On the 3rd of the month, the day before Princess Taiping was ready to launch a coup d'état, Li Longji began to arrest people according to the list, he only sent Wang Maozhong alone, with a dozen henchmen, 300 soldiers and horses, and carried the most important thing - the edict, and arrested Princess Taiping's henchmen - Chang Yuankai / Li Ci / Jia Yingfu / Li You / Xiao Zhizhong / Cen Xi respectively and beheaded them on the spot.

In this way, Princess Taiping's party has completely collapsed, and there is no power to fight back.

Emperor Li Dan heard the sound of the incident, hurriedly climbed the Chengtianmen gatehouse to take refuge, and asked what happened left and right? At this time, Guo Yuanzhen, the secretary of the military department and prime minister who was beside the emperor (it should have been arranged in advance), replied:

"The emperor was ordered (Emperor Taishang's order) to kill Dou Huaizhen and other rebels some time ago, and today it will be executed, and there is nothing else!"

This is really nonsense! However, Li Dan has also experienced turmoil for a long time, and he knows that he can only pretend to be stupid at this time, so he pushed the boat down the river and issued an edict announcing the crimes of Dou Huaizhen and others; and amnesty to the whole world, except for the relatives and friends of traitors. The next day, Li Dan issued an edict announcing that all national government affairs would be handled by the emperor (Li Longji), and that he would no longer intervene in state affairs, and moved to live in the Baifu Hall on the same day.

Princess Taiping ran to the temple on the mountain to hide, but was found three days later, and Li Longji ordered her to commit suicide at home.

As for the fate of Princess Taiping and the rest of the party, I won't talk about them one by one, everyone should be able to guess it; But the more dramatic is our "escort man" Mr. Cui Xiang, originally Li Longji thought of his wife and daughter's "old love", felt guilty, and decided to let him go, so he was not executed, only planned to exile Douzhou (Xinyi City, Guangdong Province), but his accomplice, the emerging king Li Jin, sighed when he was executed:

"This conspiracy was originally proposed by Cui Xiang, today I die, but Cui Xiang is alive, isn't it wronged!"

Happened. During the trial, the palace maid surnamed Yuan, who was in charge of poisoning, was also confessed, and she confessed that Cui Xiang was the mastermind of the poisoning. The relationship between his wife and daughter could not save him, and Li Longji ordered him to commit suicide while in exile.

At this point, Princess Taiping's party was wiped out, and Li Longji began to truly rule the Tang Empire!

Kaiyuan Ministers

It must be Yao Yuanzhi!

The second year of the first day (713 A.D.). After Li Longji settled the party of Princess Taiping, he began to truly rule the Tang Empire!

The most important thing in front of him was to reward the meritorious officers, and all those who participated in the coup d'état were promoted to knighthood, which we will not describe one by one here.

And the few positions that were originally occupied by Princess Taiping's comrades were also vacated, and Li Longji made up for his own people one by one. Guo Yuanzhen was originally the secretary and prime minister of the Ministry of War, and he was given an additional reward if his official position was not moved; Liu Youqiu returned from exile and was promoted to Shangshu Zuocheng and Prime Minister, while the original Shangshu Zuocheng Zhang Shuo was promoted to Zhongshu Ling, which can be said to be very happy. But Li Longji felt that it was still not enough. Because although these people are their own people and are talented in some aspects, Li Longji feels that he still needs someone to really govern the country.

During the reign of Li Longji, the Tang Empire faced the following important problems:

First, the officials are uneven

This is because in the two dynasties of Zhongzong Li Xian and Ruizong Li Dan, Empress Wei/Princess Anle/Princess Taiping successively intervened in politics, appointed private individuals, and sold official titles and lords, for example, the aforementioned Li Xian asked the seventh princess to set up a princess mansion, and opened a shortcut to selling officials and appointing private individuals; When Princess Taiping was in politics. In order to confront Li Longji, a large number of his own people were promoted to important positions in the court, and these people installed a large number of their cronies as officials; Even stricter is the large number of oblique sealers (Note), which not only causes redundancy. It has also caused the operation of various departments and organs to be unsmooth, and rectifying the administration of officials has become the most important task.

(Note) Diagonal Seal Official: Also known as "Mo Yi Oblique Seal Official", it was an unofficially appointed official of the Tang Dynasty, because the appointment letter was delivered diagonally from the side door to the Zhongshu Province for execution, and the word "Edict" written on it was written with an ink pen (different from the edict of the Yellow Paper Zhu Pen of the Zhongshu Province). Hence the name.

Second, land annexation is becoming more and more strict, and the number of displaced people is rising

The founding of the Tang Dynasty inherited the Northern Wei/Northern Zhou/Sui Dynasty to implement the uniform land system, and the people were granted land by the government, and there were very strict restrictions on buying and selling, but nearly a hundred years after the founding of the country (the Tang Dynasty was established in 618 AD), the magnates gradually annexed a large number of commoners' land through illegal land trading, causing many civilians to lose their land and become nomads, which had a lot of impact on social stability.

