In July 621, Chang'an.
When Dou Jiande was tied up by the five flowers and pushed to the streets of Chang'an, as far as his eyes could see, he was surrounded by a black oppressive Tang Dynasty people who came to watch. Then, as the executioner raised his knife and fell, Dou Jiande ended his life.
Until this time, Dou Jiande still did not understand why he had fallen to this step.
Compared with the others in the group at the end of the Sui Dynasty, Dou Jiande was actually more like a real chaotic tyrant.
Born at the bottom, pure and good, but has a very high personality charm, a hundred responses. Rise up in the chaotic world, lead your poor brothers to establish a career, the world is at your fingertips... The qualities of the chaotic tyrants in the novels can almost all be found in Dou Jiande.
But it was such a cruel character who lost to Li Shimin at the peak of his life. Dou Jiande personally led an army of 100,000, but was defeated by Li Shimin's three thousand soldiers and horses. Even Dou Jiande himself was captured by Li Shimin and became a stepping stone in Li Shimin's legendary life.
So, as one of the most legendary heroes of the late Sui Dynasty, why did Dou Jiande lose to Li Shimin at his peak? What exactly did he do wrong?
To be clear about this, we have to start at the beginning.
Dou Jiande was born in 573 in Zhangnan County, Beizhou, which is now Gucheng County, Hengshui City, Hebei Province. When Dou Jiande was born, it was the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. At that time, Dou Jiande's hometown belonged to the rule of Northern Qi. When Dou Jiande was 5 years old, the Northern Zhou Emperor Yuwen Yong marched eastward, destroyed Northern Qi, and completely unified the north. When Dou Jiande was 9 years old, Yang Jian usurped the throne to replace Northern Zhou and established the Sui Dynasty. After another 8 years, that is, when Dou Jiande was 17 years old, Yang Jian sent a large army to the south, destroyed Southern Chen, and completely unified the world.
Dou Jiande's childhood, adolescence and youth were actually spent in such a turbulent and chaotic world. However, these changes in the times did not have much impact on Dou Jiande at that time. Because at this time, Dou Jiande was just an ordinary peasant at the lowest level. Those major events of dynastic changes were too far away for Dou Jiande.
Here I would like to say more: in the novel, Dou Jiande is Li Shimin's uncle, and Li Shimin's birth mother Dou Shi is a cousin. But in fact, in the main history, between Empress Dou and Dou Jiande, there is actually no half-cent relationship. Li Shimin's biological mother, Empress Dou, was an aristocrat for generations, and Empress Dou and her grandfather were the founders of northern Zhou, Yuwen Tai. On the other hand, Dou Jiande and his family have been farmers for generations, and they have lived in the Shandong region for generations. So the two families really don't have anything to do with each other.
If there is any, it is that both families respect the great general Dou Rong in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty as their ancestors. However, from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, this period was separated by hundreds of years, so the credibility of this statement is really debatable. Even if both families are dou rong's descendants, they are also relatives who are separated by more than a dozen generations. This kind of relative who was a family five hundred years ago actually has no meaning.
Although he was born at the bottom, Dou Jiande's early experience was very similar to that of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao. Although Dou Jiande's family was poor, he was a righteous man and was well known in his hometown. It is said that when Dou Jiande's father died, more than a thousand people came to the funeral! You can think about what it is for a civilian to have such a big face.
Later, after Dou Jiande reached middle age, he relied on his prestige and became the chief in his hometown. Although he became a petty official, Dou Jiande's life did not change much because of this. On the contrary, it was because of his righteous character that he violated the law, and later fortunately encountered the amnesty of the imperial court, and was able to return to his hometown. But in this way, his official position as the chief of the column was naturally lost.
Judging from Dou Jiande's early experience, it is not difficult for us to see that in fact, Dou Jiande himself does not have much talent. It is only his personality, which is still commendable. But at the same time, such Dou Jiande is actually very similar to Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao in the early years.
