The Shenlong coup was a watershed in the history of the Tang Dynasty, and it was precisely because of the Shenlong coup that the original blurred political situation of the Tang Dynasty became clear, but from ancient times to the present, there are still many people who are more confused, thinking that the Shenlong coup is unnecessary, is this really the case?
When the Shenlong coup d'état occurred, Wu Zetian was already an 81-year-old man, and he had already made Li Xian back as the crown prince under the persuasion of Di Renjie, so it can be said that as long as there is no accident, Li Xian's succession to the throne is basically a matter of certainty, so why risk launching the Shenlong coup? The main reason is that there was an accident.
Why the Dragon Coup
After Wu Zetian usurped power, the initial stage was to support the Wu family as his successor, for example, Wu Zetian's continuous reuse of Helan Minzhi is the most obvious evidence, but unfortunately, because Wu Zetian killed Helan Minzhi's mother and sister, Helan Minzhi held a grudge and always looked for opportunities to retaliate against Wu Zetian, and finally caused the relationship between the two to break down.
After Helan Minzhi was killed, Wu Zetian continued to support the martial family's power, but fortunately, Di Renjie admonished Wu Zetian in an outstanding way, telling her that "since ancient times, I have only seen my son worship my mother, but I have never seen a special case of my nephew worshiping my aunt", Di Renjie's words made Wu Zetian, who was already a little hesitant, make up his mind to pass on to his son Li Xian.
After Li Xian was taken back by Wu Zetian and made crown prince, everything was basically stable, if there were no accidents, Li Xian could succeed to the throne normally, but at this critical stage, a series of accidents occurred, so that everyone had to re-examine the pros and cons at that time.
This accident originated from Wu Zetian's male favorite Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi, after Wu Zetian's male pet Xue Huaiyi was killed, Wu Zetian and the imperial doctor Shen Nanmiao had an unclear relationship, but unfortunately the imperial doctor was old after all, could not withstand Wu Zetian's toss, and died not long after.
After the death of the imperial doctor, Wu Zetian was very lonely, and her daughter Princess Taiping saw Wu Zetian's loneliness, so she took the opportunity to give her male favorite Zhang Changzong to Wu Zetian to please her, Zhang Changzong was young and strong, and his appearance was mighty and handsome, and he was deeply loved by Wu Zetian, and later Zhang Changzong may be physically overwhelmed, and he also recommended his brother Zhang Yizhi to Wu Zetian, and from then on, the two brothers served Wu Zetian together, and Wu Zetian was happy every day under the service of the two.
At that time, Wu Zetian was already old and faint, and he only knew how to play with the Zhang Changzong brothers every day, and many important matters in the DPRK and China were fully entrusted to the two brothers to deal with, just because the two brothers were not a good kind, and the ambitions of the two gradually increased in the process of helping Wu Zetian handle government affairs, and later the idea of usurping power actually arose.
Seeing that the power of the zhang changzong brothers was getting stronger and stronger, Li Xian, who had been frightened by Wu Zetian since childhood, immediately went to find Wu Zetian and asked Wu Zetian to make the Zhang brothers king, fortunately, Wu Zetian had a little sense at that time and did not operate according to the meaning of Li Xian and others, otherwise the Zhang brothers were estimated to become more arrogant.
In the process of the Zhang brothers gradually coming to power, the descendants of the Martial Family also saw hope, and immediately sided with the Zhang Brothers, who wanted to use the zhang brothers' hands to eliminate the descendants of the Li family, such as Li Xian's daughter and son-in-law, because they directly forced them to die because they discussed the ugly affairs of the Zhang brothers in private.
After having this kind of thing once, the Zhang brothers understood Li Xian's attitude more clearly, Li Xian was a down-to-earth coward, even if his son-in-law and daughter were forced to die by the Zhang brothers, Li Xian still did not dare to let go of one, you know that he was a prince at that time, only he had enough ability to fight with the Zhang brothers for power.
On the one hand, Li Xian's weakness, on the other hand, the arrogance of the descendants of the martial family and the Zhang brothers, seeing that everyone was working together to seize the power that had just been seized, there was an accident at the hands of the Zhang brothers, and the ministers who supported the Li family in the DPRK and China began to think of ways to deal with this matter, and among these ministers, the eighty-year-old prime minister Zhang Kamzhi became the leader.
They had all been favored by Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Li Zhi, so they were even more desperate about retaking back the Li family's power, and at such a critical moment, if these old ministers did not move again, I was afraid that the power would fall again, and no one wanted to see such an ending, after careful consideration, Zhang Kamzhi and others decided to eliminate the Zhang brothers by launching a coup d'état and snatch the power back into the hands of the Li family.
