At the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, it was an era of chaos in the world and heroes drawing their swords. This army, which rose in Henan, was once an ordinary bandit army that occupied the mountains as the king, but it became the first righteous army in the Central Plains that was powerful in the world step by step.

Despite this, the Wagang Army, which was dominant, was finally like a meteor, crossing the sky of the Sui and Tang dynasties. Such an incomparably powerful military force was almost on the verge of winning the world, and even once came to the city of Luoyang, only one step away from the eastern capital Luoyang. It's a pity that the world is unpredictable, but Luoyang has become the cemetery of 300,000 Wagang troops. In the end, the Wagang Army could only quietly withdraw from the historical stage of the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties.

It can be said that the rise and fall of the Wagang Army is closely linked to Li Mi. Li Mi single-handedly created the strength of the Wagang Army, but he also single-handedly led the Wagang Army into the bottomless abyss. So, how did Li Mi, the heroic leader of the heroic alliance, encounter the "Waterloo" of his life and career? Under the city of Luoyang, what thrilling twists and turns have it experienced? Why did Li Mi, who had 300,000 Wagang troops, lose to Wang Shichong, a former subordinate?

As mentioned above, in April of the second year of Yining (618), Yu Wenhua led 100,000 Xiaoguo rebels from Jiangdu and embarked on the road back to Chang'an. Because of the turmoil of Yu Culture, the situation between the enemy and us under Luoyang City has undergone amazing changes.

Yu Wenhua and all the way north, 100,000 Xiaoguo, gradually approaching the eastern capital Luoyang. At that time, Li Mizheng led 300,000 Wagang troops to besiege Luoyang. However, due to the horizontal insertion of Yu culture and a bar. Between Yang Tong and Li Mi, the emperor's lords, friends and foes have changed, from the original enemies to allies who share life and death. Li Mi and Yang Tong, the lord of Huangtai, shook hands and made peace, and the guns were unanimous to deal with Yu Wenhua together.

Li Mi declared himself a vassal to the emperor and expressed his willingness to form an alliance with Luoyang. The emperor immediately canonized Li Mi as the Tai Lieutenant, Shang Shuling, the Marshal of the Daxingtai Marching Army of the Southeast Dao, and the Duke of Wei, and let Li Mi be fully responsible for the attack on Yu Wenhua. Li Mi accepted the canonization of Luoyang and established an alliance with the Emperor Tai. As a result, Li Mi led the Wagang army to block the 100,000 Xiaoguo of Yu Wenhua with all his might.

The mediocre and incompetent Yu Wenhua is Li Mi's opponent? After a few rounds, he was defeated repeatedly. The 100,000 army was defeated like a mountain, and only 20,000 remnants of the army were defeated, and Yu Wenhua was forced to defeat Wei County (now Hebei Daimyo). After that, Yu Wenhua was captured and killed by Dou Jiande of Hebei, and Xiaoguo was destroyed.

Previously, the reason why Li Mi and Huangtai shook hands and made peace was because they had a common enemy: Yu Wenhua. During this period, Li Mi and Luoyang maintained a relatively short period of peaceful coexistence. Therefore, this period is the "honeymoon period" between Li Mi and Luoyang.

However, with the defeat of Yu Wenji, the "honeymoon period" between Li Mi and Huangtai also reached the end, and the alliance between the two sides came to an end. Li Mi and Wang Shichong, the military commander of Luoyang, fought again under the city of Luoyang. The final decisive battle under Luoyang City is inevitable.

In fact, since defeating Yu Wenhua, Li Mi has unilaterally torn up the covenant. He understands that after defeating Yu Wenhua, the so-called alliance with Luoyang has already existed in name only. Therefore, after driving away Yu Wenhua, Li Mi's next thing to do is to rectify the soldiers and horses, and is about to launch a general attack on Luoyang. Li Mi had no choice but to capture Luoyang.

Similarly, Luoyang is not blind. Although Yang Tong, the lord of Huangtai, is young, he is talented and intelligent. The young emperor's heart was like a mirror, and he knew that he and Li Mi would eventually have a fight. Therefore, after Yu Wenhua withdrew from Luoyang, Luoyang was also strengthening its combat preparedness, strictly guarding against death, and responding to Li Mi's large-scale attack at any time.

Just when Li Mi was preparing intensively for the general attack on Luoyang, something happened in Luoyang City. At present, in the Luoyang court, the situation is treacherous, and serious internal strife has occurred, and their own people have fought against each other, fighting in the same room, and even turned into a large-scale bloodshed. The final result of this bloody incident was that Wang Shichong grasped the military and political power of Luoyang, and Yang Tong, the emperor of Taitai, became Wang Shichong's puppet and fell into a place of no return.

At present, Li Mi is about to attack Luoyang. The hundred officials of Luoyang should be united in the battle, why did there be infighting? In fact, the infighting in Luoyang City is a direct manifestation of the contradictions between Luoyang's civil and military ministers; In addition, this is also a conspiracy that Wang Shichong has been brewing for a long time and carefully planned.

In fact, this is still related to Li Mi's minister.

Because Yu Wenhua was approaching Luoyang, Luoyang took the initiative to turn enemies into friends with Li Mi in order to fight against Yu Wenhua's 100,000 Xiaoguo. Li Mi also sent an envoy to get in touch with Luoyang, and Yang Tong, the lord of Huangtai, immediately added an official to Li Mi and made him fully responsible for the battle with Yu Wenhua. During this period, Li Mi did fulfill his duty as a courtier. Every time he wins a battle, Li Mi will report to the emperor as soon as possible. It should be said that during this period, the relationship between Li Mi and Luoyang was still relatively harmonious.

