But Li Zhi broke his promise, and his promise not only became a blank check, but also brought disaster to Wang and Xiao.

At this time, although Wu Zetian was the new master of the harem, she covered the sky with one hand in the harem, her eyes and ears were everywhere, and she was even more strict against Wang and Xiao. After Wu Zetian returned, Li Zhi's private meeting with Wang and Xiao soon reached her ears.

Li Zhi's move violated Wu Zetian's taboo and exceeded her bottom line. As a result, Wu Zetian was furious, she hated Li Zhi's amorous weakness, and hated these two women even more.

angered the queen, and the consequences were naturally very severe. Wu Zetian was ready to strike hard and use cruel means to completely eliminate these two women who were a potential threat to him.

If you want to get rid of Wang and Xiao, Li Zhi can't get around this hurdle, but Wu Zetian knows what kind of person Li Zhi is, and she is completely sure to get Li Zhi's consent.

"Didn't the emperor depose Wang and Xiao? Why do you have a private meeting with them again? ”

Li Zhi couldn't imagine that Wu Zetian was so powerful, and even his words and deeds couldn't escape her eyes, this woman was really terrifying.

"I'm just sympathetic to them, after all, husband and wife are the same."

"When I abolished them, I was made the queen, did the emperor regret it? If you regret it, you will abolish me! ”

One crying, two troubles, and three hangings, this is a woman's specialty in dealing with men, and the emperor is no exception, not to mention that Li Zhi is an emperor who is afraid of his wife.

Li Zhi, who knew that he was at a loss, would not make the harem restless because of the two deposed women, so he sentenced Wang and Xiao to death.

Kill the chicken and show it to the monkey. In order to show his authority, he made the concubines of the harem submit to him. Wu Zetian decided to make Wang and Xiao's deaths more ugly.

There are two accounts of the deaths of Wang and Xiao:

According to the record of "Zizhi Tongjian", Wu Zetian sent someone to drag the two out. After 100 blows with each rod, he amputated his hands and feet, threw them into a vat, and died of torture for several days. And the "Old Tang Book" said that they were hanged.

originally expected Li Zhi to pull it, but they didn't expect that what was waiting for them was a big knife hanging on the top. In this way, the two beautiful young women closed their eyes forever with regret and resentment. Looking at Li Zhi again, I am afraid that my wife is afraid of this kind of Cheng dù, which is really rare. In fact, he can use the power in his hands to save the lives of Wang and Xiao. But he didn't. Is it just as simple as being afraid of his wife? It shouldn't be, after all, Wang and Xiao are already tomorrow's yellow flowers, and they don't have much use value. Therefore, instead of trying their best to save the lives of the two, it is better to let the two disappear from the world and maintain the stability and unity of the harem.

After the death of Wang and Xiao, Wu Zetian subdued the harem, and since then. No one in the concubines dared to compete with her anymore. It can be seen that the biggest beneficiary of this killing game is Wu Zetian, who stepped on the corpses of Wang and Xiao to consolidate her position as the queen.

Let his son be the crown prince

The crown prince is the successor of the emperor, and this position is very important. Wu Zetian naturally wouldn't let it go lightly. After getting rid of Wang and Xiao, Wu Zetian did not stop advancing, and she aimed at the crown prince Yanwang Li Zhong.

The crown prince Yanwang Li Zhong became the crown prince under the support of Liu Zheng, Chu Suiliang, and the eldest grandson Wuji. These supporters are Wu Zetian's opponents, and the crown prince they support is naturally on the side of the eldest grandson Wuji. If Li Zhong, the king of Yan, becomes emperor. Wu Zetian's position is in jeopardy.

Again, according to custom. If the queen has a son, she will not take others as her reserve. Now, Wu Zetiangui is the queen and also has his own son, so it is imperative to change the crown prince. Only by making her son the crown prince can Wu Zetian's throne be more stable, and her heart can really be placed in her stomach.

Looking at Li Zhong again, he has been the prince for four years. He understands that he is a pawn used by Queen Wang to deal with Wu Zetian, and now, Queen Wang has been defeated, his position as the crown prince is in jeopardy, and Wu Zetian's next target will definitely attack him, and he also knows his situation. Since there was no longer a chance to continue pretending to be stupid, Li Zhong wisely chose to back down.

