On November 11, 561, Gao Zhan succeeded to the throne in Nangong and changed his name to Taining, becoming the fourth emperor in the history of Northern Qi and Emperor Wucheng of Northern Qi.
In the second year, that is, in the first month of 562, Gao Zhan made his concubine Hu as the queen, but Gao Zhan did not favor this queen very much, but often ran into the palace of another queen to spend the night.
This queen is the queen of Gao Yang, the founding emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Li Zu'e is a veritable noble daughter of a family, born in Zhao County Li, his father is Li Xizong, and his mother is Cui Youfei who was born in Boling Cui's family, and Li Zu'e himself is also "Rongde is very beautiful", and was married to his second son, Gao Yang, the prince of Taiyuan County.
Li Zu'e and Gao Yang, in terms of identity, are indeed a good match, but in terms of appearance, they are not very right, Li Zu'e is very beautiful, and she is the kind of amazing beauty, it can be seen from the three brothers Gao Cheng, Gao Yang and Gao Zhan who are all fascinated by Li Zu'e.
According to the records of "Northern History" and "Northern Qi Book", Gao Yang is "ugly", specifically "long, black, with big cheeks and heavy ankles." ”
If Gao Yang is really like this, there is a sense of déjà vu between the two of them that a beauty is a beast, and Gao Yang's temper is a little weird, especially when his brother Gao Cheng is still alive, Gao Yang is very taciturn, and is often ridiculed by his brothers, especially Gao Cheng, who looks down on Gao Yang very much, and even covets Li Zu'e, but fortunately, it is not really good, and Gao Yang has always been obscure.
Until Gao Cheng was assassinated by a cook on the eve of usurping the Eastern Wei regime, Gao Yang inherited his father's and brother's inheritance and became the de facto controller of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and then quickly usurped the Eastern Wei regime and established the Northern Qi Dynasty.
After Gao Yang became emperor, the ministers were reluctant to let Li Zu'e be the queen, because Li Zu'e was Han, and Yang Su asked to follow the old practice of the Han and Wei dynasties to approve of making Li Zu'e, Gao Yang's wife, the queen.
No matter what the ministers say, Gao Yang never thought of letting someone else be the queen, and directly made Li Zu'e the queen, which shows that Gao Yang is really good to Li Zu'e, and the relationship between husband and wife is good, in fact, we can see from Gao Yang's performance during his reign that he is special enough for Li Zu'e.
Because Gao Yang is very crazy and criticized, he was tyrannical and indiscriminate in the late period of his reign, killing people at every turn, and for the concubines in the harem, Gao Yang also said that he would beat and scold, and he was a veritable emperor of domestic violence, he often whipped the concubines and even killed them directly.
Here is a simple matter, Gao Yang once had a favorite concubine Xue, and the Xue family was taken into the house by Gao Yue, the king of Qinghe County, before becoming Gao Yang's concubine.
When Gao Yang knew about this, he directly gave Gao Yue wine, and then continued to pamper Xue, and then after a long time, Gao Yang suddenly remembered this incident again, killed Xue for no reason, and hid Xue's head in his arms to participate in the banquet, at the banquet, Xue's head was still on the plate, and Xue's hip bone was made into a pipa to play, which frightened the ministers and did not dare to come out.
From this incident, we can see that Gao Yang is very crazy, and he scolds those concubines in the harem, and most of the time there is no reason, purely because he wants to beat and scold, but these concubines do not include Li Zu'e.
Gao Yang has always loved and respected Li Zu'e, and the Book of Northern Qi recorded: "The emperor is good at beating the concubines, and even there are murderers, but the queen pays exclusive respect." ”
This kind of salute has never been received even by Gao Yang's mother Lou Zhaojun and Li Zu'e's mother Cui's, Gao Yang once injured Lou Zhaojun after he was drunk, and once he ran to Li Zu'e's mother's house and shot Li Zu'e's mother Cui Shi with an arrow, scolding while shooting. When he was done, he beat him with a horsewhip more than 100 times before leaving.
Maybe Gao Yangli is a favorite wife, at least he has always been very respectful to Li Zu'e during his reign, judging from Gao Yang's crazy character, it is rare to be able to do this.
Gao Yang has been the emperor for ten years, Li Zu'e has been the queen for ten years, and Li Zu'e gave birth to two sons and a daughter for Gao Yang: Gao Yin, the abolished emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Gao Shaode, the king of Taiyuan in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and Gao Baode, the princess of Changle County in the Northern Qi Dynasty.
In 559, Gao Yang was hollowed out by wine, and died violently at the age of 34, after Gao Yang's death, his son Gao Yin succeeded to the throne, and Li Zu'e was respected as the empress dowager, but she also had the empress dowager Lou Zhaojun above her.
