Throughout the Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong Li Shimin made great military achievements during the founding of the country, and later created the famous rule of Zhenguan in history because of his humble heart, advocating thrift, and persuading nongsang to teach.
The Old Book of Tang commented on him as "a thousand years can be called, just one person." ”
There is also Li Longji, the Tang Xuanzong who created the Kaiyuan dynasty, whose reign was the peak of the Tang Dynasty.
The old Book of Tang also gave it a good evaluation, "Kaiyuan grasps the map, Yongjian the previous car." The economy is melting and the atmosphere is clean. Politicians are diligent and tired, and demons are gathered in the court. ”
However, there was another emperor in the Tang Dynasty, that is, Li Yu of the Ming Dynasty, who reigned for only 17 years, and although he had military achievements, he was not much, obviously inferior to Tang Taizong Li Shimin, and did not create a Kaiyuan prosperous era like Li Longji.
But let's not say that the New Book of Tang gave him the evaluation of "the lord of Gai Yi Zhongcai", and the Old Book of Tang even gave an evaluation of "the sage of the ancients, who failed to reach this".
As the name suggests, those emperors before Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty could not match Li Yu, and obviously included Li Shimin of Tang Taizong and Li Longji of Xuanzong.
So it also raises a question, is the high evaluation of Li Yu by the Tang Dynasty Emperor in the Old Book of Tang a bit exaggerated and exaggerated?
From my personal point of view, I think this evaluation is still relatively pertinent, although it is a bit exaggerated, but Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty can also support this evaluation.
Because before Li Yu ascended the throne and became emperor, the famous "Anshi Rebellion" in history had already broken out, and it was precisely because of this war that the entire Tang Dynasty suffered an unprecedented catastrophe.
Not only did it face the dilemma of a large number of people losing, but it also became a turning point in the prosperity and decline of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Yu, who was then the Grand Marshal of the Terracotta Army, also embarked on a journey to suppress the rebellion, and successively recovered the eastern and western capitals from the rebels, that is, Luoyang and Chang'an.
It was also by virtue of the merits of recovering the Capital Division that Li Yu's identity as the heir to the imperial power of the Tang Dynasty was officially established.
However, after Li Yu officially ascended the throne as emperor in 762 AD, not to mention that the social chaos caused by the Anshi Rebellion was not effectively alleviated, the economy of the Tang Dynasty was very weak, and the problem of the division of the feudal towns was more and more prominent.
The issue of eunuchs in the court alone was enough to give Li Yu a headache.
Some people may think that the imperial power in the feudal period was greater than the sky, and the eunuchs who abused their power made up their minds to rectify it.
However, the situation faced by Li Yu at the beginning of his ascension to the throne was not the same, and during this period, a eunuch named Li Fuguo was in charge of power in the Tang Dynasty.
During the reign of Emperor Suzong of Tang and Li Heng, he gained "military power" because he was deeply loved by Emperor Suzong of Tang and urgently needed to quell the anshi rebellion.
Later, in the process of Li Yu's ascension to the throne, he was even more meritorious because he broke Empress Zhang's plan to establish another Yue Wang Li clan.
Under the comprehensive superposition, there is no doubt that Li Yu, who has just ascended the throne and is emperor, has not yet full wings.
In other words, when Li Yu ascended the throne, he was actually facing a top-down Da Tang Dynasty, and the situation was very grim.
But in the final analysis, even if the situation is severe, you have to grit your teeth to go up, right, so the first step after Li Yu ascended the throne is to eliminate adultery for the Tang Dynasty.
Only by first eliminating the eunuchs' interference in the Tang Dynasty's political system and recovering the imperial power could the next series of measures be smoothly implemented. Otherwise nothing could be discussed.
So how do you take back imperial power? After all, the eunuch power at this time is not only a political force, the most important thing is to have military power, which is definitely not possible.
Therefore, Li Yu also thought of a way to attack the west, and he did not say that he wanted to eliminate eunuch power or anything, but re-supported a eunuch named "Cheng Yuanzhen" among the eunuchs.
As the name suggests, it is to divide the eunuch power that was originally a whole, indirectly weakening Li Fuguo's influence in the dynasty.
And when Li Fuguo was busy dealing with Cheng Yuanzhen, he took advantage of Li Fuguo's lack of preparation and sent someone to assassinate him.
After that, the matter was simple, directly let Cheng Yuanzhen take over the military power in Li Fuguo's hands, crown him as a general on horseback, and command all the forbidden troops.
Later, when facing another powerful eunuch of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty also used this method, but it was no longer the eunuchs who united, but the prime minister Yuan Zai.
In this way, Li Yu was able to smoothly recover the imperial power step by step, revitalize the imperial program, and pave the way for the subsequent reform of people's livelihood and feudal affairs.
Let's start with the division of the town
Because of the previous efforts to quell the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang rulers drew most of the troops in the west that had been used to suppress Tubo and other feudal towns.
As a result, Tubo, who had been suppressed by the Tang army, took advantage of the void and captured more than a dozen prefectures west of Fengxiang in Shaanxi, and then successfully captured Fengtian and landed at Chang'an City. There was even a new emperor.
In a hurry, Li Yu could only leave Chang'an temporarily.
If it were not for Li Yuhui's discernment, he reused Guo Ziyi, and boldly used the strategy of suspecting soldiers, beating drums and raising flags during the day, and lighting fires and shouting for killing at night, so that Tubo would have walked away without a fight in fear.
With the small number of troops stationed near Chang'an City at that time, it was undoubtedly more difficult to reclaim Chang'an City within fifteen days.
This was the end of 763 AD, less than two years after Li Yu ascended the throne as emperor.
I believe that it is not difficult for everyone to find out, but in less than two years, the Tang Dynasty at that time in addition to the economy has not yet recovered, there are many displacements of the people.
Many other undesirable phenomena, such as the remnants of the Anshi Rebellion, the unauthorized power of the eunuchs of the imperial court, and the division of the feudal towns, have basically stabilized.
So let's talk about people's livelihood
Since it had just experienced the catastrophe of the Anshi Rebellion and the Tubo Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty was like a "palace burning, ten does not exist one, a hundred grasses are abandoned, and there was no rafters." In the middle of the kiuchi, less than a thousand households" appearance.
Then the next priority is naturally to rest with the people, rest and recuperate, so as to reactivate the sluggish Tang Dynasty economy through the recovery of productivity.
Of course, the stabilization of prices that are matched with economic recovery allows displaced people to have rice under the pot; a series of policies that benefit the people, such as dredging up water transportation and improving transportation efficiency, naturally cannot be less.
Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty did exactly this, and by adopting the proposal of the famous minister "Liu Yan", he set up "various patrol courts" throughout the country to bring together the actual situation in all parts of the Tang Dynasty to the central government.
Then according to the actual situation in the local area, the right medicine is prescribed, either to open a warehouse and release grain to help the people, or to stabilize prices, alleviate the pressure of the people, and make the people's life more comfortable as much as possible.
Thus maximizing the stimulation of the economic recovery speed after the Tang Dynasty chaos.
In summary, I believe it is not difficult for everyone to find that although the Tang Dynasty Emperor's single argument was not as good as that of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, the rule of the world he created was not as good as that of Xuanzong's Kaiyuan Dynasty.
But it is mainly because its starting point is much lower than the first two, almost equivalent to rebuilding a Tang Dynasty in ruins, and laying a solid political foundation and economic foundation for the development and changes of the Tang Dynasty for more than 150 years.
Therefore, Li Yu can be called an emperor with achievements, and the evaluation of Li Yu by the Tang Dynasty Emperor in the Old Book of Tang is not exaggerated.