Datang: Rebirth of Li Chengqian, the beginning of the treason interrogation

Chapter 216 Li Shimin's Decision
Li Shimin opened his eyes wide, and his eyeballs seemed to be about to pop out of their sockets, just like a lion that was completely enraged!
At this moment, his whole body exuded a chilling and dangerous aura.

"They have most likely already split up their forces. Where is the map?"

Before he finished speaking, several people hurriedly ran towards the city. The road was dusty and the footsteps were hurried, no one dared to delay for a moment.

Compared with the barbarians like the Xueyantuo, our own people will be more difficult to deal with.

At this time, Cui Dunli, who had been silent all the time, suddenly spoke up:

"Your Majesty, a few days ago, there were spies from Xueyantuo in the city who spread rumors everywhere, saying that the rebels had successfully captured several prefectures such as Xia and Liang from the northwest defense zone."

At the beginning, Cui Dunli thought it was just a conspiracy by Xueyantuo, so he didn't take it too seriously.

After all, how could one sell out information about one's allies to one's enemies? This kind of thing was simply unthinkable.

However, as the war progressed, the Tang army still found no trace of the rebels, which made Cui Dunli feel uneasy.

Could it be that Xueyantuo really had a falling out with the rebel Zhang Liang?

"Xiazhou and Liangzhou?"

Hearing this place name, Li Shimin's body suddenly paused, as if he was struck by thunder. His chest began to rise and fall violently, and his breathing became rapid and heavy.

Since the rebels did not show up here, the biggest possibility is that they attempted to cross the Yellow River and march straight into Chang'an City!

This is an extremely dangerous move, but also a brilliant one.

"Your Majesty, all the male soldiers in the inner city have been conscripted, and Chang'an's defense force is unprecedentedly empty. If Zhang Liang really has such thoughts, the consequences will be disastrous!"

A general said anxiously, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

"Your Majesty, we may still be able to rescue you in time! We can't delay any longer!"

Cheng Zhijie and Yuchi Jingde were even more anxious, their faces flushed red and their voices trembled with anxiety.

Chang'an, the city's importance to the Tang Dynasty is self-evident. It is not only the political and economic center of the Tang Dynasty, but also the place where countless wealthy families live.

It is no exaggeration to say that whoever controls Chang'an is equivalent to controlling the entire Tang Dynasty.

"It's too far to reach. If the rebels had made good progress, they would have successfully crossed the Yellow River by now."

Li Shimin looked into the distance with a solemn expression, but surprisingly, he was much calmer than everyone else at this moment.

"My dear ministers, there is no need to worry too much about the movements of the rebels. I have already made plans and left behind countermeasures. Although the current domestic troubles are not small, they are really not worth mentioning compared to the disaster of Xueyantuo."

"If we cannot completely eradicate the Xueyantuo, it will become a permanent worry for our Tang Dynasty and cause harm for thousands of years. So this time, I personally led the army to fight, and my real purpose is to crush the Xueyantuo in one fell swoop and put an end to the trouble forever!"

Li Shimin's powerful words were like a reassurance, which made the many generals present feel a little relieved.

However, what others did not know was that at this time, Li Shimin himself was becoming increasingly troubled.

How could he have any so-called backup plan?
In fact, he himself is the last resort.

The reason why he said these words so firmly and confidently was just to stabilize the morale of the troops.

As the king of a country, at this critical moment, he must show enough confidence and decisiveness, otherwise he will only lose his composure.

Among the generals of these three armies, whose family does not have settled in the prosperous city of Chang'an?

Once it is occupied by the rebels, who knows what will happen.

"Your Majesty has made every possible effort. Zhang Liang is just trying to hit a rock with an egg!"

Cheng Zhijie laughed heartily, and that rough and loud laughter seemed to be able to penetrate the sky and spread far away.

As Li Shimin's personal guard, Cheng Zhijie had a deep understanding of the emperor.

So he also joined in the discussion.

One glory and one glory.

"The Xueyantuo have just suffered a defeat. They must be in a state of panic and have not yet been able to stabilize their position. Pass on my order. The entire army will rest tonight and gather strength. We will set out early tomorrow morning to attack the Xueyantuo and destroy them in one fell swoop."

Li Shimin said firmly that instead of worrying about the future, it would be better to take the initiative.

This is in line with his style.

Besides, how could the vast Tang Empire rely on him alone to protect it?

If he unfortunately passes away one day, will the Tang Dynasty collapse?

This is not only a test of foreign wars, but also a training and test for the new generation of generals of the Tang Dynasty.

Especially for Crown Prince Li Zhi, this was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to demonstrate his talents and leadership.

Li Shimin's steady and powerful steps seemed particularly firm, as if every step was carrying a heavy burden, and he was moving steadily towards the City Lord's Mansion.

