It didn't take long for Wang Shichong to pretend to be the emperor and issue an edict to give up the throne of the Sui Dynasty to himself, and he sent his brother Wang Shiyun to Hanliang Hall to abolish the emperor and the emperor.

Then Wang Shichong was the king of the great feudal clan. This guy is high-spirited, and whenever he accepts the courtiers to deal with government affairs, he has to give affectionate and sincere advice; But his language is repetitive and unfocused; And all the officials of the court who served him were exhausted by his frequent dispatches.

He sometimes pretended to be close to the people and brought a few entourages to inspect the main thoroughfares, and did not arrange a cordon to prohibit pedestrians, and the people only let them give way.

He tightened the reins of his horse 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. I'm worried that there are restrictions on the ban on the palace gate, and everyone's opinions can't be heard, so now I'm setting up seats outside Suncheonmon Gate to handle government affairs. ”

Then Wang Shichong ordered the lawsuit to be accepted in the West Dynasty and to listen to criticism and suggestions in the East Dynasty. So he submitted letters to state his opinions, and there were hundreds of people every day, and the correspondence was already very complicated. Wang Shi was annoyed, and it was rare to think about it, and he approved that the donkey's lips were not in the horse's mouth, which made people secretly laugh and discuss, so he stopped leaving the palace after a few days, and ignored those letters.

A month later, dozens of people, including Pei Renji, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Zuo Chengyu, Wen Rutong, who surrendered to Wang Shichong, discussed killing Wang Shichong and once again proclaimed Yang Dong as emperor.

I didn't expect the matter to leak out, and they were all killed; Wang Shichong still didn't understand his hatred, and in order to kill chickens and monkeys, he exterminated their three tribes. Wang Shichong's elder brother Wang Shiyun took the opportunity to encourage him to kill the emperor in order to cut off the idea of restoration. Wang Shichong sent his nephew Wang Xingben to kill the emperor and gave him the title of Emperor Gong; Officially proclaimed himself emperor.

When Li Yuan heard that Wang Shichong was proclaimed emperor, he told the world that Wang Shichong was plotting to usurp the throne and rebelling, and sent Li Shimin as the general manager of the rebellious soldiers and horses; Li Yuanji led an army of 100,000 to defeat Wang Shichong as the deputy governor.

At the same time, the news of Pei Renji's death spread to Shandong, and Pei Cuiyun cried and fainted on the bed. Cheng Zhijie was furious and appointed Qin Qiong as the marshal, Duan Zhixuan as the deputy commander, and he himself plus Luo Shixin, Wang Junke, and Pei Xingyan and Shi Yan, who were rushing back urgently, as generals, with an army of 10,000 to crusade against Wang Shichong.

When Wang Shichong removed the fetters of the rear by Li Shimin, he had already begun to prepare for the battle against the Tang Dynasty. He trained a total of 100,000 troops according to the model of Jianghuai's strong soldiers, and he was also ready for battle.

Then Wang Shichong sent people to Hebei to contact Dou Jiande and asked him to send troops to deal with Li Tang together. Dou Jiande readily agreed, and he led an army of 100,000 to attack Xiangzhou to the south.

Li Shentong, the Tang Dynasty ambassador who was in Xiangzhou, couldn't resist the retreat with people like Liyang, and wanted to take refuge with Xu Shiji.

Because of Li Shentong's special status, and Li Yuan's sister Princess Tong'an, Xu Shiji had to lead troops to the rescue.

Unbeknownst to him, Dou Jiande's target was Liyang, he deliberately let go of Li Shentong and sent people to chase after him; Wait for Xu Shiji to fight together; immediately surrounded them together, and at the same time, the general Su Dingfang sneaked up on Liyang and captured Xu Shiji's father Xu Gai.

Xu Shiji and others were outnumbered, and they were not Dou Jiande's opponents, and they were defeated and lost in one day. Xu Shiji, Li Shentong and Princess Tong'an were captured together. Xu Shiji pretended to surrender, but took advantage of the unpreparedness of the defenders; took advantage of the chaos and fled to join Li Shimin.

The law enforcement officials asked to kill Xu Shiji's father, and Dou Jiande said: "Xu Shiji was originally a courtier of the Tang court, and after being captured, he did not betray his monarch and fled back to his own court, this is a loyal minister, what is his father's sin?" "I didn't kill him.

Dou Jiande won a big victory, which made Wang Shichong overjoyed; However, Dou Jiande did not come to join him again, but suddenly sent troops to occupy Huazhou, Henan, and subdued Xu Yuanlang, who was stationed here, and since then his power has become stronger and his prestige has been greatly shaken.

Dou Jiande stopped acting when he occupied Huazhou, and began to garrison heavy troops, sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, preparing to reap the benefits of the fisherman.

At the same time, he released the message of goodwill and arranged for Princess Tong'an and Li Shentong to live in the inn and treat them with the etiquette of guests. When Li Yuan sent an envoy to conclude a reconciliation with Dou Jiande, he immediately asked Li Shentong and Princess Tong'an to go back with the envoy.

Li Shimin asked Li Yuanji to sit in Tongguan to protect the grain road, and led the army out of Guanzhong. came to crusade against Wang Shichong; On the way, he ran into Xu Shiji, who fled back, and Cheng Zhijie, who came to attack Wang Shichong together.

Li Shimin welcomed everyone into the camp, and then sat down as guests and hosts; Li Shimin introduced his subordinate generals to Cheng Zhijie, including Li Yuanba, Qu Tutong, Wei Chi Jingde, Liu Hongji, Liu Dewei, Huang Junhan, and Shi Wanbao; and strategists Xiao Yu and Feng Deyi.

