The Shenlong coup was not initiated by Li Xian, and this credit cannot be fully credited to his head. The real initiators were the ministers of culture and military affairs loyal to Li Tang, and when Li Xian heard that the ministers had launched a coup, he was so frightened that he did not dare to open the door, and after the enlightenment of the ministers, he hardened once and joined the coup camp.
When the Shenlong coup d'état occurred, Li Xian was almost 50 years old, and Wu Zetian was already 82 years old, his son was more than half a hundred years old, and his mother was in a cruel year, which should have been a warm picture of filial piety and motherhood, but they could only meet each other in the imperial family.
Li Xian was reinstated as crown prince by Wu Zetian in 698, and as soon as his mother died, he was the righteous Li Tang Emperor. However, the form of the dynasty is complicated, and if you are not careful, the prince may become a ghost under the sword, and the ministers loyal to the Li Tang Dynasty cannot sit still.
At this time, there were two forces threatening the succession of the crown prince Li Xian: one was the Wu family, and the other was Wu Zetian's two male favorites: Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong's brothers.
Threat from the Wu family
In the depths of Wu Zetian's heart, she was reluctant to return Jiangshan to Li Tang, but due to practical factors, she had to do so.
After Wu Zetian gained power, her half-brothers did not support her work, not only did not support, but also did not give her face.
We know that Wu Zetian's biological mother was the second wife of his father, Wu Shiyan, and before that, Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang had two sons: Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang, plus two cousins: Wu Weiliang and Wu Huaiyun, and Wu Zetian's two sisters, who formed the original Wu family.
Wu Zetian's relationship with her brothers was not good, but after she became rich, she still wanted to reuse the Wu clan regardless of her previous suspicions, but what she did not expect was that people only wanted to eat by their ability and did not want to stain her light. Later, these four brothers naturally became outcasts, and they were all killed by her.
Later, Wu Zetian also wanted to reuse the eldest sister's son Helan Minzhi and rename him Wu Minzhi, but this person could not support the wall, fornicated the harem, and eventually became an outcast.
Later, Wu Zetian could only reactivate the Wu clan, and she took back her nephews who had been in exile for many years, so that Wu Yuanshuang's son Wu Chengsi and Wu Yuanqing's son Wu Sansi returned to Chang'an and returned to the center of power again.
We can also see the performance of these two people, Wu Chengsi spared no effort to do propaganda work on the road of Wu Zetian becoming emperor, and won the weight of Wu Zetian. Of course, he also did his best to wreak havoc on the harem, and he had long coveted the position of prince.
Also because of his existence, In his later years, Wu Zetian was hesitant to choose the crown prince, whether to be a son or a nephew? Li Zi is equal to his own life in vain, Wu Zhou is still to be overthrown; Li Nephew is not much better, in the ancestral tablet, it is difficult to say whether her aunt with two swords can enter the table.
Although Wu Zetian eventually gave the position of crown prince to her son, her heart was not willing. According to her moody personality, it is possible to pull Li Xian off the position of prince again at any time, after all, such a thing is normal for Li Xian.
Before that, Li Xian had already been ravaged by Wu Zetian once. After Li Zhi's death, Li Xian's succession to the throne was already emperor, and due to his lack of strength and disrespect for his mother, he was deposed by Wu Zetian as the King of Luling after only 55 days on the throne. So, what else is impossible to do?
Therefore, the biggest enemy who threatened Li Xian's position as prince was none other than her own birth mother, Wu Zetian herself, and if she was willing to give way, why should she change Li Xian's surname to Wu? As long as she was alive for one day, he did not dare to act recklessly, after the Shenlong coup, he became the emperor again, and he was obedient in front of Wu Zetian, and he was really a mother treasure man.
If this coup was simply aimed at Wu Zetian, Li Xian would never have dared to participate, because at that time, there were two guys who did not know the height of the sky and the thickness of the earth were also coveting the throne. Mentioning these two people, Li Xian was much more confident.
Two yellow sorghum dreams
In Wu Zetian's later years, she was accompanied by two brothers, Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong. In 697, after Xue Huaiyi fell out of favor, Princess Taiping recommended a new male favorite Zhang Zongchang to Wu Zetian, and Zhang Zongchang introduced his brother Zhang Yizhi to the harem.
These two beautiful young men were the sons of Zhang Jiucheng, a squire of the Wind Pavilion during the Tang Taizong period, who was clever and clever, and knew the rhythm of music, and the greeting gift given to them by Wu Zetian was jiaguan sipin. Since then, Erzhang has also opened the road to unauthorized power in the harem.
Due to the advanced age of Wu Zetian, he appointed more Zhang brothers in the management of political affairs, and for a time, the two Zhang Quan fell to the opposition, and under the doting and favor of Empress Wu Zetian, their power expanded rapidly, and gradually formed a third faction after the Li Tang faction and the WuZhou faction.