This kind of person, if he catches up with the Taiping Era, may not have a day to emerge in his lifetime, and he can only mess around at the bottom for a lifetime. But if you catch up with the chaotic world, a fierce wind blows, and you may be able to rise up and stand in the center of the historical stage.
In the seven years of Daye, this wind belonging to Dou Jiande came.
At that time, the Sui Emperor wanted to recruit Goguryeo and recruit troops from all over the country. This large-scale recruitment became the last straw that crushed the common people, and the people in Shandong, Hebei, Henan and other places began to rebel one after another, and began the wave of peasant uprisings at the end of the Sui Dynasty.
At the beginning of this wave, Dou Jiande did not take the initiative to join it. For Dou Jiande at that time, although the Dou family was poor, it was not to the point where they could not survive. Moreover, Dou Jiande's popularity is relatively good, and he is also relatively open in the eight villages of Ten Mile, and some peasant army forces around him also have contacts. Even many leaders of the peasant army had received great favor from Dou Jiande. These peasant armies looked at Dou Jiande's face and would not attack Dou Jiande's hometown. This made the Dou family's life barely passable.
However, what Dou Jiande did not expect was that it was precisely because others were too popular that they brought him disasters. Because these peasant armies always bypassed Dou Jiande's hometown when they moved, this made the local county officials believe that Dou Jiande had contacts with these peasant armies, so they directly ordered dou Jiande to be arrested. Later, because Dou Jiande got the wind in advance and escaped first, the local government did not catch Dou Jiande. Annoyed and angry, the official government directly arrested the dou family, all old and young, and then executed them all!
The whole family was killed, and such a bloody sea of vengeance finally made Dou Jiande make up his mind to join the wave of the anti-Sui army.
Since you won't let me live, I'll simply overthrow you.
This year, Dou Jiande was 38 years old.
The 38-year-old Dou Jiande first raised more than two hundred people from his hometown, all of whom were ordinary people like him who could not survive under the oppression of the Sui Dynasty. Dou Jiande then took them with him and joined the command of a peasant army leader named Gao Shida in the Shandong region. Later, a peasant army leader named Zhang Jinzhong, whom Dou Jiande had rescued in the past, was defeated by the Sui army. Zhang Jin said that after the main army collapsed, the remaining thousands of people under his command all defected to Dou Jiande. In this way, Dou Jiande's subordinates jumped to nearly 10,000 people.
As Gao Shida grew, the Sui army also targeted this group of rebels. In the face of the Sui army that came to encircle and suppress, Dou Jiande was appointed by Gao Shida as a military commander and commanded the army with full authority. After that, Dou Jiande played a counter-plot, pretending to be in conflict with Gao Shida and pretending to surrender to the Sui army. When the Sui army surrendered, Dou Jiande suddenly led his army to kill and defeated this Sui army in one fell swoop.
This great victory was obviously something to be proud of for this peasant army. But at the same time, the Sui army naturally did not give up, and soon sent the servant Yang Yichen to encircle and suppress. In the face of this Sui army, Gao Shida developed a contemptuous heart, and at the same time, he also wanted to recapture Dou Jiande with this battle, so he took the initiative to lead his army to resist. As a result, Gao Shida's commanding ability was really not a little bit different from Dou Jiande's. After a major battle between the two sides, Almost all of Gao Shida's army was destroyed, and he himself was killed by the Sui army.
Between the beginning of this great war, Dou Jiande had actually anticipated this result. In his opinion, Gao Shida's ability is limited, and he is so light on the enemy, can he not be defeated? Therefore, at the same time that the peasant army was defeated, Dou Jiande took more than a hundred of his own soldiers and escaped smoothly. After escaping from the Sui army' pursuit, Dou Jiande fled to Raoyang with more than a hundred people and successfully occupied the county seat. Next, Dou Jiande centered on Raoyang, gathered the defeated peasant army, and recruited soldiers from the local area, which soon returned to the size of thousands of people.
