In the Sui and Tang dynasties, Zhang Gongjin was Shan Xiongxin's brother-in-law, and his ancestors were a powerful man on the Shunyi side of Beijing. Later, in Zhang Gongjin's generation, Zhang Gongjin went to Youzhou to serve as a general under King Luo Yi, and later surrendered to the Tang Dynasty with Luo Cheng, and also participated in the Xuanwumen Incident.
In addition, there are other versions that say that Zhang Gongjin was a general under Luo Yi, and later went to qin qiong's mother to worship Shou, and married a group of heroes and good men in Jia Jia Lou, and then everyone joined the Wagang Army. After the defeat of the Wagang army, Zhang Gongjin surrendered to the Tang Dynasty with Li Mi, and finally died under Gai Suwen's flying knife when Xue Rengui was marching east.
The character of Zhang Gongjin, who may be more familiar with the rendition novel, will be slightly familiar. But even in the novel, he is not a particularly important role, so he is often ignored by everyone.
But in fact, what many people may not know is that the real Zhang Gongjin in history is completely different from the image in the novel. What is more interesting is that Zhang Gongjin later had a great-grandson, who was much more famous than him, that is, the famous Tang Dynasty monks in history!
The real Zhang Gongjin in history is not a native of Shunyi in Beijing, but a native of Puyang, Henan. The Zhang family is not a powerful family in Beijing, but has been an official for generations. Zhang Gongjin's great-grandfather also served as a waiter during the Northern Wei Dynasty, which is what we commonly call the prime minister.
But later, because of the change of times, there were several dynastic changes in the middle, so the Zhang family also declined.
In addition, to say more, Zhang Gongjin was born in 594 AD, and he was only six years younger than Luo Yi. Because the Zhang family had always lived in Henan, Zhang Gongjin had never gone to Luo Yi to serve as an official. At least during the Sui Dynasty, the two did not know each other at all.
Because his family lineage is relatively good, Zhang Gongjin directly entered the army as an official after he became an adult. But helplessly, when Zhang Gongjin began to become an official, it coincided with the peasant uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty. At that time, the peasant uprisings in various places were already very fierce. In addition, Zhang Gongjin's hometown is in Henan, and after entering the army, he also became an official in Henan. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the peasant army in this place was the most fierce in the whole world. Therefore, the difficulty of Zhang Gongjin becoming an official can naturally be imagined.
At the same time that Zhang Gongjin entered the army, among the many peasant armies on this side of Henan, the Wagang Army, led by Li Mi and Zhai Rang, began to rise, and then swept through the whole of Henan, becoming the most powerful peasant army force in the late Sui Dynasty. Later, in order to destroy the Wagang army, the Sui Emperor sent Wang Shichong to Luoyang and engaged in a deadly battle with the Wagang army, but was defeated by the Wagang army. After Wang Shichong was defeated, most of Henan had completely fallen under the control of the Wagang Army. Therefore, the Kaifeng area where Zhang Gongjin was located also fell into the hands of the Wagang Army at that time.
However, shortly after this, Yang Guang was killed, and his army was taken over by Yu Wenhua. Then, Yu Wenhua and wanted to lead the army back to Guanzhong, so they fought another big battle with the Wagang Army. After this battle, Yu Wenhua was crushed by the Wagang Army, but the Wagang Army itself suffered heavy losses. Then, Wang Shichong, who had regained his strength, attacked again, and the main force of the Wagang Army was crushed in the First World War.
After the defeat of the Wagang army, Li Mi, as the leader of the Wagang army, fled directly to Guanzhong, hoping to rely on the power of Li Yuan in Guanzhong to make a comeback. But Li Yuan was so scheming that instead of being deceived, he turned Li Mi's fake surrender into a real surrender. In the end, all the Wagang troops surrendered to Li Yuan.
All of this happened in less than a year. At that time, Zhang Gongjin was on the side of Yanling in Henan, doing a governor history. Analogous to the current official position, it is roughly equivalent to the secretary general of the municipal party committee. In just one year, Yanling and even the whole of Kaifeng changed hands many times. First it was controlled by Wang Shichong, then by the Wagang Army, and then the Wagang Army surrendered to the Tang Dynasty as a whole. With such a rapid change, the Wagang Army did not have time to remove the local leadership team. This led to the surrender of the Wagang army, Zhang Gongjin was still an official in this place.
