In the first year of Long Shuo (661 AD), the Hui chieftain Po Yan came to the end of his life.
It must be admitted that he is a person who is quite knowledgeable about current affairs, has always been respectful to the Tang Dynasty, and has been placed in a very correct position.
However, now that his time has passed, people have died in the government, and the successor Bisu has made a 180-degree turn and gone to the opposite side of the Tang Dynasty.
This situation was obviously intolerable to the Tang Empire, so Emperor Gaozong of Tang appointed Zheng Rentai, the general of the Right Tun Wei, as the main general and xue Rengui as his deputy general, and led troops to the Tianshan Tianshan area to attack the Tiele tribe with nine surnames (each of the Tiele tribes had one surname, a total of nine departments, so it was called "Nine Surnames Tiele").
This arrangement is obviously somewhat problematic.
The commander Zheng Rentai had participated in the Xuanwumen Rebellion, belonged to Li Shimin and Li Zhi's hardcore, the highest-ranking generals in the empire, and had no problem in seniority. But vice marshal Xue Rengui was a little reluctant.
Although he had once been appreciated by Emperor Taizong, he was still only the head of Emperor Gaozong's guard regiment, and he was almost willing to take the stage to worship the general.
Li Zhi thought about it and felt that he should create an opportunity for Xue Rengui to establish his power.
Therefore, he decided to take the opportunity of the inner temple to give a feast and let Xue Rengui perform.
At this time, the main generals of the Crusade army were present, and it was the best time.
After three rounds of drinking, Li Zhi made a very casual look and said to Xue Rengui:
"I heard that in ancient times, there were people who were good at archery and could penetrate seven layers of armor, can you shoot five layers to see?"
Xue Rengui understood the spirit, put down the armor to take the arrow and shoot it, only to listen to the sound of the bow string, the arrow had already pierced through the five armor.
Xue Rengui's hand stunned everyone.
Shooting through seven layers of armor is only a legend, in fact, being able to wear five layers of armor, the arm strength is already frightening.
Even Li Zhi was taken aback, and immediately ordered someone to take a pair of fine armor and give it to Xue Rengui.
Mr. Xue Rengui's power is standing up.
After Zheng Rentai and Xue Rengui led an army to the Tianshan Mountains, the nine surnames tiele supported more than 100,000 people to fight against the Tang army.
Bisu Khan, although more arrogant, was still shrewd. He believes that the Tang army is powerful, and it is estimated that it will be difficult for the two armies to directly clash with Tiele, but the warriors of the Tiele clan are brave and good at fighting, and if they are single-handed, they will definitely be able to suppress the Tang generals.
At that time, the momentum will be on its own side, and if you take this opportunity to rush to kill, you will definitely be able to win a complete victory.
Therefore, he sent dozens of brave knights to run to the front of the two armies to challenge.
In ancient times, when there was a war between two armies, if one side wanted to go it alone, the other side would often fight, otherwise it would lose in momentum.
For example, in the section of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the eighteenth road princes obviously have the advantage of the number, but they did not beat up the group as soon as they came up, but successively sent several generals to play 1V1 with the opposite Huaxiong.
Now that the Tiele people had come to challenge, the Tang Dynasty's heavenly army certainly could not admit it, so Xue Rengui decided to personally go out on horseback and kill the enemy Liwei.
As mentioned earlier, Xue Rengui was a very good shooter, he fired three arrows in a row, accurate and fierce, shooting three people.
This hand completely subdued the opponent, and the Tiele Knight was intimidated by Xue Rengui's divine might, and his morale was completely lost, and he dismounted one after another.
Xue Rengui took the opportunity to wave his army to cover up the past and defeated the nine surnames of Tiele.
After that, the Tang army took advantage of the victory to pursue, crossed the moraine north to pursue the defeated tiele army, and captured their three Ye Hu (leader) brothers.
After Xue Rengui won the battle, in order to praise the leader's heroic martial arts, the military's literary and art propaganda team deliberately made up a sentence to slip through the mouth and sing:
"The general's three arrows set the Heavenly Mountain, and the strong man sang into the Han Pass."
This is the source of the legend of "Three Arrows Fixing the Heavenly Mountain".
It has to be said that sometimes propaganda work and military action are equally important. A slip of the tongue magnified Xue Rengui's prestige infinitely, causing Tie Le to lose the will to resist and choose to surrender.
But coach Zheng Rentai was unwilling to accept it.
The reason is very simple, if the opponent surrenders, there is not much oil and water to fish.
Therefore, Zheng Rentai decided to continue the march and capture the women of the Tiele people to reward the soldiers.
In the face of such an opponent who does not talk about martial arts, the Tiele people have no temper at all, and can only go far away and escape far away.
The Tang army did not stop there, and persevered in pursuit of the traces left by the enemy.
At this time, a spy came back and reported that the enemy's military supplies, cattle, sheep and horses were all over the field and could be taken over.
Zheng Rentai was a general of good cavalry, and he did not hesitate to lead 14,000 cavalry in pursuit, encountering a snowstorm on the way, resulting in heavy losses.
When the grain was finished, they ate the horses, and when the horses were finished, they ate people, and when they returned, there were only eight hundred left.
Later, some people impeached Zheng Rentai, calling it the biggest failure since the founding of the Tang Dynasty. However, Tang Gaozong did not absolve Zheng Rentai, after all, the entire military operation basically reached the expected goal, and punishing the commander would make Li Zhi appear to be relatively unkind.
Although Xue Rengui won, he was also impeached (of course, he was not punished).
Because he, like Zheng Rentai, took bribes on the front line and robbed local women as wives.
The worst thing is that Mr. Xue Rengui killed a lot of people, causing a strong resistance.
In order to quell the unrest, Emperor Gaozong of Tang had to send Qifu Heli, who was from the Tiele noble family, to appease him.
Although this Qi he li was not a Han Chinese, he was a well-known fierce general of the Tang army and made many military achievements.
In the Tang Empire at that time, there were many ethnic minority warriors like Qifu Heli.
The stronger a dynasty is, the more it dares to use talent in an eclectic manner. Conversely, the decline of a dynasty often begins with the suppression of talent.
The reason is very simple, a ruler who is not enterprising naturally does not have enough self-confidence to control and use top talents.
Far from it.
After receiving the order, Qifu Heli led a small number of people into the desert and executed a number of chiefs, while saying that the rest of the people were not to blame in the past, and the nine surnames Tiele settled down.
Therefore, in fighting a war, it is still necessary to stress politics and put the attack on the heart first, otherwise the victory may be greatly reduced. Many of the lands conquered by the Tang Dynasty have been reversed, which is not unrelated to the fact that the Tang Army treated the local people more rudely, and Liu Renyuan's town of Baekje is an example.