Li Shimin was Li Yuan's second son. In 617, Li Shimin was 19 years old. At that time, the Sui Dynasty Emperor provoked a popular uprising, and rebels were everywhere in the country. Li Yuan, as the Taiyuan retainer of the Sui Dynasty, had actually severed information exchanges with the Sui Emperor who was far away in Jiangdu. Li Shimin believed that he should sever ties with the Sui Dynasty, recruit troops, buy horses, and fight his own country. However, he knew Li Yuan very well and could not say it directly, so he found Pei Huan.
Pei Ning was in charge of the Taiyuan Palace, which had a large number of beautiful women. So Pei Huan called two beautiful women to accompany Li Yuan, and Li Yuan still thought that she was a woman from an ordinary family, and she also enjoyed it. Then Pei Huan told him that these two were the women of the Sui Emperor.
The woman who slept with the emperor was a head-killing sin. If you want to survive, you can only revolt. Li Yuan, under the impetus of Li Shimin and others, finally announced an uprising. The rebel army slaughtered Guanzhong and prepared to capture Huoyi, but the heavy rain continued for days and was unable to launch an attack. The grain was almost finished, and Li Yuan wanted to retreat to Taiyuan. Li Shimin was anxious and said, "It is impossible to rely on a Taiyuan city. If you retreat back to die, it is better to attack, and die a magnificent death! ”
Therefore, in the early days of the uprising, even the motivation for the uprising was Li Shimin pushing Li Yuan forward. Without Li Shimin, Li Yuan probably would not have revolted, and even if he had, he might not have been able to reach the end, just like many other rebel ranks, and would eventually be annexed by others. And the person who can unify the whole country is most likely Dou Jiande; of course, it may also be Xiao Qian, after all, he has almost occupied the entire south Of China. At that time, the rebel army and the armed separatist forces were not all straw bales, many of them were quite capable, Li Mi, Liu Wuzhou, Xue Ju, these people were all temporary heroes, not necessarily worse than Li Yuan.
Li Yuan had no choice but to dispel his thoughts and concentrate on the attack. Under the siege of Li Shimin, Li Jiancheng, and Li Yuan, Huoyi was taken. At that time, Guanzhong was full of rebel armies, each of them divided into sects, each seeking self-preservation. Li Yuan's daughter Princess Pingyang showed extraordinary talent, and she recruited these large and small armed forces into her command, and there were nearly 200,000 people. Li Yuan had only about 30,000 people from the Taiyuan Uprising to Chang'an City, and then a mighty 200,000 people greeted him. This contrast dwarfs that of a comparison.
Li Yuan attacked Chang'an, supported a puppet emperor, and soon after proclaimed himself emperor, making Li Shimin the King of Qin. After that, Li Shimin's troops went out of the Tiger Prison Pass, launched the Battle of Baibi, and captured Luoyang. Li Yuan believed that Li Shimin's merits were monstrous, so he made him a general of Tiance and built tiance mansion for him in Luoyang. Li Shimin recruited many great masters from all over the world in his Qin Palace and Tiance Palace, such as Xue Shuo and Chu Liang, and Wu Wei Chigong and Qin Shubao, forming a huge force.
Li Yuan knew that Li Shimin had made great contributions and was very convincing, of course, his personality was also stable, and he was the ideal candidate to be emperor. He had already made Li Jiancheng crown prince and had the idea of making Li Shimin crown prince, but he hesitated. And this also led to a fight between Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin, which eventually led to the tragic Xuanwumen Change.
Early in the morning of this day, Li Yuan summoned Du Yan, Wang Gui, and others to the lake (the New Book of Tang and others did not say specifically, it may be Huaqingchi) to discuss the government. The New Book of Tang and the Zizhi Tongjian do not explain what they want to discuss, but from the perspective of the development of the situation, the discussion should be about changing the prince. And just as they were discussing, Li Shimin had already killed Li Yuanji, and Wei Chigong had killed Li Jiancheng.
Then Wei Chigong took his soldiers and horses to the lakeside. Li Yuan was stunned and asked who was plotting the rebellion. Wei Chigong said, "Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, the Prince of Qi, rebelled, and now they have been killed!" The King of Qin ordered me to protect the Emperor. ”
Li Yuan knew instantly what had happened. I also understand that the father-son relationship at this time is actually a tense relationship. And Li Yuan could only bow his head. If something goes wrong, the lighter one will be imprisoned for life, and the heavier one will fall to the ground and follow his two sons. Wei Chi's so-called protection was actually to force him to take a stand.
