From June of the thirteenth year of Daye (617 AD) to May of the first year of Wude (618 AD), Li Yuan changed the dynasty in just one year, established the Tang Dynasty, and ascended the throne in Chang'an City as the emperor, known as Tang Gaozu. Li Yuan's eldest son, Li Jiancheng, was named the crown prince and assisted Li Yuan in handling political affairs; Li Yuan's second son, Li Shimin, was named King of Qin and appointed Shang Shuling and General Youyiwei; Li Yuan's third son, Li Xuanba, died young, so he was posthumously named King Wei; The fourth son, Li Yuanji, was named King of Qi. In addition, Li Yuan also moved Li Shimin's fourth son, Li Tai, into the Wei Wang branch and was directly subject to the title of Wei Wang.

Two months after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, that is, in July, the first battle of the founding of the country was ushered in - Emperor Xue Ju of Qin suddenly attacked the Tang Dynasty and directly concentrated his firepower to open the capital Chang'an. Before the establishment of the dynasty, he was bullied to the doorstep, is this worth it? Li Yuan immediately ordered Li Shimin to be the marshal and led the troops of about 40,000 people in the Eighth Governor to meet the battle.

The battle horn had just sounded, but Marshal Li Shimin dropped the chain at such a critical moment - his stomach hurt unbearably. Li Shimin had no choice but to order the marching commander Shi Liu Wenjing and Sima Yin Kaishan to act as the marching commander on his behalf, Li Shimin lay on the sickbed and warned the two: "Xue Ju has gone deep alone this time, the amount of food he brought is limited, and he has rushed over thousands of miles, and the soldiers are also a little tired, if they take the initiative to come to war, you should not meet the battle rashly, try to find a way to delay them, the longer the time will be worse for them." When I am cured, I will take you to destroy Xue Ju's army in one fell swoop. ”

But when it was really time to start the war, Liu Wenjing and Yin Kaishan sent troops to line up in the southwest of Gao, they didn't take Li Shimin's words to heart at all, they couldn't withstand Xue Ju's repeated provocations, and they were confident that there were many people, and they were not prepared for Xue Ju's attack, and we were attacked by Xue Ju from behind. In the ensuing confrontation, the generals Murong Luohu, Li Anyuan, and Liu Hongji were all captured by Xue Ju, and five or six tenths of the dead were killed, Li Shimin had no choice but to lead the army back to Chang'an, Xue Ju led the army to occupy Gaojaw, and piled up the corpses of Tang soldiers collected in the battle of Shallow Water Plains into a terrifying Jingguan.

Liu Wenjing and others were also dismissed from their posts and severely punished. We initially had more than 40,000 soldiers, but now we have lost more than half of them, and we are still at a disadvantage in the battle with Xue Ju.

A month later, there was an exciting piece of good news - Xue Ju fell ill and died. Xue Ju's son Xue Rengao succeeded to the throne. Li Yuan took the opportunity to send an envoy to Liangzhou to crown Li Liang as the king of Liang in order to isolate Xue Rengao. However, it is said that this Li Liang is very prestigious in Liangzhou, he is resourceful, eloquent, and can help the poor people, so he has always been talked about by the township. In addition, Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin to lead his troops to attack Xue Rengao.

Li Shimin still adopted the decision of clearing the wilderness, trying to defeat the enemy army without spending a single soldier. Xue Rengao really couldn't bear it anymore and sent Zong Luohu to lead his troops to the battle, Zong Luohu provoked us many times, and Li Shimin resolutely did not go out of the city to face the battle. Many generals took the initiative to ask for help, but Li Shimin refused, he said: "Not long after our army was defeated by the Xue army, the soldiers are still depressed and have low morale, how can they go out to meet the battle at this time?" Moreover, because the enemy army seems determined to win the previous victory, and deliberately provokes us, we must not take it lightly, we should wait and see what they move, and clear the wilderness. ”

Seeing this, Li Shimin ordered and said: "Whoever says that he will go out to fight will be decided on the spot!" "The army has finally quieted down.

Later, Zong Luohu provoked us many times, but Li Shimin resolutely did not give us the order to fight. Sure enough, more than 60 days later, Xue Rengao's army should have run out of food, and many soldiers began to be unable to hold back, so we also ushered in Hu Lang and others, who took the initiative to surrender.

In November, Li Shimin led us to defeat Zong Luohu's army in the shallow water plain, killing thousands of people, and then, he personally led more than 2,000 cavalry to prepare to pursue Zong Luohu with victory, at this time, the governor of Qinzhou, Dou Liang, pulled Li Shimin's horse and persuaded hard: "Now Xue Rengao still occupies a strong city, although we defeated Zong Luohu this time, but it is best not to go to pursue it easily, I ask the King of Qin to stand still for the time being, and it is not too late to observe Xue Rengao's movements before making a decision." ”

Li Shimin replied: "I have been thinking about this question for a long time, and now that our army is in a state of strength, seeing such a good opportunity, how can I hesitate to give it up?" I've made the decision to pursue, uncle, don't say any more! So he led the army to surround Xue Rengao's army, capturing more than 10,000 elite soldiers and more than 50,000 men and women in the city, forcing Xue Rengao to leave the city and surrender.

