Chapter 227 Xiangji Temple

【After Suzong ascended the throne, there were two civil officials who were highly valued by him.

In addition to the fake Zhuge Fangguan, there was also a real Zhuge Li Mi.

The fate of loyal officials during Xuanzong's reign was roughly similar, and Li Mi was no exception.

Zhang Jiuling admired Li Mi very much when he was prime minister, and Yang Guozhong hated Li Mi very much when he was prime minister.

So just like Yan Zhenqing, Li Mi was kicked out of Chang'an by Yang Guozhong, and Li Mi also had a temper:

I quit!

After Suzong ascended the throne in Lingwu, he invited him out again. Li Mi was quite responsible and worked diligently in government affairs.

Li Mi had to do all these things, including writing books and edicts, promoting generals and ministers, military and political strategies, and four-party alliances. History called him "more powerful than the prime minister."

Suzong's court in Lingwu had only a few big cats and small cats, and it can be said that it was all supported by Li Mi alone.

It's a pity that Li Mi wanted to be Zhuge Liang, but Suzong was not Liu Huangshu.

The defeat of Chen Tao Xie was due to Suzong's willful behavior. Fang Guan led 50,000 elite border troops to fight, but only brought back more than 4,000 people.

And Fang Guan returned with two worse news:

First, Yong Wang Li Lin rebelled, and second, the entire Hebei province fell.

Yong Wang Li Lin's rebellion was very simple, and he still adhered to the good family tradition of Li Tang. If you can do it, why can't I do it?

Hebei was even simpler. Suzong's accession to the throne forced Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi to withdraw from Hebei to go on a pilgrimage, otherwise they might be classified as traitors.

As soon as Guo and Li left, Shi Siming, who was almost beaten to death, felt that he was doing it again!

Yan Zhenqing, who had a group of county soldiers under his command, could not support himself and had to withdraw from Hebei.

Facing the gradually deteriorating situation, Li Mi's advice to Li Heng was as follows:

Li Guangbi guarded Taiyuan, Guo Ziyi entered Fengxu, and divided the rebels into two parts, north and south, so that they could not connect, and then let go of Huayin, so that the rebels would fall into the dilemma of guarding Fanyang in the north and saving Chang'an in the west, and running back and forth within a thousand miles. Gather superior forces to cut off the wings of the rebels, and finally annihilate the rebels in one go.

Li Mi's strategic thinking is very similar to our tactics during the War of Resistance:

First compress the battlefield space, and then play the sixteen-character mantra of guerrilla warfare: when the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy stays, we harass; when the enemy is tired, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we chase.

Finally, concentrate superior forces to eliminate the enemy's living forces.

But in Suzong Li Heng, after taking medicine for two days, he felt that his condition was stable and began to dislike the bitterness of the medicine.

"New Book of Tang" records: The emperor did not listen.

Faced with Prince Yong who wanted to be the emperor and the chaos in Hebei, Li Heng decided to use the Shuofang Army and the Hedong Army to forcibly recapture the two capitals, and in order to ensure success, he made two decisions:

Ordered his son Li Yu, who later became Daizong, to become brothers with the Uighur prince Yehu,

and agreed with the Uighurs: "On the day of conquering the city, the land and the common people will return to the Tang Dynasty, and the gold, silk, and children will all return to the Uighurs."

So, the Uighurs sent troops. 】

"Is the emperor a thief?"

"The emperor is a thief!"

Li Shimin's roar echoed in the Ganlu Hall.

The eunuchs outside the hall dodged as far as they could, fearing that they would be affected.

In the hall, Wei Zheng felt that he was sprayed with spit on the back of his head.

But Wei Zheng had no time to care about it at this moment, because everyone in the Ganlu Hall felt deeply ashamed:

Gold, silk, and children will all return to the Uighurs!

How dare Li Heng make such a decision!

Even if Chang'an was taken, how could Li Heng have the face to sit on the throne of Taiji Hall and claim the throne!

