In 626 AD, the ninth year of Wude in the Tang Dynasty, the fourth day of the first month of June. Because of the Xuanwumen Incident, Li Shimin, as the King of Qin, successfully killed his eldest brother, and then forced his father to give way to himself, becoming the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Li Jiancheng, who was originally the crown prince, died in this coup d'état, which became a tragedy in history.
However, in recent years, many articles about Li Jiancheng have circulated on the Internet. In these articles, Li Jiancheng is described as a very wise and divine figure, which seems to be much more powerful than Li Shimin. Many people say that if Li Jiancheng becomes emperor, then the Tang Dynasty led by Li Jiancheng will be more powerful than the Tang Dynasty led by Li Shimin.
Is this really the case?
To know the answer to this question, we must first restore the true image of Li Jiancheng. Look at the real Li Jiancheng in history, what kind of person he really is.
In 589, Li Jiancheng was born. This year coincided with the year when the Sui Dynasty went south to destroy Chen and unify the world. In the year of Li Jiancheng's birth, his father Li Yuan was still an ordinary young sui dynasty cadre, just 24 years old. Because the Li family was a famous family in the Sui Dynasty, and the reigning Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian at that time happened to be Li Yuan's uncle. Therefore, at this time, Li Yuan's career path also seemed smooth.
As the eldest son of Li Yuan, Li Jiancheng has had a very important identity since the day of his birth. Even if the world has always been peaceful and Li Yuan does not become an emperor, then Li Jiancheng, as the eldest son of a concubine, can also inherit the title of Duke of Tang and rank among the high-ranking nobles of the Sui Dynasty.
When Li Jiancheng was nine years old, Li Yuan and his wife Dou Shi gave birth to another son, which was the later Li Shimin. For Li Jiancheng, who was a child, Li Shimin was just a little brother. Because the difference between the two is nine years, Li Jiancheng is the eldest brother. Therefore, in the Li family, the identities of Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin are completely different.
It is precisely because of the age gap that the subsequent situation of the two is also very different.
After many years, Li Jiancheng gradually grew up and began to stand alone. In the last years of the Sui Dynasty, because Li Yuan behaved too publicly for a while, it attracted the suspicion of yang Guang, the Sui Emperor, and later Li Yuan had to rely on self-defilement to save his life. Although on the surface he was self-defiled, secretly, Li Yuan still hoped to make more friends with the warrior clans everywhere and make plans for his future.
Therefore, from this time on, Li Yuan's positioning of his two sons began to differ.
The older Li Jiancheng, entrusted by Li Yuan with a heavy responsibility, went to contact the scholars in various places on his behalf and replaced him to win over these scholars. Li Shimin, on the other hand, has always been taken by Li Yuan to help Li Yuan secretly train the army and learn how to fight. And this difference in positioning, in the next few years, also fundamentally put the fate of the two on a completely different path.
Thirteen years after daye, Li Yuan, who had been almost prepared, decided to formally raise an army. But before the army was officially raised, Li Yuan had to let Li Jiancheng, who was far away in Hedong County, flee back to Taiyuan with his family. Because when Li Yuan was active in Taiyuan, except for Li Shimin, almost all of Li's family lived in the Li family's ancestral home in Hedong County. In the process of this escape, although Li Jiancheng fled to Taiyuan with Li Yuanji and several other Li family members, there were still many Li family members who were unfortunately arrested. For example, Li Yuan's only son at that time, Li Zhiyun, was killed because of this.
After arriving in Taiyuan, Li Yuan immediately entrusted Li Jiancheng with a heavy responsibility, ordered Li Jiancheng to lead an attack on Xihe, and at the same time asked Li Shimin to give him a hand. On the way to attack the West River, Li Jiancheng ordered the prohibition, not only quickly led the troops to take the West River, but also took the originally loose army to train well and fully display his ability.
After taking Xihe, Li Yuan personally led the main force and directly attacked Chang'an. On the way from Taiyuan to Chang'an, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin both had good performances. Although in this process, some of the credits are disputed, and it is impossible to determine whether it belongs to Li Jiancheng or Li Shimin. But what is certain is that during this time, both Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin performed very well.
With the concerted efforts of the father and son, Li Yuan quickly led an army into Guanzhong and then captured Chang'an. After that, Li Yuan quickly took control of the entire Guanzhong region, becoming one of the most powerful separatist forces in the whole world. However, because Yang Guang was still alive at that time, in order to gain the support of those who were loyal to the Yang family, Li Yuan could only temporarily establish Yang Guang's grandson Yang You as emperor and establish himself as the grand chancellor. It was not until the fourteenth year of Daye, when Yang Guang was killed by the forbidden army during the coup d'état in Jiangdu, that Li Yuan forced Yang You to take the throne for himself and officially ascended the throne as emperor.