In the last years of his life, when he is about to enter the final chapter, he must completely eradicate the numerous crises brought to the Tang Dynasty by the Xueyantuo.

At this moment, judging from the current situation, the balance of victory seems to be gradually tilting towards him.

The tactic that Li Shimin was most proficient in and famous for was the terrifying blitzkrieg of pursuit.

This tactic is as powerful as thunder and lightning, extremely swift and powerful, and can often completely kill the enemy before it can recover from the previous defeat.

Taking advantage of the victory to the extreme.

It is no exaggeration to say that pursuit operations are the essence of Li Shimin's military wisdom, and it is also a tactic that only he can command.

But now that the Xueyantuo army has just been defeated and has retreated, and has not yet gained a foothold, it is the perfect time for him to use his tactics.

Looking back to the early years of the Wude period, when Li Yuan had just ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, the world was not yet completely stable, and various forces rose up one after another, and heroes competed for supremacy in the Central Plains.

Xue Ju, the overlord of Western Qin, was like a ferocious tiger. He coveted the new Li Tang regime and led an elite army of up to 200,000 to attack the city.

Faced with such a powerful enemy, Li Shimin was appointed as the Marshal of the Western Expedition by Li Yuan and was tasked with the arduous mission of leading the troops to resist Xue Ju's crazy attack.

However, Xue Ju had a strong army at that time and was very powerful. Li Shimin knew that a head-on confrontation was not the best strategy.

Therefore, he decisively adopted the strategy of clearing the countryside, built a defense line relying on the solid city, and launched a protracted confrontation with the invading Western Qin army.

In this way, the two sides were in a tense standoff for several months.

During this period, the Western Qin State encountered serious difficulties. Many generals and soldiers were hungry and cold, and it was difficult to maintain normal combat because the logistics supplies of food and clothing from the rear were slow to arrive.

In desperation, these generals had to take the initiative to lead their troops to join the Tang Dynasty.

Faced with such a grim situation, Emperor Wu of Western Qin, Xue Rengao, was extremely anxious and wanted to start a decisive battle with Li Shimin to reverse the current unfavorable situation.

However, perhaps due to his anxiety, his strategic deployment seemed hasty and incomplete.

Finally, the Battle of Asamizuhara broke out! This battle was destined to become an important turning point in the long river of history.

At the beginning of the battle, the Western Qin Army had a certain advantage, but due to omissions in the early deployment, the situation gradually got out of control.

At the critical moment, Li Shimin demonstrated his outstanding military talent and decisively sent a surprise force to go around behind the Western Qin army.

In an instant, the Western Qin army was caught in a desperate situation of being attacked from both sides. Under attack from both sides, they were instantly thrown into disarray.

Thousands of soldiers were lost in a short period of time, and the entire army formation was in chaos, and it was no longer possible to organize an effective resistance. In the end, Xue Rengao had to order a retreat. Although the Tang army won, the casualties of several thousand were insignificant to the Western Qin.

However, Li Shimin did not give Western Qin any chance to breathe.

He behaved extremely fiercely and decisively. Li Shimin personally led the last 2,000 elite soldiers to pursue the tens of thousands of troops of Western Qin.

He killed countless Western Qin soldiers along the way, and even changed into the clothes of Western Qin soldiers. Under the cover of night, he pretended to be a defeated Western Qin soldier and tricked his way into the Western Qin camp.

That night, the attack was launched.

The generals of the various tribes of Western Qin were unaware of the size of the enemy, so when they saw the Tang army, they knelt down and surrendered. Emperor Wu of Qin, Xue Rengao, had no choice but to surrender.

In this battle, Li Shimin led the charge and 2,000 elite soldiers to defeat the forces of Xue Ju and his son Xue Rengao, the most promising overlords of Western Qin at the time, captured more than 50,000 enemies and strengthened the power of the Li Tang Dynasty.

It can be regarded as a miracle in military history.

But this was just the beginning of the legend of his military career.

When fighting against Liu Wuzhou's main elite forces later, Li Shimin also launched a pursuit war, devouring the enemy in the process.

This was the Battle of Baibi where the Qin King's Breaking Formation Song was played.

Li Shimin also used the same tactics at that time, occupying the strong city walls, setting up walls and clearing the fields, and fighting a war of attrition.

Because Song Jingang was on a long expedition, his food and grass lines were long and narrow, and his supplies could not keep up. He could definitely not compare with Li Shimin, who had the entire Guanxi region behind him.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Song Jingang had no choice but to retreat with his troops.

This was not a defeat, but Song Jingang's active withdrawal.

As the art of war says: Don't pursue a desperate enemy.

Because it is very easy to fall into the enemy's trap of luring the enemy deep into the territory, this is also a set of tactics commonly used by many siege generals in ancient times.

