In the first year of Tang Wude, in 618 A.D., under the historical background of the Sui Dynasty's reign, the building was about to collapse, and the heroes of various places were divided, a new dynasty with infinite vitality rose in the east of the world. This is what Li Yuan's father and son established - the Tang Dynasty!

When the Tang Dynasty was first built, the world was undecided, and the Quartet stood side by side. In the process of unifying the world by the Li Tang Dynasty, this new great empire faced provocations from countless powerful enemies. Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande, Liu Wuzhou and others, they all eyed the Tang Dynasty and tried to strangle the newly born Li Tang Dynasty in the cradle. Surrounded by strong enemies, the father and son of Xue Ju of Western Qin were the first strong enemies encountered by the Tang Dynasty to unify the world.

In July of the first year of Wude (618), the Tang Dynasty, which had been founded for less than two months, suffered its first military defeat since the founding of the People's Republic of China - the defeat of the shallow water plain. Due to Li Shimin's improper selection of generals and the Tang Army's wrong decision-making, the Tang Army suffered a major defeat in the "Battle of Shallow Water Plain", and 30,000 Tang troops were overthrown in Shallow Water Plain. The Tang army was defeated in the shallow water plain, and the northwest defense line of the Li Tang Dynasty was wide open, completely exposed to the iron hooves of the Western Qin army.

In the face of such a grim situation in the northwest, how should the Tang Dynasty respond? In the face of the aggressive Western Qin army, how could the Tang Dynasty, which had just suffered the defeat of the shallow water plain, resist the attack launched by the Xue family and his son? After encountering the biggest crisis since the founding of the People's Republic of China, why was the Tang Dynasty able to miraculously turn the tide of the war in just five months? How did Li Shimin, the king of Qin, lead the soldiers of the Tang Army, and finally level the Western Qin and include Longxi?

I have to admit that Xue Ju, the overlord of Western Qin, is the first difficult rival he has encountered since the founding of the Tang Dynasty; At the same time, it is also one of the most formidable opponents encountered by Datang in the War of Unification. In the historical background of the great chaos in the world at the end of the Sui Dynasty, Xue Ju, Xue Rengao and his son seized the opportunity and took advantage of the situation.

Xue Ju, Xue Rengao father and son, with their strong military strength, soon swept through the Longxi region, established the Western Qin regime, and stood out among the heroes at the end of the Sui Dynasty. It is no exaggeration to say that the Western Qin regime of the Xue family and his son was the number one overlord in the northwest region in the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the military environment it faced was complex. And the Xue father and son, who are in Longxi, are the first strong enemy that the Li Tang Dynasty faced when it unified the world. In order to realize the great cause of unifying the world, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan first formulated a strategic plan to unify the northwest and consolidate Guanzhong. Only by sweeping away the separatist forces in the northwest can the Tang Dynasty avoid worries and use troops against Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande in the Central Plains.

Since we want to unify the northwest, we must solve the two major separatist forces of Xue Ju in Longxi and Li Liang in Hexi. And Xue Ju's Western Qin regime was the first strong enemy to be solved by the Tang Dynasty to pacify the northwest. However, the "Battle of Shallow Water Plain" in July of the first year of Wude (618) allowed the Li Tang Dynasty to see the strength of Xue Ju.

In the battle of Shallow Water Plain, Xue Ju seized the flaw in the strategy of the Tang army, lured the Tang army to attack rashly, and in the end, the Tang army was severely damaged in one fell swoop, resulting in the death of 30,000 Tang troops in Shallow Water Plain, and had to retreat east to Chang'an. It was precisely because of the defeat of the shallow water plain that the newly-born Li Tang Dynasty suffered its first heavy defeat shortly after the founding of the country. It should be said that as soon as the Tang Dynasty was established, Xue Ju poured a basin of cold water on his head, which made the Tang Dynasty suffer a big loss.

Not only that, the fiasco of the Battle of Shallow Water Plains also brought a serious evil result to the Tang Dynasty. What is the result? That was the northwestern defense line of the Tang Dynasty, which began to waver. After the Battle of Shallow Water Plain, Xue Ju took advantage of the victory to occupy Gaojaw and approached Jingzhou. Jingzhou is an important pass leading to Guanzhong and the west gate of Chang'an. If the Western Qin army conquered Jingzhou, there would be no danger to defend west of Chang'an.

It must be admitted that the current military situation is greatly beneficial to Western Qin. The Tang army was newly defeated, its military strength was greatly damaged, and the morale of the army was extremely low, and the commander of the Beijing army was greatly shaken. Xue Ju's most correct approach at the moment is to strike while the iron is hot, not to give the Tang Dynasty a chance to breathe, and to march eastward and go straight to Chang'an.

Since the Battle of Shallow Water Plain, the Tang Dynasty was still in a state of panic and did not come out of the shadow of defeat, and the defense in the Guanzhong area must be empty and weak. If Xue Ju seized this rare fighter and went straight to Guanzhong in one go, Li Tang's overthrow would only be a matter of day and night.

In fact, Xue Ju originally planned to do so. Only one month after the Battle of Qianshuiyuan, in August of the first year of Wude (618), Xue Ju reorganized his troops and horses, prepared to march to Chang'an, and ordered the crown prince Xue Rengao to lead an army to attack Ningzhou. Xue Ju hopes to use this to open up a shortcut to Guanzhong.

Xue Rengao led a large army, surrounded Ningzhou, and launched a fierce attack on Ningzhou. However, Xue Rengao apparently underestimated the determination of the Tang defenders in Ningzhou to resist. In the face of Xue Rengao's army besieging the city, the Tang Dynasty's Ningzhou assassin Hu Yan neither surrendered the city nor fled from the battle, but chose to resist Xue Rengao's army.

Hu Yan led the defenders of Ningzhou, strictly defended to the death, and struggled to resist the Western Qin army. Due to Hu Yan's desperate defense of the city, the Western Qin army was unable to attack Ningzhou for a long time. There is no way, if they continue to fight to the death with the defenders of Ningzhou, the Western Qin army will definitely pay a heavy price. Xue Rengao could only give up attacking Ningzhou and lead his troops to retreat.

Western Qin's attack on Ningzhou was frustrated and was repelled by Hu Yan, which made Xue Ju, who was in full swing, have a lot of psychological fluctuations. Originally, after the battle of the shallow water plain, the prestige of Western Qin was greatly enhanced. Xue Ju had coveted Guanzhong before, and now that the Tang Army has been defeated, in such a good situation, Xue Ju has the heart to use troops in Guanzhong.

Therefore, Xue Ju wanted to practice his hands in Ningzhou. On the one hand, he wanted to open up a military path to enter the military pass; On the other hand, Xue Ju also wanted to test the military strength of the Tang Army. However, Xue Ju never expected that he would encounter stubborn resistance from the defenders of the Tang Dynasty in Ningzhou, and the plan to attack Ningzhou had to be abandoned halfway. Because of the failure of the attack on Ningzhou, Xue Ju had doubts about whether he could capture Chang'an.

Just when Xue Ju was in trouble, there was a person who took the initiative to give advice to Xue Ju. This person is Xue Ju's important advisor - Hao Jin. As for Hao Yingqi, it was mentioned in the previous chapter. He can be said to be Xue Ju's number one strategist and the chief member of the "think tank" of the Western Qin regime.

In the Battle of Fufeng, Xue Rengao was defeated by Li Shimin and lost more than 10,000 people. Because of the defeat of Fufeng, Xue Juzhi's attempt to enter the customs ended in failure. Xue Ju was also terrified after the war, and even had the idea of surrendering to Li Yuan for a while. So, Xue Ju convened the ministers to discuss. Chu Liang, the waiter of the Yellow Gate, was interested in Li Tang, and naturally agreed with Xue Ju to surrender to Li Yuan. However, Hao Ming, who was Wei Weiqing, openly sang the opposite tune with Chu Liang, suggesting that Xue Ju dominate Longxi. Xue Ju was deeply convinced of his suggestion, so he cited him as the mastermind.

