Chapter 4 The rebel leader who loves to eat elixir

The new year is here.Li Yuan was delighted to see that the flames of war that had been burning for many years seemed to be dissipating, and the flames of war all over the world seemed to be gradually extinguished. At the beginning of the first month, Liu Heikai was defeated and Hebei was pacified. In February, Xu Yuanlang was so weak that he abandoned the city and fled. He was killed by refugees, and Henan was pacified. In late March, the generals He Sui and Suo Tong of Liang Shidu led the twelve prefectures under their jurisdiction to surrender to Tang.Since then, Liang Shidu's power has been greatly weakened. Although relying on the support of the Turkic people to invade the border from time to time, it is basically in decline and it is difficult to do anything.

In mid-June, Yuan Junzhang (former part of Liu Wuzhou), who had been guarding Mayi (now Shuozhou City, Shanxi), was expelled by his subordinate Gao Manzheng in a mutiny and fled to East Turks; Guogong, Ren Shuozhou general manager. Until the early autumn of this year, although Gao Kaidao was still carrying out small-scale raids and looting in Hebei, and there were still some sporadic small-scale rebellions in various places, it is obvious to all that the world has stabilized. After years of war and chaos, there is no lack of longing for peace and longing for reunification. This is Li Yuan's basic judgment on the general trend of the world in the six years of Wude.

This is also a basic consensus of the Li and Tang courts. However, in this world, there are always people who don't want to be a good official or a good citizen who governs the world, but prefer to be a hero or a hero in troubled times.Although the lessons of failure like Liu Heitai and Xu Yuanlang are right in front of them, there are still people who are willing to follow in their footsteps and risk their lives to play the heartbeat again. The instigator of this last wave of rebellion was Du Fuwei's comrade-in-arms and deputy for many years, Fu Gong Er. On the ninth day of August of this year, Fu Gong Er, who was then the official of Huainan Dao Xingtai, rebelled against Danyang (now Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province).

When the news reached Chang'an, Du Fuwei seemed to have been hit by a thunderbolt on Tianling Gai, and he didn't recover for a long time. The thing he was most worried about in the past few years finally happened. In fact, as early as Liu Heita, Xu Yuanlang, Gao Kaidao and others rebelled, Du Fuwei had a feeling of being underdog.Because Du Fuwei was also one of the most violent anti-kings in the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties, it was hard for people to believe that he had no attempt to rebel.Even though he now thinks that he is loyal to Li Tang, his anti-king status in the past can easily attract people's suspicion and fear.Although Li Yuan never showed any suspicion of him, Du Fuwei knew the emperor's true thoughts very well, so he knew that he had to take the initiative to do something in order to eliminate the slander and suspicion of him from the ruling and opposition parties.

What to do? After thinking about it, there is only one best way - to enter the dynasty. In July of the fifth year of Wude, when Li Shimin was attacking Xu Yuanlang in the Huaihe area, Du Fuwei, who was stationed in Danyang at that time, asked Li Yuan to join the court.Li Yuan was very pleased with Du Fuwei's clever way of actively avoiding suspicion to show his loyalty. He immediately called him into the court, appointed him as the prince and Taibao, and led the post of Taishang Shuling from afar. Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, was ranked ahead of Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, and Kan Leng, the adopted son who accompanied Du Fuwei to the court, also worshiped as the general who led the left army.

Facing the trust and courtesy of the emperor, Du Fuwei was both grateful and satisfied. But the more satisfied he was with the status quo, the more worried he was that someone would destroy it. Who is he worried about? Auxiliary public Er. On the surface, everyone thought that Du Fuwei and Fu Gong Er were life-and-death friends, but in fact this relationship has long since ceased to exist.In the early days of the rebellion, there might have been a bit of sympathy between them, but with the passage of time and changes in the environment, the two of them gradually drifted apart, from indifference and estrangement to mutual defense and suspicion.Later, Du Fuwei's status became higher and higher, and Fu Gong Er was envious and jealous, but his city was extremely deep, and he never revealed it.The more he covets power in his heart, the more he pretends to be indifferent on the outside. In the end, he even practiced alchemy with his old friend Zuo Youxian all day long, hiding his edge in an inhuman manner, and playing down Du Fuwei's vigilance.

However, Du Fuwei's wariness against him has never been lifted. People who live on knife edge all the year round are not so easy to be paralyzed. But superficial articles are always to be done. Since Fu Gong Er is so low-key, Du Fuwei certainly has no reason to turn against him, so he always puts Fu Gong Er in the second-in-command position. If there were no waves caused by Liu Heizhen and others, Du and Fu's Tai Chi pushing hands might continue to fight like this, and no one would want to do anything to the other.But later the times changed drastically, and Du Fuwei had to enter the court, and had to hand over the administrative power of Danyang to Fugong Er.Before leaving, Du Fuwei deliberately placed his adopted son and subordinate Wang Xiongdan next to Fugong Er, ordered him to take charge of the military power, and solemnly told him: "After I arrive in Chang'an, if everything goes well, I must not let you Auxiliary Gong Er has changed!"

