Chairman Mao read Shi Youyun: “since ancient times, there has been no one who has been able to fight on the right of Li Shimin, followed by Zhu Yuanzhang.”
In the fourth year of Wude (621), lishimin led the formation with 3500 Xuanjia army, surrounded and helped, won a great victory at hulaoguan, defeated hundreds of thousands of wangshichong and doujiande allied forces, and captured Wang and Dou alive.
Due to his numerous military achievements, lishimin was granted the title of “general Tiance” by Li Yuan, Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, ranking above the princes and becoming the “third person” after the emperor and the crown prince. He could set up Tiance mansion to command the literary ministers and powerful generals under his command, and both the actual and the actual power reached the peak of human ministers.
This enabled lishimin to complete the advancement on the road to power, and “general Tiance” became a core card for him to defeat Prince lijiancheng.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, general lishimin was the only general of Tiance. That year, he was only 23 years old.
In the founding war of the Tang Dynasty, he won many battles and won many victories by virtue of his literary and military strategies, and his military achievements were unparalleled. How strong is lishimin’s military capability?
? portrait of lishimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty
1
Before the troubled times came, the young lishimin had already begun to show his talent.
In the 11th year of the great cause of the Sui Dynasty (615), Yangguang, the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, fell into the siege of Turks in Yanmen (now Dai County, Shanxi).
At that time, lishimin, only 17 years old, rushed to the rescue with the army.
He suggested to his superiors: “the Turks dared to besiege the emperor because they thought our army had no time to rescue in a hurry. If we bluff, we will use dozens of flags to connect during the day and beat gongs and drums at night. The Turks must think that when the army comes, they will flee.”
This is like “making something out of nothing” in the thirty-six stratagems. When the Turkic army saw the banners flying and heard the sound of gongs and drums, they mistakenly thought that the army of the Sui Dynasty had arrived and hurried away. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was successfully rescued.
Young lishimin is not only resourceful, but also brave.
According to historical records, lishimin is good at bowing and has repeatedly used his bow from left to right on the battlefield to repel his opponents. The bow he used was twice as big as the common bow. Generally, the Bowman could not open it. It was also equipped with special arrows, which was called “big feather arrow”.
Times make heroes.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty enjoyed great success. Although he established the Grand Canal and other achievements, he was completely free from the luxurious life of drunkenness and gold. The deer of the national fortune of the Sui Dynasty attracted the world to chase.
Over the years, heroes came together and the Sui Dynasty was fragmented.
At this time, Li Yuan, the father of lishimin, stayed in Taiyuan and ushered in a turning point in his destiny.
In the 13th year of Daye’s reign (617), Li Yuan recruited and attracted people’s hearts, and set up an army in Jinyang (now Taiyuan, Shanxi).
In November of the same year, Li Yuan’s army went straight to Guanzhong, invaded Chang’an, and established Yang Yu, the grandson of emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, as emperor, and Yang Guang, who was far away in Jiangdu (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province), as supreme emperor.
At the same time, the 19-year-old lishimin also walked into the whirlpool of the times. As the right-hand man of his father Li Yuan, he led the army for many times.
The year after Li Yuan separated from Chang’an, his cousin Yangguang ended his life in the white silk of minister yuwenhuaji, and died. Li Yuan was granted the title of emperor by Yang Yuchan. He ascended the throne in Chang’an and changed the country name to “Tang”.
? portrait of Li Yuan, Emperor Gaozu of Tang Dynasty
2
At the beginning of the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, all powerful enemies were eyeing covetously.
In the East, wangshichong fought with Wagang army in Luoyang, while in the west, Xue Ju, the “overlord of the Western Qin Dynasty” who separated Jincheng (now Lanzhou, Gansu), was also a major trouble for Li Tang.
Xue Ju, who dominates Longxi, has a natural advantage.
At that time, Hexi corridor was the main production area of official horses in the Sui Dynasty, with a large number of high-quality war horses. Relying on these officers and horses, Xue Ju formed a powerful cavalry, galloping in the northwest, and the army has grown to more than 100000 people.
In the first year of Wude (618), lishimin led his troops to the West. At the beginning, he also suffered losses because of the cavalry in Longxi.
Soon after, Xueju died of illness and was succeeded by his son xuerengao.
Xuerengao is known as “the enemy of ten thousand people”. He is as brave as his father, but he is cruel by nature. Xue Ju lamented that this son was too cruel and would eventually ruin the Xue family’s career.
In August of that year, lishimin led the western expedition again, and the army directed directly at Gaolong city (now the north of Changwu County, Shaanxi Province).
When he arrived at Gaolong, lishimin adopted the policy of “waiting for work with ease”, and held a stalemate with xuerengao outside the city for more than two months.
The soldiers of the Tang army had been beaten up by the cavalry of Longxi before. They all wanted to be ashamed, but lishimin was unmoved.
Xuerengao had nothing to do with lishimin, who was shut up and didn’t fight. In addition, his morale began to shake.
