Wang Shichong has a high nose and deep eyes, a curly beard, a dignified appearance, and a pair of cunning gray eyes. The words are full of lines, and his original surname is Zhi, and he is a Hu person from the Western Regions. Sojourn in Xinfeng. His grandfather died young. His father's income followed him to live with his mother who remarried to the Bacheng Wang family, so he changed his surname to Wang, and the official was the governor of Bianzhou.

Wang Shichong has a high nose and deep eyes since he was a child, and his facial features are different from those of the Central Plains, so he is often teased, so he has a strong sense of inferiority since he was a child. However, the inferiority complex also prompted Wang Shichong to be precocious since he was a child and study hard. Wang Shichong is widely involved in scripture and history, especially in the art of war, fortune telling, and astronomical calendar calculation.

During the reign of the emperor, Wang Shichong was awarded the official position of Yitong Sansi according to his military merits, and then promoted to a member of the military department. He was good at making presentations to the imperial court, was well versed in various laws and regulations, and was very eloquent. But he often uses the provisions of the law to cheat for personal gain and do whatever he wants. Sometimes, when someone rebukes him, he will use clever sophistry and exaggeration, and his words will be so fierce that no one can make him admit his mistake, even though people know that he is not right.

During the great cause of Emperor Yang of Sui, he was promoted to Jiangdu Cheng and concurrently served as the palace supervisor of Jiangdu. At that time, Emperor Yang of Sui inspected Jiangdu many times, Wang Shichong was good at observing Emperor Yang of Sui's face, flattering and obedient to his will, and his mouth could speak well, Emperor Yang of Sui liked him very much.

Wang Shichong also made jade carvings and landscape paintings, falsely claiming to be precious handicrafts from afar, and dedicated them to Emperor Yang of Sui to curry favor, so Emperor Yang of Sui favored him even more.

Wang Shichong was ambitious, knowing that the political situation of the Sui Dynasty would be chaotic, so he secretly befriended heroes and heroes, widely bought people's hearts, and those who committed crimes and were imprisoned were released by distorting the law, thus showing personal favor and attracting a group of dead friends.

In June 613 (the ninth year of the Sui Dynasty), Yang Xuangan took advantage of Emperor Yang's personal expedition to Goguryeo, the opportunity of the emptiness of the country, suddenly rebelled, and attacked the eastern capital Luoyang. Later, these three teams joined forces and promoted Liu Yuanjin as the main one, occupied Wu County, called the Son of Heaven, and established a hundred officials.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty sent the generals Tu Wanxu and Yu Juluo to suppress them, both of whom were veterans of a hundred battles, and by the end of the year, the Sui soldiers basically achieved victory, killed Guan Chong, and besieged Liu Yuanjin and Zhu Xie in Jian'an. Due to the fatigue of the soldiers from continuous fighting, the two generals asked for a temporary truce.

Wang Shichong, who was bent on seizing military power, slandered Emperor Yang of Sui, saying that the two deliberately did not attack and had a heart of disobedience. Emperor Yang of Sui was furious and immediately removed Tu and Yu from their posts and brought them to justice.

Subsequently, Emperor Yang of Sui appointed Wang Shichong to command the attack on Liu Yuanjin, and recruited tens of thousands of new soldiers in Huainan and handed them over to Wang Shichong's command.

The conspiracy succeeded, Wang Shichong was overjoyed, he actively recruited troops in Huainan, and these Huainan soldiers later became Wang Shichong's children's soldiers, which was the capital of his start.

Wang Shichong attacked Liu Yuanjin and Zhu Xie, who had become remnants, with a fresh army, and won all battles, Liu and Zhu were killed in battle, but there were still many remnants scattered everywhere as thieves.

In order to completely exterminate these remnants of Liu and Zhu, Wang Shichong had a plan, he found an auspicious day of the zodiac, gathered relevant personnel, and went to the Buddha statue in Tongxuan Temple to burn incense and swear, agreeing that those who surrendered would not be killed.

The ancients were more superstitious, thinking that Wang Shichong's oath in front of the Buddha should not be false, Liu Yuanjin's rest of the troops heard about it, they surrendered one after another, and in less than a month, Wang Shichong pacified Wu County.

Unexpectedly, Wang Shichong was treacherous, and after the overall situation was decided, Wang Shichong killed all the more than 30,000 people who surrendered, which shows that he is a ruthless character who has no promise.

According to later generations, Wang Shichong's original profession was a lawyer, but this guy is not a generation of traitors, and he does have some military talents.

