In the last years of the Sui Dynasty, the throne was like a wild deer without a master, and there was a lively scene of 10 people chasing deer, and the ending was that everyone gave Li Yuan a denominator. According to the cliché of king cheng and defeat, the hunters who returned empty-handed were ridiculed in the history books without exception, but the parties were certainly not convinced, especially the Great Zheng Emperor Wang Shichong: I am a hundred times stronger than Grandma's face!
Is Wang Shichong overconfident? Not necessarily.
In the impression of posterity, Wang Shichong was a jealous and mean,simple-minded warrior, but we read a different taste from the beginning of the New Book of Tang:
"(Shi Chong) involved in the transmission of books, the art of war, the strategy of the turtle, the push ... Good occupation, practice the Law, dare to dance up and down. Man may argue that the world is full of tongues and tongues, and the public knows what is wrong, nor can it be bent. ”
The New Book of Tang uses Wang Shi as a negative example, and there are obvious traces of derogatory marks in his writing, but it still exposes the fact that he is studious and has a high level of knowledge.
In contrast, what about Li Yuan's academic performance? It is estimated that it is impossible to get a hand, because there is not a word mentioned in the history books. When he was young, Li Yuan was a "social activist", he liked to make friends, he was good at drinking, playing chess, gambling and playing with girls, you can also say that he was a brother who did not learn any skills, and his life was quite moist.
Li Yuan's leisureliness almost lasted his life, and Pei Ning, the first hero of Jinyang Yuanmou, was Li Yuan's wine friend, chess friend, gambling friend and "color friend", and their military plans were all packaged with wine. After becoming emperor, Li Yuan was even more full of spring, and he was in his fifties and gave birth to sons one after another.
Wang Shichong was much more miserable, he was spinning like a top, and the intensity of his work was quite large. When he gets on the horse, he wants to lead the army to fight, and when he gets off the horse, he wants to make the emperor happy, and he also has to fight with his colleagues.
Even after becoming emperor, his life was bitter, there was no wine, no beauty, no pavilions. How did Wang Shichong spend his day? In the morning, he sat outside the Shuntian Gate to listen to the government, and in the afternoon, he went to the West Chaotang to try the unjust imprisonment, and then went to the East Chaotang to receive the counselors, so that he could "fill in the committee of the chapter calf and observe the province without time."
There is no emperor's enjoyment, only diligence and self-discipline, and Wang Shichong should really be rewarded with a small red flower!
Unlike Li Yuan, who took the initiative to oppose the Sui, Wang Shichong was actually still very loyal to the Sui Empire, especially to the Sui Emperor, wang Shichong respected the gods. His rise from a small "Jiang Du Zanzhi" to a "Great General of the Right Wing Wei" came from the promotion of the Sui Emperor.
When the Sui Emperor was besieged by the Turks at Yanmen, Wang Shichong immediately led the Jiangdu terracotta army to the north at night, and he was "disheveled, weeping day and night, not releasing his armor, and lying on the table."
Of course, you can also suspect that there is an element of performance, but one thing is certain, when the Sui Emperor was alive, he did not have the slightest rebellious heart, even if he later forced Yang Dong to take the throne, there was also the helplessness of factional struggle.
Li Yuan raised his troops differently, at that time the Sui Emperor was still alive, he took the initiative to pull up the big banner and do it with the old watch, and also called it the Great Sui Jiangshan.
Li Yuan is good at winning people's hearts, and he is always devoted to fellowship no matter how noble or lowly he is. Wang Shichong was no less than a soldier in this regard, and he pushed the credit to his subordinates every time he fought, and all the gains were distributed to the soldiers, so his subordinates were willing to fight for him.
Compare the force value of one to two people.
It is estimated that Li Yuan must be blushing, although he is not weak. Who has Wang Shichong touched in his life? Yang Xuangan, Zhu Xie, Guan Chong, Meng Rang, Lu Mingyue, Turk, Li Mi, Yu Wenhua, Dou Jiande, and Li Shimin.
Among these opponents, only Li Mi and Li Shimin had tasted defeat for Wang Shichong, and Li Mi's Wagangzhai was also destroyed by Wang Shichong. Don't underestimate the "nameless" Zhu Xie and Meng Rang, whose locust-like numbers have caused many famous Sui generals to defeat Maicheng.
There is no doubt that if Li Yuan singles out Wang Shichong from the military talent, he will only be given shoes!
Does this mean that Li Yuan is inferior to Wang Shichong in every way? Nor is it, at least Li Yuan's political gains are far from being comparable to those of Wang Shichong.
Notice that I use "achievement" rather than "ability" or "talent", which I say because the political situations faced by the two are completely different and not easy to compare. Li Yuan had a natural political dominance advantage, and Wang Shichong's political "talent" was a double-edged sword, pushing himself to the throne and harming himself at the same time.
This alone determines the fate of Wang Shichong: the historical environment dooms Wang Shichong to be impossible to change dynasties!
This is strange, Wang Shichong is obviously much higher than Li Yuan, just a vague political advantage and disadvantage, how can he suffocate him with a pole?
Now it's time to uncover the root cause of Wang Shichong's failure: Wang Shichong's identity limits the political heights he can reach, and changing dynasties is definitely not something that a person of his status can do!
What is Wang Shichong's identity? Western Hu!
It turned out that Wang Shichong was not a Han Chinese, and he only moved to Guanzhong from his grandfather's generation of "Zhi Decadent". Zhi Decadence died early, his wife remarried the Han Chinese Wang Yue, and the son followed the fake surname Wang and changed his Han name to "Wang Shuo", and Wang Shuo was Wang Shichong's father.
This information tells us that Wang Shichong is not only a Hu, but also a commoner among the Hu people.
Back in the historical context, what can we see through?
