During the Jubilee period of the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Zhenzong of Song Zhao Heng joined forces with Prime Minister Kou Zhun to launch a power struggle against Empress Liu E, who did not show weakness and joined forces with Deputy Prime Minister Ding Wei to violently counterattack.
At that time, Liu E had long helped the unwell Song Zhenzong to handle government affairs, and the hand of doing politics was stretched out longer and longer, causing dissatisfaction among some officials led by Kou Zhun.
In addition, at that time, there was also a celestial phenomenon of "too daylight appearing", and after Qin Tianjian divination, he gave the conclusion of "heroine Chang", which made Song Zhenzong worry that Liu E might become Wu Zetian's second.
At this time, Song Zhenzong's body had a big problem, and he had long been unable to handle government affairs normally.
Therefore, Song Zhenzong, who did not know when he would have an accident, had the idea of depriving Empress Liu E of her power.
When this idea was learned by Prime Minister Kou Zhun , he firmly supported it and began to conspire with Song Zhenzong to let the crown prince Zhao Zhen (Song Renzong), who was not yet 10 years old, oversee the country.
If the crown prince oversees the country, arrange a few auxiliary ministers, and in the future government affairs, there will be nothing for Empress Liu E.
Moreover, Kou Zhun also hoped to go further, he persuaded Song Zhenzong to pass the throne directly to the crown prince, and the "Song Shi Kou Zhun Biography" recorded:
The crown prince hopes that His Majesty's importance of the Sizong Temple will be passed on to the artifact, and the minister Fangzheng will be chosen as the wing. Ding Wei, Qian Wei acted, and Yu Ren also could not assist the young master.
Kou Zhun not only hoped to use Song Zhenzong to let the crown prince oversee the country, or pass the throne to the crown prince, forbidding Empress Liu E from interfering in government, but also hoped to overthrow Ding Wei, Qian Weiyan and others he did not like, all of whom were Liu E's henchmen.
Song Zhenzong's attitude was to agree, "Emperor Ranzhi", so Kou Zhun arranged for Yang Yi, a Hanlin bachelor, to draft the edict of the crown prince and prepare Yang Yi to assist him.
As long as the edict is drafted and announced at the imperial meeting, Liu E's road to government will be over, she is not the biological mother of the crown prince Zhao Zhen, and if she loses power, the future fate is difficult to say.
However, Song Zhenzong and Kou Zhun's plan failed to succeed, and what was originally carried out in secret was leaked.
Those who know this, in addition to Song Zhenzong himself, are actually two people, one is Yang Yi and the other is Kou Zhun, Yang Yi is very careful in doing things, and it is recorded in the "General Guide to Continuing the Governance of Capital":
Billions of fears, night, screen left and right for words, to the beginning of the candle, Chinese and foreign ignorant.
Therefore, Yang Yi did not leak there, but Kou Zhun got carried away, made a gaffe after drinking, and leaked such a confidential matter himself, and the history records that "he was allowed to be leaked by alcohol."
After knowing the conspiracy of Song Zhenzong and Kou Zhun, Liu E, Ding Wei and others panicked and planned a counterattack, they did not dare to turn the spearhead against Song Zhenzong, and could only desperately impeach Kou Zhun.
If at this time, Song Zhenzong can stick to his own views and support Kou Zhun, it is nothing more than turning a conspiracy into an open conspiracy, and he can also forcibly carry out his ideas with the authority of the emperor.
But Song Zhenzong was provoked, he said that he did not remember communicating and planning with Kou Zhun, and the record in the history books is: "Emperor Buji and Zhun Chu have a word", and he sold Kou Zhun with a single sentence.
As a result, without much twist and turn, Kou Zhun was defeated, and he was immediately deposed and demoted to the rank of crown prince, and Ding became the prime minister.
Song Zhenzong stopped, and Kou Zhun was punished by demote, but the matter was not over.
The eunuch Zhou Huaizheng, who had befriended Kou Zhun, feared being implicated, wanted to fight and tried to launch a palace rebellion, supporting the crown prince Zhao Zhen as emperor, allowing Song Zhenzong to retire, and deposing Empress Liu E, and allowing Kou Zhun to return to phase.
Zhou Huaizheng's plan still failed, and his henchmen leaked the matter to Ding Wei, so things went wrong.
Because Emperor Zhenzong of Song was seriously ill, Empress Liu E personally handled the matter, Zhou Huaizheng was executed, Kou Zhun was demoted to serve as an official in a foreign country, and then he was degraded again and again, as far as Leizhou, Guangdong, and did not return to the capital until he died of illness.
After that, Emperor Zhenzong of Song, who was completely unable to see things, issued an edict to let the crown prince Zhao Zhen obey the government, and the empress Liu E "ruling" in the harem, completely giving up the idea of depriving Liu E of her power and replacing his wife with a son.
Within two years, Song Zhenzong died of illness, and before his death, he issued an edict that "honoring the empress as the empress dowager, and the power of military affairs will be disposed of by the empress dowager", and finally handed over the power to his wife.
In this struggle planned by Song Zhenzong and Kou Zhun to abolish Empress Liu E's power, the key to failure was that Song Zhenzong's attitude changed again and again.
Of course, this matter cannot be entirely blamed on Song Zhenzong, he was seriously ill at the time, and, according to historical records, in addition to suffering from wind disease, he also had a serious mental illness, under this symptom, many of his thoughts are not deliberate thoughts, changeable is normal.
From beginning to end, this incident is actually very similar to an incident that occurred during the Tang Dynasty in which the emperor and the empress fought for power.
In the first year of Lin De of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Li Zhi was also too dissatisfied with Empress Wu Zetian's interference in government, and wanted to deprive Wu Zetian of his power, and consulted with Prime Minister Shangguanyi, and after obtaining Shangguanyi's approval, he began to draft the edict of abolition.
After the incident was leaked, Wu Zetian ran to question Tang Gaozong, and as a result, Tang Gaozong also lightly said "Shangguanyi taught me" and cleared himself of his responsibility and sold Shangguanyi, which directly led to Shangguanyi being killed.
After this incident, Emperor Gaozong of Tang no longer tried to deprive Wu Zetian of his power, and officially let Wu Zetian "obey the government", and began a new situation of "two holy dynasties" to jointly handle state affairs.
Before Emperor Gaozong of Tang died, he also issued an edict that "those who are undecided in major matters of the military state shall be punished by the Queen of Heaven."
Song Zhenzong's behavior is exactly the same as Tang Gaozong, both rely on his wife to help deal with political affairs after being seriously ill, his wife manages more things, and the husband is dissatisfied, and wants to regain power, but failed, and put all the responsibility on the courtier, making the courtier unlucky, and finally, he still gave power to his wife.
For the later Song Zhenzong, he still lived himself as Emperor Gaozong of Tang when he had the same historical events to learn from.
Fortunately, Wu Zetian later became emperor, and Liu E was only the empress dowager until her death.
References: "History of Song", "Continuation of Zhizhi Tongjian"