A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 643 I gave you a chance but you didn’t use it!
After some discussion, everyone in the Wang family quickly came to a consensus. The Wang family still wants to support Li Tang to dominate the world, because there is no more suitable person in the world than Li Shimin.

Destined son, well deserved.

But for Li Yuan, the Wang family would not just let it go. In the Wang family's view, Li Yuan was completely unfit to be emperor. Now he has done such a thing and has made up his mind to promote Li Shimin to the throne.

The news of Dou Jiande's murder spread quickly to Hebei and Shandong. The local wealthy families in Hebei and Shandong who were originally preparing to surrender suddenly felt like a pot exploding after learning that Dou Jiande had been killed.

The original surrender was immediately burned, and then he directly scolded Li Tang for not keeping his word, killed the pacifier sent by Li Tang, and raised troops again.

Dou Jiande showed benevolence and righteousness to the people of Hebei and Shandong, and everyone in the army benefited from him. Although Dou Jiande was defeated and captured, he did not lose many troops.

Originally, because of Dou Jiande's letter, these generals and soldiers had planned to surrender. But now that they learned that the Tang court had killed Dou Jiande, they were immediately in an uproar and shouted for revenge for King Xia.

Just as Li Yuan was happily waiting for Shandong and Hebei to send their orders to lower their quotas, news came that both Shandong and Hebei were rebelling. Dou Jiande's general Liu Heitai led the troops and personally led an army of 300,000 people to attack Li Tang again and became Dou Jiande.

When he heard about the rebellion in Hebei and Shandong, Li Yuan was stunned for an instant, followed by endless anger. In his mind, he had already made promises to the nobles of Hebei and Shandong in accordance with aristocratic politics. However, these people directly ignored his promises and rebelled.

The words of King Qin Li Shimin and Zhongshu Ling Wang Xuanjing were still in his ears, but he didn't listen. It didn't take long before he was slapped naked in the face.

After Li Shimin saluted, he directly said: "Father, Hebei and Shandong have surrendered and rebelled again. Liu Heitai has raised an army of 300,000 to attack. It is very powerful. I sincerely ask you to personally lead the army to fight against it."

At this time, news came from Zhongguan that King Qin Li Shimin asked to see him.

Another reason is that he knows very well that since ancient times, it has been a national taboo to depose an elder and establish a virtuous person. The eldest son who is deposed will most likely die. Although the eldest son Li Jiancheng was not as good at fighting as Erlang, he did a good job in assisting in government affairs.

Therefore, Li Yuan could only try to balance the situation between North Korea and China and suppress Li Shimin. This time, he was not willing to let Li Shimin continue to lead the army in the battle.

Li Yuan even felt that the ministers were laughing at his joke. His operation this time seemed to be a complete joke, which made Li Yuan even more angry.

"Dou Jiande is dead. Even if Hebei and Shandong are in chaos and there is no leader, there is nothing to fear. Let others get some credit." Li Yuan rejected Li Shimin's request.

What's more, he likes his eldest son very much, how can he bear to depose the eldest son and force him to die?

Li Shimin left the palace disappointed. After Li Shimin left, Li Yuan immediately issued an edict to let the prince enter the palace.

"Erlang attacked Liu Wuzhou the year before last, and he attacked Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande last year. Although he won many battles, I also know the hardships of military service. If we go on another expedition, several years of fighting will be too tiring, so Erlang should take a rest."

Now Li Shimin's power is getting stronger and his reputation is getting higher and higher, which has affected the balance of the court. In the past few days, he has also considered changing the crown prince, but when he thought that the former Sui Dynasty was destroyed because of the replacement of the crown prince and Yang Guang's accession to the throne, he felt a little uneasy.

Li Yuan suppressed his irritation and let him in.

"Father, do you want your son to go to Hebei to attack Liu Heita?" Li Jiancheng hesitated.

