The North and South Dynasties were unified, but the chaos was not over, and soon China was once again in a state of great division. This time the split was short-lived, and Li Yuan, nephew of Emperor Wen
Wen, took only seven years to defeat the greats and unify the world once again. To be able to unify the world in such a short period of time, only Han Gaozu Liu Bang trumped Li Yuan in history. But after Han Gaozu defeated Xiang Yu and became the emperor, the country was still in turmoil. Han Gaozu was still suppressing rebellions himself until shortly before his death. The Tang Dynasty, on the other hand, did not have this problem. This was so mainly because Tang Gaozu Li Yuan had a group of outstanding sons and daughters. The most accomplished of this group of sons and daughters were the crown prince Li Jiancheng, his second son Li Shimin and his third daughter Princess Pingyang.
Princess Pingyang was the daughter of Li Yuan, the founder of the Tang Dynasty, and of course her surname was Li. But what her fancy name was is not recorded in the official history. China's history books treat women with a different attitude until the Five Dynasties. Before the Five Dynasties, no matter what kind of women, most of the history books will leave their names. Unless like the former Qin's Empress Mao, due to the former Qin's existence of a very short period of time, the historical record may not be complete and did not leave a name. But after the Song Dynasty, women's names are no longer publicly recorded in the history books. The more honorable the woman, the more so. On the contrary, the so-called "female thieves" were often called by their names in the history books. Records of Princess Pingyang's deeds in the "Old Book of Tang" and "New Book of Tang", one in the Later Jin Dynasty, one in the Northern Song Dynasty, but none of the records of Princess Pingyang's name and age. So the later writers of martial arts novels, such as Huang Yi, had to give her the name Li Xiuning.
Tang Gaozu Li Yuan **** has 19 daughters, Princess Pingyang ranked third. These 19 daughters of course can not all be born of a mother. Princess Pingyang's mother is Li Yuan's original match Dou. That is, Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin and Li Yuanji's mother. Speaking of this Dou, but also a strange woman.
Dou was a native of Pingling (present-day Xingping, Shaanxi Province), and her father, Dou Yi, was one of the eight marshals of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (Dou Yi's official title was Shangzhu Guo (上柱国)). This official name has no modern counterpart. In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, there were eight Pillar State generals who were in charge of the whole country's army. It can barely be translated as a commander of an army. But in reality, this title was more of an honorary title than an actual power. (So it's similar to the marshals appointed at the founding of this dynasty.) Her mother was the eldest princess of Xiangyang, sister of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Dou was smart from a young age and was loved by Emperor Wu, who kept her in the palace to raise her as his own daughter. At that time, the world was divided into three parts, and Northern Zhou was the weakest one. In order to obtain foreign aid, Emperor Wu married a Turkic princess as his empress. However, Emperor Wu was dissatisfied with this political marriage and often kept the Turkic princess in a vacant room. Dou then often persuaded her uncle to be more patient, and that a good marriage with the Turk would eliminate the threat in the north and fully deal with Chen in the south and Northern Qi in the east.
Soon, Sui Emperor Yang Jian usurped the throne of Northern Zhou. Dou said with hatred, "I hate that I am not a man and cannot remove the scourge for my uncle's family." Frightened, her father hurriedly covered her mouth, "Don't talk nonsense! This is the crime of extermination!" However, Dou Yi thus believed that his daughter is not an idle person, of course, can not just marry. So to the age of the daughter to talk about marriage, they have engaged in a way of martial arts. Of course, this match is not like the martial arts novels like set up a ring for everyone to go up and Dou's fight. Dou Yi let people in the door painted two peacocks, interested in marriage must be in a hundred paces away to shoot two arrows. Anyone who hit one peacock's eye with each of the two arrows would be recruited as a son-in-law. According to the current official history, Li Yuan was quite a mediocre person. But he had no other benefits, but his archery skill was quite superior. Dozens of people came to take the test, and only Li Yuan hit both arrows.
Du married Li Yuan and became his assistant. Li Yuan's face wrinkles, Emperor Yang called Li Yuan "granny", Li Yuan came home very unhappy. Dou asked the reason, immediately comforted him: "This is an auspicious omen ah, you do is the Duke of Tang, Tang and Tang resonance, Granny is the head of the family is also the main ah." At that time, the golden palace of the son of heaven is also called the Ming Tang. Dou refers to Li Yuan's future as emperor, replacing Emperor Yang of Sui.
