After Song Renzong deposed the first Queen Guo who slapped him, he took revenge and immersed himself in the gentle hometown of Shang Meiren and Yang Meiren. He acted as a groom every day and entered the bridal chamber every night, and finally collapsed from exhaustion. Dragon body, resulting in "not eating for days". The court "was worried both internally and externally, and blamed the two beauties."
Under the earnest persuasion of his adoptive mother, Queen Mother Yang, and Yan Wenying, who was suspected of poisoning Queen Guo, Song Renzong agreed that Yan Wenying should take coercive measures and force the two beauties into the car. "Send them off to the palace", and issued an edict the next day: Shang Meiren should be a Taoist priest, and Yang Meiren should be a nun. As compensation, Empress Dowager Yang ordered Cao, who had a rich family background, to enter the palace quickly.
Eighteen-year-old Cao entered the palace in response to the imperial edict. Under Song Renzong's unfriendly and complicated eyes, she was appointed queen by Empress Dowager Yang. Cao's transformation from the daughter of a famous family to the empress of the world seemed like a pie in the sky, but in fact she was roasted on the stove.
(Queen Guo)
Song Renzong’s love path was as bumpy as his growth path: when he first fell in love, he fell in love with the King of Shu, who was “the most beautiful in the world and was ready to join the capital”. The daughter fell in love at first sight. The empress dowager Liu E, however, "thought she was too coquettish at first sight and might not be good for the young master," so she simply married her off to her nephew.
Song Renzong was extremely disappointed and "unhappy in the end", so he retreated to the next best thing and turned his attention to Yang Shufei's maid Zhang. The powerful empress dowager Liu E, out of political necessity, gave Guo, the daughter of a famous family in Daibei, as his queen. Song Renzong finally waited for the death of the Empress Dowager, deposed Empress Guo, and wanted to relive his dream with the Zhang family. unexpectedly. Concubine Yang Shu, who had already ascended the throne as the Queen Mother, stepped in and forced the mediocre Cao family to him.
The two consecutive political marriages that he was forced to accept greatly hurt Song Renzong's feelings. His helplessness and depression doomed Empress Cao to have a marriage but no love at all.
(Liu E)
"Compilation of Anecdotes from the Song Dynasty" contains: On the Cold Food Festival before Cao entered the palace, she "played throwing money with her family." She threw out an article Money, the money seemed to be enchanted and "hovered for a long time, standing sideways without falling." Soon, Cao received the good news of entering the palace.
Empress Cao came from a well-known family, was kind and frugal by nature, was familiar with classics and history, and was good at calligraphy on silk silk. However, in Song Renzong's eyes, she was just a peasant woman who "worked hard on crops, often planting grain in the forbidden garden and raising silkworms", and had no idea about a romantic and romantic spouse. Therefore, he poured all his love into Mrs. Zhang (who has been promoted to Concubine Zhang). Empress Cao was forbearing and restrained, and she behaved calmly.
Concubine Zhang turned her nose up and relied on Song Renzong's favor, and proposed to him that she would like to use the queen's guard of honor to travel once. Song Renzong asked her to borrow it herself, and Concubine Zhang was so happy that she ran to borrow it. Empress Cao agreed without any hesitation. Concubine Zhang was overjoyed, but Song Renzong was uncharacteristic and warned her seriously: "The state has strict regulations on etiquette such as cars, clothing, flags, and honor guards. Order must be observed from top to bottom! If you use the queen's honor guard to travel without authorization, you will definitely be punished by the court. Deal with it!" Concubine Zhang gave up helplessly. Empress Cao won the game beautifully with her calmness and wit.
(Concubine Zhang)
In the first month of 1048, Empress Cao dissuaded Song Renzong from celebrating the Lantern Festival again on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month. Three days later, several guards flew over eaves and walls at night to approach Song Renzong's dormitory. Empress Cao remained calm and stopped Song Renzong from going out to observe the situation in time, and urgently called the guards in front of the palace to calm the chaos. The unarmed concubines and maids were mercilessly killed by the insurgents, and their screams could be heard clearly. In order to stabilize Song Renzong, the eunuch lied that the screams came from the palace maid who was beaten by the wet nurse. Queen Cao scolded: "It's clear that rebels are killing people nearby, but you dare to talk nonsense!"
Queen Cao encouraged the eunuchs and attendants to cooperate with the guards in front of the palace to annihilate the rebels. She personally cut off the hair of those who went out to quell the chaos, and encouraged them: "Tomorrow, we will reward you according to your merits, and use your hair as evidence!" The eunuchs and attendants were greatly encouraged, and they "fighted to the death" to kill the enemy and achieve meritorious service. In order to prevent the rebels from setting fire to the harem, Empress Cao sent people carrying buckets to secretly follow the rebels. As expected, the rebels were so incompetent that they "raised torches to burn the curtains" and were extinguished in time by the eunuchs and attendants who followed them. Under Queen Cao's fearless command in the face of danger, the rebels were quickly wiped out.
Rather than thanking Queen Cao for her thoughtfulness, Song Renzong suspected that this was a double act carefully planned by Queen Cao to prevent him from celebrating the Lantern Festival again. Concubine Zhang took the opportunity to make something out of nothing, adding fuel and jealousy, in an attempt to throw dirty water on Empress Cao.
It happened that a maid had an affair with a guard. After the incident was exposed, Queen Cao insisted on sentencing the maid to death in accordance with the law.
The maid begged Concubine Zhang to spare her life, Concubine Zhang interceded for her, and Song Renzong agreed to pardon her. Empress Cao solemnly put on her queen's clothes and went to see Song Renzong, requesting the death penalty in accordance with the law: "If we don't execute her, we can't cleanse the harem of the evil people!" Because Song Renzong had promised Concubine Zhang to pardon the maid, he asked Empress Cao to sit down and discuss it slowly. . Queen Cao was resolute, standing upright and begging repeatedly. Song Renzong was finally persuaded and agreed to execute the maid in accordance with court rules. In the battle of wits with Concubine Zhang, Empress Cao won another round.
Soon after, Queen Cao was pushed to the edge of the cliff while lying on the gun: a drunken official accidentally broke into the palace in the dead of night and alerted the guards. Song Renzong was worried about the safety of the harem, so he sent a message to Queen Cao and Concubine Zhang to close the palace door tightly and never go out. Empress Cao "honored her orders", but Concubine Zhang opened the palace door and ran to find Song Renzong. Song Renzong believed that it was because Concubine Zhang cared about him that she disobeyed the holy orders and came to live and die with him. He was so moved that his eyes filled with tears, and he suddenly wanted to abolish the queen.
Song Renzong believed that Empress Cao had manipulated the ministers and that he was surrounded by "the party of empresses on the left, right and front" and the empress must be abolished immediately. Prime Minister Liang Shi advised: "Ordinary citizens cannot bear to divorce their wives at will. The official family is the master of thousands of vehicles, how can we abolish the queen again!" Song Renzong thought about it and finally gave up the idea of ??abolishing the queen.