Li Yin let the soldiers loosen the tie to Yang Qing, and entertained him, and then sent someone to send him to Chang'an, after that, Yang Qing removed the surname Guo when he took refuge in Wang Shichong, and restored the surname Yang, Li Yuan worshiped him as Shangzhu State, and was knighted as the Duke of Xunguo.

On the twentieth day of the first month, Xu Yi, the governor of Suizhou appointed by Wang Shichong, raised the state to descend to Tang.

On the 28th, Wang Shichong's Weizhou assassin Shi Derui led the seven prefectures under his jurisdiction, Xia, Chen, Sui, Xu, Ying, and Wei to descend to Tang.

Li Shimin acted with a camera, and ordered the officials of the attached prefectures and counties to still use the officials appointed by Wang Shichong, and did not make any changes, and changed the state to Nanbianzhou, so Zheng Guo's Henan counties came to join one after another.

In the face of his own generals, state and county officials coming to surrender to the Tang Dynasty in an endless stream, Wang Shichong increased the law, one person defected, the whole family was killed, regardless of age, and fathers, sons, brothers, and husbands and wives could be spared death.

Wang Shichong also let the five families form a guarantee, one family fled, the neighbors did not find out, and the four families were all sentenced to death, hoping to stop the escape of his subordinates through this kind of severe punishment and harsh law.

But the more people Wang Shichong killed, the more people fled, so that there were restrictions on those who went out of the city to cut firewood, and there were restrictions on entering and leaving the city, so Zheng Guo was sad and embarrassed, and the people were not happy.

Wang Shichong also used the palace as a big prison, and the people who were jealous in his heart were imprisoned in the palace together with their families; If the generals want to go out of the city to fight, they must also leave their families in the palace as hostages, and the number of people imprisoned is often less than 10,000, and dozens of people starve to death every day.

Wang Shichong then appointed the officials of the Central Taiwan Province as the Yingtian envoys of the 12 prefectures of Si, Zheng, Guan, Yuan, Yi, Yin, Liang, Cuao, Song, Huai, and De, and went out of the town to supervise the localities.

When the Tang Dynasty planned to discuss the attack on Wang Shichong and the news reached Luoyang, Wang Shichong heard the news, selected Xiaoyong from various states and towns, and concentrated in Luoyang, set up generals in the four towns, and recruited people to guard the four cities of Luoyang respectively.

At that time, Qu Tutong's two sons were still in Luoyang, and Li Yuan said to Qu Tutong: "Now I want you to go east to Luoyang, what should you do with your two sons?" ”

Qu Tutong replied: "Your Majesty, I used to be a prisoner and deserved to be executed, but Your Majesty not only released me, but also gave me a lot of favors. At that time, I swore in my heart that I hoped to do my best for Your Majesty in my lifetime, but I was afraid that I would not have the opportunity to sacrifice my life. Now that I am fortunate to be able to serve as a striker, what is there to care about my two sons! ”

Li Yuan exclaimed: "What a sacrificial person can do this!" After that, he sent someone to sneak into Luoyang secretly and rescued Qu Tutong's two sons.

When Li Shimin and Li Yin arrived in Xin'an and Hanoi respectively and began to deal with Wang Shichong, Wang Shichong also actively took countermeasures.

Wang Shichong sent Wang Honglie, the king of Wei, to guard Xiangyang, the king of Jing, Wang Xingben, to guard the tiger prison, the king of Song, Wang Tai, to guard Huaizhou, the king of Qi, Wang Shiyun, to be in charge of the southern city of Luoyang, Wang Shiwei, the king of Chu, to guard the Baocheng (imperial city) of Luoyang, the crown prince Wang Xuanying to guard the east city of Luoyang, the king of Han Wang Xuanshu to guard Hanjia City, and the king of Lu to guard Yaoyi City.

