Dragon fights in Tang Dynasty

Shuozhou, known as Mayi in ancient times, was changed to Shuozhou in the fourth year of Wude in the Tang Dynasty (621). It governs the three counties of Shanyang, Kaiyang, and Shenwu. Bordering four prefectures, connecting Datong in the north and Yanmen Pass in the south, it is actually an important border town in the Tang Dynasty. Wars have been going on since ancient times, especially in the Han Dynasty. The so-called Mayi ambush that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent troops to fight the Xiongnu for the first time was in this state. It is a battleground for military strategists.

The importance of Shuozhou is needless to say. Datang Huo dispatched 14 troops just to rescue this state. However, God failed. On October 15th, Zhenguan [-]th, Li Zhen led the vanguard and just arrived at Yanmen Pass , the bad news came-the whole territory of Shuozhou fell, except for Shenwu who was still holding on, Shanyang, Kaiyang, and Shuozhou fell in turn, and only a few hundred scarred and defeated soldiers of more than [-] frontier troops fled back to Yanmen Pass , Yao Qisheng, the governor of Shuozhou, died with the city. Liu Chen, the magistrate of Shenwu County, sent a request for help, stating that more than [-] people from Xue Yantuo's Pugu tribe were besieging Shenwu, and the city was about to be destroyed. He asked the Yanmen Gate Guards to send troops for help.

Shuozhou fell, and the situation suddenly became severe. At this time, there were only more than 500 garrison troops at Yanmen Pass, and with the 20 troops under Li Zhen, the total number was only [-]. The guards are already tense in strength, and they are even more powerless to rescue Shenwu when they leave the customs. Not to mention that Xue Yantuo has [-] fine cavalry in the Shuozhou area at the moment, even the [-] troops besieging Shenwu are far more than the guards at the Yanmen Gate. Army, and the main force of the Tang Dynasty will take three days to arrive at the fastest. By then, Shenwu, which is already on the verge of collapse, will inevitably end up falling.

According to the practice of the grassland tribes, once a city is broken, it must be burned, killed and looted, and it will do everything. This is true of all the cities that have been broken; It's just a thought of leaving after grabbing something. At this time, I'm still delaying to leave, just waiting for Shenwu City to be broken. Once Shenwu falls, Xue Yantuo's tribe will definitely not stay in the Tang Dynasty for a long time. It is inevitable to sneak away after looting. things.

It is early winter at this time, if Xue Yantuo's troops are allowed to withdraw their troops here, then even if the main force of the Tang Dynasty arrives, it is absolutely impossible to chase into the grassland at this time, and they have to wait until the next spring to slowly advance. It is hard to say how to capture the main force of Xue Yantuo on the prairie, not to mention that if the war is prolonged, the food and salaries that Datang will spend will be astronomical, which will undoubtedly be a huge burden for the not-so-abundant court finances. However, if Xue Yantuo cannot be taught a profound lesson this time, then the foreign countries around the Tang Dynasty will probably follow suit and adopt the strategy of grabbing it and leaving. In this way, there will never be peace on the border of the Tang Dynasty.

The crisis has emerged, but there is still no conclusion on how to solve it. No, the military meeting has been held for more than two hours. All the Tang generals are arguing endlessly around the sand table. The battle between war and defense is extremely fierce, but Neither side could gain the upper hand, and in the quarrelsome tent, only the Prince Li Zhen and Li Daliang, the general guard of Yanmen Gate and Li Daliang, the marching chief of Lingzhou Road, remained silent.

Li Daliang, a native of Jingyang, Shaanxi Province, former Sui Dynasty general Pang Yu's marching soldier Cao, later defected to the Tang Dynasty, served successively as Tumen Commander, Sima of Jinzhou (now Ankang, Shaanxi Province), and was later promoted to Anzhou Governor with his meritorious service. During the Gong Er rebellion, he was promoted to the governor of Yuezhou (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province). He is well-known throughout the Tang Dynasty for his good governance of the region. He usually doesn't like to talk too much, but he must hit the point with every word, and he is deeply trusted by Li Shimin.

