Li Zhi was lying on the bed. He closed his eyes tiredly and relaxed his body. The crescent moon outside the window was like a hook, like a sharp knife. The moonlight passed through the fine silk curtains and reflected on Li Zhi's elegant face. Half of it was bright and half of it was dark. .
In a daze, Li Zhi felt that he was in a maze and could not find a way out. While he was in shock and doubt, he saw a woman standing in front of her, with a hanging bell hanging from her waist, luxurious clothes, and a veil on her face. Li Zhi stopped and asked, "Who are you? Do you know where this is?"
"Brother Ninth, you can't recognize me anymore?" The woman chuckled twice, as gloomily as a ghost's voice.
"Brother Ninth? Who are you?"
"Haha!" The woman laughed twice, lifted the veil, and revealed her face: "Brother Ninth is now the emperor, so he must have forgotten about my sister!"
"Seventeenth sister? Why is it you?" Li Zhi trembled: "You are not, haven't you already -"
"You've already given me death, haven't you?" The woman sneered: "Brother Ninth, are you surprised? There will be many people here who want to see you in the future. There is one over there, look!"
Li Zhi took a look and saw a handsome young man standing to his right. He had eyebrows on his temples and a high nose. He was very heroic and looked at Li Zhi coldly. Li Zhi shuddered: "Third brother, why are you here?"
"I'm not the only one here!" The noble young master sneered: "Seventh sister, Xiangyang County Duke, and Lu Guogong are also here."
"This, this -" Li Zhi had already waved his hands: "What you are doing is not what I want. However, Uncle Yuan wants to kill you, so I have no choice!"
"Changsun Wuji?" The noble young master smiled and said: "Pheasant slave, you are still the same, it doesn't matter, Changsun Wuji is also here, let you two nephews and uncles explain it clearly for themselves!"
After that, he pulled out a person from behind. He had a white face, long beard, and a majestic expression. It was Changsun Wuji. Without waiting for Li Zhi to ask, he grabbed Li Zhi's arm and shouted: "Pheasant slave, I will help you ascend the throne and become the emperor." , but you forced me to hang myself and exiled my descendants to Lingnan. Have you forgotten what the late emperor said to you before he died?"
"Uncle Yuan, no, all this is the Queen's doing, not my intention!" Li Zhi was shocked, and quickly threw away his arms and ran away, but was blocked by the woman and the noble prince, and shadowy people surrounded him. , all tugged on Li Zhi's clothes, Changsun Wuji had the loudest voice: "Pheasant slave, I want to go with you to see the late emperor and let him judge for you and me!"
"No, no, let me go, let me go!" Li Zhi suddenly sat up and realized that what he just said was nothing but a dream. He sat in silence for a while, then let out a long sigh, showing a look of extreme pain.
It turns out that the "Nineteenth Sister" in Cai Cai's dream is Princess Gaoyang, the 19th daughter of Emperor Taizong; the "Third Brother" is Emperor Taizong's third son, King Wu Li Ke; the Duke of Xiangyang is Chai Lingai, the son of Princess Pingyang, and Duke Lu is the son of Princess Pingyang at that time. The famous general Xue Wanche also married Li Shimin's daughter and sister respectively.
Changsun Wuji is the brother of Li Zhi's biological mother, the eldest grandson of Queen Empress, Li Zhi's direct uncle, and the auxiliary minister left to Li Zhi by Li Shimin. These people had all been convicted and died at that time, and except for Changsun Wuji, the reason for the death of the rest of them was the Fang Yiai rebellion that broke out shortly after Li Zhi ascended the throne.
At the beginning of the fourth year of Yonghui (653), Princess Gaoyang sued her husband Fang Yiai's brother Fang Yizhi for being rude to her. Fang Yizhi was the eldest son of Fang Xuanling, the famous Prime Minister of Zhenguan, and inherited the title of his father Liang Guogong. .
