suggested that he depose Empress Wu. He agreed, and had Shangguan draft an edict to that effect. However, Empress Wu had received information that that was happening, and she emerged to defend herself, when she reached the main palace, she saw the emperor holding a decree and asked seriously: "What is this?" And when Empress Wu found out, she cried, which prompted Emperor Gaozong to stop. Emperor Gaozong could not carry out the removal, and instead blamed Shangguan, and Emperor Gaozong said to Empress Wu: As both Shangguan and Wang had previously served the former crown prince Li Zhong, Empress Wu had Xu Jingzong falsely accuse Shangguan, Wang, and Li Zhong of conspiring against Emperor Gaozong's life. Around the new year 665, Shangguan and Wang were executed, and Li Zhong was forced to commit suicide. After the events ended, Empress Wu told Emperor Gaozong: Therefore, after this step, every day that Emperor Gaozong presided over imperial meetings, Empress Wu would sit behind a pearl screen behind him to hear the reports, and before the emperor can decide, he must ask the empress: therefore she got involved in everything pertaining to the empire and discussed and helped decide all "great and small" military and state affairs; her power is no different from that of the emperor. Since Empress Wu began to listen to politics in court, she established herself and Gaozong in the same position in front of the civil and military ministers of the Tang dynasty. In fact, if anyone with a request to make at Court obtains an audience or is allowed to speak, the emperor hears him indeed, but will give no definite answer of "Yes or No", referring him promptly to empress. frequently Emperor Gaozong was unable to go to the court because of a headache, and Empress Wu was "obliged" to go to the court alone and decide. As a result, she increasingly took control of great and small decisions made throughout Emperor Gaozong's reign. She and Emperor Gaozong were thereafter referred to as the "Two Saints." The extent of Empress Wu's authority from 665 until the end of Emperor Gaozong, all historians and historical yearbooks state: The first book: the Later Jin historian Liu Xu, in Old Book of Tang, commented: The second book: according to Song dynasty historians Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, in the New Book of Tang: The third book: according to