Today we are going to discuss how Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, skillfully defeated the Turks and made them chaotic without a fight. As soon as Li Shimin ascended the throne, the Turkic Jieli Khan and the Turkic Khan led more than 100,000 cavalry to challenge, which was simply an insult to Li Shimin.
Although Li Shimin eventually succeeded in making them retreat, the incident made Li Shimin feel extremely hurt. One is that they take away the treasures and silk that we have so hard accumulated, and our hearts ache; The second is that the sheep feces and horse manure they brought are stinking and unbearable.
Li Shimin was determined to make these Turks pay the price in order to relieve his hatred.
It turned out that the tribal confederations of the Turks were not fully integrated, but more like the republics of the former Soviet Union, where each tribe had its own territory and pastures, and was led by the powerful Great Khan for conquest.
Although the Turks ruled over the Tiele, Yata, Khitan, and other tribes, there were significant differences between them and the Ashina culture.
Old irons, you know, the alliance is a thing that looks united, but in fact there are all kinds of internal contradictions. At that time in the Tang Dynasty, didn't they just grasp their weaknesses and come up with a divisive plan?
It is said that back then, when Li Shimin was still the king of Qin, he once faced the challenge of Jieli and his nephew Tuli. Guess what, he took advantage of the quarrel to call Tuli aside, and the two seemed to be very affectionate, but in fact they were driving a wedge between their uncle and nephew.
This trick successfully made Jieli start to suspect Tuli, which eventually led to the breakdown of their alliance. So, brothers, the alliance is really unreliable, let's rely on ourselves!
In 627 AD, there was internal turmoil among the Turks, and the rebellion of the Xue Yantuo and Hui tribes made Jieli Khan furious. To quell the rebellion, he sent the army of his nephew, Tuli Khan.
However, Tuli's tactical skills were not superb, and he was defeated by a small force, which made Jieli lose face. For this, he put Tuli in prison and beat him with a whip.
This incident has greatly hurt Tuli's fragile heart, and he no longer wants to see the uncle who has committed violence against him.
After being defeated, Tuli was released and began to disobey the Jieli Khan, secretly colluding with the Tang Dynasty. Once, Jieli Khan issued a conscription order to Tuli, but Tuli ignored it, which made the irascible Jieli immediately lead an army to collect debts, and the relationship between the two broke down.
In order to survive, Tuli could only surrender to the Tang Dynasty and find a big tree to rely on. This surrender deprived the Eastern Turks of a large area of land in the east, because the Turki were responsible for administering the Khitan and Ya regions, so the strength of the Jieli Khan was greatly affected.
Li Shimin adopted a strategy of division and disintegration, and successfully contacted the Xue Yantuo tribe and isolated the Eastern Turks. In desperation, Jieli Khan sent an envoy to Chang'an to sue for peace, hoping to become the son-in-law of the Tang Dynasty and begging for a beautiful princess.
However, Li Shimin decisively rejected his request and informed him that he was ready to beat him.
At the time of the visit to the Son of Heaven, there was a serious problem of popular sentiment within the Eastern Turks. Khan Jieli is a person who likes foreign things and reuses the Hu and Han people of the Western Regions.
Most of these Hu people in the Western Regions were born as merchants, and the Han people were even more discerning, relying on the trust of the Khan to make a fortune, which caused public resentment to boil. The Turkic people were still relatively primitive at that time, with a high rate of illiteracy, and everyone liked simple and straightforward things.
However, the khan considered himself to be remarkable, and the edicts he issued were so complex that the people were confused and even disgusted, and their enforcement was greatly reduced.
In the early years of Zhenguan, the heavens seemed to be full of malice towards the grassland, and one heavy snowstorm after another made the grassland a mess. The people were in great misery, their cattle and sheep were freezing to death, their meat was running out, and they were threatened with starvation.
However, Jieli Khan did not sympathize with the people's livelihood at all, but increased taxes, which completely cooled people's hearts. The tribes in various places could not bear it and chose to resist.
After the baptism of the heavy snowstorm, Li Shimin knew that the time had come to close the net. He is in full swing to prepare, seize the advantageous warplane, and sweep away the threat from the north in one go.