Chapter 31 1. Li Shimin sometimes misses

After Li Yuan proclaimed himself emperor in Chang'an in May 618 AD, he immediately attracted the attention of anti-kings everywhere at that time. Although they knew that this day would come sooner or later, when they really started to face this day, everyone's reaction was different. same.Some people are overwhelmed and can't concentrate their energy, such as Li Mi; some people turn a blind eye and just want to protect themselves, such as Yu Wenhuaji; while some people can't bear it, the snoring on the side of the bed makes him unable to sleep peacefully, and he is determined to calm down Li Yuan was reconciled. This was Xue Ju, the overlord of the Western Qin Dynasty who proclaimed himself emperor in Qinzhou in 617 A.D. before Li Yuan.

When Li Mi, Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande and others were fighting, Xue Ju did not sit idle and watch the battle. He achieved great development by continuously annexing small groups of rebels.Xue Ju was entrenched to the west of Li Yuan in Guanzhong, and he attempted to unite with Liang Shidu to the north of Li Yuan to form a pincer attack on Li Yuan.However, due to Li Yuan's active alliance, he failed to reach an agreement with Liang Shidu. In view of this, Xue Ju decided to attack Li Yuan alone. Xue Ju came to Jingzhou, the land of Tang, and Li Yuan solemnly said to Li Shimin: "Now that the new dynasty has just been established, all foundations are not yet stable, so this time Xue Ju took the opportunity to attack, we must not give him any chance."

Li Shimin also said with confidence: "Although Xue Ju has a strong military force, he is cruel and does not care for his subordinates. Not many people are willing to fight for him sincerely. This time, I will definitely teach him a lesson and win for Datang." victory!" For this son who has been with him for many years, Li Yuan is very confident.With Li Shimin's strategic wisdom at that time, he could definitely fight Xue Ju.Therefore, he ordered Li Shimin to bring an army of 100,000 to Jingzhou, and formed a confrontation with Xue Ju.In order to ensure a sure chance of winning this time, Li Yuan also asked Liu Wenjing, Yin Kaishan and others to go with the army to help Li Shimin make suggestions.

After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, a group of people who played an important role in Li Yuan's rise of troops and enthronement were all reused. Liu Wenjing, Pei Ji, Yin Kaishan and others all held high positions.They are comrades-in-arms who take care of each other and share weal and woe in times of crisis, but they can't be as honest as before after victory, because the distribution of benefits leads to everyone's greed.In front of this inner demon, former friends have become enemies now, and Liu Wenjing, Pei Ji and others are seriously at odds.Liu Wenjing was very resentful because she couldn't understand Li Yuan's heavy use of Pei Ji and put herself under him.Li Yuan was not ignorant of this situation, and he hoped that Liu Wenjing could gain some inner balance by meeting the enemy and making contributions.But Liu Wenjing didn't appreciate it. He said to Yin Kaishan: "When we fought with the emperor, Pei Ji just stayed in the tent and listened to the news. Now he occupies a high position in the court, and let the real heroes obey him. Really shameless!"

Yin Kaishan smiled embarrassingly. As a general, he is not familiar with the struggle between these advisers. Between Pei Ji and Liu Wenjing, he can't tell who is right and who is wrong, so he upholds the principle that no one should be offended. The principle is simple and honest: "The world is not stable today, as long as you make more contributions, I think the emperor will appreciate you!" Liu Wenjing said angrily: "Is there still little credit for my construction? It's just that the emperor was blinded by traitors and couldn't see it." The two complained all the way, and when they came to Jingzhou, they followed the generals to the conference hall to discuss the strategy of defending against the enemy with the chief general Li Shimin.Li Shimin said: "Today I went to the city gate to observe. Xue Ju's troops camped in a neat manner, which shows that their military discipline is still very strict. The combat effectiveness of this army is very strong, and we cannot underestimate it."

Yin Kaishan said: "We are here for the first time now, and the soldiers all hope to fight Xue Ju as soon as possible to show our military power of the Tang Dynasty." But Li Shimin shook his head and said: "In terms of strength, Xue Ju's troops are stronger than ours. I once defeated him in Longxi. This man is very cunning, so we can't fight by force. It is best to outwit him." Seeing that his proposal did not get Li Shimin's support, Yin Kaishan stopped arguing.It was the young general Li Anyuan who stood up and said: "I think General Yin's words are reasonable, we should fight Xue Ju first with vigor, and we can also test the opponent's bottom to see if he is really an elite soldier this time. "

At this moment, Liu Wenjing said: "Now we are no different than before. In the past, we just wanted to survive. Now as long as we can keep our wealth, we don't need to fight to the death. Everyone should calm down first." His strange remarks made everyone suddenly quiet.Li Shimin also heard something in Liu Wenjing's words, so he asked humbly: "What do you think should be done?" Liu Wenjing said: "We have led an army of 100,000 here, but it is absolutely unreasonable to be a coward. The general should not dampen his prestige, but instead increase the enemy's ambition, making Xue Ju think that his military might Powerful, it seems that my Tang Dynasty is afraid of him. If you want me to say, we should make a quick decision, send back the good news as soon as possible, and return to the court."

