Spoiling History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

[In 697, although the war continued in the north, Wu Zetian once again met the true love of her life.

This true love was introduced by my daughter Princess Taiping.

Although when we talk about Princess Taiping now, we often talk about her wide range of male favors, but in fact everyone goes through a process of change.

Around 680, Li Zhi granted the fifteen-year-old Princess Taiping the right to choose her own consort.

After much picking and choosing, she finally fell in love with Xue Shao, the second son of Princess Chengyang, and they officially got married the following year. During this marriage, Princess Taiping kept her peace and no rumors were spread.

It was Wu Zetian who was dissatisfied with the marriage, and the reason was also outrageous: she said that the two wives of Xue Shao's brother, Xue 𫖮, Xiao and Cheng, were from humble backgrounds and were disgraceful to the family, so it was better to divorce them.

The Xue family were all stunned. They asked someone to mediate and said that Xiao was born in Lanlingxiao and it was not an insult to the family. Finally, Wu Zetian was allowed to let go of the matter on the surface.

Perhaps because of this incident, Li Zhen and Li Chong's father and son later rebelled against Wu, and Xue 𫖮 was also involved.

After being defeated and captured, Wu Zetian did not hesitate to behead Xue Shao, and arrested Xue Shao in the name of being implicated and sentenced him to a hundred sticks. He forgot to release him and starved him to death in prison.

Princess Taiping and Xue Shao's fourth child was still in infancy when Xue Shao died. As compensation, Princess Taiping's food allowance was increased to 1,200 households.

However, it was already on the eve of changing the country's title. In order to prevent Princess Taiping from being implicated by cruel officials, Wu Zetian once again made the decision to remarry her to the Wu family.

The old lady strongly recommended Wu Chengsi and Wu Fengxian, but Princess Taiping thought he was too old and eventually married Wu Youji.

After this marriage, Princess Taiping began to choose male favorites widely, and had many contacts with court officials. Finally, when her mother was unhappy, she introduced Zhang Changzong, the leading male favorite in the palace, to the old lady, and stepped on Wu Zhou's broken car downhill again. Kicked the accelerator.

It should be emphasized that this handsome man is called Zhang Changzong, not the warlord Zhang Zongchang who wrote a poem in modern times: The cannons are firing, blasting his mother, and the powerful seas are returning home.

I want to ask, how long does it take to go from making a living by selling your face to becoming powerful and moving the world?

Zhang Changzong replied: Half a month is enough.

This beautiful man made the old lady very satisfied just by the first meeting. On the day of the meeting, he was appointed as General Yunhui, and he exercised the duties of Zuo Qianniu Guards Zhonglang General and took charge of the imperial palace.

Zhang Changzong was also very satisfied and told the old lady: My brother's appearance is far better than mine. He is also good at refining medicine and has extraordinary abilities. Wu Zetian will summon him again immediately.

Zhang Yizhi also conferred the title of official Wei Shaoqing on the spot, and was rewarded with a house, servants, oxen, horses, camels, and property.

A few days later, Dr. Zhang Changzong, Jia Yinqing Guanglu, participated in the affairs of the court, and posthumously recognized his father as the governor of Xiangzhou, and his mother, Weishi Zang, as the dowager. Every day, a female official in the palace asked about daily life.

In order to please the old lady, the Wu family also had to look at her face, rushing to lead her horse and hand her a whip, and even named the two brothers Wulang and Liulang respectively.

Wu Zetian was overjoyed and promoted Zhang Changzong's Yousanqi Changshi again. This official position was no longer a casual official from Emperor Gaozong onwards, but was an official subordinate to the third rank of provincial minister, second only to the prime minister.

It only took less than half a month for the Zhang brothers to go from being Baishen to serving as regular servants in the province, rising to the twenty-fifth level to become prime ministers. It was a treatment that An Lushan would have envied.

These two brothers were the first to be killed in the name of Qing Junzi during the Shenlong Coup.

From this perspective, the historical significance of the Zhang brothers is probably that they finally united the anti-military factions. 】

True love... Zhang Fei thought about these two words that were said by later generations, and then muttered with some reaction:

We short-lived people are really not as good at enjoying themselves as old ladies.

It is not difficult to calculate this. As mentioned before, the old lady was in her eighties at the time of the Shenlong Coup.

So extrapolating back, he was at least seventy-five years old at this time.

Look at this house again, there is no one who can live to be seventy...

Kong Ming's smile suddenly froze when he looked at Zhang Fei's pure, unadulterated gaze.

This gaze then swept over Lu Su, Fazheng, and Pang Tong in sequence.

Then the whole hall heard Zhang Fei whispering:

Commander Zhuge has already lived a long life.

Seeing the different expressions of several think tanks, Liu Bei waved his hands helplessly:

Just bury it.

After another lesson, Liu Bei rubbed his slightly sore palms and sighed:

This mother really doesn't want her daughter to worry.

However, this picture of Zongchang looks quite noble to the emperor, which is why it is so poetic and popular.

The matter of royal marriage of daughters is not news. Those who marry princesses are not only heroes like Changping Marquis, but also like Han Guang who participated in rebellion and was punished.

But it is indeed rare for someone to find fault with the royal family despite their love after marriage. Liu Bei could only express sympathy for Xue Shao.

As for this poem, although it is a bit vulgar, it reminds Liu Bei of the power of the trial-produced gunpowder he saw in Chengdu:

It's no wonder that someone with overwhelming power can sigh like this.

The gunpowder trial production at Chengdu Qingyunguan can be said to be in an orderly manner, but the progress of the artillery production is quite slow.

On the one hand, it is considered that Chengdu is not a place to stay for a long time, and on the other hand, compared to defeating the enemy in a battle formation, this object is more beneficial for opening the mountains of Yizhou.

