Zhang Cambodiazhi's death can be said to be too humiliating, Zhang Cambodiazhi is only one year younger than Wu Zetian, and he was 80 years old when he launched the coup, and he was originally crowned king after success, but he did not expect to be planted in the hands of Wu Sansi.
In fact, the Shenlong coup was not expected by everyone, including Zhang Xiangzhi, Cui Xuanwei, Huan Yanfan, Yuan Shu, Jinghui, the five main planners, that is, the later Five Kings, they did not expect it.
In 704, Wu Zetian was already showing his old age, and he was sick, and he looked like he could leave at any time. Although the position of crown prince has been set for Li Xian, the problem is that Wu Zetian's two little white faces are still bouncing. During Wu Zetian's serious illness, only Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Zongchang were allowed to serve, but in fact, no one knew whether Wu Zetian had gone or not.
This is how the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty was exploited by Li Si and Zhao Gao to change the holy will, and then Daqin was abolished in this way. If Wu Zetian died and was tampered with by the second will, then Li Tang would really be finished. Therefore, the five kings told Li Xian about this, and Li Xian agreed to enter the palace to find out the truth, so he originally wanted to hack Er Zhang to death, who knew that it would be a coup.
I was a late bloomer, and I was loyal to Li Tang
Zhang Xiangzhi's person is very legendary.
In his early years, he was a talent, even a rare talent, and he became a jinshi at a young age, went to Qingyuan County as the second in command, and became a county servant. At his age, being able to become the second-in-command can be said to have a bright future.
But the problem lies here, in the early days of Li and Tang, the Guanlong family and aristocracy were deeply entrenched, and they almost controlled the channels for the rise of talents, and this problem could not be solved even when Li Shimin was alive.
So Lao Zhang worked in Qingyuan County for decades, and he is still the second-in-command, and the county orders have survived several times, and it is estimated that the county people have changed for three generations. It was not until Wu Zetian's regency that this phenomenon began to change.
The highest angle of evaluation of Wu Zetian in history is that Wu Zetian broke the monopoly of the aristocracy and appointed civilian talents. In fact, yes, because the later first prime minister, Zhang Kamzhi, was able to come out only after receiving Wu Zetian's political dividends.
In 689 AD, Wu Zetian opened the "system examination", which is different from the imperial examination. In those years, Li Shimin did it several times, and the system was to select useful talents again on the basis of officials, promote them again, or put them into the central government.
In this way, the sixty-four-year-old old Zhang went to the exam, and also took the first exam, Wu Zetian was stunned, how could there be such a talent, actually squatted in Qingyuan County for decades to work as the second in command. It can be seen that the early officialdom of the Great Tang was very dark.
In the first year of Yongchang, he was summoned by virtuous liang, and he was more than seventy years old. There are more than 1,000 countermeasures, and Cambodia is the first. Appointed superintendent of imperial history, moved to the Phoenix Pavilion.
In this way, a loyal and talented Lao Zhang embarked on the road to Xingtang, which is why he was a late bloomer.
And Zhang Cambodiazhi also began to enter the sight of Di Renjie, Yao Chong and others, two ministers during the Wu Zetian period recommended by real names, this Zhang Cambodiazhi is a natural prime minister, old and serious, talented and thinking.
Zhang Xiangzhi said: You have worked for decades and you are also old!
In this way, after Zhang Kamzhi was demoted to Sichuan once, because of Di Renjie's strength recommendation, Zhang Cambodiazhi returned to the central government again and became a deputy prime minister.
Finally, until Yao Chong left and was transferred, this Yao Chong was the Yao Chong who was known as one of the "Four Sages" (Du Ruxi, Fang Xuanling, Yao Chong, and Song Jing).
Before he left, he recommended again, said Zhang Cambodiazhi out of the flower, and reminded Wu Zetian that Zhang Cambodiazhi is old, you have to quickly reuse it, make it seem as if Lao Zhang's shelf life is almost over, and you want to engage in promotion.
And Wu Zetian, as the emperor, will naturally listen to the words of the prime minister and promote Zhang Xiangzhi to the prime minister, and it is still the first sequence.
After Lao Zhang took the throne, he was a bullish person for the court at that time, and he had been dormant for decades, so I asked you if you were afraid!