Li Yuan had no choice but to express his support for Li Shimin. Only after this did Li Shimin come and cry bitterly in front of Li Yuan. Although his crying was hypocritical, the huge rift formed between father and son was quickly eliminated, of course, under the circumstances of Li Shimin's purpose.
Li Yuan made Li Shimin crown prince and announced to the imperial court that all the big and small people would pass through Li Shimin in advance, and then Li Shimin would report to him. In fact, he had set himself up, and the civil and military officials were only responsible to Li Shimin. Moreover, only two months after this situation, Li Yuan officially announced his abdication and let Li Shimin inherit the throne.
Father and son killed each other, ending in a complete victory for Li Shimin. Li Yuan revolted because of his beautiful women, and after abdicating the throne, he gave birth to a large number of offspring, which can also be regarded as a blessed person.
Li Yuan moved out of the palace. Li Shimin arranged for him to live in Shangyang Palace. Since then, Li Yuan has lived a dark (human) non-(inter) heaven (god) day (immortal) day: no worries about eating and wearing, every once in a while, Li Shimin also comes to ask for warmth; as long as he asks for it, Li Shimin will do everything he can; he spends his days with his little wives. He abdicated at the age of 60 and died nine years later, during which time he had 22 sons and 17 princesses.
This data is historically recorded. According to the records of the ancestral hall of the descendants of Li Yuan in Guangdong, 28 sons and 19 princesses were born at this stage. In short, Li Yuan, who did not have imperial power, continued to work tirelessly to increase the population and made great contributions. Giving birth to one, Li Shimin canonized one, all princes and princesses have a name, status, and security, never miss, never abandon.
At this time, Li Shimin was taking care of every opportunity, Li Yuan'an was enjoying his life, and the relationship between father and son was not to mention how harmonious it was. Unfortunately, his young sons and daughters were almost killed by Wu Zetian later. It seems that there is a special and stable princess who can pat herself on the back. Li Shimin gave her the original title of Princess Qianjin, and later Wu Zetian gave her the title of Princess Anding, his daughter who died young.
Li Yuan was not completely oblivious to political affairs. Li Shimin launched a campaign against the Turks and was a success. Li Yuan was so excited that he specially set up a banquet, inviting not only Li Shimin and other imperial families, but also the main civil and military officials in Chang'an. He drank and blushed, saying: "Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Turks have been too harmful, but until the Sui Dynasty, they failed to conquer, but became more and more powerful." My son conquered it in just one war! ”
The music sounded, and Li Yuan danced happily. It seems that he was really excited and brought up the enthusiasm of the civil and military officials. The surrendered Turkic khans also danced on the spot, and the scene was really intertwined and harmonious. At this time, Li Yuan and Li Shimin had no conflict of interest at all, so the father-son relationship was also a model in the world.
In 635, Li Yuan died. Li Shimin was buried according to the etiquette of the death of Emperor Taishang, and nothing went wrong. The paternity relationship is not over. Every New Year's Festival, Li Shimin sacrifices according to the ritual system.
Generally speaking, the reason why Li Yuan became emperor is inseparable from Li Shimin's merits. The relationship between Li Yuan and Li Shimin is very harmonious, and there is basically no quarrel. The extreme tension of the Xuanwu Gate change was not in person, and it was quickly resolved by Li Shimin.
Li Shimin created the rule of Zhenguan, in fact, this also has a certain relationship with Li Yuan. Li Yuan was also a very enlightened person, and he could speak freely in his court. Although it is said that after Li Shimin ascended the throne, most of the personnel of his Qin Palace and Tiance Palace were reused, and even Hou Junji, who was not a scholar and had no skills, had served as a soldier Shangshu; but he did not abandon the old minister of Li Yuan's era. Yu Wenshi, Du Yan, Feng Deyi, Xiao Yu, Wang Gui, Li Jing, and Wei Ting, these people continued to occupy high positions and enter and exit. The formation of the rule of chastity has a very big relationship with these ministers who dare to say and dare to do it. They continued the beautiful dreamy picture of Li Yuan's era from the zhilu and pulling the imperial court to the rule of Zhenguan.