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

Chapter 757: Learning from History (Part )

Li Yan immediately proposed a monument that would attract the attention of countless people in later generations. Li Shimin nodded but did not speak.

He knew that Li Yan was just laying the groundwork and the real focus was still to come, so he did not interrupt, but just nodded to let Li Yan continue.

Li Yan understood and continued to analyze: "At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and many heroes were vying for supremacy. How arrogant was Xiang Yu, the King of Chu, who was so strong that he could move mountains and take the head of a general in the midst of thousands of troops as easily as taking something out of a bag."

"He looked down upon all the other heroes as if they were grass. In the Battle of Julu, he fought 50,000 men against 400,000. In one battle, he won the world. All the other princes knelt to welcome him, and none dared to look up at him."

"But such a heroic figure founded Western Chu, but he didn't even manage it for five years."

"At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the country was in chaos, and heroes rose up again. In the end, the country was divided into three parts, and was finally swallowed up by the Cao Wei regime established by the ambitious Emperor Wu of Wei. However, before the country could be stabilized, it was stolen by the shrewd Sima family."

"The north and south were in chaos for hundreds of years until Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, unified the country. However, he still failed to avoid the same mistakes as the First Emperor and died in the second generation. My Li family took over the divine weapon."

Li Shimin's brows were furrowed at this time. He was becoming increasingly uneasy, gradually losing his patience, and looked quite irritable.

As an emperor, he wanted his country to be stable and passed down from generation to generation more than anyone else. He didn't want to see the past situation of the country changing from one dynasty to another. Seeing the dynasties changing from one generation to another in the history books, he was shocked and frightened.

When he was young, whenever he saw the descriptions in history books about the chaos in the world and the scenes of heroes rising up to compete for supremacy, his blood boiled and he was filled with longing. He wished he could ride his horse and whip it, and with the seven-foot-long spear in his hand, stir up the universe and create a prosperous kingdom.

But now that he has become the emperor, seeing those lines of words and those scenes in the history books makes Li Shimin extremely bored and irritable.

I wish I could tear the history books into pieces. Those heroes of troubled times who were once admired now seem so glaring. They are all ambitious traitors who deserve to be skinned alive and their bones crushed to dust.

But Li Shimin was a wise ruler and a intelligent man. He knew that killing would not solve the problem. Be it Qin Shihuang, King of Chu, Emperor Wu of Wei, or Emperor Wen of Sui, none of them were kind-hearted people. Their hands were covered in blood. If killing could solve the problem, they would not be reluctant to raise the butcher knife in their hands.

Li Shimin had also lived through such turbulent times. He knew very well that the core of the problem lay not in the opposition but in the court, not in the ministers but in the monarch, and not in the rebellious kings who took advantage of the situation to wreak havoc on the world, but in whether the court and the rulers could govern the world well.

Let this world be peaceful and prosperous, and let countless people live in peace!
So after Li Shimin became emperor, he worked day and night, exhausted all his energy, did not dare to slack off for a moment, was trembling with fear, never had a good night's sleep, and devoted the whole day to state affairs.

Externally, when the Tang Dynasty was in danger of extinction, he personally went to Bianqiao as an emperor to stop the Turks from plundering the Central Plains. At the critical moment, he sacrificed his son to the rebel camp as a hostage, and granted him land, official positions and titles to soften Luo Yi's determination to rebel and buy time for the court.

Internally, he tolerated those old ministers who took advantage of their seniority and stirred up trouble in the court, instigated his sons to kill each other, tolerated the stubborn tempers of people like Xiao Yu and Wei Zheng, who rode on his head and pointed fingers at him all day long, and restrained his words and actions.

The purpose of these step-by-step concessions was to pay a huge sum of money for the horse's bones, set an example by himself, let talented people follow his example, and let all the officials work together to govern the country well, instead of provoking conflicts and raising the flag of rebellion.

However, Prince of Yan Luo Yi, Prince of Lujiang Li Yuan, Prince of Yian Li Xiaochang, Prince of Changle Li Youliang and others rebelled one after another. Even among these people were members of the Li clan who should have become the wings of the royal family. They did not rebel for the people of the world, but purely for their own ambitions.

It can be said that Li Shimin was always thinking about how to ensure that the country would remain forever in the hands of the Li family, rather than being replaced by other aristocratic families or local rebel kings in the future.

Li Shimin had thought about the question raised by Li Yan countless times, especially those dynasties that had achieved great unification. Why couldn't they hold on? Let's forget about Xiang Yu and Cao Cao. Li Shimin believed that he was more capable than them.

When it comes to Ying Zheng and Yang Jian, Li Shimin became a little hesitant. The dynasties established by these two people and the prosperity of the dynasties during their reign are not comparable to the current Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin felt that these two people were not incompetent rulers, otherwise they would not have achieved such achievements.

But even they can’t defend their kingdom, how can I?

The first two at least did not manage to unify the world while they were alive, but the latter two not only achieved great unification, but also governed quite powerfully. However, as soon as they passed away, the world fell into chaos. Was it because they did not choose the right successor, or was it because the country itself was not stable?
It is easier to talk about Hu Hai, as the time is too long ago. The historical records show that he was not a good person and he even colluded with ministers to usurp the throne.

