In the years of conquest in the last years of the Sui Dynasty, the Li Yuan clan, who were born in Longxi, finally won the victory and established the Tang Dynasty, which lasted for 289 years. In those years of war and turmoil, there were so many Sui and Tang heroes, and not only Li Yuan was alone.
However, they were all separatist forces hostile to Li Yuan, and several of them could not be underestimated, and they were divided into rebel armies and local armed forces. The rebel armies included Li Mi's Wagang Army, Dou Jiande's Hebei Rebel Army, and Du Fuwei's Jianghuai Rebel Army.
There are more local armed ones, and the more famous ones are Zhuo County Luo Yi, Jincheng Xueju, Baling Xiao Milling, Mayi Liu Wuzhou and so on. The separatist forces also fight each other and do not give in vain. In particular, the local armed forces led by Jincheng XueJu gave Li Yuan a powerful blow.
Called Wang Jianye
Speaking of Jincheng Xueju, he was one of the more powerful forces in the local armed division at the end of the Sui Dynasty. His father was Xue Wang, a lieutenant of Jincheng, who was from the Xue clan in Hedong, which was the most famous and prestigious family in the Han and Tang dynasties, and was also one of the six surnames in Kansai.
Xue Ju's ancestor was once named the Marquis of Qianhu by Liu Bang, and in addition to the prosperity of the family, there were also many famous talents. For example, the more familiar prime minister Xue Yuanchao, the famous generals Xue Wanjun and Xue Rengui are all from this family system.
But compared with these celebrities, although Xue Ju's fame is not very big, he is the one who makes Li Shimin restless, he once forced Datang to a dead end twice, although it ended in failure, but Xue Ju's courage and boldness cannot be ignored.
Xue Ju himself was tough and tall, and his strength was not inferior to that of the heroes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Moreover, he came from a famous family with great wealth, and with such a background he was able to make a wide range of Haojie friends in the world, and his power has always dominated the northern lands so that people dare not invade.
In April of the thirteenth year of the Sui Dynasty, many parts of the country suffered from drought, and the people were starving, which made the thieves in the city run rampant and caused panic among the people. Xue Ju was serving as a lieutenant in Jincheng at this time, and the county commander Hao Yu recruited thousands of soldiers to be led by Xue Ju in order to fight the thieves.
They distributed armor and food to their soldiers, and set up feasts for the soldiers so that they could fight hard. Xue Ju knew that it was not the fault of the people of Li min that the unfavorable years were unfavorable, and that the thieves were caused by the famine, and that casually going on a crusade was only to cure the symptoms rather than the root causes.
At that time, the rebel army in various places was huge, and Xue Ju also wanted to dominate the forces of one side, which could not only protect himself but also break out of the world. But he could not find a suitable opportunity for a long time, and this time Hao Yu recruited troops to buy horses to go on a crusade against thieves and gave him a good opportunity.
So at the banquet, Xue Ju let his son Xue Rengao kidnap Hao Zhen, and pretended that he was going to rebel, and then began to raise troops. They first imprisoned officials from various counties, but opened their granaries to help the victims, a move that was greatly appreciated by the people.
Subsequently, Xue Ju took advantage of the situation and declared himself the "Overlord of Western Qin" and changed his era name to Qin Xing. When the surrounding thief Kou Zongluo heard that Xue Ju was proclaimed emperor, he immediately brought his men and horses to defect. After that, Xue Ju continued to accept the thieves who ken attached himself to and led them to attack the city, invincible.
Thick and thin
After Xue lifted up the incident, he had the momentum of breaking the bamboo, allowing him to become an opponent who could match Li Yuan. He absorbed thieves from thousands of troops all the way, and gradually grew into tens of thousands. Later, he engaged the Sui Dynasty general Emperor Fuxuan in Yuhan and defeated the other side to take the city.
Immediately, Qiang Zhongli of Minshan led 20,000 troops to surrender to Xue Ju, which greatly increased the morale of the army. Later, they conquered the two prefectures of Yan and Kuo in one fell swoop, and in just ten days, Xue Ju took the land of Longxi into his pocket, and the army reached 130,000 people.