They followed Li Shimin through the sword and wind, quelled the chaos and ended the turmoil, but they didn't want Li Heng to give their children away!

At this moment, Li Shimin suddenly remembered Zhao Yishen, who guarded the border and buried his bones in Gaochang.

He remembered that later generations called their dynasty a feudal society and said that the essence of this society was cannibalism.

Li Shimin was not convinced before, but now he had no way to refute:

"The foolish monarch misled the country and his sons died in vain."

"The mediocre emperor sold his country and gave his children away."

"I am ashamed of it!"

Wei Zheng gritted his teeth:

"What's the use of taking back Chang'an?"

"Even if the Hu plundered the people, the people would remember it and the history would record it."

"Just like this later generation has passed 1,300 years, and the people of later generations still remember it!"

Li Jing was also silent, he suddenly thought of Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing.

A brave general who wanted to gather the remnants and fight to the death with the enemy after the bloody battle of Talas.

A common general who rose from refugees and gained military merits, and bravely took on the great responsibility despite the silence of the ministers in the court.

Even if they could live to this moment, it would be difficult for them to live for a long time.

The guerrilla warfare and the words of eliminating the living forces summarized by later generations are meaningful to read, but in comparison, the decision of Emperor Suzong can only be said to be eclipsed.

"It is really... extremely ugly."

Li Jing dared not imagine the consequences if the people of Chang'an knew about this agreement in advance:

Who is the rebel?

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui suddenly lost interest in recording at this moment.

They stared blankly at the historical records quoted on the screen.

Both of them were well-versed in classics and history. Before, they could only sigh when they saw similar records of the previous dynasty, but when such a thing happened to them and their descendants who were not far away, they suddenly felt as if they had a heavy weight.

Du Ruhui looked at the distraught Fang Xuanling, and suddenly a bold idea came to his mind:

If the emperor is unkind, the whole world will suffer.

Then the selection and education of the crown prince, the civil and military officials...

No, no, no, the future dynasties will surely learn from the disaster of our Tang Dynasty and be warned by it. Or should we first look at the solution of the future dynasties?

Du Ruhui was in a tangled state of mind for a while.

And Li Shimin also calmed down under the consolation of Sun Simiao.

In the final analysis, it was just another heartbreak.

Sitting on the couch, Li Shimin laughed at himself:

I thought that Li Heng's illegal behavior could achieve anything, but it seems that I thought too much.

In this case, I might as well support the rebellious Prince Yong.

Li Shimin thought in despair.

As the picture on the screen slowly moved, even if Li Shimin didn't want to watch, he had to face the battle to recapture Chang'an, which he thought was absolutely humiliating.

[The battle to recapture Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, also known as the battle of Xiangji Temple.

In September, Guo Ziyi, the deputy marshal of the world's army, led the remaining troops of the three towns of Hedong, Shuofang, and Hexi, as well as the tribes of Khotan, Huihe, and other Hu tribes, totaling 150,000 troops, and borrowed 4,000 elite cavalry from Huihe, claiming 200,000 troops, and set out from Fengxiang to advance towards Chang'an.

On the Tang side, Li Siye was the front army, Guo Ziyi was the center army, and Wang Sili was the rear army. They advanced slowly and finally encountered 100,000 Chang'an rebels in battle array in the north of Xiangji Temple.

At this time, the composition of the rebels was extremely complex. There were border troops from Fanyang and Pinglu, which had been fighting for more than a year since they started their rebellion in Hebei, as well as elite troops captured and surrendered after the defeat of Geshu Han and Chen Taoxie, and the Zhejie of Liuhuzhou who rebelled after An Lushan started his rebellion.

The Battle of Xiangji Temple was essentially: the border troops of the Tang Dynasty fought against the border troops of the Tang Dynasty, and the elite fought against the elite.

So we can see that this extremely bloody battle did not have any fancy tricks or tactics, but was the purest confrontation.

