In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong Li Shimin, in order to commemorate the heroes who helped him become emperor and helped him create the "Zhenguan Shengshi", imitated the way that The Hanming Emperor Liu Zhuang commemorated the twenty-eight generals of Yuntai in Yuntai Pavilion, established a Lingyan Pavilion in the imperial palace, selected 24 Zhenguan famous ministers, and asked the painting master Yan Liben to paint the portraits of these 24 heroes and place them in the Lingyan Pavilion to show respect and respect for these 24 heroes, and Li Shimin himself often went to the Lingyan Pavilion to remember and remember them.
In the sequence of martial generals in the Lingyange Meritorious Heroes List, the most well-known folk should be Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji (Xu Maogong), thanks to the wide dissemination of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, these three people can be said to be unknown and unknown to everyone. Moreover, after returning to Tang, the three of them had already been enfeoffed as public worship generals early during the reign of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, all of whom were high-ranking and powerful generals with military power, far exceeding the vast majority of people on the list of meritorious men of Lingyange in terms of actual official positions and titles.
After Qin Qiong surrendered to Tang, during the years of Tang Gaozu Wude, he had already served as the grand general of Zuo Wuwei and the Duke of Yiguo, and after Cheng Yaojin surrendered to Tang, he was also knighted as the Duke of Suguo for his military merits, and Li Ji was the supreme leader of the Wagangzhai line after Li Mi's death, so he was more powerful than Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin, and his official position became the grand general of Henan, the grand general of Zuo Jianmen, and the duke of Shuguo, whose real name was Xu, and who was also given the surname Li by Li Yuan at this time.
And those who are on the list of heroes of Lingyange, and whose status can surpass Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin, and Li Ji during the tang Gaozu Wude years, in addition to the royal relatives such as Li Xiaogong, that is, several of the "Taiyuan Yuanmou Heroes" who are also the founding heroes of the Tang Dynasty, such as Chai Shao, Yin Kaishan, etc., and the rest of the famous ministers and generals who were strong in the Zhenguan period such as Changsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruxi, Wei Chi Jingde, and Hou Junji, who were strong in the Zhenguan period, were not yet in the mainstream, and had no place in the imperial court. Even the later Tang Dynasty military god Li Jing's title at that time was only a county duke, and his real power was not as good as Li Ji.'s.
However, in the ranking of the Lingyange Meritorious Heroes List, Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji were far behind, Cheng Yaojin only ranked 19th, and Li Ji and Qin Qiong were even more miserable, ranking 23rd and 24th respectively, becoming the main and deputy squad leaders. Wei Chi Jingde, who ranked like Qin Qiong in the two gate gods, ranked 7th, and Wei Zheng and Zhang Liang, who had no sense of existence at WagangZhai, ranked 4th and 16th respectively. Why did these three people, who had achieved fame during the Tang Gaozu Wude years, fall so far behind in the ranking of Ling Yan Pavilion?
Qin Qiong's position was very embarrassing, and it didn't matter whether he had participated in the "Change of Xuanwu Gate"
According to normal reasoning, Qin Qiong was a general that Li Shimin admired and valued quite a lot, and Qin Qiong also made many military achievements under Li Shimin, and it was recorded in the history books: "Every enemy has a Sharp Soldier who comes and goes to praise the masses, and the King of Qin orders Uncle Bao to take it.". There was a friendship between the two, and Qin Qiong's position at that time was also worthy of Li Shimin's solicitation, but in fact, judging from the ranking of the final LingYange, Li Shimin may have been dissatisfied with Qin Qiong, and Qin Qiong may not have participated in the "change of Xuanwu Gate".
When Qin Qiong threw his wife away from Wang Shichong and surrendered to Tang, Li Yuan once said to him: "Qing Qing did not sympathize with his wife and came to me, and he made meritorious contributions, so that the flesh could be eaten, and when he cut it, his children were jade!" And Li Yuan basically did it when he was in power, Qin Qiong was allowed to fight with Li Shimin, Li Yuan always gave great rewards and real power after he made meritorious deeds, and the title also achieved the peak of a courtier with a different surname, it can be said that Li Yuan was kind to Qin Qiong, who was only a general, or very deeply grateful.
In this case, whether Qin Qiong has true righteousness or false righteousness as written in the rendition, it is unlikely that he will participate in the "Xuanwumen Change" that is obviously to deal with Li Yuan's designated heir, which is equivalent to betraying Li Yuan, and not participating in the coup is not supporting Li Shimin, then of course, the ranking on the Ling Yan Pavilion will not be high, and it can be squeezed into the ranking list, it is estimated that Li Shimin has seen that Qin Qiong once accompanied him on his eastern expeditions to the west and made many military achievements.
Of course, it is also possible that Qin Qiong participated in the "Change of Xuanwu Gate", after all, the history books have not made it clear, but in fact, participation is worse than not participating, because participating in the coup is a contribution to Li Shimin, but for Li Yuan is ashamed, Li Shimin is not stupid, there is also a scale in his heart, Li Yuan is so good to you, you can betray him, then will you betray yourself in the future? Then Qin Qiong's senses would also be seriously reduced, and it would be reasonable not to reuse Qin Qiong during the Zhenguan years.
Qin Qiong was not reused during the Zhenguan years, there was no new skill, and slowly she was surpassed by others, and naturally she could not rank well in the Ling Yan Pavilion. There is also a possibility that Qin Qiong was ill and could not participate in the war during the Zhenguan period, and there are also relevant records in the history books, which are quoted from Qin Qiong's own words: "'I am a young man who has fought more than two hundred battles, with several heavy blows, bleeding and counting, and Andrew is not sick'". Therefore, it does not matter whether Qin Qiong participated in the "change of Xuanwu Gate", he was actually very embarrassed sandwiched between Li Yuan and Li Shimin, and he had no military merit when he was zhenguan, and it was normal to be left behind in the end.
