Heqin
This is the most miraculous rescue in the history of Heqin in the Tang Dynasty-Princess Heqin was kidnapped on her way home. Shi Xiong, a general, took the initiative to dig more than a dozen big holes in the city wall, used cattle and sheep as pioneers, and succeeded in taking away the princess.
The captured princess was Princess Taihe, the daughter of Li Chun, Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty. Half of her unfortunate life began with her marriage to Huihe.
Twenty years ago, she first married the newly enthroned Chongde Khan and was conferred the title of Kedun (equivalent to empress). Four years later, when Chongde died and his brother Satele ascended the throne, she became Satele’s wife again. Seven years later, she was killed by her subordinates, and her nephew Hutler ascended the throne, so she had to remarry Hutler. Four years later, Hu Tele was killed by the Prime Minister of the State, and he was regarded as the Khan of Tele, and she became the Kedun of Tele.
Photo: Princess Taihe remarries in Huihe
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Picture: Princess Taihe is in a mess inside the Huihe remarriage picture
, and there are people outside who take advantage of the situation.
It is said that in the northwest of Huihe, there is a tribe called Gagas, which has never been in contact with the Central Plains Dynasty before the Tang Dynasty-the distance is too far.
According to records, the people of this tribe were very tall and strong, with “red hair, white faces, and green eyes.” They were very different from the Han Chinese, and their black hair was considered ominous. But the people whose eyes are black, it is a different picture-they believe that they are Li Ling’s descendants.
Li Ling, the grandson of Li Guang, a famous general of the Western Han Dynasty, attacked the Xiongnu and was captured. He lived in the Xiongnu for 20 years and married Chanyu’s daughter. Perhaps, there are quite a few people who are the descendants of Li Ling, and they are proud of it.
By the middle of the Tang Dynasty, it had become stronger and stronger, and had been fighting with Huihe for more than 20 years. Catching up with God’s heartlessness, Huihe suffered a white disaster and drought that lasted for many years, and the interior was in a mess. Someone acted as a guide for revenge. He led a large army to the south and successfully captured the Huihe Yazhang, which led to the destruction of the Huihe Khanate.
By the way, it captured a group of elegantly dressed people. As soon as I asked, I realized that it was the Tang Dynasty.
You know, Li Ling surnamed Li, the king of the Tang Dynasty also surnamed Li!
This great discovery makes them very happy, so we are our own family!
After a cordial meeting, he sent more than 10 people, including Dagan, to escort the princess back to Chang’an.
Who would have thought that on the way out, Wu Jie killed all the people such as Da Gan and snatched the princess away.
Wu Jie is not an outsider. He is Hutler’s uncle. When Huihe destroyed the country, he led the people to flee to the south. He came across a team escorting the princess. As if he had found a treasure, he killed and robbed people at one go. After robbing them, he ran to hide somewhere.
From then on, he often used the princess to threaten the Tang Dynasty. As
the Huihe famine continued, Wu Jie asked Emperor Wuzong for grain, and Emperor Wuzong had no choice but to give him 30,000 stone. Later, he carried the princess across the Gobi Desert to Tiande, an important town, and wrote to Emperor Wuzong, saying that he was hungry and had no place to live, so he had to send food, cattle and sheep, and Tiande City to him so that he could live with the princess. Of course, Emperor Wuzong would not agree to
such a shameless and dirty request.
As the shameless demands were not met, Wu Jie went south to Yunzhou and Shuofang to loot, and prepared to lay down Zhenwu City. This place was very important, just south of Hohhot, and had always been an important pass to resist the southward movement of the Hu people.
Because his aunt was in the enemy camp, Emperor Wuzong did not dare to act rashly.
Picture: Family relationship of Princess Taihe. Emperor Muzong of the Tang Dynasty had many sons who became emperors one after another, and they all called Princess Taihe as their aunt
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Picture: Family relationship of Princess Taihe. Emperor Muzong of the Tang Dynasty had several sons who became emperors one after another, and they all called Princess Taihe their aunt
, so he asked Li Deyu for advice.