The first iron cannon that was trial-produced after the gunpowder was ready exploded violently. After seeing it, Liu Bei realized that it was not easy to trial-produce the cannon.

Kong Ming thought: Gold and iron can't stop the power of gunpowder, how about mountains and rocks?

After changing his direction, Liu Bei had to admit that this thing was a sharp weapon for digging mountains, building roads, and extracting minerals.

After all, although Yizhou has a large population, if they want to obtain coal, iron, copper ore and other things from the mountains, they also have to take care of farming, and these people will be stretched thin.

Seeing this poem today, Liu Bei's heart felt itchy again.

Imagine that when he left Tongguan in the west and Cao Cao refused, he directly pulled out an artillery piece and argued with the Cao thief who was the hero...

Isn’t it beautiful?

Kong Ming didn't know what was going on in Liu Bei's mind, but after hearing his lord's sigh, he seriously affirmed:

Gunpowder is a weapon that can destroy millions of enemies when advancing, and can stabilize a country and make the people live and work in peace and contentment when retreating. It is a gentleman's sharp weapon.

He knew the hidden dangers of this thing, but if he gave up eating because of choking, it would definitely not be the behavior of a wise man.

Therefore, after Guanzhong was settled, Kongming also visited around Chang'an, hoping to find a place to house a gunpowder workshop and establish a system for the safe preparation of gunpowder.

Pang Tong, who was standing by, also agreed with his face. If this thing is managed well, the fire of the Three Rebellions of Yanhan will surely burn extremely brightly.

But if it falls into Xiao Xiao's hands accidentally, it will probably add fuel to the current troubled times.

…

Changsun Wuji carefully calculated, if so, Princess Taiping can be regarded as a bloodline of the Changsun family.

But... Changsun Wuji sighed, why would a person who was ordered to hang himself think about these things?

How dare you kill someone for plotting against someone else?

However, seeing His Majesty's brows tightening at this moment, Changsun Wuji felt a little relieved inexplicably.

At the same time, there is also a trace of disgust for the Zhang brothers.

After all, he had done his best in this world, and as a result, he was used for such wanton pleasure, and he could feel a little bit of His Majesty's mood.

Seeing a face-seller relying on people of his grandmother's generation, treating etiquette and laws as nothing, and gaining power in just over ten days, Changsun Wuji's experience can be described in two words: outrageous.

Wei Zheng's lips were trembling a little, and Changsun Wuji knew without even thinking that he was probably talking about the imbalance of yin and yang and the transposition of heaven and earth.

Even Fang and Du over there looked a little distracted, and Changsun Wuji expressed his understanding.

After all, think about Wang Xuance, who traveled far and wide before. His achievements in the annals of later generations took him one year to achieve, and he was only promoted to the fifth level.

It is inevitably depressing in comparison.

However, Changsun Wuji was also a little curious because of this. Even after the rebellion, the world was still in chaos. How could the legacy of Zhenguan be so stable?

[In the same year that the Zhang brothers opened the eyes of the whole world, Lai Junchen fell.

As a famous cruel leader during the Wu Zhou Dynasty, there was nothing he could do about Lai Junchen's downfall.

After all, it has been six years since Wu Zhou officially changed his name. For such a cruel official, all the merits that can be earned are exhausted. If the vicious dog does not bite, the owner will easily suspect that he is old.

Lai Junchen gritted his teeth, and after carefully pondering his master's thoughts, he decided to strive for a background where he could retire safely:

Luo sued the kings of the Wu family and Princess Taiping, falsely accusing the emperor's heirs and the King of Luling of being complicit in rebelling against Nanbei Ya.

To put it simply, the Wu family and the Li family were thrown into the same pot. Under the circumstances at that time, it was really difficult to see yourself clearly. After all, even the old lady wanted to tease the Wu family and give people a glimmer of hope. When you came up, you just wanted to play and drink. how much?

The result was not too surprising. Before Lai Junchen could make up his mind about the crime, the kings of the Wu family and Princess Taiping worked together to put Lai Junchen in jail without any explanation.

Then the juniors went to the old lady to cry. The final thing can be said to be natural. Lai Junchen was killed by Empress Wu.

After all, since ancient times, cruel officials have been essentially the emperor's minions. Wu Zetian can push out a dozen or so noble ministers at any time when she needs them, and she can easily crush them to death when she doesn't need them.

After the death of Junchen and the celebration in Chang'an, Di Renjie, who was comforting the people in Weizhou, was summoned to Beijing by the old lady:

Wu Zhou has decided to let you be the prime minister.

Although Wu Zetian had promised to demote Di Renjie to Pengze before, the old lady's great nephew Wu Fengxian still requested orders to kill Di Renjie many times, but was refused.

It was not until the Khitan rebellion that Di Renjie was again employed as the governor of Weizhou to pacify the refugees and protect people's livelihood. Di Renjie did such an impressive job that a monument was erected in his honor at the local level.

After entering Beijing, Di Renjie wrote a long memorial to the old lady in the posture of prime minister, with very sincere words.

The main idea is just one: we should shrink our strategy.

In fact, it's no wonder. After all, anyone with a discerning eye can see that military expenditures have been rising steadily from Taizong to Gaozong.

It was even more remarkable during the Wu and Zhou Dynasties. Not to mention the difficulty of pacifying the Khitans, the defeat of Tianmenling made the Bohai Kingdom de facto independent and completely cut off the Liaodong Corridor. The Andong Protectorate was already in name only, so it would be better to abolish it. The money saved will be used to appease the people of Hebei.

The meaning behind the words is the same, sister, this is not the time for Zhenguan. 】