The two enjoyed the sealing of three hundred households, Zhang Yizhi's titles were Lintai Supervisor and Hengguo Gong, and Zhang Changzong was Chunguan Shihao and Duke of Yiguo. Erzhang rapidly expanded in a short period of time, gradually seizing the power of the prime minister. This made the Li family very uncomfortable.
Originally, Li Xian's reset, Li's family should be in a state of stars holding the moon, who knew that the limelight was robbed by people with foreign surnames. Li Dan and Li Xian, however, still felt angry, and their children were young and vigorous, and it was inevitable that they would do irrational things.
Li Xian's son Li Chongrun and his sister Yongtai Commandery, brother-in-law Wu Yanji, and the three of them privately complained about Grandma Wu's private life, which immediately reached the ears of the Zhang brothers. Soon the empress also received the news, and even though she did not remember the blood of the family, she gave the three people to death.
The Zhang brothers did not expect that their own status in Wu Zetian's heart was so high, and from then on, the two of them became more and more rampant, but they did not realize that because of this matter, they had already offended both the Li and Wu families at the same time.
In order to crack down on dissidents, the two constantly falsely accused their unfavorable ministers in Wu Zetian' face, such as Wei Yuanzhong, Zhang Shu, and others. Finally, the people of the eldest son's party could not sit still.
In July of the fourth year of Chang'an (704), someone reported that Zhang Tongxiu, Zhang Changqi, and Zhang Changyi had serious economic problems, and after verification, the report was true, and the three were subsequently beaten to prison.
The next day, Wu Zetian suddenly issued a warrant, asking the judicial department to investigate the Zhang brothers as well. However, Wu Zetian's move was only a false shot, and it did not have a substantial impact on the Zhang brothers. Although the Zhang brothers were constantly reported, the two remained unscathed under the protection of Wu Zetian.
Four years later in Chang'an, Wu Zetian fell ill. During this period, she pushed almost all government affairs to the Zhang brothers, and the people who accompanied her were also two Zhang, and it was difficult for others to understand the empress's illness.
If the empress dies and erzhang comes to make corrections, it will be even more difficult for the princely party to overturn the game. In order to occupy a favorable situation, the princely party constantly challenged Erzhang, hoping to oust Erzhang through legal channels, but Wu Zetian was still reluctant to deal with these two people.
Since the legal route is not feasible, it is necessary to take the illegal route. In the first year of the Dragon, a coup was secretly planned. The person in charge was Zhang Kamzhi, and the participants were Cui Xuanwei, Jinghui, Heng Yanfan and Yuan Shuji, as well as Li Duozuo, the general of the Right Yu Lin Wei.
Under the strategizing of the prince's party, in the early morning of the twenty-second day of the first month, this group of people quietly approached the Xuanwu Gate.
Dragon Coup
The coup team marched to XuanwuMen, but they were surprised to find that Tian Guidao, the commander of the Xuanwumen Thousand Horsemen troops stationed that day, was not their person. If you want to open the city gate, You must have Li Xian's personal action.
Therefore, they had to send someone to invite Li Xian. Li Xian, fearing that this was a hoax, never opened the door. If Li Xian did not appear, then the Shenlong coup launched by the five ministers would turn into a rebellion.
At the moment of Qianjun's attack, Li Xian's son-in-law Wang Tongjiao shouted at the door of the Eastern Palace, saying that it has been twenty-three years since Emperor Xian entrusted Jiangshan to you, but you have experienced dethronement and exile, and now the big guys have helped you correct your name and restore Li Tangsheji, what else do you want?
Li Xian heard that it was his son-in-law, but he still did not dare to move easily. Finally, Li Zhan also came with a shout, saying that the soldiers were willing to be martyred in disregard of their lives, but you could not feel their sincere heart, and you had to force them into a desperate situation.
Li Xian finally withstood the pressure, came to the Xuanwu Gate, successfully opened the city gate, and won the victory in one fell swoop. It can be said that this is a happy ending.
Wu Zetian was forced to abdicate, and after Li Xian succeeded to the throne, he also rewarded the meritorious men without hesitation. However, the person who benefited the most from the Shenlong coup was not Li Xian, nor the five ministers and other heroes, but the woman behind Li Xian, Wei Shi.
Li Xian was a person with no ideas and was timid and afraid of things, and not long after the Shenlong coup, almost all the achievements were destroyed by him. Under the influence of Wu Zetian, the five ministers were deposed one after another, and Wei Hou gradually participated in political affairs, after which he joined forces with Wu Sansi and Shangguan Wan'er to once again push Li Tang's Jiangshan to the edge of the cliff.