Soon after, Xue Ju established the capital at Lanzhou and officially proclaimed himself emperor, and Xue Ju took advantage of the victory to pursue and send his son Xue Rengao to capture Qin Prefecture (秦州, in modern Tianshui, Gansu), and then moved the capital to Qin Prefecture. Xue Ju marched westward and was bound to confront Li Yuan.
In December 617, Xue Ju sent Xue Rengao to attack Fufeng County, and the thief Kou Tang Bi rebelled and stopped them. Subsequently, Xue Ju adopted the method of recruiting An and took Tang Bi into his pocket.
At first, Tang Bi supported Li Hongzhi, and when he got Xue Ju's invitation, he naturally wanted to know the current affairs, so he killed Li Hongzhi and surrendered to Xue Ju with 100,000 soldiers and horses. However, Xue Ju did not trust Tang Bi, so he sent Xue Rengao to take advantage of Tang Bi's lack of defense to destroy his army and surrender the people.
Tang Bi fled with only a few hundred men, and this battle allowed Xue Ju to gain another 100,000 troops, so that he would have the capital to fight against Li Yuan. At this time, Li Yuan was supporting Yang You as emperor, and the long-term army was in Chang'an, and Xue Ju was planning to attack Chang'an, and the two men of equal strength were bound to have a bitter battle.
Twice Ketang
It was not an easy task for Xue Ju to attack Chang'an, and Li Yuan's forces were evenly matched with his, even above him. Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Xue Ju decided to start with Fufeng County, and Li Yuan sent Li Shimin to attack Xue Rengao, and after the two sides fought, Li Shimin defeated Xue Rengao and forced him to retreat to the land of Longyou.
Xue Ju had already heard of Li Shimin's brave and good fighting, so he was a little afraid in his heart and wanted to escape. His subordinates said, "Has there ever been a Son of Heaven who surrendered since ancient times?" ”
Chu Liang said that if he fled, there would be signs of the fall of the country, but Hao Yu said: "Victory and defeat are common affairs of soldiers, how can you say that you want to destroy the country with a single failure?" After several arguments, Xue Ju also regretted saying that he wanted to escape, and in order to save face, he said, "I just want to test you."
Later, Hao Yu suggested to Xue Ju that he cooperate with Shuofang Liang's division and pay tribute to the Turks to join forces with them to attack Chang'an. Xue Ju took Hao Yu's words and personally went to the Turks to discuss with Mohe Jushi to attack Li Yuan.
However, at this time, it happened that Yuwen Xin, the governor of dushui, was sending an envoy to the Turks as an envoy, and when he learned of this incident, he immediately met with Mohe to ask him to stop sending troops, and Xue Ju's plan to unite with the Turks did not succeed.
Xue Ju then mobilized all his forces to attack Jingzhou, where the Tang army sent Li Shimin to attack, and he felt that Xue Ju's grain and grass were scarce, so he defended the city and did not fight in order to drag them down.
Xue Ju launched several unsuccessful provocations, and later Li Shimin's generals Liu Wenjing and Yin Kaishan's troops demonstrated to Xue Ju at Gaoyuan. Xue Ju lured them to send troops and then launched a surprise attack, and the Tang army neglected to prevent the loss of soldiers and captured many Tang generals.
When Li Shimin saw that the general trend had gone, he fled back to Chang'an overnight, and Xue Ju immediately took Gaoyuan City. This time Xue Ju decided to take Chang'an directly and severely damage Li Yuan's army. However, just before going to war, Xue Ju suddenly fell seriously ill and died, and the opportunity to seize Chang'an was stranded.
Subsequently, his son Xue Rengao succeeded to the throne, but he was not as resistant to fighting as Xue Ju, and was immediately destroyed by the Tang army. In fact, xue ju's two wars with the Tang Dynasty, the strategy and method were correct, but there was less luck.
If he could successfully merge with the Turks, Li Yuan would certainly not be an opponent. If he had not died of illness after defeating Li Shimin, he might have taken Chang'an directly and caused Li Yuan's base to collapse completely. Perhaps fate was already predestined in the darkness, so Xue Ju could not win when he grasped the heavens, places, and people.
And the reason for Xue Ju's defeat in the battle, in addition to not waiting for me, there is also a saying, that is, xue ju in the later period was cruel and unkind, the way of treating prisoners was extreme and cruel, and after killing people, he also cut off his tongue and nose.