Since the princess was involved, Li Zhi asked Changsun Wuji to hear the case. What is unexpected is that Changsun Wuji was actually involved in a shocking case - Princess Gaoyang and her husband's widow had contacted Xue Wanche (who married Princess Danyang, the fifteenth daughter of Emperor Gaozong) and Chai Lingwu (consort) who were at odds with Emperor Gaozong. , the second son of Huo Guogong Chai Shao, married Princess Baling, Taizong's seventh daughter), planned to launch a coup to depose Gaozong and install Jing Wang Li Yuanjing (Gaozu's sixth son, Taizong's sixth brother) as emperor.
Changsun Wuji took the opportunity to involve Li Ke (the third son of Li Shimin), the king of Wu, who had competed with Li Zhi for the crown prince. Li Yuanjing, Li Ke, Fang Yiai, Princess Gaoyang, Xue Wanche, Chai Lingwu, Princess Baling and others were all arrested. Killed by Jiangxia County Prince Li Daozong (Taichang Qing, Minister of Rites, Tejin), Prime Minister Yu Wenjie (Shi Zhong, Prince Zhan Shi), Anguo Gongzhi lost his ability (Consort Duwei, Zuo Xiaowei General), Qiao Guo Gong Chai Zhewei (the Protector of Anxi), Shangshu Fengyu Xue Wanbei and others were also exiled because they were implicated.
Both "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" and "New Book of Tang" believe that the case was so widely implicated that Changsun Wuji took the opportunity to attack political opponents and kill innocent people indiscriminately. For example, King Wu Li Ke had both civil and military talents and a high reputation. At first, Li Shimin also thought that he was like I intend to establish myself as a prince.
Changsun Wuji was deeply jealous of him, so he hinted at the main culprit Fang Yiai during the interrogation. Fang Yiai wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to avoid death, so he confessed to conspiring with Li Ke, and Changsun Wuji took the opportunity to execute Li Ke.
There is also Li Daozong, Prince of Jiangxia County, who participated in the campaigns against Liu Wuzhou, Wang Shichong, Eastern Turks, Tuyuhun, and Goguryeo during the founding of the People's Republic of China. He is an important general in the clan as famous as Li Xiaogong, Prince of Zhao County, and is highly regarded by the public because he has no relationship with his eldest grandson. Ji and Chu Suiliang had a bad relationship and were exiled, etc.
In "Zi Zhi Tong Jian Zhong", Sima Guang also used the words of Wu King Li Ke to scold: "Changsun Wuji is stealing authority and harming good people. The clan has a spirit and will be exterminated soon!" Li Ke's words became a prophecy, but A few years later, Changsun Wuji fell out of favor because he disagreed with Emperor Gaozong on deposing the queen. In the fourth year of Xianqing (659), he was falsely accused of conspiracy and hanged himself. His children were also sent to Lingnan.
Obviously, whether it was Fang Yiai's rebellion or the later Changsun Wuji's rebellion, the real situation was not as simple as described in the history books. There were many ulterior secrets hidden behind them, and Tang Gaozong Li Zhi was undoubtedly one of these. The secret insider and the biggest beneficiary.
Different from the autocratic imperial power in modern times (i.e., the Ming and Qing Dynasties) that readers are more familiar with, the imperial power in the early Tang Dynasty, which had just entered the medieval era, was much weaker: there was no mature imperial examination system, and the scope for the imperial power to select civil servants was very small; the manor-based economy Under the situation, the noble families had a strong economic foundation and political capital, and the imperial power had to make certain concessions to them; before they had time to establish special agencies such as the Imperial Guard and the Imperial City Department, they had to use cruel officials with great side effects. Means to attack and eliminate dissidents, etc.
The manifestation of this is that there were so many palace coups throughout the Tang Dynasty that few emperors succeeded to the throne through normal means. After the Anshi Rebellion, many emperors became puppets of domestic slaves.
