"The year I died, twenty-six!"
This is Li Shimin's feelings about his life in his twilight years.
At the age of twenty-six, Li Shimin personally killed one of his maternal brothers, The Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and The Prince of Qi, Li Yuanji. In order to cut the grass and remove the roots, in the afternoon of the change of the Fourth Xuanwu Gate in the beginning of June, he also destroyed his two brothers. The ten nephews who were killed: Li Jiancheng's five sons: Li Chengdao the Prince of Anlu, Li Chengde the Prince of Hedong, Li Chengxun the Prince of Wu'an, Li Chengming the King of Runan, and Li Chengyi the King of Julu. Li Yuanji's five sons: Li Chengye the Prince of Liang County, Li Chengluan the King of Yuyang, Li Chengzhi the Prince of Pu'an, Li Chengyu the Prince of Jiangxia, and Li Chengdu the Prince of Yiyang.
Li Jiancheng was thirty-eight years old when he died, and Li Yuanji was twenty-four years old. Most of their ten sons were underage, and a few were toddlers, who were slaughtered and died under the knife of the ghost head of the palace fight.
Cruel as hell.
Li Shimin, the King of Qin, who was in his early twenties at that time, was already a general of tiance who had made many military achievements and made great achievements for the founding of the Tang Dynasty and the unification of the Great Unification. What is a General of Heavenly Strategy? This unprecedented and groundbreaking title was already the highest reward that his father Li Yuan could give, surpassing all the princes, except for the current emperor and the prince of the Eastern Palace.
Li Shimin
Today,there are not many real evaluations of Li Jiancheng, the crown prince, and Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, but it can also be seen from Wen Daya's "Notes on The Entrepreneurship and Living of the Tang Dynasty" that from the Taiyuan uprising to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Jiancheng's merits were not under Li Shimin.
And "the prince and the king are holy, pouring out their wealth and giving, and despicable corporals." Catching a disciple, supervising the door, one skill can be called, one art is desirable, and it is not tired to resist. Therefore, the heart of a scholar is not the one who arrives", which shows that Li Jiancheng has a rather leadership temperament, and is not as bad as recorded in the historical materials after Li Shimin tampered with.
Unfortunately, after the defeat of the king, all traces of the world of the prince and the king of Qi were erased, leaving only a wisp of soul that was not real in the historical data. I wanted to give the prince and the king of Qi a picture, but I couldn't find the portrait of them at all. Since they are compatriots, let's imagine that they are a little similar to Li Shimin.
The change of Xuanwu Gate
Although he had the title of General of Heavenly Strategy, Li Shimin, the King of Qin, would certainly not be satisfied, and with his seniority and strength, he could completely win the imperial power. In the face of such a seductive peak of power, who would not be moved? The King of Qin did not only stay on the ideological, but also put it into action, actively preparing for the coup.
Li Yuanji, the King of Qi, was loyal to the crown prince Li Jiancheng, and the two had already discovered that the King of Qin was a powerful and quite threatening opponent, and the King of Qin silently reserved his strength, and the slightest clue could not escape their eyes.
The contradictions are finally white-hot.
In the early morning of the third morning of the first month of June in the ninth year of Wu De, the strangely traveling Taibai Venus once again skimmed over Chang'an in broad daylight. Tai Shi Ling couldn't believe his eyes and presented a secret song to Li Yuan: "Taibai sees Qin Fen, and the King of Qin should have the world!" ”
Li Yuan naturally could not tolerate it, and immediately summoned Li Shimin into the temple to explain the situation. Li Shimin did not panic and said to Li Yuan: "Erchen also has a secret song." Li Yuan took a look at the secret music and was immediately furious: "Do you have evidence that the prince and the king of Qi are committing adultery in the harem"? Li Shimin said, then let the two of them confront each other. Li Yuan then ordered the three of them to come to the palace early tomorrow morning to make it clear.
The prince and the king of Qi were still in the dark, and even felt funny, see how the king of Qin justified himself, and if he couldn't come up with evidence at that time, he would be guilty of deceiving the king. What about the confrontation?
However, the action on the side of the King of Qin had already begun in full swing, and the King of Qin, with more than a dozen civilian and military generals in his palace, led hundreds of elite warriors who were usually raised, and ambushed at Xuanwu Gate in the early morning, and the forbidden general of Xuanwu Gate was a chess piece that the King of Qin had planted in Xuanwu Gate early on, and he arrived at Xuanwu Gate early to meet him.
