Li Shimin, one emperor through the ages

Chapter 71
"I knew I was going to die, and I was afraid that you would cry, so I pretended that my condition got better and had fun. I am going to die. After I die, you must be clear-headed and remember my speech. I saw Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui in person. , Gao Shilian and other great achievements in the Tang Dynasty. They have worked hard to build a big family, but now because of the arrogance and extravagance of the younger generations, they have all been ruined. You must remember these lessons. If you are not human, kill them immediately, so as not to harm your descendants and overthrow your family."

Li Ji died at the age of 76 after speaking.In order to mourn, Gao Zong's relatives stopped court for seven days, presented Taiwei with the posthumous posthumous title of Zhenwu, and buried Zhaoling with him. This is a later story.

19
Li Shimin's body has become much more energetic recently, and last night he tossed on Concubine Xu Xian's gentle body for a long time. When he woke up, it was already dawn.At this moment, Concubine Xu Xian had finished grooming and was asking Chen Liangfu about Li Shimin's condition.

"I believe more and more that as long as your majesty insists on drinking the medicine prescribed by me, wind and disease can be completely eradicated." Chen Liangfu said: "I also ask the virtuous concubine to advise your majesty, don't trust those golden stone pills."

When Li Shimin came out, he happened to hear Chen Liangfu's last words, and said with a slight smile: "If you can cure my illness before the pills are refined, I won't take those pills."

After hearing this, Chen Liangfu was about to speak, but was interrupted by Li Shimin, saying: "Take my pulse quickly, I still have a lot of things to do." Chen Liangfu didn't dare to speak again, and after taking Li Shimin's pulse, he said: "The condition has improved a lot."

Li Shimin smiled after hearing this, and said: "There is no need to check the pulse, Concubine Xu told me so last night." Just as he was speaking, Cui Dunli, Minister of the Ministry of War, came in.

"Report to Your Majesty, all the medicines needed for Naluoer Sapo's alchemy have been collected, and they are now placed outside the palace. Your Majesty, please have a look."

"Okay!" Li Shimin nodded happily as if he had heard that he had won a big battle, and said:
"Tell the Indian monk!"

"Your Majesty..." Chen Liangfu called out.

"Go down!" Li Shimin said solemnly.

Chen Liangfu looked at Li Shimin, lowered his head, turned and left with a sigh in his heart.Soon, Naluoer Sapo came in.This time, he was fatter and more energetic. His brown skin was as shiny as oil, and his clothes and diamond ring were even brighter.Li Shimin looked at the jeweled Indian monk and secretly laughed in his heart.This is a bit too vulgar.Li Shimin thought so, and asked politely:
"Pan furnace, have you finished it?"

"It's finished, I just built the best black iron alchemy furnace for His Majesty."

"That's good. Cui Dunli just collected all the items you need, so you can take a good look." Speaking of this, Li Shimin gave Cui Dunli a look.

When Cui Dunli went out to bring in the alchemy items, Na Luo Er Sao looked through them one by one, pointed to the items and said to Li Shimin:
"Your Majesty, look: these purple spirit stones and ape skulls are for cooking the outer elixir, which can drive away all diseases and strengthen the body; these bear feet and crow lips are for cooking the inner elixir, which can expel the old and absorb the new, so that people can live forever .”

After hearing this, Li Shimin nodded and asked him: "The pill furnace is ready and the items are all ready. How long will it take to refine the pill?"

"Seven days and 49 days, plus ten days of preparation, starting from tomorrow, in 59 days, the elixir will definitely be refined."

"In this case, you go to refine it." Li Shimin said: "Today is March 27th, and on May 26th, I am waiting for you to refine the elixir."

"I obey my orders!"

After the Indian monk left, Li Shimin stretched comfortably, thinking about what to do, when the attendant reported:

"Zhongshu ordered Chu Suiliang to meet you outside the palace."

After hearing this, Li Shimin remembered that yesterday he was the one who ordered the crown prince to let Chu Suiliang come to see him today, and hurriedly said, "Let him in."

This is Chu Suiliang, a native of Qiantang, Hangzhou, with the word Shandeng.Chu Suiliang used to practice medicine in his early years. Because he liked calligraphy and practiced hard for a long time, he merged with Han Li, rich and smooth, varied and self-contained.After being recommended by Wei Zheng, Li Shimin read his calligraphy and talked with him, and then said to Wei Zheng: "Chu Suiliang's calligraphy is elegant and unconventional, and he is thin and hard. I like it. He has a pair of eyes for calligraphy appreciation, which makes me even more happy." So Chu Suiliang was left in the court as a servant secretary, and later promoted to Zhongshu Ling.

