[Today's second update! ] This chapter will be revised later. 】

A.D. 705. This year, Wu Zetian changed the year name to: "Shenlong." But then, Wu Zetian fell ill.

In the first year of Shenlong, the twenty-second day of the first month.

On this day in history, Zhang Cambodia took advantage of Wu Zetian's illness, and he united General Lin Wei and General Zuo Weiwei to launch a mutiny! Join in with Huan Yanfan, Jinghui, Prince Li Xian, etc.! Due to the suddenness of the incident, the defenders were caught off guard, and without much effort, the mutinous troops broke through the Xuanwu Gate and went straight to the Yingxian Palace where Wu Zetian lived.

Under the corridor of the Immortal Palace's Immortal Palace, Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi, who heard the news, met the mutinous troops. Zhang Cambodia didn't talk nonsense with them, and directly ordered to be hacked to death! The faces of the two heads of the country and the city died like this.

Immediately after the mutinous troops surrounded the Hall of Eternal Life, Wu Zetian, who was awakened, sat up, raised his eyes and saw that Zhang Cambodia and others were coming towards him, Wu Zetian suddenly understood an idiom: "Self-inflicted!" "Because, Zhang Cambodia has just promoted the prime minister! Wu Zetian realized that his time was over!

Wu Zetian was helpless, and the next day he was located in Li Xian. A day later, Li Xian was reinstated.

After 698, Wu Zetian's physical condition became worse and worse, and the ministers asked Wu Zetian to summon Li Xian, the king of Luling, back to Beijing.

The issue of the degraded Li Xian's return to Beijing involves the core issue of dynastic government, and the reason for this is the gender of Emperor Wu Zetian. The change of the emperor's surname meant the replacement of the dynasty: Wu Zetian's surname was Wu, and the succession of power by Wu Sansi and others meant the continuation of the Wu Zhou dynasty; If Li Xian succeeded to the throne, it would mean the end of the Wu Zhou dynasty. Restoration of the Li Tang Dynasty.

This year, the ministers collectively showed their views and asked for the recall of Li Xian, who was degraded in Luling! This was undoubtedly a silent and bottom-up rebellion against the Wu regime.

Since Wu Zetian ascended the throne, he has been thinking about the issue of heirs, and he has never forgotten it in his later years. Wu Sansi and others are their own descendants with the same surname; But Li Xian and Li Dan's two sons are also honest and cautious, and they have both been emperors, Wu Zetian is very entangled in his heart!

The ministers' attitude was clear - their feelings for the Li Tang Dynasty in their hearts were indelible, and they still hoped that the world would be able to restore the surname Li behind them.

The ministers advised Wu Zetian in their own ways that he should pass on the throne to his son, because only in this way could Wu Zetian enjoy the worship of future generations after his death. If the throne is passed to Wu Sansi and others. Wu Sansi and other enthroners will go to worship and worship their grandfather's tablet. At that time, Wu Zetian's position as an aunt was embarrassing.

Di Renjie persuaded Wu Zetian like this:

Who is the aunt and nephew and the mother and son? His Majesty is a son, and after a thousand years of life, he will be served with food in the Taimiao, and the inheritance will be endless; Nephew. I haven't heard of a nephew who is the Son of Heaven and an aunt in the temple.

The ancients were superstitious. It is believed that people will become ghosts when they die. And the ghost has to be sacrificed and let the ghost eat bloody things, which is called "blood food". Otherwise, the ghost will not feel good when he gets hungry.

But the ancients also believed that only the sacrifice of their own sons and grandchildren could be enjoyed by ghosts. For example, Wu Zetian let her own son inherit as the emperor, then she can enter the Li family's temple to enjoy blood food as an ancestor and justifiably.

Otherwise, let the nephew of the Wu family inherit as the emperor, then Wu Zetian, as the emperor's aunt, will not be able to enter the Taimiao of the Wu family, and she will be in danger of being a hungry ghost without blood after her death.

