Chapter 34 Datang Dynasty is in emergency across the board

In the second year of Wude, the Li Tang Dynasty won without fighting on the northwest battlefield, lost without fighting on the north battlefield, and lost without fighting on the east battlefield. Since the spring of this year, Dou Jiande launched a fierce attack on the Tang army stationed in Hebei, causing the Tang army to retreat steadily, without the power to fight back.In the second month of leap, Dou Jiande, who had just wiped out Yuwenhuaji, quickly captured Xingzhou (now Xingtai City, Hebei Province), and captured Chen Junbin, the governor of Xingzhou in the Tang Dynasty.On June 3, captured Cangzhou (now southwest of Yanshan County, Hebei).At the beginning of August, Dou Jiande personally led an army of more than 100,000 to attack Mingzhou (now southeast of Yongnian County, Hebei), and Li Shentong, king of Tang Huaian, retreated to Xiangzhou (now Anyang City, Henan).On August 11, Dou Jiande conquered Mingzhou, and Yuan Ziqian, the governor of Mingzhou in Tang Dynasty, surrendered.On August 19th, Dou Jiande directed his troops at Xiangzhou, and Li Shentong fled to Liyang (now Junxian County, Henan Province) again, and joined Li Shiji.On September 4th, Dou Jiande broke through Xiangzhou and beheaded Lu Min, the governor of Tang Xiangzhou.On September 25th, Dou Jiande captured Zhaozhou (now Baixiang County, Hebei), and captured Zhang Zhiang, the governor of Zhaozhou in the Tang Dynasty, and Zhang Daoyuan, the consolation envoy.

So far, almost all the cities of the Tang Dynasty in Hebei fell into the hands of Dou Jiande. In October, Dou Jiande led the army to continue to advance southward, approaching Weizhou (now east of Qixian County, Henan).Thirty miles away from Liyang, the forward troops led by Dou Jiande encountered Li Shiji's general Qiu Xiaogang's 300 outpost cavalry.Qiu Xiaogang has always been brave and good at fighting, and he was the first to attack.Dou Jiande was defeated, but fortunately the army arrived later, and Dou Jiande turned the corner.Qiu Xiaogang was outnumbered, and was beheaded by Xia's army, and none of his men survived.

Enraged by the surprise attack, Dou Jiande ordered the army to besiege Li Yang and quickly conquered it.Li Shentong, King of Huai'an, Wei Zheng, Li Shiji's father, Li Gai (Xu Gai), the father of Li Shiji, and Princess Tang Tong'an (Li Yuan's sister), were all captured.Only Li Shiji broke out with hundreds of cavalry and crossed the Yellow River south. But Li Shiji reined in as soon as he crossed the Yellow River. Because his father is in the hands of Dou Jiande, this makes him feel at ease no matter what.After several days of conflicts and struggles, Li Shiji finally turned around and returned to Liyang to surrender to Dou Jiande.

Dou Jiande was overjoyed, and immediately appointed Li Shiji as General Zuo Xiaowei, who still guarded Liyang, but kept Li Gai by his side as a hostage.At the same time, Wei Zheng was also appointed by Dou Jiande as a housekeeper. Hearing that Liyang had fallen, the guard of Tang Weizhou also surrendered to Dou Jiande.A few days later, the servant of Wang Gui, the governor of Huazhou in Tang Dynasty, assassinated Wang Gui and dedicated his head to Dou Jiande.Dou Jiande said: "It's treason for a slave to kill his master! How could I, Dou Jiande, accept a person like you?" Then he ordered someone to behead the slave and send Wang Gui's head back to Huazhou.The soldiers and civilians in Huazhou were immediately very grateful, and they all admired Dou Jiande's character. On the same day, they made an appointment to ask Dou Jiande's envoys to surrender.Subsequently, the neighboring prefectures and counties, as well as Xu Yuanlang, the leader of the mutineers who were entrenched in Yanzhou (now Yanzhou City, Shandong Province) at that time, all surrendered.

On October 24th, Dou Jiande, who had won a great victory, returned to Mingzhou (now southeast of Yongnian County, Hebei Province) to start the construction of the Wanchun Palace, and then moved the capital of the Xia Dynasty from Leshou in the north to Mingzhou near Henan. , in order to facilitate the further management of the Central Plains. When Dou Jiande was invincible in Hebei, Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang were also sweeping Hebei, as if they were in no man's land. At this time, the Tang Dynasty can be said to be in a hurry across the board.Regrettably, on the Hedong battlefield, Pei Ji, who was the general manager of the Tang Jinzhou Road, was passive and cowardly, and had no general strategy.He continued to order and urge the few unoccupied cities such as Yuzhou (now northeast of Yuncheng, Shanxi) and Taizhou (southwest of Wanrong County, Shanxi) to burn down all the villages, grain, grass, and supplies on the periphery of the city, and then drive the people into the city.

