I became emperor in the Tang Dynasty by relying on the palace fighting system

The rumor that Wu Shun and her daughter had an affair with Li Zhi has been around for a long time.

Li Zhao explained to Qingluan bit by bit: "Lady Wu Shun of Korea was given the title of Lady of the State after Wu Zetian became the empress in 655."

"Wu Minzhi was born in 643. Even if his sister Helan was one year younger than him, Helan was only about eleven years old in 655."

"That is, starting in 655, Korean ladies were allowed to enter and leave the palace."

"But the New Book of Tang fabricated a story that 'Han State had a daughter, Guo Shu, who was favored by the emperor. After Han State died, his daughter was named Lady of Wei State, and the emperor wanted to make her a concubine.'"

What this passage means is that after 655, Lady Hanguo could move freely in the palace, and was favored by Li Zhi together with her daughter. After her death, her daughter was named Lady Weiguo. Li Zhi wanted to take Helan as his concubine.

Li Zhao sneered, "This is nonsense! It's weird that both mother and daughter are favored at the same time, and one of them is only eleven years old? How can Li Zhi be such a beast!"

"There is also a theory that Wu Zetian allowed her sister and her daughter to accompany her in the palace in order to consolidate her favor. This is even more unreasonable!"

"With the wisdom and favor of the Emperor Wu, there is no need for her to let her sister enter the palace."

"If you want to consolidate your favor, wouldn't it be easier to control her by directly promoting a beautiful maid?"

These rumormongers have fabricated a palace drama based on the fact that Wu Shun was favored. It's enough!

Does Wu Shun have to be favored by the emperor to be able to enter and leave the palace freely? She can't be favored by the queen!

In history, there were women who were able to enter and leave the palace freely because they were favored by the empress or the queen mother. Aren’t Princess Guantao of the Han Dynasty and Princess Rongshou of the Qing Dynasty such noble ladies?

"The rumor that Wu Shun's daughter Helan was named the Lady of Wei was also fabricated by those rumormongers in the Song Dynasty."

"In the Old Book of Tang and the unearthed tombstone inscription of Lady Han, there is no record of Helan being granted the title of Lady of Wei."

Li Zhao complained: "Let's take a step back and say that even if Helan was really crowned as the Lady of Wei,

"Historically, Wu Shun died in 665, which is this year. At this time, Helan was at most years old. According to the marriage age of noble ladies in the Tang Dynasty, she should have been married long ago. It is not impossible for her to be conferred the title of Lady of the State by relying on the power of the Empress' aunt, but it is impossible for Li Zhi to directly make a married woman a concubine!"

In the Tang Dynasty, women who were given the title of Lady of the State were generally married. Widowed women could also be given the title, but once they became Lady of the State, they could not become concubines!

Even though Li Longji was so shameless, he knew to first ordain Yang Guifei as a female Taoist priest, and then make her his concubine after dissolving their marriage.

If Li Zhi really wanted to marry Helan, he would have to conceal it a little. He couldn't have announced openly that he wanted to take his wife's niece as his concubine, right?

If Li Zhi really dared to do this, he would be scolded to death by his ministers.

However, there is no historical record that the ministers ever criticized the emperor for Li Zhi's intention to take Helan as his concubine, which shows that the rumor that Li Zhi had an affair with Helan and wanted to take her as his concubine was pure rumor.

The records in the New Book of Tang are totally contradictory and irrelevant!

Li Zhao found a rocking chair in the system space, and after lying down, he said leisurely: "And Helan's grandfather, oh, now I should call him grandfather - he was later named King of Wei by Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian also converted my mother's residence into Weiguo Temple."

"It's not like this is the only title that can be used in the book. How could Wu Zetian allow her biological father and mother's temple and her niece to use the same title? It doesn't make sense."

As for how old the Helan family is now in history...

Li Zhao thought: "The birth and death years of Helan's father, Helan Anshi, are unknown, and Wu Shun died before the Fengshan ceremony in 665. When the Old Book of Tang recorded Helan, it said that she was the daughter of the Lady of Korea, but she had not been granted an imperial decree, so she must have been an unmarried young lady."

"She entered the palace after Wu Shun's death and was raised by Wu Zetian, where she was very much loved..."

Based on the existing conditions, Li Zhao deduced: "In 665, which is this year, Helan must have been very young, definitely no more than ten years old."

If Helan had reached the age for marriage, why did Wu Zetian bring her into the palace to raise her? She should have quickly chosen a good husband for the child to comfort her sister's spirit in heaven!

"Contrary to what is recorded in history books, in fact, Wu Zetian and Wu Shun had a very good relationship in history. It was not the relationship between a jealous queen and a favorite concubine at all." Li Zhao said.

"When Wu Zetian became the empress, she immediately named her sister the first-rank lady of the state. You should know that Wu Shun's husband was just a military officer in Yuzhou at that time, a small official. But Wu Shun was directly promoted several ranks and became the chief officer of Mingzhou."

"Wu Zetian had a younger sister, but she did not confer any imperial decree on her sister, nor did she promote her brother-in-law."

"After Wu Zetian came to power, Wu Shun was able to enter and leave the palace freely. After her death, Wu Zetian built Chongfu Temple to worship her. When Emperor Wu ascended the throne, she was posthumously named the eldest princess."

Li Zhao was extremely disgusted by the patriarchal historians' behavior of stigmatizing female friendship and family affection: "And the New and Old Tang Books actually slandered their relationship as a jealous queen and a favorite concubine who loved to quarrel?!"

Li Zhao angrily asked, "Did Wu Zetian build a temple for Concubine Xiao Shufei? Did she build a temple for her younger sister?"

