Li Shimin is brave and good at war, good at military affairs, and acting decisively and fiercely, which is recognized by everyone, otherwise, how could he have done the things of killing his brothers, mutilating his nephews, killing his brothers and taking his wife?
With iron horses and spears, he broke ground for himself, seized power, and won very important victories in many battles. However, although Li Shimin is good at leading troops to fight, he is not invincible. He had been defeated in the Shallow Water Plains, and almost lost Chang'an, and the person who defeated him was Xue Ju.
Xue Ju was a native of present-day Shanxi, one of the heroes of the late Sui Dynasty, who lived in Lanzhou, Gansu province when he was young with his father Xue Jiang. Xue Ju was rugged in appearance and large in stature, and was particularly good at conquest, horseback hunting, and later, served as a lieutenant in Jincheng Province. In 617, Xue, who was unable to withstand the dark rule of the Sui Dynasty, raised an army against the Sui, and called himself the "Overlord of Western Qin" to establish the Qinxing Empire, and in July of the same year moved the capital to Qin Prefecture and proclaimed himself king.
The following year, Xue Ju exchanged fire with Tang soldiers and confronted Li Shimin at the place of Shallow Water Plain, not only capturing many Tang generals such as Murong Luohu and Liu Hongji of the Tang army, but also beating Li Shimin to a gradual defeat and retreat, and taking advantage of the victory to pursue, planning to directly attack Chang'an City. However, what people did not expect was that Xue Ju eventually fell seriously ill and died on the way to the conquest.
Xingbing Uprising - When Xue Ju was young, his family was very solid, and he liked to make friends with the hero Haojie, and he was also quite famous in the northern region, and he was an authentic young Junjie. During his tenure as a lieutenant in the Jincheng Prefecture of the Sui Dynasty, it was just in time for the famine in the local area, and at the same time, bandits in Longxi were raging, and the people were miserable.
At that time, Jincheng County ordered Hao Yu to recruit thousands of troops in the local area in order to fight against these thieves, and appointed Xue Ju as a general to unify his command. Xue Ju, who felt the faint rule and inaction of the Sui Dynasty government, had long had the intention of plotting rebellion, and in addition, he saw that the people suffered because of the famine and were harassed by thieves, and his determination to overthrow the rule at that time was strengthened.
Therefore, taking this opportunity, he divided up the armor, married the officials and the people, stored grain and wine, and waited for the opportunity to hijack Hao Zhen, under the pretext of collecting and arresting the rebels, he raised an uprising, imprisoned the local officials, opened a warehouse to release grain to help the victims. Immediately afterward, he proclaimed himself king, established a new regime, and made his son Xue Renyue the Duke of Jin. Later, he recovered the heads of thieves in many places, including those who were given the title of Duke luohu of Yixing.
After several conquests, Xue Ju's soldiers and horses became stronger and stronger, and the troops were also quite elite, and everywhere they went, the city was exhausted and their strength continued to grow. The Sui Dynasty general Huangfu led 10,000 elite troops to garrison Fenghan, while Xue Ju led only 2,000 men to carry out a sneak attack, and the two began a fierce battle on the red bank. Before the fighting began, a sudden strong wind blew and heavy rain followed.
At that time, Xue Ju was going against the wind and was at a disadvantage, which was a good opportunity for the emperor to attack, but he did not act, which can be said to be a missed opportunity. Not long after, the wind direction changed, Xue Ju not only went with the wind, but also with the help of the dim night, when the enemy army was defenseless, a large attack, the emperor's army was defeated and fled. Xue Ju won more with less and won over Yu Han.
Minshan Qiang Zhong Lili led more than 20,000 of his brothers to surrender to Xue Ju, which greatly increased his military strength and strength. In less than ten days, Xue Ju already had an army of 130,000 troops, and successively enfeoffed Xue Rengao as the King of Qi, Zong Luohu as the King of Yixing, and Xue Renyue as the King of Jin, dominating the Longxi region.
In July 617, Xue Ju proclaimed himself king in present-day Lanzhou, Gansu, and crowned his wife Ju as empress, his son Xue Rengao as crown prince, and his mother as empress dowager. Subsequently, Xue ju ordered his son to attack Hechi Commandery (河池郡), sent his troops to cross the river to attack Li Rail, and fought fiercely at Changsong, but both battles ended in failure.
Later, fortunately, his son captured Qinzhou, and Xue Ju changed the capital from Lanzhou to Qinzhou.
The plan did not succeed – in December 617, Xue Ju sent his son to attack Fufeng Commandery (扶風郡), which is now Fengxiang, Shaanxi, but was resisted by thieves and the army was unable to advance into the city. At first, the thief leader Tang Bi supported Li Hongzhi as the crown prince, and he had 100,000 troops. Later, Xue Ju sent emissaries to persuade Tang Bi, causing Tang Bi to turn against him, and after killing Li Hongzhi, he defected to Xue Ju.