This big defeat was obviously a huge setback for Dou Jiande. But at the same time, it is also a huge opportunity. Because from then on, Dou Jiande no longer had anyone to restrain him. Dou Jiande himself became the boss and could develop at will.
From Dou Jiande's experience, it is not difficult for us to see that Dou Jiande is indeed a very generous person. At least in the Coats of Arms army, no power was made. In the same era, hundreds of miles away from Dou Jiande, on the side of the Wagang Army, Li Mi made the opposite choice. Compared with Li Mi, Dou Jiande's character really has nothing to say.
I have to say that Dou Jiande is indeed very capable and at the same time very far-sighted. After establishing himself on the mountain, Dou Jiande did several things. The first is to escape the pursuit of the Sui army, to collect the body of Gao Shida, and to bury the peasant army robes that died in battle. Based on this incident alone, we can see that Dou Jiande's character is really hard enough. You must know that at that time, the Sui army had not yet retreated, and Dou Jiande's choice was a great risk. But at the same time, after Dou Jiande did this, the hearts of his subordinates instantly settled down. Almost everyone said that Dou Jiande was a good man and a leader worthy of their followers.
Secondly, after Dou Jiande stabilized the people's hearts, he began to lead this peasant army to develop. On the one hand, Dou Jiande fought as roundaboutly as possible and avoided fighting with the main force of the Sui army. On the other hand, Dou Jiande also began to consciously establish a base area of his own. After capturing a piece of land, Dou Jiande did not massacre the local warrior officials like other peasant armies, but instead honored the local warrior officials as guests. In this way, Dou Jiande began to gradually gain the support of the Shi clan. Gradually, wherever Dou Jiande's army went, Sui Dynasty officials also began to take the initiative to surrender.
This is fundamentally different from other peasant armies. To be precise, only an army at this point can be called a peasant army. As for before that, in fact, the vast majority of the so-called peasant army could only be regarded as a group of bandits.
Under the leadership of Dou Jiande, the peasant army he led developed extremely rapidly. In just two or three years, it has swelled to the scale of more than 100,000 people and become the most powerful peasant army in Shandong. In the whole land of the Central Plains, it is also the second largest peasant army force after the Wagang Army.
In the first month of the thirteenth year of Daye, Dou Jiande, who had already had more than 100,000 troops, officially held a ceremony and proclaimed himself the King of Changle. From this time on, this peasant army led by Dou Jiande officially became a powerful separatist regime. This is undoubtedly another big step forward.
At the same time that Dou Jiande became king, the Sui Dynasty also began to fall into a situation of total collapse. Thirteen years after the great cause, the Sui Dynasty was powerful and powerful, and they rose up one after another. In just one year, the Sui Dynasty's rule in the north completely fell apart. During this year, Dou Jiande also took the opportunity to annex other peasant army forces and expand his territory again.
During this period, Li Mi led the Wagang army to attack Luoyang, which shocked the world. After the attack on Luoyang, Yang Guang sent reinforcements from all walks of life to reinforce Luoyang, and at the same time let Xue Shixiong, a famous general of the Sui army, preside over the war in the Central Plains. However, what he did not expect was that just when Xue Shixiong was just passing by Dou Jiande's territory, he was killed by Dou Jiande. After Xue Shixiong's death, Yang Guang had to re-appoint a new Commander of the Sui Army. And this Sui army commander who was newly appointed by Yang Guangxin was Wang Shichong, one of the later tyrants.
After killing Xue Shixiong, Dou Jiande's momentum was further enhanced, and his sphere of influence gradually encompassed the entire Hebei And extended outward. At the same time, Li Mi of the Wagang army fought a big battle with Wang Shichong outside Luoyang City, and finally defeated the Luoyang defenders, which shocked the world. In the Guanzhong region, Li Yuan attacked Chang'an and then quickly took over the whole of Guanzhong. The crowds of other places have also stood on their own and begun to expand their power wildly.
