In the TV series "Qing Ping Le", after hearing about the war on the Western Front, Empress Cao changed her red dress into a military uniform. Her heroic appearance was like returning from a fierce battle, and she gained countless fans.
In fact, Empress Cao in history was far more heroic than in the TV series. Not only did she prove that she could be both Renzong's wife and minister at a critical moment with her first-rate ability to control the situation, she also used her extraordinary intelligence to help the great writer Su Shi get out of the haze of the "Wutai Poetry Case" , preserving the "seeds of scholars" for the Song Dynasty.
1. The Tiger Girl
Speaking of Empress Cao, we have to mention her extremely glorious natal family. Empress Cao was born in the "Zhending Cao family", which was one of the top aristocratic families in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the words of Prime Minister Song Xiang, "Today, among the princes and noble families, Cao is the head."
Empress Cao, who came from a well-known family, was the granddaughter of Cao Bin, the founding father of the Northern Song Dynasty. The collision between the general's style and the cultural accumulation of aristocratic families made Queen Cao well versed in classics and history, good at calligraphy, and had a strong psychological quality to remain calm in times of crisis.
In 1033 AD, the 18-year-old Queen Cao entered the palace by imperial edict. Relying on her virtuous and outstanding talents, Empress Cao quickly gained the appreciation of Renzong's adoptive mother, Empress Dowager Zhang Huiyang. She ascended the throne the following year and was established as the empress of Song Renzong.
Unfortunately, although Empress Cao was the lord of the Sixth Palace, Song Renzong was a real face-controller. He only wanted to chase flowers and waves and look at beauties, and did not pay much attention to the plain-looking Empress Cao.
Facing Song Renzong's indifference, Empress Cao did not feel sorry for herself like an ordinary little girl. Instead, she turned pressure into motivation and worked hard to manage Song Renzong's backyard so that Song Renzong did not have any worries.
2. Experts in field control
One day in the eighth year of Qingli, a few soldiers took advantage of the darkness to cause chaos and went straight to Song Renzong's palace. At that time, Queen Cao was serving Song Renzong. After hearing about the incident, Song Renzong jumped up and wanted to run away, but was held down by Queen Cao.
Subsequently, Empress Cao showed her true nature as a general and a tiger girl, and ordered her attendants to close the palace door immediately to protect the emperor. At the same time, she sent someone to urgently summon Wang Shouzhong to lead troops into the palace to quell the chaos.
At this time, the rebel soldiers who were blocked on the periphery began to kill the concubines and palace maids, and for a while, cries rang through the sky. The eunuch who stayed with Song Renzong was afraid of scaring the emperor, so he quickly comforted Song Renzong and said that the noises were from the nanny hitting the disobedient maid.
Unexpectedly, Queen Cao heard these words. Queen Cao immediately reprimanded the eunuchs and said: "The rebels are nearby and may harm the emperor at any time. How dare you speak nonsense!"
After saying that, Queen Cao suddenly had a thought in her mind. She thought that the rebels might set fire to force Renzong to show up. So, Queen Cao immediately ordered the eunuchs to get water from the nearest place, just in case. Sure enough, as soon as the eunuchs got the water back, the rebels started setting fires everywhere. The fire burned the curtains and swallowed everything in its path like a giant dragon.
Although Empress Cao was in danger, she summoned all the palace people, and then personally cut off a lock of hair of each person, telling the palace people to wait until the deed was accomplished and reward them with hair locks. With Empress Cao's promise, everyone in the palace worked hard. Everyone put out fires and killed enemies, and soon all the rebels were wiped out.
3. Skillfully managing the imperial concubine
Regrettably, Queen Cao’s first-class field control ability fell into the eyes of Song Renzong, but it became Queen Cao’s attempt to save her. He deliberately directed and acted in this "counter-insurgency drama". As a result, the big pig's hooves Song Renzong not only did not appreciate it, but also planned to depose Queen Cao and make the beauty Zhang Guifei the queen.
Although this farce of post-abolition finally came to an end due to the strong opposition of the courtiers. However, Concubine Zhang's arrogance increased day by day under her favor. Gradually, Concubine Zhang became more and more dissatisfied with the unfavored Queen Cao, and she couldn't help but have an attempt to challenge Queen Cao's authority.