After seeing Li Shimin, Chu Suiliang immediately fixed his eyes on the calligraphy unfolded on the book case, with a look of joy on his face.

"Ai Qing, let's see if this is written by Wang Xizhi." Li Shimin asked him softly.

Chu Suiliang looked at the calligraphy carefully for a while, without joy on his face, looked up at Li Shimin and said, "This is a fake."

Li Shimin was sure of what he said, so he didn't want to ask any more, but just looked at the calligraphy scroll silently.Chu Suiliang saw that Li Shimin still had doubts, so he picked up the scroll of calligraphy, facing the gate, through the sunlight from outside the hall, pointed to a word "small" and a word "wave" in the calligraphy with his finger. ,Say:

"Your Majesty, look, the dots of the 'small' character and the middle of the 'wave' character have a layer of ink marks that are darker than the outer layer. Wang Xizhi's calligraphy has always been a dragon's snake with a superb pen. There may be such a failure."

Li Shimin listened, looked at it carefully, nodded and said: "Aiqing's appreciation of calligraphy is really superb."

"The emperor has praised you." Chu Suiliang said modestly.

When Li Shimin was dying, Chu Suiliang was one of the important officials entrusted to assist the prince.After Li Shimin's death, Chu Suiliang loyally assisted the prince and was reused by Emperor Gaozong, but soon because he opposed Gaozong's establishment of Meiniang as queen, he was repeatedly demoted and died in worry. This is a later story.

19
In the mountainside of Dongxiuling in Shiweng Valley of Lishan Mountain, there is a beautiful waterfall and a flowing spring, hanging down from a high cliff like a piece of elegant white silk.Li Shimin had heard about this waterfall a long time ago. After breakfast today, he took Concubine Xu along to play here. He watched from a distance on a piece of green lawn, and his heart drifted with the waterfall.

"It's so beautiful!" Concubine Xu said emotionally.

"Yes, in my world, there are beautiful scenery, beautiful things, and beauties everywhere. I..." Li Shimin said with emotion, his eyes covered Concubine Xu Xian, and suddenly turned to say: "Hurry up, as long as you pass by In three days, I can get the elixir."

Ever since Li Shimin didn't believe in domestic alchemists and refused to take their elixirs, under Xu Xianfei's persuasion, Li Shimin finally agreed to insist on taking the medicines of the imperial doctor Chen Liangfu.A few months have passed, and the condition has improved greatly. Li Shimin is much more energetic than before, and every now and then, he can still go to court to manage politics in person.But for some reason, Li Shimin still missed the Indian monk's elixir very much in his heart.Yesterday Chen Liangfu came to take Li Shimin's pulse, and once again assured Concubine Xu that as long as he persisted in taking his medicine, he would be cured.However, Li Shimin seems to be getting more and more stubborn. No one can stop him from what he wants to do.What Concubine Xu can do at this moment is to remind Li Shimin to take Chen Liangfu's medicine on time every day to make him happy.Hearing Li Shimin mention the elixir again, although Concubine Xu was anxious, she could only agree with him and say:
"Yeah, time is really fast. It will be May 26th in three days."

"Thank you for speaking quickly, these days, I live like years."

"But, isn't Your Majesty's body getting better day by day?"

Li Shimin shook his head thoughtfully, and said: "I can't be slow, I need to be fast. Such a big country needs me to manage; so many beautiful scenery, I need to see; and..." Li Shimin didn't want to put everything in his heart When he said it, he raised his head, looked up at the sky, spread his hands to the sides of the sky, shook vigorously, and said in his heart: "I can't just have everything, but I want to enjoy everything! I not only need a strong body, but also Need immortality, need elixir!"

Concubine Xu Xian looked at Li Shimin lovingly, she already understood what he was thinking in her heart, but she couldn't say anything more, she suddenly remembered the tree she saw not long ago, and asked:
"Your Majesty, not far ahead, there is a century-old tree, do you want to go and see it?"

"Century-year-old tree, okay, let's go and have a look."

Turning southward from the waterfall for more than [-] steps, a century-old holly weeping grass appeared in front of you.Li Shimin looked at it happily, but he saw that although the crown of the tree was not big, its image was elegant and handsome, just like a fairy.

"It's really a rare treasure in the world!" Li Shimin muttered to himself like a painting.

