The real Li Xiaogong in history is actually a very interesting person. The Tang Dynasty gave him a very high evaluation, considering him to be the top famous general, and ranked him second on the list of Ling Yange heroes. However, it is generally believed in later generations that Li Xiaogong's life's exploits were mainly because he had a good deputy general named Li Jing, who was taken away by Li Jing, a super god teammate.
How high the military ability of this Li family prince, who claimed to be the most capable of fighting in the early Tang Dynasty, was, we could not make up our minds. However, we can briefly look back at his life, look at his life experience, and maybe we can find some answers from it.
Li Xiaogong was born in 591 AD, and if it is said that he is related to him, he has to call Li Yuan a cousin of Tang Gaozu. Li Yuan's grandfather, Li Hu, the actual founder of the Li family, had a total of eight sons in his lifetime. Among them, the third is Li Yuan's father, and the seventh is Li Xiaogong's grandfather.
Li Xiaogong's childhood should be regarded as both lucky and helpless. Although this branch of their family did not inherit the title of his grandfather. But his grandfather and his father are relatively powerful fierce men. In particular, Li Xiaogong and his father, named Ang Lee, have the same name as a modern big director. Li An was a confidant of Emperor Yang Jian of sui, and successively served as the Sui Dynasty's Neishi Shilang, Shangshu Zuocheng, and Huangmen Shilang. Unfortunately, Li An died relatively early, and li Xiaogong died when he was very young.
Therefore, Li Xiaogong, who was a child and a teenager, lost his father very early, but at the same time, he also inherited the title left by his father, and his life was quite good. Later, after Li Xiaogong became an adult, he also successfully entered the army with Zu Yin and served as an official in the Sui Dynasty for two years. However, as Li Xiaogong entered his career, the Sui Dynasty began to falter, and its rule gradually collapsed. When Li Xiaogong was 27 years old, his cousin Li Yuan raised troops directly from Jinyang and attacked Chang'an a few months later. The following year, Li Yuan directly ascended the throne in Chang'an and established the Tang Dynasty.
Li Yuan's rise to the army undoubtedly fundamentally changed Li Xiaogong's fate. Not only did Li Xiaogong leap from an ordinary nobleman to a side branch of the imperial family. Moreover, because Li Yuan had not yet unified the world at that time, and he was afraid of sending generals to fight, it was easy to form a situation where the tail could not be lost, so he was particularly inclined to let the Li family lead the troops. In this way, Li Xiaogong, who was in his prime, was naturally captured by Li Yuan and began to take charge of leading the army to conquest.
After that, Li Xiaogong was sent by Li Yuan to Sichuan. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the population of Sichuan was not very large, and many of them were indigenous tribes. Therefore, when the Sui Dynasty was just destroyed, there was not much division in this place, and it was still in a relatively vacuum at that time.
After Li Xiaogong was sent to Sichuan, relying on some of the troops given to him by Li Yuan, plus some official hats in his hands, he also smoothly took care of the local area and nominally assigned this area to Li Tang's territory. However, because many of the local people are residents of indigenous tribes, Li Xiaogong's ability to control the local area is extremely low. In order to suppress the local rebellions that often occur, Li Xiaogong is already in a mess, and he is still unable to fundamentally solve the problem.
But at this moment, the most important man in Li Xiaogong's life came to his side.
In the third year of Wu De, as the Li Tang regime defeated Xue Ju and Li Rail in the northwest, and Liu Wuzhou in Shanxi, the Tang Dynasty was basically completely safe behind it. So at this time, Li Yuan set his sights on Wang Shichong in Luoyang. However, to attack Wang Shichong, Li Yuan needed to consider two enemies. One is Dou Jiande in Henan, and the other is Xiao Milling in the south. These two people were both famous tyrants at the end of the Sui Dynasty. Once Li Yuan and Wang Shichong went to war, Li Yuan was worried that they would take the opportunity to pick peaches. Later history proved that Li Yuan's worry did indeed occur.
Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande's side, let's not talk about it for the time being, only Xiao Milling's side. In order to prevent Xiao Qian from moving north, Li Yuan heeded Li Shimin's recommendation and appointed the general Li Jing to lead an army south to provide support. Li Jing was originally a Sui Dynasty official, and when Li Yuan was preparing to rebel, he had thought of denouncing Li Yuan, but unfortunately he failed. Later, Li Jing was captured by the Tang Dynasty, surrendered to Li Yuan, and was then assigned to Li Shimin as a staff officer. During his time under Li Shimin, Li Shimin discovered that Li Jing was a rare handsome talent, so he had the matter of recommending Li Jing at this time.