Seeing that the sun was already in the west, the generals were still arguing endlessly about whether to fight or defend, Li Daliang was calm, but he couldn't sit still for a while, leaned down, gave a fake cough, and put together The generals who were making a lot of noise stopped, and then looked sideways at Li Zhen, who was sitting beside him like a clay sculpture, and said, "What does His Royal Highness Yue want?"

how?How else?Damn, this battle has to be fought if not fought.How can Li Zhen not know the seriousness of the current situation, and also know that the battle in front of him is not easy to fight, what is more clear is the purpose of Li Daliang asking this question - it is inevitable to fight, but there is no certainty of victory, In fact, there is almost no way to win, but if you don’t fight, you can’t do it. If you lose, you have to take the blame. I'm afraid that Li Daliang can't afford to carry it all, so naturally he expects Prince Li Zhen to carry it.

No one wants to take the blame, and Li Zhen is no exception. When Li Daliang asked something strange, Li Zhen really wanted to kick the ball back, but unfortunately Li Zhen couldn't, not because Li Zhen was a prince. The reason why the middle rank is the highest is that Li Zhen had a chance to win, and she didn't want to waste any more time arguing. Therefore, Li Zhen didn't shirk it, and smiled calmly: "Fight!"

Li Zhen's voice was not too loud, and his tone was very flat, but his inner determination was fully revealed. The generals did not expect Li Zhen to make up his mind to fight with such an understatement, and he was stunned for a moment. After a long while, a general dressed as a handsome man stood up and said: "Your Highness, Xue Yantuo is powerful, and our army should stick to it. If we fight easily, if we lose, Yanmen will be lost, and Shanxi will be corrupted. I hope His Highness think twice."

The name of this opponent is Li Hongye, Li Daliang's nephew. Think twice before acting, both inside and outside the words reveal that they are not optimistic about Li Zhen's ability.

"Your Highness, fight, the city of Shuozhou is broken, and my people are slaughtered. If there is no help, once Shenwu is also breached, Xue Yantuo will flee far away. If so, what is the majesty of my Tang Dynasty?" The main defense faction stood up, and the leader of the main battle faction, Cao Liu Tietao, stood up not to be outdone. Suddenly, a group of generals who fought in the main battle also echoed their words, and the big tent suddenly became chaotic.

All the yelling in the big tent were generals from Yanmen Pass, but the guards brought by Li Zhen never joined them. His face darkened, and he snorted coldly, the group of generals all shrank back in fright, and finally the big tent became quiet again.

"Your Highness, how should we fight this battle?" Li Daliang pondered for a while, and asked in a calm voice, stroking his long beard on his chest.

Hehe, this old guy is very slippery. He knows that this battle must be fought, but he has no chance of winning, so he uses words to run on me. Interesting!Li Zhen saw through Li Daliang's thoughts at a glance, but she didn't point it out. She smiled and said: "Master Li, Shenwu must be saved, and Yanmen must also be defended. It would be better if this is not the case. Xiao Wang leads the troops to rescue Shenwu." How about Mr. Li staying at Yanmen to make sure nothing goes wrong?"

As soon as Li Zhen said this, not only the generals of Yanmen Pass were dumbfounded, but also the generals of Li Zhen's side were all dumbfounded-the whole army would be invincible to rescue Shenwu, and now it is only the third party under Li Zhen's command. How could a thousand and five men be the opponent of more than 20 Pugu cavalry? This is not counting the [-] main force of Xue Yantuo in the Shuozhou area. This is not going to fight, it is simply going to die.

Li Zhen is the prince. If something happens to him, all those present will be involved. Even if they can hold the Yanmen Pass, it will be useless. Once the emperor is furious, all those present may end badly. Li Daliang is the one who bears the brunt of it. This is a great general. Seeing what Li Zhen said at this time, Li Daliang's face immediately turned green. Originally, according to his thinking, even if Li Zhen insisted on fighting, Li Zhen would only stay behind, and he, Li Daliang, would lead the army. It is good to attack and win, but once you lose, Li Zhen will naturally be on top, even if you are hit by a board, it will not be too heavy. But what he never expected was that Li Zhen would propose to lead the attack in person, which made him How could Li Daliang bear it, he gritted his teeth quickly and said: "Your Highness, this discussion is inappropriate. I am a frontier general, and I have the responsibility to guard the soil. I will leave the task of attacking to the lower officials. Your Highness only needs to Keeping the Yanmen Pass, the officials will be grateful."

