Text/Fu Huaxuan
A person's boldness and mind, talent is the main one, and the experience of the day after tomorrow is of course also very important, but it is difficult to train a timid and narrow-minded person into a person who is bold and dares to break through and is humble! The boldness and mind of Tang Taizong Li Shimin were shown at the beginning of the tang dynasty, when he was weak. At that time, Li Shimin was just a hairy boy in his twenties, and he had just entered adulthood.
At the beginning of the establishment of Li Yuan's Tang Dynasty, the sphere of influence was only in the Guanzhong region around Chang'an, with the unprecedentedly powerful Eastern Turks in the north, the Khitan and Murong Wei in the east, the Tuguhun and Gaochang states in the west, Dou Jiande in Hebei, Xue Ju in Longxi, Wang Shichong in the Central Plains, and so on. It is easy to talk about unifying the whole country.
At present, Li Yuan's biggest threat is undoubtedly his neighbor Xue Ju of Western Qin.
In April of the thirteenth year of Daye (617), Xue raised an army and proclaimed himself the Overlord of Western Qin, with the era name Qin Xing. In July of the thirteenth year of Daye (617), Xue Ju declared himself emperor and moved the capital to Qinzhou. In the first year of Wu De (618), Xue Ju engaged the Tang army, defeated the Tang army in the shallow water plains, and captured several generals. When Xue Ju was about to take advantage of the victory to take Chang'an, he suddenly fell ill and died.
God bless Li Tang!
In the competition field, Li Yuan just lost a point, and God did not say a word to send Xue Ju a red card, obviously quite eccentric. If Xue Ju did not die, he was definitely a hard bone that Tang Jun was not easy to deal with. After Xue Ju's death, Xue Renguo, the Prince of Qin, succeeded him as Emperor Qin. Although the game continued, Li Yuan had nothing to worry about.
Because the strength of this substitute player is not good, it is a big difference compared with his Lao Tzu.
Li Yuan heard that xue renguo, the new head of the Xue family, was mean and unkind, narrow-minded, and had a bad reputation for fighting with the generals when he was the crown prince, and although he now took over his Lao Tzu's class, most of the generals did not buy his account. In addition, shortly after Xue Ju's death, Xue Ju's main adviser Hao Yu also followed Xue Ju due to excessive grief. Nowadays, there is not even a single person around Xue Renguo who has made suggestions. Therefore, Li Yuan was sure that the Xue family's family foundation would soon be destroyed by Xue Renguo.
In September of the first year of Wu De (618 AD), the twenty-year-old Qin king Li Shimin led a large army to attack the city of Gaoyuan, where Xue Renguo was stationed. Xue Renguo ordered Zong Luo to go out of the city to challenge, but Li Shimin closed the camp gate and refused to fight. The other side shouted and scolded in the face of the battle, and the generals of the Tang Army were furious and asked for orders to go to war, and Li Shimin looked calm and said unhurriedly: "Our army was defeated by others not long ago, and its morale was depressed, and the thieves were proud of victory and arrogance, and they had the heart to take our own lightly, so our army should stick to the stronghold and wait for the momentum, and when its army is arrogant and our morale is uplifted, it will certainly be able to defeat it in one battle." "
Li Shimin then ordered the army: "Those who dare to speak out, behead!" Twenty-year-old Li Shimin is so calm and calm, he should be greatly praised! True general demeanor!
The two sides have been facing each other for more than sixty days, and the two warring sides have been deadlocked for more than two months! This is a psychological tactic, testing the psychological quality and strategy of the other party. The grain in Gaotuo City was finally eaten, and the Qin general Liang Hulang and others led their troops to surrender to the Tang army. The two armies confronted each other and took the initiative to surrender, which showed that the opposing army was scattered, conspired to fight with each other, and fell on each other, which was a pie that heaven dropped for Li Shimin. Li Shimin knew that the Qin army had already centrifuged its generals, so he ordered the general Liang Shi to enter the shallow water plains alone and lure the enemy into battle. When Zong Luo saw that the Tang army had finally gone to war, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and dispatched all the elites to launch a fierce attack on Liang Shi's Tang army camp. Liang Shi followed Li Shimin's prior deployment and could not hold out. The military camp was interrupted for several days, and although Liang Shi's men and horses did not enter the water for several days, they stubbornly repelled a more fierce attack by the Qin army.
