Chapter 1064 Before attacking Liang, we need to conquer the Khitans first
In March of the third year of Jianwu year.
Without sufficient preparation, Su Mingzhe prepared to go on an expedition.
It's impossible not to go on an expedition.
Emperor Zhu Wen of the Liang Dynasty paid the price of Youyun Sixteen Prefectures in exchange for the news that the Khitan Khan sent 100,000 troops, and the news was sent back to Chang'an.
There was indignation throughout the government and the public.
Since ancient times, the wars between the various princes in the Central Plains and Kyushu have always been the internal affairs of one family behind closed doors.
Anyone who dares to borrow troops from foreign tribes has betrayed the ancestors of Yan and Huang and will be cast aside for generations to come.
For example, Tang Gaozu, who once borrowed troops from the Turks, has been criticized by history, and most of his contribution to unifying the world was taken away by Li Shimin.
Now, Emperor Liang also wanted to borrow troops from the foreign Khitan people, and the Han Dynasty and the public suddenly felt the same hatred towards the enemy.
The army gathering is over.
Prime Minister Wei Yi held the reins and said goodbye to the Han Emperor:
"Your Majesty, why don't you let Lu Shangshu lead the troops out of the border and harass the Khitan? Your Majesty, please lead the troops to attack the Liang Kingdom yourself!"
"Prime Minister, don't say any more. The dispatch of troops has been decided. We can't change the commander before the battle! This time to conquer the Khitan, I will naturally go out in person!"
Su Mingzhe said, then he looked at the solemn-looking Lu Wen, Minister of War, and said seriously:
"Lu Wen, I have only one request for you this time, you must defend the enemy from outside! How to fight, whether to rely on natural dangers, strong walls and clear fields for defense, or to attack instead of defend, is up to you. One hundred thousand Yinu troops, plus
Two hundred thousand border troops, I hope you won’t disappoint me!”
In Su Mingzhe's eyes, Liang Guo was vulnerable.
The Khitans are the great enemy.
What's more, when chasing enemies on the grassland, people without a sense of direction can easily lose their way like Li Guang and ultimately fall short.
Therefore, Su Mingzhe thought that he should let Lu Wen, the Minister of War, defend the Liang Kingdom, while he went to conquer the Khitan.
"I accept the decree!"
Lu Wen did not hesitate at all and directly accepted the emperor's order!
Lu Wen was born in the Lu family in Hedong.
The elders of the Lu family once offended Zhu Wen. After Zhu Wen founded the country, he ransacked the Lu family and exterminated the family.
Lu Wen's family fled to Qi State to avoid disaster.
Li Maozhen, the leader of the Qi Kingdom, appeared to be eager for talents, but in fact, he had a strong rejection of prominent families from all over the country.
Lu Wen and his family came to seek refuge, but Li Maozhen didn't even take the exam and directly gave him the position of county magistrate. This position lasted ten years.
When Su Mingzhe destroyed the Qi Kingdom, Lu Wen led eight hundred county soldiers to the city wall, mobilized tens of thousands of people as backup, boiled gold juice, burned hot oil, and moved logs, and blocked the three thousand Yinu army.
Attack three days and three nights.
When Li Maozhen came out of the city and surrendered, Lu Wen was tied up.
When Su Mingzhe was sorting out the internal affairs of Qi, he made a thorough study of Lu Wen and found that he was superior in both civil and military skills, so he promoted him to be the Minister of War of the Han State.
Lu Wen also didn't expect that after the Qi Kingdom he was loyal to was destroyed, everyone else suffered a disastrous decline, but he was the only one who was promoted.
Faced with this kind of trust, Lu Wen readily accepted it.
Su Mingzhe appointed him as Minister of War, so Lu Wen worked conscientiously and never slacked off.
Lu Wen worked hard to implement various instructions from the Han Emperor.
When Su Mingzhe later conquered Tang and Shu, Lu Wen and the Minister of Household Affairs worked together to provide logistical guarantees.
Now, Su Mingzhe asked him to lead an army of 300,000 to defend Liang's 600,000 army and Khitan's 100,000 reinforcements. He accepted the order happily without any intention of refusing.
Set out in March.
Mid-March.
Su Mingzhe took 50,000 cavalrymen along the old Qiguo Road, passed the hometown of the Dingnan Army, and entered the northern grasslands at a speed of 150 per day.
