In the last years of the Sui Dynasty, there was a bizarre case of adultery: a powerful lieutenant in a certain border area committed adultery with a concubine of the local county guard. After the incident, the lieutenant was afraid that things would fall, so he simply killed the sheriff and raised an army to establish himself as king.
What is even more bizarre is that after this lieutenant raised an army, for various reasons, he actually forced Li Yuan, who was far away in Taiyuan, to rebel. After Li Yuan raised an army, he quickly swept through the entire Guanzhong, and finally led to the complete collapse of the Sui Dynasty's rule in the north, indirectly leading to the complete demise of the Sui Dynasty.
Therefore, to some extent, it was this adultery case that promoted the demise of the Sui Dynasty.
The protagonist of this adultery case is named Liu Wuzhou. Friends who are familiar with the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties should be familiar with this name. So, what is this bizarre story that happened to Liu Wuzhou? What are the far-reaching effects that followed?
To tell this story clearly, we have to start at the beginning.
Liu Wuzhou is a native of Mayi, Shanxi, and from a very young age, Liu Wuzhou was different from ordinary children. While everyone else was studying and working in a disciplined manner, Liu Wuzhou preferred to dance with guns and sticks and deal with idle people in society.
When Liu Wuzhou was young, his family still had some money, so even if Liu Wuzhou was idle, his family could afford to raise it. But as Liu Wuzhou gradually grew up, he was still like this, and the family was a little reluctant. Liu Wuzhou's contacts at that time can basically be classified as the 'heroes' in the novels, which are popularly speaking social instability. Always associating with such people, the Liu family was also afraid that Liu Wuzhou would break into a catastrophe in the future, so they wanted to persuade and educate Liu Wuzhou.
As a result, after the family said Liu Wuzhou several times, Liu Wu was angry and ran away from home directly, planning to go outside to make a career and give the family a good look.
After that, the story is roughly that Liu Wuzhou first went to the capital and went to the home of a high official in the capital to serve as a servant. Later, when the Sui Dynasty was about to go to war with Goguryeo, Liu Wuzhou actively seized the opportunity to join the army with a letter of recommendation from a high official and became a minor official. Then on the battlefield of Liaodong, Liu Wuzhou relied on the bravery of combat, and was promoted step by step, and finally rose to the level of regimental commander.
After the end of the Liaodong War, Liu Wuzhou was assigned to return to his hometown, return to Mayi County, and become a local Lieutenant of Yingyang Province, roughly equivalent to today's border main regiment commander.
Liu Wuzhou, who returned to his hometown, can also be regarded as a return to his hometown.
The first half of Liu Wuzhou's life was basically like this. To use a phrase in modern online novels to describe, that is, 'don't deceive young people poor'. Liu Wuzhou, who returned to his hometown again, not only held a high position, but was also favored by the local county sheriff Wang Rengong, who trusted him very much and regarded him as his most trusted confidant.
But reality proves that people like Liu Wuzhou will never live in peace.
Because he was regarded as a confidant by Wang Rengong, Liu Wuzhou was often free to enter and leave Wang Rengong's palace. In the process of coming and going, Liu Wuzhou and one of Wang Rengong's concubines developed some ambiguity. Liu Wuzhou obviously did not do this very authentically, and once it was discovered, Liu Wuzhou would definitely be unlucky. Therefore, after Liu Wuzhou thought about it, he finally decided to simply take advantage of the chaos of the soldiers at that time and rebel on his own!
From here, we can also see that Liu Wuzhou's brain circuits are indeed different from those of ordinary people. If ordinary people have fornicated with the concubines of their immediate superiors, it is estimated that at most they will only think about things like elopement, and at most they will kill their bosses, and it is impossible to think of such a thing as direct rebellion. However, At that time, Liu Wuzhou really thought so, and soon began to act.
At that time, although Liu Wuzhou was a main regimental commander, according to the military system of the Sui Dynasty, he did not have the right to transfer troops at will. Therefore, liu Wuzhou set up a bureau next.
First of all, at that time, there was a famine in Mayi County, and the people could not eat. Liu Wuzhou then found the fox friends he had made in the past and asked them to go to the countryside to spread the news. It is said that there is grain in the granary in the county town, but Wang Rengong refuses to release the grain, which leads to everyone having no food to eat.
Then, after the folk rumors spread and the people began to be dissatisfied with Wang Rengong, Liu Wuzhou took a few of his henchmen and took advantage of Wang Rengong's trust in him to suddenly break into the palace and assassinate Wang Rengong. After Wang Rengong's death, because the soldiers guarding the county were all soldiers under Liu Wuzhou, naturally no one would avenge Wang Rengong.