However, the soldiers were not tired of deception, and Xue Rengao took advantage of Tang Bi's lack of vigilance to break through his defense line and absorb most of Tang's troops, so that Tang had to lead hundreds of soldiers to flee in a panic. At this time, Xue Ju's army was further expanded, and there were already 200,000 troops, so he was ready to plan an attack on Chang'an.
At this time, it was just in time for the Tang king Li Yuan to support Yang You as the Sui Emperor and enter Chang'an. Xue Ju prepared to attack Fufeng, while Li Yuan sent his second son Li Shimin to meet the battle, the two sides were on the verge of fighting, and in the end, Xue Rengao was defeated, and thousands of his generals were also beheaded by the Tang army, and the Tang army chased all the way, and Xue Rengao had to retreat all the way back to Longyou.
Because Li Shimin fought bravely and was good at using troops, which brought a lot of pressure to Xue Ju, Xue was also quite afraid of Li Shimin, so he could only flee all the way to Long and ask his subordinates: "Did you have an emperor who surrendered before?" His subordinate Chu Liang replied: "From ancient times to the present, there have been many emperors who surrendered, such as Zhao Tuo, Liu Chan, and so on, and they have all obtained good results, their homes have been saved, and their lives have been saved. ”
However, Hao Yan retorted: "What Chu Liang said is not right, leading soldiers to fight a war is inherently victorious and lost, and we cannot lose confidence because of a defeat, and we must also say the words of subjugation of the country. When Xue Ju heard Hao Yu's words, he also regretted asking this question, so he replied, "I just used this question to test everyone." Subsequently, Hao Was reused as a mastermind. Hao Yu suggested that Xue Ju could unite forces with the Turks to jointly fight against the Tang Dynasty.
Xue Ju accepted this suggestion and prepared to go to the Turks to plan a joint attack on the Beijing Division. However, unexpectedly, the Tang Dynasty water supervisor Yuwen Xin preemptively sent an envoy to the Turks, and reached an agreement with the Turkic Moheru not to send troops to the Tang. Because of this, Xue Ju's plan to unite with the Turks against the Tang Dynasty was shattered.
Seriously ill and died – In 618, the Tang army launched an attack on Zong Luoju, and Xue Ju led all his troops to support and plundered Qi prefecture and Fengzhou. Li Shimin personally led the troops to resist. Li Shimin knew that Xue Ju was attacking with troops, and the grain and grass preparations were not sufficient, and he could use the method of war of attrition to exhaust his strength.
At the same time, it also coincided with Li Shimin's ill feelings, so Li was stationed in the city and refused to send troops, even if Xue Ju provoked many times, he did not move according to the troops. Li Shimin's generals Liu Wenjing and Yin Kaishan arranged troops in the high mountains, thinking that relying on the dangerous terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and no need to set up defensive facilities, but what they did not expect was that Xue Ju lured the enemy deeper and launched a surprise attack on the Tang army.
In the end, this move led to a major defeat of the Tang army, with more than 60% of the casualties and many Tang ministers captured. Seeing that the strategic situation was very unfavorable to him, Li Shimin led the remaining troops to flee back to Chang'an, while Xue Ju occupied Gaoyuan City. In August of the same year, Xue Ju ordered his son to capture Ningzhou.
However, at this time, Hao Yu offered a plan: "At present, the Tang army has been repelled, many generals have been captured by us, the people's hearts are turbulent, it is a great opportunity to defeat in one fell swoop, we can take advantage of the victory to pursue, directly forced into Chang'an City." Xue Ju heard Hao say this and agreed very much. However, there was an unexpected storm in the sky, and just when Xue Ju was preparing to send troops, he suddenly became seriously ill and could not afford to be sick.
After that, he summoned the wizard to diagnose his illness, and the wizard told Xue that the reason why he suddenly fell ill was because Tang Jun was doing something wrong, and Xue Ju heard the news that his condition was more serious, and he died of illness soon after. Later, his son Xue Rengao succeeded to the throne and became Emperor Wu, but before he could hold a funeral for his father, Xue Rengao was killed by the Tang army.
Since then, the new regime that Xue Ju had so hard to establish was also overthrown.
According to legend, the solemn temple in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, is the former residence of Xue Ju, and in the thirteenth year of Daye, that is, in 617, Xue Ju proclaimed himself emperor in Lanzhou and set up a royal palace here. After the Tang Dynasty pacified Xue Ju, it changed the area into a Buddhist temple.
Resources:
[Old Book of Tang, Vol. 55, Liechuan No. 5, New Book of Tang, Vol. 86, Liechuan NO. 11]