Chapter 49 Li Bi: One body is the safety of the world

Since Li Sheng returned to the imperial court as the Taiwei, it can be said that he is facing an abyss, walking on thin ice, and has lived more carefully than anyone else.However, he doesn't cause trouble, but trouble still comes to him. In the summer of the third year of Zhenyuan, rumors suddenly spread in Chang'an, saying that there was a Da'an Garden in Li Sheng's house, and a Da'an Pavilion in the Da'an Garden, and there was a dense bamboo forest around the Da'an Pavilion, and Li Sheng was in this bamboo forest. An ambush is hidden, intending to launch a mutiny at the first opportunity.

Faced with such an astonishing imagination of the rumormongers, Li Sheng really couldn't laugh or cry.Soon, he cut down all the bamboo forests around Da'anting, not even a mouse could hide. But the problem is that the world's imagination is always unlimited.Even if Li Sheng cut down the bamboo forest, people with ulterior motives can still spread other rumors, for example—your Li Sheng mansion is so big and there are so many houses, don’t you hide a few soldiers in each room? What should Li Sheng do if such rumors come across again? Could it be that he wants to demolish all the houses in his family to prove his innocence?

In order to end the endless imagination of people with ulterior motives, Li Mi went to the palace with Li Sheng and Ma Sui to meet Emperor Dezong a few days after paying homage to the prime minister.Li Mi said bluntly to Dezong: "Since Your Majesty let me be the Prime Minister, I will make an agreement with Your Majesty today, is that okay?" Dezong said of course. Li Mi said: "I hope Your Majesty will not harm the heroes! I have received Your Majesty's kindness, so I dare to speak out boldly. Li Sheng and Ma Sui have made great contributions to the country, but some people continue to spread rumors. Although Your Majesty will not believe it, I still want to say it today. I brought it up in front of them in order to make them no longer be suspicious. If His Majesty cannot tolerate the two of them one day, I am afraid that the imperial guards and the generals of the four directions will be angry and fearful, and chaos between the government and the public may occur at any time. As a minister, being able to gain the trust of the emperor is the most important thing, and the official position is second. When I was in Lingwu, I didn't have any officials, but the prime minister and the generals were all under the orders of my ministers; and your majesty added Li Huaiguang as a lieutenant at the beginning. Instead, it aroused his fear and suspicion, which eventually led to a rebellion. His Majesty has seen all this with his own eyes. Now, Li Sheng and Ma Sui have reached the extreme in terms of wealth and official position. As long as His Majesty treats each other honestly and makes them feel There is no need to worry about their wealth and life, and they will definitely serve the country wholeheartedly. If the country is in trouble, let them take command and go to war; I hope that Your Majesty will not be suspicious of the two ministers because of their great achievements, and the two ministers will not be suspicious because of their high status, then the world will naturally be peaceful!"

After listening to this speech, Dezong Li Shi sincerely accepted it. Li Sheng and Ma Sui also wept on the spot and got up to thank them. At the beginning, the reason why Li Huaiguang lost confidence in the country and his personal future was largely because there was a prime minister like Lu Qi in the court.Today, the reason why Li Sheng and Ma Sui did not become Li Huaiguang's second is largely due to a prime minister like Li Mi. Since Li Mi and Dezong reached the above agreement, the tension between Dezong, Li Sheng and Ma Sui has been greatly eased. In the next few years, the relationship between the monarch and his ministers was basically peaceful, and Li Sheng and Ma Sui finally kept their evening festivals and spent their old age in prosperity and peace.In the ninth year of Zhenyuan (793 A.D.), Li Sheng passed away at the age of 67. Dezong stopped court for five days and gave him the posthumous title of "Zhongwu"; in the eleventh year of Zhenyuan Yuan (795 A.D.), Ma Sui died. At the age of seventy, Emperor Dezong stopped court for four days, and was given the posthumous title of "Zhuang Wu".

In August of the third year of Zhenyuan, Li Mi had just resolved the crisis of trust between Dezong and his heroes, and a new crisis followed-Dezong planned to depose Prince Li Song and establish Shu Wang Li Yi. What mistake did Prince Li Song make to be abolished? He didn't make a mistake, the person who made a mistake was his mother-in-law, Princess Gao (Suzong's daughter). The mother-in-law made a mistake but asked her son-in-law to pay for it. What's the point? It doesn't make sense.However, the mistakes made by Princess Gao were too infuriating and unforgivable, so Dezong Li Shi naturally blamed Prince Li Song for his anger.

