618 AD
Pacify Xue Rengao: Long Right Scramble
In 618, Xue Rengao, who had divided the Longxi region at the end of the Sui Dynasty, was defeated by Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty, and Xue Rengao's regime collapsed.
Xue's downfall stemmed from his own arrogance and arrogance, but the more important dispute between him and the Tang Dynasty came from the inevitable rivalry between the two sides for the Longxi region. The matter begins with the political situation that Li Yuan faced after he established the Tang Dynasty in 618.
After the Jiangdu Mutiny, the Sui Emperor Yang Guang was killed by Yu Wenhua and the news reached Chang'an, and Li Yuan believed that the time was ripe to claim the title of emperor, so he forced the Sui Gong Emperor Yang Youchan to give way, and Li Yuan, who monopolized the power, naturally took the throne, changed the name of the country to Tang, and set the capital in Chang'an.
Although the Tang Dynasty was established, its foundation was not stable, and it only occupied the relevant Zhonghe Hedong region, and its scope of rule was very limited. At this time, Li Yuan was facing a very dangerous situation, with Turks in the north, Tuguhun in the west, Dou Jiande in Hebei, and Wang Shichong in Luoyang. In order to destroy the Qunxiong and unify the world, the first thing Li Yuan had to do was to stabilize the rear. However, the problem faced by the Tang Dynasty was that in Guanzhong, where Chang'an was located, the rear area was the Longxi region, and the Longxi region was not under the control of Li Yuantang's regime.
At this time, Hao Jie, who controlled the Longxi region, was named Xue Ju. Xue Ju was born into a local magnate, and after rebelling against the Sui Dynasty, he proclaimed himself the King of Mian and crowned his eldest son Xue Rengao as the King of Qi, and soon after proclaimed himself emperor in Lanzhou. Xue Ju, who claimed to be empress dowager, had his own strategic plan, and he wanted to send troops to the east, occupy Guanzhong and Chang'an, and then compete with the crowd to dominate the Central Plains.
Li Yuan and Xue Ju's strategic planning has formed a confrontational conflict, and they both regard the other as their most difficult problem. In order to defeat the Tang Dynasty, Xue Ju sent people to bribe mohe, the son of the Turkic Khan, with heavy money, to prepare a joint attack on the Tang Dynasty with the Turks. However, this news was learned by Li Yuan, and the Tang Dynasty sent an emissary Yuwen Xin to persuade Mohe to set it up, and the Turks promised not to send troops to assist Xue Ju.
Xue Ju found that diplomatic measures were ineffective and decided to take the initiative to launch a war against Tang. Xue Ju's army was divided into two routes, one was to attack Guanzhong led by the general Zhong Juqiu, and the other was led by Xue Ju himself, starting from Jingzhou, planning to take Chang'an directly.
In response to Xue Ju's deployment, Li Yuan adopted a tit-for-tat strategy, sending Li Shimin, who could fight a good battle, as the commander to resist Xue Ju. Xue Ju's army was menacing, but Li Shimin believed that it was very difficult for the other side to come from afar, and it was very difficult to transport military food, as long as the Tang army held the city and waited until the enemy army ran out of grain and grass and the soldiers and horses were exhausted, they would certainly be able to achieve victory.
However, just when the two armies were opposed, Li Shimin fell ill, and he temporarily handed over military command to his subordinates Liu Wenjing and Yin Kaishan, but the two were greedy and light enemies, believing that they had many generals and rushed to attack, and as a result, They were raided by Xue Ju from behind the Tang army and returned with a crushing defeat. Although the Tang army was militarily defeated, soon after, a good news came to Chang'an, and Xue Ju died of illness.
The person who succeeded Xue Ju to the throne was his eldest son Xue Rengao. Xue Rengao was brave and good at war, and had the courage to resist the ten thousand men, but he was cruel and fierce, and there were many contradictions with his subordinate generals. Coupled with the death of Xue Ju's adviser Hao Yu, Long Bai's hostile forces were weakened.
Li Yuan actively reorganized his army and prepared for another battle, and he sent his son Li Shimin to fight again. This time, Li Shimin once again proposed the tactic of sticking to change, and in the face of many provocations by Xue Rengao's army, Li Shimin refused to go to war.
The generals of the Tang army could not stand the ridicule of the enemy army and asked for battle one after another, but Li Shimin stopped us and said that we had just lost the battle with the enemy, our morale was low, and the other side was easy to be proud and light on the enemy, and when the enemy army was arrogant and impatient, it would certainly be able to crush the other side. Li Shimin ordered the war to beheaded, and the two sides confronted each other for more than two months. Sure enough, in November of that year, Xue Rengao's army ran out of grain and grass, morale was low, and its general Liang Hulang was also dissatisfied with Xue Rengao's command, and led his troops to surrender to the Tang Dynasty.
Seeing that the time was ripe, Li Shimin sent people to camp on the flat ground to lure the enemy, while he planned to detour behind the enemy and launch an attack. Xue Rengao saw Li Shimin camp on the ground and immediately led a large army to attack, but he did not expect that the cavalry led by Li Shimin would come to encircle him. Xue Rengao's army was defeated and fled, retreating to Jingchuan City, where Li Shimin led several thousand cavalry to pursue the city. The soldiers defending the city were distracted and scrambled to go out of the city to surrender, and Xue Rengao, seeing that the general trend had gone, had to lead hundreds of officials out of the city to surrender.