The Khitan clan was active on the grasslands in the early Tang Dynasty, and their clan name originally meant ‘iron’.
Twenty years ago, Yelu Abaoji unified all the Khitan tribes and established the Khitan Kingdom, calling himself the 'Great Sage and Great Emperor of Tomorrow'.
Three years ago, when the Han Dynasty was founded, Yelu Abaoji passed away.
According to Yelu Abaoji's will, after his death, the eldest prince, Prince Yelu Bei, should ascend the throne.
As a result, Yelu Abaoji's queen, Shuluping, took the officials hostage and allowed the second prince Yelu Deguang to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor.
The reason why Shu Luping chose the second prince is also very simple.
The eldest prince Yelu Bei was brought up by Yelu Abaoji since he was a child, and he is very independent.
Yelu Deguang was brought up by his mother, and he always obeyed his mother Shu Luping's words.
Later, the woman that Prince Yelvbei married was just the daughter of an ordinary brother of Shuluping.
Xiao Wen, whom Yelu Deguang married, was Shulu Ping's granddaughter.
In other words, Yelu Deguang obeyed his mother's advice and married his niece.
When Lu Ping compared these words in his mind, he naturally felt that his second son was more caring to him, so he tampered with Yelu Abaoji's will and helped his second son Yelu Bei become the emperor.
When Yelu Deguang became emperor, Shuluping, who was promoted to empress dowager, easily took control of the court and began to establish diplomatic relations with the Liang Kingdom.
This time, Liang was able to easily borrow troops from Khitan, and the Empress Dowager Shu Lu Ping was indispensable.
This morning.
The army stationed on the grassland is preparing to break camp and set off soon.
Li Yuanjie, commander of the Sentinel Battalion, came to report:
"Your Majesty, the scouts have already scouted out five hundred people. No trace of the grassland tribes has been found to the east or north. However, there is a tribe three hundred meters away to the west, but judging from their flags, they should not be Khitan people."
Although the Khitans were unified, there were still many tribes of various ethnic groups on the grasslands.
For example, Dangxiang, Mongol, Uighur, Shanqiang, etc.
Su Mingzhe looked at the second prince Li Cunxu in front of him and asked lightly:
"How many people are there in the tribe?"
Yuan Jie has been in the army for many years and replied without pause:
"Fifty-five tents, the number of people is no more than 2,000."
"Junjie, you lead two thousand people, destroy them, and then go east to join the army!"
Su Mingzhe gave instructions to a handsome young man next to him, and then continued to advance eastward with his army.
Li Yuanjie looked at Yan Junjie enviously, then without saying a word, he continued to explore the road with his sentry battalion.
Yan Junjie is the great-great-grandson of Yan Zhenqing and the forty-fourth generation grandson of Yan Hui.
The Yan family, in the Tang Dynasty, was a truly upright family, with loyal and loyal people from generation to generation.
Later, in order to escape the war, the family moved to Jiangxi Province in Machu.
After the Han Dynasty annexed the Shu Kingdom last year, Yan Junjie came to the Han Kingdom on behalf of the Yan family.
After Su Mingzhe knew that Yan Junjie was good at literature and martial arts, he kept him by his side and became a third-class commander.
The Dutong in the Han army is similar to the 'independent' unit of later generations, which can leave the three armies and act alone.
And this is what Li Yuanjie envies.
Since Taiyuan was captured, Li Cunxu and his son were imprisoned and placed under house arrest.
Princess Zhenning of Liang Kingdom, in order to save her "three sons", she spared no effort to satisfy men's various fetishes.
And her hard work paid off during the Spring Festival this year.
When Su Mingzhe decided to attack Liang Guo, he pardoned a group of "prisoners", including Li Cunxu's three sons.
After being pardoned, Li Yuanxiang, the prince of the old Tang Dynasty, still lived in seclusion, as if there were wild beasts outside his house, and he did not dare to go out.
The third prince, Li Yuancheng, took the thousands of taels of silver given by Princess Zhenning to buy hundreds of acres of farmland in Lantian County and became a landlord. It seemed that he was preparing to become a rich country man.
Only the second prince, Li Yuanjie, had the courage to serve and knelt outside the imperial city for a long time, and finally got the opportunity to join the army.