Li Deyu was an outstanding statesman, litterateur and strategist in the Tang Dynasty. To describe him in two words, he is a “genius.”. If you use four words, it is “eternal good prime minister.”. The Tang Dynasty experienced the Lushan and Shi Siming Rebellion, but it was still able to revive, relying on such outstanding figures! Li Deyu has an answer to the question of
how to kill Wu Jie, but there is no right time. Now, the opportunity has come. First of all,
he comforted Emperor Wuzong by saying that the Huihe people were really fierce in fighting, but they were also afraid of death. Charging on horseback is their forte, but what if they can’t charge? Wu Jie this fellow is so unscrupulous, entirely because there is a princess in the hand! If we conspire to get the princess back, what is there for him to be crazy about? There is a precedent for taking a person’s head from a crowd of
ten thousand people. However, it is more difficult than former to snatch people back from the crowd of ten thousand people without any damage. Taihe can’t have an accident in any case. Is it too risky to do so?
However, out of his trust in Li Deyu, Emperor Wuzong entrusted him with the task of “plotting.”.
Li Deyu gave the task to Liu Da again.
Liu Da consulted with his lieutenant Shi Xiong again.
These two people can be said to be the talents discovered by the virtuous officials of the Tang Dynasty! Liu Da was originally an orphan, but later moved to the general because of his military exploits. At this time, he was the military governor of Hedong and the governor of Heshuo. Shi Xiong’s family was also very poor, and no one even knew his origin. He only knew that when he was young, he was brave and good at fighting. He covered the three armed forces and shared the joys and sorrows with his foot soldiers. He was calm and wise, and was loyal and generous. Unfortunately, he was once targeted by his narrow-minded boss. After the adjustment of Tang Wenzong, he was transferred to Liu Da, and finally had a chance to show his strength.
Two immortal wizards will go down in history forever because of what happens next!
Shi Xiong said, this matter is duty-bound, let me do it.
He ordered 3000 elite from Mayi (Shuozhou, Shanxi) and sneaked into Zhenwu City at night. The next day, he stood on the gate tower to observe and found that outside the city of Zhenwu, Wu Jie’s thirteen military forces were indeed very strong. In the middle of the dense tents, there were dozens of felt carts, and the people beside them were dressed in red and green clothes, unlike Huihe. He suspected that it was the princess’s servant. However, the matter was so important that spies were sent to spy on him to ensure that everything was safe.
He did not know how the spy had infiltrated the Huihe army, nor how he had gained the trust of the Huihe people. In a word, the Huihe people told him with a straight face that it was the tooth tent of the princess of the Tang Dynasty, and it would never be wrong. If it was false, it would be struck by thunder.
The spy returned to the city and reported the situation to Shi Xiong. As expected, knowing the location of the princess, he could arrange his plan.
Shi Xiong’s way of thinking is really different from ordinary people. The first thing to do is to destroy the Great Wall. Inexplicably, Tang soldiers dug more than a dozen big holes in the city wall (Zhenwu City is a Tucheng), which were enough for eight horses to pass through. During the day, the city would surely be completely exposed to the enemy’s eyes. Strangely enough, General Shi also asked another group of people to call a meeting of the people and ask them to gather all the business, private and public cattle, sheep, mules and horses. He also acquired a large number of musical instruments, all of which were used as weapons.
Tens of thousands of cattle and sheep gathered slowly in the nearest doorway, waiting to graze outside tomorrow. Every soldier rode a horse and hung musical instruments on his body, among which percussion music (gongs and drums) was the main one. Those who knew said that they were fighting, while those who did not knew thought that they were going to be trumpeters.
The day was slightly bright, and a flaming torch was suddenly lit around the city of Zhenwu. At the moment when the torch was lit, many hunting flags were erected on the wall. Almost at the same time, the sound of gongs and drums and the magnificent roar burst out at the gates. With percussion music as the main part, 3000 people played chaotic and radical music with the shouts of horses and horses. Tens of thousands of animals of different sizes, driven away by the shouts of the fighters and the deafening sound of gongs and drums, rushed in horror towards Wu Jie’s tooth tent. They run faster and faster, and no one can stop or control them. The ancients called this uncontrollable situation a “stampede.”.
