The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 628 Li Shimin’s good intentions (Part )

Yang Guang shared the credit for conquering Chen with his brother, Prince of Qin Yang Jun. However, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Yang Guang replacing Yang Yong and himself replacing Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin did not consider anyone else at all. He prepared a unique honor for Li Chengqian.

Otherwise, Li Ke, who is the same age as him, and Li Tai, who is one year younger, could also take on this position.

It can be seen that Li Shimin really doted on Li Chengqian at that time, and he did not want the past events of the previous generation to repeat themselves. He wanted to set an example for future generations of the Tang Dynasty, telling the world that the prince is not a decoration, and that as the crown prince, he can smoothly succeed to the throne and govern the world well.

As Li Yan was also an emperor of a great country, of course, Li Shimin artificially raised the score line for the crown prince. It was also a kind of care for the princes below. It was precisely because Li Chengqian was too incompetent that the talented brothers below were all dissatisfied.

Li Chengqian's ceiling was too low, so if other brothers showed their heads a little, they would be severely suppressed by Li Shimin, Zhangsun Wuji, and court officials. They had to crouch even lower to highlight Li Chengqian's existence.

If Li Chengqian was more capable, or even had a higher prestige, the other brothers could serve the country with confidence.

Suppose, if Li Shimin was Li Yuan's eldest son and Li Jiancheng was the second son, then the whole situation would be perfect.

The wise and capable Li Shimin would definitely tolerate Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, who were of mediocre talents. Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji would not have any unrealistic fantasies when facing their elder brother who was strong and capable. They would be willing to be princes and assist their brothers in governing the world.

However, Li Chengqian appeared weak in this test, so Li Shimin had to give up this plan.

When the Tang Dynasty later fought against the Turks, it lacked this most important leader. Li Shimin would rather leave the position vacant and not send his son to fight, and resolutely handed over the command of the front line of the war against the Turks to the sixty-year-old Li Jing.

It was this battle that widened the gap between Li Jing and other famous generals in the early Tang Dynasty and earned him the title of God of War.

The facts also proved that Li Shimin's concerns were not unfounded. As expected, Zhang Baoxiang and other generals took credit for the merits and attempted to gain power by themselves. When Li Shimin heard about this in the rear, he sent people to move all the armor out of the treasury.

It can be seen that he had foreseen this and was very pessimistic.

Fortunately, Li Jing was old and had no great ambitions. In the end, Li Shimin sent Zhangsun Wuji, who used his great political wisdom to avert the danger and control the situation. Otherwise, the Tang Dynasty would have been in real danger!
Later, when Yinan of the Xueyantuo came to Chang'an to represent Tuli and Qibiheli to negotiate with the Tang Dynasty to jointly deal with Jie Li, Li Shimin was still somewhat unwilling, as he found that Li Chengqian was unable to handle it alone and could not bear the responsibility of fighting against the Turks.

If the prince is really forced to be sent to the front line, he might end up becoming a laughing stock and not play a positive role. Instead, he will give blind commands and hold back the soldiers at the front.

Since the prince cannot expand the country, there should be no problem in maintaining it, right?

So Li Shimin made another attempt. He took the opportunity of negotiating with Tuli to try to leave and hand over Chang'an to the prince to guard to see what the effect would be. If the prince was capable, he could help him stabilize the rear.

At that time, he could go to the front line himself and command the largest battle since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, and leave Chang'an to the prince with confidence. In this way, the prince would also have the merit of guarding the rear and providing support to the front line.

But facts once again disappointed Li Shimin. Li Chengqian could not be sent to the front with confidence, and he made a mess of the rear. He had clearly given a death order before leaving, that no matter what happened, no war should be launched against the Turks before the autumn grain arrived.

Li Shimin almost said it out loud about this so-called "accident".

Doesn't it mean that if he made a wrong prediction, fell into the trap, and was killed by the Turks, then Li Chengqian, as the crown prince, must put the country and the people first, and the survival of the country first, and must not act out of loyalty and put the rise and fall of the country at the mercy of temporary personal feelings in the name of revenge.

But Li Chengqian disappointed Li Shimin again. He had no control over the situation at all. He was pressured by the public opinion of court officials and coerced by important ministers and princes. He deployed troops recklessly and launched a campaign against the Turks without any plan. He even had to go to the front line to command the battle himself.

It was a completely suicidal move for a prince who had never led troops before to launch an attack on a powerful enemy like the Turks with the capital accumulated by Li Shimin for several years.

It is foreseeable that such impulsive decisions and irrational actions would lead to the army being either surrounded and annihilated by the Turks or usurped by powerful officials when it was transferred to the front. After a chaos that swept across the Tang Dynasty, the Li family cleared out the relatives of the powerful from this land.

No matter how pessimistic the view is, lives are lost and the land of China is in ruins.

It was not until these two attempts and tests that Li Shimin completely gave up the idea of ​​supporting Li Chengqian.

