Empress Wu's attitude of not giving in to any forces that oppose her is firm and consistent, just as she has never backed down when it comes to her vital interests, and she will not compromise in the face of military deterrence. This point, as Pei Yan, who has been by the side of the Empress Wu for a long time, is the most clear.

The Empress Wu would not believe at all that peace and concession under the conditions of coercion by force could turn hostility into peace; I don't believe that they support a weak emperor like Zhongzong, and after she returns to power, they can bow down and protect her to herself. This is a move similar to that of the Qing Jun. Empress Wu believes that as a well-educated person, Pei Yan will not fail to understand the consequences of the so-called Qing monarch's side in history.

As early as the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, the Imperial Historian Chao was worried that the princes of the clan would be too strong for the imperial court to subdue, and in order to stabilize the Han dynasty, he stated the sins of the princes to the emperor and asked the emperor to cut down their land and take back their side counties. His request was granted by the emperor. As a result, Chao Cuo revised the decree on how to restrict the princes, and there were thirty chapters.

The wrong move caused an uproar among the princes. After that, the seven kingdoms of Wu and Chu rebelled in the name of the Qing monarch's side and the punishment of Chao Cuo. At the critical juncture, the minister Yuan Ang knew that King Wu had a conspiracy, but asked the emperor to kill Chao Cuo to appease the Seven Kingdoms.

As a result, after killing Chao Cuo, the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu did not retreat. It turned out that King Wu had been deliberately rebelling for decades, and this time he was angry at cutting his land. He used the princes to protect his own interests, and contacted the other six countries to raise troops.

Obviously, in the case of King Wu, the original intention of raising troops was not to make a mistake, but to seize the throne in the name of the Qing monarch. saw King Wu's sinister intentions clearly. In the end, Emperor Jing sent heavy troops to encircle and suppress them, ending with killing more than 100,000 rebels and King Wu being hunted down and killed, and committing suicide after the defeat of the other six kings. Only then did the rebellion of the Seven Kings be quelled.

However, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty listened to the slanderous rumors of the jealous minister Yuan Ang and killed his loyal minister. But it is an irreparable loss. Pei Yan can ignore the lessons of the past, but the Empress Wu cannot help but be highly vigilant.

She can neither believe the words of Prime Minister Pei Yan, nor can she have any luck with the rebels who play the banner of supporting the monarch; Even if he returns to the emperor, he can't be controlled by them, not to mention that in the lofty goal of the Empress Wu, there is no intention of returning to the emperor at this time.

Empress Wu asked Pei Yan, it was not that she wanted to use Pei Yan's resourcefulness, she knew that the national disaster was at the head. As a person in charge, she still relies on her own ability and assertiveness, and all she needs is Pei Yan's attitude of cooperating with herself, and Guò Pei Yan's attitude to influence other ministers and tide over difficulties with her. When she lost the support of her important minister Pei Yan, Empress Wu could only directly face this rebellion crisis.

This is the largest civil strife since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, and for Empress Wu, it is a real life-and-death contest, which is directly related to whether Empress Wu can have a foothold in the imperial court in the future. Sudden shock. The unprecedented challenge inspired the great courage of the martial arts queen to give it a go. This courage comes from her consistent self-confidence, from her resolute character to dare to challenge and not give up in the face of fierce opponents. In the face of all kinds of disadvantages and accidents, Empress Wu was calm and calm. Respond calmly and actively resolve it.

First, he ordered Sima Li Chongfu of Chuzhou to lead the troops of the three counties under his command to resist, and then. In response to Xu Jingye and his gang, he played the banner of "Kuang Fu Tang Dynasty", and boldly used Li Xiaoyi, the son of Li Shentong, the descendant of the Tang Dynasty, as the commander. Wei Yuanzhong, the servant of the imperial army, was the supervising army, and the famous anti-Tibetan general Hei Zhi Changzhi was the governor of Jiangnan Province. Within seven days, 300,000 troops were dispatched, and the edge was approaching Yangzhou. Empress Wu's intention is to let the people of the world understand that Empress Wu is a loyal defender of the Tang Dynasty and has been supported and embraced by the Tang royal family.

