Author: Blowing Snow
The late Sui Dynasty
Liu Wuzhou was a native of Mayi (马邑; present-day Shuozhou, Shanxi). Since childhood, Xiao Xiao was brave and good at shooting, and he was a hero, so he joined the army when he became an adult. After the Sui army's Eastern Expedition, Liu Wuzhou belonged to the general Wang Rengong's department, because Yang Xuan felt that an army was rebelling against Sui, Wang Rengong's nephew Wang Zhongbo participated in the matter, and Wang Rengong was implicated in this, so he was deposed. Later, due to the Turkic invasion, Wang Rengong was reused and led Ma Yi Taishou.
Liu Wuzhou also returned to his hometown and was appointed lieutenant of Ma Yiying Yang after returning to Wang Rengong. Unexpectedly, it was not long before Liu Wuzhou actually had an affair with Wang Rengong's concubine, and for fear of revealing the matter, he actually assassinated Wang Rengong and then sent envoys to the Turks. The Turks also called him "Dingyang Khan", Liu Wuzhou was the emperor, and his wife Feng Shi was made empress, changing the name to Yuan Tianxing.
Portrait of Liu Wuzhou
At this time, Li Yuan was almost preparing to raise an army against the Sui, and he sent Liu Wenjing to make the Turks. It also became a "vassal state" of the Turks. Soon after occupying Daxing City, he established himself as emperor, changed Daxing to Chang'an, and set the name of the country "Tang".
After Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty, Liu Wuzhou was given the title of Grand General: Song Jingang. He was a native of Shanggu (上谷; present-day Yi County, Hebei). At first, Song Jingang was the leader of the Hebei rebel army, with more than 10,000 people, active in the Yizhou area, in alliance with Wei Dao'er, who called himself Emperor Wei. After Wei Dao'er was destroyed by Dou Jiande, Song Jingang led an army to rescue him, but was defeated, so he led the remaining 4,000 people to defect to Liu Wuzhou. Liu Wuzhou heard that he was good at using soldiers, and he was very pleased, so he made Song Jingang the King of Song, and not only entrusted him with military affairs, but also married the two sides.
Song Jingang was indeed very bold, and he advised Liu Wuzhou to attack Jinyang and then march south to fight for the world. This was a far-sighted and enterprising strategy, and Liu Wuzhou adopted his advice. In June of the second year of Tang Wude (619), Liu Wuzhou began to move south. He gave Song Jingang the title of Daxingtai of Southwest Province, and asked him to lead 20,000 men and horses to attack Jinyang in the Tang Dynasty. Liu Wuzhou led an army to attack Yuci County with the Turkic troops.
The commander of the Tang army was Li Yuanji, the prince of Qi, the son of Tang Gaozu, who had the che general Zhang Da (張達) go with a hundred infantrymen to test the strength of the enemy. Zhang Da thought that this move was undesirable, but the King of Qi forcibly dismissed it. As a result, a hundred soldiers went in vain zhang Da angrily surrendered to Liu Wuzhou, and led a large army to attack Yuci, Liu Wuzhou took advantage of the situation to approach Jinyang, and the army was extremely strong for a while. Frightened, Li Yuanji, the King of Qi, repeatedly told Li Yuan to be anxious.
Map of Tang Taiyuan
After receiving Li Yuan's urgent document from Li Yuanji, the Emperor Gaozu of Tang, who was living in Chang'an, ordered the Zuowu Wei general Jiang Baoyi and the Taichang Shaoqing Li Zhongwen to lead troops to the rescue. Liu Wuzhou heard the news and ordered Huang Ziying to go to lure the enemy. Jiang and Li really planned to go after Huang Ziying. After chasing after the Sparrow Valley, the ambush troops came out in all directions, and the Tang army was completely destroyed. The two commanders Jiang and Li were also taken prisoner, but they fled shortly after their deaths.
When Emperor Gaozu of Tang saw the defeat of the conquest, he appointed his right servant Pei Huan as the commander-in-chief of the Jinzhou Dao March and ordered him to lead an army to fight against Liu Wuzhou. Pei Ning led a large army to Jiexiu, and Song Jingang defended the city. Pei Huan then camped his army in dusuoyuan and Song Jingang at the foot of the Jieshan Mountain in the southeast of Jiexiu, and the stream here became the only source of water for tens of thousands of Tang troops. Song Jingang saw that Pei Huan had violated the taboo of the soldiers' family, so he cut off the Tang army's waterway and forced Pei Huan to move the camp. Song Jingang took advantage of the situation to attack, the Tang army was defeated, almost the entire army was destroyed, and Pei Huan fled back to Jinzhou (present-day Linfen, Shanxi).
