Cui Shi
Wu Sansi was killed in 707 in an unsuccessful coup by Emperor Zhongzong's crown prince Li Chongjun, and Cui Shi soon became closely associated with Emperor Zhongzong's powerful concubine Consort Shangguan Wan'er; traditional historians generally believed that they had an affair. In 708, he became the deputy minister of defense (兵部侍郎, "Bingbu Shilang"). (HIs father Cui Yi was then serving as the deputy minister of rites, and having father and son both serve as deputy ministers of one of the six departments of the executive bureau (尚書省, "Shangshu Sheng") was unprecedented at that time.) In 709, at her recommendation, by which time Cui was "Zhongshu Shilang" (中書侍郎), the deputy head of the legislative bureau, Cui was given the designation "Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi" (同中書門下平章事), making him a chancellor "de facto". He and fellow chancellor Zheng Yin were also made acting deputy ministers of civil service affairs (吏部侍郎, "Libu Shilang"), making them in charge of selecting officials, and it was said that both he and Zheng violated civil service regulations, accepted bribes, and promoted inappropriate persons. Further, his father Cui Yi was also accepting bribes and trying to influence Cui Shi, and when Cui Shi refused to follow Cui Yi's requests, the father-son relationship became a difficult one. (On one occasion, Cui Yi accepted a bribe from a reserve official hoping for a commission but forgot to tell Cui Shi about it, and Cui Shi did not grant that reserve official a commission. That reserve official went to see Cui Shi and asked him, "Your relative accepted my bribe. Why did I not get a commission?" Cui Shi angrily responded, "Who accepted the bribe? I will cane him to death!" The reserve official responded, "Do not do that! If you do that, you will have to observe a period of mourning." Cui realized that it was his father and became ashamed.) Later in 709, after indictment by the censors Jin Heng (靳恆) and Li Shangyin and investigation by the censor Pei Cui (裴漼), Cui and Zheng were removed from their offices. Cui was initially supposed to demoted to be the military advisor to the prefect of Jiang Prefecture (江州, roughly modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi), while Zheng was to be exiled to Ji Prefecture (吉州, roughly modern Ji'an, Jiangxi). After intercession by Consort Shangguan, as well as Emperor Zhongzong's daughter Li Guo'er the Princess Anle and Li Guo'er's husband Wu Yanxiu (武延秀), Cui was instead made the prefect of Xiang Prefecture (襄州, roughly modern Xiangfan, Hubei), and Zheng was made the military advisor to the prefect of Jiang Prefecture. However, later in the year, when Emperor Zhongzong was set to make sacrifices to heaven and earth south of Chang'an, he recalled both Cui and Zheng to attend to him during the ceremony, and Cui was soon made "Shangshu Zuo Cheng" (尚書左丞), one of the secretaries general of the executive bureau. Sometime during these years, Cui also suggested that a new canal should be built between Lantian (藍田, near Chang'an) and Shang Prefecture (商州, roughly modern Shangluo, Shaanxi), and Emperor Zhongzong agreed, putting Cui in charge of the project. The canal was built with some tens of thousands of conscripted laborers, and somewhere between 13 and 15 laborers died during the project. Cui would eventually be recognized for the project when the older canal that the new canal replaced became unnavigable after a serious summer storm.