Since Li Zhen set up his ambition to seize the heir, a question has always been lingering in his heart: that is, why did the powerful Tang Dynasty go to the end - the dynasty has been changing since ancient times, but the situation is not the same, but generally speaking, it is either due to external troubles, or because the internal disparity between the rich and the poor is too large, resulting in increasingly acute social contradictions, and the people rise up to resist tyranny, but as far as the Tang Dynasty is concerned, in the Tang Dynasty, there is actually no external trouble, and there is not much internal inequality between the rich and the poor. The people's living standards were second to none in the world at that time, or even not too stupid politically, but at such a strong time, they suddenly fell into decline due to the Anshi Rebellion, and after the pacification of the Anshi Rebellion, the entire Central Plains immediately fell into the war of feudal towns, and the central power was already in name only, and the glory of the Tang Dynasty actually disappeared without a trace in the Anshi Rebellion, in other words, after the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty in the actual sense actually did not exist, What's so strange here?

Regarding the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty, there is a lot of controversy in the historiography circles of later generations, but most scholars will blame the incompetence of the Tang Ming Dynasty, or the ambition of An Lushan is the main culprit of the decline of the Tang Dynasty, only a few scholars attribute the root cause to the corruption of the Tang Dynasty military system, but because these historians are not proficient in the art of war, what they said does not actually say where the chaos of the Tang Dynasty's military system is, and can only be said in general terms that it is due to the shortcomings of the government military system, which led to the rise of the recruitment system. In Li Zhen's view, the decline of the government military system is the root of the fall of the Tang Dynasty is not exaggerated, but for those historians put forward the so-called radical methods, such as the reconstruction of the government military system, supplemented by the conscription system, or what to establish and improve the law to standardize the government military system, or to completely overthrow the government military system, all the beginning of the conscription system and other statements, Li Zhen just smiled, not at all disagreed.

The government military system is undoubtedly extremely suitable in the war years, which can be seen from the combat effectiveness of the Tang army in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, but the problem is that in the era of peace, the government military system is a great social hidden danger, the era of political clarity is good to say, at most the combat effectiveness of the army has declined, and there will be no big problems, but once it reaches the middle and late stages of the dynasty, politics will inevitably be corrupted, and at that time, the trouble of the government military system will begin - the first problem must be the drill of the government soldiers, and then the treatment of the government soldiers, The last quasi-end is that the government soldiers continue to flee, resulting in the existence of the government military system in name only, which has been proven by history, but there is nothing controversial, but how to improve it, but Li Zhen scratched his head.

Change is a must, the key is how to change, if it is to ensure internal stability, so as not to appear the phenomenon of military generals rebelling, there is no doubt that the strong cadres and weak branches of the Song Dynasty in later generations, the emphasis on literature and light military force can undoubtedly limit the root of the military generals' rebellion to the greatest extent, but the problem is that the result of such a policy will inevitably lead to the abolition of martial arts, thus creating an excellent atmosphere for the rise of external troubles, and will eventually lead to the tragic end of the country to foreign people, the reason is very simple - if the warriors have no status, who is willing to join the army, the army has no fighting heart, Talking about deterring the Quartet, it is strange that foreign races do not take the opportunity to rise, obviously, this road will not work!

Like in the Tang Dynasty, the martial artists were given a very high status, and even the various sections were able to recruit enough soldiers according to the establishment and train them, of course, it could ensure the combat effectiveness of the army, at least in foreign wars, it would never suffer losses, but in this way, it buried the hidden danger of the military generals making chaos, and it must be an unsolvable hidden danger, even if there is no An Lushan, there will be other sections to make chaos, and the central power will be destroyed in the civil strife, there is no doubt that this road is obviously not feasible.

The army is the violent mechanism of the state, too strong to work, too weak to be, it is too difficult to achieve a balance point, it is rare that even Li Zhen, who has lived for two lifetimes, scratches his head - although Li Zhen is still only a prince at the moment, it seems too early to consider this problem, but for Li Zhen, since he has crossed over, he has to make a difference, even if he works hard, he can't ascend to the throne, he doesn't want to live this life in idleness, he has to leave some of his mark in this world, As far as Li Zhen himself is concerned, he absolutely hopes that the Tang Dynasty, which stands on the top of the world, can go on forever and always remain strong and prosperous, even if Li Zhen will pay a huge price for this, he will never regret it, so he is constantly exploring, privately trying to solve this problem, martial arts is certainly an attempt, but Li Zhen deeply knows that martial arts is not a good medicine to solve this problem, it can only be a palliative, it can be a little help to change the imperial court, but it cannot completely solve the shortcomings of the government military system, therefore, After thinking about it for a while, Li Zhen planned to try the military academy system.

