1. Royal Guards
In chronological order, let's talk about the Royal Guards established by Zhu Yuanzhang. In the early Ming Dynasty, the military system was relatively simple. Its grass-roots units were Wei and Suo, each of which had about 5, regular non-commissioned officers. Its subordinate units were divided into 1, households and 1 households, and there were 48 guards in Beijing. In the fifteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to reform the Guards and established twelve pro-military guards, the most important of which was the "Royal Guards".
The leader of the Royal Guards is called the commander (or the commander-in-chief and commander-in-chief). Generally, he is a military commander close to the emperor, but rarely a eunuch. Its functions are: "directly driving the guards, patrolling and arresting them", which basically divides the Royal Guards into two completely different departments. The Royal Guards, who are in charge of the guards, display ceremonial ceremonies and accompany the emperor on patrol, are basically no different from the traditional guards, among which the famous one is "General Han". Although these people are famous as "generals", they are actually only responsible for standing in the temple, passing on the emperor's orders and doing security work. To put it bluntly, they are stakes in the palace hall. Of course, these "stakes" are not idle people. They are generally big and powerful, and they are full of gas and loud voices. From the outside, they are quite dignified and have a certain deterrent effect on people who don't know the details of the Ming court. General Dahan formed his own camp in the Royal Guards. At the beginning, there were about 1,5 people. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, due to the expansion of the bureaucracy, General Dahan had once increased to more than 5, people. As for "patrol and arrest", it is the special feature of Royal Guards that distinguishes them from other guards of various dynasties, and it is also the reason why it can be firmly remembered by people. In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention of establishing the Royal Guards was only to pay tribute to the book, but later, because of his wanton slaughter of heroes, he felt that the traditional judicial institutions, such as the punishments department, Dali Temple and Duchayuan, were not easy to use, so he upgraded the security function of the Royal Guards and made it the emperor's private police. The security agency responsible for criminal investigation is the North-South Town Magistrate's Department, in which the North Town Magistrate's Department has its own prison (imperial prison), which can arrest, torture and execute on its own without going through the general judicial institutions.
There are five health centers under the North and South Town Magistrates' Department, and their commanding officers are called Qianhu, Baihu, General Flag and Little Flag, while ordinary non-commissioned officers are called a captain and Lux. A captain and Lux are called "Tiqi" when they carry out the task of arresting thieves and rapists (everyone must be familiar with this term). The number of twisters ranges from 1, at least to 6, at most. Generally, the Royal Guards Academy selects people who are powerful and have no bad records from the people, and then they are promoted step by step according to their abilities and qualifications. At the same time, the official position of the Royal Guards is also allowed to be hereditary.
Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, the first two generations of emperors in the Ming Dynasty, had a strong desire to maintain imperial power because of their special origins. This makes the function of "patrol and arrest" of Royal Guards infinitely expanded. Generally speaking, the work of the Royal Guards is limited to detecting all kinds of information and handling cases handed over by the emperor. However, once an ambitious and ruthless commander comes to power, he will spare no effort to create troubles by taking advantage of his position, which can not only crack down on dissidents, but also serve as the capital for his promotion. For example, Ji Gang, Ying Zong, Qian Ning, etc., when they were in power, they rode everywhere, from the prime minister to the captaincy to the common people, all under their surveillance. If they disobeyed their orders a little, they would be ruined and the whole country was shrouded in a horrible atmosphere. The notorious Fusi prison in Beizhen is full of all kinds of innocent people, and countless upright people died under the torture of the Royal Guards. What is even more frightening is that this horrible atmosphere is different from the short-term appearance in the period of Wu Zetian in Tang Dynasty, and it is almost endless in the end of the Ming Dynasty. This kind of unrestrained overfishing has greatly affected the relationship between the emperor and the bureaucracy, making the officials, the people, the army and the emperor separated from Germany. No wonder some people say that the Ming Dynasty died not in bandits, but in factory guards.
Another famous function of the Royal Guards is to "take charge of the court staff". Tingzhang system began in Ming Dynasty, which was a torture used by the emperor to teach disobedient scholar-officials. Once an unlucky official angered the emperor and was announced to be cudgeled, he was immediately stripped of his official clothes, tied his hands behind his back and taken to the noon gate of the execution place. There, SiLi supervisor handprinted eunuchs and Royal Guards to make a left and a right ready. The prisoner was wrapped in a big cloth, and with the word "hit", sticks rained down on his thighs and buttocks. The executioner is a captain of the Royal Guards. They are all highly trained and skilled, and they can accurately grasp the life and death of the prisoner according to the hints of the eunuch Si Li and the commander of the Royal Guards. If these two people's feet are splayed like a figure-eight, it means that they can keep the staff alive; On the other hand, if the toes move inward, the people under the staff will only die. After the staff is finished, it is necessary to lift the four corners of the cloth wrapped around the prisoner, and then fall heavily after lifting it. At this time, even if the cloth man is not dead, he will be half-dead. The punishment of the court staff was a great harm to the body and mind of the scholar-officials, but the emperors of the Ming Dynasty enjoyed it, and the Royal Guards had a special liking for it.