Once, Concubine Zhang acted coquettishly in front of Song Renzong, crying and shouting that she wanted to travel with the Queen's guard of honor. Song Renzong made Zhang Guifei cry until her brain hurt. In desperation, he used Tai Chi and sent Zhang Guifei to borrow it from the queen.
Who knew that Concubine Zhang, relying on Renzong's favor, actually went to Empress Cao to borrow a guard of honor. Empress Cao looked at Concubine Zhang with a stern look on her face and sneered secretly in her heart, but said calmly on her face: "Since you like it, take it."
Concubine Zhang did not expect that borrowing the honor guard would go so smoothly. She sang and danced all the way back to Renzong. Unexpectedly, after listening to Concubine Zhang's story, Renzong immediately felt that the queen was magnanimous and tolerant. Then, on second thought, he felt that Concubine Zhang's blatant disregard of etiquette was excessive. So Song Renzong criticized Concubine Zhang with a straight face, so that Concubine Zhang no longer dared to mention the matter of borrowing a guard of honor.
Poor Concubine Zhang may never understand why when Song Renzong and Empress Cao were playing Tai Chi, the punches ended up hitting her. It must have been too painful for Concubine Zhang to be regarded as cannon fodder.
4. Saving Su Shi wisely
After the Zhang Guifei incident came to an end, Renzong's life also came to an end. Since Renzong passed away late at night, in order to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the night to cause trouble, Empress Cao endured the pain of losing her husband and once again used her first-class control skills to lock the doors of each palace and block the news. Then the next day, he quickly summoned the important ministers into the palace, and asked Han Qi to read out the edict on the spot, completing the power transition of Yingzong's succession in one go.
After Yingzong succeeded to the throne, he respected Queen Cao as the Queen Mother. However, Empress Cao did not rely on the reputation of the Queen Mother to dominate. Instead, she strictly prohibited her relatives from interfering in politics, which led to a completely new atmosphere in the palace and court.
Once, Yingzong was unable to govern due to illness, so he asked Queen Cao to handle military and state affairs on his behalf. Empress Cao listened to politics in the small hall at the east gate. When the ministers were hesitant about something, Empress Cao always said: "You can discuss it yourself." However, every time after going to court, Queen Cao would find out how the sages of the past had dealt with matters that the ministers had questions about that day, and then tell Ying Zong the experiences of their predecessors so that Ying Zong could learn from them.
Later, Yingzong's illness recovered, and Queen Cao immediately withdrew the curtain and returned to power. However, Yingzong was reluctant to leave Queen Cao, and he withheld the edict of "returning to power" for a long time and refused to execute it.
A few years later, Yingzong passed away and Empress Cao became old. Although Emperor Shenzong respected Empress Cao as the Empress Dowager and tried his best to support her, he could not stop Empress Cao's life from disappearing bit by bit.
One day, Queen Cao, who had fallen into a coma, vaguely heard someone talking about the "Wutai Poetry Case". Empress Cao suddenly came to her senses. She found Shenzong and said to him: "When Emperor Renzong admitted Brother Su Shi during the palace examination, he happily said that Brother Su Shi was a talented person in the country and could assist my son in the future.' Now I heard that Su Shi was imprisoned for a few poems. Could it be that his enemies framed him?"
At this point, Queen Cao paused and continued: "The errors found in the poems, even if It's a real mistake, but it's a small one. Why should the emperor ruin a good minister over some trivial matter? My illness is already very difficult to cure. I must not hurt the integrity and peace between the emperor and his ministers by wronging a good man again. "
The words made Shenzong shed tears. After returning to the court, Shenzong sided with the ministers who rescued Su Shi and ordered that Su Shi be exempted from death and given a lighter sentence.
Empress Cao had no chance to see the scene where Su Shi walked out of prison alive. In the winter of the second year of Yuanfeng, Queen Cao died of illness. Empress Cao lived through the three dynasties of Renzong, Yingzong, and Shenzong. Her legendary life won the respect of all dynasties, and she also left a shining star in the history of the world, lighting up the eternal night.
Of course, if possible, perhaps Empress Cao would hope that she would be in harmony with Renzong from the beginning, like in "Qing Ping Le", and achieve a happy marriage that only envies mandarin ducks but not immortals!