During the New Year, in addition to the couplets, there are often a pair of door gods pasted on the doors of every household. The identity of this pair of door gods is not a god, but the famous tang dynasty generals Qin Qiong and Wei Chigong.
In the eyes of people, the door god can drive away the demons in all directions and guard the peace of the family, but who ever thought that their prototype Qin Qiong had been sick for a long time, and one illness was 12 years.
The general, who was originally heroic on the battlefield, was suddenly ill for more than ten years, which made people feel strange. What was even more strange was that Emperor Li Shimin personally sought out a doctor to treat the general, but as soon as the doctor left on the front foot, Qin Qiong on the back foot ordered someone to pour out the medicine, as if he himself did not want to cure the disease at all.
Loyal and righteous generals
Qin Qiong was good at using soldiers in the military, and most of the troops he led were brave and good at fighting, no matter whose banner he belonged to, he was a fierce general who could win victory for the monarch. Everyone hopes to be able to draw Qin Qiong under his banner, but Qin Qiong does not want to casually run to the family and entrust his life, he hopes to find a Mingjun and develop a career with him.
Qin Qiong was originally under Li Mi, but after being captured, he defected to Wang Shichong. Unfortunately, this Wang Shichong was not the Ming Jun that Qin Qiong was looking for, he was sinister and cunning, and he was unkind and unjust to his friends, which made Qin Qiong very disgusted.
In February of Tang Dewu's second year, Qin Qiong could no longer bear to be with Wang Shichong, so he pulled Cheng Tojin and secretly defected to Li Tang while the Tang army and Zheng Jun were fighting against Jiuqu.
At that time, emperor Li Yuan of Tang Gaozu was well aware that this man was very skilled and a well-known general on the battlefield, so he arranged for him to serve in the palace of Li Shimin, the King of Qin. When Li Shimin learned that Qin Qiong was coming, he naturally did not dare to be sloppy, greeted him with courtesy, and gave him the post of commander of the Ma Army, asking him to guard the Changchun Palace with himself.
Although Qin Qiong obeyed Li Shimin's orders, he was not entirely loyal to Li Shimin, and it was Li Yuan who defected to him. Even though Li Shimin was Li Yuan's son, there were disputes of power between the ancient royal family relatives, father and son may turn against each other, brothers may become enemies, not so much that Qin Qiong is loyal to Li Shimin, but rather that Li Yuan wants him to be loyal to Li Shimin.
Of course, under Li Shimin, Qin Qiong's outstanding military ability was still undiminished. In November of the year in which he was ordered by Li Shimin, the Sui Dynasty general Song Jingang led his xiong army to capture Jin Prefecture and The eastern territory of the Tang Dynasty in Huanzhou and was invaded.
In order to stabilize the situation in the east, Li Shimin sent Qin Qiong to lead the Guanzhong soldiers and horses to conquest. In the harsh winter, Qin Qiong led his troops across the frozen Yellow River and confronted Song Jingang's army.
By December, Li Xiaoji, the King of Yong'an, had suffered a defeat in Xia County, and Wei Chigong had captured a number of Tang generals. The praying mantis caught cicadas, and the yellow bird was behind, and Wei Chigong, who had won the battle, happily returned to Huanzhou, but was caught by the army of Qin Qiong's people stationed in this area.
Wei Chigong was almost unprepared for Qin Qiong's attack, and was broken by him in one fell swoop, and the entire army was beheaded by more than 2,000 people. Although Wei Chigong was defeated, Qin Qiong's main task was not yet completed, and Song Jingang's army resisted stubbornly until April of the following year, when Song Jingang had to choose to retreat because of the exhaustion of grain and grass.
And Li Shimin was willing to let him go so easily, he led the troops all the way to the Jiexiu area, Song Jingang saw that he could not shake off Li Shimin, who was in hot pursuit, so he set up a formation and planned to fight Li Shimin to the death with the remaining 20,000 people. In this battle, Qin Qiong was ordered to attack from the north, and with the cooperation of everyone, Song Jingang's army was gradually defeated.
Although Li Shimin defeated Song Jingang, he did not kill them all, and after Wei Chigong and others sacrificed Jiexiu and Yong'an to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, he saw that he was ready to collect troops.
The change of Xuanwu Gate
The closer you get to the center of power, the more sinister and fickle the human heart becomes. The son of the small restaurant keeper may not be staring at his father's position, but the emperor's son must be coveting the throne of the world.
The change of the throne since ancient times is often accompanied by a bloody storm, and this period of history of Li Shimin's ascension to the throne is the famous change of Xuanwumen in history. This change not only affected Li Shimin's life, but also led Qin Qiong's life to another path.
From repelling Song Jingang to defeating Wei Chigong, Qin Qiong had countless merits, and the ancient generals naturally had to be rewarded for their meritorious service, so Li Yuan gave Qin Qiong a golden bottle.
He was very satisfied with Qin Qiong's dedication to fighting for the Tang Dynasty, and told Qin Qiong that he was willing to disregard his wife and children at home, come to his side thousands of miles away, and make such a great contribution, rewarding this little thing was nothing at all, and he was even willing to cut off the meat for Qin Qiong to eat.
