621 AD
Battle of Tiger Prison: The Decisive Battle of Li Tang Unification
In 621, Li Shimin defeated Dou Jiande, the King of Xia, at Tiger Prison Pass, and King Zheng III Chong surrendered at Luoyang.
At that time, Li Tang forces had already occupied Guanzhong and Hedong. Wang Shichong's forces were in Henan, and Dou Jiande's forces were in Hebei, and the three showed a balanced situation. If either side wants to unify the world, it must eliminate the other two forces.
Faced with the possibility of a two-front battle, Li Shimin was anxious in his heart, so he actively launched an attack, even at the cost of risking his life. Once Li Shimin led an army to attack the north of Luoyang City, wang Shichong relied on the walls and valley waters of Gumafang outside the city gate to defend. Li Shimin ordered the general Qu Tutong to cross the river with 5,000 people and raise wolf smoke as soon as he engaged Wang Shichong. Seeing the fireworks in front of him, Li Shimin immediately led the main force to charge and besiege Wang Shichong. Taking advantage of Wang Shichong's attention to focus on the front, Li Shimin led people around Wang Shichong's back, intending to attack back and forth. Unexpectedly, in the melee, Li Shimin and the troops were separated, and only the general Qiu Xinggong was left around, and the mount was also shot. At the moment of danger, Qiu Xinggong gave up his horse to Li Shimin, and he held a large knife to guard on foot, killing several people in a row, and then rushed out. Later, Li Shimin specially had people carve the image of Qiu Xinggong's savior and put it in Zhaoling, which is the only one with a human figure in the "Six Juns of Zhaoling".
In this battle, Li Shimin failed to eliminate Wang Shichong's main force, but only forced the other side to retreat to Luoyang to hold on, and the two sides entered a long siege battle. Luoyang was the capital city built by the Sui Dynasty, and Wang Shichong operated here for many years, so the city defense was very strong. The Tang army besieged day and night for more than ten days, losing soldiers and making no progress. Unable to succeed in the attack, Li Shimin dug a trench outside Luoyang City, cut off all external communications for Wang Shichong, and wanted to force Wang Shichong to surrender. In the end, there was no more food in Luoyang. Ordinary people can only mix rice bran in the mud and make cakes to fill their hunger, and the city is full of starving people. Wang Shichong gritted his teeth and insisted, waiting for Dou Jiande's reinforcements.
At this time, the last thing Li Shimin wanted to see appeared: Dou Jiande led an army of 100,000 to the Tiger Prison.
Suffering from the enemy in the abdomen and back, differences arose within the Tang army. One faction advocated "besieging the city for reinforcements" and not relaxing the siege of Luoyang, while at the same time the main force went to Tiger Prison to meet Dou Jiande. The other faction advocated temporary withdrawal. Without any hesitation, Li Shimin agreed to the proposal of "besieging the city and providing assistance." Li Shimin told the crowd that the tiger prison was in a dangerous position, dou Jiande had come from afar, and if we rushed to attack, we would definitely win. If he didn't attack, Sanshi Chong would definitely not be able to hold on.
After arriving at the Tiger Prison, Li Shimin chose five hundred elite horses, led by the generals Li Shixun, Qin Qiong, and Cheng Zhijie, and ambushed along the road. Li Shimin himself took Wei Chi Jingde and 4 other people on horseback to the camp of the Xia Army.
Li Shimin deliberately let Dou Jiande's sentries see him, and then shot an arrow to kill a cavalryman. Dou Jiande sent five thousand cavalry to pursue and kill, and Li Shimin deliberately slowed down to attract the other side to pursue. As soon as the enemy soldiers entered the ambush circle, Li Shixun and others rushed out together, killing more than 300 people and giving Dou Jiande a dismount.
The Tang army insisted on holding the Tiger Prison Pass, and the Xia army did not take a step forward for more than a month, the people were sleepy and the horses were tired, and the morale was weakened. The chancellor Ling Jing advised Dou Jiande to abandon the Tiger Prison and attack the empty Guanzhong, so that Li Shimin would definitely retreat.
Many people around Dou Jiande accepted bribes from Wang Shichong, and they desperately advised Dou Jiande not to give up Luoyang. Dou Jiande also felt that if he did not save Luoyang, he would lose his trust, and if he did not do well, he would make people laugh at his fear of Li Shimin, so he rejected Ling Jing's suggestion. Dou Jiande placed his army on the east bank of the pond for more than twenty miles, and early in the morning he sent soldiers to call for battle, preparing to fight the Tang army to the death. Li Shimin ordered the soldiers not to go out into battle and to hold their positions. By noon, the Xia army was exhausted, and most of the soldiers sat on the ground to rest, or ran to the river to drink water. Li Shimin felt that the time was ripe, and ordered the general Yu Wenshi and 300 cavalry to test, and sure enough, he found that Dou Jiande's army was unprepared. The main force of the Tang army immediately moved, and Li Shimin led the cavalry to take the lead and killed the Xia army.
When the Tang army raided, Dou Jiande was discussing with the group of ministers, so there was no general in command at the front, and the army immediately became chaotic. The Xia army cavalry hastily met the enemy, and as a result, the huddled ministers blocked the way, and when they were ready, the Tang army was already in front of them. Dou Jiande retreated in panic and was captured alive by the Tang army. Losing the commander, 50,000 people of the Xia army surrendered to the Tang army.
Defeating Dou Jiande, Li Shimin led the main force back to Luoyang and continued to besiege the city. Wang Shichong stood at the head of Luoyang City and saw Dou Jiande sitting in the prison cart of the Tang army, sitting in his long-awaited Dou Jiande, and finally gave up resistance and went out of the city to surrender.