After Hao Ying became the mastermind of Xue Ju, he made suggestions to Xue Ju, hoping that Xue Ju could unite Shuofang Liang Shidu and the Northern Turks to jointly flank Li Yuan. Of course, later Li Yuan sent Yu Wenxin as an envoy to the Turks, and with great effort, he broke the alliance between Xue Ju and the Turks. However, Hao Ying also played a vital role in this. Similarly, this time, Hao Ying is no exception.

In the Battle of Ningzhou, the Western Qin attack was blocked, which made Xue Ju, who was originally ambitious, begin to become less confident in taking Guanzhong directly. It was at this time that Hao Ying stood up again and offered advice to Xue. As in the past, Hao Ying's strategy once again gave Xue Ju a "reassurance":

Today, the Tang soldiers are newly broken, the generals are captured, and the Beijing division is in turmoil, and they can take advantage of the victory to take Chang'an. ("Old Tang Book: The Biography of Xue Ju")

Hao Ying suggested to Xue Ju that when the Tang army was newly defeated and demoralized in the Battle of Shallow Water Plain, he immediately gathered troops and horses, marched eastward in one go, and captured Chang'an. Hao Ming's suggestion coincided with Xue Ju's previous thoughts. Otherwise, Xue Ju would not have let Xue Rengao attack Ningzhou and test the reality of the Tang army. Unfortunately, Xue Ju's military attempt to attack Ningzhou did not work.

Therefore, for Hao Ming's suggestion to take Chang'an directly, Xue Ju was naturally moved again, and quickly dispelled all his worries, and prepared to attack Chang'an again. You must know that the Tang Dynasty had just experienced a defeat in the shallow water plain at this time, and the main force suffered heavy losses, and the people in the Guanzhong area were panicked and rumored. If Xue Ju approached Chang'an City at this time, he might not be able to defend it with lightning speed.

It can be said that the Tang Dynasty has really reached a critical moment when its fate hangs by a thread, and it is facing the danger of losing the country at any time. However, at this critical moment, the situation was miraculously reversed. As mentioned above, the reason why Li Yuan and his son were able to achieve Emperor Li Tang was inseparable from fortune in addition to their own strength and courage. At every critical moment, the Li Tang Dynasty will always be favored by the god of luck.

When Xue Ju was actively fighting and preparing to take Guanzhong directly, the god of luck once again favored the Li Tang Dynasty. Xiqin sharpened his knife and was about to move, seeing that hundreds of thousands of iron horsemen were about to enter Guanzhong and take Chang'an. However, at this time, the Western Qin side suddenly stopped marching into Guanzhong. Due to the suspension of the military in the middle of the Western Qin Dynasty, the Li Tang Dynasty, which had just suffered a military setback, had a thrilling way to survive this national crisis.

Chang'an is at your fingertips, why did Western Qin suddenly stop marching and waste this heaven-given opportunity? The reason is very simple, something big happened within the ruling group of Western Qin. As the founder of the Western Qin regime, Xue Ju suddenly returned to the West. So, why did Xue Ju, the overlord of Western Qin, who was brave and good at fighting and shocking the world, die suddenly?

Xue Ju died in August of the first year of Wude (618), just a month after the Battle of Asasuwon. In such a short period of time, Xue Ju, who had always been in good health, died of a strange illness. In fact, the cause of Xue Ju's death is very simple and clear, and there are two main reasons.

First, Xue Ju was too excited.

In the Battle of Qianshuiyuan, Xue Ju took advantage of the deployment loophole of the Tang army to severely damage the main force of the Tang army in the first battle, forcing Li Shimin to lead the remnants in a hurry and withdraw to Chang'an. Since the Battle of Shallow Water Plain and the defeat of the Tang Army, Xue Ju's mood is called a bright one. Because, in the battle of Shallow Water Plain, the northwest gate of the Tang Dynasty was wide open, and Xue Ju had every chance to lead the army straight into Guanzhong and destroy Li Tang. Therefore, after this, Xue Ju was a little carried away and couldn't find the north.

However, Xue Ju was a little too excited. In this ecstatic state of mind, Xue Ju's body collapsed. As we all know, people are particularly prone to induce cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in a state of extreme excitement. Therefore, Xue Ju's violent death is likely to be due to excessive ecstasy, which induced cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and suddenly became ill, resulting in Xue Ju's sudden death. Of course, these are just speculations.

Second, Xue Ju was too afraid.

The victory of the Western Qin army in the Battle of Shallow Water Plains not only immersed Xue Ju in extreme excitement, but also plunged Xue Ju into endless fear. Some people may wonder why Xue Ju, such a powerful northwest hero, has a fear mentality? said a thousand ways and ten thousand, Xue Ju killed too many people.

It is precisely because Xue Ju killed too many people that he had a serious psychological shadow after the Battle of Shallow Waterplain, according to the perspective of modern medicine, that is, "post-war psychological trauma". Although Xue Ju is brave and good at fighting, he is powerful in the world. However, his brutality and easy to kill are also terrifying. In the "Old Tang Book: The Biography of Xue Ju", it is clearly recorded that Xue Ju was murderous and brutal:

Every time the battle is broken, all the soldiers who have been obtained are killed, and many people are killed by breaking their tongues, cutting their noses, or smashing them. His wife was cruel and violent, so she could whip her down, and when she saw that people were in pain and turned to the ground, she buried her feet before she exposed her belly and back. Because people are not attached.

This passage vividly describes Xue Ju's brutality. So, how brutal is Xue Ju? Every time he went out to fight, the prisoners of war he caught, Xue Ju's practices, were always bloody massacres. Not only that, but Xue Ju's method of killing the captives was also very cruel. Killed captives are either had their tongues plucked out, their noses cut off, or they are simply thrown into a smash and killed.

The so-called upward and downward effects are learned. Xue Ju's brutal behavior naturally also affected the behavior of the people around him. For example, Xue Ju's wife, her cruelty is even worse than Xue Ju. Xue Ju's wife often likes to whip people, and some of her subordinates are beaten to the point that their skin is open, and they roll on the ground in pain. However, Xue's wife still refused to give up, and she had the slave's feet buried to expose her belly or back. Then, Xue Ju's wife frantically whipped the slave's abdomen and back. The brutality of Xue Ju's family made everyone dare not speak.

This kind of brutality and inhumanity, which treats human life like a mustard, is even more obvious after the Battle of Shallow Water Won. As mentioned earlier, the Tang army suffered a heavy defeat in the shallow water plain, and Li Shimin was forced to lead 10,000 remnants of the Tang army and withdraw to Chang'an. Soon after the Tang army withdrew, Xue Ju occupied Gaojaw.

However, after occupying Gaoqi, Xue Ju deliberately built a "Jingguan" in the city in order to show his achievements in defeating the Tang army. And this "Jingguan" is basically made of the bones and heads of the Tang soldiers who died in the Battle of Shallow Water Plain. Such a bloody scene can be imagined.

Perhaps it was the retribution that was unhappy, but only a month later, in August of the first year of Wude (618), Xue Ju was unexpectedly ill. Ever since he fell ill, Xue Ju has become suspicious. Perhaps he was seriously ill and hallucinated; Or maybe they have blood on their hands and a heavy sense of guilt. As a result, Xue Ju became more and more uneasy:

Fang Xing fell ill, summoned witches to occupy the eyes, said that the Tang soldiers were evil, and they did not die. (The New Tang Dynasty Book: The Biography of Xue Ju)

Xue Ju's condition did not improve, but worsened. There was no way, Xue Ju had no choice but to invite a wizard to exorcise evil spirits, and the dead horse was used as a live horse doctor. However, the result of the wizard's practice directly took Xue Ju's life. The result? After the sorcerer did the trick, he said to Xue Ju, "The Tang soldiers are troubled", which means that they are all caused by the soldiers of the Tang Army who died in the shallow water plain, and they came to ask for their lives, and the Tang Army was unjustly killed. After Xue Ju heard this, he was even more frightened, and soon he died.

