In 635, the ninth year of Tang Zhenguan. With the founding of the Tang Dynasty for a long time, the national strength has become stronger and stronger, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and the people of Guotai are safe. The famous rule of Zhenguan in history has gradually entered a better state, and history has come to the most beautiful period.
However, at this moment, Li Shimin, who was in Chang'an, suddenly received an urgent report from the border. It turned out that Tuguhun in the northwest had begun to harass the Tang Dynasty border again.
Receiving this news, Li Shimin was immediately furious. Because just a year ago, Li Shimin had just sent a large army to teach this troublesome neighbor once. I thought that after this battle, Tuguhun would be able to honestly live a few years to stop and stop doing things. As a result, as soon as the Tang army withdrew, Tuguhun began to rebel on the border again.
For this kind of thing, Li Shimin certainly can't stand it. Li Shimin immediately ordered that a large army be mobilized again to requisition Tuguhun. In addition, Li Shimin appointed Li Jing, a famous Tang general who was already 65 years old at the time, as commander-in-chief, and was fully responsible for the war against Tuguhun.
In the end, under the leadership of Li Jing, the Tang army traveled thousands of miles, finally defeated the main force of Tuguhun, and solved the Tuguhun problem that had plagued the Central Plains for many years in The First World War. However, this battle also became the last brilliant moment in the life of the famous general Li Jing. After this battle, and from then until his death, Li Jing never touched the army again.
As a major border plague of the Tang Dynasty, what kind of regime was Tuguhun? What kind of enmity and hatred existed between Tuguhun and the Tang Dynasty? Why did Li Jing, a famous general of a generation, never touch the army again after fighting Tuguhun and was completely deprived of military power?
To make this story clear, we have to start at the beginning.
The history of Tuguhun can be traced back to the Western Jin Dynasty. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, because of the warlords in the Central Plains, the war did not stop, and the population of the Central Plains plummeted. Later, in the Three Kingdoms era, the division and confrontation lasted for decades, and the war never stopped. In order to increase the population, the Cao Wei regime in the north, after unifying the north, in addition to continuing to attack the Eastern Wu and Shu Han regimes in the south, did not less power towards the north. After defeating the northern nomads, these nomads were directly moved inland to the Central Plains to replenish the number of people lost due to the war.
Later, the Sima family usurped Wei and established the Western Jin Dynasty, which also inherited this policy. But what I didn't expect later was that the Sima family played with themselves and played with themselves. Because of the scuffle between several princes within the Sima family, these northern nomads who migrated to the Central Plains rose rapidly. After the rise of these nomads, they directly destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty. Then, the remnants of the Sima family went to the south and established the Eastern Jin Dynasty, while these rising nomadic peoples in the north began to establish a state, and history entered the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
The ancestors of Tuguhun were originally a tribe of the Xianbei people, but were later moved inward to the north of the Central Plains. The leader of this tribe was named Murong Tuguhun. Murong Tuguhun was originally the son of Shan Yu of the Xianbei Murong tribe, but because he was a son of Shu, he could not inherit Shan Yu's position. Therefore, later, this Murong Tuguhun split up his family and moved west with these people under his rule. First to the Yinshan region of Inner Mongolia, and then south to the Qilian Mountains area, and took root here.
When Murong Tuguhun first came to the side of the Qilian Mountains, the entire tribe was less than 10,000 people, not a big force. However, since the family had already been separated, it was definitely not appropriate to call it Murong Tribe. Therefore, from this time on, this tribe was renamed the Tuguhun tribe after Murong Tuguhun's name.
In the following two hundred years, the Tuguhun tribe flourished in the Qilian Mountains, with an increasing population and gradually becoming a large tribe. On the central plains, it has experienced many periods such as the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and later the Sui Dynasty. By the time of the Sui Dynasty, Tuguhun had developed into a super-powerful nomadic regime in the northwest. From present-day Xinjiang County in the west, Huangyuan County in Qinghai in the east, Qilian Mountain in the south, and Kunlun Mountain in the north, it is the pastoral area of Tuguhun.
With the gradual growth of Tuguhun, the conflict between Tuguhun and the Central Plains Dynasty was inevitable. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, Tuguhun harassed the Sui Dynasty's borders many times, and the Sui army also attacked Tuguhun many times. However, because tuguhun's territory was too large, and every time the main force of the Sui army came, Tuguhun would retreat, and when the Sui army retreated, they would attack again. Therefore, after several battles, the Sui Dynasty failed to solve this strong enemy in the northwest region, but was occupied by Tuguhun and occupied a lot of border territory.
Later, after the death of Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Guang came to power, and the Sui Dynasty was directly played off. In the nearly two decades since then, the Sui Dynasty has gradually collapsed, the Tang Dynasty has risen, and the Central Plains have undergone a change of dynasty. Later, after Li Shimin ascended the throne, the main enemy was the Turks in the north. For the Tuguhun in the northwest, it can only be treated with a huairou policy for the time being.
