Chapter Thirty: Luring the Enemy into a Trap

  Du He's loud cry made Li Shimin momentarily stunned.

  He never saw through Du He's talent. From the perspective of temperament, the leadership temperament on Du He is only available to those who can achieve great things. Although they have known each other for only half a year, Du He has shown considerable potential from the beginning, advising on horse racing, horseshoes, and the Tibetan incident. So he also thought that Du He was going to develop in the literary field, like the famous minister Du Ruhui.

  But recently, I just learned that Du He is thinking of joining the army, so I arranged a position for him as a Left Guard Zhonglang General in the Imperial Palace, letting him guard his own safety and take the opportunity to observe him and see what potential he has.

  But now his song "Jing Zhong Bao Guo" shocked Li Shimin. Hearing his ambitions, Li Shimin was even more deeply moved.

  Because Du He's lyrics are the goals set by Li Shimin for himself, making the Great Tang prosperous, with all nations coming to congratulate, standing at the top of the world.

  He had always admired Du He, and now that he saw Du He's ambition and grand vision aligning with his own, he admired him even more. So, he specially reminded Du Ruhui to let him know that the marriage between Chang Le and Du He had not been dissolved.

  But Du Ruhui's reaction gave Li Shimin a wake-up call. They had been working together for over a decade, and they had a certain understanding of each other's thoughts. If it wasn't for the fact that Du Ruhui had something difficult to say, he would have definitely agreed with his decision.

  Li Shimin was such a person, thinking of Du He's behavior for Li Xueyan's unwillingness to marry Tubo, he immediately saw that this matter was related to Li Xueyan, and then privately met with him, wanting to ask who he wanted to marry.

  This question immediately exposed the problem, Li Shimin never thought that Du He was so greedy, and actually planned to marry two women at the same time, and even said it with such certainty. He went around in circles, and almost got himself entangled, becoming his own accomplice.

  Amidst the laughter, I unexpectedly found myself condoning his approach.

  Since they were all men and Li Shimin was much more lustful than Du He, he could understand his psychology and decided not to interfere with this matter, letting them fend for themselves.

  At this time, Li Shimin received the war book of Songtsen Gampo and recalled Du He's evaluation of Tubo. He was worried that he didn't know how capable Du He was or how much potential he had. So he decided to motivate him a bit. If he really had great talent, it wouldn't hurt to help him out.

  As soon as he finished speaking, Du He immediately came up with a clever plan to defeat the enemy, and it was two!

  Li Shimin was taken aback and asked: "Where did this wonderful plan come from?"

  Du He said confidently: "This first strategy is the enemy-breaking strategy, it is a tactic that our Great Tang should use when Tubo comes to attack. Uncle Li, wait a minute, I'll go get the map!"

  He left for a moment and when he re-entered the room, he had an additional large sheepskin map in his hand, which he spread out on the table.

  Li Shimin and Du Ruhui looked at each other, both of them saw that this was a geographical map of the Tang Dynasty's border areas including Dangxiang, Bailan, Tuyuhun and other places. The map had already been drawn with various colored pens to indicate some arrows.

  "Uncle Li, Father, look! This is Tubo, this is my Great Tang's Songzhou, this is Tuyuhun, and these are the Party Items and Bailan Qiang." Du He pointed out the nearby countries one by one, then said: "Uncle Li should remember that last year, you sent troops to attack Tuyuhun!"

  Li Shimin nodded.

  In the eighth year of Zhenguan, Tuyuhun launched an attack on Tang's Taozhou and Longzhou, threatening the Western Regions' throat, the Hexi Corridor. The following year, Li Shimin appointed Li Jing as the Grand General of the Western Sea Road, commanding the Minister of War, Hou Junji, the General of the Ji Stone Road; the Minister of Punishment, Rencheng Wang, and the General of the Xianshan Road, Li Daozong; the Governor of Liangzhou, and the General of the Miao End Road, Li Daliang; the Governor of Minzhou, and the General of the Chi Water Road, Li Daoyan; the Magistrate of Lizhou, and the General of the Yanze Road, Gao Fasheng, along with the Eastern Turks and the Qibi Heli, etc., to launch a counterattack against Tuyuhun.

