The coup d'état of five people forced Wu Zetian to abdicate, why did he not end well
Wu Zetian, the only empress of the Tang Dynasty, whose legendary life was full of drama. At the age of fourteen, he entered the palace to serve Emperor Taizong, but he did not get the mercy of God, but he was only a talented person with a low rank.
After Taizong Yan drove, according to the royal rules, she should leave the palace and spend the rest of her life in front of the Green Lantern Ancient Buddha. However, Wu Zetian did not sink there, she captured the heart of the crown prince Li Zhi, and walked step by step to the peak of power.
However, her path to power was not smooth, and the Shenlong coup attempted to overthrow her, and the five ministers were unmatched for a while, but they died tragically in a short period of time. But Wu Zetian did not give in, she stood up for her beliefs, and eventually became the only empress in Chinese history.
Wu Zetian's life is so wonderful that he doesn't dare to write the script like this.
After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he knew that it was not easy to make the country, so he found Li Chunfeng, a master of mathematics, to calculate the fortunes of the Tang Dynasty, and as a result, Li Chunfeng predicted that "the heroine of the martial arts will have the world on behalf of the world".
Li Shimin was very puzzled by this prophecy, and he began a silent investigation to find out this potential threat and get rid of it. At a banquet, he found a person and thought he was the culprit in Li Chunfeng's mouth.
Li Junxian, General Zuo Wuwei, titled Wulian County Gong, stationed in Wu'an County, known as Wu Niangzi, the evidence is conclusive, there is no need to doubt it. However, this time Taizong made the same mistake as Qin Shi Huang.
After Qin Shi Huang received the prompt of "Hu the Dead Qin", he turned his attention to the Xiongnu in the north, and sent the general Meng Tian to lead an army of 300,000 to garrison the northern frontier, but in the end the Qin Dynasty was destroyed due to Hu Hai's usurpation.
Taizong approached Li Chunfeng and asked if the celestial phenomena had changed. Li Chunfeng calmly replied that the celestial phenomena had not changed, and this change had already happened, and it happened in the palace.
He advised Taizong not to act lightly, and it was best to refer to the celestial phenomena, and the change of national fortunes would be about fifty years later. By then, the woman was already an old woman, and her methods might not be too cruel.
If she is killed, the heavens may send down a person who can change the fortunes of the Tang Dynasty, and at that time she was in the prime of life and full of blood. Therefore, doing so may cause Li Tang's bloodline to decay.
Hearing this, Li Shimin gave up further killing, maybe he didn't care too much about Li Chunfeng's words. Since a Li Junxian has been unjustly killed, let's stop here.
Or he accepted and followed Fang Shi's advice, praying that this old man, who was already old at that time, would let go of Datang and his children and grandchildren.
Taizong died regrettably, and the young and promising Li Zhi ascended the throne as emperor. Unlike his brothers, he was neither scheming nor fond of killing. Although Taizong had wiped out his brother and their children in order to maintain power, he was worried that someone who did not value brotherhood would inherit the throne.
Therefore, he chose Li Zhi, the ninth son who had an indifferent temperament and had no quarrel with the world, as his heir.
Li Zhi's choice once again caused regret, and Wu Zetian's life trajectory changed as a result. He has a gentle personality and never treats his siblings with cruelty. However, he showed no mercy to the women of the first emperor and introduced her into his harem.
Soon after, in order to compete for the status of the harem, she strangled her baby daughter with her own hands. A few years later, she began to get involved in politics, and together with Li Zhi, she was known as the "Second Sage", Li Zhi was the emperor and she was the queen of heaven.
Eventually, at the age of sixty-seven, she took her son's place, established herself as emperor, changed the name of the country to Da Zhou, and also gave herself a new name - Wu Cao.
The name has a profound meaning, symbolizing her majesty and domineering in the sky of the sun and the moon.
During Wu Zetian's administration, although she cracked down on bureaucratic corruption and dissidents with a decisive and iron fist, she also spent a lot of construction and extravagance. She appoints cool officials, but at the same time, she also appreciates talent, and even admires the anti-thief writing.
She regarded power as her life, and in order to pursue imperial power, she personally sent away her daughter and two sons. Among them, the second son Li Xian wrote "Huangtai Melon Speech" after being deposed to express his dissatisfaction with his mother.
The third son, Li Xian, was the biggest beneficiary of the coup, he was demoted to Luling by his mother, carrying a rope all day long, and every time his mother sent someone to announce the decree, he had to hang himself.
Despite her ruthlessness towards the bureaucracy and her lack of kindness towards her closest relatives, Wu Zetian managed to govern the Great Zhou and make it prosperous like never before.
In history, Wu Zetian was highly evaluated, and some people called her a chastity concept and a Kaiyuan dynasty. Despite her incredible courage and determination, she is not immune to the laws of nature.
The elderly Wu Zetian must face a practical problem: choose the best person. Originally, she hoped to pass on the Great Zhou Dynasty she had created to her nephew, but at this time, Li Tang's loyal courtiers reminded her that if she passed on the throne to her nephew, then she would not be able to enjoy the sacrifices of the Taimiao as the emperor's mother.
Wu Zetian hesitated, so he recalled the king of Luling, who had been crying, and made him the crown prince.
Blessed are fools"It may be a fair word for Tang Zhongzong. Faced with a mother who is so disregarding family affection and power, he chooses to show incompetence in order to increase his chances of survival.
Although he was Wu Zetian's son, his eldest and second brothers were sent to the West by their mother. He is both the son of Wu Zetian and the prince of Li Tang, and he is in an awkward situation.
