The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 916 Seeing Through the Plot
The next morning, Gu Rentu returned to the Turkic army camp at the foot of Yinshan Mountain, entered Li Yan's tent, and reported to Li Yan about the situation of his trip to Xueyantuo.

Upon learning that Gu Rentu had extorted a large amount of supplies, Li Yan praised him highly.

Gu Rentu spoke highly of Yinan: "Your Majesty, it seems that Yinan is sincere in his surrender. Facing my questioning, Yinan was very frightened. In front of me, he asked me to apologize to you on his behalf many times, and also explained the reason why he did not come to see you."

Afterwards, Gu Rentu repeated Botie's reasons and finally said honestly: "Your Majesty, I think what Yi Nan said makes sense. Now that we are about to go to war, we should focus on the war and stop arguing with him about those red tapes."

Li Yan sighed secretly. Only a simple-minded person like Gu Rentu would believe Yi Nan's excuse. In the Central Plains of this era, the cultural literacy was not high, not to mention the grassland people, who lived a primitive life, ate raw meat and drank blood, and could be said to have relatively simple minds.

Only some upper-class nobles, who knew how to open their eyes to the world, would send their sons to the Central Plains to study. For example, when Yi Nan was a child, his father Chu Luo personally brought gifts to him in an attempt to become a disciple of Zhang Xuansu and learn the art of ruling the tribe.

Therefore, except for the descendants of a few tribal leaders who have learned some knowledge, most people have limited knowledge and simple ideas.

Any scholar from the Central Plains, as long as he is not afraid of the harsh environment, can thrive on the grassland and be regarded as a wise man.

A general like Gu Rentu, who was born a slave, is even more unaware of the wickedness of human nature. Although he is now a general commanding a large army, he is actually just a messenger of Li Yan and does not have the wisdom and ability to stand on his own.

Li Yan sighed and asked, "Gu Rentu, you went there in person. Did you observe clearly what the king had told you to do before?"

"Yes, my king. How dare I ignore something you personally ordered me to do?"

Gu Rentu began to recall: "Yinan's camp is stationed at the foot of the Helan Mountains outside Lingzhou City, separated from Lingzhou City by the Yellow River, forming a horn. From the high ground where Yinan's tent is located, we can see the Tang army flag on the top of Lingzhou City."

"The Yinan army of 300,000 men set up two huge camps."

"One in the south and one in the north. Both camps have 150,000 people. The northern camp has a one-meter-deep trench around it. The wagons are placed around the edge as a barrier, and there are tents in the middle. The southern camp only has some two- to three-meter-high wooden fences, nothing else."

"However, Lingzhou City was built along the Yellow River. Although the Yellow River over there is the main road, both banks are built with stones, with a narrow river in the middle. The water is high and the waves are fast. The deep river water that cannot be seen to the bottom is rushing down with mud and sand."

"It's impossible to wade across the river. If you throw a big rock, it disappears in the blink of an eye."

"Even sailing is impossible. Only the suspension bridge outside Lingzhou City can connect us. Unlike here, the Yellow River beach outside Fengzhou City is shallow and messy, and the army can wade across."

Li Yan's eyes flickered, and he asked, "Such a strategic location is easy to defend but difficult to attack. If I ask you to attack Lingzhou City, what will you do?"

"impossible."

Gu Rentu said decisively: "Your Majesty, that river is the only way. Unless you sneak into the interior, seize the suspension bridge, and then let the army cross the river, no matter how large the army is, it will not be able to cross it."

"If that's the case, then let me ask you, how can Yi Nan capture Lingzhou and cut off the retreat of the Tang army?"

Gu Rentu was stunned by the question. He rolled his eyes and finally said tentatively: "Your Majesty, he is still the minister Tangzi. Do you think the Tang army in Lingzhou will invite him over in the name of reinforcement?"

Li Yan looked at Gu Rentu like a fool and shook his head. "Yinan is scheming and ambitious. Although he is nominally a minister of the Tang Dynasty, he is actually unruly and disobedient. He has long been alienated from the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty did not trust him much before."

"It is only because of our pressure that the Tang Dynasty is temporarily tolerating it. Moreover, Hou Junji will definitely inform the Tang Dynasty of Turbuda's intentions. Knowing that Yi Nan may cooperate with us from inside and outside, they will be more cautious."

"How could he possibly transfer troops into the interior of the country? Is there no more troops in the Tang Dynasty?"

No matter how dumb Gu Rentu was, he understood what Li Yan meant, and asked in surprise: "My king, if Yi Nan couldn't capture Lingzhou, then why did he tell us that he wanted to attack Datang from both sides?"

"It's not about attacking the Tang Dynasty from both sides, but attacking us together with the Tang Dynasty?" Li Yan said slowly.

Gu Rentu's expression suddenly changed, and he stood up suddenly, his face became fierce: "My king, you are saying that Yi Nan has evil intentions and lured us to the south to harm us."

"Yes, Yi Nan is quite scheming."

Li Yan explained: "In our previous battle, we killed 30,000 to 40,000 people from his tribe, annexed 100,000 surrendered soldiers, and occupied his Irtysh River Valley. Not only did he not care, he also gave us a large amount of gold and silver, and brought his tribe to join us."

"Gurentu, you have lived on the grassland for so long, have you ever seen someone so generous and forgiving? If Yi Nan was such an honest man, how could he have conquered such a vast northwest region in just five or six years?"