Wang Xiongdan is a brave general, lacking in courage and loyalty, but lacking in scheming.So not long after Du Fuwei entered the court, Fu Gong Er used a small trick to seize Wang Xiongdan's military power. Loyalty is very suspicious.Wang Xiongdan was immediately caught in the trick, and since then he was disheartened, and refused to enter the state government on the pretext of illness, and the military and political power immediately fell into the hands of Fugong Er. It wasn't until Fu Gong Er made all preparations for the rebellion and sent someone to issue an ultimatum to Wang Xiongdan to force him to join the gang, Wang Xiongdan woke up like a dream, too late to regret.He said to the visitors: "But today, Xiaping is peaceful, and King Wu (Du Fuwei) is in the capital again. The Tang Dynasty is mighty and invincible. How can he rebel without a reason and seek to exterminate his own family? The only thing to do is to die, and dare not fall into injustice." !” Immediately he was hanged and killed by Fu Gong Er.

Then Fu Gong Er couldn't wait to set up the anti-flag, ascended the throne in Danyang and proclaimed himself emperor. Zhang Shan'an, ordered him to be Daxingtai on the Southwest Road. The rebellion of the auxiliary male shrine undoubtedly left Du Fuwei speechless. Moreover, Fu Gong Er was trying his best to use his signboard, saying that he raised troops under his secret order, making it clear that he wanted to use the imperial sword to put him to death. Du Fuwei realized that—his fame, wealth, wealth and life were ruined overnight by Fu Gong Er. On August 28th, Li Yuan issued an edict ordering Tang troops from various places to divide into four routes: Li Xiaogong, the king of Zhao County, led the navy to Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang City, Jiangxi); (now Xuanzhou City, Anhui Province) set off; Huaizhou (now Qinyang City, Henan Province) Huang Junhan, the general manager, sent troops from Qiaobo (now Bozhou City, Anhui Province); .

In September, Fu Gong Er ordered generals Feng Huiliang and Chen Dangshi to station 30,000 sailors at Bowang Mountain (southwest of Dangtu County, Anhui today), and Chen Zhengtong and Xu Shaozong led 30,000 cavalry to Qinglin Mountain (now Dangtu County, Anhui). southeast of the county), the two armies formed horns and cooperated in attack and defense; in addition, the Song army pulled up iron chains on both sides of the Yangtze River in Liangshan (now Anhui and the south of the county), crossing the river to stop the Tang Dynasty's navy, and A large number of fortresses were built along the coast, stretching for more than ten miles, and finally set up camp on the west bank of the Yangtze River, ready for battle.

