The last years of the Sui Dynasty were a very famous period of turmoil in China's history, and with the outbreak of the peasant revolt, countless sages and good generals and leaders with great talents and strategies also continued to emerge.
Among all the talents, the most outstanding is naturally the last to laugh, the Father and Son of Li Yuan, who established the Tang Dynasty. The princes who once confronted them and won and lost each other are also very memorable. Among the many princes of the late Sui Dynasty, Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande can be described as outstanding.
As the two princes of the last years of the Sui Dynasty, Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande established the Zheng Kingdom and the Xia Kingdom respectively, and one was called emperor and the other was called king.
In the later period, both of them became the thorns in the eye and the thorn in the flesh that Li Yuan had to remove to unify the world.
Therefore, Wang Shichong was first recruited by Li Shimin and defeated and captured, and then Dou Jiande attacked Li Shimin in order to rescue Wang Shichong, and was also defeated and captured by him.
However, when Li Shimin escorted the two men to Li Yuan, they were given two different dispositions: beheading and exile. Then, why did Li Yuan pardon Wang Shichong but kill Dou Jiande?
In fact, this question needs to be answered in two parts, that is, why Li Yuan pardoned Wang Shichong, and why he killed Dou Jiande.
First of all, let's look at why Wang Shichong was captured and released.
In the last years of the Sui Dynasty, wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, two major princes, established political power respectively, and when Wang Shichong in Luoyang was defeated and besieged by Li Shimin, Dou Jiande led an army to help, so that he was swept away.
In the third year of Tang Wude (620), Li Shimin sent an army to attack emperor Shichong of Zheng, and according to the Old Book of Tang, at that time, Wang Shichong's reign was already "prisoners of several ranks, not reducing tens of thousands of mouths, both difficult to eat, and dozens of people died every day." The soldiers of shichong are not scattered, the warehouses are running out, and the people in the city cannibalize each other... Everyone is swollen and weak, and the pillow is leaning on the road. His Shang Shu Lang Lu Junye and Guo Zigao both died in the gully. "
It can be seen that once the Tang Army, which is strong and strong, arrives, it will be easy and pleasant to win.
In just three months, almost all the prefectures and counties that originally belonged to Wang Shichong rebelled, and only he was alone in Luoyang City, which was very desolate.
Later, although Wang Shichong negotiated with Li Shimin many times, they all ended in failure, and he was forced to surrender under the rebellion of the people and the inability to return to the world. Subsequently, he was escorted to Li Yuan's face. Li Yuan counted Wang Shichong's crimes and prepared to kill him, but Wang Shichong replied: "The crime of counting the ministers is not to be condemned, but His Majesty's beloved son Xu Chen, the King of Qin, will not die." "
It was precisely because of Wang Shichong's words that he temporarily saved his life, but was sent to Shudi. The reason why Wang Shichong did not die was because Li Shimin had promised him that he would not kill him, which seemed very natural and reasonable, but as mentioned above, the negotiations between Wang Shichong and Li Shimin were declared failures.
Therefore, one possibility is that what Wang Shichong said is true. But it is also possible that Wang Shichong was deceiving Li Yuan.
If Wang Shichong's negotiations with Li Shimin were successful, then Li Shimin promised him no death as a sign of appeasement. This is very normal, on the one hand, this helps to speed up their surrender, on the other hand, it also shows the other princes of the world the attitude of not killing the Li family.
However, since the negotiations broke down and Wang Shichong was forced to surrender rather than take the initiative to surrender, li Shimin naturally did not need to be merciful to Wang Shichong's men who were stubbornly resisting. So, maybe this statement is just Wang Shichong's lie.
After the defeat of the soldiers and the capture, in fact, Wang Shichong had no value, so Li Yuan did not care about the authenticity, and it was possible to directly pardon him. As for Dou Jiande, he initially established the Xia Kingdom in the Hebei region and always maintained a voyeuristic view of the Central Plains, when Wang Shichong was attacked by the Tang army, in order to maintain the favorable situation of the three-legged standing, Dou Jiande agreed to Wang Shichong's request for help and led his army to the south to support.
However, soon Dou Jiande's army suffered successive defeats, and the whole army began to retreat.
In this case, Dou Jiande was determined to assist Wang Shichong and fulfill his promise. Therefore, Li Shimin had to go to Tiger Prison Pass to defeat Dou Jiande and then return to attack Wang Shichong. Because of Dou Jiande's defeat, Wang Shichong had no hope at all, so after the mountains and rivers were exhausted, he had to lead the people to surrender. Later, Wang Shichong was pardoned, and the history books recorded: "The king of Qin captured Jiande to the Capital Division and beheaded him in Chang'an City, at the age of forty-nine. "
The reason why Dou Jiande was killed, the author believes that there are three reasons. First, Li Shimin was originally recruiting Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande insisted on helping to cause the Tang army's offensive to be blocked, Li Shimin thought that he was too busy, so he captured him; second, Dou Jiande did not negotiate with Li Shimin or fabricate lies like Wang Shichong, Li Shimin wanted to attack Wang Shichong, Wang Xiancheng surrendered and was pardoned for the death penalty, and Dou Jiande obstructed the Tang army's plan, and it did not make sense to pardon him.
Third, and very importantly, wang Shichong ruled without a way, was hated by the people, and as long as he was exiled to a remote place, he would lose the threat, while Dou Jiande was well governed, and the people of Hebei loved him very much. If Dou Jiande is released, if he returns to Hebei or even goes elsewhere to raise his arms and shout, it is possible to make a comeback and become a major obstacle to the unification of the Tang Dynasty.
(The author of this article is an invited writer of "Ancient and Modern Affairs" platform to cook wine Jun)