One of the Earliest Records of Shaolin Monks in Battle: Battle of the Cypress Valley Fort 柏谷坞之战

This article is an excerpt from the large piece about the Battle of Hulao, of the Battle of the Tiger's Trap Pass. -For centuries, the monks of the Shaolin Monastery (lit. "Young Forest Monastery") had kept a low profile and aside from occasionally defending against bandits, they mostly chose to only mind their own affairs under the shadows of the Song Mountains. 

However, in the aftermath of the Sui dynasty's cataclysmic implosion, the monks were threatened by a powerful local warlord. The part Sogdian warlord Wang Shichong was able to defeat many of his regional rivals in Henan quickly made himself the Emperor of the whole province, which he named his own kingdom of "Zheng." Soon, Wang and his clansmen began to seize and confiscate many local lands for their own use, including lands that were formerly granted to the Shaolin Temple. 

Surrounded by sharks: the disintegration of Sui ushered in a short era of warlords. The respective territories of Tang of the Li clan (Pink), Wang Shichong's Zheng (Yellow), and Dou Jiande's Xia (Orange) in 620. The Li family of Tang controlled mostly the northwestern sectors of the realm, Wang controlled the resource rich central five point of the empire at Henan, while Dou controlled the equally populous and fiercely turbulent province of Hebei. The Shaolin Temple (White X) is situated in a remote valley and largely tended to their affairs in peace, however, because of their location at the five points of China, they knew they would be have to deal with clashing armies.

THE CYPRESS VALLEY FORT

When the Shaolin monks pledged their support to the Tang forces, the

Tang siege of Luoyang had lasted many months. The monks convened,

hedged their bets against the titanic warring forces, and threw their

weight in favor of the Tang.

However, their luck soon hit a brick wall when on August 620, the young Tang Prince- and rival of the Wang clan Prince Li Shimin (the future Taizong Emperor of Tang) stormed into Henan with his 50,000-strong army. Li advanced rapidly and soon the usurper Emperor of Henan was trapped within his own capital of Luoyang. With Luoyang completely surrounded, the theater of battle soon shifted from the city itself to the immediate countryside surrounding the metropolis. Of which- most of the towns, forts, and local garrisons are still under the direct control of Wang's kinsmen. 

Upon the arrival of Prince Shimin's forces in early 621, the monks pledged their services to the Tang. After combining and mingling with Li's forces they soon marched out together against a Zheng fortress at Mount Huanyuan. 

Before the coming of the Tang forces, the Shaolin monastery had simply acted as an island (albeit well defended one) in the ocean of chaos. However, trouble would come for them regardless of their wishes. Overlooking Luoyang on the nearby Mount Huanyuan was the Baigu Wu 柏谷坞 lit. "Cypress Valley Manor," which had served as the site of a well guarded fort during the Jin dynasty, and also a military commandery during later periods- in time the area was known as the Baigu or the "Cypress Valley Fort." As a poetic aside, "Baigu" 柏谷 in Chinese is also an ominous homonym for 白骨 White Bones.

Baigu Fort: Located to the east of Luoyang. Mount Huanyuan was dotted with 12 slopes, several radiating ravines, switchbacks, and many tall cypresses. Because of the difficult terrain surrounding this region, and its scenic vantage, it was of vital strategic importance and thus saw much conflicts in the chaotic centuries of China's disunity. The cypress- lined roads were so narrow and overgrown that vehicles could not turn around in it. It was an ideal defensive position, because most traffic from Luoyang has to pass through the mountain to reach eastward. 

Whoever possessed this fort projected power in the nearby countryside and secured Luoyang's eastern flanks. Wang Shichong in his desperation had confiscated the estate from the Shaolin monks and garrisoned it with his own army. It was the site of a Zheng garrison and a fortified watchtower. 

The much- respected Emperor Wen of Sui had bestowed the mountain fort for the Shaolin monks to farm but Wang Shichong- who saw the strategic value of such a site, seized the mountain estate and placed many of his troops and a fortified signal tower there, he also established a military prefecture called Yuanzhou that was centered from this headquarter. There Wang appointed his nephew, Wang Renzhe, as a senior general. 

STORMING OF CYPRESS VALLEY FORT 

On May 23, 621, the Shaolin monks and the Tang army assaulted the fort. The assault was rapidly carried and the Wang army was defeated there. message soon raced back to Li Shimin reporting of its success. During the storming of the fort, the allies manage to capture Wang Renze and brought him back in chains. 

Prince Li Shimin's congratulatory letter insscribed on a Shaolin stele.

The importance of this victory greatly pleased Li Shimin, as the garrison at Mount Huanyan represented the last local hope for Wang, because it had been poised as a possible force- in- waiting that threatened to at any time swoop down the mountains and crash on the besiegers below, but with its garrison uprooted, Wang was completely isolated in his capital. At this time, Li had been stationed at a pass further to the east called Hulao- ready to face another warlord Duo Jiande, when he heard about the victory at Baigu he dictated back a congratulatory letter whose words are still preserved today inscribed upon a stele. 

REWARDS 

He rewarded all the efforts of his followers, including the monks from Shaolin. Li granted the Temple 40 qing (600 acres) of land near breadth of the Song mountains and allowed the monks permission to train in martial arts to protect the property of the Temple. With the crest of Song mountain and mount Huanyuan secured, nothing would hit Li in the rear while he looked eastwards. 

In the months since Li's arrival between September 620 and May 621, almost all of the nearby Zheng forces in Henan had been uprooted to remission. And each time Wang Sichong had attempted to sally forth and break the siege, the Tang besiegers would repel his desperate efforts. Soon, the situation for the Zheng regime became critical, the lack of food made Luoyang's situation more and more dramatic. 

But something else is coming, something that stretched for miles and shook the hills and valleys with the mighty dust it stirred. In the horizon, an army of 100,000 under the command of the warlord of Hebei Dou Jiande is racing to Henan from the East. And Li Shimin would meet him there in one of the most lopsided victories in Chinese history, the Battle of Hulao, where 3,000 of Li's warriors destroyed Dou's massive army and won supremacy for the ascendant Tang dynasty. 

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