Li Shimin, one emperor through the ages

Chapter 3 Yanmen rescue driver (1)
Today, it is a good autumn day when "the wind keeps the small porch without fallen leaves, and the caterpillars spit out the autumn silk". It is the good day chosen by the master for Li Shimin and Changsun.As early as last month, Shimin's mother, Dou Shi, agreed with Li Yuan to marry Changsun Shimin for Shimin today.Now, all the matters of the wedding have already been properly arranged.The bride's eldest grandson, accompanied by her elder brother eldest grandson Wuji, has also come to Yuncheng. They can pay homage to their marriage only when Shimin's father and elder brother arrive from Linfen.

The reason why the bride's eldest grandson was only accompanied by her elder brother eldest grandson Wuji was because she had only such relatives in front of her.As early as in Chang'an, when Li Yuan was the young prisoner in the palace, the second son Shimin had just turned eight years old.One day, Gao Shilian, who was the Lilang of Chuzhi at that time, visited Li Shimin on business. When he saw Li Shimin, he was astonished.This Gao Shilian, whose grandfather Gao Yue was the cousin of Gao Huan, Emperor Shenwu of the Northern Qi Dynasty, was granted the title of King of Qinghe.His niece, Changsun, is the beloved daughter of General Sun Sheng of Youxiaowei. Because Changsun Sheng died in battle, Gao Shilian took his sister and her pair of children, Changsun Wuji and Changsun, back to his home and treated him very kindly. them.Li Yuan admired his elder Sun Sheng very much, and also admired Gao Shilian's talent and personality. He knew that the girl raised by such a family would definitely be outstanding. Seeing Gao Shilian's offer, Dang even happily agreed to the marriage.But not long after, Gao Shilian was exiled to Jiaozhi by Emperor Sui Yang because of his close relationship with the minister of the Ministry of War, Hu Sizheng, who had fled to Korea.Today, Shimin has passed the age of Zhixue (15 years old) and can marry a wife.When Li Yuan came to Yuncheng last month, he talked with Mrs. Dou about his son's marriage, and asked an expert to set a date for Shimin's wedding.

Li Yuan was the cousin of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. He was born in Longyaodong, Hebei, and he was granted the title of Duke of Tang at the age of seven.He is suave, open-minded, benevolent and straightforward, and quite accommodating.His wife, Dou Shi, was born in Jingzhao Shiping, and his father was Dou Yi, the general manager of Dingzhou in the Sui Dynasty and the god of martial arts.Dou is smart and beautiful, with outstanding talent. He writes well, especially calligraphy. He imitates Li Yuan's notes, and no one can tell the truth from the fake.She has been married to Li Yuan for more than ten years, and has four sons and one daughter. Since Li Yuan is away almost all year round, she is mainly dedicated to educating children.

Li Shimin is the second son of the Li family. He met the bride Changsun Shi and her elder brother Changsun Wuji when they were in Chang'an a few years ago. Because of their like-mindedness, he and Changsun Wuji get along like brothers.It has been five years now.When we parted, Changsun Wuji's younger sister, Changsun Shi, had just turned eight years old.In Li Shimin's eyes, she is as pure as a little angel, and she will ask this and that with her big bright eyes at any time. Once she asked Li Shimin: "Brother Shimin, why is it acceptable for a fool to say ugly, and why is it acceptable for a wise man to say evil?" Is there no place left?"

Li Shimin has never forgotten the little angel's question, but now that she is in her prime (13 years old), she is about to become his wife, what should she look like?In the past few days, Li Shimin has been asking himself, and his heart is always beating.Now that she came, she wanted to take a look with all her heart, but she didn't expect to knock a young man to the ground as soon as she went out.Li Shimin hurried to pull him, and saw that it was Changsun Wuji, the elder brother of the Changsun family.

"You!" They both looked at each other in surprise.

