First Minister of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 232 Dou Jiande's Fatal Flaw
...

Seeing Li Shimin's power, Xia's army panicked for a while, and the soldiers looked at each other in blank dismay, not daring to go forward. Seeing this situation, Li Shimin reined in his horse deliberately and lingered in place.

"Yuzhi, it is rumored that there are many heroes and warriors in the land of Yanzhao, and this time I saw it, it is nothing more than that." Facing the enemy army several times larger than his own, Li Shimin smiled calmly at Gao Chong, pointing with the longbow in his hand. Looking at Xia Jun who was lingering on the opposite side, he looked down on him.

Gao Chong also laughed loudly and said: "Even warriors and heroes are no match for the king's magic arrow."

Li Shimin raised his head and laughed loudly.

Seeing that the two were chatting and laughing happily, without paying attention to their own troops, Yin Qiu, the general of the Xia army's rangers, was furious, and immediately slapped his horse and stepped forward, "Li Er, die to me." He pointed his spear straight at the front Li Shimin.

Li Shimin's face darkened, Gao Chong did not hesitate, and immediately greeted him with a lance, and stabbed at it, the lance was longer than the spear, Yin Qiu had to return the spear to resist, Gao Chong's right arm shook, the long lance turned into a long stick, heavy Slapping it down, it hit Yin Qiu's shoulder with a straight pat, and Yin Qiu almost fell off his horse after being hit so hard.

The two horses staggered, Gao Chong turned over, hit Yin Qiu's back with the tail of the lance, and knocked Yin Qiu off the horse, then returned to the horse and went forward, piercing Yin Qiu.

"Get up", Gao Chong clamped Ma Li under his armpit, and with his right arm, he picked up Yin Qiu alive, and slammed Yin Qiu in the direction of Xia Jun, "Who came forward to lead him to death?"

When Xia Jun saw this, he panicked immediately, with a look of horror on his face, and he retreated straight away.

Seeing his arrogance, Cheng Zhijie applauded loudly, and then he was not to be outdone, "Your Majesty, let's see how the end will kill you." After all, he patted his horse and came forward with a spear. The eight horses waved like the wind, and the soldiers of the Xia army were either killed or injured, as if they had entered a land without people. After killing several people, Cheng Zhijie slowly steered his horse back, and none of the hundreds of Xia soldiers dared to pursue them.

Li Shimin was very happy when he saw this, he raised his bow and shouted: "The King Qin of the Tang Dynasty is here, do you dare to pursue him?"

The Xia army looked at each other, Yin Qiu and Shi Zan, one of the two generals died under the arrow, and the other died under the spear. They had to flee in panic.

Li Shimin slapped his horse forward, and chased him with a bow. He chased him two or three miles away from Xia Jun's camp before he stopped his horse.

In the Xia Army's camp and the Chinese Army's large tent, Dou Jiande looked shocked, "What? Is it really Li Shimin?"

"Returning to the king, it is absolutely true. Li Shimin only led a hundred or so riders to explore the camp three miles away."The scout reported truthfully.

Dou Jiande's face darkened, "Arrogant boy, you underestimate my Xia Jun so much", after saying that, he gathered four or five thousand soldiers and horses to go out of the camp to pursue.

Seeing that the gate of Xia's barracks was wide open and a puff of smoke was raised, Li Shimin on the high slope took down his bow and arrow, and ordered: "Retreat while fighting."

Then the cavalry of the Xia army chased after him. Li Shimin turned around and opened his bow and arrows all the way. He shot and overturned several people, but the Xia army who was eager to chase was also beheaded by Gao Chong and Cheng Zhijie.

"Fleeing" all the way to Hulao Pass, Li Shimin reined in his horse, deliberately letting Xia Jun catch up, until the ambush, Li Shiji, Yuchi Jingde, Qin Qiong and others went out from left and right, piercing Xia Jun and dividing it into two parts. Several queues.