At this time, although Dou Jiande was also a tyrant, compared with several other giants, it was really much worse. However, not long after this time, a sudden event occurred, which made Dou Jiande usher in a major opportunity again.
In March 618, a coup d'état broke out in Jiangdu, and Yang Guang was killed by his forbidden army. After Yang Guang's death, the Forbidden Army was taken over by Yu Wenhua and . Yuwen and his intentions were to lead an army to attack Luoyang and then return to Guanzhong. In this way, Yu Wenhua was bound to enter the territory of the Wagang Army and seize the fruits of the victory of the Wagang Army. Seeing this, Wagangjun immediately shook hands with Luoyang, shook hands and made peace, and turned back to fight Yu Wenhua. In the end, after a bitter battle, the Wagang Army did crush Yu Wenhua, but it also suffered heavy casualties.
During the period of the Wagang Army and Yu Wenhua and the Death Raid, on the Luoyang side, Wang Shichong' troops, which had already been crippled, quickly gathered the remnants of the army, and at the same time recruited reinforcements from all over the country to quickly recover their strength. By the time the Wagang army defeated Yu Wenhua, Wang Shichong's men had once again returned to a state of strong soldiers and strong horses. After that, Wang Shichong suddenly attacked the Wagang army, and defeated the poor Wagang army in the first battle.
The Wagang army, which swept the world in the past, was thus defeated by Wang Shichong. After this defeat, Li Mi fled to Guanzhong, intending to gain Li Yuan's support in order to regain the power of the Wagang army. However, in the end, Li Yuan took advantage of this to embezzle the territory of the Wagang Army, and did not give Li Mi any real power at all. Later, Li Mi tried to escape, but was intercepted and killed by Li Yuan's men. At this point, the Wagang Army also completely collapsed.
The collapse of the Wagang Army was undoubtedly a strategic opportunity for Dou Jiande.
Prior to this, although Dou Jiande had already occupied most of Hebei, he also occupied a large part of the Shandong region. But at the same time, Dou Jiande wanted to expand, but it became very difficult. Because with the collapse of the Sui Dynasty, the territory that originally belonged to the Sui Dynasty has been divided up by the local tyrants. To the south of Dou Jiande was the Wagang Army, to the west were Li Yuan and Wang Shichong, to the north was Luo Yi, and to the east was the sea. Either way, it's hard to continue expanding.
However, after the collapse of the Wagang Army, Dou Jiande could easily go south and encroach on the territory that originally belonged to the Wagang Army. In this way, Dou Jiande easily extended his sphere of influence to the entire Shandong and even Henan regions. Soon after, the territory that originally belonged to the Wagang Army was completely divided up by Li Yuan, Wang Shichong, and Dou Jiande.
In this feast of the collapse of the Wagang Army, Dou Jiande undoubtedly ate the fattest piece of fat. After that, Dou Jiande became one of the most powerful separatist forces in the late Sui Dynasty, second only to Li Yuan in the Guanzhong region.
In addition to the encroachment of the Wagang army, during this period, Dou Jiande also did one thing, that is, to avenge Yang Guang. It is also coincidental that after Yang Guang's death, the forbidden army under his command was taken over by Yu Wenhua and . After Yu Wenhua was defeated by Li Mi, he was not arrested, but fled north with his family and countless gold and silver treasures. As a result, after Yu Wenhua fled to Shandong, he happened to flee to the territory of Wang Bo, the leader of the local peasant army. Wang Bo was hungry for Yu culture and his belongings, but he was also jealous of Yu culture and the strength of his subordinates, so he pretended to surrender, but secretly contacted Dou Jiande.
After receiving Wang Bo's notice, Dou Jiande quickly led his troops to intercept and kill Yu Wenhua. In the end, Dou Jiande successfully intercepted and killed Yu Wenhua and executed several of Yang Guang's traitors who had previously killed him, which was also considered to be revenge for Yang Guang. Moreover, those harem family members left by Yang Guang also fell into the hands of Dou Jiande.
