The rise of the sui dynasty was related to the overly tyrannical rule of the Sui Dynasty. In particular, hebei, Shandong, and the Central Plains have been undertaking tasks such as digging canals, conscripting troops and cutting goguryeo, and organizing logistics and transfers since the sixth and seventh years of Daye, coupled with the continuous years of floods and droughts, the people's strength has withered to the extreme, and when the Wagang army has risen up, the various rebel armies in Hebei represented by Dou Jiande have also risen one after another, stirring up huge waves in the north.
In the fourteenth year of Daye, the Sui Emperor was killed by Yu Wenhua and . Soon, at the suggestion of Song Zhengben and others, Dou Jiande set the name of the country as Xia, dingdu Leshou, and changed the yuan to Wufeng. After that, Dou Jiande successively annexed the rebel Wei Dao'er's troops, captured The Prefectures of Ji and Ding, and then marched to Youzhou to attack Luo Yi, but the siege was unfavorable, and for more than a hundred days they failed to make progress, Luo Yi again communicated with Li Tangtong in Guanzhong, and Dou Jiande was unable to catch him, so he withdrew his army south, returned to Leshou, and prepared to expand south.
At that time, the situation in Henan changed again and again. The Wagang army dominated Henan, and Dou Jiande, who was still in the stage of development, sent Li Mi to honor Li Mi as an ally, and even once persuaded Li Mi to establish himself as emperor. Dou Jiande himself was very cautious about emperor, which shows that he was hostile to the Wagang regime, presumably hoping that Li Mi's claim to the emperor would cause a collective resistance from the Central Plains. After that, the Wagang army fought a bloody battle with Yu Wenhua and wang Shichong to the west, and the result was defeat and disintegration. The counties of Yuliang Qiqingyan, which were originally under the jurisdiction of the Wagang Army, were all in a state of scattered anarchy at this time. The Tang Dynasty sent Li Shentong, the king of Huai'an, as an ambassador to pacify Shandong Province, crossed Luoyang and entered the former land of the Wagang Army to harvest territory. An area east of Hu prison pass and south of Wei County was successively occupied by the Tang army. Soon, the Tang army confronted Yu Wenhua and the remnants, and due to Li Shentong's improper command, Yu Wenhua unexpectedly blocked the momentum of the Tang army's expansion to the east and north for Dou Jiande. This enabled Dou Jiande to calmly dispatch troops south and intervene in the central plains.
In the leap month of the second year of Tang Wude (Xia Wufeng II, 619), Dou Jiande, under the banner of avenging the Sui Emperor, led his troops south to force Liaocheng (辽城, northeast of present-day Liaocheng, Shandong). After being frustrated, the Tang army did not dare to make contact with the Xia army and quickly left the battlefield. Dou Jiande, ignoring the two enemies on his side, quickly launched an attack on Yu Wenhua and himself. The latter lost successive battles and retreated into Liaocheng to defend it, and the Xia army chased after the city and launched a siege operation. It was in this battle that Xia Jun showed a high professional quality. According to the Old Book of Tang and the Biography of Dou Jiande, the Xia army "crashed into a car and threw stones, and the machine was ingenious", which was the most technical level and organizational discipline among the various skills of the infantry siege. In just over three years since the eleventh year of Daye's incident, Xia Jun's ability to reach such a level is not unrelated to Dou Jiande's long-term vision.
When Dou Jian's German army was attacking on all sides, Wang Bo, who had previously surrendered to Yu Wenhua, led the crowd to respond internally and opened the city gate. Yu Wenhua and the entire clan and the murderer of Emperor Jue were all executed without mercy. Most of the captured Sui officials were hired by their own means, with Pei Zhi serving as Shangshu Zuo's servant, Cui Junsu as a servant, and He Chou as Gongbu Shangshu.
After Dou Jiande entered the city, he showed full respect for the orthodoxy of the Sui Dynasty, and he still claimed to be a vassal in front of Empress Xiao of the Emperor, and sent envoys to Luoyang to see the Emperor Tai to show his sincerity, and also sent troops to escort Empress Xiao and Yang Zhengdao, the orphan of the Sui Dynasty, into the Turks. In this way, the Xia kingdom further brought its relations with the Turks closer, and the Xia kingdom's power in Hebei was further consolidated.