At this time, Zhang Gongjin and the local Assassin Master Cui Shu pondered for a while and felt that it was better to surrender li yuan directly. After all, at that time, the entire Wagang army had nominally surrendered to Li Yuan, and they were with everyone, and there was nothing wrong with it. As for Wang Shichong, this person is not a good person, and he is not a bright lord, and Li Yuan is obviously more worthy of trust than Wang Shichong.
Therefore, in the first year of Wu De, 25-year-old Zhang Gongjin officially surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
However, after surrendering to the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Gongjin's position was somewhat awkward.
First of all, Zhang Gongjin is a typical surrender official, such an official under normal circumstances, it is difficult to get promoted, and it is easy to be used as cannon fodder. Secondly, the Zhang family is a typical Shandong Shi clan, while the Li Tang Dynasty started on the Guanlong Shi clan. This led to Zhang Gongjin's lack of support at the upper levels after he surrendered.
In addition, the most crucial thing is that when the Wagang army defected to the Tang Dynasty, Wang Shichong still had a very powerful force in Luoyang, and there were also many strong enemies around the original territory of the Wagang army. In addition, after this, the main force of the Tang Dynasty was transferred to the west to deal with Xue Ju in the west, as well as Liu Wuzhou in Shanxi, and had no time to move east. Therefore, later, this part of the territory of the Wagang Army was in a situation of strong enemies, and it was gradually eaten up by the neighbors around it.
In this way, Zhang Gongjin, as a local official, has neither merit nor hard work, and he also has to be carefully used as cannon fodder, and his life is sad. Even his boss, the Assassin Lord Cui Shu, was the same. At the worst time, in the fourth year of Wude, Xu Yuanlang rebelled and besieged Yucheng, Henan. At that time, the Tang Dynasty's military strength on this side was already limited, and the top level was in a strange state of struggle, which made the Henan battlefield very passive.
Therefore, Zhang Gongjin and Cui Shu at that time were sent to collect Yucheng, and there were only more than a hundred protons of the local haoqiang family under their hands. If it weren't for the fact that these two people really had some ability, plus those powerful families had money to contribute money and strong efforts in order to protect their children, and finally defended Yucheng with difficulty. I'm afraid that Zhang Gongjin has already finished playing in this battle.
After this battle, and soon after, with the Li family completely pacifying Shandong, the north was completely stabilized, and there was no more major battle. After several years of hard fighting, Zhang Gongjin also realized that he could not continue like this. If you continue to fight like this, you will definitely be forced to be used as cannon fodder.
The best way is to find a thigh that is thick enough to hold at the top.
But the question is, which thigh to hold?
After some searching, Zhang Gongjin finally set his sights on Li Shimin, the king of Qin at that time. At this time, Li Shimin's status was high enough, his military achievements were prominent, and his thighs were obviously thick enough. But at the same time, Li Shimin is facing the problem of competing for reserves, and he is in urgent need of talents. At this time, going to Li Shimin is obviously the best choice.
Therefore, Zhang Gongjin found a relationship, and through the introduction of Xu Maogong and Wei Chigong and others, met Li Shimin and expressed his desire to surrender. After the two sides talked once, Li Shimin found that Zhang Gongjin's answer made him very satisfied, and this person's previous achievements were indeed brave and martial, so he directly accepted him.
From this time on, Zhang Gongjin began to follow Li Shimin.
In the following years, Zhang Gongjin has been serving under Li Shimin, and has firmly rushed to the front line, becoming Li Shimin's best sword, and gradually gaining Li Shimin's trust. A few years later, in the ninth year of Wu De, when Li Shimin hesitated before the Xuanwumen Incident, Zhang Gongjin resolutely took the lead in the battle. Even when Li Shimin was divining and predicting the auspiciousness of this matter, he directly rushed into the house, threw the turtle shell used for divination on the ground, and resolutely led the battle.