You must know that before this, Li Mi had been besieging Luoyang for a whole year. Luoyang, defeated repeatedly, even suffered defeats, and the food in the city was about to run out. If it weren't for Yu Wenhua and coming, it is estimated that Luoyang would not have taken a few days to break the city. However, as soon as Yu Wenhua came, Li Mi actually declared himself a vassal to Luoyang. The former enemy turned out to be his own courtier, which was a surprise for the emperor.

The Emperor was very happy, so what about the performance of the other ministers of the Luoyang court? Regarding Li Mi's claim to be a minister, there are two completely different manifestations among the ministers. These two different manifestations mainly come from the attitudes of the ministers and generals, and there are serious contradictions between the ministers and the generals on this matter.

Wenchen's opinion is naturally the same as that of the emperor. At the beginning, the alliance with Li Mi was proposed by Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu, the representative figures of Wenchen. Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu were one of the "Seven Nobles" at the beginning of the reign of Yang Tong, the lord of Huangtai, and jointly served as the internal history order.

Yuan Wendu's original idea was to use Li Mi's hands to eliminate Yu Wenhua, and at the same time consume Li Mi's military strength to achieve the effect of killing two birds with one stone. His idea really worked. Yu Wenhua was defeated, and Li Mi was greatly injured because of this. Therefore, Yuan Wendu began to be a little fluttering, according to the record of "Zizhi Tongjian", Yuan Wendu celebrated with wine all day long, so unhappy:

Yuan Wen is happy with reconciliation, saying that the world can be determined, and he has wine and fun at the upper east gate, and he has danced since Duan Da.

The problem is, Yuanwen is happy, but some people are not happy, who is not happy? Naturally, he is a military general who is opposed to Wenchen, and the representative of this is, of course, Wang Shichong, the military commander who has been fighting against Li Mi for a long time. Wang Shichong was very dissatisfied with Yuan Wen at this time, and at the same time, his wolf ambitions were constantly revealed.

As Wang Shichong mentioned earlier, he was originally the commander of Jiangdu, responsible for suppressing peasant uprisings in the Jiangnan area. Later, because Li Mi besieged Luoyang, the eastern capital was in an emergency, and Emperor Yang of Sui had to send him to lead 50,000 Jianghuai soldiers to aid the eastern capital Luoyang. After Wang Shichong arrived in Luoyang, he has been fighting against Li Mi, and the emperor also relies on him very much.

However, in the process of fighting Li Mi, Wang Shichong often won fewer victories and lost more. Especially in the battle of Luokou, the main force was completely lost and defeated. However, the emperor did not hold him responsible for the defeat. After all, in Luoyang City, Wang Shichong is one of the few generals who can lead troops to fight.

At the beginning of the emperor's accession to the throne, he was divided into "seven nobles", and Wang Shichong was the first of the "seven nobles". Wang Shichong is not an idle person, and he also has the ambition to dominate the world in his heart. He saw that the general trend of the Sui Dynasty had gone, so he gave birth to the heart to replace the Sui Dynasty. Defeating the Wagang army can make Wang Shichong famous, and in order to replace the rule of the Sui Dynasty, Luoyang, the eastern capital of Dingding, will win enough weight.

However, Yuan Wendu proposed an alliance with Li Mi, but poured cold water on Wang Shichong's head. The alliance between the emperor and Li Mi not only allowed Li Mi to hold many important military and political positions, but also allowed Li Mi to enter the auxiliary government of the court. Wang Shichong and Li Mi are fierce rivals in life and death. Once Li Mi enters the auxiliary government of the dynasty, will there still be a foothold for Wang Shichong? Therefore, Wang Shichong hated Yuan Wendu, and he often complained to Cui Changwen, the living attendant: "The court officials are thieves, what are their aspirations evil!" ”

Wang Shichong was dissatisfied with Yuan Wendu, and similarly, Yuan Wendu was also suspicious of Wang Shichong. Wang Shichong has led the army for many years and holds military power, and Yuan Wendu often worries that he has different ambitions. Since Yu Wenhua and the soldiers forced Luoyang, Yuan Wendu's worries have become even heavier, and he suspects that Wang Shichong and Yu Wenhua are colluding with each other to subvert the situation in Luoyang. Because of this, the relationship between the two people became very tense, but they didn't tear their faces in public, and they still retained a trace of politeness on their faces.

The Wagang army was approaching the city, and the battle was about to break out. However, above the Luoyang court, they will lose harmony and be suspicious of each other. This has cast a shadow over the crumbling situation in the eastern capital. However, an even bigger crisis is yet to come. A bloody rain, sword light and sword shadow, is about to sweep the eastern capital Luoyang.

In any case, Wang Shichong also wanted to prevent Li Mi from entering the auxiliary government of the court. How to prevent Li Mi from entering the auxiliary government of the DPRK? intercepting and killing halfway, that will only make Wang Shichong too stupid and too explicit. Preventing Li Mi from entering the imperial auxiliary government was only to make him unable to enter Luoyang. Therefore, Wang Shichong decided to set off a bloody storm in Luoyang City, control the political situation in Luoyang, get rid of Yuan Wendu and other opposing factions, and let himself have the final say. When the time comes, as soon as Li Mi sees the sudden change in the situation in Luoyang, he will definitely retreat in the face of difficulties and return to the Wagang Army on his own. In that case, he could only fight with himself under Luoyang City.

However, after all, Yuan Wendu is an official and is the prime minister of the dynasty, and it is not easy to get rid of him. Wang Shichong is not an ordinary person, he was able to kill all 30,000 righteous troops, which shows that he is ruthless. Therefore, to get rid of Yuan Wendu, of course Wang Shichong will not take normal means, he will take an abnormal means to solve the problem. Wang Shichong thought of a quick way: mutiny!