This remark was enough to see Qin Qiong's position in Li Yuan's heart, and Qin Qiong also willingly became a loyal general under Li Yuan. After this, Qin Qiong made many military achievements, he destroyed Song Jingang and defeated his old owner Wang Shichong, which can be described as invincible.
The honor and wealth that Qin Qiong had pursued before were all pouring into him at this time, and he followed the MingJun in his heart and was also used by the Mingjun, all of which seemed to be exactly in line with his wishes.
Unfortunately, things were uncertain, although he only wanted to lead his troops to fight for the Tang Dynasty under the leadership of Li Yuan, but the other princes were unwilling to let Li Yuan sit in the emperor's position, and the struggle for the throne quietly began in the palace.
In the historical records, Li Jiancheng, the crown prince of the Tang Dynasty, and Li Shimin also had a moment of closeness, and the two commanded the army to rebel against the Sui and worked together to establish the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
However, the crown prince Li Jiancheng understood that even if he had the identity of a prince, he was still not as suitable for his younger brother Li Shimin to sit on the throne, which made him jealous of Li Shimin.
Therefore, Li Jiancheng co-opted Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, to squeeze and frame Li Shimin and try to squeeze him out of the ranks of the imperial competition. In the imperial competition for the throne, the loser often has to pay the price of his life, in order to be able to save himself, Li Shimin led a group of heroes to launch a mutiny at Xuanwu Gate, and the crown prince Li Jiancheng was shot by Li Shimin himself.
When the Li brothers excluded Li Shimin at the imperial court, Qin Qiong was asked whose side he wanted to side with. This fierce general who had been assisting Li Shimin around this time chose to be neutral, he did not belong to Li Shimin, nor was he inclined to the prince, he was just a general under Li Yuan, no matter how others separated, it had nothing to do with him. And this choice is the root of his "long illness".
Historical truth
In the change of XuanwuMen, Qin Qiong did indeed follow Li Shimin to kill Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji in the end, why did this general who did not seem to be involved in the brotherly dispute pretend to be ill afterwards?
This is because the changes in Xuanwumen recorded in history can be said to have been written at the behest of Li Shimin, who deliberately concealed a part of the historical truth.
According to historical records, after the change of XuanwuMen and the death of Li Yuan, Li Shimin once insisted on going to the historian to check the relevant historical records about himself and his father.
In ancient times, kings were not allowed to interfere with and view the history written by historians, otherwise historians might modify and beautify history in order to preserve themselves. Li Shimin's move has also become an important evidence for posterity to question the authenticity of Xuanwumen's change.
In the records of the zhengshi, Li Shimin is portrayed as a bitter character who is forced to rebel against his brother's oppression, but he has no intention of hiding the shooting of his brother, and what he wants to hide is the irreconcilable contradiction between him and his father Li Yuan.
Although Li Yuan and Li Shimin are father and son, their relationship is not very good. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin did not devote himself to assisting his father, but went around to win people's hearts and minds, and when Li Yuan was in power, there was another political group in the imperial court that was almost parallel to his ruling power, and the center of this group was Li Shimin.
Li Yuan was actually very jealous of Li Shimin, he saw the shadow of the emperor in his own son, and Li Shimin summoned the "Eighteen Scholars of Tiance Province" headed by Fang Xuanling and the "Eight Hundred Warriors" headed by Wei Chi Jingde in his own palace, and this small "imperial court" seemed to have threatened Li Yuan's regime.
Li Yuan once executed the framed Liu Wenjing in order to warn Li Shimin, and then expelled Li Shimin's two confidants, Xuan Ling and Du Ruyi, from the palace, and began to plan to regain the military power in Li Shimin's hands.
In the Mutiny at Xuanwumen, Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji became the protagonists who confronted Li Shimin, but in fact, Li Yuan behind them was the one who really wanted to get rid of Li Shimin and stabilize his own power.
History proves to us that Li Shimin was indeed a man born to be an emperor, and through this mutiny, he seized the throne he dreamed of.
On the other hand, looking at Qin Qiong's initial choice not to take the side of the brothers' war during the Xuanwumen Revolution, he actually chose to side with Li Yuan.
Nowadays, Li Yuan is no longer in charge of power, and as a former follower, he will naturally make some moves in order to protect himself, and Qin Qiong's action is to "pretend to be ill".
When we interpret this history of the Tang Dynasty from another angle, we can understand why Qin Qiong suddenly fell ill for twelve years, and the Tai Doctor decocted medicine for him and turned his head and fell. Because his "disease" is not something that a doctor can cure at all, what he needs is to use this disease to stay away from the military power and protect himself.
brief summary:
History is written by the victors to their own praises, the struggle for power has always been ugly, in order to make their own road to power seem more reasonable, the people in power often choose to beautify themselves and ugly their opponents.
Just as when Li Shimin was in power, Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji were portrayed as absurd wastes that only knew how to have fun, but in the history written by the change of Xuanwumen, although the brothers were inferior to Li Shimin, they were by no means hopeless waste.
After another angle, Qin Qiong's history of not being able to afford to be sick looks more reasonable, and the absurd reason for not leading soldiers just because of a minor illness is actually the rhetoric he used to save his life. And Li Shimin also gladly accepted his "long illness" and cooperated with him to perform this drama for twelve years.