First of all, after the Five Hu Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern Wei and Northern Zhou, the political status of the Hu people plummeted, and relying on the Guanlong nobles was the only way for them to get ahead.
The Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms were the moment of the highest light of the Hu people, but the laws of history ruthlessly told them that there was only one way out if they wanted to rule the Central Plains for a long time - Sinicization! Therefore, the short-lived Wuhu era ended, the Active Sinicization of the Northern Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties arrived, and the Guanlong nobles who combined Hu and Han were born.
With the deep cultivation of Han culture, even the Hu people began to be ashamed of their own identity, so they changed their Han surnames, intermarried with Han people, learned Han culture, and tried their best to remove the Hu mark on their bodies.
Even so, the Yuwen clan, the Tuoba clan, the Yu Jin clan, the Hou Mo clan, and the Dugu clan still showed an unstoppable decline.
In this environment, Wang Shichong's Hu identity determines that he can only conform to the requirements of the times, attach himself to the newly emerging Han Hao clique, and rely on time to grind away the Hu symbol of the family, rather than trying to reverse the law of historical development by himself.
Secondly, the political problems of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties were still stubborn, and the commoners and even the Shu class did not have the strength to occupy the political core.
At the end of the Sui Dynasty, there were no less than a hundred divided forces in various places, so why was it Li Yuan who succeeded? Because Li Yuan is a core member of the Guanlong Gate Valve Group, he has more political resources than he can imagine. I have mentioned this many times in previous articles, and those who are interested can pay attention to it.
For the decisive force of the change of dynasty, most people's eyes are on the military level, in fact, politics is far more important than the military. As the head of the Li clan in Longxi, Li Yuan and the Yang, Yuwen, Dugu, Pei, Cui and other families at the high end of politics had the chips of interest exchange, and they also formed intricate relationships, including marriage.
Therefore, Li Yuan has the capital to raise his arms and respond to the world, which is the secret of his being able to enter Chang'an in a few months!
People of the Shu ethnic group like Wang Shichong, no matter how outstanding their talents are, can only rely on military strength to walk tightropes and fight the world inch by inch, and the circle of friends is too small to determine the fate that he may be played to death every second.
But Wang Shichong disregarded the limitations of his identity of being both a Hu and a Shu, and did the "upstream" thing, grabbing food with the Door Valve Group!
Wang Shichong's fate of defeat was already doomed from the moment he killed Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu.
Yuan Wendu was from the Tuoba clan of the Northern Wei dynasty, the Duke of Lu of the Sui Dynasty, and the general of Zuo Xiaowei. Lu Chu was born in the Lu clan of Fanyang and was given the title of Duke of Zhuo County. Both the Yuan and Lu clans were Sui and Tang Dynasty cattle with snot bubbles, and the two were appointed to assist Yang Tong, and Wang Shichong was nothing more than a tool in their minds.
But Wang Shi charged his military power, trying to get rid of their control and make himself the Duke of Zhou above ten thousand people under one person. Since you look down on me and can't beat me, why should I be your little brother? Therefore, he did not hesitate to slaughter Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu.
Wang Shichong, who was blinded by lard, set his sights on Yang Tong again: I am loyal to Geng Geng to protect you, but you colluded with Yuan Wendu to murder me. When the Sui Emperor died, I don't owe you the Yang family, Yang Hao and Yang You are all self-reliant, and the Yang family is like this, so you don't blame me!
This is where Wang Shichong's short-sightedness lies, he just sees that the Manchu Dynasty Wenwudu bowed his head to him, including cui Hongdan, Yang Wang (Yang Guifei's great-grandfather) and other Hao disciples who held stinky feet, but he could not see through the essence of the magnate politics.
Sure enough, Wang Shichong's world became strange, and people kept fleeing. Obviously, as long as the common people have food to eat, they don't have the leisure to ask who becomes the emperor, and it must be the children of the Hao clan who have escaped.
The sons of the Hao clan were the political weather vane, and their escape caused panic in the Shu clique, so even Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin, Luo Shixin and others lost confidence in Wang Shichong.
When Li Shimin chen bing luoyang city, the Dazheng regime collapsed from within in an instant. Wang Shichong, who had been in the battlefield for a long time, did not even have the confidence to fight between male and female, and he wanted to retreat to the second place, proposing to break through to the south and try his luck in the Area of Xiangyang Hanshui. As a result, his expectant eyes were greeted with a silence.
Wang Shichong knew that everything should be over, so he raised his hands and walked out of Luoyang City.
Is Wang Shichong too timid? What a thing! Since he snatched the dragon chair, the soft confrontation of the Hao clan group has made him deeply stressed, and he has also tried to intimidate them with high-pressure policies, but where can people's hearts be suppressed? How could the political demands of the Hao clan succumb to his Hu people?
In this case, Wang Shichong was in danger of being taken down by the Hao clique at any time, and he realized how strong the opposition was. The silence of the Hao group is actually telling Wang Shichong: You are casual, and the grandfather will not accompany you!
What is the way out for Wang Shichong? Surrender!
If it were not for Li Shimin's promise to open up to him, it is estimated that Li Yuan would have killed Wang Shichong without scruples, and no one would have stood up for him.
Of course, Wang Shichong did not have a good ending, and he did not have time to embark on the road of exile in Shudi, so he was assassinated by Dugu Xiude with his son and brother. It turned out that Du Lonely Xiude's father, Du Lonely Ji, disobeyed Wang Shichong and tried to escape to Join Tang, but was killed by Wang Shichong.
Li Yuanzheng was worried that there was no excuse to kill Wang Shichong, and Dugu Xiude did things for him, and he made a big stroke: Pardon Du Lonely Xiude!
See clearly, how miserable it is for a person of Wang Shichong's identity to do something wrong!