697 AD
Wu Zetian killed Lai Junchen: Evil has evil retribution
In 697, Wu Zetian ordered lai junchen to be killed and his clan exterminated. At this point, the politics of cool officials that lasted for about fifteen years came to an end.
Then, why did Wu Zetian appoint cool officials and set off the politics of cool officials? The main purpose is to combat the opposition. After Wu Zetian's claim to the throne, Xu Jingye, the grandson of Xu Shijie, the founding hero of the Tang Dynasty, rebelled against the Wu Zetian Linchao system, claiming to want the king to save the country, Kuang helped Li Xian to restore the throne, and ordered King Luo Bin to write "Seeking Wu Shuo" and spread it around the world. Wu Zetian sent 300,000 troops to suppress Xu Jingye and was soon killed in defeat. Although this rebellion against wu forces soon failed, Wu Zetian felt the crisis, and the members of the Li Tang royal family and the xungui ministers were obstacles to Wu Zetian's rise to power, and they always wanted to overthrow Wu Zetian's rule and restore the Li clan.
Therefore, in order to crack down on these dissident forces and consolidate his rule, Wu Zetian began to appoint cool officials, using cool officials to create unjust cases, torture and extort confessions, and eliminate the opposition.
Cool officials are often shameless people with poor character and cruel personalities. For example, Lai Junchen is the representative of the cool official. Lai Junchen has been a rogue rogue since he was a child, and he is particularly good at making false accusations out of nothing. At this time, Wu Zetian had already begun to encourage whistle-blowers and vigorously engage in secret service politics to fabricate charges and crack down on political enemies. When Wu Zetian discovered that Lai Junchen was a talent, he made an exception to receive and reuse Junchen and appointed him as Yushi Zhongcheng (御史中丞) and was responsible for handling the case.
As a cool official, Lai Junchen's methods are very cruel. Every time a prisoner was interrogated, Lai Junchen often poured vinegar into the prisoner's nose, and did not allow the prisoner to eat during the day and not to let the prisoner sleep at night. Lai Junchen and his subordinates invented many torture devices and gave them names. For example, they created ten great shackles, which were called Ding Bai Mai, Gasping breath, Roaring Suddenly, Undertaking, Soul Loss, True and Opposite, Reverse Reality, Dead Pig Si, Seeking Death, and Breaking the Family. Looking at the names, you know that once the prisoner puts on these shackles, he will be miserable, and he will admit any crime, and only want to die quickly. Lai Junchen had a lot of experience in creating unjust prisons, and wrote a "Luo Weaving Sutra" to guide his subordinates to weave crimes. It can be seen that Lai Junchen, as a cool official, has sublimated from practice to the theoretical level, and can be called a model among cool officials.
The members of the Li Tang royal family who were eliminated by the cool officials represented by The Junchen were the descendants of Taizu Li Hu: Li Wenchen, the son of Li Shenfu the Prince of Xiangyi, and Li Xiaoyi, the Duke of Liang County; there were the descendants of Li Yuan, the Prince of Gaozu: Li Yuanjia the Prince of Han and his son Huang Gongrang, Li Chen the Duke of Shangdang, Li Yuanluo the Prince of Huo, and his son Li Xu the Prince of Jiangdu, in all, and so on; the descendants of Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong and other clan members, and at least fifty died at the hands of Ku officials. According to records, there were hundreds of ministers who died at the hands of cool officials, and the number of middle- and low-level officials was uncountable. With the connivance of Wu Zetian, Lai Junchen could kill the courtiers at will. For example, the great general Zhang Qianxun, who cried out in prison, was hacked to death by Lai Junchen's order; the great general Fan Yunxian said that he had meritorious service to the former emperor, but was ordered by Lai Junchen to cut off his tongue and kill him. Lai Junchen also tried to persecute Di Renjie. But Di Renjie pretended to confess the crime, temporarily saved his life, and then wrote a letter on his turban, hid it in a cotton coat for his family to take away. Di Renjie's son showed the letter to Wu Zetian, who became suspicious of Di Renjie's charges. Under Wu Zetian's personal interrogation, Di Renjie was finally spared.
After such a massacre, the forces opposing Wu Zetian were swept away, and the courtiers who were still alive did not dare to oppose Wu Zetian, but only dared to say good things about Wu Zetian. At the same time, Wu Zetian promoted a large number of new people to the imperial court, and his position of power became more and more stable. In this way, the use value of cool officials declined, and Wu Zetian also began to slowly get rid of these cool officials. For example, in 691, Wu Zetian asked Lai Junchen to interrogate Zhou Xing, who was also a cool official, and Lai Junchen asked Zhou Xing what to do if the prisoner refused to admit guilt. Zhou Xing said that this was not easy to do, put people into the urn, and burned charcoal around the urn, didn't he admit it? Lai Junchen asked people to bring a large urn and said to Zhou Xing, "Please enter the urn!" Zhou Xing had to confess his guilt and was later killed on the way to exile.
In 697, Lai Junchen attempted to falsely accuse the samurai kings, princess Taiping, and relatives of Li Dan and Li Xian. The kings of the Wu clan, together with Princess Taiping, denounced Junchen, and Wu Zetian, seeing that Lai Junchen had committed too many evil deeds, beheaded him and exterminated his clan. Everyone in Chang'an went to the streets to celebrate, saying that they could finally sleep peacefully. With the death of Lai Junchen, the politics of cool officials also came to an end.
Conclusion: In order to consolidate his rule, Wu Zetian appointed cool officials and engaged in a reign of terror. However, after the goal was achieved, Wu Zetian got rid of the cool officials. Moreover, Wu Zetian also protected some of the most important sages such as Di Renjie. Cool official politics is only a means, although the cool official himself can run wild for a while, but in the end there is no good end, and will eventually be abandoned by the monarch.
