Ten years after the great cause of the Sui Dynasty Emperor, the imperial court ordered the third expedition to Goguryeo, and the people finally could not bear it anymore, and all of them rebelled, resulting in great chaos in the world. At this time, Zhai Rang raised an army in Dong Commandery and plundered everywhere, and the outlaw Li Mi told Zhai Rang Chen about the situation in the world, believing that "the lord of the present day is faint on the top, and the people are complaining about the bottom", the elite troops of the Sui Dynasty were all killed in Liaodong, and the Turks in the north were also looking at the tiger, and it was already the autumn of critical survival; the Sui Emperor still abandoned Kyoto, toured Yang and Yue, which showed that he had long abandoned the Central Plains and planned to be as peaceful as the Southern Dynasty; at this time, it was "the meeting of Liu and Xiang to rise up", and it was time to seize the opportunity to "sweep through the Second Capital and destroy the abuse". Take the Sui Dynasty and replace it; you should not be satisfied with just plundering like a rogue thief.
After Zhai Rang heard this, he deeply admired Li Mi and became the mastermind. In the battle with the Sui general Zhang Sutuo, Zhai Rang was defeated in the initial battle, but Li Mi was able to reverse the situation by setting up an ambush to counterattack, gaining a high prestige. In the spring of the thirteenth year of Daye, Li Mi and Zhai Rang led thousands of elite soldiers to attack Luocang, and opened the warehouse to be taken by others, which was supported by the people, hundreds of thousands. Therefore, Zhai asked Li Mi to be made the Duke of Wei, abolished the era name of the Sui Dynasty, and established the Marching Marshal Wei Gongfu. At this time, Li Yuan was still fighting for the Sui Dynasty and brutally suppressing the rebel army; it was not until half a year later that Li Yuan's father and son raised an army in Jinyang and rebelled against the Sui Dynasty. In terms of time, Li Mi took the lead.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > Li Mi's first fatal mistake: storming Dongdu</h1>
As early as the ninth year of Daye, when Yang Xuan felt that there was a rebellion, Li Mi advised him to "pass through the city and not attack, and enter Chang'an in the west", which was sure to succeed. Unfortunately, Yang Xuangan insisted on attacking the eastern capital Luoyang, missed the opportunity to attack Guanzhong, and was eventually caught up and massacred by the Sui Dynasty officials and troops, and was overthrown.
In the thirteenth year of Daye, when Li Mi became the Duke of Wei and held military power, he repeated Yang Xuangan's mistakes and chose to attack Luoyang instead of taking a detour to attack Guanzhong. In this regard, Chai Xiaohe was puzzled, and he advised Li Mi to let Pei Renji stay in Luo, and zhai rang to choke Luokou, and then Li Mi personally led the elite troops to "attack Chang'an in the west, and the people will not be greeted by the suburbs, and there will be no war." In strategic terms, Chang'an was the political center of the Sui Dynasty, while Luoyang, although rich, was in the land of four wars and was not suitable for use as a base area. Therefore, Chai Xiaohe did not forget to warn: "Now that the heroes are competing, I am really afraid of others first, and once I lose them, what will happen to the navel!" ”
In this regard, Li Mi expressed his bitterness, he said: "What the king wants, the servant also thinks for a long time, and sincerity is the best policy." But the Lord of Darkness still exists, and the soldiers are still in the crowd, and my subordinates, and they are from Shandong, and since they have not yet seen Luoyang, why should they follow each other to the west? The generals will be out of the crowd of thieves, leaving each male and female. If so, he will be defeated! "He believes that there are three major problems that lead him to fail to carry out this dangerous plan:
First, although the Sui Emperor moved to Jiangdu, the power of the Sui Dynasty was still very strong. Emperor Jue deployed heavy troops in Guanzhong and himself led a large number of elites stationed in Jiangnan. If Li Mi bypassed Luoyang and did not fight, but went west to Chang'an, then there would be a danger of being caught between front and rear -- Li Mi did not believe that attacking Chang'an could "have a conquest without a war";
Second, Li Mi's troops were all shandong people, and his wives and sons were all in the east. If Luoyang is not captured first, then after the army is led west, it is difficult to ensure that the children are not killed by the soldiers of the Eastern Capital. Therefore, everyone looks forward and backward, and refuses to be in the same heart;
Third, most of Li Mi's subordinates were bandits, Pei Renji was a general of the Sui Dynasty, and Zhai Rang was a thief, who was originally an old enemy. Li Mi left these two people to guard the rear, and there was a hidden danger of infighting.