In 614 A.D. (the tenth year of the Great Cause), Meng Rang, the commander of the righteous army of Qi County, set out from Changbai Mountain in Qilu to invade various prefectures and counties, and reached Xuyi, which grew to more than 100,000 horses.

Emperor Yang of Sui then sent Wang Shichong to lead the troops to exterminate him.

After Wang Shichong arrived at the front line, he was not in a hurry to attack, but took Duliang Mountain as a stronghold, set up five camp fences, and the enemy and us did not fight, and threatened to retreat, and the troops showed that they were tired and had no combat effectiveness.

Meng Rang said with a sneer: "Wang Shichong is a petty official who only understands the provisions of the law, how can he lead troops to fight?" I will capture him alive and fight him until I go to Jiangdu. ”

At this time, the local people all lived in the army barracks, there was nothing to grab everywhere, and the rebels slowly ran out of food, and they were troubled by the barracks blocking the road, and they could not march to the south, so they divided their troops to surround Wang Shichong's five barracks.

Wang Shichong sent troops to fight every day, pretending to be defeated on the surface, and ran back to the camp gate.

After doing this for several days, Meng Rang looked down on him even more, so he slowly sent men and horses to the south to search for property, leaving only enough troops to surround the camp fence.

Wang Shichong knew that the enemy had relaxed his vigilance, and immediately seized the opportunity, filled in the pit in the barracks, removed the curtains, set up a phalanx, faced outwards on all sides, pulled out the fence and attacked, and suddenly killed the rebels.

The rebels were caught off guard and quickly collapsed, and Wang Shichong led his men to fight hard, defeating the enemy army, killing more than 10,000 people and capturing more than 100,000 people. The leader of the rebels, Meng Rang, fled with the remnants of dozens of men.

After this battle, Wang Shichong became famous, and Emperor Yang of Sui thought that Wang Shichong had the talent and strategy of a general, and sent him to lead the troops to crusade against various small groups of rebels, and all the places he went were wiped out.

In 615 A.D. (the 11th year of the Great Cause), the Turks besieged Emperor Yang of Sui in Yanmen. Wang Shichong led all the people of Jiangdu to prepare to go to Yanmen to save the country, in order to show his loyalty to Emperor Yang of Sui, he was unkempt in the team, crying so much that he lost his normalcy, day and night without taking off his armor, lying on the grass to sleep, his face was haggard, his eyes were red, and he would definitely be a generation of "actors" in later generations.

When Emperor Yang of Sui heard this, he was very moved, thinking that he was loyal and trusted him more, so he further promoted and reused him.

In 616 A.D. (the twelfth year of the Great Cause), Wang Shichong was promoted to the head of Jiangdu. At that time, he had been a bandit for many years, and he led more than 100,000 people to operate in the area of Douzi, and was killed by Yang Yichen, the servant of the imperial servant, and Wang Shichong led the troops to attack Geqian's remnants and defeated them. He also sent troops to Nanyang to attack Lu Mingyue and captured tens of thousands of people. When the class teacher returned to Jiangdu, Emperor Yang of Sui was very happy and personally raised a glass to reward him.

In July of 617 A.D. (the thirteenth year of the Great Cause), Li Mi and Zhai Rang of the Wagang Army stormed the eastern capital Luoyang, defeated the defenders many times, and Luoyang's document for help flew to Jiangdu like snowflakes. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty had no choice but to transfer elite troops from all over the country to rescue Luoyang, and among the reinforcements from all walks of life, there were 20,000 Jianghuai soldiers led by Wang Shichong, the commander of Jiangdu. Because Xue Shixiong, the commander-in-chief of this military operation, was accidentally annihilated by Dou Jiande, the rebel army of Yan and Zhao, at Qilijing in Hejian on the way to the army, Emperor Yang of Sui appointed Wang Shichong as the commander-in-chief of the army to aid Luo.

suddenly became the commander-in-chief of an army of more than 100,000 people, Wang Shichong was overjoyed, this is really good luck! He decided to take advantage of the opportunity and put on a good show.

After arriving in Luoyang, Wang Shichong couldn't wait to send troops to challenge Li Mi, the leader of the Wagang rebel army, and the two sides faced each other at Luokou.

But he didn't expect that Li Mi was also a hero of the Sui and Tang dynasties, brave and strategic, and the combat effectiveness of the Wagang army was also very strong.

