In the last year of the Sui Dynasty, Li Yuan's father and son established the Tang Dynasty, which was a prosperous dynasty, but in the 289-year history of the Tang Dynasty, there were as many as 20 court coups, and almost every Tang emperor suffered court blood. Three coups d'état in the early years of the Tang Dynasty are examples:
(1) During the Wude period, Li Shimin, the King of Qin, launched the "Xuanwumen Rebellion", killing the crown prince Li Jiancheng and the Qi king Li Yuanji, and Li Yuanji, the emperor of Tang Gaozu, fell to power, and from then on Li Shimin became the ruler of the Tang Empire.
(2) During the Zhenguan period, the crown prince Li Chengqian conspired with Hou Junji and others to rebel, and when the East Window Incident occurred, Li Shimin was distraught and degraded the crown prince Li Chengqian as a shuren, and the "Li Chengqian conspiracy rebellion" eventually profited from the third son, Li Zhi, and Li Zhi was made crown prince and became the later Emperor Gaozong of Tang.
(3) In the fourth year of Yonghui, the famous "Fang Yi Ai Conspiracy Rebellion Case" occurred, which can be described as shocking the government and the opposition. This major case of rebellion directly led to the suicide of an imperial uncle, an imperial brother, and two princesses, and in order to completely eliminate the case, Tang Gaozong even killed 3 horses in one go.
Comparing these three coups, it can be seen that the "Fang Yi Ai Conspiracy Case" was the only one that did not involve the crown prince and had less impact on the future succession of the Tang Empire, however, on closer inspection, Tang Gaozong's handling of this coup was very different.
Fang Yi'ai was the second son of Fang Xuanling, the famous xiang of the Tang Dynasty, and the son-in-law of Li Shimin of Tang Taizong. In the last years of the Sui Dynasty, Fang Xuanling, as Li Shimin's think tank and secretary, helped Li Shimin to stabilize the world, and after Li Shimin ascended the throne, he made Fang Xuanling the Duke of Liang.
According to the ancient system of primogeniture, Fang Xuanling established the eldest son Fang Zhizhi as a son of the world, and will inherit the dukedom of Liang in the future. In order to show that he and Fang Xuanling were "one king and one", Li Shimin mated Princess Gaoyang (Li Shimin's 17th daughter) to Fang Xuanling's second son Fang Xuanling. In this way, Fang Xuanling had two sons standing on the court at the same time, shining on the lintel of Fang's house.
In fact, in feudal society, in order to stabilize the relationship between the emperor and the ministers, it was very common for the two sides to form a family of children and daughters. However, most of the heroes are attacked by the eldest son, so they choose the second son to marry the royal family. Li Shimin was well versed in this way, for example, Du Ruyi's second son, Chai Shao's second son, Wang Jue's second son, and Cheng Yaojin's second son all married Li Shimin's daughters. Therefore, Li Shimin married Princess Gaoyang to Fang Yi'ai, and there was nothing special about this marriage. However, Princess Gaoyang was not a princess who kept to herself. Her restlessness manifests itself in three ways:
First, Princess Gaoyang was a man, and when Fang Xuanling was alive, she still had some scruples, and when Fang Xuanling died, after the Dukedom of Liang passed to the eldest son Fang Zhizhi, Princess Gaoyang began to encourage her husband Fang Yi'ai to seize the title of eldest brother. Although Princess Gaoyang was Fang Yizhi's younger daughter-in-law, after all, she was Li Shimin's own daughter, and Fang Yizhi did not dare to confront Princess Gaoyang head-on, so she had to complain to Li Shimin, who reprimanded Princess Gaoyang several times.
Second, Princess Gaoyang was born with a temperament, she had an affair with a monk named Debater, and later in the incident, Li Shimin beheaded the Debater monk.
Third, after Princess Gaoyang married Fang Yi'ai, she sent people to the palace many times to inquire about intelligence.
Li Shimin also knew that Princess Gaoyang was not a good stubble, and repeatedly reprimanded this daughter, which made Princess Gaoyang feel hatred for Li Shimin, and Shi Zai "Taizong collapsed, no relatives", as a daughter, when Li Shimin died, Princess Gaoyang was not sad at all.
