that in the past were always [-] to [-]% The flock of birds soaring in the air disappeared at this moment, and even the insects who were always singing endlessly in the grass were also silent at this time, only a chilling atmosphere lingered around the riverside——Soldier, at this moment The open space by the Bashui River is full of soldiers with bright armor and snow-covered swords and guns. Hundreds of thousands of troops are divided into dozens of square formations and lined up along the open space by the Bashui River. So many people gather together, Unexpectedly, there was no sound of a conversation, except for the occasional snorting of the horses, there was no trace of noise, only the murderous aura soaring to the sky.

Gradually, there was a sound of rumbling horseshoes, and there was a burst of smoke and dust in the distance. Thousands of cavalry were rushing towards this place. Hundreds of colored flags in the queue were fluttering in the wind, swaying a group of fear, and the first one was bright yellow, and wrote a letter. Under the big "Li" character, Li Shimin, the great emperor of a generation, was galloping on his horse with a stern expression on his face, followed closely by more than a hundred civil and military ministers.

Cold and stern, yes, the expression on Li Shimin's face is really frighteningly cold and stern. Anyone who is not blind can see the anger in it. Some people dared to stroke the tiger's beard of the Tang Dynasty, and even picked Li Shimin to offend him when he was enshrined in Zen and Mount Tai. It is tolerable or unbearable! This extremely hateful guy is the Khan Yinan of Xue Yantuo's tribe.

Xue Yantuo, the name of the northern grassland tribe, was originally one of the tribes of Tiele, which was formed by the merger of the two tribes of Xue and Yantuo.At first, they were engaged in nomadic herding in the Tula River Basin in Mobei, and they belonged to the Turks.The Bashui River in September of the Sui Dynasty is undoubtedly extremely beautiful. Although it is the dry season, the river is still flowing. The wild chrysanthemums on the bank of the river are blooming brilliantly, and the golden yellow leaves are floating in the wind. Like a butterfly flying, occasionally a fat fish jumps out of the water, always stirring up ripples all over the river.For thousands of years, the beautiful Bashui River has always meandered in the south of Chang'an City like this, but today's Bashui River is a bit unusual-quiet, too quiet, not to mention those that in the past were always [-] to [-]% The flock of birds soaring in the air disappeared at this moment, and even the insects who were always singing endlessly in the grass were also silent at this time, only a chilling atmosphere lingered around the riverside——Soldier, at this moment The open space by the Bashui River is full of soldiers with bright armor and snow-covered swords and guns. Hundreds of thousands of troops are divided into dozens of square formations and lined up along the open space by the Bashui River. So many people gather together, Unexpectedly, there was no sound of a conversation, except for the occasional snorting of the horses, there was no trace of noise, only the murderous aura soaring to the sky.

Gradually, there was a sound of rumbling horseshoes, and there was a burst of smoke and dust in the distance. Thousands of cavalry were rushing towards this place. Hundreds of colored flags in the queue were fluttering in the wind, swaying a group of fear, and the first one was bright yellow, and wrote a letter. Under the big "Li" character, Li Shimin, the great emperor of a generation, was galloping on his horse with a stern expression on his face, followed closely by more than a hundred civil and military ministers.

Cold and stern, yes, the expression on Li Shimin's face is really frighteningly cold and stern. Anyone who is not blind can see the anger in it. Some people dared to stroke the tiger's beard of the Tang Dynasty, and even picked Li Shimin to offend him when he was enshrined in Zen and Mount Tai. It is tolerable or unbearable! This extremely hateful guy is the Khan Yinan of Xue Yantuo's tribe.

Xue Yantuo, the name of the northern grassland tribe, was originally one of the tribes of Tiele, which was formed by the merger of the two tribes of Xue and Yantuo.At first, they were engaged in nomadic herding in the Tula River Basin in Mobei, and they belonged to the Turks.In the first year of Sui Daye (6o5), all tribes of Tie Le rose up against the tyranny of the Western Turks, and they all promoted Yi Shibo, the leader of Xue Yantuo's tribe, as the Khan of the Wilderness. Therefore, Yi Shibo led his tribe to set up court in Yanmo Mountain (a branch of the Altai Mountains) So it became Tiele Zhongqiang Department.In the fourth year of Zhenguan, Sun Yinan, the son of Yi Shibo, joined forces with Huihe to send 2 troops to help the Tang Dynasty conquer the Eastern Turks. They took the opportunity to set up a tent on the Yudujun Mountain in the Henan Province of Orkhon (the eastern branch of Hangai Mountain). , reaching the Altai Mountains in the west, Hetao in the south, and the Selenge River in the north. The territory includes Huihe, Pugu, Tongluo, Bayegu, Adi, and Yan tribes.In view of this, in order to prevent Xue Yantuo from becoming a new border trouble, the Tang Dynasty adopted the policy of supporting Huihe to suppress Xue Yantuo, which aroused great dissatisfaction among barbarians, and gradually separated from the Tang Dynasty; Khan, who built a tooth tent in the south of Hetao, nominally made him rule the old East Turkic tribe who moved inland to the south of Hetao. In fact, he was monitoring Xue Yantuo, which aroused suspicion and fear among barbarian men, so he took advantage of Tang Taizong's opportunity to seal Mount Tai in the 13th year of Zhenguan , ordered the eldest son Dadu to lead Huihe and other tribes to enter the Great Wall in the name of chasing Li Simo, and the soldiers went straight to Shuozhou, Shanxi. Li Shimin, who was enshrining Zen in Mount Tai, had to rush back to Chang'an to prepare to meet the enemy. The anger in his heart can be imagined .

