During the Tang Dynasty, the 390 death row inmates in the prison had already been sentenced to death, but the emperor released them all.
The emperor agreed with them to behead them after the year, did these people finally come back?
The person who contributed to this incident was the handsome man Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty, so why did he do this?
Good Emperor Li Shimin
When it comes to Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, many people always like to compare him with the two emperors Kangxi and Qianlong.
It is undeniable that all three emperors were controversial.
For example, Qianlong, some people say that he made the Qing Dynasty go from prosperity to decline, he is a rich second generation, and he has no real skills.
Some people also say that Qianlong was the last good emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and it was he who pushed the national strength of the Qing Dynasty to a new climax.
Although Li Shimin said that his merits were also very good, the changes in Xuanwumen back then were too cruel.
In fact, all of this can be understood, after all, no one is perfect! Emperors are also mortals, so they are no exception.
Whether it is the rich second generation or the killing of his own brother with his own hands, these are actually not important. One of the main criteria for evaluating whether an emperor is qualified is how much he has contributed to the people.
Only when ordinary people become rich can the country be truly rich and strong, and the emperor is at least a little qualified.
Take Li Shimin's performance in the early days of his reign as an example, he is actually good enough as an emperor.
Whether it is Li Jiancheng or Li Shimin, they are all children taught by Li Yuan. We dare not say how much better Li Jiancheng can be than Li Shimin after becoming emperor, at least Li Shimin's performance is remarkable.
When Li Shimin killed his brother Li Jiancheng, he was actually forced to do so.
Li Shimin's military achievements are getting higher and higher, not to mention that the crown prince Li Jiancheng is afraid, even the emperor Li Yuan feels threatened. So Li Yuan invisibly began to join forces with Li Jiancheng to deal with Li Shimin.
Perhaps this is the most pitiful time in Li Shimin's life, his biological father and brother actually want to abolish themselves.
Think about it, what would we do if we encountered such a situation? Perhaps many people should be like Li Shimin, killing his brother and taking the throne.
Of course, some of the more benevolent friends may imprison the elder brother, after all, this is also his own sibling.
Of course, this is our modern idea, "since ancient times, ruthlessness is the most emperor's family", Li Shimin killed his brother Li Jiancheng is actually normal.
If Li Jiancheng was on the throne later, then Li Shimin would probably have died, and the ruthlessness of the emperor's family is vividly reflected here.
Therefore, Li Shimin killed his brother to seize the throne, firstly to protect himself, and secondly, to seize the throne.
If Li Jiancheng had not framed Li Shimin, would Li Shimin still have seized the throne? There is a high probability that he will, because he is not the kind of person who is willing to work for others all the time, and he is ambitious.
However, in this case, even if Li Shimin seizes the throne, at least he will not kill Li Jiancheng.
After using more cruel means to ascend to the throne, Li Shimin began to show his skills, and his bright side was gradually revealed.
Before, Li Jiancheng also had many capable people with lofty ideals. Not surprisingly, Li Shimin wants to kill them all, this kind of thinking is actually normal, and the grass must be eradicated!
However, some people suggested that Li Shimin should not be killed, because many of these people have good abilities, such as Wei Zheng.
And there is also a very important point, Li Shimin has already killed Li Jiancheng and others, if he continues to kill them all, then everyone will definitely think that he is a tyrant, and he can't continue to kill for the sake of fame.
390 graduates
Li Shimin is also very persuasive, so most of the capable people under Li Jiancheng have been reused. This not only gave these capable people a "place to use their weapons" and allowed them to contribute to the country, but also preserved Li Shimin's reputation, killing two birds with one stone.
When Li Shimin first succeeded to the throne, he devoted himself to economic development and population restoration, which after all were the foundation of the country.
In terms of population recovery, Li Shimin's methods were even more popular with the people, such as letting go of all the redundant palace maids in the palace and letting them go back to find someone to marry.
If those who really can't get married, the local government must help her find a suitable family, otherwise the government will be punished.
At that time, there were many palace maids in Li Yuan's palace, and Li Shimin felt that it was too much, so he took matters into his own hands and let the extra palace maids out to marry.
This made Li Yuan a little dissatisfied, after all, people were bored in the palace all day long, and the only thing that could keep him from being lonely was those more beautiful palace maids. It's good now, most of them let their own sons send them away.
Li Yuan also dared to be angry when he saw this, after all, he was just a powerless emperor now, and he was essentially no different from ordinary people.
In addition to ensuring that the palace maids are married, local governments also need to find suitable partners for those who are single, and strive to make fewer and fewer unmarried.