But Lao Zhang was a loyal courtier, loyal to the Great Tang. After he became the prime minister, Wu Zetian immediately fell ill, which made Lao Zhang very embarrassed, and Wu Zetian also took Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Zongchang as spokespersons, and Lao Zhang had to confront these two little white faces as soon as he came to power, which was too helpless.
So, Zhang Cambodiazhi, together with Cui Xuanwei and five others, began to plan to "visit" Wu Zetian.
Shenlong coup: A confused coup
In 705 AD, the old Zhang was 80 years old.
This year he was full of spirit and spirit. Cui Xuanwei, Huan Yanfan, Yuan Shu, and Jinghui who were with him were all loyal ministers of the Great Tang Dynasty, all of them were heart-to-heart to the Li family, in order to avoid passing on the throne, several people contacted the forbidden army, and the prince Li Xian and the king Li Dan wanted to hack Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Zongchang's two little white faces to death.
Everyone hit it off.
At this time, Yao Chong also returned, and he came back to cooperate with the Shenlong coup. Zhang joined forces with Li Duozuo and soon staged the coup.
At that time, the speed was very fast, Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Zongchang could not dodge, and they were beheaded on the spot. I doubt that the Shenlong coup was made by a group of old men in order to cut these two little white faces to vent their anger, of course, this is a joke.
As soon as everyone rushed into the palace, Wu Zetian was frightened, she couldn't think of anyone who wanted to rebel, and then asked, the prince, the prime minister, and the forbidden army were all there, just to come in and cut her two little white faces. After Wu Zetian finished speaking, let everyone go back after chopping, it was at this time that the coup really became a coup.
Huan Yanfan jumped out at this time and said to Wu Zetian:
"Where else does the prince go, this imperial throne was originally prepared by the emperor and His Majesty for the crown prince, or Your Majesty, you will let it be in advance and let the prince ascend the throne"
Huan Yanfan's appearance may have confused Lao Zhang and everyone, but everyone is a long-standing officialdom, and if you think about it, it seems to be the same thing.
As a result, all of Erzhang's henchmen were killed and arrested. On the third day, Wu Zetian announced the throne, and Li Xian once again ascended the throne as emperor.
The reason why it is confused is that no one thought of immediately forcing Wu Zetian to step down. The Shenlong coup is actually a contradiction between Er Zhang and Li Tang Junchen, everyone looks at the two little white faces unpleasantly, and in order to prevent Wu Zetian from quietly dying, so there was this coup.
Probably Huan Yanfan saw it, so after the coup, he simply took one step into place, protected the prince and protected himself, and simply let Wu Zetian take the throne.
And Li Xian was naturally also surprised, but he didn't expect to mix the emperor in advance, so he named Zhang Xiangzhi, Cui Xuanhui, Huan Yanfan, Yuan Shu, and Jinghui as kings.
Everything seems to be going so smoothly, but in fact, there is a big hidden danger that has not been solved, that is, the martial arts group.
Helplessly, the martial artist's hand was too long, and Old Zhang died depressed
After the Shenlong coup, Lao Zhang, who was crowned king, was actually in his old age.
However, he is still very spirited and ready to show his strength.
It is a pity that God caught him again and did not give him a chance.
Wu Zetian kept the martial artist in a clever way, and Li Xian was called the empress, and the relationship with the martial family was excellent. How good is it?
Li Xian's wife Wei Hou later had a leg with Wu Sansi, and Li Xian was indifferent to this. And Empress Wei was Li Xian's favorite person and accompanied him through tribulation, so Wu Sansi's attack direction was very simple, causing contradictions between Li Xian and the Five Kings with Empress Wei.
In the end, all the five kings were demoted, and Lao Zhang first got Guan Xiangzhou when he was old, and finally he was demoted to Taki Prefecture and sent to Guangdong.
Lao Zhang ended up depressed.
However, Lao Zhang is considered a good life, such as Huan Yanfan, who was tortured to death by Wu Sansi's people, and the other three kings were not happy.
In the final analysis, Li Xian did not destroy the martial artist after he ascended the throne, which caused troubles, the five kings were eliminated, and soon he himself was killed. Whether Li Xian or Zhang Xiangzhi, he has always been kind to the martial artists, but it is a pity that the ruthless Wu Sansi did not intend to let them go.
In 710, although Wu Sansi was dead, Empress Wei swelled, and together with her youngest daughter, she poisoned Li Xian, the emperor of Tang Zhongzong, and Li Xian eventually tasted the bitter fruit of this mercy.