Therefore, Di Renjie, as a close minister, wanted to persuade Wu Zetian like this.

The other two courtiers Li Zhaode and Ji Xu, who had been favored by Wu Zetian, also persuaded her in this way. Although Wu Zetian is very powerful, he is always a figure in feudal society, and he can't get rid of that set of superstitions in his mind, and after becoming an emperor in real life, he has to consider the big problem of whether he can eat blood behind him.

So a compromise and two-in-one approach was adopted, that is, the position of the emperor was still passed on to his own son surnamed Li, and the real power was held by the nephew of the Wu family, forming a deformed "Li Wu regime".

The specific methods are as follows:

Wu Zetian and Tang Gaozong Li Zhisheng had four sons, the eldest Li Hong, the second Li Xian died, and the third Li Xian was Tang Zhongzong, who was the emperor for two months after Gaozong's death, and was deposed by Wu Zetian as the king of Luling, and the fourth Li Dan was renamed Tang Ruizong as the emperor. After Wu Zetian himself proclaimed himself emperor, he demoted Li Dan to the title of "imperial heir", and implemented new measures to establish the "Li Wu regime" in September of the first year of the holy calendar, recalled Li Xian back to be the heir to the crown prince, and named Li Dan as the prime minister.

After Wu Zetian called the emperor, he named his nephew Wu Chenghei as the king of Wei, his nephew Wu Sansi as the king of Liang, and twelve nephews in the hall were named the king of the county. Wu Zetian first called the King of Wei, Wu Chenghei, Ren Wenchang, Zuo, the same Fengge, Luantai, Sanpin, and knew the internal history, that is, to be the prime minister. After Wu Chenghei fell out of favor and died because of his struggle to be the crown prince, he asked King Wu San of Liang to examine the history of the school as the prime minister, so that the representative of the martial arts family could hold on to the real power of the center.

Wu Zetian asked the Wu and Li families to continue to marry, and asked Wu Youji, the nephew in the hall, to marry Wu Zetian's own daughter Princess Taiping, and Wu Sansi's son, that is, Wu Zetian's nephew Wu Chongxun, to marry Li Xian's daughter Princess Anle. Wu Chenghei's son, Wu Zetian's nephew Wu Yanji, married Li Xian's daughter Princess Yongtai. The son of his nephew Wu Chengye, that is, Wu Zetian's nephew Wu Yanhui, married Li Xian's daughter Princess Xindu. consciously integrated the Wu and Li families into one.

Wu Zetian was also afraid that the relationship between the crown prince Li Xian, the prime minister Li Dan and Wu Sansi and Wu Youji would not be good, so he told them to "swear to be written in Mingtang" and asked them to swear to cooperate.

However, these measures have proved to be unreliable!

With Wu Zetian's serious illness, the issue of the heir to the throne has become the focus of attention of the government and the opposition.

Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong are Wu Zetian's powerful cronies, and Ji Ji advised: "Your brothers are so favored, not by virtue, the world has many teeth." If you don't have a lot of credit to the world, what can you use to protect yourself? I'm worried about you! ”

Two tearful questions.

Ji Ji said: "The officials and people of the world have not forgotten Tang De, they all miss the king of Luling, the emperor is old, someone wants to inherit, the kings of the Wu family are not his favor, why don't you calmly persuade the emperor to set up the king of Luling to meet the expectations of the people!" In this way, you will be free from evil, and you will be kept rich. ”

The second Zhang was convinced, and since then he has repeatedly persuaded the martial queen. Empress Wu knew that this idea was made by Ji Xuan, so he summoned Ji Xuan to ask carefully, and Ji Xuan made a decision to pass on his son and not his nephew.

