In the first year of the Tang Dynasty (705 AD), the fifty-year-old Li Xian ascended the throne of the Tang Dynasty for the second time, and the last time he became emperor was 21 years ago.
However, the ascension to the throne 21 years ago only made him emperor for less than two months, and then he was deposed by his mother Wu Zetian as the King of Luling, and this time, it was he who launched a coup d'état and put his mother under house arrest in Shangyang Palace...
1. The first imperial career of "Six Emperor Maru" was short-lived
Li Xian would not know that he would be jokingly called the "Six Emperor Pills" in modern times, because his father was the emperor, he was the emperor, his brother was the emperor, his son was the emperor, his nephew was the emperor, and even his mother was the emperor.
In fact, if he had not had a mother empress that was unique in Chinese history, Li Xian, the third oldest, would not have been qualified to be emperor, and even his original name was not Li Xian, but Li Zhe (for convenience, this article is always called Li Xian).
But Heaven made him the son of the ambitious Wu Cao, so his eldest brother Li Hong and second brother Li Xian were successively "picked melons" by his mother, giving him the opportunity to ascend to the throne.
However, his ascension to the throne was only a flash in the pan — after all, his powerful mother could make him the third in line among his brothers to be emperor, and naturally had the ability to drive him off the emperor's throne.
On that day, Li Xian, who had only been emperor for less than two months, had a dispute with the chief chancellor Pei Yan, focusing on whether to promote Wei Xuanzhen to the rank of attendant.
Wei Xuanzhen was originally only a small Puzhou army (Zheng Jiu Pinxia), only a month ago was promoted to Yuzhou Assassin History (from Sanpin), and at this time he was promoted to Shizhong (正三品), this promotion speed is about to catch up with the "rocket", of course, the prime minister Pei Yan will not agree.
The reason why Pei Yan did not agree, in addition to Wei Xuanzhen's promotion speed was indeed amazingly fast, more importantly, he had insight into the real purpose of Li Xian's move - to cultivate his own power.
Wei Xuanzhen was Empress Wei's father and Li Xian's father-in-law, and Li Xian wanted to cultivate his own strength as soon as possible to compete with his mother Wu Cao, and his cousins who shared his interests were obviously the most reliable, so he roared to promote his father-in-law's official.
Pei Yan, on the other hand, was a close confidant of Wu Cao, so he strongly opposed it. The young and vigorous emperor blurted out angrily in the midst of the dispute: "Even if I give up the whole world to Wei Xuanzhen, let alone a position in the service?" ”
Listening to Tianzi Li Xian's words, Pei Yan looked at him meaningfully, said nothing, left silently, and reported this sentence to Empress Dowager Wucao after returning.
Wu Cao, who was eager to seize power, was worried that he could not grasp the emperor's handle, and after listening to Pei Yan's report, a chilling sneer suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth: Since you are going to die, then I will fulfill you!
A few days later, at the imperial meeting of the Qianyuan Temple, after the Wenwu Hundred Officials ascended to the court, the forbidden generals Cheng Wuting and Zhang Qianxun also entered the palace with a large group of Yulin Army soldiers.
Then The chancellor Pei Yan read out the empress dowager's edict: Depose the emperor as the king of Luling!
As soon as the words stopped, Li Xian, who was sitting on the Throne of Heavenly Son, was taken down by two heavily armed Yulin Army soldiers. In the face of this sudden change, Li Xian's face turned pale in an instant, and he shouted while struggling: "What is my sin?" ”
Behind the curtain behind the Heavenly Son's throne came Empress Wu's voice: "Ru wants to use the world and Wei Xuanzhen, why should he be innocent?" ”
Two days later, Li Xian's fourth brother Li Dan was made emperor. After another two months, Li Xian embarked on the road of exile in Fangzhou (present-day Fangxian County, Hubei), and his first career as emperor came to an end.
2. Those years of suffering made him extra conniving with his wife and daughter
Li Xian, who ascended to the throne again, still often recalls the years when he was exiled.
That year, he was demoted by his mother from the eastern capital Luoyang to Fangzhou, thousands of miles away, when his wife Wei Shi was pregnant with Liujia, and spent half her life giving birth to a skinny daughter in a bumpy carriage. Holding this hard-won child, Li Xian was full of emotions and named her "Wrap".
During the fourteen years of being imprisoned in the forbidden state, Li Xian once lost the courage to live, especially every time his mother Wu Cao's envoys came, he trembled, afraid that the envoys would bring worse news, how many times, he wanted to die and end this nightmarish life.
Li Xian will not forget that when he was in pain again and again to the point of collapse and wanted to end his life, it was his wife Webster who gently persuaded him again and again, saving him from the brink of death again and again.
Li Xian would not forget that although this child was a golden branch and jade leaf, he had lived a life of fear and fear with himself since birth, and had never enjoyed the enjoyment that a royal princess deserved for a day.
Li Xian will not forget the promise he made to his wife during those days of suffering with his wife and daughter- "If the heavens have mercy and let us see the light of day again, I will let you do whatever you want, and I will never forbid it." ”
Now that we have ascended to this supreme throne, it is time to keep our promise and share the riches together.