The earth-shaking noise made Wu Jie, who was still sleeping, panic. When he got up to pay the bill, he became more and more confused about what was going on, and for a moment he was “in a state of panic.”. He looked around and found that the tooth curtain had been washed away. And the city of Zhenwu is full of torches and flags, behind the cattle and sheep, there are countless armies, as to how many, who knows!
He did not know why the Tang army even ignored the princess, nor did he know why there were so many military forces suddenly, not excluding that he had been trapped. In short, thousands of cattle and sheep toward his tooth tent, loud gongs and shouts ShaSheng, frighten the soldiers around also a mess, mindless outside ranks with this group of animals together. Someone shouted that the Tang army had begun to slaughter, and the people who heard it screamed and ran away, so that they trampled on each other.
Panic spread throughout the camp in an instant.
Wu Jie wants to find the princess.
But I can’t find it. The
reason is very simple, the princess does not want to find him.
As a result, the current situation has become an embarrassment for Wu Jie, who needs to risk his life to cross the sea of cattle and goats to find the princess. But, with this time, is it not good for us to run for our lives? After
thinking about this, he made a very correct decision: run!
But in the end was Shi Xiong caught up, but his riding is not bad, desperate resistance for a while, was seriously injured, relying on hundreds of QinBing Tuan Tuan maintenance, successfully escaped.
However, as a self-proclaimed Khan, his dream of ruling the Huihe tribes failed. He lost his country, lost his army, lost his hope, and lost everything. The last breath of Huihe was gone, so Wu Jie had to be wounded and went to the distant northeast to join the cold Shiwei. After a few years, he was killed by his prime minister, and the rest of his troops were all annexed by Shiwei. The Huihe soldiers who
fell into panic were not as lucky as Wu Jie, and they hardly ran away. Shi Xiong led a strong rider to follow him and chased Wu Jie’s troops to Shahu Mountain. In dozens of miles, 10,000 heads fell and 5,000 soldiers were captured. Cars, tents, baggage, grain, money, cattle, sheep and livestock, countless.
Scattered on the vast prairie, Huihe military forces were pursued by Liu Kui’s army, the specific process is unknown, in short, the court finally rewarded him according to the specifications of Li Jing’s conquest of Jieli Khan in the early Tang Dynasty. After
Princess Taihe escaped from danger, Emperor Wuzong was very angry.
In Wuzong’s view, Princess Taihe was a serious dereliction of duty.
Peace and marriage is a ceremony of alliance between two countries and a means of mutual influence and restriction between the two countries, but peace and marriage itself can also change the attitude of the two countries towards each other and greatly influence their foreign policy. Princess Taihe almost completely failed to do so, and as a result, Emperor Wuzong was very dissatisfied with her performance.
Princess Heqin is not a puppet, not a hostage taken by kidnappers, nor a proton of the pre-Qin era, but a “female minister” with a political mission. Although in a foreign country, people and places are not familiar with each other, but also responsible for alienating the enemy country, winning over and pro-country, cultivating power, not just “marry” and “become a puppet.”. Compared with the female officials of the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Kedun (empress) of
the prairie people could participate in more political affairs, and even make decisions to influence the overall situation. In the Western Han Dynasty, Princess Xijun and Princess Jieyou were in Wusun, and Zhaojun and his children were in Southern Xiongnu, all of which were cultivating pro-Han forces and actively maintaining peace and stability. Sometimes, in order to eliminate the anti-Han forces, they even carried out a series of coups and assassinations, taking great risks to accomplish their tasks.
However, due to the turbulent situation of Huihe itself and the personal characteristics of Princess Taihe, she did not do this. Instead, she made her life worse and worse. She was constrained everywhere. Finally, she was taken hostage. Huihe took so many things and robbed everywhere, which made Wuzong very angry.