Pei Ji's actions quickly aroused the panic and resentment of the people in Hedong. For a while, the people were in an uproar, and everyone wanted to rebel.In October of this year, Lu Chongmao, a native of Xia County (now Xia County, Shanxi Province), gathered a crowd to raise an army, proclaiming himself King of Wei, in response to Liu Wuzhou.Pei Ji sent troops to attack, but was defeated by Lu Chongmao. The situation in Hedong is precarious.Li Yuan had no choice but to order Li Xiaoji, the king of Yong'an, Dugu Huai'en, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, Yu Yun, the governor of Shanzhou, and Tang Jian, the minister of internal history, to gather an army to rescue Hedong.

At that time, after Yao Junsu, the defender of Puban (now Yongji City, Shanxi), the former governor of Hedong County, was killed, his subordinate Wang Xingben once again occupied the city to resist. .Now that Wang Xingben saw Liu Wuzhou's soldiers marching south, but Tang's army was unable to support him, he was overjoyed and immediately sent someone to contact Liu Wuzhou, echoing Song Jingang's troops.The situation of the Tang army is even more dangerous, and people in Guanzhong are panicked.Li Yuan had no choice but to issue an edict to all the troops in Hedong, saying: "The thieves are so powerful that it is difficult to fight for the front. It is better to abandon Hedong for the time being and stick to Guanzhong."

If this edict is really carried out, if Li Yuan really gives up on Hedong, then the pace of the Tang Dynasty's unification of the world will definitely slow down, and it may even stand against the heroes of the Quartet for a relatively long period of time, maintaining a melee Bureau. Fortunately, at the critical moment, someone finally stood up and resolutely dissuaded, and took the initiative to ask for Ying, and finally saved the crisis in Hedong. This person is Li Shimin. As soon as Li Yuan issued the edict, Li Shimin immediately went to the Shu to express his opposition.He said: "Taiyuan is the birthplace of the empire and the foundation of the country, while the east of the river is rich in products and rich in people. It is the source of resources for the capital. If it is abandoned in one fell swoop, I will feel resentful! Please allocate 30,000 elite soldiers, It will definitely be able to pacify Liu Wuzhou and overcome Fen and Jin."

Li Yuan was very pleased, and immediately assembled all the elite soldiers in Guanzhong, and handed them all over to Li Shimin. On October 20th of the second year of Wude, Li Yuan personally went to Huayin (now Huayin City, Shaanxi) to give Li Shimin a farewell party. Almost from this time, Li Shimin has become the mainstay of the Li Tang Dynasty.At every critical moment and major turning point of the empire, almost Li Shimin stepped forward and turned the tide, so that the nascent Tang Dynasty could smoothly embark on the road of great unification.In this sense, it is certainly Li Yuan's credit for creating the Great Tang Dynasty, but Li Shimin is the one who made the first contribution to opening up territories and unifying the world.

In November, Li Shimin took advantage of the freezing of the Yellow River and led his army to cross the ice from Longmen to the west and stationed in Baibi (now south of Xinjiang County, Shanxi) to confront Song Jingang.At that time, the counties and counties in Hedong were suffering from wars and looting, and all the people fled into the cities, leaving the villages barren and the warehouses (lin) empty, and the Tang army could not collect grain and grass.Li Shimin issued a proclamation to the Quartet, and people from far and near heard that the marshal of the army was Li Shimin, so they came to attach him one after another.Li Shimin collected grain and grass from them, which finally alleviated the grain shortage.

