Chapter 285 Giant Tang Slows Down

What interrupted the unwillingness of the monarch and his ministers were Guang Mu's leisurely words.

[From the Tang Dynasty to the present, Xue Rengui’s deeds of setting the Tianshan Mountains with three arrows have been sung by people.

This is undoubtedly a great victory, but if the entire battle is seen, this great victory will be questioned.

After defeating the enemy with three arrows from the Tianshan Mountains, even if it is a great victory, the situation of being outnumbered and outnumbered still cannot be changed.

Pursuit was inevitable, but taking prisoners was impossible.

And if he stayed behind, Xue Rengui was worried that the prisoners would riot and cut off the Tang army's retreat.

In the end, Xue Rengui ordered the prisoners to be killed and continued to pursue the enemy.

In the process, the Tang army, which was victorious, also began to act dirty, hiding the results of the victory and plundering Tiele women privately.

But because part of these private looting proceeds was handed over to Xue Rengui, Xue Rengui also let it go.

Because of this, Xue Rengui's class teacher was eventually impeached by the censor.

Li Zhi made a judgment of equal merit and fault, neither punishing nor praising Xue Rengui. 】

The focus of Ganlu Hall suddenly changed, and Hou Junji once again became the target of public scrutiny.

But they were old friends after all, so they just glanced at everyone and looked away, exchanging their opinions on the attack and landing in a low voice.

Hou Junji gave a wry smile, feeling that the time in the Manna Hall was becoming more and more difficult.

Otherwise, after the matter here is over, we should apply for external transfer with His Majesty, whether in the Western Region, Liaodong, Jiaozhou or Yizhou.

I really don’t want to stay in Chang’an Ganlu Palace for a moment longer.

But for the ministers of Ganlu Hall, what they worried about couldn't be simpler.

The killings and prisoners are unknown, and this is a land near the Tianshan Mountains. How can he not abandon his heart if he is so ruthless?

Li Jing stroked his beard, frowned slightly, and said nothing.

Li Shimin was stunned for a moment, and finally sighed:

"If Xue Li finds this, the pharmacist will have to worry more."

The Three Arrows Dingtian Mountain was indeed majestic and domineering, but the Three Arrows allowed the prairie warrior to surrender a hundred thousand troops and collapse at the first touch. This only shows that the so-called one hundred thousand troops were not single-minded, and were both fearful and fearful of the Tang Dynasty.

In this case, why is it necessary to kill and surrender?

Not to mention it was still far away, but when they were fighting against Xiaolu Khan, the 30,000 Tang troops recruited 50,000 Uighur cavalry, and together with the 80,000 troops, they attacked the Western Turks.

Thirty thousand were used to recruit 50,000 to fight against the other side. Why didn't the generals of the Tang Dynasty at that time worry about the Uighur cavalry turning back and joining forces with the Western Turks to encircle and suppress the Tang army?

Wang Xuance recruited nearly 10,000 vassal soldiers with just a few men. Why didn't he worry that these vassal soldiers would backhand him?

Killing with ruthless hands, plundering with troops, all centrifugal means have been exhausted.

It is indeed a humiliating battle for the Tang army.

Li Shimin sighed deeply, feeling more and more that the generals of the Tang Dynasty still needed to be taught a lesson.

But soon, the light curtain made Li Shimin understand that he was still too optimistic.

[In any case, Xue Rengui’s three arrows to fix Tianshan are indeed a great achievement.

The lieutenant-general was so provocative, the commander-in-chief Zheng Rentai couldn't sit still.

After defeating the enemy at the foot of Tianshan Mountain, Zheng Rentai and Xue Rengui split their troops into two groups, each going to expand their results.

The Tianshan Mountain that Xue Rengui made famous is now called Hangai Mountain. It is located in what is now Mongolia, not far from Chang'an, only more than 4,000 Tangli away.

Zheng Rentai was the commander-in-chief, so he had more troops. He began searching for the enemy's remnants from the Tianshan Mountains toward the northeast.

