Li Mi (李密), a prominent man from a noble family and great-grandfather Li Bi (李弼), was a Western Wei Situ, a Northern Zhou Taishi and a Duke of Wei. His father, Li Kuan, was the Duke of Pushan Commandery in the Sui Dynasty. And Li Mi only relied on Enyin to fall into the false name of a Pushan Gong, and had no real position.
Li Mi lived in an era when the rule of the Sui Dynasty was crumbling, and in the ninth year of Daye (613 AD), Yang Xuangan raised an army, and Li Mi became an important staff officer. After Yang Xuangan's defeat, Li Mi went into exile, and after being introduced by Wang Bodang to join the Wagang Army, his military talent was gradually revealed, and with Li Mi's help, the Wagang Army grew from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people, beheading Zhang Sutuo, Pulling Out Luocang, and lowering Pei Renji, the Wagang Army gradually became the main opponent of the Sui regime, and Li Mi also became an ally of the anti-Sui rebels everywhere.
However, later, Li Mi and the Sui Emperor rushed west into Guanzhong and the 100,000 troops of Yu Wenhua and his army were greatly affected, and although they achieved victory, they "died of good pawns". In September of the first year of Wu De (618), Li Mi fought a decisive battle with Wang Shichong at Mount Yao, and Li Mi quickly collapsed after his defeat. In just a few months, Li Mi had grown the Wagang army of tens of thousands of people to hundreds of thousands, and later became the leader of the rebel army, and the great Wagang cause disappeared overnight after a defeat. Historians have always debated the reasons for his failure, but it goes without saying that his suspicious personality is an important reason for his failure.
The Battle of Li Mi and Wang Shichong
Li Mi is a man of good planning and suspiciousness, and often makes fatal mistakes at key moments and key decisions. Although Zhai Rang's talent was not as good as Li Mi's, he had a broad mind, and after Li Mi made great contributions to Wagang, he fully elected Li Mi as the leader of Wagang and was willing to take his place under him. However, one of his subordinates complained about him and advised him to take back Li Mi's power and take sole power himself, "The Son of Heaven should take it upon himself, why should he give it to others?" Zhai Rang naturally had no idea of taking back Li Mi's power, but after Li Mi learned of this, he was afraid that Zhai Rang would soon murder him when he seized power. At the same time that Zhai Rang was killed, Xu Shijian was also slashed under his heart.
It should be said that Zhai Rang and Li Mi are the common founders of the Wagang Army, li Mi actually has no reason to kill Zhai Rang, some are just the suspicious mentality of the cup bow and snake shadow, and the power and magic means of "a strong man breaking his wrist", while killing Zhai Rang, it means that he gave up one thing - taking into account the overall situation. The murder of Zhai Rang undoubtedly increased the suspicion of the Wagang generals against him, and later after the defeat at the Battle of Yaoshan, the wagang army generals Shan Xiongxin, Qin Shubao, and Cheng Zhijie surrendered to Wang Shichong.
Cheng Zhijie
It turned out that when Yang Xuan felt that he was rebelling against Sui, Li Mi had offered three strategies, with the next strategy of attacking Luoyang and besieging Jiancheng. However, he became the leader of the Wagang Army, but he adopted the next strategy that had been offered to Yang Xuangan, and gave up the upper strategy of entering the west into Guanzhong to gain the initiative. Li Mi's protector Chai Xiaohe once suggested that he enter Guanzhong in the west, but Li Mi excused himself: "Gu my troops are all Shandong people, and now that they have not left Luo, Anken and I will accompany the west?" And all the generals are thieves, not unified, and defeated will be swept away." Li Mi's excuse was obviously distrust of his subordinate generals, at that time Li Mi's subordinates Chai Xiaohe, Wei Zheng, and others were all resourceful, Xu Shixun, Wang Bodang, Shan Xiongxin, Qin Shubao, Cheng Zhijie, Luo Shixin and other brave generals were all heroic and good at war, if Li Mi could fully trust these civilian and military generals and persuade them to march west, then Li Mi would occupy Guanzhong one step ahead of Li Yuan, and it was probably Li Mi who replaced the Sui Dynasty instead of Li Yuan.
Xu Shixun was brave and good at fighting, but he was once a subordinate of Zhai Rang, and when Li Mi killed Zhai Rang, Xu Shiji almost died, so Li Mi feared Xu Shixun's revenge and was suspicious of Xu Shijian in many ways. Before the decisive battle with Wang Shichong, Li Mi sent Xu Shixun out of the town of Liyang, "although the name was appointed, it was also neglected." After the defeat of Li Mishan, Xu Shixun was in Liyang, there were hundreds of thousands, Li Mi did not turn to Xu Shixun, but chose to go to Guanzhong to join Li Yuan, which is difficult to understand in ordinary people. In fact, combined with Li Mi's suspicious personality, it is easy to understand.
At that time, Li Mixin was defeated, the army was only 20,000 people, Xu Shixun had 100,000 people, if he turned to his subordinate Xu Shixun, there was a danger of being annexed, not to mention that Xu Shixun was almost killed by himself? Later practice proved that Li Mi's suspicion and suspicion of Xu Shixun was superfluous. After Li Mi was killed, "The north side of the World Order bows to the mourning, and the table please receive the burial... Serve it, and prepare the courtesy of the king. Da Gu Yi Wei, raised an army of Mu Su, and was buried in the south of Liyang Mountain. "If Li Mi is not suspicious, together with Xu Shixun, there are more than 100,000 people, and they will still regroup and recover their vitality." As a result, he defected to the Tang Dynasty, fell into rebellion, and was defeated and killed.
When Li Mi was killed, he was only thirty-seven years old, which was regrettable. Ouyang Xiu's final comment in the New Book of Tang and Li Mi's biography: "If the secret is not betrayed, its talent and talent cannot be tolerated at the time", which is very close to the truth. The Tang Dynasty did not necessarily tolerate Li Mi, and Li Mi could not bow his head and submit to the Tang Dynasty. Then the hasty surrender of Tang, the rebellion of Tang and even the final tragic ending, has become an inevitable necessity. If Li Mi could trust the civilian generals of the Wagang Army, unite them, and work towards the same goal, I am afraid that it would not end in a tragic end.