The history of Li Longji's ascension to the throne can be said to be the history of blood and tears in the Li family's infighting.
If you put it simply, it was the ministers who first staged a coup d'état and installed his three great uncles on the throne. Then the three brides took control of the government, and together with his cousin, poisoned his three great uncles and wanted to be the next empress. In the end, Li Longji united with his aunt, killed his three wives, and supported his father as emperor. His father was very self-aware, and after two years of being there, he gave him the Zen position directly. After Li Longji won the throne, he killed his aunt and completely grasped all the power.
If we want to clearly explain Li Longji's history of his family, we have to start from the beginning.
1. The Li family's family affairs are a bit messy
In 683, Emperor Gaozong of Tang died. After Li Zhi's death, Li Xian, as crown prince, ascended the throne and was known as Emperor Zhongzong of Tang.
However, after Li Xian ascended the throne, he was actually just a puppet emperor.
Because the power is in the hands of his mother Wu Zetian.
During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi had a headache, and could only let Empress Wu Zetian and herself jointly manage the imperial government, which was known in history as the 'Second Holy Linchao'. Wu Zetian originally had four sons with Li Zhi: the eldest son Li Hong, the second son Li Xian, the third son Li Xian, and the fourth son Li Zhi. The first to be made crown prince was the eldest Li Hong, but unfortunately Li Hong died young. Then the second eldest Li Xian was made crown prince, and as a result, after Li Xian became the crown prince, he had a bad relationship with Wu Zetian and was deposed by Wu Zetian in the name of rebellion.
Therefore, it was the turn of the third elder Li Xian.
When Li Xian was the prince, because of the previous lessons of the second eldest, he did not dare to confront his mother. But when his father Li Zhi died and he really became emperor, Li Xian wanted to break his wrist with his mother. At that time, Li Xian planned to reuse foreign relatives, support his empress Wei Shi's party, and compete with his mother for power. As a result, after just showing this momentum, he was forcefully suppressed by Wu Zetian and directly deposed his throne.
From accession to the throne to dethronement, only 55 days passed.
After the third elder Li Xian was deposed, Wu Zetian put the fourth elder Li Dan on the throne, and the history was called Tang Ruizong. After Li Dan ascended the throne, he completely became a marionette in the hands of his mother. Not only can not interfere in the government, even the palace can not move around freely, the days can be said to be extremely humiliating.
It was under such circumstances that Li Longji was born.
2. From the Crown Prince to the Imperial Grandson
Li Longji was Li Dan's third son, and his biological mother was Princess Dou of the De Dynasty. Before Li Longji, Li Dan also had two sons, the eldest was Li Chengqi, born to Li Dan and Empress Liu, and the second was Li Chengyi, who was born to Li Dan and a palace girl.
When Li Longji was born, Li Dan had already ascended the throne as emperor. Although he was only a puppet emperor, he still had to have the etiquette. Therefore, Li Longji's eldest brother Li Chengqi was crowned as the crown prince. Li Longji, on the other hand, was crowned King of Chu two years after his birth.
But at this time, the Tang Dynasty was in a bloody rain.
Wu Zetian, who had already become empress dowager, was still not satisfied with his position and wanted to go further and become a generation of female emperors. But how easy is it to become an unprecedented female emperor? Naturally, there are countless opponents. Not only on the central side of the imperial court, many ministers opposed it, but many local princes surnamed Li and some ministers who were loyal to the Li family also began to oppose Wu Zetian.
In the face of these objections, Wu Zetian did not compromise at all and directly suppressed them with the most powerful means. Sending out armies to suppress opponents everywhere; Internally, cool officials were appointed to clean up those ministers who opposed them.
This fashionable and young Li Longji may not understand what this really means.
But soon, a more difficult future officially arrived.
In 690, when Li Longji was six years old, his father Li Dan ceded the throne to his grandmother. Wu Zetian officially ascended the throne and became a female emperor of a generation.
At this moment, even the puppet emperor did not have to do it.
After Li Dan abdicated, he was still made crown prince. This is not surprising, after all, Wu Zetian has a total of four sons. The eldest and second eldest are dead at this time, and the third elder is still the deposed emperor before. In this way, except for the fourth elder, Wu Zetian seemed to have no other choice.
