Li Shimin, one emperor through the ages

Chapter 8
"Staying behind is not in vain. Although the official is not as good as the prime minister, he is a big official in the frontier. In this troubled and chaotic world, the last one to clean up the situation can only be a person with a heavy hand like staying behind. What's more, Judging from the current situation, it seems that there are three major forces that surround Taiyuan. Although the emperor has been unable to control the situation in the country, there is no direct threat to us in Taiyuan. The left-behind mind has already predicted that one of the three major forces Among them, it is impossible for anyone to attack Taiyuan. On the contrary, the Turkic Shibi Khan in the north hangs in the sky like an eagle, and it seems that as long as there is a chance, he will jump down and bite and bleed all over the ground."

Liu Wenjing said this, thought for a while, and continued slowly: "Of course, the most terrifying thing is the emperor's suspicion."

This Liu Wenjing, named Zhaoren, was originally from Pengcheng.His father, Liu Shao, died in a war during the Sui Dynasty, and Emperor Mengwen presented him with the third division of Shangyitong.Liu Wenjing is handsome, resourceful, and knowledgeable when encountering problems.Because his father died in the king's affairs, Liu Wenjing succeeded his father, Yitong Sansi, as the county magistrate of Jinyang.And because they have similar interests with Jinyang Palace Supervisor Pei Ji, the two have always had a good relationship and often get together to chat and chat.One night, they slept together, looking at the beacon fire on the city wall in the distance, Pei Ji looked up to the sky with a bitter face and sighed, "We are really humble to the extreme now, our house is completely empty, we don't say anything, and we are facing this war-torn era again. , there is no hope for promotion, and it makes us worry all day long, where is our place to settle down!" Liu Wenjing said with a smile: "We are in troubled times, and the future is hopeless, but we have a very good view of the current situation. Clear. Since we are already humble people, why bother to worry about being humble? Isn’t any change in the future a good thing for us?”

After Li Yuan stayed behind in Taiyuan, he met Liu Wenjing through Pei Ji's introduction.The two hit it off immediately, especially for Liu Wenjing's foresight, Li Yuan appreciated it very much, and whenever he had something to do, he was always willing to chat with him.Now listening to Liu Wenjing mentioning the emperor's suspicion of him, Li Yuan was very moved, nodded, and said sadly: "My Li family has been greatly favored by the emperor, could it be reversed?!"

"Loyalty has been difficult since ancient times!" Pei Ji looked at Li Yuan with deep understanding and sympathy and said, "Your Majesty, why don't you understand the painstaking efforts of staying behind!"

"It's no wonder the emperor." Liu Wenjing took the words and analyzed: "Now the emperor, he has always been ambitious, always wanting to do something unprecedented. By virtue of force, he killed his brother and father, and won the throne. Next What he did was, of course, something that he did as he wished. He resorted to militarism and harmed the dynasty. As a result, there were continuous uprisings from all directions outside the court, and ministers in the court continued to rebel. Others are okay, even Yang Xuangan, the son of Yang Su, the most trusted Duke of Yue, , I also wanted to kill him. This really made him sad and made him vigilant. With such experience, it is naturally impossible for him to rest assured of a minister with a heavy army in his hand."

"However, if there are no ministers with heavy troops in their hands, how can the customs be stable here?" Pei Ji sighed angrily: "I think back then, Emperor Yang was only 20 years old, and he personally led an army of 51 to attack the Chen Dynasty. Under his command, he was disciplined, brave and good at fighting, and broke through the Yangtze River in one fell swoop. Wherever he went, he was invincible, and he did not offend the people. After conquering the Chen Dynasty, he took nothing from the treasury of the Chen Dynasty, and the world praised him. Virtue. Unexpectedly, just over 20 years after this incident, the virtues of the past have disappeared, and it has become so..." Pei Ji stopped talking, raised his glass again and proposed:

"Let's have a drink and talk while drinking."

Li Yuan didn't gnaw, picked up the full glass of wine, and drank it down.Both Pei Ji and Li Shimin drank up the wine in their glasses.Only Liu Wenjing picked up the wine glass, looked at Li Yuan and said:
"The suspicion of ministers has always been the same for emperors throughout the ages. How can the current emperor be an exception? The three campaigns against Goryeo were disastrous. Except for Yu Wenshu, the rest of the generals were all killed?"

"This, it's really terrible!" After Li Yuan finished speaking, he picked up the wine he had just filled, and drank it in another gulp, staring blankly at the green trees after the new rain outside the window.

Liu Wenjing also drank the wine in the glass, sighed and said: "Accompanying the emperor is like accompanying a tiger. Doing things by the emperor's side is a terrible thing."

