Chapter 16 Li Fuguo's desire

Where is the deepest place in the world? Answer: The Mariana Trench at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. wrong! The deepest place in the world is the "crash of desire", which is the hole of desire in the human heart. Because desire is hard to fill.No matter how deep the Mariana Trench is, the water in the Pacific Ocean can fill it up; but the deepest desire in the heart is a black hole that can never be filled. For example, deep in Li Fuguo's heart, there is such a black hole. After successfully driving the Supreme Emperor out of Xingqing Palace, Li Fuguo suddenly felt invincible.He felt that as long as it was what he wanted to do, as long as it was what he wanted, there was almost nothing he couldn't do or get.

In August of the second year of Shangyuan (761 AD), Li Fuguo suddenly felt that his military power was too small.Compared with the army of the entire empire, the imperial army in the capital is just a drop in the bucket, and it is really not strong enough. If you want to control it, you have to control the army of the entire empire, that would be cool. Therefore, Li Fuguo told Suzong that he wanted to be Minister of the Ministry of War. Suzong Li Heng frowned slightly, and thought for a long time with a rather serious expression, and finally said only one word: good. On the day Li Fuguo went to the Ministry of War to take office, Suzong specially organized a vigorous inauguration ceremony for him: let Taichang Temple play elegant music, let the imperial dining room arrange a banquet, and let the prime minister lead all civil and military officials to congratulate Li Fuguo, and then Respectfully sent him to the lobby of the Ministry of War.

Suzong originally thought that this would satisfy Li Fuguo's desire, but he was wrong.Li Fuguo just went to work at the Ministry of War on the seventh day of August, but before the fifteenth day, he made new demands on Suzong.When Suzong heard this, he almost lost his temper. Li Fuguo said he wanted to be prime minister. Suzong really wanted to say to him: People can't be so shameless! Of course, this can only be said in the heart.In fact, Suzong said to Li Fuguo: "With the merits of Aiqing, what official can't be! I'm just worried that your prestige in the court is not enough!"

In desperation, Li Heng could only kick the ball to the ministers. Hearing this, Li Fuguo let Zuo Pushe, Pei Mian and others spread the word and asked them to recommend him.Li Heng hurriedly asked Prime Minister Xiao Hua for help in private: "Li Fuguo wants to be prime minister, if the ministers recommend him, I will have to let him be." Xiao Hua went to question Pei Mian.Fortunately, Pei Mian was a hard-headed person, and immediately said: "There is no such thing! If you want me to give him an arm, you can, and if you want to recommend him to be the prime minister - there is no such thing!"

After Xiao Hua reported back, Li Hengcai let out a long sigh of relief. Afterwards, Li Heng made a look of helplessness and regret in front of Li Fuguo: You see, Li Aiqing, it's not that I don't use you, but that the ministers don't recommend you, and I'm powerless and helpless! Not being the prime minister, Li Fuguo was naturally furious, but he didn't let the anger burn his brain.He knew that he was an eunuch of humble origin after all, and to lead civil and military officials as an eunuch was tantamount to challenging the traditional concepts and systems of thousands of years, and of course the difficulty was not ordinary.

After much deliberation, Li Fuguo decided to retreat despite difficulties. No, to be precise, Li Fuguo wanted to advance by retreating.Although he decided to give up the false name of prime minister, it does not mean that he no longer desires the power of prime minister. In fact, at this time, the power Li Fuguo wanted had even surpassed that of the prime minister. Yes, what Li Fuguo really wanted to grab was the power of the Son of Heaven. In March of the first year of Baoying (762 A.D.), the post of Jing Zhaoyin in the imperial court was vacant, and Li Fuguo immediately recommended his confidant Yuan Zai, who was then Minister of the Household Department, to concurrently serve.Of course Suzong and the prime ministers did not dare to say anything about this.However, just before the letter of appointment was about to be issued, Yuan Zai suddenly approached Li Fuguo and insisted on resigning the appointment.