Conclusion: Pacifying Xue Rengao enabled the Tang Dynasty to begin to occupy the Longxi region, expanding the prestige of the Tang army and laying a solid foundation for the Tang Dynasty to pacify the world. The battle also revealed Li Shimin's outstanding military talents and expanded the strength of his political and military group.
Xue Ju occupied Lanzhou and declared himself emperor
The late Sui and early Tang dynasties were divided into territory
619 AD
Liu Wenjing's Death: Anti-Thief or Victim?
In 619, Li Yuan, the emperor of Tang Gaozu, ordered the execution of Liu Wenjing, the founding hero of the country.
Liu Wenjing was an important strategist of Li Shimin. In 618, Li Shimin confronted Xue Ju, who had divided Ganlong, and Liu Wenjing went out as a marshal, changshi, equivalent to chief of staff, and was the first aid around Li Shimin. Li Shimin was light on the enemy and lost the battle, and Liu Wenjing and another general, Yin Kaishan, took responsibility for Li Shimin. This undoubtedly made Liu Wenjing's weight in Li Shimin's heart a lot heavier.
The history books say that Li Shimin was the main promoter of the Jinyang uprising, which may have had some suspicions after the Xuanwumen revolution, and Li Shimin beautified himself. But what is certain is that Pei Huan and Liu Wenjing were both elders and heavy ministers who had followed Li Yuan's father and son since the beginning of the army. When Li Yuan was proclaimed emperor by Zen, he specially issued an edict rewarding Li Shimin, Pei Huan, and Liu Wenjing, the kings of Qin, for "specially forgiving the second death", which shows how great their merits are.
Why was Liu Wenjing, who had such a great merit, be executed by Li Yuan? Liu Wenjing's defection to Li Yuan's father and son was through Li Yuan's old friend Pei Huan's relationship. At that time, Pei Huan was the deputy superintendent of Jinyang Palace, and Liu Wenjing was Jinyang Ling, and both of them were officials in Jinyang and had close contacts. In 617, Li Yuan was appointed as the retainer of Taiyuan, and also came to Jinyang, where he met his old friend Pei Huan and also became acquainted with Liu Wenjing. At that time, Li Yuan's way of treating Pei Huan had almost exceeded the boundaries of the monarch. Li Yuan always ate with Pei Huan, and even sat with Pei Huan when he was in the upper court. Moreover, Li Yuan never called Pei Ning's name, but like in Jinyang, he affectionately called him "Pei Jian". When Liu Wenjing saw that Pei Huan was favored, he advised Li Yuan that His Majesty could not dine with his courtiers, let alone sit with his subordinates. Liu Wenjing did not name names, but it was clear that it was Pei Huan. Liu Wenjing felt that Pei Huan's ability was not as strong as his own, and his merits were not as great as his own, but just because he was an old friend with the emperor, he suppressed himself, and he opposed Pei Huan everywhere, and everything that Pei Huan approved of, Liu Wenjing had to oppose. The dissatisfaction in Liu Wenjing's heart gradually surfaced.
After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Pei Huan served as the right servant of Shangshu, with a status equivalent to that of prime minister. Liu Wenjing served as Na Yan, responsible for signing the Edict of The Song Zhang, participating in political affairs, and was second only to Pei Ning. These things were all seen by Liu Wenjing's concubine. This little concubine fell out of favor with Liu Wenjing, and with resentment in her heart, she told her brother about these things and went to the imperial court to expose Liu Wenjing. Li Yuan was furious and ordered Pei Huan and Nei Shi to order Xiao Li to investigate.
Finally, one thing was investigated: it was said that Liu Wenjing and his brother Liu Wenqi were drinking one day, Liu Wenjing talked about the unfairness of his stomach, the more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he became, pulled out his knife and slashed it on the pillar and said: "We must kill Pei Huan!" The Liu family was "haunted" several times, and Liu Wenqi found a warlock to come to his home and practice in the courtyard late at night. In ancient times, it was taboo for ministers to make private friends with warlocks, who knows if you really catch ghosts, or engage in conspiracies to curse others?
Li Yuan's statement is obviously without evidence. But why did Li Yuan insist that Liu Wenjing was plotting rebellion? Because he wanted to maintain the position of the crown prince Li Jiancheng and prevent Li Shimin, the king of Qin, from sitting on the throne. In the process of leading the troops to fight, Li Shimin formed his own team, and his prestige became higher and higher, which would definitely threaten the position of the crown prince Li Jiancheng. Liu Wenjing, as a close confidant of Li Shimin, repeatedly publicly contradicted the chancellor Pei Huan, so Li Yuan wanted to warn the Qin king Li Shimin clique, of course, to take Liu Wenjing's knife.
Liu Wenjing defended that at the beginning of the uprising, everyone's status was similar, and now that Pei Ning had done the right servant shooting, I was still like everyone else, unbalanced in my heart, and drank too much wine before I complained a few words. Li Yuan took Liu Wenjing's confession and told the courtiers that Liu Wenjing said so, proving that he wanted to rebel. At this time, Pei Huan fanned the flames on the side, saying that if he did not kill Liu Wenjing now, it would definitely be a disaster in the future. Although another presiding judge, Xiao Li, believed that Liu Wenjing would not rebel and Li Shimin also came to intercede, Li Yuan killed Liu Wenjing.
It was not until three years after Li Shimin succeeded to the throne that he overturned the case for Liu Wenjing and restored the official title, which was inherited by Liu Shuyi, the son of Liu Wenjing.
Conclusion: Liu Wenjing's death is a tragedy caused by his personal character defects, and it is also a blow to Li Shimin's clique, reflecting the contradiction between Li Yuan and Li Shimin's father and son.