Throughout the Ming Dynasty, the Royal Guards, although they also had relatively upright commanders like Bin Yuan and Mou Bin, generally speaking, their function was mainly to act as accomplices for the extremely autocratic system of the Ming Dynasty. With such an efficient tool as the Royal Guards, it is more convenient for the emperors of the Ming Dynasty to suppress the literati class and the lower class, but the price paid for this is a great decline in social vitality, which is the main reason why although the Ming Dynasty has a history of more than 2 years, it has made no progress or even regressed in the political system and economic system.
Second, the East Factory
The inventor of the East Factory was Zhu Di, the founder of Ming Chengzu. After launching the "Battle of Jing Nan" to seize his nephew's throne, Zhu Di's spirit has been in a state of high tension. On the one hand, the rumor that Emperor Jianwen was not dead did not appear. On the other hand, many ministers in the imperial court were not very supportive of the new regime. In order to consolidate the political power, Zhu Di urgently needed a powerful autocratic institution, but he felt that the Royal Guards located outside the palace were not very convenient to use, so he decided to establish a new institution. In the process of Zhu Di's starting his troops, some eunuchs and monks made great efforts (such as the famous Zheng He and Dao Yan), so in his mind, he still felt that eunuchs were more reliable, and they were in the palace, which was more convenient to contact.
In this way, after Ming Chengzu moved to Beijing, a detective agency headed by eunuchs was established. Because its address is located in the north of Dong 'anmen (now Dongchang Hutong in the north of Wangfujing Street), it was named Dongchang. The function of the East Factory is to "visit and seek rebellion, evil words, etc., and have power with the Royal Guards". At first, the East Factory was only responsible for investigating and arresting people, but it did not have the right to interrogate prisoners. The suspects caught were handed over to the Fusi of the North Town of Royal Guards for trial, but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the East Factory also had its own prison. The leader of the East Factory is called the eunuch of the East Factory, also known as the factory owner and the factory supervisor, and is the second person among eunuchs after the eunuch of the Sili Supervisor. In addition, there are one thousand households and one hundred households in the East Factory, and there are several shift supervisors, foremen and secretaries. The specific officers in charge of the investigation work are the service chief and the fan service, and the service chief is equivalent to the squad leader, also known as the stall leader. The fan service is what we commonly call Fan Zi.
The scope of investigation in the East Factory is very wide. People from the East Factory have to be sent to listen to the major cases jointly heard by the imperial court and the repeated crimes tortured by Fu Si of the North Town of Jinyiwei. Every yamen in the imperial court has staff from the East Factory on duty to monitor the officials' every move. Some important yamen documents, such as various side newspapers and Tang newspapers of the Ministry of War, should be checked by the East Factory. Even the daily life of ordinary people, the price of rice, oil and salt, is also within the reconnaissance scope of the East Factory. The information obtained by the East Factory can be reported directly to the emperor, which is much more convenient than the Royal Guards having to report in the form of a letter. The layout of Dongchang Mansion is funny. The small hall next to the hall is filled with the statue of Yue Fei, and the story of the pancreatic case is engraved on the screen wall on the right side of the hall. The memorial tablets of the owners of the previous East Factory are enshrined in the ancestral hall on the west side of the hall, and there is also a memorial archway in front of the hall that will last forever. It's a pity that the actions of the East Factory staff are far from their idols. The East Factory's activities in the streets and alleys of Beijing every day are not entirely for the court, but more for their own self-interest. They often accuse Luo Zhi, falsely accuse good citizens, and then extract confessions under duress and take the opportunity to extort money. By the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the scope of investigation in Dongchang had even expanded to the whole country, and even in the remote areas of Yuanzhou, there were also "people who were talking in the capital with fresh clothes and angry horses", which made the whole country feel insecure and the people were in dire straits. On the relationship with Royal Guards, Dongchang came from behind. Because the owner of the East Factory has a close relationship with the emperor and is located in the palace, it is easier to gain the trust of the emperor. The relationship between the East Factory and the Royal Guards has gradually changed from a peer to a superior-subordinate relationship. In the era when the eunuchs were in power, the Royal Guards even had to kneel and kowtow when they met the owner of the East Factory.
Third, the West Factory and the Inner Factory
The West Factory only existed for a short time in the history of the Ming Dynasty. During the Chenghua period in Ming Xianzong, there was a mysterious case of "the demon fox went out at night" in the capital, and then a demon named Li Zilong used the side door to confuse people and even snared many eunuchs, with ulterior motives. Although Li Zilong and his followers were finally caught by the Royal Guards, Xianzong was deeply affected by the lack of stabbing power. So Wang Zhi, the clever little eunuch around him, was chosen and sent to the palace to find out the news. Wang Zhi seized this opportunity, made innuendo everywhere, and collected many so-called "secret news" reports to Xianzong. Xianzong thought the news was very valuable, and he was very satisfied with Wang Zhi's performance, and asked him to continue to do it.
