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Politics is the only area where Gai Suwen really succeeds. Because Gai Suwen not only seized power by improper means, but also quickly consolidated it.
There are two main ways to change Su Wen to consolidate political power: one is to monopolize power. After the coup, Gai Su-wen was appointed as a pseudo-king, and he was "immune to himself and served the country, and still served as the minister of the Ministry of War of the Tang Dynasty." In addition to monopolizing military and political power, he also made family members occupy important positions. For example, his son, all the boys, "are all bosses in the middle school, know the national politics, and all the words are said by boys." In addition, his other two sons, Nan Jian and Nan Chan, were able to exclude boys and take power for themselves before the bones were cold, indicating that they had already taken power before Gai died. And Gai Suwen's younger brother Yuan Pure Land is also in the post of Foreign Minister. In short, since the coup, Gai Su-wen has gradually put the military and political power in the hands of one person through family rule, thus blocking the way for his political opponents to launch a coup. The second is tyranny. Machiavelli, a famous Italian political theorist, once thought that if a monarch can't give consideration to kindness and prestige, but can only choose one of them, "then it is better to be feared" than to be loved. This is exactly what Guy Sullivan did. In the process of launching a coup, he killed "more than one hundred" political opponents. Since then, "wearing five knives, I dare not look up, so that the nobles fall to the ground and practice to raise horses." In and out of Chen Bing, he shouted a ban on logging, and pedestrians were afraid to escape to the pit valley. "These practices really created a miracle. Because Koguryo people's fear of Guy Su Wen exceeded their hatred of him, no one dared to make a move for a while. Therefore, until the death of beggar Su Wen, Koguryo's social situation has been very stable. This can be proved by Li Tang War.
Shortly after Gai Su-wen's coup, Emperor Taizong personally sent troops to make a large-scale eastward expedition. From then on, some teachers harassed me, or went deep into it with great fanfare, almost every year. The damage and pressure on Koguryo can be imagined. However, in Koguryo, neither the upper-level officials took the opportunity to launch mutiny or separatist activities, nor did the lower-level people rise up and rebel, but the whole country was United against the enemy. This is a great achievement of Gai Suwen. In particular, autocracy and tyranny are the two magic weapons of all dictators, and it is not surprising that Gai Su-wen used them to consolidate the regime. But the important thing is that not everyone can skillfully use these "two magic weapons" and succeed, otherwise they will play with fire and set themselves on fire.
The success of Gai Suwen is enough to show that he has something extraordinary that our future generations can't know. However, we should not exaggerate Gai Suwen's achievements. In fact, his so-called "achievement" is not a real success. Because the political stability in Koguryo at that time was only temporary, and there were deep hidden dangers. Koguryo under tyranny is like an undeveloped volcano. Although the surface is calm, it is secretly burning with the raging anger of its subjects. Once it breaks out, it will bring devastating disaster. As early as when Gai Suwen was alive, there were rumors that Koguryo was going to die everywhere in the society. For example, in the thirteenth year of treasure, some people claimed to "meet the gods in Maling" and said, "The monarch and the minister are extravagant and have no ruin." It can be seen that it was a mess. Just after Gai Su-wen's death, someone had ulterior motives to sow dissension, which caused the whole brothers to kill each other and become tense. When Tang Jun and the soldiers went deep, Koguryo's subjects immediately fell. After Xue breached Fuyu City, there was a move of "giving money at a rate of 40 cities". Isn't this the sequela of Su Wen's tyranny in the Beggars' Sect?
In addition, Goguryeo's power to resist strong enemies does not come from the rule of beggars' gangs. Gai Su-wen's so-called merit is that he can maintain political stability while launching a coup, thus not greatly weakening national strength. However, compared with the Sui Dynasty, Koguryo's national strength is still not as good as before. There were millions of soldiers in Yang Di's first crusade, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers were supported in the two expeditions that followed. However, Emperor Taizong personally expedition and sent more than100000 troops. Although Sui Jun is not more than Tang Jun and Yang Di, the huge gap in the number of troops may make up for these shortcomings. However, the three expeditions of the Sui army to the east failed to gain a mere Liaodong city, but instead lost troops and eventually led to national subjugation. Emperor Taizong, on the other hand, broke through the city and was invincible. Taking Liaodong city as a treasure, fighting in the mountains is a great threat to the enemy. Even in other battles after the personal expedition, Tang Jun was quite successful. This not only shows that the commander-in-chief and the army of the Tang Dynasty are superior to those of the Sui Dynasty, but also shows that Koguryo's national strength has weakened.
