Being an emperor in the Tang Dynasty is definitely a dangerous road, and some would-be emperors and reigning emperors are either killed or hunted down and killed, which makes you frightened everywhere at all times. Recently, the hit drama "Glory of the Tang Dynasty" reproduced some things about Li Yu and his wife Shen Pearl of the Tang Dynasty, so some people commented that Li Yu was an infatuated emperor who only loved Shen Pearl all his life. The visitor weakly asked: Infatuation needs life as the foundation, life is not guaranteed, and what to talk about infatuation. Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty was able to save his life and stabilize the Tang Dynasty, which was his cleverness, and then there would be the so-called infatuation.
Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty, whose original name was Li Li, was the eldest son of Emperor Suzong of Tang and the eldest grandson of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. The Anshi Rebellion assisted his father Tang Suzong in becoming emperor, and then led an army to quell the Anshi Rebellion. Later, after the death of Emperor Suzong of Tang, he became emperor. Historically, the Tang Dynasty Emperor has been evaluated in half and half as much. However, the Old Book of Tang was highly evaluated, saying that Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty was "the sage of the ancients and failed to reach this", while the New Book of Tang was very moderate, believing that Li Yu was a passing emperor: "The dynasty of Emperor Daizong, the remnants are still there, the chaos is still in place, and the lord of Gai is also the master of the middle material." Of course, there are many evaluations of Li Yu, and some think that Li Yu is a weak emperor and has never done anything major in his life. Some of the sins are also attributed to Li Yu, and people who may see history have too high expectations for Li Yu. In fact, Li Yu was able to reign in that chaotic environment for seventeen years, which was a great wisdom.
Why is Li Yu smart? This was measured by Li Yu according to the environment and situation at that time.
(1) The cleverness of not being emperor. After Li Yu's father Tang Suzong became emperor, it was the late stage of the Anshi Rebellion, and Li Yu, as the King of Guangping, naturally had to participate in the counter-rebellion. In the process of counterinsurgency, Li Yu was not as high as his father, but could understand the suffering of the people of Li and was deeply worried about the chaos caused by the Anshi Rebellion to the country. In particular, when the Hui army that supported the Tang Dynasty entered the city to plunder, Li Yu was able to bend and stretch to the leader of the Hui hui to kneel and ask them to spare the plunder of the people. Don't look at this kneeling, the generals who followed Li Yu were all convinced, and the common people were also very grateful to this prince. Although these things seemed to be inconspicuous and trivial, they laid the foundation for Li Yu to become emperor in the future.
Don't look at Tang Suzong's health is not very good, but his fertility is quite strong, and he actually has fourteen sons. Emperor Suzong of Tang, on the other hand, valued his third son, Li Qian (李倓), the Prince of Jianning. And Li Qian's personality is completely different from Li Yu's, very straight, and wants to oppose when he sees unfair things. Because Li Qian was not accustomed to the crimes of Li Fuguo and Empress Zhang, he suggested to Tang Suzong not to trust these two people too much. Unexpectedly, Li Fuguo and Empress Zhang were very angry when they found out, so they found a vicious way to tell Tang Suzong that Li Yu was going to murder Li Yu and wanted to take over the emperor's throne. As soon as Emperor Suzong of Tang became angry, he gave Li Qian to commit suicide. Compared with Li Yu, who had a mild personality, he became the favorite of Li Fuguo and Empress Zhang. After all, this loyal and honest personality did not pose a threat in the eyes of others, and Li Fuguo and Empress Zhang did not take Li Yu in their eyes at all, but unfortunately they thought wrong.
After the death of Li Yu, the king of Jianning, it was Li Yu who was qualified to be emperor, but Empress Zhang wanted her son to be crown prince, so she came up with a trick to let Li Yu join forces with her and clean up Li Fuguo first. Empress Zhang thought that Li Yu would listen to her, but Li Yu refused Empress Zhang. So Empress Zhang acted on her own. But Li Fuguo, who had wanted to master the Divine Strategy Army, was an old and treacherous person, and when he saw that his partner actually opened a knife to himself, how could he spare Empress Zhang, so he used the forbidden army to personally chase after Tang Suzong and kill Empress Zhang. A eunuch can actually have so much courage and energy, except for the Tang Dynasty. But Li Yu's cleverness is to use the struggle between opponents to get rid of a confidant first. You must know that this Empress Zhang is bent on learning to be Wu Zetian.
