The Wagangzhai Uprising was an important peasant armed uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty, which had a huge impact, once dealt a heavy blow to the rule of the Sui Dynasty, and under the management of Li Mi, the Wagangzhai forces also ranked first among the forces at the end of the Sui Dynasty. Originally, the Wagang Army was the most capable armed force to unify the world, but unfortunately, for various reasons, this uprising was eventually drowned in the smoke of history. So, how did the Wagangzhai uprising develop? How did it go into decline?
The originator of the Wagangzhai rebel army was not Li Mi, but Zhai Rang. Zhai Rang was one of the tyrants in the last years of the Sui Dynasty, and when the great peasant revolt broke out at the end of the Sui Dynasty, Zhai Rang raised an army to capture Wagang Village and established himself in the local area. However, although Zhai Rang was the first leader of the Wagang Army, Wagangzhai did not develop and grow under the control of the ground. The Wagang army can become the head of the various rebel forces at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and it is inseparable from the management of another person, who is Li Mi.
Li Mi was born in the Guan Long Group, and at that time, the sons of the Guan Long Group were respected by all levels of society, and Li Mi himself was very satisfied with his origin. Li Mi had the ambition of a great bird from a young age, and he decided to become an official from the beginning, but unfortunately, at that time, the Sui Dynasty was corrupt, and there was no opportunity for Li Mi to develop his own talents.
Yang Xuangan was a sui dynasty hero Yang Su, who was very dissatisfied with the Sui Emperor's eastern expedition to Goryeo, and in 613 AD, Yang Xuangan launched an uprising at Liyang. Li Mi and Yang Xuangan had been friends since childhood, and when Yang Xuangan decided to launch a mutiny, Li Mi also joined the camp of the rebel army. Li Mi had thought that relying on Yang Xuangan's influence and the strength of the rebel army would be enough to defeat the Sui Dynasty army, but unfortunately, Yang Xuangan himself was an arrogant and complacent person, and he could not listen to the opinions of others. In the ensuing battle, Yang Xuangan led the rebel army to a decisive battle with the Sui army, and due to the strength of the Sui army, the rebel army was eventually defeated.
After Yang Xuangan was killed, the frustrated Li Mi successively tossed and turned to various rebel armies, but unfortunately, the leaders of the various rebel armies were afraid that the Sui army would attack them first, and they all thought that Li Mi was a disaster, so they did not have the intention of taking Li Mi in. It wasn't until he came to Wagang Village that Li Mi had a place to stay.
Zhai Rang, the originator of Wagang Village, was only a brave man who occupied the mountains as kings, he did not have the courage to dominate the world, and took In Li Mi, Zhai Rang completely valued the identity of Li Mi Guanlong's clique, rather than his own talents. Li Mi had both wisdom and strategy, and in the subsequent battles of Wagangzhai, Li Mi's role became greater and greater.
Li Mi assisted Zhai Rang, who relied on the strength of the Wagang army to help the Wagang army capture Xingyang, a strategic stronghold of the Sui Dynasty, and then Led the army to the west to capture the Sui Dynasty's Luokoucang. As Li Mi's reputation in the Wagang army grew, Zhai Rang later had to allow Li Mi to have his own arms.
Zhai Rang and Li Mi both understood this, and their seemingly friendly side was jealousy and suspicion. Soon, a fire broke out inside the Wagang Village. Zhai Rang gradually harbored a grudge against Li Rang because of the gradual development of his power, and Li Mi was also annoyed by Zhai Rang's constraints. Finally, one day in November 617 AD, a fire broke out inside wagang village. In the name of setting up a banquet to entertain Zhai Rang, Li Mi killed Zhai Rang and his cronies, and Zhai Rang's subordinates were successively attached to Li Mi's banner.
Zhai Rang's death to some extent affected the strength of the Wagang army, although Li Mi later won the confrontation with Wang Shichong of Luoyang, but the Wagang army was already centrifugal within the country. Because of Zhai Rang's death, some people left the Wagang Army, and some people made decisions overtly and covertly. Less than a year after Zhai Rang was killed, the Wagang army suffered a crushing defeat. Wang Shichong of Luoyang, taking advantage of Li Mi's engagement with Yu Wenhua, suddenly attacked the Wagang army from behind, which was caught off guard and soon suffered a major defeat, and Li Mi himself had to flee his base camp in order to protect himself, and instead went north to defect to Li Yuan.
With Li Mi's surrender to Tang, the vigorous Wagangzhai uprising also collapsed.