Ancient emperors had three palaces and six courts, and Wu Zetian, as the only female emperor in Chinese history, was no exception, but she raised male pets, and these male pets were not for recreation, and people only knew that she played a big game of chess eight years later. What's going on? Let's take a look.
Wu Zetian's male favorite
Speaking of the only female emperor in history, in addition to her political talents, what people talk about the most is her private life. It is rumored that Wu Zetian raised 3,000 noodles in his later years, but the most famous of them are the two brothers Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi. And they are famous not only because of their good looks, but because of their ambition.
Wu Zetian accepted them as male favorites at the age of 76, one of them is good at music and rhythm, the other is good at singing and dancing, and they can often coax Wu Zetian to their hearts, Wu Zetian often takes them to drink and have fun, and there is a tendency to indulge in it.
Although the ministers of the imperial court were dissatisfied with this, they still chose to turn a blind eye. But what I didn't expect was that as the two Zhang brothers became more and more favored, their ambitions became bigger and bigger, wanting to gain more power, and even meddle in court affairs.
Wu Zetian also chose to connive at this, not only did she not punish the two Zhang brothers, but directly named them as national princes and gave them real power, which completely angered the ministers.
However, Wu Zetian has always had a clear distinction between public and private, even if he favors a male pet again, he will not let them interfere in political affairs, why is there an exception this time?
In fact, this is a big game of chess played by her, that is, she deliberately borrowed the hands of two people to cause chaos. But why would she do it? That's where she's so smart.
The Transmission Puzzle
Since she ascended the throne, she has been worried about one thing, who will leave the throne after her death, whether it will be returned to the Li family or passed on to the Wu family. On one side is her son Li Xian, and on the other side is her nephew Wu Sansi, which makes her very annoyed.
In addition to her, the ministers in the court were also worried about this issue, they were naturally on the side of the Li family, but the martial family did not agree, and the two sides fought for a long time in the open and in the dark.
Wu Zetian is also very embarrassed, if it is passed on to his son, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction in the family, and once the throne returns to the Li family, the Wu family may be difficult to preserve, and she can't let the family be destroyed in her own hands.
But if it is passed on to Wu Sansi, it will definitely not be able to pass the level of civil and military officials and ordinary people, and this country is the Li family's country, and the Li family still has a lot of prestige in the court and the people. So what to do?
After thinking about it, she finally found her confidant Di Renjie, who did not answer her question directly, but asked her son or nephew which was more important, and then said, "If Your Majesty passes the throne to your nephew, then after a hundred years, there must be no place for Your Majesty in the temple." ”
After hearing this, Wu Zetian suddenly became enlightened and made a decision, she ordered Li Xian to be transferred back to Chang'an immediately, and then restored his position as the crown prince. In fact, she already had the answer in her heart, she herself was more partial to her son, and returning the throne to the Li family was also conducive to the stability of the court, Di Renjie's words gave her a shot of strength and made her make up her mind.
However, the problem of the throne was solved, and new problems followed, and after Li Xian's position as crown prince was restored, the samurai family began to be dissatisfied, and constantly stumbled Li Xian, which would undoubtedly cause Li Xian's dissatisfaction. Wu Zetian was worried that the contradictions between them would become deeper and deeper, and once Li Xian succeeded to the throne, then the Wu family would inevitably be targeted.
The reason for raising a male pet
In order to keep the martial family, Wu Zetian decided to find a way to make the two families stand on the same camp, but it was not easy. She first adopted the method of marriage, married her favorite daughter Princess Taiping to Wu Youji, and then took the initiative to marry Li Xian's daughter, and then let Li marry several daughters of the martial family, and let them swear in front of them that the two families would never kill each other.
However, this did not completely reassure her, and in order to make the two families more closely connected, she came up with an idea, that is, to raise a male pet. It just so happened that she had just gotten the Zhang brothers from her daughter, and Erzhang still had great ambitions, which happened to be the best candidate to be a chess piece. So she took advantage of this to plan a big show.
Wu Zetian was very indulgent to the Zhang brothers, and the Zhang brothers were still a little afraid at first, but under Wu Zetian's step-by-step connivance, they gradually became rampant and began to interfere in the affairs of the court intentionally or unintentionally, which happened to be in line with Wu Zetian's intentions.
When they found out that Wu Zetian was not to blame, they became emboldened and acted more and more rampantly. Seeing this, Wu Zetian took advantage of the situation and pushed them to a high position.
The Zhang brothers were very happy, because many ministers in the DPRK and China strongly opposed their interference in politics, so they began to cultivate their own forces, and set up pavilions everywhere to recruit the world's wise men, all of which were seen by Wu Zetian, in addition to wanting to repair the relationship between the two sides, Wu Zetian also wanted to use the Zhang brothers to balance the strength of the two sides.
As this force grew bigger and bigger, both the Wu family and the Li family felt threatened, they didn't expect that two male favorites who couldn't get on the stage would have so much power and turn the court upside down.
In order to control the situation and prevent the Zhang brothers from continuing to expand their power, they decided to join forces. They secretly collected evidence of the Zhang brothers' corruption, and then jointly wrote a letter demanding that Wu Zetian punish them.
But what he didn't expect was that Wu Zetian didn't pay attention to these evidences, but tried every means to keep them. This shocked the Li clan and the people of the martial family.
And after the Zhang brothers got Wu Zetian's connivance, they intensified even more. In this regard, the Li family and the Wu family were very anxious, and they conspired again to find out how to pull the two off the horse.
But what they didn't expect was that the eyes of the Zhang family were everywhere, and the content of the conspiracy soon reached their ears, so the two preemptively told Wu Zetian about it.
Wu Zetian was very angry after hearing this, she still had to keep the Zhang family to contain the Li family and the Wu family, naturally she couldn't let them end so early, so she was ruthless.
I have to say that Wu Zetian is indeed a ruthless person, and in order to play this game of chess, he directly executed his grandson and niece. This move completely angered the two families. Since then, whether it is the Li family, the Wu family, or the ministers of the court, they have all targeted the Zhang brothers. The contradiction between the two families has naturally been eliminated.
finale
I have to say that Wu Zetian's plan is really clever, and things have indeed been developing according to her plan. Eight years later, Li Xian couldn't bear it anymore, and finally led his troops to surround the palace, they broke into Wu Zetian's bedroom, when Wu Zetian was recuperating from his illness, and the Zhang brothers were serving on the side, Li Xian broke into the palace and directly killed the two.
And Wu Zetian just watched all this indifferently, and after the matter was over, she handed over the throne, and Li Xian finally ascended the throne. And after Li Xian ascended the throne, he did not attack the Wu clan as she expected. So in the end, it seems that she lost, but in fact she is the real winner.