"The mighty Tang Dynasty!"

"The mighty Tang Dynasty!"

... Following the arrival of Li Shimin, the sound of horns and the passionate battle horns of the soldiers sounded successively in the formations of each army, and bursts of heroism rose to the sky, which shocked the geese moving from the south in the sky to panic for a while.Li Shimin reined in the galloping horse, walked slowly in front of the army, inspected the military appearance of each army, and went straight to Dianjiangtai by the Bashui River along the road left by the army.

"Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, my army has been sharp and invincible, and I have been invincible wherever I go. However, now there is a small thief from Rongmi, Xue Yantuo, who dares to invade our borders and capture our people. All the soldiers, what can I do? "On the high platform, Li Shimin glanced at the soldiers of the army below the high platform, and asked in a calm voice.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" Tens of thousands of soldiers shouted angrily at the same time, their murderous aura soaring into the sky.

"Okay!" Li Shimin waved his hand and said, "The military exercise has begun!" As soon as the words fell, Li Ji, the commander of the expedition army who had been waiting for a long time, strode up to the stage, waved the command flag in his hand calmly and powerfully, All of a sudden, the army formations of all sides that had been standing in awe started to move one by one. The infantry, cavalry, and baggage battalions and other battalions appeared one after another. Amid the sound of horns, the power of each army was fully displayed. There was constant applause, and the foreign envoys who were invited to watch the ceremony turned pale with shock. Amid the exclamations and applause, only one person seemed extremely calm, and that person was Li Zhen.

It has been almost 15 years since I came to this dynasty, 14 years and nine months to be precise. Li Zhen is already a tall and strong man. Standing among his brothers, he is a head taller than others , if it weren't for the fluff on his lips that gave away the secret, I'm afraid no one would be able to tell that he is only less than 15 years old.At this time, Li Zhen did not say that he was too old to build a government office, even if he was an official, the number of years was more than enough, but Li Zhen never built a government office, nor was he an official—since Li Zhen said that he would not build a government office So far, seven years have passed, but Li Zhen has never built a yamen. As for the official, Li Zhen has done a lot of chapters, and invited the official to come, but it is a pity that the old man has never approved it, and never has. According to this theory, not only did Li Zhen not be allowed to go to the official position, but after ten years in Zhenguan, when Li Zhen was reappointed as the king of Yue, Li Zhen was brought with her from time to time. Even this time Taishan Fengchan did not hold back, in fact, Li Zhen was the only prince who followed Li Shimin during this sacrifice to heaven, even the prince did not have a part to follow.

Li Zhen didn't know exactly what was going on in the old man's heart, and she didn't want to find out, but Li Zhen couldn't be more clear about the current situation—because of Li Zhen's favor and the fact that he still had money in his hands, the takeaways were still available. With things like printing and wine making in hand, Li Zhen's life has begun to get tighter, and a group of fighting party members have all focused their attention on Li Zhen.Although Li Zhen never formed cliques, never made personal friends with courtiers, and never deliberately competed for favor, she always remained neutral among the brothers, but the problem was that the tree wanted to be quiet but the wind continued, and the brothers were worried that Li Zhen would fall into competition The opponent or self-reliance has already begun to join forces secretly, and is going to bring Li Zhen down first. Li Zhen already knows this in his hands through the "Rising Sun" in his hands. For this sake, Li Zhen has no choice but to seek self-protection.

If you want to protect yourself, you have to be strong. With Li Zhen's current status, it is not impossible to win over the courtiers. It's just that the movement is too big. Let alone the brothers will not sit and watch Li Zhen jump up, it is the old man. The head can't be confessed, the only feasible way is to develop in the army, and the gun is the king of grass heads.Of course, it is not an easy matter to expand the power in the army. Even if Li Zhen's two masters are the top famous generals in the Tang Dynasty, it would not be possible. Without him, the most important thing in the Tang army is military merit. Hand, even if your martial arts are world-class, no one will take you as a green onion, so Li Zhen can only focus on this expedition. However, it is not easy to get the opportunity to go to the expedition, so Li Zhen You have to wait, wait for an opportunity that the old man can't say no to.

