On July 2, 626, on the fourth day of The ninth month of the reign of Emperor Wude of Tang, Li Shimin staged a bloody coup at Xuanwumen, killing his brother Li Jiancheng the Crown Prince and his younger brother Li Yuanji the Prince of Qi.
History calls the change of Xuanwu Gate, the truth of this matter has been covered up too much, the most important information of which was erased by Li Shimin, that is, the second place of the change of Xuanwu Gate, and the core key to the whole thing, that is, sending troops to control Li Yuan in the Taiji Palace.
There have been many palace coups in history, and if you can't fix the emperor, the result will definitely be a dead end, so the most critical place in the change of Xuanwumen is to force Li Yuan to abdicate.
The reason why this matter was ignored was because Li Yuan had seen a lot of wind and waves in his life, and when Wei Chi Jingde led his troops into his palace, he already understood all this.
Li Shimin did not come, he was waiting for Li Yuan's reply, the knife had been pulled out, there was no reason to retract it, if Li Yuan did not agree, it must be a knife to kill, afterwards announced that Li Jiancheng's clique plotted rebellion, killing the emperor on the line.
Li Yuan is a wise man, he has long understood the way of survival of high-level politics, he and Yang Guang are still cousins, what is this, the most ruthless imperial family, this is reflected vividly in Li Yuan's big family (including the Sui Dynasty royal family).
In the end, Li Yuan accepted the reality, living is better than anything, after all, Li Shimin is also his own son, so Li Shimin came in, and Li Yuan hugged his headache and cried, saying that he was also forced by Li Jiancheng, and even Li Shimin sucked his father's milk.
This seemingly absurd scene, on the one hand, is to show Li Yuan that there is still a father-son relationship between them, on the other hand, it is even more for outsiders to see, and the current emperor still trusts and likes Li Shimin.
A month later, Li Yuan was forced to become emperor, of course, this was only a supplementary ritual and formalities, from the xuanwumen change, Li Shimin has controlled the imperial court, of course, including Li Yuan's freedom.
After the change of Xuanwu Gate, Li Yuan's life, of course, no one cared about Li Yuan in that era, everyone was looking at Li Shimin, all discussing the new atmosphere of Zhenguan, which may be the most difficult place for Li Yuan to accept, simply summarize Li Yuan's life, that is, indulgence, inner bitterness.
Li Yuan's indulgence is conditional and restricted, we often say that the sound color dog horse, dog horse Li Yuan can not do it, because as a grassland habit is very strong Li Yuan, can no longer hunt, popularly speaking, is to be under house arrest, at the beginning of the house is still relatively large, in the Taiji Palace.
After all, Li Yuan was the emperor of rebellion, there must be blood, and he also knew what the political struggle was, so he would not move out of the Taiji Palace, and he expected that Li Shimin would not dare to do anything to him.
But although Li Yuan knew that the broken drum was beaten by thousands of people, and the phoenix that fell on the hair was not as good as the chicken, but things really came to this point, Li Yuan's heart was still cool and cool.
When the emperor was Li Shimin, the following bureaucrats were all speculating about Li Shimin's meaning, according to the history books, Zhenguan II:
"When it rained little, Li Baiyao, a scholar of zhongshushe, said: 'In previous years, although the people who left the palace and eavesdropped on the people of the Taishang Palace and the Palace of the Imperial Palace, there were still many useless people, but they wasted money on food and clothing, and the gloom was thick, and it was enough to cause drought.'" Shang: 'The woman is claustrophobic and deep, and it is sincere to be ashamed. In addition to sprinkling, it is also useful to use it, and it is advisable to ask for both of them. ’”
The translation of this is that in the second year of Zhenguan, there was a great drought, and the people of Li Baiyao, a member of the Zhongshu She, played it, saying that although some palace women were also released from the palace in previous years, there were more palace women in the palace who were deeply locked around the emperor, not only wasting grain, but also accumulating gloom and gloom, causing a great drought.
If you look at what this said, it actually said that Li Yuan's Taiji Palace employed too many people, wasted grain, and too many palace women, which led to resentment, which led to a great drought, and for the sake of the Tang Dynasty and the people, Li Shimin had to "endure the pain" to invite Li Yuan out of the Taiji Palace.
This is politics, not only to do it, but also to do things beautifully, it is difficult to defeat li shimin with two fists, and most bureaucrats have to curry favor with Li Shimin, and in the case that all kinds of people and horses are trying to find a way, Li Yuan can only be aggrieved and seek perfection, and his face is not so ugly.
Li Yuan later moved to li shimin's original Hongyi Palace of the Qin Dynasty and changed his name to Tai'an Palace, and since then Li Yuan has moved out of the imperial city, completely imprisoned, and his life is very bitter.
Large-scale activities, palace receptions, these activities Li Yuan were all left on the sidelines, from the emperor fell to this kind of part, Li Yuan was no different from a prisoner except that he could eat enough.
And even the basic life can not be safely guaranteed, because the weather is hot, no one can do anything, Li Shimin can not move with a large team of people and horses to escape the summer, but he does not care about Li Yuan.
This kind of thing was really unbearable for individual upright ministers, and Ma Zhoushangshu, a province under the sixth year of Zhenguan's straight door, asked Li Shimin to rebuild and expand the Da'an Palace, but Li Shimin said that Emperor Taishang was "wandering in his heart and being honest and thrifty", which meant that Li Yuan advocated a simple life, and he was not good enough to go against Li Yuan's wishes, so he refused.
When Zhenguan was eight years old, there was some relaxation in the relationship between father and son, and Li Shimin also planned to expand the place where Li Yuan lived, because Li Shimin, who had been emperor for eight years, finally realized the difficulty of being an emperor and the difficulty of being a father.
But Li Yuan's life has also come to an end, Zhenguan nine years Li Yuan died in the Tai'an Palace, at the age of seventy, which is a very high life among the Li Tang Emperors, and in the past emperors is also a high lifespan and can die well, before death to see the Tang Dynasty so prosperous, compared to the heart is also very comforting.
On the whole, Li Yuan was dwarfed too much by Li Shimin in the later life, but for Li Yuan at that time, although the life of the emperor was bitter, it was also comfortable, and in the end, it was also a regret-free death.