When it comes to the Tang Dynasty prime minister, most people will think of Fang Xuanling, Du Ruyi, Di Renjie, Yao Chong, and others. In fact, the Tang Dynasty implemented the "group phase system", and the heads and deputy governors of the three provinces were called "prime ministers". For example, Li Shimin reigned for 23 years and experienced a total of 29 prime ministers; Wu Zetian reigned for a total of 15 years, experiencing a total of 79 prime ministers. There are so many prime ministers in the Tang Dynasty, who is the first prime minister of the Tang Dynasty? This person is Pei Ning.
In 617, Li Yuan raised an army in Taiyuan, and the following year, Li Yuan accepted the Zen concession of the Sui Gong Emperor Yang You, formally ascended the throne, and established the Tang Dynasty. Li Yuan declared himself empress dowager, and immediately appointed Pei Huan as the right servant of Shangshu Province, and called him chancellor. As a result, Pei Huan became the first chancellor of the Tang Dynasty.
The first half of Pei's life was unknown, and when the Tang Dynasty was established, he suddenly became an extremely popular subject. His life was a great treachery and loyalty, which was a blessing.
Pei Ning's parents died since childhood, he was raised by his brother, and later by chance, he served
Deputy Superintendent of Jinyang Palace
。 What is the official position of deputy supervisor of Jinyang Palace? This needs to be explained.
During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Guang was made the King of Jin, and Yang Guang expanded the Jinyang Palace. Later, Yang Guang ascended the throne, and Jinyang Palace became Yang Guang's palace in Taiyuan. A huge palace that needs to be managed by people. Therefore, there was a chief supervisor and a deputy supervisor, and Pei Huan was the deputy supervisor of jinyang Palace.
So who is the Jinyang Palace Supervisor? This person was Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang. In 617, Li Yuan served as the retainer of Taiyuan and concurrently served as the overseer of Jinyang Palace. In fact, although Pei Huan was a deputy superintendent, because Li Yuan was the local military and political leader, there were many affairs, and the entire Jinyang Palace was still managed by Pei Huan. It is precisely because of this working relationship that the relationship between Pei Ning and Li Yuan has always been good.
In the last years of the Sui Dynasty, peasant uprisings arose one after another, and the number of Great Sui Qi was exhausted. Li Shimin and Jinyang ordered Liu Wenjing to plot a rebellion, fearing that Li Yuan would not agree, so the two thought of Pei Ning. Pei Huan was good at gambling, in order to win Pei Huan over, Li Shimin specially gave Longshan Ling Gao Bin a lot of money, so that he deliberately lost to Pei Huan in the gambling game, pei Huan was overjoyed, and since then he has formed a friend of Li Shimin.
The Old Book of Tang records:
It was millions of dollars of private money, and the Yin Knot Dragon Mountain made Gao BinLian play with Shan Bo, and gradually lost it. Silence got a lot of money, great joy, and traveled daily from Emperor Taizong.
As a result, Li Shimin, Liu Wenjing, and Pei Huan began to set a trap and force Li Yuan to rebel. Once, Pei Huan and Li Yuan drank wine and deliberately drunk Li Yuan, and then Pei Huan privately helped Li Yuan to sleep in the Jinyang Palace and let the two palace ladies serve. When Li Yuan woke up, he found himself sleeping on the dragon bed of the palace, and there were two palace girls around him, which was a crime of extermination! Pei Huan took the opportunity to persuade Li Yuan:
Today there is chaos, and outside the city gates, there are thieves. If he keeps a small festival, he will die at night, and if he raises up a righteous soldier, he will receive the throne of heaven.
Li Yuan understood at this moment that he had committed a serious crime, and if the Sui Emperor knew about it, the Li family would be overthrown miserably. Instead of that, it's better to raise an army and stand on its own. Therefore, Li Yuan promised Li Shimin and Pei Huan to rebel.
When Li Yuan started his army, he needed to recruit troops and buy horses, and even more needed logistical support. In particular, grain, grass, and weapons are in short supply. In order to support Li Yuan's rebellion, Pei Huan opened the warehouse of the Jinyang Palace and gave Li Yuan 140,000 armor, 90,000 grain, and 50,000 pieces of cloth in the palace, along with all his family property.