So, what did Princess Gao do wrong that made the emperor so angry? First of all, this princess is old-hearted and has committed serious life style problems.To put it bluntly, it is stealing a man. In the Tang Dynasty, Hu Feng was prosperous and open-minded. Both men and women were very avant-garde in terms of sexual concepts, especially the royal family and nobles. Occasionally sneaking around outside the legal couple was commonplace and not worth making a fuss about.But the problem is, the prince's mother-in-law has such a good appetite, other people just stole one or two, but she stole a lot!

What's worse, if she steals some unemployed youths in the society, the impact will not be too bad; but the old princess has a relatively high taste, and the ones who steal are all court officials. : Prince Zhanshi Li Sheng, Shuzhou Biejia Xiao Ding, Pengzhou Sima Li Wan, Fengyang County Magistrate Wei Ke, etc. A group of young officials with a bright future and a bright future, go in and out of the princess's mansion all day long, and only do some dirty business. The social impact of this is really too bad! Since Princess Gao stole all the officials ordered by the court, people thought about it carefully and found that it was not only a matter of life style, but also suspected of engaging in power and sex transactions and corrupting state officials.You know, these officials have good wives and beautiful concubines in their families, why should they serve you, a wrinkled old woman?To put it bluntly, isn't it just because of your special status and your eyes and hands that people want to use sexual bribery in exchange for benefits in your official career?

In other words, if you are an ordinary aristocratic woman, the common people will at most use your scandal as a joke after dinner, and they can't do anything to you, but after all, you are the emperor's aunt and in-laws. Whatever you do, it is easy for people to go online, and there will definitely be countless pairs of eyes staring at you behind your back. Because the emperor Li Shi has always been very kind to this aunt and in-laws, other royal relatives have long been jealous and have been trying to catch her pigtails.Now it's good, the Princess Gao is actually disrespectful, and she conspired with a group of court officials with wives, which seriously corrupted the social atmosphere and the court discipline. Isn't this discrediting the royal family and the emperor?Can everyone spare you?

In order to bring down Princess Gao in one fell swoop, the royal relatives and relatives not only collected black material on her private life, but also dispatched eyes and ears to the princess's mansion to collect other criminal evidence in every possible way. A hundred times the problem - tired of winning. This time, Princess Gao is doomed! The so-called disgust, also known as witchcraft, is a curse to put it bluntly.Usually, it is for people who are older or more respectable than oneself, carve a human figure in wood or draw the image on paper, and curse this person in circles all day long until they are cursed to death.

Princess Gao is tired of winning, who will the target be?Her father, Suzong, died long ago, so the item of "elderly" can be excluded, and the rest are people who are more "respectable" than her. So, who could be this noble figure cursed by the princess? A fool also knows that it is Li Shi, the son of today. Why did Princess Gao curse the emperor? It's very simple, as soon as the emperor dies, the prince will succeed to the throne. At that time, Princess Gao will be the emperor's mother-in-law, won't she be able to do whatever she wants?Not to mention looking for a bunch of lovers, even if you change one a day, no one would dare to make irresponsible remarks.

