The Shame of Weishui: The darkest moment on the eve of the Tang Dynasty.
In June 626, after Li Shimin experienced the Xuanwumen incident, in September of the same year, Li Shimin ascended the throne, and after learning that such a major event had happened in the Tang Dynasty, the Turkic leader Jieli Khan thought of a way to get benefits from the Tang Dynasty without spending a single soldier.
So Jieli Khan began to send a large army to attack Chang'an, and hundreds of thousands of troops marched south like locusts.
When the court that had just stabilized received such a report, they all began to worry, after all, Chang'an did not have many troops at this time, and it was impossible to compete with such a large army as Jieli Khan, who went all the way south.
Although during the period, the Tang Dynasty also prevented many armies from attacking and stopping the Jieli Khan, but these small battles had no way to stop the Turkic army, and the Jieli Khan was also very smart and understood that it didn't matter whether the victory was won in other local battles, the important thing was that the army pressed the border, and when the army reached the bank of the Weishui River, it was a victory.
So the Turkic soldiers ran all the way, and during the period, they were dragged by the Tang army and fought quickly, even if they were defeated and died, they also advanced towards the bank of the Weishui River without any scruples.
All the cities in the Tang Dynasty that were captured by the Turks were wiped out, and the people of Chang'an City were even more panicked.
A few days later, the Turkic army came to the Weishui River, and at this time there were not many troops in Chang'an City, and they could not stop the charge of the Turkic army, so Li Shimin led Fang Xuanling, Gao Shilian and others to the Weishui River to confront the Turks, and followed by the most elite soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, so that Jieli Khan did not dare to act rashly.
In fact, this is also a strategy laid by Li Shimin to retreat from the enemy, so that Jieli Khan thought that there were still many troops in Chang'an City, and brought the generals captured by Wei Chi Jingde and Zhi Zhi Sili to the Weishui River, which made Zhi Shi Sili think that although Li Shimin had just ascended to the throne, he still had the strength to fight a decisive battle with him.
This also made Jieli Khan begin to worry about whether he was really betting on such a move, so it was a stalemate for two days, and Li Shimin and Jieli Khan began to negotiate on the edge of Weishui.
After much tugging, a brief peace agreement was signed, and the white horse was slain to prove the covenant, and after the Tang Dynasty had gained enough benefits, Jieli Khan began to return contentedly.
This Turkic crisis was finally resolved, and this became a shame in Li Shimin's heart.
Li Shimin, as the son of heaven, also has his own pride, but this Turkic invasion made it difficult for him to accept, especially during the Turkic raid, which caused many disasters to the Tang Dynasty, and the Weishui Alliance has always been regarded by Li Shimin as the shame of Weishui.
It was also in this state that Li Shimin became more determined to completely exterminate the Turks, and soon after the Weishui Alliance, there was a split within the Eastern Turks, and many tribes began to be dissatisfied with the rule of Jieli Khan, so they began to rebel and established Xue Yantuo as the new khan.
Tuli Khan also suddenly cut off contact with Jieli Khan at this time, and secretly contacted Datang, if it was just a discord between the personnel, Jieli Khan may not have been defeated so quickly, but it happened that the winter snow suddenly hit, many livestock were frozen to death, and the grassland grain and grass began to weaken.
When Li Shimin learned the news, he felt that the time was ripe to wash away the humiliation of Weishui, so in the third year of Zhenguan, the Tang Dynasty sent troops to start the march against the Turks, until the fourth year of Zhenguan, Li Jing broke the Turks, Jieli Khan took advantage of the chaos to flee to Tuyuhun, the Turkic soldiers were killed, the captives were captured, and the Tang army won a complete victory.
And the Jieli Khan, who fled to Tuyuhun, was also captured by Zhang Baoxiangsheng on the road and brought back to Chang'an, Li Shimin also felt that he had washed away the humiliation of Weishui at that time, and the territory of the Tang Dynasty was also expanded to the north of Lake Baikal, and the rest of the tribes were also captured because of Jieli Khan, and they came to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, so that the Tang Dynasty also opened the situation of all states coming to the dynasty.
(Information source: Fast Information, Weishui Alliance: The Shame of Li Shimin's Life, web link) (Sohu.com, Shengshi Datang also made compromises, the shame of Taizong - Weishui Alliance, web link)