After killing Wang Rengong, Liu Wu walked around the county town on Monday, telling everyone that he had killed Wang Rengong. One side occupied the granary at the first time, and then directly opened the warehouse to release the grain!
In the year of famine, there is food and everything!
Taking advantage of the opportunity of grain release, Liu Wuzhou instantly won the hearts of the people. Moreover, while releasing grain, Liu Wuzhou used grain to recruit soldiers, and soon recruited more than 10,000 people. At the same time, Liu Wuzhou began to command his men, leading troops to take over the various passes of Mayi County, and completely controlling Mayi County.
While controlling Mayi County, Liu Wuzhou also sent people to the Turks to communicate with the Turks, hoping to gain the support of the Turks. On the Turkic side, they had long had the intention of disturbing the Central Plains, and when they saw Liu Wuzhou coming to surrender, they were naturally happy to see it succeed, and immediately announced their support for Liu Wuzhou.
When Liu Wuzhou rebelled, he probably did not think that these rebellious acts of his would profoundly affect Li Yuan, who was far away in Taiyuan at that time. At that time, Li Yuan was serving as the retainer of Taiyuan, ruling over the entire Taiyuan and the surrounding areas of Taiyuan. After Liu Wuzhou rebelled, Yang Guang, who was far away in Jiangdu, immediately began to suspect that Li Yuan was behind Liu Wuzhou, so he ordered that Li Yuan be taken to Jiangdu for questioning. Naturally, li yuan could not go, and if he really went, his life would be gone. Originally, Li Yuan wanted to rebel, and Liu Wuzhou's incident forced him to rebel in advance.
Moreover, after Liu Wuzhou rebelled, he also gave Li Yuan an excuse to start recruiting troops on a large scale. After Li Yuan began to recruit troops, he naturally actively armed himself, and it was impossible to really fight Liu Wuzhou.
The Turks supported him, and Li Yuan did not fight him, so in such a situation, Liu Wuzhou naturally had the time and space to grow up. After taking control of Mayi County, Liu Wuzhou quickly defeated the defenders of Yanmen County, and included Yanmen County in his sphere of influence. After capturing Yanmen County, Liu Wuzhou plundered the Sui Emperor's palace in Yanmen County, and sent the beauties and treasures inside to the Turks. After the Turks received these benefits, they were naturally even happier, and directly named Liu Wuzhou 'Dingyang Khan'. Shortly thereafter, Liu Wuzhou was directly proclaimed emperor.
In this way, Liu Wuzhou completely gained a firm foothold and firmly controlled the northern part of Shanxi.
For more than a year after that, Liu Wu on Monday expanded outward while rectifying internal affairs. But unfortunately, Liu Wuzhou's expansion path was not smooth. Liu Wuzhou's territory was located in the north of Shanxi. To the north is the Turks, to the south is Liu Wuzhou. To the west was Liang Shidu, to the east were Dou Jiande and other peasant armies, neither of which was easy to fight.
Just when Liu Wu was at a loss on Monday, a leader of the peasant army named Song Jingang was defeated by Dou Jiande and then defected to Liu Wuzhou. Liu Wuzhou had long heard that Song Jingang would fight, and after Song Jingang surrendered, he immediately entrusted him with a heavy responsibility. Not only did he give half of his family property to Song Jingang, but he also married his sister to Song Jingang.
I have to say that this Song Jingang, who was vigorously recruited by Liu Wuzhou, did indeed have two brushes. After Song Jingang was recruited, he immediately set liu Wuzhou a strategy of 'entering Jinyang and going south to fight for the world'. Later historical developments proved that Song Jingang's suggestion was obviously correct, but at the same time it also pushed Liu Wuzhou to death.
After deciding to adopt Song Jingang's strategy, Liu Wuzhou immediately appointed Song Jingang as commander and led 30,000 troops to the south. At this time, Jinyang, that is, Taiyuan, was Li Yuan's territory. However, after Li Yuan raised his army, he had already led the main force and attacked Chang'an in the south, entering guanzhong. At this time, the highest commander in shanxi was Li Yuanji, the third son of Li Yuan.
Here I would like to say more, in history, Li Yuan had four concubines, of which the third oldest, Li Xuanba, died early, so Li Yuanji, who was originally the fourth elder, became the third oldest. Compared with his two older brothers, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin, Li Yuanji is really not good, and he can be a hundred and eighteen thousand miles behind. However, this can not be blamed on Li Yuanji, because when Li Yuanji was very young, his mother died, and his father was busy preparing for rebellion, and he did not have time to take care of him.
Anyway, in short, the real Li Yuanji in history was just a bear child when he was a child.
