In the commentary", "Sui and Tang Dynasty", Xu Maogong is a great strategist who calculates the exhaustive strategy and is wiser than Zhuge Ge. But in real history, Xu Maogong was a general who could fight in battle. In addition, in reality, Xu Maogong's original name was Xu Shijie, the character Maogong, which is generally referred to as Xu Shijie in history books.
After Li Mi's defeat to Wang Shichong, Xu Shijie dedicated the land of Liyang to Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty, so he was given the name Li Shiji. Later, in order to avoid Li Shimin's secrets, Li Shijie changed his name to Li Ji.
As a generation of warriors, Li Ji can be described as outstanding. In Li Shimin's view, Li Ji was one of the three most capable of fighting in the Tang Dynasty. In both the civil and foreign wars, Li Ji made great contributions to the Tang Dynasty, destroying the Eastern Turks, Xue Yantuo and Goguryeo respectively. Therefore, Li Ji was made a British Duke, ranking 23rd among the 24 heroes of LingYange.
In recognition of his military prowess, Li Ji was elected by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang as one of the Ten Philosophers of the Martial Temple, enjoying the incense of the ages. However, after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the status of Li Jiwu Temple's Ten Zhe was questioned, and several times he was almost invited to the throne with Bai Qi. This is because in the eyes of many people, Li Ji's character is too bad to enjoy incense.
So why is Li Ji, who is regarded as a positive figure in the commentary, regarded by many as synonymous with disloyalty and injustice? The "Tang Dynasty New Language" once recorded such a story.
In 666, the Goguryeo vassal Yuan gai Suwen fell ill and died, and his son fought for power. Emperor Gaozong of Tang took this opportunity and ordered the 72-year-old veteran general Li Ji to send an army to attack Goguryeo.
Before leaving, Li Ji sent a letter to his son-in-law Du Huaigong, asking him to immediately ride his horse to the military camp to report. Who knew that Du Huaigong said that his family was poor, and he had neither horses nor coils. Subsequently, Li Ji immediately sent Du Huaigong a thousand-mile horse and asked him to rush to the military camp. Who knew that after Du Huaigong received the Thousand Mile Horse, he even disregarded the emissary's obstruction and snatched the horse and fled.
Subsequently, Du Huaigong fled into Qiyang Mountain, and Li Ji could not do anything with him. For Du Huaigong's behavior, many people expressed great confusion: "Your father-in-law is so good to you, why do you have to run away?" ”
Du Huaigong replied, "You don't know, my father-in-law told me to go to the barracks, which is for my own good!" It was to kill me in front of the soldiers, to establish a will! ”
In the eyes of many people, Du Huaigong is not suffering from persecution paranoia. But Tang Ren commented on this:
"Those who hold the law in the United Kingdom, Du Zhi is deeply concerned."
Later, after Li Ji heard the reason for Du Huaigong's escape, he also said the truth: "This or some" (I really have the possibility of killing him Liwei).
From a common sense, the closer a person is, the more he can grasp its essence. In the eyes of many people, Li Ji sent money, slaves, and maxima to his son-in-law, which was simply a good father-in-law at the national level. But when I think about it, I don't think something is right.
Since Li Ji is so good, why is Du Huaigong still so poor? Can't even pay for the trip to the barracks?
If Li Ji is really a good father-in-law, a good father, and an extremely popular subject, as a British duke, why can he sit idly by and watch his son-in-law and daughter suffer poverty? It can be seen that Li Ji does not like his son-in-law very much.
Now that the expedition is approaching, Li Ji is sending money and horses, suddenly? Just as the so-called "abnormal things must have demons", Li Ji asked Du Huaigong to go to the military camp, absolutely without any other intentions.
And from Li Ji's previous experience, he is indeed a person who does not recognize the six relatives for the sake of profit. When Li Ji was defending Liyang for the Tang Dynasty, he was captured by Dou Jiande along with his father Li Gai. However, in Li Ji's view, Dou Jiande was not a British lord who could seize the world, and it was difficult to bring wealth to himself. So he took advantage of Dou Jiande's lack of attention and fled back to the Tang Dynasty, regardless of the fact that his father was still under Dou Jiande's control. If it weren't for Dou Jiande's kindness, Li Gai might have been out of the oil pot a long time ago.
In the eyes of the ancients, loyalty and filial piety were inseparable. Even filial piety cannot be done, how can it be loyal. To be loyal to the monarch and to abandon filial piety to one's parents is an anomalous and anti-human act. Therefore, when Xu Shu's mother was captured by Cao Cao, Liu Bei generously released Xu Shu to Cao's camp. Because Liu Bei believed that under such circumstances, Xu Shu could not be loyal to himself.
Therefore, Li Ji's behavior of abandoning his father and fleeing back to the Tang camp himself was not praised at that time, on the contrary, many people said that Li Ji was a hypocrite who pretended to be loyal and was not trustworthy. And this kind of distrust is most evident in Li Shimin.
On the surface, Li Shimin has a lot of use for Li Ji. When Li Ji became ill, Li Shimin even cut off his beard to give him medicine. However, before Li Shimin's death, he was unusual, and he relegated Li Ji to the history of Diezhou. Later, Li Shimin said to the crown prince Li Zhi:
"You weren't kind to Li Ji, that's why I let him go." If he complains, it means that he has a disobedient heart, it is difficult to control, you should kill him immediately, if there is no complaint, you can immediately call him back to the capital, and he will be dead to you. ”
Obviously, Li Shimin has never trusted Li Ji, a cunning thief, from the bottom of his heart. He values Li Ji's talents, but he is also wary of Li Ji's ambitions. For the sake of wealth, Li Ji can even leave his father behind, not to mention the monarch who has no relatives and no reason?
However, Li Ji was indeed still scheming, and after receiving the transfer order, he did not even return home and immediately left. Because he knew that any hesitation could make his head move.
In the Gaozong Dynasty, Li Ji resolutely sided with Wu Zetian on the issue of "deposing Wang Liwu", which led to the final usurpation of power by the Wu clan, resulting in the death of Li's descendants and the almost collapse of the Tang Dynasty. The reason why Li Ji sided with Wu Zetian was not because he did not know Wu's stubbornness. Instead, in his opinion, although taking sides Wu Zetian was not conducive to Li Tang, it was beneficial to himself. As Wang Fuzhi commented in the "Reading Through the Commentary":
"Zanli Wu clan, people kill themselves, they protect themselves, and they hide their shame and shame."
At the same time, Wang Fuzhi also believes that Li Shijie has always been a "cunning thief" as he himself said. Du Huaigong saw exactly the cunning nature of Yue Zhang's "sharp characters" and the plot that the six relatives did not recognize, so he firmly chose to flee. And this decision also saved his life.