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

After venting her anger, Wu Zetian couldn't do anything to Li Zhi, so she took it out on that old man who had entered the palace, who dared to impeach her and made her see the truth.

In return, she decided to send the old man and his entire clan to hell for a reunion.

Wu Zetian coldly looked in the direction of Taiji Palace. Li Shimin and Li Zhi, this father and son, were both more cunning and scheming than the other. Li Shimin's political skills were already among the best of all emperors, while Li Zhi was even more adept at intrigue.

But she is Empress Wu Zetian; she will never give up easily.

After calming down, Wu Zetian began to think about how to escape this predicament!

At that moment, she was filled with an endless longing for the emperor's supreme position.

If only she could ascend the throne!

The Wei family!

This was her biggest obstacle; if it weren't for the Wei family, he was absolutely confident he could have reached that position.

How can we get the Wei family to tacitly approve of this?

Wu Zetian pondered, but had no clue what to do.

Her womanhood is ultimately her biggest flaw; this single flaw alone is hard for people to accept.

Not to mention the Wei family!

Even the Wei family's thousand-year reputation would not remain indifferent or turn a blind eye.

Unless her achievements can overcome all the criticisms, just as Li Shimin's achievements overshadowed his crimes of killing his brother and imprisoning his father.

She needs to accumulate enough merits before the Wei family might turn a blind eye to her actions.

Moreover, the number required for this achievement is simply astronomical.

That's an even larger number than Li Shimin's cover-up of his achievements in killing his brother and imprisoning his father.

After much deliberation, Wu Zetian turned her attention back to the powerful and influential families.

Even a powerful ruler like Li Shimin was helpless when faced with these aristocratic families; he could only weaken them, not eradicate them.

If she could completely eliminate the powerful clans and give all the people in the world a path to upward mobility, she would surely be able to get the Wei family to turn a blind eye to her actions.

Having set her goal, Wu Zetian was no longer confused.

As long as she has a goal and a direction, she believes she can overcome any difficulty.

One day, she would stand before Li Zhi and tell him that she, Wu Zetian, was not a pawn to be manipulated by him.

If Emperor Li Zhi could sit on this throne, so could Empress Wu Zetian!

Before this, a cold glint flashed in Wu Zetian's eyes.

Li Kui and the Lu family of Fanyang will start by targeting you!

Li Zhi was unable to kill a 90-year-old member of the imperial clan due to his status, but she didn't care.

She's just a woman seeking revenge. Isn't it true that women and petty people are difficult to deal with?

She killed someone, and the world would criticize her, but throughout history, there have been many domineering things done by empresses dowager and empresses who held power. Killing an old man is nothing.

This is the difference between her and Li Zhi. If Li Zhi had killed her, the world would have been in turmoil several times over, and the situation would never have been calmed down.

At that moment, she actually felt that Li Zhi made a lot of sense.

You have a really good eye for people!

Wu Zetian knew how to be patient and patient. Now, she had to be used as a tool by Li Zhi to clear obstacles for him.

Only in this way would Li Zhi dare to delegate power to her.

"However, it's still uncertain whose credit this is!"

Wu Zetian murmured.

Under Wu Zetian's arrangement, not long after, Li Kui, an old man in his nineties, died of illness at home.

For various reasons, many members of his royal lineage were stripped of their fiefdoms and titles, and many were reduced to commoners.

When it came to this matter, someone in the court mentioned it briefly, and then there was no further discussion.

The Lu family of Fanyang also became a target of Wu Zetian's relentless attacks, which Wu Zetian made no attempt to conceal; it was all for revenge.

You, the Lu family of Fanyang, dare to mess with me? Then you shall face my revenge.

Officials from the Fanyang Lu clan in the imperial court were suppressed one by one, and a large number of Fanyang Lu clan officials were removed from the court.

Furthermore, the influence of other families closely associated with the Lu family of Fanyang in the imperial court was also affected.

All the local officials, both high and low, in Fanyang were replaced by Wu Zetian's people, and she even sent a group of imperial guards to serve as the garrison of Fanyang.

These people kept a close watch on the Lu family of Fanyang for Wu Zetian, and any slight transgression would result in severe punishment.

The Lu family of Fanyang suffered terribly. They tried to appease Wu Zetian through various channels, but she refused to accept their advances and remained unmoved by either persuasion or coercion.

It was clear that Wu Zetian intended to destroy the Lu family of Fanyang. Seeing Wu Zetian's decision, all the other major families wisely protected themselves and kept their distance from the Lu family of Fanyang.

They were afraid that Wu Zetian would treat them as allies of the Lu clan of Fanyang and deal with them as well.

In the twenty-fifth year of the Yonghui era, with Li Zhi's tacit approval and support, the power of the Lu clan of Fanyang shrank again and again, and not a single member of the Lu clan of Fanyang could be seen in the entire court.

Even throughout the Tang Dynasty, there was not a single official from the Lu family of Fanyang.

This once-powerful clan came to an end in the Tang Dynasty.

Although they still enjoy prestige among the common people and have intricate connections with various powerful families, these connections can only be passed down for one or two generations. After that, it becomes very difficult for them to rise again.

The fate of the Lu family of Fanyang silenced the powerful clans and families, and Wu Zetian's prestige rose once again.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, she reformed the imperial examination system once again. In that year, Wu Zetian completely completed the earth-shaking feat of replacing the recommendation system with the imperial examination system.

This means that the days when powerful clans monopolized official positions through their networks of connections are over. From now on, all officials will have to be selected through the imperial examination system.

With the prestige gained from these two events, Wu Zetian finally had the confidence to turn against Li Zhi.

At Wu Zetian's suggestion, Xu Jingzong contacted court officials to submit a memorial: the late emperor already had a sacred posthumous title, and the current emperor and empress's titles follow the old system, which is not in accordance with the rules of heaven and man. He requested that the emperor be changed to Emperor Tianhuang and the empress to Empress Tianhou, so that the sun and moon would match and conform to the way of heaven.

The imperial family and Shandong gentry turned a blind eye to this.

They have realized that Li Zhi was definitely behind the previous events, otherwise why would he avoid seeing people?

The Wei family isn't gone; how could Wu Zetian, a single woman, possibly turn the world upside down?!

It was obvious that Li Zhi wanted to deal with these aristocratic families, but he cherished his own power and pushed Wu Zetian forward.

Now that Wu Zetian has grown powerful and wants to be on equal footing with you, they are happy to see Li Zhi make a fool of himself.

Perhaps this incident could even cause Li Zhi and Wu Zetian to turn against each other, giving them a chance to survive.

Not only did they not object, they even voiced their support, forcing Li Zhi and Wu Zetian to fall out over this unique and supreme position.

To their surprise, Li Zhi was extremely determined!

Li Zhi, surprisingly, reluctantly agreed to the memorial submitted by Xu Jingzong and others.

He considered himself the Emperor, and Wu Zetian the Empress, ruling the world as one with the sun and moon!