Chapter 30 Li Longji comes on stage

In the days after the death of Zhongzong Li Xian, if the Feng Shui master who had seen the "imperial aura" stopped at Longqing Pool again, he would be surprised to find that the imperial aura above the residence of Xiangwang's five sons was getting stronger and stronger.If he observed more carefully, he would definitely find that the dragon aura was accurately gathering over the mansion of one of the princes. This prince is Li Longji. Li Longji, the third son of Xiang Wang Li Dan, was born in Luoyang, the eastern capital, on the fifth day of August in the first year of Chui Gong (AD 685). His biological mother was the side concubine of Xiang Wang, Dou Shi.The year before he was born, Li Dan had just been pushed into the puppet emperor's seat by Wu Zhao.When Li Longji was six years old, Wu Zhao took Zhou Dynasty as the Tang Dynasty and officially ascended the throne of empress. Li Dan was demoted to the heir of the emperor and was closely supervised.In terms of Li Dan's political situation at that time, coupled with Li Longji's "concubine" status and relatively low birth order, no one would have thought that this child would become emperor in the future; It will end an era of "the rooster raising the morning", and finally create a peaceful and prosperous age rarely seen in Chinese history.

It is said in history that Li Longji is intelligent, intelligent, versatile, especially in music, and "beautiful and beautiful, with a very good appearance".In addition to his outstanding talent and handsome appearance, Li Longji showed a heroic and resolute arrogance early on.It is said that he worshiped Cao Cao, the hero of the late Han Dynasty since he was a child, so the palace people called him "A Man" (Cao Cao's nickname).In addition, the history books also recorded a story in his childhood, which can quite show his uniqueness. This story happened when he was seven years old.Once, Li Longji entered the court with a team of guards in bright armor. He was going to meet his grandmother Wu Zhao, and he happened to meet Wu Yizong, the general of Jinwu who was on duty at the gate of the palace.Wu Yizong is Wu Zhao's nephew, who has always been arrogant and domineering. Seeing Li Longji's young age but full of style, he wanted to kill him, so he stepped forward and yelled at him, and drove away his guards and guards of honor.Just when the followers were at a loss, Li Longji walked up to Wu Yizong calmly, and suddenly pointed at his nose and cursed: "My family is in court, what are you doing? How dare you force me to ride!" ("Old Book of Tang Xuanzong Book)

Wu Yizong never expected that this fledgling child would have such breathtaking majesty and arrogance, he would stand there in a daze, unable to utter a word, and could only watch Li Longji and his guards walk away .After Wu Zhao heard about this incident, he was amazed that this grandson had such extraordinary courage at such a young age, not only did not blame him, but "specially favored him". Li Longji's resolute and courageous personality is exactly the opposite of his father Li Dan's modest and soft temperament, and completely different from his grandfather Li Zhi, but somewhat similar to his great-grandfather Li Shimin and grandmother Wu Zhao.Perhaps such a disposition is destined for him to have some magnificent deeds in the future.

In Li Longji's youth, the political high-level situation of the empire was changing, and fierce power struggles were going on in the court all the time. As the heir of the emperor, his father, Li Dan, was in the vortex of various political struggles for a long time. Was murdered.When Li Longji was nine years old, his biological mother, Concubine Dou De, was assassinated by Wu Zhao because she was framed by palace officials. After her death, even the bones were not found.Such an environment and life experience undoubtedly made him experience the horror and cruelty of politics prematurely, but at the same time, it also sharpened his character to be more resolute and persistent.

As Li Longji grew up, the political situation in the empire became more and more turbulent.When he was twenty-one years old, the Shenlong coup broke out, and his grandmother Wu Zhao who practiced iron-fisted rule was kicked out of power, and the Wu Zhou Dynasty was wiped out overnight; Sansi was completely overthrown and persecuted to death one by one. Immediately afterwards, Prince Li Chongjun launched another coup, killing Wu Sansi, but fell short due to incomplete determination and action, and was killed in defeat. At the age of twenty-six, Zhongzong Li Xian died suddenly without warning, and the cause of death was very strange, while Queen Wei's party quickly supported the young emperor Li Chongmao, and seized the power of the government in one fell swoop... so All kinds of things made Li Longji's heart deeply shocked.

From the perspective of survival, "reality" is always the best teacher in the world, and drawing lessons from the successes and failures of real people is always the most direct, vivid and effective survival education. Growing up in such an extremely sinister and perilous "political jungle", facing a series of cases and textbooks written with death and blood, Li Longji naturally learned many rules of survival in the jungle and was also familiar with various power struggles ways and techniques.Especially the extreme form of political struggle, the "military coup", has aroused Li Longji's great attention and thinking.He is very clearly aware that if he wants to survive, develop and succeed in the arena of the imperial court, which is a life-and-death arena, he must be ready to fight with force at any time.In other words, before the opponent is likely to swing the butcher knife at you, you must show your sword without hesitation!