Wang Shichong, who originally wanted to show his glory again, did not expect to encounter a "hard stubble" this time, and he was very anxious for a while, and then received a holy decree from Emperor Yang of Sui, promoted and appointed him as a general, and urged him to defeat Li Mi.

Wang Shichong had no choice but to give up his conservative style of play, and took the risk of leading his troops across Luoshui and attacking Li Mi.

Unexpectedly, he fell into Li Mi's ambush, suffered defeat, and was drowned more than 10,000 people, so he had to lead the rest to return to Heyang. It's really unlucky, drinking cold water and oozing teeth, at this time it has entered the winter, and the weather is cold and snowy, tens of thousands of people have frozen to death along the way, and when they arrive in Heyang, there are only about 1,000 people left.

Wang Shichong, who was greatly defeated, was discouraged and imprisoned himself to plead guilty, and Yang Tong, the king of Yue, sent a messenger to release him, recalled Luoyang, and stationed in Hanjiacang City, collecting the escaped soldiers, and more than 10,000 people.

In March 618 (the fourteenth year of the Great Cause), Yu Wenhua rebelled in Jiangdu, and Emperor Yang of Sui was killed. In May, the news of Emperor Yang's death reached Luoyang, and Yang Tong, the king of Yue, was proclaimed emperor as the heir to the throne, with the year name Huangtai, and was called Huangtai in later history. Wang Shichong was named Zheng Guogong by the Emperor Tai, and joined Duan Da, Yuan Wendu and other six people to assist the government, and was called "Seven Gui" at the time. When the emperor ascended the throne, Luoyang was surrounded by Li Mi, and the effective ruling range was only Luoyang. In June, Yu Wenhua's rebels arrived on the outskirts of Luoyang, intending to conquer Luoyang as a base area.

Yuan Wendu, Lu Chu and others offered advice to the emperor and said: "Now Yu Wenhua and the killing of the monarch are rebellious, revenge has not been avenged, shame has not snowed, although we are eager for revenge, but we are powerless. Considering the overall situation of the country, it is better to use high-ranking officials to entrap Li Mi, temporarily lure him with the assets of the treasury, and let Li Mi attack Yu Wenhua, so that the two rebels will kill each other, and after Yu Wenhua is defeated, Li Mi's soldiers and horses will inevitably be exhausted. Besides, Li Mi's soldiers have been rewarded by the imperial court and hold official positions in the imperial court, and the imperial court has established more relationships with them, and it is easy to use divisive tactics, and our army has recuperated to exploit their exhaustion and fatigue, so Li Mi can also deal with it. ”

The Emperor adopted their strategy and decided to win over Li Mi and let Li Mi deal with Yu Wenhua and this great enemy who killed his father and killed the king. On the same day, he sent an envoy to confer the official positions of Li Mi Taiwei and Shang Shuling, and ordered him to crusade against Yu Wenhua.

Li Mi was born in a noble family of the fourth and third dukes, known as the Duke of Wei, and did not want to be a thief for the rest of his life. Led troops to Liyang to resist Yu Wenhua, and sent envoys to report to the imperial court whenever they won the battle, and Yuan Wendu, Lu Chu and other Sui Dynasty officials were very happy.

Wang Shichong disagreed, and said to the generals under him: "Those people in Yuan Wendu, writing and painting, are just civil officials, I see the trend of the situation, and I will definitely be arrested by Li Mi." Besides, my troops have fought against Li Mi many times and killed his father, brothers and sons, and there are already a lot of them, and once we become his subordinates, we people will have no way to live! He said this to anger his soldiers and incite them to prevent the civil servants from wooing Li Mi.

Yuan Wen was very frightened after knowing it, and discussed with Lu Chu and others, and when Wang Shichong was in the court, he set up an ambush to kill him, and he had already agreed on the time. Nayan Duan Da was mediocre and cowardly, and was afraid that this matter would not be successful, so he sent his son-in-law Zhang Zhi to tell Wang Shichong about the plans of Lu Chu and others.

That night, Wang Shichong led his men and horses to surround the palace city, and the generals Fei Yao, Tian Yan and others met outside the East Sun Gate, Fei Yao was defeated, Wang Shichong seized the city gate and rushed in, and the general Huangfu Wuyi escaped alone, grabbed Lu Chu and killed him.