Because he grew up in the palace, Dou had a lot of knowledge about palace politics. Li Yuan kept a lot of horses, Dou advised him to offer to the horse-loving Emperor Yang: "His Majesty likes eagles and horses, you know, now you should offer the steeds to the Emperor, you should not keep them yourself, otherwise you will attract false accusations." Li Yuan at first could not afford to part with his steed, and then he was really chastised by Emperor Yang of Sui before he hurriedly offered it. Sinus died at the age of forty-five, Li Yuan only then pondered his wife's words, feel very reasonable, and then often send steeds and dogs to Emperor Yang of Sui, Emperor Yang was really exceptionally happy, and soon promoted Li Yuan as a general. Li Yuan said to his children in tears: "If I listened to your mother earlier, I would have done this kind of official."
This is just to illustrate why Li Yuan, who was so mediocre, had such outstanding sons and daughters.
Sui Emperor Yang actually can not be considered a standard dead king. His literary talent and military strategy were by no means inferior to any other famous ruler in history, at least not to Li Shimin. These two people are not the prince before coming to power, have a very good reputation, have made the unparalleled achievements, are relying on the bloody coup d'état to come to power. After coming to power, their initial achievements in civil and military affairs were more or less the same. The problem is, Sui Yang Emperor than Li Shimin is less modest and more ambitious to accept advice. This led to the opening of the Grand Canal and the expedition to Goryeo regardless of the country's strength. As a result, the world was in chaos. He also lost his head in Jiangdu.
In this chaotic situation, Li Yuan's chances of winning were not so great at first. His territory was on the distant border of Shanxi, far from the capital Chang'an and the eastern capital Luoyang. His army was not strong enough, with only 10,000 men under his command. And he had to face Turkic attacks every day. Worst of all, all his family members were in Chang'an, and only his second son Li Shimin was with him. If he rebelled, his family would be in danger. But the lure of the throne surpassed any kind of affection, and in May of the 13th year of the Sui Dynasty (617 AD), Li Yuan, encouraged by all those around him, including Li Shimin, rebelled.
Because his family was hostage in Chang'an, Li Yuan did not dare to openly proclaim himself king and emperor, and to the outside world he claimed that he was leading his troops away from his own defense to Jiangdu to meet Emperor Yang, who was trapped there. However, his route was not Jiangdu in the southeast but Chang'an in the west. Even Li Yuan himself said it was a "cover-up". Of course, he could not hide it from the Sui officials in Chang'an. Chang'an immediately ordered the arrest of Li Yuan's family. The arrest list included Li Yuan's third daughter, Princess Pingyang, and her husband, Chai Shao.
This Mr. Chai Shao, ranked 14th among the 24 ministers of the Tang Dynasty, was a brilliant strategist who was good at winning many battles with few, and was responsible for the elimination of Xue Ju, Liu Wu Zhou, Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande. He was also the main general of Liang Shidu, the last rival of the Tang Dynasty. Li He wrote a poem: "Why don't you take the Wu Hook with you, and collect the fifty states in the Guanshan Mountains? Please go up to the Ling Yan Pavilion for a while, if you are a scholar with ten thousand vassals!" However, in the 13th year of the Daiye era, Chai Shao did not have the heroic spirit of the poem. When he heard the order to arrest him, he immediately ran away. Before running, he even said to his wife, "Your father has rebelled, and I want to join him. We can't run away together, and I'm afraid you'll be in danger if I leave you behind, so what do you say?" He meant that his wife was a member of the Li family, and he was afraid that the target was too big to take with him, and the chances of running away by himself would be better. How smart Princess Pingyang was, of course she could see the subtext here. But she had more guts than her husband, and immediately said, "You can go alone, I'm a woman, it's easy to hide, and I'll have my own way when the time comes." So Chai Shao fled alone with peace of mind.
