(Vengeful God Liu Hei min)
Liu Heimin, a native of Zhangnan County, Beizhou (present-day northeast of the ancient city of Hebei), was a young man of alcoholism, gambling, bravery, and incursions. His father and brother all abandoned him, leaving him to fend for himself, and there was a big brother from the same township who often received help, and this big brother was Dou Jiande, and Liu Heimin introduced Dou Jiande as a confidant. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, he joined the Wagang Army, and after Li Mi's defeat, he was used by Wang Shichong as a prisoner, and because he despised Wang Shichong, he fled back to Hebei, attached himself to Dou Jiande, and made him the Duke of Handong County, known for his courage and resourcefulness. After Dou Jiande's death, Liu Heimin summoned Dou Jiande's old troops to raise an army, swept through Hebei within half a year, repeatedly defeated the Tang army, and finally recovered all the old territories of the Xia Dynasty, replaced Dou Jiande, and established himself as the king of Handong, becoming the most powerful competitor to compete with the Li Tang court for the world. The Qin king Li Shimin defeated his troops and fled to the Turks, and after Li Shimin's division returned to the dynasty, Liu Heimin led his troops back to kill him, and once again recaptured all of Hebei in October. This time, Li Yuan sent the crown prince Li Jiancheng to lead the army to conquest, and Liu Heimin actually died without a fight, and was captured and killed by his subordinates. Liu Heimin died without a fight, not at Li Jiancheng, but actually by Wei Zheng.
<h1>Heaven help the fierce man Liu Heimin</h1>
After Dou Jiande was defeated and captured by Li Shimin's soldiers, and the entire Xia Dynasty fell apart, Liu Heiyan quietly fled back to his hometown, disguised as a peasant with his back to the sky facing the loess soil.
On a certain day in July 621 (the fourth year of Tang Wude), Dou Jiande's old department Gao Xian, Fan Yuan, Dong Kangmai, Cao Zhan... When the others found Liu Heimin and elected him as the leader of the army, everyone pointed out that the Heavenly Alliance had sworn: "My subordinates are all favored by the King of Xia, and if I do not avenge them now, I will not be able to see the people of the world!" (Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 189) From the Mid-Autumn Festival of the fourth year of Wude, the hurricane blown by Liu Heimin began to sweep through Hebei. From August 12 onwards, they successively captured Tan County (鄃县, in present-day Xiajin County, Shandong), Tang Wei Prefecture (tang Wei Prefecture (in present-day northeast Daming County, Hebei), and Liting (present-day eastern Wucheng County, Shandong), and captured the Tang tun wei general Wang Xingmin. Liu Heimin ordered Wang Xingmin to kowtow to him, and Wang Xingmin swore to die and was immediately beheaded by Liu Heimin. After Liu Heimin's initial victory in battle, Dou Jiande's old troops, who were scattered in various places, gradually came to be attached, and the number of troops increased to more than 2,000.
In early September of the fourth year of Wude, Li Shentong, the king of Huai'an, led Guanzhong's elite to Jizhou (冀州, in modern Ji County, Hebei) to join luo yi the King of Yan, and at the same time urgently recruited more than 50,000 troops from Xing, Huan, Xiang, Wei, Heng, and Zhao to engage Liu Hei at Raoyang (present-day Raoyang County, Hebei).
