When the two armies were at a stalemate, suddenly one day, a general named Liang Hulang in Xue Rengao's army surrendered to Li Shimin with hundreds of horsemen. It turned out that Xue Rengao ran out of food in the army, and he treated his subordinates harshly and harshly, and the morale of the army was already fluctuating.

Li Shimin saw that Xue Rengao's soldiers had the intention of rebellion, and felt that the time had come, so he ordered Liang Shi, the chief of the marching army, to camp in the shallow water plain to lure the enemy to attack. Xue General Zong Luo saw that the Tang army was no longer a shrinking turtle, and finally had a battle to fight, so he hurriedly sent elite soldiers to attack Liang Shi, the Xue army was attacking fiercely, but Liang Shi had been unable to hold out, seeing that there was no water in the camp, and people and horses had no water to drink for several days.

Seeing that Xue Jun was exhausted, Li Shimin said to his subordinates, "It's time!" "The Tang army Pang Yu set up a formation in the shallow water plain, and Zong Luo led his troops to attack, Pang Yu resisted Zong Luo's attack and did not retreat half a step. At this time, Li Shimin led a large army to cover up from the north, and personally led dozens of elite cavalry to attack the enemy formation. Seeing that the boss took the lead in charging into battle, the Tang army moved forward bravely one by one, and for a while, the shouts of killing on the battlefield shook the heavens and the earth.

Zong Luo was flanked by the front and back, quite surprised, he didn't expect that he was still vulnerable before, and these people who were defeated under Xue Jun's hands were so strong that today's combat effectiveness was so strong that they were like wolves and tigers, and they dared to be unstoppable. The Xue army, under the onslaught of the Tang army, was quickly routed, thousands of people were beheaded, and the rest of the soldiers fled in all directions.

Li Shimin led more than 2,000 cavalry to pursue and kill the Xue army, and many of Xue Rengao's generals surrendered to the Tang army. In the evening, the Tang army successively arrived at Gaoqi City and began to besiege the city. In the middle of the night, the defenders of the city began to scramble to surrender under the city, fearing that it would be too late and there would be no places.

Xue Rengao, who was alone, had no choice but to raise the city and surrender to the Tang Dynasty. In this battle, Li Shimin obtained more than 10,000 elite soldiers, and these elite soldiers were sent by Li Shimin to Xue Ju's generals, led by them, without any suspicion. This is one of the strengths that Li Shimin learned from Li Yuan.

Li Shimin only dared to let go of the generals to lead the troops, mainly because of his high confidence in his own military talents. Even if one day these generals dared to rebel against Tang, he would still have the ability to clean up these people. It is precisely with this combination of grace and power that Li Shimin has made many opponents quickly gather around him and use them for him.

Xue Rengao was later escorted back to Chang'an and beheaded for public display. From the incident of Xue Ju to the killing of Xue Rengao, the father and son occupied Gansu and died in five years.

After Xue Rengao was killed, there was a small episode in Gansu, which can be described as extremely funny.

After Xue Rengao's death, he had a subordinate named Bian Yandi, and after following Xue Rengao to surrender to the Tang Army, he probably felt that he had no future, rebelled again, and led thousands of people to do the business of robbing homes and houses. One day, he took people to Shizhou and grabbed a beautiful woman from the Wang family, who was a rough man, so he was going to force the Wang family. But he didn't want this Wang family to be a weak person, so he hooked Xiao Bian with a little charm, Xiao Bian retreated from the guards, and began to drink and have fun with Wang's family, maybe he was too excited, drank more than a dozen glasses in a row, and fell to the ground drunk. Seeing that he was unconscious, Wang pulled out his knife, killed him with one stab, and then secretly gave his head to the Tang army. It's ridiculous that a man died at the hands of a powerless woman, and it can be seen that there is a knife on the head of the word color, which is true.

In this way, the Li Tang dynasty put down the rebellion in Longxi and restored Tang control over the northwest region.