Luoyang and Li Mi turned enemies into friends, not only Wang Shichong was dissatisfied, but almost all the generals were greatly dissatisfied. As a result, Wang Shichong took advantage of the dissatisfaction of the generals to fanning the flames in the army. Wang Shichong plucked many of the generals under his command and said to them:

The generations of Wendu, the sword and pen, I look at its momentum, and it will be captured by Li Mi. And every time our soldiers fight with the secret war, kill their fathers, brothers and children, there are many before and after, once they are under it, I am classless! (The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty: The Biography of Wang Shichong)

What Wang Shichong means is that the group of people in Yuan Wendu are purely swordsmen and pen officials, and they are definitely not Li Mi's opponents. What's more, we have fought so many battles with Li Mi, how many of their fathers, brothers and children died at the hands of Li Mi. Once Li Mi enters Luoyang City, can he still have our good fruits to eat?

The generals already had a lot of complaints about Yuanwen, and Wang Shichong was known for his prestige in the army.

Yuan Wendu learned of Wang Shichong's conspiracy, so he discussed with Lu Chu and decided to strike first. Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu discussed, falsely passed on the will of the emperor, recruited Wang Shichong into the court, ambushed the armor in advance, and killed him. However, the news unexpectedly leaked. Duan Da, the general under them, had two hearts and asked his son-in-law Zhang Zhi to secretly tell Wang Shichong about the plans of Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu.

Seeing that Yuan Wen was about to attack him, Wang Shichong decided to act immediately. That night, Wang Shichong led his army to surround the palace and attacked Hanjiamen at night. Wang Shichong attacked the palace, and Yuan Wendu realized that something was wrong, and immediately escorted the emperor to the Qianyang Palace to take refuge, and Chen soldiers defended themselves. At the same time, he ordered the generals to close the city gates and resist Wang Shichong. However, the generals who were responsible for guarding the palace gate were either defeated by Wang Shichong or abandoned the city and fled.

The defense line of the palace gate was completely broken through by Wang Shichong, but Yuan Wendu still wanted to make a last stand. He wanted to personally lead the army to enter through the Xuanwu Gate, go around to Wang Shichong's back, and attack the enemy by surprise. However, Duan Yu, the Changqiu supervisor stationed at Xuanwu Gate, lied that he couldn't find the key, so he didn't open the door for Yuanwendu. At this time, Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu are really gone, and they can only sit and wait to die.

In the morning, Wang Shichong led his army into the palace. At that time, Lu Chu was hiding in the Taiguan Bureau, but was captured by Wang Shichong's army. The rebels escorted Lu Chu to Xingjiaomen, and when Wang Shichong saw Lu Chu, he couldn't help but say that he was ordered to be killed with a knife. After killing Lu Chu, Wang Shichong waved his army to attack the gate of Ziwei Palace.

Yang Tong, the lord of the emperor, ascended to the purple microcosm, he grew up in the deep palace since he was a child, where has he seen this kind of situation. So, the emperor sent someone to Wang Shichong to send a message, what do you want to do when you bring troops into the palace? Wang Shichong immediately turned over and dismounted, and apologized to the emperor for his crimes, Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu intended to frame the ministers, and when I killed Yuan Wendu, I would ask His Majesty for guilt.

So, Duan Da ordered people to tie up Yuanwen and put him in front of Wang Shichong. Before Yuan Wendu left, he said to the emperor sadly: "The minister is dead today, and Your Majesty is in time!" When the emperor heard this, his heart was extremely sour, and he burst into tears, and watched Yuan Wen be escorted out. Yuan Wen was escorted to Wang Shichong, Wang Shichong didn't blink his eyes, and ordered Yuan Wen to be killed indiscriminately, and the death method was the same as Lu Chu.

After killing Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu, Wang Shichong once again exposed his ruthless nature, and cut Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu's sons to the roots. After that, Wang Shichong replaced all the guards guarding the palace with his own people. Then, Wang Shichong entered the Qianyang Hall and met the emperor. When the emperor saw Wang Shichong entering the palace, he asked him sharply why he brought troops into the palace, and he also killed innocents indiscriminately:

If you kill each other and don't hear it, how can it be the way of a minister? The public wants to be powerful, dare to be evil! (Information Governance Guide)

In the face of the emperor's questioning, Wang Shichong was still crying bitterly in a fake way, bowing down and apologizing, and solemnly swore to the emperor that he had no dissent:

The ministers were picked by the emperor, and the powder and bones were not reported. Wendu and others hide evil intentions, and want to summon Li Mi to endanger the society, but the ministers violate the differences, and accumulate suspicions; The minister was forced to save the dead, and he didn't have time to hear it. If you do not have a heart in your heart, and you disobey Your Majesty, the heavens, the earth, the sun and the moon will shine on it, so that the ministers will be destroyed and there will be no relics.

The words are good, but the emperor also understands that this is just Wang Shichong's coy posture. In the current situation, Wang Shichong has completely controlled the situation, what else can the emperor do except be helpless? In such a situation, the emperor could only succumb to Wang Shichong's obscenity and appoint Wang Shichong as the left servant of Shangshu and the governor of the military inside and outside. At this point, Wang Shichong officially ascended to the pinnacle of power and became the actual controller of the eastern capital Luoyang.

After Wang Shichong grasped the military and political power, he wantonly installed party henchmen and cronies in the court, divided the children of the Wang family, and let his elder brother Wang Shiyun serve as the internal history order of the original Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu, and was in charge of the central cardinal affairs. At the same time, other brothers and nephews of the Wang family also took charge of the military. It can be said that at this time, Wang Shichong's cronies, brothers, sons and nephews were all over the government and the opposition. The Luoyang court has become Wang Shichong's world, and Yang Tong, the emperor of Taitai, has completely become Wang Shichong's puppet:

Shichong immigrated to Shangshu Province from Jiacheng, gradually formed party aid, and acted in Weifu. With the brother Shiyun as the internal history order, into the forbidden, the children of the Xiandian soldiers and horses, the division of political affairs for ten heads, all with its party master, the potential to shock inside and outside, all tend to be attached, the emperor and the lord of the emperor only. (Information Governance Guide)

Within one day, Wang Shichong led his troops to attack the palace, killed two important ministers in a row, controlled the emperor's lord, and stole the military and political power of the eastern capital Luoyang. Luoyang City has changed, and Wang Shichong has become the real ruler of Luoyang City. This generation of heroes in the troubled times at the end of the Sui Dynasty made Luoyang City a sea of corpses and blood through a bloody and cruel abnormal means, and the final end of the Sui Dynasty has come.