After relieving the external threat, in August, Dou Jiande marched into Huan Prefecture (洺州, in modern Yongnian County, Hebei) and successfully conquered it, and then moved the capital there. The fact that The prefecture was in the southernmost part of Hebei was not conducive to the prefectures of Zhenfu and Jiding, especially in the case that there were still forces such as Luo Yi and Gao Kaidao in the Prefectures of You and Yingzhou, and moving the capital to Puzhou would weaken its control over the north, but since Dou Jiande had set the capital here, he obviously focused on advancing southward.
The Xia army then marched south and defeated the Tang army's Li Shentong troops at Xiangzhou (相州, in modern Anyang, Henan). Later, they successively conquered Xingzhou (治所龙冈县 in present-day Xingtai, Hebei), Zhao Prefecture (治所平棘 in present-day Zhao County, Hebei), Weizhou (治所衛县 in present-day southwest of Present-day JunXian County, Henan), and Huazhou (治所白馬县 in the southeast of present-day Huaxian County, Henan). South of Youzhou, north of the Yellow River, and east to the sea, almost all of them were included in the territory of the Xia Kingdom. During this period, Dou Jiande showed a political and military level far beyond That of Li Mi.
In terms of political power building, Dou Jiande appointed a large number of Sui officials to transplant the mature government organization model into the nascent peasant regime as quickly as possible. Pei Zhi helped Xia Guo formulate the ritual system and established Dou Jiande's authority as the Son of Heaven. This is of great significance for improving the cohesion of the group and strengthening the authority of the leaders. Compared with the state in which the Wagang army was defeated and scattered and could not be revived, xia guo undoubtedly did a much better job.
In terms of army formation and training, the Xia Army also has a different model from the Wagang Army. Dou Jiande did not put much energy into cavalry construction, which can be seen from the repeated defeats of the Xia army in battle with Luo Yi and Gao Kaidao's cavalry. The Xia army seems to be mainly infantry, and its siege technology and infantry and cavalry array technology are relatively mature. The characteristics of this kind of service determine the characteristics of the Xia Army's combat, that is, there is more than enough solidity and insufficient mobility. Dou Jiande fought, except for winning a great victory by fighting between the rivers, the rest was to defeat the enemy army with the advantage of strength. Although it does not look as tough as the Wagang Army, it is solid and reliable, and it is more like a national army than a simple military group. Dou Jiande also gradually got rid of the style of the leader of the peasant army personally visiting the battle front, which actually did more harm than good for the group leader, and Li Mi's several combat injuries seriously dragged down the combat pace of the whole army, and Dou Jiande did not make such mistakes.
In terms of diplomacy, Dou Jiande has also done a humble and unobtrusive job. Preferential treatment of Sui officials earned him a reputation for benevolence and generosity. Although he was at war with the Li-Tang Dynasty, when the Tang Dynasty sent a letter requesting a union, Dou Jiande still generously released Li Shentong, the king of Tang Huai'an, and Li Yuan's sister Princess Tong'an, who were captured in Weizhou. Compared with the practice of making enemies on all sides of the Wagang Army, Dou Jiande won more political space for himself.
Dou Jiande's level of private morality is also relatively high. He maintained and carried forward the benevolent and righteous character of his youth, and although he was the lord of the Xia Kingdom, he still adhered to equality and justice, and whenever he won a victory in battle, he scattered it to the generals, and he never privately possessed it. His usual life is also relatively simple, the diet does not engage in big fish and meat, even meat dishes are rarely eaten, often eat only common vegetables, millet rice (that is, only the grain peel is removed brown rice). At his request, his wife Cao Shi also maintained a simple atmosphere, did not wear silk, and only a dozen concubines served daily, which was a little stronger than ordinary rich people. After the elimination of Yu Wenhua, thousands of concubines and beautiful women of the Sui Harem were captured, all of whom were beautiful and beautiful, but Dou Jiande ordered their release. It can be said that Dou Jiande's talents, levels, moral characters, and realms are all actively moving closer to the Lord of Wisdom, Benevolence, and Righteousness. However, the balance of fate did not tilt towards him as Dou Jiande wished.
When the time came to the fourth year of Tang Wude (621), the situation in the Central Plains became clearer and clearer. Dou Jiande dominated Hebei, and Wang Shichong struggled to support the Central Plains In fact, the area he could control was only around Luoyang, and the Tang Dynasty attacked from all sides, bypassing Wang Shichong's regime to attack Hebei, Shandong, and Lianghuai. The main enemy dou Jiande faced in expanding his power was clearly the increasingly powerful Tang Dynasty.
This article is excerpted from "The History of Chinese War You Must Love to Read: The Sui Dynasty"
