The Li Tang Dynasty lasted for nearly 300 years. Reading the relevant historical books (the New and Old Book of Tang and the Zizhi Tongjian-Tang Ji, etc.), we can find an interesting phenomenon: in the 93 years before Gao zu Kaiji to the Xuanzong Dynasty, there were four palace coups, and these four coups involved the Xuanwu Gate, the north main gate of the imperial palace wall at that time. The following interesting history Xiaobian will bring you a detailed introduction, let's take a look at it!
1. Li Shimin seized the throne
The first coup d'état took place in the ninth year of Emperor Wude of Tang Gaozu (626 AD) and was the general outbreak of a struggle for the succession to the throne between Li Shimin the Prince of Qin and his crown prince Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji the Prince of Qi. Shimin and Jiancheng and Yuanji were both born to Empress Dou of Gaozu, and jiancheng was the eldest son, followed by Shimin, and Yuanji ranked fourth. In the process of Tang Gaozu's unification of the whole country, Shimin first participated in the planning of the Taiyuan Uprising, and after the uprising, he made the greatest contribution in the war to appease the masses. However, because Shimin was not the eldest son of a concubine, according to traditional customs, the throne should be inherited by the eldest son of a concubine, so after Tang Gaozu took the throne, he was established as the crown prince. Because Li Shimin was able to fight in battles and had both wisdom and courage, he had become the de facto most important leader of the Tang army, and in the fourth year of Wude, Tang Gaozute appointed Shimin as the "General of Heavenly Strategy", ranking above the kings, and also combined Situ, Daxingtai of Shaanxi Eastern Province, And Shang Shuling, and also ordered the establishment of official subordinates in the Palace of Qin.
The people of the world, proud of their talents and meritorious achievements, opened a literary museum in the middle of the palace, and recruited literary scholars from all over the world, and they were very courteous, and these people became the counselors and counselors of the people of the world. In addition, Shimin marched south to the north, and gradually recruited many brave warriors in the Tiance Mansion. With so many strategists and brave generals, the surroundings of The Qin King Shimin naturally formed a powerful political group in the political arena at that time, directly threatening the crown prince. In order to consolidate his position and ensure the future succession to the throne, he joined forces with King Yuanji of Qi, who was dissatisfied with the people because of his equal political ambitions, and adopted strategies such as quyi to contact Tang Gaozu's concubines for internal assistance, strengthen his military strength, and bribe the people of the world to strengthen himself and weaken the power of the people, and even developed to the point of poisoning the people when summoning the people to drink.
In the ninth year of WuDe, Jiancheng, Yuanji, and Houguan concubines often said bad things about the people in Gaozu's ear, which made Gaozu gradually become suspicious of the people, and the situation was very unfavorable to the people. The King of Qin and his subordinates were so worried that they planned to launch a coup d'état. On June 4, Shimin led Sun Wuji and others into the imperial palace through Xuanwu Gate, ambushed near the Linhu Temple, suddenly shot jiancheng and Yuanji, who were preparing to enter the dynasty, and then claimed that "the king of Qin used the prince and the king of Qi to rebel and raised troops to punish him", and sent his henchmen "Su Wei" Gao Zu to force Gao Zu to accept the fait accompli.
Three days later, Gao Zu made Shimin the crown prince and ordered the military state to execute the crown prince in everything. In August, Gao Zu was passed down as Prince Shimin and proclaimed himself Emperor Taishang. The people of the world ascended the throne for Emperor Taizong of Tang. This is what history calls the "change of Xuanwu Gate". The first xuanwumen change, on the surface, was four participants, Gao Zu, the prince, the king of Qin and the king of Qi, but in fact there was only one contradiction behind it, that is, the dispute between the crown prince Li Jiancheng and the qin king Li Shimin. Li Yuan, as emperor and father, took a negative attitude before and after the Xuanwumen Rebellion, and Li Yuanji, the King of Qi, sided with the crown prince.
