Why the People Who Do Power's Dirty Work Never Survive It

In the year 697, a man named Lai Junchen was executed in the capital of imperial China. The crowd tore his body apart. For fifteen years, he had been the most feared man in the empire — signing death warrants, manufacturing charges, destroying anyone who stood in the way. Three days before his execution, he was still sitting behind the interrogation table. He never understood one thing: he was never holding power. He was being held by it. The person who built him, used him, and destroyed him was Wu Zetian — the only female emperor in Chinese history. This is not a story about cruelty. This is a story about how power protects itself.