In this way, the relatives of the royal family seized the two crimes of "sex trafficking" and "disgusting victory" of Princess Gao, and immediately filed a joint petition and filed a lawsuit against Dezong. When Dezong saw his watch, he couldn't help being furious. "There is nothing more demonic than witchcraft, and no crime more than treachery!" ("Quan Tang Wen" Volume 54 "Princess Gao Guo Dachang's House Placement Order") Princess Gao committed two capital crimes at once, How can I forgive easily! Dezong immediately arrested Princess Gao and put her under house arrest in the palace, and called the prince to him, and cursed at her indiscriminately. The prince was stunned by the scolding, and it took him a while to figure out the situation. Originally, it was none of his business for the old mother-in-law to steal men, but if it was classified as a "power sex transaction", then it was none of his business - after all, the old princess has no power in her hands and wants to make deals with those handsome young men , of course the prince should give these people the green light in officialdom. In addition, the mother-in-law is tired of winning. Although the prince is subjectively unaware of this matter, objectively it can help the prince seize the throne as soon as possible. It has reached the point where even jumping into the Yellow River can't clean it up. After much deliberation, the prince, Li Song, had no choice but to propose a divorce from the concubine Xiao, so as to draw a line with this unlucky mother and daughter.However, Dezong was far from satisfied with the prince's statement.One of the strongest thoughts in his mind right now is—to get rid of this kid! Of course, abolishing the establishment of a prince is a major event in the community, so Dezong can't just abolish it, he must discuss it with Prime Minister Li Mi. Dezong found Li Mi, told him the matter, and said: "King Shu has grown up now, he is filial, friendly, gentle and kind, and I plan to make him the prince." Li Mi was greatly astonished: "Why is that! Your Majesty only has one son (Dezong has eleven sons, but only Li Song is the first son), how can he abandon his son and make his nephew if he doubts it? This is too ill-considered! " When Dezong heard the words "abandoned son and established nephew", he immediately became angry from embarrassment: "presumptuous! Why do you separate our father and son? Who told you that King Shu is my nephew?" "Your Majesty, calm down." Li Mi said calmly, "Your Majesty told me personally. In the early years of the Dali calendar, Your Majesty once said to me one day: 'Today I will count sons.' I asked you what happened, and you Said: "My younger brother Li Miao died early, and the emperor asked me to raise his children." Your Majesty, you are so suspicious of your own son, let alone your nephew? Although King Shu is benevolent and filial, if you establish him, from now on, your majesty I can only count on his filial piety if I work hard on my own!" What does Li Mi mean by this? In fact, his meaning is very obvious: If you, the emperor, are suspicious and mean, you will depose the prince sooner or later, no matter how filial he is! When a courtier dares to speak to the emperor like this, it can be regarded as committing disobedience.However, when Li Mi said these words, his expression did not change, his heart did not jump, as if he was not the emperor of the ninth five years, but an ordinary person. Dezong didn't turn his face this time, but stared at Li Mi grimly, and said word by word: "Don't you cherish your family?" This is clearly blatant intimidation. Li Mi said calmly: "It is because I love my family that I dare not say anything. If I am afraid of your majesty's wrath and submit, your majesty will regret it tomorrow, and I will blame you and say: 'I let you be the prime minister alone. At this time Liu Hun has already resigned), but you did not give enough advice, so that the matter has developed to this point, I will not only kill you, but also your son!' I am old, and it is not a pity to die in old age. My son died unjustly, and let my nephew inherit the incense, I don't know if I can enjoy sacrifices under the nine springs!" After finishing speaking, Li Mi couldn't help but burst into tears. Li Mi's last sentence was actually a detour to remonstrate.Of course Dezong understood.He sighed sadly, with tears in his eyes.After a long time, he asked feebly, "What should I do now that this is the case?" "This is a major matter for the community. I hope that your majesty will think twice before acting! I thought that your majesty has great virtues, but I didn't expect that your majesty would not even trust your own son. Today, I dare to speak out boldly and dare not hide anything. Since ancient times, there has been no father and son. Guessing without perishing the country and destroying the family. Does Your Majesty remember why Jianning King Li Tan (the third son of Suzong) was punished during Suzong's Lingwu period?" Dezong said sadly: "Uncle Jianning is really wronged, I only blame Suzong for being too impatient, and the plot of the slanderer is too vicious!" Li Mi said sincerely: "It was because of King Jianning that I resolutely resigned from the position of prime minister and vowed not to serve the emperor any more. Unfortunately, I became your majesty's prime minister today and encountered such a thing again. I was in the Lingwu period. , who received Suzong’s deepest favor and trust, but did not dare to say a word about Jianning’s grievances. He did not dare to talk to Suzong until before he left, and Suzong also cried with regret. Since Jianning King After his unjust death, the first emperor (Daizong) was always in fear, and his minister once told Suzong about the "Cucumber Speech" written by Prince Zhanghuai (Li Xian), so that Suzong could use this to be vigilant and prevent traitors from framing the late emperor." "Of course I know about these things." At this time, Dezong's face has relaxed a lot, "Your words are certainly reasonable, but in Zhenguan and Kaiyuan, there were things that changed the crown prince. Why didn't the country perish?" "In the era of Zhenguan, the crown prince Chengqian supervised the country many times. There were many ministers who depended on him, and the number of soldiers in the East Palace was also very large. Chengqian then joined forces with the then prime minister Hou Junji to rebel. After the incident, Taizong ordered his eldest grandson Wuji He interrogated with dozens of courtiers and found that the evidence was conclusive and the facts of the crime were all there. Then he called all the officials to discuss how to deal with it. At that time, someone said: "May your majesty