At this time, the gate of the palace was closed, and Wang Shichong sent someone to knock on the palace door and said to the emperor: "Yuan Wendu, they want to hold His Majesty hostage and surrender to Li Mi, Duan Da told me after learning about it, I dare not betray the court, I am here to crusade against the people who betrayed the court." ”

At the beginning, Yuan Wendu heard that something had happened, and came to the Qianyang Palace to serve the emperor, commanded the troops to defend, and ordered the soldiers to resist the mutiny with the city. Duan Da falsely claimed that the emperor's order was to capture Yuan Wendu and escort him to Wang Shichong, and as soon as he arrived, he was beaten to death. Duan Da also falsely claimed the order of the emperor and opened the palace gate to welcome Wang Shichong, Wang Shichong sent someone to replace all the guards in the palace, and then visited the emperor to apologize, saying: "Yuan Wendu and others have committed endless crimes, conspiring to create civil strife, and the situation is urgent to take this method, I dare not betray the country." ”

Seeing that the matter had come to this, the emperor was weak, so he could only make an oath with Wang Shichong. On the same day, he was promoted to the left servant of Shangshu, and supervised various military affairs inside and outside the imperial court. As a result, Wang Shichong became the most powerful minister in the Sui Dynasty under one person and above 10,000 people.

Wang Shichong left Hanjiacheng and moved into the Shangshu Provincial Government Office to live, monopolizing the power of the court. He appointed his elder brother Wang Shiyun as the internal historian and lived in the palace, and his nephews and descendants all held military power and guarded various towns and cities.

It didn't take long for Li Mi to defeat Yu Wenhua and his class master to return to the dynasty, and most of his Wagang elite soldiers and horses were killed in battle, and the rest were tired and sleepy.

Wang Shichong felt that it was time to clean up his sworn enemy Li Mi.

But he was afraid that people's hearts would not be aligned, so he used the signs of ghosts and gods to say that he had dreamed of Zhou Gong. So the Zhou Gong Temple was built on the bank of Luoshui, and the wizard was asked to preach that the Zhou Gong ordered the left servant of Shangshu to shoot and quickly crusade against Li Mi, and he would make great contributions, otherwise the soldiers would all die of the plague.

Most of Wang Shichong's soldiers were from Chudi, and it was customary to believe in grotesque words that deceived and deceived people's minds, and everyone asked for war. Wang Shichong selected elite and brave men and horses, with more than 20,000 soldiers and more than 2,000 war horses, and camped in the south of Luoshui.

Li Mi was stationed at the north hill of Yanshi. At that time, Li Mi had just defeated Yu Wenhua and the well-equipped Xiaoguo army, and he had the mood of despising Wang Shichong and did not build fortifications.

Wang Shichong secretly sent more than 300 cavalry into Beishan at night and ambushed them in the valley.

He ordered all his men and horses to be fed and the men to be well fed, and at dawn he suddenly launched a surprise attack on Li Mi.

Li Mi hurriedly sent troops to fight, and the battle broke out before the formation was set, and there was chaos.

Wang Shichong's cavalry in ambush in Beishan took the opportunity to charge, condescendingly, rushed to Li Mi's camp, set fire to his military camp, and the Wagang army was defeated and fled in all directions.

Wang Shichong took advantage of the victory to pursue and defeat Yanshi, and Li Mi fled and retreated to Luokou.

After Li Mi fled, his guards in various places surrendered to Wang Shichong, and Wang Shichong occupied all of Li Mi's original territory, and his sphere of influence suddenly expanded from Luoyang City to the entire Central Plains. At the same time, Wang Shichong also received Qin Qiong, Cheng Yanjin (later renamed: Cheng Zhijie), Luo Shixin, Pei Renji, Shan Xiongxin and other famous generals under Li Mi, so his subordinates were full of talents.

After Wang Shichong defeated Li Mi, the emperor named Wang Shichong as a lieutenant and opened the Taiwei Mansion, and the affairs of the DPRK and China were decided by the Taiwei Mansion no matter how big or small, Wang Shichong posted three notices outside the official office: one to recruit civilian personnel with literary talents and knowledge enough to help handle government affairs, one to recruit military personnel with outstanding martial arts and courage to charge into battle, and one to recruit judicial personnel who are good at trying unjust cases and doubtful cases. Since then, hundreds of people have been introduced in person to recommend or self-recommend in person, and Wang Shichong has personally assessed and hospitalized them.

He loves to engage in small favors, from top to bottom to the ordinary soldiers of the army, he uses exaggerated and beautiful words to lure. Visionaries at that time saw his duplicity and concluded that he had two hearts.

