But it is not surprising that Wu Zetian took over the Tang regime after Li Zhi's death. Because she has been preparing politically, ideologically, organizationally and in public opinion for many years. Even the deaths of her sons Li Hong and Li Xian are very ambiguous.

Wu Zetian was the queen for 28 years from the conferment in 655 AD to the death of Li Zhi in 683. In these twenty-eight years, she has not been idle or wasted. She has been active in the political arena of the Tang Dynasty and has been shuffling cards. Wash it once and win it. In the first ten years of Empress Wu Zetian's reign (AD 655-664), Li Zhi was basically in charge. Li Zhiri came to the DPRK every day, and Wu Zetian came to the DPRK only occasionally. During the "Two Saints Period" in the middle decade (664-674 AD), Li Zhi and Wu Zetian came to Korea at the same time. After entering the "Tianhou Period" (674-683 AD), Wu Zetian came to the DPRK every day, but Li Zhi came to the DPRK occasionally. The positions of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian just dropped one by one.

Wu Zetian has come this far because of her foresight. She asked to participate in the meditation. People thought it was just a woman's love of showing off, but they didn't expect it to create public opinion. She wrote a book about reform. People thought it was just a woman's whim, but they didn't expect it to be about politics. She proposed to call literary scholars to the palace to compile historical records, which did not attract any special attention. Li Zhi even held an indifferent attitude and let Wu Zetian catch this "irrelevant" thing. Although Wu Zetian specifically mentioned the three famous sayings of Emperor Taizong, "Take copper as a mirror, you can dress well;" Taking history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall; Take people as a mirror, you can know the gains and losses. "Everyone still didn't expect this to have anything to do with current politics. They didn't expect a woman to have such great political interests and ambitions. Until the "North Gate Bachelor" who compiled books for Wu Zetian, with the special approval of Wu Zetian, they could enter the palace directly from the North Gate without going through Nanya, where officials worked. The north gate is the back door of the palace, which is an important part of the royal family. Only emperors, empresses, princes and princes can enter and leave. Therefore, these bachelors who can "enter through the back door" are called "North Gate Bachelor". Finally, when she appeared in the palace one day and played a decisive role in the court's public opinion and decision-making, people suddenly realized that Wu Zetian not only had to study history, but also had to rewrite it; We should not only organize a writing team for ourselves, but also organize an advisory team and an administrative team for ourselves. Tianhou Niangniang is not full and has nothing to do.

With so many political, ideological, organizational and public opinion preparations, after Li Zhi's death, Wu Zetian was actually only one step away from the throne.

it stands to reason that when the emperor dies, the prince should succeed him. Wu Zetian has four sons. Li Hong and Li Xian died early, and Li Xian was an asshole with a straw bag, which was abolished in the throne. Li Dan, who succeeded Li Xian as emperor, was a wise man. He simply didn't even go to court, and left all the government affairs to his mother to deal with, saying that he was young and ignorant (at the age of 22), without virtue and talent, and could not bear to be in charge of state affairs. Two years later, Wu Zetian offered to return the government to him. He just kowtowed and refused to agree to die.

So, Wu Zetian became emperor on September 9th, the first year of God-given (AD 69), and abdicated on January 24th, the first year of Dragon (AD 75), and she was emperor for almost fifteen years.