Since there is only one line in the contradiction, when Li Shimin lightning kills Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji at the same time, this contradiction is solved, and the future successor of the Li Tang Dynasty is destined to be Li Shimin. Unless he wanted to overthrow Li Tang and establish a new regime, there was no longer any benefit in continuing to be an enemy of Li Shimin, not only the original members of the crown prince, but also those who were loyal to Li Yuan, and there was no need to offend the future masters. This article is from the history of the encyclopedia network
It is also funny to say that in the change of Xuanwumen, the most serious casualties were not the Qin Wangfu, nor the Eastern Palace and the Qi Wangfu, but the Tun Camp stationed at Xuanwumen. After the crown prince and the king of Qi were attacked and killed, Feng Li and Xie Shufang respectively led the eastern palace and the Qi palace guards to Xuanwumen to rescue, and as a result, the Yunlu general Jing Junhong and Zhonglang, who were in charge of the Tun battalion, rushed out to fight with Lü Shiheng in a hurry without the troops gathered, and were defeated, and when the large group of Tun battalion soldiers arrived, they found that the two main generals Jing and Lü had both died in battle.
The strangest thing is that to this day, posterity has not yet figured out why Jing and Lü participated in the war. Some people speculated that they had already been bribed by the King of Qin, but if they had received the news in advance, how could they have rushed into battle and killed their soldiers? After the deaths of Jing and Lü, the situation was once critical, at this time Wei Chigong cut off the crown prince and the head of the King of Qi, and the guards of the Eastern Palace and the Qi Palace dispersed, and Xue Wanche's troops who tried to attack the Qin Palace also completely collapsed after receiving Li Yuan's holy will.
Li Shimin took advantage of the situation to kill all five sons of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, completely eliminating the competitors. At this point, Li Shimin was already the heart of all the people, and from the next day, the people of insight around the original prince surrendered one after another. Among the military generals, Feng Li, Xie Shufang, and Xue Wanche, who led the guards of the Eastern Palace and the Qi Palace in the Xuanwumen Rebellion, fled for a time after the defeat of the army, and soon returned one after another to ask for their sins, and Li Shimin pardoned them one by one and made him a high-ranking official Houlu. Except for Xue Wanche, who was killed by Emperor Gaozong for rebellion, the other two were later regarded as models of loyalty.
Among the civil officials, the prince's close minister Wei Zheng surrendered, and eventually became a famous Geng Zhi minister in China's history. Wei Zheng defected to the Wagang army in his early years, returned to Tang after the defeat of the army, was captured by Dou Jiande, and then surrendered to Dou Jiande, who returned to Tang after the defeat of the army and became a close vassal of Li Jiancheng, and after Li Jiancheng's death, he returned to Li Shimin, counting up, he has changed the fifth master. It is said that Wei Zheng is not a person who is afraid of death, so his transfer to Li Shimin should be very telling, and there are many people like him who know current affairs. In short, in the blink of an eye, the prince disappeared without a trace, and there was no need for Li Shimin to purge.
In fact, the number of people participating in the war is of little significance to discuss this, because no matter how it is calculated, the military strength of the Qin Dynasty Palace is at an absolute disadvantage. Li Shimin must have bribed the defender of Xuanwu Gate, but it is still uncertain who bribed him. And the reason for the bribe was that his special squad could successfully infiltrate and ambush, rather than using the defenders of Xuanwu Gate to fight with the soldiers of the Eastern Palace and the Crown Prince. As it turned out, the camp soldiers were not vulnerable at all. In addition, judging from the sentence "Gather troops, fight in columns, and not too late", Jing Junhong and Lü Shiheng were not prepared at all in advance, and even the soldiers and horses were hastily attacked before they could assemble. In the end, it was Jiancheng and Yuanji's head and Li Yuan's holy will that followed, all of which were mainly due to the decapitation of the special squad.
2. Fu Tang Dynasty
The second coup d'état occurred in January of the first year of Emperor Shenlong of Tang Dynasty (705 AD), when Wu Zetian claimed to be emperor for fourteen years, was very old and ill, and some officials who had long been dissatisfied with her "Wuzhou Revolution" and wanted to restore the Tang Dynasty society took advantage of the opportunity to revolt under the leadership of Zhang Kamzhi and Cui Xuanwei of Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi (i.e., prime minister). Zhang, Cui, and the Zuo Yu Lin Wei general Jinghui led more than 500 Yulin soldiers to occupy Xuanwu Gate, and welcomed the crown prince Li Xian from the Eastern Palace, and then broke into the imperial palace together, up to the Yingxian Palace where Wu Zetian was sleeping, beheaded Wu Zetian's favored Lintai supervisor Zhang Yizhi and Chunguan Attendant Zhang Zongchang, forced Wu Zetian to abdicate, and established the crown prince Li Xianzhong as the emperor and restored the Tang dynasty.
