Speaking of serial planning, I believe that everyone is deeply impressed by the fact that in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Wang Situ sent marten cicadas to alienate Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu, resulting in Dong Zhuo being killed, and Huang Gai, Pang Tong and others successively fooled Cao Cao, resulting in his great defeat at Chibi.
The serial meter comes from the "Thirty-six Counts • Thirty-fifth Count", which is simply a count of one count in a row, very precise, making it difficult for opponents to recognize, and even experienced veterans may be fooled. Some people may think: What a god! Wouldn't it be nice if everything was simple and rude? Next, let's break down this "straight ahead" perception.
In 626, Emperor Gaozu of Tang ascended the throne and Li Shimin ascended the throne. Most people only know that Li Shimin created the "Rule of Zhenguan" and was a good emperor, but they don't know how hard Li Shimin worked to stabilize the Tang Dynasty when he was emperor. The Tang Dynasty inherited the mess of the Sui Dynasty, during the Sui Dynasty, the northern nomads posed a threat to the Central Plains Dynasty, and the Sui Emperor was almost caught by the Turks on the spot.
When Li Shimin ascended the throne, the khan of the Eastern Turks was Ashina. This man's management ability was not strong, and his subordinates rebelled one after another, of which the Rebellion of the Shule tribe was the most fierce, ashina was uncertain, and the Shule tribe also launched a Yi male khan to fight with him. At first, this Yi nan Khan was still a little afraid -- if the Tang Dynasty did not like me to call me Khan and destroyed me, what would I do?
Unexpectedly, Li Shimin was overjoyed to hear about this: Good! I'm trying to prop up another alliance in the north against the Eastern Turks!" With the support of Li Shimin, Yinan Khan successfully took over many of the Shule and Turkic tribes and established the Xueyantuo Khanate, which was the second year of Tang Zhenguan (628 AD), and Yinan Khan never expected that his tragic fate would begin.
With xue yantuo's cooperation, Li Shimin sent Li Jing and Li Ji to surround and beat up the Eastern Turks, and finally destroyed the Eastern Turk Khaganate in 630. So where should the Eastern Turks go? Most of them surrendered to Xue Yantuo and merged into Xue Yantuo, who has since dominated the grasslands of northern China and become a new threat to the Tang Dynasty, to put it in layman's terms, this is called driving away wolves and raising a tiger.
Therefore, Li Shimin wanted to destroy Xue Yantuo. How to extinguish? He also made a small plan: Xue Yantuo's boss is not Yinan Khan, I will name the two sons of Yinan Khan as "Little Khan", just as the so-called one mountain does not tolerate two tigers, these two people will definitely fight to the death in order to become the Great Khan, and then Xue Yantuo himself will weaken himself...
Xue Yantuo's attitude toward the Tang Dynasty was very simple, if he couldn't fight, it would mean submission; if he found an opportunity, he would pick something and grab something. This kind of rebellion and peace made Li Shimin very uneasy about Xue Yantuo, and once, the Tang army defeated Yi Nan Khan, and Yi Nan Khan wrote a fold and said: Your Majesty, I am wrong, I promise that I will maintain friendly relations with Tang in the future, or you marry a daughter to me, how dare I find trouble again when I am your son-in-law?
The next year (the sixteenth year of Zhenguan), (Yi Nan Khan) made LaiYi offer horses, cattle, sheep, and camels, and proposed marriage. The emperor (Li Shimin) and the chancellor Ji Yue: "Yan Tuo Qu Qiang, Shu Ce Gu has two: choose a hundred thousand soldiers to strike, so that there is no remnant, a hundred years of counting; absolutely dim and depressed, making boundless worries, thirty years of counting also." But what is the advantage? - New Book of Tang
Under the translation, Li Shimin felt that Xue Yantuo's submission was fake, either sending 100,000 troops to subdue him, or maintaining stability with his relatives, and finally under the advice of the minister, Li Shimin used the last trick of the serial plan: agree to the marriage proposal of Yinan Khan! Of course, it was only a superficial promise, and Li Shimin made a request to Yinan Khan:
100,000 livestock must be prepared for the bride price and personally escorted to Lingzhou by him, and if I can do so, I will personally come to Lingzhou to officiate the wedding for you two.
The history books record that When Yinan Khan heard that The Tang Dynasty Tianzi was willing to give himself such a big face, he was so happy that he forgot everything: "The upper one regards me as a khan, the princess takes me as a woman, and the public opinion is fortunate for me, who is proud of me?" So he desperately collected cattle and sheep, and really personally escorted them to Lingzhou, the result was that the road was too far, the weather was too bad, and a lot of livestock died, Li Shimin used this as an excuse to cancel the marriage contract, so angry that the khan almost vomited blood on the spot.
For these livestock, Yinan Khan desperately tossed, his prestige was greatly reduced, more and more people were dissatisfied with him, but Li Shimin supported the original Eastern Turks to balance with him, Zhenguan nineteen years (645), Yinan Khan fell ill and died in exhaustion, Xue Yantuo fell into civil unrest, the next year, Li Shimin took this opportunity to attack Xue Yantuo, successfully destroyed it, and stabilized the northern border.
From the election of Yinan Khan as Khan to the demise of Xue Yantuo, this process lasted for 18 years, and Li Shimin worked hard to eliminate the threat of small countries in the north, and this long-term serial plan was really beautiful. This story tells us that we cannot be as direct as Yinan Khan, but must be like Li Shimin who knows how to bend and plan, otherwise we will sooner or later become cannon fodder.