Seeing Gu Rentu's grim expression, Li Yan continued, "But we are far away in the heart of the grassland, and he can't do anything to us, so he lured us south in the name of attacking the Tang Dynasty, and then provoked a war between us and the Tang Dynasty, using the Tang Dynasty to weaken us."

"Once we start a war with the Tang Dynasty without any hesitation, he will just sit back and watch the fight."

"When we are caught in a fierce battle with the Tang Dynasty and suffer heavy losses, and we ask him for help, he will come to our rear in the name of support and launch a surprise attack. We will repeat the fate of Jie Li in the Battle of Dingxiang six years ago."

"By then, he will lead the combined forces of the Tang army and the Xueyantuo army into the grasslands, completely destroy our Turkic Khanate and replace it." "No matter how much I can give him, it can't compare to the position of the Great Khan of the grasslands."

Gu Rentu's face turned green and red at this time. He had thought that he had become more powerful and had reached a high level because of the smooth sailing and the expansion of his army in the past period of time. Now it seemed that he was being played around by his ulterior motives.

If the Right Wise King had not seen through the other party's trick, he would have been waiting for a catastrophic disaster.

The big man looked at Li Yan with shame on his face: "My king, when did you discover Yi Nan's trick?"

"When Turbuda appeared in front of me, I knew what Yi Nan wanted to do."

"Uh"

Gu Rentu looked surprised: "There is nothing wrong with what Tuer said? How did you see that?"

'I know he thinks that, because I think that too!'

Li Yan looked at Gu Rentu's honest face and said helplessly, "It's hard for me to explain this to you. It's also hard for you to understand with your IQ."

Gu Rentu was deeply shocked this time: "Since you have already seen through Yi Nan's trick, why do you still want to go south? Why don't we move our camp north now and return early before we fight with the Tang Dynasty?"

"Gu Rentu, retreating in the face of battle and running away, is this your way?"

Seeing that Gu Rentu actually wanted to escape, Li Yan's face changed and he scolded him: "I've told you long ago that those who are in a high position rely on brains, not courage?"

"Before, you could lead 10,000 or 20,000 men and charge into battle, but now we have hundreds of thousands of men under our command. It's up to the commander to deploy troops, anticipate the enemy's moves, observe the enemy's situation, and control the overall situation."

"Even if I didn't see the evil intentions of the Yi man, I can guess most of them."

"As for you, this time I asked you to go in person. I want to ask you, since the war is about to start, have the soldiers of the Xueyantuo tribe stepped up their training? Are military supplies stored in the camp? Is the flow of personnel frequent? Are they carrying out the preparations before the war?"

"The northern part of Xueyantuo's camp has trenches and carriages blocking it, which is good for defense but not for attack, while the southern part has only wooden fences and is flat, which is good for cavalry to assemble quickly."

"From the camps he set up, we can tell that he is far more wary of us than the Tang Dynasty, defending the north and attacking the south. Otherwise, why would he focus more on the north and less on the south? If not to guard against us, then who is he guarding against? As a general, we must use these clues to infer the enemy's intentions."

"These are all right in front of you, but you turn a blind eye to them. How can you judge who is the enemy and who is us?"

These words left Gu Rentu speechless, his face filled with shame, and he knelt silently on the ground.

"You were just one person before, but now you are the commander of hundreds of thousands of troops. So many brothers have entrusted their lives to you, and they also have parents, wives and children. If you make a mistake in judgment once, countless people on the grassland will lose their loved ones, children will lose their fathers, and wives will lose their husbands."

"No matter how good you are at fighting, you can kill ten or a hundred people, but can you kill thousands or tens of thousands of people?"

"If you are surrounded, can you rely on your own courage to rescue these soldiers who are eager to go home from thousands of troops? And hand them over to their relatives?"

"Since ancient times, responsibility has brought power. When you are given a promotion, you don't refuse it at all. But do you know that if you can't shoulder these responsibilities, you will be crushed to pieces by the heavy responsibility like a mountain."

Seeing Gu Rentu lying on the ground with a pale face, his burly body looked like a black bear even when he was kneeling there.

But Gu Zhi'e Lai, at this moment, was like a child who had made a mistake, with a look of panic on his face.

Li Yan also sighed. The current situation was the result of his own deliberate indulgence. Li Yan was also very hesitant about whether to train and educate his subordinates. He didn't want these people to be like the generals in the Central Plains, who were good at planning and had extraordinary talents.

The people of the grassland are blessed with the strongest war resource of this era - war horses. If they are also equipped with brains and ideas, and can produce large numbers of outstanding military commanders, it would be catastrophic for the Central Plains.

In the process of ruling the grassland, Li Yan also consciously selected those who could fight but had no brains, or those who were slightly smart but could not go to the battlefield.

He isolated the civil and military officials, and acted as a mediator between them, thus propping up the upper-level ruling structure.

With Li Yan's talent, he could have designed an upper-level management system that was suitable for the grassland, but he turned a blind eye to it.

Use the most superficial and simple method to manage the Turkic Khanate in a general way.

I am afraid that once these people learn and see the efficient operation of the excellent ruling system at the grassroots level, the super combat power that will burst out will be inherited. When I leave the grassland, or even leave this world, how can the people of the Central Plains resist the powerful enemy?

(End of this chapter)