It can be said that Pei Huan is not only the mastermind of Li Yuan's uprising, but also the most powerful supporter behind Li Yuan.
In addition, Pei Huan had always made good friends with Li Yuan, and after Li Yuan occupied Chang'an, he immediately made Pei Huan a long history. Later, Li Yuan was proclaimed emperor, and Pei Huan was made the right servant of Shangshu Province, serving as the prime minister, and Li Yuan repeatedly called Pei Huan the "first hero" established by the Tang Dynasty. Old Book of Tang Cloud:
When Gao Zu looked at the dynasty, he would lead and sit with him, and when he entered the cabinet, he would extend his sleep, and he would follow everything he said, and he would be called Pei Jian but not named. When the dynasty is noble, the intimacy is not comparable.
That is to say, when Li Yuan ascended to the throne, Pei Huan could sit together and obey Pei Huan's words, and no one among the other founding heroes could compare with Pei Huan.
Although Pei Huan had high merit, his ability was limited, and in the second year of Wu De, Liu Wuzhou invaded Taiyuan, and Pei Huan took the initiative to ask for help and led an army to conquer Liu Wuzhou. In the Battle of Jiexiu, Pei Huan's entire army was destroyed, and he threw away his armor and ran for a night before fleeing to Jinzhou, resulting in the fall of all the prefectures and counties east of Jinzhou.
After Pei Huan returned to Chang'an, the courtiers were furious, and Li Yuan, in order to give everyone an explanation, immediately sent Pei Huan to prison for questioning, but soon Pei Huan was reinstated as an official and returned to Li Yuan's side.
As the prime minister, Pei Huan did nothing in the government, and he was full of loopholes in his handling of affairs, which repeatedly caused dissatisfaction among his colleagues. For example, Liu Wenjing, the Head of the Hubu Shangshu, was very dissatisfied with Pei Huan. At the beginning, Li Yuan's army was first plotted by Li Shimin and Liu Wenjing, and only later did he invite Pei Huan to set a trap together to induce Li Yuan to rebel. However, li yuan claimed to be empress, and Pei's official position, treatment, and rewards all surpassed Liu Wenjing's, causing Liu Wenjing's dissatisfaction.
One day, Liu Wenjing was drunk at home, and after getting drunk, he pulled out his waist knife and slashed at the pillar, claiming to crush Pei's corpse into ten thousand pieces. The incident was denounced by one of Liu Wenjing's out-of-favor concubines, saying that Liu Wenjing wanted to rebel. When Li Yuan learned of this, he immediately arrested Liu Wenjing and sent Pei Ning, Li Gang, and Xiao Yu to interrogate Liu Wenjing. Both Li Gang and Xiao Yu believed that Liu Wenjing showed no signs of rebellion, and even Li Shimin came forward to save Liu Wenjing. After Pei Huan knew, he secretly whispered to Li Yuan:
''Wen Jing is a man of few words, a man of real crowns, a man of rough and dangerous sex, angry and difficult, ugly words and rebellion, and his form has been revealed. If there is an enemy who is undecided today, if he forgives it now, he will suffer in the future. ''
Pei Huan believes that Liu Wenjing's talent and strategy are very high, and his rebellious words have confirmed that if there is no certainty today, there are strong enemies outside, and if liu Wenjing is not taken advantage of this opportunity, there will be endless troubles in the future.
Li Yuan listened to Pei Huan's words and decisively beheaded Liu Wenjing's house.
Pei Huan persuaded Li Yuan to rebel and was an opportunist himself. Next, he was jealous of Xian's ability and used Li Yuan's hand to eliminate dissidents, and Liu Wenjing died because of this. Liu Wenjing, as a hero of the early Tang Dynasty, was framed and died by Pei Huan, who was therefore called a "traitor".