Of course, in order to implement such a system, there are many prerequisites -- first, to have a large number of experienced instructors, second, to have a systematic teaching theory, and third, to have such a practical need to build an army -- war is the best reason, and the fourth and most important one -- to be recognized by the supreme leader.

Datang has been fighting in foreign wars, and there is no shortage of officers with war experience, but there are not many who may be qualified to serve as instructors, but it is not difficult to find; As for the teaching theory, it is even simpler, China has not lacked all kinds of art of war since ancient times, such as "Sun Tzu's Art of War", and "Wei Gong Soldier Strategy" is near, all kinds of military books can be said to be sea, the first two are so satisfying, but the last two are not so simple - not to mention that now the Tang Dynasty is winning foreign wars, there is no motivation for change at all, and it is not said that Li Shimin may not approve of this strategy, even if the old man can agree to try it, it may not be able to succeed, without him, The military academy system will inevitably impact the fundamental interests of the existing military generals group - now the generals in the army are basically from military families, even the prince's guards are mostly like this, only Li Zhen's personal guard is a special case - most of the officers are excavated by Li Zhen from the grassroots, it is obvious that if Li Zhen hastily puts forward the idea of building the military academy system, he will definitely end up defeated.

Everything is foreseen, and if it is not prepared, it will be abolished, this is the eternal truth, Li Zhen knows it in his heart, and he never fights uncertain battles, the reason why he chose Anxi as his official location, in addition to establishing a stable base to lay a good foundation for the subsequent succession, more importantly, Li Zhen intends to show his ambitions in this high place where the emperor is far away, and experiment with all kinds of new weapons and advanced ideas, so as to prepare for the future once he can win the throne, he can immediately have something to learn from. And the land of Anxi is a good test site for the military academy system - Anxi is a frontier, and does not implement the government military system, but adopts the recruitment system of the border army, although there are restrictions on soldiers, but it is not strict, as far as the current 3,500 soldiers and horses are concerned, there is still a big gap from the full quota of 6,000 people, not to mention that once the war starts in the future, the restrictions on the number of troops will be further relaxed, and there can be such a place to test the new military system, which is exactly what Li Zhen thinks.

On July 23, the sixteenth year of Zhenguan, Li Zhen, the king of Yue, who was ordered to take over as the commander of the Anxi Protectorate, arrived at Yumen Pass, and immediately sent someone to Li Shimin, who was far away in Beijing, on the grounds that the princess was pregnant and not moving lightly, and sent someone to 600 miles to expedite Li Shimin, who was far away in Beijing, and asked to postpone his postponement, the emperor agreed, issued an edict to appease, and sent two imperial doctors to Yumen Pass, allowing Li Zhen to temporarily live in Yumen Pass, and then move after the princess stabilized the fetus.

It is true that the princess is pregnant and should not leave, but it is not the fundamental reason why Li Zhen is stranded in Yumen Pass, of course, it is not because Li Zhen is afraid of the hardships and dangers of Anxi and does not dare to move forward, in fact, the reason why Li Zhen stopped at Yumen Pass and did not leave is waiting, in addition to waiting for the edict of his old man, more importantly, he is waiting for the news from the depths of the desert. A convening order was immediately issued, and the officers above the royal palace guard were ordered to gather immediately and prepare for the discussion.

Li Zhen's subordinate generals are either rough or elegant, with different temperaments and appearances, but one is the same, that is, young - from the pawn army Chen Wu, the deputy pawn army Lin Chenghe, the captain Liu Qi to the bottom of the team, they are all young people, the oldest Lin Chenghe is less than thirty, and the rest of the "Rising Sun" masters such as Yan Eighteen and Yingda are also only about twenty young people. Young is certainly synonymous with lack of experience, but the momentum and even the ability to accept it are excellent, especially the obedience is better, no, Li Zhen just issued a convening order, and before the fragrance as a time instruction was halfway burned, all the generals had gathered in the meeting hall of the Yumen Pass Town Guard's Mansion, and everyone stood according to the rank with solemn faces, quietly waiting for Li Zhen to give the general order.