Here's one more thing to say: In folklore, after Dou Jiande intercepted Yang's clan relatives, he saw that Yang Guang's empress Xiao was beautiful, so he forcibly married Empress Xiao. But in fact, this thing does not exist at all in the history of the right. Empress Xiao was six years older than Dou Jiande, and was already 53 years old at the time. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for Dou Jiande to see Empress Xiao beautiful and forcibly marry Empress Xiao. Moreover, shortly after Dou Jiande had just received yang's clan relatives, the Turks in the north came to ask for people. In order to befriend the Turks, Dou Jiande handed over all of his Yang clan relatives to the Turks. From the perspective of time, Dou Jiande also did not have the opportunity to forcibly marry Empress Xiao.
In short, after the collapse of the Wagang Army, Dou Jiande became one of the most powerful separatist forces at that time by occupying the territory of the Wagang Army. At that time, in the entire north of the Yangtze River, Li Yuan, Wang Shichong, and Dou Jiande were the strongest.
However, after this time, Dou Jiande wanted to expand again, but it was almost impossible.
On the one hand, after several years of chaotic warfare, the territory of several major separatist forces has been completely formed. On the other hand, Dou Jiande himself came from the bottom, and his talent could support him to be a tyrant, but it was not enough to support him to unify the world. Dou Jiande also tried to continue to expand, fighting Luo Yi in the north. Among Dou Jiande's neighbors, Luo Yi was the weakest at that time. As a result, after the two sides fought a battle, Dou Jiande did not take advantage of any advantage.
Even the weakest Luo Yi could not beat it, and Wang Shichong of Luoyang and Li Yuan of Guanzhong were naturally even more difficult to fight.
However, just when Dou Jiande was having a headache about the next development, a turnaround came.
In 620 AD, the Li Tang regime, which had occupied the entire northwest and had no worries about the future, began to set its sights on Luoyang. In this year, the Tang Dynasty, with Li Shimin as the commander, attacked Wang Shichong in Luoyang. After the two sides began to fight, Wang Shichong was defeated and retreated, and he was not Li Shimin's opponent at all. Just a few months later, Wang Shichong was defeated by Li Shimin, losing most of his territory, leaving only the isolated city of Luoyang.
After that, Li Shimin did not choose to attack Luoyang, but chose to besiege and not attack. Li Shimin's choice is still very clever. Because in Luoyang City at that time, the guard force was still very strong. If it attacked strongly, the Tang army would inevitably suffer great losses. On the contrary, if the city is simply besieged, the defenders in the city will become weaker and weaker, and in the end, they will definitely lose.
At the same time that Wang Shichong was defeated by Li Shimin, Wang Shichong decisively sent a distress signal to Dou Jiande.
Between Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, they are not allies, but can even be said to be enemies. However, after receiving Wang Shichong's distress signal, Dou Jiande still chose to go to the rescue of Wang Shichong.
The reason why Dou Jiande wanted to save Wang Shichong was actually not complicated, it was nothing more than wanting to kill two birds with one stone. In Dou Jiande's view, after a big battle between Li Shimin and Wang Shichong, both sides were already very tired. After Dou Jiande led his army to Luoyang, if Li Shimin continued to besiege the city, Dou Jiande could solve the two strong enemies in one fell swoop and kill both Li Shimin and Dou Jiande at the same time. Not only can you take Luoyang in one fell swoop, but you can also attack Guanzhong at the same time. If Li Shimin retreated, Dou Jiande could easily take Luoyang City, expand his sphere of influence again, and even leapfrog the Li Tang regime.
I have to say that Dou Jiande's plan is really doing a very good job. Moreover, judging from the war situation at that time, it was also completely correct.
But unfortunately, Dou Jiande only miscalculated Li Shimin's command ability and the combat effectiveness of the Tang army.
