When we mention the Sui Dynasty, the first thing that often comes to mind is the Sui Emperor Yang Guang and the imperial examination system he founded. However, although the Sui Dynasty made a great contribution, its rule was not lasting, and it lasted only two generations before it perished, very similar to the Qin Dynasty.
In the last years of the Sui Dynasty, social unrest was turbulent, and all the heroes wanted to take the opportunity to establish their own political power, and at this time, a heroic and good man appeared in the torrent of history, who promoted the demise of the Sui Dynasty and won the support of the people.
For this person, some people gave a high evaluation: "If he had not died, it would be difficult for the Li clan to quickly claim the title of emperor." This person is Dou Jiande, so what energy does he have? Was able to prevent the establishment of the Li-Tang Dynasty. Today, let's talk.
Reckless heroes, serving righteousness
Dou Jiande was born in Zhangnan, Bei Prefecture, which is now Gucheng County, Hebei Province, and his parents were local farmers, so he also made a living as a farmer when he was young. However, compared with the people around him, he is very serious about his promises, as long as he promises, he will do it.
When Dou Jiande was still farming for a living, he heard that there was a nearby family that could not bury their parents because of their poverty. After learning of this, he immediately went home and took out his belongings from home to help the villagers handle the funeral.
Similar to such good deeds, Dou Jiande also did a lot, so his character was highly praised in the local area. So that when Dou Jiande's father died, thousands of neighbors took the initiative to come to his father's funeral, which showed how famous he was.
It was also because of his outstanding character that in 611 AD, Dou Jiande was appointed as the commander of two hundred people and sent him to lead his troops to the battlefield. At this time, the reign of the Sui Emperor was tyrannical and disorganized, and he often launched wars against neighboring countries, making the people unhappy and the people complaining.
Therefore, Dou Jiande seized this opportunity, and he chose to lead the soldiers to shout and openly rebel. Because of the high prestige accumulated in the early days, when Dou Jiande decided to lead an uprising, many people took the initiative to defect to him.
However, when he was wholeheartedly preparing for the uprising, this news unfortunately leaked out, and the government led the troops to try to eliminate their forces. Dou Jiande was forced by the situation and fled in a hurry with the powerful warriors around him.
What Dou Jiande did not expect was that after he escaped, the local officials used cruel means to kill his family, and the behavior of the official government did not dispel Dou Jiande's idea of leading an uprising, but on the contrary, it strengthened his determination to rebel against the government.
Because he did not have enough strength to compete with the Sui Dynasty at that time, he chose to defect to Gao Shida, the leader of another peasant uprising. Later, in various wars, Dou Jiande showed the courage of being a pioneer and the fine quality of sharing weal and woe with soldiers in life.
In the army, he never talks about specialness, eats and lives like the most ordinary soldiers, and he will give special care to wounded or sick soldiers. Because of this, Dou Jiande's reputation gradually spread among the soldiers.
Later, the people he went everywhere were impressed by his personality, and many of them joined Coatsta's army because of his reputation. It was at this time that Coatsta was defeated due to its arrogance and light enemy.
Suddenly, his army fell apart. As the saying goes, "Opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared", and Dou Jiande also waited for this opportunity for a long time, and he showed far more courage and boldness than people after the defeat of Gao Shida's army.
Changle was crowned king and was favored
At that time, Dou Jiande led his soldiers to Raoyang County and reorganized the army here, which was also an army that really belonged to him. During this time of reorganizing the army, he formulated a series of military orders to regulate the behavior of soldiers.
This included not only not killing the officials who surrendered in the Sui Dynasty, but also deciding whether to give them new official positions according to their ability, and it was rare at the time for a peasant rebel leader like Dou Jiande, who was serious about morality and morality.
And this kind of policy he formulated was also supported by many people, and the officials of the imperial court everywhere they went would also take the initiative to surrender. In 617, when the Sui Emperor was assassinated and there was a shortage of food in the city, Hejian Juncheng chose to take the initiative to surrender to Dou Jiande, who had a large number of men and horses.
Soon after, Dou Jiande used Leshou as the capital, held a ceremony to crown the king, and established himself as the king of Changle. A year later, Dou Jiande gathered all the civil and military officials in the capital, and under joint discussion with them, changed the era name to Wufeng and named his regime the State of Xia.
After that, Dou Jiande led an army against the surrounding regimes and captured Yuwen and his sons. During this period, Dou Jiande's prestige reached its peak, and his army grew to an army of 100,000 people.
Although his power and prestige had reached their peak, Dou Jiande still strictly restrained his soldiers to prevent them from oppressing the people. In addition, he took the initiative to reduce taxes and in this way reduce the burden on the people.
The soldiers were defeated and captured
At this time, other forces around Dou Jiande also established their own political power, and if we look at the overall situation, we can see that a three-legged situation was formed: the Tang state established by Li Yuan occupied the Guanzhong region; the Zheng state established by Wang Shichong occupied the area south of the Yellow River; and the Xia state established by Dou Jiande occupied the area north of the Yellow River.
As dou jiande controlled more and more areas, his own class limitations gradually became apparent, and as a peasant who had not read too many books, he lacked corresponding strategies for leading the army to fight, and the number of wrong decisions he made gradually increased.
Secondly, most of his generals are from the grassroots, so their military level is relatively low. In Dou Jiande's army, there were relatively few people who really had a strategy, which led to a lack of meticulous planning in his later battles.
In the end, because Dou Jiande listened to rumors, he accidentally killed two loyal and excellent generals. This made Dou Jiande's army less and less people dare to tell the truth, and after that, his army gradually declined.
Later, in the war against the Li Tang Dynasty for hegemony, Dou Jiande was defeated by Li Shimin's troops due to a mistake in decision-making, and he himself was captured in this battle and beheaded at Chang'an City. It is said that although Dou Jiande was killed, the regime he led still caused great losses to the Li Tang Dynasty.
Dou Jiande was loyal all his life, and he dared to resist in the face of the dark rule of the imperial court, which fully reflected his boldness. Wu Xun has a poetry cloud: "The plot has repeatedly fought against the armored soldiers, and the struggle has not been accomplished at that time." Only Dou Ling's soul was gone, and he heard the sound of wind and wood moving in autumn. ”
However, the establishment of the dynasty was not achieved overnight, and Dou Jiande made many wrong decisions due to his lack of necessary military theoretical foundation and ignorance. It was also these decisions that gradually put his regime on a road of no return, and eventually he lost his life at the hands of Li's father and son, and the established regime was finally overthrown.
However, Dou Jiande still wrote a strong and colorful stroke in the history of our country, and his deeds also remained in the hearts of the people, who built a temple of sacrifice for him at that time to express their respect for him, which shows how popular Dou Jiande is.
Liu Heimin was dou Jiande's subordinate, and after the latter's death, he commanded the army and horses in Hebei and almost hit Chang'an, and Luo Cheng and other generals were killed in that battle, which also shows how influential Dou Jiande was.
If Dou Jiande does not die, it will be difficult for Li Yuan and Li Shimin to unify the Central Plains, what do you think about this?