It was these veterans and celebrities who were deeply reused by the military queen and who were eager to make meritorious contributions, who showed their skills at critical moments, and the army was like a bamboo everywhere they went, and they quelled the rebellion in less than a month. It was a major victory outside the court, and the first attempt by the Empress Wu to deal with civil strife, and although it was a last resort, she used her wisdom, courage, and guts to defeat her enemies as she wished.

The success of this counterinsurgency made Empress Wu understand a truth: In the face of a powerful enemy, there must be no fear or compromise, because any compromise means appeasement and instigation, and it means being cocooned and self-defeating. Only by attacking strongly and seeing each other with blood blades can we deter the world.

When Pei Yan happened, Empress Wu ordered Yu Shi Dafu Qian Wei and Yu Shi Yu Chengye to interrogate Pei Yan. When Yu Shi Cui heard this, he said: "Pei Yanfu has been in court for more than 20 years, entrusted by his will, and the power is in his own power, if there is no difference, why invite the Queen Mother to return to politics?" The intention was to echo Empress Wu and point out that Pei Yan had different intentions. However, Hu Yuanfan, the squire of Fengge, played: "Yan Sheji is a loyal minister, he has contributed to the country, and he is carefully served, the world knows it, and the minister knows that he will not oppose it." ”

There are not a few other ministers of civil and military affairs who have confirmed that Pei Yan is not opposed. However, at this time, Empress Wu was unwilling to investigate whether Pei Yan deliberately rebelled, what she hated was Pei Yan's betrayal of herself when life and death were at stake, although this betrayal could be excused by various reasons for being loyal to the Li Tang royal family, but for Empress Wu, who knew how to govern the country, she could not tolerate her soft-heartedness! Clear-eyed people can see at a glance that Li Jingye's rebellion is not just a return to the emperor!

At a time when the scales of ethics were clearly tilted in their favor, once they were able to succeed, they could incite the clan hatred that had accumulated over the years and put Empress Wu and his followers to death. Didn't Pei Yan know that King Luo Bin, the minister of Linhai County, was not denouncing Empress Wu in a hateful tone in that article full of incendiary and demagogic power?

Although Empress Wu admired his literary brilliance and talent, it was a murderous declaration of war after all! The rebels can succeed, and how many of those ministers who can only take advantage of the untrustworthy will not fight back when the tree is down?

The emperor is his own son, once he is subject to them, even if Pei Yan and them can assist and support, can Li Jingye and these guys who rely on force to win be able to bow down in front of the emperor?

She clearly understands that concession and compromise negate not only what she is doing now, but all that she has done so far. In that way, everything she has done will be wasted, and her life's hard work will be in vain. Years of court struggle. A few bloody winds, a few bloody rains. Only the Empress Wu herself who really knows how to govern the country!

And the hardships and dangers can only be experienced by Empress Wu herself. Datang Jiangshan has been able to get to this point today, and it is because of her half a lifetime of fighting wits and courage that it has been inherited. What she did did not allow her to slip up in the slightest.

She has been able to withstand more pressure and responsibility than any of them. She can pay a qiē for the Tang Dynasty without reservation, and even take risks; And what Pei Yan is pursuing is nothing more than personal reputation and status.

A minister who acquiesces in the rebellion of his subordinates, and only seeks to preserve his reputation and status at a critical time, and ignores the life and death of the military queen or even the royal family, no matter how much merit there is, how many people defend him, he must die, this is the best ruling! Those courtiers who interceded for him in groups must also be divided and disintegrated: Hu Yuanfan, the waiter of the Fengge, and Liu Jingxian, the waiter, were imprisoned, and the prime minister Guo Zhiju was demoted to the prince's left concubine.

