Chapter 36 The Fall of Liu Wuzhou

Quiet as a virgin, moving like a rabbit. These eight characters can be used not only to describe Li Shimin's tactical style, but also to summarize the essence of Li Shimin's strategy. From mid-November of the second year of Wude to late April of the third year of Wude, Li Shimin and Song Jingang confronted each other for nearly half a year. Except for one or two sure-fire surprise attacks, Li Shimin basically stood still; At that time, Li Shimin personally led the army to hold on tightly, chasing for more than 200 miles a day and a night, fighting dozens of battles with Dingyang's army, and chasing Song Jingang to Gaobiling (now Lingshi, Shanxi Province) south of the county).In this long-distance pursuit, Li Shimin sat down on the rarely seen sweat-and-blood BMW Tellerbius, which can be said to have made illustrious military exploits; through the battle of regaining Hedong, Tellerbius became famous all over the world. (Telepiu is also one of the famous "Six Horses of Zhaoling", with a strong body, long belly and long legs; Li Shimin's inscription on it is: "Should fly into the sky, inherit the voice of half a man, enter danger and destroy the enemy, take advantage of danger Relief.")

After being chased and beaten by Tang Jun all the way, Song Jingang really learned Li Shimin's military talent.This talent is composed of two kinds of strength, one is a high degree of endurance, and the other is an amazing explosive power. When these two abilities are perfectly combined on the same person, it will make the opponent deeply experience two words - terrible. It's not just Li Shimin's opponents who feel terrible, but also Li Shimin's subordinates. When Tang Jun chased him to the foot of Gaobi Ridge in one breath, Liu Hongji felt that he could not go any further.

A lone army goes deep, and it is a taboo to use troops! Liu Hongji held onto Li Shimin's rein tightly, and said: "Your Majesty has done enough to defeat the thief, and you have chased him so far. If you don't stop chasing and go deeper and deeper, don't you, Your Majesty, cherish your own life? Besides, brothers are already exhausted." Unbearable, hungry and thirsty, you should set up camp on the spot, wait until the main force of the army and food are all assembled, and then continue to march northward. It is not too late." Li Shimin's answer is: "Song Jingang plans to leave poorly, and the hearts of the people are disintegrated. Success is hard to achieve but easy to fail. Opportunities are rare but easy to lose. They must be wiped out in one go. If they stagnate, let them have enough time to rest. I can't attack anymore. Now I can only think about how to serve the country loyally, not my own life!"

Before Liu Hongji could say anything, Li Shimin whipped his horse and rushed forward alone.Liu Hongji and the soldiers looked at each other helplessly.The coach has already taken the lead, so what's the point of complaining?They finally gritted their teeth and had to all follow. In Queshu Valley (now the Fenshui River Valley in the southwest of Lingshi County, Shanxi), Tang Jun once again caught up with Song Jingang. In one day, the two sides fought eight battles. Ding Yang Jun lost all eight battles and was beheaded by Tang Jun. people. That night, Tang Jun finally set up camp on the plain west of Queshu Valley.Li Shimin has not eaten for two consecutive days, and has not taken off his armor for three days.At this moment, there was only one sheep left in the tent, and the rations carried by the rest of the soldiers were probably almost exhausted.

When Li Shimin and the soldiers around him cooked the sheep together, everyone realized that this was their last supper. They will be out of food starting tomorrow. Of course Li Shimin would not be ignorant of this.But he also knew that if Tang Jun was in a very difficult situation at the moment, then Song Jingang's situation was extremely difficult at the moment! No one feels better than anyone else, so whoever can last a little longer than others will win the final victory. In other words, in addition to endurance and explosive power, the third test a winner needs to accept is - willpower.Whoever has a stronger willpower will have the last laugh.

On April 23, the exhausted Song Jingang fled to Jiexiu (now Jiexiu City, Shanxi) with 20,000 remnants.Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, Li Shimin had already approached the city.Song Jingang had no choice but to order Yuchi Jingde and Xunxiang to guard the city, and then led his troops to line up outside the west gate.Li Shimin ordered Li Shiji to launch an attack, and then pretended to be defeated.When Song Jingang was attacking with his troops, Li Shimin led the elite cavalry to quickly go around behind his position. Dingyang's army, which was attacked from the front and back, collapsed immediately, and more than 3,000 people were beheaded by the Tang army. Song Jingang fled north again with a few Qingqi.Li Shimin chased him for dozens of miles, until he reached Zhang Nanbao (now southwest of Pingyao County, Shanxi Province) before reining in the reins.At that time, all the cities in the south of Bingzhou and north of Jinzhou fell, and only Fan Botong and Zhang Dezheng, the generals of the Haozhou march, still insisted on the isolated city of Xihe (the state capital of Haozhou, now Fenyang City, Shanxi) and this Zhangnan Fort.When Li Shimin led his troops to the front of the fort and took off his helmet, the soldiers of Haozhou who had stood firm for half a year in desperation recognized Li Shimin and wept with joy.Everyone was just cheering and celebrating, but they didn't realize that Li Shimin and his followers were already hungry.Li Shimin's left and right whispered to Fan Botong that the King of Qin hadn't eaten yet, so Fan Botong hurriedly ordered people to bring the dirty wine and brown rice.

