Chapter 45 5. Li Yuan's troubles: Contradictions cannot be erased by covering up

After going through a protracted struggle, the conflict between Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng can only be characterized as a rivalry in a certain sense. They just hope that they can get more opportunities to be trusted by Li Yuan and avoid threats from the other party.But the real opportunity for Li Shimin to approach the position of prince came from a small disturbance in the seventh year of Wude. In June of this year, Li Yuan couldn't stand the hot weather in Chang'an City, so he went to the Renzhi Palace in the suburbs to escape the heat.But not long after he left, a major incident suddenly occurred in the court: someone reported that Prince Li Jiancheng was trying to rebel!

This explosive news came from the informant of two military generals under the crown prince. Li Yuan urgently summoned the informer Qiao Gongshan and asked him for details.Qiao Gongshan said: "The prince has always had a close relationship with Yang Wengan, the governor of Gyeongju, his old subordinate. Recently, they have been planning to let Yang Wengan raise troops, and the prince will respond in Chang'an. I was originally a subordinate of the prince, and I was ordered to send weapons and armor to Gyeongju. , but I am timid by nature, and I am afraid that things will be revealed and my family in Chang'an will be affected, so I confess everything to the emperor, hoping to make amends."

Li Yuan was trembling with anger at this news, and he said to Pei Ji: "I am not mean to the prince, and I have already made him the crown prince. Sooner or later, the Tang Dynasty will belong to him. Could it be that he can't even wait for these few years?" ?!" Pei Ji comforted him from the side: "The prince is still young, maybe he was bewitched by a traitor to do such a thing, the emperor should call him over to ask for clarification!" Reminded by Pei Ji, Li Yuan immediately ordered Li Jiancheng to come to Renzhi Palace.But after the incident was revealed, Li Jiancheng was so frightened that he didn't know whether he should go to see Li Yuan.Xu Shimo and others suggested that troops should be raised immediately, but Prince Zhongyun Wang Gui and another aide Wei Ting insisted that Li Jiancheng go to see Li Yuan and ask for forgiveness.Wang Gui said to Li Jiancheng: "Although it is true that the crown prince sent weapons to Yang Wengan, he did not directly participate in the rebellion, and Yang Wengan's rebellion did not become a fact. With the strength of Qingzhou's troops, it is completely impossible to compare with Chang'an's army. Raising troops can only lead to a quick death, go to Renzhi Palace to intercede, maybe there is still a glimmer of life."

After careful consideration, Li Jiancheng still chose to come to the Palace of Renzhi and plead guilty to Li Yuan. He claimed that such rebellious ministers appeared because of his incompetence in managing his subordinates.Li Yuan couldn't help but soften his heart when he cried out in tears and kowtowed piously in apology.He said to Li Jiancheng: "I have always trusted you, and I will definitely pass on the position to you. Why are you so anxious to be used by others?" After seeing Li Jiancheng's confession, Li Yuan felt uneasy when he thought that there was another Yang Wengan thousands of miles away who was about to make a move.Pei Ji suggested again: "We should send someone to summon Yang Wenqian to interrogate him." Li Yuan accepted the suggestion and sent Sinong Qing Yu Wenying to Qingzhou to summon Yang Wenqian immediately.

Yang Wenqian, who was far away in Gyeongju, suddenly lost contact with the prince and did not know what happened in Chang'an.And Yu Wenying, who suddenly appeared, told him everything: the emperor has fully grasped the situation of the rebellion, and wants Yang Wenqian to go to Renzhi Palace to accept the crime.Yang Wengan thought for a while, and said: "The emperor forgave the prince because they are father and son. For me, there is absolutely no reason to forgive. If I go to Renzhi Palace to plead guilty, I am afraid I will never come back. It is better not to If you don't stop doing it, let's start an army!"

Yang Wenqian rebelled against the Tang Dynasty, and Li Shimin, who had been watching from the sidelines, finally waited for him to appear on the stage. Regarding this rebellion, Li Yuan first dispatched Zuo Wuwei General Qian Jiulong and Lingzhou Governor Yang Shidao to suppress it.But after thinking about it, Li Jiancheng was the banner of the uprising this time, and there were quite a few people supporting Li Jiancheng in various places. If Yang Wengan united with other forces in the name of the prince, it would not be easy to deal with.Now it seems that the only person he can trust to send out to pacify Yang Wengan is Qin Wang Li Shimin.

On the way to be summoned, Li Shi said to King Qin: "This time, the emperor must hope to minimize the impact of this matter, otherwise it will cause disturbances among other governors and governors who support the prince, and it will definitely cause chaos." But Li Shimin just smiled faintly, and said: "This time it is completely God's will to let the prince leak the secret, otherwise, it is the prince we are going to punish now." Hou Junji followed Li Shimin all the time, yelling, "The crown prince himself wants to rebel, and we have to clean up the mess he made."

Li Shimin said: "Cleaning up the stalls is no problem, the key is to see how the emperor wants me to send troops." After three prostrations and nine kowtows, Li Yuan eagerly confessed the matter: "I never thought that the crown prince would do such a thing. But now that Yang Wengan raised his troops, it has already caused commotion in all directions. This situation cannot continue. So hurry up and lead your troops to pacify Yang Wengan, and I will reward you heavily when you come back!" Li Shimin said: "It's actually very simple to put down Yang Wengan. Yang Shidao and other generals can do it. Why does the emperor have to ask me to send troops?"