During this time, Li Jiancheng has been performing very well. But at the same time, two weaknesses were also exposed.
First, Li Jiancheng was the eldest son of Concubine, and after Li Yuan ascended the throne, Li Jiancheng naturally became the crown prince. However, the identity of the prince happened to be a huge obstacle that hindered Li Jiancheng's leadership of the army. As a prince, personal safety is very important, and it is impossible to easily lead troops into battle. In contrast, Li Shimin was only a King of Qin, and there were far fewer constraints in this regard.
Second, because in the early years, Li Yuan always took Li Shimin with him and let Li Shimin secretly take charge of military affairs. Therefore, this led to the fact that the most elite army under Li Yuan's command was all run by Li Shimin, and all of them were Li Shimin's concubines. For example, the famous Xuanjia Army in history is Li Shimin's direct subordinate army. Li Shimin, who mastered this directly subordinate army, could complete many difficult tactics. On the other hand, Li Jiancheng did not have this condition.
Therefore, in the next few years, Li Yuan's arrangement for the two became completely different again.
On Li Shimin's side, Wu De fought Xue Ju in the first year, Wu De fought Liu Wu zhou in the second year, Wu De for three years and Wu De for four years, and Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande. Especially when fighting Dou Jiande, Li Shimin defeated Dou Jiande's 100,000 troops with three thousand Xuanjia troops under his command, creating a myth in the history of ancient warfare. After this battle, Li Shimin had reached the point where he could not be sealed, and even needed Li Yuan to take the initiative to create an official position for him called 'General of Heavenly Strategy'.
When Li Shimin swept the world, Li Jiancheng was actually not idle. In the first year of Wu De, Li Jiancheng basically stayed in the capital to help Li Yuan stabilize his internal affairs. In the second year of Wu De, he went out to quell a peasant army rebellion in the Guanzhong area, and then was ordered to take over the Hexi region. For three years in Wude, Li Jiancheng guarded Puzhou and guarded against the Turks. In the fourth year of Wude, Li Jiancheng led his troops to quell the Rebellion of Ji Hu and returned with a great victory.
From these achievements of Li Jiancheng, we can see that the battles that Li Jiancheng fought are relatively safe. This is also li yuan's purpose of protecting him, which will make such a choice. In contrast, Li Shimin's enemies are all extremely powerful separatist forces, the kind of strong enemies that determine the ownership of the world.
After the battles of the past few years, the situation is completely different.
Originally, according to Li Yuan's idea, it was to let Li Jiancheng, the prince, fight some relatively safe wars, as long as he established his prestige. As for those hard battles, they were handed over to the other Li family clans to fight. But the problem is that except for Li Shimin, the other Li family clans are almost all soft eggs, and together they are not as good as a Li Shimin. This led to Li Shimin's sudden rise in the army, and the situation of a sharp increase in status began to appear.
Especially after Li Shimin defeated Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, his merits had reached the point where he could not be sealed. By this time, Li Shimin was already enough to threaten Li Jiancheng's position as crown prince. As emperor, Li Yuan was also aware of this. Therefore, Li Yuan began to consciously limit Li Shimin's military power, not wanting Li Shimin to be promoted again.
But at this time, an accident occurred, completely destroying Li Yuan's arrangement.
Shortly after this, Dou Jiande's general Liu Heimin suddenly raised an army again. Relying on Dou Jiande's prestige at that time, coupled with Liu Heimin's own ability to fight very well, Liu Heimin quickly recovered all of Dou Jiande's original territory. In this process, Li Yuan, for the purpose of restricting Li Shimin, did not send Li Shimin to the scene, but sent other Li family clans to suppress Liu Heimin. As a result, after a few rounds, Liu Heimin passed the pass and slashed the generals, and defeated the Tang army, reaching the point where he could block the Tang Dynasty from unifying the world.
At this time, Li Yuan had no choice but to send Li Shimin to play. After Li Shimin came on the field, he once again exerted his powerful war talent and successfully defeated Liu Heimin. But in the process, Li Shimin, who had been suppressed by Li Yuan before, also had a heart and began to install his own manpower in the army. By the end of this war, the whole of Shandong, Hebei, Henan and other places had spread all over Li Shimin's confidants.
