Chapter 13 Wu Zetian said: I am not a white-headed palace lady

The death of the warrior Xun was undoubtedly a turning point in the life of Empress Wu Zhao. Just like every big family that lost its male master, the two adult sons left by Samurai Xun's ex-wife are bound to compete with his stepmother Yang for the dominance of this big family. Avoid being caught in a protracted family dispute. ("New Book of Tang Dynasty Shu Shi Yu Biography": "After the Shi Yi died, all the sons did not pay attention to etiquette, and titled him.") Behind the two brothers of the Wu family stood those sophisticated uncles and cousins; but behind the Yang family, there were only three young and ignorant daughters.Therefore, the outcome of this family dispute is not difficult to predict - facing the insult, bullying and exclusion from the Wu brothers and their clansmen, the Yang mother and daughter are powerless to fight and can only endure in silence.

And for the young Wu Zhao, this is a tragic past that cannot be recalled. The huge gap in fate made her change from an innocent girl to an adult who endured humiliation overnight. She finally understood what it means to be warm and cold, and the world is hot and cold, and finally learned to endure, learned to hate quietly, learned to lick her own wounds in a corner where no one was watching, and then kept everything in her heart, waiting for the future At a certain moment, let those who hurt her pay back double.Even if these people are relatives with the same blood as her, she will not be soft.

"New Book of Tang: The Biography of Empress Zetianwu" stated: "At the beginning, the elder brothers (the second brother of the warrior Xun, the son of the warrior Rang) Weiliang, Huaiyun, and Yuan Qing met Yang (Yang's) and Hou (Wu Zhao) with little courtesy. The so-called "no post title" means that Wu Zhao held grudges against Wei Liang, Yuan Qing and others back then, but because he was too young and lacked strength, he held back.These four concise words in the history book are enough for us to glimpse some traces of the personality transformation of Empress Wu Zhao in the early stages of her life, and it is also enough for us to find the fundamental reason why Weiliang, Yuan Qing and others suffered the same bad luck later.

A few years later, Wu Zhao became the empress as she wished, and became the most powerful woman in the empire, and her two half-brothers and several cousins ​​were also promoted by virtue of their status as foreign relatives—— Wu Yuanqing was promoted to Zongzheng Shaoqing by You Weilang, Wu Yuanshuang was promoted to Shaofu Shaofu by Anzhou household Cao, Wu Weiliang was promoted to Siwei Shaoqing by Shizhou Governor Shi, and Wu Huaiyun was promoted to Zizhou Governor by Yingzhou Changshi. One day after the Wu brothers were promoted, Mrs. Yang invited them to celebrate.After drinking for three rounds, Yang stared at the radiant and beaming Wu brothers, and suddenly said shyly, "I wonder if you remember the past? I wonder if you have thought about where today's prosperity and wealth come from. of?"

The Wu brothers immediately looked at each other. But they were only stunned for a while, and quickly regained their composure.They met Mrs. Yang's eyes and said calmly: "We are the children of meritorious officials. We have been in the eunuch early, and we think that our talents are limited, so we dare not extravagantly seek wealth and prosperity. Unexpectedly, because of the queen, we are given a lot of money." Well, I waited Suye to be worried, and I didn't dare to be proud of it." Yang never expected that these boys surnamed Wu would be so arrogant and ignorant of flattery!Clearly enjoying the glory of his daughter, but not acknowledging it at all, and plausibly saying something about "children of meritorious officials", "early official status", "worried at night", "not proud of taking it", isn't this not knowing what is good or bad?Isn't this cheap and good-looking?