He survived in the new dynasty and was the crown prince of the previous dynasty, but he was also fortunate that as the imperial heir of the new dynasty, he had the opportunity to restore the country of the previous dynasty. In her later years, Wu Zetian was still able to control the entire empire, but her endless love for male favorites made the ministers around her who had a keen political sense and were loyal to Li Tang see the possibility of restoring the previous dynasty.
Wu Cao, the emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, was over eighty years old and was so sick that he could only lie on the sickbed. She knows that her days are numbered, but she still refuses to give up and hopes to be able to**.
She looked out the window, and although it was not a cold winter, it was still in the middle of winter. Her heart was full of memories of the past, especially that winter, that cold winter wax moon, she issued a holy decree to the heavenly realm on a whim, asking to travel to the garden tomorrow and report the spring knowledge quickly.
In order to cater to her will, the flowers bloomed overnight, and only the peony bloomed alone, not afraid of imperial power and power.
Under the denunciation of the angry empress, it was sent out of Chang'an and settled in Luoyang. Luoyang, the divine capital of the Great Zhou! When she thought of this, the corners of the empress's mouth couldn't help but show a trace of fear, would she be degraded and expelled from the throne like Peony?
As she pondered, she was interrupted by the sound of commotion and the clashing of weapons outside the door. During this time, her "favorite concubines" Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong brothers have always been by her side, and the ministers of the foreign court and her children have been isolated from the palace gates.
Is someone forcing the uterus? Suddenly, the door of the main hall was gently pushed open, and the palace people came to report that Prime Minister Zhang Cambodia and others led hundreds of heavily armed sergeants to kill Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong's brothers, and they were walking here angrily at this moment.
Then, the palace gates were completely opened, and hundreds of sergeants swarmed in like mercury. It's forcing the palace!
Could it be that we are desperately killing the two empresses' favored ministers just to put your Li family back in power? ”
As a royal bloodliner, how do you deal with this pressure and challenge? Li Xian, can you stand up? Do you refuse to participate in the extortion of confessions because you are afraid of this sick woman?
Did you leave because of your mother's expectations? And how are we the ones going to survive? Thinking of this, he grabbed Li Xian and didn't let him leave. On the grounds of the duties of the imperial heir, he told Wu Zetian that the crown prince had grown up and was highly valued by Gaozong, and Wu Zetian was already old and should take care of his old age and hand over power to the prince.
Wu Zetian adopted his suggestion, changed the Yuan Shenlong, let the crown prince supervise the country, and began the process of power transfer. Although the coup d'état was small, it was effective.
Such coups are rare in history, and perhaps only the Nangong Revolution of the Ming Dynasty seven hundred years later can be compared.
The five county kings died because of hatred, and the Tang Dynasty returned to the hands of the Li family. Li Xian was stunned by the sudden happiness and began to reward. Zhang Cambodia became the king of Hanyang County, Cui Xuanwei became the king of Boling County, Jinghui became the king of Pingyang County, Huan Yanfan became the king of Fuyang County, and Yuan Shuji became the king of Nanyang County.
These five county kings recreated the Tang Dynasty, and the scenery was unique for a while. They began to control the dynasty and control the fate of the country. However, Li Xian was not moved by them, and he began to plan a counterattack in order to win over Wu Sansi, who had not been liquidated.
He didn't even care about the indecent love between Wu Sansi and Empress Wei, and even personally came to guide him. With the help of Wu Sansi and Empress Wei, Li Xian gradually grasped the power of the empire.
The supporters of the Five Kings were eventually severely retaliated. Zhang Cambodia, as the leader of the Shenlong coup, was demoted from Chang'an by Wu Sansi and Empress Wei, and eventually died in derogation.
Cui Xuanwei was demoted to the governor of Yizhou, and finally died on the way to exile Guzhou. Jinghui was exiled to Hainan, where the scenery was beautiful but full of smoke and sinister.
Although he was demoted from afar, Zhou Lizhen falsely preached the holy decree, and in the end he was executed by Ling Chi. Huan Yanfan was also exiled to Guizhou, but he also died at the hands of Zhou Lizhen.
Yuan Shuji's fate was extremely tragic, he was first forced to drink wild kudzu juice, and then he was stripped naked and rubbed on a cutting board repeatedly until his flesh and blood separated, and finally he died.
The tragic end of the five kings was not entirely due to their negligence or lack of foresight, but to Zhang Cambodia's overly optimistic expectation that the cowardly Li Xian would complete this task, so as to establish his authority and restore the cadres.
Although his original intentions were good, he was too naïve. It is unbelievable that he easily destroyed the Great Zhou Dynasty, which had existed for fifteen years, with this kind of thought.
During the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of the Western Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo always adhered to the concept of thinking about the world of the Han family and actively advocated the reduction of feudal domains. Although his actions eventually led to the uprising of the Seven Kingdoms, and Emperor Jing had to put him to death to quell the rebellion, this does not negate Chao's patriotic spirit.
However, believing too much in the emperor to understand and be considerate of his loyalty ultimately led to his own tragedy. Even a monarch like Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty could not avoid the indiscriminate killing of loyal people.
Moreover, the results of the coup d'état of the Five Kings also showed their indecision and over-belief in Li Xian, an incompetent and mediocre monarch. Although they planned the coup, the ultimate success may be attributed more to Wu Zetian's negligence and illness.
Therefore, although it is respectable to plan for the country, it is unwise to believe in the emperor too naively.
Through the study of historical books such as the New Tang Book, the Old Tang Dynasty Book, and the Bloody Tang Dynasty, we can gain an in-depth understanding of the historical process of the Tang Dynasty.