Li Yuan was a very popular emperor, originally just a local nobleman, he was supported by chance, ascended the emperor's throne, and also founded the Tang Dynasty.
However, Li Yuan was able to smoothly ascend the throne and create the Great Tang, and his own credit was actually not great. When Li Yuan first revolted, Li Yuan hesitated, and it was his second son Li Shimin, who discussed with the minister Pei Yu and sent Emperor Sui's palace maid to Li Yuan's bed.
And told him that letting the emperor's palace maid sleep was to be executed, and Li Yuan forced him to do so, so he embarked on the road of opposing Sui. After raising the banner of anti-Sui, he became a handshaker, and the foreign wars were basically led by Li Shimin. In terms of internal affairs, it is handled by the eldest son Li Jiancheng.
On weekdays, in addition to drinking and having fun, Li Yuan is messing with harem concubines, and is addicted to sound and color dogs and horses all day. Life is uncomfortable.
Later, the two sons fought for power, and Li Shimin had the last laugh and forced Li Yuan to abdicate. Although he handed over the authority in his hands, Li Yuan was not overly sad because of this, and soon began to indulge his emotions again. After Li Yuan abdicated, he lived for more than 9 years and gave birth to a large number of sons, which shows that his private life is very colorful.
The unknown Tenth Prince was reused by Li Shimin alone
Li Yuan's wayward birth caused Li Shimin a lot of trouble, and the emperor had too many brothers, which would obviously bring many unstable factors to the regime.
You know, Li Shimin is a monarch who seized the throne through abnormal means, and he is particularly concerned about his brothers, for fear that they will copy the change of Xuanwumen.
But Li Shimin was unwilling to bear a fratricidal name, so he could only take away the real power in the hands of many princes and let them feel at ease to be idle kings. You can enjoy a lifetime of prosperity and wealth, but you are never allowed to participate in political affairs.
Most of Li Shimin's brothers are self-righteous and greedy people, but there are also a few who are good, represented by Li Yuanli.
Li Yuanli ranked 10th, and when he was born, the Tang Dynasty had basically completed the unification of China, and at the age of 3, he was immediately crowned King Zheng. When Li Yuanli grew up, he was different from many young children, he did not like to eat, drink and have fun, lived more frugally on weekdays, and never participated in intrigues.
Li Shimin found that Li Yuanli had no intention of dying at all, but he was not wary of him. And after all, they are brothers, if their younger brother has no ambition, he is naturally a trustworthy person, so Li Shimin vigorously promoted and appointed him and appointed Li Yuanli to serve in Xuzhou.
Don't look at Li Yuanli's noble birth, but he is not an unlearned and unskilled person, his administrative ability is good, and he was soon highly recognized by the local people.
This made Li Shimin, who was already impressed by Li Yuanli, more firmly believe that his younger brother can be of great use, and even regarded him as his right hand.
Therefore, after exercising in the local area for a period of time, Li Shimin recalled Li Yuanli to the capital, making him one of the three dukes, almost below one person and above ten thousand people.
The tenth prince is ranked as the third prince, but the son is lawless
Li Yuanli has a low-key and introverted personality, does things carefully, and has excellent abilities, coupled with the identity of the prince, making him very influential in the court, but his sons are ordinary.
Li Yuanli had a total of 3 sons, 2 of whom left almost no deeds in the history books, and the other 1 left a lot of space, but it can only be described as "notorious".
It is recorded in the history books that Li Yuanli had a son named Li Mao, who was the first heir to the throne, and was studious and diligent when he was a child, and was deeply favored by Li Yuanli. However, as he grew older, Li Mao's personality became more and more perverse, often breaking the law and discipline, and did not care, considered himself a member of the royal family, and did not put the officials of the imperial court in his eyes at all.
Slowly, Li Mao did not even treat his father Li Yuanli, he prided himself on his noble status, and disdained his father's practice of being cautious and thrifty. In his opinion, as a member of the royal family, he has the right to enjoy, not only that, but he even did the ugly thing of fornicating with his father's concubine.
In 672, Li Yuanli married a concubine, who was young and beautiful and was deeply favored by Li Yuanli. Although Li Yuanli is over 50 years old, he has good physical fitness and goes to his concubine every night.
That night, after Li Yuanli had eaten, he planned to go out for a walk and then go to the concubine to rest.
But when Li Yuanli walked to the door of the room, he heard the laughter of men and women inside, and he suddenly became angry and kicked the door open directly.
However, the scene in front of him made him speechless. At a glance, he was surprised to find that his concubine was actually sharing a bed with his son Li Mao.
Li Yuanli's face turned red with anger, and he asked Li Mao why he did such a thing, but the other party didn't care, slowly put on his clothes, mocked his father for being old, I was afraid that he would not be able to keep up, and then indulged and got sick.
Li Yuanli didn't expect that the successor he had cultivated so hard would be so unbearable.
Li Yuanli originally wanted to hit Li Mao, but he ran fast and disappeared in a blink of an eye. Li Yuanli was so angry that he fell to the ground and fell into a coma, and after waking up, he was incapacitated.
The son murdered his father, and the incident was finally retributed
At this time, all the affairs of Li Yuanli's family were decided by Li Mao alone. Many villains have befriended Li Mao one after another, completely ignoring that Li Yuanli is the owner of this family.
Li Yuanli was very angry, but there was nothing he could do, he was already incapacitated, and he had to be served by people to eat, drink, and Lasa, not to mention clean up his son.
The "Old Book of Tang" records that Li Mao cut off his father's medicinal diet and said: "If you have been king for fifty years, why bother to take medicine?" ”
In order to let his father die early, Li Mao directly did not give him food. It didn't take long for Li Yuanli to finish his life in extreme grief and hunger.
After Li Yuanli died, Li Mao was not sad at all, and could not wait to take over the royal palace, and also pretended to be very sad and reported the matter to the imperial court. According to the imperial court system, Li Mao successfully inherited the prince and lived a life of eating and drinking spicy food.
It's just that Li Yuanli's sudden death made the then emperor Li Zhi feel very strange.
For this imperial uncle, Li Zhi knew very well, knowing that his body was relatively tough, even if he was sick, he would report it to the imperial court and take leave to go back to recuperate. But Li Yuanli disappeared for a while, and died when there was news again, and there was obviously something strange in it.
In the end, under Li Zhi's personal interrogation, the imperial court found out the truth of the matter and exiled the culprit Li Maojue, so that he received the punishment he deserved.
epilogue
Li Yuanli's character and ability are undoubted, he and the imperial lieutenant Changsun Wuji and Sikong Li Wei are the third duke, but he will not have thought that his son would kill himself until he died.
However, even if he has outstanding ability, it is difficult to escape the 6 words in the "Three Character Sutra": "If you do not teach, the father will fail."
When he served the imperial court, he neglected his son's care and education, and if he had been disciplined when his son Li Mao began to behave willfully, perhaps, the end between him and his son would have been different.