Wu Zetian, as the first female monarch in history, is very desirable, but mentioning Wu Zetian's later years is a mouthful. It is not an exaggeration to describe Wu Zetian's later years as absurd, especially from a male perspective, when Wu Zetian spent every day with the Zhang brothers.
When Wu Zetian was 76 years old, the Zhang brothers accompanied her every day in Shangyang Palace, and the three of them chanted poems together, spending days and drinking, simply racing against living immortals.
Among the many male favorites, why is it that only the Zhang brothers can be deeply loved by Wu Zetian? Is it just because the Zhang brothers are handsome? In fact, the advantages of the Zhang brothers are not only in appearance.
01 Wu Zetian is not actually a faint person, everything she does has a purpose
The era in which Wu Zetian lived was the era of patriarchy, and at that time he could become a hero, presumably Wu Zetian must not be a mediocre person. In fact, we only see wu Zetian being absurd in his later years, but ignoring what he cares about most. After returning to the West, the question of the wealth of the entire family is whether they can still live with dignity.
When it comes to the issue of wealth and nobility, it is naturally inseparable from the succession to the throne, and at the beginning, Wu Zetian was also hesitant between his son Li Xian and his nephew Wu Sansi, and he had not yet determined who to choose.
A conversation with Di Renjie made Wu Zetian suddenly wake up, and Di Renjie asked Wu Zetian such a question, thinking that his nephew and son were closer?
If the throne is passed on to the son, the son's thousand generations will still respect Wu Zetian as his ancestor. But what about passing the throne to a nephew? Although it is his own mother's family, who has ever heard of his nephew sacrificing his aunt from ancient times to the present?
It was Di Renjie's words that made Wu Zetian dispel the idea of passing the throne to his nephew, but although he did not pass the throne to Wu Sansi, Wu Zetian was still defending his family at the last moment, to ensure that the samurai family would not be persecuted after his death.
Because Wu Zetian was well aware that some of the means he used when he seized the throne had offended the Li clan relatives, if he came to a great limit in the future, the Wu clan would definitely be calculated by the Li clan.
However, if the throne is passed to Wu Sansi, then what should the Li family do? It's a never-ending situation.
02 If not, then the promise is just an empty word
In his later years, Wu Zetian also thought of marrying the Li clan and the Wu clan, so that he could stabilize the Li family and stabilize the rich life of the Wu clan after his death. Therefore, in the later years of Wu Zetian's life, she gave the princess of the Li clan several times to the people of the Wu family, and made the Li family swear that they would not harm each other with the Wu family.
However, Wu Zetian also understood in his heart that the promise was just an empty word, and only when the two sides were evenly matched, the promise would play a role, and if one side was too weak, then it would definitely be persecuted.
03 In addition to appearance, the Zhang brothers also helped Wu Zetian solve the problem
At that time, For the future of the Li family and the Wu family, Wu Zetian was also deeply troubled. At this time, in order to help Wu Zetian solve this problem, Princess Taiping introduced her male favorite Zhang Zongchang to Wu Zetian, who liked Zhang Zongchang very much because Zhang Zongchang had the appearance of Pan An and was very fond of him. Later, Zhang Zongchang also recommended his brother to Wu Zetian, these three people are simply immortal lovers, every day these two can bring happiness to Wu Zetian, then the reward will naturally not be less.
In fact, Wu Zetian was clearly favoring the two brothers, and secretly took back the power of the Li family and the Wu family and handed them over to the Zhang brothers. Wu Zetian hoped that at this time, the Li and Wu clans could abandon their previous suspicions and fight against the Zhang brothers, and only with a common enemy could they truly cooperate.
04 However, when Wu Zetian abdicated, things were still somewhat different from what he expected
In 705, the crown prince Li Xian, with the help of Zhang Kam Zhige and others, launched the Shenlong Coup, and Wu Zetian was forced to abdicate, which is recorded in historical records. After the Tang dynasty returned to the Li clan, the crown prince was very lenient and did not persecute the Wu clan.
Wu Zetian used these two male pets to fully exert their value, satisfying their own selfish desires while secretly completing a series of political arrangements, which is why the Zhang brothers' status was irreplaceable by other male pets.