Soon after, Li Dan's family appeared in a flash, braking the car before Li Tang overturned. The choice of who to be the crown prince stumped Wu Zetian
In 690 AD, Wu Zetian officially proclaimed herself emperor, becoming a unique and true female emperor in Chinese history.
With Wu Zetian's proclamation as emperor, a new political force rose in the Tang Empire, that is, the "martial artist clique". And the real royal heir, the "Li Family Group", was suppressed and could not raise its head.
The crown prince Li Xian had inherited the throne after Li Zhi's death, but because he offended Wu Zetian on the issue of promoting his husband, he only served as emperor for 2 months, and was abolished, demoted to "King of Luling", and sent to Fang County, Hubei.
Then Li Dan, who became emperor, was also Wu Zetian's puppet, and when Wu Zetian's call for becoming emperor was the highest, he even took the initiative to ask to change his surname to "Wu", which shows how strong his desire for survival is.
During Wu Zetian's 15 years as emperor, she promoted a large number of Wu families, who controlled the power of the imperial court, called for the wind and things, and were omnipotent, and for a time became a hot power group, the representative figures of which were Wu Sansi and Wu Chengsi.
The Great Tang Dynasty changed to the "Great Zhou", the Li family dynasty became the "Martial Dynasty", Wu Zetian was older, Jiangshan needed to be inherited, the imperial throne needed to be inherited, and who to appoint as the crown prince became Wu Zetian's most troubled problem.
Since ancient times, there has never been a woman as an emperor, how to make a prince, Wu Zetian does not have any experience to learn from. At the beginning, she was inclined to establish the Wu family as the crown prince, and the popular candidates were Wu Sansi and Wu Chengsi.
However, Di Renjie's words woke her up.
Di Renjie said: "If you make your son a prince, after a hundred years, you can still accept the offerings of descendants in the Taimiao, and if you make Wu Sansi a prince, I have not heard of anyone who will put his aunt in the Taimiao."
Yes, it has been a patriarchal society for thousands of years, and this is a basic plate, which affects the whole body.
Although Wu Zetian became a female emperor, he still could not change the moral concept under the patriarchal society, and once Wu Sansi or Wu Chengsi inherited the throne, she Wu Zetian was likely to be left behind, and even did not admit that Jiang Shan was taken over from her.
And what happened later completely strengthened Wu Zetian's determination to make the Li family crown prince.
Due to the outbreak of foreign wars, the imperial court recruited troops, but no one was recruited for many days, but one day, a news suddenly came out that Li Xian wanted to personally lead the troops, and 50,000 people came to apply in a few days.
This made Wu Zetian understand that the Great Tang, after all, is the Great Tang of the Li family, and it is impossible to pass on Jiangshan to the Wu family after tossing for a lifetime.
Therefore, Wu Zetian secretly sent people to Fang County, took Li Xian's family to Luoyang, and officially canonized him as a prince. For this day, Li Xian waited in Fang County for 14 years.
After completing the great event of establishing the crown prince, Wu Zetian was already a 74-year-old man, and she began to completely release herself, raising two small fresh meat Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi's two brothers, indulged in love, and did not pay much attention to the imperial government.
At first, these two little fresh meats were just a plaything of Wu Zetian, but as these two people gained favor, they gradually extended their hands to the imperial government.
As a result, a "small fresh meat group" headed by Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi's brothers quietly rose.
The Xiaoxianrou Group didn't look late, the momentum was developing very strongly, and even powerful people like Wu Sansi rushed to climb and were willing to lead the horse for them.
In the late period of Wu Zetian, she didn't even go out of the palace gate, only these two small fresh meat were served, and almost all the imperial court orders were from the hands of the two brothers, and the power was as great as you can imagine.
In the face of a common enemy, the "Samurai Group" and the "Li Family Group" temporarily joined together, and they wanted to get rid of these two small fresh meats to ensure their power in the imperial court.
Zhang Xiangzhi is a representative of these two major forces.
Zhang Xiangzhi, a late bloomer
Zhang Xiangzhi was born as a jinshi and was very knowledgeable, and after taking the junior high school entrance examination, he was soon appointed as the second in command of Qingyuan County.
According to the general rule, people who come from the rank of junior will be promoted after a period of training at the grassroots level, and it is possible for officials to reach the sixth ministry or even the cabinet.
