Chapter 217 Li Tang's Family Affairs

Godly General!

Li Shimin liked this title when he read Zhang Yichao's life story.

He even wrote a calligraphy of "Dunhuang has produced many Godly Generals in the past", but he regretted that he could not recruit Zhang Yichao to expand the territory for Tang.

And now this Wang Zhongsi can be said to be very much in line with Li Shimin's appetite in all aspects.

The descendant of loyalty and bravery, he is cautious in using troops, bold in strategy, and does not take credit for himself.

Although Xuanzong could not avoid the Anshi Rebellion even with such a famous general, but... at least he should avoid many disasters, right?

He took two deep breaths. At least he didn't have to see An Lushan for the time being, which made Li Shimin feel much better.

As for the last sentence of the light curtain, which was weird, Li Shimin's heart tightened slightly:

Could it be that Wang Zhongsi also died early like Huo Qubing?

But now it's too far to worry about these things, so let's put this matter aside.

Li Shimin looked at the top sentence of the text copied by Du Ruhui:

"Early Tang... God of War?"

"Who is Su Dingfang?"

Li Shimin was not surprised by Li Jing, and Li Shiqi could only say that it was within his expectations, but he was a little confused by the other name he had never seen before.

So Li Shimin looked at the two generals for help.

At this time, Hou Junji's smile was a little bit unsustainable, but he still tried to bow to Li Jing.

Li Jing was mature and prudent, and smiled very reservedly:

"Su Dingfang's achievements were promoted by your majesty himself."

"Oh?" Li Shimin recalled briefly, and he was familiar with Li Jing, and had participated in major battles in recent years...

The meritorious war reports that were personally awarded by Li Shimin were recalled.

Soon a name came to mind:

"Su Lie?"

"It was Su Lie."

Li Jing confirmed:

"During the Yinshan period, Su Lie was the vanguard. He led two hundred cavalrymen to climb the mountain and break the tent of Jie Liya."

Now Li Shimin remembered everything:

"After the battle, he was awarded the first level of merit and was conferred the title of Zuo Wuhou Zhonglang Jiang."

At the same time, he also remembered the official position of Su Lie before he was conferred the title: Kuangdaofu Zhechong Duwei.

So Li Shimin sighed:

"Such a famous general is by my side but I can't use him? I will summon him after the meeting in Ganlu Hall is over."

No wonder Li Shimin was so anxious. Where is Kuangdaofu? The four streets in the southwest corner of Chang'an City are called Kuangdaofu.

There are two tombs here, one for Wei Zifu and the other for Li Taizi.

To hold such a position under the nose of Chang'an City, to put it bluntly, it is not much different from sweeping the streets.

Considering that Su Lie was an old general of Liu Heita, Li Shimin made a logical guess:

In the history in the light curtain, Su Lie was likely to be in this idle street sweeping state for ten years.

But now is different from the past. Now he, Li Erfeng, is sharpening his sword and has many places to display his ambitions.

So Hou Junji became more depressed, and his eyes looking at Li Jing became more resentful.

…

Zhang Fei looked at the light curtain saying that the Tibetan king imitated Sun Quan to retreat, and laughed out loud:

"I have figured it out. Every time a few hundred people lose tens of thousands of people, the requirements are almost the same."

"Oh?" Zhao Yun looked like he was willing to hear more details, and planned to learn a few tricks from Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei counted on his fingers with a serious face:

"With few soldiers, the soldiers need to forget death and the generals need to go first."

"With many soldiers, it's simple. You just need a commander like my brother-in-law."

Zhao Yun curled his lips slightly and put down the small book he had just picked up.

He thought he could really learn something, but it turned out to be a rare opportunity.

As for being called the God of War by later generations, the people in the Chengdu government office were not surprised.

In such a prosperous era with outstanding martial arts, it would be strange if there were no fierce men.

And even if it was Wang Zhongsi, wasn't he also targeting Huo Qubing?

That happened to be the case, Huo Qubing was a famous general of our Han Dynasty, so he didn't envy him at all.

