Wagang army opened a warehouse to distribute grain

The leader of the Waging army, Zhai Jean, was originally a minor official in the eastern county, but because he had offended his superior, he was sentenced to prison and death. A jailer took pity on him and said, "I think you are a good man, how can you wait for death in jail?" One night, the jailer secretly broke the shackles, opened the cell door, and released Zhai.

Zhai Jean escaped from the prison and fled to Wagang Village near Dong County, where he recruited some poor peasants and organized an uprising team. Some local youths, hearing the news, came to join him. One of them was a young man named Xu Shizhi (pronounced jī), who was only seventeen years old and was not only strong in martial arts but also very resourceful.

He advised Zhai to go to Xingyang, where there were many wealthy merchants, to raise some money and food.

Zhai Jean listened to Xu Shizhi's advice and led the peasant army to Xingyang to fight against the rich merchants and seize a large amount of money. More and more peasants came to join Zhai, and soon there were more than 10,000 of them.

After Li Mi defected to Zhai Jean, he helped him to reorganize his men and horses. At that time, there were still some small groups of peasants in the vicinity. Li Mi went to all places to contact them and persuaded them to unite and follow the command of Zhai Zhan. Zhai was very happy and became close to Li Mi.

Although Zhai had many men and horses, he did not think he could overthrow Emperor Yang of Sui. Li Mi said to Zhai, "In the past, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were also ordinary people, but they finally overthrew the Qin Dynasty. Now the emperor is tyrannical, the people are discontented, and most of the government troops are far away in Liaodong. With your strong army, it would be easy for you to take over the Eastern Capital and Chang'an and defeat the tyrant!

Zhai Jean was very happy to hear this and said, "Your advice is very good, I didn't think of that."

Then, after discussing the matter, they decided to attack Xingyang first. The governor of Xingyang told Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. Emperor Yang sent his general Zhang Suda to suppress it with a large army.Zhang Suduo was a veteran of suppressing the peasant army. Zhai Jean had once lost a battle at his hands, and was a bit scared when he heard that Zhang Suda was coming again. Li Mi said, "Zhang Suda has courage but no strategy, plus he thinks he is strong, proud and gullible. If we take advantage of his weakness, we can defeat him."

Li Mi asked Zhai Jean to set up a frontal position to meet the enemy; he took 1,000 men and horses to set up an ambush in the dense forest north of Dahai Temple in Xingyang.

Zhang Suduo, deceiving Zhai Jian as his opponent, recklessly commanded his men to cover up and kill him. Zhai Jean fought back for a while and pretended to be defeated. Zhang Suda chased after him, and after more than ten miles, the road became narrower and narrower, and the woods became denser and denser, which was the ambush circle laid by Li Mi. Li Mi gave an order, ambushed the gang army generals together to kill, and Zhang Suda's men surrounded. Zhang Suduo although brave, was surrounded by layers of ambush soldiers, left and right, can not get out of the siege, and finally, the whole army was wiped out. Zhang Suda was also killed by the rebel army.

After this battle, Li Mi increased his prestige in the Wagang army. Li Mi not only gave strict orders but also lived a simple life. He gave all the money he seized from the enemy to the rebel soldiers. As time went by, the soldiers gradually turned to him. In the spring of the next year (617 A.D.), Li Mi persuaded Zhai Jian to take advantage of the fact that Emperor Yang was on a tour in Jiangdu and the eastern capital was empty to attack the eastern capital. The Waging army sent men to the eastern capital to spy on the army, but the Sui officials found out and strengthened the defense of the eastern capital. Li Mi then changed his plan and proposed to hit Xingluocang (in present-day Gong County, Henan Province) near the eastern capital first.

Xingluo Cang, also called Luokou Cang, was one of the largest granaries built by the Sui Dynasty. The city was surrounded by more than twenty miles and three thousand large cellars were dug in the city, each of which stored eight thousand stones of grain. This was the blood and sweat of the Sui dynasty that had been scraped from peasants all over the world for many years.