Therefore, based on the above two points, we can get the reason for Xue Ju's violent death. After the Battle of Shallow Waterwon, Xue Ju fell into an extremely excited mental state, coupled with excessive fear, which led to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, as well as serious psychological disorders. In the end, Xue Ju became ill with fear and died suddenly.

In any case, in August of the first year of Wude (618), Xue Ju, the overlord of Western Qin, died suddenly due to illness. In the troubled times of the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, Xue Ju quickly swept away Longxi with his strong military strength and became the overlord of Western Qin. Similarly, Xue Ju relied on his strong military strength to inflict heavy losses on the Tang army in the Battle of Shallow Water Plain, causing the Tang Dynasty's "military soul" Li Shimin to suffer a defeat for the first time, and tearing a hole in the Tang Dynasty's northwest defense line. However, Xue Ju eventually died of fear because of indiscriminate killing of innocents and many injustices, like a meteor falling.

Xue Ju's life was a blessing in misfortune for the Li Tang Dynasty. According to Hao Ying's suggestion to Xue Ju, the Western Qin side had already prepared everything and was ready to break through Guanzhong and attack Chang'an at any time. But now, the situation has changed suddenly, and Xue Ju is dead, which can be regarded as unintentionally doing the Tang Dynasty a great favor.

Because of Xue Ju's violent illness and death, Western Qin began to face a change of throne. Therefore, the previous plan to attack Chang'an could only be temporarily shelved. After Xue Ju's death, the crown prince Xue Rengao inherited the throne, lived in Zhicheng, and posthumously named Xue Ju as "Emperor Wu", and Xue Rengao became the new emperor of Western Qin.

The political situation of the Xue group in Longxi changed dramatically, Xue Ju died of illness, and Xue Rengao ascended the throne. The Tang Dynasty was able to temporarily survive the crisis without danger when the Xue regime was busy with the change of throne. Just taking advantage of the new funeral of the Xue family, the Tang Dynasty can take the opportunity to recover its vitality and get out of the shadow of the war of the defeat of the shallow water plain.

Tang Gaozu Li Yuan also saw that after Xue Ju's death, the political situation in Western Qin was unstable, which was also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, of course, Li Yuan could not miss this opportunity. Therefore, Tang Gaozu decided to launch a second expedition to the west, taking advantage of Xue Rengao's failure to attack, to strengthen the northwest frontier defense of the Tang Dynasty, so as to counterattack Western Qin. The question is, who should be the commander of the Tang Dynasty's second westward expedition?

As for the candidate for the commander of the Second Western Expedition, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan naturally knew it. This time, Tang Gaozu still used Li Shimin, the king of Qin, to let this son take command of the western expedition for the second time. However, the key problem is that Li Shimin was defeated in Shallow Water Won just a month ago. Now that Li Shimin is used again, it is inevitable that there will be a boiling of discussions, which will cause controversy between the DPRK and the central government, and will also put Li Shimin on the cusp.

But this is not the case. Li Yuan understood that the Tang army was frustrated in the Battle of Shallow Water Plain, and Li Shimin, as the commander, had a certain responsibility, but the main responsibility was not him. The fiasco in the Battle of Qianshuiyuan was entirely caused by Liu Wenjing and Yin Kaishan violating military orders without authorization and underestimating the enemy's rash advance. If we follow the plan formulated by Li Shimin to exhaust the enemy, advance step by step, and fight steadily, the battle of Shallow Water Plains will not have such a result.

Moreover, as mentioned above, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan has high hopes for Li Shimin's son. Li Yuan firmly believes that in the future unification war of the Tang Dynasty to pacify the four seas, Li Shimin will be a "sharp sword" out of the sheath, and will be the unborn "military soul and war god" of the Tang Dynasty.

Out of this consideration, Tang Gaozu could not be beaten to death with a stick just because of a single defeat, and completely deny Li Shimin's military talent. What's more, the responsibility for the defeat in the Battle of Shallow Water Plains is not all on Li Shimin. As a father, Li Yuan knew Li Shimin very well, and he was a natural military commander.

In addition, Li Yuan has another layer of consideration. The defeat of the shallow water plain, whether it was for the Tang Dynasty or Li Shimin himself, can be said to be a great shame. From the beginning of the army in Jinyang to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin had no defeat, and he had never fought such a bad battle.

Sometimes, shame can be a miracle stimulant. Especially for a military commander like Li Shimin, the effect of this stimulant will be even more magical. Experiencing disgrace can make a commander more indestructible, more indomitable, and therefore invincible.

Whether it is as the emperor of the Tang Dynasty or as a father, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan certainly understands Li Shimin's current psychology. Since the Battle of the Shallow Water Plain, Li Shimin has been holding back a force in his heart, pressing a fire, and what he is thinking about is the shame of the snow and the shame of the defeat of the Snow Shallow Water Plain.

In Li Yuan's view, Li Shimin's revenge mentality of being bent on shame will be a tremendous motivation for him and will be conducive to his deployment in commanding operations. With the experience of the Battle of Shallow Water Plain, this time, Li Shimin's arrangement of troops will definitely be cautious and cautious, and guard against arrogance and rashness.

After careful consideration, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan finally decided to use Li Shimin, the king of Qin, again to lead his troops to the second westward expedition. On August 17 of the first year of Wude (618), Tang Gaozu appointed Li Shimin as the marshal, commanded the main force of the Tang army, and advanced to Gaoqi for the second time to resist Xue Rengao's army.

Although the Li Tang Dynasty experienced the military setback of the defeat of the shallow water plain, 30,000 soldiers were buried in other places, many founding generals fell into the hands of the enemy, the high jaw was lost, and the northwest gate was opened; However, the Tang Dynasty was not defeated and soon came out of the shadow of defeat. Coincidentally, Xue Ju died of a violent illness at this time, Xue Rengao ascended the throne, and the internal political situation in Western Qin was unstable. Li Yuan seized this rare opportunity and launched the second western expedition in time, with Li Shimin as the commander, to strengthen the northwest frontier defense.

The political situation of the Xue family is unstable, but it does not mean that the Li Tang Dynasty can sit back and relax completely and be blindly optimistic. Xue Ju died, which can be regarded as God's help to the Tang Dynasty and removed a big trouble. However, Xue Rengao, the newly appointed Western Qin Emperor, is not a good stubble. Compared with his father Xue Ju, Xue Rengao is not inferior at all. For the Tang Dynasty, Xue Rengao was also a relatively difficult opponent and strong enemy.

So, who is Xue Rengao? He was the eldest son of Xue Ju. is similar to Li Shimin's experience, when Xue Ju raised an army against the Sui in Jincheng County, Xue Rengao has been saddled up before and after, and has worked tirelessly to follow his father Xue Ju, and has made great achievements in fighting for his father.

Later, Xue Ju defeated the Sui general Huangfu Juan, captured Caohan, and began to reward meritorious deeds. Xue Rengao was named King of Qi for his military exploits and awarded the title of Marshal of the Eastern March. In July of the thirteenth year of the Great Cause (617), Xue Ju proclaimed himself emperor in Jincheng County and established the Western Qin regime. As the eldest son, and with great military achievements, he was naturally made the crown prince.

In December of the first year of Yining (617), Xue Ju's attempt to seize Hexi was frustrated, and he had to change the direction of his attack, and instead set his sights on Li Yuan's father and son, who occupied Guanzhong. So, Xue Ju sent Xue Rengao to lead an army of 100,000, known as 300,000, to invade Guanzhong and attack Fufeng.