In this way, not long after, Li Jing led his troops all the way south, and finally reached Li Xiaogong's side.
Next, Li Xiaogong began to be taken by Li Jing to fly.
After Li Jing led his troops to Sichuan, he found that the situation was a bit complicated. Next, Li Jing formulated a detailed strategic plan and presented it in the name of Li Xiaogong. After Li Yuan received this strategic plan, he was overjoyed, because he knew that the strategic plan proposed by Li Jing in the name of Li Xiaogong was indeed very feasible, so he directly approved it.
Then, why did Li Jing propose this battle plan in the name of Li Xiaogong? It's actually not complicated! Mainly because Li Xiaogong was the Li family patriarch, he proposed a plan, and Li Yuan was more acceptable. And Because Li Jing had reported Li Yuan's bad deeds before, it was difficult for Li Yuan to trust him. It was for this reason that Li Xiaogong became the nominal proposer of this plan.
After that, under Li Jing's arrangement, Li Xiaogong first found the sons of the local tribal chieftains and awarded them official positions. Nominally an official under his own command, he is actually a proton to prevent those tribes from doing things. With these protons in hand, the Sichuan side suddenly stopped a lot.
Next, With the help of Li Jing, Li Xiaogong began to build warships and organize water troops. More than a year later, after Li Shimin had defeated Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande in The First World War in Luoyang, Li Yuan quickly mobilized heavy troops to the south. At the same time, Li Jing's battle plan was also launched. Li Jing personally led the water army all the way down the Yangtze River, and with lightning speed, directly brought the army under Xiao Milling's capital and forced Xiao Milling to surrender.
Just a few days after Xiao Milling surrendered, the hundreds of thousands of elites that Xiao Milling had placed in the south rushed back. But at this time, Xiao Qiao had already surrendered, so these elites were also reorganized by Li Jing and became the army under Li Xiaogong. In this way, Li Xiaogong became the most powerful clan prince of the Tang Dynasty at that time, and he was a dominant family in the south.
Throughout the process, Li Xiaogong has been sitting in the Middle Army, responsible for the central dispatch. The battle plan was formulated by Li Jing, and the front-line battle was also commanded by Li Jing. Therefore, which of the two people has contributed more, everyone can judge for themselves.
After destroying Xiao Milling, Li Yuan ordered Li Xiaogong to continue to lead the army to the east and take full responsibility for the war in the south. At this time, Li Xiaogong actually encountered another good luck. Because in the years before the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin fought several hard battles, and his military merit and prestige were somewhat too high. Li Yuan was worried that he would threaten the position of the crown prince Li Jiancheng, so from this time on, he consciously limited Li Shimin's military power. It is for this reason that when Li Xiaogong emerges, Li Yuan will put him in charge of the war in the south. Otherwise, this position should have been Li Shimin's.
Of course, although Li Xiaogong was the nominal commander of the south, it was actually Li Jing who was really responsible for formulating the strategic plan. Li Yuan also knew this. Long before the war with Xiao Qian, Li Yuan had clearly ordered Li Xiaogong to be the commander-in-chief, but all military dispatches were controlled by Li Jing.
After that, Li Xiaogong and Li Jing continued to lead their troops eastward and defeated Lin Shihong, who was entrenched in the Jiangxi region. Lin Shihong's strength was relatively weak, and basically he had already collapsed before the Tang army could attack in its entirety. After destroying Lin Shihong, Li Xiaogong was ordered to appease the Lingnan region, which had originally been dependent on Lin Shihong. But in fact, this process of appeasement is also Li Jing's contribution. Most of the plans were also formulated by Li Jing.
However, here I would like to say more, in terms of civil rule, Li Xiaogong has his own certain views. After laying siege to Lin Shihong's territory, the entire Jingzhou region in the south was already within the territory of the Tang Dynasty. During Li Xiaogong's presidency of Jingzhou, he vigorously supported Tuntian and quickly restored local social order, which is indeed the credit of Li Xiaogong.
After taking over Lin Shihong, the Tang Dynasty had actually unified the world in name. Because further east, the Jianghuai region had already surrendered to the Li Tang regime. However, shortly after this, fu gonglu, the leader of the peasant army in the Jianghuai region, launched a rebellion again. Therefore, the next combination of Li Xiaogong and Li Jing was sent by Li Yuan to solicit the auxiliary gong. Finally, under the attack of this pair, it did not take long for the auxiliary gong to be pacified. In this process, Li Xiaogong also seems to have learned a lot of the essence of Li Jing's command, and he has also commanded many battles alone.
