Chapter 27 Eliminate Xiqin Xueju

In the autumn of the fourteenth year of Daye, Yu Wenhua, who fled from the battlefield of Dongdu and retreated to Wei County, encountered the third attempted mutiny. Yu Wenhua was puzzled, why this damn mutiny always haunted him like a nightmare? Fortunately, his vigilance has always been very high, and his eyes and ears are all over the army, so he can always get news at the moment before the mutiny. This time the person who rebelled was his confidant Zhang Kai. After Yu Wenhuaji received the secret report, he quickly arrested Zhang Kai and his followers, and executed them all.Although he was able to save himself from danger every time, Yu Wenhuaji's mood was getting more and more depressed day by day.

Because the hundreds of thousands of troops brought out from Jiangdu died and fled, there are not many left; moreover, there is the powerful Dou Jiande in the north, and the brave Xu Shiji in the south, and the Yuwen brothers can only hide in this corner of Wei County. , Seeing that the situation is getting worse, but they have nothing to do. In the depressed and idle days, the Yuwen brothers had no choice but to drink to soothe their sorrows all day long.Every time he gets drunk, Yu Wenhuaji will stare at a pair of blood-red eyes and say to Yuwen Zhiji: "I didn't know about this thing at first, it was all your arrangement, forcing me to be the boss. It's good now, what are you doing?" Even if it doesn’t work, the soldiers and horses flee day by day, and they also bear the notoriety of killing the king, which is unacceptable under the heavens, and the family is about to be exterminated, and it’s all your fault!” After speaking, he hugged his two sons and cried.

Yuwen Zhiji jumped up when he heard it, and said angrily: "When things went well, why didn't you say such things? Now that something bad is going to happen, you put all the shit on my head! Why don't you just Kill me and surrender to Dou Jiande?" During these days in Wei County, the Yuwen brothers just hugged the wine jar and scolded all day long, and they couldn't do anything else. Some people in the tribe kept fleeing.Seeing that his doomsday is coming and his dream of being an emperor is about to be shattered, Yu Wenhua looked up to the sky and sighed: "Life is mortal, so why can't I be an emperor for a day?"

Die if you get addicted! Yu Wenhuaji went all out. At the end of September of this year, Yu Wenhua forced the puppet emperor Yang Hao to drink a cup of poisoned wine, and then ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. As soon as Li Mi entered Tongguan, envoys sent by Li Yuan came to greet him in an endless stream.Li Mi was overjoyed, and said to the left and right: "I have millions of people. Once I am disarmed and returned to the Tang Dynasty, hundreds of cities in Shandong know that I am here. Once they send envoys to recruit them, they will come back one after another. My contribution is comparable to that of Dou Rong in the Eastern Han Dynasty." (In 29 A.D., the land of Hexi was attached to Liu Xiu, and he served successively as Jizhou Mu, Da Sikong, etc.) It’s not too small, how can you not give me a prime minister!”

On October 8th, Li Mi led his troops to Chang'an. However, Li Mi did not see the expected grand welcome ceremony. Not only that, the department in charge of reception was also quite indifferent to them, and the food and accommodation conditions provided were not good, and some soldiers could not even eat for a whole day.You can't even get enough to eat, so why talk about wealth?The soldiers were very angry and full of complaints. What made Li Mi even more disappointed and angry was that a few days later, although Li Yuan granted him the titles of Shangzhu and Xing Guogong, he inexplicably gave him the position of Guangluqing.The so-called Guangluqing is called the Minister of Food and Beverage of the court at a good level, and is in charge of the canteen at a bad level.

Since he was in charge of the cafeteria, of course none of the civil and military officials of the imperial court looked at him seriously, and some high-ranking officials even asked him for bribes to make him pay homage to the pier and burn incense. Li Mi's anger was really mixed. However, Li Yuan was very affectionate towards him on the surface, every time he met, he would greet him with a smile, and he would always talk about his younger siblings, and even acted as a matchmaker himself, marrying his cousin Dugu Shi to Li Mi. Li Mi reluctantly became Guanglu Qing who manages the cafeteria, and bit the bullet to marry this Dugu who doesn't know what he looks like.But he would tell himself countless times every day—this is not my destination.

