When Emperor Taizong of Song promoted Lü Duan to the position of Governor of The Government, that is, when he was the prime minister, there was a good story, and once when he was drinking a banquet, Emperor Taizong wrote two "Fishing Poems":
If the golden hook is not reached, The Creek must ask the angler.
Lü Duan and the Emperor and Shi Dao:
The fool hook is embarrassing to use, and it is advisable to use Hao Liang to tie the net.
The monarchs and courtiers recited each other back, and they were already very tacit understanding with each other, and for a few days afterwards, Emperor Taizong worshiped Lü Duan as a friend.
(Lü Duan, 935-1000, Zi Yi Zhi, Northern Song Dynasty famous minister)
Lü Duan was the prime minister, and there were many people who opposed it, and the people around Taizong said to Taizong:
Lü Duan was a confused person.
Emperor Taizong knew Lü Duan very well and replied:
Lü Duan is confused about small things, and big things are not confused.
("Zhuge was only cautious in his life, and Lü Duan was not confused about major matters" is a self-titled phrase of the Ming Dynasty thinker Li Zhen)
Lü Duan's major events were not confused, and were directly manifested in a dark war in which Song Zhenzong took the throne after the death of Emperor Taizong of Song.
In February of the third year of the Reign of Emperor Taizong (997), Emperor Taizong of Song became seriously ill, and Emperor Taizong's wife Empress Dowager Mingde (明德皇后 Li Shi) and the eunuch Wang Ji'en (王ค恩) secretly conspired with Li Changling (李昌林), the governor of the imperial palace, and Li Jixun (李吉勋) and Hu Dan (知制诰胡丹), who were in charge of the imperial court, in an attempt to launch a coup d'état, and zhao Yuanzuo, the eldest of Emperor Taizong's surviving sons, was made the new emperor.
A huge test was placed in front of Lu Duan.
The historical record here actually has a big problem - Li Jixun was a famous general of the Northern Song Dynasty and one of the "Ten Brothers of the Righteous Society" of the Song Taizu, Li Jixun died in the second year of the Taiping Revival (977) due to illness as the prince Taishi, died in the same year, at the age of 62, was posthumously honored as the king of Longxi County, and by the third year of the Dao, Li Jixun had died for 20 years and would never participate in the attempted coup.
Li Jixun here is actually the mistake of the famous Northern Song general Li Jilong, Who was the eldest son of Li Zhiyun, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, and his other identity was the eldest brother of Empress Li of Mingde, and it was logical to participate in the conspiracy.
(Li Jilong, 950 – March 17, 1005, famous general of the Northern Song Dynasty, known as the god of war for a generation)
Li Jilong had made great achievements in the war against the Northern Han Dynasty and with the Liao state and the Northwest Dangxiang people, and he had fought with Yelü Hugo, Li Jiqian and others, and he could be called a generation of war gods of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Li Jilong was both a general and a foreign relative, and his power was very large, but at that time, his official position was the deployment of ling and the ten states of the ring, rather than the command of the palace.
This difference in detail is crucial to Lü Duan, because it means that the coup group does not have strong foreign aid in the forbidden army.
When Lü Duan entered the palace to inquire about the disease, he saw that emperor Taizong only had Wang Ji'en and Empress Li around him, and did not see the crown prince Zhao Heng. Worried that Wang Ji'en had no other intentions, he hurried back to the palace and secretly ordered the crown prince Zhao Heng to enter the palace quickly, in case the night was long and dreamy.
After Emperor Taizong's death, Empress Li ordered Wang Ji'en to summon Lü Duan, and Lü Duan, knowing that the situation had changed, locked Wang Ji'en in the cabinet, sent someone to guard him, and hurried into the palace himself.
Empress Li saw Lü Duan and said:
The palace car has been driven, the heir is long, Shunye, what will happen now? (The emperor has died, and the older emperor should be made the heir emperor, now what do you think?) ）
Lü Duan replied:
The former emperor set up the crown prince for today, and now he abandons the world, how can he disobey the order and dissent? (The emperor created the crown prince for today, today he has just died, how can he disobey his will?) ）
At this time, the crown prince Zhao Heng also arrived, and Empress Li had no choice, so Lü Duan and his ministers took the throne in front of Emperor Taizong. This is Song Zhenzong.