After taking the supreme authority of Luoyang, Wang Shichong's next step was to concentrate all his forces to deal with Li Mi, the sworn enemy under Luoyang City. So, what is the situation on Li Mi's side?

Previously, in order to defeat Yu Wenhua, the Emperor Taizhu formed an alliance with Li Mi. Moreover, the emperor once promised Li Mi to allow him to enter the auxiliary government of the court. After defeating Yu Wenhua, Li Mi was indeed preparing to enter Luoyang and report to the Emperor Tai, he wanted to follow Li Yuan's example and seize the supreme power as a powerful minister, and it was just the case that he didn't have to raise troops to fight. However, it backfired, and when he arrived in Wen County, Li Mi learned that a great change had taken place in Luoyang City, and Wang Shichong launched a military coup d'état and seized the supreme power. Li Mi understands that Luoyang will never be able to go.

As a result, Li Mi immediately turned back halfway and returned to Kim Yong City. In this way, the Luoyang defenders and the Wagang army returned to a state of confrontation again. Whether it is Li Mi or Wang Shichong, they all understand that the final battle under Luoyang City is inevitable.

Therefore, Li Mi and Wang Shichong each began to gear up and actively prepare for the upcoming decisive battle. So, before the decisive battle, what is the balance of power between the two sides? In the course of Li Mi and Wang Shichong's previous battles, Wang Shichong always won less and lost more, and Li Mi won consecutive battles. According to common sense, the advantage must be on Li Mi's side. However, this is not what it used to be, but it is not always the same.

Let's take a look at the situation on Wang Shichong's side first.

After this internal strife in the eastern capital, Luoyang has reached the brink of collapse. The current eastern capital of Luoyang has completely become a "hell on earth". Because of the internal strife, in the Luoyang Palace, there was a river of blood, and there were countless casualties. This is not the most terrible, what is even worse is that at this time Luoyang, a very serious economic crisis broke out: inflation. According to the record of the "General Guide to Governance":

The eastern capital is hungry, private money is indiscriminate, too half of it is a tin ring, which is as thin as a line, and the rice is eighty or ninety thousand in a straight line.

Li Mi besieged Luoyang for a year, resulting in an extreme shortage of food in the city. This has led to a bad result, and there is a flood of private money in the Luoyang market. Moreover, this kind of private money is of inferior quality, which completely destroys the currency circulation in the Luoyang market. Not only that, but the price of grain in Luoyang is also soaring wildly, and a single piece of grain and rice is worth at least 80,000 or 90,000 yuan. In the case of this economic crisis, Luoyang Minsheng has entered a dead end.

Therefore, Wang Shichong inherited a mess full of holes. Internally, people's livelihood is withering, and people's lives are difficult; Outside, Li Mi's 300,000 Wagang army was under the city. For Wang Shichong, the battle in Luoyang must be ended as soon as possible, and only by defeating Li Mi can the turbulent situation in Luoyang be stabilized.

Let's take a look at Li Mi's situation.

Li Mi's situation is also not optimistic. First of all, in several encounters with Yu Wenhua, although Li Mi finally succeeded in defeating Yu Wenhua, it also made a huge change in the military strength of the Wagang army. The Wagang Army experienced a battle with Yu Wenhua, and its vitality was greatly damaged, and it began to turn from prosperity to decline. Now, the Wagang army as a whole is exhausted and permeated with a mood of war weariness.

Secondly, Li Mi himself has also undergone subtle changes, what has changed? Pride, inflated. From Li Mi's defection to Wagangzhai to the establishment of Wei Gong, the two major groups within the Wagang Army have been fighting openly and secretly. Until Li Mi killed Zhai Rang, took sole control of the Wagang army, and because of the siege of Luoyang, he achieved a series of impressive achievements, which made Li Mi carried away by victory. At this time, Li Mi began to become proud and complacent, and his self was inflated.

The victory made Li Mi gradually lose himself. This once literary and martial arts generation of heroes is now becoming more and more paranoid, unable to listen to any opinions, and not as sympathetic to soldiers as before. Li Mi besieged Luoyang for more than a year and occupied several important granaries around Luoyang. It can be said that Li Mi is not worried about having no food to eat now. However, Li Mi has a shortcoming, he has food but no money, and he has no treasury. Therefore, the soldiers made meritorious deeds, and Li Mi could not reward them for their meritorious deeds.

However, Li Mi gave preferential treatment to the newly attached Sui Dynasty to surrender troops and generals. This practice aroused the dissatisfaction of many old Wagang Army troops, who believed that Li Mi favored one over the other. At this time, the Wagang army was quite resentful of Li Mi. Coupled with the previous killing of Zhai Rang, the trend of division within the Wagang Army has become very obvious.

In addition, since the siege of Luoyang, the eastern capital, Li Mi has won successive battles and achieved a series of military victories, and he has become the leader of the anti-Sui alliance promoted by the world's heroes. Therefore, Li Mi also became rigid and self-serving in the later period, and could not tolerate a little disagreement. For example, at a banquet, Xu Shiyun, an important general of the Wagang Army, sarcastically mocked Li Mi in his words. Li Mi was very displeased, so he sent him to Liyang to garrison, and actually let him leave the upper echelons of the Wagang Army:

At the beginning, Li Mi killed Zhai Rang, was quite arrogant and disrespectful to the people; Although there are many cangsu, there is no treasury money and silk, and the soldiers have merit, but there is no reward; and cared for the people who were first attached, and the hearts of the people were quite resentful. Xu Shiwei ridiculed his shortness because of the banquet; Secret, so that the world out of the town of Liyang, although the name is appointed, it is also negligent. (Information Governance Guide)

Through the above introduction, it is not difficult to see that Li Mi and Wang Shichong are facing their own different dilemmas. The key is who has the determination to survive and fight against the odds. In the tense atmosphere, the decisive battle under Luoyang City is about to officially begin!