But what happened to Yang Guang happened right before his eyes, and he can remember it clearly.

Yang Guang himself had seen him many times, and he was definitely not a foolish and incompetent person, right? Unifying the north and the south, holding the imperial examination, opening the Grand Canal, conquering Goguryeo, all of these were great things that benefited the country and the people, and the Tang Dynasty benefited from them. As for Goguryeo, to be honest, Li Shimin had wanted to conquer it a long time ago.

The tiny country of Goguryeo, which was greedy for peace, has repeatedly competed with the Celestial Empire. If Yang Guang had not lost his country because of his expedition against Goguryeo, the court would be terrified when talking about Goguryeo. No matter who mentioned it, he would be condemned by all the civil and military officials in the court, so Li Shimin did not dare to mention it.

Otherwise, he would have mobilized his entire army and wiped it out long ago.

In Li Shimin's view, it would not be difficult to destroy Goguryeo. Yang Guang was just too greedy. He wanted to conquer and also wanted to use the conquest to launch a war against the aristocratic families. He fought on two fronts and was attacked from both sides, which led to the collapse of the huge empire.

If they did not make any moves internally and merely treated the conquest of Goguryeo as a purely military foreign war, once the army arrived, Goguryeo would definitely be crushed to pieces.

Li Shimin saw very clearly that the fall of the Sui Dynasty was not due to the expedition to Goguryeo. Rather, it was somewhat like the Qin Dynasty, when the people's strength was overdrawn, there were too many internal conflicts, and external troubles, which led to the outbreak of both internal and external forces. Yang Guang was unable to deal with it, which led to the fall of the second emperor of the Sui Dynasty.

Although he was nominally the second-generation emperor, in Li Shimin's heart, he was the real founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty and the actual first-generation emperor. Li Yuan was just Liu Bang's Liu Taigong. It was only because of his filial piety that he was allowed to pretend for a few years.

I should have been the emperor a long time ago.
After becoming emperor, Li Shimin had only two things to consider. The first was how to make himself immortal and enjoy life forever; the second was that if the former was not possible, he would also select an outstanding ruler for future generations and never repeat the mistakes of those short-lived dynasties in history.

That was why he valued his prince so much and spent so much effort to cultivate and nurture him.

He knew that he, like Ying Zheng and Yang Jian, were all wise and capable leaders. As long as he was alive, there would be no problems in the Tang Dynasty. However, no matter how great a person was, he could not resist the laws of nature and the cycle of life, death, sickness and death.

Li Shimin also had to face the fact that everyone will die.

Will his own prince become the Second Emperor of Qin or the Second Emperor of Sui, and will he die in the second generation of the dynasty that his ancestors created by shed their blood and seized the rare historical opportunity?

What should he do to ensure that his descendants will have firm control over the country?
The problem of dynasty changes and the alternation of the old and the new described by Li Yan once again put this problem in front of Li Shimin, which made Li Shimin's originally happy mood think of this ultimate problem again, so that Li Shimin's mentality began to become depressed.

But what Li Yan said at the beginning gave him a feeling of encountering a fleeting ray of light in the fog. Li Shimin vaguely felt that the problem discovered by the prince might very likely solve the problem that had been bothering him.

But the light seemed to be far away in the sky, swaying back and forth, yet looming, and Li Shimin could not catch it. Li Shimin kept thinking in his mind, but he did not dare to disturb Li Yan, fearing that his interference would stop his enlightenment halfway.

Seeing that Wang De had prepared dinner and came to ask for his instructions, Li Shimin waved his hands impatiently, looking very solemn.

Wang De was so frightened that he stopped immediately and stopped the people following him. He knew how terrible the emperor was when he lost his temper, but there was an even more terrible situation, which was when he used his eyes to intimidate. It was even more terrifying when he didn't even lose his temper.

The emperor at this time was like a wounded tiger. If he was slightly angered, he would most likely lose his life!
Wang De did not dare to alarm Li Shimin, so he quickly stopped the other servants, slowly retreated, and stood guard at a distance, preventing anyone from approaching.

"I know everything you said. What can you do? Just say what you want to say." Li Shimin urged in a deep voice.

"Yes, Father!"

Li Yan said quickly: "From ancient times to the present, there are only two dynasties in history that have unified the country and ruled for more than a few hundred years. One is the Zhou Dynasty in the pre-Qin period, and the other is the Han Dynasty established by Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty. One lasted 800 years, and the other 400 years."

"The Zhou Dynasty is too old and the historical data is incomplete, so we will not discuss it for now. I have studied the Han Dynasty the most. The Han Dynasty is like a bright pearl in these chaotic times, which is particularly magnificent and gorgeous."

"Father, do you know why only the Han Dynasty lasted for four hundred years, but other dynasties could not?"

Finally, they came to the point. Li Shimin was shocked. Even if there was no eternity, no eight hundred years, four hundred years was also good. It was better than dying in the second generation. He should first solve the problem of four hundred years, then strive for eight hundred years, and finally hope for eternity.

(End of this chapter)