Tang Wude four years, spring, March. Li Shimin, the king of Qin, sent 3,000 flying tigers and 30,000 to the vanguard of the Doujia army, Shi Zan and Yin Qiu. Take advantage of the chaos to defraud the tiger prison. Shi Zan was defeated, Yin Qiu was captured, and Zhang Shuo, who joined the army, led the rest of the people to surrender. There were 30,000 pioneers in the Dou family's army, and less than 200 people fled back to report the news.

This time he went south to rescue Zheng, and the Dou family army sent a total of nearly 200,000 troops. But the 30,000 people who could act as the vanguard were wiped out by Li Shimin's 3,000 cavalry before they even blistered, and the blow to morale was not small. The generals were worried about the future, and persuaded Dou Jiande to return to the north, avoiding Li Shimin's edge for the time being. Later, he adopted the old trick of encircling Wei to save Zhao, attacking Shangdang and Taiyuan in the Tang Dynasty, and forcing Li Shimin to withdraw his troops from Luoyang. Or along the north bank of the Yellow River to Guanzhong, threatening the Tang army's rear route. But Dou Jiande insisted: Da Xia and Da Zheng guarded the horns, and their lips were dead and their teeth were cold. Zheng Jin hangs upside down, dying in the morning and night, if he gives up at this moment, it is the villain's behavior of fearing the enemy and abandoning his faith, and he will be laughed at by the heroes of the world. In any case, he could not give up halfway, and would rather suffer more losses than attract Li Shimin's attention from Luoyang City.

The generals had no choice but to follow Dou Jiande to fight hard outside the Tiger Prison Pass. Li Shimin had Xiongguan as his backing, and he received reinforcements from Li Shiji (Xu Maogong) and Li Yuanji in 6 consecutive years, and he became more and more handy in the battle. In several battles in a row, he defeated Dou Jiande with no suspense. Killed more than ten warriors under his command, and captured his henchman Wang Wan alive. He also sent Wang Junkuo to the back of the Dou family's army, cut off the grain route, and captured Zhang Qingte, the grain transportation officer of the Dou family's army.

The governor of Hanoi, Wang Jun Kuo, was born as a bandit, and what he is best at is blocking roads and robbing. Dou Jiande transferred grain from Hebei several times, and among the ten times, seven or eight fell back into his hands. Li Shimin knew that Wang Junkuo loved money and ignored the grain and grass he received. In this way, Wang Junkuo became more and more proactive, and even cut off the post road of the Dou family's army. The letters from the generals and the rear of Dou Jiande's army also fell into the hands of the Tang army. Among them, there are many words that mention the truth and fiction ahead, which were synthesized by Li Shimin and seen clearly.

The stalemate lasted until May, and the eldest grandson Wuji offered Li Shimin another plan. used the letters, forged several letters from the rear, and forced the messenger to send them to Dou Jiande's army. The generals of the Dou family army did not distinguish between the true and the false, opened the letter, and saw that it was written that there was a great chaos in the north, and Luo Yi led the tiger and iron cavalry to the south, and had captured the entire territory of Hejian County, and the soldiers pointed directly at the capital of Daxia. Hurry up and report to Dou Jiande. Dou Jiande was on an expedition, and the news from the rear was intermittent, and he also felt weak after seeing the letter. Forced by the situation, it was finally decided to do everything in its power to fight another bloody battle with the Tang army. After the war, no matter whether Luoyang was saved or not, he also hurried to return to Hebei. so as not to end the nest.