After that, Dou Jiande personally led more than 100,000 elites under his command, claiming to be a 300,000-strong army, and rushed to Luoyang. When the Tang army received this news, Li Shimin not only did not retreat, but instead left the main army in Luoyang and continued to besiege Wang Shichong. He personally led 3,500 Xuanjia troops to tiger prison pass to block Dou Jiande.
The 3,500 Tang army was elite, against the enemy Dou Jiande under the command of hundreds of thousands of peasant troops. No matter how you look at this battle, Dou Jiande is bound to win.
However, when Dou Jiande arrived at Tiger Prison Pass, the situation was reversed. On Dou Jiande's side, although the strength of the troops was far superior to that of the Tang army, the weapons and equipment were too inferior, and there was an extreme lack of large siege weapons. On the other hand, on the side of the Tang Army, this Xuanjia Army under Li Shimin was the most elite army of the Tang Army, and its weapons and armor were outrageously good. Coupled with the Tang Army's side, it was impossible to stick to the tiger prison and pass the natural danger. Although Dou Jiande's strength was far superior to that of the Tang army, he could only stand still in the face of the tall tiger prison.
In this state, the two sides quickly confronted each other for a full month. During this month's time, the morale of Dou Jiande's side became weaker and weaker. On the contrary, the Tang army,000 troops, relying on three thousand people to block the 100,000 troops, were getting more and more morale. A month later, when Dou Jiande was holding a meeting of the Chinese army to discuss how to conquer the Tiger Prison Pass, Li Shimin suddenly led this elite to attack Dou Jiande's camp.
When Li Shimin began to raid, Dou Jiande's army had not yet reacted to what was happening. Those armies that began to resist in a hurry were not opponents of the Tang Army at all. In this way, Li Shimin directly led the Xuanjia army, broke through the defensive line of the layers of large armies, and captured Dou Jiande, who wanted to escape.
This crucial war in the early years of the Tang Dynasty came to an end in this way.
When Dou Jiande was captured, because he was in a meeting at the time, many senior generals under his command were also arrested at the same time. After these people were captured, the large army under Dou Jiande's command was no one who could command it, and it was scattered in an instant. After that, Li Shimin took Dou Jiande and went to Luoyang for a circle, and after Wang Shichong saw that Dou Jiande was captured, he could only surrender Kaesong. After this war, the Tang Dynasty completely unified the entire north. The Tang Dynasty's unification of the world was already unstoppable.
In the end, Dou Jiande was taken back to Chang'an by Li Shimin, and then executed by Li Yuandang. A generation of heroes, thus ending their legendary life.
From Dou Jiande's story, we can see that the biggest reason why Dou Jiande lost to Li Shimin is actually that Dou Jiande was born badly. Because his birth was too low, Dou Jiande's vision and talent were extremely limited. Although taking advantage of the two good opportunities of the collapse of the Sui Dynasty and the collapse of the Wagang Army, it took advantage of the situation and became the strongest peasant army at the end of the Sui Dynasty. But on the whole, Dou Jiande was still much worse than Li Shimin.
Moreover, Dou Jiande's poor origin was also reflected in the Battle of Tiger Prison Pass. Because the army under Dou Jiande's command was basically a peasant army, its weapons and equipment were not at all comparable to the Tang army, and there was a serious lack of siege equipment. This was the direct cause of Dou Jiande's defeat in the Battle of Tiger Prison Pass.
For a person who is not born high, if you want to achieve the final victory in the chaotic world. Being good at seizing opportunities is obviously an important point. But at the same time, it is also important to pay attention to stabilizing yourself, slowing down your own pace, and accumulating your own strength. Otherwise, it will be like Dou Jiande, although he grasps the opportunity in the early stage and can continue to expand. But as long as you encounter such a huge obstacle as the Tiger Prison Pass, you will only have the fate of defeat.
Expanding too fast is sometimes not necessarily a good thing.