But where is your home? Li Mi felt extremely at a loss. For the Tang Dynasty, its biggest threat in Guanzhong is undoubtedly Xiqin Xueju. This is a man who snores and sleeps beside the couch.The defeat of Qianshuiyuan suddenly amplified Xue Ju's snoring, so loud that even the people of Chang'an were terrified.If this person is not dead, Li Yuan will never sleep soundly.Fortunately, on July 9th the Tang army was defeated in Qianshuiyuan, and on August 9th Xue Ju died—he died of illness. This is really God bless Li Tang! In the competition for Sui Lu, Li Yuan had just lost a point, but God sent off Xue Ju with a red card without further ado, which was obviously partial.After Xue Ju's death, Qin Prince Xue Renguo succeeded Qin Emperor.Although the game continued, Li Yuan had nothing to worry about.

Because the strength of this substitute player is not good, and he is far behind his father. Li Yuan heard that the new head of the Xue family was mean and ungrateful. When he was the crown prince, he fought openly and secretly with the generals. Although he took over from his father now, most of the generals did not buy him.In addition, not long after Xue Ju died, Hao Yuan, the veteran minister who sought the country, also went with Xue Ju because of his grief, so Li Yuan expected that the Xue family's fortune would soon be ruined by Xue Renguo. In September of the first year of Wude (618 A.D.), Qin Wang Li Shimin led his army to attack Gaochai City where Xue Renguo was stationed.Xue Renguo ordered Zong Luohu to go out of the city to challenge him, but Li Shimin closed the camp and refused to fight.The generals asked for orders one after another. Li Shimin said: "Our army is newly defeated and its morale is depressed. The thieves are proud of their victory and have the heart to despise me. Therefore, our army should stick to the camp and wait for it. When your morale is high, you will be able to defeat them in a single battle.”

Li Shimin then sent an order to the army: Those who dare to speak out, beheaded! The two sides confronted each other for more than 60 days. Finally, the food in Gaochai City was exhausted. General Liang Hulang of the Qin Army and others led their troops to surrender to the Tang Army.Li Shimin knew that the Qin army had left its soldiers, so he ordered the general Liang Shi to garrison Qianshuiyuan alone to lure the enemy into battle.Zong Luohu was overjoyed, and indeed he dispatched all the elites to launch a fierce attack on Liang Shi's barracks.According to Li Shimin's prior arrangement, Liang Shi could not defend himself.The barracks were cut off from water for several days, and Liang Shi's troops did not enter a drop of water for several days, but they still stubbornly repelled the more violent attacks of the Qin army.

After several days of fierce fighting, Li Shimin decided that the Qin army was at the end of its strength, so he issued an order for a general attack, and the Tang army immediately rushed out.Zong Luohu returned to the army in a hurry, and the two sides fought a decisive battle in Qianshuiyuan.Li Shimin personally led dozens of cavalry to attack the enemy's position first, and the army followed closely behind, launching a fierce attack and beheading thousands of Qin soldiers.Zong Luohu's troops began to retreat, and Li Shimin was going to lead more than 2,000 light cavalry to pursue them.His uncle, Dou Gui, quickly grabbed Li Shimin's reins and tried hard to dissuade him: "Xue Renguo is still defending Jiancheng. Although our army has broken the clan, we must not advance lightly. Please stand still and wait and see what happens."

