In April of the thirteenth year of the Great Cause, Xue Ju, the former captain of Jincheng of Sui, and his son Xue Renguo killed Jincheng Ling, and officially raised troops against Sui and proclaimed themselves the overlord of Western Qin. Subsequently, all the way was like a bamboo, successively captured Caohan, Xiping, Douhe and other places, occupied Longxi, and had 130,000 troops. Then, he captured Tianshui, proclaimed himself Emperor Qin, and moved the capital to Tianshui. In November, Xue Ju, who proclaimed himself Emperor of Qin, defeated Li Hongzhi, who claimed to be Emperor of Chu, and Tang Bi, who claimed to be King of Tang, and annexed their menSuddenly, Xue Ju's voice was shocked, and his strength increased greatly, claiming to have an army of 300,000. At this time, Xue Ju became one of Li Yuan's most threatening separatist forces in the world.
At the beginning of December, Xue Ju ordered his eldest son Xue Rengao to lead an army of 100,000 to attack Fufeng, preparing to compete with Li Yuan for Guanzhong. Li Yuan immediately made a deployment, and the troops were divided into two ways:One route was led by Li Shimin, attacking Yorenguo; One route was led by Jiang Mo and Dou Liang, starting from Sanguan and attacking Xue Ju's base Longyou. While dealing with Xue Ju, Li Yuan ordered Li Xiaogong to lead an army to cross the Qinling Mountains and prepare to capture the Bashu region.
On December 17, Li Shimin led his army to Fufeng, the young and frivolous Xue Renguo was the opponent of the military genius Li Shimin, and soon after, Li Shimin broke Xue Renguo's army in Fufeng, annihilated more than 10,000 of them, and chased Xue Renguo all the way to the vicinity of Longshan.
Xue Ju was terrified when he heard the news of his son's defeat, he was not worried about his son's life or death, but afraid that Li Shimin would cross Longshan to attack him, so he hurriedly asked his subordinates:"Have emperors surrendered since ancient times? ”
After listening to Xue Ju's words, Hao Ming, who was then Wei Weiqing, hurriedly stepped forward and said loudly: "Your Majesty shouldn't have this kind of thought, Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, experienced countless failures, Liu Bei didn't even protect his wife and children, they didn't all achieve great things, how could Your Majesty plan to die because of a small failure." ”
Xue Ju felt speechless, so he laughed awkwardly and said, "I'm just testing your attitude, and I don't have any other intentions." Then he rewarded Hao Ying heavily and made him a confidant.
In late December, Jiang Mo and Dou Rail, who were sent by Li Yuan to attack Xue Ju's base area, arrived in ChangdaoAs a result, he was ambushed by Xue Ju, returned defeated, and had to withdraw to Chang'an. At this point, Xue Ju became the most powerful force in the battle with Li Yuan.
Seeing the growing Tang Dynasty, Xue Ju became more and more uneasy. In April of the first year of Wude, he sent envoys to the Turks to ask him to jointly attack Tang, but Jieli Khan refused.
On May 20 of the first year of Wude, Li Yuan, the fifty-three-year-old king of Tang, ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in the Taiji Hall and established the Tang Dynasty. At the same time, after Li Xiaogong captured the Bashu region, the Tang Dynasty's sphere of influence had surpassed that of any secession powerAt that time, the situation was - there was Liu Wuzhou in the north, but he was far away in Mayi, and he was monitored by Li Yuanji in Taiyuan, so he did not pose much threat to Chang'an; Shuofang Liang Shidu was ready to unite with the Turks to invade Guanzhong, but under the pull of the Tang Dynasty, the Turks had made friends with the Tang Dynasty, and the goal of Liang Shidu was difficult to achieve; Wuwei Li Rail, under the co-optation and appeasement of the Tang Dynasty, also chose neutrality. Therefore, for Li Yuan, the biggest threat to Guanzhong was the Xue Ju Group in Longyou, which became Li Yuan's strongest opponent.
