Short videos tell the story of ancient times, bringing tears to the eyes of all dynasties

Chapter 96: The Anshi Rebellion begins

[Li Longji's third prime minister was Zhang Yue. Zhang Yue was a man of both civil and military talents. However, the reason why Li Longji chose him as prime minister was mainly because of his literary talent. After all, the prosperous times had come, so he had to find someone with good literary talent to sing praises of the prosperous times, right?]

[The most important thing Zhang Yue did during his tenure was to assist Li Longji in completing the Fengshan Ceremony at Mount Tai. Fengshan Ceremony at Mount Tai was the highest honor for ancient monarchs. Simply put, Fengshan Ceremony at Mount Tai meant reporting achievements to the Emperor of Heaven. I completed the task you two gave me and led my subjects into a peaceful and prosperous era.]

[Before Li Longji, only five emperors had accomplished the feat of Fengshan on Mount Tai. ]

【Qin Shi Huang Ying Zheng, Emperor Wu of Han Liu Che, Emperor Guangwu of Han Liu Xiu, and his grandfather Emperor Gaozong of Tang Li Zhi. 】

[When Li Longji climbed to the top of Mount Tai, he looked at his vast mountains and rivers and heard his ministers shouting "Long live the emperor". One can imagine how excited he was.]

[At this time, he not only reached the top of Mount Tai, but also the top of the Tang Dynasty and the top of his life. ]

……

Throughout the dynasties, countless emperors looked at Li Longji, who was in high spirits on the top of Mount Tai, with envy in their eyes.

Of course, some people expressed dissatisfaction.

Liu Xiu, who also performed the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai, was ashamed of Li Longji.

Didn’t you see what Tianmu said? He personally created the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and personally ended the prosperous Tang Dynasty, leaving the people with endless pain.

Emperor Guangwu, who was trying to restore the glory of the Han Dynasty, naturally looked down on such a person who lost his integrity in his later years.

As for Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, although he looked down on Li Longji in his heart, he did not say it out loud. After all, he had done a lot of ridiculous things in his later years, so the eldest brother would not laugh at the second brother.

Li Zhi, who was also an emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was more regretful that his grandson had lost his integrity in his later years.

Otherwise, how glorious it would be for the Tang Dynasty to have two emperors who would be the greatest in history, and it would be so prestigious to tell others about it.

Unfortunately, all of this was ruined by this guy Li Longji.

……

[Soon, Li Longji will face his downturn. ]

[Many people will ask, when did Li Longji start to slack off? There is no precise time. ]

[However, Sima Qian recorded a small incident in Zizhi Tongjian, saying that Li Longji had a dwarf as his personal attendant. When Li Longji went out, he had to lean on him to walk. It could be said that he was a fully automatic human crutch.]

[Li Longji loved his walking stick very much. Once, when this dwarf entered the palace, he argued with a minister about the road, and neither of them would give way.]

[How dare a dwarf, a servant, argue with a minister? In that era when respect and inferiority were important, the dwarf's behavior was a way to get him killed.]

[After Li Longji learned about this, he said to the dwarf, "It's okay. As long as no one reports this to the emperor, I won't punish you."]

[You see, Li Longji wanted to protect him, but as he was talking, a memorial arrived, impeaching this dwarf for not knowing the rules.]

[Li Longji immediately turned hostile and beat the dwarf to death with a stick.]

[During this period, Li Longji became more and more fond of holding banquets and listening to music in the palace, or going out hunting.]

[The prime minister at the time was also a minister of remonstrance named Han Cong. When Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was having fun, he would always ask others about it. Han Cong probably didn't know about this.]

[It can be seen that at this time, Li Longji had changed from actively working hard to secretly being lazy. He was already fed up with the advice of his ministers. I have created a peak prosperous era, can't you praise me? ]

[To use the words of Emperor Liu, I have fought wars all my life, so can't I just enjoy myself? ]

……

Liu Bei blushed. He had said this himself? How could he not remember it?
Why does Tianmu always like to slander good people!

……

The Tang Dynasty.

During the Zhenguan period.

Li Shimin sighed.

Freezing three feet is not a day's cold.

The emperor behaves like this, and the people below will follow suit.

I'm afraid that his great-grandson has forgotten his original intention and the content of the ten things he wanted to say?

Li Longji vividly demonstrated through his actions that people always change.

……

[It's easy to hear nice words. What's the cost of nice words? If you want to hear them, I'll tell you. ] [In order to prevent the prime ministers during Li Longji's time from monopolizing power, they were generally replaced every two to three years. No matter how good they were, there was one exception. He stayed in the position of prime minister for 19 years.]