At present, Li Mi and Wang Shichong, the two armies are still in the stage of stalemate. However, each of them has a different agenda. Luoyang has repeatedly lost and suffered setbacks in many battles with Li Mi; Not long ago, there was a large-scale bloody conflict in Luoyang Palace, with countless casualties. Therefore, Li Mi judged that the main force of Luoyang City was basically lost, and Luoyang would definitely be captured in the short term.

Similarly, Wang Shichong is also actively preparing for the decisive battle in Luoyang. Since attacking and killing Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu and seizing power, Wang Shichong began to actively strengthen combat preparations, reward soldiers heavily, make offensive and defensive equipment, and prepare for a battle with Li Mi. Both sides are thinking differently.

At that time, Wang Shichong and Li Mi both lacked their own things. For example, Wang Shichong was short of food, and Li Mi was less clothed. So, Wang Shichong wanted to exchange with Li Mi and exchange his clothes and silk for food from Li Mi. At first, Li Mi was still hesitating, worried about what tricks Wang Shichong would play.

However, Li Mi's elder Shi Bing Yuanzhen instigated Li Mi to agree to Wang Shichong's request out of his own selfish interests. Li Mi was also impulsive, and actually agreed to exchange with Wang Shichong. Originally, when the eastern capital was extremely short of food, hundreds of people in Luoyang surrendered to Li Mi every day. However, after receiving the food, the number of converts began to decrease greatly. It was only at this time that Li Mi regretted that he had fallen for Wang Shichong's way.

Li Mi and Wang Shichong were tense and battled with each other, and both of them understood that this situation would not last long. Sure enough, Wang Shichong decided to do something to Li Mi. After a battle with Yu Wenhua, the Wagang army suffered a great loss of vitality, and the elite soldiers and good horses in the army suffered huge losses, and the soldiers were exhausted. Wang Shichong believed that taking advantage of the crisis of the Wagang army's military strength, he might have some chance of winning by taking the initiative to attack and strive to defeat Li Mi in a battle.

In September of the first year of Wude (618), Wang Shichong selected 20,000 elites and more than 2,000 war horses, and Chen soldiers were south of Luoshui, preparing for a decisive battle with Li Mi. At the same time, Wang Shichong stationed troops south of the Tongji Canal and built three pontoon bridges on the Tongji Canal in order to have a decisive battle with the Wagang army. Moreover, Wang Shichong sent troops this time, and the momentum was extremely huge, "the banners are all written with Yongtong characters, and the army is very prosperous."

Before the official dispatch of troops, Wang Shichong also had concerns. I have fought with Li Mi for so long, and I always win less and lose more. Therefore, Wang Shichong's army has more or less a psychological shadow on the Wagang army. So, Wang Shichong thought of a trick, he lied to the soldiers that Zhang Yongtong, the guard of the Left Army, had dreamed of Zhou Gong three times and asked him to tell him to send troops to attack Li Mi quickly. The soldiers in Wang Shichong's army were also very superstitious, and they were convinced of this kind of nonsense, and immediately overcame their fear of the Wagang army, and asked Wang Shichong for battle.

Since Wang Shichong took the initiative to send troops, Li Mi naturally had to respond. He made such a deployment, ordering Wang Bodang to stay in the base camp of Kim Yong City, and Xu Shichang to guard Liyang; He personally led the main elite and sent out the division, waiting for the southern foot of the mountain, using the mountain as a barrier to start a big battle with Wang Shichong.

Although, Li Mi led the main force of the Wagang Army, and he was already in battle in Bishan. However, Li Mi still couldn't make up his mind about how to deal with Wang Shichong's tactics. Therefore, before the decisive battle, Li Mi convened the generals and held a military meeting to discuss what tactics to adopt.

However, at this military meeting, there were huge divisions and opinions within the Wagang army. For example, Pei Renji suggested that Li Mi and Wang Shichong lead the main force to pour out, and the eastern capital Luoyang will inevitably be empty. We should take advantage of this great opportunity to bypass Wang Shichong and go straight to Luoyang. As long as Luoyang is taken, Wang Shichong will lose his foundation, and he will definitely be defeated without a fight:

Shichong is all coming, Luoxia will be empty, can divide troops to guard its important road, order not to the east, 30,000 simple soldiers, by the west of the river to force the eastern capital. The world is repaid, and I will press the first; The world is full again, and I force it again. In this way, I have the strength to spare, and I will work hard to break it. (Information Governance Guide)

In response to Pei Renji's suggestion to take Luoyang directly, the strategist Wei Zheng immediately objected. Wei Zheng analyzed the situation on the battlefield and believed that the current military strength of the Wagang Army was damaged, and it should adopt the tactics of waiting for work at ease and clearing the wilderness, fighting a protracted battle with Wang Shichong, and consuming Wang Shichong alive:

Although the Duke of Wei won a sudden victory, the generals died sharply, and the soldiers were sluggish, and the two were difficult to deal with. And the world is full of food, determined to fight to the death, difficult to compete with the front, not if the deep ditch and high fortress to refuse, but in the tenth month, the world is full of food, will retreat, chase and attack, contempt.

