Tang Dynasty, my wife Wu Zetian

Chapter 19: Set the capital in Luoyang?

After a while, Li Zhi smelled the fragrance and looked up, only to see Wu Meiniang standing in front of him.

"Everyone, it's time to eat." She said with a sweet smile.

After not seeing her for a long time, she changed into a purple corset dress, showing off her beautiful figure.

Li Zhi looked at her carefully dressed appearance and couldn't help but feel moved. He smiled and said, "It's good that you came. I'm a little hungry."

Wu Meiniang picked up the medicinal soup and said softly, "Everyone, this is the medicinal soup I personally prepared for you. It contains ginseng, ophiopogon japonicus, schisandra chinensis and other nourishing ingredients. It can replenish qi and nourish the spirit."

Li Zhi was slightly stunned.

Wu Meiniang must have noticed that he had been exercising these days, so she catered to his preferences and helped him recuperate.

I have to say that her behavior was indeed comforting. I took the medicinal soup and drank a sip. The taste was mellow and rich, leaving a lingering fragrance on my teeth and cheeks.

Wu Meiniang winked at the maids.

The maids placed the food in their hands on the imperial table, first covering it with a silk scarf to prevent the soup from staining the memorials and books.

Six dishes, one soup, and two bowls of rice.

The bowls used to hold the food are all palace glazed bowls, which come in yellow and green. Although they are porcelain, they look like jade.

The six dishes are: soft beef intestines with lotus seeds, fish maw with lotus pods, white dragon soup, braised sea cucumber pig’s trotters, chicken with scallions and vinegar, and Shengping roasted chicken.

These dishes looked good and were fragrant. They were rich but not too extravagant. Li Zhi nodded secretly.

The two of them sat side by side and ate together.

Wu Meiniang didn't have a big appetite, so she ate half a bowl of rice and then stopped. She held her chin with one hand and picked up a book to read casually.

"Jiulang, why are you suddenly reading the Book of Sui?" Wu Meiniang looked at it for a while and felt a little bored, so she asked casually.

While eating, Li Zhi said, "Only by learning from history can we avoid making mistakes. Mei Niang, what do you think of Yang Guang?"

Wu Meiniang pondered for a moment and said softly, "I don't know much about him, but I have heard an anecdote about him that I remember vividly."

"Oh, what's the story?"

"It is said that once, Yang Guang went hunting in the hunting grounds. It was raining. People around him offered him a straw raincoat, but he refused to take it, saying that the soldiers around him were getting wet in the rain, so how could he be spared?

Li Zhi asked with a smile, "Do you think he did this because he truly cares about his soldiers, or is he just pretending?"

Empress Wu said slowly, "I believe that, whether true or false, he has won the hearts of the people."

Li Zhi was slightly startled, then nodded and said, "That makes sense."

After a while, Li Zhi finished a bowl of rice, but he was not full.

Wu Meiniang was very happy to see that his appetite had increased. She was about to ask the eunuch to bring another bowl, but Li Zhi waved his hand.

"Why waste it? You still have half a bowl left. Chang'an has been short of food lately. Everyone in the palace needs to be more frugal from now on."

He took Wu Meiniang's meal and started eating.

Wu Meiniang felt sweet in her heart and smiled, "Yes, I also heard that the price of rice in Chang'an has risen. Jiulang, is Chang'an really that short of food?"

Li Zhi said sternly, "There are only twenty kilns of grain left in the Chang'an granary. Next year's harvest will be poor, and with the war going on in Hexi, huge quantities of grain have to be shipped there every day. How can there not be a shortage?"

Wu Meiniang pondered for a moment and said, "Jiulang, I have an idea. I wonder if it's appropriate?"

Li Zhi knew she was smart, so he asked, "What's your idea? Tell me about it."

Wu Meiniang sat up straighter, waved her hand to dismiss all the palace servants, and whispered, "Jiulang, the Guanlong faction is all in Chang'an. We can use the lack of food as an excuse to go to Luoyang for food. Then we can designate Luoyang as the Eastern Capital. Then we won't have to go to great lengths to deal with the aristocratic factions."

Li Zhi was slightly stunned.

Wu Meiniang's suggestion was exactly what Emperor Gaozong of Tang later did.

Emperor Gaozong of Tang spent half of his life in Luoyang in order to weaken the influence of the Guanlong Group on the court.

However, this method is convenient, but it also has great disadvantages.

Luoyang is not close to Chang'an, and the road is not easy to travel. It would be a waste of manpower and material resources to move all the civil and military officials in the court.

Furthermore, Chang'an was not only the foundation of the Guanlong Group, but also the foundation of the Li Tang Dynasty. It was the relocation of the capital to Luoyang that gave Wu Meiniang the opportunity to usurp the throne.

Wu Meiniang observed his expression and saw that he remained silent. She knew that he did not like this suggestion, so she smiled and said, "I just mentioned it casually, please listen to it. Tomorrow I will order that the palace food be reduced."

Li Zhi patted her hands and said, "That's right. As the mother of the country, you must set an example and maintain frugality. The sign of a dynasty's demise is when the upper class indulges in luxury and ignores the suffering of the people."

Wu Meiniang thought to herself, "Jiulang must have read the Book of Sui and is worried that he'll end up like Yang Guang, losing his kingdom. That's why he's so anxious." She nodded and said, "I'll remember that."

After a court meeting, the situation in Chang'an City changed quietly. Behind the calm, countless undercurrents were surging.

