In June of the seventh year of Wude, Yang Wengan, the governor of Gyeongju who was guarding the northwestern border of the Tang Dynasty, rebelled, which made The Tang Emperor Li Yuan, who was hiding in the Renzhi Palace, shocked and angry!
Surprisingly, Gyeongju was located in the northwest of Chang'an City and Renzhi Palace, which belonged to the frontier defense of the Tang Dynasty at that time, and as long as the Gyeongju Army had a strong enough cavalry, it could drive straight in.
Moreover, the Turks were still looking at the tiger in northern Xinjiang, and if Yang Wengan and the Turks had a connection, that would be the real danger of the Tang Dynasty, not to mention the Renzhi Palace sandwiched between Gyeongju and Chang'an, and the whole of Guanzhong might be under the wanton plunder of the Turks.
Schematic diagram of Yang Wengan's conspiracy to rebel
What is angry is that behind Yang Wengan stands Li Jiancheng, the crown prince, which is no secret. This man dared to rebel, and Li Yuan could not believe that the ass of the prince who remained in Chang'an City to handle government affairs was clean.
"Huayin Yang Wengan was fierce, built a nickname, made the governor of Gyeongju, and sent troops to the Beijing Division." --- New Book of Tang
Moreover, he also received secret reports from the General Erzhu Huan of the Eastern Palace Lang and the Lieutenant Qiao Gongshan, and the prince and Yang Wengan had frequent exchanges, and there were suspected signs of rebellion. The original intention was to summon Yang Wengan to inquire, but unexpectedly, Yang Wengan actually turned around so simply.
What made Li Yuan even more annoyed was that Li Jiancheng's pain in wanting to do such a disobedient thing without a king and no father was really too ignorant to perceive his bitterness at all.
The reason why he wanted to take Li Shimin with him for a summer was to transfer Li Shimin away so that Li Jiancheng could handle government affairs in Chang'an with peace of mind, so he did not understand Li Jiancheng's thoughts.
Enraged, Li Yuan imprisoned Li Jiancheng.
"(Li Yuan) commanded the completion of the commandment, and the construction was afraid, and did not dare to go. Shi Wei persuaded Sui to raise troops, and Zhao Hongzhi, the master of zhan shi, built a donation car suit and apologized lightly. It is the deeds that are in place, but before they arrive, the screen officials and subordinates, go straight into the gurudwara, prostrate their heads and ask for death, throw themselves into the ground, and cannot rise. The emperor was furious, in the night prison, and the guards were guarded. "--- New Book of Tang
Tang Gaozu Li Yuan
The prince was imprisoned, but the rebellion had to be quelled. So whoever came to lead the troops to put down the rebellion was naturally Li Shimin, the King of Qin, who followed him to renzhi Palace to escape the summer.
In order to increase Li Shimin's enthusiasm for countering the rebellion, Li Yuan made the most important promise in his life, that is, as long as Li Shimin pacified Yang Wengan, he would depose Li Jiancheng's position as crown prince and establish Li Shimin as crown prince.
I have to say that this is extremely tempting.
After all, Li Shimin, who has been wude for seven years, has long been unsealed, as a "general of heavenly strategy", his position of power in the Tang Dynasty is already second only to the emperor and the prince (the emperor is the king, the prince is the crown prince, and for the courtiers, they are all monarchs), if you want to go further, Wang Lang does not say, everyone understands.
What is more exciting than Li Yuan's personal promise, Li Shimin naturally took over the counterinsurgency job.
"Huiwen Gan trapped Ningzhou, the emperor was frightened, the palace was close to the thief, the night leader guard Nan Fun, the mountain traveled more than ten miles, and the Ming Nai returned the palace." Summoning the King of Qin to ask for a plan, he said: [Wen Gan's ears are erected, and the lawsuit is immediately fowled, so that the false engraving will leak for a long time, and it is necessary to dispatch a general to do it.] Emperor Yue: [The matter is built, and the fear of response is multitude.] Er self, also, I take Er as the crown prince, so that the king Shu, Shu land is narrow, not enough to change, if you can't do things, take it easy. "--- New Book of Tang
Tang Taizong Li Shimin
However, what surprised people was that Yang Wengan's rebellion looked extremely fierce and menacing, but in fact it could not become a climate, Li Shimin's counterinsurgency army had just arrived in Ningzhou, and before he could attack the city, Yang Wengan was killed by his own men.
