On August 15, the thirteenth year of the Great Cause, Li Yuan led the army to Longmen on the east bank of the Yellow River, standing on the bank of the Yellow River, Li Yuan looked at Chang'an City, which was one step away from him, and he was full of emotion in his heart, as long as he crossed the Yellow River in one step, he could enter Guanzhong and take Chang'an directly. Once he occupies the political center of the Sui Dynasty, the dream he pursued will become a reality. For this goal, he has been preparing for a long, long time!
To this end, he discussed the next course of action with the soldiers. As I said in my previous article, Li Yuan had two obstacles in the process of attacking Chang'an, one was Huoyi, which was garrisoned by the Sui general Song Laosheng, and the other was Hedong County, which was garrisoned by Qu Tutong behind Huoyi. Before this, Huo Yi had already been taken down by Li Yuan, so now only Qu Tutong was stationed in Hedong County in front of him.
At this time, the generals in the army were divided into two different factions on whether to attack Hedong County
Some people believe that they should not attack the east of the river where Qu Tutong was heavily garrisoned, but bypass Qu Tutong, cross the Yellow River directly from Longmen, surrender the local rebel army, and seize Yongfengcang north of Tongguan. In this way, the entire Guanzhong can be controlled before Chang'an is conquered.
Another part of the people believe that we should first pull out the nail of Hedong County and then cross the river into the pass, so as not to be attacked by Qu Tutong when we attack Chang'an.
For these two suggestions, Li Yuan, who had always been cautious, did not make a decision immediately, he was ready to recruit the rebels in Guanzhong first, and contact them before making plans.
On August 18, Li Yuan wrote a letter to Sun Hua, the leader of the strongest forces in Guanzhong, hoping that Sun Hua would come and join him. Six days later, Sun Hua really led his troops to join Li Yuan. Li Yuan was overjoyed, and after giving Sun Hua a large number of official positions, he led 6,000 cavalry with Wang Changhuan of the Left Unified Army, Liu Hongji of the Right Unified Army and others, crossed the river with Sun Hua, camped on the west bank of the Yellow River, and waited for the main force of the army.
On the seventh day of the ninth month, Qu Tutong, who could not bear it, was worried about being attacked by the enemy on his back, so he sent his general Sang Xianhe to lead thousands of cavalry to cross the river in the middle of the night and attack Wang Changhuan's military camp. Wang Changhuan was caught off guard and lost one after another. At the critical moment, Sun Hua led the army to the rescue, and joined forces with Wang Chang to break the Qutu Tong army.
On the 10th day of the ninth month, Li Yuan led a large army to surround Hedong City and launched an attack on Hedong City. However, Qu Tutong is not incompetent, he defended according to the danger, and Li Yuan's repeated attacks were blocked by him, causing Li Yuan's army to be heavy.
Li Yuan realized that this strong city could not be easily conquered, and if he continued to fight like this, it would only increase in vain, so he decided to abandon Hedong County and prepare to cross the river into the pass.
Regarding Li Yuan's decision, Pei Lin and others raised objections, and he said:"Qu Tutong has a heavy army in his hands and holds on to the fortified city, even if we bypass him today, in case we can't take Chang'an, we will be blocked by Qu Tutong when we retreat, and then we will be attacked by the enemy on our back, and the situation will be very unfavorable to us. It's better for us to go all out to take Hedong first, and then choose to go west. Hedong is the gateway to Chang'an, once Qu Tutong is defeated, Chang'an City is not yet captured! ”
"Qu Tutong embraces the public, with a strong city, I give up it, if I attack Chang'an and do not retreat, retreat to Hedong, and suffer the enemy on my back, this dangerous road is also. It is better to go east of the river first, and then go west. Chang'an (Qu Tu) is through the aid, through defeat, Chang'an will be broken".As soon as Pei Lin and the others finished speaking, Li Shimin immediately retorted:"The soldiers are fast, we have the residual power of the Lian Zhan Lian and the troops from all directions, if we advance westward quickly, Chang'an will be frightened, when they don't have time to make a decision, we have already taken Chang'an City like sweeping the leaves in autumn and winter. If we stick to the city of Hedong, we will have sufficient time to prepare, causing us to delay the fighter. Once the morale of the army is dispersed, then the big thing cannot be done! ”
"The soldiers are fast, the power of my seat is tired, the people who return to the obedient, the drums go west, the people of Chang'an are shocked by the wind, the wisdom is not enough, the courage is not enough to break, and the take is like vibrating the ears of the leaves. If I drown myself under the fortified city, Peter will plan to repair and prepare for me, and spend the sun and the moon on it, and the hearts of the people will be depressed, and the great things will be done. And the swarm in Guanzhong does not belong to it, so it must be recruited as soon as possible. Qu Tutong defended himself and was not worried. ”But like last time, Li Yuan did not make a decision immediately, and still maintained his usual cautious style. In response to the above two opinions, he decided to take a two-pronged approach, leaving a force to continue the siege of Hedong, and himself leading the main force to march to Guanzhong.