At first, Xue Rengao was like a bamboo, first breaking through the local powerful faction entrenched in Huangyuan-Tang Bi in one fell swoop, and incorporated a large number of Tang Bi's old departments. After defeating Tang Bi, Xue Rengao formed a situation of overwhelming the situation against Fufeng, and the military situation of Fufeng was already in danger.

However, the situation was soon reversed. Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin to lead the army to relieve the siege of Fufeng. As a result, as mentioned earlier, in the first battle of Fufeng, Xue Rengao was defeated by Li Shimin and lost more than 10,000 men and horses. After the war, Li Shimin took advantage of the victory to pursue and pursued until the territory of Longxi, and the first attack by Xue's father and son on Guanzhong ended in failure.

In the battle of Fufeng, although Xue Rengao was defeated by Li Shimin, it does not prove that Xue Rengao is a general person and is useless. In terms of courage and ruthlessness, Xue Rengao did not lose to his father Xue Ju at all. As early as when Xue Ju was alive, Xue Rengao was one of the best generals in the Western Qin army:

Rengao, the eldest son, is good at riding and shooting, and the army is the enemy of 10,000 people. ("Old Tang Book: The Biography of Xue Rengao")

Xue Rengao is a person with infinite strength, proficient in riding and archery, and excellent in martial arts, and is known as the "enemy of ten thousand people" in the Western Qin army. Don't underestimate the title of "10,000 enemies", this title is not given casually. Throughout the ages, there are only a handful of people who can be called "ten thousand enemies".

In Chinese history, the first person to be hailed as the "enemy of ten thousand" was a famous heroic figure - Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu. Therefore, Xue Rengao is known as the "enemy of ten thousand people", which shows that he is the same as Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, who has the courage of ten thousand people and can take the rank of general in a million army.

Speaking of which, when it comes to martial arts, Li Shimin is quite similar to his opponent Xue Rengao. Among the emperors of ancient China, ranked solely by their personal force value, Tang Taizong Li Shimin's force value can definitely be ranked in the top three of this honor list.

Li Shimin's martial arts are quite high, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as the three armies of Yongguan. For example, the first bloody battle in Chang'an, the Battle of Huoyi. At that time, the fighting was particularly intense. In the melee, Li Shimin brandished two broadswords and rushed into the enemy formation, slashing dozens of enemy soldiers in his hands, both broadswords were cut to the edges, and blood soaked the cuffs. In the end, Li Shimin's brave crown of the three armies greatly boosted the morale of the army and won the victory in the Battle of Huoyi.

According to historical records, when Li Shimin was young, he was extremely powerful, his arm strength was outstanding, and among the weapons he carried with him, there was a two-meter-long giant heavenly bow. In the battle of Tiger Pass, when Li Shimin led 3,500 Xuanjia troops to ambush Dou Jiande's 100,000 army, Li Shimin and his henchman Lieutenant Chi Jingde, with four cavalry, went to lure Dou Jiande into the ambush circle. Before leaving, Li Shimin said such heroic words to Wei Chi Jingde:

The widow holds a bow and arrow, and the male spear is a pair of spears, although there are millions of people, there is nothing to do. ("Tales of the Sui and Tang Dynasties")

From this sentence, we can see that Li Shimin's heroic spirit in the field of conquest. Moreover, for many years, Li Shimin has always had a characteristic in fighting wars, he loves adventure. Li Shimin was a military commander with an adventurous spirit for half his life. Before the official start of the war, Li Shimin often took a few personal soldiers to the front line to inquire about the enemy's situation. It is precisely because of this adventurous spirit that Li Shimin was once in danger. For example, "Sa Lu Zi", one of the "Six Horses of Zhaoling", once witnessed Li Shimin's life and death in the Battle of Luoyang.

It is precisely because of this heroic spirit and the world-beating martial arts of the three armies that Li Shimin can be invincible on the battlefield, irrelevant and invincible; Li Shimin was invincible in the unification war in the early Tang Dynasty, and the autumn wind swept away the fallen leaves and flattened the territory.

It can be seen that Li Shimin and Xue Rengao are two people, one is the "military soul god of war" of the Tang Dynasty, and the other is the "ten thousand enemies" of the Western Qin army. Li Shimin meets Xue Rengao, and between Li Tang and Xi Qin, a battlefield duel will be staged.

Through the above description, Xue Rengao, the new emperor of Western Qin, can match Li Shimin in some aspects, and is a new fierce rival of the Tang Dynasty. However, from another point of view, Xue Rengao's accession to the throne also became the turning point of the Xue regime's decline from prosperity. Less than a year after Xue Rengao became the emperor of Western Qin, the second "Battle of Shallow Water Plain", the main force of 100,000 in Western Qin was completely annihilated by Li Shimin, the Xue clan was destroyed, and Xue Rengao himself became a prisoner of the Tang army.

Why did Western Qin fall so quickly, and why did Xue Rengao become the key to Western Qin's transition from prosperity to decline? Very simply, Xue Rengao's various behaviors after his accession to the throne made him lose the support of the people within the Western Qin regime, causing the Western Qin to be alienated and fall apart.

These are all due to Xue Rengao's character. From following his father Xue Ju to raise troops against Sui in Jincheng County, to sweeping away Longxi, establishing Western Qin, and then leading the army to invade Fufeng, Xue Rengao was the pioneer of the Western Qin army. With his brave and good martial arts, as well as his outstanding military exploits, Xue Rengao won the title of "Ten Thousand Enemies" in the Western Qin Army and became the mighty little overlord of the Western Qin.

However, the long-term political killing has made Xue Rengao develop a domineering and ruthless character. This domineering and ruthless character directly affected his psychological deformity, that is, he took killing people as the greatest pleasure, completely ignored life, and wantonly trampled on life.

Speaking of which, Xue Rengao's brutality has been passed on by his father Xue Ju. The father and son, on the issue of killing, can be said to be tacit, self-taught, and not ambiguous at all. Regarding Xue Ju's brutality, it has already been introduced above. And Xue Rengao's brutality is even more indiscriminate killing of innocents than his Lao Tzu, which is too much. Regarding Xue Rengao's tyranny and killing, various historical books have recorded:

However, if he kills as much as he wants, he will take his wife and concubine. Yu Xinzi was established, and he was angry and did not surrender, and he was on top of the fierce fire, and gradually cut off the sergeant. At the beginning, pulling out Qinzhou, the rich were called to hang upside down, and they poured their noses with vinegar, or they were in the bottom of the coffin, in order to seek Jinbao. ("Old Tang Book: The Biography of Xue Rengao")

We all know that people who lead troops to fight are more rude and reckless in temperament, and Xue Rengao is such a martial artist. Moreover, Xue Ju and Xue Rengao's father and son were born recklessly, did not have much education, and did not know how to be a corporal of etiquette at all. On the contrary, both father and son are greedy and murderous.

For example, every time Xue Rengao went out to fight and captured a city or a place, he had to carry out bloody killings, and slaughtering cities was commonplace. Not only that, Xue Rengao also took the wives and concubines of these people as his own. Burning, killing and looting, Xue Rengao can be said to have done a lot of things.

Another time, Xue Rengao caught Yu Li, the son of the famous Southern Dynasty writer Yu Xin, and Xue Rengao was very annoyed because Yu Lili swore not to surrender. Therefore, Xue Rengao tortured Yu Li. He ordered the erection of the Yu to be put on the fire, and to be punished with a stumbling and to be put to death. After Yu Li was executed by Ling Chi, Xue Rengao asked people to cut off the meat on his body little by little and distribute it to his sergeants to eat. Xue Rengao's cruelty has reached the point of annihilating human nature.

In July of the thirteenth year of the Great Cause (617), Xue Ju was proclaimed emperor in Jincheng County. Soon after, Xue Rengao was ordered to lead an army to attack Qinzhou (present-day Tianshui, Gansu). Soon, Xue Rengao quickly captured Qinzhou. However, after capturing Qinzhou, Xue Rengao's other behavior made everyone's impression of him even more disgusted.