Princess Pingyang said it was easy for her to hide, but she did have her own plan. After Chai Shao's departure, Princess Pingyang immediately set out to return to Li's estate in Shuangxian County (present-day Tuxian County, Shaanxi Province), disguised as a man and called herself Duke Li, sold her properties, recruited soldiers and horses, and openly confronted the imperial court. At that time, the world was in great turmoil, and although Chang'an was still in the hands of the Sui family, the surrounding counties were full of bandits. The leader of the largest group was He Panren, a hu merchant from the western region, who had tens of thousands of men under his command. Princess Pingyang sent her servant Ma Sanbao to persuade He Panren to surrender. I don't know what Ma Sanbao did, but He Panren, who was far more powerful than Princess Pingyang, was willing to be Princess Pingyang's subordinate. This is quite similar to when the founder of the Chinese dynasty, Taizu, first went to Jinggang Mountain and organized Wang Zuo and Yuan Wencai. The current dynasty's Great Ancestor is familiar with historical facts, and I wonder if he ever remembered this history at that time.
Back to the main topic, Princess Pingyang has organized the bandits Li Zhongwen, Xiang Shanzhi, and Qiu Shi Li, and their power has been greatly increased after she organized He Panren. During this period, the court kept sending troops to attack Princess Ping Yang. Princess Pingyang not only defeated each attack, but also took the opportunity to expand the results of the war, consecutively captured Shanshan County, Wugong, Zhouzhi, Shiping and other counties. Her army expanded to more than 70,000 men. Princess Pingyang's group of men were all murderous robbers. If they did not have some real skills, even the men could not suppress them. Not to mention the fact that the source of soldiers came from systems that were not originally unified. To be able to turn a group of men into a powerful brigade that won a hundred battles in a short period of time, and to achieve such great results, Princess Pingyang's organizational and commanding abilities were really outstanding.
In September 617 AD, Li Yuan's main force crossed the Yellow River and entered Guanzhong. At this time he was happy to find that Princess Pingyang had already staked out a large territory for him in Guanzhong. He sent Chai Shao to meet Princess Pingyang. When husband and wife met, I wonder if Chai Shao blushed when he saw his wife in such splendor. Next, Princess Pingyang selected more than 10,000 elite soldiers to meet with Li Shimin on the north bank of the Wei River and **** together to attack Chang'an. Chai Shao belonged to Li Shimin's ministry and was equal in rank to Princess Pingyang. The husband and wife each led an army and each had their own command (shogunate). Princess Pingyang's 10,000-strong army was called the "Maiden Army", and on November 9, Chang'an was conquered.
The significance of Princess Pingyang's action in Guanzhong for the establishment of the Li Tang dynasty cannot be overestimated. As I said before, Li Yuan was a very mediocre person. Although very ambitious, but belongs to the thief heart but not the thief courage. After a little bit of small setbacks after the army once wanted to retreat, back to Taiyuan nest. Fortunately, Li Shimin persuaded him to advance. Before he crossed the Yellow River, he had been struggling with the Sui general Qu Tu Tong. Later, he adopted Li Shimin's strategy of using a small number of troops to restrain Qu Tutong, while his main force attacked Guanzhong directly. If there was no Princess Pingyang to meet him in Guanzhong, this move would have been a lone attack, which was extremely risky. If the attack on Chang'an is unfavorable, the back road is bound to be cut off by Qu Tutong, and then it will really become a turtle in a jar.
After the Battle of Chang'an, Princess Pingyang's deeds were no longer seen in history. Until six years later, Wude six years (623 AD) in early February history books suddenly recorded a her death. The reason why this will be recorded is also mainly due to her funeral is different, is buried with military rites (before and after the Department of Fei Bao drums and blowers, big chariot, banner block, class sword 40 people, Huben armor). Why is this, has been analyzed earlier, Chinese history has always looked down on women, especially not used to women with soldiers. Ancient books have been censored again and again through the ages. Princess Pingyang's deeds are probably so annihilated. However, according to the clues in various historical records, the six-year situation, we can still outline a general.