After Li Shimin ascended the throne, although Pei Huan still enjoyed higher treatment, in Li Shimin's heart, Pei Huan's status was not as good as that of the eldest grandson Wujie, Fang Xuanling and other literary ministers, nor did he appear on the list of LingYange meritorious men. In the third year of Zhenguan, the monk Faya was executed for the crime of deceiving the public, and when investigating the Faya case, it was found that Pei Ning had listened to Faya's remarks many times, and Li Shimin was furious, dismissed Pei Ning from his post, and ordered Pei Ning to return to his hometown.
From the "first hero" of the Tang Gaozu period to the dismissal and return of his hometown during the Tang Taizong period, Pei Huan was speechless in facing his father and elder in his hometown. He begged Li Shimin to allow him to remain in Chang'an. Li Shimin angrily rebuked:
"Ji Gongxun Yong, Ann has come to this point!" Straight to Enze as the first of the group. At the time of Wu De, the goods were bribed and the discipline was disordered, and the reasons for the public were also made public, but the old could not bear to exhaust the law. I have to return to the grave, but I am lucky to have many things! ”
—— "Zizhi Tongjian"
Li Shimin's meaning is: Your ability is originally very mediocre, because of Emperor Gaozu's reasons, you are listed as the first meritorious person. When you were in power, corruption was rife and the government was chaotic, all of which were your fault. Now to be able to let you return home safely is already a blessing to you.
Li Shimin's words have three meanings:
First, to deny Pei's ability,
When he served as Shangshu's right servant, "the goods bribed the public, and the discipline was disordered", which was pei's fault.
Second, deny pei's credit,
It is said that the reason why Pei Ning was called "the first of the group" was entirely because of Emperor Gaozu's personal hobbies.
Third, refuting Pei's request,
Pei's sin should have been dealt with more seriously, and remembering his past credits, he was allowed to return to his hometown safely.
Pei Was more than half a hundred years old, immersed in the official field for many years, and after hearing Li Shimin's words, his heart was half cold, and he took his family and property with him and left Chang'an with trembling.
After Pei Huan returned to his hometown of Fenyin, Shanxi, a madman named Xinxing saw Pei Huan's side, and Xinxing said to one of Pei Huan's servants: "Pei Gong has the appearance of a son of heaven!" When the servant heard about it, he immediately relayed it to Pei Huan. Pei Huan did not dare to speak up, and secretly sent someone to kill the servants. However, the dispatched people were soft-hearted and secretly let the servants go. Soon, the domestic servant was caught by the government for committing a crime, and in order to save his life, the domestic servant told the story. When Li Shimin heard this, he was furious. Angrily accusing Pei Huan of befriending demons, not reporting what he knew, killing people and killing people, and exiled Pei Huan to Jingzhou, Sichuan.
Pei Ning is 60 years old and dying of old age. After arriving in Jingzhou, some people reported that Pei Ning and the Qiang people had joined forces and raised troops to rebel. The Sichuan officials were frightened enough to choke and immediately reported to the imperial court in an urgent manner. Who knew that Li Shimin said after learning about it: Pei Ning could not rebel!
Pei Ning was first dismissed from his official post and returned to his hometown, and then exiled to Sichuan, if his heart is not at peace, it is not impossible to raise an army to rebel. Sima Yi also launched the Gaopingling Rebellion at the age of 70.
But Li Shimin insisted that Pei Ning would not rebel, and he was not even willing to send someone to Sichuan to investigate.
A few months later, there was a report from Sichuan, the Qiang people rebelled, and Pei Ning led Jia Ding to break the Qiang army and make the first contribution. When Li Shimin heard this, he laughed and immediately ordered Pei Huan to return to the court. Unfortunately, Pei Huan did not go to Chang'an, and he died of illness and died well.
It was true that Pei Ning did not rebel, so how did Li Shimin conclude that Pei Ning had not betrayed the imperial court?
In the words of Li Shimin:
"When I die, I will be born, and I will not do it."
What Li Shimin meant was:
The crime that Pei Ning committed was originally a capital crime. I left him a life, and if I was kind to him, he would certainly not rebel.
In fact, Pei Huan knew in his heart that he had contributed to the rise of the Tang Dynasty, and as long as he did not rebel, Li Shimin would keep him alive. Moreover, he was sixty years old, had no soldiers in his hands, and was not a general, so it would not be wise for him to choose to rebel.