With the deepening of the unification war, the territory of the Tang Dynasty continued to expand outward, and an era of great unification in which all nations surrendered and all nations came to congratulate was about to emerge. Although there are still some areas that have not been attached to the Tang Dynasty, the huge pen of history has paved a dazzling picture for Li Tang's world! The establishment of this imperial industry, which can be comparable to that of the Han Dynasty, was greatly contributed by Li Shimin, the king of Qin. At this time, the second prince of Li Tang had unparalleled military achievements. This is both Li Yuan's glory and Li Yuan's misfortune.

After years of war, coupled with Li Shimin's love for talent, he has gathered a group of capable generals around him. Wenchen is known as the "Eighteen Bachelors" Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui and others, and the generals include Wei Chi Jingde, Li Shixian, Qin Shubao, Cheng Zhijie and other battle-hardened fierce men. This meritorious group already has the strength to confront the former Guanlong group represented by Li Yuan.

How to reward Li Shimin has become a difficult problem in front of Li Yuan.

Li Shimin's merits are too great, and any reward given to him is not enough to commend him. Li Yuan thought about it for a long time, and deliberately set up a "Tiance General" in the official rank, specifically to Li Shimin. This official position is above all the princes, opening the Tiance Mansion and setting up official subordinates. Li Yuan hopes that this honorific title can cool Li Shimin's desire for power and political ambitions.

Li Yuan lost his father when he was six years old, and soon after his father's death, his mother, who had been bedridden all year round, also died. He was the fourth in the family, but the six-year-old Li Yuan inherited the title of Duke of Tang from his father. Although there is no record in the history books, it can be speculated that in the era of the primogeniture system, Li Yuan's three brothers may have all died young. It was the bereavement experience at a young age that made Li Yuan cherish family affection even more.

Li Yuan, who has been up and down in the sea for half his life, has a clear enough understanding of the cruelty of the battle for storage positions. How to balance the authority between the two sons, for Li Yuan, may be a test of his wisdom more than leveling the universe and subduing the four seas.

Although Li Shimin has outstanding achievements, the eldest son of the heir is the ancestral system, not to mention that the crown prince Li Jiancheng is not unreasonable and mediocre, and it is impossible to change it easily. Only by suppressing Li Shimin can the position of the crown prince be consolidated and he can smoothly inherit the throne. The killing of the hero Liu Wenjing is the beginning.

The ministers in the Tiance Mansion were successively transferred away from Li Shimin's side, and even Du Ruhui, who Li Shimin relied on very much, was transferred to Shaanzhou to make a long history. Fang Xuanling had a premonition that something was abnormal, and reminded Li Shimin, "Everyone else can, Lao Du is a talent who has established a hegemony!" If you have ulterior ideas, you must keep Lao Du. Li Shimin listened to Fang Xuanling's words and found Li Yuan to leave Du Ruhui.

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui, one can plan, the other is decisive, and the idiom "Fang Mou Du Xuan" is talking about these two. Every time Li Shimin conquered the city, the laity rushed to the gold and silver treasures, and Fang Xuanling's interest was to gather the enemy's talents and recommend them to Li Shimin. These two people are really Li Shimin's right-hand men.

On October 21, 621 AD, Xiao Miao, who was proclaimed emperor in the south, collapsed under the attack of Li Xiaogong and Li Jing. Emperor Xiao Mill of Liang surrendered at Kaesong, Gangneung. At this point, the Li Tang Dynasty basically completed the unification of the whole country.

At this time, Dou Jiande's old subordinate Liu Heimin raised troops against the Tang Dynasty again. Liu Heimin is a native of Gucheng County, Hebei Province, and was once attached to Dou Jiande, and was named the Duke of Handong County. This man is a ruthless character, very deceitful, and very good at timing, often able to surprise and win. If it weren't for Dou Jiande being fooled and wading into the troubled waters of Luoyang, Liu Heimin would have soared. It's a pity that just when Liu Heimin was about to explode into the small universe, Dou Jiande was flattened by Li Shimin under the Tiger Prison, and Liu Heimin's career dream was shattered in an instant.

After Dou Jiande's death, his old ministry was afraid of being liquidated, so he found Liu Heimin, who planned to farm, "Brother, lead us to do it!" Lao Li won't let us go! "This Liu Heimin is not a person of peace, and he has no choice but to go home to farm. At this time, seeing that everyone elected themselves to be the leader of the anti-Tang Dynasty, he immediately agreed, and when he turned around, he killed the ploughing cattle in his field who planned to accompany him to farm, and entertained everyone. After being full of wine and food, he raised troops against the Tang Dynasty.

