There have been many famous generals in the history of the Tang Dynasty, of which Xue Rengui is a relatively well-known one, his story is mentioned in both historical records and various literary works, it can be said that Xue Rengui is definitely one of the many famous generals of the Tang Dynasty, and his life is full of legends.
Xue Rengui has many significant advantages, but there are also some character defects, we can study Xue Rengui's legendary life, learn and feel more things from it, which is quite important, as for how his legendary life is, and I will come slowly.
Xue Rengui's path to fame
Xue Rengui was born in the Sui Dynasty period of the famous Hedong Xue clan, purely from the family prominence, Xue Rengui can also be regarded as a famous family, but the Hedong Xue clan began to fall in the family in Xue Rengui's father's generation, coupled with xue Rengui's father died young, so Xue Rengui began to live a poor life at a young age.
In order to survive, Xue Rengui had to start doing some miscellaneous things to maintain his livelihood, such as doing farm work is one of them, from such a young experience, Xue Rengui wants to become famous or make a career is still more difficult, fortunately Xue Rengui has a more sensible wife.
Xue Rengui grew up day by day, after he learned about the glorious history of his ancestors, he was suddenly ashamed, he wanted to learn the entrepreneurial spirit of his ancestors, wanted to become as good as his ancestors, but there was never any chance, to Xue Rengui's thirty-year-old year, everything still did not improve, he began to suspect that the ancestral tomb was not in a good position, so he decided to migrate the ancestral tomb to change his luck.
At this special time, Xue Rengui's wife said something profound to him, and her wife told him that her eldest husband should go out and break into the guangzong yaozu, and wait until he succeeds to migrate the ancestral tomb is also considered to be the guangzong yaozu, and now it is nonsense to want to change his luck by migrating the ancestral tomb.
Xue Rengui listened to his wife's words and felt that it was very reasonable, so with the support of his wife, he joined Zhang Shigui's subordinates who were recruiting troops, and in 645 AD, when Li Shimin personally conquered Goguryeo, Xue Rengui enlisted in the army under the encouragement of his wife and became a member of the army of Zhengdong, that is, participating in this battle, which changed Xue Rengui's fate.
Xue Rengui, who was born with infinite strength and courage and strategy, when the Tang army attacked Andi City and fell into an enemy siege, the general Liu Junqiong fell into a heavy crisis, stepped forward to single-handedly rescue Liu Junqiong from the siege, so that all the soldiers present were impressed, after this incident, Xue Rengui was promoted by Liu Junqiong, laying the groundwork for what happened later.
After being promoted by Liu Junqiong, Xue Rengui had the opportunity to participate in a battle personally commanded by Li Shimin later, when the Tang army fought with a 250,000 Goguryeo army, Li Shimin personally commanded and watched the battle from a high place, and as a result, a white-robed young general suddenly appeared on the battlefield, he was brave and fearless, and he shuttled back and forth among the enemy army to kill the enemy heroically, which aroused Li Shimin's great attention, and after the battle, Li Shimin personally comforted Xue Rengui and promoted him to be the right leader zhonglang general, responsible for guarding xuanwu gate, although this position is not high, However, the arrangement of guarding xuanwu gate in town fully shows that Li Shimin attaches great importance to Xue Rengui, and if there is no arrangement for guarding Xuanwu gate, there will be no many opportunities for Xue Rengui later.
Xue Rengui made meritorious contributions
Xue Rengui had been guarding Xuanwu Gate for 12 years, and once again ushered in a new opportunity in his life during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang. During the Yonghui years, there was a sudden continuous rain in Chang'an, and a flash flood broke out, the flash flood directly rushed to Xuanwu Gate, when Li Zhi was sleeping, the rest of the guards had been scared away by the flood, only Xue Rengui shouted in the direction of Xuanwu Gate without regard for his own life safety, and Li Zhi in his sleep was awakened by Xue Rengui, immediately climbed to a high place, and finally escaped a disaster, and was not swept away by the flood.
After the incident, the more Li Zhi thought about it, the more grateful he was to Xue Rengui, he felt that if a loyal person like Xue Rengui continued to guard Xuanwu Gate, it would be a bit of a buried talent, in order to show his trust and attention to Xue Rengui, but also to give Xue Rengui a chance to make a meritorious career, Li Zhi transferred him out of Xuanwu Gate and began the Eastern Expedition as a deputy general.
