Speaking of this, Li Yuan said that he was also helpless, he really didn't expect the second child to be so capable.
After Li Yuan led his troops to attack Chang'an, he supported Yang Yu, the grandson of Emperor Yang of Sui, as the emperor, and Yang Yu named Li Yuan as the king of Tang, and at the same time, as Li Yuan's eldest son, Li Jiancheng was also named the son of the king of Tang.
The so-called prince, to put it bluntly, is the successor, and soon after, Li Yuan replaced Sui Jiantang, and Li Jiancheng was naturally promoted from the prince to the prince.
Therefore, Li Yuan's establishment of Li Jiancheng as the crown prince is due to the system of "primogeniture inheritance", which is also completely in line with legal principles.
Moreover, Li Jiancheng's comprehensive ability is not bad, he led the troops to fight in the early days, and sat in the rear in the later period, his military ability and government affairs ability are still remarkable, in all fairness, Li Yuan is still relatively satisfied with his eldest son.
It's just that the second son Li Shimin is too strong, so strong that Li Yuan can't do without him at all, so he can only let him grow up step by step.
First of all, at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, it was Li Shimin who helped his father Li Yuan open up the situation
In the thirteenth year of the Great Cause (617 AD), Li Yuan raised troops from Jinyang, all the way south into Chang'an, in March of the following year, Li Yuan accepted Yang Yu's Zen concession, officially ascended the throne and called the emperor, and named the country "Tang".
At this point, the Tang Dynasty was officially established, but it was said that it was the founding of the country, and Li Yuan's sphere of influence at that time was only limited to Guanzhong and Hedong.
To the north, there are Li Liang, Xue Ju, Liang Shidu, Guo Zihe, Liu Wuzhou, Gao Kaidao and others who occupy this place;
In the Yellow River Basin, there are Wang Shichong, Li Mi, Dou Jiande, Meng Haigong, and Xu Yuanlang;
In addition to the above-mentioned warlords, in the Jianghuai region, there are also Du Fuwei, Li Zitong, etc.;
In addition, there are also Shen Faxing, Lin Shihong, and Xiao Milling in Jiangnan.
This is only the warlords who occupy all parts of the Central Plains, and on the border, there are still Turks eyeing them, after all, the current chaos in the Central Plains is a godsend for them to advance.
Therefore, the situation that Li Yuan faced after the founding of the country at that time was not very optimistic.
At this time, what Li Yuan had to do was to sweep the whole country, but he was already the emperor and the Ninth Five-Year Emperor, and he could no longer continue to charge into battle, and Li Jiancheng, who had been promoted to the crown prince, was the foundation of the country, so he had to sit in the rear.
Therefore, Li Yuan must find someone to help him fight in all directions, but the problem is that at this time, it is at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, if he hands over the military power to others, even if he helps Li Yuan eliminate many threats, it will also bring a huge hidden danger to Li Yuan.
This hidden danger is that the person who helped Li Yuan stabilize the situation will appear to be a big tail and threaten the imperial power.
This is actually a very simple truth, you must know that people's hearts are selfish, for any person, after establishing immortal merits, it is inevitable to think, why do I work so hard to fight the world, but you are the emperor?
It was precisely because of this realization that Li Yuan could not find outsiders, but could only choose among his sons.
And Li Yuan's sister-in-law has only four, the eldest son is Li Jiancheng, he is already the prince, and he needs to sit in the rear to strategize, and the third son died early, and the fourth son Li Yuanji is still young and inexperienced, so the second son Li Shimin is the most suitable.
In terms of age, Li Shimin is Li Yuan's second son, the oldest son besides Li Jiancheng, and in terms of experience, Li Shimin has also participated in many battles before, so he is the best person to represent Li Yuan in the Quartet.
Therefore, Li Shimin represented Li Yuan and began the process of conquering the Quartet.
After that, Li Shimin did not fail in his mission, successively defeated Xue Ju, Song Jingang, Liu Wuzhou and others, and even broke Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande in the Battle of Tiger Pass, making indelible contributions to the unification of the Tang Dynasty.
It is in the battles again and again that Li Shimin not only has his ability been reflected, but also gained great prestige, and most importantly, he has collected many fierce generals who are loyal to him on the battlefield, such as Qin Shubao and Wei Chigong.
We all know that in the early process of conquering the world, the biggest and most direct credit was to conquer the city, and at the same time, it was also a good opportunity to recruit talents.
At the same time, Li Shimin's status became higher and higher, and later, Li Shimin's merits were too great, and he had reached the point where he could be sealed, and Li Yuan had to "create" an official position as a general of Tiance to seal Li Shimin, who had outstanding military achievements.
It can be said that it is precisely because of Li Shimin's conquest of the Quartet that Datang was able to pass the very fragile initial stage, and it is no exaggeration to say that without Li Shimin, whether Datang can continue is a question.
Therefore, it was not that Li Yuan wanted Li Shimin to have heavy troops, but the situation in the early Tang Dynasty at that time that Li Shimin had to lead the troops, and it was precisely because Li Shimin led the troops that he gradually became more powerful.
Secondly, Li Yuan also tried to balance, but they all ended in failure.
From the bottom of his heart, Li Yuan didn't want to see his son Li Shimin grow up, and he also knew that it was not good for his eldest son Li Jiancheng, so he didn't try to suppress Li Shimin and support others instead.
For example, he once supported his fourth son Li Yuanji, and appointed Li Yuanji with a certain amount of military power, so that he could lead troops to fight in order to break down Li Shimin's influence.
But what makes Li Yuan helpless is that the people he wants to support are always muddy and can't support the wall.
