Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 227 Xiangji Temple

[After Suzong ascended the throne, there were two important civil servants under his command.

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

The experiences of loyal ministers during Xuanzong's reign were generally similar, and Li Mi was no exception.

Zhang Jiuling admired Li Mi very much when he was the prime minister, and Yang Guozhong hated Li Mi very much when he was the 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:
Father quit!

Suzong re-invited Lingwu to come out after he came to power. Li Mi was very responsible and diligent in his government affairs.

Li Mi had to do all these things, including making documents and imperial edicts, promoting generals and prime ministers, military and political strategies, and coordinating the four parties. He was said to have "more power than the prime minister" in history.

Suzong's court in Lingwu only had three or two big cats and kittens, and it could be said that it was all supported by Li Mi alone.

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

Chen Taoxie's defeat was due to Suzong's insistence. Fang Guan led [-] elite border troops to fight, but in the end only brought back more than [-] people.

And there were two worse news that followed Fang Guan back:

The first was the rebellion of King Yong Li Lin, and the second was the fall of all of Hebei.

Yong Wang Li Lin's rebellion is very simple, and he still adheres to Li Tang's fine family style. 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 leave Hebei for 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 I can do it again!

Yan Zhenqing, who had a group of county soldiers under his command, was unable to support himself and had to withdraw from Hebei.

Facing the gradually collapsing situation, Li Mi gave Li Heng this advice:
Li Guangbi defended Taiyuan, and Guo Ziyi entered Fengxu. He divided the rebels into north and south parts from the middle, making them unable to connect. Then they released Huayin. In this way, the rebels fell into the dilemma of guarding Fanyang in the north, saving Chang'an in the west, and running back and forth within a thousand miles. , gathered superior forces to cut off the wings of the rebels, and finally annihilated the rebels in one go.

Li Mi’s strategic thinking is very similar to our tactics during the Anti-Japanese War:
First compress the battlefield space, and then use the sixteen-character mantra of guerrilla warfare: when the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy is stationed, we harass; when the enemy is tired, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we pursue.

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

But for Suzong Li Heng, after taking the medicine for two days, he felt that his condition was stable and he began to find the medicine bitter.

"New Book of Tang" records: The emperor refused to listen.

Faced with King Yong who wanted to be emperor and the chaos in Hebei, Li Heng decided to use the Shuofang Army and the Hedong Army in his hands to forcibly regain the two capitals. In order to ensure success, Li Heng made two decisions:

He ordered his son Li Yu, who later became Emperor Daizong, to marry the Uighur prince Ye Hu as brothers.
An agreement was made with the Uighurs: "On the day the city is conquered, the land, scholars and common people will return to the Tang Dynasty, and the gold, silk, and children will all return to the Uighurs."

So, Huihe sent troops. 】

"Is the emperor a thief?"

"The emperor is a thief!"

Li Shimin's roar echoed in the Manna Hall.

The chamberlain outside the palace moved as far away as possible, for fear of affecting him.

In the hall, Wei Zheng felt himself being sprayed with spittle on the back of his head.

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

The gold, silk, and children all return to Huihe!
How dare this Li Heng make such a decision!
Even if Chang'an was captured, how could Li Heng have the dignity to sit on the throne of Taiji Palace and proclaim himself emperor?

They followed Li Shimin through swords and winds, and ended the chaos. They did not let Li Heng give their children away!
At this moment, Li Shimin suddenly remembered Zhao Yishen, who guarded the border and buried his bones in Gaochang.

I 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 has no way to refute:

"The foolish king misled the country and his son died in vain."

"The children of Emperor Yong who betrayed the country were given away."

"I am ashamed of myself!"

Wei Zheng gritted his teeth:

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

"If you allow barbarians to plunder the people, the people will remember it and the history will record it."

"Just as a thousand and three hundred years have passed since this time, the people of future generations still will not forget it!"

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

A bloody general who was able to gather the remaining troops and fight the enemy to the death even after the bloody battle of Talas.

A white-bodied general who started out as a refugee and served as a military official. He was a minister in the imperial court and remained silent but still bravely shouldered important responsibilities.

Even if they can survive to this moment, it will definitely be difficult for them to live for a long time.

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

"It's really... extremely ugly."

Li Jing couldn't even imagine the consequences if the people of Chang'an knew about this agreement in advance:
In the end...who are the rebels?

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

The two of them stared blankly at the historical records cited on the light screen.Both of them are well versed in classics and history. They could only sigh when they saw similar records from the previous dynasty. But when such a thing happened to themselves and to future generations not too long ago, they felt as if it was of great weight.

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

If the emperor is unkind, it will bring disaster to the world.

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

No, no, no, future dynasties will definitely take this as a warning when they see the disasters of the Tang Dynasty. Or should they first look at how future dynasties can solve it?
Du Ruhui fell into a tangled state of mind for a while.

Li Shimin also calmed down under Sun Simiao's comfort.

At the end of the day, it's just another heartbreak.