For these reasons, Li Mi believed that a strong attack on the east was the only all-round way; but he forgot that this was also the most difficult step to achieve. If you can capture Dongdu in a short period of time, everything will be fine, and once it is extended for a long time, you will fall into the predicament of being attacked by Dongdu and Jiangdu. Therefore, Li Mi launched more than sixty battles in succession, and even Chai Xiaohe was killed in battle, and as a result, he held out for a hundred days, still did not attack the Eastern Capital, and encountered a fate similar to Yang Xuangan. In fact, although Li Mi was hindered by the situation and could not personally lead the army to the west to take Chang'an, he might be able to compromise a bit, and when he stayed to attack the eastern capital, he could order a general to lead the army west and try to attack Chang'an.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > Li Mi's second fatal mistake: avoid killing Zhai Rang</h1>
Unlike Li Mi's hesitation, Li Yuan's father and son immediately set up an army in Jinyang. When the troops encountered torrential rains and could not advance, Li Shimin loudly said: "To rejuvenate the great righteousness to save the lives of the people, we must first enter Xianyang and order the world," reiterating the strategic goal of wanting to take the world and first taking the capital of Sui. In the process of advancing, the Tang army was welcomed by the people along the road, and the bandits also responded, "the three auxiliary officials and the various heroes and the military gates asked the self-serving people to be thousands of people, help the old and the young, and be full of subordinates", so Emperor Gong of Sui ordered the excavation of Li Yuan's five generations of ancestral graves, but it was still unable to prevent the Tang army from attacking Chang'an.
Li Yuan raised an army in May of the thirteenth year of Daye, encountered rain in August, and attacked the capital in November. In May of the following year, emperor Gong of Sui was deposed, and the Tang Dynasty was established, and the army was only one year old.
On the other hand, Li Mi's actions were too slow, and although he took the throne as duke of Wei, he never had the right title, resulting in different people's hearts. Zhai Rang's elder brother Zhai Kuan even said, "The Son of Heaven can stop doing it himself, and settle down with others!" If you can't do it, I should do it. After Li Mi found out, he was very suspicious of Zhai Rang and killed him at the banquet. This incident greatly damaged Li Mi's prestige and gradually lost the trust of the generals. After that, Li Mi repeatedly broke Wang Shichong and repaired jin yong city to live in it, with more than 300,000 people. "East to the sea, Dai, south to Jiang, Huai County, do not send envoys to the secret." Dou Jiande, Zhu Cang, Yang Shilin, Meng Haigong, Xu Yuanlang, Lu Zushang, Zhou Fameng, etc., accompanied the envoys to express their secret persuasion, so the secret official Xian Persuasion was the honorific title. However, Li Mi said a puzzling sentence - "The East is not peaceful, and this cannot be discussed." ”
Li Mi was originally a subordinate of Zhai Rang, and was later promoted by Zhai Rang to be the Duke of Wei, and his position was ambiguous, and he should have been given the honorific title long ago, so that the distinction between the emperor and the subjects would make the people know that they belonged; but Li Mi's ambiguity eventually led to the tragedy of the power struggle with Zhai Rang. When he eliminated Zhai Rang's forces, he should be proclaimed emperor as soon as possible. However, Li Mi was very stubborn, and had to wait until he captured Dongdu to consider becoming emperor, but instead made his subordinates deviate from Germany.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > Li Mi's third-generation mistake: calling himself a vassal to the Sui and Tang dynasties</h1>
In the fourteenth year of Daye, Yu Wenhua strangled the Sui Emperor at Jiangdu, and then led his troops north to attack Li Mi. In order to avoid the dilemma of being attacked by the enemy in his belly, Li Mi went so far as to claim a vassal to the east, accept the official position of the Sui Dynasty, "bow down to repay the favor", and agree to "first pacify and then enter the government of the dynasty" to assist the government. This fatal mistake caused Li Mi to lose his heart and the mass base collapsed in an instant.
