Li Mi took power and launched a major attack on the Sui army
After Li Mi gained the leadership of Wagang, he not only sent his generals to capture Anlu, Runan, Huai'an, and Jiyang, so that most of the counties of Henan were successively controlled by the Wagang army. Moreover, in view of the expanding power of the crowd, Li Mi decided to continue to attack the important granaries of the government, so he ordered Pei Renji and Meng Rang to lead more than 20,000 people to attack Luocang, and even more 30,000 people to return to Luocang and overhaul the camp to force the eastern capital. In April of the thirteenth year of Daye (617), the Wagang army successfully repelled the Sui army of Duan Da, captured Huiluocang near the eastern capital, and took more than 2 million stones.
Wagang Village
Taking advantage of this victory, Li Mi issued a letter to the counties of Tianxia, listing the crimes of Emperor Zhao, in addition to calling on the people to overthrow the Sui Dynasty together, and persuading officials to defect from the imperial court and surrender to Wagang, causing the world to shake. It also caused Emperor Jue to hear the momentum of the Wagang army, "(Emperor Jue) stayed in Huaizuo and did not dare to return the capital."
Seisue Sohonki-ki-ki-maki-kaeda prints 隋炀 Emperor Gangnam
Li Mi continued to threaten Dongdu, causing panic among yue wang dong in Luoyang, so he sent Taichang Chengyuan Shanda to Jiangdu for help. Therefore, in May of the first year of Yining (617), Emperor Jue ordered the general Pang Yu and other generals to rescue Dongdu. In this battle, Li Mi was greatly defeated, and the Wagang army had to abandon the attack and flee back to Luokou. However, in June, Li Mi fought with the Sui army and successfully recaptured Luocang.
Xu Shixun film and television drama image
After the Wagang army once again captured Luocang, Xu Shixun suggested that Li Mi further seize Liyangcang, so in September of the same year (617), with the cooperation of Anti-Sui forces such as Hao Xiaode, Li Wenxiang, Zhang Sheng, and Zhao Junde, they captured Liyangcang. In this victory, the Wagang army not only "won more than 200,000 troops in the first ten years", but also Wu'an, Yong'an, Yiyang, Yiyang, and Qi County successively surrendered to Li Mi, and Dou Jiande, Zhu Cang, and other troublemakers also sent envoys to the Wagang army.
The Sui Dynasty government lost important strategic materials and was repeatedly attacked by the Wagang army. In addition to dispatching the Guannei Forbidden Army to rescue Dongdu, Emperor Jue also ordered Xue Shixiong to be the commander and led the You and Jijing troops to attack, but when they reached the river, they were defeated by Dou Jiande.
Dou Jiande
The Sui army Wang Shichong fought with Li Mi, and Wagang was victorious
After Xue Shixiong's death, the heavy responsibility of conquering Li Mi (Wagang Jun) fell on Wang Shichong. The battle between Wang Shichong and Li Mi began in July of the first year of Yining (617). Emperor Jue first ordered Wang Shichong, Wang Long, Wei Ji, Wang Jie, and others to rush to the eastern capital to rescue them. In October of the same year, Wang Shichong led more than 100,000 Sui troops to attack Li Mi at Luokou, and Li Mi made a surprise attack, and the Sui army was defeated. In the next two months, Li Mi and Wang Shichong fought again, and Li Mi won a great victory.
In the first month of the first year of Wu De (618), Wang Shichong and Wang Jie once again prepared to attack the Wagang army in a big way. However, due to the lack of unified command within the Sui army, the whole army was in chaos, the general Wang Wei was killed, the Northern Luo army collapsed, more than 10,000 people drowned, and encountered heavy snow, freezing tens of thousands of people, Wang Shichong led thousands of remnants to flee to Heyang, and did not dare to return to Dongdu. Finally, Yang Tong, the King of Yue, summoned Wang Shichong back to Luoyang and was responsible for guarding the city of Hanjia north of Luoyang, and from then on Wang Shichong never dared to go out of the city to fight.
The Sui army (Wang Shichong) repeatedly fought against the Wagang army, but it was repeatedly defeated, and even Wang Shichong did not dare to fight again, and the Sui Dynasty was in a state of low morale. Under such circumstances, Li Mi quickly seized the opportunity and took advantage of the victory to enter the city of Jin Yong, so that "the sound of the drums was heard in the eastern capital; before long, more than 300,000 troops were supported, Chen Yu was in the north, and the south was forced to go to the Spring Gate."
The strength of the Wagang army led to the Sui officials Duan Da and the Minbu Shangshudong both staying in Weijin to resist the war, and more Sui Dynasty ministers were attached to the Wagang army.
Moreover, Dou Jiande, Zhu Cang, Yang Shilin, Zhou Fameng, Lu Zushang, Meng Haigong, Xu Yuanlang, and others all sent envoys to pay tribute to Li Mijian. In other words, at this time, the Wagang Army was in its strongest period.
Li Mi and Wagang Jun
The theory of Wei Wei is attached to the late Sui dynasty
First of all, let's talk about Li Michu's return to the Wagang Army. As mentioned above, the early Wagang Army was just a group organization among the many civil unrest in the late Sui Dynasty, and there were no special deeds or actions to attract the attention and participation of the world. However, after Li Mi joined the Wagang Army, this situation made the entire camp change greatly.
