"People have no foresight, they must have near-term worries", now, Li Chun deeply understands the meaning of this sentence. After the ecstasy of Wei Bo's return, Li Chun faintly felt a trace of uneasiness and anxiety in his heart. This kind of uneasiness and anxiety is not from Hebei, nor from Huaixi and Ziqing, nor from distant Longxi, but from Chang'an, from the court, from the harem, and from the people around him. In fact, as early as a few years ago, Li Chun had this kind of ominous premonition, but it was not as strong and uneasy as it is now. What is it? Li Chun closed his eyes helplessly and sniffed in the air, and the air seemed to be filled with this kind of uneasiness and anxiety.

The rumor was like a ghost, no, countless ghosts, floating in the sky over Chang'an, and spreading and spreading rapidly. No one knows when, where it originated, and from whose mouth; Nor does anyone know in which classes and in which districts it prevails; No one knows whose tongue it passed through to the Daming Palace and into the ears of the Son of Heaven. It is like the wind that "has no shape and no cause", although it cannot see the entity, but it makes people really feel its existence. Although it only has three words, like duckweed gently blowing through the water, it is a precursor to "the mountain rain is coming and the wind is full of buildings".

As a generation of heroes who have profoundly influenced the direction of history, Li Chun is not a person who will easily believe rumors, let alone be swayed by rumors. But this time is different, because the protagonists of the rumors are his two most important subordinates, one is Li Jifu and the other is Li Jiang, and the content of the rumors is the party struggle he can't tolerate the most.

Li Chun has always been like a clever emperor, controlling the government freely, from Du Huangshang to Li Jifu, from Li Jifu to Pei Yan, the entire foreign dynasty under the control of these wise prime ministers, methodically making all kinds of necessary preparations for the use of force. However, Li Jifu's temperament, who visited the prime minister for the second time, changed greatly, which caught Li Chun off guard, and in order to balance Li Jifu, Li Chun had to use Li Jiang. Li Jiang did not live up to the expectations of the Son of Heaven, and in the years when the two Li were in power, Li Jiang and Li Jifu went toe-to-toe and gained the upper hand in the debate. A genius staff and military advisor (Li Jiang), a diligent doer (Li Jifu), and a wise decision-maker (Li Chun), once, Li Chun thought that this was the most perfect combination, invincible. But soon, rumors of Li Jiang and Li Jifu forming their own parties spread in the streets and alleys of Chang'an.

Li Chun looked at Li Jiang with suspicious eyes for the first time, which originated from a conversation in the seventh year of Yuan He. One side of the conversation was naturally Li Chun, the Son of Heaven, and the other side was Jingzhao Yin Yuanyifang, who was about to be driven out of Chang'an. Yuan Yifang is the person who Tutu Chengxuan, and Tutu Chenghuang is the most favored eunuch around Li Chun, and there is no one. Li Jifu, who suffered a great loss as a eunuch in the Yuanhe three-year policy case, learned from the pain and was determined to unswervingly follow the eunuch line.

For the sake of ideals, Li Jifu sacrificed his honor, but the jealous and hateful Li Jiang couldn't do it, he hated the authoritarian Tutu Chengxuan, and once made this powerful eunuch lose face several times; He also couldn't get used to Li Jifu's groveling and retribution, and repeatedly confronted him in the court; He hated Yuan Yifang even more, so Yuan Yifang was kicked down by him before he could sit hot in Jing Zhaoyin's seat.

The fat that had reached his mouth was forcibly pulled out, and then replaced with a nest head, Yuan Yifang couldn't swallow this breath, and hatred was like a flame, scorching his internal organs. "I want revenge! I must take revenge! Take revenge on the man who banished me! "Of course, revenge requires an opportunity, a chance to meet the emperor alone. Generally speaking, such opportunities are available but not sought and must be waited. However, now, Yuan Yifang does not need to wait any longer, because the opportunity is right in front of him.

According to the usual practice, the officials who were degraded in Chang'an had a chance to enter the palace to thank him, and Yuan Yifang took advantage of this rare opportunity to slash Li Jiang fiercely. For this knife, Yuan Yifang planned for a long time, and he was sure that this knife could hit the point, not Li Jiang's key point, but the key point of Li Chun, the son of heaven. Because, he knew that the emperors of the past dynasties, whether he was Yao Shunyu Tang or Xia Wei Shangxuan, would not tolerate the occurrence of a phenomenon, that is, forming a party, and the wise Li Chun would naturally be no exception. Therefore, he used a half-truth and half-truth, quietly implying that the Son of Heaven was forming a party! "Li Jiang degraded me in order to let Xu Jitong sit in the position of Jing Zhaoyin in the same year of his imperial examination, so that he could be powerful and deceive the emperor."

Yuan Yifang, who was carried away by hatred, ignored the simplest question, how could Li Jiang and the Holy Dependent Zhenglong be easily knocked down by one or two slanderous words? "I believe in Li Jiang, he won't do such a thing!" Li Chun's answer shattered Yuan Yifang's sweet dream, he knew that the day was coming to pack up and get out of Chang'an.

