Chapter 3 Li Chengqian played himself to death

However, there is no impenetrable wall in the world. Li Tai's act of making friends secretly quickly aroused Li Shimin's vigilance and disgust. On this matter, Li Tai obviously acted too hastily.No matter which dynasty or generation, if a feudal lord shows too blatant desire for the position of crown prince, and in order to realize his ambition of seizing the heir, he also forms cliques in the court and establishes cliques wantonly, then he will definitely offend the emperor. avoid! Although Li Shimin has always loved Wei Wang Li Tai very much, and it is not that he has no idea of ​​letting him replace Prince Li Chengqian, but Li Tai's performance is so sharp and impatient before the horoscope has even been written, which finally made Li Shimin feel deeply. Deep displeasure—your hand, Li Tai, is stretched too far!

Furthermore, ever since Li Shimin revealed his intention to abolish the establishment, important court officials headed by Wei Zheng and Xuan Suiliang strongly opposed it, which also caused great political pressure on Li Shimin.Therefore, from about the second half of the 16th year of Zhenguan (642 AD), Li Shimin's attitude has undergone a major change, and he has gradually dispelled his desire to abolish and establish. In August of this year, Li Shimin asked the officials at a court meeting: "What is the most urgent matter in the country today?" Xuan Suiliang immediately replied: "There is no danger in the four directions now, but the crown prince and the kings should have a fixed point and the most urgent." ( Volume 196)

The so-called "should have fixed points" is actually to persuade the emperor to completely dispel the idea of ​​abolishing the elders and establishing the younger ones, so as to put an end to King Wei's desire to seize the heir.Li Shimin thought so deeply, and then appointed Wei Zheng as the prince's grand teacher, and asked him to assist the prince wholeheartedly. As we all know, Wei Zheng is the most loyal and upright person among the ministers of Zhenguan, and he is also the most staunch supporter of the son-in-law system. He was sent to be the chief teacher of the prince. On the one hand, he certainly hoped to make Li Chengqian a qualified prince. On the other hand, it is also an attempt to "eliminate doubts in the world".

In other words, it is the desire to let Wei Wang Li Tai die and become the prince! Because of this, Li Shimin would resolutely stand up to refute the rumors when members of the royal party of Wei deliberately spread political rumors unfavorable to the prince in the capital, and reiterated the principle of the succession system to the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty at the court meeting. Although Li Shimin was very dissatisfied with what the prince had done over the years, he still did not give up on Li Chengqian. If the prince can change his past, Li Shimin still hopes to put him on the throne.

However, Li Chengqian is a dou who cannot be supported after all. Just when Li Shimin changed his mind and gave up the idea of ​​abolishing the establishment, a disgusting scandal broke out in the East Palace. The incident originated from a happy boy named Xinxin. The name Xinxin was given by Li Chengqian.As the name suggests, it was this Le Tong who made the prince feel very "satisfactory".According to historical records, this little boy was "more than ten years old, beautiful in appearance, and good at singing and dancing" ("Old Tang Book · Hengshan Wang Chengqian Biography"), so he was deeply loved by Li Chengqian.

How much do you love? Doting to the extent of "sleeping and rising with the same person" (Volume 196), that is, eating, sleeping, and having sex together. In Chinese history, Li Chengqian is by no means the only one who interpreted the scene of Brokeback Mountain.There are far away the allusions of "Fentao" between Wei Linggong and Mi Zixia, "Longyang's goodness" between Wei Anli King and Longyang Lord; recent Han Emperor Ai and Dong Xian's "broken sleeve" style, Chen Wendi and Han Zigao "The Strange Tale of a Male Empress"... Throughout the dynasties, there have been countless emperors and generals with such homosexual tendencies and pedophilia behaviors.

However, it may be okay for others to have ten sympathies, but Li Chengqian only needs one sympathy to kill him.Because right now his butt is sitting on a crater, and the undercurrent of seizing the heirloom underneath is surging and may erupt at any time.At such a critical moment, how could Li Chengqian's dirty deeds not be deliberately exposed by his opponents? Soon someone brought the matter to the emperor, and Li Shimin was furious. He immediately arrested and killed Li Chengqian, and scolded Li Chengqian, wishing he could be abolished immediately. In a person's life, the most difficult enemy to deal with often does not come from the outside, but from the inside—from all kinds of uncontrollable desires deep in human nature.If a person cannot first defeat the enemy in his heart, he cannot become strong, let alone hope to defeat his opponent.In a life-and-death political struggle, every additional desire in you may expose a fatal weakness to your opponent, and the opponent may seize your weakness and put you to death in one fell swoop!

It's a pity that Li Chengqian, the prince of the Tang Dynasty, doesn't seem to understand this truth.At the critical juncture when Wei Wang Li Tai was deliberately trying to bring him down, he didn't know how to wipe his ass clean, and even exposed his weakness to his opponents everywhere. Sadly, the death of Xinxin still did not arouse Li Chengqian's due reflection and vigilance.Instead of changing his mind and changing his past, he built a mourning hall for Xin Xin in the palace, enshrined a statue, burned incense day and night to pay homage, and cried all day long.In addition, he buried Xinxin's body in the back garden of the East Palace, secretly bestowed official titles, and erected tombstones.

