In the fourth year of Wude (621), the Tang army besieged Wang Shichong in Luoyang City, cutting off their grain line, causing Luoyang to become an isolated city; Wang Shichong, who was at the end of his rope, could only ask Dou Jiande, the king of Xia, for help. Dou Jiande, who knew the truth of the cold of his lips and teeth, personally led an army of more than 100,000 to come to the rescue.
Li Shimin planned to snipe Dou Jiande at the Tiger Prison Pass, so he personally led 3,500 brave men to relax the Tiger Prison Pass.
One
On 26 March, Li Shimin, who had just arrived at the Tiger Prison Pass, rested a little and personally led 500 horsemen out of the Tiger Prison Pass to reconnoiter Dou Jiande's camp.
Along the way, the cavalry was left behind, and Li Shixian, Cheng Zhijie, and Qin Shubao were led separately and ambushed on both sides of the road; He only took four cavalrymen and Wei Chigong to continue to investigate, and when they arrived at a place three miles away from Dou Jiande's camp, the two encountered Dou Jiande's guerrillas, and the enemy thought they were Tang army scouts, and they didn't bother to deal with a few people.
Li Shimin was very unhappy when he saw that no one was paying attention to him, so he patted his horse and walked a few steps forward, and shouted at the enemy soldiers: "Hey, I'm Li Shimin, the king of Qin." ”
When the enemy soldiers were still confused, Li Shimin drew his bow and shot again, and after the arrow rang out, one of the enemy generals fell to the ground in response.
At this time, Dou Jiandejun reacted, it was really Li Shimin who came. Soon, five or six thousand cavalry rushed out of the battalion to pursue, shouting "capture Li Shimin alive."
The four cavalrymen who followed Li Shimin had long been frightened and stupid, and they had never seen someone who was so desperate, but they had never seen someone as desperate as Li Shimin.
The four of them hurriedly escorted Li Shimin and told Li Shimin to withdraw quickly. Li Shimin said with a smile: "Brothers, go ahead, and I will be behind Wei Chigong." ”
So, after Li Shimin and Wei Chigong broke off, the two of them drew their bows and shot arrows while retreating, but anyone who dared to approach them would be shot by the arrows of the two. Li Shimin shot several people in front and back, and Wei Chigong also killed more than a dozen people, and the enemy did not dare to get too close, but only dared to shoot arrows at a long distance.
Li Shimin deliberately slowed down to lure them and lured the pursuers into an ambush circle. Li Shiyun and others, who had been in ambush for a long time, rose up to slash and kill, broke the Dou army, beheaded more than 300 levels, and captured their generals Yin Qiu and Shi Zhan.
Such riotous operations have often occurred in Li Shimin's history of warfare.
Li Shimin was extremely cautious in his soldiers, but his performance on the battlefield was diametrically opposed. Almost every time he was on the battlefield, he would personally lead the cavalry to charge, and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
Two
So the question is, why didn't Li Shimin charge into battle in person so desperately?
This is a bit of a survivor bias, not that Li Shimin has nothing to do, but that he survived by luck; However, the pain left by the war was so great that he suffered from it for the rest of his life.
How serious were Li Shimin's injuries?
There is such a record in "Shufu Yuan Turtle": "The emperor was hit by the arrows, pulled out and resumed the battle, after the conflict came out of the formation, he was angry, killed dozens of people with his hands, the two knives were missing, the blood flowed into the sleeves, and the battle was resumed." ”
This was a vicious battle between Li Yuan and Jin Yang when he raised his army and Song Laosheng, a famous general of the Sui Dynasty. At that time, Song Laosheng choked the door to enter Guanzhong, and if Li Yuan wanted to enter Guanzhong and seize Chang'an, he had to defeat Song Laosheng first.
Li Yuan's army attacked Huoyi (near present-day Huozhou City, Shanxi), and the Sui general Song Laosheng led 20,000 elite soldiers to hold out, blocking the way of the army. Li Yuan's army failed to take Song Laosheng for a long time, and the worst thing was that it had been raining for several days, and the military rations in Taiyuan could not be transported, and the army was already on the verge of running out of food.
In this case, Li Yuan retreated, planning to temporarily return to Taiyuan to plot again.
Li Shimin resolutely advised that the purpose of raising up the righteousness was to save the common people, but now when he encounters a small enemy army, he will retreat, and I am afraid that no one will follow him from now on.
This year, Li Shimin just turned 18 years old.
Obviously, Li Yuan was moved by Li Shimin. After the rain stopped, he launched a general attack on Song Laosheng.
In order to lure Song Laosheng out of the city for a decisive battle, Li Shimin only led a few cavalry to the city, and raised a whip and mocked Song Laosheng in the city, and there were all kinds of sarcasm in his words.
Song Laosheng is also a famous general, and he was humiliated by such a stinky young man, so he couldn't help it, and opened the door in a rage to send troops, and set up a battle with his back to the city.
So, there is the record in "Shufu Yuan Turtle"!
In that battle, after Li Shimin was hit by an arrow, he didn't blink an eye, directly pulled out the arrow and threw it at the enemy, and then continued to slash and kill. After the first battle, dozens of people were hacked and wounded, and the two knives in his hands were curled and did not stop.
Similar to this situation, Li Shimin doesn't know how many times he has experienced it and how many times he has been injured. That kind of style of leading by example, as well as the ruthlessness of not wanting to die, are all cultivated from a young age.
Until he ascended the throne, Li Shimin acted like this whenever he went to the battlefield.
Three
Li Shimin was good at using cavalry to raid in battle, and he himself often took the lead in charging, which led to serious damage to the war horses he rode. We can also see from the degree of injury on the war horse he rode that Li Shimin was fierce and deadly.