However, Zhang Xiangzhi worked in this second-in-command position at the county level for decades, and it was not until he was 64 years old that he ushered in a turning point in his life.
That year, Wu Zetian made a small reform of the imperial examination, introducing the "system examination", which is equivalent to our current "civil servant selection", which was selected among the existing officials of the imperial court and supplemented by merit to higher positions.
Zhang Xiangzhi stood out in this exam, entered Wu Zetian's Law Eye with the first place, and was appointed as the superintendent of imperial history, Fengge Sheren.
Superintendent Yushi, everyone is familiar with this position, let's talk about this "Phoenix Pavilion Sheren".
During the Sui Dynasty, the three-province six-part system began to take shape, including a "Zhongshu Province", which she changed to "Fengge" in the Wu Zetian era, a very feminine name, and "Sheren" was the official mainly responsible for writing work. The "Fengge Sheren" was mainly responsible for drafting the edicts issued by the emperor, which was equivalent to the emperor's grand secretary.
However, this Zhang Xiangzhi is a straightforward person, who has repeatedly contradicted Wu Zetian and was demoted to Jingzhou to do a long history. Later, under the repeated recommendation of Di Renjie and Yao Chong, he returned to the center of the imperial court again, was named Tongfeng Pavilion Luotai Pingzhangshi, and officially entered the cabinet.
Although he became the prime minister of Wu Zetian, Zhang Xiangzhi's heart is still in the Li family. Not just one Zhang Xiangzhi, but almost everyone in the entire imperial court turned their hearts to the Li family, looking forward to restoring Li Tang Jiangshan.
In 705, Wu Zetian became seriously ill, but all the ministers could not see her, and all imperial affairs were handled by two small fresh meats, and Zhang Xiangzhi decided to join forces with Cui Xuanwei, Jinghui, Huan Yanfan, and Yuan Shuji to break into the palace and kill the two brothers Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi.
However, they must be famous, so Zhang Xiangzhi sent someone to ask the crown prince Li Xian to kill two small fresh meat in the name of Li Xian.
Li Xian, who had been suppressed by Wu Zetian for many years, had long lost his ambition, and he said unhurriedly: "This matter, let's think about it in the long run, the emperor's holy body is not safe, I am afraid it will disturb her." However, Zhang Xiangzhi rushed into the palace with the Yulin army early on, and the arrow was on the string, and had to be sent, and Li Xiancai was forced to agree.
By the time Li Xian arrived at the palace, Zhang Xiangzhi and the others had already killed the two brothers Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi, and quickly purged their accomplices. When Wu Zetian heard the chaotic sound outside, she said keenly: "Who rebelled?"
At this time, Zhang Xiangzhi walked in and said: "Your Majesty, it was the two brothers Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi who rebelled, and the minister has already annihilated them on the order of the prince, and the matter is urgent, and there is no time to pray to you, disturbing the Holy Lord."
The words of the scene are beautiful and bright. However, no matter how beautiful the words were, they could not hide from Wu Zetian's eyes, she had already seen through everything, and she said lightly: "Since it's okay, let's all go back."
According to the original idea, the purpose of Zhang Xiangzhi and others was only to get rid of the two small fresh meat, and now that the purpose has been achieved, it is said that it is time to retreat, but Huan Yanfan feels that since the first step has been taken, it is better to add fire and directly force Wu Zetian to give way.
He boldly stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, when the first emperor entrusted the crown prince to you, he did not let him always be the crown prince, but now the people are thinking about Tang, and the ministers do not forget the kindness of Emperor Taizong and the emperor, and hope that His Majesty will pass on the throne to the crown prince."
Wu Zetian understood that this day still came, but she didn't expect it to be in this way, she silently agreed, and three days later officially passed the throne to Li Xian, and Jiangshan once again returned to Li Tang's hands.
This is known in history as the "Shenlong coup".
The rabbit died and the dog cooked, and Zhang Xiangzhi was not spared
Li Xian succeeded to the throne, but this was a cowardly man, without any imperial courage at all, but his Empress Wei was very fascinated by power, so a "Wei Empress clique" re-emerged in the imperial court.
Empress Wei, Li Xian's original wife, accompanied Li Xian to live a poor life in Fang County for 14 years. This kind of afflicted couple should have a very good relationship. However, the immense power made Empress Wei lose her nature, and she began to fantasize about becoming an empress like Wu Zetian.