After several days of fierce fighting, Li Shimin expected that the Qin army was already at the end of the crossbow, so he issued a general attack order, and the Tang army immediately poured out. Zong Luohu hurried back to the army, and the two sides fought a decisive battle in the shallow water plains. Li Shimin personally led dozens of cavalry to take the lead in attacking the enemy position, and the large army followed closely behind, launching a fierce attack, killing thousands of Qin troops. Zong Luohu's men began to retreat, and Li Shimin prepared to lead more than 2,000 light cavalry in pursuit. Li Shimin's uncle Dou Lu hurriedly grabbed Li Shimin's reins and tried to dissuade him: "Xue Renguo is still holding the fortified city, and although our army has broken through the sect, it must not advance lightly, please hold still and wait and see what happens." "
Li Shimin waved his hand and said, "This battle is the result of my long-simmering, and now it is precisely with the momentum of breaking bamboo that the attack is invincible, the opportunity must not be lost, and the time will not come again!" Uncle, don't you say it again! Immediately with a wave of his whip, he sat down on the white-hoofed horse with a pure black body, and immediately flew away like an arrow off the string towards Takatsuka Castle. Wow, the chief charged forward, the soldiers were full of passion, and the Tang army was like a fierce tiger descending the mountain, rushing towards the enemy like a tide.
Li Shimin led his army to gaoyuan city and camped on the bank of Jingshui, and Xue Renguo sent a large army to line under the city. A moment later, Xue Renguo's subordinates, Hun Gan and others, led their troops out of the battle and rushed towards the Tang army camp.
Seeing that it was another fierce battle, the soldiers of the Tang Army waited in strict formation. However, the next scene surprised everyone, as soon as the Qin army arrived at the battle, it threw down its weapons and surrendered to the Tang army.
Li Shimin smiled.
This is exactly what he has been determined to achieve after more than sixty days.
But Xue Renguo almost cried. He already knew that these generals could not be trusted, but he did not expect that they would turn against each other at this juncture.
Helpless, Xue Renguo had no choice but to hunch his head and return to the city with the rest of his troops. At dusk, the Tang Dynasty army all entered the city of Gaoyuan and surrounded it. At midnight, the Qin generals guarding the city realized that this unsuccessful Xue Renguo had gone, and rushed out of the city to surrender.
On the morning of the eighth morning of the first month of November, the sky in the east had just appeared white fish belly, and Xue Renguo, whose face was pale and his eyes were red and swollen, obediently raised the lowering flag and came to Li Shimin. The gates of the city were open on all four sides behind him.
Xue Ju's father and son were completely out of the game at this point. From the beginning of the army to the defeat, it took only one year and seven months.
The Qin army all surrendered on the same day. Li Shimin accepted more than 10,000 elite soldiers and 50,000 male and female residents of Gaoyuan City. The generals congratulated Li Shimin one after another, but they could not help but ask a question: "Although the Great King broke Zong Luohu in the field battle, Xue Renguo still held the fortified city. You did not bring infantry, did not bring siege equipment, only led a small number of light horses to the city, everyone found it difficult to conquer, why can you take Gao yuan? "
Li Shimin smiled and said, "Zong Luohu's men are all Longxi people, the generals are brave, the soldiers are fierce, I just broke them by surprise, I didn't gain much, and I didn't destroy their living strength." If the action is slow, let them withdraw to the city, Xue Renguo to pacify, reorganize, it will not be easy to deal with. That's why I was anxious to attack, forcing them to collapse and flee back to Longxi. As a result, Gao Yuan's defenses were naturally weak, Xue Renguo was timid, too late to deal with it, and the army was scattered and could only surrender. This is a matter of ten to nine stability, can't the kings see it? "
The crowd was greatly impressed, and the strategy and courage of the King of Qin were very accessible!
After taking in the generals of the Qin army, Li Shimin did not reorganize them, but still handed over all the surrendered soldiers to Xue Renguo's brother and Zong Luohu and other generals. Li Shimin and these descendants drank together and talked and laughed. And Li Shimin often went to the mountains with the generals to shoot and hunt, and took the reins forward, without any suspicion. Shoot the real guy who has a sword and a gun in his hand! These generals have just surrendered, are there two hearts?
Although the generals of Western Qin had just surrendered for a few days, it was said that people had not surrendered their hearts, but now they had personally felt Li Shimin's extraordinary arrogance and mind, and all the generals were shocked, and they were impressed by Li Shimin's personality charm from the bottom of their hearts! We all meditated in our hearts, and finally met the Lord of life! It is a blessing that life meets the Lord, and soldiers meet good generals! So they all expressed their willingness to die for Datang. In addition, Li Shimin's insight into talents also took down Xue Renguo's yellow door attendant Yu Liang, this Chu Liang was not simple, this humanistic Tao Wuluo was very good, and later became one of the "Eighteen Scholars of the Qin Dynasty".
On November 22, Li Shimin's class returned to Chang'an and beheaded Xue Renguo in the downtown area. A few days later, Li Shimin was promoted by Li Yuan to the rank of Lieutenant (太尉) for his merits, and was also appointed as the Shang Shu Ling of The Eastern Shaanxi Province. It was from this time that Li Shimin's outstanding military talent began to show to the world. This was the first battle of the Tang Dynasty to unify the whole country, and the banner was victorious.