In February of the following year, Li Yuan sent an envoy to contact Tuyuhun to prepare to attack Li Rail together, and plotted against Li Rail's close minister An Xiuren, and finally sent troops to attack Liangzhou City, successfully captured Li Rail, and then occupied five counties in Hexi, and finally completed the unification of the northwest.

It is worth mentioning that Tang Gaozu followed the military system of the Western Wei Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty. The central leading body of the government soldiers is mainly the twelve guards, part of which belongs to the six rates of the East Palace, and the basic unit of the government soldiers is the Zhichong Prefecture located in various places, which is commanded by the Zhichong Commander and Guoyi Commander. Government soldiers began to serve at the age of 21 and were exempted from military service at the age of 60. Different from the conscription system, except for special periods, the government soldiers do not detach themselves from their own native land and agricultural production, and only concentrate on military training in winter.

As the saying goes, "if the troops are scattered in the government, they will return to the court", which also prevents the general from supporting the army and respecting himself.

After conquering the Xue family and his son, and unifying the northwest region, I finally had the opportunity to return to my hometown, since I participated in the rebel army against the Sui Dynasty, I have not gone back once, so when I learned the information that I could return to my hometown, I was extremely excited, and finally I was able to reunite with my family, my father and mother must be old, and my health is not as good as before, Xin'er must also look haggard because of overwork, and my son Xiaohao, must have grown taller and grown up. I thought to myself, I just want to step home in one step.

I hurried home, this time I cleaned up myself before coming back, so as not to rush home like last time, and attract the "disgust" of my father and mother, haha.

I finally rushed home, standing outside the door, my mood was extremely excited, my hand trembled slightly, and I knocked on the door, "It's coming." A familiar voice came from inside, and sure enough, it was Xin'er who I missed every day who opened the door.

Xin'er looked at me with a look of disbelief, and finally burst into tears, "You're finally back." Xin'er hugged me tightly.

"Xin'er, who's here?" Daddy asked loudly in the house.

"Xiao Sheng, Xiao Sheng is back." Xin'er wiped away her tears and welcomed me through the door.

It's been three years, but it's like thirty years, my father and mother have a lot more gray hair, and their eyes are not too good, and they didn't recognize me at first, which may be the reason why they haven't seen each other for a long time. Xin'er's skin is no longer as smooth as before, in the past few years that I have been at home, she has relied on her to work on the big and small things inside and outside, inside and outside, which is really hard Xin'er.

Xiao Hao was already able to run on the ground, and when he saw me, he showed a timid expression on his face, and asked Xin'er in a low voice: "Mother, who is this person, why do you keep staring at me?" ”

Dad hugged Xiao Hao, "Xiao Hao, this person is your father, I haven't seen him for a few years, I don't know him?" ”

"Oh, what do you old man say? How old was Xiao Sheng when he hugged Hao'er last time? How can you remember it so clearly? The mother whispered accusations to the father.

Dad sent Xiaohao into my arms, "You hug your son, I haven't seen each other for a few years, get closer to me for a while, so as not to be rusty." ”

I took Xiao Hao, the expression on his face was very aggrieved, and I took out a rattle from the package. On my way home, I passed by a small shop with a lot of things for children to play with, and there were a lot of people buying this at the time, thinking that children would like this little thing, so I bought one.

Sure enough, Xiao Hao's eyes were immediately attracted, I flicked it up rhythmically, the rattle made a brisk sound, Xiao Hao laughed, his eyes were bent into a crescent moon, and his eyebrows were really beautiful, like Xin'er. His mouth grinned, revealing a few small white teeth.

"Xiao Sheng, how long can you stay when you come back this time?" Mother asked.

"If nothing else, I can stay for a few months, and in the winter I will go to concentrate on military training." I said, "The Sui Dynasty has been overthrown by us, and now it is the Tang Dynasty, and the military service is not so strict, and the government military system is adopted, so I can stay at home with you most of the year." ”

"That's good, that's good!" The mother couldn't stop saying, a smile appeared on the old face, and suddenly, a few lines of old tears rolled down.

"Oh, mother, why are you crying?" I hurriedly comforted.

"It's okay, my mother is happy."

"You old woman, why are you crying when Xiao Sheng comes back?" Dad said, wiping tears from her face.

I put Xiao Hao down and let him play by himself, turned around, and I hugged Xin'er, "Xin'er, thank you for your hard work!" I haven't been by your side all these years, and the family has relied on you inside and out. ”

Xin'er patted me lightly on the shoulder, "It's not hard, it's not hard." Xin'er said softly, "It's good if you come back, just come back." ”

My beloved lovely, you don't know how much I miss you in the past few years, I can't love you in the first two lives, I finally got you in this life, but I can't stay with you, the rest of the time, I will treat you well.

"Alright, alright." Daddy smiled and said, "It's a happy thing, but if you make me so sad, I, an old man, have a sour nose, don't be sensational." ”

Xin'er and I spread our arms and looked at each other and smiled.

"You dead old man, the two haven't seen each other for a few years, and you still talk about it if you're tired of it." The mother said, "Xiao Sheng, but you called your father-in-law and mother-in-law over, let's have a meal together, and the family will get together." ”

I was just about to push open the door and go out, when my father suddenly stopped me, "Xiao Sheng, you come back, I'll call my in-laws, you rushed back all the way, your body is very tired, go to the back room to rest for a while." ”