At the suggestion of Zhang Gongjin and others, Li Shimin finally decided to launch the Xuanwumen Incident. At the time of the Xuanwumen Incident, Zhang Gongjin desperately rushed to kill, and at the critical moment, he closed the door of xuanwumen and blocked the Eastern Palace guards who came to reinforcements, making a great contribution.
Zhang Gongjin has done a lot of things in his life, but the most important thing in his life is to close the door with his own hands.
The closure of this gate not only completely determined history and Li Shimin's victory in the Xuanwumen Incident, but also made Zhang Gongjin's career suddenly bright.
After the Xuanwumen Incident, Li Shimin discussed the merits and rewards. Zhang Gongjin, who had the merit of closing the door, was directly promoted to the rank of general of Zuo Wuhou. A few months later, he became the acting governor of the state. In the following years, Zhang Gongjin has been serving in the local government, and his political performance is quite good. The only thing worth mentioning is that three years later, Zhang Gongjin took the initiative to write a letter advocating a crusade against the Turks. Although this matter has gone down in the annals of history, judging from the current situation at that time, Li Shimin already had this meaning. Zhang Gongjin's letter can only be regarded as a reason, not a reason.
In the capacity of Zhang Gongjin, with the merit of 'closing the door', even if his ability is poor, Li Shimin will definitely promote him and focus on training. Moreover, Zhang Gongjin is very young, and the future is obviously bright. However, unfortunately, in the sixth year of Zhenguan, Zhang Gongjin suddenly fell ill and died of illness in office, only thirty-nine years old when he died.
After Zhang Gongjin's death, Li Shimin posthumously honored him as the Duke of Tan. Later, when evaluating the list of LingYange's meritorious heroes, Zhang Gongjin was ranked eighteenth, higher than Cheng Yaojin, Xu Maogong, and Qin Qiong. This is enough to prove what kind of value Zhang Gongjin is in Li Shimin's heart.
Zhang Gongjin's story has ended here. But the story of the Zhang family is only the beginning here. Because Zhang Gongjin died relatively early, he left several young sons. Li Shiminnian had meritorious service before Zhang Gongjin's death, and all of Zhang Gongjin's sons were focused on cultivating. Zhang Gongjin's third son, Zhang Da'an, later became the chancellor of the Tang Dynasty.
But it was also for this reason that later when Zhang Da'an was the prime minister, he supported the crown prince and opposed Wu Zetian, which led to Wu Zetian's revenge on the Zhang family. So after Zhang Da'an, the Zhang family began to decline.
After the decline of the Zhang family, the descendants of the Zhang family began to find their own way out in order to avoid the entanglement of Wu Zetian. One of them was named Zhang Sui, and Zhang Gongjin had to be called Grandpa. In order to avoid disasters, this Zhang Sui simply became a monk directly, and the Fa number was a line!
Compared with Zhang Gongjin, the fame of a group of monks in history is much greater.
Although the monks did not achieve much in power, they achieved great success in the field of astronomy. The monks not only formulated a set of calendars called the Great Yan Calendar, which served as the calendar for the entire Tang Dynasty later, but also created the water transport armillary celestial instrument and the zodiacal travel instrument, which was of considerable significance in the scientific history of ancient China.
In addition, the contribution of the line within Buddhism is also enormous. A line of monks translated many Indian scriptures and eventually became the leader of the tantric lineage. Later, when Japan came to China to learn the scriptures, tantra was also introduced to Japan and became one of the most important schools of Buddhism in Japan.
All of this actually originated from zhang Gongjin's closing incident at the time of the Xuanwumen Incident.
Looking back at Zhang Gongjin's life, it is not difficult for us to find that compared with other famous heroes in the early Tang Dynasty, zhang Gongjin's greatest contribution was actually to close the Xuanwu Gate with his own hands when the Xuanwumen Incident occurred. And this closure also directly led to the rise and fall of the Zhang family's later four generations of bullying, which is really regrettable.
There is an old saying in ancient China, called 'poor is not more than three generations, rich is not more than three generations'. This sentence in the Zhang family is really well reflected, and it is indeed worth our deep thinking.