Tang Taizong Li Shimin has always been a very tolerant emperor, he opened up his way widely, magnified the power of the officials, Wei Zheng, Wang Qi, etc. are well-known for admonishment, and Li Shimin has always been kind to the founding heroes of the Tang Dynasty, his mind is very, but he is such an emperor, there are times when he wants to kill people by his courtiers, and it is caused by trivial things.
Once, Li Shimin and Tang Jian played chess, and they were so angry that they almost killed Tang Jian. Tang Jian was very well-known in the early Tang Dynasty, he was not only one of the seventeen heroes of Taiyuan Yuanmou, but also one of the twenty-four heroes of Lingyan Pavilion. You know, there are only six people who have this double honor.
Tang Jian came from a family of eunuchs, his father Tang Jian and Tang Gaozu Li Yuan were colleagues during the Sui Dynasty, and they were in charge of the forbidden army, so the interaction between the two families was still very much, at the end of the Sui Dynasty, when Li Yuan was an official in Taiyuan, Tang Jian was also in Taiyuan, and Li Shimin often had contacts, although there was an age difference of almost 20 years between the two, but it did not prevent the communication between the two.
Therefore, Tang Jian participated in the Li family's planning in Jinyang and became one of the planners of the Jinyang army, which was valued by Li Yuan, but he was a civil servant, so in the process of founding the country and pacifying the world, the historical books did not pay much attention to him, but he must have made a lot of great contributions, otherwise it would be impossible to occupy double honors.
The record of him in the historical books involves two missions, the first time he was arrested by Liu Wuzhou's people, but he brought back the news that Dugu Huaien was going to rebel; The second time was to send an envoy to the Eastern Turks, and was ordered to comfort Jieli Khan, Li Jing took the opportunity to attack the Eastern Turks, captured Jieli Khan, and Tang Jian escaped back, which can be regarded as a great death.
But he was almost killed by Li Shimin, who likes to play chess, but according to some records (although not from the official history), Li Shimin's chess skills do not seem to be high. At least there is a record of Li Shimin playing chess in Wang Fangqing's "Wei Zheng Gong Records", and it was Li Shimin who lost to Wei Zheng, and there is also a record of Zhang Yan in "The Ruling and Wild Records", Li Shimin lost to Tang Jian.
said that once, Li Shimin asked Tang Jian to play chess with himself, although Tang Jian was a civil official, but he did not give in to the matter of playing chess, his chess pieces crackled and fell, and when he came up, he took the offensive, mercilessly, pressed everywhere, and directly forced Li Shimin to retreat step by step.
Li Shimin's face became more and more ugly, but Tang Jian didn't seem to see anything wrong at all, just as he was getting up, Li Shimin threw down the chess pieces and brushed his sleeves away, leaving Tang Jian messy in the wind.
After Li Shimin came out, he was ready to order Tang Jian to be demoted to the magistrate of Tanzhou, this Tang Jian, who has no eyesight, it is best to go as far as possible, out of sight and out of mind, and just kill his prestige, aren't you very good at chess? Throw you to Tanzhou and see what you're doing.
But even if he was demoted and released, Li Shimin still felt that the evil breath in his heart did not come out, and he was still panicked, he thought of Wei Chi Jingde, who was not afraid of heaven and earth and was loyal to him, Wei Chi Jingde had always been at odds with civil officials when he was in the last dynasty, and he even looked down on Fang Xuanling and Changsun Wuji and others.
Li Shimin felt that he could use him to deal with Tang Jian, so he ordered to summon Wei Chi Jingde, and after Wei Chi Jingde entered the palace, Li Shimin said:"Tang Jian despised me, I wanted to kill him, and Qing verified that I had complaints and reprimands. ”This is actually a common trick used by ancient emperors, when they want to beat a certain courtier, especially a general, they will say:"I've heard that you're treacherous (or complaining about me, etc.). ”As for who you listen to, it doesn't matter, what matters is the emperor's letter.
Li Shimin wanted to use this method to deal with Tang Jian, and he didn't want to beat Tang Jian, but to kill Tang Jian, so just some people said that it was not enough, and it had to be implemented to the actual person, that is, someone had to prove that he had indeed heard it. This glorious task was entrusted to Wei Chi Jingde. Li Shimin's order, Wei Chi Jingde did not dare to refuse, so he had to agree.
But after he went back, the more he thought about it, the more scared he became, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was too difficult, how could he take on such a task? This is a murderous thing, although he usually looks down on civilian officials, it doesn't mean that he will frame them, and Li Shimin is obviously angry, if he really testifies, Li Shimin ordered to kill Tang Jian, and he will definitely regret it in a short time.
And if Tang Jian is really killed, many ministers will definitely be dissatisfied with Li Shimin, and they will also be remembered by the civil officials, no matter what you think, this is all a chore, and it is difficult to say that your life will be gone.
The next day, when Li Shimin was in the court, he finished handling government affairs as usual, and then as soon as the conversation changed, he mentioned that someone said that Tang Jian had complaints or something, and then Li Shimin asked again:"What do you think about this? ”What he said was actually Wei Chi Jingde, who asked him, and asked him to stand up and say that he had heard it, which confirmed Tang Jian's sin.
Wei Chi Jingde didn't stand up, Li Shimin directly named him, implying that Yu Chi Jingde had already mentioned this matter to him, and Wei Chi Jingde quickly knelt down and said"I haven't heard of it. ”
No matter how Li Shimin asked, Wei Chi Jingde insisted that he had not heard of it, and the angry Li Shimin dropped the jade wat in his hand and left with his sleeves brushed up. When he finally lost his anger and found that he was hungry, he summoned the ** above three grades to the banquet, and Li Shimin said something like this to Wei Chi Jingde's performance at the banquet:
"There are three people who respect virtue today: Tang Jian is free from vain death, I am free from vain killing, respect for virtue is free from bending, and three benefits are also; I have the beauty of anger, the luck of regeneration, the reputation of loyalty, and the three benefits. ”Li Shimin did not shy away from this matter, and it was also done by Mingjun, although Wei Chi Jingde was born as a military general and was proud of his achievements, he was still not too confused. Of course, this story is only recorded in Zhang Ling's "The Ruling and Wild Mountains", although this book is a note that the author has heard and witnessed**, but it may not be all true. So let's just look at this as a little story.