And to do this, first of all, of course, you must have your own armed forces. From the age of seventeen or eighteen, Li Longji began to serve in the imperial court. He successively served as General Youweilang, Shangnian Fengyu, Weiwei Shaoqing, etc., and then served in Luzhou (now Changzhi City, Shanxi) for more than a year. magistrate.With the growth of life experience and the expansion of social circle, Li Longji has been sparing no effort to build his own power secretly, especially paying attention to making friends with people from the "Wanqi Battalion" of the North Gate Forbidden Army.

The Wanqi Camp is the guard force of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Its predecessor was the "Hundred Riders". It was established during the period of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. At first, there were only about a hundred people. It was composed of brave men carefully selected from official slaves and ethnic minorities.Because they are the emperor's personal bodyguards, the clothes and equipment of these people are naturally more fashionable-wearing clothes with tiger skin patterns on their bodies, and riding saddles with leopard skin patterns on their crotches, all of them are majestic and imposing.Whenever the emperor went out hunting, they would rush forward and back, and act as clearing and guards; when they arrived at the hunting ground, they would draw bows and shoot arrows, galloping to help the emperor round up the prey.In the Wu and Zhou Dynasties, this army was expanded to more than 1,000 people, so it was renamed "Thousand Riders"; and in the reign of Emperor Zhongzong, it was expanded again on a large scale, so it was called "Wan Qi" and a special army was set up. commander.

It is conceivable that in terms of the security of the emperor and the court, the importance of this "special force" is self-evident.Whoever can master this military force can control the political center of the empire to a large extent. In the winter of the third year of Jinglong, Li Longji returned to Chang'an after finishing his term in Luzhou Biejia.Since he had no appointment for the time being and was at home, he took this opportunity to win over the officers of the Wanqi Battalion.At that time, there was a servant and bodyguard beside him, named Wang Maozhong, who was from Koryo, and his identity was also an official slave, which was the same as many Wanqi guards, so Li Longji asked him to be in charge of liaison with Wanqi guards.Wang Maozhong is very astute. He knows Li Longji's mind and ambition very well, and knows that these people will come in handy sooner or later, so he works very hard to connect the two sides.As a result, Li Longji quickly had a heated fight with Wanqi's guards, "inviting commanders and handsome men of Wanqi several times, and giving food, gold and silk to win their favor." ("New Book of Tang·Wang Maozhong Biography") Especially the middle-level generals of Wanqiying, such as Ge Fushun, Chen Xuanli, Li Xianfu, etc., all formed close friends with Li Longji.

In addition to making friends with the Imperial Army, Li Longji also took advantage of his opportunity to serve in the central government and the local area, and successively recruited a group of talented people.For example, Liu Youqiu, the county lieutenant of Chaoyi (now Dali County, Shaanxi Province), Zhong Shaojing, the director of the garden, Wang Chongye of Shangyi Fengyu, Zhechong Ma Sizong of Lirenfu, etc., were all cited by him as his confidantes.Among them, Liu Youqiu and Zhong Shaojing were Li Longji's most important right-hand men. Both of them played a major role in the coup d'etat in the future, and after the coup d'etat was successful, both of them jumped from unknown official officials to the prime minister of the empire.