The Tang Dynasty adopted the Fubing system. There were 634 Zhechongfus across the country, and each mansion had 8-12 soldiers. Except for going out on expeditions and taking turns to guard, the rest of the time the soldiers stayed at home and farmed; The art of attacking and fighting.In the center, sixteen guards were set up to control the soldiers and horses of the world, namely the left and right guards, the left and right cavalry guards, the left and right military guards, the left and right guards, the left and right leading guards, the left and right Jinwu guards, the left and right prison guards, and the left and right Qianniu guards.Except for the prison gate guards and the Qianniu guards, the other twelve guards led the military mansions to Chang'an to serve as guards. The sixteen guards are all in the south of the imperial palace, so they are called Nanya Army, which is the national army. Corresponding to the Habayashi Army of the emperor's private army in the Beiya, each guard has one general and two generals, and subordinates include Chang Shi, Can Jun, Zhonglang General, Lang General, Bing Cao, Qi Cao, etc.There is also a Ministry of War in the central government, which is responsible for deploying troops.

The essence of the government military system is the check and balance of military power - each guard has the right to lead troops, but neither has the right to deploy troops, nor is it suitable for training troops. But there are no soldiers to use. Only the emperor's decree can combine the three, and the army can go out. This kind of check and balance method looks good. There are soldiers available. However, in fact, there is a big hidden danger in the government military system-those who train soldiers don't use soldiers, and those who use soldiers don't train soldiers. If the generals of the guards and the officials of the Zhechong Mansion are all strong generals who have fought a hundred battles, the Tang Dynasty's military has long been exhausted. Even so, a very bad sign has appeared-a lot of veterans and no rookies. .

Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, there have been many veterans who can act as commanders. Li Jing, Li Ji, Cheng Zhijie, Su Dingfang, Hou Junji, etc., any of them can act as the commander of the army, but none of the fierce generals who may act as the vanguard No, the reason is simple: although the old generals are old, they are still strong, and they are still capable of taking command, but some of them are reluctant to go to the front line. He is a high-ranking person, how can he still condescend to the role of a small vanguard officer. Therefore, this military parade is not only to show the powerful military power of the Tang Dynasty to the outsiders, but also to select this person. It is also a helpless move to choose the vanguard officer candidate for the next expedition.

"Your Majesty, the drills of all the armies are over. Your Majesty, please let me know if you can start the battle for the vanguard." After the drills of the armies were over, Li Ji strode up to Li Shimin who was sitting on the dragon chair, and asked for instructions loudly.

"Okay, let's start." Li Shimin was still immersed in the excitement of the military exercises in front of him, and his expression was very good. When he saw Li Ji coming to ask for instructions, he waved his hand and agreed without thinking.

As Li Ji waved the command flag, the horns of the various armies sounded again, and twenty or thirty young generals rushed out from their own teams on their horses and gathered under the commander's platform. Li Shimin on the high platform bowed and gave the military salute. After Li Ji waved the command flag, the round of competition officially kicked off.

In the Tang Dynasty, riding and archery was the most important thing. Whether they were princes, nobles, or children of aristocratic families, they were all proficient in this. Even those well-educated Confucian scholars can also ride horses and drive successfully. Everyone is a good player in this way. The competition in this game is the ability of riding and archery-divided into three target positions of 120 steps, 150 steps, and [-] steps. Shoot one arrow at each target position, and only three arrows hit all Hearts will qualify for the second round.

Not to mention, this group of young generals selected from the Nanya army are all good players. After a round of competition, 15 of them hit hearts with three arrows. They all hit the target with three arrows, but one or two of them missed the red heart. Among the selected candidates, there are four most outstanding people——Zuo Jinwu Guard, Zhonglang General Hou Guozhong (the eldest son of Hou Junji), You Xiao Cavalry Guard Lang general Qin Huaiyu (son of the late Hu Guogong Qin Qiong), the right Jinwu guard riding Cao Helong, and the left guard riding Cao Liang Zhenwu, these four not only hit the heart with three arrows, but also penetrated the bull's-eye, they are rare generals.The wonderful performances of the generals caused the soldiers of all the armies to cheer and applaud. Even Li Shimin was very happy watching, and the smile on his face was extraordinarily bright.

The opportunity has come, ***, it will be up to this time to see if it succeeds!After all the generals had finished shooting, before Li Ji announced the start of the next round of competition, Li Zhen, who had been standing silently by the side, took a deep breath, strode out from the ranks of princes, and went straight to Li Shimin. In front of his seat, he knelt down on the ground and said in a loud voice: "I would like to report to my father, my son has been very good at bow and horse since he was a child, and he is willing to try his skills on the court. Please give me your permission."

As soon as Li Zhen said this, everyone was shocked. On the high platform, everyone's eyes were focused on Li Zhen. Li Shimin was stunned for a moment, then frowned, and looked at Li Zhen silently for a long time , but never spoke...