Li Fuguo stared at Yuan Zai's face for a long time, and finally understood - it's not that this kid doesn't like the black cloth, but that the black cloth is too small. Jing Zhaoyin is too young, so what does he want? Needless to say, of course I want to be prime minister. Li Fuguo smiled in his heart.It's okay, you don't want me to be the prime minister, it doesn't matter, I will send my subordinates to be the prime minister. Later, Li Fuguo proposed to Emperor Suzong: Xiao Hua is in charge of power and is not suitable to be a prime minister. He should be dismissed and replaced by Yuanzai.

Of course Suzong refused to agree at first, but Li Fuguo's eyes told him: This is not a request that can be vetoed, but a decision that must be implemented. To be the emperor for this sake is really useless.But what can Suzong do?Unless you completely turn against Li Fuguo and take back all the power in his hands, especially the military power of the imperial army, you can only compromise with him. However, it is not easy to take back the military power of the forbidden army! First, the military and the civilian sector are completely different.As long as the emperor issues a letter of appointment, the civil service can quickly complete the transfer and change of power, but the army is not so simple.If the successor cannot use strong means to subdue the hearts of the people, it is easy to provoke a mutiny.In a peaceful age, this possibility may be relatively small, but in today's war-torn age where everyone is in danger, in this chaotic world full of arrogant soldiers and powerful generals, it is entirely possible to trigger a war if you are not careful. A catastrophe.

Secondly, the current Suzong is not the same as the Suzong of the Lingwu era.At that time, Emperor Suzong was vigilant, reckless, and wholeheartedly wanted to regain the two capitals and quell the rebellion. He looked like the master of Zhongxing, but now Suzong was plagued by illness and his energy was declining. He only wanted to secure the throne and maintain the status quo... ...the two are far apart.At this time, if the forbidden army launched a mutiny under his nose, Suzong would have absolutely no way to deal with it. In view of the above reasons, Li Heng could only compromise with Li Fuguo.

A few days later, Xiao Hua was removed from the position of prime minister and demoted to Minister of the Ministry of Rites; Yuan Zai became the prime minister with the title of minister of the household department, and the important positions such as Duzhi envoy and transshipment envoy that he held concurrently before were still retained. Yuan Zai smiled, a very bright smile. Li Fuguo also smiled, and his smile became brighter. For many subjects of the Tang Dynasty, April of the first year of Tang Suzong Baoying was undoubtedly a black month. Because two people died this month. Dead people are the most common thing in the world, but the key is that the identities of these two people are extraordinary.

