Among the many generals of the early Tang Dynasty, Li Ji was the only fierce man recognized by later generations as being able to sit on an equal footing with Li Jing, the god of war. In the novel, Li Ji became the military master of the Wagang Army, and became the resourceful Xu Maogong. However, such a fierce man has been called a long-defeated general by good deeds.
In fact, although this statement is biased, it is not completely wrong. Because when Li Ji was young, he did fight several big defeats. However, these defeats happened to be the nourishment that Li Ji could gradually grow up.
If we say that Li Jing and Li Shimin of the same era were the kind of war geniuses who were born to fight and never lost. Then Li Ji is exactly the opposite of them, li Ji's war talent may not be as high as theirs. But you can learn enough experience and lessons from repeated failures, and eventually become a real top player!
Li Ji's history of failure is a bit long to say. To be clear about the defeats he fought, we have to start at the beginning.
Li Ji, real name Xu Shiji, character Mao (mào) Gong. This is also the reason why he is called Xu Maogong in the novel. Later, because he surrendered to Li Tang and made great contributions, he was given the surname Li and changed his name to Li Shiji. After Li Shimin ascended the throne, because he wanted to avoid Li Shimin's 'world' character, he changed his name to Li Ji again.
Unlike what is said in the novel, Xu Shijie's family and ancestors are actually quite prominent. Xu Shiji's great-grandfather, Xu Que, was the Sheriff of Puyang County in Northern Zhou, and his grandfather Xu Kang was the Taishou of Northern Qi County. Later, after the fall of Northern Qi, the Xu family declined slightly due to the change of dynasty. By the time Xu Shiji's father, Xu Gai's generation, was no longer an official. However, the family property accumulated by the Xu family's ancestors is still very impressive. Even if you don't become an official, it is still easy to become a local rich man with your family business.
However, by the end of the Sui Dynasty, the Xu family's little life began to be sad. Because the Xu family lived in the area of Xun County, Henan at that time, this place belonged to the key crushing area of the Sui Dynasty at that time. Several super projects of the Sui Dynasty, such as the construction of the Grand Canal, the conquest of Goguryeo, and the construction of Luoyang City, almost all had to draw manpower and material resources from this place. Therefore, after Yang Guang's oppression, the people in this place also began to revolt. In the end, it was all peasant armies and bandits, and officials of the Sui Dynasty often came to fight the autumn wind and coveted the Xu family's property. Even if the Xu family's family inheritance left by their ancestors is large, they can't hold back it!
Therefore, Xu Shiji's father, Xu Gai, simply turned his heart sideways and directly defected to the peasant army.
This year, Xu Shijie was only 18 years old.
I have to say that the Xu family was in the local area before, and the popularity was still good. Although he was rich, he never squeezed the people, but often helped the poor. Therefore, after the Xu family uprising, many people around them who could not survive also began to rebel with the Xu family, so the Xu family father and son easily pulled up a team, and then joined a local peasant army.
This peasant army is the Wagang Army founded by Zhai Rang.
When the Xu family father and son joined the Wagang Army, the Wagang Army was still just starting to fight, it was not particularly strong, and the number was only a few thousand. Therefore, the Xu family father and son led this team to join, which is of great significance to the Wagang Army.
Probably at the same time that the Xu family's father and son joined, there was also a Shandong person who also brought a group of troops to join the Wagang Army. This person is the famous Shan Xiongxin in the yanyi novel. For a long time after that, Zhai Rang, Shan Xiongxin, and the Xu family father and son were basically the supreme leaders of the Wagang Army.
However, after joining the Wagang Army, the Xu family's father and son soon found that this peasant army was not the same as they had thought before. Although in the novels, the peasant army is generally a positive character, and they are ordinary people who cannot survive, rising up against the tyranny of the imperial court. But in the main history, in fact, the vast majority of peasant armies were just a group of bandits who robbed their homes and houses in the early days. At this time, the Wagang Army was in such a state.
Xu Jiazu was also an official of the times, and his vision was naturally not low. Knowing that if it continues like this, the Wagang army will be wiped out by the Sui Dynasty officials sooner or later, and there is no future at all. Therefore, after careful consideration, Xu Shiji offered Zhai Rang a brilliant plan at that time: no longer rob the surrounding people, but go farther away to rob the merchants on the canal.
Xu Shijie's method was of great significance to the Wagang Army. Originally, the Wagang Army was just a simple band of bandits, but when Zhai Rang adopted his suggestion, the Wagang Army not only gained enough credibility in the surrounding areas, but also relied on robbing canal merchants, and its financial resources also increased by leaps and bounds, and it could recruit more people. It didn't take long for the Wagang Army to expand to nearly 10,000 people.