PingXiao Milling, pacifying Lingnan, and enlisting the auxiliary public servants, after these three battles were fought, the south was completely pacified. At this time, Li Xiaogong, in the Li family's clan room, was already second only to Li Shimin in military merit. But at this time, someone immediately reported that Li Xiaogong was plotting rebellion. Li Yuan then sent his confidante Wu Zetian (later empress Wu Zetian and her father) to replace Li Xiaogong and ask Li Xiaogong to return to Beijing to report for duty. Later, after Li Xiaogong returned, the examination was soon concluded, and in the end nothing was found, and Li Xiaogong was subsequently appointed zong zhengqing and added a fief.
Li Xiaogong was reported this matter, in fact, it is not difficult to understand. After all, at that time, Li Xiaogong held hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands and dominated Jiangnan. Moreover, the south was basically fought in the name of Li Xiaogong. If Li Xiaogong wanted to rebel at this time, it would indeed be a troublesome matter. Coupled with the fact that he also had Li Jing's helper, Li Yuan would naturally be more careful. When Li Xiaogong was recalled to the capital for examination, Li Jing also received orders to be transferred to the Shanxi border to lead troops to guard against the Turks in the north.
After this separation, Li Jing's story is actually continuing. Later, Li Jing destroyed the Turks and Tuguhun successively, and became the absolute god of war in the early Tang Dynasty. But On Li Xiaogong's side, since then, he has never commanded an army again, or even left Chang'an. This is actually not difficult to understand, after all, Li Xiaogong's military merit at this time has been excessive. Moreover, Li Xiaogong was still the Li family's clan, and if he wanted to rebel, the trouble would be greater than others. Such a Li Xiaogong, unless it was a last resort, Li Yuan and Li Shimin, who later ascended to the throne, naturally would not give him any more opportunities to lead the army.
In the following ten years, Li Xiaogong began his idle life as a prince. Compared with the founding heroes of the past, Li Xiaogong's last life is simply a god-like day. Because there was a large enough fiefdom, Li Xiaogong was not short of money, and he thought about how to spend it every day in Chang'an. Not only did they build huge mansions, but they also raised more than a hundred beautiful women.
In addition, Li Xiaogong did not need to consider the problem of taking sides and forming a party, he had a good relationship with anyone, treated people very kindly, and had a good relationship with the ministers. When the struggle between Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng was at its most intense, no one considered pulling Li Xiaogong into the company. Because both of them know that Li Xiaogong is an unstable factor, pulling over will only bring trouble to himself.
Therefore, no matter how the tang dynasty high-level struggle, Li Xiaogong would be his idle prince every day, go to the unit every day to punch a card, and then go back to his mansion to soak up his sister, the life was too beautiful. After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he also highly appreciated Li Xiaogong, who was so knowledgeable, and let Li Xiaogong continue to be his idle prince.
In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, Li Xiaogong suddenly fell ill with an acute illness and eventually died of illness at the age of fifty. After Li Xiaogong's death, Li Shimin personally held a funeral for him, presented sikong and yangzhou governors, and accompanied the funeral to the tomb. Three years later, Li Shimin rated Ling Yange as the twenty-four meritorious men, and Li Xiaogong ranked second, only after the eldest grandson Wujie.
He was able to die in his mansion, accompanied by more than a hundred beautiful women, and it was not yet the time of special aging. I have to say that Li Xiaogong's life is really very good.
Looking back at Li Xiaogong's life, it is not difficult for us to find that Li Xiaogong's own ability should also be there. But at the same time, he could really take off and lead his troops to sweep Jiangnan, and I am afraid that he really relied on Li Jing's help. The existence of Li Jing is indeed a huge reason why Li Xiaogong was able to succeed.
However, Li Xiaogong was able to die well in the end, which was also due to his own interest and concessions. In the face of power, it is not so easy to give up easily.
No matter how high Li Xiaogong's military ability really was, whether he really relied entirely on Li Jing to have those achievements. From Li Xiaogong's life, we can indeed understand a truth: it is really important to have a good teammate in life. If you can have the help of a top teammate like Li Jing, life can really be super god. However, if you really meet such a teammate, you must recognize the form and don't forget your own weight. Give up something at the right time to have the best ending.