Song Jun quickly built an iron wall in front of Tang Jun. In October, Li Xiaogong and Li Jing's navy joined forces and arrived at Shuzhou (now Qianshan County, Anhui); at the same time, Li Shiji led 10,000 infantry across the Huaihe River to the south, captured Shouyang (now Shouxian County, Anhui), and stationed Xiashi (now north of Shou County, Anhui). In November, General Chen Dangshi of the Song Army led his troops south to block the Tang Army.Zhang Zhenzhou, the general manager of Shuzhou in Tang Dynasty, sent troops to fight against Chen Dangshi in the southeast of Youzhou (now Jing County, Anhui). In December, Li Daliang, the appeasement envoy of the Tang Dynasty, designed to trap Zhang Shan'an, Daxingtai of the Southwest Road of Song Dynasty in Hongzhou, defeated his troops, and successfully cut off an arm extended by the assistant public erh. On the eleventh day of the first month of the seventh year of Wude (AD 624), Li Xiaogong and Li Jing marched all the way to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. They first entered Zongyang (now Zongyang County, Anhui), defeated the Song army stationed here, and then captured Quetou ( North of today's Tongling City, Anhui), and then marched towards Bowang Mountain where Feng Huiliang was stationed. At the same time when Li Xiaogong and Li Jing were attacking the hinterland of the Song army, Du Fuwei suddenly died suddenly in Chang'an. Du Fuwei's death is very strange, and the records in various historical books are very brief.Only one word was written: "喨"; while the "Old Book of Tang" only said two words: "Sudden death"; only the "New Book of Tang" gave the cause of death: "Fuwei is good at immortal perennial art, and the bait mica was killed. poison".Mica is a kind of elixir of Taoism. It can be seen that Du Fuwei died of poisoning after taking elixir.But the question is, did Du Fuwei overdose and died of this elixir, or did he die because of some external force?In other words, did Du Fuwei commit suicide or homicide? Regarding this question, the history books did not give an answer.But we can deduce based on a series of events that happened since then that the answer is likely to be the latter.First of all, more than a month later, Li Xiaogong pacified Fugong Er, copied the so-called "anti-book" between Du Fuwei and Fu Gong Er Er, and reported it to the court, claiming that Du Fuwei was the mastermind behind Fu Gong Er's rebellion. Without saying a word, Li Yuan immediately issued an edict to pursue Du Fuwei's official title, and confiscated all his wives and children as slaves.Reminiscent of the favor and courtesy Du Fuwei received before and the identities of his prince Taibao and King Wu, even if there is a so-called "reverse case", it should be carefully investigated and tried by the relevant departments. After finding conclusive evidence But why did the Li Tang court not go through any normal procedures, just relying on the so-called "anti-book" concocted by the assistant public erh with ulterior motives, and couldn't wait to "cut the grass and root out" Du Fuwei?This has to make people doubt Li Yuan's true intentions. Secondly, Kan Leng, the adopted son who accompanied Du Fuwei into the court, suffered even more unbearable fate thereafter.When the Tang army launched a large-scale conquest of Fugong Er, Kan Leng also participated in the counter-insurgency campaign and played a significant role on the battlefield. "New Book of Tang Kan Leng Biography" records: "The public shrine rebelled, and there were many merits." All the property of Danyang.The reason is that Fu Gong Er confessed after his arrest that Kan Leng conspired with him.Obviously, Fu Gong Er's confession is purely a false accusation, because both Kan Leng and Wang Xiongdan are Du Fuwei's confidantes, and Kan Leng personally participated in the battle against him. So his confession is absolutely unreliable.Anyone can see this, presumably Li Xiaogong also knows it well.But he actually confiscated Kan Leng's family property.Of course Kan Leng was not convinced, so he argued hard, and Li Xiaogong simply beheaded Kan Leng on the spot on the charge of treason, saving even the link of reporting to the court.We have to ask questions about this: Why did Li Xiaogong listen to Fu Gong Er's false accusation, why did he so rashly accuse Kan Leng of "conspiracy" and confiscate his property?Even though he himself believed that Kan Leng was indeed involved in the rebellion, before the matter was investigated clearly, why would he kill a court official and a hero who countered the rebellion without the court's consent?If Li Xiaogong did not have the backing of the imperial court and the emperor Li Yuan's prior instruction, would he dare to do this?Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that Wang Xiongdan was killed by Fugong Er because he did not want to participate in the rebellion. It is said that he should be regarded as a loyal minister and martyr of Li Tang, but why is he also regarded as rebellion?All this is really counterintuitive. Finally, a more meaningful fact is that in the first year of Zhenguan (AD 627), Tang Taizong Li Shimin came to the throne, and he rehabilitated Du Fuwei in that year. ("New Tang Book Biography of Du Fuwei").Li Shimin is so eager to vindicate Du Fuwei, at least it shows one point, that is, the unjust, false and wrongful case involving many people is absolutely impossible to be the unintentional fault of Li Yuan's court, but to take advantage of the opportunity of the rebellion of Gong Er to kill him. , Cut off the "Jianghuai Small Group" headed by Du Fuwei in one fell swoop. As we all know, Du Fuwei was one of the earliest separatist forces in the late Sui Dynasty, and had great influence in the Jianghuai area. Although Du Fuwei belonged to the Tang Dynasty, mutual suspicion between him and the Li Tang court was inevitable. .Because of this, Du Fuwei quickly took the initiative to enter the court as a hostage after Liu Heitai, Xu Yuanlang and others rebelled.On the surface, Li Yuan was calm and showed great favor to Du Fuwei who entered the court, but in fact his inner fear was extremely strong.We can even say that the more jealous he is in his heart, the more he has to show his favor to Du Fuwei on the surface, and the two are actually directly