When Li Zhi received the resignation of his son Li Zhong, he was quite entangled. first lost Queen Wang and Concubine Xiao Shu, and then, his son also had to leave him.

Although he knew that Prince Li Zhong was just an ornament, he would have to change sooner or later, because he was not a concubine. But when his son offered not to be the crown prince, he felt very guilty, watching his flesh and blood at the mercy of others, he was too incompetent as a father.

Li Zhi suddenly wanted to do something for this son, but he felt that he couldn't do anything. Because if you support Li Zhong as the crown prince, you will not be able to pass the level of Wu Zetian, and it will even attract her malicious revenge, which will undoubtedly push Li Zhong into the fire pit; If Li Zhong's resignation is approved, it will undoubtedly fall into the trap, and it will be too unkind.

Li Zhi was in a dilemma, not knowing what to do. He suddenly remembered a recital by Xu Jingzong, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, about the abolition of the crown prince.

It was on the third day of the 11th month of the sixth year of Yonghui (655), that is, on the third day of Wu Zetian's tenure, Xu Jingzong sent a message to Tang Gaozong, to the effect that the prince is the foundation of the country, and the son of the queen is the orthodox prince. The current crown prince was born in the harem and is a concubine, and he was originally appointed as the prince because the queen has no son, but this is not in line with the principle of being noble. Now, the new queen has her own son, and she should let Li Hong be the crown prince in order to serve the public.

There are always some characters in officialdom who are good at observing words and feelings, and who are sloppy. Xu Jingzong, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, saw that his master Wu Zetian had become the queen, and he figured out that he would definitely solve the prince's problem next, so he waved his flag for Wu Zetian and challenged the prince.

At the beginning, Li Zhi took a cold approach to this twist, and now, it is time to come in handy.

There is no doubt that Xu Jingzong thought about the successor of the Tang Empire, and his remarks were in line with feudal etiquette, and there was nothing wrong with him. Tang Gaozong then summoned him. In fact, the deeper reason is that Xu Jingzong relieved Tang Gaozong's troubles, and Tang Gaozong had steps to go down.

"How about making Li Hong the crown prince?"

"The emperor is sage, the crown prince is the foundation of the country, if you don't make the prince the prince. If people's hearts are unstable, the whole country is in danger. Again. Prince Li Zhong is not a concubine, and he will not be at peace in his heart. There may be a desire to steal the throne, which is not the blessing of the temple. ”

Although Xu Jingzong's words are reasonable, they are also a bit alarmist, Tang Gaozong does not believe that Li Zhong will commit rebellion, first, he does not have the courage, and second, he does not have the capital to do so.

Tang Gaozong understood that Xu Jingzong had Wu Zetian's backing behind him. Prince Yi Li is the meaning of Wu Zetian. It's all come to this point, and it's impossible to turn back. Perhaps for Li Zhong, not being the prince is a better destination. As a result, Tang Gaozong approved Li Zhong's resignation.

At this time, Wu Zetian's momentum was fierce, and Liu Zheng, Han Yuan, Eldest Sun Wuji and others, who supported the crown prince Li Zhong, had already collapsed and had no ability to confront Wu Zetian. Therefore, there is no objection to the decision to abolish Prince Li Zhong.

The sixth day of the first month of the first year of Xianqing (656). Tang Gaozong Li Zhi issued an edict to abolish the position of Prince Li Zhong, renamed him the king of Liang, and served as the governor of Liangzhou (now Hanzhong, Shaanxi), and left Beijing on the same day to take office.

That's it. 14-year-old Li Zhong was eliminated in a brutal political game. Without a tough backstage, even if you climb to the position of prince, you will be pulled off the horse. He doesn't blame his mother for not being a queen. I don't blame the ministers who supported him as the prince for being ruthless at the moment, I only blame myself for being born in the emperor's family. He hoped that the persecution of himself would end there. Let yourself live a stable life, but this is just wishful thinking on his part. The blow to him has only just begun.

On the day Li Zhong was deposed, Tang Gaozong also issued an edict to canonize Li Hong as the crown prince, and Li Hong, the acting king who was only 4 years old, became the crown prince in this way.

The wish to let her son be the crown prince has finally come true, and Wu Zetian's position as the empress is more solid, she is still quite satisfied with this, but she will not stop there, because her power in the court is still very weak, and she will continue to let go of her hands and feet.