After killing Xue Ju, Li Yuan already occupied most of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Shanxi. His gaze turned to the northeast - Henan and Hebei. There, it was decided whether the Li Tang Dynasty would eventually become a unified empire or a local government on the side of the country.

Although places such as Guanzhong and Longxi were strategically important, their populations were less than a quarter of those of the Sui Dynasty. However, the Great Plains of Hebei and Henan are the richest places in China, and the grain production here is enough to feed more than half of the country's population. At the same time, the opening of the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty connected the Huai River Basin, the Yangtze River Basin and Jingshi. The Huai River and Yangtze River basins have also become increasingly important major grain producing areas, and grain here can be continuously transported to Beijing through canals.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty built several large granaries in the southern part of Henan and Hebei along the canal route to store grain, and these granaries became the main places for the rebels from all walks of life. For a dynasty that wants to reunify the whole country, firmly controlling the rich Henan, Hebei and other places is the most important strategic need at the moment.

But on the eastern plains, there are four most difficult big brothers who hinder Li Yuan's unification of China - Li Mi, Dou Jiande, Wang Shichong and Yu Wenhua. Each of these four people is a hegemon with heavy troops, has been on the battlefield for a long time, and is a dominant one, and each of them is not a fuel-efficient lamp.

Wang Shichong and Yu Wenhua respectively set up Yang Tong and Yang Hao, the descendants of Emperor Yang of Sui, as emperors, and then abolished them and called themselves emperors. Both men's armies were converted from the remnants of the Sui Empire.

After Li Mi defected to Zhai Rang's Wagang army, he killed Zhai Rang and commanded Zhai Rang's entire army. Li Mi's army combat effectiveness is still relatively strong, there are Shan Xiongxin, Wang Bodang, Qin Qiong, Xu Shixian, Cheng Yanjin and other fierce people, many of these people later attached to Li Shimin and became famous generals of the Tang Dynasty.

Compared with Sui Wei Zhuxiong, Dou Jiande is from a relatively humble background. But he was one of the first rebel leaders to rise up against the Sui. Dou Jiande has been the head of a village, which is equivalent to the head of a village, and he is more righteous, and belongs to the kind of people who make promises and squander money. Later, he committed something and was forced to flee, and only returned to the village after encountering amnesty.

Sui Wei's world was in turmoil, and bandits in Dou Jiande's hometown of Zhangnan County were rampant, slaughtering and robbing the local people, but they were not harassed in Dou Jiande's hometown. The county thought that this kid must be a bandit, so they arrested and killed his whole family. Originally, Dou Jiande didn't want to rebel, but the Zhangnan County officials forced out a gravedigger for the Great Sui Empire.

After Dou Jiande died in his family, he immediately joined the ranks of the rebel Gao Shida, because he could endure hardships with the soldiers and did not love money, so he soon gathered a large number of people who were willing to work for him, and gradually grew into a force to be reckoned with, occupying the vast areas of Shandong and northern Hebei.

These are the four big brothers that the Li Tang Dynasty needs to face as it advances eastward. But in this big competition, Li Yuan had the advantage. The Guanzhong region is a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and is in a relatively safe position militarily. It is easy for Li Yuan to accumulate strength here and wait for the consumption of his opponent.

On the other hand, several big brothers in the Central Plains of Henan, Hebei and Hebei have no natural defensive barriers, and they are worried all day long, and they don't know where a fierce man will appear to take their place. And these big brothers still have to watch out for each other, most of the military power is used for defense, and there is no flaw in using troops against Tang.

For Li Yuan, this is equivalent to a group fight, where all opponents are tied hand and foot, and they only have the share of being beaten, and there is no possibility of reaching out to hit people. Li Yuan wants to slap whoever he wants, stretch out his hand to hit, kick whoever he wants to ass, and kick his feet. The battle has reached this level, it is estimated that Li Yuan will wake up laughing in his dreams, he only needs to watch the other big brothers perform on this stage to kill each other, and sit back and reap the benefits of the fisherman.