proportional.After Fugong Er's blatant rebellion, there was a great momentum of shouting and responding in Jianghuai. Li Yuan felt that the old forces in Jianghuai were a great unstable factor in the southern part of the empire.Therefore, instead of worrying that some people in this small Jianghuai group will rebel after Fugong Er, it is better to take this opportunity to kill them all and eradicate the future troubles once and for all. To sum up, we have reason to believe that Du Fuwei probably died of murder, and the man behind the whole unjust, false and wrongly decided case is Li Yuan, Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. In March of the seventh year of Wude, Li Xiaogong and Li Jing defeated the Song army in Wuhu, and quickly went north to conquer the three military towns in Liangshan (now south of Hexian County, Anhui). All Song army fortresses were conquered.Feng Huiliang and others fled back to Danyang in embarrassment, and tens of thousands of Song soldiers were killed and drowned in the Yangtze River. Li Jing's troops took the lead in attacking the city of Danyang, and Fu Gong Er cowardly fought, abandoned Danyang, and fled eastward with tens of thousands of horses, preparing to defect to Kuaiji where Zuo Youxian was stationed.At that time, Li Shiji's army had also arrived, chasing after him.When Fu Gong Er fled to Jurong in panic, tens of thousands of troops had fled one after another, and finally only more than 500 people remained. One night in late March, the distraught Fu Gong Er fled to Changzhou with his remnant troops. General Wu Sao and others conspired in the posthouse to arrest him and surrender to the Tang army.Suspicious Fu Gong Er noticed it, so he abandoned his wife and children overnight, and fled again with only a few dozen soldiers.When the group fled to Wukang (now west of Deqing County, Zhejiang Province), they were attacked by local refugees, Fugong Er was captured alive, and immediately sent to Danyang to beheaded.The Tang army divided troops to search for the remaining party members of Fu Gong Er, and then killed them all. So far, Jiangnan has been completely calmed down.Li Tang Dynasty "from the Huaihe River in the north, surrounded the river in the east, crossed the mountains and went to the south, and completely unified it" ("New Book of Tang·Hejian Wang Xiaogong Biography").Later, the imperial court abolished the Xingtai and renamed it the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion. Li Xiaogong was promoted to the Metropolitan Governor of Yangzhou for his contribution to pacifying half of the empire, and Li Jing was the chief history of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion.Li Yuan kept praising Li Jing: "Li Jing is really the nemesis of Xiao Xian and Fu Gong Er!" Just before the last wave of rebellion in the south of the Yangtze River was put down, Gao Kaidao, who claimed to be the king of Yan in Huairong, Hebei (now Huailai County, Hebei), had already gone to perish before Fugong Er. The person who stabbed Gao Kaidao from behind was his most trusted adopted son, Zhang Jinshu, captain of the guard. One day in February of the seventh year of Wude, Zhang Jinshu launched a mutiny and surrounded Gao Kaidao's mansion.Gao Kaidao knew that he was doomed, so he gathered all his wives, concubines and children, drank with them, and even ordered the musicians to play for fun.I drank this desolate wine for the whole night.By the time the table was messed up and everyone was drunk, the eastern sky had gradually dawned.Holding a rope in his hand, Gao Kaidao wobbled around the lobby, strangled his wives, concubines and children to death, and then hanged himself. In the morning of that day, Zhang Jinshu ordered the troops to put martial law in the city, and beheaded all Gao Kaidao's adopted sons, then beheaded Gao Kaidao, and sent envoys to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. On February 20, Li Yuan's edict and appointment letter arrived in Huairong quickly. A few days ago, Zhang Jinshu, a boy who was unknown to no one, transformed himself on this day and became the governor of Northern Yanzhou of the Tang Empire. The waves behind the Yangtze River push forward the waves ahead, and a new generation replaces the old ones. Only the newcomers laugh, who hears the old ones cry? Old people don't cry. Because the old man has become a corpse. Numerous corpses are piled up into a ladder, creating a height for newcomers to stand out. Everyone is like this, why is the dynasty alone? Since the seventh year of Sui Daye (AD 611) Wang Bo from Zouping sang the deafening "Death Song of the Undirected Liaodong Wave" in the land of Qilu, to the seventh year of Tang Wude (AD 624) Gao Kaidao and Fu Gong Er and others The successive destruction of the world, a thirteen-year era of earth-shattering and bloody storms finally came to an end. Looking back, people can't help but ask, what kind of era is this? All we can say is- This is an era when turning hands into clouds and turning hands into rain. This is an era where anything is possible. Heaven and hell are only between one thought.High and low, poverty, life and death, honor and disgrace, success or failure, bluntness, gains and losses, blessings and misfortunes... These seemingly contradictory polarities often transpose each other at some erroneous moments, as quickly as lightning.And in your short life like smoke passing by, you can witness what it means to change stars and change things, and change the world; you can also witness what life is like a dream and eternity in an instant in a short second when a knife flashes by. This is an era when one inadvertent move loses everything. This is an era where everything is predestined. At first glance, the big chessboard of history looks turbulent and full of dragons and tigers, but when you inadvertently turn around and look back, everything has settled down.You can only regret, why not start all over again? When the opening game of fate is incomparably exciting, you think that your means are exquisite, even if you can't get out of the world, at least you can fight for an exquisite game.But you are heroic and short of breath, every step is an inch of ashes, and you may be sad in the end, why no one told you at the beginning-be careful, you will not regret it!