For example, Li Shimin once arranged for Li Yuanji to guard and annex the state, you must know that Jinyang is Li Yuan's base area, and it was from here when the army was raised, and the status here is equivalent to Li Yuan's base camp.
Placing Li Yuanji here, Li Yuan's intention is obvious, that is, to let Li Yuanji also make achievements.
But the problem is that Li Yuanji is not Li Shimin, and during his period of guarding and annexing the state, he ignored all military and government affairs, indulged in hunting all day long, and even said that "it's okay to skip food for a day, but it's okay to not hunt for a day."
Not only that, at that time, Li Yuanji often connived at his subordinates to loot civilians, and even did stupid things to make soldiers fight each other for fun.
The result of such a master guarding and merging the state can be imagined.
In fact, not long after, Liu Wuzhou gave Li Yuanji a military lesson, because Li Yuanji was negligent and careless about the enemy, he forced the cavalry general Zhang Da to take a hundred men to meet the battle, as a result, Zhang Da thought that there were few people to obey, and finally under the pressure of Li Yuanji, he surrendered Liu Wuzhou after leaving the city.
After that, in order to escape for his life, Li Yuanji lied to his subordinates that he was going out of the city to kill the enemy, and as a result, taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Yuanji smeared oil on the soles of his feet and fled back to Chang'an.
Li Yuan's base was abandoned by Li Yuanji.
After the fall of the annexed states, Li Yuan was greatly annoyed, but at that time Liu Wuzhou was menacing, and soon after, even Jinyang, the birthplace of Li Tang, was captured by him, and there was a great momentum to march into Chang'an.
So, who was Liu Wuzhou defeated in the end? The answer was Li Shimin.
After the fall of Jinyang, Li Yuan was worried that he would not be able to defeat Liu Wuzhou, so he proposed to abandon the land east of the river and only hold the policy of Guanxi.
At the critical moment, Li Shimin stood up, he thought it was inappropriate to abandon Hedong, so he implored Li Yuan to give him 30,000 elite soldiers, and he was willing to face Liu Wuzhou.
In the end, Li Shimin took these 30,000 people, defeated Song Jingang, a general under Liu Wuzhou, and recovered the two prefectures of Union and Fen occupied by him, and Liu Wuzhou was also forced to flee to the Turks and died.
There are really a lot of such cases before and after the establishment of the entire Tang Dynasty, every time Li Yuan starts to hide Li Shimin, the people he supports will lose the battle, and in the end, Li Shimin has to be sent out again to clean up the situation.
Cycle after cycle, without exception, including the later pacification of Dou Jiande and other battles, Li Shimin gnawed the hard bones that others could not gnaw, during this period, Li Yuan once did not want Li Shimin to take charge of the army, but in the end, he was forced by the situation and used him again and again.
After pacifying Dou Jiande, Li Yuan completely refused to let Li Shimin touch the military power anymore, and even expelled Li Shimin's subordinate officials of Tiance Mansion in order to restrict Li Shimin's development, the purpose of which was to suppress Li Shimin and help the crown prince Li Jiancheng.
To put it simply, Li Yuan had tried to use the technique of balance more than once, but the effect was not too obvious.
The root cause is that Li Shimin's power has become too strong, and Li Yuan has to use him again and again, and it is this time and again that Li Shimin's power is getting bigger and bigger, and it is beyond Li Yuan's control.
In the end, it is Li Yuan's practice of "making peace with the mud" all along, which is fundamentally a mistake.
Since ascending to the throne, Li Yuan has had an attitude of "harmony and mud" towards the struggle of his sons, and it is his attitude that will give Li Shimin a chance to sit big.
From a fair and objective point of view, since Li Yuan has appointed Li Jiancheng as his heir, what Li Yuan has to do after this is to protect Li Jiancheng's status and authority, and at the same time, eliminate all threats to Li Jiancheng's status as the crown prince.
In other words, Li Yuan insisted on adhering to the "primogeniture inheritance system" and not being moved by others.
But the problem is that Li Yuan did not do this, and when Li Shimin grew bigger and began to threaten Li Jiancheng's crown princehood, what did Li Yuan do? He was playing balance, trying to make his sons "live in harmony" with the mud.
Frankly speaking, Li Yuan is a good father, but his goodness is very out of place in the struggle of the royal family.
We all know that in ancient times, the struggle for imperial power has always been extremely cruel, and the so-called "ruthlessness of heaven" means this.
Since Li Jiancheng is determined to be the crown prince, it is necessary to try to ensure that his position is not threatened, and when necessary, carry out a series of severe suppressions on Li Shimin, who is getting bigger and bigger, so that Li Shimin does not and does not dare to have any distraction.
However, Li Yuan did not do this, of course, there are objective reasons for Li Shimin's strong ability, but Li Yuan still named Li Shimin as "General Tiance", so that his status is only lower than that of Li Yuan and Li Jiancheng.
Isn't this just an obvious way to give Li Shimin the qualifications and capital to compete? In the final analysis, Li Shimin's ability to hold heavy troops was caused by Li Yuan.
Even in the later period, when Li Yuan realized that his connivance had made the situation uncontrollable, he began a series of suppressions on Li Shimin, and even did not hesitate to deprive Li Shimin of his military power and prevent him from leading troops, but everything was already too late.
To sum up, Li Shimin's ability to hold heavy troops in his hands is not only his own strong ability, but also the reason why he helped his father Li Yuan lay the foundation of the Tang Dynasty, and the most important thing is that the foundation for Li Shimin to finally sit big with heavy troops is still from Li Yuan's connivance