In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, the old man who died of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong Li Shimin sighed and decided to do something to commemorate these ministers who had made great contributions to the Tang Dynasty, so he selected twenty-four meritorious ministers, ordered them to be portraits, and specially built a new building, named Ling Yan Pavilion, to hang the portraits of the heroes.
However, the ranking of the heroes on the Ling Yan Pavilion has been controversial for thousands of years, especially the rank of military general.
We can see that in the ranking of Lingyange heroes, there are only 3 martial generals in the top eight, while the bottom 8 are almost all martial generals.
Moreover, in the martial general system, the ranking is also difficult to convince people, and the first three martial generals are Li Xiaogong, Wei Chigong, and Li Jing.
Many people can't understand, whether it is military achievements or prestige, who can compare with Li Jing?
Li Jing was a well-deserved "military god" of the Tang Dynasty!
Li Xiaogong was Li Shimin's cousin, representing the imperial family, so why did Wei Chigong ride on Li Jing's head?
What is even more difficult to accept is that the Well-known Qin Shubao and Xu Maogong are ranked first and second from the bottom respectively.
On seniority, on battle merit, which of them is not stronger than Wei Chigong?
Moreover, Wei Chigong was also a defeated general under Qin Qiong, who served Liu Wuzhou before defecting to Li Tang, captured several generals under Li Shimin in a major war, and was then defeated by Qin Qiong and fled alone.
Then why was Wei Chigong so high in the ranking of the Ling Yan Pavilion, surpassing all the non-sect martial generals?
In fact, many friends are influenced by novels and film and television dramas, and have preconceived notions.
If nothing else, let's say that Li Xiaogong, who ranks 2nd in the overall list and 1st in the military general ranking, is not just a title of wang ye.
Li Xiaogong
According to the Old Book of Tang, Li Xiaogong, the king of Hejian County, was the cousin of Li Yuan, the emperor of Tang Gaozu, and the cousin of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin.
In 618, after Li Yuan raised an army to invade Chang'an, he made Li Xiaogong the Grand Master of Zuo Guanglu, and soon after changed to Shannan Province
Congratulations to the Ambassador.
What kind of official position is this?
In general, he was responsible for the jingluo bashu and the feudal governor who was alone.
If someone says that Li Yuan is nepotism, it is wrong, it is right to call Juxian not to avoid relatives, Li Xiaogong has real talent and practical learning!
unbelief? Take a look at his achievements in the Old Book of Tang:
Since the Golden State came out of Bashu, it was brought with it as a courtesy, and more than thirty states were surrendered. Xiao Gong attacked Zhu Cang, breaking it, and the generals said: "This man-eating thief is also deep, please pit it." Filial piety: "No! Since then, they have all been in the east, and they are all in the realm, and if they hear about this, will there be anyone who has come and fallen? "Forgiveness without killing, from the book to the book, successively reduced."
It can be seen that Li Xiaogong is an excellent commander with courage and strategy, and he is by no means a wine bag and rice bag who flaunts his status as a clan member.
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, almost all of Bashu, Jiangnan and other places were led by Li Xiaogong, and even a "military god" like Li Jing could only serve as his deputy general, and such a battle achievement may only be compared with Li Shimin himself?
After pacifying Jiangnan in one fell swoop, Li Xiaogong was appointed as the governor of Yangzhou.
Later, because he was accused of rebellion, Li Xiaogong stepped down from the military and assumed an idle position like Zongzheng.
After Emperor Taizong Li Shimin ascended the throne, Ma promoted Li Xiaogong to the position of Libu Shangshu and was renamed king of Hejian County. However, since being accused of rebellion, Li Xiaogong began to learn from Wang Qi and defiled himself, showing himself all day long in the face of coveting pleasure and not thinking of making progress, until his death.
Therefore, whether it is from the perspective of seniority, military merit, and official position, Li Xiaogong's ranking in Ling Yan Pavilion is reasonable.
Moreover, when Emperor Taizong Li Shimin evaluated the twenty-four heroes of LingYange, Li Xiaogong had already died, and according to the concept of "the dead are great" (du Ruyi and Wei Zheng were the same), Li Xiaogong's ranking at the top was even more speechless.
storm
No, it seems to be a bit off topic, originally it was to say why Li Jing and Qin Qiong's ordering was lower than Wei Chigong's.
Many people were not convinced by Wei Chigong's high ranking, mainly because this general known for his martial courage did not have the military merits that he could take, but more of a charge and kill, and as Li Shimin's security captain.
What the people liked most about Wei Chigong was that he had saved Li Shimin's life.
It was 620, Li Shimin, accompanied by Wei Chigong, went into the mountains to hunt, and suddenly encountered Wang Shichong's tens of thousands of troops, as well as a fierce general like Shan Xiongxin, who was full of dangers for a while, fortunately, Wei Chigong fought in blood, and finally protected Li Shimin out of the siege.
However, based on this alone, Wei Chi Jingde still could not surpass Qin Qiong's status, let alone Li Jing, the military god of the Tang Dynasty?
The subversive changes in the ranking of the Tang Dynasty martial generals all stemmed from the choice of Wu De in the ninth year.
