How did Wu Zetian treat her two brothers after becoming empress

Do you know why Wu Zetian sent her two brothers to local officials in remote counties? It’s okay if you don’t know, the history encyclopedia editor will tell you.
In the sixth year of Yonghui (655 AD), Emperor Gaozong of Tang achieved the victory of “deposing the king and establishing Wu”, and Empress Wu Zetian was appointed as the empress. According to the traditional formula of “one person attaining enlightenment, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven”, the Wu family should have achieved great success after Wu Zetian became the empress. At that time, many people believed that Wu Zetian’s two older brothers would soon be promoted or even appointed as prime ministers, and a new powerful family of relatives was about to emerge in the Tang Dynasty.
However, after Wu Zetian became the empress, her elder brother Wu Yuanqing was demoted to the position of governor of Longzhou (now Longzhou County, Chongzuo City, Guangxi Autonomous Region) and died in office. Second brother Wu Yuanshuang was demoted to the position of governor of Haozhou (now Fengyang County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province), and later exiled to Zhenzhou (now Sanya City, Hainan Province) and died. So why did Empress Wu Zetian treat her two brothers like this?
Wu Zetian’s father, the warrior Jun, had two wives throughout his life. The first wife, Xiang Li Li, had two sons (Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang), while the second wife, Yang, had three daughters (Wu Shun, Wu Zetian, Wu Shi). That is to say, Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang are half brothers of Wu Zetian. When Wu Yuanqing, Wu Yuanshuang, and Wu Zetian were alive, their relationship was not close.
After the death of the samurai, Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang began to be rude to their stepmother Yang and even subjected Wu Zetian to cruel and humiliating acts. At the age of sixteen, Wu Zetian couldn’t wait to enter the palace and probably had thoughts of avoiding her two brothers. It can be said that Wu Zetian had almost no sibling relationship with Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang. She only sent her two brothers to local officials in remote counties and prefectures as a gesture of mercy.
Apart from personal emotions, there is a deeper reason why Wu Zetian treated her two brothers harshly – Emperor Gaozong of Tang. Contrary to many people’s impressions, Emperor Gaozong of Tang controlled the highest imperial power until his death and was the dominant figure in the marital relationship. Due to the psychological shadow caused by Changsun Wuji, Tang Gaozong disliked the participation of relatives in politics, and the weak strength of the Wu family was also one of the reasons why he chose Wu Zetian as his empress.
That’s why Wu Zetian deliberately played tricks on his two brothers. Anyway, Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang have already offended Wu Zetian. She happened to use the careers of her two brothers to gain the trust of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and thus gain the power to participate in the handling of court affairs. So during the decades when Empress Wu Zetian served as the empress of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, the Tang Dynasty witnessed a rare phenomenon of “the empress in court without the exclusive power of relatives”.