Hou Junji - During Emperor Taizong's Reign

During Emperor Taizong's Reign

Late In 626, when Emperor Taizong personally ranked the contributions of the generals and officials in order to grant them fiefs, Emperor Taizong ranked five of them—Hou Junji, Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and Yuchi Jingde to be contributors of the highest grade, and Hou was created the Duke of Lu.

In 630, Emperor Taizong made Hou the minister of defense and gave him the additional designation of Canyi Chaozheng (參議朝政), making him a de facto chancellor.

In 634, Emperor Taizong, sending the senior general Li Jing to command the campaign against Tuyuhun's Busabo Khan Murong Fuyun, made Hou and Li Daozong the Prince of Rencheng Li Jing's assistants on the campaign. By spring 635, Tang forces achieved initial victories, but Tuyuhun forces then burned the grazing grass to cut the food supplies to Tang horses. Most Tang generals wanted to withdraw, but Hou advocated continued advance, and Li Jing agreed, eventually allowing complete victory, as Murong Fuyun was killed by his subordinates, allowing his son Murong Shun, whom Tang supported, to become khan (as Yidou Khan). Around the new year 636, after Murong Shun was assassinated by his subordinates, Emperor Taizong sent Hou with an army to try to secure the throne for Murong Shun's son Murong Nuohebo.

In 637, as part of Emperor Taizong's scheme to bestow prefectures on his relatives and great generals and officials as their permanent domains, Hou's title was changed to Duke of Chen, and he was given the post of prefect of Chen Prefecture (陳州, roughly modern Zhoukou, Henan), to be inherited by his heirs. Soon, however, with many objections to the system, the strongest of which came from Zhangsun Wuji, Emperor Taizong cancelled the scheme, although Hou's title remained Duke of Chen.

In 638, Tufan's Songtsän Gampo, after hearing that the rulers of Tujue and Tuyuhun were all able to marry Tang princesses, requested to marry one as well, but was rebuffed by Emperor Taizong. In anger, he launched a major attack on Tang, capturing a number of prefectures. Emperor Taizong sent Hou to counterattack, assisted by other generals Zhishi Sili (執失思力), Niu Jinda (牛進達), and Liu Jian (劉簡). Niu was subsequently able to defeat Tufan forces at Song Prefecture (松州, roughly modern Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan), and Songtsän Gampo, in fear, withdrew, but still requested to marry a Tang princess. (This time, Emperor Taizong agreed, sending Princess Wencheng, a daughter of a clansman, to marry Songtsän Gampo.)

Around the new year of 640, Qu Wentai (麴文泰), the king of Gaochang, formed an alliance with Western Tujues who are hostile to Tang. Emperor Taizong sent Hou, assisted by Xue Wanjun (薛萬均), to attack Gaochang. When Hou arrived at Gaochang, Qu Wentai died of distress and was succeeded by his son Qu Zhisheng (麴智盛). Rejecting a proposal by some of his generals to ambush the Gaochang nobles when they were burying Qu Wentai (finding that doing so would be immoral), he put Gaochang's capital under siege, forcing Qu Zhisheng to surrender. Emperor Taizong annexed Gaochang territory except for three cities, which Gaochang had seized from Yanqi, and therefore were returned to Yanqi after the king of Yanqi met with Hou to congratulate him), and Hou returned to the Tang capital Chang'an with Qu Zhisheng and his subordinates as captives.

Upon Hou's return to Chang'an, however, he found himself in trouble, as it was alleged that Hou had taken for himself treasures from the Gaochang imperial treasury and forced certain Gaochang captives to be his slaves. The other generals, seeing Hou's example, also did likewise, and he was in no position to stop them. Emperor Taizong, when he found out about these events, put Hou and some of his generals under arrest less than 10 days after their return to Chang'an. However, upon the advice of the official Cen Wenben, Emperor Taizong released Hou.