The rules of the palace can't allow others to distinguish, and they can't allow her to be a little soft-hearted! It's not long ago. Shan Yudao appeased the envoy and the general of Zuo Wuwei, Cheng Wuting, who thought that he had outstanding military achievements and held heavy troops, was the right-hand man of the Empress Wu, and could avenge Pei Yan's grievances, so he pleaded with the Empress Wu with a secret letter, and the Empress Wu made a decisive move again, using Cheng Wuting's subordinate general Pei Shaoye to behead Cheng Wuting in the army.

Pei Yan died, at the hands of the idol he had admired and followed for many years. In fact, when Pei Yan shouted "Please return the Empress Dowager to the emperor", he knew that he had already broken off his relationship with the Empress Wu. Also know the consequences and the end.

What Pei Yan wants to uphold is the order of the Tang Dynasty, and what he wants to maintain is the orthodoxy of the Tang Dynasty, and the fact of the Yangzhou rebellion itself has nothing to do with him, and his grievances against the Tang royal family and the Empress Wu will be stopped. What can be held and what cannot be held is over.

He didn't want to defend himself, although he had many reasons to defend himself, and he was a minister who was reused by Emperor Gaozong. He is also a minister reused by the military queen.

However, in such a situation. Except for supporting the Empress Wu at the time of the incident, all his defenses afterwards have been useless. Moreover, all the education he received, the ethics and morality he adhered to, did not allow him to make compromises to the Empress Wu, which was all the support for his life, and also all his ethics as a minister loyal to the Tang Dynasty. Pei Yan was also jealous of his ability, hurt the ministers of the DPRK and China, and caused irreparable losses.

It was October of the first year of Kaiyao, Pei Xingjian, the general manager of the Dingxiang Road march, offered the prisoners captured by Dingxiang, and he knew that Pei Xingjian had made a wish that the prisoners would not die before they surrendered, and he used "Fu Nian is Cheng Wuting and Zhang Qianqiao approaching the camp, plus Mobei Hui Hui Nan is pressing, and he surrendered when he is desperate", killing Ashina Fu Nian, Wen Fu and other 54 people in the city, which makes Pei Xingjian sentimental: "But I am afraid that after the killing, there will be no return." Pei Xingjian said that he couldn't get out of the way.

This kind of jealousy can harm merit, and it has also aroused the dissatisfaction of some other ministers of the DPRK and China. Despite this, compared with his loyalty to the Tang royal family and his contribution to the imperial court, it is still a small mistake and will not cause him more guilt. At the same time, Pei Yan has been in politics for many years, so he naturally understands the rules of the palace, and he knows the risks of being an official.

And so on, when he had just been arrested and imprisoned, and the people on the left and right advised him to say humble words to the messenger to protect himself, he left a calm sentence, that is, "When the prime minister is in prison, where is there any reason to save again!" "In the end, there was no bending. This may allow Empress Wu and even the world to value his personality after his death.

Li Jingye rebelled under the banner of "Kuang Fu Tang Dynasty", which also showed the embarrassment of the Empress Wu as the empress dowager in the court. For her, who has already mastered or manipulated the imperial power, she is naturally unwilling to succumb to the position of the queen mother, and in her mind, the inheritance of the Tang Dynasty is none other than herself. Therefore, under the favorable conditions of removing obstacles and barriers inside and outside the imperial court, Empress Wu accelerated the preparations for becoming emperor.

She was eliminated several times, and promoted Pei Judao, Wei Siqian, Su Liangsi, Wei Xuan, and other ministers with good reputations and outstanding political achievements as prime ministers, and reused famous generals such as Heiya Changzhi, Li Duozuo, and Quan Xiancheng to stabilize the government; Professionals who are proficient in law were selected to sort out and revise the laws and regulations implemented in the early Tang Dynasty for decades, and compiled 20 volumes of "Vertical Arch Style", 6 volumes of "Vertical Arch Liusige" and 2 volumes of "Vertical Arch New Style"; Wrote a book of "Ministers' Tracks", gave the ministers a lot, and took teaching as the way of the ministers; Drawing lessons from Li Jingye's rebellion, we should vigorously enhance the supervisory power of the Imperial Historical Observatory and increase the supervision of local officials. Empress Wu believes that after experiencing this civil strife and sweeping away political opponents along the way. It is urgent for the Tang Dynasty to become emperor.