Compared with the tang army, which was numerous and well-armed, the situation of Liu Heimin's troops could only be described by the four words of "unbearable to see.". Not only were they ragged and poorly equipped, but they were also far fewer than the Tang army, and they could only put up a single line of characters with their backs to the banks of the Rao River. Looking at this pitiful one-word array, Li Shentong suddenly lost his smile. It's just a bunch of farmers fighting in groups! At the moment when the battle was about to begin, the weather on the battlefield where the two armies were opposed suddenly changed suddenly, and a fierce wind caught the flying snow in the sky, blowing violently from the side of the Tang army to the opposing position, and Liu Heimin's men could not open their eyes at once. Li Shentong grabbed the fighter, and with a swing of his long sword, tens of thousands of Tang troops took advantage of the wind to launch a full-line attack on Liu Heimin. If this sudden snowstorm had been blowing in this direction, then Liu Heimin would have been completely annihilated. Unfortunately, Heaven forbid Li Shentong, just when the Tang army had just rushed to the front of the enemy army, the wind direction suddenly reversed one hundred and eighty degrees, and this time it was the turn of the Tang army to open its eyes. Liu Heimin immediately led his troops to counterattack, and the Tang army was defeated, losing two-thirds of its men, horses and equipment. At the same time, Luo Yi, the governor of Youzhou, also attacked Gao Gaoxianbu in the west of the main battlefield, and broke it in one fell swoop, and just a few miles after chasing it, he heard the news that the main force of the army had been defeated, so he led his troops to retreat to Gaocheng (藁城, in modern Gaocheng, Hebei). Liu Heimin took advantage of the high morale of his troops and attacked Gaocheng with a single blow. Luo Yi's army was defeated, and his generals Xue Wanjun and Xue Wanche brothers were captured by Liu Heimin, and after the Xue brothers fled back, Luo Yi led his troops back to Youzhou. After this battle, Liu Heimin's army was greatly enhanced.
On the sixth day of October, Liu Heimin took advantage of the victory to capture Yingzhou (present-day Hejian City, Hebei), Guanzhou (present-day Dongguang County, Hebei), and Maozhou (present-day Guantao County, Hebei). On November 19, Liu Heimin attacked Dingzhou again, and Li Xuantong, the governor of the capture, li Xuantong, died and committed suicide by caesarean section. In December of the fourth year of Wu De, Liu Heimin attacked Ji Prefecture (冀州, in modern Ji County, Hebei), Zongcheng (宗城, in present-day eastern Wei County, Hebei), and Huan Prefecture (洺州), defeating Li Shixun and Qin Wutong. Subsequently, they successively conquered Xiangzhou (相州, in present-day Anyang, Henan), Lizhou (present-day Xun County, Henan), Weizhou (present-day Weihui City, Henan), Xingzhou (present-day Xingtai City, Hebei), Zhao Prefecture (present-day Zhao County, Hebei), and Xinzhou (present-day Xinxian County, Shandong), and none of the Tang generals in various places could stop him. The Right Wu Wei general Qin Wutong, Chen Junbin of the Puzhou Assassin, and Ling Cheng Mingzhen of Yongning County gave up their resistance and fled back to Chang'an. In just half a year, Liu Heimin swept through Hebei with an invincible and unstoppable trend, winning the battle and conquering the old situation of the Entire Xia Dynasty, creating an almost unbelievable war myth.
<h1>Liu Heimin's nemesis Li Shimin directed the Battle of Shuishui</h1>
For the Li Tang Dynasty, the Hebei regime that rose after Dou Jiande obviously had the potential to be blue out of blue and better than blue. Because Liu Heimin followed Dou Jiande's example in a series of political measures such as justice and administration, he was more powerful than Dou Jiande in the military, and "attacked and fought bravely" (Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 190).
From the beginning of the fifth year of Wu De to February, Li Shimin led the Eastern Crusade army to cooperate with Luo Yi, step by step, and successfully encircled Liu Heimin from north to south, compressing him into the projectile land of Puzhou, making him basically lose the space to turn around and the ability to maneuver.