These eldest brothers did not disappoint him, and soon the Luoyang faction led by Li Mi and Wang Shichong joined forces to resist Yu Wenhua's attack. To be precise, it was Wang Shichong who used Li Mi to deal with Yu Wenhua. Li Mi repelled Yu Wenhua, and the army consumption was also very large, and he didn't want to be used by Wang Shichong to use a trick of "praying mantis to catch cicadas, and yellow finches are behind" to defeat Li Mi's team. In desperation, Li Mi took refuge in Li Yuan, and was later killed for rebellion.

Yu Wenhua and being defeated by Li Mi were also lost soldiers. In February 619, he was defeated and captured by Dou Jiande, and was killed by Dou Jiande along with his two sons. And the Empress Xiao of Emperor Yang of Sui, who had been in Yu Culture and the army, was occupied by him, was also rescued by Dou Jiande. Dou Jiande is not close to women, although he has been called the King of Xia, but there are only a dozen palace people who serve him and the queen, and they treat the Xiao family with courtesy.

After the death of the country, Xiao's ending was still very good, after staying in Dou Jiande's place for a while, he was married to the Turkic Princess Yicheng of the Sui Dynasty and received the Turkic, and the young grandson of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty who survived with Empress Xiao also went to the Turks. Because of Princess Yicheng, the Turkic Khan treated Empress Xiao well, and established Yang Zhengdao as the lord of Sui. This small regime of the Sui Dynasty in a corner of peace was finally destroyed by Li Tang, and Empress Xiao also fell into the hands of Li Shimin, although Empress Xiao was over forty years old at that time, but still not declining, and was included in the harem by Li Shimin and became Li Shimin's wife.

At this point, the four major forces in the Central Plains region are attacking each other, leaving Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong. But after the annexation of Yu Wenhua and Li Mi, the strength of these two people has also been greatly enhanced.

Li Yuan closely watched the battle situation in the northeast and waited for the opportunity. I didn't want to be at this time, Li Yuan's old nest Taiyuan, and there was a news that shocked him. In June 619, Liu Wuzhou, another anti-Sui elder brother who occupied the northern part of Shanxi, invaded Taiyuan, and sent his subordinate Song Jingang to attack Jizhou and Taiyuan in a row under Yuci and Jiexiu. The name Song Jingang sounds very domineering, and the person is as his name suggests, he is indeed a fierce man.

Guarding Taiyuan was Li Yuanji, the fourth son of Li Yuan's family, the king of Qi, and Li Yuanji's urgent documents flew like snowflakes to Li Yuan's desk in Chang'an. Taiyuan is Li Yuan's land of Longxing, and someone dares to go to his hometown to smash the field to collect protection money, how can Li Yuan sit idly by. He hurriedly sent Pei Lin to help Xiao Si guard the field.

As we said earlier, this Pei Lin and Li Yuan are officials in Jinyang, one is the same. It is estimated that they have done bad things together, and the relationship is not ordinary iron. Liu Wenjing, the first contributor to Li Yuan's uprising, died in the hands of Pei Lian. This old man usually accompanies Li Yuan to eat, drink and have fun, but he just moves his mouth to make Li Yuan happy, and he becomes a big official, and his real level is not much. Let him go to the front line to lead the troops to fight, it is simply a head-off.

Pei Lin thought that going into battle was the sound of cannons three times, so he raised his knife and went out of the gate, looked at the three armies and shouted, "Sons, beat the drums and march!" "It's as simple as winning a big victory and capturing the enemy leader, but reality slapped him hard.

Pei Lin took the Tang army to Jiexiu and stationed in the place of Dusuoyuan, the mountain spring water for drinking in the camp was cut off by Song Jingang, and the Tang army had no drinking water, so they could only migrate to the vicinity of the water source. Song Jingang was waiting for this opportunity, as soon as the Tang army moved, Song Jingang pounced, and in the panic, the Tang army had no time to meet the battle, and immediately collapsed. The defeat was like a mountain, Pei Lin couldn't wait for his father and mother to have two more legs, so he ran for a day and a night in a panic and fled to Jinzhou.