A few months later, Xian Zong established a new imperial court organization-Xichang, with Wang Zhi as the leader. The site of the West Factory is located in front of Lingji Palace, with the old ash factory as the headquarters of the factory department. The officers of the West Factory were mainly selected from the guards, and these people chose their own subordinates. In just a few months, the staff of the West Factory expanded extremely, and its power even surpassed that of the old-timer East Factory.
The West Factory was originally set up to spy on the emperor, but in order to get promoted and get rich, Wang Zhi tried his best to build major cases and cases, and the number of cases handled, the speed and the number of people involved far exceeded that of the East Factory and the Royal Guards. West Factory has set up a detective network all over the country. The main targets are officials inside and outside Beijing. Once someone is suspected, they will be arrested immediately, without the consent of the emperor in advance. After that, of course, it is torture, so as to make the case as big as possible. For ordinary people, as long as their words and deeds are not very good, they will be severely punished by the West Factory for the crime of evil words.
In this case, the West Factory was only established for five months, which made people in the government and the public panic. The assistant ministers headed by Shang Lu, a university student (that is, the talent who won three yuan in a row), collectively wrote a letter, complaining to Xian Zong about the harm of Chen West Factory and reporting the Outside the Law run by Wang Zhi one by one. Xianzong was shocked when he received the memorial, so he cancelled the West Factory and dismissed its personnel.
However, the days without the Western Factory always made Xian Zong feel insecure. After learning about the emperor's thoughts, a traitor Dai Jin took the initiative to write a letter and touted Wang Zhi. Xian zong was overjoyed and immediately resumed the west factory. There was only one month between the waste and the opening. After Wang Zhi came back, he handled the case more harshly, and Dai Gan was promoted.
In the following five years, Wang Zhi led the West Factory to set up numerous "major cases" and cut off courtiers who opposed himself, such as Shang Lu and Xiang Zhong, and his power reached the extreme. However, as the saying goes, "extremes meet", Wang Zhi's extremely inflated power cannot but arouse the emperor's vigilance. In the subsequent power struggle, Wang Zhi lost, was transferred out of Beijing, and the East Factory was dissolved. A few years later, Wang Zhi died in frustration.
When Emperor Wuzong, the grandson of Xianzong, succeeded to the throne, Liu Jin, the great eunuch, came to power, and the eunuch forces rose again, and the western factory reopened, led by Gu Dayong, the eunuch. The funny thing is that although both the West Factory and the East Factory are under the command of Liu Jin, they are not cooperating with each other, but fighting for power and profit and tearing each other apart. In order to change this situation, Liu Jin has built an internal factory, which is directly under his command. Its functions are the same as those of Dongxi Factory, but the scope of investigation is wider, even including Dongxi Factory and Royal Guards. For a time, the four secret service agencies, namely, Royal Guards, East-West Factory and Inner-line Factory, lay flat, twips rode around, and the world was in turmoil. It was not until five years later, when Liu Jin fell, that Wu Zongcai ordered the cancellation of the western factory and the inner factory.
As a temporary product, West Factory disappeared forever in history.
Finally, a digression: the relationship between the emperor and the eunuch. Everyone must be puzzled why so many emperors used eunuchs in history. In fact, in a broad sense, the eunuch group can also be counted as a part of the bureaucracy, and it has many advantages that the scholar-bureaucrat class does not have:
First of all, the eunuch is the emperor's domestic slave, and it is more convenient to communicate with the emperor and to ponder the emperor's mind.
Secondly, eunuchs themselves are eunuchs, and they have no position in society. The only thing they can rely on is the emperor. Therefore, when they work for the emperor, they tend to be more loyal and think of the emperor. Unlike the literati class, they often take saving the whole world as their own responsibility and sometimes don't buy the emperor's account.
Third, eunuchs are not illiterate boors, and a considerable number of eunuchs are not up to their educational level. As the private secretary of the emperor, they are fully competent and will not have so many objections as ordinary literati.
Finally, eunuchs are the main way for empresses to communicate with the outside world. If empresses want to exert influence on state affairs, they must unite with eunuchs.
In short, due to the internal needs of the autocratic regime, the emperor needs a force independent of the bureaucracy for his own use, and the most convenient one is the eunuch. Therefore, as long as the centralized autocratic system exists for one day, eunuchs will have their place. Although they often create chaos in state affairs, any clever emperor will not give up this powerful tool easily, which is why eunuchs can be distinguished from consorts and have always played an important role in the history of China.