(Zhao Heng, Emperor Zhenzong of Song, 23 December 968 – 23 March 1022, third emperor of the Song Dynasty, third son of Emperor Taizong of Song)
At this time, there was also a detail - after Zhenzong was made emperor, the curtain was draped to introduce the group of courtiers, And Lü Duan stood up straight and did not worship His Highness, asked to roll the curtains, ascended to the temple to examine, confirmed that it was indeed Zhao Heng himself, and then walked down the steps and led the group of ministers to worship long live.
Lü Duan's confirmation was still afraid that someone would do something to cause Zhao Yuanzuo to become the fait accompli of becoming the new emperor uncontrollable, and from this point of view:
As mentioned earlier, Li Jilong is a generation of war gods, he participated in this matter because of his sister, but he only saw his name and did not see him play any role, which is related to the system of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Originally, after the release of the military power by a cup of wine, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, exchanged the honorary status and practical interests of the Great Domain as bait to return to the command of the Forbidden Army, and then carried out a large-scale transformation of the Forbidden Army, dividing the Guards and Horses Division and the Guards Infantry Division, and merging with the original Palace Front Division into the "Three Divisions" (also known as "Three Divisions").
Don't say that although Li Jilong has a certain military strength, he is not the commander of the Forbidden Army, dianqian, but even if he was the commander of the forbidden army, he is only one of the three commanders of the three divisions (三衙), the commanders of the three divisions, their status is equal, they contain each other, the threat of the forbidden army generals conspiring to rebel has been basically lifted, and Li Jilong cannot turn over the waves.
<b>Now, the coup was constrained by a relatively "elegant" posture, empress Li and Wang Ji'en could only play tricks on their hearts, and Lü Duan, as a courtier, suddenly "turned his face" and locked the door, which could also work. </b>
<b>When the dust settled, Lü Duan adopted extremely sophisticated and steady measures to deal with this group of people involved in the conspiracy to establish Zhao Yuanzuo. </b>
(Wang Ji'en,?) -999, eunuch and defensive envoy during the Northern Song Dynasty, known as "born from the Corrections, lost his life in rebellion")
Lü Duan first ordered Emperor Zhenzong of Song to change Li Jilong to the position of Zhen'an Army Envoy, and within a month, he added Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi to the town (that is, leaving the town as a so-called envoy), showing respect, but depriving him of his military power.
Lü Duan then convicted Wang Ji'en and Li Changling of "leaking the forbidden language of the palace", placed Wang Ji'en in Junzhou, and degraded Li Changling as Sima of the Zhongwu Army, saying only that he had drafted the edict "quite arrogantly" and had slanderous remarks, and was expelled from xunzhou.
None of these punishments were very light, but Lü Duan did not specify that they were offended by supporting Zhao Yuanzuo, which fundamentally defused their crime of rebellion and stabilized the political situation in the early years of Zhenzong.
The situation was different for Wang Ji'en, who was demoted to Junzhou (present-day Danjiangkou, Hubei Province) at that time, and in the second year of Xianping (998), the second year of Zhenzong's reign, Wang Ji'en died in Junzhou, most likely also by death.
This may be because Wang Ji'en's origin lies in the correction after the "candle shadow axe sound", this time according to the prescription to grab the medicine and want to gamble again, but unexpectedly dissolved by Lü Duan into invisibility, from the perspective of political stability, so that the great eunuch who does not hesitate to gamble on the fortunes of the country can naturally be killed and cannot be left.
(Mausoleum of Empress Matilda Lee)
Empress Mahide and Li Jilong, Zhenzong treated them well, Zhenzong was very filial to Empress Li, and built the Wan'an Palace for her; after Li Jilong's death, Zhenzong personally went to his home to weep and mourn, wearing mourning clothes, and posthumously gave him the Zhongshu Ling(s) the title of "Zhongwu".
<b>Historians mistakenly believe that Li Jixun participated in the attempted coup, perhaps because of the mere recognition of Li Jilong's life and death, not like a loser who participated in the conspiracy. </b>