Kong Ming envied the wealth of the Tang army: sufficient horses, armor and weapons.

At the same time, he was a little worried: the tone of this light curtain was not very good.

[In order to control the Jiedushi during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the Jiedushi's relatives had to stay in the capital as hostages.

In exchange, the Jiedushi would return to Chang'an to serve as an official after leaving office, and would be treated differently according to his achievements as a Jiedushi.

That was why the powerful minister Li Linfu was hostile to Wang Zhongsi at the beginning. After all, with such a record as Wang Zhongsi, it was really hard to justify not giving him a prime minister's position after leaving office.

Then three things happened in succession, leading to the rapid fall of this war god of the Tang Dynasty.

Event 1: Li Linfu proposed to cultivate Hu generals to curb other Jiedushi.

Combined with the Jiedushi policy during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, it is easy to understand that the Hu people are easy to control, and returning to Beijing after leaving office will not threaten the power of the prime minister, and this strategy can easily divide Wang Zhongsi's power of the four towns.

It was because of this strategy that Li Linfu and An Lushan came together.

An Lushan also took advantage of Li Linfu's help and bribery offensive to start his own meteoric rise.

Event 2: Shibaocheng slander case.

Shibaocheng is a military stronghold in Hexi. Tang and Tubo have been fighting over this place for many years, and Emperor Xuanzong wanted to completely control it.

Therefore, after Wang Zhongsi rose to power, Emperor Xuanzong ordered Wang Zhongsi to take Shibaocheng by force, but Wang Zhongsi judged that it was not yet time to capture Shibaocheng, so he wrote a memorial to dissuade him.

In 747, Dong Yanguang took the initiative to request to attack Shibao City, and Xuanzong agreed and ordered Wang Zhongsi to assist.

However, as Wang Zhongsi had judged before, Shibao City was easy to defend but difficult to attack at this time. Dong Yanguang failed to capture it within the time limit, and he wrote a memorial to accuse Wang Zhongsi of delaying the dispatch of troops and intending to nurture the enemy for his own benefit.

Of course, this alone was not enough to bring down Wang Zhongsi, so Li Linfu had already prepared.

Event 3: The Crown Prince Slander Case.

After killing the crown prince in the achievement of "killing three sons in one day" in 737, Xuanzong hesitated for a while about who to appoint as the new crown prince.

The candidates at that time were Shou Wang Li Heng and Zhong Wang Li Yu, but considering that Yang Yuhuan was once the wife of Shou Wang, Li Longji looked a little embarrassed.

So, Li Yu, who was disliked by everyone, was finally appointed as the crown prince and changed his name to Li Heng. He can also be said to be the most cowardly crown prince in history.

Xuanzong didn't like him, so Li Linfu and Gao Lishi could attack him at will.

Even An Lushan, a Hu general, could step on him to please Xuanzong.

By the way, this was also one of the reasons why An Lushan rebelled, fearing that Li Heng would be liquidated after he came to power.

Such a crown prince, Xuanzong himself naturally guarded against him.

In 744, Crown Prince Li Heng was suspected of having a secret meeting with a border general. Xuanzong was furious and executed all the border generals involved.

In 747, when Dong Yanguang framed Wang Zhongsi with the Shibaocheng case, Li Linfu keenly realized that the time had come!

Under his instructions, Wei Lin, the deputy governor of Jiyang, jumped out and claimed that when he was the governor of Shuozhou, his superior, Wang Zhongsi, the governor of Hedong, said in person:

In his early years, he lived with the king in the palace and was willing to respect the crown prince.

In the end, Xuanzong was furious and summoned Wang Zhongsi to the court and ordered the three officials to interrogate him severely. Wang Zhongsi was almost tortured to death.

Geshu Han, who succeeded Wang Zhongsi as the governor of Longyou, wrote a letter to protect him. In the end, Wang Zhongsi saved his life and was demoted to the governor of Hanyang. He died suddenly two years later at the age of 45.