be a loving father so that the prince can live forever." Taizong adopted this suggestion In the end, only Chengqian was abolished as a commoner, and his life was saved. At the same time, Wei Wang Li Tai, who had the heart of seizing the throne, was deposed. It can be seen that Taizong handled this matter extremely prudently. Now, Your Majesty Now that it is known that Suzong's impatience caused Jianning's death in vain, I am very grateful. I hope that Your Majesty will remember the lessons learned from the past, and after three days of meditation, you will surely find that the prince is not at fault. Even if there are signs of treason, you should call 20 people who understand justice If the crime is true, I also hope that His Majesty will follow Taizong's practice and depose the prince without killing him. At the same time, King Shu will be deposed together, and the son of the prince will be appointed as the heir. After a hundred generations, the king will still rule the world. His Majesty's descendants." Dezong listened and couldn't help but fell into deep thought. Li Mi knew that the emperor had listened to it, and continued: "As for the abolition of the establishment during the Kaiyuan period, it was completely framed by Concubine Wu Hui. The whole country feels righteous indignation, and they all appeal for grievances for the three brothers of the prince Li Ying. This matter should be taken as a warning for a hundred generations. How can we imitate! In addition, the prince has often lived in Shaoyang Courtyard since Zhenyuan. This courtyard is next to His Majesty's bedroom. The prince has never had contact with outsiders, and rarely intervenes in outside affairs. If you are guilty, how can you casually implicate your son-in-law? The minister is willing to guarantee the life of the whole family, and the prince must not have participated in any conspiracy. Today, if the object of your Majesty's discussion is not a humble minister, but Yang Su, Xu Jingzong, Li Linfu and others, I am afraid they will I have already gone to King Shu to invite him to make a decision!" Dezong was silent for a long time, and said: "This is just my family's business. It has nothing to do with you. Why do you fight so hard?" Li Mi said seriously: "The emperor regards the four seas as his home, and family affairs are state affairs. Now I am the prime minister alone. If I mishandle a matter within the four seas, I have to bear the responsibility. What's more, the prince is wronged and in danger. If the minister sits on the sidelines, the crime is serious." Yea!" Dezong had nothing to say, so he had to compromise: "For your words, I will wait until tomorrow to make a decision." Li Mi immediately knelt down and kowtowed, and said with a sob: "I know that your majesty and the prince are kind and filial, and they will definitely reconcile as before! But I have another word, after your majesty returns to the palace, you should think alone and don't reveal your thoughts to the left and right attendants." , otherwise someone must go to seek credit from King Shu, and the crown prince will be in danger!" Dezong nodded: "I understand what you mean." Although Li Mi succeeded in persuading Dezong, he was not happy.After leaving the palace and returning home, he said sadly to his children: "I didn't want to pursue wealth and honor, but my fate backfired. I'm afraid I will implicate you sooner or later!" Prince Li Song learned that Li Mi risked his life to speak out for him, so he quickly sent someone to thank him, saying: "If the matter is really irreversible, I plan to commit suicide by taking poison. I don't know what you think?" Li Bidao: "At present, there is absolutely no need to go to this point. As long as Your Highness is cautious in words and deeds, and still maintains a filial heart, things should be nothing to worry about. The only thing to worry about is-in case I cannot be tolerated by the emperor. , things are not easy to say.” The next day, according to Li Mi's suggestion, Dezong closed the door and thought about it calmly for a day, and finally realized that he almost made a big mistake.The next day, Emperor Dezong couldn't wait to summon Li Mi alone in Yanying Hall, patted him on the back with tears and said, "If you hadn't spoken sincerely, I would regret it today! As Xianqing said, the prince There is nothing wrong with benevolence and filial piety. From now on, no matter whether it is military affairs or my family affairs, you must carefully discuss with Qing before making a decision." Li Mi immediately bowed down to congratulate him, and said: "Your Majesty is wise, the crown prince has been found innocent, and my wish to serve the country has been fulfilled. The day before yesterday, due to excessive panic, I lost my mind and soul, and I am no longer suitable for your Majesty to use. I request that I return to my hometown." Dezong was stunned, and waved his hands again and again, saying, "My father and son have been preserved because of you, and I just want to tell my descendants to let your descendants enjoy prosperity and wealth from generation to generation, so as to repay the virtue of the virtuous Qing. Why did you say that today? Absolutely not allowed!" On August 14th of the third year of Zhenyuan, the case of Princess Gao came to fruition: Sima Li Wan of Pengzhou was beaten to death with sticks for the crime of adultery of the same family; She was exiled to south of the Five Ridges and border areas; Princess Gao herself was imprisoned in a villa for a long time; the prince and his wife were safe and sound.The turmoil of abolishing the crown prince disappeared, and the escaped crown prince Li Song was very grateful to Li Mi. In history, there have always been such times, and there have always been such one or two people who really deserve the saying "one body is the safety of the world". Li Mi is such a person. Whether it is Li Sheng, Ma Sui or Prince Li Song, they all have to thank Li Mi, and the Emperor Li Shi of the Tang Dynasty and his subjects should thank Li Mi even more.Without him, Dezong's court would have faced more disputes, and the world of Li and Tang would have suffered more disasters! After eliminating all kinds of internal unstable factors, the next thing Li Mi has to do is to deal with the external enemies with all his strength. Since the Anshi Rebellion, the most serious foreign invasion of the empire was none other than Tubo. Li Mi's brilliance is that he didn't want to launch a war against Tubo that would cost labor and money, but was trying to settle this fierce enemy without a single soldier.In Li Mi's original words, it means "without using Chinese soldiers, Tubo will be trapped." (Volume 232) Can Li Bi do it?