After hearing this, Li Yuan turned to look at Liu Wenjing.I thought to myself, although this person has a lot of brains, his words and deeds are still too sharp.In comparison, Pei Ji is more likable.The reason why Li Yuan came to Puyang Palace was firstly because he wanted to avoid the eyes and ears of the two cronies placed beside him by the emperor, and secondly because after he was named the ambassador of Taiyuan Dao, he naturally also led the Jinyang Palace. Prison, it is very natural to come to Jinyang Palace to sit.What's more, he and Pei Ji, the deputy supervisor in charge of the Jinyang Palace, have known each other for a long time. Although they have worked together for a short time now, they trust each other and talk about everything.

This Pei Ji was born in the "Xijuan Pei" of Pei's family, a prominent family in Hedong. Since the Han Dynasty, Wei and Jin Dynasties, he has been a high-ranking official for many generations, and his family is magnificent.His father, Pei Xiaoyu, used to be the governor of Jiangzhou, but his life was short and he died young. When Pei Ji was born, his family was in decline.When Pei Ji was 14 years old, relying on the shadow of his ancestors to make up for the governor of the state, he embarked on an official career. Because no one was promoted, he was always wandering in the circle of the sixth and seventh ranks. He once sighed; Being unable to prosper and reviving the family is a serious concern. In today's troubled times, being able to work under Li Yuan, who holds a heavy army, is naturally very hard-working, trying his best to do what he likes and make him happy.

Seeing that Li Yuan was upset and looking out the window, Pei Ji walked to his side and said softly, "Mr. Tang, don't worry, I don't think it's too scary yet."

After hearing this, Li Yuan turned his head to look at Pei Ji, his eyes clearly asked: "Do you have any good ways to eliminate the emperor's suspicion?"

Pei Ji seemed to have guessed what Li Yuan was thinking, shifted his gaze to Li Shimin, and nodded confidently.

The reason why Li Yuan brought Li Shimin by his side was to try his best to cultivate this son.After being entrusted to stay in Taiyuan, Li Yuan felt that his new starting point was beginning, and he would soon do something big.But there are too few talented people around him.As for the son of Li Shimin, since he returned home to bury his mother, Li Yuan clearly felt that he had grown up, and he had inherited the characteristics of the Li family very well: he was not only good at riding and shooting, strong and brave, but also familiar with military books and knew strategy. , very good at handling things.So, they sent Yuanji, Xuanba and Pingyang to study in Chang'an, and kept Li Shimin by their side, hoping to train him as soon as possible to do great things for him.

Li Yuan was born in 566, two years older than Liu Wenjing, and three years older than Pei Ji. When he first came in, Li Yuan asked Shimin to meet these two uncles, meaning that they should teach Shimin a lot.Seeing Pei Ji looking at Shimin now, he didn't know what he meant at that moment.So he turned his questioning gaze to Pei Ji.

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Seeing Li Yuan's gaze, Pei Ji smiled slightly and said, "I want to talk about your Li family, I can't help but look at Shimin more."

After hearing this, Li Yuan understood Pei Ji's intentions, and said proudly: "I am also very pleased to have a son like Shimin. And Jiancheng, they are all the proud sons bestowed on me by heaven."

"Your Li family is a deep-rooted military family and a relative of the emperor." Pei Ji nodded to the people of the world and said: "In today's troubled times, the emperor's country and society naturally have to rely on your Li family to guard it. However, just like younger brother Wen Jing just now As the saying goes, the current emperor himself has won the throne by relying on force and ruthlessness. With such an experience, the emperor will naturally compare his heart with his heart. In this way, suspicion is inevitable. In fact, the reason why the emperor has suspicion The main reason is that the left guard will be like him, with the ambition to rebel and usurp the throne. In my opinion, to relieve the emperor's suspicion, stay behind might as well indulge in wine and give him a man who can only lead troops to fight, but has no ambitions. Impression, if it can be like this, it will definitely dispel his suspicion."

Li Yuan listened, smiled bitterly, and cast his eyes on Liu Wenjing in thought.

After analyzing why Emperor Sui Yang was suspicious, although Liu Wenjing was also listening to Pei Ji's opinion, she kept secretly watching Li Shimin.After Li Yuan took up the post of stay-at-home in Taiyuan, Liu Wenjing took a lot of time to observe him, and finally thought that Li Yuan was a person who "has the ambition of all directions" and could make friends with TOEFL. Even talk about everything.Now I see Li Shimin: a young man who has just turned 16 years old, listening to their conversation, has been sitting majesticly and quietly, without showing the slightest expression, so that Pei Ji asked his father to be quiet, and did not respond in the slightest.In Liu Wenjing's heart, she couldn't help but secretly marveled at Li Shimin's performance, but disapproved of Pei Ji's words.Liu Wenjing really wanted to talk about her own opinion, but she wanted to hear what Li Shimin had to say, so she avoided Li Yuan's gaze and said to Li Shimin:
"Second Young Master has heard so much, do you want to share your opinion?"