On the tenth day of the sixth month, Xue Ju led a large army to attack Jingzhou in the Tang Dynasty, officially launching a challenge to the Tang Dynasty. But by this time the Tang Dynasty had grown enough to deal with any threat. As a result, Li Yuan, who became the emperor, decided to completely eliminate the Xue Ju group and remove the immediate danger.
Subsequently, Li Yuan took Li Shimin as the marshal and led the eight governors to meet Xue Ju. At the beginning of July, Li Shimin led the army to Gaoqi City, and at the same time, Xue Ju also personally led a large army to attack Gaoqi, and the small force of the vanguard had reached the area of Fengzhou and Qizhou, and it was menacing.
But at the critical moment, Tang Army Marshal Li Shimin contracted malaria. There was no way, Li Shimin had no choice but to order the army to dig deep trenches, close the city for defense, and hold on without fighting, and at the same time handed over the command of the army to Liu Wenjing and Yin KaishanAnd warned them: "Xue Ju a lone army, deep into our hinterland, after a long time, there will be a shortage of food and grass, and the soldiers will be tired." Therefore, once he comes to challenge, you must not fight, and when I am well, we will discuss attacking Xue Ju. ”
"Raising food and being tired of soldiers, hanging the army deep, is intended to be a decisive battle, and it is not conducive to lasting. If you want to challenge, you will be cautious and undecided", "I will recover from my illness, and then try to break it".However, Liu Wenjing and Yin Kaishan did not heed Li Shimin's warning.
As soon as he walked out of Li Shimin's big tent, Yin Kaishan said to Liu Wenjing:"When Xue Ju heard that the king was sick, he must take it lightly, and we should take the opportunity to attack Xue Ju. Liu Wenjing followed Yin Kaishan's advice.
So, he immediately led his army to line up at the shallow water source southwest of Gaojaw, preparing to fight Xue Ju. And here Xue Ju heard that the Tang army was fighting, and he almost jumped up with joy, what he was most afraid of was that the Tang army would not come out, but this Liu Wenjing was sent to the doorWhile lining up head-on to fool the Tang army, he sent a cavalry to go around the back of the Tang army, preparing to launch a surprise attack on the Tang army.
On the ninth day of July in the first year of Wude,The two sides fought fiercely at the shallow water source, and Liu Wenjing was defeated. The eight commanders of the Tang army were all defeated, more than half of the soldiers were killed, and the generals Liu Hongji, Li Anyuan and others were all captured. In view of this, Li Shimin had no choice but to lead the army to withdraw to Chang'an. Xue Ju, on the other hand, took advantage of the victory to occupy the high jaw and piled up the corpses of the Tang army in a pile to show off his military might.
Regarding the failure of the shallow water source, it is recorded in history that Li Shimin suffered from malaria and handed over the military power to Liu Wenjing's command. This may be true, but it is also possible that it was a cover for Li Shimin's defeat. Just imagine, Liu Wenjing's deployment of troops is so big, how could Li Shimin not know the news in advance, and let Liu Wenjing transfer troops to attack Xue Ju. But in any case, defeat is defeat. The defeat in the Battle of Shallow Water Source was also the first heavy defeat suffered by Li Yuan since he raised his army. And Liu Wenjing and Yin Kaishan, who are the culprits, are still unforgivable. After returning to Chang'an, the two of them were immediately dismissed by Li Yuan and waited for their dismissal.
The failure of the shallow water source dealt a heavy blow to the Li Tang Dynasty, and at the same time, Li Yuan also felt more and more that if Xue Ju did not die, he would never be able to eat and sleep well. But fortunately, perhaps it was the heavens that favored the Tang Dynasty, which had risen in the troubled times, and just when Xue Ju was preparing to attack Chang'an with the power of shallow water, he himself fell ill and died.
After Xue Ju's death, he was succeeded by his son Xue Renguo. After Xue Renguo succeeded to the throne, the original plan to attack Chang'an had to be stopped. Hearing the news of Xue Renguo's death, Li Yuan smiled, because he knew that a major threat to the Tang Dynasty was goneCompared with his Laozi Xue Ju, Xue Renguo is a little inferior in both courage and strength. So, at this time, he has nothing to worry about.