But Li Shimin did not play by the rules. He led 4,000 cavalrymen to chase and kill the 100,000-strong army.

This is also due to his extraordinary command.

Song Jingang originally planned to set an ambush, but Li Shimin rushed too fast.

As a result, the rear troops left by Song Jingang had no time to deploy their defenses before they were rushed into the main army by the cavalry led by Li Shimin.

He killed thousands of enemies and won a great victory.

However, Li Shimin rushed too hastily and the food and supplies could not keep up.

If it were any other general, he would definitely play it safe, wait for food and supplies, and then pursue the enemy.

But if Li Shimin had only been this, he would not have been given the saying by the great man, "Since ancient times, no one has been as capable of military affairs as Li Shimin."

Li Shimin led the army without food and grass and marched more than 200 miles in a hurry again. He fought with Song Jingang's troops many times along the way and effectively eliminated most of the main forces of Song Jingang's troops.

In the end, only 20,000 soldiers were left, and they went into a defensive state.

After that, they continued to pursue Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang, and chased them out of Taiyuan and headed to Eastern Turkestan.

Yuchi Jingde, who was determined to fight to the death, no longer insisted on fighting after hearing that his master had defected to the Eastern Turks, and surrendered to Li Shimin.

In this battle, Li Shimin defeated a larger force with a smaller one and destroyed the power of several princes.

You know, Liu Wuzhou, Song Jingang and Yuchi Jingde were extremely powerful. They started with only a few thousand people and defeated the generals of the early Tang Dynasty one by one, forcing Li Yuan to use Li Shimin.

After Li Shimin defeated Western Qin, Li Yuan kept him in the dark, not wanting Li Shimin to make any more military achievements.

However, the only one who could restrain Liu Wuzhou was Li Shimin.

After reoccupying the areas occupied by Liu Wuzhou, the Li Tang forces became one of the three heroes at that time.

The other two heroes were Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande.

Capturing two kings in one battle also pushed Li Shimin to the highest level of martial arts.

In addition to besieging and surrendering Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande was also captured by Li Shimin's lightning pursuit.

If you understand Li Shimin's entire military career, you will feel that he was not exaggerating when he said he would destroy the Xueyantuo.

Two thousand armored soldiers defeated the 100,000-strong army of Xue Rengao, Emperor Wu of Western Qin.

Four thousand cavalrymen chased Song Jingang's 100,000 elite troops for thousands of miles, forcing the great hero Liu Wuzhou to flee far to the northern desert.

Three thousand black-armored soldiers annihilated the 100,000-strong iron army of the great leader Dou Jiande.

Although there may be other troops providing support, it is undeniable.

Li Shimin always used the few to defeat the many, the weak to defeat the strong, and relied on his personal abilities to turn impossible battles into classics.

Compared with those previous opponents, who is Zhang Liang?
He was just a small soldier under Li Mi.

What is the Xueyantuo?

The country was destroyed by General Li Shiji, who was often defeated in civil wars.

Perhaps, to kill Xueyantuo, there was no need to use Li Shimin's big sword at all.

Su Dingfang also adopted the same tactics as Li Shimin.

Maybe it was because he had gained experience from being beaten by Li Shimin before.

After all, he, Su Dingfang, was also one of the victims of Li Shimin's iron cavalry.

At midnight, everything was silent, only the sound of horse hooves of the troops led by Su Dingfang echoed rapidly in the silent night.

After a rapid march in the middle of the night, they finally caught up with the Xueyantuo army which was resting in place.

At the break of dawn, the sky was still dark.

This is the time when people are most relaxed and least vigilant, and it is also the time when the soldiers on guard are most exhausted.

The continuous escape for two days had already made the soldiers in the Xueyantuo army physically and mentally exhausted.

In addition to standing guard all night, many guards didn't even care about their image and simply leaned against the fence and fell asleep.

At the same time, in this vast northern land, the temperature difference between day and night is extremely large.

As the night fell, the chill of the early morning began to spread, and thick fog gradually enveloped the entire world like a thick veil, making it almost impossible to see the scenery a few meters ahead.

At this moment, facing his high-spirited soldiers, Su Dingfang slowly raised the sword in his hand that was flashing with cold light. With a clear voice, he made the final oath.

"My fellow soldiers! What we are seeing right before our eyes is an immortal feat. After this battle, those who are still alive will surely be granted titles of nobility and become generals, enjoying wealth and honor from then on, and will bless their descendants. As for those who have died, they will surely be placed in the Martial Temple, enjoying incense offerings from generation to generation, and their names will go down in history, bringing glory to their ancestors!"

This situation and scene were so familiar to Su Dingfang.

It was as if time had gone back to the tent of Jie Li Khan of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate.

(End of this chapter)