Li Shimin is a very scheming person, because of his love to make friends, from the martial arts he was born to Yuncheng, and then to Taiyuan, he always pays attention to the words and deeds of all the people he meets by chance, carefully observes them, and thinks more about it. Make some friends.It's a pity that all along, my social circle is not big, and most of them are people of the same age, and there is always a feeling that they are far apart.As soon as I arrived in Taiyuan, I entered the circle of friends of my father's generation. Listening to the conversation between Liu Wenjing and Pei Ji, I felt that the people I met with seemed to be more knowledgeable than before.Especially Liu Wenjing's analysis, Li Shimin found it very interesting, and just wanted to hear what he had to say, so as to have a better understanding of Liu Wenjing, but unexpectedly he came to ask for his own opinion.Although a little sudden, Li Shimin quickly calmed down.He looked at Liu Wenjing, then at Pei Ji, then turned his gaze to his father, and said:
"I don't think it's scary. The current emperor can't do anything to us."

Li Yuan and Pei Ji were shocked when they heard this.It was Liu Wenjing who nodded with a smile.Seeing Li Yuan, he turned his gaze to Liu Wenjing again.

"What the second son said is very reasonable." Liu Wenjing was interrupted by Pei Ji as soon as she said:

"Does the Jinyang Order think that the current Taiyuan soldiers can defeat the Emperor's million-strong army?" Pei Ji shook his head slightly after finishing speaking.

"I don't mean that. I just think that two of the three troubles facing the stay-at-home are for the emperor. Now the emperor is surrounded by enemies, and he can't conquer anyone who shows the banner of rebellion. What's more, he has to attack Goryeo and resist. Turkic, he didn't realize that his imperial power was in jeopardy at all, so why would he come to us against us because of a little suspicion. I think that's what the second son said." After finishing speaking, he looked at Li Shimin with great admiration.Just then, the guard came to report:

"Hou Junji asks to see you."

It turned out that after Li Shimin brought Hou Junji to Taiyuan, the two of them got along day and night. Through observation, Li Shimin believed that although Hou Junji was a bit pretentious by nature, liked to show off, and appeared rough and unruly on the surface, he could handle big things. Thoughtful, can be described as rough and fine.What's even more rare is that he is brave and brave, and he is quite loyal.So I recommended him to my father.Seeing Hou Junji's bravery and loyalty, Li Yuan stayed by his side as a counselor and went out on business, so he asked him to stay in the mansion and pay attention to the two cronies of the emperor.Hearing that it was Hou Junji who came to see him, Li Yuan knew that something must have happened in the mansion, so he hurriedly ordered Hou Junji to come in.Hou Junji walked into Pinzhai Residence, looked at Li Shimin knowingly, then came to Li Yuan, whispered in his ear, and reported the sad news.Li Yuan couldn't help being startled when he heard this, he waved his hand to tell Hou Junji to go back quickly, and after Hou Junji walked a few steps, he called him back again, and ordered:
"Pay special attention to the behavior of Xuanhu Benlang, Wang Wei, and Huyalang, Gao Junya. If there is anything unusual, please come and tell me."

After Hou Junji left, Li Yuan leaned on the chair and remained silent for a while.

Pei Ji became anxious, and asked repeatedly: "Mr. Tang, what's going on?"

1
The reason why Li Yuan was shocked was because of Li Mi's matter, the emperor sent someone to tell him to go to Yangzhou to plead guilty.

Like Li Yuan's family, Li Mi's great-grandfather Li Bi was also one of the Eight Pillar Kingdoms of the Western Wei Dynasty, a famous family of the Guanlong Group that ruled the core of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.Grandfather Li Yao, founder of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Xing Guogong; father Li Kuan, Sui Zhuguo.Although Li Mi was a prince, because he was dissatisfied with the official position of the guard, he said he was sick at home, studied behind closed doors, and had little contact with the ministers of the court. Li Yuan and him were just acquaintances.Yang Xuangan rebelled against the Sui Dynasty, and Li Mi was his mastermind, but he was defeated and fled.Although Emperor Sui Yang resented the rebellion of others, he was even more annoyed by these so-called people who were deeply in love with the emperor. He once strictly ordered Li Yuan to intercept and kill Li Mi.After Li Yuan received the strict order from Emperor Yangdi, he also made various arrangements and sent first-class warriors to hunt him down.Although he tried his best, Li Mi turned to the Wagang Army in the end.For this matter, Li Yuante gave a detailed explanation to Xuanhu Benlang General Wang Wei and Hu Yalang General Gao Junya, and also wrote a serious report on the situation, and sent a special person to the court.I don't know whether Wang Wei and Gao Junya have tampered with this matter, or the emperor originally wanted to use this matter to repair Li Yuan.In short, since the emperor wants to hold this matter accountable, it is a very bad thing for Li Yuan, and even a catastrophe is imminent.