After losing the throne, Li Dan's life was even more difficult. Although his throne has been taken away by his mother, he still has a prince in his hand. At that time, Wu Zetian reused the Wu family, and many Wu clan members believed that Wu Zetian might be able to pass the throne back to the Li family instead of passing the throne to his son, but directly to the Wu family.
As a result, the Wu family began to unite with the Officials of the Imperial Court and attack Li Dan wantonly.
In this regard, Li Dan did not dare to fight back at all.
How to fight back?
As long as he dared to fight back, he was not only opposing the Martial Family, but also opposing Wu Zetian. With Wu Zetian's nature, he might be able to kill him directly when the time came.
The encounter of old father Li Dan directly led to Li Longji's life, and it was not good.
Although he was only a child, Li Longji was still strictly guarded and was not allowed to go out at all. By the time Li Longji was seven years old, according to the customs of the clan, he needed to start reading. Wu Zetian was still very supportive of the study of his grandsons, and let several great Confucians enter the palace to teach several imperial grandchildren. However, at the same time, he strictly ordered Li Longji not to go out and not to leave the palace.
In the next seven years, Li Longji never left the East Palace to meet the outside world.
3. Teenagers grow old
As Li Longji grew older, he finally began to gradually understand what an embarrassing position he was in, the so-called imperial grandson.
Unfortunately, for such a situation, Li Longji was powerless to change it. Don't say it's him, even if it's his father, he can only be a stupid living target for the samurai to attack, let alone him?
However, fate did not seem to intend to let Li Longji go, and when Li Longji was nine years old, another nightmare struck him.
At that time, under Wu Zetian's hands, there was a maid named Wei Tuan'er, who was very favored by Wu Zetian. This Wei Tuan'er was also a very scheming woman, seeing that Li Dan was still sitting firmly on the throne after Wu Zetian ascended the throne, he felt that perhaps Li Dan would have a chance to re-ascend the throne in the future, so he went to give Li Dan a hug.
For this Wei Tuan'er who took the initiative to send it to the door, Li Dan naturally did not dare to accept it when he was killed. Does the ghost know if there are any traps in this? However, what Li Dan did not expect was that his refusal soon led to a catastrophe.
After Wei Tuan'er was rejected, he became angry and quickly ran to Wu Zetian's side and framed Li Dan's two concubines, saying that they had cursed Wu Zetian with witchcraft. These two concubines, one was Liu Shi, who had been an empress during Li Dan's reign, and the other was Li Longji's birth mother Dou Shi.
Such two women, according to the theory, even if they really did something, it seems that they should be handed over to the relevant departments, go through the formal procedures to interrogate them, and then make a conclusion. But when it came to Wu Zetian, everything was different. At that time, just in time for the New Year, Li Dan and the two concubines entered the palace to ask Wu Zetian for peace, and after entering the palace, they were directly executed in secret.
Without a cause, he was executed directly.
What really happened in the palace is not recorded in the history books. Perhaps they confronted Wu Zetian and were killed by Wu Zetian in anger. Maybe Wei Tuan'er had made a black hand and secretly killed the two. Because after this incident, Wei Tuan'er was also executed.
But in any case, the concubines of the two princes disappeared inexplicably.
When he knew that his woman was missing, Li Dan, the prince, did not dare to show any dissatisfaction, and the next day he pretended that nothing had happened.
Young Li Longji witnessed all this with his own eyes.
Why can't I leave the East Palace when I was growing up? Why did my mother disappear directly after entering the palace, and even the whereabouts of the body were unknown?
After experiencing these cruel things, the young Li Longji began to grow old in his mind, and at the same time he got his own answers.
Because of power.
4. Witness to the Dragon Coup
When Li Longji was fourteen years old, another thing happened in the Tang Dynasty. It was precisely because of this incident that Li Longji was finally allowed to leave the East Palace and go to see the outside world.
In 698, Li Longji, the third great-grandfather Li Xian, who had been deposed from the throne and exiled for fourteen years, returned.
He was ordered by Wu Zetian to be brought back.
Later in his reign, Wu Zetian was troubled by the question of 'passing the throne to the Wu family or the Li family'. Just when Wu Zetian was difficult to decide, Di Renjie, the central official of the court at that time, said something, so that Wu Zetian finally made a decision.
