Xue Rengui was a famous general of the Tang Dynasty, who fought for decades, defeated the nine surnames of Tiele, defeated the Turks, surrendered Goguryeo, and shocked the world. However, Xue Rengui had a humiliating defeat, that is, the Battle of Dafeichuan. With this defeat, the Tang Dynasty lost Tuguhun, and Xue Rengui was also nailed to the pillar of shame, and his past brilliant deeds were stained with this indelible stain.
Xue Ne, on the other hand, grew up in this environment. Xue Rengui had made great achievements in battle all his life, and before his death, he was still an important minister of the imperial court and deeply trusted by the emperor, but neither the Xue family nor the Tang people could forget that fiasco. Xue Ne also set a goal in his heart, and he must be ashamed of his father.
As the saying goes, the protégé tiger, Xue Ne has a straight personality and is not afraid of the powerful courtiers. When Xue Ne was in office in Lantian County, a wealthy merchant bribed Zhongcheng Tonchen, who privately embezzled thousands of stones of grain to rich merchants. At that time, Lai Junchen was the most powerful cool official in the Tang Dynasty, and few people dared to provoke him, but Xue Ne, who was still a small county order, fought with Lai Junchen and insisted on not giving. Lai Junchen sent Xue Ne to prison, and later he was imprisoned for committing a crime, and Xue Ne was released.
Wu Zetian believed that Xue Ne was the son of the famous general Xue Rengui, so he promoted him to the position of general zuo Wuwei and asked him to guard the frontier. After Xue Ne's arrival, he reorganized his armaments, actively prepared for war, and kept the threat of the Later Turks out of the frontier of the empire, and Wu Zetian greatly admired Xue Ne and promoted him to the governor of Youzhou and concurrently served as the protector of Anxi. Nearly ten years of frontier career, Xue Ne was honed into the appearance of his father, this general, became a famous general of the Tang Empire.
Xue Ne was very good at training troops, and his troops were the most disciplined in the Tang army at that time. When Tang Xuanzong was teaching martial arts in Xinfeng, he inspected the Tang army, and for several years there was no major war that made the Tang army very scattered, and when Tang Xuanzong saw that the troops below were scattered and the military appearance was not in order, he was immediately furious, exiled Guo Yuanzhen, the military secretary, and executed Tang Shao, who was in charge of the matter and knew the etiquette.
The emperor was furious, the high officials were killed, the generals were frightened and frightened, and under the tremendous pressure, the formation was even more scattered, and only xue ne and The soldiers and horses of Xie Wan, the chief general of Shuofang Dao, stood still. Emperor Xuanzong was very pleased and sent emissaries to summon Xue Ne. The emissary felt that he had a holy will in his hand and wanted to enter the barracks directly, but Xue Ne ruled the army strictly and ordered the guards of the barracks not to let the emissaries enter at will. In this way, the emissaries representing the emperor ate a closed door, but Tang Xuanzong was not angry and happy, because this showed that Xue Ne had a way to govern the army.
Tang Xuanzong admired Xue Ne very much and wanted to give this up-and-coming star the opportunity to make a contribution. Just at this time, the Khitans and the Turks joined forces to rebel, and Xue Ne asked to attack the Khitan again, and Tang Xuanzong allowed Xue Ne's request to fight, and asked him and the general Du Guest of zuo jianmen to lead 20,000 elite troops to attack the Khitans.
Du Guest believed that it was a sweltering heat, the weather was hot, and the army was a labor expedition, and it was necessary to wear heavy armor to carry a heavy weight to the desert, and it was difficult to win, and suggested that Xue Ne choose another time to fight. However, Xue Ne was earnest and insisted on going out on the expedition. After deliberating, the courtiers thought that Du Guest was reasonable, but Tang Xuanzong had just ascended the throne and wanted to do meritorious deeds, so he adopted Xue Ne's suggestion.
However, the battle was just as Du Guest predicted, the weather was hot, the Tang army traveled a long distance, tired, and the combat effectiveness had been damaged a lot after arriving at the enemy's territory, coupled with Xue Ne's poor command and unfamiliar terrain, he was ambushed by the Khitans, and the Tang army was defeated. In the end, Xue Ne only led dozens of horses to break through, and the rest were all killed. The Khitans have since ridiculed Xue Ne as "Xue Po" to show his hesitation and timidity. Xue Ne's defeat not only caused heavy losses to the Tang army, but also slapped Tang Xuanzong's face with a big slap.
In order to survive, Xue Ne began to use unscrupulous means, and he blamed all the blame on Cui Xuandao, Li Sijing and eight other people who accompanied the army. Tang Xuanzong was jealous that Xue Ne was after all the son of the famous general Xue Rengui, and he had regrets about the talent in his heart, so he executed all the other eight people, but spared Xue Ne's capital crime.
However, the death penalty can be avoided, and after this war, Xue Ne was cut down to the people, and he not only failed to honor the ancestors, but also threw away the face of the Xue family. Xue Ne actually had to thank Tubo, because if it wasn't for Tubo's big attack, there might not have been a day when Xue Ne would emerge.
Less than a month after Xue Ne lost his position, Tang Xuanzong reactivated him to counter Tubo's offensive.
Tang Xuanzong gave Xue Ne an army of 100,000 and 40,000 horses, which can be said to be a bloody bet, and Xue Ne knew that he could only win this battle and could not lose. Fortunately, this time, Xue Ne also had the assistance of the servant Shaoqing Wang Hui. After the arrival of the army, Wang Huan led 2,000 soldiers and horses to attack the Tubo garrison. Tubo had an army of 100,000 troops stationed here, and when they saw that the Tang army dared to take the initiative to attack themselves, they naturally thought that the main force of the Tang army had arrived. The Tubo army, which was panicked by the night attack, could not distinguish between the enemy and the enemy, killed and trampled on each other, killing and wounding more than 10,000 people.
Xue Ne took advantage of the victory to pursue, led a large army to kill, and Wang Xi attacked back and forth, defeating the Tubo army. The main force of Tubo retreated, and Xue Ne vowed to shame his father, led his army in hot pursuit, fought fiercely at the Long Castle, and beheaded more than 17,000 enemy leaders.
The Tubo army had no way to retreat and decided to fight a battle. Xue Ne saw the situation and knew that this battle was the most critical, so he encouraged the soldiers and led the army to attack the Tubo army. In the end, the Tang army defeated the Tubo army and captured its sheep and horses, and the main general also became a prisoner. This battle was the biggest victory of the Tang Dynasty against Tubo in more than ten years, and Xue Ne broke Tubo and avenged the defeat of his father Xue Rengui in Dafeichuan.
After defeating Tubo, Emperor Xuanzong made him the commander-in-chief of the Liangzhou Zhen army to guard against the Later Turks. After the Turkic Mosi Khan attacked the Western Turk tribes that surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court sent Xue Ne as the commander to lead the army to rescue. Under the intimidation of Xue Ne, the Turks fell into civil unrest, And Mo Si was killed, and various tribes came and fell.
The reconquest of the Turks was the end of Xue Ne's battle, although from the perspective of the battle record, Xue Ne was not as good as his father Xue Rengui, but he was also a fierce general. He did not despair when he experienced the lowest point of his life, seized the opportunity to complete the redemption, and washed away the shame for himself and for the Xue family.
Resources:
Old Book of Tang
Zizhi Tongjian