Li Yuan said helplessly: "Yang Wengan's military strength is not strong, but he is in collusion with the prince. I am worried that other people will cause unnecessary troubles, so I can only let you go and conquer them in the name of King Qin. And in the name of King Qin Your talent will definitely lead to success in no time.” Hearing this, Li Shimin thought to himself: It turned out that he was afraid that others would revolt instead of suppressing it. It seems that he still trusted me in the end.But I can't easily accept this task because of this, the prince must be punished for rebellion before I can send troops.Thinking of this, Li Shimin deliberately put on a look of embarrassment and said, "So that's the case! But I still have some doubts, and I'm afraid I won't be able to suppress Yang Wengan so quickly."

Seeing this, Li Yuan hurriedly asked the reason.Li Shimin said: "This time Yang Wenqian's rebellion was all caused by the prince. So the prince should be the mastermind. The emperor did not take any measures to punish the mastermind, but only asked me to redress the rebellion. It seems not good to say that , I can’t be justified. What if Yang Wengan asks me: Why should the mastermind be punished when he is innocent? Do I want to say: Because the mastermind is the emperor’s son, he won’t be punished?” This interrogation made Li Yuan extremely embarrassed. After Li Jiancheng pleaded guilty, the disciplinary measures Li Yuan gave were just to make him kneel outside the palace gate to reflect for a few days, and to give him a little food to satisfy his hunger, without any real punishment.As a rebellious minister, Yang Wenqian would never dare to question the court like that, but Li Shimin is the only one who can raise such a question and directly question Li Yuan.

Obviously, the person who needs the answer to this question is not Yang Wenqian, but Li Shimin in front of him.Li Yuan glanced at Pei Ji, and Pei Ji also looked at him helplessly, not knowing how to answer this question. From Taiyuan all the way to Chang'an, what Li Yuan deeply understood was that rescuing the immediate crisis was more important than any long-term plan.After struggling for a while, Li Yuan made up his mind: "The crown prince, as the mastermind of this treason, must be severely punished and demoted to the king of Shu from today." Everyone was shocked when they heard this, Pei Ji, Xiao Yu and others looked at Li Yuan who made such a sudden decision in amazement, not knowing whether to agree or disagree.Li Shimin still looked at Li Yuan calmly with a smile on his face. Li Yuan knew that punishing the prince was the first step, and if there was no incentive for the second step, Li Shimin might still not be reconciled.He went on to say: "The country cannot be without a prince for a day. After King Qin pacified Yang Wengan, he granted him the position of Prince of the East Palace." Xiao Yu, Yuwen Shi and other ministers who had always supported the King of Qin were all rejoiced when they heard the news.Li Shimin is also busy thanking you.He knew that it was not easy for Li Yuan to make such a decision. Although it was only a promise to grant him the crown prince, the pacification of Yang Wengan was just around the corner. He believed that he would be able to quickly meet the conditions Li Yuan proposed. At that time, the position of prince is in the bag. The high-spirited Li Shimin has never been so close to the East Palace!He suppressed the excitement in his heart, rode his horse and led his troops to set off for Gyeongju. On the other side, Li Jiancheng was downcast and depressed all day long.He said to Li Yuanji: "The king of Qin is really a villain for threatening to send troops! Now that I have been demoted to be the king of Shu, I will not even have the chance to return to Chang'an in the future. You and I are separated from each other, so you can ask for more blessings!" Seeing that Li Jiancheng was so depressed, Li Yuanji couldn't help feeling sad for a while.On weekdays, he was the closest to Jiancheng, and opposed Li Shimin everywhere.Now that Li Shimin is in power, once he becomes the prince, he will never end well.Although Li Yuanji was also full of longing for the East Palace, but in the current situation, he couldn't grab Li Shimin, and he could only keep Li Jiancheng from being abolished in order to keep himself.He hurriedly found Li Yuan's favorite minister, Feng Deyi who had always supported Li Jiancheng, to discuss countermeasures with him. Feng Deyi said: "In fact, the emperor has always been partial to the prince. This time, it was only because of the situation that the king of Qin forced him to abolish the prince. As long as the prince sincerely admits his mistakes, I will wait by the side to comfort him." , I think the emperor will soften his heart." According to Feng Deyi's plan, when Li Shimin sent troops, Li Jiancheng used his contacts in Chang'an to ask his trusted ministers to plead with Li Yuan, and the much-loved Concubine Yin De and Zhang Jieyu in the harem also said a lot of good things for Jiancheng , and he himself confessed to Li Yuan crying bitterly every day.When Li Shimin pacified Yang Wenqian and returned to Chang'an, Li Yuan, who had no intention of abolishing the prince, had completely accepted Li Jiancheng's admission of his mistakes, and never mentioned the words of abolishing Jianjian and establishing Shimin. After Li Shimin returned to Beijing, Li Yuan exiled Wei Ting, Li Jiancheng's aide, and Du Yan, Li Shimin's strategist, on the charge of instigating the crown prince and King Qin not to unite sincerely.Li Shimin, who just came back from the battle, couldn't accept this method of playing 50 boards each. He thought he had completed the task and was waiting to receive the reward, but found that Li Yuan's "fairness" was actually very skewed.Li Jiancheng returned to Chang'an and continued to live in the East Palace in the name of the prince, while Li Shimin was still his own king of Qin. Li Yuan tried to cover up this contradiction by pretending to be deaf and dumb.The result of this treatment made Li Shimin, who had originally placed his expectations, completely wake up, and realized that Li Yuan still favored Li Jiancheng in the end, instead of handling the fight between brothers with the principle of fairness.For King Qin, if he wanted to obtain and protect his own interests, he could only rely on himself, and he could no longer pin his hopes on Li Yuan.