Hehe, this old guy still has a bit of conscience, but well, let's take the credit for it ourselves.Li Zhen smiled and said: "Thank you, Lord Li, for your love and righteousness, but if this battle is to achieve the goal of saving the people of Shenwu and holding back Xue Yantuo's tribe, it can only be effective if I go personally." Standing up, he strode to the sand table placed in the middle of the big tent, and said with a smile: "Lord Li, please look, this is Shenwu, less than two hundred miles away from Shuozhou, and it forms a triangle with Shanyang and Kaiyang. The distribution distances are less than a hundred miles. This is Fosu Mountain. The Tongluo tribe occupying Shanyang is a feud with the Pugu tribe. The Bayegu tribe who occupies Kaiyang has always been friendly with the Pugu tribe. The Ba Ye Gu tribe has just occupied Kaiyang and is in the midst of a carnival. Military discipline is bound to be lax. If our army attacks with light troops, we will be caught off guard. We don't want to wipe out all of our troops, but just hit them hard. Bluffing, pretending that the imperial army has surrounded Kaiyang, if it is dark at night, the Ba Ye Gu Department will not dare to attack easily without knowing the truth. Some of our soldiers went to rescue Kaiyang, and our infantry ambushed in Fosu Mountain could take advantage of the situation, either to ambush them, or to take advantage of the situation to enter Shenwu, while our cavalry troops took advantage of the small road outside Kaiyang City. Go straight to Shahukou after crossing Emaokou. As long as the sneak attack is successful, Xue Yantuo's 20 troops will have to detour through Yungang if they want to withdraw. Even if Xue Yantuo retreats immediately, it will take three to five days. Du She knows that the king has entered Shenwu, and if there are not many soldiers, he will definitely raise troops to capture the king as a guarantee for retreat. In this way, the timing of Xue Yantuo's retreat will have to be delayed for a few days, and the main force of our army It will be here in about three days, and this battle must be won!"

"This..." Li Daliang thought about it carefully, but he didn't see any flaws in Li Zhen's strategy. He just wanted Li Zhen to take risks, but Li Daliang really didn't have the courage, but he also knew that Li Zhen's strategy was the current The only feasible strategy, I didn't dare to make up my mind for a while, I just kept frowning and meditating there.

Li Daliang can afford to wait, but Li Zhen can't. After all, it's hard to say whether Shenwu can survive tomorrow. The sun is already in the west at this time, and it may be too late if he doesn't send out troops. Looking at Li Daliang, he said, "Lord Li, I still have two things to ask."

Li Zhen's soldiers are not under Li Daliang's jurisdiction. Moreover, Li Zhen is the prince. He said he would go, but it would be useless if Li Daliang disagreed. , looked at Li Zhen solemnly and said: "His Royal Highness the King of Yue has something to ask, as long as the lower officials can do it, he will definitely not refuse."

"Okay!" Li Zhen laughed, walked to Li Daliang's side, leaned over, and whispered something in Li Daliang's ear...

The tribes in the grassland fought Suxi to let go out on horseback to scout the opponent's movements, and Xue Yantuo was no exception. Although General Xue Yantuo had no intention of taking advantage of the victory to attack Yanmen Pass this time, according to the usual practice, he still sent more than [-] soldiers to Yanmen Pass. The human cavalry team has been monitoring the movement of the Tang army in the direction of Yanmenguan.At the beginning, those rangers stranded outside Yanmen Pass were very honest and only dared to wander far away, but later seeing that the Tang army at Yanmen Pass had never been dispatched, these rangers became more courageous, and they were getting closer and closer to Yanmen Pass. Not to mention, they also attacked those refugees who fled to Yanmen Pass from time to time. He came to monitor Tang Jun, as if he was on vacation.

The arrogance of those rangers naturally aroused the anger of the generals of the Tang army in the pass, but no one dared to attack privately without the order, and could only watch helplessly as a group of grass bandits tossed around outside the pass for more than a month, big guy The fire in my heart has long been so strong that it can melt into gold and iron. No, as soon as the order to attack was received, the five hundred cavalry troops of the Yanmen garrison Yinziying immediately rushed out of the closed gate, condescending, and rushed towards the grasshoppers like an avalanche. The small camp will pass by, and immediately beat those grass bandits who were leisurely and leisurely to death. Except for a dozen riders who saw the opportunity and escaped by chance, the rest were killed on the spot, and the whole battle was nothing more than a stick of incense. The time was over, and then, in the wide open closed door, groups of strong soldiers hurried out of the closed door, rushing to the distance in a hurried march.On the head of Yanmen Pass, Li Daliang, the general of the right guard, stood in the afterglow of the setting sun, silently watching the army go away, with tears in his old eyes...