Since the Tang army will run out of food, Song Jingang will also run out of food, so Li Shimin's strategy is to stick to the camp and refuse to fight, so as to consume Song Jingang's food and energy. In those days when the two armies were confronting each other, Li Shimin often rode lightly and simply went out to spy on the enemy.Once, due to the unfamiliar road, Li Shimin and the cavalry who followed were separated, leaving only one guard by his side.It was already late at that time, Li Shimin and his guards climbed a hill and found a sheltered mountain to rest. Because they were extremely exhausted, the two soon fell into a deep sleep. Unexpected danger came quietly at this moment.A ranger of the enemy passed by here and found them, so they quietly surrounded them from all directions.The mountains were completely silent, and the snoring of Li Shimin and the guards could be clearly heard. If there hadn't been the unbelievable "snake and rat saving the king of Qin" in the next scene, then Li Shimin might have died, and the history of the Tang Dynasty and even the history of China would have been completely rewritten at this moment. The enemy soldiers are getting closer and closer.At the critical moment, a mouse suddenly jumped out of the hole next to Li Shimin, and a snake chased after it.The mouse ran in panic and bumped into the guard's face.The guards woke up and hurriedly woke up Li Shimin, and the two jumped on the horses and galloped wildly.Just after running more than a hundred steps, the enemy cavalry has already caught up.Li Shimin turned around and shot an arrow, the leading general fell to the ground in response, and the enemy soldiers stopped their pursuit. Li Shimin escaped unharmed. We really don't know what to say other than to thank the poisonous snake and the mouse, and to say that the future emperor has his own destiny. Maybe we can only say - God may not always be as indifferent to this world as we think.At critical moments, his old man will still make a move, but sometimes it is not necessarily the pleasing angels who carry out the will of God, but the annoying snakes and mice. When Li Shimin was confronting Song Jingang, the allied forces including King Yong'an Li Xiaoji, who had entered Hedong before Li Shimin, entered Xia County, preparing to attack Lu Chongmao.Yu Yun, the general manager of Shanzhou, suggested to seize the opportunity to attack immediately, but Dugu Huai'en, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, thought that more siege equipment should be built in order to be sure to capture it in one fell swoop.Li Xiaoji adopted Dugu Huai'en's opinion, and the fighter opportunity was missed, and the tragedy of Li Xiaoji's entire army being wiped out was also caused. After Lu Chongmao was besieged, he immediately asked for help from Song Jingang who was stationed in Huizhou (now Yicheng County, Shanxi).Song Jingang immediately sent two brave generals to reinforce.One of these two generals is called Xunxiang, and the other is Yuchi Jingde, one of Li Shimin's powerful generals and one of the "Twenty-Four Heroes of Lingyan Pavilion" in the future. Yuchi Jingde was born in Shanyang, Shuozhou (now Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province). His original name was Yuchi Gong, and he lived under an alias. He joined the army at the end of Daye and was known for his bravery.This time going south, Yuchi Jingde was Song Jingang's main assistant.When he and Xun Xiang led the reinforcements to Xia County, Li Xiaoji and other talents suddenly found themselves in a dilemma.Before they could react, Yuchi Jingde launched a fierce attack.The Tang army was defeated, and Li Xiaoji, Dugu Huai'en, Yu Yun, Tang Jian and Liu Shirang, the chief of the army, were all captured. So far, the last bargaining chip of the Tang Dynasty in Hedong is Li Shimin who is stationed at Baibi.And Pei Ji, who was the first to rush to help Hedong, but hadn't even won a battle, was recalled to Chang'an by Li Yuan at this time. On the surface, Li Yuan handed Pei Ji over to the relevant department for trial on the charge of bereavement of his teacher and humiliation of the country, but he was released not long after. What is a favorite? This is called a favored minister. If you do the right thing, you will be promoted and rewarded, and if you do the wrong thing, you can ignore it and let the past go!The situation is similar to that of our state-owned enterprise bosses today—especially those bosses who are good at bankrupting enterprises. At the beginning, Liu Wenjing was dismissed when he defeated Qianshuiyuan. Now Pei Ji not only suffered a disastrous defeat in Dusuoyuan, but also almost lost the entire Hedong. Convinced by Asano? But Li Yuan actually did just that!For an emperor who controlled his courtiers with kindness and punishment, this was undoubtedly an unforgivable Achilles' heel. After Yuchi Jingde and Xunxiang fought a big victory and relieved the siege of Xia County, they returned to Shizhou with satisfaction.But when they traveled to Meiliangchuan (now north of Xia County, Shanxi), they were ambushed by the Tang army.This Tang army was sent by Li Shimin, and the generals were Yin Kaishan and Qin Shubao.Yuchi Jingde rushed to fight, and broke out at the cost of losing more than 2,000 people.During the melee, Dugu Huai'en, who was captured in Xia County, escaped in the chaos and returned to Chang'an alone.Soon after, Yuchi Jingde and Xunxiang were ordered to rescue Wang Xingben who was firmly guarding Puban.Li Shimin found out the information, led 3,000 cavalry in person, drove straight into Anyi (now northeast of Yuncheng City, Shanxi) overnight, launched an assault on Yuchi Jingde, and cut off his troops.Yuchi Jingde was defeated, the soldiers died or surrendered, basically the whole army was wiped out.Yuchi Jingde and Xunxiang only escaped with their lives. These two victories finally avenged Xia County's disastrous defeat. The morale of the generals of the Tang army was high, and they all asked Li Shimin to fight Song Jingang. However, Li Shimin was not dazzled by the victory. He believed that what was needed at this moment was forbearance and waiting. He said to the generals: "Liu Wuzhou guarded Taiyuan and relied on Song Jingang to fight in the front, so all his elite soldiers gathered under Song Jingang's command, but Song Jingang's army went deep alone, and there was no food in the army. Hope for a quick battle. But we have to close our camps, recharge our batteries, ignore any challenges, dampen their spirit, and then divide our troops to attack Fenzhou (now Jixian County, Shanxi) and Xizhou (now Xixian County, Shanxi), Attack his heartland, and wait until he runs out of food, then he will flee. So right now we should bear it, and it is not appropriate to fight quickly." Li Shimin's strategy is exactly the same as when Xue Renguo was put down. However, Xue Renguo, the emperor of the Western Qin Dynasty at the beginning, was a renegade soldier, but now Liu Wuzhou, the emperor of Dingyang, is a soldier. Can Li Shimin win this battle? In the coming third year of Wude (AD 620), can Li Shimin pacify Liu Wuzhou in one fell swoop like he pacified Xue Renguo?