On June 11, Li Rail ordered An Xiuren to gather the Hu people of various tribes, and Li Rail and the heroes who befriended the people raised troops together to capture the Hu Benlang general Xie Tongshi and the county Cheng Wei Shizheng.

Li Liang then proclaimed himself the King of Daliang in Hexi, and set up officials and subordinates to imitate the precedents of Emperor Wen of Sui.

Cao Zhen and others want to kill all the Sui officials and divide their family property, Li Orbit: "Since you have elected me as the master, you should listen to my orders." Now the Xingyi soldiers are to save the people, kill people and sell goods, and this will become a group of thieves! What will we rely on to succeed? ”

So he appointed the former Hu Benlang general Xie Tongshi as the imperial servant, and appointed the former Sui Dynasty county Cheng Wei Shizheng as the imperial secretary. The Western Turkic Que Dushe, who occupied Huiningchuan and called himself Que Khan, also asked Li Liang to surrender soon after, which greatly increased Li Liang's popularity.

Xue Ju heard that there was a fire in the backyard, and he couldn't march to Chang'an with peace of mind, so he planned to destroy Li Liang and occupy the Hexi area, consolidate the rear and then attack Chang'an.

Before attacking Li Liang, Xue Ju proclaimed himself Emperor of Qin, made his wife Ju the empress, and his son Xue Rengao the crown prince. Then he sent Xue Rengao to lead his troops to surround and conquer Tianshui, after which Xue Ju moved the capital from Jincheng to Tianshui.

Xue Rengao is very powerful, good at cavalry and archery, and is known as the enemy of 10,000 people in the army. But he was greedy, cruel, and murderous by nature, and once caught Yu Li, the son of the great poet Yu Xin, but Yu Li refused to surrender to Xue Rengao, so Xue Rengao became angry, burned Yu Li on the fire, and then cut off the meat little by little for the soldiers to eat, cruel and murderous.

When he conquered Tianshui, he summoned all the rich people of Tianshui, hung them upside down, poured their noses with vinegar, and demanded gold treasures from them. Xue Ju often admonished him: "Your talent and strategy are enough to do things, but you are harsh and cruel by nature, and you can't show kindness to people, which will eventually overturn the country!" ”

Xue Ju sent Xue Renyue, the king of Jin, to lead his troops to Jiankou, and when he walked to Hechi County, he was stubbornly resisted by Xiao Yu, the Taishou of Hechi. Xiao Yu was relegated to Hechi County as a guard because of Yang Guang's siege of Yanmen, and he tried his best to keep his promise to reward the meritorious soldiers in the battle of Yanmen Pass.

Xue Ju also sent his subordinate Chang Zhongxing to cross the Yellow River to Hexi to attack Li Rail, who occupied Wuwei County, and engaged Li Rail's subordinate Li Yun in Changsong, Chang Zhongxing was wiped out due to the light enemy.

Li Liang wanted to let go of all the prisoners in this battle, Li Yun said: "These prisoners were captured by the soldiers who fought hard, but they were let go to help the enemy, why did you do this?" It's better to kill them all. ”

Li Orbit: "If Heaven blesses me, I should seize their leaders, and then these people will still be mine." If I don't succeed in my career, what's the benefit of keeping them? ”

So Li Rail ordered the captives to be released, and Li Rail was praised as a benevolent and righteous king.

Soon, Li Rail took advantage of the strength of Xue Ju's army that had just been defeated, attacked Zhangye, Dunhuang, Xiping, and Caohan, and conquered all of them, and all the five counties in Hexi were owned by Li Rail.

After Li Liang occupied all the five counties in Hexi, he also started the idea of Xijing Chang'an, but if he wanted to go to Chang'an, he had to pass through Xue Ju's territory Longyou, and if Xue Ju wanted to attack Chang'an, he must also ensure the tranquility of the rear.

As a result, Xue Ju and Li Liang have been fighting each other since then, and the war has not stopped.

Xue Ju and Li Liang also learned later that when the two of them were fighting each other, someone had already begun to march quickly towards Chang'an, and they all regretted it at that time......

On June 11, Li Yuan led a large army through Huoyi and entered Linfen County, most of the army of Linfen County was defeated in Huoyi with Song Laosheng, so it was impossible to organize army resistance at all.

On the 16th, Li Yuan's army spent the night in Gushan, and after passing Gushan, it was Jiangjun.

Jiangxian County has belonged to the lower reaches of Fenshui, and is an important town in Hedong County in the southwest, where the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi fought for many years.

The next day, Li Yuan's army crossed the Drum Mountain and officially entered Jiang County, where Chen Shuda, the general guard of Jiang County, led 8,000 troops to refuse to defend Zhengping City.

Li Yuan first sent Li Jiancheng, Li Yin and Li Shimin to divide their troops to capture the rest of the counties in Jiangxian County, and finally besieged Zhengping City.

Because many of the soldiers defending Zhengping City came from various regions of Jiangjun, after hearing that their hometown had fallen, they were all uneasy, and Li Yuan sent people to loudly proclaim that he was a benevolent and righteous person around Zhengping City, and did not treat the people of Jiangjun badly, as long as the war ended, the soldiers of Zhengping City would definitely be able to reunite with their families.

The soldiers of Zhengping City had no intention of resisting.

On June 22, Li Yuan's army attacked and conquered Zhengping, occupying all of Jiangxian. Jiangjun Tongshou Chen Shuda is the son of Chen Gaozong Chen Xu, who is talented and learned. Li Yuan treated him politely and continued to appoint him.

On June 25, Li Yuan's army arrived in Longmen County, the northernmost part of Hedong County, when Li Yuanchu was a consolation envoy to Shanxi and Hedong, he had come here to kill the rebel leader Wu Duan'er, so that he could gain a firm foothold in Hedong Road.

Hedong County according to the throat of Shanxi Mountain, since the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the Northern Qi Dynasty, it is a place where the two parties must fight, Sui has an important Jindu here, there is a bridge, it is called Pujin Liang, and the importance of the status is as good as Tongguan.

Hedong County is an important barrier on the periphery of Chang'an, and the gains and losses of its land are related to the safety of Chang'an.

Qu Tutong is not comparable to Song Laosheng and his ilk, his life of Rong Ma, his military achievements are impressive, he is a person who can recruit good soldiers, and he is guarding Hedong County, it is not easy for Li Yuanjun to conquer Hedong.

When Li Yuan was worried about how to attack Hedong County, Xue Dading, a native of Fenyang, persuaded Li Yuan: "Please don't attack Hedong, cross the Yellow River directly west from Longmen, occupy Yongfengcang, spread the text to all places, and the Guanzhong region will sit back and wait." ”

Li Yuan planned to listen to his advice and appoint Xue Dading as the general's governor, but Tang Jian and other generals all asked to capture Hedong first, because it would be too risky to cross the river directly into the pass without taking Hedong.

Moreover, the Yellow River is turbulent, and there are no boats available in Li Yuan's army, so Tang Jian and others will speak out.

Li Yuan felt embarrassed by this, so he asked Li Yin for advice, and Li Yuan always liked to ask Li Yin's thoughts when he encountered a dilemma.

Li Yin said: "You can first confront Qu Tutong at Longmen, and then send someone to cross the river into Guanzhong to find out the information, contact the Guanzhong Righteous Army, and then make plans before it is too late." ”

Li Yuan thought it was good, so he agreed to Li Yin's suggestion.