With such a thought, Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian responded to Empress Wei's and his daughter Princess Anle (Li Shu'er):
Empress Webster asked to bow the curtain to the government, and he allowed it;
Princess Anle took the edict with the contents of the seal and asked him to sign and seal it, and he almost never asked about the contents of the edict;
Webster asked to preside over the Sub-sacrifice in the Southern Suburbs Sacrifice, which he approved;
Princess Anle sold her official title in the middle of the court, indulged domestic slaves to rob people as slaves in the street, and he laughed and ignored them...
3. The green hat of "Peace Heavenly Son": The harem red apricot collectively goes out of the wall
Perhaps it was Fangzhou's more than ten years of seclusion that made Li Xian suffer enough of his hard days, so after becoming emperor, he desperately wanted to get back the lost pleasures. As for the affairs of the court, he also played the role of a peacemaker, trying to maintain "harmony" among the courtiers.
One day, at a court meeting, an overseer named Cui Huan impeached the chancellor Zong Chuke and Ji Shune, accusing them of secretly communicating with the Turks and accepting heavy bribes. Zong Chuke, who was embarrassed and angry, immediately made a sharp confession in the court hall and scolded Cui Huan for framing him.
For a time, the public said that the public was justified, the mother said that the mother was reasonable, and the quarrels in the court were indisputable, and the other civil and military officials were stunned and waited for emperor Li Xian to express their position.
How did our Son of Heaven, Li Xian, solve it? He did not blame either party, nor did he let the relevant departments investigate the truth of the matter, but let Cui Huan and Zong Chuke shake hands and make peace in the court and become brothers!
Such an absurd scene is really ridiculous! It is precisely because of his love and thin mud that Li Xian was given a nickname by people - "Heshi Tianzi".
In the face of the struggle between the civil and military officials in the court, Li Xian turned a blind eye. In the face of the infidelity of the concubines in the harem, Li Xian was also a little too tolerant.
As early as the spring of the first year of the Divine Dragon, li xian had just ascended the throne, and Empress Wei Shi was mixed with Wu Sansi. After Wu Sansi was killed, there were two other young and beautiful men on Wei's phoenix bed: Qin Ke, a scattered horse attendant, and Yang Jun, a young secretary of Guanglu.
The life of the first lady's palace is so colorful, other concubines naturally have the same kind of learning.
If the harem concubines of successive dynasties have lived a hard life of "entering the palace door as deep as the sea", then Li Xian's harem concubines are simply the "high-level white-collar workers" of the Tang Palace:
They have built private mansions outside the palace, usually live in the private part, when to enter the palace, when to leave the palace is not regulated, no need to punch the clock, no KPI assessment, welfare benefits are still too high.
Since these harem concubines were rich and idle, good-looking and powerful, I am afraid that the ghosts would not believe it if they would collectively guard the body of the person named Li Xian. In the history books, there is a record about Li Xian's harem "red apricot collectively out of the wall".
During the Lantern Festival in the fourth year of Jinglong (710 AD), Li Xian, who was in a good mood, traveled with Empress Wei's micro-clothes, and in order to show the welfare of the boss, he also released thousands of palace women out of the palace to play. Unexpectedly, this release did not tighten, most of the palace women actually disappeared en masse and never returned to the palace.
Where do these palace ladies go? It is not clearly documented in the history books. To be sure, they absolutely did not dare to return to their hometown, because the household registration management policy at that time was much stricter than that of modern society, and the palace women were registered before entering the palace, and they would definitely be arrested and punished if they fled back to their hometown.
The biggest possibility is that after they escaped from the palace, they hid their names, whitewashed their identities, and pursued their lifelong happiness.
With such unprincipled indulgence in his harem, I am afraid that li xian is the only emperor in the past and the present.
4. A bowl of soup cakes ended the life of Datang Tianzi
Although Empress Wei and Princess Anle still lived a life of doing whatever they wanted under Li Xian's connivance, as their hands in the imperial court stretched out longer and longer, as they grew older, on the one hand, they vaguely felt that There was a haze in Li Xian's eyes that had never been seen before, and on the other hand, they also lamented that the years were passing away, but they were still so far away from the dream of empress.
Driven by ambition, this mother and daughter, who are also dreaming of being empresses, invariably think of one piece: do a big vote, and if they succeed, then just like their mother-in-law and grandmother Wu Cao, they will become emperors themselves!
Although the person on their way to power is their husband and father, at this moment, in their eyes, family affection and love are nothing, only the radiant queen dream is what they most desire.
So on this day, Empress Wei and Princess Anle smiled and brought Li Xian a bowl of soup cakes.
Li Xian took over the bowl of soup cakes, at this time he did not know what kind of vicious heart was hidden behind the smiles of his wife and beloved daughter, and he quickly ate this bowl of soup cakes.
It didn't take long for him to start bleeding and collapse violently in the Divine Dragon Hall in the Taiji Palace.
The "Six Emperor Pills" of the only two Emperors of the Tang Dynasty (and one of them was Li Xian's younger brother Li Dan) thus ended his second imperial career and completed his life.
Follow-up: After Empress Wei and Princess Anle poisoned Li Xian, they supported Li Xian's youngest son, Li Chongmao the Prince of Wen, as emperor, and Was made regent by Empress Wei. However, after only ten days as empress dowager, she was killed by Princess Taiping and Li Longji, the king of Linzi, and Li Xian's younger brother Li Dan (Li Longji's father) ascended to the throne of the Tang Dynasty.