"Well, although Liu Heitai seems to be very popular, most of them are just following the herd. Dou Jiande is not my opponent in the Tang Dynasty, let alone the people under him. You will be the commander-in-chief, and Jiangling King Li Shentong will be the deputy commander-in-chief. , leading an army to attack, we will definitely be able to pacify Hebei and Shandong," Li Yuan said.

Li Yuan did not allow Li Shimin to go on the expedition this time, and specifically asked the prince to go to the expedition, just to enhance the prince's prestige. Li Shimin's reputation was too high and he had begun to suppress the prince. He knew that the prince was not good at military affairs, so he specially selected the person in the clan who was best at leading an army except Erlang to assist him. As long as he showed up, he would be the one to conquer Hebei and Shandong.

What Li Yuan didn't expect was that the prince didn't appreciate his thoughts.

The last time Li Yuanji was defeated and fled back to Chang'an, it also made him understand the dangers of war. Although he wanted military success, he was always afraid in his heart. He has always believed that a gentleman should not stand behind a dangerous wall.

Therefore, even if Li Yuan gave him the opportunity, Li Jiancheng was unwilling to go. He hesitated for a moment and said: "Father, my son hastily led his army there without a battle formation. I'm afraid he won't be able to win!"

Hearing Li Jiancheng's words, Li Yuan was immediately disappointed. He forced the second son not to use it and gave the prince a chance. However, the prince was still unwilling to go. If I give you a chance, you will be useless!

Li Yuan was unhappy and could only order Li Shentong to lead his army to pacify Hebei and Shandong.

Li Shentong led his army out of Tongguan and went to Hebei to fight Liu Heitai.

Liu Heitai knew that Tang Ting was strong and he was not the number one general under Dou Jiande. In order to win over these people, Liu Heitai set up an altar outside the city to pay homage to Dou Jiande to win over people's hearts.

Then he asked the fortune teller to ask about the divination, and the fortune teller told him that "the golden knife has been carved, and it is singing in the golden city." So the prophecy that the golden sword rules the world soon swept across Hebei and Shandong.

Many noble families responded and supported Liu Heitai. Liu Heitai's strength expanded rapidly, conquering several counties in one month and regaining Hebei in three months.

Liu Heitai took the lead in every battle, and his reputation became more and more outstanding.

Li Shentong led the army to the expedition. As a member of the Li Tang clan, Li Shentong was also a rare general, but he also committed a problem unique to nobles, that is, he looked down on people of low origin.

More importantly, Li Shentong saw that Li Shimin captured Dou Jiande easily, and thought that Dou Jiande was nothing more than that, and Liu Heitai was his general, so there was nothing to fear.

At the same time, in order to deal with Liu Heitai, Li Tang also ordered Youzhou Luo Yi to attack together. He wanted to attack Liu Heita from the north and the south.

But what they didn't expect was that Liu Heitai's army raised troops in the name of revenge for Xia King Dou Jiande, and the military strategy was that the soldiers would win.

The people in Hebei Province were favored by Dou Jiande, so they fought bravely. Li Shentong and Luo Yi attacked from the north and south. Instead of winning, Liu Heitai won consecutive battles.

Liu Heita attacked Li Shentong with a large army, and then asked his brothers to lead the army to defend Luo Yi. The soldiers and civilians of Hebei were united and fought bravely. The Tang army was defeated in consecutive battles, and Li Shentong's army was almost wiped out.

Luo Yi learned that the Tang army was defeated and did not dare to fight again, so he quickly led his army to retreat in panic. Liu Heitai led his army to continuously attack. In November, he captured Dingzhou, and then went to Qizhou in ten days. In December, he defeated Xu Shiji. For a time, the military front was so powerful that no one could stop it.

However, in just six months, Liu Heitai restored all Dou Jiande's lands and even occupied most of Henan, which shocked the Tang court.

When he learned that Liu Heitai's troops were approaching Tongguan, Li Yuan could not care about anything else and quickly ordered Li Shimin to lead his army to the expedition.

(End of this chapter)