"The King of Qin led the people of Funing Prefecture, and Wen Gan was killed by his subordinates, and his head was surrendered." --- New Book of Tang
An inexplicable rebellion, a effortless counter-insurgency, ended dramatically.
However, what is more dramatic is that after the counter-rebellion incident, Li Yuan actually rebelled, and no longer mentioned the matter of changing the crown prince, but instead released Li Jiancheng, who was in captivity, and let him stay in Chang'an again.
According to the history books, Li Yuanji's operation was Li Yuanji's intercession with Li Yuan's concubine li jiancheng, and Feng Deyi privately lobbied Li Yuan, and no one knew what Feng Deyi said.
"The trip of the King of Qin, Yuan Ji and Nei Yue were more built please, Feng De Yi Yi Yin said the emperor, by the meaning of the understanding, the restoration of the edict to build a jushou." --- New Book of Tang
At this point, the problem arises.
Tang Dynasty army in frescoes
When Yang Wengan plotted rebellion, did he receive orders from Li Jiancheng?
If so, then why did Li Jiancheng, after learning of Yang Wengan's rebellion, not accept the advice of the crown prince Xu Shimo and raise an army to occupy Chang'an, but instead accepted the suggestion of Zhao Hongzhi, the master of the Zhan Affairs, and ran to the Renzhi Palace to confess his mistake?
If not, then why didn't Yang Wengan do a good job of being his governor of Gyeongju and accumulate strength for Li Jiancheng, but instead he would rebel without a single blow?
Of course, there is a historical view that Yang Wengan's rebellion was planned by Li Shimin.
In order to seize the throne, Li Shimin, who was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, bribed the people of the Eastern Palace to slander the crown prince and Yang Wengan, hoping to provoke Yang Wengan's rebellion. In this way, one can weaken the power of the prince's cronies, and the other is to use the power of counter-rebellion to obtain the position of prince promised by the emperor himself.
The question, then, is, before that, how could Li Shimin be sure that Li Yuan would promise to make him crown prince because he was anxious to put down the rebellion?
Therefore, the logic behind this kind of thing, Wang Lang believes that it is not true and unreasonable, but history will always leave clues.
Chang'an City
In fact, before Yang Wengan hastily raised troops, he met a man named Yuwen Ying.
This person was an emissary sent by Li Yuan to Gyeongju to ask Yang Wengan of Gyeongju to inquire at the Renzhi Palace after receiving a secret report that the crown prince and Yang Wengan were suspected of rebellion, and it was after seeing Yuwen Ying that Yang Wengan rebelled against Tang.
But behind Yuwen Ying was not Li Shimin, the King of Qin, but Li Yuanji, the King of Qi.
That is to say, the black hand behind Yang Wengan's rebellion was Li Yuanji, who wanted to shoot Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin with a double eagle strategy, so as to remove the stumbling block that prevented him from seizing the throne.
"Emperor Sent Si Nongqing Yuwen Ying to summon Wen Gan, Yuan Ji Yin Jie Ying, so that Wen Gan, Wen Gan, led the army to rebel." --- New Book of Tang
What is an authority fan? Li Yuan, Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin are!
The father and son were all parties to this battle for the throne, and they did not expect that there would be outsiders involved in Yang Wengan's rebellion, so Li Yuan's untrustworthiness instead prompted the struggle between the Eastern Palace and the Tiance Mansion to become white-hot.
So, is Li Yuanji's move of killing two birds with two arrows high or not? Wang Lang thought that it was very clever!
Because he successfully used his appearance and words and deeds to confuse his father and brother, he mixed up the waters of the Tang Dynasty and almost caught a big fish, the position of prince.
Stills of Li Yuanji in "The Reign of Zhenguan"
Li Yuanji, li yuan's fourth son, the king of Fengqi!
Although he was born to Empress Taimu and was a concubine, he was not liked by Empress Dou. As an adult, he loves the military, is proud and luxurious, and is untamed.
Such a Li Yuanji naturally made Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin relax their vigilance. But he is not a mediocre talent, on the contrary, he is also quite talented, and he is also eyeing the throne.
It's just that Li Yuanji knows very well that li Jiancheng, the eldest brother who is inferior to the eldest son of the concubine, is not as good as Li Shimin, the second brother of dingding tang, so if he wants to seize the position of prince, he must get rid of his two brothers.
The process must be careful, one must remove oneself, and one must have someone carrying the pot.
Li Yuanji's most brilliant place is that the back pot man he chose is not someone else, but the prince Li Jiancheng.