"In the Taimiao sacrifice, I have only heard of sons sacrificing to mothers, not nephews sacrificing aunts."
This sentence became the last straw that crushed Wu Zetian.
Or pass the throne to the Li family! At least his own biological son.
However, even if it was decided to pass the throne to the Li family, Wu Zetian did not intend to pass the throne to the fourth elder Li Dan. Because according to the primogeniture system, in the case of the eldest and second elders are dead, it should be inherited by the third in turn. So Wu Zetian ordered that Li Xian, who had been exiled abroad, be brought back and made him crown prince again. As for Li Dan, the fourth elder who was originally the crown prince, he was renamed Xiang Wang.
Li Dan lost the position of prince, but this was not a good thing for him.
Finally, there is no need to continue to become a warrior and a cool official from all sides, and the target of the group attack.
After changing Li Dan to Xiang Wang, Wu Zetian relaxed his surveillance of Li Dan. Not only did he begin to allow him to become an official in the DPRK, but he was also allowed to hold a certain amount of real power. In this way, Li Longji was naturally allowed to go out of the palace and see the outside world.
In 701, at the age of 19, Li Longji was awarded the post of Right Guard General of the Imperial Guard, and was later renamed Shangyuan Fengyu (尚辇奉御), in charge of the royal stables.
Although these two official positions are not large, they are already a great opportunity for Li Longji. After his career, Li Longji began to consciously make friends with various dignitaries and consciously paved the way for his future.
Just when Li Longji was raising horses, another major event occurred in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Wu Zetian was seriously ill, and the chancellor Zhang Kamzhi joined forces with several ministers to launch a coup d'état, killing Wu Zetian's favorite ministers Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi's brothers, forcing Wu Zetian to return the government to Li Xian. Wu Zetian, who was already old, no longer had the energy to continue fighting, and could only completely return power to Li Xian. In the same year, Wu Zetian died of illness.
Li Longji, who was only a weak champion at that time, witnessed this coup with his own eyes.
After Li Xian ascended the throne for the second time, although he held real power, he did not set off much turmoil in the court. Because the power of the martial family was still very strong at that time, the heroes who assisted him in ascending to the throne were also very strong. On the contrary, he, the emperor, has limited power in his hands. In this regard, Li Xian can only re-cultivate the foreign relatives party, hoping that the foreign relatives party can help him take power.
But Li Xian couldn't imagine that his empress Wei Shi, the woman who had suffered with him, had a completely different mentality at this time.
Wei Shi wanted to be the second female emperor like Wu Zetian.
Therefore, Webster began to vigorously cultivate a party of foreign relatives and develop its own power. First of all, they united with the martial families, suppressed the Meritorious Party, and exiled those heroes of the Shenlong Coup. Then he suppressed the crown prince Li Chongjun, forced Li Chongjun to rebel, borrowed Li Chongjun's hand to kill the martial family, and then killed Li Chongjun himself, completely monopolizing power.
After such an operation, Wei Hou had already turned to the opposition and became the second Wu Zetian.
5. Daddy can't come by himself
Li Longji, who witnessed this series of changes, also wanted to make some changes, but he was powerless.
No way, he was too young, too young, too shallow, and there was no force he could rely on. As for his father Li Dan, his ability was also extremely limited, and he simply could not win anything in the court.
If that's the case, it's up to you.
In 708, during The reign of Li Xian, Li Longji finally left his post of horse breeding and was renamed Luzhou Beichai (鲁州別車) and was released as an official.
Although he was an official, at this time, Li Longji finally held real power for the first time and could do things alone. This year, 24-year-old Li Longji left the capital and has since opened the sea and the sky. After leaving Beijing, Li Longji continued to make friends with various heroes and good men and exercise his ability.
Two years later, Li Longji returned to Beijing again.
After returning to the capital, Li Longji began to consciously make friends with some important members of the Wanqi. Wan Qi, the emperor's personal army, was founded during the tang dynasty, and by the time of Li Xian, it had become an important defensive force in the capital.
Li Longji secretly befriended Wan Qi and cultivated his own forces, which was self-evident.
At this time, the situation above the court had been extremely bad. Empress Wei had completely seized power, even more powerful than when Wu Zetian was empress.