Wang Shichong once ate the food he rewarded in front of the emperor, and went home to vomit, suspecting that it was caused by food poisoning, and from then on he no longer saw the emperor and did not meet him. He sent Yun Dingxing and Duan Da to pay homage to the emperor, asking for nine kinds of utensils, including clothes, Zhu Hu, Na Ma, chariots and horses, musical instruments, angels, axes, bows and arrows, and bamboo mustaches, sending a signal to seize power.

The emperor was forced to crown Wang Shichong as the prime minister, oversee the hundred officials, and be named King Zheng, and gave nine kinds of utensils in full. There was a Taoist priest named Huan Fahei, who claimed to be good at interpreting divination books, so he presented the "Confucius Closed Room", which showed a man holding a bamboo pole to drive sheep, explaining: "In the Sui Dynasty, the emperor's surname was Yang. Why, it is a 'king' word. The king is in the sheep, which indicates that Xiangguo will replace the Sui Dynasty as emperor. Then he took out the two articles of "Zhuangzi on Earth" and "De Chong Fu" and presented them to Wang Shichong, explaining: "The first part talks about the 'world', and the next part talks about 'full', this is the name of Xiangguo, which indicates that you should be kind all over the world and obey the destiny of the Son of Heaven." ”

Wang Shichong said very happily: "This is the will of God." After bowing twice, he took over the diagram and immediately appointed Huan Fahei as the counselor. Wang Shichong also caught all kinds of birds and birds, tied the silk with the so-called talismans written on their necks, and released them one by one. Those who come to offer such birds are also given official titles.

Duan Da, Yun Dingxing and others sent these talismans into the palace to show the emperor and said: "The mandate of heaven is not a trivial matter in the mortal world, King Zheng's merits are very high, please give up the throne and follow the example of Tang Yao and Yu Shun." ”

The emperor said angrily: "This world is the world of Gaozu, if my Sui Dynasty's qi has not been exhausted, this kind of thing should not be said, if the will of heaven wants to change the dynasty, then what else is there to talk about Zen and not Zen?" You are all old ministers of the former emperor, and I am so disappointed to suddenly say such things! Duan Da and the others did not shed tears.

Wang Shichong sent someone to Yang Tong again: "Now that the country has not been pacified, there must be an elderly monarch who will wait until the world is peaceful and restore you, the holy emperor." We will keep our previous covenants and never break them. ”

Wang Shichong pretended to be the emperor and issued an edict to give up the throne of the Sui Dynasty to Wang Shichong, and sent his brother Wang Shiyun to Hanliang Hall to abolish the emperor and the emperor. The Great Feng clan is king.

The traitorous male Wang Shichong, who has been plotting against him, finally succeeded in usurping power.

Wang Shichong may be a "talker" because he was a lawyer in the past. Whenever he accepted the courtiers to deal with government affairs, he had to give affectionate and sincere advice, and his speech was long-winded, his language was repetitive, and all the officials in the court who served him were exhausted by his frequent dispatches.

He sometimes took a few entourages to inspect the main thoroughfares, and did not arrange a guard to prohibit pedestrians, but the people only let them give way, tightened the reins of their horses and walked slowly, and said to the people: "In the past, the emperor sat high in the court, and the situation of the people could not be understood thoroughly. I, Wang Shichong, am not greedy for the throne, the fundamental purpose is to save the difficult situation, I should now be like a state assassin, everything must be handled personally, and I should comment on the gains and losses of the government with the people of Limin. Worried that the ban on the palace gate is restricted, everyone's opinions will not be transmitted, and now they are setting up seats outside the Suncheon Gate to handle government affairs. ”

He also ordered that litigation cases be accepted in the West Court and that criticism and suggestions be heard in the East Court. So he submitted letters to state his opinions, and there were hundreds of people every day, and the letters were already very complicated, and it was rare to think about them, and Wang Shichong was overwhelmed and exhausted, and he did not leave the palace after a few days.

Wang Shichong's Ministry of Rites Shangshu Pei Renji and his sons Zuo Fu General Pei Xingyan, Shangshu Zuo Chengyu Wen Rutong and dozens of others discussed to kill Wang Shichong and once again proclaim Yang Dong as emperor. The matter was revealed, and all of them were killed, and their three tribes were exterminated.

In June, Wang Shiyun took the opportunity to instigate Wang Shichong to kill the emperor in order to cut off the idea of restoration. So, Wang Shichong tore off the mask of hypocrisy and sent his nephew Wang Xingben to kill the emperor and give him the title of Emperor Gong.

……

Soon after Li Yuan led the Tang army into Guanzhong, Wang Shichong took advantage of his unstable foothold and sent troops to attack Li Yuan.