  In this war, Li Jing divided his army into several routes and rushed to attack for more than 2,000 miles, annihilating the Tuyuhun in one fell swoop. He then appointed Murong Shun as Khan and Duke of Xiping, making Tuyuhun a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty.

  Duhe pointed to the map of Songzhou and nearby Tangut, Tuyuhun: "Song Prefecture is located in Jian'nan Road, as the capital of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, mainly responsible for managing the Tanguts and other Qiang tribes attached to our Great Tang. Therefore, I can be sure that if Songtsen Gampo wants to send troops, he will first attack the Tanguts and other Qiang tribes to prevent them from helping our Great Tang cut off their rear route, sweep away the worries behind, and then dispatch troops to the Metropolitan Governor of Song Prefecture."

  The arrow marked with vermilion on the map points directly at Songzhou.

  Du Ruhui nodded in agreement with a slight smile as he stroked his mustache at Du He's analysis.

  Li Shimin also said: "Reasonable and reasonable!"

  Du He was full of confidence and continued: "Therefore, we have two ways to defeat the enemy here. One is to meet the enemy under the city of Songzhou. The mighty lion-like soldiers of the Great Tang are so powerful that no strategy is needed at all. Just dispatching the Minister of War Hou Junji, the Left General of the Imperial Guard Xi Shi Li, the Left General of the Imperial Guard Niu Jin Da, and the General of the Imperial Guard Liu Lan, these four great generals can lead 50,000 infantry and cavalry to victory. However, this way cannot completely destroy the enemy army. As long as the Tubo people escape to Qinghai Plateau and enter the high-altitude area, our army will not be able to pursue them. As for the harsh climate of the plateau, I don't need to repeat it to you, Uncle Li!"

  Li Shimin nodded, and on the same night that Du He spoke to him, he sent ten loyal and diligent guards to Tibet. As a result, before they even reached the Tibetan capital, six of the ten men fell ill, and the remaining four also showed symptoms of physical discomfort, just as Du He had said.

  Altitude sickness is really too terrible for them as people from the plains.

  "So, I think that in this first battle, we should give Songtsen Gampo a sweet treat. Although he is wise and brave, since the age of 13, he has almost never lost a battle, so it's inevitable that he has become proud. This time, he dares to send troops to our Great Tang, which shows his arrogance. Moreover, he seriously underestimates the strength of our Great Tang. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had the guts to invade and even wildly claim that he wants to take Li Uncle's head."

  "As long as we give him some sweet treats, with his lack of understanding of the great Tang Dynasty, eight or nine out of ten will fall into our trap and lead their troops to advance deep into our territory. Once they are lured into our encirclement, whether this group of Tubo soldiers lives or dies is entirely up to us. If we can annihilate them and capture Songtsen Gampo alive, it would be almost equivalent to destroying the Tubo kingdom in one fell swoop."

  "Analyzing the enemy leader's psychology, luring them in deep and annihilating them. Brilliant!" Li Shimin was originally an outstanding military strategist, and when Du He spoke to give Tibet a sweet treat, he had already seen through his idea and gave him extremely high praise.

  "What's next, is it to lead the Tubo people into the Gansong Mountains?" Li Shimin said with a hint of something: "This Gansong Mountain is also called Gansong Ridge, its terrain is extremely treacherous, if the Tubo people enter this mountain, they will surely suffer a disastrous fate."

  Du He looked at Li Shimin and said, "Uncle Li is testing me. Who is Song Zan Gan Bu? Perhaps because this is the first time he has clashed with the Great Tang, so he doesn't know the actual situation of our military strength, but he's definitely not a fool. If our army retreats into the Gansong Mountains, it will inevitably arouse their vigilance and lead to failure. Therefore, the ambush site must be on the road from Songzhou to Jiaoquan, only then can we make him believe that our army is truly defeated and plans to withdraw to Jiaoquan. Only then will he fall into our trap and pursue us."

  Li Shimin burst out laughing and nodded in praise: "This plan I have accepted, what is your second strategy?"

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