At this time, news of the great victory of the Tang Army in Tianshan had spread, and the Tiele tribe in the northeast chose to surrender immediately after seeing Zheng Rentai's army.

But maybe Xue Rengui was the first to plunder, or maybe the battle was ineffective and it was hard to convince the crowd. But in short, Zheng Rentai refused the surrender of these Tiele tribes, followed their example, and began to plunder these tribes, so Tiele The Le people began to flee in all directions.

At this time, Zheng Rentai received news that made him happy. There were several richer Tiele tribes in the north where these Tiele people fled, with endless cattle, sheep and women.

Without much thought, Zheng Rentai divided his troops again, ordered the cavalry and infantry to camp on the spot, and led 14,000 elite cavalry on horseback to the north, chasing the Tiele people in the direction of their escape.

In order to catch up faster, Zheng Rentai also ordered the cavalry to take off their armor and each of them only brought a small amount of supplies.

Anyway, these Tiele people were about to collapse in the face of the Tang army. As long as they reached the wealthy Tiele tribe, wouldn't they get everything they wanted?

But it was a fruitless sortie.

Under the leadership of Zheng Rentai, this elite cavalry chased more than 1,300 miles north to the vicinity of Lake Baikal, but still found nothing.

When the food he brought with him was not enough, Zheng Rentai had no choice but to order the return trip.

But as we said before, the Tianshan Mountains are more than four thousand miles away from Chang'an. It takes a long time from the expedition to the enemy. Taking into account Zheng Rentali's eager pursuit, winter has come.

This elite Tang army can be called the god of death on the battlefield and is the enemy's biggest nightmare, but these are of no use against nature.

The blizzard encountered on the return journey became the biggest nightmare for this elite division. Under the severe cold, the little food and grass left was quickly exhausted.

The first weapons to be abandoned were completely useless weapons, and then due to the extreme lack of food, the Tang army had no choice but to start killing horses.

And what about when the horse has finished eating? "People eat each other when they are hungry"

Zheng Rentai took 14,000 elite cavalry with him when he left, but only more than 700 cavalry successfully returned to the military camp.

A greedy decision and an unexpected snowstorm buried 13,300 of the most elite light cavalry of this era.

When the censor impeached Zheng Rentai, he said that this was the biggest and most humiliating failure since the founding of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Zhi thought that Zheng Rentai was an old minister of Erfeng, so he finally did the same thing as Xue Rengui, neither rewarding nor blaming him.

A year after the battle, Zheng Rentai died of illness in the official residence of Liangzhou and was buried in Zhaoling. 】

Li Shimin opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

He really wanted to ask Du Ruhui if the title of Duke of Guizheng County that he had just given to Zheng Rentai this year could be taken back?

Zheng Rentai was undoubtedly his trusted general, so he also had the idea of ​​entrusting him with important tasks.

But because he was a trusted general, he knew Zheng Rentai's strengths and weaknesses.

Therefore, Li Shimin was not surprised that Zheng Rentai's name did not appear in the process of the Tang Dynasty's expansion.

And when he heard that Zheng Rentai was the chief general leading the troops to suppress the rebellion, he was quite relieved. He was not relieved that Zheng Rentai seemed to have finally gained some ability, but that Prince Zhi was still nostalgic.

The Huihe Rebellion was not united to begin with. No matter how you look at it, it was the kind that could be suppressed by pulling in one person, and it was a free credit.

Although Xue Rengui ended up ugly, he at least got a good reputation.

Zheng Rentai could mess up like this?

Li Shimin even felt a little relieved in his heart:

Fortunately, he was not entrusted with an important task at Xuanwu Gate, otherwise...

Shaking off this thought, Li Shimin angrily calculated:

"Look at the Guangmu Notes, from the beginning of the destruction of the Eastern Turks to the end of the capture of Xiaolu Khan, several countries were destroyed in succession, thousands of miles of territory were opened, and the number of soldiers killed in the Western Regions was not as high as this!"