In this process, the Wagang army was also surrounded and suppressed by the Sui Dynasty officials. And when Xu Shiji led the Wagang army to fight, he did not lose less battles. However, with money, there is always a foundation. Therefore, in the following year, the expansion of the Wagang Army was still steadily progressing.
However, after reaching this level, the Wagang Army began to fall into a state of stagnation in development. Because whether it is the Xu family father and son, or Zhai Rang or Shan Xiongxin, they are not the kind of geniuses who do things. After reaching this scale, how to develop next, no one can say clearly.
However, at this time, the emergence of a key figure completely changed the Wagang Army and also changed the fate of Xu Shijie.
This man's name is Li Mi.
Although in the rendition novel, Li Mi is not a good thing. But in the main history, Li Mi is actually a rather powerful character. Li Mi was originally a Sui Dynasty nobleman, but because he participated in the rebellion against the Sui Emperor, he fled in defeat and hid in Tibet for two years. After escaping for two years, Li Mi finally decided to join the Wagang Army and achieve his revenge through the peasant army.
After joining the Wagang Army, Li Mi helped Zhai Rang to quickly integrate the surrounding peasant army forces and expand his influence, while defeating the famous Sui Dynasty general Zhang Sutuo. Then, with Xingyang as the center, it occupied a large piece of land and became a peasant military regime in the true sense. After that, Li Mi led the Wagang army and captured LuokouCang, one of the largest granaries of the Sui Dynasty. With the grain of Luokoucang, Li Mi quickly recruited the victims of the disaster, expanded the strength of the peasant army, and leapt into a powerful peasant army with nearly 300,000 troops.
For Xu Shijie, his profound family learning was his first teacher in fighting. However, Xu Jiazu was not a general, so the ability to call Xu Shijie was very limited. Li Mi, on the other hand, was Xu Shijie's first practical teacher. After Li Mi joined the Wagang Army, Xu Shijie followed Li Mi's guidance and fought many victorious battles in the south and the north. During this period, Xu Shiji also learned a lot. From a peasant general born in the wild road, he gradually became a capable general who could lead thousands of armies and horses.
However, the good times did not last long, as Li Mi gradually became powerful. The problem of the leaders within the Wagang Army began to gradually come to light. Originally, the Wagang Army was founded by Zhai Rang, and zhai Rang was also the boss. However, after Li Mi joined, the actual leadership of the Wagang Army gradually fell into Li Mi's hands. In this regard, Zhai Rang was also very knowledgeable at first, and directly gave up the position of leader to Li Mi. However, after that, Li Mi gradually discovered that as long as Zhai Rang existed, his leadership position would always be threatened.
Therefore, Li Mi finally decided to invite Zhai Rang to dinner, and then take the opportunity to kill Zhai Rang.
At that banquet, Li Mi took the opportunity to kill Zhai Rang. But at the same time, in the chaotic battle, Xu Shiji was also slashed. As the elders of Wagang, the Xu family father and son have always been regarded as zhai rang's people. Thanks to Li Mi's pity for talent and letting people stop in time, Xu Shiji saved his life.
After that, Li Mi gained full leadership of the Wagang Army. Xu Shiji also had no intention of avenging Zhai Rang and directly surrendered to Li Mi. In Xu Shiji's eyes, Li Mi may have been a teacher-like figure who deserved his respect and obedience. After the end of this civil unrest, Li Mi began to lead the Wagang army and attack Luoyang. After a major battle, the Wagang army successfully defeated the Defenders of Luoyang, but because of the cold weather at that time, they had to temporarily retreat, and could only wait until the spring of the following year to attack again.
However, just as the following spring had just arrived, Li Mi was preparing to continue his attack on Luoyang. However, there was a sudden mutiny on the jiangdu side, Yang Guang was strangled to death by the forbidden army under his command, and more than 100,000 elites under his command belonged to Yu Culture and all of them. In order to prevent the situation of being attacked by the enemy in the abdomen and back, Li Mi resolutely negotiated peace with Luoyang and turned his head to fight Yu Wenhua.
During the fight against Yu Culture and during the period, Xu Shiji guarded Liyang, and at the critical moment, he and Li Mi attacked inside and outside, defeated Yu Culture and made a great contribution. In the end, after a bitter battle, the Wagang Army did defeat Yu Wenhua and . But at this moment, Wang Shichong, who had already regained his strength next to him, suddenly led his army to sneak attack. At this time, the Wagang army was trapped and lacking, and naturally could not resist Wang Shichong, and was eventually defeated.