This eldest grandson Wuji, smart and eager to learn since he was a child, should be a blogger in history, he placed his sister in the wing room to rest, and then came to play with Li Shimin, but unexpectedly bumped into Shimin who came out in a hurry.Although the two are of the same age, although Li Shimin is familiar with classics, he also likes playing piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, but his favorite is horseback riding and archery, dancing swords and guns, so his muscles are developed, his strength exceeds ordinary people, and his burly body makes him unintentionally As soon as it hit, Changsun Wuji bumped into a somersault.

"I'm sorry!" Li Shimin stepped forward to help his eldest grandson Wuji and said.

Changsun Wuji stood up, supported his hurt right shoulder, grinned and said, "Your strength is really great."

Li Shimin didn't speak, just looked at him and smiled apologetically.

"Are you going..." Changsun Wuji asked Shimin.

"I want to visit your sister." Li Shimin replied honestly.

"That won't work." Changsun Wuji said seriously, "Don't you know that to see her, you have to wait until after the wedding ceremony. You can lift her red head cover only after entering the bridal chamber."

"You can't help me once, I really want to see her sooner."

"No, thanks to the fact that you are still a man, you can't even wait for this little time." Changsun Wuji looked at him with a smile.

"Okay." Li Shimin lowered his head, then immediately raised it again: "By the way, where are you going in such a panic?"

"I want to meet you and play with you."

"Okay, anyway, my father and elder brother won't be here until the afternoon, so I'll take you to Guandi Temple to have a look."

After hearing this, Changsun Wuji was full of joy and dragged Shimin to the front yard.Shimin took a step, and then stood still.Changsun Wuji held him still, turned his head and looked at Shimin relentlessly.

"Go through the back door." Shimin said in a low voice.

Changsun Wuji looked at Li Shimin puzzled, no matter what he did, he didn't want to sneak around, how could he go out to play, and he had to go through the back door.Li Shimin saw his silly face, held back his smile, and whispered a few words in his ear, and Changsun Wuji followed Li Shimin to the back door.

This "Guo Gong Fu" was originally a deep house and a wide courtyard of a rich businessman.There is a white wall in the front yard, a black lacquered gate, and a garden of flowers, trees and grass about [-] feet apart, which is a row of more than ten neat and elegant houses.On weekdays, the front yard is decorated plainly, but today, because it is Shimin's great joy, after Dou's careful decoration, it looks very rich and luxurious.There are colorful lights hanging everywhere, colorful silks flowing in various patterns, and the eye-catching "Hi" characters one by one, plus the red carpet leading from the door to the main house, which makes the front yard eye-catching. Everywhere, there is a joyful atmosphere.

Li Yuan's grandfather, Li Hu, was a Taiwei in the Western Wei Dynasty; his father, Li Yan, was a general of the Zhu Kingdom in the Northern Zhou Dynasty; they both established the glory of the entire family with their military exploits.Therefore, practicing martial arts has become an indispensable and important lesson for the children of the family.The house that Li Yuan personally selected in Yuncheng is not very big in the front, but very wide in the back, so that the brothers and sisters of the world can practice martial arts.Li Shimin took his eldest grandson Wuji and walked quickly through a path among green trees to the wide backyard.Looking up, his three younger brothers and sisters are practicing one move at a time, following the master's teaching very seriously.This is the daily compulsory homework for the children of the Li family. If Shimin was not going to get married today and received special permission from his mother, he would naturally only be in their ranks.In order not to disturb his younger siblings, Shimin bowed slightly, and when the eldest grandson Wuji saw him, he followed Shimin's example and bowed his waist.The two quickly came to the side door on the left side of the backyard. As soon as Shimin pulled the latch, he heard a crisp call:

"Second brother!"

Shimin let out a habitual "hey" and turned around.Little sister Pingyang was running towards him happily, followed by Xuan Ba ​​and Yuan Ji.

Dou is Li Yuansheng's four sons and one daughter, the eldest is Li Jiancheng, who is nine years older than the second son Li Shimin, and has been with his father since he was a child.Now, he is married and has children, works in the Chang'an Palace, and has been separated from their four siblings and their mother for a long time.Li Shimin and his younger siblings are about the same age, they have always lived with their mother, and they have great affection for each other.Seeing that his younger siblings had discovered him, Li Shimin shook his head helplessly, and looked at Changsun Wuji apologetically.