The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had already chosen a destination for Zheng Rentai in advance.

Is it Xuanwu Gate? Or Suzaku Gate?

But a lingering worry rose in his heart:

Such a simple rebellion could be fought so ugly, it doesn't look like a good sign no matter how you look at it.

On the other side, Changsun Wuji quietly moved over and said to Hou Junji who was in a daze:

"Zheng Guang is not here, is it a pity for Duke Lu?"

Zheng Rentai's real name is Zheng Guang. Hou Junji and Changsun Wuji were one of the planners during the Xuanwu Gate Incident, so they were quite familiar with the names of the participants.

"Well...ah? Of course not!"

Although Hou Junji did have such regrets, he certainly would not admit it and denied it immediately.

Changsun Wuji's round face was full of disbelief. He smiled lightly and quietly distanced himself from Hou Junji again.

The tragic defeat caused by the blizzard made the originally cheerful atmosphere of Ganlu Hall become a little stagnant.

Li Jing spoke first:

"Perhaps..."

The old general pondered and said:

"When your majesty opens the imperial examination, you may try to open the military examination."

This idea has been lingering in Li Jing's mind for a long time, and this time he tried to put it forward for the first time:

"Even if the leader of the Huihe Rebellion was just a mediocre general, he could have won and would never have suffered such a great defeat."

Li Shimin nodded slowly in agreement.

Zheng Wentai made too many mistakes in his rash attack:

Attacked rashly, did not distinguish the truth from the false news, did not understand hydrology and geography, did not spread scouts, etc.

Not to mention the general manager of the march, it is questionable whether this quality can be a general.

Seeing Li Shimin nod, Li Jing continued:

"If we talk about defeating a strong enemy, expanding territory, and destroying its country, the leader must be famous generals such as Maogong and Dingfang."

"Two hundred cavalrymen destroyed Xueyantuo, and five hundred cavalrymen entered the battle array to defeat the enemy. These are all your majesty's Wei Huo."

Li Shimin and Su Lie quickly straightened their chests, with a solemn look on their faces.

But at the same time, they were very happy in their hearts. General Li Jing praised me personally!

"However... when the barbarians were in rebellion, they had no intention of defeating the Tang Dynasty before the rebellion. They just relied on the thousands of miles away from Chang'an and bet that the Tang Dynasty had no time to care about other things."

"In such a rebellion that is bound to fail, as long as the generals strictly follow the essentials of military books, they will all win and will not suffer losses."

Li Jing summarized his views and said:

"Therefore, it may be possible to open a military examination to allow those who know military affairs to be generals, so as not to suffer such losses."

Li Jing's words won the approval of Li Shimin, who nodded immediately:

"Good!"

The specific test method and what content to test still need to be thought about, but the important thing is that this is indeed feasible.

The most typical example is Xue Rengui, a wild way, who is indeed a fierce general, which makes Li Shimin like him.

But he killed the surrendered and took the lead in letting the soldiers plunder. These operations made Li Shimin's eyelids jump.

It is urgent to rectify the basic quality of the generals of the Tang Dynasty!

…

In the Chengdu government office, Zhang Fei shook his head and sighed:

"This Tang Dynasty is so bad that even God can't stand it."

Liu Bei disagreed:

"What does God have to do with it? This is a man-made disaster!"

As he spoke, Liu Bei looked up at the ceiling of the government office, and apologized for his third brother in his heart. God should not be angry and take back the light curtain.

"This is indeed a man-made disaster!"

Kong Ming sighed and judged:

"When the Tang Dynasty was founded, there were strong enemies on all sides. The emperor had courage, the generals had military strategies, and the soldiers were willing to die."

"At this time, 'there is no enemy outside the country'. The generals don't know how to fight, and the generals are greedy for merit."

"The Tang Dynasty will be defeated by Tubo soon."