Each of these two suggestions has its own merits. Pei Renji advocated a quick victory, while Wei Zheng advocated a steady and steady battle. So, how will Li Mi choose? In fact, Li Mi was initially more inclined to Pei Renji's suggestion to take Luoyang directly, because his desire to capture Luoyang was too urgent. Therefore, when Pei Renji had just finished expressing his position, Li Mi immediately agreed and said:

The public is good. There are three things that cannot be used in the soldiers of the eastern capital today: the elite soldiers, one also; The decision is deep, and the second is also; Eat all the battles, three also. But I will take the city and hold on, and I will wait for it; He can't fight, and he has no way out, but in ten days, the head of the world can be under his command.

Just when Li Mi was about to adopt Pei Renji's suggestion, bypass Wang Shichong, and go straight to Luoyang, someone stood up and made trouble. Some veteran generals in the Wagang Army, as well as some Sui Dynasty generals, such as Shan Xiongxin, Chen Zhiluo, Fan Wenchao and others, actively encouraged Li Mi to fight Wang Shichong head-on:

Ji Shichong has very few soldiers, and he has been repeatedly destroyed, and he has lost his courage. "The Art of War" says, "Doubling is fighting", and the situation is not as bad as doubling! And the people of Jiang and Huai are newly attached, hoping to show their meritorious effects and use them to achieve their ambitions.

As soon as Shan Xiongxin and others said this, many generals present were quickly in an uproar and asked Li Mi to fight. At that time, seven or eight out of ten people in the Wagang army invited to fight. Li Mi was also overjoyed by these enthusiastic words, and his mind was hot, and he actually decided to fight Wang Shichong head-on. Pei Renji painstakingly advised Li Mi not to go to war with Wang Shichong head-on. However, Li Mi refused to listen. In the end, Pei Renji patted the ground with his hand in annoyance, and sighed: "The queen will regret it." ”

At the instigation of many generals, Li Mi decided to take the initiative and fight a decisive battle with Wang Shichong. Rushing to war is a taboo for soldiers. However, Li Mi was very eager to defeat Wang Shichong, insisted on going his own way, led the main force, and confronted Wang Shichong. It is not difficult to see that Li Mi is now very irrational.

Li Mi has decided to fight a decisive battle with Wang Shichong, and the next step is to allocate troops. So, Li Mi asked Cheng Yanjin (Cheng Zhijie) to lead the Inner Horse Army under his command and stationed it on the Beibi Mountain with himself; Shan Xiongxin was ordered to lead the Waima Army, stationed north of the Yanshi, and was ready to attack Wang Shichong at any time.

Unexpectedly, Li Mi had not launched an attack yet, but Wang Shichong took the lead. Wang Shichong led 20,000 elite soldiers, and soon south of Luoshui, Chen Bing sent hundreds of cavalry to cross the Tongji Canal and attack Shan Xiongxin's Waima Army camp. Shan Xiongxin was caught off guard by this sudden attack, and fell behind for a while. When Li Mi learned that Shan Xiongxin's camp had been attacked, he immediately dispatched two generals, Cheng Yanjin and Pei Xingyan, to lead soldiers and horses to support Shan Xiongxin.

After Cheng Yanjin and Pei Xingyan led the army to arrive, they started a fierce battle with Wang Shichong's hundreds of cavalry. This battle was extremely fierce, and the "Old Tang Book" and "Zizhi Tongjian" all recorded this terrifying battle. Take the record in "Old Tang Book: The Biography of Cheng Zhijie" as an example:

He galloped to the enemy first, was hit by a stray arrow, and fell to the ground. Zhijie rescued him, killed several people, and the world was invincible, so he rode back with a heavy ride. Chased by the world's full ride, the stabbing lance hole, Zhijie turned around and folded its lance, and captured the pursuer, so he was spared from the line.

In the fierce battle, Pei Xingyan took the lead in galloping his horse and rushed to the enemy's formation, but was shot by the enemy's stray arrows and fell off his horse. Just when Pei Xingyan's life was hanging by a thread, at the critical moment, Cheng Yanjin suddenly rushed over and killed several enemy soldiers with his own hands. Then, Cheng Yanjin picked up Pei Xingyan, who fell to the ground, and the two rode on a horse and struggled to break out.

Unexpectedly, in the process of breaking through, a cavalryman in Wang Shichong's army came out of the oblique stab, brandished a long lance, and stabbed with a lance. I saw that this long lance was impartial, and directly pierced Cheng Yanjin's body, and the blood flowed like a torrent. According to modern medicine, this is a penetrating injury.

However, it was at this time that a miracle happened. Cheng Biting Jin, who was seriously injured, turned around suddenly, broke the lance alive, and killed the cavalryman. Cheng bit Jin's superior martial arts, which immediately produced a very good effect, and the Wagang army fought hard to temporarily stabilize the situation. In this battle, Li Mi and Wang Shichong should be regarded as a draw. Wang Shichong failed to break through Shan Xiongxin's main camp, but all units of the Wagang Army were severely damaged, and its military strength was greatly reduced.

After this battle, Li Mi should be aware of Wang Shichong's ability, right? No. Until now, Li Mi still did not pay attention to Wang Shichong's opponent. In many confrontations with Wang Shichong, Li Mi is often in the upper hand. Therefore, Li Mi looked down on Wang Shichong from the bottom of his heart. Driven by this mentality, Li Mi committed another fatal taboo: underestimating the enemy. It was precisely because of Li Mi's light enemy that the powerful Wagang army was finally lost.

At that time, in the decisive battle with Wang Shichong, Li Mi should order all units of the Wagang Army to strictly defend them. However, Li Mi did not do so. He was arrogant and contemptuous, and he didn't set up barriers along the way. This approach is a big mistake, no barriers, the Wagang army is equivalent to losing a military barrier, in case Wang Shichong surprises the Wagang army, Li Mi has no time to resist, and it will definitely collapse at the first touch. In fact, Wang Shichong also saw this loophole in Li Mi's deployment.