"Second brother, where are you going?" Ping Yang raised his head and asked happily, holding brother Shimin's hand.

"I want to take him to see Guandi Temple." Li Shimin replied honestly.

"I'm going too." Ping Yang jumped up happily.

"I'm going too." Xuan Ba ​​and Yuan Ji said in unison.

"Here, how can I do it? Now is the time for you to practice martial arts."

"I don't care, you have to take me there, or I'll tell my mother, and you can't go either." Pingyang begged and threatened at the same time.Li Shimin couldn't help being taken aback.

"Second brother, we are all brothers, so we should share the blessings. Take us there." It was Li Xuanba who spoke.His voice was like a bell, and although he had just turned 14 at this time, he was as tall and burly as Li Shimin.He has a monkey face, a body with muscles as hard as steel, and he is born with a superhuman understanding of martial arts. At this moment, he is the number one in martial arts among all the brothers, and even his eldest brother Li Jiancheng can't beat him.Fortunately, his mother taught him well, so that he understood the truth since he was a child, and never bullied others with strength, and did things that were sorry to his brothers and sisters.

As soon as Li Xuanba's voice fell, Li Yuanji spoke, staring at Li Shimin with a pair of bulging eyes, and said: "That's right, don't take us, and you don't even want to go." Li Yuanji is one and a half years younger than Li Xuanba, He looks like a tiger head and a tiger brain. Although his martial arts is the worst among the brothers, but when he becomes strong, even the eldest brother Li Jiancheng can only rely on him.

Li Shimin saw that his younger siblings were like this, and he didn't want to give up his promise to Changsun Wuji, so he thought about it for a while and said, "Okay, I'll take you there, just go out, everyone, don't wander around, just go to Guandi Temple to have a look." return."

"We listen to the second brother." The three siblings replied in unison.

This is a beautiful small city in the southwest of Shanxi, at the border of Luliang Mountain and Linfen. Together with Linfen, 300 miles away to the northeast, it was the Hedong County in the Qin and Han Dynasties.The small city was prosperous due to the salt transportation, so it was also called Yuncheng.During the Warring States period, there were thinkers Xun Kuang and military general Lian Po, and during the Three Kingdoms period, there was a famous Shu Han general Guan Yu.For this reason, in the spring of the tenth year of Daye, Tang Gong Li Yuan moved his family to live here when Emperor Yangdi of Sui Dynasty appointed him as the comfort envoy of Hedong.I am busy with official duties in Linfen.

The four siblings have lived in Yuncheng for half a year and are very familiar with this small town.They took their eldest grandson Wuji and slipped out quietly through the back door, arrived at the bustling Guanque Road in Yuncheng, and a stone's throw away was the Guandi Temple, the ancestor of the Wu Temple.Guanque Road got its name from the Guanque Tower. Although the Guanque Tower in Yuncheng is not on the bank of the Yellow River, it was built in the style of the Guanque Tower on the bank of the Yellow River hundreds of miles to the southwest.The several storks at the four corners of the building are shaped lifelike, like living things.Every time Li Xuanba passed by, he always admired the stork, and couldn't bear to leave immediately.Back in front of the Guanque Tower, he naturally slowed down again.Seeing this, Li Shimin couldn't bear to disturb his third brother's interest, so he stood behind him and looked up at the storks hanging in the sky from the corner of the building together with him.Not long after, I heard Pingyang's call from the front:
"Second brother, third brother, come quickly!"

Li Shimin followed the prestige, and saw that Pingyang's younger sister had already called him loudly at the end of Guanque Road, looking around, Yuan Ji and Changsun Wuji had long since disappeared.

"Where are Yuanji and Wuji?" Li Shimin asked loudly.

"Go forward, come quickly!" Pingyang replied.

After hearing this, Li Shimin couldn't help saying to Xuanba: "Third brother, they have all gone, let's go too."

