Di Renjie was one of Wu Zetian's most trusted ministers and was appointed prime minister twice. Whenever Wu Zetian was hesitant about major issues, she would always consult Di Renjie for his opinion. For example, in her later years, Wu Zetian was hesitant about establishing a cro

Di Renjie was one of Wu Zetian's most trusted ministers. He was appointed prime minister twice. Whenever Wu Zetian was hesitant about major issues, she would always consult Di Renjie's opinion. For example, in her later years, Wu Zetian was hesitant about establishing a crown prince. She didn't know whether to pass the throne to her nephew Wu Sansi or to her son Li Xian, so she asked Di Renjie for his opinion.

Di Renjie has an upright character. Even when facing the emperor, he behaves neither humble nor overbearing. Especially when it comes to the issue of succession to the throne, Di Renjie's reply shows the true character of a famous minister. He asked Wu Zetian, who is closer, mother and son, or aunt and nephew? Moreover, since ancient times, we have only heard of sons worshiping their parents, but never of nephews worshiping their aunts. Wu Zetian believed this, so she ordered Luling King Li Xian to return to Beijing and made him the crown prince.

Although Di Renjie was a talent discovered by Wu Zetian, Di Renjie's allegiance was not to Wu Zetian. He was nominally the prime minister of Wu Zhou, but in fact he was loyal to the Li and Tang royal family. At this point, it can be seen from Di Renjie's series of personnel arrangements in his later years that he definitely did it intentionally. For example, before Wu Zetian died, an 80-year-old man came to her bedside. When Wu Zetian saw it, she suddenly realized that Di Renjie had lied to her.

Wu Zetian not only trusted Di Renjie very much, but also respected him very much. She often addressed him as "the elder of the country" and specifically allowed Di Renjie to avoid paying homage. In Di Renjie's later years, Wu Zetian asked him if he had any talents he would recommend to succeed him as prime minister in the future. On this issue, Di Renjie actually had a plan for a long time, so he recommended to Wu Zetian one after another the ministers of Xia Guan, Yao Chong, Huan Yanfan, the governor of Taizhou, Jinghui, and the long history of Jingzhou. Cambodia’s and dozens of others.

Di Renjie recommended so many people at once, which can almost be said to have taken into account the employment needs of all aspects of the court, which is equivalent to building a new team for Wu Zetian or the new emperor who succeeds to the throne. Moreover, Di Renjie also recommended Zhang Jianzhi, believing that he was qualified and capable to serve as prime minister. Moreover, Di Renjie also said meaningfully to Wu Zetian that Zhang Jianzhi was a man of great talent and a person who could open up new situations.

Wu Zetian thought Zhang Jianzhi was too old, because Zhang Jianzhi only took the entrance examination at the age of 64, and he was already an old man in his sixties or seventies at that time. Moreover, Zhang Jianzhi had been serving as a minor local official such as county magistrate and chief historian before. Wu Zetian thought how could such a person be promoted to prime minister overnight? However, Wu Zetian still trusted Di Renjie, so she transferred Zhang Jianzhi to Luozhou to serve as Sima.

Wu Zetian thought that she had given Di Renjie a lot of face, but when Di Renjie learned that Zhang Jianzhi had not been transferred back to the capital, he took the initiative to find Wu Zetian and said: "Your Majesty's move is not the way to employ people. Zhang Jianzhi has great talents and should be reused." "So Wu Zetian had no choice but to transfer Zhang Jianzhi back to the capital and appointed him as the Minister of Justice. A few years later, Wu Zetian saw that Zhang Jianzhi was indeed very talented, so she promoted him to prime minister with confidence. Di Renjie had already died four years ago.

Those people recommended by Di Renjie were all very talented people. Wu Zetian also noticed this, so he promoted and appointed these people and all became important ministers of the imperial court. However, what Wu Zetian did not expect was that these people were actually the same as Di Renjie. Although they were favored by the Wu Zhou court, they were nostalgic for the Tang Dynasty in their hearts. They have already secretly formed an alliance with Li Xian, Li Longji and others, and are only waiting for an opportunity to regain Li Tang's country.

On the 22nd of the first lunar month of the first year of Shenlong, Zhang Jianzhi, who was already over 80 years old, joined forces with Huan Yanfan, Yuan Shuji, Yao Chong and others to launch a coup, taking the opportunity to kill the two Zhang brothers, and then sent troops to surround the set where Wu Zetian was. Immortal palace . At this time, Wu Zetian was already ill in bed. Zhang Jianzhi went in as a representative to explain the situation to Wu Zetian, telling her that Er Zhang had been executed, and asked her to hand over the throne to Prince Li Xian as soon as possible and return the country to Li Tang.

Wu Zetian had heard the shouts of killing outside the palace for a long time, but it was not until she saw Li Xian appeared surrounded by the crowd that she realized that the person who launched the rebellion turned out to be her son. When Zhang Jianzhi came to her bed and forced her to hand over the emperor's throne, Wu Zetian saw Yao Chong, Huan Yanfan, Yuan Shuji and others appearing in the crowd. It was only at this moment that Wu Zetian woke up from a dream. It turned out that all this Di Renjie had already made arrangements. So Wu Zetian couldn't help shouting: Di Renjie lied to me!

Although Wu Zetian was full of reluctance, the prince Li Xian dominated the world at this time, and all the ministers in the court supported him, so Wu Zetian had to announce that Li Xian would supervise the country on the second day, and officially abdicated the throne to Li Xian on the third day. As a result, the throne returned to the hands of the Li Tang royal family.

It's just that, as the saying goes, "when the birds are gone, the good bow is hidden, the cunning rabbit is dead, and the lackeys are cooked." When the Li Tang royal family regained their kingdom, the five leaders who participated in the Shenlong coup were all exiled to the frontier. Cui Xuanwei and Zhang Jianzhi died of illness while in exile. Jinghui, Yuan Shuji and Huan Yanfan were tortured and killed by the cruel official Zhou Lizhen ordered by Wu Sansi. It is really a pity.