After being defeated by Li Shimin, Liu Heimin was not captured by Li Shimin, but fled to the Turks. With the support of the Turks, Liu Heimin made a comeback and once again occupied a large amount of territory. This time, Li Yuan did not dare to let Li Shimin lead the army again. Li Jiancheng, on the other hand, took the initiative to ask for battle at the suggestion of his adviser Wei Zheng, and Li Yuan gladly agreed.
I have to say that Li Jiancheng's ability to lead the troops to fight is indeed very strong. After arriving in Shandong, Li Jiancheng adopted a strategy that was diametrically opposed to Li Shimin's, on the one hand, he took the initiative to attack Liu Heimin, and on the other hand, he actively contacted the local warrior clans. Under Li Jiancheng's strategy of both soft and hard, Liu Heimin was soon defeated again, and finally killed by his own rebels.
Since then, although there have been some wars in the south, the general trend of the Tang Dynasty unifying the world has been unstoppable. Therefore, from this time on, neither Li Jiancheng nor Li Shimin participated in the war in the south. In the seventh year of Wude, the Turks came to attack, and both of them briefly led troops to garrison the border and then returned to the capital.
In the beginning, the struggle between the two was still relatively obscure. However, in the seventh year of WuDe, Li Jiancheng, because Li Shimin's Tiance Mansion had many guards, worried that the defense force of his Prince's Mansion was insufficient, privately increased the Prince's Guard. In the end, this matter was caught by Li Shimin, and then made a bureau, forcing Li Jiancheng's subordinates to rebel and putting the hat of rebellion on Li Jiancheng's head. Afterwards, although Li Yuan realized the truth, he hit the two of them with fifty big boards. But after this incident, the brothers completely tore their faces.
After that, the two began a comprehensive struggle. In this struggle, Li Jiancheng relied on the support of the traditional Guanlongshi clan, plus Li Yuan did not want to change the crown prince, so he gradually gained the upper hand in the capital. However, Li Shimin was still very tenacious, and no matter how hard Li Jiancheng tried, he could not completely overthrow Li Shimin. Later, Li Jiancheng even moved his killing heart and wanted to kill Li Shimin directly, but unfortunately he failed.
Under the pressure of Li Jiancheng's steps, Li Shimin saw that Li Yuan was pulling a bias, and the warriors did not support him, and Li Jiancheng even planned to kill himself directly. Under these persecutions, Li Shimin finally decided to take the risk and plan a coup d'état to directly solve all problems.
In the ninth year of Wude, in early June, the news of the Turkic invasion came. Because Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin fought fiercely, Li Yuan did not want them to lead the troops again, but let the old third Li Yuanji lead the troops. However, Li Yuanji was actually Li Jiancheng's person, so Li Yuanji consulted with Li Jiancheng, trying to get Li Shimin to come and send him off before leading the army, and took the opportunity to kill Li Shimin. This news was leaked to Li Shimin by the spies in the Prince's Mansion. Li Shimin finally decided to preemptively kill Li Jiancheng first.
On the third day of the first month of June, late at night, Li Shimin entered the palace and made a small report to Li Yuan, saying that Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji had an affair with Li Yuan's harem. When Li Yuan heard this, he was immediately furious and immediately ordered that Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji be confronted in the palace early tomorrow morning.
After receiving the order, although Li Jiancheng was also worried that Li Shimin would attack him, he thought that the general guarding the palace, Chang He, was his own person, so he boldly went there. But what Li Jiancheng did not expect was that Chang He had actually been secretly bribed by Li Shimin. The next morning, when Li Jiancheng entered the palace, when passing through Xuanwu Gate, Li Shimin suddenly led his own soldiers to kill, and finally killed Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji.
After that, Li Shimin took over the entire Chang'an City and forced Li Yuan to take the throne to himself. At the same time, after Li Shimin took power, he beheaded several of Li Jiancheng's sons, but li Jiancheng's daughters were spared by Li Shimin.
All of the above is Li Jiancheng's real life.
From Li Jiancheng's life experience, it is not difficult for us to see that Li Jiancheng is indeed a very good talent, but it is impossible to say that he is far stronger than Li Shimin. It can only be said that the two are good at different places, Li Shimin is more good at cold wrists, while Li Jiancheng is relatively gentle and gentle, and is good at dealing with the warriors. These differences between the two also determine the final fate of the two.
Judging from the two men's battle records, Li Jiancheng is very good, which is not false, but he is indeed inferior to Li Shimin in terms of fighting.
As for Li Jiancheng's final outcome, I am afraid that this can only be blamed on Li Yuan. If it wasn't for Li Yuan solving the problem in the way of thin mud, I'm afraid the two of them wouldn't have reached the step of the final blood-spattered Xuanwu Gate. In the end, this is actually All Li Yuan's fault.