Chapter Five - The Rise of Pure Consort Wu

CHAPTER FIVE

The Rise of Pure Consort Wu

NOW THAT SHE was empress, Wu Zhao was done playing nice.

She didn’t just want the crown. She wanted control.

Being Huanghou meant she was the official wife of the emperor, but she knew that didn’t guarantee security. Plenty of empresses in Chinese history had been sidelined, exiled, or quietly eliminated. Titles meant nothing without leverage.

Wu made sure she had it.

Her first move? Eliminate threats. And not just random court rivals. She went after anyone who stood between her and real authority, even people within her own circle. Her stepchildren. Her rivals. People who even looked like they might be plotting something.

She wasn’t subtle about it either.

Several of Gaozong’s older sons from other consorts were quietly pushed aside, either reassigned, demoted, or sent away under polite excuses. Other women in the harem were shuffled around, accused of minor crimes, or mysteriously vanished. Wu started building a new inner circle, one loyal only to her.

And at the center of that new order was her own bloodline.

She elevated her relatives. She promoted her clan. She put her allies into high-ranking positions. It wasn’t nepotism for the sake of it. It was a firewall. The court was full of snakes, and Wu wanted to make sure the ones closest to her weren’t going to bite.

But even as she tightened her grip, rumors kept swirling about what really happened to Empress Wang and Consort Xiao.

The story goes like this: after they were removed from power, Wu Zhao had them both locked up in a dark, dirty section of the palace. No servants. No food. Just isolation. When they tried to fight back and escape, Wu sent eunuchs to finish the job.

The women were beaten to death and stuffed into old wine jars. Buried without names. No tombs. No ceremony. No legacy.

Brutal, if true.

And very on-brand for how Wu handled obstacles.

Meanwhile, Emperor Gaozong started leaning on her more and more.

He wasn’t doing well. Physically, he was fading fast, suffering headaches, blackouts, and chronic illness. Wu began sitting in on his meetings. Answering his edicts. Signing documents in his name. And then, eventually, in her name.

By 660, the court knew what was happening.

Wu Zhao wasn’t just the empress anymore.

She was the one actually running the empire.

And she was just getting started.