Chairman Mao read Shi Youyun: "Since ancient times, there has been no right wing of Li Shimin, followed by Zhu Yuanzhang's ear." ”
In the fourth year of Wude (621), Li Shimin took the lead with 3500 Xuanjia troops, surrounded the points to help, won a major victory at Tiger Prison Pass with fewer victories, defeated hundreds of thousands of troops combined by Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, and captured wang and Dou two strong enemies.
Due to his many military achievements, Li Shimin was given the title of "General of Tiance" by Li Yuan, the emperor of Tang Gaozu, ranking above the princes, becoming the "third person" after the emperor and the crown prince, and could set up the Tiance Mansion to command the civilian generals under him, and the virtual and real power reached the peak of the people.
This allowed Li Shimin to complete the advancement on the road to power, and the "Tiance Admiral" also became a core card for him to defeat the crown prince Li Jiancheng.
In the tang dynasty, li Shimin was the only general of Tiance, and this year, he was only 23 years old.
In the battle of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, he relied on His martial strategy to win many battles and victories, and his battle achievements were unmatched. How strong is Li Shimin's military ability?
▲Portrait of Tang Taizong Li Shimin
Before the arrival of the chaotic world, the young Li Shimin had already begun to show his sharp edge and showed outstanding talent.
In the eleventh year of the Sui Dynasty (615), the Sui Emperor Yang Guang fell under Turkic siege at Yanmen (雁門, in present-day Dai County, Shanxi).
At that time, Li Shimin, who was only 17 years old, rushed to the rescue with the army.
He advised his superiors: "The Turks dared to besiege the emperor because they thought that our army was in a hurry and there was no time to rescue them. If we bluff, we use dozens of banners during the day to connect, and at night we beat gongs and drums. The Turks must have thought that when the army came, they would flee. ”
It's like "making something out of nothing" in the thirty-six counts. The Turkic army saw the flag flying, heard the gongs and drums, and really mistakenly thought that the Sui Dynasty army had arrived, and hurriedly broke the siege, and the Sui Emperor was successfully rescued.
The young Li Shimin was not only strategic, but also brave and brave.
Shi Zai, Li Shimin was good at making bows, and repeatedly opened his bow left and right on the battlefield to repel his opponents. The bow he used was twice as large as the common bow, which was generally not opened by crossbowmen, and was equipped with special arrows, known as "big feather arrows".
Times make heroes.
The Sui Dynasty Emperor was so happy that although he established the Grand Canal and other feats, he completely got rid of the luxurious life of the paper drunk gold fans. The deer of the Sui Dynasty's national fortune attracted the chase of the world.
In a few years, Haojie rose up and the Sui Dynasty fell apart.
At this time, Li Shimin's father, Taiyuan, stayed behind li yuan and ushered in a turning point in fate.
In the thirteenth year of Daye (617), Li Yuan recruited troops to buy horses, won the hearts and minds of the people, and raised an army at Jinyang (present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi).
In November of the same year, Li Yuan's army went straight to Guanzhong and invaded Chang'an, proclaiming Yang You, the grandson of the Sui Emperor, as emperor, and Yang Guang, who was far away in Jiangdu (present-day Yangzhou, Jiangsu), as emperor.
At the same time, the 19-year-old Li Shimin also went to the whirlpool of the times, as his father Li Yuan's right-hand man, he led the army to take the lead many times.
The year after Li Yuan seized Chang'an, his cousin Yang Guang ended his life in the chancellor Yu Wenhua and Bai Aya, and died in the country. Li Yuan was given the title of emperor in Chang'an and changed the name of the country to "Tang".
▲Portrait of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan
At the beginning of the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, strong enemies from all sides looked at each other.
In the east, Wang Shichong fought with the Wagang army at Luoyang, while in the west, Xue Ju, the "Overlord of Western Qin" who divided Jincheng (present-day Lanzhou, Gansu), was also a major problem for Li Tang's confidants.
Xue Ju, who dominated Longxi, had a natural advantage.
At that time, the Hexi Corridor was the main production area of Sui Dynasty official horses, with a large number of high-quality warhorses. Relying on these officials and horses, Xue Ju formed a powerful cavalry that swept across the northwest region, and the army grew to more than 100,000 people.
In the first year of Wu De (618), Li Shimin led his troops on a western expedition, and at first suffered losses due to the Longxi cavalry.
Soon after, Xue Ju fell ill and died, and was succeeded by his son Xue Rengao.
Xue Rengao, known as "the enemy of ten thousand people", was brave and fierce against his father, but he was cruel by nature. Before Xue Ju died, he sighed that this son was too tyrannical and would eventually bury the Xue family's career.
In August of that year, Li Shimin again led an army to the west, and the army was directed at Gaocheng City (高墌城; present-day northern Changwu County, Shaanxi).
When he arrived at Gaoyuan, Li Shimin adopted the strategy of "waiting for work with ease" and held out with Xue Rengao outside the city for more than two months.
The Generals of the Tang Army had been beaten by the Longxi cavalry before, and they all wanted to be ashamed of themselves, but Li Shimin was not moved.
In the face of Li Shimin, who was closed to the door and did not fight, Xue Rengao had no way to do anything, coupled with the poor transportation of grain, the morale of his subordinates began to waver.
At this time, Li Shimin knew that the time for a decisive battle had arrived. He said to his generals, "The enemy has run out of strength, and our army can take them!" A light army was then sent, led by his men, to camp in the shallow water plains north of Takatsuki Castle and build fortifications.