Judging from the real situation of the Shenlong coup at that time, in fact, the main purpose of the Shenlong coup was to eliminate the Zhang brothers and regain imperial power, as for the later forced abdication of Wu Zetian, it was completely reasonable and unexpected, after all, in the initial stage, everyone did not have such a clear idea.
Who exactly launched the Shenlong coup
As mentioned earlier, it was Zhang Kamzhi and other old ministers who were loyal to Li Tang who had the idea of launching the Shenlong coup, not Li Xian, and as for why future generations would think that the Shenlong coup was initiated by Li Xian, mainly because Li Xian was the biggest beneficiary of this coup, it can be said that he was completely lying down to win, why did he say so? We continue our analysis in detail.
After Zhang Kamzhi and others prepared for the coup, they wanted to find the best reason to launch a coup, which obviously should have Li Xian appear, and with the help of Li Xian's status as a prince to eliminate the Zhang brothers, everything would seem reasonable, and at the same time, more ministers would support it.
However, when Zhang Kamzhi and others arranged for Li Xian's son-in-law Wang Tongjiao to ask Li Xian to come out of the horse, Li Xian was so frightened that his legs were weak and he was resolutely unwilling to come forward, and finally Wang Tongjiao scolded him, and Li Xian reluctantly agreed to come down, but when he wanted to leave, because he could not get on the horse because of his weak legs, or Wang Tongjiao carried him on the horse, Li Xian could follow everyone to the Hall of Immortality.
This coup plan to this point, basically there is no suspense, because the ministers of the DPRK and the Central Government basically support Li Xian, plus there is also the support of Li Dan's father and son, as well as Princess Taiping, Shangguan Wan'er, the Shenlong coup can be said to be everything is ready only to owe the East Wind, everyone took Li Xian into the Xuanwu Gate, and Haohao Tangtang went to the Hall of Eternal Life.
When everyone went there, the Zhang brothers were planning to escape, and the result was quickly eliminated by everyone, after the Zhang brothers were killed, Zhang Kamzhi and others took Li Xian to see Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian, who had just woken up from his sleep, hurriedly asked what had happened, Zhang Kamzhi and others said that the crown prince Li Xian had been ordered by heaven to eliminate the rebellious Zhang brothers, and Wu Zetian knew the seriousness of the matter and calmly said to Li Xian: "Since it has been eradicated, then go home early."
When Li Xian heard Wu Zetian's words, he immediately turned around and was about to leave, but Zhang Kamzhi and others pulled him back, so that the incident of forcing the palace could happen smoothly. Seeing that everyone was unwilling to leave, Wu Zetian urged Li Xian to leave, at this time Huan Yanfan opened his mouth, he righteously asked Wu Zetian to conform to the will of Heaven and the will of the people to pass the throne to Li Xian, Wu Zetian did not want to abdicate after listening, he actually did not want to abdicate, he attacked Cui Xuanwei who was personally promoted to the throne in the crowd, and wanted to take the opportunity to disintegrate their internal members, who had thought that Cui Xuanwei was a wise man, and was not frightened by Wu Zetian, but continued to insist on forcing the palace, and wu Zetian suddenly realized.
On the third day after the Shenlong coup, Wu Zetian passed the throne to Li Xian, and he himself lived a free life like Emperor Taishang, many people thought that Wu Zetian would be very miserable after his abdication, in fact, this was completely imaginary, after abdication, Li Xian was still obedient to Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian's later life was much better than that of Zhang Kamzhi and others who launched the Shenlong coup.
After Li Xian ascended the throne, he was okay with Li Dan and Princess Taiping and others, but he was too unauthentic to Zhang Kamzhi and others, and he was worried that Zhang Kamzhi would affect his imperial power, and after a year of succession, he tried to eliminate them.
However, it is obvious that Li Xian's ending is not good, because he is too fond of his wife Empress Wei and his daughter Princess Anle, which leads to the two of them wanting to learn from Wu Zetian as empress, and directly poisoned Li Xian, Li Xian, in his short career as emperor, has not had time to make meritorious achievements, he hastily withdrew from the stage of history and became the laughing stock of posterity, sad and lamentable.
epilogue
The purpose of the Shenlong coup was not to force The Palace Wu Zetian, at that time, the main person who launched the Shenlong coup was not Li Xian himself, but Zhang Kamzhi, Li Xian relied on everyone's support to become the biggest winner of the Shenlong coup, and as a result, he did not treat the people who helped him later, which was really sighing!
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