The Dragon Coup began and ended
At the end of Wu Zetian's reign, Wu Zetian did not summon the courtiers for many days, claiming to be ill, and Wu Zetian's living was responsible for Wu Zetian's brothers Zhang Yizhi (which can be understood as a small white face), and this situation made the ministers in the imperial court feel very worried.
Because they were worried that if Zhang Yizhi's brothers took advantage of Wu Zetian's critical illness to support the sons of the Wu family to come to power to inherit the throne of Wu Zhou, then they would inevitably bring themselves the disaster of killing themselves, remembering that decades ago, when Tang Gaozong came to power, the eldest grandson was unscrupulously purged, and Wu Zhou's important ministers felt chilling.
Therefore, under the leadership of the chancellor Zhang Kamzhi, a group of Wu zhou's heavy ministers launched a coup d'état, forcing Wu Zetian to cede the throne to the original deposed emperor Li Xian, a coup known in history as the Shenlong Coup, or the Shenlong Revolution.
Zhang Kamzhi did not know that this coup did not save himself, but instead put himself on a road of no return - because the emperor he assisted was Li Xian.
The pattern of the Tang Dynasty after Emperor Zhongzong of Tang ascended to the throne
Emperor Zhongzong of Tang was reinstated, but before he was reinstated, we need to talk about why this brother lost the throne.
In that year, Emperor Gaozong of Tang died, Li Xian became emperor, and crowned Wei Shi as empress, Li Xian himself was dim-witted, he had no opinion at all, and he obeyed Wei Hou, Wei Hou said east, Li Xian did not go west, Wei Hou asked Li Xian to seal Wei's family as an official, Li Xian would be crowned as an official.
Even Li Xian threatened to give the throne to the Wei family, an act that angered the Tang bureaucracy and also angered Wu Zetian, so Li Xian was deposed.
It has been more than twenty years since the Shenlong Revolution was deposed as emperor by Li Xian, but twenty years later, Li Xian is still the same as he was then—the same lack of opinion, the same incompetence, the same stupidity.
Li Xian did not change, Wei Hou changed.
In the past, Wei Hou fantasized about becoming an empress and empress dowager, but since her mother-in-law became an empress, Wei Hou actually had a feeling of finding a new pursuit in life, she felt that her previous ideas were too unproductive, why didn't she want to be an empress?
Wei Hou wanted to be an empress, but she also knew that Zhang Kamzhi's gang of old ministers were powerful, and if she didn't get rid of these old ministers, she was afraid that she would not be able to become the second wu Zetian and not be an empress.
Although Wei Hou's brain was not very bright, but it was much stronger than Li Xian, Wei Hou knew that what needed to be done at the moment was two things: the first thing was to empty Zhang Kamzhi's power, and the second thing was to consider that Wu Zetian's abdication was not long ago, the martial family forces were still there, and he wanted to integrate the Wei family and the martial family forces, so that things would be convenient in the future.
At the instigation of Wei Hou, Li Xian removed Zhang Kamzhi from the post of prime minister, but made Zhang Kamzhi a county king—which seemed to be an elevation of Zhang Kam's status, but in fact it was not—just having a knighthood but no specific position would be tantamount to losing power and leaving only a false name.
Zhang Kamzhi's last years
After being vacated, Zhang Kamzhi was discouraged by the imperial court, so he resigned and returned to his hometown to recuperate. However, for Wei Hou, Zhang Kamzhi's threat to himself was still not completely lifted.
Therefore, Wei Hou constantly tossed Zhang Kamzhi and exiled Zhang Kam Zhi continuously, and Zhang Kam Zhi, who was already eighty-two years old, saw that the history of Wu Zetian's usurpation of Tang was going to repeat itself on Wei Hou, and his own efforts and deeds would be destroyed, so, under the anger, Zhang Kam Zhi could not afford to fall ill, and finally died with hatred.
Later development, as Zhang Kamzhi predicted: Wei Hou poisoned Li Xian and began to prepare to become an empress, but Wei Hou was inferior to Wu Zetian, and before he could become an empress, he first lost his life.
Perhaps Zhang Kamzhi, who knows this, should also be blinded under the Nine Springs.