Li Shimin smiled and said to Cheng Zhijie: "The fifth brother brought a large army to help me, so that we are like a tiger; Cleaning up Wang Shichong is like turning over the palm of your hand to read the text. The fifth brother is megatron, and I ask you to divide the troops and send generals. ”

Cheng Zhijie shook his head again and again: "Don't! It's okay for me to charge into battle, which is to say strategizing and making decisions on the spot; I can't play. The King of Qin is known as the first person who can conquer habitual wars, and you are an army of 100,000, and I am only 10,000; It's better for you to come! ”

Li Shimin shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Fifth brother, this is going to kill me!" Good! I'd better be respectful than obey. However, the fifth brother is a prison guard; How about correcting my mistakes at any time? ”

Cheng Zhi nodded and agreed: "Okay!" The last general's order! Li Shimin smiled bitterly and pointed his finger at him, and then ordered Liu Dewei to lead 10,000 troops to attack Jiyuan and Hanoi for the Northern Route Army. Huang Junhan and Wang Junke led 10,000 troops to cross the Beibi Mountains for the Central Route Army and attack Heyang and Luokou. Shi Wanbao led 10,000 men for the Southern Route Army to attack Shou'an and Yique.

then appointed Qin Qiong and Qu Tutong as commanders, and Xu Shiji as military advisors; Luo Shixin is the pioneer; Lead the army to Luoyang.

The armies were ordered to go down and select their armies, and then each of them acted according to the plan.

Li Shimin and Cheng Zhijie followed Qin Qiong and their army straight to Luoyang, and Zhang Yu, the defender of Xin'an, was caught off guard, and the city went down with a drum; Zhang Yu was also killed by Qin Qiong.

Xin'an's victory made the coalition despise Wang Shichong from top to bottom, believing that this battle was like destroying the withering and decaying, and it was easy to win.

After taking Xin'an, the army did not repair and went straight to Cijian; At this time, Wang Shichong led an army of 30,000 and was ready for a big battle.

Luo Shixin led an army of 10,000 to Cijian City, and he didn't take this small city and the garrison general Yang Gongqing into account at all. As soon as he arrived at the city, he lined up the flag gate and fought against the enemy.

Yang Gongqing asked Wang Shichong, who had just arrived, to ambush behind Cijian; He closed his door and did not fight, and humiliated Luo Shixin in every possible way to lead him to attack.

Luo Shi's faith is like a fire, and he really hits the plan; Not to mention, lead the army to attack the city. Yang Gongqing's personal commanders resisted; The two armies engaged in a melee at Cijian.

Wang Shichong saw that the enemy's whole army was pressing, and led the army to go around the city from behind, and raided Luo Shixin's back.

Luo Shixin was caught off guard by the defeat of being killed, and had to lead the army to retreat to the north of the mountain. and stationed on a hill, while Pegasus asked Li Shimin for help.

Li Shimin was taken aback when he received the report, and then put away his contempt for Wang Shichong. He turned his head to Cheng Zhijie and said, "Fifth brother, Wang Shichong is really bold, and he actually came out of Luoyang." We can't let him run away this time, at least we have to kill his main force to reduce the difficulty of attacking Luoyang. ”

Lao Cheng said with a smile: "What King Qin said is exactly what I want, just say what plan you have." ”

Li Shimin smiled and said, "I'm not familiar with the terrain of Cijian, can the fifth brother dare to follow me to investigate?" And then we're strategizing! ”

"Good! I will give up my life to accompany the gentleman and go on a trip with the King of Qin! ”

So Li Shimin ordered the troops to be stationed on standby, and he and Cheng Zhijie took 100 guards to Cijian quietly to check the terrain.

They set out at night, and in the morning they entered the Beibi Mountain, where more than 100 people rode their horses through the rugged mountain road.

When Wang Shichong heard that Li Shimin was stagnant, he laughed happily and said: "Tang Tong Li Shimin is still a little hairy child, and he is in awe of us veterans; They didn't dare to attack at all. Someone came to surround the hill for me, I want to kill Luo Shixin, and give Tang Tongyi His Excellency Ma Wei. ”

Wang Shichong attacked for a day in a row, but did not break through the hill, but suffered heavy losses; He arranged for his henchman Yan Xin to bring 3,000 Jianghuai soldiers to secretly enter Beibi Mountain to prepare to attack Luo Shixin's back.

The two armies met unexpectedly in the northern mountains; Yan Xin once met Li Shimin with Wang Shichong in Yanmen Pass, and this chance encounter made him think that pie fell from the sky, and he was so happy that he almost went crazy.

Li Shimin only has more than 100 light cavalry, and his army is 50 times that of him, if he can catch him, it will not be a great achievement? The army of the Tang Dynasty will also collapse without a fight.

Thinking of this, Yan Xin shouted: "Kill!" Capture Li Shimin alive for me, don't let him escape. Those who catch Li Shimin will be rewarded with thousands of gold, and ten thousand households will be sealed! ”

When the soldiers under him heard this, they rushed forward one by one to arrest Li Shimin.

Li Shimin smiled slightly and said to Cheng Zhijie: "Fifth brother, have you heard, my head is quite valuable." ”

Cheng Zhijie laughed and said: "King Qin, stand back, I'm here, see who can hurt you a single hair." Just follow me, and we'll fight our way out. As he spoke, he urged the Hulei Leopard to sit down, and the war horse swooped forward with a long roar and came to the front.

Cheng Zhijie's big axe was rounded, and Zheng Jun rushed up and was cut down. Yan Xinli was dizzy, and he didn't care who the other side was, just urging his soldiers to go up and get people.