In addition, when the Sui Dynasty and Emperor Taizong made a personal expedition, Koguryo was able to take Liaodong as a stronghold to resist the enemy and achieved success. However, when Su He and Qi He made an expedition to the East, Gai could only refuse to defend Yalu Water, while the land west of Yalu Water could only be abandoned. This fully proves that Koguryo's national strength was declining at that time. And can all this be said to have nothing to do with Gai Suwen's tyranny? In a word, the unity of actions bound by chains is by no means a real unity, and tyranny can only get temporary effects. It can't suppress people's resistance forever, let alone bring about national prosperity and social progress. Gai Su-wen's so-called political achievements only consolidated his personal political stance at best. Gail Sullivan's military ability has always been praised by Chinese and foreign historians. China historians call him a good soldier, and Korean history calls him a "star of Koguryo" and an "outstanding conductor". Gai Su-wen won such high praise mainly because during his administration, Koguryo repelled Tang Jun's massive attack twice. However, to what extent are these brilliant achievements attributed to Gai Suwen's command wisdom? This needs careful study. Let's first look at the battle of Emperor Taizong's personal expedition. In this battle, Goguryeo actually blocked the rapid offensive of Emperor Taizong, the invincible god of war, and made him come back disappointed. This is indeed a victory. But is this victory due to Gai Suwen's military intelligence? The author doesn't think so. Throughout the whole process of this war, Gai Suwen's personal involvement in military operations mainly includes three aspects: First, pre-war deployment. It has been half a year since Tang Jun began to recruit soldiers and entered Koguryo. During this period, the whole country shook and the news could not reach Koguryo, so Gai Suwen had enough time to prepare for defense. Moreover, judging from "Mo Li sent 700 people from the corpse city to cover Moucheng", Gai Suwen did personally arrange the pre-war preparations. In this respect, Gai Su-wen missed a trick and fell into the trap of Li Ji, and was beaten by Tang Jun. At that time, "Li Jijun made a trip to Liucheng, and there were many situations. If you leave huaiyuan town, dive to the north and take a trip to North Korea. " However, later, "from Ding Tong to Liaoshui to Xuantu, all places were guarded." Goguryeo is so terrible that the city is afraid to go out behind closed doors. "In fact, losing a few' outposts' has nothing to do with the overall situation. What's important is that Tang Jun successfully broke through the Liaohe defense line because of this mistake made by Gai. Liaoshui is an important defense line for Koguryo to resist the attack of the Central Plains. It not only has a wide water surface, but also "there are more than 200 miles of silt on the shore, which makes people and animals impassable." "When the Sui army marched eastward, it was blocked by the Liaohe River, and there were many dead people. If Gai Su-wen can accurately judge the direction of Tang Jun, he can use the Liao-Shui defense line to cause huge losses to Tang Jun, thus increasing the difficulty of his next move. However, due to a miscalculation by Gai, Tang Jun successfully crossed the Liaohe defense line, thus laying the foundation for a series of subsequent victories. Second, when Tang Jun besieged Liaodong City, "the domestic new city rode 40,000 troops to help Liaodong". The two armies are neck and neck, which is Gai's order. In the battle, the Tang people claimed to "break it", while North Korean historians believed that Li Jun "won a great victory, but failed to break through the enemy's encirclement dozens of times. "However, the author believes that this battle is a battle without winning or losing. Because according to the general law of ancient wars, the number of captured enemies in a real victory is almost always far more than the number of beheadings. Li has 40,000 troops in this campaign. If it is really a big defeat, how can Tang Canjun only "behead thousands of people" and get nothing? It can be seen that Li Jun was evacuated from the battlefield by the whole people. However, at that time, Li Daozong was "led by the Tang Dynasty" and Li Ji's army was only 60,000 people. Where did he get the "dozens of layers of encirclement"? If the Li army had really "won a great victory" at that time, the siege of Liaodong would have solved itself long ago. Therefore, although Li's army was not defeated, it was not successful, nor did it show any superiority. Third, sending150,000 troops to Anshi must be a painstaking effort by Gai Suwen. This150,000 army was about half that of General Li at that time, and since Koguryo fought against the Tang Dynasty in the north and Silla in the south, Pyongyang and some important towns could not be completely undefended, this army was actually all the troops that Gai Suwen could mobilize. So the victory or defeat of the army is really the survival of the country. At this critical moment, he has been in full swing, wearing five knives all day long. Gai Suwen, who threatened his subjects, did not dare to personally unite this army to fight with Emperor Taizong, which was a brave performance. At the same time, he can neither strategize nor advise the army; It is even more unwise not to choose a good general to break the enemy and make meritorious deeds. So it is not surprising that this army eventually became a big feast in Tang Jun. In short, this battle covered Su's next three moves, which was a mistake. It can be said that you are both wise and brave, why can you call it a good soldier! In fact, Goguryeo was able to stop the massive attack of Emperor Taizong, except for the objective factors that some people are familiar with, which mainly benefited from the successful defense of Anshicheng. Ann's defensive war has nothing to do with Gai Suwen. Since the battle of Lushan Mountain, Gai has never sent a single soldier to rescue An Shi. In fact, he is ready to give up Anshi. So, why did the Anshi Rebellion successfully stop Tang Jun's stormy offensive? There is actually another reason for this. Before attacking Anshi, Emperor Taizong said, "I heard that Anshi City is dangerous and its soldiers are skilled, and its master is brave and can't leave the branch. If he refuses, he can't leave the branch." Visible, Ann city duke is Sue's political opponents, had to give him Gaian city. It is conceivable that Gai Suwen must regard it as a thorn in his side and a thorn in his flesh, and he will get rid of it quickly. Therefore, An Shi is in danger of being attacked by beggars' gangs at any time. And since the beggar can mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to resist the Tang Dynasty, he can also mobilize the same number of troops to attack Anshi.