<h1>On March 26, the Battle of Shuishui, which determined Liu Heimin's fate, began. This battle was extremely fierce. Li Shimin's general Luo Shixin was captured and killed. </h1>
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In order to attract Liu Heimin to the south bank to fight a decisive battle and annihilate Liu Heimin's living forces in one fell swoop, Li Shimin ordered his troops to go to the upper reaches of the Huan River to block the river and build a dam, and issued such an order: "When I fight with the thieves, I will decide!" (Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 190)
Liu Heimin led 20,000 infantry and horses, crossed the water in the south, and forced the Tang army to line up. Li Shimin personally led the elite cavalry to attack Liu Heimin's cavalry first, break it, and take advantage of the victory to rush into the position of the Eastern Han Army and sweep its infantry. Liu Heimin knew very well that if he lost this battle, it would be difficult for him to have a chance to turn around, so he led the crowd to fight to the death. And these fierce and brave Hebei soldiers under his command also had the determination to fight a battle on their backs, so they fought extremely tenaciously. The two armies fought bitterly from noon to dusk, rushing back and forth to kill, and it was difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat. Although the Tang army had a slight upper hand, it still failed to gain the advantage of decisive victory. Twilight is falling, and the two sides are still fighting. Wang Xiaohu, the general of the Han Eastern Army, found that the Han Eastern Army had gradually declined, and hurriedly said to Liu Heimin: "It seems that it is impossible to resist, let's withdraw as soon as possible." Although Liu Heimin was extremely reluctant, he was also not optimistic about the situation on the battlefield, and in desperation, he had to secretly withdraw from the battle with Wang Xiaohu and a few other generals. Liu Heimin just smeared oil on the soles of his feet and walked away, but most of the soldiers under his command did not notice it at all, and were still there desperately slashing and slashing. In the end, the Han Eastern Army could no longer hold on, so it had to flee to the north bank of the River. Just as they were all entering the ditch, the monstrous waves in the upper reaches of the Huanshui River burst down.
The result of this campaign was that the Han Eastern Army was "decapitated by more than 10,000 ranks and drowned thousands of people", almost completely destroyed, and Liu Heimin only fled to the Eastern Turks with Fan Yuan and others with more than 200 horses.
<h1>Liu Heimin, the god of revenge, re-offended the Tang Dynasty</h1>
In July of the fifth year of Wu De, Li Shimin's class returned to the dynasty. At about the same time as Li Shimin's class, Liu Heimin made a comeback with the help of Turkic forces.
On July 15, Li Yuan appointed Li Daoxuan, the nineteen-year-old prince of Huaiyang, as the commander-in-chief of the march in Hebei Province, putting him in charge of recruiting Liu Heimin. But Li Yuan absolutely did not expect that he had just taken back Li Shimin's trump card, and Li Daoxuan would kill Liu Heimin in the blink of an eye, causing the Tang army in Hebei to suffer another heavy setback. Liu Heimin also revived because of his death, and restored the entire territory of the Xia Dynasty in the tenth month. The fruits of Li Shimin's victory in the Battle of Shuishui were completely in vain.
In the face of the return of this terrible god of vengeance, the Tang Dynasty generals in the north and south of the great river seem to have become a shrunken-headed turtle.
<h1>Liu Heimin's terminator --- Wei Zhengmiao's plan to set Qiankun</h1>
At this time, Wei Zheng was still the sworn enemy of the crown prince Li Jiancheng, and seeing that Li Shimin, the Prince of Qin, had grown in prestige and prosperity over the past few years, Wei Zheng had always felt worried about the crown prince Li Jiancheng. When Liu Heimin, the god of revenge, was not annihilated by Li Shimin in one fell swoop, but soon made a comeback and became rampant again, Wei Zheng immediately said to Li Jiancheng: "The King of Qin has conquered the world, and the Chinese and foreign countries have returned to their hearts; His Highness is in the Eastern Palace as an elder, and has no great merit to subdue Hainei." Now that Liu Heimin is scattered and dead, the crowd is dissatisfied, the food is scarce, and the army is coming, the situation is like a decay, and His Highness should attack himself to take the name of merit, because of the Haojie of The Eastern Mountains (here referring to the east of the Kunshan Mountains), Shu can be at ease! (Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 190)
Li Jiancheng was deeply impressed.
On the seventh day of November in the fifth year of WuDe, when the crown prince Li Jiancheng took the initiative to ask Li Yuan with an expression of self-sacrifice, Li Yuan also intended to support the prince, and on the same day issued an edict, ordering the crown prince Li Jiancheng to lead an army to recruit Liu Heimin.