After killing Empress Zhang, Tang Suzong was also scared to death. So Li Fuguo helped Li Yu to the emperor's throne. Looking at the eunuch who was staring at the tiger, Li Yu had no bottom in his heart, but since he became emperor, he had to be an official, so he first decided to clean up Li Fuguo. Li Yu ostensibly respected Li Fuguo and gave Li Fuguo many official positions, but Li Yu was thinking of strategies every day to get rid of Li Fuguo. When the opportunity finally came, he found someone to kill Li Fuguo on a dark and windy night in a month. However, Li Fuguo's power was too strong, and Li Yu could only declare that Li Fuguo had let the thieves kill him, and also buried Li Fuguo. Then he took the opportunity to take all the forbidden troops around the emperor from the hands of the eunuchs.
(2) The cleverness of governing the country. Some people say that Li Yu was too stable as emperor, did not do much practical work, and kept a mess. Not to mention, the mess left by Tang Xuanzong Li Longji was too big, if there was no Tang Xuanzong's late fainting, where would the Anshi chaos come from. These Li Yu have a number in mind, they must have actually done this by their grandfather, and many things are impossible to come back and redo, and they can only face reality. And this big mess can't use strong medicine yet. Why? Because the Tang Dynasty feudal forces at that time were too powerful, but that could not be blamed on Li Yu, it was the forces that had been formed during the period of his grandfather and Lao Tzu, and these separatist forces had gone through many generations, and the forces were very deep, just like some earth emperors, if they were hard to govern, it would inevitably be counterproductive, not to mention rebellion, there would be a number of An Lu mountains.
Some people said that after the An Shi Rebellion, Li Yu should not use the old generals under An Lushan to lay hidden dangers. It is also true to say so, but in the face of the chaos at that time, Li Yu took the route of buying people's hearts and minds, first stabilizing these people and slowly governing them.
However, the extent of the rotten stalls is too deep, and simply relying on Li Yu alone to slowly govern will not be a day's work. Later, on the issue of treating the Hui army, some people also raised doubts, believing that Li Yu was too kind to those Hui army. Speaking from the heart, if there is no help from the Hui army, whether or not the chaos of Anshi will be pacified is unknown. It is impossible for a country that has just experienced great chaos and has not yet completely stabilized, and wants to use troops abroad. Moreover, the soldiers were all in the hands of the feudal forces, and it was not within Li Yu's control. Therefore, Li Yu has his own cleverness, stabilizing the outside, governing the inside, and moving forward step by step.
During Li Yu's reign, he used the right military attaché and a financial official, that is, to reuse the military general Guo Ziyi, so that those feudal forces did not dare to act rashly. Only by reusing Liu Yan, the treasurer, developing production, and putting the support of the people in the first place, and the people cultivating and living, can the country's financial resources be slowly restored. Li Yu's cleverness lies in grasping the key issues of governing the country.
(3) Li Yu is also very smart in handling family affairs. In particular, the handling of the matter of Guo Ziyi, the son's own family, was uploaded as a good story, that is, he showed wisdom and wisdom in handling the relationship between Princess Shengping and Guo Ziyi's son Guo Nuan. In addition, Li Yu treated more than ten of his brothers with emotion, and even posthumously crowned Li Qian, the unjustly killed king of Jianning, as a prince, such a benevolent and righteous act, which could not convince his brothers, which was very clever. This is also Li Yu's appeasement in order to prevent contradictions and disturbances between brothers, but in the eyes of outsiders, Li Yu is considered to be generous and benevolent. This was Li Yu's strategy of going inside and then out, but unfortunately he died in his fifties.
The above is only some superficial views on Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty, and there are many historical records about Li Yu's information, believing that he was a key figure in the Tang Dynasty. However, the glory of the Tang Dynasty has long gone, and it is difficult to harvest water.
For more exciting historical explorations, please pay attention to the headline number "Mud Leg Spectator".