After capturing Qinzhou, Xue Rengao gathered all the rich households in the city. The purpose of this little overlord of Western Qin is very simple, that is, to extort money from a bamboo pole. However, Xue Rengao's way of extorting money is also very special. He tied up all these rich people upside down, poured vinegar into their noses, and tortured them to the bitterness of the bitterness, so as to achieve his goal of extorting money.

Xue Rengao is greedy and murderous, so his reputation and reputation are extremely poor. Good things don't go out, bad things spread thousands of miles, Xue Rengao's greed and easy to kill are almost no secret in Western Qin. Even Xue Ju's various behaviors towards his son can't stand it. Therefore, Xue Ju warned Xue Rengao more than once:

Thou wisdom is slightly vertical and horizontal, enough to do my family affairs, but you are hurt by cruelty, and you have no grace with things, and you will eventually overthrow my clan. ("Old Tang Book: The Biography of Xue Rengao")

As a father, Xue Ju knows too much about Xue Rengao's son's heart. In his opinion, although Xue Rengao is strategic, brave and good at fighting, he is very capable of fighting; But he is too narrow and tyrannical, and he is prone to extremes, and if he is allowed to hold power one day, the huge family business will be ruined. In fact, Xue Ju's prediction is still very accurate, and once Xue Rengao takes the position, this nature is even more out of control.

These are nothing, greed and tyranny are just flaws and flaws in Xue Rengao's character. What's worse is that in terms of dealing with interpersonal relationships, Xue Rengao has also failed quite a bit. This kind of failed handling made the veteran generals who followed Xue raise troops to be unanimously dissatisfied with him.

In fact, it is not difficult to understand that Xue Rengao is the eldest son of Xue Ju, with a red and positive roots, born in a long family, and is born with a domineering sense of superiority. Moreover, Xue Rengao fought all year round and made great achievements for Western Qin, which also allowed him to develop a domineering character. The innate sense of superiority and domineering personality made Xue Rengao very disrespectful and even arrogant towards his father's veteran generals:

Xue Renguo is also the crown prince, and there are many gaps with the generals; and enthronement, and the hearts of the people are afraid. Hao Ying cried so hard that she couldn't afford it, so the country was weakened. (Information Governance Guide)

As early as when Xue Rengao was still the crown prince, he had a dislike for the generals, and the relationship was not very harmonious. After ascending the throne, Xue Rengao's suspicion became even heavier, and he was unreasonably suspicious of the meritorious generals at every turn, which made people panic. Xue Ju's most trusted strategist Hao Ying was crying day and night to sacrifice Xue Ju, and finally fell ill and no longer cared about political affairs. Hao Ying was the most brilliant strategist of the Western Qin regime, and now that he was ill, the Western Qin regime suddenly lost its backbone, and the country's strength began to turn from prosperity to decline.

After such a detailed description, since Xue Rengao has such and such problems, according to common sense, he should not become a hidden danger of the Tang Dynasty. Li Tang should be much easier and more handy to deal with Xue Rengao than Xue Ju. However, the reality is just the opposite, it was this Xue Rengao who once made the Tang Dynasty suffer a lot, and made the northwest defense line of the Li Tang Dynasty fall into a war.

In August of the first year of Wude (618), Li Shimin, the king of Qin, led the Tang army for the second time to attack the Xue family, officially starting the second military campaign of the Li Tang Dynasty against Western Qin after the "Battle of Shallow Water Plain". At that time, Xue Rengao of the Western Qin Dynasty was gaining momentum, and the Tang Dynasty had just experienced the defeat of the shallow water plain, and its vitality was greatly damaged. If it is head-on with Xue Rengao, the Tang Dynasty will probably be unable to support itself and will suffer a big loss.

In order to be able to effectively fight against Xue Rengao, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan took a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin to lead the army to open the high jaw and meet Xue Rengao head-on; On the other hand, to seek foreign aid, contact Hexi Li Rail. So, in the same month that Li Shimin went on his second expedition to Gaoqi, Tang Gaozu sent Zhang Qiande, a Honglu Shaoqing, to Liangzhou, Hexi, with the books of the Tang Dynasty, and canonized Li Liang as the governor of Liangzhou and the king of Liang.

Li Yuan's move, by contacting Li Rail in Hexi, hoped that Li Rail could send troops from the rear to contain Xue Rengao and reduce the military pressure on Li Shimin's frontal battlefield. Of course, the development of things has already been introduced. Li Liang followed the advice of his subordinates and refused Li Tang's canonization, which completely broke the diplomatic relations between the Tang Dynasty and Hexi, and Tang Gaozu finally decided to recover Hexi by force. But that's all for later.

Although Tang Gaozu contacted Li Liang and tried to win foreign aid; However, Xue Rengao is not a good stubble, and the title of "ten thousand enemies" is not in vain. Soon, the Tang Dynasty witnessed the strength of this little overlord of the Western Qin, and Xue Rengao made the defenders in the northwest of the Tang Dynasty suffer a lot.

Just when Li Shimin led the main force of the Tang army and rushed to Gaoqian under the starry night, Xue Rengao took the lead in launching a fierce attack on the northwest defenders of the Tang Dynasty. Even, Xue Rengao once had the upper hand, and the northwest frontier army of the Tang Dynasty was not Xue Rengao's opponent at all, and could not resist the attack of Western Qin.

Li Shimin led his army to the west for the second time in August of the first year of Wude (618) to fight against Xue Rengao. At this time, Li Shimin and the main force of the Tang Army were rushing to the front line of Gaojaw non-stop. At present, Li Shimin has not yet reached Gaoqi and is still on the march. During Li Shimin's march to Gaoqi, Xue Rengao took the initiative to launch a fierce attack on the northwest town of the Tang Dynasty. In September, the billowing smoke and dust of the Tang Dynasty rose in the northwest.

After the Battle of Shallow Water Plain, Xue Ju took advantage of the new defeat of the Tang army and occupied Gaojaw in one fell swoop, forming a situation of large troops pressing Jingzhou. Moreover, Xue Ju also accepted Hao Ming's suggestion and prepared to reorganize the troops and horses and attack Chang'an directly. Of course, because of Xue Ju's violent illness and death, the plan to attack Chang'an could only be put on hold for the time being.

However, after Xue Rengao ascended the throne, he did not give up his plan to attack Chang'an. If you want to attack Chang'an, you must break through Li Tang's Jingzhou defense line. Jingzhou is the west gate of Chang'an, once Jingzhou is captured, there will be no danger to the west of Chang'an, and the West Qin takes Chang'an, isn't it to explore the bag and take things? Therefore, Xue Rengao decided to take advantage of Li Shimin's main force of the Tang Army, before it reached Gaojaw, to launch an attack on the northwest defense line of Li Tang, and the more chaotic the better.

On September 12 of the first year of Wude (618), Xue Rengao officially launched an offensive against the northwest defense line of the Li Tang Dynasty. After the Battle of Shallow Water Plain, the Xue family and his son became increasingly rampant, and carried out a crazy military sweep against the northwest military town of the Tang Dynasty. Almost all of Li Tang's important military passes in the northwest were attacked to varying degrees, and they suffered greatly from the poison of the soldiers, and the border soldiers were also miserable, so they could only adopt a passive defensive posture.

Regarding Xue Rengao's rampant behavior, the many northwest border generals of the Tang Dynasty naturally can't sit idly by. They believed that it was necessary to teach this arrogant Xue Rengao a lesson, and to thwart the arrogance of the Western Qin army, so as to wash away the shame of the defeat of the shallow water plain. As a result, a Tang Dynasty northwest frontier general was the first to fire the "first shot" against Xue Rengao, and this northwest general was none other than Dou Liang, the governor of Qinzhou.