First of all, it is certain that after conquering Chang'an, Princess Pingyang continued to lead the army to fight for the Great Tang. Although Li Yuan conquered Chang'an, he only roughly controlled half of Guanzhong. He was surrounded by enemies. Immediately after conquering Chang'an, Li Yuan was confronted by Xue Ju, who held the land of Longxi, and Li Kui of Liangzhou (present-day Wuwei in Gansu). From the time Xueju sent his troops to defeat the Tang army at Shanshuiyuan in July of the first year of Tang's Wude to the time he captured Li Kui and occupied the five counties in the western part of the river in February of the second year, Li Yuan had a hard time stabilizing Guanzhong and the west. Liu Wuzhou took Li Yuan's backroads and captured Li Yuan's hometown of Shanxi. Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin to conquer it. It took Li Shimin almost two years to defeat Liu Wuzhou and retake Shanxi. The battle that established Li Tang's rule was the destruction of Wang Shichong. In this battle, the Tang army surrounded the city and killed Dou Jiande, who came to Wang Shichong's aid. Chai Shao participated in these battles. To say that Princess Pingyang was enjoying her happiness in Chang'an at this time is not in line with her character. As an outstanding general, of course she had to take part in these decisive battles that decided the fate of Great Tang. After the destruction of Dou Jiande, the remaining part of Liu Haixu as the main, in the fourth year of Wude (621 AD) in July in Zhangnan (now Hebei Gucheng) to rise against the Tang Dynasty, Xu Yuanlang, Gao Kaifaodao also raised an army to respond. They were linked to the Turkic north, and in less than half a year, Dou Jiande's old territory was restored. Princess Pingyang's main task at this time is to defend the Li family's base camp in Shanxi. The place where she was stationed was Niangzi Pass.
Niangziguan is located in the Taihang Mountains, west of the west side of the "Defile" west mouth, now Pingding County, Shanxi Province, northeast of Mianshan, and the border with Hebei Province, for the entry and exit of the throat of Shanxi. Originally known as Reed Zee Pass, it was renamed Niangzi Pass because Princess Pingyang led tens of thousands of "Niangzi Scouts" to guard it. The "Well Defile" is the most recent and shortest passage between Jinzhong and Jizhong, and was the route taken by Han Xin to destroy Zhao at the end of the Qin Dynasty. Shanxi is the barrier between the Central Plains and the Guanzhong region, without Shanxi, the Central Plains and Guanzhong are unstable, Princess Pingyang led her troops to guard Niangziguan, in order to prevent the enemy from entering Shanxi through the "Well Defile".
Because there is no defeat Liu Wuzhou back to Shanxi before Princess Pingyang could not be stationed here, so the earliest Princess Pingyang until the fourth year of the Wudu (621 AD) before the Niangziguan. So what was she doing before that? Fighting, of course. How could Li Yuan have let a general like Princess Pingyang sit idle for more than three years and then suddenly activate her when there wasn't a single day without a war?
The history books do not say what caused Princess Pingyang's final death. Li Shimin was born in 599 AD. He was 18 years old when Li Yuan rose up in 617 AD, Li Jiancheng was about 10 years older than Li Shimin at 28 years old, and Li Yuanji was about 2 years younger than Li Shimin at 16 years old. If Princess Pingyang was Li Shimin's sister, she would have been at least 16. Any younger and she wouldn't have been able to steal territory for her father in Guanzhong. But 16 is again unlikely. Because unless she and Li Yuanji were twins, very few people could have a child every year for three years in a row. So most likely she was Li Jiancheng's younger sister and Li Shimin's older sister. She would have been between 20 and 26 years old when Li Yuan rose up. Thus, by 623 A.D., she would have been between 26 and 32 years old. In case she was Li Shimin's sister, she would have been only 22 years old at the time of her death. The lifespan of the ancients was not long though. But to die at such an age, the possibility of illness seems unlikely for a physically strong military general. Combined with the fact that she was buried with military honors at the time of her death, a bold speculation would be that she died of a traumatic attack after returning to Chang'an from battle or a serious injury.
There are two possibilities for her death in battle. One possibility is that she died while fighting against the Turks. At that time, China was in civil unrest and the northern warlords, including Li Yuan, were allied with the Turks. Using the Turk to attack their own enemies. The Turks also did not take the alliance seriously and frequently invaded. Shanxi was exactly the area that the Turks frequently invaded. Another possibility is that he died while carrying out a campaign to eliminate Liu Hexiu. In November 622, Li Yuan sent Li Jiancheng to lead a crusade against Liu Hexiu, and at first the two sides won and lost. It was not until December 25 that he was completely routed. The Niangzi Pass, where Princess Pingyang was stationed, was on the front line, so of course she would have led her troops to the battle. So the possibility of dying in this battle is very high. If she died at this time, it would take almost half a month for her body to be transported back to Chang'an. Since she was a princess, it would take almost half a month to prepare her for burial. Then the time also matches.
The Tang Dynasty has a lot of strong women, princesses strong women especially. Princess Pingyang started the trend of the first, followed by Princess Taiping, Princess Anle and so on. But on the talent and achievements than Princess Pingyang.