In mid-December, Li Jiancheng's army entered the Central Plains Battlefield, joined Li Yuanji's division, and camped in Changle (present-day Nanle County, Henan). Liu Heimin immediately turned around and went south to confront the Tang army. At this time, Liu Hei did not expect that this time he would be defeated without a fight. And will be defeated and killed! Because Li Jiancheng actually fought a bloodless battle with him, such a clever strategy was really unexpected by Liu Heimin.
This strategy was proposed by Wei Zheng. Just as the two armies were facing each other, Wei Zheng said to Li Jiancheng: "When we first broke Liu Heimin, as soon as we caught him, all his generals were executed, all of them were wanted for escape, and their wives and children were also imprisoned, so they were forced to make up their minds to resist to the end." Not long ago, although Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, announced a general amnesty order, they did not dare to believe it, thinking that it was another trap. Now we should release all the prisoners of war of the Han Eastern Army, appease and comfort them, and send them back to their hometowns, so that without our hands, we can certainly sit back and watch Liu Heimin's troops disperse. Li Jiancheng followed the plan, did not face Liu Heimin head-on, and lined up twice on the battlefield but twice collected troops. Liu Heimin was full of doubts and worried that Li Jiancheng would set up an ambush, so he did not rush to attack.
For him, these few days of confrontation in Changle were the last and most precious opportunities in his life. But Liu Heimin missed it. Missed forever. In the following days, Liu Heimin's army began to run out of food. What's more, Wei Zheng's strategy had a fatal impact on his troops. Some of the troops began to flee, and some soldiers even tied up their generals and surrendered to the Tang army. Liu Heimin very much wanted to launch an attack and fight to the death, but he was worried that Tian Liu'an of Wei Prefecture would attack him in the back. After thinking about it, Liu Heimin decided to go up with thirty-six counts. On December 25, Liu Heimin took advantage of the night to retreat in the direction of Guantao (present-day Guantao County, Hebei). Just as he was retreating to the Yongji Canal, Li Jiancheng's army chased after him. Liu Hei ordered Wang Xiaohu to line up against the canal, and then personally urged the soldiers to build a pontoon bridge. As soon as the bridge was built, Liu Heimin immediately rushed to the west bank with hundreds of cavalry. But when he turned back, the scene on the other side stunned him. The people who remained on the other side all obediently lowered their weapons and surrendered to the Tang army with their hands raised. Before Liu Heimin could return to his senses, the Tang army cavalry had already rushed up the pontoon bridge to kill him. Helpless, Liu Heimin had no choice but to flee with hundreds of his own soldiers and flee into the wilderness without returning. He ran to Raoyang (饶阳, in modern Raoyang County, Hebei), where he was trapped by his subordinates, Rao Prefecture's assassin Shi Zhuge Dewei, and taken to Huanzhou to be beheaded.
On the non-stop escape route, Liu Heimin must have been thinking about a question - why did he lose without fighting? Even Li Shimin, who had fought all over the world, had to kill him in the dark, the sun and the moon when he passed the move, and finally he had to rely on the damage of breaking the embankment and discharging the flood to eat his main force, but now this Li Jiancheng did not even have to fight, and almost effortlessly defeated him completely. Why is that? The only reason Liu Heimin knew was betrayal—thousands of people betrayed him en masse when he was defenseless. But the question is, why did they betray? Liu Heimin did not know. Because he was just a general, not a politician. The question of people's hearts and minds belongs to the political category, so it is beyond the scope of Liu Heimin's thinking. It was precisely because Wei Zheng keenly grasped this fatal weakness of his that he fought an invincible offensive battle against him. Liu Heimin's men lost their armor and surrendered without a fight in this fierce offensive battle. In this sense, Liu Heimin's second uprising was not defeated by Li Jiancheng, the marshal of the Tang Army, but by the politician Wei Zheng. Obviously, Liu Heimin did not understand the problem of people's hearts and minds until he died, nor did he understand the root cause of his rapid rise and sudden defeat.