When Liu Wuzhou attacked Taiyuan, Li Yuanjiman was actually only 16 years old. It is too difficult to expect a 16-year-old child to hold Taiyuan. Coupled with the fact that Li Yuanji did not understand these things, Liu Wuzhou had already approached the city, and he was still playing with the temper of a child, letting his generals lead a hundred infantry to test Liu Wuzhou's hypocrisy. As a result, the general surrendered directly in anger, and in turn gave Liu Wuzhou as a guide.
In this way, when Liu Wuzhou's army really approached Taiyuan, Li Yuanji simply took his family members directly and fled in the night!
Originally, Li Yuan's military strength left in the Shanxi region was not weak. If he were to change to someone who understood military affairs, Liu Wuzhou might not really be able to gain any benefits. However, it was precisely because of Li Yuanji's presence that Liu Wuzhou took Taiyuan almost without bloodshed.
What's more, when Liu Wuzhou went south, Li Yuan had actually sent reinforcements. But the person in charge of leading the troops was Pei Huan, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty at that time. Pei Huan is a good hand at being an official and taking sides, but leading soldiers to fight is really not good. After Pei Huan arrived in Shanxi, he was completely destroyed in less than two rounds. Therefore, after Liu Wuzhou took Taiyuan, he could soon continue to take advantage of the victory and pursue, and no one could stop him at all. In just a few months, the entire Shanxi region fell under Liu Wuzhou's control. The Tang army was east of the Yellow River, and there was basically no more territory left.
At this time, Li Yuan finally had to send his second son Li Shimin to lead an army north to deal with Liu Wuzhou.
After Li Shimin went north, Liu Wuzhou's good luck finally came to an end. After Li Shimin led his troops across the Yellow River, he led his troops to garrison the Baibi area and confronted Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang. After that, Li Shimin could not hold out, giving full play to the advantages of the Tang army's sufficient supplies, and engaged in a confrontation with Liu Wuzhou. After a full five months of confrontation between the two sides, Song Jingang finally completely ran out of grain and grass and had to retreat. When Song Jingang retreated, Li Shimin's side was ready for a long time, suddenly broke out, and began to chase Song Jingang all the way.
After several major battles, the large army under Song Jingang was beaten by Li Shimin. Even his general, Wei Chigong, was forced to surrender to Li Shimin.
At this time, the drawbacks of Liu Wuzhou's insufficient foundation were completely highlighted.
As a powerful separatist force, Liu Wuzhou seemed to be powerful, but he lacked the ability to fight for a long time. The lack of supplies in the rear is the biggest proof. If the supply is sufficient, Song Jingang may not be defeated, and may even win the final victory. However, it is precisely because the foundation is not deep that it is difficult for Liu Wuzhou to provide sufficient supplies. Moreover, after the defeat of Song Jingang, Liu Wuzhou could no longer organize enough troops to counterattack the Tang army.
Therefore, when Song Jingang was defeated, Liu Wuzhou had no foothold in the whole of Shanxi. The Tang army broke through all the way and quickly took back the whole of Shanxi. At this time, Liu Wuzhou had no choice but to flee to the Turks with Song Jingang. Trying to rely on turkic power, a comeback.
However, unfortunately, Liu Wuzhou still thought too naively.
For the Turks, the biggest purpose of the Turks was to demand more population and treasure, and to disrupt the Central Plains by the way, so that they could make profits. However, at this time, Liu Wuzhou, after losing the entire territory of Shanxi, had completely lost its value and did not deserve the support of the Turks. After arriving in the Turks, Liu Wuzhou found that the Turks did not bother to pay attention to him and could not send reinforcements to him, so he wanted to flee back to Shanxi again in an attempt to collect the remnants. However, at this time, the Turks had already negotiated the price with Li Tang's side, and it was impossible to let Liu Wuzhou go back. Just as Liu Wuzhou had just escaped, the Turks decisively sent people to intercept and kill Liu Wuzhou.
In this way, Liu Wuzhou, who had tossed for most of his life, finally died at the hands of the Turks.
Looking back at the story of Liu Wuzhou, it is not difficult for us to find that Liu Wuzhou is actually the kind of person who has limited talents, but just catches up with the wind of the times and takes advantage of the trend. Such a person may be able to be pushed to a key position by the tide of the times at a critical point in time. But after he really has a big career, he often does not have the ability to guard his family.
Therefore, if it is its own limited ability, but it is very lucky, just in time to catch up with the wind of the times, and really take off. It is best to have a little number in mind, know your own weight, and hurry to find a way to be acquired by a real cattleman. Otherwise, when the wind has passed and your luck is gone, how high you fly, how bad your fall will be.