In an imperial edict drafted by Li Deyu, Emperor Wuzong blamed Princess Taihe not only for not ordering Huihe not to invade the border, but also for letting them invade without fear. He said that his aunt, as Kedun of Huihe and Princess of the Tang Dynasty, had so many attendants around her that she enjoyed such preferential treatment, but only said that she could do nothing. When riding a tall horse and looking south, didn’t you fear the power of Emperor Gaozu and Emperor Taizong?
However, Wuzong also knew that there was not much reason to blame his aunt: she was not willing to go, but the court had to choose her to go.
Princess Taihe was one of the victims of the foreign policy of the Tang Dynasty, in order to appease Huihe and deter Tubo. After the
An Lushan and Shi Siming Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty’s national strength declined and its life hung by a thread. The Tubo, who had been as close as a family, took the opportunity to invade Chang’an to burn, kill and loot, and Huihe, as a vassal, rescued the Tang Dynasty. However, the reputation of Huihe people among the people is not very good. In the course of the rescue, they robbed and killed a lot, and the people of Beijing complained and hated them very much. At the same time, Huihe and Tubo were constantly seizing the Silk Road in the Hexi Corridor, and the two countries were like water and fire.
Figure: Schematic diagram of the three forces before the incident (roughly), the bottom of the map is the map
of the sky …
Figure: Sketch map of the three forces before the incident (roughly). The bottom of the map is the map
of the sky. At this time, Huihe repeatedly invited him to marry Tang. For Huihe, on the one hand, they wanted to obtain huge wealth through intermarriage and continue to maintain the unequal border trade; on the other hand, they wanted to join forces to attack Tubo after reaching an alliance, and they would not be attacked in a short time.
At first, Emperor Xianzong did not agree to Huihe’s request out of his disgust for the marriage. Huihe, however, did not give up, and after several entreaties (with a slight hint of coercion), he almost succeeded. After Emperor Xianzong died and Emperor Muzong ascended the throne, they sent hundreds of “marriage proposals,” including generals in battle armor, Huihe princesses dressed in gorgeous clothes, and a large number of Manichaeists dressed in strange clothes.
Muzong agreed to marry.
The reason was to avoid the formation of an alliance between Huihe and Tubo.
However, the pain of doing so is really too great, just to give the makeup fee, we have to pay a large southeast county 25 years of finance and taxation (5 million yuan), but also to lose incalculable human and material resources, to maintain unequal transactions at the border. There is also a shame in mind, in the past, the Huihe people let the Tang emissary kneel and kowtow, the emissary did not kneel, was beaten all night, flesh and blood flying, unfortunately died of hatred, so far the Tang people will not forget. They bullied the emissaries of the Tang Dynasty, not to mention how they abused the people.
But, fight, not yet. The lesson of
almost destroying the country is in front of us. For a big country with uncertain breathing, only temporary humiliation can achieve the ultimate goal.
Marriage is such an operation. The princess who
was arranged to go to Hu to marry was the “price.”.
Because of the Tang Dynasty and the Huihe people, the Tubo people were really in a panic. On Princess Taihe’s way to get married, they tried their best to obstruct and send troops to harass her. In order to marry the princess, Huihe sent 20,000 troops to block the marriage in two ways. After the
successful marriage, Huihe and the Tang Dynasty lived in peace for a few years, but Huihe itself suffered a great blow after its prosperity, and natural and man-made disasters continued. At the same time, as early as a few years ago, the aggressive Tubo, since the Huihe disaster, the days are also the decline of rivers, disasters. The Tubo nobles fought incessantly, and the war lasted for years. The union of Huihe and Tang made them uneasy. Seeing that the marriage failed, he took the initiative to send an emissary to see him, to make up with the Tang Dynasty, and to revisit the relationship between uncle and nephew initiated by Emperor Taizong and Songtsen Gampo 200 years ago.
However, after the collapse of Huihe, the days of Tubo came to an end, and the suffering serfs broke out massive uprisings in many places, one wave after another, causing the huge Tubo to fall apart. In
a short time, the Tang Dynasty lost two huge rivals.
Correspondingly, the internal situation of the Tang Dynasty was relatively stable. After Emperor Wuzong ascended the throne, he relied on the advice of Li Deyu, the prime minister, to clarify the administration of officials, develop the economy, cut down the vassals and suppress the chaos, demolish Buddhist temples, and expand tax sources, which restored the Tang Dynasty to a certain degree of prosperity, known as “Huichang Zhongxing” in history.