"They say a dog will always eat shit. I don't know how much shit these rumors have eaten. They just start spewing shit when they open their mouths!"

After a while, Li Zhao calmed down his anger and continued, "In short, Wu Zetian and Wu Shun had a good relationship. So when Wu Shun died in 665, it made sense for Wu Zetian to bring her young daughter into the palace to raise her."

Qing Luan was stunned: "Then, then the history records that Helan died the next year after Wu Zetian returned to the capital after offering sacrifices to the gods at Mount Tai. The cause of her death..."

Li Zhao sneered: "How else could he die!"

"The Old Book of Tang records: During the Qianfeng period (666 AD), Wu Weiliang and his brother Wu Huaiyun, the governor of Zibo Prefecture, gathered at the foot of Mount Tai according to the example of Yue Mu."

"Because Wu Weiliang and others offered food, Wu Zetian secretly ordered people to put poison in Helan's food. After Helan ate it, she died suddenly. (Wu Zetian) blamed Wu Weiliang and Wu Huaiyun and executed them."1

Li Zhao carefully dissected this passage and extracted important information: "Helan died after eating the food that Wu Weiliang and Wu Huaiyun presented as tribute to Wu Zetian."

"Wu Weiliang was the governor of Shizhou, and Wu Huaiyun was the governor of Zizhou. Shizhou is in Guangyuan, Sichuan today, close to the mountains; Zizhou is in Zibo, Shandong today, close to the sea. What do you think the food they offered as tribute?"

Zibo barbecue was very popular last year. The reason was very simple: the local barbecue ingredients, especially seafood, were abundant and cheap!

Qingluan suddenly realized: "Wu Weiliang's tribute is mountain delicacies, and Wu Huaiyun's tribute is seafood!"

In the system space, Li Zhao nodded approvingly: "That's right. Helan died suddenly, and the cause of death is probably seafood allergy."

"When Wu Min later cried to Li Zhi about her sister's death, she also said that she was fine before he went to court, but she was gone after he left. There was only half a day in between, which means Helan died very quickly."

Li Zhao sighed, "Severe seafood allergies can cause breathing difficulties, have a very high mortality rate, and develop very quickly. Few ancient doctors knew about allergies, and how could they treat them if they didn't know the symptoms?"

Helan was really unlucky. She died suddenly from seafood allergy before she reached the age of fifty.

Li Zhao scoffed at the conspiracy theory about Helan's death in the Old Book of Tang: "The most poisonous drug in ancient times was arsenic. It takes at least a day for arsenic to take effect before death occurs. During this period, the person may still be saved. But Helan died in just half a day. How could she have been poisoned by Wu Zetian's medicine?"

"The Old Book of Tang was written in the Five Dynasties, and was copied and pasted by later generations based on historical materials. After so many years, many of the historical materials they referred to were missing, and even the deeds of some generals were missing."

And, most importantly: "The Old Book of Tang was revised once during the Song Dynasty."

"'Wu Zetian secretly ordered people to store poison in Helan's food'? I don't know which rumormonger in the Song Dynasty made up this rumor!"

Qing Luan nodded in agreement: "Yes, slandering the Martial Emperor is abominable!"

As for the fate of the Wu Weiliang brothers, Li Zhao snorted and laughed: "Helan was the youngest daughter of Wu Shun, the daughter of Wu Zetian's closest sister. She died suddenly, so Wu Zetian naturally wanted to find out the truth."

"The things sent by the Wu Weiliang brothers may not be found to be poisonous after being examined by the imperial physician, but the child died after eating the things they sent, and they were demoted because of Wu Shun, so they had sufficient motives to murder Helan."

"It is not surprising that Wu Zetian, in her grief and anger, slandered them for poisoning Helan and demanded that the brothers pay with their lives," Li Zhao concluded.

Li Zhao said leisurely: "Qingluan, you stay here and wait to see how Wu Shun and her daughter react."

"After all, I killed their loved ones and became their enemy. How can I not keep an eye on them?"

Qingluan: "Oh, okay! I understand!"

Qingluan was loyal to his duty and had been a lurker for the entire afternoon. He was almost falling asleep while waiting. Only after dismissing many servants and burning paper in silence did Wu Shun and her daughter take action.

Wu Shun woke up early. After Wu Meiniang sent people to take care of Wu Minzhi's funeral, she and her daughter put on linen clothes and stayed here quietly to accompany Wu Minzhi.

Wu Shun looked at his daughter and said, "Minhui, you are still sick. Go back first. I will stay here."

Wu Minhui's eyes were red. She shook her head and sniffed: "No, I want to stay here with my mother and brother."

"When my brother was struck by lightning, he must have felt very painful and scared. How could Yudou Xuanzun be so vicious..."

Before Wu Minhui could finish his words, Wu Shun was horrified.

She quickly reached out to cover her daughter's mouth and shouted at her sternly: "Minhui!!! Shut up!!"

Wu Minhui, who was only seven years old, was stunned. Her eyes were filled with tears and tears fell one after another. Wu Shun felt a great pain in his heart and started crying too.

She held her daughter in her arms and comforted her, "I'm sorry, child. Mother didn't mean to be mean to you."

Wu Minhui sobbed non-stop: "Wuwuwu! Mother!"

Wu Shun patted his daughter's thin back with tears in his eyes, and warned her: "Good girl, I know you hate it, but - don't call the name of the god behind her back, she can hear it."

Qingluan and Li Zhao who was far away in the system space: Ah, this... I can indeed hear it.

Wu Shun was unusually sober: "Also, don't resent that honorable god."

Wu Minhui was furious and broke free from her mother's arms: "Why?! Can't I even hate?!"

Wu Shun burst into tears, looked at his daughter dejectedly, and said softly: "Because we can't afford to hate."