Although Yuchi Jingde and Xunxiang were guarding Jiexiu with the remnants of their troops, the morale of Dingyang's army had almost collapsed after dozens of defeats in the past few days. The hearts of the people are scattered, and the team is not easy to lead.Yuchi Jingde knew this better than anyone else.So when Li Shimin sent Yuwen Shiji to persuade him to surrender, Yuchi Jingde opened the door and surrendered without much hesitation. Li Shimin was overjoyed and appointed Yuchi Jingde as the commander of the Youyi Prefecture, and let him and Xunxiang still lead their old troops of 8,000 people.Qu Tutong, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, advised Li Shimin to beware of their rebellion, but Li Shimin didn't take it seriously and laughed it off.

During Li Shimin's wars in the south and north, and the entire Wude period when he wiped out the heroes, the heroes of the Quartet came to his command one by one.Here is a question worthy of our consideration: What exactly attracted them to Li Shimin, and made them steadfast and never choose to leave or betray? Is it Li Shimin's outstanding military talent, or his strong personal charm?Or his identity and status as the second prince of Tang Dynasty? These are important, but certainly not the most important. The most important point is that Li Shimin gave them equal and unreserved trust.

None of these heroes came out to fight the world on the first day. They have also followed various bosses, so they can intuitively determine what kind of trust is for show and reserved, and what kind of trust is sincere and sincere. No reservations.In Li Shimin's body, what they experienced was undoubtedly the latter.Li Shimin's unreserved trust in them gave them a precious sense of security. For Li Shimin, unreservedly trusting his subordinates must take risks, but can he effectively avoid risks if he trusts his subordinates with reservations, or in other words, is always vigilant and on guard against his subordinates?

Not necessarily, because risks in troubled times are everywhere, making it hard to guard against.That being the case, guarding against each other will in fact only increase the risk.To put it bluntly, everyone is not a fool.What you give and how much you give can be felt by others.If you put out doubts, you will definitely get panic; if you give enough trust, what you get back may not be super-valuable gratitude, but it will definitely be an equal amount of loyalty. Perhaps Li Shimin is aware of all this and will always adhere to such a principle - since many bosses in this world are artificially creating risks, why not be a boss who takes the initiative to take risks and makes people feel safe?In other words, on the battlefield of conquering hearts, perhaps sincerity is the gentlest and sharpest weapon, and trust is the most invisible and solid armor.

Perhaps, no defense is great defense! Of course, all of this must be guaranteed by corresponding strength, and Li Shimin thinks that he does not lack such a guarantee. When the news of Song Jingang's fiasco reached Bingzhou, Liu Wuzhou seemed to have been stabbed in the heart by a sharp weapon, and a sharp pain and despair instantly filled his whole body. Because he knew he had lost everything. This time he went south, and he handed over all his elite soldiers and generals to Song Jingang.Now that Song Jingang is basically annihilated, what will Liu Wuzhou do to compete in the world? The desperate Liu Wuzhou had no choice but to give up Bingzhou and take a small number of tribes into exile in Eastern Turks.Song Jingang originally wanted to collect the remnants and fight again, but the soldiers heard that Liu Wuzhou had fled to Mobei, so they stopped following his orders.Song Jingang had no choice but to follow in the footsteps of Liu Wuzhou and lead more than a hundred horsemen to flee to the East Turks. Li Shimin quickly led the army to Jinyang, and ordered Yang Funian, the servant of the Yang court, to surrender the city obediently.Subsequently, all the prefectures and counties that belonged to Liu Wuzhou also returned to the Tang Dynasty one after another. Only Shuozhou, the capital of Dingyang (now Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province), was still guarded by Yuan Junzhang, the internal historian of the Dingyang court.Li Shimin left Zhenxiang Gong Li Zhongwen to guard Bingzhou, and then the teacher returned triumphantly. Liu Wuzhou, who was in exile in East Turkic, was not reconciled to this failure, and repeatedly used Turkic soldiers to attack southward.Li Zhongwen, the general of Bingzhou, repelled them repeatedly, and took advantage of the victory to occupy more than 100 castles on the border between Tang and Turks.Li Yuan then appointed Li Zhongwen as the inspector (acting) and the governor of the state. Liu Wuzhou had no choice but to leave Eastern Turks and return to Shuozhou to make a comeback.But the Turks already felt that he was useless, so they killed him.Not long ago, Song Jingang also tried to escape back to Shanggu County (now Yixian County, Hebei Province) where he raised his troops, but was also captured and cut in half by the Turks. At this point, one of the strongest opponents of the Li Tang Dynasty in the north finally fell, and Li Yuan and his son could finally turn their attention to the Central Plains. On July 1st of the third year of Wude, Li Yuan issued an edict ordering Li Shimin to lead his troops to advance across the Kanto. When Wang Shichong got the battle report, he immediately recruited elite soldiers and generals from all states and counties, and all gathered in Dongdu. At the same time, he assigned his brothers and nephews to garrison various strategic locations around Luoyang. On July 21, Li Shimin led an army to Xin'an (now Xin'an County, Henan). Thus began the Tang Dynasty's war to unify the Central Plains.