Dou Liang was one of the famous "Eight Governors" of the Tang Army, subordinate to Li Shimin, the king of Qin. At the beginning, in July of the first year of Wude (618), Xue Ju invaded Jingzhou, and Li Shimin led the "Eight Governors" and the main force of 40,000 Tang troops to rush to the western front. When the troops of the shallow water plain were defeated, the soldiers and horses of the eight general management offices were all defeated, and only Liu Hongji and his men and horses resisted to the death, vowing not to retreat, and finally because they were outnumbered, the soldiers were defeated and captured.

Therefore, the defeat of Shallow Water Plains has always been a pimple in Dou Rail's heart, and he has not forgotten the shame of Shallow Water Plains for a day. As a founding general, Dou Liang's way of shame must be to be ashamed of war. Now, Xue Rengao is rampant and domineering in the northwest, Dou Liang naturally can't be indifferent, it's time to take the initiative and hit him hard.

On September 12, Dou Liang led his troops and horses to take the initiative to attack Xue Rengao's army. However, Xue Rengao is Xue Rengao after all, and Dou Liang still underestimated Xue Rengao. Dou Liang originally planned to give Xue Rengao a head-on blow by taking the initiative to frustrate his spirit. Unexpectedly, he was killed by Xue Rengao and killed a "return horse gun", and Dou Liang was defeated. The Tang army's first active attack on Xue Rengao ended in failure.

After defeating the Tang army under Dou Rail, Xue Rengao was even more arrogant, and his appetite became bigger and bigger. The plan to attack Chang'an was once again put on the agenda by Xue Rengao. Xue Rengao intended to capture Jingzhou, and then follow Jingzhou, all the way east, enter Guanzhong, and approach the city of Chang'an.

As a result, Xue Rengao's troops pressed the border, led the Western Qin army, and the troops pointed directly at Jingzhou and surrounded Jingzhou. The general of the Tang Army who was responsible for guarding Jingzhou was the hussar general Liu Gan. This person is also a member of the Tang Army, a tough guy with iron bones. Of course, Liu Gan knew the importance of Jingzhou, so no matter what, he couldn't let Xue Rengao break through Jingzhou and threaten the capital Chang'an.

In the face of Xue Rengao's large-scale siege of the city, Liu Gan led the soldiers and civilians in the city to fight to the death with the Western Qin army. Liu Gan strictly guarded Jingzhou and swore not to surrender Xue Rengao. Realistically speaking, Liu Gan's battle for the defense of Jingzhou was fought extremely hard, and it is clearly recorded in historical documents:

Hussar general Liu Gan Zhenjingzhou, Renguo surrounded it. The food in the city is exhausted, and the horses that are killed are divided into soldiers, and there is nothing to eat, but to boil horse bones to get juice and sawdust to eat. (Information Governance Guide)

Liu Gan commanded the defenders of Jingzhou in the Tang Dynasty, desperately defended the city, and fought hard with the enemy. Due to the hard fighting for several days, the food consumption in the city was extremely large, and Jingzhou almost reached the point of running out of food. In desperation, in order to solve the food crisis in Jingzhou City, Liu Gan had to kill his war horse and distribute the horse meat to the soldiers defending the city. But Liu Gan didn't eat a bite of meat himself, just took some broth and ate it with sawdust.

Even Liu Gan, who is the guard general of Jingzhou, is so hungry, not to mention the many soldiers and civilians in Jingzhou City. It can be seen from this that the battle of Jingzhou was very difficult. At this point, Liu Gan only barely held Jingzhou, and the city had already run out of food. Therefore, Liu Gan can only hope for reinforcements at present, as long as one support army rushes to Jingzhou, it is possible to reverse the defeat.

Sure enough, the emperor lived up to his wishes. Liu Gan desperately defended the city, after all, it was not a senseless bloody sacrifice. Soon, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan's cousin, Li Shuliang, the king of Changping, led a reinforcement army and rushed to the city of Jingzhou. Li Shuliang and Liu Gan's department in the city echoed inside and outside, forming a flanking attack on Xue Rengao.

However, the tide of battle is always changing. According to common sense, the reinforcements arrived in Jingzhou in time, joined forces with the defenders in the city, and attacked inside and outside, and it was not difficult to repel Xue Rengao. However, the real war situation is far from being so simple. Xue Rengao was indeed a cunning opponent, and this person was extremely good at using soldiers, no less than his father Xue Ju.

Xue Rengao was not a fool, of course he understood what it meant to him that Li Tang's reinforcements were coming. Once Li Shuliang and Liu Gan echo inside and outside, not only will the previous achievements in attacking Jingzhou be wasted, but they will also most likely face the danger of annihilation. Therefore, Xue Rengao must react as soon as possible.

In front of Xue Rengao, there are no more than two choices, first, withdraw the army in time to avoid being surrounded and annihilated by the Tang army; Second, the troops made dangerous moves to break the Tang Army's two-way attack. Xue Rengao chose the second one, of course he would not choose to withdraw his troops, which is also not in line with Xue Rengao's competitive and domineering character. Moreover, this attack on Jingzhou and swept through the northwest towns of the Tang Dynasty, Xue Rengao's purpose was to completely destroy Li Tang.

So, how to deal with Li Shuliang and Liu Gan's two Tang Army? Xue Rengao came up with a strange trick, and he never tired of cheating. As a result, Xue Rengao claimed with great fanfare, "Renguo is threatening to eat all of it and lead troops south." He falsely claimed that his army had run out of food and grass and was about to lead his troops to retreat westward. Obviously, Xue Rengao was setting up a "Lost Soul Array" with the Tang Army, in order to confuse the Tang Army and make it relax its vigilance, so that it could take advantage of it.

These alone are not enough, in order to completely let the Tang army let down his guard, Xue Rengao even resorted to the trick of surrender. He sent his cronies to the Tang camp under the pretense of getting in touch with Li Shuliang, the king of Changping. Moreover, Xue Rengao's cronies also told Li Shuliang that when Xue Rengao withdrew his troops, he was willing to sacrifice his high jaw and surrender to Li Tang.

At the beginning, the Tang army was defeated in the shallow water plain, Li Shimin was forced to lead his troops east to retreat to Chang'an, and Xue Ju took advantage of the victory to occupy Gaodun. At this point, the northwest portal of Li Tang was opened. Li Shuliang is not a genius military strategist like Li Shimin, he doesn't know that this is Xue Rengao's trick. In his opinion, being able to regain the high jaws without bloodshed will definitely boost the morale of the army. Therefore, Li Shuliang really thought that there was infighting in Western Qin, and there was no suspicion.

In this way, Xue Rengao's trick of deception worked, and the purpose of confusing the Tang army was achieved. The unsuspecting Li Shuliang ordered Liu Gan to lead his troops and horses to meet and recover Gaoji. However, Li Shuliang is stupid, which does not mean that Liu Gan is also stupid. On the contrary, Liu Gan is very cautious. He was worried that this was a trap set by Xue Rengao, waiting for Tang Jun to drill into it. Therefore, Liu Gan did not dare to underestimate the enemy.

After coming to Gaojaw, Liu felt more and more uneasy, why? Liu Gan found that the gate of Gaojaw was closed, and there was no intention of surrendering. Liu Gan couldn't help but be puzzled, so he asked people to knock on the city gate and shout to the city, hoping that they would open the city gate and welcome the Tang army into the city. As a result, the Western Qin army in the city replied bluntly: "The thief has gone, but he can enter the city." "Meaning, let the Tang army climb over the wall and enter the city.

As soon as he heard this, Liu Gan immediately understood that the Western Qin army had no sincerity at all. Now climbing over the wall and entering the city is like a sheep entering the tiger's mouth, and there is no return. However, in order to confirm his fears, Liu Gan decided to test again. So, Liu Gan ordered people to burn the city gate, wanting to see the reaction of the Western Qin army in the city. Sure enough, as Liu Gan expected, the Western Qin army poured water from the city to the city and extinguished the fire.

