The great man once said, "Since ancient times, there is no one who can be the right of Li Shimin!" "And Li Shimin is indeed the most warlike emperor in China's history." He joined the army weakly and calmed the crowd for three years. In another ten years, it has successively pacified strong enemies such as the Eastern Turks, Tuguhun, Gaochang, and Xue Yantuo, and expanded the territory of the Tang Empire for thousands of miles.
In terms of military style, Li Shimin likes to take the lead as a soldier and act dangerously, and win with strategy. Therefore, in the war, Li Shimin repeatedly fell into dangerous situations and almost lost his life. Even though Li Shimin became emperor and possessed the dignity of ten thousand multiplications, he still preferred this extreme risk-taking style of play. In Li Shimin's personal conquest of Goguryeo, he once again put himself in danger.
In 645, Li Shimin launched a personal conquest against Goguryeo despite the opposition of his subjects. Unlike the Sui Emperor, who mobilized a million troops to conquer the east, Li Shimin only dispatched 60,000 troops, 40,000 water troops, and 40,000 horses this time, which can be described as quite restrained. After all, Goguryeo has a harsh and cold climate and inconvenient transportation, so if you lead too many troops, it is likely to lead to logistical collapse.
Along the way, the Tang army was like a bamboo, conquering many cities in succession, and troops were under the important town of Goguryeo, Anshi Castle. Judging from historical records, Li Shimin's army was not much, about 30,000 in the early 30,000s. This was because Zhang Liang's water army was still on the way to attack Jian'an City at this time, while the rest of the army still had to defend the newly occupied city and the grain and grass transportation line. Obviously, Tang Taizong had learned the lesson of the Sui Emperor's defeat when he ran out of grain.
However, Li Shimin's bold attack was counterattacked by the Goguryeo people, who rushed to the aid of AnshiCheng with the elite troops of the whole country, and their troops reached 150,000. Its number had already reached 5 times that of the Tang Army. Not only that, but the Goguryeo army also had elite armored horses and fierce jingju cavalry, and they were also the essence of the Goguryeo army.
Li Shimin was very confident at first about the attack of the Goguryeo people, and according to the Zizhi Tongjian, Li Shimin calmly said to his subordinates:
I gave the enemy commander three ideas for prolonging his life: First, using anshi city as a fortress, sending the cavalry to plunder our cattle and sheep, cutting off our grain routes, and using swamps to block our way back; pulling out the people in the city and fleeing into the wilderness; this is the middle strategy; it is the best strategy not to measure up to our own strength and fight with me. But I see that to prolong life, I will use the next strategy, and I will also be caught.
As Li Shimin expected, the Goguryeo people were indeed very confident. Since they could defeat the Sui Emperor, why couldn't they defeat Li Shimin? Moreover, this time, Goguryeo had an absolute numerical advantage. However, a strategist named Gao Zhengyi said calmly:
"I heard that China was in chaos, and heroes rose up together. Qin King Shenwu, invincible, Suiping the world, the south for the emperor, the north Yi please serve, Xi Rong donated. Now the country has fallen, and the fierce generals are sharp, and they are gathered here, and their sharp edges cannot be taken seriously. Now for the sake of planning, Morroton's troops do not fight, protracted, dispatch Xiaoxiong, cut off their feeding, but in the tenth day, the army will run out of food, can not seek war, want to return to nowhere, this is not a war and victory. ”
Obviously, Gao Zhengyi's suggestion coincides with Li Shimin's top strategy. However, the overconfident life extension did not take his advice into account.
In order to lure Goguryeo into battle, Li Shimin first asked Ashinasheer to lead a thousand Turkic cavalry to plunder the battlefield. As soon as the troops were exchanged, Ashinasher led his troops to retreat. Seeing this, the Goguryeo people said happily: "The Tang army is easy to deal with!" ”
Subsequently, Yanshou led the Goguryeo army out of the nest and formed a long snake array, which was deployed in the southeast of Anshi City, stretching for forty miles, relying on the mountains, with gongs and drums making noise and shaking the earth. At that time, Li Shimin's army was stationed on the high ground. Seeing that the Goguryeo army was so powerful, it was "afraid to look at it "from the Sui and Tang Dynasties"). If Li Shimin was only a general, he would naturally not be afraid. But now, Li Shimin is already the emperor of the Tang Empire. If he is captured or killed in this battle, not only will the name of the first dynasty be lost, but the Tang Dynasty may also follow the example of the Sui Dynasty and die.
However, Li Shimin was Li Shimin after all, and he quickly eliminated his fears. Li Shimin first sent envoys to the Goguryeo people, saying that the reason why he attacked Goguryeo was only to punish the Goguryeo power minister Yuangai Suwen's act of killing the king, and as for the attack, it was not his own intention. If you still pay tribute to the Tang as before, we will immediately return the cities we have captured to you.