[This person is Li Linfu, who speaks sweetly, as if his lips are smeared with honey. ]

[Li Linfu was unusual. When he had something to report to Li Longji, he would first bribe the people around Li Longji to find out what Li Longji was thinking. He would say whatever made Li Longji happy.]

[Li Longji wanted to depose the crown prince, but his ministers opposed it and the censors refused to allow it. Li Linfu said that this was your Majesty's family affair, so why ask outsiders?]

[Li Longji wanted to make an exception and promote a border general to be the Shangshu, but the ministers opposed it. Li Linfu said, "Does the emperor need to discuss this with you when he appoints people?"]

【Li Longji was very satisfied with Li Linfu's nice words. He had been on the throne for decades and had long been tired of it. In the past, he did not dare to slack off. Once he was lazy, the alarm bells of the censors would sound. But after he met Li Linfu, the situation changed.】

[One day, Li Linfu called the censors together and said, "Have you ever observed the horses in the ceremonial guard? They never neigh, and they can enjoy the feed of a third-rank official just by standing there."]

[Have you ever seen a horse in a ceremonial guard that whinnies? They would have been dragged out and beaten to death long ago.]

[Now that His Majesty is so famous, what can you boast about? How many prosperous times have you created? Looking through history books, how many people have created prosperous times? ]

[Your Majesty has created a prosperous era. Isn't that enough? Shut up from now on! ]

【After Li Linfu did this, the censors dared not speak up from then on. They were called "Zhang Xia Ma" and became silent mascots.】

[Now Li Longji can finally let go of himself and leave all matters, big or small, to Li Linfu. ]

[At this point, Li Linfu was in power and sold official positions wantonly. The number of officials continued to expand, reaching 368000, 100 times that of Emperor Taizong’s reign.]

[On average, every 27 households had to support one official, and the common people were forced to sell their children to pay the money.]

【As for Li Longji, he focused on eating, drinking and having fun from then on. He finally returned to his musical dream. He happily adapted the masterpiece of Tang Dynasty music, "Nichang Yuyi Qu". 】

[Li Longji also built palaces on a large scale. When he was young, Li Longji dismissed 3000 palace maids in order to save money. Now, the number of palace maids has reached 4. ]

……

"Be close to virtuous officials and stay away from villains."

Three Kingdoms period.

Zhuge Liang was teaching Liu Chan, pointing to the sky, and said, "Your Majesty, Li Linfu is a complete traitor."

Liu Chan nodded, not quite understanding.

……

Selling official positions and titles, the number of officials is a hundred times that of the Taizong period!
Looking at these words, Li Shimin's face turned dark.

The common people were forced to sell their children, but the emperor turned a blind eye. You call this a wise ruler?

"How did this bastard become like this!?"

……

[Despite this, Li Longji still felt unhappy. His life lacked passion and he lacked the feeling of first love.]

[Li Longji's father, the eunuch Gao Lishi, had a way. He tricked Li Longji's stunning daughter-in-law Yang Yuhuan into Li Longji's bathing pool, and successfully let Li Longji experience the excitement. That night, Li Longji seemed to be much younger, like an 18-year-old boy.]

[How could Li Longji not use Gao Lishi, who was so considerate? ]

[With Li Longji's heavy support, how much power did Gao Lishi have? All memorials from all quarters had to be presented to Gao Lishi first, and Gao Lishi could make decisions on small matters himself.]

[The prince calls Gao Lishi "Second Brother", the princess calls Gao Lishi "Aung", and the prince consort calls Gao Lishi "Father".]

[Li Longji even said that only when Gao Lishi was there could he sleep peacefully.]

[Because Li Longji favored his daughter-in-law Yang Guifei, the Yang family had neither military merit nor political achievements, but they all rose to prominence.]

[Especially Yang Guifei's brother Yang Guozhong, who formed a clique for personal gain and suppressed dissidents. All the officials in the central government who were not from the Yang family were either executed or dismissed.]

[The prosperous Tang Dynasty, which was so glorious not long ago, has now become a thing of the past. On an ordinary morning in the Tang Dynasty, a general from the Hu tribe came to the capital to meet Li Longji with his fat body. When he saw Li Longji, he bowed down and paid homage, but ignored the crown prince beside him.]

[Someone else reminded him that this was the prince, and he had to bow down to him. The fat man said, "I've only heard of the emperor, what is a prince?"

[Someone else explained that the prince was the one who would wait until the emperor died a hundred years later to succeed him. The fat man burst into tears after hearing this and said, "How can the emperor still die? I, An Lushan, firmly disagree!"]

【Faced with such a loyal An Lushan, Li Longji was deeply moved. 】

[From then on, the chubby An Lushan became his favorite, and the bloodiest rebellion, the An-Shi Rebellion, began its countdown.]

(End of this chapter)