After hearing this, Xuan Ba ​​reluctantly looked away, followed his second brother, and went straight to Guandi Temple.When I arrived at the temple, I saw Yuanji, Pingyang and Changsun Wuji standing under the stone statue of Guan Yu standing proudly with a horizontal knife, looking up with admiration.Li Shimin remembers that when he first arrived in Yuncheng, his father took four of his brothers and sisters to see the Guandi Temple, and told them: Li Jiancheng, the eldest brother, was born in the year when Emperor Wen built the Guandi Temple. The place where the temple was built is the place where Guan Yu was born. .At that time, his father also told them Guan Yu's loyalty to Liu Bei, no matter how good Cao Cao treated him, he just refused to surrender Cao Cao.But for some reason, Li Shimin later came up with a strange idea:

If, at the beginning, Guan Yu could sincerely submit to Cao Cao, wouldn't the chaotic world be unified many years earlier?This thought was buried deep in his heart, and he never dared to speak it out. Today, he really wanted to have a good chat with Zhangsun Wuji. At this moment, he suddenly saw his servant Li San running towards them panting.

"Could it be that father and elder brother are here!" Li Shimin asked himself in his heart, and when Li San came to him, he hurriedly grabbed him and asked:

"Father is back?"

Li San shook his head and said: "Something happened, the master and the eldest son will not be able to come back!"

When Li Shimin heard this, he became even more anxious, grabbed Li San tightly, and asked again: "Who happened, is it my father or elder brother?"

"I'm in pain!" Li San struggled, and when Li Shimin let go of his hand, he said: "It's not the master, the eldest son, it's the emperor that something happened!"

"What's the big deal?" Li Shimin stretched out his hand to grab him again, but Li San pulled Yuanba up and ran while saying, "Go home, it will be clear when you go home."

The four brothers and sisters, as well as the eldest grandson Wuji, returned to the Duke's mansion with his servant Li San, and Mrs. Dou was already waiting in the courtyard.The mother who always saw her son with a smile on her face was unhappy at the moment.Seeing Shimin, he felt very uneasy; Yuan Ji and Pingyang simply stood behind Shimin, looking around, not daring to move forward; but Li Xuanba walked up to his mother carelessly and said:
"Mother, we're just going to visit Guandi Temple with Brother Wuji."

Dou Shi nodded and sighed again.Li Shimin stepped forward, looked at his mother and said, "I'm really sorry, my son made you angry. Where are my father and brother?"

"Mother doesn't blame you, it's just... your father didn't come, and he went back halfway. Your brother came..."

"Go back?" Li Shimin was taken aback, looked at his mother even more uneasy and asked, "Why?"

"Your father and your elder brother just came out of Linfen, and found a bamboo tube floating from the north in the Fen River. There was an imperial edict inside, saying that the emperor was trapped at Yanmen Pass and asked all the places to go to serve the king. Your father was a local official in the Sui Dynasty. For such a big event, you can only go back to Linfen to arrange the affairs related to King Qin. He asked your brother Feima to come and tell you: Immediately pay homage to the church and get married, and then go north to King Qin."

"Where's my elder brother?" Shimin asked anxiously.Although the eldest brother Li Jiancheng is nine years older than Shimin, and he was not often at home, he was very protective of him when he was a child. He once taught him how to draw a bow and shoot an arrow, which made Shimin miss him very much.The mother understood Shimin's feelings, looked at her son distressedly and said:
"He left in a hurry after delivering the letter. There is no way, the emperor is trapped, your father told him not to delay for a moment, and went to Linfen to supervise the transportation of grain and grass."

Shimin let out a soft "ah", and the mother couldn't help but feel moved. Just as she was about to comfort her son, she suddenly found that there were many people around her.Although Li Yuan had only settled his family in Yuncheng for half a year, and he didn't have many acquaintances, because of Shimin's wedding, hundreds of people from Yuncheng local officials and relatives and subordinates from all over the country came.At this point, Dou did not want to neglect the guests, and announced that the wedding would begin immediately.