Such an operation made Liu Gan completely understand that his guess was indeed right, this was a trap dug by Xue Rengao for Tang Jun. For Liu Gan, as well as the Tang army under his command, the top priority was to withdraw his troops as soon as possible to avoid being ambushed by Xue Rengao's heavy troops.

After all, Liu Gan has been on the battlefield for a long time, and in this extremely critical situation, he did not mess up, but maintained absolute calm and commanded the troops to retreat in an orderly manner. Liu Gan ordered the main force of the infantry to withdraw to the division first, and led a small number of cavalry himself, responsible for the rear of the palace, and covered the retreat of the infantry army.

However, it was too late. At this time, Liu Gan had already entered Xue Rengao's encirclement. Just when Liu Gan commanded the troops to retreat, on the tower of Gaoji City, there was suddenly smoke and dust, and three beacon fires were ignited, which was a signal to send troops. Immediately afterwards, Xue Rengao's several Western Qin iron cavalry rolled in from the southern plains and pressed on the entire line of the Tang army. In the end, Xue Rengao caught up with the Tang army in Baili Xichuan, and after a fierce battle between the two sides, the Tang army was defeated, and Liu Gan's army was defeated and captured.

caught Liu Gan, Xue Rengao was like a treasure. As the guard general of Jingzhou in the Tang Dynasty, Liu Gan desperately guarded the lonely city of Jingzhou and did not surrender to Xue Rengao, and fought particularly tenaciously. It is no exaggeration to say that since Xue Rengao swept the northwest defense line, Liu Gan has been the most difficult hard bone to gnaw. Due to Liu Gan's tenacious defense of the city, Xue Rengao could not attack Jingzhou for a long time, and the army stagnated under the fortified city of Jingzhou, making it difficult to advance an inch.

Now that Liu Gan has been captured, Xue Rengao can make good use of this chess piece to disintegrate the fighting spirit of the Tang army in Jingzhou. Soon, Xue Rengao besieged Jingzhou again. At the same time, Xue Rengao coerced and lured Liu Gan, and coerced Liu Gan to shout to the defenders in the city: "The reinforcements have been defeated, it is better to surrender early." ”

Liu Gan is a tough guy, how can he surrender to Xue Rengao. Therefore, Liu Gan is ready to die for the country. However, even if you die, you have to die vigorously. Therefore, Liu Gan and Xue Rengao pretended to agree to Xue Rengao's lure to surrender, and followed Xue Rengao to the city of Jingzhou. After arriving at the city, Liu Gan made an astonishing move and shouted at the defenders of the city:

The traitor was hungry and died, and the king of Qin was hundreds of thousands of people, gathered on all sides, and the city was not good, reluctantly. (Information Governance Guide)

Liu Gan loudly told the defenders of Jingzhou that the thief army had run out of food and grass and could not last a few days. Moreover, His Royal Highness the King of Qin led hundreds of thousands of troops, and was galloping towards the high jaws non-stop. Do not care about my life or death, but be brave enough to fight the enemy and resist the enemy's attack.

In this way, Liu Gan revealed two important military information to the defenders of Jingzhou.

First, Xue Rengao ran out of grain and grass and could not confront the Tang army for a long time. The reason why Xue Rengao attacked the northwest border town of the Tang Dynasty so frantically was that his purpose was nothing more than two: first, to capture Chang'an and destroy Li Tang; Second, because the army is about to run out of food and grass, the only way to replenish supplies is through war. Therefore, don't look at Xue Rengao's teeth and claws now, in fact, he is at the end of the crossbow.

Second, the main army of Li Shimin, the king of Qin, is coming. You must know that Li Shimin is not an idiot like Li Shuliang. At the beginning, in the battle of Fufeng, Xue Rengao was the defeated general of Li Shimin's men. Therefore, Li Shimin and Xue Rengao met in a narrow way, and the outcome is not yet known. Liu Gan told the defenders of Jingzhou that as long as they survived the most difficult moment, when the army of King Qin arrived, the unfavorable battle situation in the entire northwest would be reversed.

Originally, Xue Rengao captured Liu Gan and wanted to use Liu Gan to break the fighting spirit of the defenders of Jingzhou in the Tang Dynasty. I never thought that stealing chickens would not make rice, but Liu Gan was an army and revealed all his hole cards. However, Liu Gan's shouting like this also completely brought death to himself.

Seeing that Liu Gan was so unsure of what to do, Xue Rengao was annoyed and ashamed. Xue Rengao, who was angry, ordered people to dig a big pit next to Jingzhou City, and buried Liu Gan in it, all the way to his knees. Then, Xue Rengao ordered ten thousand arrows to be fired and Liu Gan was shot alive. However, Liu Gan would rather die than give in, and he still scolded until he died, and the scolding was endless:

Renguo is angry, obsessed, buried to the knees next to the city, galloping and shooting; Until death, his voice is too strong. (Information Governance Guide)

Liu Gan's iron bones, and his loyalty and righteousness that he would rather die than surrender are indeed singable and crying. Therefore, after Li Shimin led the Tang army for the second time, pacified Western Qin, and captured Xue Rengao, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan specially sent people to find Liu Gan's bones. Then, Tang Gaozu held a grand funeral for Liu Gan, sacrificed with the gift of Shaojiao, and posthumously presented Liu Gan as the history of Yingzhou Thorn and the prince of Pingyuan County, with a sealed household of 2,000 and a loyal and strong name. At the same time, Li Yuan issued an edict to give Liu Gan's heirs a knighthood and a farmhouse.

Liu Gan's martyrdom, Li Shuliang, the king of Changping stationed in Jingzhou, can be regarded as seeing the ruthlessness of Xue Rengao's war. Therefore, after Liu Gan was killed, Li Shuliang no longer dared to take the initiative to go out of the city and fought Xue Rengao head-on. After this fiasco, Li Shuliang could only pursue Liu Gan's previous stubborn policy and defend the infant city.

Therefore, although Xue Rengao defeated the Tang army's Liu Gan's troops and killed the Tang general Liu Gan. However, Xue Rengao ultimately failed to capture Jingzhou, and his attempt to use Jingzhou as a springboard to take Chang'an's military plan failed to materialize. However, Jingzhou was also barely able to hold on. What's more, the annihilation of Liu Gan's entire army was also a heavy blow to Jingzhou's military strength. At this time, the Jingzhou defense line was almost on the verge of collapse.

Jingzhou's military situation is already precarious, although the city has not yet been broken, but the military strength is extremely dangerous. If Xue Rengao launched a fierce attack on Jingzhou at all costs at this time, it is estimated that it is only a matter of time before it is lost. However, the tide of the battle has changed dramatically. When Xue Rengao was preparing to launch a new round of attack on Jingzhou, another Tang army launched an attack on Xue Rengao.

Even, the attack of this Tang army once caused Xue Rengao's Western Qin army to suffer heavy losses and fall into a military predicament. This Tang army unit is from the Tang Dynasty Longzhou Assassin Shi Changda. Xue Rengao was under the city of Jingzhou, and although he completely annihilated Liu Gan's troops and horses, he did not capture Jingzhou for a long time. The battle of Jingzhou Garrison commanded by Liu Gan contained a large number of Xue Rengao's troops and consumed Xue Rengao's military strength.

In the view of Longzhou Assassin Shi Changda, Xue Rengao was frustrated in Jingzhou and could not attack it for a long time, which may be a rare fighter. Taking advantage of the fact that Xue Rengao's main forces were all concentrated in Jingzhou, he was surprised and unprepared to attack him, and he was caught off guard. Even if he can't inflict heavy damage on the Western Qin army, he can still hold back his main elite troops and buy enough time for the final arrival of the army of Li Shimin, the king of Qin.