Therefore, An Shi's main purpose is to avoid being killed by beggars' gangs, so he must always be prepared to fight against the attack of 100,000 troops in isolation. This may also be the main reason for the Anshi Rebellion, which finally succeeded in guarding the city. It can be seen that this victory has nothing to do with Gai Suwen's command ability.
Now, let's look at Sue's crusade. In this battle, Goguryeo not only successfully defended Pyongyang, but also won the battle of snake water. In the battle of snake water, Pang Xiaotai, the general manager of Tang Jun Woju Road, "failed to raise soldiers" and he himself "died with thirteen sons." This was Goguryeo's most important and only battle victory against Tang Jun, and it was also an "ironclad proof" of Gai Suwen's good fighting skills. But before we come to a conclusion, we must find out how Gai Suwen achieved the above achievements. In fact, Sue was quite successful at the beginning of the crusade. At that time, as soon as Su arrived at Regent, she "broke the DPRK fresh in Bamei River, won many battles, seized its horseshoe mountain, and surrounded Pyongyang because of the mountain." On the other hand, all the way to the Tang Dynasty, the broken spring boy led tens of thousands of troops. "behead 30 thousand, and the rest surrender." From Tang Jun's brilliant achievements, we can see not only the weakness of Koguryo's national strength and military strength, but also the inferiority of Gai Suwen's command ability and the art of employing people.
However, Tang Jun was in such a good situation at the beginning of the war, why did it come back in vain? The author believes that this is mainly due to Silla's treachery. The Tang Dynasty eliminated the remnants of Baekje before collecting Koguryo, just to make Silla free to fully support the attack on Koguryo. Therefore, before its expropriation of Koguryo, the Tang Dynasty "ordered (Silla) Wang Jubing", but Silla did not come clean, and sent troops to attack the remnants of Baekje, refusing to give Tang Jun any assistance. In fact, what the Tang Dynasty really needed was not Silla reinforcements, but Silla's grain and grass supply. Because Su crossed the sea and Wan Li was under attack, it was impossible to bring much rations. Logistics supply, originally planned to rely entirely on Silla. In fact, Sue has been in the beautiful territory for nearly half a year, but she has not received assistance from Silla. Although the army and North Korea sent urgent orders for food rations many times, Silla refused to take action. Finally, in desperation, I went to Pyongyang with "more than 2,000 vehicles carrying 4,000 meters and renting 22,000 stones" in the first month of the following year. The results of this rescue operation are recorded in different volumes of the History of the Three Kingdoms. The Chronicle of the King of Wu Wen and the Biography of Jin Yuxin both sent food and grass in February, but the Book of King Wu Answering Xue said that "the soldiers could not get food, and Pingyang Army wanted to return it. Silla military forces, food also back. " The author believes that even if the former is credible, how much military food will not help. "The Art of War" said: "Eat the enemy for one minute, when I am 20 minutes, avoid one stone, when I am 20 stones." It can be seen that the loss of grain and grass is serious during transportation. Emperor Taizong personally levied no more than 100 thousand troops. At that time, the grain transportation route was always smooth, and only Kegai got "100,000 stone grains" and "500,000 stone grains" after pulling Liaodong City. You can enter the beautiful territory for only half a year, but it is already a "small store". And Sue's army is no less than that of Emperor Taizong. Silla just transported more than 20,000 stone valleys to Tang Ying. Even if we arrive, what's left? Liaodong is also very cold. When it is extremely cold, "the wind and snow are cold, and many people freeze to death." Tang Junbing, on the other hand, has not enough to eat and clothes to wear, so how can his fighting capacity not be reduced and his heart not be chaotic? It can be seen that when Sue was in an emergency in Silla, she claimed that she was "very dangerous", which was not an empty statement. At that time, Tang Junbing was able to hold on because of the hope of Silla rescue. But when they found that Silla's rations were too small to help at all, their inner despair could be imagined. Therefore, Su's "returning the commissary" shows his dissatisfaction with Silla people, but what is more important is probably forced by the situation at that time. What's more, King Silla's "Letter to Xue" is an original, which is not as artificial as Ji and Chuan, and has higher credibility. So Tang Jun probably didn't receive a grain from Silla at that time. Therefore, Tang Jun's situation is even more embarrassing. In this situation, if Gai Suwen has both ability and political integrity, even if Tang Jun is the God of War and Emperor Taizong, I am afraid that Sassui will not escape. On the occasion of a golden opportunity, Gai Su-wen just destroyed one of Tang Jun's partial divisions and let the Soviet army leave safely. Its military intelligence is self-evident.