Zhaoling Liujun is Li Shimin's divine horse, how they died is simply the epitome of Li Shimin's injury.
After Li Shimin ascended the throne, in order to commemorate the six war horses that followed him to conquer the battlefield, he asked the famous painter Yan Liben to paint, and the famous craftsman Yan Lide carved and erected in the northernmost part of his cemetery.
These six horses are named "Fist Mao", "Shivachi", "White Hoof", "Teller", "Qinghu", and "Sa Lu Zi".
First of all, let's talk about the only "white hoof" who survived from the battlefield!
The white hoof is one of the six horses of Zhaoling, a pure black war horse with four white hooves, it is the mount of Li Shimin and Xue Rengao when he fights, which is the "Battle of Shallow Water Plateau" that took place in the first year of Wude (618).
Li Yuan had just proclaimed himself emperor, and Xue Ju and Xue Rengao in the northwest raised troops in Jincheng (now Lanzhou, Gansu) County, personally leading an army of 100,000, wanting to take advantage of Li Yuan's unstable foothold to seize Chang'an, Guanzhong. In the face of a strong enemy's attack, Li Yuan could only send Li Shimin to meet the enemy.
Li Shimin went to the front line and adopted the strategy of holding out; The two sides held each other for more than 60 days, Xue Rengao's army ran out of food, and his generals and soldiers began to commotion. Li Shimin saw that the fighters had decisively launched an attack, and Xue Rengao's army was defeated and fled.
In order to completely annihilate the enemy army, Li Shimin personally led 2,000 cavalry to chase after him, galloped for more than 200 miles in a day and night, surrounded Xue Rengao's defeated army in Zhehui City, and finally forced Xue Rengao to lead the remnants of Kaicheng to surrender.
In this battle, Li Shimin was able to gallop more than 200 miles day and night to chase the defeated army, and the white hoof was indispensable.
Four
"Sa Lu Zi" is the mount of Li Shimin's expedition to Luoyang Wang Shichong.
Like a pure purple swallow running lightly
In the "Battle of Pishan", Li Shimin was separated from the large army, and only Qiu Xinggong followed.
The two rode horses while sniping and chasing the enemy and retreated, when the stray arrows flew wildly, and "Sa Luzi" was still carrying Li Shimin to retreat even though he was hit by several arrows. After killing several people, the two finally broke out of the encirclement and joined the army.
Back at the camp, after Qiu Xinggong pulled out the arrow on his chest for "Sa Lu Zi", "Sa Lu Zi" fell, and it was the first horse of the six horses of Zhaoling to fall.
Later, Wang Shichong was beaten by Li Shimin and could only shrink in Luoyang City, and he had already run out of ammunition and food. At this time, he could only pin his hopes on Dou Jiande in Hebei. After Dou Jiande killed Meng Haigong, he personally led an army of more than 100,000 to come to the rescue.
Li Shimin and Dou Jiande launched a decisive battle in the "Tiger Prison Pass".
In the "Battle of Tiger Pass", Li Shimin was the first to ride the "Qinghu" horse, which was a pale variegated horse.
At that time, Li Shimin personally led an elite cavalry into the 20-mile-long military formation of Dou Jiande's army, galloping left and right; After a big battle, the "green horse" was hit by five arrows (one arrow in front and four arrows in the back) and died on the way to the battle, and the arrows were all shot from the front, which shows how fast it runs.
It can also be seen that Li Shimin is really charging forward desperately!
After the casualties of the "Qinghu", Li Shimin replaced with a second war horse "Shivachi", which was a red horse from Persia. In this battle, "Shivachi" was also hit by five arrows and fell on the way to the battle.
In the major battle of destroying Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, Li Shimin was born and died, and three war horses were killed and wounded, and the great cause of reunification was basically completed.
"Fist Mao 騧 (guā)" is a war horse ridden by Li Shimin in the "Battle of the Water" in the rebellion of Liu Heimin. The battle was quite fierce, and the "fist mao" was hit by nine arrows (six arrows in the front and three arrows in the back), and died in front of the two armies.
Just imagine, the war horses have all suffered five casualties, how can the people on horseback be completely fine?
It can be seen how desperate Li Shimin is when it comes to the moment of charge!
Five
People who were contemporaries of Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling lived to be 70 years old, Gao Shilian lived to be 71 years old, Xiao Yu was 74 years old, Tang Jian was 78 years old, and Yu Shinan was 81 years old; There are also Wei Chigong 74 years old, Li Jing 79 years old, Cheng Yanjin 77 years old, and even Tang Gaozu Li Yuan lived to be 70 years old.
But Li Shimin only lived to be 50 years old!
Li Shimin's health has not been good in his later years, which can be seen from the changes in the number of times he went out hunting.
From the eleventh year of Zhenguan (637) to the sixteenth year (642), Li Shimin went out hunting an average of 1 to 2 times a year, and each time he was full of harvest, indicating that he was still very healthy during this time.
Since the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, it is rare to see the record of Li Shimin going out to hunt, from which it can be seen that his physical condition is getting worse day by day.
In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan (645 AD), on the way back to Goguryeo, Li Shimin had poisonous sores and suppuration and could not ride a horse.
Later, the crown prince Li Zhi personally sucked the sores for Li Shimin, and the disease gradually improved. Since then, Li Shimin's physical condition has become worse and worse, and he has to appoint the crown prince to adjudicate all the military affairs, and he can cultivate with peace of mind.
In the last two years of Li Shimin's life, he has been recuperating in Cuiwei Palace in Zhongnan Mountain, but after recuperation, his physical condition deteriorated rapidly, and he finally died of illness in Cuiwei Palace.
This should have a lot to do with working too hard and getting injured a lot when I was young.