Li Shimin waved his hand and said: "This battle is the result of my long-awaited battle. Now it is the time to break the bamboo. Don't miss this opportunity. Uncle, don't talk about it!" The hoof crow immediately flew towards Gaocheng City like an arrow leaving the string. (White-hoofed Wu is one of the famous "Six Horses of Zhaoling" in history; it is said that its whole body is pure black, but its four hooves are white. "White-hoofed" means "less sweat" in Turkic, and it is a symbol of respect; The praise written for the white-hoofed crow is: "Relying on the sky and long sword, chasing the wind and galloping feet, towering the bridle to level the Long, returning to the saddle to settle Shu.") Li Shimin led his army to the foot of Gaochai city and camped on the bank of Jing River; Xue Renguo dispatched his army to line up at the city. A moment later, Xue Renguo's Xiao general Hungan and others led their troops out of the battle and rushed towards the Tang army's camp. It looked like another battle.The soldiers of the Tang army are all ready to fight.But the next scene was beyond everyone's expectations—Qin Jun threw down his weapons as soon as he arrived at the front of the battle, and all surrendered to Tang Jun. Li Shimin smiled. This is exactly the result he was determined to achieve after suffering for more than sixty days. But Xue Renguo almost cried.He knew that these generals were unreliable, but he didn't expect them to quit at this juncture. The helpless Xue Renguo had no choice but to take the rest of the troops back to the city and stick to it.At sunset, all the Tang Dynasty army arrived at the foot of Gaochai City and surrounded it.In the middle of the night, the guards of the Qin army realized that Xue Renguo was in danger, and rushed out of the city to surrender. On the morning of November 8, Xue Renguo, with a pale face and red and swollen eyes, came to Li Shimin in despair.Behind him is an open city gate. The Qin army all surrendered that day.Li Shimin received more than 10,000 elite soldiers and 50,000 male and female residents of Gaochai City.The generals congratulated Li Shimin one after another, but they couldn't help asking a question: "Although the king defeated Zong Luohu in the field battle, Xue Renguo still defended the fortified city. You don't bring infantry, you don't bring siege equipment, you only lead a few Qingqi is approaching the city, everyone thinks it is difficult to conquer, why did they manage to take Gaoqiang?" Li Shimin smiled and said: "Zong Luohu's men are all from Longxi. The generals are brave and the soldiers are fierce. I just broke them by surprise. I didn't gain much, and I didn't destroy their vitality. If they move slowly, let them retreat to the city. Xue Renguo To appease them and reorganize them, it will not be easy to deal with. That's why I was eager to attack, forcing them to collapse and flee back to Longxi. As a result, Gao Qi's defenses were naturally weak, Xue Renguo was too frightened to respond in time, and the morale of the army was slackened , can only surrender. This is a sure thing, can't you see it?" Everyone was amazed, and they all said that King Qin's strategy and courage were very accessible. After taking over the soldiers of the Qin army, Li Shimin did not reorganize them, but still handed over the surrendered soldiers to Xue Renguo's brother and Zong Luohu and other surrendered generals, and often shot and hunted with them without any suspicion. The generals who surrendered in the Western Qin Dynasty were originally forced to surrender because of the situation. It can be said that they have not surrendered their hearts, but now they have personally felt Li Shimin's magnanimity and mind beyond ordinary people. To die for it.In addition, Li Shimin also took over Xue Renguo's Huangmen servant, Xiu Liang, who was quite prestigious and became one of the "Eighteen Scholars of the Prince of Qin's Mansion" in the future. On November 22, Li Shimin's class teacher returned to Chang'an and beheaded Xue Renguo in the downtown area.A few days later, Li Shimin was promoted by Li Yuan to the title of Taiwei and Minister of the Provincial Department of Shanxi Province because of his meritorious service.It was at this time that Li Shimin's outstanding military talent began to be displayed in front of the world.No one would doubt that, given time, this young Second Prince would surely become the most outstanding military commander in the Tang Empire. Xue Ju and his son, who ruled Longxi separately, were completely out of the game.From the beginning of the army to the defeat, it took only one year and seven months. There was no one else snoring beside Li Yuan's couch. But there was a person by his side, which caused him some troubles in the last days of the year. This person is Li Mi.