In terms of the hard work he has put into this dynasty, this is the name he deserves; There is no safer way out. It's also the smartest choice. Only by being the emperor in a clear and honest manner can he prevent his years of hard work from going to waste. in order to realize their own ambitions.

The process of changing the imperial system is speeding up in accordance with the steps set by the Empress Wu, and every one is handy. After a great sweep and purge, inside and outside the court, there were those who believed in the wisdom of the Empress Wu, and more were afraid and worshiped by the strength of the Empress Wu.

So there is a heavenly hanging image, there is a rui stone out of the water, and so on. Empress Wu knew very well that in an era of advocating strength and advocating the mandate of heaven, nothing was more important than the means of strong action and the reputation of the monarch and god. Weigh on the road. She needs the world's recognition, and she needs more people to walk hand in hand with her.

However, she can open up a wide career and network talents all over the world, but it is difficult to unravel the Confucian complex of scholars. Just after Pei Yan, Hu Yuanfan, Liu Jingxian, and Guo Shiju, the former followers of Pei Yan, Hu Yuanfan, and Guo Shiju, parted ways, Liu Yizhi, the squire of Fengge, fought against her in the name of maintaining imperial power.

Liu Yizhi, as the head of the North Gate Bachelor, is a minister who has been trained and entrusted with important tasks for many years after the martial arts. This famous man who "pushes the good gentleman and leads him to himself", his talent and character have won the trust of the martial queen. As early as the later years of Gojong. Empress Wu, who assisted the emperor in handling court affairs, deeply felt that there was a shortage of talents in the court, and she was even more unrelated and weak in the court.

So, she followed the method of the first emperor Li Shimin to open a school and recruit wise men from all over the world, and recruited a group of humble but talented bachelors. gathered under his command, and the most influential of them was the North Gate Bachelor.

The predecessor of the North Gate Bachelor was known as the Hanlin Academy, which was an important place for the imperial court to gather talents such as combined training, monk Taoism, divination, art, and calligraphy. It is also a famous Confucian and a bachelor who resides in the art class (Zhaowenguan), and they are classified according to their respective functions. Offered by the imperial court and directly served the imperial court.

For they were always waiting at the north gate. After the dry seal, the first name was "North Gate Bachelor". Empress Wu used these Confucian scholars to compile texts, and asked them to participate in decision-making behind the scenes, so as to disperse the power of the prime minister and cultivate their ability to govern. The best among them is Liu Yizhi.

When he was still a teenager, Liu Yizhi, Meng Lizhen, Gao Zhizhou, and Guo Zhengyi were well-known for their literature, and were called Liu, Meng, Gao, and Guo by the people of the time, and they were on duty in the Zhaowen Pavilion together. In the Shangyuan Dynasty, Liu Yizhi moved to the right history, Hongwenguan straight bachelor, and the authors Lang Yuan Wanqing, left history Fan Lubing, Miao Chuke, right history Zhou Simao, Han Chubin, etc. were all called into the ban. Under the careful cultivation of the Empress Wu, Liu Yizhi and Zhou Simu, Yuan Wantian, Fan Lubing, and other young scholars who were also called into the forbidden middle school, stood out one by one and became the right-hand man of the Empress Wu. Although not all of them are from poor backgrounds, they do not have a special background, nor do they have any titles to be proud of, but they are all well-educated people with more ambitious ambitions than ordinary people.