This is a trick to "sound east and hit west".
Xue Rengao's army waited for many days, and when they saw the Tang army leaving the city, they could not hold back and rushed to attack this unit.
However, this light army was nothing more than bait released by Li Shimin. They dragged Xue Jun along with favorable terrain and starved for several days until Xue Jun was exhausted.
At this time, Li Shimin seized the fighter plane and led the main force to launch an attack on Xue Rengao's army. The panicked Xue army was defeated one after another.
Desperate, Xue Rengao had no choice but to surrender to Li Shimin.
This was the first major battle independently commanded by Li Shimin in the Tang Dynasty Unification War.
After this battle, Li Shimin moved to various places to pacify Qin Liang and protect Hedong, and solved the worries of the Tang army going east and going south.
In July of the third year of Wu De (620), Li Shimin marched east and came to luoyang and engaged in a fierce battle with King Shichong of Zheng.
Once, Li Shimin personally led 500 cavalry to the Northern Mountains outside Luoyang to check the terrain, and was suddenly surrounded by more than 10,000 elite soldiers of Wang Shichong. Wang Shichong's general Shan Xiongxin raised his long hammer in his hand and stabbed Li Shimin directly. At the moment of the first attack, fortunately, Wei Chigong's Prancing Horse arrived, repelled Shan Xiongxin, and protected Li Shimin from the siege.
▲Portrait of Wei Chigong
After Li Shimin broke through, he sent lieutenants Chi Jingde and Qu Tutong to lead a large army to take advantage of the chaos and directly take the Zheng army. Zheng's army was defeated and more than a thousand people were beheaded, and the Tang army further captured the stronghold outside Luoyang.
With the successive losses on the outskirts of Luoyang, The Grain Route of the Zheng Army was cut off, and Wang Shichong retreated to the city of Luoyang.
Wang Shichong concentrated his elite troops in the city and arranged sophisticated defensive equipment. The Tang army launched a large army to attack the city day and night, and it was difficult to bite down this fortified city for a while.
Wang Shichong's army was besieged for many days, and his morale was demoralized, so he sent people to ask Dou Jiande, who occupied Hebei, for help.
▲ Map of the division of various forces in the early Tang Dynasty
Dou Jiande claimed to be the King of Xia and won the hearts and minds of the people in Hebei. When Li Shimin besieged Luoyang, Dou Jiande annexed the Menghai Army in Shandong, and its strength reached its peak.
At that time, the three strongest forces in the north were Li Yuan's Tang Army, Wang Shichong's Zheng Jun, and Dou Jiande's Xia Army. The three formed a strong momentum, if Zheng was destroyed by Tang, Xia would have a crisis of cold lips and teeth.
In order to save Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande led more than 100,000 troops south and came all the way to the gateway east of Luoyang, Tiger Prison Pass.
Knowing that Dou Jiande was marching toward Luoyang, Li Shimin immediately made a decision, adopted the strategy of his subordinates, and decided to "besiege the city for reinforcements", he left part of his army to assist his brother Li Yuanji to continue to besiege Luoyang, waiting for Wang Shichong's defenders to collapse without a fight, and he led 3500 elite horsemen to tiger prison pass.
In the Battle of Tiger Prison Pass, Li Shimin used his favorable terrain to block Dou Jiande's army for nearly a month.
Xia Jun's progress was delayed, and people's hearts returned. And Wang Shichong's anxious envoys kept coming, crying and crying in front of Dou Jiande all day.
Dou Jiande's adviser Ling Jing advised the lord not to fight Li Shimin at Tiger Prison Pass, and to quickly detour through Hedong and go deep into the empty pass, which could not only expand the territory, but also threaten the Tang army and relieve the siege of Luoyang. But Dou Jiande just didn't listen, and he gradually lost patience.
When the two armies were at odds, Li Shimin released "smoke bombs" and drove his warhorses to graze their cattle by the Yellow River, pretending that the Tang army had run out of grain and grass. After Dou Jiande learned about it, the next day the nest was dispatched, and the Xia army's battle flag stretched for miles, and the drums shook the sky.
Li Shimin ascended to observe the enemy position, decided not to move, and waited for the morale of the Xia army to decline, and then took the initiative to attack.
Soon after, Dou Jiande's soldiers were sleepy and tired, and the team gradually scattered. The Tang army war horses grazing on the Yellow River beach have also been rushed back, and Li Shimin ordered that they can fight!
Li Shimin personally led the cavalry to charge forward, leading Cheng Yaojin, Qin Qiong and other fierce generals to break into the enemy position and open the banner behind the enemy position. Dou Jiande rushed to meet the battle, was caught off guard, and his men immediately fled in all directions, and the Tang army pursued thirty miles behind him.
Along the way, Li Shimin "captured the thief first to capture the king", first concentrated his strength to attack the main force of the other side, and finally captured Dou Jiandesheng.
After the great victory of the Tiger Prison Pass, Li Shimin immediately returned to Luoyang and joined forces with other troops to encircle and suppress Wang Shichong. Wang Shichong saw that the Xia army outside the city had been defeated, and his generals were unwilling to break through with him, knowing that the general situation had gone, so he had to surrender Kaesong.
At this point, Li Shimin pacified the two kings of Zheng and Xia in a battle, so that the Tang Dynasty basically unified the north. Li Yuan believed that the existing official positions at that time could not show their glory, and specially named Li Shimin a "general of heavenly strategy".