Chapter 25 The Son of Heaven's Political Breakthrough

In the fifth year of Yonghui (654 A.D.), the emperor Li Zhi's breakout operation gradually started. Several things happened this year. At first glance, they seem to be irrelevant, but in fact they all have a common feature, that is-Li Zhi is trying to exercise the power of the emperor independently. In June of this year, Zhongshu ordered Liu Shi to realize that Queen Wang had completely lost the favor of the emperor and would be abolished sooner or later, so he was "uneasy inside" and offered to resign as prime minister.Without saying a word, Gaozong immediately demoted him to Minister of the Ministry of Officials.Just two years ago, Liu Shi just joined forces with Changsun Wuji and other prime ministers to force the emperor to make Li Zhong, the king of Chen, the prince, in an attempt to consolidate his power and position and keep his wealth forever, but now he left the position in despair. As far as Li Zhi is concerned, it cannot but be said to be an inspiring victory.

Immediately afterwards, in September of this year, Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi convened officials above the fifth rank of the court to give a lecture. He said: "I used to accompany the late emperor, and found that the officials above the fifth rank were loyal and outspoken. Either I commented on the government in court. , or submit a secret concert later, it can be said to be endless all day long; but now there is silence, is the world already peaceful? Why don't you speak?" Ever since Emperor Gaozong came to the throne, it seemed that it was the first time for a big girl to criticize senior officials above the fifth rank so seriously.The ministers all clearly felt the emperor's strong dissatisfaction, and they also knew that what the emperor said was true.Compared with Zhenguan politics, where admonishment is common, the Yonghui court is so abnormal that it can be said that all horses are silent.

But the ministers have difficulties.In the Zhenguan era, he was usually rewarded by Emperor Taizong when he spoke out about the gains and losses of the government; For the enemy!Let me ask, who wants to be the rafter in the early days? What's more, the Fang Yi love case has just passed, and the fate of being an enemy of Changsun Wuji is in front of everyone.Therefore, after this political cleansing to make an example to others, even if all civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty would not hug Changsun Wuji's thigh, at least no one dared to openly oppose him. Therefore, facing the criticism and dissatisfaction of the emperor Li Zhi, all the ministers remained silent, and the court was still silent.

Li Zhi felt that he had exerted all his strength, but he punched the cotton.No, it was a punch punched in the void, without even an echo! Gaozong was very disappointed. But he was relieved that after a month, someone finally bravely spoke out. This man is Xue Jingxuan, who joined the army in Yongzhou at that time, and was a mere seventh-rank official.The ministers were silent, so it was the turn of the little official to speak. What did this little official say? He presented a seal, that is, a sealed memorial, in which he sharply criticized a project that the court had just completed.At that time, the imperial court mobilized 41,000 migrant workers from Yongzhou (Gyeonggi area) to build Chang'an's Waiguo City in 30 days. Xue Jingxuan may have felt that the emperor was abusing the power of the people, so he said in the memorial: "Once upon a time, Hui of the Western Han Dynasty The emperor built Chang'an City, and it didn't take long for him to die; if he comes to do this now, there must be no good end."

When Li Zhi saw this secret performance, he couldn't laugh or cry. What kind of admonition is this, it is clearly a curse! However, in the situation where all civil and military personnel in the Manchu Dynasty were silent, the curse of this seventh-rank petty official was very pleasant to Li Zhi's ears. After all, someone finally officially responded to the emperor's request.No matter how soft-spoken Xue Jingxuan is, and whether what he says makes sense, at least he dares to speak out to be a good comrade. However, just when Li Zhi was very pleased, Prime Minister Yu Zhining and others jumped out to fight for the emperor.They said in unison: "Xue Jingxuan's words are rude, he should be killed!"

Li Zhi looked at the indignant expressions of the prime ministers, and said lightly: "Although Jingxuan is arrogant, if he offends because of the above-mentioned matter, he may not speak out." (Vol. Everyone knew that it was Changsun Wuji's idea to kill Xue Jingxuan.Not only did he want to suppress the speeches of civil and military officials, but he also wanted to block the mouths of lower-level officials, so that the government and the public would not dare to speak differently from him, so that people in the world would not dare to cross him and have a direct dialogue with the emperor Li Zhi.