After the defeat of the Wagang army, Xu Shiji led his troops and horses to retreat back to the territory of the Wagang army. However, Li Mi, as the leader, led people to Guanzhong in an attempt to make a comeback and defeat Wang Shichong by using Li Yuan's power. Unfortunately, after Li Mi arrived in Chang'an, Li Yuan saw through his plan and did not give him a single soldier at all. Later, after Li Mi discovered Li Yuan's plan, he wanted to flee back to the territory of the Wagang Army, but was intercepted and killed by Li Yuan's men.
After Li Mi was killed, Xu Shiji's situation was very delicate.
On the one hand, at this time, Xu Shijie, who was just in his twenties, had a heavy army and a considerable territory. If Xu Shiji is willing, he can completely establish himself as king and dominate the side. But on the other hand, Xu Shiji is also very aware of his own ability. Xu Shiji knew that if he really dominated independently, it would not be long before he could absolutely not defend the territory of the Wagang Army, and he would absolutely be completely defeated. Moreover, at that time, Li Mi was still alive. If Xu Shiji established himself as king, it was unknown how many people within the Wagang Army would listen to his dispatches.
Therefore, in the end, Xu Shiji directly surrendered to the Li Tang regime, and he surrendered Li Yuan with a large area of territory that originally belonged to the Wagang Army.
For the Li Tang regime, Xu Shiji's surrender was naturally a great joy. Therefore, after Xu Shijie surrendered, the Li family directly gave Xu Shijie the surname li. It was also from this time that Xu Shijie changed his name to Li Shijie.
At the same time that Li Shiji joined the Tang Dynasty, because the territory was already in hand, Li Yuan killed Li Mi. At this time, Li Shijie, because he had already surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, had no choice but to obey the arrangements of the Tang Dynasty.
After Li Shiji joined the Tang dynasty, Li Yuan asked him to continue to defend the territory of the Wagang army, in an attempt to besiege Wang Shichong in Luoyang from the two breads. But the next development of events confirmed Li Shijie's previous speculations. After the previous great defeat of the Wagang Army, the people were already scattered. Coupled with the fact that Li Mi was killed, it had already become a mess of scattered sand. Although he surrendered to the Li Tang regime, many small groups of peasant armies under the Wagang Army still had their own plans. So next, when several strong enemies around the Wagang army, such as Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, began to besiege the Wagang army, Li Shiji could not resist at all.
At this time, although Li Shijie can be called a capable general, it is far from the time when he swept the world in the back. Therefore, when Dou Jiande led his troops to attack, after a big battle, Li Shijie was beaten to the point of losing his armor. Even his father, Xu Gai, was captured by Dou Jiande.
Before that, Xu Shiji may have fought many defeats, but only this battle, which was a real big defeat, really began to determine his fate.
His father was captured, and although Li Shiji escaped, he still had to temporarily surrender to Dou Jiande for his father's safety. He had just surrendered the Li Tang regime, and now he had surrendered Dou Jiande. This is undoubtedly an important blow to the young Li Shijie. After that, Dou Jiande took Li Shiji's father as a hostage, and threatened Li Shiji to help him guard Liyang.
In order to save his father, Li Shiji thought of many ways. For example, after first fighting under Dou Jiande and gaining his trust, he then looked for an opportunity to kill Dou Jiande. However, in the end, this plan was revealed, and Li Shiji had to lead dozens of his own soldiers to begin to flee, and finally fled to the side of Li Tang's regime again.
After Li Shijie defected, both the Li Tang regime and Dou Jiande responded. Dou Jiande believed that Li Shiji was a good man with his old master in mind, so he did not kill his father Xu Gai, but continued to imprison him. On the other hand, Li Tang believes that Li Shijie is loyal to Li Tang, so he has more trust and reuse of Li Shijie.
After returning to the side of Li Tang again, Li Shiji was sent to Li Shimin's hands.
From the perspective of age, Li Shimin is actually five years younger than Li Shijie. But in terms of fighting, Li Shimin became Li Shijie's second teacher. When fighting under Li Shimin, Li Shiji once again learned a lot. Start from a strong general to a fierce general who stands alone.
Soon after Li Shijie joined Li Shimin's command, Li Tang's regime began to wage another war against Wang Shichong in Luoyang. After that, under the leadership of Li Shimin, Li Shiji led his troops to successive great victories, and the Tang army soon besieged Wang Shichong in luoyang. After that, Dou Jiande took the opportunity to lead his troops to come and try to kill two birds with one stone. However, Li Shimin personally led his elite to guard the Tiger Prison Pass, and then took advantage of the slack of Dou Jiande's army to personally lead the army to attack Dou Jiande's camp and capture Dou Jiande in a battle.