As the first anti-Sui man, Li Mi took the lead in killing Sui Officials and opening warehouses to relieve the starving people, and was regarded as a great hero against the tyranny of the single husband. As a result, he suddenly submitted to the Sui Dynasty and accepted the offer, which greatly disappointed the people -- it turned out that the Duke of Wei had only raised troops to obtain an official and a half-post, not for the people.
When Li Mi first arose, he ordered Zu Junyan to count the ten great sins of the Sui Emperor, compared to Qin II, in order to "go straight to Jiangdu and take the only husband." However, when Yu Wenhua and the troops came, Li Mi suddenly stood in the position of the Sui Dynasty, accusing him of "accepting the grace of the Sui Dynasty and rebelling against him", contradicting himself in words and deeds. He originally lobbied Zhai Rang to "sweep through Erjing and destroy the tyranny and abuse, then the Sui clan will not die"; as a result, he in turn wanted to "enter the DPRK to assist the government" and completely abandoned his principles. Such a big change in position has made the subordinates and the people confused. Ever since Li Mi declared himself a vassal of Dongdu, his downfall had already begun.
Li Mi originally thought that it was expedient to claim the title of vassal, but after he exhausted his elite to repel Yu Wenhua and later, Wang Shichong launched a coup d'état in Dongdu and took the opportunity to send troops to attack Li Mi, defeating this old enemy in one fell swoop.
After the crushing defeat at Wang Shichong, Li Mi could have run to Liyang and relied on Xu Shijie's soldiers and horses to seek a comeback. However, the generals did not want to obey, believing that Xu Shijie's loyalty was very suspicious, so Li Mi proposed to enter the customs and surrender to Li Yuan, and everyone gladly accepted the order. It can be seen that Li Mi has lost the hearts of the people, and everyone does not think that he can make a comeback, but instead urges him to turn to Li Yuan. Therefore, Li Mi also called himself a vassal of the Tang Dynasty, which means that he has conceded defeat to Li Tang. Who knew that Li Mi was restless and wanted to flee back to Shandong, continue to divide the territory, and was eventually killed by Li Tang.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="28" > loss principle is the cause of Li Mi's defeat</h1>
The Old Book of Tang and Li Mi's biography commented: "At the beginning, it is said that the first to raise an army is to be willing to surrender to the prisoners, and its plan is also dangerous!" "Playing with unprincipled scheming is the reason for Li Mi's eventual defeat." For the sake of profit, he could change from the descendants of the Eight Pillar Kingdom to the Great Sui Rebels; he could also degenerate from a rebel ally to a shameful capitulationist. This unprincipled style of conduct led Ton mi to constantly damage his mass base and eventually be abandoned by the people of the world.
Wang Fuzhi said in the "Treatise on Reading through the Scriptures": "Yue Wang Dong, who clings to Xianyang what he wants, and whoever claims to be a vassal in the north is under his command; then the generals will regard it as a dog, and know that they are not enough to do, and who will die for it in the hope that he will win the world?" The Sui Dynasty knew that Li Mi was lying when he called himself a vassal, Li Mi also knew that he was lying, and the generals also knew that Li Mi was lying, but Li Mi still told this lie in order to avoid being attacked in the belly. But he did not know that as soon as this lie came out, the people's hearts were lost and they were despised by the people of the world; those who resolutely resisted the rule of the Sui Dynasty abandoned Li Mi, "knowing that he was not enough to do anything", and then turned to Li Tang one after another.
Therefore, Wang Fuzhi criticized Li Mi for "remembering and destroying, and not knowing what to do, Pi Fu has no ambition." In the Zhou Yi, it is said: "It is not constant in its virtue, or it is ashamed to bear it." "People who do not have firm principles, who do things capriciously and whose words and deeds are inconsistent will only end up humiliating themselves."