In September of the first year of Wude, Li Yuan once again took Li Shimin as the marshal and led the army to attack the Gaoqi City that was lost last time. This time, Li Shimin learned the lesson of the last defeat, and when the army arrived at Gaoqi, Li Shimin ordered the soldiers not to go to battle privately. Xue Renguo sent his general Zong Luohu out of the city to challenge, but Li Shimin just closed the city gate and refused to fight.
Looking at Zong Luohu's arrogant arrogance, Li Shimin could endure it, but his soldiers couldn't bear it, so they asked to go to war one after another. But Li Shimin said:"Our army is newly defeated, the morale is depressed, the thieves are proud of the victory, and they have a heart to despise me, so it is better to close the base and wait for it. He is proud of me, and he will overcome it in a fight. "In a word, no matter how challenging the other side is, we must not go out to fight, and when their army is arrogant and our army's morale is high, we will be able to defeat them in one battle.
Li Shimin was afraid that the soldiers would fight privately like last time, and then sent orders to the army"Dare to speak, slash!."”
On the one hand, Xue Renguo wanted to lure the Tang army to fight, and on the other hand, Li Shimin refused to fight, and the two sides confronted each other for more than 60 daysAfter a long time, some people in the Xue army finally couldn't stand it anymore, and the generals led by Liang Hulang led their troops to surrender to the Tang army.
Li Shimin knew that the Qin army at this time had already been separated, and it was the best time to attack Xue Ju. onYes, he ordered Liang Shi to deploy his army alone in a shallow water source to lure the enemy into battle. Zong Luohu was eager to fight, led all the elites, and launched a fierce attack on Liang Shi. Liang Shi defended the danger and resisted stubbornly, and under the predicament of lack of water in the camp and the lack of men and horses for several days, he stubbornly resisted Zong Luohu's attacks again and again.
After several days of fierce fighting, Li Shimin expected that the Xue army at this time had reached its limit, so he issued an order for a general attack, and he personally led the main force from the north of the shallow water source to attack the back of the Xue army by surprise. He took the lead and led a dozen cavalry to rush into the enemy formation, followed by the army, launching a fierce attack, and Xue's army was defeated and fled.
Seeing this, Li Shimin personally led 2,000 cavalry to prepare for the pursuit. But his uncle Dou Liang said:"Xue Renguo is still defending the fortified city, although our army has broken the sect, but it must not be easy to advance, please stand still and wait and see what happens. ”
However, Li Shimin thought that this was a good opportunity to pursue the victory and not give the enemy a chance to breathe, so he led the army to chase after Zong Luohu and chased him all the way to the foot of Gaojaw City. Xue Renguo hurriedly went out of the city to line up, preparing to meet the Tang army. The two armies fought, and Xue Renguo saw that the Tang army was attacking fiercely, so he retreated to the city. The Tang army continued to launch an onslaught, and the Xue army was demoralized and went out of the city to surrender.
On the eighth day of November, Xue Renguo, who was disillusioned, saw that the general trend had gone, so he led the remaining troops to surrender to Li Shimin. Li Shimin received more than 10,000 elite soldiers from Xue Renguo and more than 50,000 male and female residents of Gaoqi City.
On November 22, Li Shimin's squad returned to Chang'an and beheaded Xue Renguo in the downtown area, which can be regarded as avenging the Tang army soldiers who died in the first battle of shallow water.
At this point, Xue Ju's father and son, who were in Longxi, completely withdrew from the stage of hegemony. From the beginning of the army to the defeat of the army, it lasted only one year and seven months.
The victory of the Second Battle of Shallow Water Source made the Longxi region all owned by the Tang Dynasty, which not only consolidated Guanzhong, but also expanded the Tang Dynasty's sphere of influence, and eliminated worries. It was also from this time on,Li Shimin's outstanding military talent gradually began to be displayed in front of the world. No one would doubt that in time, this young second prince would surely become the most outstanding commander of the Tang Empire. For a long time, he will become a trump card for Li Yuan to win the world, helping Li Yuan resolve crises again and again.