As mentioned earlier, Li Mi is easy to attract the attention of the world because of his origin. Coupled with the bumpy process of escape, and the folk prevailing "Li Shi Dangwang" weiwei, under the overlap of multiple factors, it has attracted special attention from people. Therefore, when the proverb "The Yang clan will perish, the Lee clan will prosper" appeared, it was Li Mi who first received attention and proposed discussion. Even Li Xuanying once commented on Tao Li Ge:
Li Xuanying escaped from Dongdu and traveled all over the camps to inquire about Li Mi's whereabouts, and when he met someone, he said, "Li Mi will replace the Sui family." He believed that the peach plum meant the son of the fleeing Li clan; the emperor and the queen both referred to the monarch; the Wanzhuan Garden meant that the emperor would not return to Yangzhou and would be buried in the gully; and the Molang language, who promised, referred to the secret character. Li Xuanying spread widely everywhere, invisibly helping Li Mi to open up his popularity.
In this atmosphere, the leaders of the civil unrest had great respect for Li Mi, and also prompted some people to submit, in addition to the above-mentioned Li Xuanying joining the Wagang Army, there were also Fang Yanzao and Wang Bodang who surrendered to the Wagang Army.
Before Wang Bodang entered the Wagang Army, he was the leader of the Jiyang Rebellion. After Wang entered the Wagang army, he not only recommended Li Mi to Zhai Rang, but was also loyal to Li Mi in the future, and even when Li Mi decided to betray Li Tang in the second year of WuDe (619), Wang Bodang was still with him.
Fang Yanzao served as a lieutenant of Songcheng County during the Daye years, and considered himself to have talent and ability, but was not appreciated and valued by the authorities. Yu Huaicai participated in Yang Xuangan's rebellion without encountering it. After the rebellion failed, Fang Yanzao fled to Liang Commandery and SongCheng to get acquainted with Li Mi, and together they visited various thieves and lobbied among them.
In addition to the above reasons to attract people to come to the annexation, Li Mi led the Wagang camp to gradually grow, and this factor was also one of the reasons why the world was willing to join the Wagang Army, such as the annexation of Cui Shishu, Zhang Liang, Zhang Shanxiang, Guo Xiaoke, Cheng Zhijie, Cui Yixuan, and Li Yude. The following table: Status table of dependents of the Wagang Army camp
According to the identities of the people in the above table, in addition to the general small people in the city such as Cui Yixuan and Zhang Liang, the governor Zhang Shanxiang and the general manager Cui Shishu from Yanling, there are also local tyrants such as Li Yude, Guo Xiaoke, and Cheng Zhijie who also came to the annex.
The background of the formation of local power and strength is closely related to social turmoil, and the occurrence of the popular uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty was mainly because of the people's disappointment and dissatisfaction with the government, so they gathered together to rebel. However, the nature of the uprising army is that it is highly mobile and the organization is too loose, coupled with the lack of long-term political goals and directions, it is easy for the uprising activities to eventually evolve into a tragic situation in which the uprising army plunders the good people everywhere, causing the panic and uneasiness of these civilians.
In the face of this situation, in order to survive and maintain the safety of themselves and their homes, the people sent capable people to entangle the clan township party and defend themselves according to dangers to avoid the difficulties of theft, such as:
Li Yude, a native of Zhao Prefecture: "After privately completing the armor, the infant Wuzhi City protected itself, and many people followed it, so they became long"
Guo Xiaoke, a Native of Xuzhou Yang Zhai: "Hundreds of people leading the township song";
Cheng Zhijie, a dong'a person in Jeju, said: "Gather hundreds of disciples to protect the township together, in case he steals."
Wagang Military Point General Station
However, such local self-defense forces are mostly able to barely maintain and provide the security needed by the communes under closed and self-sufficient conditions. However, as the political situation became more and more unstable, the local people's revolt forces also overcame the concept of geography from the tenth year of Daye (614) to the situation of dispersion to unity, and the forces also changed from small to large, from weak to strong, from inferior to superior, these self-protection groups were simply unable to resist and continue to maintain in the face of the gradually strong rebel army, and in this dilemma, they could only choose to belong to a camp with stronger forces. Because of this, Li Yude, Guo Xiaoke, and Cheng Zhijie would lead the township people to join the Wagang Army.
The birthplace of the Wagang Army
A similar situation is also seen in the Biography of Zhang Shanxiang: "Zhang Shanxiang ... Every county soldier chases after the thieves... Attributed to Li Mi. ”
Zhang Shanxiang was a local grassroots subordinate, and the nature of his position was no different from that of local heroes and strongmen, and he tried to maintain the safety of the local townships and crack down on the attacks of the rebel army or thieves. Similarly, when the rising army rises, it is impossible to compete with it. However, the difference between Zhang And Cheng Zhijie was that Zhang held the position of chief of the li, which was considered to be a grass-roots official of the Sui Dynasty. However, Li Yude, Guo Xiaoke, and Cheng Zhijie had no eunuch experience, and only Li Yude, because he was "rich in wealth and had a hundred servants in his family", used his financial resources to call on the township masses to achieve the purpose of jointly defending the homeland; Cheng Zhijie relied on the extraordinary martial art of "Xiao Yong and Good Use of Ma Qi", so the audience pushed and wore to defend the township against foreign insults.
In summary, it can be seen that after Li Mi gained the leadership of Wagang, he first attacked the Sui Dynasty, and once he succeeded, he told the world: jointly cut down the Sui Dynasty. After the great victory, it gained the trust of the people of the world and further consolidated the Wagang regime. Li Mi is a rare talent.
bibliography:
Book of Sui
Old Book of Tang
Zizhi Tongjian
New Book of Tang