Li Shimin then asked the eldest grandson Wuji to continue to set up new equipment such as training Xuanjia elite cavalry, creating Mingguang armor, Tang knife and so on, and at the same time led more than 10,000 people to meet Wang Shichong's Zheng army.

Wang Shichong started relatively smoothly, and soon conquered Huazhou, seeing that the Tang army was so vulnerable, he couldn't help but be arrogant, so he sent the generals Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin as the vanguard to continue the attack to the east. After Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin came to Liyang, they happened to meet the 10,000 Tang troops led by Li Shimin to meet the enemy.

Qin Qiong, the word Shubao, a native of Qilu Licheng, tall, dignified, famous general, brave and famous, is a legendary figure who takes people's heads in the army of ten thousand horses.

Cheng Biting Jin, formerly known as Biting Jin, later changed its name to Zhijie, the word Yizhen, Qilu Donga people. Burly, rugged in appearance, brave and good at fighting, good at riding horses and stabbing with a lance, Cheng Yanjin in real history is not the "three-plate axe" holding a big axe in the commentary, but making good use of the horse lance.

Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin turned out to be subordinates of Li Mi of the Wagang Army, and they were both captured by Wang Shichong due to injuries, but the two of them never liked Wang Shichong, and they also felt that Wang Shichong could not become a big deal, so they were always looking for an opportunity to find another master.

Cheng Biting Jin especially hates Wang Shichong, because he despises Wang Shichong for being a deceitful person, Cheng Biting Jin said to Qin Shubao: "The prince is shallow and narrow-minded, but he likes to talk nonsense, and likes to swear by gambling curses, this is just an old witch, where is the monarch who sets things right!" ”

This time, Wang Shichong sent Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin as the vanguard to attack the Tang army, and the two heard that it was Li Shimin, the king of Qin, who was known as the "God of War", and they were overjoyed.

Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin then asked someone to send Wang Shichong a letter: "I have received your special preferential treatment, and I always want to repay my kindness and serve, but your temperament is suspicious, and you love to believe in slander, which is not a place for us to support you, and now I can no longer serve you, so I ask to be separated from now on." Wang Shichong was furious when he saw the letter, and his personality became more suspicious from then on.

Li Shimin won two tiger generals without using a knife or a shot, and he was overjoyed, and it was completely consistent with Xia Xue's advice when he left, and he couldn't help but admire Xia Xue even more and miss it.

Li Shimin got these two tiger generals, especially Qin Qiong, Xia Xue said that the brave and fierce "ten thousand enemies" can assist him to pacify the world, and he was even more overjoyed, and immediately appointed Qin Qiong as the head of the horse army of Xuanjia Jingcai, and the general of Zuo Wuwei. Feng Cheng bites Jin as the third commander of the left army.

Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin found that Li Shimin was heroic and talented, and from then on, they loyally assisted Li Shimin, followed Li Shimin to fight in the north and south, and made many great achievements.

After Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin defected to Li Shimin, Wang Shichong's palace supervisor Dou Luda also surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. Wang Shichong saw that people's hearts were being lost day by day, so he used torture to strictly control them, and one person in the family fled, and the whole family, young and old, was killed one after another, and fathers, sons, brothers, and husbands and wives could be exonerated as long as they denounced each other. He also commanded the five families to be one to supervise each other, and if any one defected and the neighbors did not find out, the neighbors around him were to be put to death. Executions continued one after another, people defected more and more, and even those who went up to the mountains to cut firewood had time limits for going out and coming back, so that everyone in the public and private households was in danger and could not live.

And the palace was used as a big prison, and as long as there was suspicion, the family and their families were tied up and sent to the palace for detention. Whenever a general was sent out to fight, his relatives were also detained in the palace as hostages.

The imprisoned people were one by one, no less than ten thousand people, without food, dozens of people died of starvation a day. Wang Shichong recruited troops to fight endlessly, the stock of grain was quickly eaten up, and the people in the city ate human flesh. Some people took the mud and put it in the urn, washed it with water, sank the sand and stones to the bottom, took out the mud that floated on it, mixed the bran bran in it, and made cakes to eat, and everyone was swollen and their legs and feet were weak, and they lay down on the road one by one. Wang Shichong's Shang Shulang, Lu Junye, Guo Zigao and others all starved to death in the ravine.

After suffering such a toss from Wang Shichong, Zheng Guo's national strength was seriously reduced, and he was unable to continue to attack the Tang Dynasty for the time being, which gave the Tang Dynasty a precious respite.