Liu Heimin had already performed very well in the Dou Jiande era, and he established himself as the queen, and he was an invincible opponent in the eastern region of the Tang Dynasty. It didn't take long for the entire territory of Hebei, which originally belonged to Dou Jiande, to be taken by Liu Heimin.

Li Yuan was a little hesitant, did he use Li Shimin's double-edged sword to deal with Liu Heimin? With it, Li Shimin is likely to build an immortal achievement, and it will be more difficult to control it in the future. No, Hebei, Shandong and other places quickly fell, and no one could defend the country for him.

The lesser of the two powers, between the two sons, after all, is an internal contradiction among the people, and everything is negotiable. And with Liu Heimin, it is a life-and-death class struggle, and you can't be sloppy at all. Li Yuan figured out which was more important.

On December 15, 621 AD, Li Shimin, the king of Qin, set out again six months after the Battle of Tiger Pass.

In February of the following year, the Tang army occupied the city of Zhushui, and Wang Junkuo defended the city with 1,500 cavalry. I didn't want to be attacked by Liu Heimin, and Li Shimin sent troops to rescue him several times, but they were all repulsed. In Li Shimin's combat record, it is rare to encounter such stubborn resistance, he feels that it is difficult to hold the city, and he is worried that Wang Junkuo will lose, and wants him to break out and think in the long run. But at this time, among his generals, a young man rushed out, vying to replace Wang Junkuo to guard the water city, this brave young man is called Luo Shixin, he is the prototype of Luo Cheng in the Sui and Tang Romances.

At this time, the city was being attacked by Liu Heimin, and the whole city was in danger, but Luo Shixin was willing to take the risk to replace Wang Junkuo, and he was really a brave man who regarded death as home.

Yin knows that he can't do it, this is the hero. Luo Shixin rushed into the city with 200 people without hesitation, ushering in the most brilliant and tragic final battle of his life.

Liu Heimin surrounded the city for eight days and nights, and Luo Shixin guarded it for eight days and eight nights. Because of the heavy snowfall, Li Shimin's army could not go to the rescue, and Liu Jun finally broke through the city wall. Luo Shixin held Changyu in his hand, unstoppable, stabbed left and right, stabbed to death several enemy leaders, but was seriously wounded, unable to fight again, grabbed a war horse, rushed out of the city gate, and fled.

Outside the city, Luo Shixin fled in a hurry, strayed into the mud, was surrounded by enemies, and died in the chaos at the age of 20. A generation of stars will fall.

Li Shimin was blocked by the snow and could not be rescued, and after hearing the news of Luo Shixin's death, he was extremely sad. Luo Shixin was the first to follow Li Mi, and then to Wang Shichong, and finally returned to Li Shimin, and died for Tang Duzhong, which is the so-called death deserved!

The Tang army and Liu Heimin held each other in the city for more than two months, and Li Shimin estimated that Liu Heimin's food supply was not enough, and he should immediately fight a decisive battle with the Tang army, so he sent people to build a dam in the upper reaches of the river to cut off the river.

Sure enough, Liu Heimin took 20,000 soldiers to cross the water and attack the Tang army. Li Shimin led the elite cavalry to attack Liu Heimin's army. Li Shimin can be said to be the master of cavalry tactics, and the cavalry he led is unstoppable. He once overthrew an army of 100,000 with 3,500 cavalry, and his combat effectiveness was very strong. Liu Heimin's 20,000 army, under the repeated impact of Li Shimin's iron cavalry, persisted from noon to dusk, and was finally defeated.

At this time, the water came suddenly, it turned out that the officers and soldiers guarding the dam dug the embankment and diverted the water to irrigate, Liu Heimin's soldiers did not know that the commander had fled, and thousands of people were drowned by the flood, and more than 10,000 people were killed by the Tang army, and the rest fled in a big rout.

Liu Heimin fled to the Turks with more than 200 horsemen. In this battle, Liu Heimin's main force was completely lost, and Li Shimin won a complete victory again.

With the aftermath of the great victory over Liu Heimin, Li Shimin led his troops from Hebei to attack another rebel Xu Yuanlang. But he was suddenly recalled by Li Yuan and returned to Chang'an, just to report the current situation to Li Yuan, and was sent by Li Yuan to Liyang to join the army.

In the battle with Xu Yuanlang, Li Shimin connected more than ten cities and beat Xu Yuanlang so that he could not find the north. At this time, Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin to withdraw.