After deposing Wang Liwu, the emperor did not hold court on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, as if he was afraid of the aristocratic factions. Many court officials felt that the outcome was still undecided and waited and watched.

This time, the outcome of the New Moon and Full Moon Reign was decided. The aristocratic faction was completely defeated. Not only did they fail to recall Chu Suiliang, but they also lost Lu Botao.

In order to protect themselves, the court officials who were waiting and watching, and even the officials from the aristocratic families, began to change sides.

The Shandong clans were the fastest to act.

The name "Shandong aristocracy" comes from the seven major countries during the Warring States Period.

At that time, Qin was strong and the six states were weak, and the six states had to unite to compete with Qin.

Therefore, the gentry in the world were divided into two camps: one was the gentry in Guanzhong where the Qin State was located, and the other was the gentry in the six states east of Mount Xiao.

Later, the gentry was passed down from generation to generation and evolved into the aristocratic family, giving rise to the two titles of Guanzhong aristocratic family and Shandong aristocratic family.

During the Qin Dynasty, the Guanzhong clans were naturally stronger. After the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, the Shandong clans rose in power and suppressed the Guanzhong clans again.

For hundreds of years afterwards, the two factions of the clans fought openly and secretly, and were incompatible with each other.

Until the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the Guanlong clans once again surpassed the Shandong clans by virtue of their merits in following the emperor.

However, the abolition of the Nine-Rank System and the emergence of the imperial examination system made both groups of aristocratic families feel a sense of crisis.

In the later years of Li Shimin's reign, this sense of crisis had become very strong. The two clans stopped fighting among themselves and cooperated secretly.

Zhangsun Wuji, the leader of the Guanlong clan, became a political ally with Chu Suiliang, the representative of the Shandong clan, and began to plan to abolish the imperial examination system.

The imperial examination system is a national system left over from the Sui Dynasty. It has a solid foundation and cannot be easily abolished.

Therefore, there is a chance of success only if one supports an emperor who has good relations with the aristocracy and is easy to control.

It happened that Li Chengqian was plotting rebellion and was demoted to a commoner. The Eastern Palace was vacant, and Li Zhi and Li Tai competed for the position of Eastern Palace.

Both the Guanlong and Shandong nobles chose Li Zhi because he was gentle and not as strong as Li Tai.

In order to improve their relationship with Li Zhi, Shandong nobles such as the Wang family of Taiyuan and the Zheng family of Xingyang married their daughters into the Prince of Jin's mansion.

Finally, with the joint efforts of the two clans, Li Zhi was made the crown prince and inherited the throne.

However, after this weak crown prince ascended the throne, he changed his old image and gradually revealed his decisive and capable nature.

The previous dethronement of King Liwu and the current Shuowang Dynasty have made the nobles realize this.

The Shandong nobles all understood that trying to manipulate the emperor to abolish the imperial examination system was nothing but a pipe dream.

Then there would be no need to cooperate with the Guanlong nobles.

Furthermore, Chu Suiliang, the leader of the Shandong nobles, was demoted, Queen Wang was deposed, and Lu Botao lost his life in vain. They were the ones who suffered the most.

So they were the first to start fighting among themselves.

Although there are many noble families in Shandong, the most powerful ones are the five major surnames and seven major clans.

They are: Cui family of Boling, Li family of Zhaojun, Cui family of Qinghe, Lu family of Fanyang, Zheng family of Xingyang, Li family of Longxi, and Wang family of Taiyuan.

These clans were honored as the Five Surnames and Seven Noble Clans.

Although they were not the most powerful family in the Tang Dynasty, they had a high reputation and were sought after by the world. Other surnames dreamed of marrying into their family.

The reason why Chu Suiliang became the leader of the Shandong nobles was all because of his official position and prestige. If his family were based solely on his family, the Chu family would not even be ranked among the Shandong nobles.

As the saying goes, when disaster strikes, everyone runs away.

Now that Chu Suiliang has been demoted, there seems to be no hope of recalling him, and other clans naturally began to seek a way out.

The first to rebel were the Zheng family of Xingyang.

They had originally developed many grievances with the Wang family of Taiyuan because of the discord between Queen Wang and Concubine Zheng.

Now that Wang was deposed, Concubine Zheng was not only not implicated, but was favored by the emperor.

The emperor could not have done this for no reason. He must have taken the initiative to make his attitude clear, indicating that he did not want to settle accounts with them later.

If you don't jump ship now, when will you?
The Lu family of Fanyang also had an internal conflict. The five elders of the clan dismissed Lu Huan of the southern ancestral branch and supported Lu Chengqing of the northern ancestral branch as the new clan leader.

Lu Chengqing had always been at odds with Zhangsun Wuji, and now he was appointed by the emperor as the Minister of Revenue. The Fanyang Lu family didn't even need to turn around. With a perfect turn, they stood directly on the emperor's side.

The Zhaojun Li family was not willing to lag behind. The clan leader Li Chongde found Li Yifu and included him in the family tree, which also showed his family's attitude.

Although the remaining major families did not make such big moves, they have quietly maintained a distance from the Longxi nobles.

Fortunately, the Guanlong Group was relatively united and closely followed Zhangsun Wuji, and the Jiangnan nobles did not take advantage of the situation.

Generally speaking, the advantage of the aristocratic faction over the pro-military faction no longer exists, and a balance of power has been formed between the two sides.

I'm afraid the next fight in the court will be even more intense.

(End of this chapter)