this novel is healthy

Chapter 1592 Murder

In addition to using her own sisters and even nieces to please her man, Wu Meiniang also did many unimaginable things in the later period in order to maintain her own rights.

The most criticized of these was the killing of members of the Li Tang royal family. Not to mention those members of the Li Tang royal family who directly rebelled after Wu Zetian became emperor. Their deaths were indeed deserved. The most innocent were actually Li Zhi's unfortunate sons.

Wu Meiniang was famous for killing her own husband and son.

Li Zhi had a total of 8 sons, namely the eldest Li Zhong, the second Li Xiao, the third Li Shangjin, the fourth Li Sujie, the fifth Li Hong, the sixth Li Xian, the seventh Li Xian, and the eighth Li Dan.

Among these eight sons, the first four were born to Li Zhi and other women, and the last four were all born to him and Wu Meiniang.

In just a few years before Wu Meiniang entered the palace, Li Zhi was able to give birth to four sons with three different women. After Wu Meiniang entered the palace, Li Zhi could only have sons with Wu Meiniang. You have to savor the details here.

However, none of the first four sons lived to see Wu Meiniang ascend the throne. The eldest son, Li Zhong, had originally been named crown prince, but the position was later given to Li Hong. Not long after, he was directly executed because he was involved in Shangguan Yi's case.

The history books record that the second brother, Li Xiao, died suddenly, but the time of his death was almost the same as Li Zhong's, so any discerning person could see how he died suddenly.

Before Wu Meiniang ascended the throne, the third and fourth sons were accused of treason by Lai Junchen and Zhou Xing, two cruel officials, and were killed one after another. Wu Meiniang simply killed all of her husband's other sons.

Did the four sons born to Wu Meiniang have a good life?

That is of course impossible. First of all, the eldest son Li Hong had been the crown prince for eighteen years. He had always had a very good reputation and was respected by all officials. He was also very kind and sympathetic to the people. He also compiled many classics. However, at the age of twenty-four, he died suddenly while offering sacrifices with Li Zhi.

Because Li Hong had always been weak and sickly, the history books did not believe that Wu Zetian killed Li Hong, but only believed that he had been weak since childhood and died of many illnesses. Sima Guang speculated in his Zizhi Tongjian that Wu Zetian might have poisoned Li Hong, but he had no evidence, so it could only be a guess.

But in modern times, evidence has emerged. The epitaph of Yan Zhuang, Li Hong's teacher in the Eastern Palace, was unearthed. Yan Zhuang also died suddenly shortly after Li Hong's death. On his epitaph, there is a meaningful sentence: "How could I have thought that the heavens were dark and that blessings and longevity were just a lie. The accumulated illness suddenly invaded, and I was entangled in the ant bed and met with disaster; the floating light suddenly disappeared, and I passed away with the crane board."

Among them, the ant bed and the crane board both mean poisonous substances in ancient books, but these two things were both buried with Li Hong, so the implicit metaphor becomes very clear.

Li Hong was poisoned to death by his biological mother, Wu Zetian.

After Li Hong died, the position of crown prince fell to the fifth son, Li Xian. Wu Meiniang was not a very good mother, but the sons she gave birth to were all very kind and righteous, which formed a sharp contrast with their mother. Li Xian was as kind as Li Hong, and was even better than Li Hong in terms of civil administration. He was hailed as the best crown prince in the entire Tang Dynasty. Li Xian had been regent three times, and he handled all state affairs in an orderly manner, which impressed Li Zhi and the court.

As a result, such an outstanding crown prince was suddenly found to have hundreds of sets of armor in his home, and then he was demoted to a commoner. He was first imprisoned in Chang'an, and later directly imprisoned in Sichuan.

If there is no conclusive evidence for Li Hong's death, and it is just the result of speculation based on many supporting evidences from later generations, then Li Xian's death has been confirmed from all aspects, with unified records in history books, and both human and material evidences. There is no doubt that he was killed by Wu Meiniang.

After Li Zhi's death, Li Dan succeeded to the throne, but was deposed by Wu Meiniang after only one month, and Li Xian was made emperor instead. It was at this time that Wu Meiniang ordered Qiu Shenqi to monitor Li Xian, who had been deposed and exiled to Sichuan, and to search his residence. Finally, she forced Li Xian to commit suicide.

But Li Xian refused to commit suicide, so Qiu Shenqi had no choice but to hang Li Xian on the wall and then disguise it as suicide.

Although Wu Meiniang performed a fake sacrifice and demoted Qiu Shenji after learning that her son had died...but the problem was that every few months, Qiu Shenji was not only reinstated, but was promoted three levels within a year and became a general.

You have to know that Qiu Shenji didn't kill any ministers or ordinary royal family members, but Wu Meiniang's own son. If Qiu Shenji killed Li Xian on his own initiative without Wu Meiniang's clear will, this would undoubtedly be revenge for killing his son. It would be fine if Wu Meiniang didn't take revenge, but she also promoted her enemy. Is she full of malice in her head?
So there is no doubt that Wu Meiniang was actually paying a huge sum of money for horse bones, telling the world clearly that I was the one who killed my son. I dared to kill even my own son for the sake of power. If any of you dare to stand in my way, I will kill you all without mercy!
Later, although Li Xian and Li Dan, the seventh and eighth sons, did not die, they were completely frightened by their mother. From then on, they had a huge fear of the throne and lived in the shadow of their own mother all their lives. Even after Wu Meiniang died, they were still trembling with fear, so in the end, even sitting on the throne became a huge joke.

Another one died from poisoning by his wife and daughter.

So the question is, why did Wu Meiniang poison her two biological sons? Was she born vicious and just liked to kill her sons for fun?

That's not the case, otherwise why didn't Wu Meiniang kill her remaining two sons as well? To put it bluntly, Li Hong and Li Xian were stumbling blocks on Wu Meiniang's road to power, and they must die.

This has to do with the origin of Wu Meiniang's power.

Wu Mei Niang and Li Zhi were actually a pair of partners in power. At the beginning, Li Zhi used the deposed empress to destroy Zhangsun Wuji's party and completely regained the power that belonged to the emperor. However, Li Zhi was born with some physical problems and suffered from wind vertigo, which is what we call epilepsy in modern society.

Frequent headaches, blindness, palpitations and shortness of breath, and even unexplained comas, etc. Obviously, this physical condition made it impossible for him to be a good emperor, let alone handle daily government affairs. Therefore, Li Zhi actually needed a qualified prime minister to help him handle these daily tasks.

(End of this chapter)