Later, Li Chen, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, was even more discerning, respectful and thrifty. Destroy the Tubo, pacify Annam, recapture the Hehuang area, and continue the overall situation of resurgence. Among
them, the marriage between Tang and Huihe itself served the purpose of recuperating for 20 years, which was also the most miserable 20 years for Princess Taihe.
Although Taihe is an intelligent person, he is a complete novice in politics. He has never been exposed to such a complicated situation, and his ability to change the overall situation is limited. But, to be fair, isn’t it normal for most people to be unable to change the overall situation? Is it necessary to ask for complete blame for Taihe?
As a result, Wuzong, who was afraid of being too sad, issued another consolation edict. From this imperial edict, we seem to be able to guess what happened to Taihe in Huihe. There is a saying in the
book, “If I lose my position and hurt myself, I would rather avoid the sigh of the Green Clothes.”. “Green Clothes” is a chapter of the Book of Songs, which says that the wife was neglected, while the concubine gained power and trampled the wife under her feet. Taihe has been married to Huihe for 20 years, and has become an old pearl from a fair lady. How can he always keep the love of Khan surrounded by many beauties? So Princess Taihe was left out in the cold when she was in Huihe. She was not taken seriously by the Khans. As Kedun (empress), she made a concubine overstep her, target her and exclude her, which made her feel on pins and needles and ashamed.
But it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s good to be back. Since the Tang Dynasty had won politically and militarily, it would not care about the success or failure of the princess in the past, would not criticize her excessively, but would commend her dedication and compensate her for her sacrifice. In the spring of the third year
of Huichang (843), outside the city of Chang’an, 400 Shence troops and a continuous guard of honor welcomed Princess Taihe home at Changle Yi.
After Taihe was supported by the Shence Army and entered the city, there was a grand welcoming ceremony. The officials made a collective pilgrimage and went to the Imperial Ancestral Temple with Taihe to comfort the souls of Emperor Xianzong and Emperor Muzong. It was a
blessing in disguise that he returned to his hometown, leaving Taihe “in tears.”. After changing her costume, she went to the Kuangshun Gate to take off her crown and plead guilty, saying that during her time in Huihe, she had “no form of marriage.”. The wind and clouds have been turbulent for 20 years, but nothing has been done. Instead, it has become a big burden. Emperor Wuzong forgave her and conferred on her the title of Princess Dingan Chang. Home long princess mansion, give money, servants. The return of
Princess Taihe was warmly welcomed by the emperor, all the officials and all the people, and there was no one who did not pity her.
However, it is women who embarrass women after all.
Although Taihe was welcomed by the whole country, it was rejected by princesses such as Yangan, Xuancheng, Yichang, Yining, Zhenyuan, Zhenning and Linzhen.
Apart from Princess Yang Anchang, the other princesses were all sisters of Taihe and daughters of Emperor Xianzong. As an elder aunt, Yang An’s rejection of Taihe is particularly strong. At the handover ceremony, she refused to go out. Later, when the emperor’s order came, he hid outside for two days in a row, pretending not to receive the order and passively resisting the holy order, in order to express his disgust with Taihe.
History books do not say why they did this, and no one has ever given an explanation.
However, in my opinion, it should still be related to the failure of Taihe to complete its political tasks. Another possibility is that they despise Taihe’s experience from the bottom of their bones.
First of all, according to Hu custom, marry this and marry that, marry uncle and marry nephew. There are more men than women on the
grassland, and the probability of women having adverse birth is very high. As a result, it is extremely difficult for common men to marry, and the strategy within the family is that they will try to get the elder brother to marry, while the younger brother has no money to marry. If the elder brother dies, a widower, younger brother, and a widowed sister-in-law are left behind, and the two reconstitute the family.
