Chapter 35 Change of Dugu Huai'en

In the winter of the second year of Wude, Li Shiji finally deeply experienced a kind of life dilemma in Cao Ying and in Han. Although Li Shiji wanted to return to the Tang Dynasty again, his father held it in Dou Jiande's hands, making him feel helpless and helpless.His confidant Guo Xiaoke suggested: "We have just joined Dou Jiande, and every move we make is subject to suspicion. It is best to establish some military exploits first, and then take action after gaining his trust." Li Shiji had no choice but to think about it, and then took the initiative to send troops to conquer Huojia (now Huojia County, Henan Province) to which Wang Shichong belonged, captured a large number of personnel and materials, and presented them to Dou Jiande, and gained Dou Jiande's trust since then.

Soon after, Li Shiji offered Dou Jiande a strategy for managing the Central Plains.He said: "Caozhou (now Dingtao County, Shandong) and Daizhou (now Chengwu County, Shandong) have a large population and are occupied by Meng Haigong. Its capture; once Meng Haigong is pacified, and then advances to Xuzhou and Yanzhou, the land of Henan will be peaceful without a fight." Dou Jiande was deeply convinced, and ordered Cao Dan, the elder brother of Queen Cao, to lead an army of 50,000 people across the Yellow River to join Li Shiji. Just when he himself was about to lead the army to go south to the Central Plains, his wife, Queen Cao, just gave birth, so Dou Jiande had to put aside his plan to go south for the time being.

Li Shiji was immediately disappointed.His original plan was: Once Dou Jiande arrived in Henan, he would send troops to attack his camp, rescue his father, and defect to Chang'an.But now the plan fell through. Since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety have been difficult!Li Shiji thought painfully, it seems that returning to Tang Dynasty is far away. Just when Li Shiji was at a loss, a sudden mutiny broke out around him, forcing him to abandon his father and run to Chang'an without looking back. This mutiny was launched by a man named Li Wenxiang, nicknamed Li Shanghu.Li Shanghu was a leader of the rebels guarding Mengjin (now Mengjin County, Henan Province). He had more than 5,000 people.Li Shanghu's mother Huo Shi is also a figure in the world, good at riding and shooting, she claims to be Huo Boss, and both her son and her son have the heart of betraying Xia.The mother and son coincided with Li Shiji, and soon formed an alliance. Li Shanghu even worshiped Li Shiji.The two parties originally agreed to fight together when Dou Jiande went south, but now that the plan failed, the Huo family was very unwilling; in addition, Cao Dan's army invaded and harassed their territory wantonly after they entered Henan, which made the Huo family very angry, so they urged Li Shanghu Launch a mutiny ahead of time and kill Cao Dan and his men.

One night in the first month of the third year of Wude, Li Shanghu hosted a banquet for 23 officers under Cao Dan's tent, got them drunk and hacked them all, and then planned to kill 300 Cao Dan's soldiers.After the attack, Li Shanghu sent someone to notify Li Shiji.Li Shiji's camp was connected to Cao Dan at that time, and Guo Xiaoke urged him to follow and attack Cao Dan.But at the same time, Cao Dan also learned of the mutiny, so he ordered the soldiers to be on high alert.Li Shiji knew that the chance of preemptive strikes had been lost, and his strength was weak, so he was no match for Cao Dan, so he had to flee the barracks overnight with Guo Xiaoke, and galloped towards Guanzhong on horseback.

At that moment, Li Shiji expected that his father would die at the hands of Dou Jiande. However, the result was completely beyond his expectations. Although Dou Jiande personally led his troops to eliminate Li Shanghu soon after, he never killed Li Shiji's father.When the civil and military officials of the Xia Dynasty asked to kill Li Gai one after another, Dou Jiande said: "Li Shiji, as a Tang official, was captured by me. He did not forget the dynasty. He is a loyal minister. What is his father's crime?" Dou Jiande made a surprising but wisest choice here.Although killing Li Gai can vent his anger, it can't change the fact that Li Shiji rebelled to Tang.

Since it can't be changed, why bother to add a notoriety of killing innocent people indiscriminately?Losing Li Shiji is already a loss, so why bother to cause yourself even greater losses in order to vent your anger? Dou Jiande suppressed the anger in his heart, and announced the pardon of Li Gai in public with a high profile rarely seen by ordinary people.At this moment, the extraordinary mind of the benevolent, the foresight of the wise, and the grace of the king shone on him at the same time. This is called charisma! Under the rule of such a leader, it is no wonder that Hebei at that time showed a peaceful scene of living and working in peace.It is said in history that Dou Jiande actively "persuaded farmers to teach farming and mulberry", developed production, and created a prosperous and stable social situation, resulting in "no robbers in the territory, business travel and camping". (Volume 188)

Judging from the comprehensive qualities that a founding emperor should possess, whether it is governing ability, military ability or personal quality, Dou Jiande basically meets the standards. But in the end he failed. There must have been subjective factors that led to his failure, but the most important ones were actually objective factors—his opponent Li Shimin was too strong. If there was no Li Shimin on the stage where the heroes competed in the late Sui Dynasty, then the person who finally ruled the world may not be Li Yuan, but Dou Jiande. Taking a step back, even if Dou Jiande is not enough to defeat Li Yuan to take over Chang'an in the end, it is definitely more than enough to stand on a tripod with the heroes of the Quartet.