Yin Kaishan and Li Anyuan nodded in support of Liu Wenjing.Li Shimin couldn't help frowning. According to today's observation, he felt that it was not Tang Jun who was in high morale at the moment, but Xue Jun. Therefore, he originally wanted to avoid Xue Ju's vigor and fight again when he was tired.But unexpectedly, Liu Wenjing, Yin Kaishan and others all hoped to fight quickly. While hesitating, a cable newspaper suddenly sent a message: Xue Ju's army does not have much food and grass, at most enough for ten days.Li Shimin said happily: "It seems that Xue Ju came here this time to fight us quickly, so he didn't prepare much food and grass. If this is the case, then we will stick to the city and let him run out of food and grass. What do you think about fighting again when you are exhausted?"

The few people in the main battle saw the news from the informant, and Li Shimin's words were obviously correct, so they had no choice but to obey Li Shimin's decision.However, Tang Jun's internal opinions were not unified, and the news quickly spread to Xue Ju's ears. He and Hao Ai, the mastermind, couldn't help being delighted when they heard the news.Hao Ai said: "The enemy's disharmony, this is a great opportunity for us. We should take advantage of this moment to march forward and defeat the Tang army by surprise." Xue Ju agreed with Hao Ai's suggestion, and immediately ordered people to take this opportunity to scold him every day, not only humiliating Tang Jun as a coward, but also targeting everyone in Tang General.

Li Shimin was familiar with these tricks for a long time, so he ignored them and just closed the gate of the city tightly.But due to the exhaustion of the journey and worries about military affairs, he contracted malaria and fell down.He thought to himself: just take advantage of these few days to rest and recuperate, and then open the door to fight when Xue Ju runs out of food and grass! However, Liu Wenjing and the others couldn't wait any longer. The resentment he had accumulated due to Li Yuan's unfair treatment and the fact that Li Shimin rejected his proposal in the meeting room made him feel aggrieved. He was scolded by Xue Ju every day for the past few days , making him even more restless.When Li Shimin fell ill, he patrolled the camp with his entourage. When he came to the gate of the camp, he happened to meet Xue Ju who sent someone to scold him.After hearing the other party laugh for a while, he said: "I think Tang Jun is all shrinking heads, and that Liu Wenjing is even more useless! No wonder he is not reused!" This sentence just hit Liu Wenjing's heart, and I couldn't help but feel angry. .Li Anyuan, who had been following him all this time, couldn't be more angry, and said to him: "We are now strong and brave, why should we be so angry!"

Hearing this, Liu Wenjing added fuel to the flames. He believed that his seniority was higher than Li Shimin, so he didn't care about going back to the camp to ask for orders. With a wave of the sword in his hand, he ordered Li Anyuan, Liu Hongji and others to gather troops, open the gate of the camp and rush out.After a while, they fought with Xue Ju's army. Li Shimin, who was sick in bed, was shocked when he heard the news that Liu Wenjing had opened the gate of the camp to fight Xue Ju, and said to Yin Kaishan: "We are already at a disadvantage in fighting hastily!" Yin Kaishan was also stunned by Liu Wenjing's impulsive decision. He said: "Xue Ju is very well prepared. We have always insisted on the strategy of not fighting. Now we suddenly start a war. Why don't we quickly mobilize other troops to make up for it!" Li Shimin shook his head and said: "If you make amends now, you can only add to the mistakes! You rush to the front line immediately, ask for gold to withdraw the troops, and let Liu Wenjing and others immediately retreat back to the camp and close the gate of the city. No matter how Xue Ju scolds, You are not allowed to fight! Go!" Yin Kaishan took the order and hurried out of the city with his men and horses to see that the part of the army led by Liu Wenjing had been beaten back by Xue Ju and was about to be overwhelmed.While he was busy ordering Ming Jin to withdraw his troops, he rushed to the formation and ordered the troops to withdraw.Unexpectedly, as soon as Yin Kaishan left the city gate, he saw enemy troops rushing out from both sides, and the way back to the city had been cut off.In addition, the soldiers rushed out of the city and were not ready for battle, so they were captured by Xue Ju in a short while. Liu Wenjing and Li Anyuan were tied up under Xue Ju's tent. Seeing that another Yin Kaishan was also tied up, he couldn't help feeling ashamed and angry.But here Li Shimin heard the news in the camp, the powerful general was captured, and he was sick in bed, he couldn't help sighing in his heart: It seems that the general situation is no longer, and we can't force it, so he ordered people to gather troops and retreat back to Chang'an in a hurry. In Li Shimin's history of war records, this battle with Xue Ju is one of the few losing battles.Whether the defeat this time was Li Shimin's fault, under Li Yuan's questioning, Li Shimin still took the initiative to bear the crime of negligent precautions and lax military management.Because of this lesson, Li ShiMin realized that the strategy of war is very important, and how to use the weapons in his hands is even more important.Running an army requires more than high morale and unity. Only by having a united and vigilant army so that every order is implemented can the final victory of the battle be guaranteed.The defeat in this battle can be regarded as a lesson for the young Li Shimin, allowing him to be vigilant at any time in future wars and maintain the strongest combat effectiveness.