"Wind Rises in Luoyang" let us know the word Lianfang, Lianfang is the intelligence agency of Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian relies on it, just like the clairvoyance and tailwind ears, many secrets of the Tang Dynasty, all in its grasp. The master of Lianfang is Li Longji, who is brilliant and ambitious in history. From this, many people infer that Wu Zetian was trying to cultivate Li Longji as a successor. In addition, at the end of "The Wind Rises luoyang", the opposition forces from all sides were silenced, but Li Longji, the king of Dongchuan, was as stable as a rock and was praised by Wu Zetian, and people believed that Wu Zetian had been strengthening Li Longji's influence and consolidating Li Longji's future successor.
Is that right? Let's look at the facts.
(Li Longji in Luoyang)
First, in real history, Wu Zetian did not want to cultivate Li Longji and did not have time
Although Li Longji was the grandson of Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian was not good to Li Longji, and from the time Li Longji was born, Wu Zetian treated Li Longji with "confinement", a total of two times, about 15 years.
Why did Wu Zetian imprison Li Longji? Because of Li Longji's father Li Dan. After Wu Zetian took over the tang dynasty and took over the power of the Tang Dynasty, he regarded the Li family, including her own sons Li Xian and Li Dan, as enemies. Wu Zetian exiled Li Xian to Fang County, now Hubei Province, and forced Li Dan to be a puppet emperor, and Li Dan could not even leave the palace. Later, Wu Zetian himself became emperor, demoted Li Dan to the position of imperial heir, and began to imprison and monitor Li Dan.
Li Longji was born in the year when Li Dan became a puppet emperor, and after his birth, he was imprisoned like his father. The first time it was imprisoned for 7 years before it was released, and soon after it came out, because his father Li Dan had private contact with the ministers, the family was once again imprisoned by Wu Zetian. The Zizhi Tongjian records the second confinement as follows: "In the claustrophobic palace, those who do not go out to the court for more than ten years." It's actually been more than seven years.
Until 699, Wu Zetian decided to remain in the Li family, taking the deposed emperor Li Xian from Fangzhou back to Kyoto, and also releasing Li Dan's family. In this way, Li Longji can be considered free. 5 years after Li Longji was free, the "Divine Dragon Change" occurred, and Wu Zetian retired from the throne. If Wu Zetian wanted to cultivate Li Longji, it would only take more than five years from 699 to 705 AD.
Let's take a look at what Li Longji and Wu Zetian have been doing in the past five years or so.
(Masked Li Longji)
The New Book of Tang records that from 701 to 704, Li Longji held two positions, the first being the "Right Guard Lang General of the Imperial Guard", who was a royal guard official, and the second was "Shang Yuanfeng Yu", an official who specialized in managing the emperor's horses. Both of these official positions were insignificant, showed no signs of being reused, and the latter one seemed to have regressed from the previous one. Therefore, from 701 to 704, Li Longji's real situation was depressed. It is said that he and his brother and brother were in a group of five people, known as the "Five Kings", often outing together to relieve boredom, borrow wine to pour sorrow, and after getting drunk, the five rode their horses back home. This scene was painted by the Yuan Dynasty painter Ren Renfa and named "Five Kings Drunk Return To the Picture Scroll".
And Wu Zetian? During these 5 years, Wu Zetian's main thought was to enjoy happiness. Because the long power struggle made her feel tired, she did not spend much time on the government in the last five years, but mixed with the first two Zhangs all day long, and many important matters in the imperial court were handled by the two Zhangs for her.
It can be seen that Wu Zetian did not have the will and time to cultivate Li Longji.
(Wu Zetian in Luoyang)
Second, Wu Zetian had already chosen the heir of the Tang Dynasty and was not close to Li Longji
In his later years, Wu Zetian has been struggling with a question: is it to make Wu Chengsi the crown prince, or to make the children of the Li family the prince? Li Wu Chengsi as the crown prince meant that Wu Zhou Jiangshan continued, and Li Tang became more and more out of people's vision; if li Li's sons were crown princes, Jiangshan returned to Li Tang, and Wu Zhou became part of the Li Tang Dynasty. Because of the wuzhou court, a group of ministers represented by Di Renjie had an unforgettable nostalgia for Li Tang, and they all tried their best to persuade Wu Zetian to return to Li Tang. Wu Zetian had no choice but to abandon Wu Chengsi and choose a descendant who was still located in the Li clan.
So, which descendant of the Li clan does Wu Zetian want to pass the throne to? At that time, there were two candidates, one was the third son, Li Xian, the king of Luling, who was suffering in the remote Fangzhou; the other was the fourth son, Li Dan, the prince of Xiang, who was still in the capital. If Wu Zetian chose Li Dan, the Prince of Xiang, then once Li Dan died, Li Longji, as a son, had a chance to take the throne. However, Wu Zetian ultimately chose her third son, Li Xian.
(Wu Zetian's third son, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Li Xian)
Li Xian was the heir to the throne established by Emperor Gaozong of Tang. In 683, Li Zhi collapsed and Li Xian took the throne. However, Li Xian, who had only been emperor for 55 days, was deposed by his powerful mother Wu Zetian and exiled, and Wu Zetian himself became emperor. Now, after Wu Zetian had been emperor for more than 10 years, she wanted to return the throne, and of course she thought of Li Xian. Whoever took it from them should give it back to whomever they want.
Therefore, Li Xian was transferred back to Kyoto by Wu Zetian from Fangzhou and became the crown prince, only to wait for Wu Zetian to return to the west one day, and the imperial throne would be Li Xian's. This is a very obvious thing. Once Li Xian ascended the throne, Li Xian's next emperor would be Li Longji's cousin Li Chongjun, in short, it would not fall to Li Longji.
Therefore, judging from Wu Zetian's arrangement for the selection of the crown prince, she had no intention of cultivating Li Longji as her successor.
Third, Li Longji's becoming emperor was very accidental, and Wu Zetian could not have imagined it at all
However, people are not as good as heavenly calculations, and Wu Zetian could not imagine that what happened next was very magical, and the throne turned around and actually transferred to Li Longji.
There are 3 seemingly impossible things happening.
First, Li Chongjun, the crown prince of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, died. Li Chongjun had a half-sister Princess Anle, and Princess Anle wanted to kick Li Chongjun away as the imperial concubine, and every day she said bad things about Li Chongjun in front of Li Xian, asking Li Xian to depose Li Chongjun. In the end, Li Chongjun was angered and launched a mutiny and failed to die; second, Li Xian himself, because he did not agree to make his daughter Princess Anle the imperial wife, was poisoned by Anle with poisoned steamed cakes; third, the throne eventually fell to Li Longji's father Li Dan, and Li Dan, who had been a puppet emperor for a long time, did not want to be emperor anymore, so he passed the throne to his eldest son Li Chengqi. Li Chengqi, for some reason, did not want to be emperor, and forced the throne to Li Longji.
(Li Longji)
Li Longji's becoming emperor was caused by a variety of coincidence factors, and Wu Zetian was not a god, of course, it was not expected. Therefore, she could not have imagined that Li Longji would become emperor in the future, and she was intent on cultivating him and strengthening his power. If it is said that Wu Zetian trained Li Longji to let him compete for the throne, it is even more impossible, because after Wu Zetian decided to return the government to Li Tang in his later years, she sincerely hoped that Li Tangjiangshan would be stable and did not want to add chaos to Li Tangjiangshan.