Restoration of Xuanwu Gate
The prince and the king of Qi rode on horseback, slowly walked through the Linhu Hall, and finally entered the encirclement circle, Li Shimin shouted a big brother behind his back, and the prince and the king of Qi looked back together and found the King of Qin with a bow and arrow. The prince saw that the horse wanted to escape, but unfortunately it was still not as fast as Li Shimin's arrow, and he was pierced through the chest by an arrow.
King Qi hurriedly picked up his bow and arrow and prepared to fight back, not knowing whether he was too nervous or how, this young man who bravely won the three armies did not hit Li Shimin with three arrows in a row.
Frightened, Li Shimin also quickly drove his horse to escape, Wei Chi Jingde saw this situation, led more than seventy horses to surround and suppress the King of Qi, left and right suddenly the King of Qi also fell on his horse, after getting up, the King of Qi ran into the small forest next to the lake hall, just found that Li Shimin also fell off his horse here, so he snatched Li Shimin's bow and strangled his neck.
At this moment, Wei Chi Jingde also rushed to the woods in time, and when he saw the situation and shouted loudly, the King of Qi left Li Shimin and ran to the Wude Hall, and Wei Chi Jingde immediately drove his horse to chase and shot the King of Qi with an arrow.
The Eastern Palace and the Qi King's Palace also learned the news at the first time, and the generals loyal to the Prince and the King of Qi led two thousand warriors in the palace to the rescue and killed all the way to Xuanwu Gate.
Just as the crown prince and King Qi's men were storming Xuanwu Gate, Wei Chi Jingde drove his horse to come and carried two bloody human heads in his hands.
Suddenly, the hearts of the people were scattered, and the samurai stopped and began to scatter and flee.
Some people may ask, what is Li Yuan doing at this time?
The Zizhi Tongjian records that when the crown prince and the king of Qi were staining Xuanwu Gate with blood, and his men were in a fierce battle with the Qin king's army, Gaozu Li Yuanzheng, Pei Huan, Chen Shuda, Xiao Yu and others were leisurely boating on the sea pond (the artificial lake in the palace).
Wei Chi Jingde, who was covered in blood, approached the sea pool at this moment. He was clad in armor and spears, followed by a group of heavily armed soldiers.
It wasn't until Wei Chi Jingde walked up to him and knelt down and prostrated his head that Li Yuan returned to his senses. With all his strength, he asked in a loud voice, "Who is causing trouble today?" What are you doing here? Although Li Yuan tried to show the majesty of a heavenly son, he could clearly hear the trembling in his voice. He didn't know if the shudder was out of shock and anger, or out of fear of an ominous omen. "Back to the Emperor, the Crown Prince and the King of Qi have rebelled, and the King of Qin has led an army to kill the two!" Lest he alarm His Majesty, he specially ordered his subjects to come and escort him. ”
Wei Chi Jingde made a request to Li Yuan, asking him to issue an edict ordering all armies to obey the command of the King of Qin, and li Yuan could only do what else he could say.
Then Li Yuan sat down on the imperial collapse of the Wude Hall, and I don't know how long later, Li Shimin appeared in the Wude Hall in armor and knelt in front of Li Yuan. Li Yuan beckoned Li Shimin to come over with trembling hands, stroked Li Shimin's neck, and told him that he had almost misbelieved the rumors.
At this time, Li Shimin also lost his voice and cried bitterly, and made a move that was difficult for future generations to understand, "kneeling and sucking on the milk", that is, opening Li Yuan's clothes to eat milk, because Li Shimin has a humble bloodline, so this should be a tradition of ethnic minorities, showing love for his father.
Later generations analyzed that in fact, Li Shimin was divided into two roads at that time, one was ambushed at Xuanwu Gate and the other controlled Wude
temple. Otherwise, with Li Yuan's strength, after discovering the Xuanwumen Mutiny, he would definitely be the first to suppress it, as for the theory of pan-boating, it was Li Shimin's false pretense, under normal circumstances, Li Yuan would first get the news, and it was impossible to still go rafting in the sea pond.
The slaughter has not stopped.
In the afternoon, Li Shimin ordered that the Eastern Palace and the Qi Palace be destroyed, and all ten nephews were killed.
The prince was chased as Cain, and the king of Qi was a monk.
In 2005, Li Jiancheng's tomb was excavated, and the simple 55-character epitaph illustrates Li Shimin's full attitude towards the eldest brother.
Li Jiancheng's epitaph
The former Xuanwu Gate is long gone, and only this tombstone is the only witness to this bloody incident 1400 years ago.
Epitaph of the Late Hidden King of the Tang Dynasty - Wang Zhen jian Wude on June 4, 999 xue yu Jingshi