After the Battle of Luoyang, Li Shimin established two kings in one battle, and the Tang Dynasty nominally completely unified the entire north. When Li Shimin returned to Chang'an with the captives Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, Li Shiji followed him and enjoyed great glory. With Dou Jiande defeated, Li Shiji's father, Xu Gai, was able to return to Chang'an safely.
However, shortly after this, Xu Shijie suffered another fiasco in his life.
After returning to Chang'an to surrender, Li Shimin was jealous of Li Yuan because of his great merits, so he was left in Chang'an and temporarily held a civilian position. Li Shiji was sent back to Shandong and Henan to take over Dou Jiande's territory. However, what he never expected was that shortly after Dou Jiande was killed in Chang'an, his general Liu Heimin rebelled again, and soon became unstoppable.
After Liu Heimin raised his troops, Li Shijie wanted to retreat because of insufficient troops, but on the way, he was caught up by Liu Heimin's troops and the whole army was destroyed. Facts have proved that at this time, Although Li Shijie is a fierce general who can stand alone. But in front of Liu Heimin, a famous general who can face Li Shimin head-on, it is still not enough to see.
After this battle, Li Shiji was completely destroyed, but he escaped on his own. Soon after, Liu Heimin swept through the entire Shandong and Henan regions, and Li Yuan had to send Li Shimin the trump card again. After several months of fighting between the two sides, Li Shimin finally defeated Liu Heimin, and Li Shiji once again made a lot of merit under Li Shimin's command. However, after Liu Heimin's defeat, he was not captured, but fled to the Turks. After Li Shimin retreated, the brothers came back to make trouble, and soon regained their original territory. Later, Li Yuan sent the crown prince Li Jiancheng to lead the troops and actively recruit the local warriors, which was the complete solution to Liu Heimin.
At the end of the war, Li Shiji led an army alone, defeated Xu Yuanlang, who was attached to Liu Heimin, and took Yanzhou. At this time, although Li Shijie could not be compared with a famous general of Li Shimin's level, he was already very strong compared with other first-class fierce generals.
After this, Li Shiji met his third teacher.
This teacher is Li Jing.
After fighting Xu Yuanlang, it coincided with the leader of the peasant army in the Jianghuai region, Fu Gongruo, who launched a rebellion. After Fu Gong's rebellion, Li Yuan ordered Li Shiji and Li Jing to attack from both directions and attack Fu Gong. Under the attack of the Tang army, Fu Gongruo was quickly defeated. But in the process, Li Shiji and Li Jing fought on the same battlefield and learned a lot of valuable tactics from Li Jing.
Solved the problem of the auxiliary gong of Jiangnan, because the Turks in the north were eager to move. Li Jing and Li Shiji were transferred to Shanxi almost at the same time to take charge of local defense. After being transferred to Shanxi, during his time working with Li Jing, Li Shijie was again greatly influenced. Moreover, in the battle with the Turks, Li Shiji also constantly verified what he had learned before, and gradually began to integrate.
At this time, Li Shijie finally began to change from a fierce general to a top famous general, and became a top famous general who was enough to be ranked with Li Jing and Li Shimin!
In the ninth year of Wude, when the Xuanwumen Incident broke out, Li Shiji did not participate in the Xuanwumen Incident because he was on the border. But this did not affect his position in Li Shimin's heart, because at this time, Li Shijie had become the third top commander-in-chief in the entire Tang Dynasty, second only to Li Shimin and Li Jing.
At the same time that Li Shimin ascended the throne, because he avoided Li Shimin's 'Shi' character, from this time on, Li Shiji also changed his name to Li Ji.
Along the way, Li Ji's road to becoming a famous general is obviously very bumpy. But at the same time, after becoming a top player, Li Ji has never been defeated. In the decades that followed, Li Ji led his troops to defeat many powerful enemies such as the Turks, Xueyantuo, and Goguryeo, and never lost a single battle.
From Li Ji's story, it is not difficult for us to get an inspiration: famous players never achieve it overnight. Although there are indeed fierce people like Li Shimin and Li Jing who are born to fight in history, more often, many people still gradually grow up in the midst of repeated failures, and finally grow into truly world-class famous generals.
Therefore, failure is actually not shameful, and it can even be said to be a fortunate thing. But the most important thing is how to find the cause of failure in the process of failure and correct it. Only in this way can we constantly improve ourselves and become a real 'world-class celebrity'.