"Talent is far-sighted, and Hongye is great." Thunder and martial arts, sun and moon and its text. Sprinkle with nectar and cover the clouds. It is hard to imagine that such a praise word is used to describe Wu Zetian, in the eyes of most people, Wu Zetian is a woman who will do whatever it takes to ascend to the throne, and there are different versions of Wu Zetian's interpretation, but in the final analysis, Wu Zetian is not an ordinary woman after all, otherwise she would not have become the only female emperor in Chinese history.
In ancient times, when men were superior to women, Wu Zetian sat on the throne as a woman, facing a powerful opposition force, and her successful ascension to the throne was to use fierce means to suppress all opposition voices, and wu Zetian was well versed in his way, using cruel punishment to block the mouths of the yo-yo crowd. Among them, Wu Zetian invented a punishment called "Jade Girl Climbing the Ladder", such a nice name made the woman creepy when she heard it, so why was the woman so afraid?
Cool politics, tough wrists
Wu Zetian can change from a talented person of the former emperor to the empress of The Li Zhi Emperor, you can see that Wu Zetian is not an ordinary woman, originally sent to the Ganye Temple to become a nun, in exchange for other women there is no possibility of re-entering the palace, but Wu Zetian made it possible, a love poem touched Li Zhi, let Li Zhi desperately get her back to the palace, after returning to the palace she appeared to be humble and small, but then finally defeated one competitor after another and sat on the empress's phoenix seat.
However, holding the phoenix seal is not her ultimate goal, controlling the world is her ultimate dream, when she is deeply trusted by Li Zhi to appear in the "Second Saint Linchao", she is stepping closer to her dream. Li Zhi died, Wu Zetian became the empress, at this time Wu Zetian was no longer a little girl who did not understand the world, in order to ensure that she could successfully become emperor, she frantically suppressed Li Tang's clan and eliminated all henchmen who opposed her.
When Wu Zetian was young, he performed the routine of taming horses in front of Li Shimin: first subdue, and if he did not obey, he would kill. And she also used such a method when she was in charge of the world, she implemented the politics of cool officials, used a tough wrist to exclude dissidents, "everyone in the dprk is in danger, and they dare not speak to each other when they see each other", and every day when they go to the court is like rushing to the execution ground, it is impossible to say that they will not be able to go home one day.
The Zhou Dynasty was fierce and varied
Wu Zetian resorted to the management method of "encouraging whistle-blowing", but whenever the incident of whistle-blowing is true, the whistle-blower will be heavily paid, and even have the opportunity to become an official. With such a generous reward, a wave of whistle-blowing was set off throughout the country, and groups of prisoners were sent to prison cells, and Suo Yuanli, Zhou Xing, Lai Junchen, and Hou Sizhi were the leaders in charge of interrogation, and they were known as the "Four Murderers of the Zhou Dynasty" because of their cruel and vicious methods.
They tried to use all kinds of torture in order to get more unknown things from the mouths of prisoners, but when they reached their hands, only one or two out of a hundred people could come out alive, which showed the cruelty of the means. In order to better achieve the expected interrogation effect, they did everything they could, and soon the world was "peaceful" under their cruel punishment.
Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen had a lot of lives in their hands, and Zhou Xing himself was not a person who was willing to accept the status quo, and when Wu Zetian knew that Zhou Xing was conspiring with Qiu Shenxun, he sent Junchen to interrogate Zhou Xing. Lai Junchen is also very capable, he invited Zhou Xing to drink, asked him what to do if the prisoners did not confess, Zhou Xing told him to "put the prisoners in the urn, around the charcoal fire", so Lai Junchen said to him: "Please enter the urn", Zhou Xing saw the situation and directly knelt down to confess, it can be seen that the skills of these cool officials are higher than a mountain.
The jade girl ascends the ladder and kills people
The means of the cool official are cruel, Wu Zetian is a skilled, she invented a punishment called "Jade Girl Climbing the Ladder", which sounds like a very nice name, and people who are not familiar with this punishment will also have a lot of beautiful associations: the white-clothed woman walks barefoot to the heavenly ladder, and the clothes flutter like a god under the heavens, but in fact, it is not so, "Jade Girl Ascending the Ladder" is a cruel punishment that a woman will feel afraid of after hearing it.
During the interrogation, the cool official stripped the female prisoner of her clothes, let her stand naked on a high wooden stake, put a rope around her neck, hung on the other end, let the strong man pull the rope during the execution, the female prisoner was instantly strangled by the rope, and the survival of the prisoner would allow them to desperately grasp the rope and climb up as far as possible, and if they did not climb up, they would be strangled alive. Think the punishment is as simple as that? No, there were rows of pointed wedges under the stakes, and if they fell they were to be tortured to death.
In addition to physical cruelty, this kind of punishment invented by Wu Zetian pays more attention to the mental torture of female prisoners. In ancient times, pay attention to the fact that men and women are not intimate, women are touched by the opposite sex and feel that they are "unclean", just imagine that female prisoners are naked in front of a group of men, it is equivalent to taking their lives, losing their virginity is the greatest insult to them, coupled with physical pain, and the following rows of shocking wooden wedges, every female prisoner will feel collapsed, this murderous means makes every woman feel afraid.
Sit firmly on the throne, enwei and shi
Wu Zetian is such a person who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, in order to eliminate dissidents, as long as she gets the news of the whistleblowing, she will order the cool officials to interrogate, under the torture of coercion, where there is no reason not to confess, let what is said admit anything, in short, it is a death, it is better to admit death sooner, no one wants to bear such torture.
Li Tang's clansmen have learned Wu Zetian's methods, Li Yuanjia the King of Han, Li Lingkui the King of Lu, Li Zhuo the Duke of Huangguo, Li Rong of Dongguan County, Princess Changle, etc. have committed suicide one after another, thinking that these are all people of the imperial family and nobles, who can choose to commit suicide under the persecution of Wu Zetian, are not afraid of Wu Zetian's cruel methods?
It was also under the persecution of such cruel means that Wu Zetian successfully ascended the throne and became emperor, and became emperor in a belly slander, but no one dared to disobey, because the punishment was too cruel. And Wu Zetian is not blindly reusing cool officials, when the court is stable, these cool officials have also become ghosts under her sword, Wu Zetian must erase her own "stains", and these cool officials have become her best "back pot" people.
Wu Zetian first used tough means to block the mouths of courtiers, and then used meritocracy to implement the "trial official system", it is said that during the reign of Wu Zetian, "counted seventy-three people who were prime ministers", the practice of the able people taking office enabled the people's livelihood and social welfare to develop quickly, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.
brief summary
Summing up Wu Zetian's life, it is not so much that she won the emperor's favor by virtue of her beauty, but rather that she came to power with her own clever mind, the harem has never lacked beautiful women, for political marriage, some concubines have strong matriarchal forces behind them, Wu Zetian has no strong foundation, completely relying on her own wisdom to become a leading figure among women, creating a new era of women as emperors.
Wu Zetian was able to withstand a lot of pressure to sit on the throne, not only strong in her heart, but also a fierce heart, she reused cool officials, invented the torture of "jade girl climbing the ladder", and everywhere you can see her political skills of killing and determination, so Wu Zetian can sit in that seat - she is smart enough, and her heart is fierce enough.
Reference: Zizhi Tongjian
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