From the defeat and surrender of Wu De's three years of Wei ChiGong's army, to the time of the great storm in the ninth year of Wu De, Wei Chi Gong's position in the army was actually inferior to that of Li Jing, Qin Qiong, and others.
However, when Li Shimin, the King of Qin, felt that his situation was getting more and more difficult and was ready to launch a counterattack, Li Jing and Qin Qiong disappointed Li Shimin. Whether it was Mingzhe's self-preservation or whatever, in short, they stayed out of the matter.
On the contrary, Wei Chigong resolutely supported Li Shimin, actively participated in planning and implementation, ran in tandem, and made major contributions.
Let's take a look at the whole process before and after the incident, what efforts did Wei Chigong make?
First of all, before the incident, in the face of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji's solicitation, Wei Chigong categorically refused.
Prince Yin and Yuanji the Prince of Chaola plotted to kill Emperor Taizong, and secretly wrote a letter to honor Deyue: "May the relatives of the elders of the pedantics, the friends of Dun Buyi, and the good deputy look forward to it." "Still give a cart of gold and silver utensils." Jingde said: "... His Highness was useless and did not dare to give it falsely. If you privately promise Your Highness, it is two hearts, and if you forget your loyalty, what is your highness's use? "Built to be angry, it is a later end." - "The Old Book of Tang, Biography of Wei Chi Jingde"
Li Jiancheng and the others became angry and prepared to get rid of Wei Chigong:
Yuan Ji and others were deeply jealous of Jingde, and ordered the strong men to stab him.
However, Wei Chigong was vigilant enough that the assassination did not succeed. And Li Yuanji was not willing to fail, and continued to attack, fortunately Li Shimin rescued.
Yuan Ji Nai respected Gao Zu, ordered him to be interrogated in prison, and killed him, and Emperor Taizong was released.
After killing Wei Chigong, The Li Jiancheng brothers simply took advantage of the opportunity of the Turkic invasion and plotted to directly eliminate Li Shimin.
The Turks invaded Wucheng, built Yuan ji as a general, and plotted to ask Emperor Taizong to send him to KunmingChi and slaughter him.
Unfortunately, these people were not born to do big things, and such important things were leaked, and Wei Chigong knew about them, so he pulled the eldest son Wuji to persuade Li Shimin:
"If the king does not get right quickly, he will be killed by him, and the society will be in danger."
At this time, Li Shimin was worried and still hesitating, and Wei Chigong was still constantly looking for someone to persuade him:
Jingde and Hou Junji went day and night to persuade and then plan. Shi Fang Xuanling and Du Ruyi were both expelled from the Qin Palace by Gao Zu and were not allowed to re-enter. Emperor Taizong ordered the eldest son to summon him secretly, and Xuan Ling and others reported: "If there is an edict that does not allow the king to change things, if he is private now, he will be destroyed, and he will not dare to obey the order." Emperor Taizong was furious and said, "Xuan Ling, if obscure, do you turn your back on me?" Take the saber and give it to the deity: "Be fair and go, look at his heartlessness, but behead him and hold it." Jingde also said to Wu Jie: "The king has decided to plan for the thief of Ke Ri, and it is advisable for the public to enter the plan." I and four others should not walk in groups. "Therefore, Xuan Ling, like an obscure Taoist priest, followed without scruples, and the reverence for virtue was also there.
From these records in the Old Book of Tang, we can see how much wei Chigong contributed to this great change.
Therefore, after the matter was completed, Li Shimin naturally repaid Li with a peach, and Wei Chigong became the true person in the emperor's heart.
No matter what kind of merit, it is not as great as the merit of the dragon.
Therefore, the civilian and military generals who actively participated in that great change were very high in the ranking of Ling Yan Pavilion, such as Changsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruqian, Gao Shilian, and Wei Chigong.
In the first year of Zhenguan, (Wei Chi Jingde) paid homage to the great general Ofe Wu Hou and gave him the title of Duke of Wuguo, along with the eldest grandson Wu Jie, Fang Xuanling, and Du Ruyi, and sealed 1,300 households.
And Li Jing was able to enter the top eight because of the high prestige in the military.
As for Qin Qiong, looking at the records of this decisive event in the Old Book of Tang, there are only a few strokes.
On June 4, from The Built, Yuan Ji. Shi Ning, the Great General of Zuo Wuwei, sealed seven hundred households.
The so-called "Congjie" is probably also Taizong Li Shimin taking care of this veteran general, and Qin Qiong himself is likely to have no practical action, and it is already very good to be able to squeeze into the twenty-four heroes of Ling Yan Pavilion.
Moreover, judging from the historical records, Qin Qiong was somewhat proud of his achievements and his temper was not particularly good.
Whenever Shu Bao conquered from Emperor Taizong, there were sharp pawns in the enemy, showing off people and horses, and those who came and went, and Emperor Taizong was quite angry, and ordered Shu Bao to go to get it. Shu Bao answered the order, and the Prancing Horse marched forward with a gun, and the people and horses were easy to penetrate, and they would stab among the multitudes. Emperor Taizong thought that he was beneficial, and Shu Bao was also quite self-effacing in this way.
There are also many descriptions in various wild histories, and Qin Qiong and other people and horses in WagangZhai are at odds with Wei Chigong, and it is probably not empty.