On September 12, Li Yuan led his army into Guanzhong smoothly, and the momentum was greatly boosted, and officials from all over the Sui Dynasty came to join and surrender the counties under their jurisdiction. Among them, Huayin County ordered Li Xiaochang to offer the Yongfeng warehouse that Li Yuan dreamed of. The occupation of Yongfengcang not only ensured the food supply of the army and the people, but also cut off the connection between Luoyang and Chang'an, and prevented Qu Tutong from coming to the rescue in the Hedong region, making the strategic situation of Li Yuan's army more favorable.
On September 16, Li Yuan led his army to Chaoyi to command the overall situation. Ordered Li Shimin to lead the army through Weibei, where Li Shimin went, incorporated a large number of Sui troops and peasant rebel army, in a short period of time, gathered more than 90,000 troops, set up camp in Jingyang, and outflanked Chang'an from the north. At the same time, Li Yuan ordered Li Jiancheng, Liu Wenjing, Wang Changhui and others to enter Yongfeng Cang to guard Tongguan and guard against possible Sui reinforcements in the east.
At this point, Chang'an, the political center of the Sui Dynasty, has been completely exposed to Li Yuan, and has almost become Li Yuan's bag. Li Yuan is one step closer to his dream.
On the other side, when Qu Tutong learned that Li Yuan had crossed the Yellow River and went straight to Chang'an, he ordered his subordinate Yao Junsu to hold on to Hedong, while he led his elite south to Tongguan to aid Chang'an.
However, Li Yuan had already laid an ambush on his way, and Qu Tutong was stubbornly blocked by Liu Wenjing at Tongguan. The two sides held each other for a month, and Qu Tutong could not cross the Tongguan for half a step. The longer the time holds, the more unfavorable it will be for Qu Tutong. Therefore, he decided to take a risk and ordered Sang Xianhe to attack Liu Wenjing's camp at night, and Liu Wenjing hurriedly responded to the battle.
In the melee, Liu Wenjing was hit by a stray arrow, and the morale of the soldiers was greatly damaged, and the Sui army had already captured two of their camps at this time, leaving only the last one in danger.
Just when Liu Wenjing thought that they were going to be annihilated, the Sui army suddenly stopped the offensive. It turned out that Sang Xianhe thought that Liu Wenjing's army at this time was already at the end of the crossbow and was not to be afraid, and he and the soldiers had been fighting for a day and night, and they were already hungry, so they decided to go back for a meal first, and then solve Liu Wenjing's army when they were full.
However, it was the effort of this meal that wiped out the advantages that the Sui army had worked so hard to build. While the Sui army was resting, Liu Wenjing readjusted his deployment and recaptured the camp that had been broken by the Sui army. At this time, another unexpected thing happened to Liu Wenjing and Sang Xianhe. It turned out that just as the Sui army was eating, a group of hundreds of rangers turned to the back of the Sui army, and they were not reinforcements sent by Li Yuan.
As soon as these rangers saw the banner of the Sui army, they immediately launched a surprise attack on the unsuspecting Sui army. At this time, the Sui army did not expect such an army to emerge behind them, thinking that it was a reinforcement sent by Li Yuan, and they immediately panicked and were in chaos. Seeing this opportunity, Liu Wenjing immediately led the army to launch **, but the Sui army was defeated, and only Sang Xianhe fled alone.