Third: the frontier is not quiet

Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the biggest external trouble is the Turks, Gaozu Li Yuan basically adopted a compromise policy towards the Turks, Taizong Li Shimin is to adopt a soft and hard strategy, so that the Turks have suffered a few defeats, and the Turks are more obedient in the later period, but they have not completely solved the problem, and they still rebel and obey. Since Gaozong, the Khitan and Xi tribes in the northeast, and the Tibetan tribes in the southwest, also began to invade the frontier, although the two sides won and lost each other, but the overall is still not a small problem, and to solve the frontier problem, not only have military generals, but also the overall strategy, foreign policy, logistics support, etc., are very large and difficult to deal with.

Fourth: tax collection and transportation

The Tang Dynasty set the capital of Chang'an, located in the Guanzhong Plain, everyone's impression is that the fertile fields here are thousands of miles, and it should not be a problem to supply the capital grain, but in fact, in the Sui and Tang dynasties, due to overdevelopment and a substantial increase in population density, the Guanzhong Plain has been unable to supply the grain consumption of the entire Great Chang'an. When Tang Gaozong and Empress Wu were emperors, they had led a large number of officials to Luoyang, the eastern capital, several times for the food problem, called "eating the eastern capital", and Zhongzong Li Xian also lost his temper for this matter and said: "How can there be a man in the world who eats the Son of Heaven?" Another example of Chang'an's lack of food and high rice prices is the story of Bai Juyi (note). It can be seen that the shortage of food in Guanzhong has become the norm, and although Luoyang has sufficient food and materials, it is mainly not from the local area, but from all over the country, especially from all over the south, so the issue of tax collection and transportation is the top priority for the empire to continue to operate.

(Note) When Bai Juyi first arrived in Chang'an, he went to see the poet Gu Gu at that time, and after seeing Bai Juyi's name, he made fun of it: "Chang'an is expensive, and it is not easy to live in a big place." Later, I looked at Bai Juyi's poems "The wildfire burns inexhaustibly, and the spring breeze blows and grows!" In a sentence, he said: "With this literary talent, it is easy to live", although it is a joke, but it can be seen that Chang'an rice was expensive and the price was high at that time!

Fifth, the organization is complex, and the prime minister has different opinions

Although the central government organization in the Tang Dynasty was better than in the Qin and Han dynasties, it was also more complex. In the Qin and Han dynasties, political affairs were mainly handled by the prime minister, and in the later period, they were sometimes transferred to the hands of the great Sima because of the power of the great Sima (or great general), but it was mainly concentrated in one person. There is less strife. In the Tang Dynasty, there were three provinces, which were in charge of legislation/deliberation/implementation. When the emperor is a headache. Later, in the early Kaiyuan period, this problem was still very prominent, but in the later period, because Li Linfu was in power, all the people who opposed him were almost framed, and this problem was solved. Of course. That's an afterword.

Faced with these problems, Li Longji remembered one person, that is, Yao Yuanzhi, who had been recognized by everyone as the most strategic and problem-solving minister in the post-martial arts period!

For Li Longji's psychological thoughts, the same clear person is Zhang Shuo, who was the Zhongshu Ling at the time, Zhang said that he was a conceited person, and when he was hanging the arch for four years (688), Wu Zetian tried to be virtuous and square, and went to the south gate of Luoyang City to take the main examination, and Zhang said that the edict should be the first in the world. So he didn't look down on the Manchu Dynasty civil and military, but only Yao Yuanzhi and Zhang said that he was afraid of his existence!

In order to prevent Yao Yuanzhi from being the prime minister, Zhang's ghost idea was to find a place to install him, so that the emperor would not fight Yao Yuanzhi's idea in the short term, so he instructed Jiang Jiao (Note 3), the palace supervisor (who manages all matters of the emperor's life), to the emperor:

"The emperor wanted to find someone to take over as the governor of Hedong a while ago, and there has been no suitable candidate, and I have a suitable candidate to recommend."

"Who is it?"

"Yao Yuanzhi's all-round talent in civil and military affairs will definitely be competent!"

"Bold! This must have been Zhang's idea, right? If you dare to deceive to your face, you will be punished! ”

Jiang Jiao was frightened and quickly kowtowed and confessed. Li Longji spared his life.

(Note) Jiang Jiao's position is responsible for taking care of the emperor's daily life, a bit like Lord Shangshan in a Korean court drama, taking care of the emperor's daily life. It's easiest to get to the point. Zhang said that he came to him to make a speech to the emperor, and his ghost brain was admirable, but at this time, Li Longji was still in the era of clear thinking, so the trick was seen through!