Later, in the fourth year of Zhenguan, as the Tang army defeated the main Turkic force in the north, the Eastern Turks were destroyed in World War I, and the great plague of the Northern Turks was completely eliminated. Tuguhun also knew that the Tang Dynasty was not easy to mess with, so he chose to temporarily recognize the Tang Dynasty as the big brother and pay tribute to the Tang Dynasty. But at the same time, on the border of the Tang Dynasty, Tuguhun should come or come, and there is no softness in grabbing things.
For such a Tuguhun, Li Shimin actually wavered, not sure what method to use to solve this problem of Tuguhun. Previously, the Turks were the biggest enemies of the Tang Dynasty, so they could only relax slightly with Tuguhun for the time being and adopt a policy of Huaiju as much as possible. But with the destruction of the Turks, Tuguhun had become the number one enemy threatening the Tang Dynasty's border security. At this time, solving the problem of Tuguhun became the primary task in front of Li Shimin.
But how exactly do you fix it?
As a generation of heroes, Li Shimin of course also thought about solving it as peacefully as possible. If you can negotiate directly, or marry a princess, let Tuguhun no longer harass the Tang Dynasty border, and the two sides will always love each other, which is naturally the best plan. But the problem is that Tuguhun doesn't seem to be quite satisfied with this plan. As his strength grew stronger and stronger, Tuguhun would certainly clash with the Tang Dynasty if he wanted to continue to expand. The contradictions between the two sides are, to some extent, irreconcilable.
If that's the case, it can only be fought.
Therefore, in 634, the eighth year of Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty, after Tuguhun once again harassed the Tang border, Li Shimin finally ordered the appointment of Duan Zhixuan, the general of Zuo Xiaowei, as commander and launched a counterattack against Tuguhun.
In the era of the stars in the early Tang Dynasty, Duan Zhixuan was not a particularly fierce general, and it was estimated that in the circle of generals, even the top ten could not be ranked. But even so, hitting a Tuguhun is still not a problem. In the end, Duan Zhixuan successfully defeated Tuguhun, and chased Tuguhun all the way to the edge of Qinghai Lake, and after hitting Tuguhun's main force, he returned to the dynasty.
Such a victory is obviously a big victory.
After this battle, Li Shimin also once believed that Tuguhun should have learned a lesson, and would be honest for a while after that, and would not harass the Tang Dynasty border again. Unexpectedly, however, less than half a year after Duan Zhixuan had returned, Tuguhun once again attacked the Tang border and attacked the Wuwei region of Gansu.
At this point, Li Shimin couldn't bear it at all.
Since the small-scale counterattack war could not make Tuguhun stop, it was better to directly destroy Tuguhun!
It was in this context that Li Shimin began to recruit the elite of the Tang army and prepare to launch a war of annihilation against Tuguhun. However, at the same time, Li Shimin, who is well versed in war himself, also knows the difficulties and pain points of this war. With the combat effectiveness of the Tang Army, it was actually not difficult to defeat the Tuguhun army. The real difficulty lies in how to find the main force of Tuguhun and annihilate them all.
You know, at that time, The territory of Tuguhun was huge, and most of it was plateau areas. Fighting in the plateau area, the supply of the Tang army will become a big problem, and it is doomed to be unable to fight for a long time. Before Tuguhun dealt with the Central Plains army, he also used this method. As long as the Central Plains army attacked, they fled. After the Central Plains army ran out of supplies and had to retreat, they returned to continue the attack.
If this problem could not be solved, even if Tang Jun fought a hundred more times, he would not be able to solve the problem of Tuguhun.
At this time, Li Shimin thought of the veteran Li Jing.
Among all the generals of the early Tang Dynasty, if not Li Shimin himself, Li Jing should be the first person who deserves it. Moreover, Li Jing was the best at quick combat, and had previously dealt with an enemy like the Turks, which was very similar to Tuguhun, and could be said to be experienced. If Li Jing is appointed commander-in-chief, it is likely that Tuguhun will be able to successfully solve the problem.
But the problem is that At this time, Li Jing is already 65 years old. A 65-year-old man who needs crutches to walk. It is a great test to let such a veteran go to the plateau to fight for thousands of miles. As for the other Tang generals, although they were also very fierce, compared to Li Jing, they were obviously still a lot worse than Li Shimin, which was not enough to reassure Li Shimin.
However, just when Li Shimin hesitated, Li Jing, who learned of this matter, took the initiative to submit a letter of request for war, hoping that he could lead his troops to sweep away Tuguhun. In the end, Li Shimin also directly agreed to this matter and decided that Li Jing would be in charge of the expedition.
On the third day of december in the eighth year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin formally issued an edict appointing Li Jing as the commander-in-chief of the Western Sea Route March, with full authority for the war. At the same time, Li Shimin also sent Hou Junji, Li Daozong, Li Daliang, Li Daoyan, Xue Wanjun, Gao Jusheng, QiFu He Li and other fierce generals to accompany Li Jing in his conquest of Tuguhun.