Wang Shichong is also a generation of heroes, he grasped the weakness of Li Mi's arrogance and began to exploit loopholes. Wang Shichong took advantage of the night to send more than 200 cavalrymen to secretly sneak into Beibi Mountain, ambush in the valleys on both sides of the mountain, and order the soldiers to feed the war horses. Wang Shichong's ambush soldiers had already touched the vicinity of the main camp of the Wagang Army, but Li Mi didn't know it. A big net is slowly spreading to the Wagang army.

In the early morning of the next day, Wang Shichong decided to launch a general attack on the Wagang Army, and before the general attack, Wang Shichong impassionedly mobilized the whole army before the war:

Today's battle is not a direct battle for victory or defeat; The difference between life and death, in one fell swoop. If it is also successful, wealth and nobility do not matter; If it is not successful, no one will be spared. The death of those who fight is not for the country alone, and everyone should encourage it!

Wang Shichong's side is high-spirited and united; On the other hand, Li Mi is arrogant and has a low morale. From the ideological understanding before the war, Li Mi had already lost.

After dawn, Wang Shichong led the army to rush straight to the camp of the Wagang army, and before Li Mi could arrange the formation, Wang Shichong had already launched an attack. Wang Shichong's army was a strong Jianghuai army that he brought out from Jiangdu, and he followed him to suppress the peasant uprising in Jiangnan and fought bravely. Therefore, these Jianghuai strong brigades, in the camp of the Wagang Army, rushed left and right, as if entering a no-man's land, and the two armies fell into a fierce battle.

At this time, just when the two armies were fighting without a win, Wang Shichong used his "killer weapon". He had hidden a man who looked like Li Mi in the army. When the battle was fierce, Wang Shichong suddenly pushed this person to the front of the army and shouted to the Wagang army opposite: "Li Mi has been obtained!" ”

As soon as these words came out, the Wagang army immediately fell into chaos, and the entire army lost order. Wang Shichong seized this rare fighter plane, and more than 200 Jianghuai soldiers who were ambushed on both sides of the valley rode down from the height to press the entire line of the Wagang Army. At the same time, Wang Shichong ordered the Jianghuai soldiers to set fire everywhere in the Wagang army barracks. In an instant, the 100,000 Wagang army was defeated at the touch of a button, and it was defeated. In a panic, Li Mi led 10,000 remnants of the army and hurriedly retreated to Luokoucang.

However, the defeat was overwhelming. As soon as the news of Li Mi's defeat came out, a chain reaction was immediately formed in the various units of the Wagang Army around Luoyang. After defeating the main force of the Wagang army in Beibi Mountain, Wang Shichong took advantage of the victory to pursue, and the guards of the Wagang army of Yanshi and Luokou Cangcheng, Zheng Ying and Bing Yuanzhen, surrendered to Wang Shichong one after another. Many of Li Mi's important military towns in Henan fell into the hands of Wang Shichong.

Since Li Mi was defeated in Beibi Mountain, he led the remnants to flee all the way to the Tiger Prison Pass. In this way, Li Mi, a generation of heroes who dominated the world at the end of the Sui Dynasty, was defeated by Wang Shichong in Luoyang City. The Wagang Army, the first military group in the Central Plains, which once shocked the world, completely collapsed because of the Battle of Beibi Mountain, and withdrew from the historical stage of the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties.

In this battle of Beibi Mountain, Wang Shichong defeated the main force of Li Mi's 100,000 Wagang Army with 20,000 elites and won a complete victory. In this battle, Wang Shichong captured a total of more than 10 Wangang military troops, and dozens of Wagang army generals were captured. For example, the famous Shan Xiongxin, Qin Qiong, Cheng Yanjin, Luo Shixin, Pei's father and son (Pei Renji, Pei Xingyan) and others have all become Wang Shichong's prisoners at this time.

Of course, later, Qin Qiong, Cheng Yanjin, and Luo Shixin broke away from Wang Shichong's regime together, defected to the Li Tang Dynasty, and became important generals under the command of Li Shimin, the king of Qin. Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin were among the "Twenty-four Heroes of Lingyan Pavilion" in the early Tang Dynasty, and made great contributions to the Tang Dynasty's southern and northern wars. More on this later. But for now, they can only commit to Wang Shichong.

In the battle of Beibi Mountain, Li Mi was defeated, and the Wagang army was defeated, and the defeat was a complete failure. Not only was the main force of the Wagang Army lost, but also the entire territory of Henan was lost. So, Li Mi, who suffered a failure and fell to Pingyang, where will he go next?

At first, Li Mi fled all the way to the Tiger Prison Pass after the defeat of the Beibi Mountain. At this time, Li Mi believed that there was Xu Shiyun in Liyang guarding there. So, Li Mi wanted to lead his troops to Liyang and defect to Xu Shixian. However, some people immediately objected to Li Mi's idea of going to Liyang. Their point of view is this, when he killed Zhai Rang, Xu Shiyun almost died, and now that he went to join him, wouldn't Xu Shiyun fall into the ground:

On the occasion of killing Zhai Rang, Xu Shi died several times, and now he loses, and he is safe!

However, Li Mi soon had another idea. After the defeat of Beibi Mountain, Li Mi led the remnants and fled to Heyang. Therefore, Li Mi wanted to use this as a base to block the Yellow River in the south, guard the Taihang Mountain in the north, and connect Liyang in the east, gradually recover his vitality, and take the opportunity to make a comeback. The problem is that now that the people's hearts have been dispersed, the few remaining remnants of the Wagang Army have long been disheartened and have lost their fighting spirit. Therefore, many generals said to Li Mi:

Now the new defeat of the army, the hearts of the people are in danger, if they stay longer, I am afraid that the rebellion will not end soon. It is also unwilling, and it is difficult to succeed.

Li Mi only now really understands that now he is no longer the anti-Sui alliance leader who once responded to every call and commanded the storm, but just a dead dog. In desperation, Li Mi decided to lead the remaining remnants to join Li Yuan, the ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, who was already lonely in Guanzhong, and attached himself to Li Tang.