The two sides set up formations across the river on both sides of the river, and the Dou family soldiers were numerous, but the military orders could not be unified. Therefore, the generals had to bring their own soldiers and horses to line up on the east bank of the river, spreading for several miles. Li Shimin led the army to line up in the west of the river, and when he saw Dou Jiajun putting on such a posture, he smiled, and whispered to Qin Shubao and the others: "I heard Cheng Mingzhen say that day that Dou Jiajun will become a worm when he leaves his lair, and I still don't believe it. I saw it today, and sure enough. Let's not hurry across the river and spend a while with him on the west bank. When they get tired of it, take it down in one go! ”

Qin Shubao grinned and said with a sneer: "If a soldier has no fighting spirit, he will have no fighting spirit." Though there are many people, they are just a herd of lambs to the slaughter! If you want to fight, you will find a way to capture Dou Jiande alive. Save it from returning to its lair and adding trouble to us! ”

The eldest grandson Wuji nodded lightly and echoed with a smile: "It is estimated that the soldiers of the Dou family have long wanted to fight, and it is just hindering Dou Jiande's face." Later, send some light horsemen to try to cross the river, if they watch each other instead of fighting bravely, we will win today's battle! ”

Du Ruhui, who joined the army, also smiled, pointed to Hexi, and suggested in a low voice: "If you want to fight, you will directly attack Dou Jiande's army." The generals will blame each other at first, and when Dou Jiande's Chinese army is in danger, they will definitely be in chaos. Our army will take advantage of the situation to attack it, and it will break its formation! ”

The hussar general Yu Wenshi and Dou Jiande had a grudge against the family, and took the initiative to ask Ying to be the vanguard. Li Shimin thought for a while, and asked with a smile: "I can only give you three hundred, is it enough?" ”

Yu Wenshi and the old man, but he was also a veteran of a hundred battles who had fought with the army in Liaodong back then, smiled, and responded in a low voice: "Three hundred people is a little less." But exploring the way for His Highness is also rich! ”

Li Shimin laughed: "I don't need you to explore the way, just mess up Dou Jiande's formation." The river is not very deep, and you wade quietly through it from the south. Look at the right time and go straight to Dou Jiande's army. When he is full of strength to deal with you, I will immediately lead the army across the river!" ”

Yu Wenshi and his fists clenched solemnly, and led the order away. After a while, three hundred veterans were ordered from his own ranks and quietly went around to the south. The Dou family army on the other side of the river has rumored that they will leave their camp and go home after today's battle, so everyone has no will to fight. Seeing that Li Shimin's side never attacked, he thought that the other side felt that there was a huge disparity in strength, and he did not dare to cross the river today. They put down their weapons and took their helmets to scoop the river. Seeing this, Dou Jiande was afraid that the Tang army would take the opportunity to cross the river, so he hurriedly issued an order to recruit the generals to the Chinese army, once again emphasizing military discipline. Before he could finish speaking, Yu Wenshi had already made a roundabout, risking a hasty feather arrow to hit Dou Jiande's Chinese army tent. The Dou family's sergeants were caught off guard, and they couldn't stop Yu Wenshi's attack at all. watched as the three hundred cavalry slaughtered like knives outside the tent of the Chinese army. Dou Jiande** was in a hurry, so he had to order the generals to go back to restrain the team, and lead his own guards to meet Yu Wenshi.

It was not easy to deal with the sneak attack of Yu Wenshi and others, and there was chaos on the bank of the river. Li Shimin led Qin Shubao, Luo Shixin, Wei Chi Jingde, Cheng Zhijie and others to wade through the water, and rushed to the Chinese army again. The generals of the Dou family army had just returned to their respective ranks, and they could not organize effective resistance at all. The soldiers were homesick again, and they wished to end the battle and go home as soon as possible. Therefore, as Du Ruhui expected, no one rescued Dou Jiande, and almost watched Dou Jiande's Chinese army retreat under the impact of the Tang family's light cavalry.

In the blink of an eye, the main formation of the Dou family army on the east bank of the river had been broken out of a gap half a mile wide by Li Shimin and others. Li Daoxuan, Hou Junji, and the eldest grandson Wuji took the opportunity to cross the river one after another, divided their troops into several ways, and attacked Dou Jiande from all angles. Dou Jiande led his descendants to the left and right, and they were in a hurry. A quarter of an hour later, the military formation was actually rushed by Li Shimin.

