Chapter 2589: Admonishment to death
There was silence in the imperial study room, and the occasional burning candle wick made a slight "beep" sound. His Majesty Li Er sat behind the desk, his face as heavy as water, and it took him a long time to pick up the tea cup and take a sip of tea.
Fang Jun stood with his hands down, not daring to express his anger.
His words have actually pointed directly at the heart of His Majesty Li Er. The method His Majesty Li Er has always used to depose the Crown Prince is to secretly add fuel to the flames, but on his face he says, "It's not that I want to depose the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince doesn't want to." The look of trying to live up to expectations.
Maybe he wanted to maintain his image as a wise king and a loving father, or maybe he really couldn't bear the prince. In short, His Majesty Li Er had never revealed his intentions to Yi Chu in front of others.
Sometimes things are like this. Even though His Majesty Li Er's thoughts are known to everyone, everyone is still willing to obey His Majesty Li Er's wishes without saying a word, acquiescing to what he has done as "the crown prince does not live up to his expectations."
We can still be friends if we see through but don’t tell…
However, Fang Jun always felt that this was unfair to Li Chengqian.
According to the history books, Li Chengqian was belittled in every possible way. Kong Yingda, Zhang Xuansu and other great scholars were ordered by the emperor to teach the prince. As a result, the prince was extravagant and extravagant and refused to listen to dissuasion. He "excessive advice and criticism, Chengqian could not accept it" and even favored his son. Favoring "Satisfactory", Be Li Erbi After hearing this, he promised to die with satisfaction, but Li Chengqian completely ignored his father's warning. Not only did he marry his dead male favorite in the palace, let the palace people pay homage day and night, but also set up a tomb for this male favorite. , and was given an official position, crying and crying day and night.
He even "privately lured the Turks into the palace", pretending to be a Turk himself, and defiled the palace...
How much of these evil deeds "recorded in history books" are true, how much are false, and how many of them were instructed by His Majesty Li Er or Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi to discredit the reputation of Prince Li Chengqian? After all, this kind of thing was already familiar to the Tang Dynasty royal family. When His Majesty Li Er changed the Xuanwu Gate and became emperor, he wiped out all of Li Jiancheng's achievements and created countless notoriety to show the world that Li Jiancheng's "crimes were extremely heinous. Not worthy of being a king."
To take a step back, even if some of these things really exist, then why did Li Chengqian become like this?
You must know that Li Chengqian was an extremely qualified prince for a long time after he was canonized as the prince. He was "smart in nature", "specially sensitive and helpful", "generous in appearance, benevolent and filial", and was deeply loved by His Majesty Li Er.
His Majesty Li Er also spared no effort in cultivating the prince and selected many powerful gentlemen for him. For example, Li Gang, Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and other famous officials in the early Tang Dynasty all served as the prince's teachers.
It can be seen from the documentary records that the prince also had great respect for these teachers in the early years. For example, Li Gang was already over seventy years old when he served as Li Chengqian's teacher in the early years of Zhenguan. Chengqian had "great respect for him." Gang taught the prince Chen Junchen the way of father and son, asked about the ways of sleeping, watching and eating, straightened out his speech, and listened to him. The prince is always respectful when he speaks.
After Li Gang died in the fifth year of Zhenguan, Cheng Qian personally erected a monument to commemorate him.
In addition, His Majesty Li Er also paid great attention to cultivating the prince's ability to govern. When he was twelve years old, he asked the prince to accompany Fang Xuanling in Shangshu Province and try to handle some government affairs. In the ninth year of Zhenguan, Emperor Li Yuan passed away. During the funeral period, His Majesty Li Er entrusted political affairs to the prince, and the prince also handled the matter well.
From then on, whenever Taizong went out, the prince stayed behind to supervise the country.
All this seems to indicate that Li Chengqian, as a qualified prince, will steadily learn to govern and train his team, and one day he will successfully inherit the empire and push this old empire to a higher peak!
But suddenly one day, everything changed...
His Royal Highness, who has always been a model prince, seemed to have suddenly changed. More and more negative records about the prince began to appear in documents and rumors. These records are not only negative, but also full of absurdity, as if a well-behaved baby with excellent academic performance turned into a crazy lunatic overnight.
In addition to doting on male favorites, he often imitated the behavior of the Turks in the East Palace, imagining himself as a Turkic Khan on the grassland. In the palace, he "braided sheep fur and tended sheep, made five wolf-headed banners and banners, and set up a dome house. The prince was among them, gathering the sheep and cooking them, drawing his sword to cut the meat and eating it"...