As can be seen from the above, Goguryeo was able to repel Tang Jun's massive attack twice, which was by no means caused by Gai Suwen's command. Gai Su-wen's name as a good soldier is purely hollow. It is probably the characteristic of ancient eastern politicians to emphasize internal affairs and ignore diplomacy. Guy Sullivan is a typical oriental politician. He can play Koguryo with the whole country, but he is stiff and incompetent in dealing with his neighbors and the Tang Dynasty. In this regard, Gai Su-wen made unforgivable mistakes on at least two issues: First, he failed to assess the situation, abandoned the pragmatic peripheral policy of the Wang Dynasty, and adopted the peripheral policy of valuing fame over profit. During Rong's reign, he learned from the experience and lessons of the previous dynasty and adopted an extremely friendly and even seemingly weak attitude towards Tang. He repeatedly carried out the imperial edict of the Tang Dynasty, or sent tens of thousands of Han Chinese back to the Tang Dynasty, or made a truce with Silla, and even took the initiative to "seal the territory map" to let the Tang Dynasty destroy the "Beijing view" established by the previous dynasty. But this does not mean that he gave in to the Tang Dynasty. Secretly stepped up military preparations, and "built the Great Wall for thousands of miles" to stop Tang Jun's attack. The best embodiment of this policy is Rong's performance when he met Chen Dade, the Tang ambassador. On the one hand, tell Chen Dade that "the pavilion is often served"; On the other hand, when meeting with Chen Dade, "Chen Chang, Gai Wei China, strives for self-improvement." Courtesy has an excuse not to use force against the Tang people, showing strength and making the Tang Dynasty dare not act rashly. This is Rong's policy towards the Tang Dynasty. It was this policy that made it impossible for Emperor Taizong, who was interested in conquering Goguryeo but didn't want to bear the name of belligerence, to March eastward. Therefore, it can be said that Rong's policy towards Tang was successful. However, after Gai Suwen came to power, he resolutely abandoned Wang's peripheral policy and adopted a tough attitude towards the Tang Dynasty. This new peripheral policy can be summarized in two sentences: First, the southern expedition to Silla. At the beginning of Gai Su-wen's administration, he resumed the Luo Li War, which had been interrupted for many years. He teamed up with Baekje to try his best to "never let Silla enter the DPRK" and personally "attacked Silla and defeated its two cities." The second is to exclude the western Datang. When an emissary from the Tang Dynasty ordered Gai Suwen to stop attacking Silla, he flatly refused and even "threatened the emissary with war"? In the prisoner's cave room. "Tang dynasty soldiers besieged, he also loyal opposition. On the surface, Gai Su-wen's peripheral policy is quite similar to the traditional peripheral policy since the longevity king. But it is only in the form of traditional peripheral policy, but it has not been realized. During the period of the longevity king, it was because the Central Plains was divided into north and south, and tribute was enough. As for the war in Haidong, it has nothing to do with this. But even so, the Koguryo dynasty carefully tried its best to satisfy the vanity of the Central Plains dynasty and never angered the Central Plains dynasty because of its bad reputation. As for making peace and apologizing for offending the Central Plains dynasty, it is even more numerous. Guy Sullivan lived in a completely different era from his predecessors. At that time, the Tang Dynasty unified the Central Plains, the Huayi family and world events were all related to the Tang Dynasty. Goguryeo's unprovoked invasion of Silla is tantamount to challenging the authority of Datang. What's more, Emperor Taizong had long wanted to crusade against Goguryeo, but he couldn't find a suitable excuse, and Su Wen, a beggar's gang, just provided him with an excuse. Therefore, the outbreak of war is inevitable. Second, I don't know the diplomatic response and miss the opportunity of peace. In addition to making mistakes in peripheral policies, Gai Su-wen also lacks the basic diplomatic ability to deal with specific issues. For example, after Emperor Taizong returned from the crusade, he gave the beggar a bow suit. Why did Emperor Taizong do this? This is because Emperor Taizong won every battle, but failed in his crusade to the East, and he wanted to make another big move, but he was worried that he would consume national strength for it. If you want to stop here, you will feel ashamed. However, this