The Wu brothers did not expect that these few seemingly clever but downright stupid words of theirs would eventually bring them down. Yang angrily relayed the words to her daughter, the queen smiled coldly and said nothing. Then she gave a memorial to Emperor Li Zhi, suggesting that the Wu brothers be released as governors of distant places, so as to show that this dynasty does not favor foreign relatives, so as to show the world that they are selfless. The Wu brothers were swept out of the house and demoted from the imperial court before they put on the new black gauze on their heads.In name it is said to be exiled, but in fact it is no different from exile.Wu Yuanqing died of depression just after he took office. Wu Yuanshuang was later accused of a random crime and exiled to Zhenzhou, where he died soon after.Although Wu Weiliang and Wu Huaiyun lived a few years longer than them, their end was much uglier than them. Empress Wu designed to frame them for poisoning Mrs. Wei Guo (the daughter of Mrs. Han, the elder sister of Empress Wu), and then beheaded them. Their surnames were changed to Viper.

Pitpit is a gray-brown snake with fangs.When Empress Wu imagined that the two brothers Weiliang and Huaiyun would be like two dirty and ugly poisonous snakes, crawling humblely in the dark tomb, a smile would appear on the corner of her mouth. It was a happy smile. After three years of mourning for her father, that is, in the twelfth year of Zhenguan (AD 638), a carriage from the palace picked up fourteen-year-old Wu Zhao, thus completely changing her fate.But no one knew that on this snowy winter morning, when the heavy palace door slammed shut behind the girl surnamed Wu, the fate of the Tang Empire in the next few decades was completely decided in the dark. rewritten. (About the time when Wu Zhao entered the palace, according to the records, most people think it was the eleventh year of Zhenguan. This book is based on the relevant textual research of Mr. Lei Jiaji, and it is determined to be the twelfth year of Zhenguan.)

Emperor Taizong's harem was a large garden full of colorful flowers and flowers, and even though Taizong had released thousands of court ladies at the beginning of his ascension, the garden did not seem deserted at all.In addition to thousands of ordinary court ladies, the emperor also had four concubines (first rank), nine concubines (second rank), nine Jieyu (third rank), nine beauties (fourth rank), nine talents (fifth rank), twenty-seven Baolin (sixth rank), twenty-seven imperial maids (seventh rank) and twenty-seven picking girls (eighth rank).These one hundred and twenty-one people in eight ranks together formed the emperor's concubines, and they were called internal officials in the system.They all have their own different divisions of labor and functions. For example, the duty of Wupincai people is to "handle the banquet, organize the silk, and present the merits of the year" ("Old Tang Book·Zhiguan Zhi"), that is, to arrange the palace banquet. Music, serving the emperor's living and sleeping, managing the silk weaving of court ladies and so on.

In this big garden full of beauties and fragrances, the young Wu Zhao is like a budding green stamen, planted randomly in a corner of Yeting Palace to grow lonely.She knew that everything in the past had completely peeled off from her like a cicada sloughing off.From now on, apart from taking care of the monotonous and trivial court affairs day after day, the only thing left in her life is to spend sleepless nights after another, looking forward to or fantasizing An important moment is approaching. That was the moment when the emperor was blessed. However, this moment cannot be met but cannot be sought.The fourteen-year-old Wu Cairen knows that she is competitive with others in terms of appearance, talent, learning, cultivation, and IQ, but she doesn't know if she has the advantage that can't be met but cannot be sought after. luck.

In hindsight, Wu Zhao's position of "in charge of banquets and banquets" still has the advantage of being close to the water, because after all, she often has the opportunity to serve the emperor to bathe and change clothes, and to rest and sleep.Although the history books did not clearly record whether Wu Zhao had received the blessing of Emperor Taizong, but judging from the nature of her work, at least in terms of probability, it is very likely that Wu Zhao had served as Taizong's bedside.In addition, it is clearly recorded in the history books that Emperor Taizong once named her "Wu Mei", which is at least circumstantial evidence, which is enough to show that Taizong Li Shimin had paid attention and interest to Wu Zhao.