Xue Rengui exerted his hands and feet on the battlefield of Zhengdong, won many victories, beat goguryeo souls to scatter, boosted the morale of the soldiers, and later created the legendary story of the Three Arrows Dingtian Mountain, which pushed Xue Rengui's reputation to the peak, but that is, in the battle against the Nine Surname Tiele army, Xue Rengui's cruelty and thirst for killing also showed, obviously as long as the enemy is defeated, it is enough, but Xue Rengui will continue to kill 200,000 troops after the victory, causing a lot of sensation, and later the Tang did not include him in the Martial Temple, It has something to do with Xue Rengui's penchant for killing.
Shortly after the victory over the nine surnames Tiele, Li Zhi also took advantage of the best opportunity for Baekje to be destroyed by Silla, and sent Xue Rengui and Li Ji to lead a large army to attack Goguryeo, which was a very important battle in the history of the Tang Dynasty, that is, the victory of this battle, which directly ended the era of Goguryeo harassing the Central Plains, you know that since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Goguryeo has always been the most troublesome country in the Central Plains, during the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Sui and Emperor Ju of Sui have personally conquered Goguryeo many times, even in the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin and Li Zhi have attacked Goguryeo many times. However, it was never destroyed until Xue Rengui and Li Ji went forward this time that they finally destroyed it, which can also be regarded as the completion of a historical mission.
After the destruction of Goguryeo, Xue Rengui was ordered to stay in the local town of Goguryeo, that is, during this time, another advantage of Xue Rengui was reflected, he won the hearts and minds of the people through various benevolent governments, and governed Goguryeo in an orderly manner, which was appreciated by the emperor and the people.
Twilight years
After the destruction of Goguryeo, the entire Korean Peninsula had basically become the control of the Tang Dynasty, and after years of war, the only country on the Korean Peninsula that was relatively powerful was Silla, and because he submitted to the Tang Dynasty, Whether Baekje was destroyed or Goguryeo was destroyed, Silla could benefit from it.
After these countries were destroyed, Silla's ambitions also appeared, so in the later period, Silla also had a war with the Tang Dynasty, but these are all afterwords, we will not say it today, we continue to return to Xue Rengui. After the pacification of Goguryeo, the War of Conquest of the East was basically over, and the next war was going to be carried out in the west.
Because the climate and various terrains in the east and west directions are completely different, so Xue Rengui, who has always been good at fighting on the eastern battlefield, ended in defeat in the western battlefield, the first battle ended in failure, this battle was the famous Battle of Dafeichuan, at that time, because Xue Rengui misestimated the terrain and the impact of the weather, coupled with Guo Shifeng in the rear because he had always been dissatisfied with Xue Rengui, he did not cooperate with Xue Rengui in this battle, resulting in a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Dafeichuan, and xue Rengui was also held responsible by Li Zhi after the war. It was also because of his military achievements over the years that Li Zhicai did not kill Xue Rengui, but only reduced him to exile to Xiangzhou.
As for what happened to Xue Rengui in Xiangzhou in those years, there is not too much record in the historical data, and we can be sure that Xue Rengui did not have a good life in those years, and if Xue Rengui died in Xiangzhou in this way, it is estimated that it will become a regret in his life, fortunately Li Zhi did not do this.
In 681 AD, the 68-year-old Xue Rengui finally got the use of Li Zhi, Li Zhi ordered him to lead an army to conquer the Turks who invaded Yunzhou, after all, the Turks were beaten by Xue Rengui and scattered, as long as they heard Xue Rengui's name, they would be afraid, and sure enough, this time as usual, when the two armies fought, the Turks heard that the General of the Tang Army was Xue Rengui, and they were frightened, and this battle was won without a fight, and the history called the Great Victory of Yunzhou.
In 683 AD, Xue Rengui died at the age of 70, and in the final stage of his legendary life, he also washed away the shame of the fiasco of Dafeichuan and died with a classic victory, which for Xue Rengui, it can also be regarded as death without regrets.
epilogue
Xue Rengui's legendary life is full of various opportunities and challenges, from his life experience, it is not difficult for us to draw a conclusion, even if it is a powerful god of war like Xue Rengui, it is inevitable to encounter setbacks in life, so for us ordinary people, what is a little setback? The key is that we must be like Xue Rengui, where we fall, we must get up where we are, so that there will be no regrets in life!
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