Obviously, this is Li Shimin's show of weakness. The Goguryeo people were indeed deceived, thinking that Li Shimin was just a cowardly and incompetent person, so they lost their vigilance and were unaware of Li Shimin's next move.
That night, Li Shimin convened a military conference, and he ordered Li Shiji to lead 15,000 troops to deploy in Xiling, and changsun Wuji to lead 11,000 people as a surprise soldier, deployed in a narrow valley in the North Mountain, and hid, ready to attack the back of the Goguryeo people. Li Shimin, on the other hand, brought his own 4,000-step horse, with drum horns and flags used for command, and climbed on the North Mountain.
That morning, Li Shimin ordered the armies to sound the drums and drums to challenge the Goguryeo people. Subsequently, the Goguryeo people poured out of the nest and prepared for a decisive battle with the Tang army. And life extension? There were only 15,000 soldiers in front of Li Shijie in front of them, but they did not notice at all that the eldest son Wuji had quietly circled behind them.
But before the eldest son could complete the detour, Li Shiji's regular soldiers had to resist 10 times the enemy's attack. According to the Sui and Tang Jia Dialects, the Tang army was attacked by the Goguryeo people, which could be described as dangerous. And Li Shiji's department was surrounded by Goguryeo people. And all this made Li Shimin greatly afraid (Emperor Da fear).
However, by noon, the war situation had taken a reversal. It turned out that Li Shimin saw the dust and smoke rising in the direction of the eldest grandson Wuji on the mountain, and knew that his brother-in-law had completed the task of circumventing the rear. So he ordered people to sound the drum horn and the banner again, and ordered the garrison to advance at the same time, with 30,000 troops, to achieve the package of 150,000 Goguryeo people. Yanshou and others saw that the soldiers and horses of this headquarters were attacked, and the retreat route was cut off, and their faces were like earth. Due to the panic of the command, Goguryeo's originally strict formation was chaotic. The sudden lightning and thunder in the sky further aggravated the panic of the Goguryeo people.
Just as the so-called times create heroes, the Xue Rengui we know as it turned out. At that time, Xue Rengui was just a small soldier. The emperor was personally on the march, and everyone wanted to perform, and Xue Rengui was naturally no exception. In order to attract the emperor's attention, Xue Rengui deliberately wore a white robe, which was very conspicuous among the Tang army dressed in black and xuan armor. On the battlefield, Xue Rengui's move was actually very dangerous. Because on the battlefield, conspicuous targets are easily subjected to enemy fire. However, Xue Rengui was a mortal, he was holding the Fang Tian Painting Blade, carrying two bows and arrows, shouting loudly to kill the enemy.
Under xue rengui's divine courage, the Goguryeo people were overwhelmed. The Tang army followed behind him, breaking through the gap in the enemy formation, completely breaking the goguryeo long snake array. Li Shimin saw Xue Rengui's bravery from a high place and couldn't help but be overjoyed. He understood that the battle had been stabilized. Subsequently, he led his cavalry down the hill.
In this way, the Tang army defeated the enemy army and beheaded 20,000 people. After the war, he was rewarded for his meritorious deeds, was given two horses and forty silk horses, promoted to guerrilla general, Yunquan Fu Guoyi, still made the north gate chief, and gave ten slaves, so that a generation of famous generals Xue Rengui began to be famous in the world. When Gao Yanshou and Gao Huizhen were desperate, they had to lead 36,800 of their troops to surrender. They walked on their knees and knelt before Li Shimin to plead their sins. And Li Shimin said proudly: "Dongyi jumping beam teenager, do you still dare to make enemies with the emperor?" ”
In the end, Li Shimin selected 3,300 Goguryeo officers and sent them to serve in the interior, so that the Goguryeo elite could be used by the Tang. Later, 3,300 Jing cavalry were selected and killed, so that the Jing people did not dare to help Goguryeo anymore and break up their alliance. The rest of the Goguryeo soldiers were all released to buy the hearts and minds of the Goguryeo people.
After this battle, goguryeo's elite was lost, and the whole country was shocked. In order to commemorate this glorious victory, Li Shimin changed the Six Mountains to the Foot Mountain, ordered the general to create the "Broken Array Map", and ordered the book attendant Xu Jingzong to be a Wenle Stone to remember his merits. And this battle was also known as the Battle of Zhushan Mountain in later generations. Although Li Shimin did not completely conquer Goguryeo in the end, it greatly weakened their strength. And this powerful country, which lasted for hundreds of years, was eventually destroyed by Li Shimin's son Li Zhi.