Before deciding to defect to the Tang Dynasty, Li Mi once said to his subordinates: "All the armies are fortunate not to abandon each other, when the total returns to Guanzhong, although the secret body is ashamed and useless, the princes will keep their wealth and wealth." Li Mi's subordinate Fu Peng Liu Zheng also said to Li Mi:

In the past, the pot returned to the Han Dynasty, and the food was lost. The Duke of Ming and the Duke of Tang are of the same clan, and they have the same experience in the past, although they do not accompany the uprising, but they block the eastern capital, cut off the way back to Sui, so that the Duke of Tang does not fight and according to the Beijing Division, which is also the merit of the public. (The Old Tang Book: The Biography of Li Mi)

I think that at the beginning, at the beginning of Li Yuan's army from Taiyuan, Li Mi wrote to Li Yuan with a posture of dominating the world, completely treating Li Yuan as his own courtier. However, feng shui takes turns. Today, Li Yuan sits firmly on the emperor's throne on the Taiji Hall in Chang'an, establishing the Tang Dynasty, and calling him a lonely widow; And Li Mi, who was once high, has now become a lost dog with no place to stand. Life is like a dream, but that's it.

Although Li Mi was unwilling, he also had to face the reality. If he doesn't take refuge in Li Tang, then there will really be no place for him in the world. As a result, Li Mi and his subordinates Wang Bodang, Jia Yanfu and other generals led 20,000 remnants to the west into Guanzhong and surrendered to the Li Tang Dynasty.

In a desperate situation of defeat and desperation, Li Mi chose to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. In the face of Li Mi's defection to the Tang Dynasty, how will Li Yuan, the ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, who has become the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, treat this generation of heroes Li Mi, who was once invincible and gave him great help when he entered the Guanzhong?

It can be said that Li Yuan raised troops in Jinyang at the beginning, advanced all the way to Guanzhong, and conquered Chang'an, if it were not for Li Mi leading the Wagang Army and containing a large number of main forces of the Sui army in Luoyang, Li Yuan would not have successfully attacked Chang'an in less than half a year. Also, in the first month of the second year of Yining (618), Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin led 100,000 Tang troops to conquer Luoyang. The Wagang army deliberately avoided the battle and did not engage the Tang army, which was a great favor to Li Yuan.

Therefore, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan still thanked Li Mi for his help, and did not fall into the ground. Li Mi led the remnants, and when he was about to arrive in Chang'an, Tang Gaozu constantly sent envoys to comfort Li Mi, "sending envoys to greet Lao and look at each other." After Li Mi arrived in Chang'an, Li Yuan appointed Li Mi as Guangluqing, Shangzhu Guo, and gave him the title of Duke Xingguo.

However, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan's reward for Li Mi has a deep meaning. Guangluqing, Shangzhuguo, and Xing Guogong, although they seem to be very beautiful on the surface, are actually a bunch of fictitious titles and have no real power. Especially the position of Guangluqing, which made Li Mi feel even more ashamed.

Tang Gaozu Li Yuan's approach is clear at a glance. Li Yuan knew that Li Mi was by no means a thing in the pool, and he defected to Li Tang completely out of desperation. If one day, with full wings, he will definitely start a new stove and rebel against the Tang Dynasty and stand on his own. Li Yuan's move was to completely extinguish the fire that had not been extinguished in Li Mi's heart. Unexpectedly, this move made Li Mi dissatisfied. Therefore, less than a year after Li Mi defected to Tang, he betrayed Tang and ran away. Regarding Li Mi's rebellion against the Tang Dynasty, I will write about it later, so I will not repeat it here.

In short, in October of the first year of Wude (618), after the fiasco of the Battle of Beibi Mountain, Li Mi, the leader of the Wagang Army, a generation of heroes, entered Guanzhong in the west and attached himself to the Li Tang Dynasty in a desperate situation. Li Mi surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, announcing the demise of the powerful Wagang Army military group, and the general trend of the world has undergone tremendous changes.

After talking about the rise and fall of the Wagang Army, let's take a look at the current situation of the Tang Dynasty. At this time, the Tang Dynasty had been established for less than a year and was in the ascendant. The surrounding areas of Datang stand side by side, and smoke rises everywhere. Especially after Li Mi surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, the situation in Luoyang changed dramatically, and the enemies faced by the Tang Dynasty in Luoyang became the newly rising Wang Shichong group.

It should be said that the newly born Li Tang Dynasty faced an extremely complex external environment, and it was almost at war with the world's heroes at the same time. In order to pacify the four seas and unify the world, Li Yuan, the ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, formulated the strategic policy of first consolidating Guanzhong, conquering the Central Plains in the east, and then pacifying the south of the Yangtze River at the beginning of the establishment of the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, the Li Tang Dynasty had to implement the first step of the unification war: first consolidate Guanzhong. The Tang Dynasty had to deal with the separatist forces around Guanzhong and crush their military threat to the Guanzhong region. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was mainly facing three powerful separatist forces around Guanzhong, which were Li Liang in Hexi, Xue Ju and his son in Longxi, and Liu Wuzhou in Shanxi. Of these three enemies, which enemy did the Tang Dynasty fight first?

Just before and after the overthrow of Luoyang by the Wagang Army, the Li Tang Dynasty, which had just been founded for less than a year, encountered the biggest military crisis since the founding of the country. This military crisis once put the fate of the emerging Tang Dynasty on the line, and almost made the Tang Dynasty face the danger of losing the country.

So, what kind of military crisis is this? How did the Tang Dynasty finally fight back, reverse the disadvantage on the battlefield, and eliminate the two major separatist forces from the northwest region in one fell swoop? As the "God of War Army Soul" of the Li Tang Dynasty, what important role did Li Shimin, the king of Qin, play in this military crisis? What twists and turns did this young military commander go through? How did he make a stunning counterattack in the end?