Li Shimin quickly put on red sweet-scented osmanthus and made a new dress, and the bride's eldest son also asked two bridesmaids to help him out from the wing room.The proper etiquette was over, and while the guests were enjoying the wedding wine, Li Shimin hurried into the bridal chamber.Excitedly, he took off Changsun's red head covering, and a pink and pretty face appeared in front of his eyes.Li Shimin watched with great joy, but the words his mother just said echoed in his ears, and he couldn't help showing a hint of displeasure.Changsun was born in a famous family and received a good family education since he was a child. He is proficient in poetry and prose, talented and intelligent, and he is cautious and delicate in doing things.Ever since she entered the Duke's mansion, she has been thinking about her "Brother Shimin" in her early years. After putting on the head covering, she has been hoping that it can be uncovered sooner.When Brother Shimin reached out to lift the head cover, her heart beat faster.After the head covering was removed, she really wanted to rush forward and hug her Brother Shimin tightly.Because of the girl's shyness, she held back, opened her watery eyes, and looked at her brother Shimin motionlessly.Immediately, Changsun saw that Li Shimin had something on his mind, and couldn't help being secretly surprised. After a moment of hesitation, he stretched out his slender hands, held Li Shimin's hand and asked:

"Brother Shimin, is something wrong at home?"

When Li Shimin heard this, his heart moved, and he was about to answer when Mrs. Dou opened the door and came in. Seeing Mrs. Changsun looking at Shimin with wide and beautiful eyes, she knew that Shimin had not told her what happened in Yanmen.Mrs. Dou smiled apologetically, stepped forward and hugged Mrs. Changsun lovingly, and said:
"It's really hard for you, my good daughter-in-law. The emperor, that is, your cousin, is now trapped in Yanmen, and the people of the world have to go to the king immediately. I will talk to you about the specifics after he leaves."

After hearing this, Mrs. Changsun looked at Shimin reluctantly, then turned to Mrs. Dou and asked, "Shall we go?"

"Let's go, the horse is ready for him."

"Let me pack some clothes for him."

Dou's heart felt hot when she heard this, she looked at this beautiful and sensible daughter-in-law gratefully, stepped forward, and hugged Changsun tightly.

It was the first time that the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law hugged each other so tightly, and both felt a kind of support and comfort, and their hearts, which were originally extremely excited, gradually calmed down.Li Shimin watched from the side, feeling very comforted in his heart.After a while, Mrs. Dou let go of her jade arms, smiled slightly, and lightly clasped Mrs. Changsun's shoulders with both hands, saying:

"You don't need to clean up the clothes, I've already packed them up for him." Having said that, Dou looked at the daughter-in-law who had just passed the door with great satisfaction, and said emotionally:

"You are so beautiful and sensible. When you encounter such a thing, you don't panic at all, and you even tidy up Shimin's clothes! I am also your age. I married Shimin's father when I was 13 years old. I am better than you Luckily, he went out to fight on the second day after marriage. At that time, I didn’t understand anything, so I cried and refused to let him go. In this regard, you are better than me. We are both women of the Duke’s family, This is the fate, and it is doomed not to be able to stay with your husband and lord like ordinary people. However, more than 20 years ago, Shimin's father fought for the unification of the Sui Dynasty, but now..." Dou said here, With a long sigh, he turned to Li Shimin who was standing aside and said:

"I originally hoped that our family would be reunited on the day of your marriage. I never expected to meet such an emperor. He was so overjoyed that our prince's family couldn't even get our son married peacefully. It was even more difficult for ordinary people. common people."

"Mother, didn't you say that the emperor is shrewd and aggressive, and his poems are even more grandiose, like Wei Wu?" Li Shimin asked.

"Yes, he is very aggressive, but now he is getting more and more aggressive. As an emperor, he should care about his subjects and the people, and face the reality. But he, regardless of the power of the country and the people, wished he could do whatever he wanted in his reign. Do everything well. Poetry can be exaggerated, romantic, unconstrained, and even whimsical. If the country is governed in the same way, it will definitely harm the people and yourself. Now that the Turks in the north are not peaceful, they are conquering Korea in the east again and again. It’s weird if it’s not chaotic! Well, I won’t talk about it.”

(End of this chapter)