In ancient times, a coup d'état may have been the most feared existence of a regime and its rulers, because once a coup d'état is successful, it means a change of regime and a change of rulers, and generally speaking, no previous ruler has ended.
Some coups succeed and others fail, so how should a successful military coup be carried out in ancient times? Is it better to have as many people as possible, or to have as much power as possible?
In fact, if you want to implement a successful military coup in ancient times, you really don't need too many people to participate, and you don't need to have too much power on the implementer.
The main perpetrators of the Shenlong coup d'état were Zhang Khan Zhi, Cui Xuanwei, Huan Yanfan, Jing Hui, and Yuan Nuji, as well as part of the Li Tang clan. In the entire coup, Zhang Khan Zhizhi was the main organizer and planner, played a key role, and played a perfect match with Li Dan.
First of all, they all tried their best to control the size of the entire coup team, kept the news of the coup d'état within a small range, and kept it strictly confidential, and the size of the entire coup d'état was also very small, and they were very sincere, and the main force was hundreds of private soldiers raised by Li Dan privately. Although the army is small, it is very capable of fighting, and the degree of loyalty is very high, such a force can play the role of a quick knife.
Secondly, they tried their best to fight for the name of righteousness, although Li Dan was the son of Li Tang clan and Wu Zetian, but in order to better control the court situation, the coup team chose to support the power of the person is the crown prince Li Xian, which was planned by them from the beginning, because the restoration of the crown prince Li Xian under the banner of supporting the crown prince Li Xian can reduce the possible resistance to the greatest extent possible, because Li Xian was previously canonized as the crown prince of Wu Zhou, and it is reasonable for Wu Zetian to act as the agent of the state when Wu Zetian retired, and there is still an article to be written here, because Li Xian succeeded to the throne as the prince of Wu Zhou, but he is also the son of Tang Gaozong, which means that he can calmly restore the name of Li Tang Guo, and it is in accordance with legal principles and Taoism, and opponents cannot find any reason to block it.
Then, their entire specific coup operation is also very remarkable, full of details. As soon as they took action, they had only one goal, which was to seize control of the palace as soon as possible, control Wu Zetian, cut his wings, and immediately announce Li Xian's succession.
Therefore, they acted very quickly and resolutely, even when Li Xian wanted to retreat when he was about to go into battle. The coup team had a clear division of labor, and after leading the troops to rush into the palace, they quickly killed Wu Zetian's two male favorites who controlled the court situation, and after controlling Wu Zetian, he immediately sent him to Shangyang Palace to be strictly guarded, and then immediately announced that Li Xian was reinstated and completely occupied the righteousness.
This set of combination punches made Wu Zetian's power collapse quickly, and also allowed the coup d'état to pull together more forces, resulting in an established fact. The coup team after occupying the Great Righteous became the most orthodox ruler of the empire, with military control and political power in their hands, and those who were originally resisting and opposing either bowed their heads and accepted their fate, or they had to face the regular army from the entire empire and meet the iron fist.
And after the coup was successful, the operation of the coup team was also very good, although they deposed Wu Zetian, but did not hurt her, because even if Wu Zetian was tyrannical, he was also the mother of Li Dan, Li Xian and many other Li Tang clans, killing her belonged to killing mothers and kings, in ancient times when filial piety was emphasized, the coup team did not say that it killed Wu Zetian, even if it only hurt her, it would cause an uproar, so that the entire coup team died instantly, not only lost the righteousness, but also broke the coup team, which everyone does not want to see.
Therefore, after the coup was successful, the coup team did not condemn Wu Zetian at all, but only transferred him to Shangyang Palace, where the empress dowager should live, to house arrest, so as to gag the mouths of people all over the world. At this point, the whole Shenlong coup can be regarded as settled.