When it comes to the top two dynasties in Chinese history, the first thing that comes to mind must be the Tang, Song, Ming, qing, and other dynasties, and today we are going to talk about the Tang Dynasty, China during the Tang Dynasty has a well-known name in the world, and even GDP is the forefront of the world, and all these achievements are inseparable from the efforts of the tang dynasty monarchs.
As the second emperor of the Li Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin's achievements are obvious to all, during his reign of twenty-three years, Guotai and Min'an, the wind and rain were smooth, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the Tang Dynasty at that time also had good relations with the surrounding countries, and it was precisely because of the series of policies he implemented that it also laid a solid foundation for the later prosperous Tang Dynasty.
According to historical records, in addition to the Empress Changsun clan that we are familiar with, Li Shimin also had many concubines and natural sons, of which there were fourteen clearly recorded, but many of these sons became great instruments, most of them because they committed certain crimes, or were executed or degraded to commoners.
Among them, everyone may know more about the deposed prince Li Chengqian, as the eldest son of the concubine, as long as he is honest, does not make mistakes, has been doing things quietly, this throne sooner or later is his, do not have to be anxious, the early character, the attitude of doing things also makes Taizong very satisfied, but because of the discovery that his father began to spoil his brother, let him have a sense of crisis, repeatedly secretly sent killers, but all ended in failure, he also joined forces with officials and ministers to try to rebel, and finally failed, and finally although he left his life, he was also reduced to a commoner.
There was also the later crown prince, that is, Li Zhi of Tang Gaozong, who was born to Li Chengqian's mother, who was generous and benevolent from an early age, as the king of a country, he had courage and talent, but he was slightly weak, and because of physical reasons in the later period of his reign, Wu Zetian, who was then an empress, had the opportunity to take advantage of it, and Wu Hou took the opportunity to intervene in politics, and there was something that everyone knew later.
In fact, his sons are not without capable people, for example, the character we want to talk about today, he is Li Shimin's third prince, Li Ke.
Li Zhen is from Princess Yang, his mother is also from the imperial family, is the daughter of the former emperor, as a princess she grew up with no worries, and received a good education, although she is a princess of the fallen country, but fortunately did not receive much harsh treatment, for her records are not much, only a few words, she gave birth to a total of two princes, the eldest son of which is Li Ke.
Li Ke was a very clever person, and Emperor Taizong was also very fond of him, thinking that he was very much like himself, so when he was two years old, he was already crowned as the king of the county, which was a supreme grace, and later the emperor in order to consolidate his power, despite the opposition of the courtiers, adopted the way of hereditary feudalism and resetting the feudal state, so Li Ke was also renamed king of Wu.
Perhaps because of his father's favor, he was willful and arbitrary in the fiefdom under his jurisdiction, so he was dismissed from his post, but the emperor still loved this son after all, and it did not take long for him to be reinstated, and he wrote to him, warning him to work hard, study more, be cautious, and not to act arbitrarily. Unexpectedly, this letter really played a role, and Li Ke has since kept to himself, just doing his own business, and never doing anything more than polite.
His own excellence plus the emperor's love, Li Ke has become a thorn in the eye of many people, including the eldest son Wuji, everyone knows that the eldest son Wuji is the empress's brother, and is also the prime minister of a country, before he wanted to assist the empress's eldest son to ascend to the throne, the result was that the prince was not angry and was deposed, so he turned his target to Li Zhi, at this time, how could Li Ke, who was favored by the emperor, stand in his way? Moreover, the emperor had told him more than once that the third son, Li Ke, was most like himself and wanted to be a prince. Naturally, he could not tolerate such a threat, so he had been waiting for an opportunity.
Finally this opportunity came, Princess Gaoyang said that the love of the horse house was unreasonable to herself, originally this was just a family affair, and as a result, the horse framed Li Ke for rebellion in order to save his life, and the eldest son Wuji of course could not ignore this so-called excuse, so he took this opportunity to eliminate his enemies, and Li Ke was one of them.
Before his death, Li Ke said a sentence: "The society has a spirit, and there is no scruple and the clan is destroyed." Although it was only 9 words, he could still feel Li Ke's anger and cursed the eldest son Wuji's family for being exterminated.
Speaking of Li Zhen, he was also too wronged, he honestly did things for the imperial court, but he was caught up in this muddy water, and there was nowhere to complain, poor him was only thirty-four years old, in his prime, there were still infinite possibilities, and his family was also involved. The eldest grandson who did something bad was later punished after Empress Wu ascended the throne, and at this time Li Ke was wronged.