If he wanted to use Li Jiancheng's hand to get rid of Li Shimin, he would be able to free up his hands to deal with Li Jiancheng specifically, which was much easier than getting rid of Li Jiancheng first and then dealing with Li Shimin.
Before plotting Yang Wengan's rebellion, Li Yuanji planned to assassinate Li Shimin in the name of the crown prince.
"In the beginning, King Yuanji of Qi persuaded the crown prince to build up the Qin King Shimin, saying: "When the brother hand blades!] Shimin from Shangxing Yuanjidi, Yuanji Fu protector Yuwen Bao in the bed, want to stab Shimin; the construction is quite benevolent, and it is stopped. Yuan Ji Shu Yue: [For the brother's ear, what is the matter with me!] ]" --- "Zizhi Tong Signature. Tang Ji VII
Some people want to ask, Li Jiancheng is not a fool, how can he not think that Li Yuanji is borrowing a knife to kill people? Friends, we need to understand that Li Shimin's Tiance Mansion almost brought together the best civil and military generals of the Tang Dynasty at that time, and its power was far beyond Li Jiancheng's Eastern Palace.
In the face of the growing power of the Tiance Province, Li Jiancheng's concerns were not unreasonable.
As Wang Lang said earlier, Li Shimin has been sealed without a seal, and if he goes further, he will only have the position of prince. Under such circumstances, Li Jiancheng urgently needed to increase his strength against the Tiance Mansion, and when faced with Li Yuanji's initiative to surrender, how could he refuse?
Even though Li Jiancheng realized that Li Yuanji was borrowing a knife to kill people, many eastern palace advisers at that time, such as Wei Zheng, had always encouraged him to attack first and kill Li Shimin.
In this way, even if Li Jiancheng thought of Li Yuanji's little nine-nine, he would forget about it.
Therefore, Li Yuanji's planning of Yang Wengan's rebellion can be described as a big game of chess.
Li Jiancheng's epitaph rubbing
His plan was to first buy the people of the Eastern Palace, release the rumors of Li Jiancheng's intention to rebel with Yang Wengan, and through Yu Wenying instigated Yang Wengan to rebel, and then lead his own troops to suppress the rebellion, and then Yu Wenying stabbed Yang Wengan in the back, and cleanly completed the counterinsurgency task, thus pulling Li Jiancheng off the horse.
After pulling down Li Jiancheng, he then lobbied through Li Yuan's favorite courtiers, such as Feng Deyi, to blame Li Shimin for all the reasons for Yang Wengan's rebellion, the root cause of which was that Li Shimin spied on the position of prince, deliberately bribed the Eastern Palace department to falsely accuse the crown prince, and then used Yang Wengan's loyalty to Li Jiancheng to provoke people to rebel, and sought the right to inherit the imperial throne in the name of counterinsurgency, ignoring the brotherhood of brotherhood.
The key to Li Yuanji's ability to produce a plan to kill two birds with one stone is that his expansion of contacts is extremely effective, such as Zhongshu Ling Feng Deyi is willing to drive him.
"Neijie Gongye, increasing praise, and generously bribed The Zhongshu ordered Feng Lun to think that the party was assisted." Yu is Gaozu quite sparse Taizong and loves Yuanji. "--- Old Book of Tang
Stills of Feng Deyi
Realistically speaking, Li Yuanji's plan is generally feasible.
It was just that he missed a trick, After all, Li Shimin was the first person to set the Dingding Tang Dynasty, so even if Feng Deyi ran for him and lobbied, li Yuan's first counterinsurgency general was Li Shimin, and he also made a promise to change the crown prince.
And the crown prince Li Jiancheng did not be afraid and panicked, so he raised an army to occupy Chang'an and rebelled against his father, but ran to the Renzhi Palace to confess his guilt to Li Yuan.
Seeing that Li Jiancheng's position as crown prince was not secure, Li Shimin was about to be promoted from General Tiance to prince, and if this was the case, then li Yuanji would probably not have a chance in this life.
In desperation, he could only change his strategy, stand up to protect Li Jiancheng's position as the crown prince, and look for opportunities for the next plan.
And it is precisely by missing this step that Li Yuanji left behind historical regrets.
Because two years later, in the face of the aggressiveness of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, Li Shimin, who had reached the limit of patience, launched the Xuanwumen Revolution, and datang began to enter the Zhenguan era!
[I am Jiangdong Wang Lang, bringing you a different historical vision!] Stick to the original, like me please pay attention to me! 】
The change of Xuanwu Gate