Is “After Dou Jiande was captured, how did he respond to Li Shimin's reproach?” true?
According to the Old Book of Tang, Annals of Taizong, Part 1, Li Shimin reproached Dou Jiande for crossing the border and provoking his troops. Jiande, trembling with fear, replied: 'If I had not come now, I would have had to trouble you to fetch me from afar.' In chapter 58 of the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, this dialogue is almost copied verbatim: Li Shimin asks, 'Why have you crossed the border and come to provoke my troops?' Jiande answers in a jesting manner, 'If I had not come myself, I feared you would have gone to great trouble to fetch me from afar.' The novel preserves this historical reply full of black humor.
The episode in which Dou Jiande responds to Li Shimin after being captured is highly consistent between the novel and official history.
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