Li Shimin of the Lord of Meritorious Service
With the deepening of the unification war, the territory of the Tang Dynasty was constantly expanding outwards, and an era of great unification in which all the worlds surrendered and all nations came to celebrate was about to come out. Although there are still some areas that have not been annexed to the Tang Dynasty, the huge pen of history has laid out a dazzling picture for Li Tang's world! The establishment of this imperial inheritance that can rival the Han Dynasty is indispensable to Li Shimin, the King of Qin. At this time, the second prince of Li Tang had unparalleled military feats, which was Li Yuan's glory and Li Yuan's misfortune.
After years of conquest, coupled with Li Shimin's love for talent, he has gathered a group of powerful generals in the world. Wen Chen, known as the "Eighteen Scholars", known as Fang Xuanling, Du Ruyi, and others, and the military generals included Wei Chi Jingde, Li Shixun, Qin Shubao, Cheng Zhijie, and other fierce men who had been in the battlefield for a long time. This meritorious group already has the strength to confront the former Guan Long group represented by Li Yuan.
How to reward Li Shimin has become a difficult problem facing Li Yuan.
Li Shimin's merits were too great to be commended for any reward he gave. Li Yuan pondered for a long time, and in the official ranks of the Tang Dynasty, he specially set up a "General of Heavenly Strategy" to seal Li Shimin. This official position was above all the princes, and the Heavenly Strategy Palace was opened and the official subordinates were set up. Li Yuan hoped that this honorific title would cool Li Shimin's desire for power and political ambitions.
Li Yuan lost his father at the age of six, and shortly after his father's death, his bedridden mother also died. He was the fourth in the family, but the six-year-old Li Yuan inherited the title of Duke of Tang from his father. Although there is no record in the history books, it can be speculated that in the era of the primogeniture system, Li Yuan's three brothers may have all died prematurely. It is the experience of young bereavement that makes Li Yuan cherish family affection even more.
Li Yuan, who was half-born and ups and downs, had a clear enough understanding of the cruelty of the battle for the throne. How to balance the authority between the two sons may be a more test of His wisdom for Li Yuan than to level the world and conquer the world.
Although Li Shimin had outstanding merits, the eldest son of Li Yan was the ancestral system, not to mention that the crown prince Li Jiancheng was not unreasonable and could not be easily changed. Only by suppressing Li Shimin could he consolidate the position of the crown prince and allow him to successfully inherit the throne. Killing the hero Liu Wenjing is the beginning.
The ministers in tiance mansion were successively transferred away from Li Shimin's side, and even Du Ruyi, who Li Shimin relied on a lot, was transferred to Shaanzhou for a long history. Fang Xuanling felt a little abnormal and reminded Li Shimin, "Others can, Lao Du is a talent who has established hegemony, you must have ulterior motives, you must keep Lao Du." Li Shimin listened to Fang Xuanling's words and found Li Yuan and left Du Ruyi behind.
Fang Xuanling and Du Ruyi, one can plot, one is good at judging, and the idiom "Fang Mou Du Duan" refers to these two. Every time Li Shimin laid siege to the city, the laymen rushed to the gold and silver treasures, and Fang Xuanling's interest was to gather the talents of the enemy and recommend them to Li Shimin. These two people are really Li Shimin's right and left arms.
On October 21, 621, Xiao Qiao, who was proclaimed emperor in the south, collapsed under the attack of Li Xiaogong and Li Jing. Emperor Xiao of Liang surrendered at Kaesong in Gangneung. At this point, the Li Tang Dynasty basically completed the unification of the whole country.
At this time, Dou Jiande's old subordinate Liu Heimin rebelled against Tang. Liu Heimin was a native of Present-day Gucheng County, Hebei, who was once attached to Dou Jiande and was made the Duke of Handong Commandery. This person is a fierce character, very cunning, and especially good at timing, often able to surprise the victory. If dou Jiande hadn't been fooled and waded through the muddy waters of Luoyang, Liu Heimin would have been able to fly Huang Tengda. Unfortunately, just when Liu Heimin was about to erupt into a small universe, Dou Jiande was severely flattened by Li Shimin under the tiger prison, and Liu Heimin's career dream was shattered in an instant.
After Dou Jiande's death, his old department was afraid of being liquidated, and found Liu Heimin, who was planning to work as a farmer, "Brother, lead us to do it!" Old Lee won't let us go. "This Liu Heimin was not a person of peace, and it was forced to go home to farm, at this time, when he saw that everyone had elected himself as the leader of the anti-Tang, he immediately agreed, and turned around and killed the cultivating cattle in his own field who planned to accompany him to cultivate the land, and entertained everyone. After drinking and eating, he raised an army against Tang.
