If you want to talk about fate and legend, Empress Meng must be her person (Song Huizong Era, Vol. 3 2)

First, let's talk about Zhao Tuo's two sisters-in-law.

In the first month of 1100, Emperor Zhezong died at the age of 23, and his younger brother Zhao Tuo succeeded him as Emperor Huizong of Song. Emperor Zhezong had two empresses, Empress Meng and Empress Liu, who were Emperor Huizong's imperial concubines.

If you say that the fate is uncertain and the life is legendary, it must be Empress Meng. In her life, in just a few decades, she was twice made empress, and twice deposed, forced to become a monk for many years, and twice bowed to the government, not only luckily escaping the catastrophe of the century, but also turning the tide of the tide and supporting the general of the building.

Of course, all legends have an ordinary beginning.

She was ordinary and didn't even leave a name, so we had to call her Meng.

Meng Shi (孟氏), a native of Huan Prefecture (洺州, in present-day Yongnian, Hebei), was born in 1073 in a family of eunuchs, and his grandfather Meng Yuan served as a defensive envoy to Meizhou and the Marquis of Majun. Speaking of the family, from the perspective of his grandfather's military attaché and eunuch experience, it is obviously not a prominent family.

But that's how fate was arranged. The harem concubines of the emperors of the Great Song Dynasty were mostly selected from the families of middle- and lower-ranking officials. In this way, the ancestors have become the law, and it is difficult for foreign relatives to form a huge force, and it is even more difficult to threaten the imperial power.

In 1089, under the arrangement of the empress dowager who was listening to the government of the dynasty, more than 100 girls from the family of officials and eunuchs entered the palace, and the 16-year-old Meng Shi was one of them. This year, Zhezong was 12 years old, and his grandmother was planning a marriage event for him.

16 years old, like the age of flowers, is the age when a girl blooms in her life. However, even in such a young age, Meng Shi did not have a dazzling luster. She is too ordinary, whether it is her face, dancing and singing, or piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, she has nothing to excel, in a group of Fangfei, she is ordinary like a wildflower on the side of the road. Such conditions almost doomed her palace career to be a lifetime of loneliness.

In fact, the glamorous appearance of the palace life is repressive, restrained, and cumbersome, which is contrary to the nature of the girl, and it is also difficult to endure. Perhaps it is the appearance of the plain, the mentality is safe, Meng Shi adapted very well. In addition, she was gentle in nature, generous in treatment of others, elegant in nature, knowledgeable and gifted, and had a good reputation in the harem, so she was fortunate to be appreciated by the empress dowager and the empress dowager.

Gao Taotao was born into a famous family, the wife of Emperor Yingzong, the mother of Emperor Shenzong, and the grandmother of Emperor Zhezong. Empress Xiang was the empress of Emperor Shenzong, the concubine of Emperor Zhezong, and the number two person in the palace. The appreciation of these two people is of great significance.

With supreme authority and rich experience, among the many girls, Empress Gao fell in love with the ordinary Meng Family. She gave two comments: Meng Shi can perform women's ceremonies, and should be the empress; there are events in the country in another day, and this person must deserve it.

I have to say that the old lady's eyes are like a torch, and her eyes are poisonous.

Her comments and decisions not only changed Meng's life, but also changed the national fortunes of the Great Song, and it can even be said that the national order for the Great Song was extended for more than a hundred years.

If the Imperial Grandmother has a word, Zhezong must carry it out. Since he ascended the throne at the age of eight, he has been arranged by his grandmother, large and small, without any refusal or room for maneuver. Such a marriage event, he naturally can only do it correctly.

In 1092 AD, in the Wende Hall of the Imperial Palace, the imperial court held a ceremony for the canonization of the empress, and the 15-year-old Zhezong officially crowned Meng Shi as empress. This ceremony was the biggest event in the palace that year, and it was also the most unforgettable sweet moment of Meng's life. Since then, the sound of the bells and drums has always echoed in her ears for a long time.

This year, Meng Shi was 19 years old and had just entered the palace for three years. Looking back at the confusion when she left home, the ignorance when she first entered the palace, in just three years, she became the empress of the Great Song from an ordinary girl next door, which is another Cinderella-like legend of life