"Good!" Li Zhen was very satisfied with the speed of the arrival of his subordinates, although some of them obviously heard the emergency assembly call sounded in the direction of the town guard mansion on the street and rushed back, their faces were covered with sweat, and their clothes were not neat, but they were satisfied enough to arrive in time after the emergency horn sounded, so he smiled and nodded to his subordinates, strode to a sand table in the middle of the council hall that was obviously just prepared, glanced around at the generals, and slowly said: "This king has received accurate information, The desert thieves hit the idea on the head of this king, and they are ready to capture this king alive, what do you think? ”

"Bastards, kill them all!"

"Good dog thief, a thousand knives!"

"Your Highness, you give the order, I will send troops immediately to take down those bastards!"

……

Li Zhen is a god-like existence in the minds of the generals, and when he heard that the sand thieves planned to capture Li Zhen alive, he was stunned at first, and then immediately roared, and everyone was angry, eager to immediately lead the army into the desert and kill the bold and reckless sand thieves.

Seeing that the generals were angry, the corners of Li Zhen's mouth curved, and he waved his hand with a light smile and said: "This king summoned you to wait, but I don't want to listen to your bold words, this group of sand thieves dares to fight the idea of this king, naturally they have the capital, hehe, as far as this king knows, now all the mountains in the Hami area have been united, the total number has reached more than 5,800 cavalry, and we can only call more than 1,800 people at the moment, which is still counted from ' The manpower mobilized by the Rising Sun, in addition to deducting the strength to protect the princess, the actual strength of our army can only be calculated according to one thousand and five, four to one troops, this battle is afraid that it is not so easy to fight, how to fight, this king wants to hear your opinions, well, this sand table is the Hami terrain, Chen Wu, Er led the left hand side of the generals to play our army, Lin Chenghe, you led the right hand side of the generals to play the sand thief, on this sand table to the first school drill, as for the combat power of both sides, according to our army can be calculated as one as three, this king will wait for an hour to consider their respective strategic deployment, start！ ”

The sand table is a novelty that Li Zhen made when he was a child, but he is no stranger to the generals present, as early as when he was in Beijing, they did not fiddle with this thing, and from time to time they came to a few games to have a good time, but most of them were for attacking and defending the city, and they had never played the battle of the desert, let alone divided into two groups to attack, since everyone was eager to try, Li Zhen had just finished the order, and the generals had been divided into two circles around the sand table and pointed and discussed hotly.

Time passed minute by minute, and the generals who were still around and pointing at the sand table had already retreated to the corner at this time, took out the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and wrote and painted there, while communicating in a whisper, of course, occasionally there would be fierce arguments, but even if it was an argument, the voice was extremely low, and that side didn't want to lose this battle in front of Li Zhen, the time of this hour passed quickly, as the incense burned out, Li Zhen waved his hand and said: "When the time comes, start the sand table deduction." The soldiers of the two sides immediately stopped the discussion, gathered in front of the sand table, and each held a small flag representing the deployment of the troops, and prepared for battle.

Lin Chenghe was the first to stand up as the attacker, "Your Highness, although our army has a large number of troops, it is too mixed, and it is not suitable for fighting a hard battle with the opponent, and furthermore, we think that the primary purpose is to hold the prince or princess, so as to obtain a negotiation basis for peaceful coexistence with His Royal Highness, therefore, our combat strategy is to take His Royal Highness and the princess as the primary strategic goal, for this reason, we must first figure out which road His Royal Highness will take, there are two roads from Yumen Pass to Jiaohe - one is the fifth, and the other is the mountain river, The fifth road is shorter than the mountain river road is more than 150 miles, although the road is more bumpy, but considering that it is the end of August at this time, it is about to reach the time of the great cold in October, therefore, we conclude that His Royal Highness will take the fifth road, along the fifth road to the west all the way is desert, suitable for ambush sites are many, there are a total of more than ten places such as Xingxing Gorge, Moon Gorge, Bison Beach, etc., we will choose one and spread, just wait for the other party to arrive, it will be completed. ”