Li Shimin did not dare to disobey the edict, leaving Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, and hurried back to Chang'an. As soon as Li Shimin left, Liu Heimin borrowed troops from the Turks and made a comeback, and most of Shandong was taken back by him. Li Shimin desperately laid down the place, and in the blink of an eye, he lost his light again.

Why did Li Yuan repeatedly transfer back to Li Shimin? It turned out that I was still afraid that Li Shimin's credit would be too great and it would be difficult to balance. For this matter, Li Yuan also put a lot of thought into it.

There's something else to be said here. When Li Yuan raised his army, he agreed with Li Shimin that after the matter was completed, Li Shimin would be appointed as the crown prince and inherit the throne in the future. In the process of unifying the world, Li Shimin made great contributions, which made Li Jiancheng, the crown prince, deeply threatened. So Li Jiancheng united with Li Yuanji and tried his best to suppress Li Shimin.

In his later years, Li Yuan accepted many little wives, and these little wives gave birth to more than 20 sons for him. Among them, there are two concubines who are especially favored by Li Yuan, one is surnamed Yin and the other is surnamed Zhang, these two are the two palace people of Jinyang Palace who Pei Lin pulled Li Yuan into the water back then.

Li Jiancheng knows that no matter what aspect he is, he can't compare with Li Shimin. The only thing that is stronger than Li Shimin is that he was born earlier than him, but this natural advantage does not seem to guarantee his smooth succession. So he pulled Li Yuanji and began to collude with Zhang and Yin, bribing the second concubine and letting the two of them blow the pillow wind in Li Yuan's ears.

Li Shimin recovered Luoyang, and Li Yuan sent several concubines to Luoyang to select palace maids and rare belongings. This is a fat difference, and it is completely possible to pretend to be a public servant and make some of the treasures you like as you already have. It's just that Li Shimin is a straight man, and he refuses all of these women's requests. Such an impersonal thing naturally makes these women hold grudges.

Giving his father's things to his mother, Li Shimin didn't know how to do such a popular thing, but he seemed to disdain to do it.

Because of his meritorious service, Li Shimin awarded him dozens of hectares of land, but he didn't expect this land to be favored by Concubine Zhang's father. Of course, Li Yuan had to be generous to the place that the old man fancied, and he issued an edict very openly, giving the land to Lao Zhangtou again. Li Shentong had already occupied this place first, and of course he refused to hand it over to Lao Zhangtou. Concubine Zhang said to Li Yuan: "The piece of land you gave me was given to Li Shentong by the second child, and I don't know what he means?" This incident annoyed Li Yuan at once, and scolded Li Shimin, "Isn't my word as good as yours?" ”

Li Shimin is still very wronged in this matter, although he has a lot of credit and a lot of younger brothers, but he can still tell who is the father and who is the emperor, so he quickly apologized to Li Yuan. After that, Li Yuan said to Pei Lin hatefully: "This kid has military power in his hands, and he has become a little bad, and he is not as respectful to me as before!" ”

Concubine Yin's father is called A Rat, and when he hears this name, he knows that he is not a good product. This thing likes to be a dog and a man. One day, Du Ruhui passed by his door and did not dismount. When the old Yin Tou Rat's minions saw it, "Ouch! There are also those who dare to live at the door of our house, this is to look down on our master, that is, to look down on the current emperor! "This slave was sent by the ghost of this bullshit logic, and actually stopped Du Ruhui, pulled him off the horse, and beat him so badly that he even broke a finger. Du Ruhui was beaten and returned to the Qin Palace, and as soon as he finished crying with Li Shimin about being flattened, the palace people came to summon Li Shimin into the palace.

When Li Shimin arrived in the palace and saw Li Yuan, he was scolded by Li Yuan on the spot, "My wife and family, you dare to bully like this, let alone the common people?" Li Shimin hurriedly complained to Li Yuan, Li Yuan's soul was lost by the two fox spirits, and he couldn't listen to Li Shimin's explanation at all, so he dismissed him on the spot. When the second concubine Zhang Yin saw that the false accusation succeeded, she even reduced Li Shimin to worthless, and said to Li Yuan coquettishly: "Only the prince can preserve our glory and wealth!" ”

In this way, basins of dirty water were splashed on Li Shimin, the king of Qin, and Li Yuan gradually alienated Li Shimin. It was precisely out of suspicion of Li Shimin that Li Yuan suddenly summoned and hesitated.