A man who is destined to be prime minister

Why did Li Longji have to find Yao Yuanzhi as his prime minister, and Zhang Shuo was so jealous of Yao Yuanzhi? Let's take a look at Yao Yuanzhi's experience!

Yao Yuanzhi, formerly known as Yao Yuanchong. Tang Gaozong Yonghui was born in Shaanzhou (Sanmenxia Shaanxi County, Henan Province) in the first year (650 AD), his father was a state assassin, and he also served as a governor, and he was a child of a family, but because his grandfather/father was a martial artist, under the influence of family style, he practiced martial arts.

His father died when he was thirteen years old, Yao Yuanchong returned to his mother's home near Guangchengze (Ruzhou City, Henan Province), Guangchengze was known as Guangchengyuan in ancient times, has always been a famous place for hunting, in this place, Yao Yuanchong's expertise has been brought into play, he is riding and hunting every day, and he is happy to call eagles and beasts, and live very freely.

When he was about twenty years old, once Yao Yuanchong took his family to hunt as usual, and this time they achieved a good harvest, so a group of people set up the captured game in the wild and barbecued it, and scalded the wine to prepare.

At this moment, there was an old man with a strange appearance, riding a donkey and walking slowly, the old man unceremoniously got off the donkey, picked up the meat and ate it, and picked up the wine and drank it.

Yao Yuanchong is an uninhibited person, he doesn't care when he sees this situation, and asks his family to entertain the old man well. The old man seemed to have seen and heard a lot, and Yao Yuanchong had never heard of many accidents.

After drinking and eating, I saw the old man suddenly look at Yao Yuanchong carefully, and after a while, the old man spoke:

"Young man, have you ever studied and gone to school?"

Yao Yuanchong replied frankly: "I have been good at martial arts since I was a child, and I am still proficient in riding and archery martial arts, but as for the classics of the article, it is really not long." ”

The old man said: "I want to show you a clear way, are you willing to listen?" ”

"Thank you for your teaching, and please ask the elders to say everything!"

The old man said: "My name is Zhang Jingzang, for the phase of the people, a little bit of a thing, I look at your face, it is unspeakably expensive, but the right talent to talk to you, feel that you in the way of literature and science, has not been deeply studied, if you can break the section and study hard, the future achievements are limitless, to the position of the prime minister of Wang Zuo, not a problem!" ”

Yao Yuanchong said: "But I have never gone to school, how can I become a learned person?" ”

"Let me tell you, Lu Meng originally didn't study during the Three Kingdoms, and then he studied hard, and he was impressive in three months, I just talked to you, and found that although you don't read much, you are very talented, and you are flexible.

"Thank you for your advice, if Yao Yuanchong can achieve something in the future, it will be given by the elders!"

Who is this Zhang Jingzang? He was a very famous fortune teller at that time, especially specializing in physiognomy, and his biography is available in the New Tang Dynasty, and he helped Liu Renliang (the commander of the Japanese/Baekje coalition army at the mouth of the Baekjiang River during the First Sino-Japanese War) and Wei Yuanzhong (the minister of the Empress Wu, who was an official to the prime minister) to see the appearance very accurately.

Yao Chong started reading with the mentality of giving it a try, but he didn't expect to be more interested in reading. First of all, he became a filial piety to the emperor because of the relationship between the door and the shade. Emperor Xiaojing is Li Hong, the eldest son of Gaozong Li Zhi and Empress Wu, who was the crown prince at the time, and was posthumously awarded the title of Emperor Xiaojing when he died.

Next, Yao Yuanchong took the "next pen into a chapter department" system (the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty was divided into regular and systematic, and the regular examination was the imperial examination that was often held, such as the familiar Ming Jingke/Jinshi Branch, etc.; The system was a temporary imperial examination held by the emperor, with a variety of names), and then he was sent to Puzhou to join the army as a Sicang (granary manager, about an eight-rank official).

Although Yao Yuanchong is regarded as the second generation of officials, but his father died very early, and no one could give him shelter in his career, so his promotion was not fast, and when he was in his forties, he was reluctantly promoted to Xia Guan Langzhong (the director of the military department, a five-rank official), but it was in this position that Yao Chong showed his extraordinary talent.

There is also an episode in the story of Zhang Jingzang helping Liu Renliang to see his face, that is, Liu Renliang went to fortune-telling with a fellow villager named Jing Sixian, but Zhang Jingzang did not accept Jing Sixian's gift, saying: "According to the law of appearance, you will be old and lonely, and you will die in a foreign land."

Later, when Liu Renliang was shot by Shangshu's right servant, Jing Sixian said to others: "Zhang Jingzang's calculation of Liu Renliang is very accurate, but I now have three sons, and I have all the real estate and land, which is not as he said, so it seems that he is also inaccurate." Unexpectedly, not long after saying this, Jing Sixian's three sons died one after another, the pastoral properties were scattered, and he was exiled to a foreign land, living in a relative's house and dying of old age! (To be continued.) )