Looking at the embarrassed Sang Xianhe, Qu Tutong was disheartened. The road in front was blocked, and the base area behind was surrounded, and he was already in a dilemma. He realized that the fall of Chang'an was inevitable, and the days before the fall of the Sui Dynasty were numbered. But he could only watch all this, neither turning the tide nor tilting the building. At this moment, Qu Tutong, a deep sense of powerlessness hit his heart, and he felt deep despair.
At the end of September of the thirteenth year of the Great Cause, Li Yuan, who was well stocked with soldiers, began to narrow the encirclement of Chang'an. At the same time, Li Shimin sent Liu Hongji to capture Fufeng, and then led the army to cross Weishui south and stationed in Acheng. At this time, Li Shimin's troops had reached 130,000.
On September 27, Li Jiancheng, who was stationed in Yongfengcang, was also ordered by Li Yuan to lead his troops from Xinfeng to Chang'an.
On September 28, Li Yuan led his army all the way west, and everywhere he went, the palace gardens built by the Sui Dynasty were demolished one by one, and all the palace maids in the palace were put home.
At the beginning of October, Li Yuan led the army to arrive at the city of Chang'an, camped outside the Chunming Gate, and all the men and horses were assembled, at this time Li Yuan's troops totaled more than 200,000. Looking at Chang'an City, which was close at hand, Li Yuan wanted to take the city without blood, so he kept sending envoys to the city to persuade Wei Wensheng and others, the defenders in the city, to open the city gate, but Wei Wensheng ignored it.
October Xinsi, the second Changle Palace, there are 200,000 people. Sui stayed to guard Wen Sheng and other Feng Dynasty Wang Yu to guard the capital, and Gaozu sent an envoy to report it.When persuasion failed, Li Yuan had no choice but to order a siege. Before the attack, Li Yuan ordered: No one is allowed to invade the Sui Dynasty temple and members of the royal family, and violators will be exterminated. On October 27, Li Yuan officially gave the order to attack the city, and although the defenders in the city resisted stubbornly, they were still powerless in the face of several times their own forces. Only fourteen days later, the city of Chang'an was broken, and Li Yuan led his army into the city. After entering Chang'an and occupying the political center of the Sui Dynasty, it marked that Li Yuan had seized the commanding heights of politics. At this moment, a new dynasty is about to be born, and the lost Sui Lu will find a new master in this land full of gunpowder. And just eight months later, a new round of the rising sun of the Tang Dynasty will completely break free from the confines of darkness, erupt from the cracked sky of the Sui Dynasty, and shine through the universe.
Throughout the process of Li Yuan's army raising to occupying Chang'an, along the way, the time, place, and people were almost all on his side
The so-called time of the day:It means that Li Yuan grasped the timing of the army very well, neither too early nor too late, too early and easy to be dealt with by the Sui Dynasty's concentrated firepower; If it is too late, the big cake of the Sui Dynasty is easy to be divided up by others. The timing of Li Yuan's choice to raise troops coincided with the increasing number of revolting troops in the Sui Dynasty, and the Sui Dynasty was embattled and was no longer able to mobilize superior forces to encircle and suppress. Moreover, Li Yuan's goal of raising troops was very clear, that is, to seize Chang'an, the political center of the Sui Dynasty, occupy the political commanding heights, and coerce the Son of Heaven to order the princes. Throughout Li Yuan's mobilization of troops and the first to enter the customs, the timing can be said to be just right.
The so-called geographical advantage:It means that Li Yuan got the treasure land of Taiyuan. The biggest mistake Yang Guang made was that Li Yuan should not be appointed as the Taiyuan guard. As everyone knows, Taiyuan is an important military town, where there are soldiers and food, and there are the necessary material conditions and solid logistical support for Li Yuan to raise troops. With Li Yuan as Taiyuan to stay behind, for an ambitious person, it is equivalent to "the hidden dragon is in the abyss". One day, Li Yuan, a dormant dragon, will deal a fatal blow to the Sui Dynasty.
The so-called people:It refers to Li Yuan's talent at the beginning of the army. There are advisers like Pei Lin and Liu Wenjing, military generals like Changsun Shunde and Liu Hongji, and Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin, and Li Yuanji, three sons who are young but can stand alone. Li Yuan has such a partner, why worry about big things!
The time, place, and people are all on Li Yuan's side, and I have to say that Li Yuan is really the one who belongs to the destiny of heaven!