A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

Reaching the level of a fifth-rank official in the capital who is qualified to attend court is an ultimate goal that countless people can only dream of.

At this level, climbing each rank is as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Of course, if you are backed by one of the world's top aristocratic families or the most core successors of the Hundred Schools of Thought, then that's a different story.

Even for prestigious families, climbing up one rank is something the whole family should celebrate.

Li Yifu knew that he and Changsun Wuji had become mortal enemies, and that it was a matter of life and death between them.

However, Li Yifu didn't care. If he couldn't rise to power by stepping on Changsun Wuji, he would probably only ever be a mere secretary in the Imperial Secretariat.

If he didn't want to climb the ranks, why would he ally himself with Wu Zetian?!

Changsun Wuji's power was so great that it had aroused the emperor's suspicion.

He's on the emperor and empress's side, so the advantage is with me.

No matter how powerful Changsun Wuji was, he could not surpass the power of the emperor.

Even if Li Zhi were to concede defeat, he still had the powerful backer, Prince Yan, Wei Ye, which put him in an invincible position from the very beginning.

The only difference is between small wins and big wins.

As long as he can survive Changsun Wuji's clutches and become Li Zhi's weapon against Changsun Wuji, he can carve out an extremely delicious piece of spoils once Changsun Wuji falls.

After the court assembly, the imperial court officially issued an edict, deposing Empress Wang from her position as empress and demoting her to the rank of concubine on the grounds that she had no children.

Empress Wu, the mother of Prince Liu Hong, was made empress, and Prince Liu Hong was made crown prince. A general amnesty was declared.

The emperor's tough stance in the court and Changsun Wuji's defeat made all the forces in the Tang Dynasty realize that Changsun Wuji was on the decline.

They all began to gravitate towards Li Zhi, hoping to get a share of the pie as Changsun Wuji fell from power.

Following this court assembly, the war between Changsun Wuji and Li Zhi officially began.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Wu Zetian brought Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu to the forefront and continuously impeached key figures of the Guanlong Group.

Lai Ji and Han Yuan, two key figures in the Guanlong Group, were impeached one after another and were eventually stripped of their official positions and exiled.

The Guanlong Group also launched a strong counterattack, and a large number of forces supporting Li Zhi were eliminated by Changsun Wuji.

Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu were indeed exceptionally capable. With the protection of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian, they managed to withstand the open and covert attacks from Changsun Wuji.

In the seventh year of the Yonghui era, the Wei family of Chang'an sided with Li Zhi, who impeached Chu Suiliang, one of the two pillars of the Guanlong Group.

Wei Siqian impeached Chu Suiliang for abusing his power as prime minister to forcibly buy land belonging to subordinate officials of the Secretariat, which constituted usurping official land and oppressing subordinate officials.

Chu Suiliang was then serving as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, wielding the power of a prime minister. He was Changsun Wuji's right-hand man and one of the key figures in the Guanlong Group.

It was impossible to remain indifferent to the impeachment of Wei Siqian, the censor. Otherwise, wouldn't anyone be able to piss on his head?

He directly suppressed the impeachment document and publicly reprimanded the remonstrating officials for overstepping their authority.

Upon hearing this, Li Zhi's eyes lit up. He quickly summoned Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu, instructing them to impeach Chu Suiliang on the grounds of suppressing the censors and undermining the supervisory system.

Under Li Zhi's bias, Chu Suiliang was accused of acting arbitrarily due to his high position and failing to consult with officials from the three provinces. He was directly demoted from Minister of the Imperial Secretariat to Governor of Tanzhou.

The Guanlong Group suffered a severe blow after losing Chu Suiliang, its pillar.

In the eighth year of the Yonghui era, the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, who held real power, was lost. Relying solely on Changsun Wuji, the Grand Commandant, was simply not enough to accomplish anything.

Although the Grand Commandant held a high official rank, his real power lay with the army.

However, the Tang army was the territory of those generals, and although Changsun Wuji could also get involved, his power was not great.

Only by joining forces with the prime minister can he, as Grand Commandant, achieve his goals. The two complement each other, resulting in a synergy greater than the sum of its parts.

Now that Chu Suiliang, the prime minister, is no longer able to resist Li Zhi, the Guanlong Group, which has been severely weakened, is gradually losing its position in the court.

The powerful families and imperial clans led by Li Zhi, along with the noble families led by Wu Zetian, continuously bared their fangs, trying to take a bite out of the lucrative Guanlong Group.

By the ninth year of the Yonghui era, the Guanlong Group had been weakened to the extreme, and had almost no say in the court.

Li Yifu and Xu Jingzong fabricated charges against Changsun Wuji, accusing him of plotting rebellion.

Li Zhi sentenced Changsun Wuji without even conducting a trial.

He was stripped of all his official titles and ranks and exiled to a prefecture or county established by the Tang Dynasty in the land of Daxia, never to return to the capital.

The once powerful Changsun Wuji and the Guanlong Group he led vanished completely.

Li Zhi took control of the entire court, and the Tang Dynasty officially entered the Li Zhi era.

Wu Zetian also successfully extended her influence to the central government, giving her the power to directly influence the outer court.

During Li Shimin's reign, the country's area and population doubled, the Tang Dynasty's economy grew rapidly, and its national strength increased exponentially.

This put immense pressure on Li Zhi, who had been on the throne for nine years and was only now regaining the power that belonged to him.

He was now ready to make his mark and achieve something no less great than his father's.

But reality soon dealt him a blow. During Li Shimin's reign, the court was filled with fierce generals and brilliant commanders, including an invincible military genius like Li Jing.

Even though the Tang Dynasty's territory doubled in size, it was still able to suppress the rebellion thanks to Li Shimin's prestige.

However, after Li Zhi ascended the throne, his prestige was far less than that of Li Shimin.

Those remote areas began to harbor rebellious intentions. Since the emperor was far away, the Tang Dynasty needed to expend a great deal of military and material resources there to maintain its rule.

This caused great financial difficulties for the Tang Dynasty.

The transportation of supplies over such a long distance consumed an astronomical amount of resources.

Li Zhi was overwhelmed with work every day, dealing with local affairs.

What made Li Zhi even more distressed was that he had inherited his mother's illness.

In the 10th year of the Yonghui era, Li Zhi slept only two or three hours a day for several consecutive days, spending the rest of his time handling government affairs, and eventually collapsed from exhaustion.

When he woke up, he discovered that his overwork had triggered a hereditary disease.

He began to suffer from severe rheumatism, dizziness, vertigo, and a significant decline in vision, even becoming unable to handle state affairs normally.

Li Zhi executed everyone who knew about this except for Prince An, and ordered Prince An to treat him alone.

When handling government affairs, Wu Zetian assisted him.

No secrets stay hidden forever; Wu Zetian's interference in politics was first discovered by the court officials.

The two men had different styles of handling state affairs, and the court officials could easily discover this from their interactions with the government.

Then, after some investigation, they discovered that the current government was actually being assisted by a woman named Wu Zetian.

The imperial court was in an uproar.

However, Wu Zetian still held some influence in the court, and some high-ranking officials had already discovered that Li Zhi was in poor health and did not want to offend him at this time, so the matter was dropped.

This laid the foundation for Wu Zetian's influence to spread throughout the court.