However, after all, she is a female class, and although she has great power, she has never had experience in governing the country. At this time, someone handed over an olive branch, this person was Wu Sansi.
After Wu Zetian's death, the entire "martial arts clique" was very frightened, they were worried that they would be liquidated by the Li family, and a personal person would be in danger, and the martial family would also lose their power in the imperial court.
However, after all, Li Xian was Wu Zetian's own son, and he broke his bones and tendons, and he did not embarrass the martial artist, but became dissatisfied with Zhang Xiangzhi and other five ministers in his heart.
Wu Sansi had experience in governing the country, and Empress Wei had supreme power, and the two soon formed an alliance, not only politically, but also in life, and even physically.
In order to strengthen this alliance, Empress Wei also married her daughter Princess Anle to Wu Sansi's son Wu Chongxun. As a result, the "Wujia Group" revived again and was closely integrated with the "Weihou Group".
In order to be able to monopolize power, the first people they had to get rid of were the five ministers who participated in the Shenlong coup that year.
When Wu Zetian was forced to abdicate, Zhang Xiangzhi and other five ministers were once meritorious ministers, and after the fact, they also reaped the rewards. Zhang Xiangzhi is the Tianguan (吏部) Shangshu and Tongfengge Luantai Sanpin, Cui Xuanwei is the inner history (Zhongshuling), Huan Yanfan and Jinghui are all Ren Nayan (侍中), Yuan Shuji is the same as the Fengge Luantai Sanpin (Tongzhongshu Menxia Sanpin)
Unfortunately, these fame and fortunes were just passing eyes, and they soon became prisoners.
Zhang was first sent to his hometown of Xiangyang as an assassin, and later exiled to Taki Prefecture (present-day Luoding, Guangdong), where he died two years later.
The other four were no better, Cui Xuanwei died in exile, Huan Yanfan was stabbed to death by a sharp bamboo, Jinghui was slashed to death by a knife, and Yuan Shuji was poisoned by venom.
Wu Sansi and Empress Wei's lawless behavior angered the young head of the "Li Family Group", Prince Li Chongjun, and he wanted to tell them that the world is the world of the Li family, not the world of you Wu Sansi and Empress Wei.
In 707, Li Chongjun led troops to kill Wu Sansi and attacked the palace in an attempt to kill Empress Wei, because Shangguan Wan'er had informed him in advance, Li Xian mobilized soldiers and horses to block Li Chongjun from the Xuanwu Gate, and was eventually defeated and killed.
Wu Sansi died, Empress Wei did not give up her dream of becoming an empress, and her daughter Princess Anle also wanted to be the crown prince, and she repeatedly asked Li Xian to make her a "concubine", but Li Xian refused.
In 710, Empress Wei personally poisoned her husband Li Xian and installed her son Li Congmao as emperor, in an attempt to imitate Wu Zetian and first listen to the government in the name of the empress dowager, and then replace him.
Unfortunately, she ignored an important member of the "Li Family Group", Princess Taiping.
Princess Taiping joined forces with Li Longji, son of Li Dan, the king of Xiang, to launch the "Tanglong coup". Li Longji led an army into the palace, killed Empress Wei and Princess Anle, and forced Li Chongmao to cede the throne to Li Dan, the king of Xiang.
At this point, in the confrontation of the three forces, it ended with the victory of the "Li Family Group". However, the drama did not end, because there was also the infighting of the Li family group.
After the Tanglong coup, Li Dan was nominally the emperor, but the power was in the hands of Li Longji and Princess Taiping, and whenever a major event happened, Li Dan always asked first: "Have you asked Princess Taiping, have you asked the prince (Li Longji) no."
With the passage of time, the power struggle between Princess Taiping and Li Longji also entered a white-hot stage, and Li Dan was really angry at both ends between the two people. In 712, Li Dan passed the throne to Li Longji and went to become the happy Emperor himself.
With imperial power, Li Longji was much more convenient to do things, and he sent someone to raid Princess Taiping's home. Princess Taiping hid in a temple for three days, and when she came out, she received a holy decree to "give death", and finally committed suicide with hatred.
At this point, the Tang Dynasty officially ended the era of "women in power", and the Li family completely recaptured its own rivers and mountains, and under the leadership of Li Longji, a period of "Kaiyuan prosperous" was opened.