Liu Youqiu, a native of Jizhou (now part of Hebei), was born in Zhiju. During the reign of Wu Zhou Shengli, he served as the county captain of Langzhong (now part of Sichuan), equivalent to the chief of the public security bureau of a small mountainous county.Due to his humble official position, the local governor did not take him seriously and always bossed him around.Liu Youqiu was a man of high self-esteem, and couldn't bear this birdishness, so he resigned angrily and went back to his hometown.It wasn't until the Zhou Dynasty in Wuzhou that the imperial court re-granted him the official position of Chaoyi County Captain, but he was still a low-ranking Zhima official.At that time, Liu Youqiu was nearly fifty years old, and half of his life was buried, but his career prospects were still bleak. He was very depressed and was anxiously looking for a breakthrough in his life. Not long after, the Shenlong coup broke out, and the political arena of the empire underwent earth-shaking changes. Liu Youqiu sensed that the time had come, and immediately rushed back to the court to meet with the five ministers, proposed to them a proposal to eradicate Wu Sansi's forces, and solemnly warned them that if they did not do so, Soon he will be counterattacked by Wu's party, and he will die without a place to bury him. Undoubtedly, Liu Youqiu's proposal is indeed very wise. If the five ministers followed his advice, the political situation of the empire would be completely different in the future. The five ministers would not suddenly lose power, let alone die unexpectedly. Suggestions have been promoted and reused. However, to Liu Youqiu's great disappointment, the five ministers completely ignored his suggestions and warnings, and didn't take him seriously at all.Later, the development of things did not go as expected by Liu Youqiu. The five ministers who once ruled the court not only completely lost their power, but also died in an ugly way in the end. In this way, Liu Youqiu once again lost his chance to stand out. However, he didn't completely give up. Because he believed in his ability, and also believed that he would not be so unlucky forever. Heaven pays off, gold always shines.When Liu Youqiu, who was over fifty years old, was still suffering at the bottom of the imperial officialdom, the most important person in his life, the young and promising Linzi King Li Longji, finally came to his side inadvertently. Liu Youqiu suddenly felt his eyes light up. He found that after so many years of depression and frustration, the goddess of luck who had always turned a blind eye to him finally threw a belated wink at him.He had a premonition—the young prince in front of him, but with great ambitions, would definitely do something earth-shattering in the future. And after Li Longji got to know Liu Youqiu, he felt a sense of resentment when he met Liu Youqiu.Because he could see that this seemingly depressed Chaoyi county lieutenant was definitely not the mediocre and incompetent person that was common in ordinary officialdom. (According to the "Old Tang Book Liu Youqiu Biography", Li Longji, who became emperor a few years later, once praised Liu Youqiu in an imperial edict, saying that he "has a profound sense of wind and cloud, a pure spirit of Chuanyue, a master of comprehensive learning, and a poor writer." Change. Righteousness is approaching things, energy can permeate the day; loyalty is strategy, use is like throwing water" and so on, he did not hesitate to praise, which shows his appreciation and regard for Liu Youqiu.) In this way, Li Longji and Liu Youqiu hit it off. One is a clan prince who is ambitious but lacks helpers, and the other is a low-level official who is experienced but lacks opportunities. In this way, for the great future of their dreams and the beautiful vision in their hearts, they came together with confidence. Zhong Shaojing, a native of Qianzhou (now Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province), was born as a petty official. At first, he was only a small officer (Sinong Recorder) in the Ministry of Agriculture. Because of his beautiful calligraphy, he was valued by Wu Zhao, and then he entered Zhongshu Province (called Fengge at the time), became the queen's former secretary.At that time, the plaques of Mingtang, the inscriptions of Jiuding, including the plaques of various palaces, without exception, were all written by Zhong Shaojing, which shows that Emperor Wu still attached great importance to talented people. Talented people are usually more conceited, so Zhong Shaojing feels better about himself.Watching the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty come in and out under the door plaque with his own inscription, or click his tongue in admiration in front of the inscription he wrote, his vanity is not to mention how satisfied.He believes that as long as he writes well for the empress, he will surely achieve success sooner or later. However, after the Shenlong coup, with the resignation of the empress, his dream of promotion disappeared overnight. During the reign of Jinglong, Zhong Shaojing was transferred to be the head of the royal garden (director of the garden).Although he is a fifth-rank official, his rank is not very low, but he is a typical Qingshui yamen. He has no power in his hands. Apart from managing a group of gardeners and gardeners, he just serves some flowers and plants, and his life is as ordinary as water. Later, Zhong Shaojing met Linzi King Li Longji, and his mood suddenly became different.Although Zhong Shaojing was older than Liu Youqiu at this time and was nearly 60 years old, the long-sleeping dream of being promoted in his heart was suddenly awakened, just like an old well that had been dry for many years reappeared with running water. He secretly made up his mind to give him a fight—since he is not willing to stay with the current life that is neither salty nor dull, he might as well put his head on his belt and fight with this young, promising and ambitious King of Linzi. He grows rich as soon as he grows old! For Zhong Shaojing, who has nothing but writing skills, it is his eight lifetimes of cultivation for the King of Linzi to have his eye on him. Naturally, he will not miss this opportunity.As for Li Longji, the reason why Zhong Shaojing, who is over half a century old, was included in his talent team was of course not because of his good handwriting, but because Zhong Shaojing could provide him with the convenience of entering and leaving the palace. The Royal Forbidden Garden is located in the north of the Taiji Palace, and the official residence of the director of the Yuan is located near Xuanwu Gate, so in Li Longji's conception, once a coup is launched in the future, he can sneak into the palace from the Forbidden Garden and use Zhong Shaojing's official residence as an action Command. In the summer of the fourth year of Jinglong, the 26-year-old Li Longji had successfully created a faction that was completely loyal to him. This is a team that is ready to fight.As long as Li Longji gives an order, it will immediately shoot towards the political heart of the empire like an arrow from the string. At this time, the queen party did not realize that the danger was approaching. They didn't know that just when they thought they had completely occupied the commanding heights of power, Li Longji had quietly appeared from behind them...