time, there was no white expedition, and Liaodong was conquered, and the valley was beaten, and the Koguryo one hundred and fifty thousand troops were annihilated. What is missing is, "but don't behead yourself as a thief." ".However, if he can be frightened and send an envoy to apologize, then personal expedition is not empty. This is what Emperor Taizong meant by "giving bow clothes". If Gai Suwen can act according to the photos, pretend to be afraid of power and serve the public, and send envoys to apologize, then Emperor Taizong can also cover up his shame. In this way, at least temporarily, the Tang Dynasty will not begin to prepare for the next crusade. However, after accepting the gift from Emperor Taizong, Gai Suwen "thanked those who didn't send envoys". This made Emperor Taizong feel very humiliated. "So I wrote a letter" Duangong "and prepared to go east again. At this point, Li Tang and both sides are more in the same boat than * * *. There is a special question that needs to be raised. Why did Su Wen, a beggar gang, flatly resist the Tang Dynasty and ignore the olive branch handed over by Emperor Taizong? Is he strong enough to despise Don? No, Goguryeo shocked the whole country during the Lushan War, so that there was no smoke for hundreds of miles nearby. After that, Tang Jun besieged Anyang for two months, but the beggars' sect did not dare to send a single soldier to come to the rescue, showing that it had lost its courage. So compromise with Tang will affect his prestige among his subjects? No, Goguryeo paid tribute to the Central Plains, and its monarch apologized to the Central Plains more than once, but never saw anyone lower his prestige. Moreover, later Gai Suwen himself, in the name of the treasure king, "sent envoys to the top of the matter, apologized and offered two mouths." "Unfortunately, it's too late to apologize at this time. In fact, the only reason why Gai Su-wen resisted the Tang Dynasty was to safeguard his power to conquer Silla. However, once Emperor Taizong was offended, he had to be fully prepared for the attack of the Tang Dynasty, so it was difficult to spare no effort to levy Silla and make contributions to opening up the territory. In fact, since the Tang-Li War broke out, Gai Su-wen only joined Baekje to "invade Silla's northern territory and take 33 cities" when Yonghui was fully recuperating in the Tang Dynasty in the sixth year. Besides, there is no chance to play Silla. And this meager profit is hardly proportional to its losses. Therefore, it can be said that Gai Suwen only insisted on the strength of the country in name, but actually did not bring any benefits to the country, but brought endless disasters to the country. Therefore, his peripheral policy is wrong and his diplomatic ability is inferior. From what has been discussed above, we can draw the conclusion that Gai Suwen is by no means a national hero, because he has neither done anything useful for the country and the people, nor created any brilliant achievements that make the Koguryo nation proud. Of course, during his reign, he did always take a tough attitude towards the Tang Dynasty. However, a great politician should judge the situation and strive for all the interests that can be won for the country, instead of blindly and recklessly betting on the fate of the nation. Therefore, if Gai Suwen is called a "national hero" because he dared to resist the Tang Dynasty, it is simply a blasphemy against this sacred title. However, if Su Wen, a beggar, is the chief culprit of Koguryo's national subjugation, concrete analysis is needed. Because Koguryo is a distinctive nation, the process of its continuous development and growth is also the process of its continuous sinicization, so integration with the Han nationality is its inevitable destination. At that time, the Tang Dynasty ruled the country, and Emperor Taizong himself was even more ambitious. Unifying Liaodong is his long-cherished wish. Moreover, Goguryeo's prosperity makes it feel that everyone else is sleeping under collapse, so the Tang-Li war will break out sooner or later. From this point of view, it is unfair to blame the death of Goguryeo on the beggar Su Wen. However, Gai Su-wen's various perversions did lead to Goguryeo's up-and-down centrifugation and the advancement of the Tang-Li War, thus accelerating the demise of Goguryeo. From this perspective, it is not unreasonable to call the beggar Su Wen the chief culprit of Koguryo's national subjugation. Throughout his life, Gai Su-wen can be called a "traitor". But its rape is not enough to hide evil, and its male is not enough to accomplish anything. Therefore, he is not a successful leader.