Seeing that Li Shimin was fascinated by ancient trees, Concubine Xu Xian looked up at the sky and murmured: "May the heavens protect me, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty..." Just as she was speaking, Concubine Xian suddenly discovered that there was a shining star in the white sky. bright stars.

When I went out today, the sun seemed to be very weak. It flickered politely in the east for a while, and then disappeared. Unexpectedly, in broad daylight, I could see the stars in the sky.This is a star that Concubine Xu Xian is familiar with.On weekdays, when the sky just dawned, she would often look up at the sky, and would always see this particularly bright "star" on the eastern horizon.Concubine Xu Xian knew that this was the "Venus", also known as "Taibai Star", which usually appeared around dawn.

"Your Majesty, look!" Concubine Xu Xian pointed to the sky and called out to Li Shimin.

"What's going on here?" Li Shimin looked at it, and said to himself melancholy, the original joy had long since disappeared on his face, and he said coldly: "Go back to the palace." He turned his head and left.

Back in the palace, Li Shimin sat down and ordered his attendants to send Li Chunfeng to ask him:
"Sir, can you tell me about the changeable celestial phenomena?"

"I look up to the sky, the Taibai star has appeared many times during the day and is about to report to His Majesty." Li Chunfeng said.

"I already know about this, but I just don't know what kind of omen it is?"

"Not good!" Li Chunfeng replied bluntly: "I have done divination many times, and this is a sign of 'Wu Wang is prosperous'."

"Wu Wang is prosperous?" Li Shimin stared at Li Chunfeng and repeated word by word.

"Yes, I not only predicted the omen of King Wu's prosperity, but also predicted that he is being used by His Majesty, and 30 years from now, he will be the king of the world."

"There will be such a thing?" Li Shimin's heart trembled, and Chu Suiliang ordered Chu Suiliang from Xuanlai Zhongshu:
"Er quickly arranged to check the archives of civil and military officials, find out the list of all officials with the surname Wu, and hand it over to Zhang Liang, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment."

After hearing this, Chu Suiliang received an order to thank him.

19
In the summer of Cuiwei Palace, there are high mountains and flowing water, cool breeze, green trees, and thick green leaves. Compared with Chang'an Palace, it is more pleasant.Li Shimin woke up early, took a deep breath of the unique fresh air of Lishan Mountain, and felt quite refreshed.He sat on the bed, clenched his fists, bent his arms, and saw that his muscles seemed to be as strong as before.

"You're only in your early fifties, so it should be like this." Li Shimin said to himself, looking at Concubine Xu's peach blossom-like face beside her, thinking of the joy of the cloud and rain last night, he couldn't help but stare at Concubine Xu's face. Take a pinch.

Concubine Xu Xian grabbed Li Shimin's hand and sat up.Seeing Li Shimin looking at her fresh and tender breasts, Concubine Xu hurriedly covered them with both hands, and then took clothes to put on.

"It seems that my body is recovering day by day. After doing it with you a while ago, I definitely can't wake up in the morning, but now..."

"I wish Your Majesty good health."

"Yes, I want to be healthy, and I want to live a hundred years and live forever." Li Shimin suddenly asked Concubine Xu: "Do you know what day is today?"

"I know, May 26th is the day when the elixir is made."

"Okay, you can remember it so clearly, it shows that you care about me. Let's go and get the elixir with me."

When Li Shimin and Concubine Xu walked out of the bedroom, the sky had turned blue-green.The rising sun, bright red like blood, soared into the sky like a fireball in a blink of an eye.At this time, Li Shimin's heart was full of longing for beauty, and he didn't pay attention to the beauty of Lishan in the morning.When he came to the alchemy building, Naluoer Sapo was already there to greet him.According to him, this elixir cannot be taken out of the alchemy building, but must be swallowed in the alchemy building.

Na Luoer Sapo welcomed Li Shimin to the alchemy building, holding a purple-brown pill the size of a quail egg in both hands, and said quite proudly: "The elixir has been refined, and now is the right time. Please take it while it is fresh." .”

Li Shimin had taken pills made by domestic alchemists before, and the pills were only as big as soybeans.How can you take such a big pill?Na Luo Er Sa Po seemed to have seen through Li Shimin's thoughts, held a big jade cup with both hands, and said:

"This cup contains the dew of hundreds of flowers on Lishan Mountain. It took 49 days for the minister to harvest the cup. His Majesty put the elixir into his mouth, and then drank the water in the cup slowly. The elixir will be eaten naturally. "

After hearing this, Li Shimin took the elixir according to Naluoer Sapo's intention.Back in the dormitory, as soon as he sat down, he felt hot in his stomach and felt uncomfortable all over.That is to say, Na Luo Er Sa Po asked him why.Naluoer Sapo said: "The elixir is not better than other medicines. The key to its medicinal properties that ordinary medicines do not have is the word 'refinement'. The elixir was originally refined in a black iron furnace, and after entering the human body, it is then processed by the human body." Only in this way can we achieve the goal of strengthening our body and immortality. Since it is necessary to 'exercise', it is inevitable to feel hot in the abdomen and feel uncomfortable all over the body."