Therefore, on September 18, the first year of Wude (618), when Xue Rengao's attention was all focused on Jingzhou and the troops could not be mobilized, Shi Changda, the assassin of Longzhou, decided to launch a surprise attack. So, Chang Da led the elite Tang army of his department to Yiluchuan and raided the Western Qin army. Because Chang Da used a surprise attack, Xue Rengao was caught off guard for a while and was defeated. The Tang army beheaded more than 1,000 ranks, and the Western Qin army was defeated.

In the first battle of Yiluchuan, Changda raided the Western Qin army and won a small victory, killing more than 1,000 Western Qin enemy troops. This small victory, although it was difficult to hurt Xue Rengao's military strength, also gave Xue Rengao a lesson. It should be said that Xue Rengao was careless, he originally thought that after the Battle of Shallow Water Plain, the Tang Army's morale and morale were low, and they would definitely be powerless to resist. Unexpectedly, in the Jingzhou defense line, it was met with stubborn resistance from Liu Gan, and Jingzhou could not be attacked for a long time.

Unfortunately, he made a trip to bite the gold halfway. At the critical moment when Xue Rengao was fighting in Jingzhou, Chang Da suddenly came by surprise and caught him off guard, causing him to suffer from the enemy on his back. Chang Da raided Yiluchuan, and at the same time, inadvertently, disrupted Xue Rengao's deployment.

Because Chang Da attacked from behind, Xue Rengao had to divide his troops to meet the battle, so he could only put aside the battle of attacking Jingzhou for the time being and go all out to deal with Chang Da. Therefore, Xue Rengao concentrated his superior forces and began to attack Changda's headquarters with all his might. However, Chang Da, like Liu Gan, is not an easy stubble to deal with. Xue Rengao attacked Changda several times, but was repeatedly frustrated, but all of them returned without getting any advantage.

Frontal assault without the slightest progress. Xue Rengao then repeated the old trick and used the trick of deception. Fraudulent surrender has almost become Xue Rengao's specialty. At the beginning, Xue Rengao used the technique of deception to deceive Li Shuliang, the king of Changping, causing Liu Ganbing to be defeated and killed. For the tough Chang Da, Xue Rengao plans to continue to use his "killer weapon" - deception.

How do you use the trick again? Xue Rengao sent his generals to lead hundreds of men and horses to pretend to surrender to Changda. In fact, Xue Rengao is letting the politicians act at the right time. Chang Da didn't know that there was fraud in it, and he treated the servants with special favor, without any defense.

Chang Da neglected to take precautions, and Tong Shizheng thought that the opportunity had come. Therefore, when Chang Da was unprepared, Qi Shizheng took hundreds of his men and suddenly hijacked Chang Da. Then, Tong Shizheng took 2,000 troops in the city and surrendered to Xue Rengao. After Chang Da was captured, Xue Rengao originally thought that he would grovel and beg to surrender to him. Unexpectedly, Chang Da was a hard bone, and when he saw Xue Rengao, his words were unyielding, and he had no intention of surrendering.

It is also strange to say that in the face of Chang Da's stubbornness, Xue Rengao did not kill this time. On the contrary, he felt that Chang Da was a man, so he kept people under the knife and did not kill him. However, although Xue Rengao spared Chang Da's life, someone came to deliberately find fault.

Xue Rengao's subordinate general named Zhang Gui was a former slave. Now, seeing Chang Da being captured, Zhang Gui immediately showed a villainous face, deliberately ridiculed Chang Da and said, "Do you know me? Unexpectedly, Chang Da sarcastically mocked Zhang Gui with great contempt: "You fled to death and the slave thief's ear!" After hearing this, Zhang Gui became angry, pulled out his knife, and was so angry that he wanted to kill Chang Da. Fortunately, he was stopped by others in time, and Chang Da survived.

Later, Li Shimin pacified the Western Qin, and Chang Da was able to return to the Tang Dynasty. Tang Gaozu Li Yuan admired Chang Da's integrity very much, met him in person, and said with emotion: "Qing's loyalty festival can be asked for by the ancients." Then, Tang Gaozu said to Linghu Dedi, the historian's living room: "Liu Gan, Chang Da, and the history that must be contained." It means that loyal people like Liu Gan and Chang Da are enough to go down in history. After that, Gaozu ordered that the internal servant Shizheng be immediately executed, and he was given 300 pieces of Changda cloth and silk, and he was re-worshiped as the assassin of Longzhou.

From August of the first year of Wude (618), Xue Ju died of a violent illness, Xue Rengao ascended the throne, and Li Shimin, the king of Qin, led his army to the west for the second time, to September of the first year of Wude (618), Xue Rengao led the army of Western Qin to attack the northwest town of Li Tang. In this short period of one month, the Western Qin army was in full swing, and wherever the iron cavalry went, millions of corpses were ambushed and thousands of miles of blood were shed. It should be said that during this period, the northwest frontier of the Li Tang Dynasty was in a very dangerous state.

In this month's time, Xue Rengao's Western Qin army, although it seemed to have won consecutive battles, defeated the Tang Dynasty's northwest border army, and had no power to fight back; Even, Xue Rengao once wanted to break through the Jingzhou defense line of the Tang Dynasty and threaten Chang'an. The northwest defense line of the Li Tang Dynasty was stirred up into a mess by Xue Rengao.

Similarly, it was this month's large-scale military operations that finally became the turning point of Xue Rengao's defeat and the decline of Western Qin's military power. Why? Although Xue Rengao won consecutive battles in the northwest battlefield, he won a series of military victories. However, due to the desperate resistance of Liu Gan, Chang Da and other generals in the northwest of the Tang Dynasty, Xue Rengao's military strength was further consumed and Xue Rengao's offensive speed was delayed.

It was precisely because of the stubborn resistance of the Tang Dynasty's northwest frontier army that Xue Rengao missed the best time to take Chang'an directly. Originally, Xue Rengao had already formulated a plan to attack Chang'an, taking advantage of the low morale of the Tang army and before Li Shimin's army arrived, he broke through Jingzhou with a thunderous momentum and went straight to Chang'an.

However, Xue Rengao obviously underestimated the Tang Army's will to fight. He did not expect that in the process of attacking the northwest border town of Li Tang, he would encounter the most stubborn resistance. Although Xue Rengao was invincible all the way, he failed to break through the Jingzhou defense line after all, wasting time and consuming troops under Jingzhou City in vain.

At the same time, Xue Rengao made no progress in the northwest battlefield and wasted his troops; The vigorous resistance of the Tang Dynasty's northwest frontier army also won enough time for Li Shimin's army to advance to Gaoqi. Soon, Li Shimin led the main force of the Tang Dynasty's westward expedition and successfully reached Gaojaw, where he confronted Xue Rengao.

Whether it is Tang Gaozu Li Yuan or Xue Rengao, they all understand. The reason why the military situation in the northwest is so severe is because after the "Battle of Shallow Water Plain", the Tang army suffered heavy losses and low morale, and the Tang Dynasty defenders in the northwest were alone; Xue Rengao, on the other hand, formed a military oppression on the Tang Army in the northwest with his absolute superiority, and the military posture in the northwest of the Tang Dynasty would be so passive and crumbling.

However, the arrival of Li Shimin with a large army broke all the chaotic situation. The return of Li Shimin turned the Tang Dynasty's unfavorable war situation in the northwest in one fell swoop. So, in the second duel with Western Qin, how did Li Shimin arrange his troops and finally defeat the strong enemy and pacify Western Qin? When Li Shimin, the king of Qin, met Xue Rengao, the little overlord of Western Qin, what kind of fierce sparks would these two peerless duo of the late Sui and early Tang dynasties collide? What kind of thrilling battlefield duel will take place between Li Tang and Xi Qin?