3. Li Chongjun launched a coup d'état
The third was a coup d'état by Li Chongjun, the crown prince in the first year of Emperor Jinglong of Tang Dynasty (707 AD). Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian was weak and incompetent after his restoration, while Empress Wei was strong, and she colluded with Wu Sansi inside and outside to take over the government. Wei Hou did not like him very much because Prince Chongjun was not his own child. Si Si was also jealous of Chongjun, and connived with his son Wu Chongxun, the general of the Left Guard, and His daughter Princess Anle, who often insulted Chongjun and even called Chongjun a slave. Chongxun also asked the princess to ask Emperor Zhongzong to depose the crown prince and make herself the crown princess. Finally unable to bear it, in July of the first year of Jinglong's reign, he joined forces with the general Li Duozuo (李多祚) and others to pretend to be a commanding officer, and led Zuo Yulin and more than 300 cavalrymen to rush into the mansion of Wu Sansi and Wu Chongxun, killed Sansi and Chongxun, and then sent troops to surround the palace and demand Princess Wei Hou and Anle. Wei Hou heard of the change, kidnapped Emperor Zhongzong and climbed the Xuanwu Gate Tower and dispatched troops to suppress it. Chongjun led his army to attack the Xuanwu Gate, and Emperor Zhongzong announced to the sergeant that Chongjun was plotting against him, so the sergeant defected and killed Li Duozuo and others, and Chongjun's henchmen immediately collapsed, and the coup d'état suddenly collapsed. Chung Joon fled to Zhongnan Mountain and was pursued and killed.
4. Li Longji stepped onto the stage of history
The fourth was a coup d'état by Li Longji in the fourth year of Emperor Jinglong of Tang Dynasty (710 AD). In June of that year, Empress Wei conspired with Princess Anle and others to poison Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian, and Li Chongmao, the King of Wen, became emperor. Wei Hou wanted to emulate Wu Zetian, so he installed Wei's disciples in the key departments of Gyeonggi and gathered the party crowd to prepare to abolish Chongmao's independence, but he was afraid that Xiang Wang and Tai wei Li Dan would oppose him, so he wanted to find an opportunity to kill him. Li Longji, the son of King Xiang and the King of Linzi, received a secret tip that he had joined forces with Princess Taiping and others to preemptively attack the Yulin Guards, kill Wei Xuan and Wei Bo, who had been sent by Wei Hou to command the Wei army, occupy Xuanwu Gate, and then invade the imperial palace and behead Princess Wei Hou and Princess Anle. Li Dan the Prince of Xiang and Father and Son of LongJi seized the military and political power, and later deterred the Young Emperor Chongmao to abdicate the throne, and King Xiang ascended the throne for Emperor Ruizong. What these four coups have in common is that the key to the failure of each coup is whether they can control Xuanwumen.
In the coup d'état, the party that controlled Xuanwumen was the victor, and the party that failed to control Xuanwumen ultimately lost. It can be seen that Xuanwumen had an extremely important position in the four coups d'état in the early Tang Dynasty. To understand why Xuanwumen had a decisive position in the successive coups d'état in the early Tang Dynasty, it is necessary to know the regulations of the Tang Dynasty Imperial Palace. In the Tang Dynasty, the royal palace of the capital was the main place for the emperor to live and listen to the government, that is, the center of political power, so the palace architecture of Taiji, Daming and Luoyang Palace was exactly the same, and they were symmetrically arranged along the north-south axis, divided into two parts: the outer court and the inner court.
The outer court was mainly the palace and a number of official offices where the emperor listened to the government and held banquets, while the inner court was the bedchamber and garden of the emperor and the queen concubine, which was the place where the emperor and the queen concubine lived and rested. The most important thing is that the outer court is located in the south of the palace, and the inner court is located in the north of the palace. Therefore, the gates on the north side of the imperial palace wall play a major role in the security of the inner court, among which the Xuanwu Gate, which is the main gate of the north, is even more important.
The tang dynasty imperial palace walls were guarded by the palace guards, and there were two corridors outside the Xuanwu Gate, where the palace guard headquarters was stationed, called "Beiya", with strong fortifications and strong troops. According to this, the significance of controlling Xuanwumen first when the coup d'état occurred is self-evident: because controlling Xuanwumen can control the inner court, and controlling the inner court can also control the emperor, thus controlling the central government, and even the whole country.