They are the Supreme Emperor Li Longji and the Emperor Li Heng. Yes, the father and son died in the same month, only thirteen days apart.Li Longji died on the fifth day of April at the age of seventy-eight; Li Heng died on the eighteenth day of April at the age of fifty-two. There is no doubt that Tang Xuanzong Li Longji passed away in an extremely depressed and bleak state of mind.If a person's life is a book, then Li Longji undoubtedly has a very gorgeous cover and a brilliant text, but unfortunately the ending is extremely scribbled, making it unbearable to read, and the back cover is covered with dust and dirt. In the thousands of years of Chinese history, there seems to be very few emperors who had such a huge gap in their lives like Li Longji. However, the Anshi Rebellion pushed the empire into the abyss of eternal doom, which is enough to make future generations feel sad. What caused such a huge gap? From the point of view of facts, the reason does not seem to be complicated. It is nothing more than the fact that Li Longji gradually degenerated after his middle age, neglected the government, led to treacherous officials in power, and the state affairs were increasingly troubled, which eventually gave birth to the Anshi Rebellion.Just like traditional historians said: "At the beginning of Kaiyuan, virtuous ministers ruled the country", "Since the Tianbao has been returned, the villain has grown up", in a word: "It is also a mistake to employ people!" The minister said") However, if we continue to ask, why did Xuanzong Li Longji completely change after middle age?The answer may not be so simple. The ancients often said a word: there is no beginning, but there is an end (everything has a beginning, but rarely an end).In other words, Li Longji is not the only emperor in history who was wise in his early years and faint in his later years. He is just a typical case among them.Xi Zhe also often said a word: power leads to corruption, and absolute power leads to absolute corruption.It can be seen that if there is no restriction from external forces, anyone will inevitably become corrupt and degenerate in the face of great achievements and power.In other words, this is a general weakness of human nature, and cannot be simply attributed to Li Longji's personal ideological quality. In order to better illustrate this point, we might as well compare Li Longji and Tang Taizong Li Shimin. We all know that Li Longji in his early years was very similar to Li Shimin. He took the "Government of Zhenguan" as a model for his governance, "according to the story of Zhenguan" everywhere, and always looked up to Li Shimin. The wind will revive in one day, thus creating a peaceful and prosperous age of "Daoqing and Daotai, which will last for thirty years". But we must also know that Li Longji's model of governance, the most acclaimed "Government of Zhenguan" by later generations, is actually not a flawless piece of white jade.In the middle and late stages of Zhenguan, Li Shimin gradually showed signs of refusal to remonstrance and arrogance. Wei Zheng criticized him for "increasingly evil and outspoken", "although he has a good beginning, he has not seen the beauty of restraining the end." ", leading to "common people's complaints", and many ministers also advised him on his behavior of "decorating palaces and visiting pools and terraces". Mutual prosperity of palaces and chambers" and the rules and regulations were admonished. What do these phenomena mean?Although history does not allow assumptions, we still have to make such an assumption - if Li Shimin did not die young at the age of 51, but lived to the age of 78 like Li Longji, then he will shine through the ages and shake the past and the present. What kind of ending will the "Reign of Zhenguan" be like?What kind of image of Li Shimin, the wise and mighty emperor through the ages, will be left in the minds of future generations in his later years? Furthermore, if Li Longji did not live to be seventy-eight years old, but died young like Li Shimin, would his historical image be frozen in the Kaiyuan era, leaving a flawless image in the minds of future generations? What about the perfect version?And the Tianbao era of extravagance and lust, together with the earth-shaking "Anshi Rebellion" later, is it impossible to talk about it? The answer is self-explanatory. That is to say, in the sense of "there is no beginning, and there is an end in savagery", in the sense of "the law of power corruption", Li Shimin's untimely death is a blessing, and Li Longji can enjoy his life. It is likely to be a kind of misfortune! Of course, this kind of luck and misfortune is not for them personally, but for the whole country.In fact, looking at the entire history of China, the phrase "there is no beginning, but there is an end" can be applied not only to the emperor himself, but also to a dynasty.In any dynasty in history, in the early days of the founding of the country, it was almost possible to work hard and work hard, but once the peace lasted for a long time, it would irreparably lead to corruption and degeneration; then a new political group rose up to establish a new regime, The same history will happen again... For thousands of years, we have been going round and round in such a vicious circle, a stupid and pathetic circle! In the final analysis, it is nothing more than two words: system. To be precise, it is four words: autocracy. Regardless of ancient or modern times, any autocratic system with a high concentration of power is very unreliable, no matter whether the power is concentrated in the hands of one person or a political group; This person (or belongs to his political group) is obviously even more unreliable! Fortunately, with the development of human society today, we already know that the "rule of law" is much more reliable than the "rule of man". We already know how the happiness of an ordinary citizen is closely related to the political system of this country. The fate of the world is pinned on a certain person (or a certain political group).However, it goes without saying that the inertia of history is sometimes independent of human will.For a country to break free from a society ruled by men for thousands of years and become a constitutional country in the true sense, the road is usually more tortuous than people expect, and the process seems to be much longer than people imagined. Perhaps, history (and above all its lessons) has meaning at this time. Perhaps, the so-called "taking history as a mirror" and "learning from the past" have meaning here. When the Supreme Emperor Li Longji passed away, Tang Suzong Li Heng was also seriously ill and was bedridden for a long time.Hearing the news of his old father Bintian, Li Heng was even more sad, so his condition became more and more serious.Two days later, that is, the seventh day of April, Li Heng knew that he would die soon, so he ordered Prince Li Yu (formerly known as Li Chu) to supervise the country, and changed Yuan Baoying a few days later. At this time, the Daming Palace has entered a dangerous moment. Because there are two people who are about to make a move, and they both want to control the prince Li Yu in their own way, and then control the future of the empire. They are Li Fuguo and Queen Zhang.