The next day, Li Chun still called Li Jiang and asked him: "Why do people definitely favor their own year?" Li Jiang's answer was as straightforward and honest as ever: "The so-called same year is just that people from all over the world gathered in the capital by chance, participated in the imperial examination in the same year by chance, and became Jinshi by chance in the same year, and that's it." Before, they didn't know each other, let alone have any deep feelings, so how could they have a preference? I recommended Xu Jitong just because of his talent and conduct, but where did I think that he was the same year as myself? The ancients did not avoid relatives, how can I let him be buried and ignore him because he was my year? ”

Li Jiang's words decided the end of Yuan Yifang, and he was lucky to receive Li Chun's order to leave Chang'an immediately. Yuan Yifang walked away like this, I believe that at this time, he must be very disappointed and depressed. In fact, he didn't have to be so desperate. Because, although he was not able to stay in the capital and did not bring down Li Jiang, his words still quietly affected Li Chun, and he had planted the seeds of doubt in the heart of this young genius. Because, at least one thing, he didn't guess wrong, that is, emperors since ancient times have indeed hated ministers forming factions, and Li Chun seems to be no exception. When the rumors of Li Jiang's alliance with the party were poured into Li Chun's ears again and again, this young son of heaven would definitely remember what Yuan Yifang had said, doubts, suspicions about Li Jiang, suspicions about the Manchu Dynasty, in Li Chun's heart, little by little breeding and spreading.

A year later, in the eighth year of Yuanhe, the rumors of party strife intensified, and Li Chun's heart became more and more anxious, as a wise monarch and an outstanding politician, the shape of the party was still in the middle of it, and he had already smelled the smell of party strife from the rain and snow over Chang'an, just like the west wind in the building when the mountain rain was coming.

Li Chun understands that the punk party is a kind of poison, a kind of hopeless poison, which slowly erodes the hearts of ministers, making them more and more entangled in complex social relations, and gradually downplaying or even forgetting the major rights and wrongs hidden behind complex social relations. Therefore, this is a dangerous signal and must be nip in the bud, but the two protagonists of the legendary party struggle, Li Jifu and Li Jiang, are the people he trusts and relies on the most. Now, he didn't want to remove either of the two for the time being, but he needed to give them some warning. After much deliberation, Li Chun decided to knock the mountain and shock the tiger, and he summoned all the prime ministers and asked them what they thought of the party. The open-minded Li Jiang told him that although the friends were hateful, there was no trace to be found, and those traitors and villains had seized the characteristics of the friends that they could only understand but could not verify, and used them as a tool to slander the gentleman. For example, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, all the sages and gentlemen recognized in the world would definitely be said to be party members, which caused the disaster of the party and led to the destruction of the country. Therefore, the so-called party strife is all the remarks used by those traitors and villains to falsely accuse righteous people and gentlemen, and I hope that Your Majesty can see everything clearly and not believe those nonsense. Gentlemen naturally make friends with gentlemen, do they have to make friends with villains before they can be called non-parties?

Li Chun's questioning on the question of friends, Li Jiang's two answers, logically speaking, can be described as impeccable and impeccable. It's a pity that logic is just logic after all, no matter how perfect and unassailable it is. In the face of the truth of history, it has always been so fragile and vulnerable. Li Jiang said that the same year was just a chance gathering of some people who had never known each other, and they would not favor each other; In fact, the example of forming a party in the same year is written all over the history of China, even in the glorious Yuanhe era, the only one with real evidence and no deception is precisely the so-called Zhenyuan Seven Year Jinshi Party formed by three in the same year. Li Jiang's words denying the existence of the friends are still in his ears, and the prelude to the party struggle has been slowly opened, and since then, the dispute between the friends has run through the entire history of the late Tang Dynasty. The composition of these various friends is also very complex, including a combination of gentlemen and gentlemen, villains and villains, and a combination of gentlemen and villains, and more friends are neither gentlemen nor villains. A history of the late Tang Dynasty that is riddled with holes proves that the perfection of logic is far less than the cruelty of reality.

Li Chun became more and more anxious, and his questions became more and more frequent, and Li Jiang, who was overwhelmed, chose to give up. On the grounds of foot disease, he wrote to Li Chun many times, asking for his resignation. In the ninth year of Yuanhe, Li Jiang dismissed the prime minister, and Li Chun appointed him as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites. Soon, Li Jiang's sworn enemy, the great eunuch Tutu Chengguang, entered Beijing and took up the important position of Lieutenant Zuo Shence. Back then, when Li Chun decided to use Li Jiang, in order to let him be unfettered, he drove his most favored Tutu Chenghuang out of Chang'an.

The person who succeeded Li Jiang was Wu Yuanheng, and Li Chun wanted to use him to replace Li Jiang and contain Li Jifu. In fact, this is completely unnecessary, because the most controversial prime minister of the Yuanhe era is about to come to the end of his life, leaving a period of right and wrong, which will be commented on by future generations.

On the third day of October in the ninth year of Yuanhe, Zhongshu Shilang, Tongping Zhangshi Zhao Gong Li Jifu.

Li Jiang dismissed the prime minister, Li Jifu died, and the legendary protagonists of the party struggle left the center of the political arena one after another, and the rumors about the party struggle seem to have gone with the wind. No, on the contrary, the real partisan struggle has just begun.