Although the lack of historical materials does not allow us to record that crucial moment in the life of the empress, we may wish to fill the gap with the help of reasonable imagination. We might as well imagine that it was a hot summer night filled with the fragrance of gardenias. When the young martial arts man undressed the emperor and wondered which woman would be the one to enjoy the honor tonight, the emperor Suddenly, he stretched out a big strong hand and dragged her onto the dragon bed.Everything happened so unexpectedly that the young Wu Cairen had no time to feel and experience this sudden happiness. In Emperor Taizong's life, this must have been a very ordinary night.He just picked a pretty-looking flower in his big garden, casually sniffed it, and named her on a whim, that's all! Maybe when he wakes up the next day, he will completely forget about it all. For the young Wu Cairen, no matter how many sentimental and beautiful imaginations she had about this night in advance, everything that happened in a hurry was still quite different from her imagination.Many years later, in the heart of Empress Wu Zhao, who has experienced many vicissitudes, the memory of this night must be broken, messy and incomplete.In other words, this first night was at best a erotic dream that came and went in a hurry without a trace. What is left after the dream? What is left but to change from a girl to a woman, and to have a new name from then on? there is none left. Nothing will be left. Everything seems to have never happened.Since that night, Emperor Taizong never seemed to have the slightest interest in Cairen Wu Mei.Although she still has the opportunity to serve the emperor to bathe and change clothes, rest and go to bed, she seems to have become a stranger or a transparent person in front of the emperor. Those concubines and maids who were slightly older than her always had a gloating smile on their faces when they saw Cairen Wu Mei.This martial artist, who was completely forgotten by the emperor overnight, became the object of ridicule.Most of the women in the palace were reluctant to pass up such opportunities, because from such ridicules, they could obtain some temporary balance and illusory solace. Humans are such strange animals.The same situation sometimes makes people feel sorry for each other, and makes people cuddle up to each other for warmth; but sometimes it also makes people bite each other, each other uses other people's misfortune to relieve their own pain, and uses other people's misery to reflect their own happiness. The monotonous and rigid palace life continued in the same way, and every day seemed to be poured out of a mold.In some gray mornings and dusks, Cai Ren Wu Mei sat in front of the bronze mirror for a long time, as if she could see the youthful youth draining from her face like an hourglass, irreparably lost.She felt like a petal floating on the river of time, she could only be engulfed by the turbid waves of fate, rushing involuntarily to the unknown and unpredictable distance. In those days, Wu Mei's heart was full of unprecedented sadness and confusion. Seeing that the emperor knows nothing is a blessing? If time could be turned back and Wu Mei could return to that snowy winter morning, she wondered if she would still have the courage to say these words. In the silent midnight, Cairen Wu Mei always wakes up from some bizarre and terrible nightmares.Wu Mei in her dream was running non-stop. Behind her was a mass grave filled with bones. Thousands of long white hairs crawled out from those eerie tombs. They were quickly twisted together, constantly It swells and grows, and then quickly chases Wu Mei from all directions, sometimes wrapping around her skirt, sometimes grabbing her skirt, and sometimes wrapping it directly around her neck, making her almost Near suffocation. Such midnight terrors always made Wu Mei panting and sweating profusely.After waking up, she couldn't fall back to sleep, so she could only stare blankly at the candle dripping tears, listen to even more muffled sound, and wait dejectedly for another boring dawn. For thousands of years, countless tragic stories about white-headed palace ladies seem to have such a deja vu beginning.Today's warriors always smell a stale and musty smell in a trance, it is wrapped around his skirt, around his temples and ears.Wu Mei guessed that this frightening and disgusting aura might come from the white hair in the dream, from the thousand-year-old white hair in the gloomy tomb. Finally one day, Cairen Wu Mei silently stared at herself in the bronze mirror, suddenly grabbed the bronze mirror and threw it to the ground. At the same time that the bronze mirror fell to the ground with a slam, Wu Mei heard a voice in her heart saying - I am not a white-headed palace lady. Wu Mei said that she would rather die than become a palace maid.