Lin Chenghe was originally just a team leader in the Southern Ya Army, and later because he was able to abide by the rules when he stopped Li Zhen from visiting prison, he was hit by Li Zhenxiang, and he used the right of his military department to transfer him to the pro-guard team as a deputy guard. His personal martial arts are outstanding, especially the magic arrow in one hand is three points stronger than Li Zhen, plus he is also coarse in writing and ink, and he has learned the art of war with Li Zhen, and his heart is very high, and he was faintly dissatisfied with Lin Chenghe who came from the airborne, but because it was Li Zhen's order, he didn't dare to oppose it openly, but he was extremely cold to Lin Chenghe in private, at this time, seeing Lin Chenghe say so confidently, his heart was not happy to the extreme, he had a calm face, glanced at Lin Chenghe, and strode out and said: "Your Highness, We have also completed the relevant discussions, we think that although the other side has many troops, it seems to be strong, in fact, it is not, the hearts of all walks of life are not even, once the war starts, if the other side can be like a bamboo, just a stalemate battle, the other side will be defeated by their own purposes, therefore, we also expect that the other side will never start a decisive battle with us, the only possibility is only two: one is to ambush, the other is to use the strategy of diverting the tiger from the mountain, to induce the main force of our army to leave the side of the prince, and then take advantage of the surprise army to attack the prince, in addition, There is no other method of warfare, therefore, our army has also made relevant preparations, please give the order of the prince! ”

Both the offensive and defensive sides have expounded their own strategic thinking, and they are all very reasonable, but it comes down to saying and doing, since the deployment of the two sides is just-for-tat, then who can win in the end depends on the on-the-spot performance, Li Zhen didn't talk much nonsense, waved his hand and said: "Okay, then let's start!" ”

With Li Zhen's order, the two sides immediately began the sand table deduction, Lin Chenghe's side continued to send a small group of rangers to scratch Chen Wu's side, but never fought head-on, just put a few arrows far away, once Chen Wu sent troops to attack, immediately escaped, and Chen Wu's side although the itinerary was delayed, but always adhered to the original strategy, just sent two rangers to swim left and right, the Chinese army has always been steady, even if it encounters canyons and dangerous beaches, it insists that it must be thoroughly investigated before cautiously entering in batches, and be careful all the way, Don't give Chen Wu's side the slightest opportunity to take advantage of, the two sides have been entangled all the way through the Star Gorge and Moon Gorge, and have arrived at the relatively flat Bison Beach, and the stalemate "war" suddenly changed - the main force of Lin Chenghe, who had never been dispatched, suddenly appeared on the Bison Beach, and used the terrain to launch a huge frontal impact on Chen Wu's side, the time was just after noon, the most exhausting moment of the people and horses, the battle together, Chen Wu had to face the battle head-on, The main cavalry of the two sides launched a decisive battle against the hedge, and it was dark for a while, and just when the main cavalry of the two sides was desperately hedging, Lin Chenghe suddenly made another surprise attack, but saw Lin Chenghe digging on the sand table, and took out a small flag from the vicinity of Chen Wu's department responsible for protecting the princess, which was an ambush hiding in the cave, because at this time Chen Wu's main force was entangled by Lin Chenghe, and he couldn't return to help at all, so he could only watch his own rear team being attacked, and what made Chen Wu even more annoyed was that Lin Chenghe was not going to the princess, The target turned out to be the hundreds of camels in the rear team used for camel water and other materials, under the first battle, although Lin Chenghe suffered heavy losses, but most of the material reserves of Chen Wu's department were wasted, in this vast desert, although Chen Wu's department had no material supply, although there were still considerable troops, but in the end they still lost the deduction, and had to retreat to the side with a red face.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Li Zhen laughed and applauded, without him, the two sides of their respective formations are actually very old, although Chen Wu lost this deduction, but it is not that Chen Wu is useless, but because of the time and location, it is on Lin Chenghe's side, at the beginning of this battle Chen Wu was at an absolute strategic disadvantage, and Li Zhen was already satisfied with being able to support the Bison Beach, so he looked around at the generals with a smile and said: "This king has decided that from now on, if there is no war, a sand table deduction will be held every seven days, and the topic will be given by this king. You can freely combine, compete with each other, the winner will be rewarded, and the loser will be punished, okay, today's deduction will be here first, Yan Eighteen, the enemy situation that you know will come out, this king wants to hear how you will deal with it. ”

"Yes, Your Highness." Yan Eighteen, who was standing beside Li Zhen, strode out, holding a wooden stick, and pointed and said something on the sand table, which immediately made the generals around the sand table stunned, and the hall was silent for a while, and no one spoke......

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