Liu Heimin had already performed very well in the era of Dou Jiande, establishing himself as queen, and even more invincible in the eastern region of the Tang Dynasty, and before long, the entire territory of Hebei, which originally belonged to Dou Jiande, was taken by Liu Heimin.
Li Yuan was a little hesitant, did he use Li Shimin's double-edged sword to deal with Liu Heimin? With that, Li Shimin is likely to build an immortal feat, which will be more difficult to control in the future. No, Hebei, Shandong and other places quickly fell, and no one could defend the jiangshan for him. The lesser of the two powers harms each other, and between the two sons, after all, it is a contradiction among the people, and everything is good to discuss. And with Liu Heimin, it is a class struggle between you and me, and you can't be sloppy at all. Li Yuan figured out which was more important than the other.
On December 15, 621, Li Shimin, the King of Qin, set out again six months after the Battle of Tiger Prison Pass.
In February of the following year, the Tang army occupied the city of Pushui, and Wang Junkuo defended the city with 1,500 cavalry. Not wanting to be attacked by Liu Heimin, Li Shimin sent troops to the rescue several times, but was repelled. In Li Shimin's combat records, it was almost rare to encounter such stubborn resistance, and he felt that it was difficult to defend the city of Pushui, worried that Wang Junkuo was lost, and wanted him to break through and think about the long term. However, among his generals, a young man rushed out and competed to replace Wang Junkuo to defend the city of Pushui, a brave young man named Luo Shixin, who was the prototype of Luo Cheng in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
At this time, the city of Pushui was being rapidly attacked by Liu Heimin, and the whole city was in danger, but Luo Shixin was willing to take a risk and replace Wang Junkuo, who was really a brave man who regarded death as a homecoming.
Knowing that you can't do it, this is the hero. Luo Shixin rushed into the city of Huanshui with two hundred people without hesitation, ushering in the most brilliant and tragic final battle of his life.
Liu Heimin besieged the city of Pushui for eight days and nights, and Luo Shixin defended it for eight days and eight nights. Because of the heavy snow, Li Shimin's army could not go to the rescue, and Liu Jun finally broke through the city wall. Armed with a spear, Luo Shixin was unstoppable, stabbed left and right, stabbed several enemy leaders to death, helplessly seriously injured, unable to fight again, grabbed a war horse, rushed out of the city gate, and fled outside.
The snow was thick outside the city, and Luo Shixin fled in a hurry, strayed into the mud, surrounded by the enemy, and died in the rebellion, only twenty years old. A generation will star and fall.
Li Shimin was blocked by the snow and could not be rescued, and after hearing the news of Luo Shixin's death, he was very sad. Luo Shixin first followed Li Mi, then surrendered to Wang Shichong, and finally submitted to Li Shimin and died for Tang's loyalty, which is the so-called death of his own.
Tang Jun and Liu Heimin held each other in Shuishui City for more than two months, and Li Shimin estimated that Liu Heimin's food supply was not enough, and he should immediately fight a decisive battle with the Tang army, so he sent people to build a dam on the upstream of the Huanshui River and cut off the river.
Sure enough, Liu Heimin took 20,000 soldiers and soldiers across the flood and attacked the Tang army. Li Shimin attacked Liu Heimin's army with his elite horse. Li Shimin can be said to be the master of cavalry tactics, and the cavalry he leads is extremely strong and unstoppable. He once rode 3,500 horses to overthrow 100,000 troops, and his combat effectiveness was very strong. Liu Heimin's 20,000-strong army, under the repeated impact of Li Shimin's iron horse, persisted from noon to dusk, and finally lost the battle, Liu Heimin threw down the army and fled into the wilderness.
At this time, the water suddenly came, it turned out that the officers and soldiers who guarded the dam dug up the levee and diverted the water to irrigate, Liu Heimin's soldiers did not know that the commander had fled, and were drowned by the water thousands of people, killed by the Tang army more than 10,000 people, and the rest fled in a big rout.
Liu Heimin fled to the Turks with more than two hundred horses. In this battle, Liu Heimin's main force was lost, and Li Shimin once again won a complete victory.
Armed with a great victory over Liu Heimin's Yu Wei, Li Shimin led troops from Hebei to launch an attack on another rebel, Xu Yuanlang. However, he was suddenly recalled by Li Yuan and returned to Chang'an, only to report the current situation to Li Yuan, and then he was sent by Li Yuan to Liyang to join the army.
