As we all know, Li Shimin was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, the emperor of the Han nationality in the Central Plains, and the Heavenly Khan of the northern nomads, and he was also the founding hero who assisted his father Li Yuan in establishing the Tang Dynasty. However, Li Shimin, as the second son of Li Yuan, the emperor of Tang Gaozu, was able to become the crown prince and then ascend to the throne, inseparable from a famous coup d'état "Xuanwumen Change".
Since the early Western Zhou Dynasty, when Zhou Gongdan formulated the system of primogeniture, there has been no shortage of incidents in which sons contend for the throne and usurp the throne by powerful subjects. However, Li Shimin's Xuanwumen coup was launched when Li Yuan was still alive, and after Li Shimin shot and killed the crown prince Li Jiancheng and his brother Li Yuanji, Li Yuan calmly said, "Shimin, these days I listen to rumors and misunderstand you." Li Shimin immediately knelt on the ground and hugged Li Yuan and cried bitterly. Li Yuan pushed the boat along the water and made Li Shimin the crown prince. Not long after, he simply gave up the throne to him and became the Emperor taishang himself.
Why was Li Shimin not afraid of Li Yuan and dared to kill his brother at the gate of the palace? Things happened, why was Li Yuan's performance so calm? In the change of XuanwuMen, there are actually many mysteries hidden, and today I will make an analysis.
In the last year of the Sui Dynasty, the masses rose up together, and Li Yuan also took advantage of the chaos in Taiyuan at that time, wanting to share a piece of the pie. At that time, he was accompanied by a group of Taiyuan heroes. It is reasonable to say that this group of people should have worked hard and made high achievements, and after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, they should all be added to the rank of knight, and have obtained a lot of rewards, right? In fact, no, after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan did not seal any officials at all for the Taiyuan heroes, he issued an edict "Praise meritorious service", "Adding officials to the knighthood and the like, are all old-fashioned, I will not engage in these with you, simply give you some other rewards, just reward you with 'Danshu Iron Coupons', that is, a gold medal for avoiding death." ”
In doing so, Li Yuan made it clear that he did not want the Taiyuan heroes to enter the core of power. The reason is very simple, when Li Yuan first raised an army in Taiyuan, this group of Taiyuan heroes did not want to dominate the world at all, but only hoped that Li Yuan could be a warlord who divided one side in Taiyuan, because they were all Taiyuan natives, and if they could find someone to protect them, they could live their own little lives with their wives and children.
What's more, Taiyuan was still facing a serious threat at that time, the Turks in the north had been eyeing the tiger, and there was a warlord of Liu Wuzhou nearby who was also fighting Taiyuan's attention. Taiyuan heroes were naturally unwilling to follow Li Yuan and leave their hometown, in case of a fire in the backyard, the family would be reimbursed. When Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin attacked Guanzhong with Li Yuan, they received news on the way that the Turks were colluding with Liu Wuzhou to attack Taiyuan, and this group of Taiyuan heroes immediately advised Li Yuan to withdraw his troops and return to reinforcements. It was also Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin who urged Li Yuan to insist on attacking Guanzhong, which made it possible to later compete for world domination. In this incident, Li Yuan also remembered and hated this group of Taiyuan heroes.
But after sitting in the world, the Taiyuan hero did not want to use it, and he had to rely on his two sons, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin. However, these two sons have great merit, but there is only one crown prince, and since Li Jiancheng has been given the position of crown prince, he must always compensate Li Shimin accordingly. Therefore, Li Yuan crowned Li Shimin as a "General of Heavenly Strategy" and ranked above the Hundred Officials. The institution under the command of General Tiance is called "Tiance Fu", and it can recruit officials on its own and form its own political team. Fang Xuanling, eldest grandson Wuji, Li Jing, Qin Qiong, and so on, who are familiar to us, are all members of the Tiance Mansion. Moreover, Li Yuan also gave Li Shimin three furnaces for minting copper coins, which are today's three printing machines.
Li Yuan fainted here, and he was afraid that the crown prince Li Jiancheng's power would be too heavy, so he supported Li Shimin to balance Li Jiancheng. At that time, Li Jiancheng had the power to issue the crown prince's order because he helped Li Yuan handle the government, which was normal, but Li Yuan also allowed Li Shimin to enjoy the same power. In this way, the Eastern Palace under the command of Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and the Tiance Mansion under the command of Li Shimin, the King of Qin, actually became the political center of the Tang Dynasty. Li Yuan practiced a nepotism policy and has never been able to establish a normal bureaucratic politics.
At this point, the tang dynasty's political arena officially formed a situation of "one king and two reserves". There is Li Yuan, the emperor, above, and two crown princes below, one is the crown prince on the surface: Li Jiancheng, and the other is the candidate of the crown prince, who may challenge the status of the crown prince at any time, that is, Li Shimin. This situation arose because Li Yuanxin could not trust those Taiyuan heroes, so he reused his own son, and then wanted to play a balance between the two sons, resulting in an increasingly tense relationship between Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin.
Therefore, Li Shimin was able to shoot the crown prince Li Jiancheng in front of the Xuanwu Gate of the North Gate of the Imperial Palace, and the reason was that Li Yuan played with balance and played with fire, which forced the brothers to meet each other, resulting in bloodshed. The fire of this palace coup was actually planted by Li Yuan himself, and he was the culprit!
How do you see Li Yuan playing with fire and self-immolation
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