"Spread the flag!" Without waiting for Li Shimin to decide whether to turn around and charge again, Yu Wenshi, who was injured in many places, reminded loudly. Back then, he and another partner also rushed into battle with light horses. At the critical moment, he penetrated the opponent's main formation and erected a battle flag behind the enemy, destroying the enemy's will to resist in one fell swoop.

"Spread the flag?" Although Li Shimin does not have the same experience, his reaction is unusually keen. Slightly stunned, he instantly understood what Yu Wenshi meant. He snatched his flag from the guards and held it high.

"Dou Jiande is defeated, Dou Jiande is down!" Cheng Zhijie opened his throat and shouted, lest others not see where the flag was. "Dou Jiande is defeated, Dou Jiande is down!" The guards of the Qin Palace's mansion responded one after another, and they all opened their voices together, spreading the lie throughout the army.

"Hurry up and put up the lonely handsome flag!" Dou Jiande heard the shouts around him and immediately sensed that something was wrong. Hurriedly ordered his own soldiers to raise the handsome flag that had just been cut down by the enemy army in chaos. Luo Shixin happened to lead a team of cavalry to kill nearby, and when he saw Dou Jiande's handsome banner, he couldn't help but say, and he rushed towards the handsome banner. Dou Jiande's personal soldiers had never seen such a fierce person, and they were killed all over the place. Within a few breaths, Luo Shixin was already less than twenty steps away from Dou Jiande's handsome banner, raised his lance, and threw himself over. The long lance, which had been stained red with human blood, drew a lightning bolt in the air, and with a "click", smashed the flagpole of Dou Jiande's handsome flag into two sections.

"Take your life!" Destroying the enemy's handsome flag, Luo Shixin still felt dissatisfied. Draw your horizontal knife and continue to rush to kill. Dou Jiande's personal guards couldn't stop it, and he had to keep retreating. The surrounding generals had the heart to come to the rescue, but they couldn't see the specific location of Dou Jiande clearly, and they heard Tang Jun's cheers and shouts over and over again in their ears, and they panicked, and they really took the lie as the truth.

It is the courage of the three armies to be a general. The generals are desperate for the situation, how can ordinary soldiers fight to the death with the enemy again? At that moment, they abandoned their weapons one after another and ran all over the mountains. Li Shimin took advantage of the situation to wave his army and attack, first breaking Dou Jiande, and then Yang Gongqing, Gao Yaxian, Wang Xiaohu, and Dong Kangmai. The 170,000 Dou family army was like lambs, and the east bank of the river was driven to Niukouzhu, which was thirty miles away. Dou Jiande was injured and captured alive by Li Shimin's account and the cavalry generals Bai Shirang and Yang Wuwei. More than 50,000 of the 170,000 Dou soldiers were captured, and the rest fled.

After the fierce battle, Li Shimin sent people to clean up the battlefield. Only Huo Ran appeared, the total number of dead on both sides that day was only 3,000, and the 200,000 Dou family army only killed more than 2,000 people, and it collapsed.

Dou Jiande was put into the prisoner car, and Li Shimin immediately led the victorious army to threaten Luoyang again. Wang Shichong was looking forward to reinforcements, and he wanted to wear it. Suddenly, I heard that the soldiers reported that the Tang army had attacked Luoyang again. When he got up and went to the enemy tower, he saw that his long-awaited ally Dou Jiande was sitting in the prisoner car, looking at the city with a sad and angry face.

When he landed, Wang Shichong was in a state of confusion, and he did not dare to be trapped in the lonely city anymore, so he discussed with the generals to break through to the south. Except for Shan Xiongxin, no one wanted to go with him. Wang Shichong knew that the general situation had gone, sighed, and ordered his troops to open the city gate and surrender to Li Shimin. He personally held the map and the letter, and the list of 100 officials, and dedicated it to Li Shimin, just asking for his own death.

Li Shimin smiled and led the army into Luoyang City. This day is only the ninth day of the fifth month of the fourth year of Wude. It was less than three months before Li Shimin seized the Tiger Prison Pass.