Conclusion: In the Battle of Tiger Prison, Li Tang defeated Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong at one time, occupied the Central Plains and Hebei, and won a decisive victory in pacifying the world. Li Shimin was awarded the title of General of Heavenly Strategy, second only to Li Yuan and crown prince Li Jiancheng, and had the political capital to seize the throne.
Dou Jiande
Tang Army Strategy
Liu Hei min raised an army: Hebei's gun smoke rose again
In 621, after the defeat of Dou Jiande of the Hebei Bactrian regime, the rest of the army supported Liu Heimin and was eventually pacified by the Tang Dynasty.
After Li Shimin, the King of Qin, led an army to defeat Dou Jiande, the King of Xia, the Tang Dynasty occupied the entire Heshuo region. However, due to the strong power of Dou Jiande in the past, after Dou Jiande was defeated and died, many of his subordinates were active in the people, ready to rebel against Tang.
Dou Jiande's old general Fan Yuan gathered the military generals of Bactria together to avenge Dou Jiande, but at this time, the dragons were leaderless, and everyone decided to find a celestial master to calculate a trifle to see who would be the leader. The guashi pinched his fingers and said that he should find someone with the surname Liu. Fan Yan listened to Master Gua's words and thought that among Dou Jiande's former ministers, there happened to be a person named Liu Ya. However, after Fan Yan and others found Liu Ya, Liu Ya refused to do so, and only wanted to cultivate the countryside for the elderly, and did not want to be mixed into the struggle for the world. Fan Xuan and the others were very unhappy, saying that we had a hard time finding you, but I didn't expect you to do it, and since you already knew that everyone was going to raise troops, you couldn't be left behind. So Fan Yan and the others killed Liu Ya.
After Liu Ya's death, Fan Xuan and the others remembered that there was another person named Liu Heimin, who had been appointed by Dou Jiande as a general and should be a person who could achieve great things, so everyone went to Liu Heimin as a leader. Liu Heimin listened to the plan of Fan Yuan and others and readily agreed, and immediately began to recruit troops and prepare to raise troops against Tang. Liu Heimin led the people to quickly capture several county towns, and the news of the uprising spread quickly, and many of Dou Jiande's old troops who surrendered to the Tang Dynasty also responded to Liu Heimin's call, and they quickly occupied Hebei, Shandong, and other places, and formed an alliance with Xu Yuanlang, another anti-Tang group.
When Li Yuan saw that Liu Heimin had openly rebelled in Hebei, he sent Li Shentong, the king of Huai'an, to go on a crusade. Li Shentong made every preparation for the battle, but unexpectedly, heavy snow fell from the sky, and the grain and grass were damaged, not only did he lose the battle, but he also became a prisoner of Liu Heimin.
After Liu Heimin's victory, he proclaimed himself the King of Handong and followed the example of an official position during The Dou Jiande period and established a new regime in the Hebei region. Seeing that Liu Heimin's power was getting stronger and stronger, Li Yuan decided to send his son Li Shimin, the Prince of Qin, to go to conquest.
Li Shimin soon led his army to Luozhou, where Liu Heimin was stationed, and he first sank Liu Heimin's grain carrier, and then sent someone to look after the dam near Luozhou and prepare to design a capture of Liu Heimin. Sure enough, after the two armies had been deadlocked for more than two months, Liu Heimin's army was short of food and grass, and Liu Heimin could not resist leading his army into battle, and Li Shimin waited for work to defeat Liu Heimin. Just as Liu Heimin crossed the river to return to the city, Li Shimin ordered the opening of the floodgates to release water, and the ferocious water force swept Liu Heimin's army to pieces, and most of his soldiers drowned in the water. In desperation, Liu Heimin and Fan Yuan had to flee to the Turks for refuge.
After Li Shimin defeated Liu Heimin, Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin to attack Xu Yuanlang, who was allied with Liu Heimin. But this gave Liu Heimin a chance to breathe, he attracted Turkic cavalry to attack Shandong, the Tang army was defeated in successive battles, and Liu Heimin's forces revived.
Li Yuan was busy summoning the crown prince Li Jiancheng to attack Liu Heimin, but the resurgent Liu Heimin was very powerful. The two sides could not fight for a long time, and the crown prince Li Jiancheng was very distressed. At this time, the crown prince's chancellor Wei Zheng offered a plan, saying that Liu Heimin's generals were so heroic because their relatives were in Liu Heimin's hands, and the soldiers were afraid that their families would be killed, so they did not dare to disobey Liu Heimin's orders. The Tang army's approach should be different from Liu Heimin's, we might as well release the relatives of the generals who have captured Liu Heimin and let them persuade the soldiers to surrender, and the enemy army will definitely be disturbed by the military's heart, and we will have no intention of fighting for Liu Heimin's life. Wei Zheng's strategy did work, and it wasn't long before Liu Heimin's army collapsed and began to flee in all directions.
Liu Heimin saw that the general trend had gone, and fled the battlefield with his cronies. However, Rao Yang, who originally belonged to Liu Heimin's subordinates, stabbed Shi Zhuge Dewei, pretending to invite Liu Heimin to go into the city to rectify and rest, and captured Liu Heimin while he was eating and offered him to the Tang army.
Conclusion: Liu Heimin's army failed, and the Hebei region of Shandong completely became part of the Tang Dynasty's territory, expanding the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and also preparing the Tang Dynasty to march south and unify the whole country.
Still