Wang Shichong himself personally commanded the combat army, the left auxiliary general Yang Gongqing commanded the cavalry of the 28th Prefecture of Zuo Longxiang, the right guerrilla general Guo Shancai commanded the infantry of the 28th Prefecture of the Internal Army, and the left guerrilla general Baye Gang commanded the infantry of the 28th Prefecture of the Foreign Army, totaling 30,000 people, in order to guard against the attack of the Tang Dynasty.

Wang Honglie and Wang Xingben were the sons of Wang Shiwei, the king of Chu; Wang Tai is the son of Wang Shichong's elder brother, and from Wang Shichong's deployment appointment, it can be seen how far Wang Shichong's cronyism has reached.

Although Li Yuan also likes to appoint relatives, it still depends on whether that person is worthy of entrusting him with important tasks, and if he is untalented and virtuous, he will generally not be allowed to hold important positions.

And Xiangyang, Yaoyi City, Hanjia City and other places that Wang Shichong let his children guard are all very important places, but the talented people in his subordinates are all sent to guard some relatively less important places, which is completely contrary to Li Yuan's employment strategy.

At the beginning, although Yang Shilin, the Duke of Chu, accepted the official title of the Tang Dynasty, he befriended Wang Shichong in the north and Xiao Mo in the south, so Li Yuan issued an edict to order Li Ming, the king of Lujiang, to pacify Li Hongmin to crusade against Yang Shilin.

However, before the Tang Dynasty's army set off, the news came that Yang Shilin had been killed.

It turned out that Yang Shilin's long history Tian Zan was suspicious of Yang Shilin because he privately befriended the Xianzhou generals, and Yang Shilin had begun to eradicate Tian Zan , but the plan was learned by Tian Zan , so Tian Zan made the first move and took the lead in killing Yang Shilin, and then surrendered Wang Shichong in several states, and Wang Shichong appointed Tian Zan as the governor of Xianzhou.

After Li Shimin arrived in Xin'an from Chang'an, according to Du Ruyan's plan, he sent people to lobby Tian Zan and promised him high-ranking officials, so in early February, Tian Zan came to surrender to Tang with more than a dozen prefectures under his jurisdiction.

In the land under the jurisdiction of Tian Zhan, in the southwest of Henan, after he surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, Wang Shichong's Wang Honglie army in Xiangyang and other places cut off the news with Wang Shichong in Luoyang, so that not a single soldier was killed, but Wang Shichong cut off an arm.

Subsequently, Li Shimin ordered Sima of Jinzhou's governor's office and Li Daliang, a native of Jingyang, to pacify Fanzhou, Dengzhou and other places in order to wait for an opportunity to capture Xiangyang.

On 16 February, Li Daliang attacked and conquered Fancheng, Wang Honglie's general Guo Da'an was beheaded, and Li Daliang broke through Wang Honglie's fourteen city gates, and Xiangyang became precarious, and could be owned by Tang at any time.

In order to alleviate the pressure caused by the Tang Dynasty, Wang Shichong actively sought foreign aid. The Turks are the primary target of their help.

And the east. After Liu Wuzhou was destroyed, the Turks continued to support Yuan Junzhang, but they still felt that their control over the Central Plains was somewhat weakened, so they always hoped to support an influential puppet force.

As far as the Turks are concerned, it is natural to hope that the Central Plains will be as chaotic as possible, and they want the world to continue to be divided like this, which is conducive to the Turks' plan to slowly devour the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty.

Therefore, after Wang Shichong sent an envoy to the Turks, Chuluo Khan was very happy and warmly held a grand banquet to entertain Wang Shichong's envoy.

After that, the Turks also secretly sent their minister Ashina Jieduo to Wang Shichong, concluded an alliance with Wang Shichong, presented more than 1,000 Turkic horses to Wang Shichong, and asked Wang Shichong for marriage, Wang Shichong married the Turks with the daughter of the same clan, and traded with the Turks.

At the end of February, Chuluo Khan sent an envoy to contact Wang Shichong, as if to discuss some conspiracy with him, but when his envoy went to Luzhou, he was intercepted and defeated by Li Xianyu, the governor of Luzhou, under Li Yin, and captured countless cattle and horses.