At this time, lishimin knew that the time had come for a decisive battle. He said to the Ministry, “the enemy’s spirit is exhausted. Our army can take them!” Then a light army was sent, led by his subordinates, to camp and build fortifications in the shallow water area north of Gaolong city.
This is a tactic of “beating the East with the west”.
Xuerengao’s army waited for many days. Seeing that the Tang army was out of the city, they could not help but attack the army.
However, this light soldier is just a bait sent by lishimin. They dragged Xuejun down by virtue of the favorable terrain and went hungry for several days until Xuejun was exhausted.
At this time, lishimin seized the fighter and led the main force to launch an attack on xuerengao’s army. The panicked Xuejun was defeated one after another.
Xuerengao had no choice but to surrender to lishimin.
This was the first battle that lishimin independently commanded in the unification war of the Tang Dynasty.
After this battle, lishimin moved to various places to pacify Qin Liang and protect Hedong, which solved the worries of the Tang army.
3
In July of the third year of Wude (620), lishimin made an eastern expedition and came to Luoyang to compete fiercely with Wang Shichong, king of Zheng.
Once, lishimin personally took 500 cavalry to Beimang mountain outside Luoyang to check the terrain. Suddenly, he was surrounded by more than 10000 elite soldiers from wangshichong. Shan xiongxin, one of wangshichong’s powerful generals, raised his long brush and stabbed lishimin. Fortunately, Yuchi Gong arrived at the critical moment to beat back Shan xiongxin and protect lishimin.
? Yuchi Gong’s portrait
After Li Shimin broke through, he sent Yuchi Jingde, Qu Toutong and other generals to take advantage of the chaos and directly take Zheng Jun. Zheng Jun was defeated and beheaded. Tang Jun further captured the stronghold outside Luoyang.
As the periphery of Luoyang fell one after another, the grain road of Zheng army was cut off, and wangshichong retreated to Luoyang.
Wangshichong concentrated the elite soldiers in the city and arranged sophisticated city guarding equipment. The Tang army launched a large army to attack the city day and night. It was difficult for the Tang army to bite down the hard city for a while.
Wangshichong’s army was besieged for many days, and his morale fell. He sent people to ask doujiande, who occupied Hebei, for help.
? map of separatist regimes in the early Tang Dynasty
Doujiande, who called himself the king of Xia, was popular in Hebei. When lishimin besieged Luoyang, Dou Jiande annexed the Menghai army in Shandong, and his strength reached its peak.
At that time, the three strongest forces in the north were Li Yuan’s Tang army, Wang Shichong’s Zheng army and Dou Jiande’s Xia army. If Zheng was destroyed by the Tang Dynasty, Xia would have a crisis of death.
In order to save wangshichong, Dou Jiande led more than 100000 troops south to hulaoguan, the gateway to the east of Luoyang.
When he learned that doujiande was marching towards Luoyang, lishimin made a quick decision, adopted the tactics of his subordinates and decided to “besiege the city for help”. He left some troops to help his younger brother liyuanji continue to besiege Luoyang, waiting for wangshichong’s garrison to collapse without fighting. He led 3500 people to the tiger prison pass.
In the battle of hulaoguan, lishimin blocked Dou Jiande’s army for nearly a month by virtue of the favorable terrain.
Xia Jun had not made progress for a long time, and people wanted to go home. Wangshichong’s urgent envoys kept coming, crying in front of Dou Jiande all day.
Lingjing, a counselor of doujiande, urged the Lord not to fight with lishimin at the tiger prison pass, but to bypass Hedong and go deep into the empty pass. This can not only expand the territory, but also threaten the Tang army and solve the siege of Luoyang. But Dou Jiande just didn’t listen and gradually lost his patience.
When the two armies were in a stalemate, lishimin released a “smoke bomb” and drove his horses to the Yellow River to graze, pretending that the Tang army had run out of food and grass. When Dou Jiande learned about it, he set out the next day. The battle flags of the Xia army continued for miles, and the drums shook the sky.
Lishimin climbed high to observe the enemy array and decided to hold his horses until the morale of the Xia army declined.
Soon after, Dou Jiande’s soldiers were tired and the team was gradually scattered. The Tang army horses grazing on the Yellow River beach have also rushed back. Lishimin orders that they can fight!
Lishimin personally led the cavalry to charge in front, led chengyaojin, qinqiong and other fierce generals to break into the enemy array, and opened the flag behind the enemy array. Doujiande faced the battle in a hurry and was taken by surprise. His subordinates immediately fled everywhere, and the Tang army pursued 30 Li behind him.
Along the way, lishimin “captured the king before the thief”, first concentrated on attacking the main force of the other party, and finally captured Dou Jiande alive.
After the great victory at hulaoguan, lishimin immediately returned to Luoyang and joined forces with other troops to encircle and suppress wangshichong. Wangshichong saw that the Xia army outside the city had been defeated, and his generals did not want to break through with him. He knew that the general situation was gone, so he had to open the city and surrender.
At this point, Li Shimin pacified the two kings of Zheng and Xia in the first World War, and basically unified the north in the Tang Dynasty. Li Yuan believed that the existing official positions at that time could not show their glory, so he specially named lishimin “general Tiance”.