Li Shimin was silent after hearing this, so he had to let Naluoer Sapo go back.After the monk left, Li Shimin felt his stomach became hotter and hotter. After two hours, Li Shimin was tortured to the point of drowning.However, the mind has always been very clear.Because Luoer Sapo had already spoken, Li Shimin had no choice but to hold back, and neither asked anyone to call the imperial doctor, nor asked anyone to call Naluoer Sapo.It wasn't until the afternoon that Li Shimin couldn't hold on any longer, so he called in important ministers such as Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang, and he was weak and intermittently confessed:
"After I die, you must do your best to assist the crown prince to ascend the throne and govern. From now on, in the Tang Dynasty, people who are not of the blood of the Li family will not be tolerated."

Changsun Wuji, Chu Suiliang and others agreed one by one, and knelt down and swore: "I will follow Li Shimin's sacred words. If there is any violation, the nine clans will perish by themselves."

Li Shimin smiled slightly, and asked Chu Suiliang: "Is it all right to hand over to Zhang Liang, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishments?"

Chu Suiliang told Li Shimin that there were [-] officials surnamed Wu in the files, all of whom had been imprisoned in death row, and one of them was particularly suspected.This man's name is Li Junxian, and his position is the guard of the "Xuanwu Gate" in Miyagi. His official title is "General Zuowuwei", his title is "Mr.He alone occupies four "wu" characters from his position to his hometown, so he should be the most suspicious.

Li Shimin's eyes suddenly lit up when he heard this, and he struggled to say: "It's him, pass on my will, and beheaded at the Meridian Gate immediately!"

"The other sixteen surnamed Wu?" Chu Suiliang asked.

Li Shimin was already in a coma, and he woke up after a while and replied: "The sixteen people surnamed Wu, let them go!" After Li Shimin finished speaking, he fell into a coma again.This time he was in a coma for a long time, and he didn't wake up until sunset.He opened his eyes and saw the prince's red and swollen eyes, so he smiled and said to him:
"Remember my words, rely on your uncle Changsun Wuji and others, and don't forget to invite Li Ji back."

"My son will definitely do it." The prince said weeping.

"Why are you crying, I might suddenly recover."

"Definitely, definitely, father will definitely recover."

"By the way, did you kill the person with the four characters 'Wu'?" Li Shimin asked suddenly.

"I just cut it off, and my minister is about to report it."

"That's good, that's good! I don't worry. There is another person, you go and kill her too." At this point, Li Shimin suddenly felt hot and unbearable in his stomach, and coughed, but he still held on Said these two words: "Mei Niang!"

It's a pity that at this time the prince just kept calling his father, but he couldn't hear these two words.After coughing for a while, Li Shimin bled from his orifices and died violently from poisoning.This year, Li Shimin just turned 52 years old. It can be said that he was the first emperor in Chinese history to be poisoned to death by "longevity medicine".

Li Shimin, who can be called an emperor through the ages, with martial arts and martial arts, broad-mindedness, and great achievements, finally lost his life prematurely in order to live a long life.He failed to be as cautious as the beginning, and the final absurdity, stupidity and confusion are surprising.Li Shimin died of illness behind Hanfeng Hall in Cuiwei Palace and was buried in Zhaoling, with the posthumous title of "Emperor Wen".

A few days passed, and on June 22st, the 32-year-old Prince Li Zhi came to the throne as Tang Gaozong.He pardoned the world, welcomed Li Ji back, and became emperor for 15 years smoothly.Because he was sad for his father at the beginning and didn't hear the word "Meiniang", after Li Zhi ascended the throne, not only did he not kill Meiniang, but he made this talented person of his father his queen.In the end, it was this talented man surnamed Wu who was the emperor in Datang Jiangshan for [-] years.For the emperor's family history, this may be a bad event; for ordinary people, it tastes similar to cabbage and green vegetables; for human civilization, it is a very meaningful thing: both for the family The challenge of imperial power is also a challenge to the rule of men.

(End of this chapter)