The opening fortune-telling shocked Li Shimin.

Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, was a wise monarch in history. When he was in office, he also tried to listen to the opinions of ministers, ruled the country with courtesy at home, kept an open mind to coachable at home, practiced economy, advised farmers and mulberry, and expanded the territory abroad, which laid an important foundation for the prosperous times of the Tang Dynasty 100 years. He made a positive contribution to the creation of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which is known in history as "the rule of Zhenguan". But in his later years, Li Shimin began to worry.

As we all know, his throne first obtained his brother Li's status as a prince through the "Xuanwumen Change", and then forced him to pass on the throne to himself. So after he ascended the throne, he killed all Li's children and Li Yuanji. And personally participated in the troubled times at the end of Sui Dynasty. He was convinced that the Li family could seize the world of the Yang family and others would seize the world of the Li family, so Li Shiming was very worried in his later years.

When Li Shimin was young, he was politically open-minded, meritocratic and reformed the system, all of which achieved good results, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. But in his later years, he began to be indecisive. Not only did he lose the momentum of his early years, but he also began to be superstitious about ghosts and gods. At this time, he heard that there was a very powerful folk physiognomy master, Yuan Tiangang, and invited him into the palace.

This Yuan Tiangang is really a strange person. He was born in a poor family and loved learning very much. But he didn't read Confucianism or the book of governing the country, but he liked to study some books related to physiognomy. He even started his own school of physiognomy with his own efforts and understanding.

Yuan Tiangang not only delved into books on physiognomy, but also often gave fortune-telling to some dignitaries, nobles and aristocratic families. Moreover, his calculations are particularly accurate every time. Wu Zetian can be regarded as naive. Of course, this is another story. Put it aside for a while. His fame is getting bigger and bigger. As it happens, Li Shimin, who is superstitious about ghosts and gods, heard about him and called him to the palace for his own use.

After Yuan Tiangang entered the palace, he was able to gain a foothold in the palace with his own skills. Plus Yuan Tiangang is very talkative, so Li Shimin trusts him very much. Many things will refer to his opinion. From time to time, he will discuss some topics with Yuan Tiangang and let him infer something. It can be said that Yuan Tiangang is Li Shimin's confidant and brain trust at this time.

As I said before, I was afraid that the Li family would be taken away by others, so one day, I asked when Yuan Tiangang Datang would perish. Where did Yuan Tiangang dare to do such a terrible thing? He was surprised and scared, but the emperor's life was hard to break, and he could not perfunctory the emperor, so he sat down and deduced.

This calculation was really worked out by Yuan Tiangang, but Yuan Tiangang was even more puzzled. If you don't tell lies, it's a crime of deceiving the monarch, a capital crime; I said such terrible things because I was afraid that the emperor would cut off his head in a rage. Then he had a plan and said to Li Shimin, "When the sow gets on the tree". On the surface, it means that the time for pigs to climb trees is the time for the demise of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin was overjoyed when he heard this. He thought that when the pig climbed the tree, it would be the day when I perished in the Tang Dynasty! How can pigs climb trees? Then I Datang will not perish? So Yuan Tiangang managed to escape. However, it never occurred to me that what Yuan Tiangang said was true, but he adopted the homophonic method-homophonic Zhu became a pig. Later, the Tang Dynasty was destroyed by Liang Wen, which was Yuan Tiangang's interpretation. There are even more rumors that what Yuan Tiangang said at that time was "when the pig (Zhu) went to the plum tree, the day when the Tang Dynasty perished"!