In the old history books, the image of Li Jiancheng, the first prince of the Tang Dynasty, is quite negative and disgraceful. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info he is not only insidious and cunning, but also lustful and greedy, and he is a narrow-minded and narrow-minded person. However, what is the real Li Jiancheng like? A large number of historical materials prove that although Li Jiancheng failed in the palace coup, he was not a mediocre person who did nothing, and like his brother Li Shimin, Li Jiancheng was not only the right-hand man of his father Li Yuan, but also an important organizer of the anti-Sui Xingtang War and one of the heroes of the establishment of the Tang Dynasty.

It is said that Li Jiancheng was one of the important organizers of Li Yuan's anti-Sui activities, because before Li Yuan raised troops in Taiyuan, there were two bases: one was Taiyuan, which was jointly established by Li Yuan and Li Shimin; The other is Hedong, which is led by Li Jiancheng alone. As a military town, Hedong is a strategic point leading to Guanzhong. Before Li Yuan raised his army, he asked Li Jiancheng to secretly contact heroes from all walks of life in Hedong in the name of taking care of his family. Li Jiancheng lived up to his father's expectations of him, and devoted all his money to the local people, recruited talents, and made extensive friends with heroes from all walks of life. As long as there is a person with a skill, he treats each other with courtesy and sincerity, so that Hedong talents have taken refuge in him. Li Yuan was very satisfied with Li Jiancheng's work. When Li Jiancheng rushed to Taiyuan to participate in the army, he immediately decided and let Li Jiancheng take on the heavy responsibility of leading the army.

It is said that Li Jiancheng was the main organizer and commander of the military struggle in the Xingtang Dynasty because from the beginning of the army in Taiyuan to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Jiancheng, as the commander of the left army, was always the chief general who led the troops. Li Yuan's anti-Sui war was first fought in Xihe. The Xihe River is close to Taiyuan and is the first pass for the Tang army to enter Guanzhong. Li Yuan attached great importance to the Battle of Xihe, believing that its victory or failure would determine the success or failure of his hegemony. For this reason, he handed over the responsibility to Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin's brothers. In order to improve the combat effectiveness of the army and quickly seize the Xihe, before the battle, Li Jiancheng made serious and careful arrangements, formulated strict military discipline, and personally inspected the terrain of the Xihe River to share weal and woe with the soldiers. His behavior greatly encouraged the officers and men of the Tang Army, and the soldiers were greatly inspired, and they fought bravely to kill the enemy one by one, and conquered the West River in only 9 days. Li Jiancheng was also named the Duke of Longxi and the Governor of the Left Army.

Some historians believe that from the initial raising of the Righteous Banner to the conquest of Beijing, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin's merits are roughly the same. This is more realistic. Such as the West River, fortunately thanks to the cooperation of the two. The king of the master, Li Jiancheng's department has more merit in taking the lead. For example, during the siege of Chang'an, Lei Yongji, the first general to attack the city wall, was Li Jiancheng's subordinate. Li Jiancheng captured Chang'an at the beginning of the war (the strategic position of Chang'an was no less than that of Luoyang captured by Li Shimin later, and even surpassed), which made the Tang army suddenly prestige, and became the most promising of many separatist forces to win the Central Plains, so that even the forces of Shu had to rely on Tang.

The last obstacle in the Tang Dynasty's unification war was Liu Heimin. Liu Heimin was Dou Jiande's general, and in July of the fourth year of Wude, he raised troops in Hebei to rebel against Li Yuan. Li Yuan successively sent Li Shimin and Li Yuanji to conquer him, and although he temporarily won a military victory, because Li Shimin and Li Yuanji implemented the high-pressure policy of "hanging the people to death" in the local area after the war, the people's hearts were unstable, and they left a lot of troubles. In the fifth year of Wude, Liu Heimin raised troops again, with great momentum, and soon seized his hometown. Li Jiancheng, at the suggestion of Wei Zheng and Wang Qi, asked for an order to discuss. He profoundly realized that the vast number of people who had experienced the wars at the end of the Sui Dynasty longed for a peaceful and unified social environment and a stable life, so he accepted the advice of the strategist Wei Zheng and changed the previous high-pressure policy to appease the local people. As a result, Liu Heimin's troops were quickly disintegrated, and Liu Heimin himself was captured by the Tang army. After that, Li Jiancheng also successfully defended against the Turks several times in the five, six, and seven years of Wude. The victories in these wars laid a solid foundation for social stability in the early Tang Dynasty.

Objectively speaking, Li Jiancheng did not participate in as many battles as Li Shimin, but this was not his own fault. Because Li Jiancheng, as the prince, had to assist the emperor in handling many government affairs, and could not often lead troops to go out on the battlefield and gallop on the battlefield, his military achievements were not as prominent as Li Shimin. However, it is an indisputable fact that Li Jiancheng established a solid and reliable base for the Tang Army and effectively supported the front-line operations. In a sense, Li Jiancheng's political strength and political influence were far greater than Li Shimin's at that time, especially Li Jiancheng's great success in the Chang'an region, which was beyond Li Shimin's reach. In fact, Li Jiancheng is still a very popular person. He not only treated people generously, but also courteous and virtuous corporals, so that many talented people such as Wei Zheng and Wang Qi had willingly worked for him.

The most unbearable thing in the historical records is probably the so-called Li Jiancheng's "troubled harem". In the ninth year of Wude, Li Shimin secretly played Gaozu's "Jiancheng, Yuanji and Zhang Yin's second concubine cheating". However, history has always been written by successful people. Whether Li Jiancheng really "troubled the harem and had an affair with Zhang Yin's second concubine", the Song Dynasty scholar Sima Guang disagreed, believing that this matter was "forbidden in the palace, and Mo Nengming was also".

In fact, the reason why Yin and Zhang Erfei said good things about Li Jiancheng in front of Gaozu was because their relatives were placed in the East Palace and were well taken care of by Li Jiancheng, and they both had deep contradictions with Li Shimin, the king of Qin. It is an indisputable fact that they hate Li Shimin. The feudal historians made such a big deal about the special relationship between Li Jiancheng and Gaozu's concubines in the history books, which was nothing more than to show that Li Jiancheng was a loner who could not find political support in the imperial court, and could only use improper means to seek political support in the harem. As everyone knows, using too exaggerated and fictional ways to slander a person, although its intentions are bitter, it is still easy to expose in front of careful readers.