War is ruthless and cruel, but as a period of history, it is worth recalling. How many wars did Xue, the "God of War" in the Tang Dynasty, experience in his life?
In 644 AD, Emperor Taizong wanted to conquer Koguryo, so he began to collect grain, grass and soldiers all over the country. At this point, Xue is 30 years old and in his prime. Although she has been an official for generations, she has now come down in the world and can only farm for a living, and there are not many plans for the future. Fortunately, Xue's wife Liu knows the big picture.
Seeing that her husband had no long-term plans, Liu advised him, "Husband, you have the ability and need a chance to display your talents. Now the son of heaven will conquer Koguryo himself. With your ability to join the army, you can make contributions, shine the lintel and return to your hometown. "
After hearing this, Xue felt that what his wife Liu said was very reasonable and soon left his hometown to join the army.
In 645 AD, Emperor Taizong Li Shimin led Tang Jun to March on Koguryo. On the battlefield in Liaodong, General Liu Junqiong was unexpectedly alone and surrounded by Koguryo. At that time, he was in danger
At this time, I saw a white-robed boy, armed with Tanaka's painted halberd, riding a red horse, running all the way towards the enemy leader, waving his arms, and Tanaka's painted halberd also moved. In a blink of an eye, the enemy general couldn't dodge, and his head had been taken off by the white-robed boy.
The Koguryo army was scared and at a loss. When the white-robed boy returned to the city, he hung the heads of the enemy generals on the city gate. The enemy thief was so timid that he had to retreat, and Liu Junqiong, the general of Tang Jun, was saved. And this boy in white is Xue, who joined the army soon, and is also the hero of Xue's fame in the army.
Since then, Xue continued to follow Emperor Taizong's crusade against Goguryeo, and the army fought all the way to Anshi City. The enemy resisted Tang Jun with 200,000 troops. According to the terrain, Emperor Taizong divided Tang Jun into several roads and attacked them respectively. Xue is wearing a white robe and holding a painting ju. He was invincible and killed countless enemies.
In this battle, 20,000 soldiers of Koguryo were killed and the battle was successful. Emperor Taizong was very happy. He heard that one of the soldiers was particularly brave, so he met Xue, promoted him and gave him gold, silver and jewels.
In 66 1 year, Tiele led an army to invade the border of the Tang Dynasty. At this time, Emperor Taizong had passed away and Tang Gaozong was in charge of the Tang Dynasty. Seeing the enemy attack, I couldn't bear it, so I let Xue Lingbing make a conquest.
Xue is the god of fighting. He has heard of it, but he has never seen it. So at Xue's farewell party, I wanted to see if Xue was as brave as rumored, so I said to Xue, "I heard that people who are good at using arrows can shoot through seven layers of armor with one arrow. I wonder if Ai Qing (Xue) can shoot through five layers of armor with one arrow? "
The meaning is self-evident, in fact, it is the ability to doubt Xue.
Hearing the emperor say this, Xue immediately got a bow and arrow. When the bowstring rang, the arrow shot into the armor and just penetrated the fifth floor. Even more shocked, he immediately ordered people to reward Xue with excellent armor, hoping that he would return home in triumph as soon as possible.
In 662 AD, Tiele, a nine-surname Turkic Uighur, got the news and learned that Xue led Tang Jun's conquest, and immediately assembled more than 65,438+10,000 people, hoping to pre-empt Tang Jun with the help of Tianshan Mountain.
In March of the same year, Tiele sent more than a dozen generals to Tang Jun camp to give Xue an afternoon to test Xue's reality.
Xue took the gauntlet and went to war with one pick and ten. I saw that Xue didn't pull out the halberd, but took out the bow and arrow used to test him at that time. After shooting three arrows in a row, all three generals were shot dead by Xue's arrow and fell to the ground.
When the enemy saw this scene, he was frightened to disgrace. In the enemy battle, Xue immediately directed Tang Jun to advance and annihilate the enemy. Under the orderly command of Xue, the Tiele army was defeated and surrendered in succession. In the face of thousands of surrendered soldiers, Xue made an extremely unbearable thing: entrapping hundreds of surrendered soldiers!
Defeating the enemy was originally a national celebration, but killing 100 thousand surrendered soldiers was really unbearable, and it was very contrary to the national policy of the Tang Dynasty at that time.
Today, we don't know why Xue gave such an order. Perhaps 100,000 troops were a great threat to the Tang Dynasty at that time. Even if they surrendered, the ruler still doubted.
There are some sayings in history that Xue didn't know how to place a hundred thousand troops, so he ordered a pit killing. Personally, I think this statement is not particularly reliable. The number of 100,000 troops was large, but the national strength at that time in the Tang Dynasty was not too big to accommodate, unless they didn't want to accommodate it.
The war was a great victory. Among the soldiers, there was a poem that "the general set the Tianshan Mountains with three arrows, and the soldier Long Ge entered the Han Pass". The Tiele army harassed the frontier of the Tang Dynasty for more than ten years, which was a rare victory in history after the war was completely resolved.
However, in this victory, there were too many flaws. For example, Xue took an enemy woman as his concubine and the commander Zheng Rentai made a strategic mistake, which led to heavy casualties in Tang Jun. After Ban's return to the DPRK, Xue was impeached a lot, but in the end he thought that the merits and demerits were offset and there was no excessive investigation.
In 666 AD, the domestic situation in Koguryo was chaotic because of the struggle and change of domestic rights in Koguryo, and some people in Koguryo even asked the Tang Dynasty to send troops to help. In 668 AD, Xue was ordered to command an army to attack Koguryo.
In February of the same year, he led 3,000 soldiers to attack Fuyu City, an important town in Koguryo. At that time, some generals advised Xue not to take the initiative. Xue just replied: "The use of soldiers is not because there are many people, but because they can be used."
So Xue went out with his troops and eventually killed 10 thousand Koguryo troops. In the two expeditions, Koguryo lost 20,000 soldiers and 10,000 soldiers respectively. In Koguryo's army, Xue seems to be a lingering and uncontrollable spell.
After this war, Tang Jun was on a roll all the way until Goguryeo was all in the bag. After the victory, Xue properly placed Koguryo soldiers and civilians, so that they temporarily forgot the pain of national subjugation.
In 670 AD, due to various reasons of fighting Tubo and recovering Tubuhun, Xue in the Tang Dynasty was defeated in this battle and was demoted to a civil servant. Later, he was convicted of other things and exiled to Xiangzhou.
68 1 year, thinking of Xue's hard work, he was finally recalled for reuse.
In 682 AD, the northern Turks invaded again, embezzled Yunzhou, and Xue was ordered to conquer. On the battlefield, the Turkish enemy asked loudly, "Who is General Tang Jun?" Tang Jun replied: "Xue Guiren!" At this time, the Turkish army has been shaken and confused: Isn't Xue exiled to Xiangzhou and already dead?
Seeing Xue take off his hat, the enemy generals immediately recognized this person as Xue! They all ran away in panic. This shows the majesty of Xue's years of campaign.
In 683, Xue died at the age of 70. After joining the army, Xue fought all his life. Until the year before his death, he was still making contributions to the Tang Dynasty.
The prosperity of the Tang dynasty was never only under the control of civil servants, but also benefited from the military commanders who made a name for the Tang dynasty during the war. In the eyes of the enemy, Xue is an out-and-out "Yan Luowang", but for Datang, he is a real "patron saint".