Sitting on the couch, Li Shimin laughed at himself:
I thought that Li Heng's evil deeds could accomplish something, but it turned out that I thought too much.

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

Li Shimin thought of giving up on himself.

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

[The battle to regain Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty was also known as the Battle of Xiangji Temple.

In September, Guo Ziyi, deputy marshal of the world's troops and horses, led the remaining troops in the three towns of Hedong, Shuofang and Hexi, as well as the tribes of Khotan and Uighur Hu tribes, totaling 15 troops and horses. He also borrowed 20 elite Uighur cavalry, numbered [-], from Fengxiang set off and advanced towards Chang'an.

On the Tang army's side, with Li Siye as the front army, Guo Ziyi as the middle army, and Wang Sili as the rear army, they slowly advanced and finally encountered [-] Chang'an rebels arrayed north of Xiangji Temple.

At this time, the composition of the rebels was extremely complex. They included the frontier troops from Fan Yangping's Lu Second Town who had fought from Hebei for more than a year, as well as the elite troops captured and surrendered by the defeats of Ge Shuhan and Chen Taoxie, as well as An Lu Zhejie from Liuhu Prefecture recruited rebels after he raised his troops in Shanshan.

The battle of Xiangji Temple is essentially: the Tang Dynasty frontier army versus the Tang Dynasty frontier army, the elite against the elite.

So we can see that this extremely bloody battle does not have any bells and whistles or tactics, it is the purest fighting and slashing.

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

The rebels counterattacked with all their strength, but the Tang army could not withstand the retreat and retreated. The rebels took the opportunity to lead the cavalry into the formation in an attempt to penetrate the Tang army's front army, but the Tang army was panicked and lost.

Li Siye, who was known as a general with magical powers in the former army, saw the army collapsed and immediately shouted:
If you don't use your body to bait the enemy today, your army will be gone!

Then he took off his shirt and went into battle with his Mo Dao bare-chested. Facing the cavalry who were riding in the formation, he roared loudly and slashed down both men and horses with the Mo Dao. Dozens of cavalry were killed in this way.

Li Siye's heroic appearance helped the Tang army stabilize the front. The Mo Dao soldiers who reorganized followed Li Siye and used their Mo Dao to break through the enemy and advance like a wall.

"Whoever takes the sword of Siye will be shattered"

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

Rebel leader An Shouzhong urgently ordered Yiluohe Jingqi, who had been ambushing behind the Tang army's formation, to attack the rear army Wang Sili's troops.

However, Pugu Huai'en, who led the Uighur cavalry to wander further out, discovered that Pugu Huai'en then led the Uighur cavalry to attack the rear of the Yiluohe Jingqi, and the rebel cavalry was defeated again.

Li Siye then led the Anxi Army and Pugu Huai'en to attack the rebel flanks, intending to cooperate with the Chinese army Guo Ziyi to attack the rebels.

In a desperate situation, An Shouzhong and Li Guiren also led the rebels to fight back desperately. Both sides fought from morning to sunset without retreating.

In the end, the rebels were defeated and led the remaining troops to flee back to Chang'an and began to loot throughout the night.

At the cost of [-] killed, the Tang army beheaded [-] and captured [-] alive. They then entered the city to recapture Chang'an the next day.

Xiangji Temple is surrounded by corpses, like a Buddhist hell.

Generally speaking, the elite army in the cold weapon era can withstand 15% of the organizational losses. In other words, if fifteen out of 100 people die without collapsing, they can be called elite.

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

In this battle, the rebels' battle losses reached [-]% in one day, and the Tang army's battle losses were also close to [-]%.

It can be said that both the Tang army and the rebels in this battle were considered to be the top armies in the world at that time.

This power is enough to defeat the Black Eclipse or Byzantium, and it only takes [-] to [-] to sweep across the small countries in Central Asia.

But what is sighing is that this power that can change the world structure, he and himself fought against each other outside Chang'an City, and both of them perished. 】

Both the emperor and his ministers in Zhenguan felt the heartache that penetrated their bones.

They noticed something when Guangmian slowly recounted the regrets of the Battle of Talas.

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

But unfortunately, in the end, the empire they created with their own hands fell into the abyss and could never recover.

Li Shimin had closed his eyes and did not dare to look anymore.

The light curtain shows the scene of the battle of Xiangji Temple as imagined by later generations using painting techniques.

Such an elite army could build a stronger empire, and it should guard the borders and protect the people.

In this way, he died in Chang'an South with no meaning or value.

What happens next?Li Heng must fulfill his promise, and the Uighur cavalry will plunder Chang'an.

Among the soldiers and men lying on the ground with their eyes still closed, how many of them have mothers and sisters in Chang'an City?
They fought desperately to save their families and shed their last drop of blood.

Do they know the agreement reached between Li Heng and Uighur?
How did this Tang become so ugly and so despised by him?
Li Shimin cannot accept:
"Such a mistake must never be repeated!"

(End of this chapter)