What's more, it is recorded in the royal family's "Daily Notes" that the prince once said to people: "As the emperor, I should indulge my desires. If anyone has advice, I will kill them. Kill five hundred people, wouldn't it be certain?"...
This is no longer just the image of a crazy tyrant, he is a complete fool. How could any prince in the world dare to say such crazy things while the emperor is still in power?
Xia Jie and Shang Zhou were never so "unrestrained"...
So the question is, what made Prince Li Chengqian go from being an excellent prince to a madman who was rebellious and usurped the throne?
Fang Jun has always believed that even if the evil deeds recorded in these historical books and passed down by the people do exist, Prince Li Chengqian's mental journey must have undergone such completely different changes under heavy pressure.
As a prince, he is already cautious and under great pressure. When the emperor above his head is an unparalleled emperor as wise, mighty, civilized and military as His Majesty Li Er, the pressure suddenly doubles; and when this unparalleled emperor suddenly Yi Chu suddenly had the idea to replace his brother as the crown prince, and the pressure on the prince would be multiplied by ten!
Even for a "mama's boy" like Li Chengqian who has never known the sufferings of the world and has been pampered since childhood and has had a smooth journey, this kind of pressure may be multiplied by a hundred!
Enough to cause sudden changes in personality and collapse of life...
There was a long silence, His Majesty Li Er was holding the tea cup with his fingers, leaning back slightly on the chair, staring at Fang Jun with a pair of hawk-like eyes, which made Fang Jun sweat on his head and his mouth went dry. dry.
After a long while, His Majesty Li Er said quietly: "What exactly do you want to say? Are you accusing me of not treating one favorably and favoring another, let alone having the heart to save money?"
Fang Jun said hurriedly: "I don't dare!"
His Majesty Li Er looked gloomy and said word by word: "You are my minister, not the prince's minister. No matter what my intentions are, you should obey me and serve to the best of your ability! What kind of benefits does the prince promise to you? You came in front of me to boss me around and accused me?”
"Poof!"
Fang Jun knelt down on the ground and said loudly: "I will never dare to have such a rebellious heart even if I die! Only if the state has a prince and the country is stable, can I and others assist His Majesty to expand the territory and achieve the grand hegemony of an emperor for eternity. . If the prince is uneasy, the situation in the court will definitely be shaken. I don’t know how much power will be wasted in internal friction, which will inevitably make it difficult for your majesty to accomplish his great achievements."
His Majesty Li Er was silent for a while and said slowly: "After all, you still love the prince."
Fang Jun was sweating profusely. Although His Majesty Li Er had always been extremely fond of and tolerant of him, when it came to the position of Crown Prince and the future of the empire, His Majesty Li Er might kill him in a fit of rage...
But now, how can he seek advantages, avoid disadvantages, and stay out of it?
His heart skipped a beat, his eyes closed, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, it is clear that the Duke of Zhou established the rites and music, and began to implement the eldest son inheritance system. From then on, the Zhou Dynasty lasted for 800 years! From ancient times to the present, ancestral succession has become the world's rule. People's consensus is that if one's name is correct, one's words will be followed, and if one's words are followed, then things will come true. His Majesty was persecuted back then and had no choice but to rise up and fight under the Xuanwu Sect. After all, it is a last resort... If Your Majesty deposes the prince and establishes a new crown prince, it will be like telling your descendants that the position of emperor is never given by heaven, and they can work hard to fight for it! If such a situation occurs, the royal family will fight against each other, brothers will kill each other, the country will fall, and the country will fall. "
The eldest son inheritance system, "establishing the eldest son based on the elder rather than the virtuous" is the core of ancestral succession and the main purpose of stable inheritance. The word "virtuous" will not be universally recognized unless it is a sage like Confucius, Mencius, Lao Zhuang, etc. who is recognized by everyone in the world. It is difficult for ordinary people to be recognized by everyone regardless of their ability or moral character. If someone is wrong, who dares to call him a virtuous person? If the successor is selected based on the condition of being "virtuous", every transfer of power will inevitably lead to disputes. After all, no one is perfect, and it is always possible to find faults and make it difficult to convince the public.
This is not the case for "Legendary". The son born to the principal wife is the legitimate son, and the head of the sons is the eldest. This is a clear definition. Therefore, the eldest son inheritance system can avoid possible turmoil during the transfer of power to the greatest extent. Do you agree? If you don’t accept it, your bloodline status is here and cannot be changed. (End of chapter)