Wei Hou, who was already in power, did not even bother to wait for Li Xian's natural death. In June of that year, Empress Wei directly poisoned Li Xian with a glass of poisoned wine, and then made Li Xian's son Li Chongmao emperor, intending to repeat what Wu Zetian had done that year.
In the face of the vicissitudes of the government, Li Longji, who was on the outside, finally made up his mind and decided to take a risk.
6. Tang Long coup
When Li Longji decided to launch a coup d'état and overthrow Wei Hou, his subordinates advised him to say hello to his father Li Dan first. In this regard, after thinking about this, Li Longji finally chose to refuse.
He knew his father's character too well.
When Li Dan was the emperor and the crown prince, he only dared to be a puppet and did not dare to rise up for power. Now that he was only the King of Xiang, Li Dan must have dared not participate in this matter. If you tell Your Dad, instead of getting any help, you will be bad.
However, the reminder from his subordinates also made Li Longji realize a problem: it was too difficult to successfully launch a coup d'état and overthrow Wei Hou by relying on his own strength alone. Perhaps, you should find a suitable ally.
After careful selection, Li Longji set his sights on his aunt, Princess Taiping.
Princess Taiping was the younger daughter of Wu Zetian. When Wu Zetian was still alive, Princess Taiping was highly valued and had a certain power in the dynasty. At the time of the Shenlong coup, Princess Taiping sided with Zhang Kamzhi and other heroes of the Shenlong coup, who was successful in the coup and was later named 'Princess Taiping of Zhenguo' by Li Xian.
At this time, princess Taiping still had a lot of power in Beijing. The most crucial thing is that Princess Taiping is also a member of the Li family, and her desire for power is very strong, and it is impossible to see Wei Shi take charge of the government alone and become the second Wu Zetian.
So, Li Longji went to find his aunt and had a showdown with his aunt. Then, unsurprisingly, the two nephews, at once, immediately planned to join forces against Wei Hou.
At this time, after poisoning Li Xian and supporting the crown prince Li Chongmao to ascend to the throne, Wei Hou had already begun to actively usurp the throne for himself. Wei Hou first installed the people of the Wei clan in various key departments in the capital and held great power. At the same time, 50,000 soldiers were also transferred from other places to ensure the safety of the capital. After such an operation, the capital seemed to be all under Wei Hou's control.
But is that really the case?
After careful observation, Li Longji found that this did not seem to be the case.
Although Wei Hou is powerful, he is actually somewhat strong in the middle. First, the precedent of Wu Zetian at that time was close at hand, and many ministers still supported the Li family and did not want to see a second Wu Zetian appear. Although Wei Hou actively installed manpower in the capital, these Wei family members often did not have a deep foundation in their respective departments and had no mass foundation.
As long as you are careful, there is still a chance!
Li Longji finally came up with the most important judgment in his life.
Next, Li Longji found Zhong Shaojing, the director of the Forbidden Garden, who he had befriended, and Li Xiankai, Ge Fushun, Chen Xuanli and other officers to plan the coup d'état together. In this process, Zhong Shaojing also once repented and said that he wanted to quit. But in the end, under the persuasion of his wife, he finally decided to participate in the coup.
In the end, Lee Lung Ki set the date of the coup d'état on June 20.
On the night of June 20, the coup d'état began.
First of all, Ge Fushun was responsible for raiding the Yulin Army, and soon killed the Wei family in the Yulin Army, directly rebelling against the entire Yulin Army. In this process, the shortcomings of the Wei family's lack of deep roots in the Yulin Army were highlighted. After the killing of several Wei family members, the entire Yulin army was directly rebelled against and began to attack the imperial city with Ge Fushun.
At the same time, Li Xiankai took some of his men and horses and attacked the White Beast Gate. Li Longji himself personally led the troops into the inner palace. With the help of Princess Taiping, the defenders of the Inner Palace saw Li Longji and directly surrendered.
In this way, in a very short period of time, Li Longji successfully occupied the entire imperial city. After Li Longji entered the imperial city, Wei Hou found that something was wrong and fled to the Flying Horse Camp to seek refuge, but unexpectedly the Flying Horse Camp had already been rebelled against by Li Longji. In the end, after Wei Hou escaped into the Flying Riding Camp, the people of the Flying Rider Battalion directly beheaded him and gave it to Li Longji.