Later, Li Shimin also relied on his excellent diplomatic skills to successfully bring back those Tang people who were exiled.
With the increasing population, the economy of the Tang Dynasty has also stepped up to a new level, and the situation can be said to be very good.
As long as you have money, then everything is easy to say.
In addition, Li Shimin mainly advocated "benevolent government" at that time.
Li Shimin governed the Tang Dynasty so well that most of the prisons were more than half less populated, and if this continued, half of the prison staff would probably be unemployed.
Li Shimin was also very satisfied with this situation, and he thought that maybe under his governance, there would be no one in the prison.
At that time, if the imperial court wanted to execute criminals, the list of prisoners had to be checked by Li Shimin one by one. As the policy became better and better, the number of prisoners became smaller and smaller, and as a result, 390 criminals were executed on a certain occasion.
In order to investigate the cause of the incident, Li Shimin directly took several guards to the prison to investigate the situation.
In order to be fair and just and not wronged everyone, Li Shimin asked them one by one why they were sentenced to death.
After asking, Li Shimin finally understood why.
It turned out that these death row inmates did not make any big mistakes, and many people's crimes were not enough to be sentenced to death, such as the eldest brother surnamed Zhang.
When Li Shimin asked him, Brother Zhang said: "My daughter-in-law was snatched away by the son-in-law of a rich and noble family, and I beat the son-in-law brother in a fit of anger, and accidentally beat him to death......
Seeing that there was some fear in Brother Zhang's eyes, Li Shimin said, "It's okay, you continue." ”
Then Brother Zhang continued: "Originally, I was not sentenced to death, but that son's brother sent some money to the yamen, so I ......."
Hearing what happened to Brother Zhang, Li Shimin was really angry: "How can this be reasonable! You did the right thing, I don't blame you for this matter, I will let the imperial history find out and strive to return your innocence!"
Get back on your feet
In fact, many people's situations are somewhat similar to Brother Zhang. Some people, if they have money, they will do whatever they want, and they don't care about the life or death of others, there are too many such people, both ancient and modern.
Seeing that Li Shimin was so tolerant, Brother Zhang continued: "Holy Lord, I don't ask for forgiveness, just ......"
"It's just that what I regret the most in this life is the child in my wife's womb, and I am about to leave this world before I see him, so that even if I die, I won't be blind!" Brother Zhang cried as he spoke.
The rest of the 389 people, like Brother Zhang, were not willing to die with regrets, and this scene deeply pierced Li Shimin's heart.
After returning home, Li Shimin had an idea, that is, to put these death row prisoners back and give them a year to make up for their regrets.
This idea was met with a lot of opposition in the court, such as what if they continued to sin, or what if they didn't come back?
This time, Li Shimin chose to believe in himself and those death row prisoners, he firmly believed that these people would definitely fulfill their promise to come back, so he let the 390 people go.
As for why Li Shimin believed those people, it was naturally because he knew the details, so he dared to put them all back.
A year later, many people consciously returned to prison.
They went in with no sadness, but with an unusual smile on their faces. Seeing that their old brothers had come back one after another, they greeted each other cordially, as if they had met relatives.
In the end, all 390 death row inmates returned to prison, and what is even more amazing is that no one has committed any more crimes in the past year.
Li Shimin was very happy when he learned about this, so he decided to visit these people in prison.
After seeing Brother Zhang, Li Shimin asked kindly, "Brother Zhang, how have you been in the past year?"
"Very good, I saw my son, and now I don't have any regrets, please behead the saint and order!"
After hearing this, the other jailers also said, "Please give the Holy Order!"
After hearing this, Li Shimin laughed and said: "You are all my people of the Tang Dynasty, you not only truthfully fulfilled the agreement, but also never made the same mistake again, you are all good!"
"When you leave and come back, it means that you are born again, which means that you have already died once. In that case, there is no need to be tortured again, so you all go back!"
Li Shimin's words really shocked them. They didn't expect that after making up for their regrets, they would be reborn.
To say that what touched Li Shimin the most was that these 390 people came back as promised, and they did not make any more mistakes in the middle, which undoubtedly gave Li Shimin a lot of face.
It can also be seen from this that the essence of these death row prisoners is actually kind, otherwise they would have been arrested by the government again.
In addition to giving these death row inmates who should not have been sentenced to death a chance to regain their lives, like those death row inmates who were sentenced to torture, such as being beheaded or Ling Chi, most of the time Li Shimin changed them to beheading, because in this way they would not die too painfully in the end.
From this point of view, Li Shimin can be regarded as a good emperor who understands the people in the history of the mainland. Even if he bears the reputation of killing his brother, he can't hide his political achievements.