In the view of Empress Wu, any person with outstanding talent and lofty ambitions always has the desire to get ahead and the desire to realize lofty ambitions, and they hope that the discovery and support of others will enable them to display their talents; And when they are discovered and reused, their gratitude is self-evident.

At that time, compared with the important ministers in the court, they were just an insignificant group of vulnerable people. However, once a weakness is cultivated to become a strong force, it becomes a force that cannot be underestimated.

The Empress Wu appreciates them, it is their enterprising, high-spirited, and brilliant scholarly talents, and the Empress Wu's heavy responsibility for them, which is their affection for the court and the Empress Wu. Their arrogant and unruly behavior has been criticized from time to time, and they are often despised by righteous men and gentlemen, but they are valued by the protection of the military queen.

They were not warriors who went deep into the enemy camp to charge into battle, but they laid the foundation for the change of the imperial system after the martial arts, and inadvertently opened the prelude to the establishment of the new dynasty and played the overture. In their minds, Empress Wu is their mentor, the cultivator and guide of their career. They worship the wise and the strong, admire the wisdom and super deeds of the Empress Wu, and are often impressed by the Empress Wu's discerning eyes. Once upon a time, they were proud of their efforts and were proud to be able to gain the trust of the Empress Wu, and they were also pleased to be able to fulfill their duties and loyalty to the imperial court.

However, Liu Yizhi and his people received a traditional education in Gangchang ethics, and all their ideals and beliefs in governing the country and exercising talents were to maintain the orthodoxy of the country. After the Pei Yan incident, they became more and more incomprehensible about Empress Wu's behavior, and their feelings for Empress Wu became more and more complicated, and it was difficult for them to accept Empress Wu's deviant behavior. Like other Beimen scholars, Liu Yizhi worships the Empress Wu because of her super strength and wisdom, rather than the conquest of the soul. Under certain circumstances, Liu Yizhi also did things that violated the rules of the palace and paid the price. Liu Yizhi's sister was a female official in the palace, and Empress Wu sent him to the house of Empress Wu's mother, Mrs. Rongguo, to see a doctor, but Liu Yizhi went to Mrs. Rongguo's house to visit her sister through Guò Helan Minzhi, and was exiled for several years.

However, Liu Yizhi will never doubt and betray the ethics of Gangchang from the perspective of righteousness. Therefore, everything they did for the Empress Wu will eventually return to the track of orthodoxy. At this time, Liu Yizhi was painful, and his former arrogance could not hide his feelings as a scholar as always. He read the scriptures and books, although he did not deliberately follow the rules, but he knew that the court was the public instrument of the country, not the emperor or the courtiers' own selfishness, and what he wanted to maintain was the public instrument of the country, not the selfish interests of the family and the world.

According to his own cognition and identification with the Tang Dynasty, he wholeheartedly integrated himself into this dynasty, and maintained this dynasty with his talent and loyalty, and cherished the one he paid for it.

He values the orthodoxy of the country, actively supports the emperor Li Dan to come to power, and regards assisting the emperor as his due responsibility, and is unwilling to betray the emperor and the orthodoxy of the Tang Dynasty in order to support Empress Wu, which is originally to be loyal to the emperor and abide by the way of being a minister! He is waiting, and his colleagues are also waiting, waiting for the Queen Mother's rational return, and finally returning to the emperor, justifiably letting the emperor rule the country, and looking forward to the emperor becoming the master of the world with their assistance. However, what they were waiting for was the opposite result, and what the Empress Wu did was gradually distancing itself from their ideals and aspirations.

The fact is that Liu Yizhi may not have understood that from the day they were summoned into the forbidden middle school by the Empress Wu, under the traction and influence of the Empress Wu, they participated in the government with the unique style and posture of the Beimen Bachelor, and their thoughts and behaviors, whether active or passive, have been integrated into the sphere of influence of the Empress Wu, and they are an important force and right-hand man in the control and governance of the Empress Wu, and have long become an important part of the "Two Sages" banner. (To be continued......)