Sky Curtain: The Overlord Charges into Battle, Shocking Emperors of All Dynasties

"Hahahahahahaha"

Liu Che laughed so hard he was breathless, bending over backwards so badly his back was bent over.

"Li Shimin, Li Shimin, you never expected this, did you? Not only did your son take your woman, but she also became the empress."

"This is the first female emperor! Amazing! The Tang Dynasty was truly incredible!!"

Liu Che was practically collapsing; this was incredibly amusing.

What about the title of General of Heavenly Strategy, Heavenly Khan, and Emperor of a Thousand Ages?

This is terrible, it's become a huge joke!

"Hahaha... Ouch, quick, help me up!!"

A pair of soft hands gently supported Liu Che's waist, helping him to steady himself.

Liu Che turned around and saw that it was his Empress Wei Zifu.

He carried the same gentle smile he had when he first met her, the curve of which was exactly the same as it had been back then, unchanged in the slightest.

This warmed Liu Che's heart, and he felt a sense of déjà vu, reminiscent of when he first met Wei Zifu in his youth.

Empress Wei Zifu was truly wonderful; she was indeed a virtuous empress praised even by the heavens.

Thinking of this, Liu Che's heart, as hard as iron, felt a rare pang of guilt.

I have indeed neglected Wei Zifu recently, and what I did later was indeed a bit excessive.

We must treat Wei Zifu better in the future; she is far superior to Li Zhi's empress!

Wei Zifu's smile remained unchanged, its curve perfectly maintained, as if it had been meticulously designed. Her deep eyes showed no ripples, as calm as a stagnant pool.

...

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang,

Li Zhi's sickly face was filled with disbelief.

She's so heartless, she actually dared to harm her own son.

Memories surged through my mind, and in the hazy recollections, I seemed to recall...

If she really dared to harm her own son, then what about our daughter back then?

Is it really her...?

And how could she have lived so long? She's four years older than me!

Even if someone seizes power, it will take time to eliminate opposition forces.

After ascending the throne, how many more years can he remain emperor? Is it really worth it?

What's the point?!

...

Under the canopy, powerful clans led by the Five Clans and Seven Noble Families vehemently denounced Wu Zetian for usurping power and disrupting the government.

They could accept the weakening and suppression they faced from Li Shimin and Li Zhi.

However, it is unacceptable that a woman like Wu Zetian could become emperor.

If she were to become empress, wouldn't the women in her family also harbor other ambitions, dreaming of seizing power within the entire clan and becoming the Wu Zetian of their aristocratic family?

This is absolutely unacceptable; it's a direct challenge to China's millennia-old ethical principles and social norms, and it undermines the stability of the entire society.

What were the court officials thinking at that time, and how could they tolerate this situation?

Could it be that their bones were all cut off by Wu Zetian's steel sword?

It must be said that although Wu Zetian did not achieve much in other aspects, she made significant contributions to the imperial examination system and the suppression of powerful clans. She promoted a large number of people from humble backgrounds, and the establishment of the military examination in the palace tore a crack in the tightly locked class barrier.

For example, Yao Chong, Ma Zhou, Di Renjie, and many other impoverished individuals from humble backgrounds all entered the imperial court through the imperial examination system.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the power of aristocratic families was constantly suppressed, and the imperial examination system allowed batches of talented people from humble backgrounds to enter the court, diluting the power of powerful families. However, in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the situation changed drastically. The Li Tang imperial family lost its control over the local areas, and military governors were established in large numbers, leading to regional separatism.

The military magnates and landlords spawned by the separatist warlordism squeezed out the original local strongholds of the old aristocratic families, forcing them to move to Chang'an. They then monopolized the civil service system, controlling the imperial examinations and prestigious official positions. In order to gain the support of the powerful families and counterbalance the military governors, the emperor would not suppress them too much. The ban on marriage was practically ineffective, and factional struggles within the court were constant.

The powerful clans abandoned their local roots and instead used their inherited knowledge and regained power to control the imperial examination system, thus closing the cracks that had been opened.

Under these circumstances, society as a whole is like a pressure cooker, and sooner or later it will completely explode.

Many stories from the past have shown that the noble bloodline of a powerful family is ultimately no match for the slash of a steel blade. However, it seems that the powerful families of the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty lost their way in their long-term control of the government and the imperial examinations, and forgot this truth.

[That's alright, someone will soon tell them this principle again, even more profoundly and thoroughly.]

"When autumn comes on the ninth day of the ninth month, my flowers will bloom and all others will wither!"

"The fragrance of incense fills Chang'an, the entire city adorned in golden armor!"

At this moment, a murderous voice suddenly rang out from the sky, filled with a chilling aura, as if it were stained with thick blood.

At this moment, the young noblemen under the sky, arms crossed, couldn't help but shiver.

This poem has such a heavy sense of killing intent.

Traitor!!! He's definitely a traitor!!

They actually dared to attack all the way to Chang'an!

That's utterly arrogant!

Some people, however, thought that...

The fact that this person could write such a poem demonstrates their talent and learning; they were a learned scholar.

With such talent, instead of serving the country, he actually rebelled?

What a waste of all that talent!!

[This poem is titled "Ode to Chrysanthemums After Failing the Imperial Examination." As the title suggests, it was written after failing the imperial examination. The author was Huang Chao, and this was a work of indignation written after failing the imperial examination for the third time. It is worth mentioning that he failed all three times: twice the civil service examination and once the military examination.]

Huang Chao proved one thing: capturing Chang'an was far easier than passing the imperial examinations to enter Chang'an.

[Huang Chao, the Grand General Who Pacifies the Heavens and Equalizes the World, the Emperor of the Great Qi Dynasty, was the first peasant uprising leader to raise the banner of equalizing wealth and status. After capturing Chang'an, the city he had longed for, he began his revenge.]

The saying, "The imperial streets are trampled with the bones of high-ranking officials, and the imperial treasury is burned to ashes," perfectly describes the state of Chang'an at that time.

"Madman, madman!!"

The heads of the five clans and seven prominent families turned pale and kept cursing Huang Chao for his madman-like behavior.

The head of the Cui clan of Boling, in particular, was trembling uncontrollably.

The image of that sentence had already appeared in his mind:

A red river flowed slowly along the bluestone street, staining the lower halves of the haphazardly laid corpses red.

Black smoke billowed into the sky from the Cui family mansion, and his head hung on the plaque, his empty eye sockets staring at the headless corpse below.

"Doesn't he want to seize the world and become emperor? Without our help, how can he govern the world and secure his rule?!"

"Which bastard was responsible for Huang Chao failing the exam?!"

"They're absolutely blind!!"

"They tried to pass the imperial examination three times but failed each time. If they had passed, would all these things have happened?!"

One by one, the scions of powerful families turned their attention to the conflict, desperately needing an outlet for their emotions.

Huang Chao and his men were no match for them, and now they can't be found either.

Surely someone in charge of the imperial examinations can be found!

"Brother Cui, if I remember correctly, the position of chief examiner of the Ministry of Rites, the one in charge of the imperial examinations, seems to have always been held by your Cui family of Boling or the Cui family of Qinghe."

Everyone turned to look at the head of the Boling Cui clan, dozens, even hundreds, of eyes fixed on him.

The head of the Cui family was already stunned, his eyes lifeless, clearly having already guessed it.

His lifeless eyes gradually overlapped with the image of the empty eye sockets of the head beneath the Cui family plaque in his mind.

Are they blind and unable to recognize talent?

Or are they intentionally ignoring it, completely unconcerned?