The Tang Dynasty in ancient China can probably be called the strongest dynasty in China and even in the world. The resulting influence is still mentioned and celebrated to this day. The most mentioned is the rule of Zhenguan, which is the important merit of Li Shimin, the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Shimin was young and promising, and he joined the army with his father Li Yuan early on, and once saved the life of the Sui Emperor at Yanmen Pass. Later, when the Sui Dynasty was facing the destruction of the country, Li Shimin consulted with his father to raise an army from Jinyang, and along the way, he fought in all directions, laying a solid foundation for the establishment of the later Tang Dynasty.
A distant relative of Emperor Taizong
Most people know that the Tang Dynasty culture was dominated and established by the Han Chinese, but historians have found that the remaining twenty emperors after Li Shimin began had the blood of the Xianbei people, which reminds people of Taizong, who was able to write and fight, and was somewhat wild.
This lineage can be traced back to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and its key connections were the orthodox empress dowager Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin's mother, Empress Dowager Taimu, who was also the granddaughter of Emperor Wen of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Tai.
Yuwen Tai was a Xianbei person, his life was at an important turning point from the chaotic world to the ruling world, and in his early years, with excellent military and political means, he became an unshakable ruler in Western Wei, which also opened a new era of power change between the Yuwen family and the imperial family.
In the extremely chaotic and complicated historical conditions, Yuwentai conformed to the needs of the times, moved in response, and turned weak into strong. He successively participated in a series of important battles such as the Six Towns Uprising, the westward migration of Emperor Xiaowu, and the Battle of Tongguan in the East and West, which greatly improved his strength in one fell swoop and laid a solid foundation for the establishment of the Northern Zhou regime.
Yuwen Tai had as many as twenty-six children, and the fifth daughter was Princess Xiangyang, who was later known as Dou Yi because she married Dou Yi. And The third brother of the Dou clan also ascended the throne as emperor, he was the founding emperor of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Jue, on the basis of kinship, he was also Li Shimin's third uncle and grandfather.
Yuwen Jueqi
The establishment of the Northern Zhou regime was actually attributed to Yuwen Tai, who was his third son.
At that time, the northern region of China was in a state of division for many years, controlled by the Eastern Wei and Western Wei respectively, and Yuwen Tai was a great hero of the Western Wei regime at that time, and the power was in his hands.
Originally, Yuwen Tai wanted to be emperor, but unexpectedly fell ill and died on the way to the north, and when he died, he entrusted the important affairs of the state to his nephew Yuwen Hu and asked him to assist Yu Wenjue.
Since he was a child, because of his father's powerful relationship, Yuwen Jue was made a county duke at the age of seven, and at the age of fifteen, he served as a military and political official, that is, the Grand Sima (大司馬). Such a resume can be called "smooth sailing", Yuwen Jue almost did not experience any setbacks, and was promoted to the peak of power by his father, the leader of the Western Wei regime.
The year after Yuwen Tai's death, Yuwen Hu, who held the power of Western Wei, forced the emperor to give yuwen jue the throne. Originally, Yuwen Jue had some prevarication, but the hundred officials came to the advice, and Yu Wenjue had to agree to take the throne. On the first day of the first lunar month of the same year, Yuwen Jue ascended the throne as Emperor Xiaomin of Northern Zhou.
Power is on the sidelines
Becoming emperor, but the power is in the hands of others, which makes Yuwen Jue a kind of humiliation and frustration. His cousin Yuwen Hu became a great minister, and the military and political power was firmly in his hands, and Yuwen Hu was a hot-tempered and illiterate person, and many people in the imperial court were disgusted and dissatisfied with him.
Someone once suggested to Yuwen Jue to get rid of Yuwen Jue, but Yu Wenjue thought that his power was too small to act rashly, resulting in several missed opportunities. However, seeing that Yuwen Hu was becoming more and more rampant, Yuwen Jue, as the Emperor of the Light Pole, was finally determined to get rid of this serious problem in his heart.
Yuwen Jue, together with the ministers Li Zhi, the military governor Li Heng, Yi Fufeng, He Batti, and others, gathered a group of dead soldiers to practice martial arts in the garden day and night to prepare for the assassination of Yuwen Hu, but someone informed them in advance, resulting in the failure of the plan. Yuwen Hu certainly couldn't wait to be killed, and he decided to "soften" the emperor.
Yuwen Hu saw the emperor and cried and told him about his difficulties: if the blood brothers were suspicious of each other, there would be no trust in the world.
Your father is my uncle, and he entrusted you to me on his deathbed, so that I can do my best to help you better govern the country, but Your Majesty is still young, and it is too early to take power, and if I die, the power will fall into the hands of others, and the country will perish.
These words temporarily stabilized the emperor and allowed him to continue to be Yuwen Go's puppet for a long time. However, the ministers who advocated the removal of Yuwen Hu were already sword-rattling, so they stepped up their plans and prepared for Yuwen Jue to stage a "Hongmen Feast" in order to completely eliminate Yuwen Nu.
However, Yuwen Hu was a scheming man after all, and this action was detected by his secret servants who were installed in the palace, and he informed Yu Wen Hu of every step of the plan at the first time.
Yuwen Hu did not hurry and began to respond. He first let Chi Gang, the commander of the palace guards, enter the palace, and then informed Yuwen Jue's advisers to let them enter the palace one after another on the pretext of discussing state affairs, and when they entered the palace gate, they were all captured alive.
Yuwen Hu then summoned his soldiers to stage a coup d'état, forcing Yuwen Jue to abdicate and imprisoning him. A month later, Yuwen Jue was poisoned at the age of sixteen.
Incumbent political achievements
Emperor Wu of Zhou, Yuwen Yong, once commented on Yuwen Jue: Pure virtue and beautiful beauty. It is true that although Yuwen Jue reigned for a short time, he was bold and resolute in nature, calm and elegant, and since the beginning of his reign, he has begun to promulgate a number of good policies for people's livelihood.
In order to reduce the burden on the government, he also carried out special layoffs, recruited people of insight from all over the world, promoted the virtuous, served the country, and rewarded and punished them generously.
Yuwen Jue, the youngest founding emperor in the history of Chinese dynasties, officially ushered in the era of the "Northern Zhou". However, the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties was a turbulent era, and while the country faced external troubles, it also had internal worries about the control of national resources by powerful subjects.
Yuwen Jue was unable to balance and deal with such a dilemma, and the reason was that he was prematurely awarded the high order, which led to his political life being exposed to an unequal situation when he was still young.
It has to be said that he is a tragic figure, most of his short life is inside the palace walls, living a life of leisure and wealth, and when he is determined to do things, what awaits him is the important task of ascending to the throne, and the sad thing is that power has never been in his hands.
Later generations have commented that he was the founding emperor of a dynasty, but because of this name, he caused the disaster of killing himself and lost his life early.