Although Xia's army is superior in number, the Xuanjia army is well-trained and well-equipped, and Yuchi Jingde and others are also brave and sturdy, killing Xia's army in all directions, and Li Shimin fought back again. Exploring the camp, they actually beheaded nearly a thousand cavalrymen of the Xia army.

Back at Hulao Pass, Li Shimin was very excited, "Today's first confrontation, although the Xia army has a large number of people, but it has a fatal flaw, I wonder if you have noticed it?"

In fact, all the generals here have already seen this problem, but Gao Chong is the Sima of the Qin Palace, and his status is slightly higher. Li Shiji and others waited for Gao Chong to speak first, and Gao Chong said bluntly: "Xia Jun is extremely short of low-level officers."

"Grassroots officers..." Li Shimin frowned, nodded, and said, "You speak the truth."

Cheng Zhijie also nodded and agreed: "After beheading the general of the Xia army, the soldiers will be scattered like birds and beasts, no matter how difficult it is to organize."

Li Shiji fled back to the Tang Dynasty from Dou Jiande's command, and he has the most experience. He said directly: "Dou Jiande is tolerant and decentralizes power. The former fake Xia Nayan Song Zhengben was in charge of six departments alone, and the general Wang Fubao even had more than three or five soldiers under his command." Wan, the soldiers only recognize the generals, but not their lords, so Dou Jiande only values ​​​​the leading generals, and does not care about the low-level generals such as brigade commanders and school lieutenants."

This is the fatal point of Dou Jiande. Once the general dies in battle or flees, the army will collapse to the end like a dam bursting.

Dou Jiande was born in a reckless family and has been farming for generations. He was elected as Li Zheng because of his heroic loyalty. Because of this background, Dou Jiande attaches great importance to the people, treats his generals with great loyalty, and has an extremely simple life style, thus creating this great foundation.

But precisely because of this background, Dou Jiande is destined not to establish a perfect system like Li Yuan, who was born in a family. Although Dou Jiande also follows the Sui system like Li Yuan, Li Yuan pays attention to balance in setting up hundreds of officials, such as Shangshu Zuopu shoot Pei Ji , the servant Gao Junya, and the Zhongshu servant Liu Wenjing, the three check and balance each other.

But Dou Jiande acted entirely on loyalty, Song Zheng was in charge of government affairs when he was appointed as Nayan, and all government affairs were at his disposal. Wang Fubao was a general, so he led the entire army.

Another example is the Guozi Jijiu Ling Jing, the Guozijijiu in Li Tang was only in charge of the Guozijian, preaching scriptures for the prince, and in charge of the administration of education. For example, the current Guozi Jijiu in the Tang Dynasty is named Wei Cheng, from Jingzhao Webster, although knowledgeable, is not well-known and does not interfere in military affairs.

However, Dou Jiande's son Ling Jing was the mastermind, and he often accompanied Dou Jiande to go out with the army and make suggestions. To put it bluntly, Dou Jiande's bureaucracy was extremely chaotic, not as good as Li Tang's, and each performed his duties. Dou Jiande's biggest shortcoming can also be said to be the fatal point of the peasant uprising army in all dynasties.

When confronting Xia Jun for the first time, Li Shimin already had some ideas in his heart, and immediately said: "Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong, I am more worried about Wang Shichong. If you can appease Dou Jiande and take Luoyang first, that would be the best."

Everyone agreed with the words, Dou Jiande came from a long way, and now his army is like a grass-roots team, even if the individual soldiers are strong, they are not as good as a well-organized army.

However, Wang Shichong's soldiers were all built on the basis of Jianghuai Xiaoguo's elite. The system inherited the original mechanism of Luoyang, the eastern capital.

Li Shiji thought for a while, and said bluntly: "Dou Jiande is quite a benevolent person. Your Majesty can write a letter to move it with reason and understand it with emotion. Although it will not make him retreat, it may be delayed for some time until Luoyang's food is exhausted." , Wang Shichong was defeated, and Dou Jiande retreated without a fight."

(End of this chapter)