When Wang Zhongsi was in Hexi, he served as the governor of Hedong, Hexi, Longyou and Shuofang, and had 250,000 troops under his command.

And since 744, Wang Zhongsi has been repeatedly petitioning Emperor Xuanzong, bitterly expounding An Lushan's rebellious intentions, but Emperor Xuanzong never looked at him in the eye.

Both were adopted sons of Emperor Xuanzong, and both held heavy troops.

Wang Zhongsi was loyal and had outstanding achievements, and was feared by the people of Hexi for thousands of miles, but he was eventually killed by slander.

An Lushan flattered the emperor with his clever words and had no achievements, but bought the hearts of the army in Hebei and eventually led a large army to rebel against the Tang Dynasty.

It must be said that Li Jiasanlang's death was all his own fault, and he could not blame anyone else. 】

Kong Ming's eyebrows were raised completely, feeling that he could not understand it at all:

"Killing three sons in one day? Even including the crown prince?"

"This Li Tang court is really..."

Kong Ming kept shaking his head and found a relatively peaceful word:

"Unbelievable."

Fa Zheng on the side was already counting with great interest:

"Two adopted sons, forced one to death, and one rebelled."

"Of the five biological sons known so far, three were killed, one son's daughter-in-law was robbed, and the crown prince was bullied at will."

"This adopted son of the rebellion can come and go freely and stay in the harem, and can have a mansion built with great fanfare..."

Fa Zheng was already gloating as he counted on his fingers:

"Among the seven sons, the most loyal and capable one died the most miserably."

"To us outsiders, An Lushan looks like his own son!"

"The obstacles to the rebellion were all swept away by Xuanzong himself. This is so absurd and unprecedented in ancient times!"

After Fa Zheng finished speaking, he was still shaking his head and laughing, as if he had watched a superb actor's play.

Zhang Fei curled his lips, feeling that this family, except for Wang Zhongsi, looked disgusting, so he simply agreed with Fa Zheng:

"As Xiaozhi said, if An Lushan did not rebel, it would really be a shame for Xuanzong's painstaking efforts."

Even Liu Bei sighed:

"Other emperors are afraid that the prince will not be talented, but Xuanzong is afraid that his adopted son will not rebel."

After saying that, he let it go, and then noticed some problems:

"This Li Linfu is known as a powerful prime minister... He doesn't seem to like the reputation."

Xu Shu shook his head:

"You can imagine that he is a prime minister who plays with power."

"In order to avoid resigning as a Jiedushi and competing for power with him, he vigorously supported foreign generals and colluded with An Lushan and others."

"If there is no such proposal, this Anshi Rebellion, or..."

Xu Shu didn't know much about the situation, and he didn't know much about the situation. It was hard to judge, so he could only shake his head in the end:

"Your Majesty is incompetent, and the ministers are abusing their power. It's all their own fault."

However, Zhang Song calculated on the side and interrupted:

"A good man like Wang Zhongsi can lead four towns and control 250,000 troops. It can be seen that there are at least seven or eight Jiedushi in the Tang Dynasty."

"A town has about 60,000 troops. If the Jiedushi work together, it should not be difficult to quell this rebellion."

Zhao Yun shook his head:

"According to Ziqiao's calculation, the number of soldiers of the Tang Jiedushi should be 500,000. This Hu general has 30% of the world's troops."

"30% of the troops belong to one person, and the other four or five Jiedushi share the troops, and there is also the emperor's control."

"If we really fight against each other, it may be difficult to win."

What Zhao Yun said was quite respectful to the Tang Dynasty, and Zhang Song understood it.

It is a question whether the Jiedushi can work together, and there is also a foolish emperor above them.

Moreover, the emperor had just been betrayed by his adopted son and military governor, so would he be suspicious of other military governors?

So it seemed that the Tang emperor had the upper hand in terms of military strength, but in fact it was only 50-50.

And we still have to take the Tang emperor... Zhang Song asked himself unsurely:

"This Xuanzong, he shouldn't cut off his own arm, right?"