The Tang Dynasty's counterattack against Tuguhun began.
After receiving the order, the elderly Li Jing braved the severe cold to leave Chang'an. Accompanied by heavy snow in the middle of winter, we came all the way to the front line. After that, after more than two months of assembly, the Tang army completely completed the assembly in the early spring of the ninth year of Zhenguan and began to formally go deep into the plateau and launch a frontal contest with the main force of Tuguhun.
In April, the Tang army Li Daozong's troops, in the southeastern region of Qinghai Lake, first found the main force of Tuguhun. After a major battle, Li Daozong defeated the main force of Tuguhun, and Tuguhun then continued to retreat westward, and the Tang army won the first battle.
But at the same time, after this battle, Tuguhun also found that the Tang army that came this time was extremely strong. Therefore, Tuguhun once again used his previous tactics. As we retreated west, we burned the grasslands we passed. In this way, even if the Tang Army chased after them, the war horses would have no food. The Tang army had no supplies and could only retreat.
Faced with such a bad situation, Li Jing did not want to give Tuguhun a chance to breathe, and decided to continue the pursuit. After this battle, because the main force of Tuguhun had been separated, the Tang army also divided into two roads and pursued the main force of Tuguhun from two directions. The northern line was personally responsible for Li Jing, and the southern line was under the responsibility of Li Daozong and Hou Junji.
Next, on the northern front, Li Jing defeated the main force of Tuguhun many times in Mantou Mountain, Niuxindui, Chishuiyuan and other places, almost completely destroying the main force of Tuguhun on the northern front. In this battle, the Tang army fought extremely bitterly. Because of the deep plateau combat, the supply line has completely failed to keep up. Therefore, the Tang army could only rely on the captured cattle and sheep as rations, and the blood of cattle and sheep as drinking water.
Compared with the northern front, the conditions on the southern front are more terrifying. Because Gao was already desolate, coupled with Tuguhun's implementation of the strategy of burning the wasteland along the way, the thousands of miles that the Tang army went to were all deserted wastelands. But in the end, the Tang generals Hou Junji and Li Daozong still led the Tang army through the desert for thousands of miles, and finally in the southwestern region of Qinghai, caught up with the main army led by Tuguhun Khan and defeated it in a battle.
After these battles were fought, Tuguhun's main force had basically been completely defeated. As long as you can catch the Khan of Tuguhun, Tuguhun will be completely destroyed. So next, Li Jing continued to command the whole army to the west, across the entire territory of Tuguhun, and finally in the xinjiang and the last region, caught up with Murong Fuyun, the khan of Tuguhun. After a major battle, the Tang army finally completely annihilated the Tuguhun king's tent, and Murong Fuyun only led more than a thousand people to escape and continued to flee in the direction of Hotan.
However, by this time, Tuguhun was already full of contradictions and fragmentation. Therefore, on the way to escape, Murong Fuyun was killed by his subordinates, and some people said that he committed suicide. At the same time, Murong Fuyun's eldest son Murong Shun killed the King of Tianzhu, who had been insisting on the main battle within Tuguhun, and was later proclaimed the new King of Tuguhun by the remnants of Tuguhun.
After that, Murong Shun completely surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty saw that Tuguhun completely surrendered, and did not kill Tuguhun completely. Later, the Tang Dynasty made Murong Shun the Prince of Xiping Commandery and had Murong Shun continue to administer the Tuguhun Department. At the same time, the Tang Dynasty left the general Li Daliang to garrison the territory of Tuguhun, completely solving the threat of this powerful enemy in the northwest.
After this battle, Li Jing led his army back, and the Tang army won a complete victory. But at the same time, because Li Jing was old, it was difficult to take charge of the army. Moreover, at this time, Li Jing's military merit was already too high. Not only in the process of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, it successively destroyed strong enemies such as Xiao Milling and Fu Gongruo, but also later destroyed the Turks and Tuguhun successively. The matter of the Lord of Meritorious Service has been a great taboo in all dynasties and dynasties. Therefore, after returning to Chang'an, Li Jing no longer touched the army, and he no longer befriended the courtiers, and finally enjoyed his old age in peace.
The Battle of Tuguhun in the West was the last glory of Li Jing's life, and at the same time the most important war in the early Tang Dynasty. After this war, the northwest direction of the Tang Dynasty was basically completely safe. The security of the border also played the most important supporting role for the Later Tang Dynasty to its prosperity.
From Li Jing's conquest of Tuguhun in this war, it is not difficult for us to get an inspiration: Many times, the war is contested by the will of both sides. Whoever has the stronger will, who can persevere to the end, can win. As long as the direction is right, who has a firmer will and who can persist longer is the winner.
This truth is really common in ancient and modern times.