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As everyone knows, when Li Yuan raised his troops to invade Chang'an, he did not say that he was anti-Sui, but instead started an incident under the banner of "abolishing the Ming Dynasty and supporting the establishment of the acting king." Li Yuan's imperial throne, in terms of etiquette, was given to emperor Zen by Sui Gong. The Jiangshan of the Tang Dynasty, in a legal sense, was the Jiangshan that inherited the Great Sui. After Li Yuan became emperor, a large number of Sui Dynasty ministers directly became Tang courtiers. When Li Yuan ascended to the throne, he looked down from the dragon chair, and the ministers of culture and martial arts in the full hall were all former Sui old ministers.
If we don't say anything else, just talk about Li Yuan's prime ministers, and we will know how much power the former Sui ministers had in the Tang Dynasty. Li Yuan's prime minister, the most honorable one is Dou Wei. Dou Wei was a double relative of the Sui Yang royal family and the Li Tang royal family, and he was both an in-law of the Li Yuan family and an in-law of the Sui Emperor's family. Dou Wei was both an old minister of the Sui Dynasty and a chancellor of the Tang Dynasty, and such people abounded in the court of the early Tang Dynasty. For example, Yuwen Shiji, the chancellor of the Tang Dynasty, was not only the son-in-law of the Sui Emperor, but also the in-laws of the Li Yuan family. Another example is Xiao Yu, the chancellor of the Tang Dynasty, who was not only the brother-in-law of the Sui Emperor, but also the in-law of the Li Yuan family.
Most of the civil officials of the Tang Dynasty were related to the Sui Dynasty royal family, and they were also related to the Li Tang royal family. The situation of the military generals is similar. There are a large number of military generals, all of whom were transferred from the former Sui Dynasty. For example, the future Lingyange heroes Qu Tutong, Li Jing, Yin Kaishan, and others were all people who had eaten Sui Lu for a long time and had been a sui for a long time. One of the representative figures is Li Shimin's uncle Dou Kang. Dou Kang's mother was the aunt of the Sui Emperor, so he was both a relative of the Tang Emperor and a relative of the Sui Dynasty.
In addition to the former Sui courtiers, there was also a force in the Tang Dynasty court, that is, the former Sui Sect Chamber. Li Yuan was a different person from Yang Jian, the Emperor of Sui Wen. In the process of Replacing Northern Zhou by Emperor Wen of Sui, almost all the clans of Northern Zhou were killed. Li Yuan adopted a huairou policy toward the former Sui Sect's office. The Sui Dynasty clan was also very prosperous in the Tang Dynasty, and the two sons of Yang Xiong, the former Sui Emperor Guan Wang, Yang Gongren and Yang Shidao, became the tang chancellor and the other became Li Shimin's brother-in-law. The influence of the former Sui dynasty's civil servants, military generals, and clans was very great in the Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin's ideal is not to be a King of Qin, he wants to become the lord of the world. He knew very well that once he married the daughter of the Sui Emperor back home as a concubine, it would be related to a large number of former Sui old ministers, that is, "marrying one person and fulfilling the old courtiers."
To take the simplest example, Xiao Yu was the brother-in-law of the Sui Emperor, and his sister was Empress Xiao of the Sui Emperor. According to the patriarchal system, whether the daughter of the Sui Emperor was born to Empress Xiao or not, she had to call Empress Xiao a concubine and an uncle. To give another example, the daughter of the Sui Emperor must call Dou Kang a cousin. Anyway, as long as they are relatives of the Sui Dynasty royal family, they can climb the ladder with the daughter of the Sui Emperor. If Li Shimin had married the daughter of the Sui Emperor, he would have been able to get close to these people.
As we all know, the Sui Dynasty Emperor came from the Hongnong Yang clan of the family. The Hongnong Yang clan was a prominent "Tokyo famous family" from the Western Han Dynasty, a family that lasted for hundreds of years, with protégés all over the world and in-laws climbing vines in all directions. This force is the object of any emperor's efforts to win over. Li Yuan married his daughter to Yang Shidao, which was for this consideration. Anyone who wanted to be emperor had to win the support of the Hongnong Yang clan. Li Yuanji's wife, Princess Qi, was the daughter of the Hongnong Yang clan of the Eight Classics of Zheng'er. If Li Shimin did not marry the daughter of the Hongnong Yang clan, the Hongnong Yang clan would support Li Yuanji, which would increase the difficulty of Li Shimin's seizure of the throne of the crown prince.
After weighing the pros and cons, Li Shimin decided to take Yang Shi, the daughter of the Sui Dynasty Emperor, as a concubine. As we all know, Li Yuan and the Sui Emperor were cousins. Li Shimin and Yang's daughter can also be regarded as distant cousin relationships. In ancient times, it was ethical for cousins to marry. After Li Shimin married the daughter of the Sui Emperor, he was indeed supported by many former courtiers. For example, Xiao Yu, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, was very firm in support of Li Shimin. Another example is the former Sui famous general Qu Tutong, who became Li Shimin's nemesis. These two men were Li Shimin's right-hand men in the struggle for the throne. Xiao Yu and Qu Tutong were both selected into the ranks of Ling Yan Pavilion's heroes.
Especially Xiao Yu, the merit is particularly prominent. Xiao Yu's help to Li Shimin was mainly reflected in Li Yuan's right to speak in front of him. Xiao Yu often spoke for Li Shimin in front of Li Yuan, and after Li Shimin ascended the throne and became emperor, in order to thank Xiao Yu for his kind words, he also specially wrote "Gift to Xiao Yu". The sentence in it, "The wind knows the grass, and the board knows the loyal subjects", has become a famous sentence throughout the ages. Xiao Yu's second greatest credit was to persuade Li Yuan to make Li Shimin the crown prince during the change of Xuanwu Gate. Li Yuan and Li Shimin were given steps to avoid the situation of father-son fire, so that Li Shimin did not have to bear the crime of killing his father and killing the king.
By the way, the daughter of the Sui Dynasty Emperor whom Li Shimin married is quite controversial in history. Historians have always had a view that the sui dynasty emperor's daughter that Li Shimin married was most likely a fake daughter of the clan chamberlain. As we all know, in history, the daughter of the patriarch pretended to be the emperor's daughter and married, but the number of vehicles was innumerable. For example, the famous Princess Wencheng, he was married by the daughter of the clan who pretended to be Li Shimin's daughter. In my opinion, it does not matter whether this Sui Emperor daughter that Li Shimin married is really unimportant, what matters is the support of the former Sui former ministers, the former Sui Emperor and the Hongnong Yang clan behind her. The same applies when Li Shimin marries Li Yuanji's Princess Qi. In my opinion, Li Shimin married Princess Qi in the name of messing with his sister-in-law, mainly to appease the three forces of the Yang clan of Hongnong, the former Sui old ministers, and the former Sui emperor.