Naturally, there is also the problem of wealth. The distribution of marital property has always been a headache. If no one adopts the widow, the widow will take the property away, marry an outsider, and spend it together, which is equivalent to spending the money of the Zhang family and being happy with Lao Wang. In response to this situation, people at all times and in all over the world have adopted different strategies, either encouraging women to be widowed or encouraging women to transfer within the family-the latter is adopted by the grassland people.
Some people will say that aristocratic harems are not guilty of this, yes, but they will not change their inherent customs because of their wealth and harems, but will aggravate them. For the emperors and officials of the Central Plains, no matter how many wives and concubines they had, they would not share them with any outside men, and their wives and concubines were not allowed to contact outside men unless they were over the age of childbearing (over 49 years old). The same is true of the nobles on
the prairie, they will not allow the outflow of property, more than one is not much, less than one is reluctant. Therefore, a son or nephew can inherit all the women of his father except his mother, without any psychological burden.
Since the Western Han Dynasty, most royal princesses have been asked to remarry close male relatives of their husbands, not only the Khan, but also the emperors of their own country. Because it was too humiliating, they would write to the emperor to implore him not to issue such a “gift.”. However, in order to “take the overall situation into account,” their requests will be rejected. They had to marry their younger brother first, then their nephew, and then their uncle.
Like the princess’s sense of shame, the other princesses of the imperial clan in the Tang Dynasty were very contemptuous of the married daughter’s experience of “being a husband.”.
Secondly, Taihe may abandon his own children.
As the wife of the Khan, he and his wife usually have their own offspring. For example, Princess Jieyou has four sons (yuan Gui Mi, Wan Nian, Da Le, and Li Wei) and two daughters (Di Shi and Su Guang). Zhaojun has one son (Yitu Zhiyashi) and two daughters (Xubuju and Dangyuju).
As for other people’s children, historical materials often do not record them, mainly because they do not participate in important events. However, since the Han Dynasty, almost all the princesses who married each other died of old age in foreign countries, and they were not even allowed to visit relatives (Zhaojun’s return to his hometown is a folk legend, not a historical fact, and she never returned home after leaving the fortress). Anyone who has the ability to bear children, there is no one who does not bear children, and Taihe is no exception. In the Tang Dynasty, one of the princesses who was sent back to China was Princess Ningguo, who had never given birth to a son or a daughter. However, Taihe was obviously not sent back without giving birth, she was snatched back.
We can guess that the reaction of the seven princesses who were sitting at home when they heard about this was nothing more than: “Why did she come back?” In the face of a married woman who has only made dirty mistakes and has not accomplished anything, their disgust exists, and the action they take is not to welcome them on their own initiative, and it is already very face-saving if they do not come forward to spurn them.
Emperor Wuzong’s imperial edict for his sisters and sisters-in-law to go out to greet him came, and they all pretended not to see it.
Seven people didn’t see this very important notice together, and no one believed it! Outside, gongs and drums are loud, firecrackers are ringing, and thousands of people in seven prefectures are deaf?
I really didn’t go. When
Emperor Wuzong heard this, he was furious and severely punished them. He also asked the historiographer to write down the matter carefully and write down the names of every princess who did not go out, so that future generations could know how unreasonable they were, but as long as the words existed, the matter would be endless.
Taihe was very grateful to Emperor Wuzong. After 20 years, she was able to meet the empress Dowager. The mother and daughter hugged each other and wept. She no longer had to suffer such a great humiliation in the field.
In fact, since ancient times, the happiness of most people, especially women, has been sacrificed. In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court did not make peace with each other, but mainly disdained to use women to make games. Correspondingly, the level of marriage of princesses declined seriously, not only did they not need to marry, but also they were not allowed to marry any family with a slight official rank, only to marry low-level officials or even civilians.
Marriage, of course, is not for love, but for more benefits. The same is true of relations between countries, which sometimes benefit the country and even bring about decades or hundreds of years of vigorous development. However, this is not a legitimate reason to force one person to sacrifice and benefit ten thousand people.
Emperor Wuzong and Li Deyu were both sensible people and understood the truth here. Therefore, although Princess Taihe is not recognized by some people, they still want to welcome her return with the most solemn national ceremony.
And how can those who can never come back enjoy this?