Liu Wuzhou launched a general attack on Taiyuan, frightening Li Yuanji and his wife and concubines to abandon the city and flee back to Chang'an. Liu Wuzhou occupied Taiyuan and sent Song Jingang to attack Jinzhou. In only six days, Song Jingang captured the city, and then attacked Huanzhou (浍州, in modern Shanxi Wing City). At this point, Liu Wuzhou's army was extremely strong, and he almost captured most of the Jin Dynasty, and Guanzhong was shocked.
It should be known that Jindi was the place where Tang Gaozu had been operating for many years, and it was also the logistical support for the grain and salary of the Beijing Division, and Taiyuan was also the treasure land where Tang Gaozu started his family, how could Wang Ji, who was opened, tolerate Liu Wuzhou's occupation, but the Tang army had repeatedly defeated Tang Gaozu and had no choice but to take out his trump card and send Li Shimin, the king of Qin, to lead an army to attack Liu Wuzhou.
In November, Li Shimin led an army from Longmen (禹門) across the Yellow River northwest of Hejin City, Shanxi Province, and northeast of Hancheng City, Shaanxi Province, and the Tun army fought against Song Jingang at Baibi. The reason why Li Shimin chose to fight at Baibi was because the occupation of Baibi would cut off Liu Wuzhou's connection with Song Jingang. Subsequently, Tang Gaozu ordered Li Xiaoji the Prince of Yong'an and Yu Jun, the governor of Shaanzhou, to lead an army to attack Xia County, but failed to conquer the garrison south of the city. However, not long after, Song Jingjing's fierce general Wei Chi Jingde sneaked through Li Xiaoji's military camp, followed by several other large camps, and Li Xiaoji and the other four generals of the unified army were all taken prisoner.
Li Shimin, anticipating that Lieutenant Chi Jingde would definitely escort prisoners of war back to Huanzhou, sent the generals Qin Shubao and Yin Kaishan to ambush at Meiliangchuan (meiliangchuan, in present-day northern Xia County, Shanxi), and defeated Lieutenant Chi Jingde. Subsequently, the army began to besiege Pu prefecture (蒲州, in modern Yongji County, Shanxi), and Song Jingang had to send Wei Chi Jingde to the rescue, but on the way he was intercepted by Li Shimin's army, and the soldiers were scattered, and Wei Chi Jingde was only spared.
Subsequently, Tang Gaozu personally came to PujinGuan to treat the army, and Li Shimin also temporarily returned from the front line to pay respects to Li Yuan. When Song Jingang learned of this, he took advantage of the false siege of Dai Prefecture (绛州, in modern Xindi, Shanxi) and when Li Shimin returned, Song Jingang retreated in fear. Subsequently, Li Shimin defeated Liu Wuzhou's main army at Haozhou.
Statue of Wei Chi Jingde
By April of the third year of Wu De (620), the war between Song Jingang and Li Shimin had been going on for a long time, the army was short of food, the soldiers were starving, and Song Jingang had to abandon the city and lead his troops to retreat north. After Li Shimin found out, he led his army in a tight pursuit, running for more than two hundred miles a day and night, and finally caught up with Song Jingang in the Valley of the Sparrows. Eight fierce battles in one day, the Tang army won, killing tens of thousands of people. Song Jingang fled north again. After running to Jiezhou, he finally gathered 20,000 soldiers and horses again, and sent Lieutenant Chi Jingde out of the west gate of the city to fight a decisive battle with the Tang army.
Li Shimin led Qin Shubao, Cheng Yaojin and other fierce generals into the battle to fight hard, Song Jingang was unsurprisingly defeated again, and had to continue to flee north, while his subordinates Wei Jingde and Zhang Wanshi finally surrendered to Li Shimin after gathering the troops.
Qin Qiong stills
Liu Wuzhou heard that Song Jingang had suffered a crushing defeat, and there were no available soldiers under his command, so he had to run to the Turks. Song Jingang had no choice but to defect to the Turks together. But soon after Song Jingang betrayed the Turks and was caught and beheaded. Liu Wuzhou also plotted to escape back to Mayi and was also killed after being discovered by the Turks.
Song King Kong stills
A big factor for Li Shimin's victory in this battle was that he occupied Baibi at the beginning, and the correct location of the troops was the guarantee of victory in the battle. Using the tactic of "seizing high on the deep wall to frustrate its front", he avoided direct contact with The General Song Jingang of Liu Wuzhou, who occupied Jinzhou. It depleted its living forces and reversed the unfavorable war situation at the outset. At this point, only Liang Shidu was left in the northwest of Tang to fight with it.
Li Shimin stills
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Editor-in-chief: Yao Xiaohong
Editors: Hong You, Zou Zhou