After Gao Yin succeeded to the throne, he supported Yang Yu to vigorously promote reforms and strengthen imperial power, but there were irreconcilable contradictions with his uncles, so that Gao Yin's two uncles (Gao Yan and Gao Zhan) met with Gao Yin's soldiers, and Lou Zhaojun stood up to protect his son, saying: "How can my mother and son be considered by the old woman of Han." ”
So Gao Yin, who was the emperor for less than a year, was deposed as the king of Jinan by his grandmother Lou Zhaojun, and Gao Yan became the new emperor of Northern Qi, and a year later (561), Gao Yan sent someone to kill his nephew Gao Yin, and Li Zu'e, the empress dowager, was moved to Zhaoxin Palace and was titled Empress Zhaoxin.
After entering the Zhaoxin Palace to live, although most of the freedom was gone, but in the end life was not bad, Gao Yan did not embarrass this sister-in-law, but Gao Yan's time as emperor was too short, and he fell from a horse and died seriously injured after only two years as an emperor.
Before Gao Yan died, in order to protect his young son, in order not to repeat history, he set up his younger brother Gao Zhan as his heir, and after Gao Zhan succeeded to the throne, he set up his wife Hu as the queen, but what he was really infatuated with was Empress Li Zu'e in Zhaoxin Palace.
So he often went to Zhaoxin Palace to find Li Zu'e, at first Li Zu'e was unwilling, after all, the two were the relationship between the brother-in-law and the widowed sister-in-law, Li Zu'e was ashamed, but Gao Yanggui was the emperor, and there were ways to make Li Zu'e obey.
He said directly to Li Zu'e: "If you don't agree, I will kill your son." ”
Li Zu'e originally had two sons, of which Gao Yin had been killed by Gao Yan, and there was only one Taiyuan king Gao Shaode, Li Zu'e said that she couldn't let Gao Shaode be killed again, so she could only choose to obey Gao Zhan.
Since then, Gao Zhan has been running to Zhaoxin Palace almost every night, and after a long time, Li Zu'e became pregnant, she didn't want this child, but with Gao Zhan here, she couldn't do anything, she could only watch her belly grow bigger day by day.
For a mother, giving birth to a life is a very sacred thing, there is a sense of surprise that the belly changes day by day, but Li Zu'e does not, all she feels is humiliation and fear, it is not a glorious thing between her and Gao Zhan, and now she is pregnant again, and her pregnant belly is becoming more and more unable to hide, she is unwilling to let others see it, especially Gao Shaode.
Therefore, she can only close the door and refuse others to enter Zhaoxin Palace, but in fact, pregnancy, especially after a big belly, is difficult to hide in the palace, and Li Zu'e's pregnant belly has become an open secret.
Once, Gao Shaode went to visit Li Zu'e, but was blocked. Gao Shaode was annoyed and shouted loudly: "Don't you know that my son doesn't know that my mother's belly is big, so I don't want to see my son." ”
Li Zu'e was ashamed to hear it inside, and still refused to see her son, so she could only cry silently inside, and a few months later, Li Zu'e "gave birth to a daughter and did not lift it", what is not lifting? This baby girl was probably strangled to death by Li Zu'e directly.
Gao Zhan became angry directly after he found out, he never thought that Li Zu'e would directly kill his daughter, and in a fit of anger, he mentioned the big knife and came to Li Zu'e, and asked Gao Shaode to be called to Zhaoxin Palace, and then said to Li Zu'e: "You killed my daughter, why didn't I kill your son?"
After speaking, he hacked Gao Shaode to death with a knife, even so, Gao Zhan still felt angry, he looked at Li Zu'e who was crying bitterly, directly stripped Li Zu'e's clothes, and then whipped him.
The whip hit Li Zu'e's body at once, the flesh and blood of the beating were blurred, Li Zu'e shouted and cried in pain, Gao Zhan was still indifferent, until he had enough, Gao Zhan ordered someone to put the dying Li Zu'e in a silk bag, the blood directly soaked the silk bag, Gao Zhan took a look and ordered someone to throw it into the ditch to soak.
After a long time, Li Zu'e finally woke up, and Gao Zhan ordered someone to send Li Zu'e to Miaosheng Temple in an ox cart, and Li Zu'e became a nun from then on.
This may be the best place for the disheartened Li Zu'e, at least the soul can be quiet, and later the Northern Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Northern Qi, and Li Zu'e was also captured in Chang'an.
It was not until Yang Jian usurped Zhou Lisui that Li Zu'e finally returned to her hometown of Zhao County, and time passed, and she returned to the original place, and since then she has disappeared in the long river of history.