After Emperor Gaozong of Tang ascended the throne, Princess Gaoyang had been waiting for an opportunity. In the fourth year of Yonghui, the famous Tang Dynasty general xue wanche (married to Li Yuan's fifteenth daughter Princess Danyang) was degraded for his sins and resented Tang Gaozong. Another horse, Chai Lingwu (Chai Shao's son and princess Baling, who married Li Shimin's seventh daughter), also stayed in the capital for a long time on the pretext of treating his wife. As a result, Princess Gaoyang and Fang Yi'ai persuaded Xue Wanche, Chai Lingwu and others to intend to launch a coup d'état. According to the plan, they planned to first control the capital, depose Li Zhi of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, and then install Li Yuanjing, the sixth son of Li Yuan, the King of Jing, as emperor. However, the news of the coup was leaked, and When Emperor Gaozong of Tang learned of this, he was furious and quickly arrested Princess Gaoyang and others, and then sent his eldest son Wuji to try the case.
As is known to all, Changsun Wuji was Li Shimin's orphan minister and also Tang Gaozong's uncle, and this person held a high position of authority and was scheming and calculating, and Tang Gaozong sent Changsun Wuji to personally try this case, which shows the importance attached to this case.
The eldest son, Wu Ji, not only tried the case strictly, but also framed Li Shimin's third son, Li Ke the Prince of Wu. Sun Wuji collected "evidence" from all sides, intending to impose a heavier sentence, and with the approval of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Li Zhi, the three horsemen were beheaded and paraded to the public. Zizhi Tongjian Cloud:
Zhao Ai, Wan Che, Ling Wu all beheaded, Yuan Jing, Ke, Gao Yang, and Princess Baling committed suicide.
In addition, the four royal children of Li Yuanjing, Li Ke, Princess Gaoyang, and Princess Baling were given to commit suicide. In addition, the families of the three donkeys were all affected, for example, Fang Yi'ai's elder brother Fang Yizhi was exiled to Lingbiao because of this case, Chai Lingwu's brother was also exiled to Lingnan, and the rest of the deceased were all exiled.
In fact, the mastermind of the "Fang Yi Ai Conspiracy Rebellion Case" is still Fang Yi Ai and Princess Gaoyang, and the others are only involved, and Li Ke, the King of Wu, does not even know it at all, and this judgment is still too heavy.
For example, in the ninth year of WuDe, after Li Shimin launched the "Xuanwumen Rebellion", he killed Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, and under the advice of Wei Zheng and others, Li Shimin ordered pardons for the remaining accomplices. In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, after the outbreak of the "Li Chengqian Conspiracy Rebellion Case", Li Shimin degraded Li Chengqian as a shuren and killed Hou Junji, and the rest of the people were not killed. Since the first two cases of conspiracy and rebellion were not in full swing, in the face of the "Fang Relic Love Conspiracy Rebellion Case", why did Tang Gaozong and eldest Sun Wuji want to kill the ring? And also framed Li Ke, the king of Wu? Why was Emperor Gaozong so resolute?
In fact, the reason why Emperor Gaozong of Tang designated the eldest son Wuji to try the case was already doomed to this ending.
In the first few years of Tang Gaozong's ascension to the throne, first of all, he lacked prestige in the royal family, and second, he always gave people a feeling of generosity and benevolence. As Li Shimin's chancellor, the eldest son Represented Tang Gaozong's interests, and all he could do to help Tang Gaozong was to kill a hundred people and eliminate dissidents. Therefore, under the persuasion of the eldest son, Tang Gaozong killed the three horses of Fang Yi'ai, Chai Lingwu, and Xue Wanche in one fell swoop!
You know, since ancient times, if the royal family members are guilty of crimes, they must also pay attention to the "royal face", so Princess Gaoyang and four other people have been given death, rather than letting them die under the crowd. However, the three horses were also imperial relatives, among them, Chai Lingwu was the son of Princess Pingyang (Li Shimin's sister, a famous general in the early Tang Dynasty) and Chai Shao, with a noble status. Emperor Gaozong of Tang beheaded the three horses and showed them to death in the street market, which was somewhat abnormal, but the purpose was very obvious, that is, to deter the courtiers. Emperor Gaozong of Tang sent a signal to everyone by letting the three donkeys and horses die on the street: the authority of the third emperor of the Tang Dynasty could not be violated, otherwise, no matter how noble his status was, it would only be like this!