Li Ji did not participate in the "Change of Xuanwu Gate", and was a separate faction that needed to be suppressed to a certain extent
Li Ji's real power and status during Li Yuan's reign were much higher than those of Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin, and he could be regarded as a prince of one side, especially after Li Mi's death, at least among the military generals of the former Wagangzhai lineage, he was already the highest-ranking leader, and the entire Tang army from Wagangzhai was headed by him, including Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin. Like Li Jing, Li Ji was already the governor of Yilu at that time, but his title was higher than that of Li Jing, and even if he accompanied Li Shimin in his conquests, he also commanded an army of his own and did not subordinate to each other, for example, the history books recorded that:
Ping Jiande, Captured Shichong, Nai Zhen Brigade, King Qin as a general, Ji as a general, all serving in golden armor, riding on the Rong, and winning at the temple.
Such a princely figure, when Li Shimin had not yet become emperor, could only pull him as an ally, and could not come and go as he did with Wei Chi Jingde and Hou Junji. For Li Ji, who did not participate in the struggle between the imperial families, it was most appropriate for him not to participate in the struggle between the imperial families, he was a general who could command the army alone, he could participate in the coup initiated by Li Shimin today, and could he also participate in the coup d'état initiated by Li Shimin's son tomorrow?
Li Ji is different from Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin, Qin Qiong and Cheng Qiaojin have been under the command of Li Shimin for a long time, and can be regarded as subordinates, if they do not participate in Li Shimin's coup can be regarded as disloyal to Li Shimin, Li Ji does not have this concern, similarly, Li Shimin also knows the weight, so he does not care that Li Ji did not help him carry out the coup, but he put Li Ji in the second-to-last position in the ranking of Ling Yange, and there are also thoughts of suppression, and there are three reasons for suppression:
Li Ji did not participate in the "Change of Xuanwu Gate", so the degree of attention should be lower than that of the former Qin Dynasty's concubines, otherwise it would be easy for the subordinates of the Concubines to have opinions.
Li Ji was a general of a single faction, who could balance the Guanlong nobility, based on the balance in the army, and could not be easily lost, and pulling too high would make him attacked.
Li Ji was young and could be used by later emperors, and he was a military minister, and his status should be reduced accordingly.
Based on the above reasons, even if Li Ji's actual official position and title were long enough to be proud of most of the Lingyange heroes who ranked ahead of him, Li Shimin still left him at the end when formulating the ranking list, and Li Ji actually fulfilled Li Shimin's expectations, and when Emperor Gaozong of Tang was in power, he became an auxiliary minister, representing that the military had always stood behind the emperor, and played his own unique role in Li Zhi's action to overthrow the eldest son and seize power, and the final achievement among the Lingyange heroes was only second to Li Jing.
Cheng Yaojin did not participate in the core actions in the "Change of Xuanwu Gate", and lagged behind others in merit
Compared with Qin Qiong and Li Ji, Cheng Yaojin's status during Li Yuan's reign was slightly inferior, but he also had a certain degree of real power, and the status of private soldiers in the Qin Dynasty who did not have actual positions in the imperial court such as Wei Chi Jingde and Hou Junji was still much higher, for example, when Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji wanted to eradicate Li Shimin's right and left arm, Wei Chi Jingde and Zhang Liang could be directly arrested and tortured, but for Cheng Qijin, who had a formal position and real power in the imperial court, he could only be transferred by administrative order:
In the seventh year, Prince Yin was published as the Assassin of Kangzhou
However, he was regarded as a person of the Qin Dynasty, and he did not have a higher status in Li Yuan's mind like Qin Qiong, nor did he have his own concubine troops like Li Ji, and he was transferred to other places, without Li Shimin's direct help, I was afraid that there would be an accident, so Cheng Yaojin also simply persuaded Li Shimin to move: "The great king went to the left and right, and he wanted to be complete for a long time. Knowing that the festival is dead, do not dare to go! ''。 But he is also a general with a certain degree of military power, and it is impossible to help Li Shimin as a simple thug.
Moreover, a general like Cheng Yaojin, who was regarded as a die-hard loyalist of Li Shimin and had military power, must have been closely monitored, and it would be easy to expose him to Xuanwu Gate. Therefore, in the "Change of Xuanwu Gate", Cheng Yaojin did not participate in the most dangerous and core ambush operation, but took the troops he could command outside to be responsible for the defense of the Qin King's Palace and the work of purging Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanjiyu's party.
In summary, Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji, the three most well-known in the folk because of the "Sui and Tang Dynasty Yanyi", and the reason why the three people who were made public worship generals during the Tang Gaozu Wude period ranked relatively low on the list of LingYange meritorious men, all three of them did not participate in the coup d'état action or did not participate in the most core action for their own reasons, of which only Cheng Yaojin was clearly on Li Shimin's side, and the other two were not strictly speaking, they were not Li Shimin's subordinates at that time.
All three of them were generals with military power, and even if they went to help Li Shimin, they could not personally play as thugs, unlike Wei Chi Jingde and Hou Junji, who needed to work hard to gain fame, and they could have a choice. All three of them also have an important characteristic, they are all not among the Guanlong nobles who have the greatest influence in the court, Qin Qiong is a relatively pure professional soldier, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji are both from Shandong Haoqiang, in the early Tang Dynasty led by Guanlong nobles, they were born to suffer losses, and Li Shimin also needed to take care of all aspects when formulating the Lingyange Meritorious Service List, so these three could only be wronged.