Legend has it that during the Sui and Tang dynasties, there was a brave and warlike general, Luo Yi, who was portrayed in history as an opportunistic and unenterprising villain. What kind of character is Luo Yi in history?
At the end of the Sui Dynasty, when the peasants revolted, small warlords rose up one after another. Luo Yi, who was born in a family of generals, relied on his outstanding force to control the area of Youzhou and Yingzhou. At that time, the most powerful and competitive figures in the world were the leaders of the rebel army, Dou Jiande, Wang Shichong, and the founding emperor Li Yuan. After careful consideration, Luo Yi chose to surrender to Li Yuan and gained broad autonomy.
After the surrender, Luo Yi became the nominal minister of the Tang Dynasty, but in fact he still dominated the two states of Youying. The surrounding leaders of the rebel army, such as Dou Jiande and Liu Heimin, were eyeing him and would attack from time to time. Poor Luo Yi's army can only be cannon fodder to contain the enemy for Li Yuan.
Seeing that his strength was increasingly depleted in the war with the rebels, Luo Yi wisely chose to give up his privileges and go to Chang'an to serve. In the national capital, he changed his arrogance and domineering in the past and behaved very obediently. Li Yuan took a fancy to his ability, appointed him as the general of the Left Wing Guard, and praised him as "the founder of the Tang Dynasty".
In this way, Luo Yi, a small warlord who was divided in the past, mixed into the upper echelons of Chang'an, and the contradiction with Li Shimin surfaced. It turned out that in the battle to pacify Liu Heimin, the young Li Shimin used Luo Yi's troops as a stumbling block, causing him heavy losses. Luo Yi was resentful, took refuge in the camp of the crown prince Li Jiancheng, and formed an indissoluble enmity with Li Shimin.
But everything has a reincarnation of cause and effect, and Luo Yi's rebellion also doomed him to a tragic end. In 627 AD, Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng competed for the throne, and Luo Yi publicly supported Li Jiancheng, but was soon taken down by Li Shimin's henchmen. Although Li Shimin's subordinates did not kill him, they still demoted him to civilian nationality, assigned him to the frontier, and finally died in the distant Tibetan region.
Although poor Luo Yi has gone through several setbacks, he will inevitably die after Li Shimin ascends the throne.
It turned out that after Li Shimin seized the throne, in order to consolidate his power, he deliberately cut off those old ministries that posed a threat to him. Luo Yi has always been obsessed with Li Shimin, and openly supported Li Jiancheng in the process of fighting for inheritance, which is undoubtedly the biggest provocation and betrayal of Li Shimin's dynasty.
What's even more terrifying is that Luo Yi still has thousands of brave troops for his own use, and once such a military force rebels, it will be a huge threat to the Tang army that has just been demobilized. Therefore, Li Shimin could not tolerate Luo Yi's betrayal on the one hand, and on the other hand, he had to prevent him from secretly rebelling.
So, as soon as Li Shimin came to power, he decisively ordered to dispose of Luo Yi. Although he was not killed on the spot, he was also severely punished, demoting this former founder of the country to civilian nationality and sending him to the remote Tibetan region. Under the surveillance of a stranger, Luo Yi finally died with hatred and became the first victim of Li Shimin's purging of dissidents.
In fact, Luo Yi's tragedy is just a microcosm of the purge movement that began after Li Shimin seized power. In order to consolidate the imperial power, Li Shimin later successively purged many old departments that had made great achievements in those years, including Wang Shichong and others who turned the tide and supported Li Shimin several times.
In fact, from a historical point of view, it is not easy for Luo Yi, as a martial artist, to rise by scheming and force in turbulent times. But in the end, he could not escape the fate of being swept away by the new dynasty, which shows that the soldiers are the ones who suffer in front of the ruling class. However, on another level, the reason why he suffered this fate was, in the final analysis, because he had no choice but to get involved in the power struggle between Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng.
In general, although Luo Yi in history is not a complete villain, he is by no means a hero. As a martial artist who started with military exploits in troubled times, his fate is destined to be eradicated by the new dynasty. Perhaps we shouldn't judge him too much, because in the cruel times, everyone was just a pawn in a survival game. Those heroes and traitors who have been praised or slandered are often nothing more than standard-bearers and victims in the change of times, and from a specific historical perspective, most of them are just the sad products of fate. #头条首发大赛#