Li Shimin has reached the point where he can't bear what the prince has done. Of course Li Chengqian knew this better than anyone else.But he didn't try to save the situation, but he didn't go to the palace for several months in a fit of anger, and even "ordered dozens of household slaves to specialize in martial arts and music, learn how to make buns from barbarians, cut colorful clothes for dance clothes, and look for scorpions to dance swords." , day and night without interruption", so "the sound of drums and horns is heard outside every day". ("Old Tang Book·Hengshan Wang Chengqian Biography")

This is called shattering. This is called making up your mind and going all the way to the dark! Li Chengqian believed that the Xinxin incident was a secret reported by Li Tai, and he hated Li Tai to the extreme, so he secretly organized an assassination group of more than 100 people. Order them - find a chance to kill Li Tai at any time! Of course Li Chengqian at this moment would not know that not only did these assassins fail to kill Li Tai in the end, one of them betrayed him instead. In the late spring of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan (643 A.D.), Prince Li Chengqian and Wei Wang Litai finally came to the brink of life and death. The crisis of the Tang Dynasty's crown prince also reached a critical point, and Tang Taizong Li Shimin was facing the most serious crisis since he came to the throne. political test.

It's all so familiar. A vassal king who is ambitious and intends to seize the throne. A precarious prince who can only fight to the death. An emperor who was anxious and afraid of the tragedy happening again. The political K-line chart of the Tang Dynasty has reached an unpredictable inflection point, and no one knows what directional choice history will make. Li Chengqian decided to fight—— Even if he fights him to death, he will not hesitate. He knew that the imperial edict of his father Li Shimin's dethronement would come to him at any time, so he could only put all his eggs in one basket and preemptively strike! In order to strengthen his own strength, Li Chengqian decided to recruit someone into the gang. who? Hou Junji. Will he join the gang? Will do.Li Chengqian is fully sure of this.Because among all the founding fathers and important officials of the court, only this person is the most dissatisfied with the status quo, and only this person has the deepest resentment towards the emperor. Li Chengqian believes that with his joining, there will be a three-point chance of winning this battle to defend the reserve and the battle for the throne. Without further ado, Li Chengqian immediately sent a message of sincere invitation to Hou Junji to join him through Hou Junji's son-in-law Helan Chushi (the guard with a sword in the East Palace at the time). Finally the day has come! When Helan Chushi announced his purpose of coming with a mysterious face, Hou Junji felt an inexplicable excitement and trembling in his heart. After being aggrieved for so many years, I can finally feel proud and play big! Hou Junji immediately went to the East Palace to pay a visit to the crown prince. Li Chengqian said to him bluntly: "It seems that my position as the crown prince is at stake. Why do you teach me, sir?" Hou Junji spit out a word from his mouth expressionlessly - anti. Li Chengqian pretended to be terrified: Sir, why did you say such a thing, this is going to exterminate the whole family! Hou Junji suddenly stretched out a hand in front of the prince, and said in a loud voice: "This minister has this good hand, and it is for His Highness to use." Li Chengqian slapped his thigh: "Okay! What I want is the words of the sir!" Hou Junji looked at the prince's arrogant and superficial face, and couldn't help sneering in his heart: You don't even piss to take care of yourself, and you want to be emperor even if you are so ugly?When the old man wins the throne for you, I will deal with you later, and let you see what it means to pray for a mantis to catch a cicada, and the oriole is behind! Immediately after Hou Junji, Li Chengqian paid a lot of money to buy Li Anyan, the general of the forbidden army who was in charge of the inner guards, and asked him to closely monitor the emperor's every move and report to the East Palace at any time. Han Wang Li Yuanchang also tried his best to instigate the prince to rebel, but his goal was quite different from Hou Junji's. Hou Junji was aiming at the position of the Son of Heaven, but this prince was looking for a beauty. He said to the prince: "Recently, I saw a beautiful woman beside the emperor, who can play the pipa very well. After the matter is completed, I hope His Highness will reward her to me." Li Chengqian agreed. At that time, the whole world will be ours, let alone a mere woman! The princelings began to act in full swing, and some princes and relatives in the court joined in one after another, including Du He (the son of Du Ruhui, married to Li Shimin's daughter Chengyang Princess), Kaihua Gong Zhao Jie (whose mother is Li Shimin's sister Princess Changguang) et al.This group of people made an alliance with blood, vowed to live and die together, planned a coup, and sent troops to attack the palace.Du He said to Li Chengqian: "I recently looked up at the sky and found signs of change. We should take immediate action. As long as His Highness claims to be seriously ill or dying, the Emperor will definitely come to visit him. Then the plan will be successful." Just when the prince group was about to make a move, news of Qi Wang Li You's rebellion spread to Chang'an. Li Chengqian sneered and said to Hegan Chengji and others: "The west wall of the East Palace is only 20 steps away from Da Nei. If we want to For such a big event, how can it be his turn, a little King Qi!" However, Li Chengqian never expected that his "big event" would end up being broken by Qi Wang Li You. Before Li Chengqian and his followers had time to act, a catastrophe fell from the sky.