But this time, Li Zhi resolutely resisted Changsun Wuji's will. Through these events that happened in the five years of Yonghui, Li Zhi's confidence and courage are gradually increasing, and his posture is also becoming tougher.Next, only need an appropriate timing and a breakthrough, Li Zhi will be able to get rid of the haze and see the sun again! The time will come soon. This is the incident of the abolition of the queen that happened in the sixth year of Yonghui. The sixth year of Yonghui (AD 655) was an extremely unusual year. This year, a terrible storm broke out in Chang'an's harem. This storm not only caused earth-shaking changes in Gaozong's harem, but also had a strong impact on the political arena of the empire, leading to the unilateral turmoil built by Changsun Wuji. The political structure began to disintegrate, making the Yonghui court for the first time a game situation where the monarchy and the prime minister were evenly matched.

Following the "sudden death of a baby girl", Wu Zhaoyi launched another fatal blow to Queen Wang—accusing Queen Wang and her mother Liu of practicing witchcraft in secret. In hindsight, this is when the storm began to blow. The witchcraft that Wu Zhaoyi accused of is called "disgusting victory," and involves making an image of someone out of loathing—either clay or wood, or drawing on paper—and piercing their hearts, tying their hands and feet, In order to curse the other party to an early death. This is a very vicious witchcraft, and the crime is quite serious.According to the "Laws of the Tang Dynasty", those who dare to play this "disgusting victory" technique can be punished as murder with a second-class reduction. If the object of the curse is a close relative or elder, the crime cannot be reduced and the law should be executed.

No one knew whether Wu Zhaoyi's accusation was true. In short, the emperor issued an imperial edict without any investigation, expelling the queen's mother Liu from the palace, and strictly forbidding her to step into the palace again.The next month, the emperor expelled the queen's mother-in-law Liu Xun from the imperial court and relegated him to be the governor of Suizhou (now Suining City, Sichuan).Liu Shi had just walked to Fufeng (now Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province), and the emperor secretly instructed local officials to accuse him of "leaking the forbidden Chinese language", so he was relegated to a more remote Rongzhou (now Rongxian County, Sichuan Province).

So far, Queen Wang has completely fallen into a situation of being alone and alone.Immediately afterwards, in order to allow Wu Zhaoyi to take a step closer to the position of queen, the emperor Li Zhi racked his brains to invent the title of concubine Chen, and planned to confer Wu Mei with it. This move was immediately strongly resisted by the prime ministers.According to the system of the Sui Dynasty in the Tang Dynasty, there were only four first-rank concubines in the harem: Gui, Shu, De, and Xian. Now, setting up a title of concubine Chen for Wu Zhaoyi is obviously inconsistent with the old system and has no basis to rely on.The servant Han Ai and Zhongshu Linglaiji used this as an excuse to fight against the emperor at the court meeting, insisting that "there are many concubines, so don't set up a name now, it is impossible" ("New Book of Tang Biography of Empress Zetianwu") , He insisted on pushing back the emperor's will.

Everyone knows that the reason why Han Ai and Lai Ji dared to fight against the emperor's needle point is because they stood behind their eldest grandson Wuji; Firmly occupying the throne of the queen is also because behind her stands the eldest grandson Wuji! At this moment, Gaozong Li Zhi strongly realized that if he could not use this harem battle to challenge the super authority of Changsun Wuji and regain the power and dignity that should belong to him, then he could only act as a figurehead forever. The puppet emperor! The sixth year of Yonghui has been the seventh year of Li Zhi's reign in the world.This year, he was twenty-eight years old. For Li Zhi at this time, if he can't even give his beloved woman a well-deserved status, if he doesn't even have the right to choose who will be the queen, then what kind of emperor is he?If Changsun Wuji can't realize that Li Zhi has matured politically and has the ability to control the government independently through this matter, then how long will Li Zhi continue to be a man with his tail between his legs? Therefore, Li Zhi decided to declare war on Changsun Wuji, and no matter what, he must help Wu Zhaoyi to be the queen, and no matter what, he must regain his authority as the emperor! So far, the fierce battle of the harem war has finally spread from the inner palace to the outer court.On the surface, it seems that this is a dispute between Wang Huang and Wu Zhaoyi around the position of queen, but in fact, it is the highest battle between the emperor Li Zhi and Changsun Wuji (and the prime ministers behind him) around the empire. A political game of power. This protracted and intensified harem war during the Yonghui period has been carried out here, and its nature has quietly changed, from a war of women to a war of men; and the scale of the war has also expanded and escalated, and its consequences will not only determine the The fate of several women in the second half of their lives will determine the future political direction of the entire empire.