In fact, at that time, Wu Zetian intended to establish Wu Sansi as the crown prince, so he asked the courtiers if it was feasible. The ministers looked at each other and did not dare to answer. Di Renjie said: "The people of the world still miss the Tang Dynasty. Before the border police appeared in the north, His Majesty sent Liang Wang Wu Sansi to recruit warriors from the people, and gathered less than a thousand people in more than a month. Later, he asked Li Xian, the king of Luling, to recruit soldiers, and within a few days, he recruited 50,000 people. If you want to choose an heir, it must be the King of Luling! ”

Wu Zetian was furious when he heard this, and walked away.

Later, Wu Zetian asked the minister again: "I often dream that the two continents are invincible, how do I explain it?" ”

Di Renjie and Wang Fangqing, who were present, replied at the same time: "Shuanglu is invincible, which means childless. This is Providence warning His Majesty! The crown prince is the foundation of the world, and it is dangerous to shake the world at all. His Majesty has been in the four seas for more than ten years, and now he wants to establish Wu Sansi as the crown prince. Aunt and nephew and mother-son relationship, which is closer? ”

Wu Zetian finally had an understanding. In September 698, Wu Zetian finally sent Xu Yanbo to welcome the king of Luling back to Luoyang, the capital of the gods.

After Li Xian arrived in Luoyang, Wu Zetian hid him in the tent, summoned Di Renjie again, and deliberately discussed the matter of establishing a prince. Di Renjie asked to cut to the point, tears fell, and asked to welcome Li Xian.

Only then did Wu Zetian summon Li Xian out and said, "Give it back to your prince!"

Di Renjie bowed his head, turned his sadness into joy and said: "Although the prince is back, everyone still doesn't know, how can people trust others?" So Wu Zetian arranged for Li Xian to appear publicly, and the gift was returned, and the government and the opposition were happy.

Wu Zetian in his later years was empty in his heart, Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi were Wu Zetian's biggest favorites in his later years! The two of them relied on the favor of the empress, and they were authoritarian, and all the officials in the court were afraid of him like tigers, and even Wu Zetian's sons and nephews vied with each other to whip Zhang Yizhi, calling him Wulang and not daring to call him by his name. In the same way, their actions have caused dissatisfaction among many people.

Li Xian's son Li Chongrun and daughter Princess Yongtai brothers and sisters secretly discussed the dictatorship of the two Zhangs, not wanting to be detected by Zhang Yizhi's ears and eyes, Zhang Yizhi added fuel and vinegar to Wu Zetian's slander. Wu Zetian listened to the slander, not only scolded the crown prince Li Xian, but also strictly ordered Li Xian to ask his children, and Li Xian, who was helpless, had to force his son and daughter to hang themselves. Next, the Zhang brothers forced the husband of the lord of Yongtai, Wu Yanji, the king of Wei, to death in prison.

This incident caused Li Xian to lose a son, a daughter and a son-in-law, and more importantly, this incident showed Li Xian a cruel reality: Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong brothers posed a great threat to him, including his family.

In this context, getting rid of the Zhang brothers is imperative and urgent for Li Xian. As a result, Li Xian, Li Dan, and Princess Taiping, the descendants of the surname Li, united to launch a coup d'état, known as the "Shenlong Coup" in history!

According to history, the coup d'état on this day was successful!

After Zhang Cambodia led people to rush into Wu Zetian's ward, Wu Zetian pointed at him and said, "Zhang Cambodia, I just promoted you to prime minister, and you repay me like this?" ”

Zhang Khan Zhi gave a deep salute and said: "Your Majesty, we are on the side of the Qing monarch!" Please also ask Your Majesty to comply with the will of heaven and immediately Zen and the crown prince Li Xian! Majesty, the edict of the Zen edict has been written, please look at it! ”

Wu Zetian closed his eyes, turned out the edict, picked up the pen and wanted to sign.

At this moment, a bright light flashed in the air, and a young man appeared out of thin air, and he said loudly: "Bold, who dares to rebel?" Dare to force His Majesty xià Zen position? ”

"Huh?" Wu Zetian and Zhang Khan were stunned! (To be continued......)