In the spring of the third year of Wude, the battle in Hedong was still in a stalemate, and the Tang army showed no sign of victory. The only thing that pleased Li Yuan was that on the 14th day of the first lunar month, the Sui general Wang Xingben, who had been stubbornly resisting in Puban for a long time, finally opened his doors and surrendered with no food inside and no reinforcements outside.On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, Li Yuan went to Puzhou (Puzan) to accept the surrender. It was this time that he went to the front line in person and almost cost Li Yuan his life, because someone planned a murder carefully to replace him as the emperor.

This person is Li Yuan's confidant and important minister, and also his cousin - Dugu Huai'en, who was then Minister of Industry. Why does Dugu Wynn have such big ambitions? It's a long story.Dugu Huai'en was a relative of the three dynasties. His three aunts were the queen of Emperor Ming Yu Wenyu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the queen of Emperor Wen Yang Jian of the Sui Dynasty, and the mother of Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan of Tang Dynasty, so Yang Guang and Li Yuan were both cousins ​​of Dugu Huai'en.Li Yuan once joked with him: "Your aunt's son has become the emperor, and next time it may be my uncle's son!"

He does not mean that.Li Yuan's joke not only deeply hurt Dugu Huai'en's self-esteem, but also aroused his ambition to usurp the throne and proclaim himself emperor and rule the world.Dugu Huai'en often sighs because of this: "Could it be that in our Dugu family only the daughter's life is honorable?" At that time, Wang Xingben was guarding Puban, and Dugu Huai'en was ordered to attack many times. Not only was he unable to attack for a long time, but he also lost troops.But before the mutiny started, Dugu Huai'en was sent to the Hedong battlefield together with Yong'an Wang Li Xiaoji, Internal History Minister Tang Jian and others, and then suffered a disastrous defeat in Xia County and was captured by Yuchi Jingde.The outspoken Yuan Junbao often said to Tang Jian indignantly in private: "Shangshu Dugu is planning a major event recently. If it is launched early, there will be no shame and shame today!" Tang Jian was taken aback. The powerful relative Dugu Huai'en actually had the intention of treason.

Later, Li Shimin ambushed Yuchi Jingde in Meiliangchuan, and Dugu Huai'en took advantage of the chaos and fled back to Chang'an.Li Yuan, who had always believed in him, handed him another army and ordered him to continue to attack Puban.At this time, Yuan Junbao said to Tang Jian again: "Shangshu Dugu can escape the catastrophe and return to Puban. He is really destined to be an emperor. It can be said that kings never die!" Hearing this, Tang Jian realized that Li Yuan, who was unsuspecting, might be murdered by Dugu Huai'en at any time, and immediately became very anxious.Soon, Tang Jian heard the news that Wang Xingben had surrendered and that Li Yuan would go to Puzhou to accept the surrender. He was terrified, expecting that Dugu Huai'en would take this opportunity to launch a mutiny and murder Li Yuan.But Tang Jian was still trapped in the prisoner-of-war camp at that time, and there was no way to send the news out.Tang Jian thought of a way out of desperation.He suggested to Yuchi Jingde that he release Liu Shirang, the chief of the army, and let Liu Shirang return to the court to persuade Li Yuan to give up Hedong and make peace with Liu Wuzhou.Yuchi Jingde thought this suggestion was good, and immediately released Liu Shirang.Tang Jian told him about Dugu Huai'en's attempted rebellion, and asked him to play Li Yuan face-to-face quickly. At the same time, Li Yuan had already left Chang'an, came to the bank of the Yellow River, and was about to cross the river; Dugu Huai'en had also entered Puban, and set up a net in the city, waiting for Li Yuan's arrival. What happened next was astounding.Just when Li Yuan boarded the ferry and was about to go to Dugu Huai'en camp, Liu Shirang galloped all the way, and finally arrived at the ferry at this critical moment. After listening to Liu Shirang's panting report, Li Yuan broke out in a cold sweat.He said with emotion: "It is God's will that I escaped this catastrophe!" Li Yuan then sent envoys into the city and ordered Dugu Huai'en to cross the river to meet him.Dugu Huai'en didn't know that the plan had been leaked, so he took a small boat to Li Yuan's camp alone.Just after entering the gate of the camp, without even seeing Li Yuan, Dugu Huai'en was arrested by the imperial army. On February 20th of this year, Li Yuan killed Dugu Huai'en and all his henchmen. In the early summer of the third year of Wude, the situation on the Hedong battlefield began to turn around. After Liu Wuzhou captured the eldest son (now Changzi County, Shanxi Province) and Huguan (now Huguan County, Shanxi Province) one after another in early February, his offensive became the end of his battle, and he besieged Luzhou (now Changzhi City, Shanxi Province) and Haozhou (now Shanxi Province) Fenyang City) suffered repeated setbacks and was defeated by Tang Jun many times. In mid-April, all the food and grass in Song Jingang's army ran out, and they had to retreat northward. Everything was within Li Shimin's expectations. The time for the Tang army to launch a general offensive has finally arrived.