Li Yuan told the whole situation, sighed slightly again, and leaned back on the chair.Liu Wenjing and Pei Ji listened carefully, knowing the seriousness of this matter.Because once the emperor pursued his courtiers, he would either be dismissed or beheaded, or even beheaded all over the house. This is not an ordinary thing.In desperation, Pei Ji thought of what Li Shimin said just now, so he comforted Li Yuan and said:
"Duke Tang, don't worry too much. The emperor can't help but stay with you for a while. It's better to ignore it for now, and then treat Xuanhu Benlang, Wang Wei, and Huyalang, Gao Junya, and let them go to the emperor and say more good things. Explain, when the emperor's anger subsides, this matter will be over."

After hearing this, Li Yuan took no time to express his opinion, and then turned his gaze to Liu Wenjing, hoping that he could talk about his views on this matter.Li Yuan did not expect that at this time Liu Wenjing already felt that the situation was very bad. Since Li Yuan could not catch Li Mi being summoned by the emperor, he thought of his own affairs and worried that Emperor Sui Yang would severely punish him.

It turned out that Liu Wenjing and Li Mi were originally related by marriage.Liu Wenjing didn't know about Li Mi's participation in Yang Xuangan's rebellion against the Sui Dynasty, but after hearing about it, she cried bitterly and said: "Li Mi harmed my whole family, and there is no place to die!"Then, in a hurry, he made a clear-cut severance with Li Mi, and also wrote a detailed report to the court, asking the emperor to forgive him.A few months passed in the blink of an eye, the emperor did not strictly punish herself, and Liu Wenjing gradually felt relieved.Unexpectedly, the emperor now wanted to hold Li Yuan accountable for what happened to Li Mi.That being the case, of course he would blame himself for what happened to Li Mi.It seems that this catastrophe may be rare to escape!Liu Wenjing thought so in her heart, but she didn't notice Li Yuan's questioning gaze.

Li Yuan was anxious about his own affairs and wanted to hear Liu Wenjing's opinion, but he was disappointed when he saw that he was out of his mind.He turned his attention to his son Li Shimin.

Since Hou Junji's arrival, Li Shimin has been looking at his father with great concern.Hearing Pei Ji's words, he had some thoughts. When his father came to see him, he calmly met his father's gaze and said:

"The child wants to express his opinion."

"You speak."

"My child thinks that the palace inspector Pei said to entertain the king and the second senior's cronies to intercede for his father. This matter must be done, but many other things can also be done. For example, the father can complain of illness and cannot go to Yangzhou for the time being; at the same time, by the emperor's side , In the harem, don’t we have many relatives? We can entrust them to talk to the emperor, which may be more effective than Wang and Gao.”

"Yes, why didn't I expect that there are people around the emperor, whether they are eunuchs or concubines, who are willing to try their best to speak for the father." Li Yuan's eyes lit up, and he looked at Li Shimin with admiration.

Seeing that his father was happy, Li Shimin became happy too, and said again: "On the one hand, we should do these things well. On the other hand, my son believes that the most important thing is to quickly accumulate power, which has ensured that we can remain invincible at any time." place."

Li Shimin's last sentence made Li Yuan's eyes light up, and he shouted in his heart: The emperor really has eyes, and gave me such a good son.In this troubled autumn, as long as I have power, who will I be afraid of at that time!Thinking of this, he looked at Li Shimin happily, and shouted in his heart: My son, who is only 16 years old, can have such and such thoughts.This is really God's special favor to my Li family!
Li Yuan was feeling deeply in his heart, but Liu Wenjing had already freed himself from his worries.Because at this time he already understood: the emperor wants to punish him, this is inevitable.At the same time, he also understood that the only one who could save him was Li Yuan who stayed behind in Taiyuan.Therefore, no matter what kind of disaster he will encounter, he will do his best to help Li Yuan and solve the problems encountered in the detention center.After thinking this way clearly, he began to listen to Li Shimin's speech seriously. He was very happy when he heard the following sentence, and couldn't help but blurt out:

"What a 'accumulate power and be invincible'. What the second son said is a talent from heaven." After speaking, he looked at Li Shimin excitedly.

Pei Ji on the side also nodded frequently at this time, looked at Li Yuan, and said repeatedly: "Congratulations, Mr. Tang, you are really out of the gate, out of the gate!"

In past interactions, Liu Wenjing seldom conformed to Pei Ji's words, and this time she couldn't help shouting from her heart:

"I really want to congratulate Mr. Tang, and let the door go out!"

After the congratulations, Liu Wenjing couldn't help but think again: Mr. Tang must be fine, but I, Liu Wenjing, don't know if I can escape this catastrophe?
(End of this chapter)