In the battle with Xu Yuanlang, Li Shimin went down to more than ten cities and beat Xu Yuanlang to the north. At this time, Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin to withdraw.
Li Shimin did not dare to disobey the edict, leaving Li Yuanji, the King of Qi, and hurried back to Chang'an. As soon as Li Shimin left, Liu Heimin borrowed troops from the Turks and made a comeback, and most of Shandong was taken back by him. Li Shimin desperately laid the place, and in the blink of an eye, he lost his essence.
Why did Li Yuan repeatedly transfer Back to Li Shimin? Originally, I was still afraid that Li Shimin's merit was too great and it was not easy to balance. For this matter, Li Yuan also put a lot of thought into it.
There is also a hidden story here. When Li Yuan raised an army, he made an agreement with Li Shimin that after the matter was completed, Li Shimin would be made crown prince and would inherit the throne in the future. In the process of unifying the world, Li Shimin also made great contributions, which made Li Jiancheng, the prince, deeply threatened. So Li Jiancheng joined forces with Li Yuanji and vigorously suppressed Li Shimin.
In his old age, Li Yuan took in many little wives, and these little wives bore him more than twenty sons. Among them, two concubines were particularly favored by Li Yuan, one surnamed Yin and the other surnamed Zhang, and these two were the two palace people of Jinyang Palace where Pei Huan had pulled Li Yuan into the water.
Li Jiancheng knew that no matter from any aspect, he could not be compared with Li Shimin, and the only thing stronger than Li Shimin was born earlier than him, but this natural advantage did not seem to guarantee his smooth succession to the unification. So he pulled Li Yuanji and began to collude with Zhang and Yin Erfei to bribe the second concubine and let the two of them blow pillow wind in Li Yuan's ear.
Li Shimin recaptured Luoyang, and Li Yuan sent several concubines to Luoyang to select palace women and rare belongings. This is a fat difference, and it is completely possible to fake public funds and privately get some rare treasures that you like. Li Shimin was a straight man and refused all requests from these women. Such an impersonal thing naturally makes these women remember and hate.
Transferring his father's things to his mother, li Shimin is not unable to do such a thing that attracts people's hearts, but he seems to disdain to do it.
Li Shentong, the king of Huai'an, because of his merits, Li Shimin rewarded him with dozens of acres of land, but he did not expect that this land was favored by Concubine Zhang's father, and where the old man was favored, Li Yuan of course had to be generous, he very openly issued an edict and gave the land to Old Zhang tou. Li Shentong had already occupied this place first, and of course refused to hand it over to Lao Zhangtou. Concubine Zhang said to Li Yuan, "The piece of land you gave me was given to Li Shentong by the second elder, and I don't know what he means?" This incident immediately annoyed Li Yuan, and scolded Li Shimin, "Aren't my words as good as yours?" ”
Although li shimin has great merit and many younger brothers, he can still distinguish who is the father and who is the emperor, and quickly apologizes to Li Yuan. Later, Li Yuan said to Pei Huan with hatred: "This boy has military power in his hands, and some of them have become bad, and he is not as respectful as he used to be to me." ”
Concubine Yin's father was called Ah Rat, and as soon as she heard the name, she knew that it was not a good product. This product likes the dog fight and the situation, as a blessing. One day, Du Ruyi passed by his door and did not get off his horse. Old Yin Tou's slave saw it, "Ouch! There are also those who dare to live in front of our house, which is clearly looking down on our family master, that is, looking down on the current emperor! "This slave, under the influence of this bullshit logic, actually stopped Du Ruyi, pulled him off his horse, flattened him in pain, and even discounted a finger." Du Ruyi was beaten to the point that his nose was blue and his face was swollen, and he returned to the Palace of Qin, and as soon as he finished crying with Li Shimin about the experience of being flattened, the palace people came to summon Li Shimin into the palace.
When Li Shimin arrived at the palace, he saw Li Yuan, and when he was reprimanded by Li Yuan, "My wife's family, you dare to bully like this, let alone the common people?" Li Shimin quickly complained to Li Yuan, and Li Yuan's soul was taken away by the two fox spirits, and he did not listen to Li Shimin's explanation at all, and he was dismissed on the spot. When Zhang Yin's second concubine saw that the false accusation had succeeded, she even demeaned Li Shimin to nothing, and said to Li Yuan with a smile: "Only the prince can preserve our glory and wealth." ”
In this way, a basin of dirty water was poured on Li Shimin, the King of Qin, and Li Yuan gradually alienated Li Shimin. It was out of suspicion of Li Shimin that Li Yuan summoned and dispatched Li Shimin.