By dawn the next day, the capital had completely changed into a banner of the Great King, and all of them were under The control of Li Longji.
7. Kill your aunt to stabilize the regime
After taking control of the capital, Li Longji began to purge the People of the Wei clan. At the same time, Li Longji and Princess Taiping, together with Princess Taiping, forced the reigning Li Chongmao to give the throne to his father Li Dan.
Because Li Chongmao's era name was Tang Long, later generations called this coup d'état tang long coup.
After Li Dan ascended the throne, according to the system of primogeniture, Li Dan's eldest son, Li Chengqi, the eldest brother of Li Longji, should be made crown prince. But Li Chengqi was not stupid, at this time, the capital was controlled by his third brother, and the previous political change was directly led by him. If you dare to be this prince, it is estimated that no one will support you! Therefore, Li Chengqi resolutely refused to accept it, and resolutely said that Li Longji must be the prince.
At the 'strong' request of Li Chengqi, Li Longji finally became the crown prince.
The power of the court has finally returned to the hands of the Li family, and everything seems to be back on track.
But that's just the surface.
After Li Dan ascended the throne, Princess Taiping, believing herself to have the merit of support, began to install her own manpower in the court. As her power swelled, Princess Taiping began to be dissatisfied with her current position.
Therefore, at this time, the two major hills on the court, the Li Longji faction and the Taiping Princess faction, finally began to clash. In order to ensure her own power, Princess Taiping felt that she should change to a prince with a weaker temperament, so that it would be convenient for her to control.
Next, there is the fighting method of the two nephews.
For the sake of her own power, Princess Taiping wanted to get rid of Li Longji and replace him with a weak prince. In order to maintain his position, Li Longji must resolutely fight back. In this way, the two sides came and went, and after fighting in the court for nearly two years, the contradictions became more and more serious.
At this time, Li Dan, as the emperor, struck.
Speaking from the heart, Li Dan was not an effective emperor, and it could even be said that he was very mediocre. But mediocrity doesn't mean stupidity. If Li Dan really didn't have any heart and eyes, it is estimated that he would not have been able to be the emperor for several years and the crown prince for several years in the era of Wu Zetian.
In the face of the fight between his son and sister, Li Dan really couldn't watch it anymore. However, Li Dan was not the kind of powerful emperor who could suppress both of them alone. Therefore, Li Dan finally thought of a very interesting method.
The direct Zen position was given to Li Longji.
Li Longji directly became emperor, Princess Taiping, you should always be dead hearted, right? Can you still rebel directly?
Thus, in 712, Li Dan gave the throne to Li Longji, and Li Longji ascended the throne as emperor.
But later developments proved that Li Dan still thought about this matter simply.
After Li Longji ascended the throne, Princess Taiping still refused to give up, still exerted her strength everywhere in the DPRK, and plotted to launch a coup d'état. Li Longji himself was originally the Jiangshan he obtained through a coup d'état, and naturally he will not be unfamiliar with this. Before Princess Taiping planned to launch a coup d'état, Li Longji preemptively launched a coup d'état, killing Princess Taiping's party, forcing Princess Taiping to flee to Li Dan's side and asking Li Dan to pardon her sins. But as a result, even though Li Dan personally came forward and asked Li Longji to pardon Princess Taiping, Li Longji still insisted on giving her death.
In this way, after cleaning up the Princess Taiping, Li Longji finally completely grasped the power of the government. After this, Li Dan, who had already retreated to the second line and became the Emperor taishang, also surrendered all his power and raised his life.
In 713, Li Longji changed the era name to Kaiyuan. The rule of Kaiyuan begins here.
Looking at the history of Li Longji's fortune, it is not difficult for us to see that Li Longji's ascension to the throne is actually the Li family's own history of infighting. From Wu Zetian to Li Longji, for decades, the top brass of the Tang Dynasty has been constantly fighting among themselves and launching frequent coups. Li Longji was able to succeed in the coup d'état, on the one hand, by relying on his own wisdom and bravery, and on the other hand, by virtue of his royal status.
However, the success of Li Longji can be called the failure of the old Li family.