The rebel general Li Guiren led his army to challenge, but was defeated by the Tang army, and the Tang army pressed to the front of the rebels.

The rebels fought back with all their strength, and the Tang army could not resist and retreated. The rebels took the opportunity to lead the cavalry to step on the formation and intended to break through the front army of the Tang army, and the Tang army was panicked and defeated.

Li Siye, who was known as a great general in the front army, saw the army in chaos and shouted:

If I don't bait the enemy today, the army will be destroyed!

Then he took off his battle robe, held a Mo Dao and went out to fight with his chest bare. Facing the cavalry riding horses and stepping into the formation, he roared and chopped the men and horses with the Mo Dao, killing dozens of cavalry in a row.

Li Siye's heroic appearance helped the Tang army stabilize the front line. The Mo Dao soldiers who re-formed their formations followed Li Siye to form a formation, breaking the enemy with Mo Dao and advancing like a wall.

"Those who face Siye's sword will be shattered."

As the front army, the Anxi army was invincible, and Guo Ziyi also led the Shuofang army in the middle army to press forward, and the rebels began to lose.

The rebel leader An Shouzhong urgently ordered the Yeluohe elite cavalry who had ambushed behind the Tang army to attack the rear army Wang Sili's troops.

But they were discovered by Pugu Huai'en, who led the Huihe cavalry to wander in the outer periphery. Then Pugu Huai'en led the Huihe cavalry to attack the rear of the Yeluohe elite cavalry, and the rebel cavalry was defeated again.

Afterwards, Li Siye led the Anxi Army and Pugu Huai'en to attack the rebels' flanks, intending to cooperate with Guo Ziyi in the central army to attack the rebels.

In desperation, An Shouzhong and Li Guiren also led the rebels to fight back desperately. The two sides fought from morning to sunset, and neither retreated.

In the end, the rebels were defeated and fled back to Chang'an with the remnants to start looting all night.

The Tang army killed 70,000 people, beheaded 60,000 people, captured 20,000 people alive, and then entered the city to recapture Chang'an the next day.

The surroundings of Xiangji Temple, a Buddhist temple, were covered with corpses, like hell in Buddhism.

Generally speaking, the organizational loss that elite troops in the cold weapon era can withstand is 15%, that is, if 15 out of 100 people die without collapse, they can be called elite.

Because when this number is reached, the injury rate in the team has exceeded half.

In this battle, the rebels suffered 60% casualties in one day, and the Tang army suffered nearly 50% casualties.

It can be said that both the Tang army and the rebels were world-class armies at the time.

This force was enough to defeat the Black Caliphate or Byzantium, and it only took 10,000 or 20,000 to sweep across the small countries in Central Asia.

But it is a pity that this force that could change the world pattern fought against itself outside the city of Chang'an and both perished. 】

The emperor and his ministers of Zhenguan felt the heartache.

When the light curtain slowly told the regrets of the Battle of Talas, they noticed something.

At this time, the Tang Dynasty seemed to be standing at a fork in the road that could touch the top of the world.

But unfortunately, in the end, this empire they created with their own hands stepped into the abyss and could never turn over.

Li Shimin had closed his eyes and dared not look again.

The light curtain showed the scene of the Xiangji Temple battle that they imagined, made by later generations using painting techniques.

Such an elite army should have built a stronger empire and should have been a border guarding army.

They died in the south of Chang'an in such a meaningless and worthless way.

What happened next? Li Heng was going to fulfill his promise, and the Uighur cavalry plundered Chang'an.

How many of these soldiers and officers lying on the ground, who had not yet closed their eyes, had mothers and sisters in Chang'an?

They fought to the death and shed their last drop of blood to save their families.

Did they know the agreement reached between Li Heng and the Uighurs?

How did this Tang become so ugly and so despised by him?

Li Shimin could not accept it:

"Such a mistake must never be repeated!"