In the process of gaining power and consolidating their position, the strong must sooner or later eliminate dissidents, which is the iron law of rule. Therefore, those who are engaged in politics have always attached importance to excluding dissidents and cultivating cronies, so that they can consolidate their position and realize their political intentions. Wu Zetian is no exception, although her rivals Wang and Xiao are dead, and her son has also become the crown prince, but this is not enough, because she still has a big hard bone to gnaw, that is, those opponents who hold great power. Then, he pointed the finger at the former civil and military ministers who opposed her at the beginning.

Perhaps, you would say, contentment is the only way to be happy. As a woman, not only did she sit on the throne of the queen, but her son became the crown prince again. In the whole world, there is no second woman who can compare, everything must be done in moderation, why do you have to kill all the old civil and military ministers?

In fact, Wu Zetian didn't want to live a few days of peace and security, but the struggle at that time was very severe, and she was not allowed to relax her tense nerves in the slightest. Those who oppose her are eyeing her and will pull her off the stage at every opportunity.

Although Wu Zetian has the support of Li Tao, Xu Jingzong, Li Yifu and others, Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu have low qualifications and low positions, and the strength of these people is still relatively weak, not enough to compete with a group of old ministers such as Changsun Wuji. And that Li Tao is a sleek guy, and he smears oil on the soles of his feet at critical moments, which is unreliable.

Therefore, if Wu Zetian wants to defeat the eldest grandson Wuji and others and fundamentally ensure the stability of the posterior, he has to carry out a major purge of these old civil and military ministers.

Looking at the opposition again, after experiencing the incident of changing the prince of Yi, they faintly felt that the danger was approaching step by step, but fortunately, they still had the capital to confront Wu Zetian, that is, except for Chu Suiliang, who was demoted to Tanzhou as the governor, their official positions were basically unchanged and they were still in important positions. For example, the eldest grandson Wuji is still the Tai Lieutenant, Han Ying is the servant, and Lai Ji is the Zhongshu Order. These official positions are the hole cards of the opponents and their last line of defense, which must be defended to the death, otherwise there will be no place to bury.

You can't become fat by eating in one bite, these old guys are deeply ingrained in the court, and it is unrealistic to overthrow them at once, and they must be made one step at a time, one by one, to make them disappear slowly.

In the first month of the first year of Xianqing (656), Wu Zetian asked Tang Gaozong to find a few good teachers for his son, so as to cultivate talents for governing the country. At the instigation of Wu Zetian, Tang Gaozong appointed Yu Zhining and the crown prince's concubine, and specially appointed the prince's guests, Han Yuan, Lai Ji, and Xu Jingzong concurrently served as the prince's assistant.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that putting Xu Jingzong in the same position as Han Ying and Lai Ji is to improve the status of his supporters and restrict the activities of the opposition.

You might say. As long as the eldest grandson Wuji is eliminated, the others will not be able to jump. Truly. It is true that the thief captures the king first. But the eldest grandson Wuji is the emperor's humerus, and he is also the minister with the highest prestige in the court, it is difficult to bring down such a heavyweight, and if he rashly attacks the eldest grandson Wuji, it will attract the opposition of the ministers in the court, and this kind of unpopular thing is still not good.

Therefore, Wu Zetian is ready to bypass this wall and attack other opponents. Completely isolate the eldest grandson Wuji.

Wu Zetian is ready to show his sword, and the opposition led by the eldest grandson Wuji cannot be idle, and must accept the move and wait for the opportunity to counterattack, otherwise there will be no chance to counterattack.

If you want to bring down Wu Zetian, the more people who oppose it, the better, but the courtiers in the court saw that the emperor and Wu Zetian were wearing a pair of pants, so they were unwilling to wade into troubled waters, and they didn't dare to pat their chests to express their opposition to Wu Zetian.

People in officialdom are accustomed to self-preservation. They did not dare to offend Wu Zetian, nor did they dare to offend the eldest grandson Wuji and others, who held great power, so they chose to survive in the cracks. More people did the wall-riding pie.

For the old fritters in the officialdom, the opposition has no choice but to find someone else. Then. Chu Suiliang, who was degraded from the outside, entered the eyes of the opposition, and if Chu Suiliang was transferred back to the DPRK. Then the strength of the opposition will increase a lot. So, Chu Suiliang's good friend Han Ying was pushed out. I made a rush pioneer.