He was a mature emperor, not a mediocre and ignorant person like Li Chengqian. He could not ignore the future of his family, the future of the country, and the well-being of the people of the world for the sake of his own flesh and blood, and force a fool who could only lead the imperial guards to guard the palace to shoulder the heavy burden of the world.

The incident of Sima Zhong is a lesson for us. The Tang Dynasty cannot repeat the tragedies of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings and the Invasion of the Five Barbarians.

Therefore, although Li Chengqian still sat on the throne of the crown prince, in Li Shimin's heart, just like the crown prince Yinreng who was deposed and reinstated in the later Qing Dynasty, he was just a decoration to buy time for the emperor to choose a new crown prince.

The several well-known attempts that followed were not so much tests as they were attempts to prove to the civil and military officials in the court, to Empress Zhangsun, and to the forces in the court that supported Li Chengqian's faction that Li Chengqian was mediocre and clumsy, and that he was indeed hopeless and unfit to shoulder the heavy burden of the country.

Let the people of the world accept this fact, and naturally create a buffer and transition for the later selection of a new crown prince. Basically, the purpose was the same as the hunting trip to Rehe before Kangxi deposed the crown prince for the first time. Both were to inform the ministers and various forces to separate themselves from Li Chengqian's line in advance, so as to prevent the subsequent replacement of the crown prince from causing turmoil in the world.

This is what they mean when they say great minds think alike.

You must know that these forces supporting the prince were added by the emperor himself in the early stage of establishing the prince in order to consolidate his position. Now he has to strip them away with his own hands. It is conceivable how painful the emperor must feel.

These are the invisible prices that Li Shimin paid in order to reluctantly support Li Chengqian, and they are unknown to the world.

It can be said that Li Shimin treated his eldest son with utmost kindness and had no regrets.

Thinking of this, Li Yan sighed slightly. He felt pity for the love of parents in the world. In this life, he must not let Li Shimin down.

Retracting his wandering thoughts and shaking his head, Li Yan saw Chang Sheng in front of him who was in doubt and suddenly said sternly: "Chang Sheng, this Huazhou section of the canal was fine some time ago, how come it suddenly cracked so big?"

"I suspect that some people may not want the canal to be connected smoothly, so they secretly sent people to dig it up."

"It's just that the King of Shu was in charge of this matter before. He wanted to seize the throne and repeatedly went against me. Of course, I am happy to see him suffer. Now that this task has fallen to the East Palace, I will not let them play these tricks on me again."

"Changsheng, secretly send someone to keep an eye on it. I will report to my father when I return, and have some people watch the upstream and downstream of the canal to see if anyone is playing tricks. If we catch anyone who dares to do such a thing that harms the country and the people, no matter who it is, we will punish them severely and execute their entire family."

Chang Sheng's heart tightened when he heard this, his face became extremely stiff, and he said awkwardly: "Since there is such a thing, Your Highness, rest assured, I will definitely supervise the repair of the canal and see if there are any such vicious people."

"Well, Xiao Shengzi, I trust you. I can tell you the truth."

Li Yan said meaningfully: "You try to finish repairing the canal within a month. Once it is finished, everyone will get credit. Apart from other things, the post of General of the Left Guard will naturally fall on your head. When the time comes for the Northern Expedition, I will recommend you to be a general at the front. Naturally, you will have no worries about not getting credit."

"For me, with this achievement, when the war against Jie Li begins, the post of the military grain and fodder supervisor will naturally fall to me. I wonder how many generals will run to the Eastern Palace. The first achievement of the Northern Expedition will naturally be mine, and the strength of our Eastern Palace will be greatly enhanced."

"If anything goes wrong and we start off well but end badly, my father will blame me and take away my job. Your position as the General of the Left Guard will be hopeless. We will have no choice but to return to the East Palace and the Northern Expedition will have nothing to do with us."

Others trust people when they employ them and don't employ them even if they are suspicious. But Li Yan is suspicious of people when he employs and still employs them even if he is suspicious.

He naturally knew what Changsheng and Wu Qing were planning. On the one hand, he threw the matter to Changsheng, and on the other hand, he cut off their thoughts on tampering with the canal. He hinted to Changsheng in words and deeds that if something unexpected happened again.

Not only will the purpose of causing chaos in the court fail to be achieved, but even the position of General Zhonglang of Zuotunwei Yifu will be in vain.

After learning that there was so much grain in the capital, Chang Sheng would naturally quit while he was ahead and give up his original idea of ​​delaying time and get the position of the imperial guards first.

Then he would attract Chang Sheng's attention to the Northern Expedition. He would be responsible for the army's logistics and food supplies. He was in such a critical position. Once the war started, what could he do? For example, he could secretly communicate with the Turks, leak the army's deployment in advance, cut off the army's food supply in the rear, etc. There were plenty of opportunities to achieve his goal, so why bother with the canal?

After saying this, Li Yan ignored the complicated emotions on Chang Sheng's face, called Xue Rengui, and the two of them headed towards Chang'an City under the afterglow of the setting sun.

(End of this chapter)