On the ninth day of September in the first year of the Heavenly Grant, it is the season of yellow flowers everywhere and autumn is high and cool, the sun shines brightly in Luoyang, the capital of the gods, the auspicious clouds are swirling in the sky above the Ming Hall, and a proud phoenix stands on the huge dome of the Ming Hall, and the Ming Hall is surrounded by gold, blue and white colorful flags. Dressed in the crown of the Son of Heaven, Wu Cong climbed the Yingtianmen Tower, and the people who hugged him were the civil and military of the Manchu Dynasty, the princes and nobles.

After experiencing more than 900 people in the Guanzhong Guanzhong of the Imperial Shi Fu Youyi and asking her to abolish Tang Lizhou, and there were civil and military officials and a total of 60,000 people from various states and counties across the country to ask her for the same request, a generation of dynasty called Wu Zhou, was established with her official ascension, at this time, it has been six years since the first year of Guangzhai when she came to the court as the queen mother, and before that, she appeared in the imperial court as a "two saints" can be traced back to the period of Gao Zonglinde more than 20 years ago. The imperial decree to change the name of the era and grant amnesty to the world has been issued, and the seventh day of the bestowal is about to begin, and the prelude to the celebration of the whole country is slowly beginning.

The ambitious Emperor Wu is radiant and extraordinary; Standing on the high tower, she looked down on the world, all living beings, and the sacredness and majesty of dominating the world with the dignity of the empress made her feel unprecedented glory.

Emperor Wu cherished this extraordinary glory and knew that this qiē was not easy to come by. She uses her own feelings to look at the world, judge right and wrong, determine trade-offs, and gradually realize her ambitions. Since the first year of the light house, she has launched a special revolution aimed at replacing the Li royal family with her as the queen mother, pushing the court into the vortex of impermanence; She used the equestrian skills of an iron whip and dagger to control the courtiers and fight against the Li royal family, and used Huairou means to recruit and support a large number of cronies, so that the ministers quickly divided and disintegrated in the rapid turmoil, and finally regrouped according to her will and intentions, and captured a world that did not belong to her.

Now that the Wu Zhou Dynasty has been established, she will accept the title of "Holy Spirit Emperor", which is where her imperial status lies, symbolizing the sacredness and dignity of a generation of empresses.

She needs the sanctity and dignity under the imperial power, and not long ago, she also led the civil and military officials Bai Luo to receive the map; The huge procession, the unique scene, although it was only a bluff on a large extent, there were some things that even she herself would not believe.

However, what she wants is this kind of powerful scene, as well as the effect of seeing flowers in the ethereal fog; Just like the crown on her head and the dazzling halo, in this world of truth and falsehood, fiction and reality, she can ignore how others feel, but she can feel the true self under the halo; The aura is sacred, it can shine on others, and you will never be confused or intoxicated by the illusion of the aura.

This is a real world that is harder than iron, and she cannot tolerate any personal emotional outpouring and catharsis, to conquer this real world, what is needed is wisdom and courage, and what is needed is an iron heart; And in the face of this group of courtiers who are close at hand, they need to surrender.

As a rebellious woman, a woman who defies the condemnation of the world, she does not expect the courtiers to be loyal to her, but she needs the courtiers to submit to her. This kind of submission, before being crowned emperor, means the sacredness and dignity of being a queen of heaven; After being crowned emperor, it means more identification with the Wu Zhou Dynasty.

All of them were in the midst of rapid turmoil and change, and all of them were unexpected by the courtiers, and it was not easy to make the courtiers bow down to them. For this reason, over the years, she has used the wisdom beyond the ministers and extraordinary deeds to show the image and demeanor of a wise man and a strong man, and used her own image and actions to spur the courtiers to influence the court and even the whole world, creating and submitting to a large number of ministers who walked hand in hand with her.

She turned her intelligence and perseverance into a sharp sword, turned wind, rain, thunder and lightning, and chopped waves for the Wuzhou Dynasty; Like a hunting lioness, with her keen sense of smell and resolute action, she quelled Li Jingye's mutiny in Yangzhou six years ago, and two years ago, she thwarted the rebellion of the princes of the Li clan. Scene by scene, scene by scene, all thrilling, vigorous.

To this end, she cleared the obstacles in her way and earned the dignity she deserved, and at the same time, she also paid the price of a group of ministers who broke with her, and even betrayed her relatives. (To be continued......)