When Wei Zhongxian was young, his family was poor and he wandered the streets. He can't read, but he knows archery and horseback riding, likes gambling and is addicted to debauchery. Wei Zhongxian often gambles with a group of evil teenagers. Once, after losing a large sum of money in a gamble, he felt very depressed, so he hated himself and changed his surname to Li Jinzhong.
Because I've been hanging out with eunuchs in the palace for a long time, it's rumored that I haven't cleaned my whole body and I have a testicle. Later, he changed back to his original surname and was named Wei Zhongxian by the emperor. Wei Zhongxian was elected to the palace since Wanli, belonging to eunuch Sun Sian. He entered the Jiazi library by buttering up to him. He also asked to be the mother of Wang Cairen, the grandson of the emperor, to please Wei. Wei Dynasty praised Wei Zhongxian to Wang many times, and Wang was very kind to him. The eldest grandson's wet nurse, a Hakka, has been serving Wei in private. This is the so-called relationship between food and food. After he entered the palace in Wei Zhongxian, the Hakkas communicated with him again, so the Hakkas treated Wei Zhongxian coldly and lovingly, and they forged a deep affection.
During the reign of Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, he became Li Sibing's pen eunuch, which was very popular and trusted. He claims to be "9,900 years old", rejecting dissidents and ruling the country arbitrarily, so that people "only know loyalty and righteousness, but don't know that there is an emperor." Emperor Chongzhen took over from his younger brother Zhu Youxiao, so why did Zhu Youxiao say to Chongzhen before he died, "Be loyal, but count big things"? "Loyalty" shows that Wei Zhongxian is loyal to the Ming Dynasty, and he can put the national plan first. "Countable events" refers to major events in the Ming Dynasty, which can be discussed by Wei Zhongxian.
Zhu Youxiao admired Wei Zhongxian so much, mainly because although Wei Zhongxian was autocratic, he put national affairs first, unlike Lindong party member, who specialized in fighting differences.
Two things can prove that Wei Zhongxian attaches great importance to state affairs.
1, using Yuan Chonghuan.
The History of the Ming Dynasty was published in this edition, and Hou Xun asked the court to make an exception and appoint Yuan Chonghuan: "In the first month of the second year of the Apocalypse (1622), I went to Beijing for pilgrimage, and Hou Xun asked me to make an exception, so I was appointed as the minister of the Ministry of War." Who is Hou Yao? Is the father of the famous wit Hou Fangyu, Lindong Party member. Although Wei Zhongxian was recommended by his sworn enemy Lindong Party, the imperial court made an exception and hired Yuan Chonghuan. After Lindong Party was abandoned by Emperor Apocalypse in the fifth year of Apocalypse, Yuan Chonghuan still led the troops to fight and won Ningjin in the sixth year of Apocalypse.
2. Reuse Xiong Tingbi.
In March of the third year of the Apocalypse, Nurhachi led the late Jin army to capture Shenyang and then attack Liaoyang. The two armies fought fiercely outside the city for five days. The Ming army was defeated, Liaoyang city fell, and Yuan Yingtai in Liaodong committed suicide. Liaoshen fell, "Hexi soldiers and civilians fled from Tashan to Luyang for more than 200 miles, and fireworks were cut off, causing a major earthquake in Beijing." Who will succeed Yuan Yingtai as the manager of Liaodong became the top priority of the imperial court. All parties also attach great importance to it, because whoever gets the position of Liaodong strategy is equal to having the right to speak in military planning. Lindong, party member and Liu Yi? Jiang Binggan and others recommended it, while Zhejiang School supported Zhang. The court agreed to Lindong party member's suggestion and reopened Xiong Tingbi.
Lindong Party's overall plan for the late Jin Dynasty is "Please gather 180,000 soldiers and share them?" パ? (3) ㄕㄕ? 2. Prints (4)? The main points of Chaer and Zhenjiang correspond from beginning to end, with small police blocking themselves and big enemies helping each other. What's more, the elite are swimming, grazing, disturbing agriculture and animal husbandry, making the enemy tired, and then the camera goes in. "So when Xiong Tingbi first took charge of Liaodong, he was stationed in Liaodong for more than a year, and the Liaodong border was basically peaceful.
Of course, there are "supervisors" in Xiong Tingbi, who make chariots, treat firearms and repair urban defenses. It is also the reason why Nurhachi is busy expanding his power and conquering other tribes in Northeast China.
It can be seen from these things that although Wei Zhongxian has done a lot of bad things, he can take the overall situation into consideration and not seek personal gain in the face of major issues. After Chongzhen ascended the throne, Wei Zhongxian was the first to be cleaned up. 1627 65438+ In February, Zhu Youjian in Chongzhen punished eunuchs, dealt with Wei Zhongxian's top ten crimes, ordered him to be arrested and hanged himself, and others in the party were purged.
Originally, Wei Zhongxian Group and Lindong Party Group confronted each other and contained each other. After Wei Zhongxian's death, the Lindong Party Group stayed in North Korea. Lindong Party is a bureaucratic political group dominated by Jiangnan literati in the late Ming Dynasty. The "Party" of "Lindong Party" is a small group, not a modern political party.
When the current situation is turbulent, they can take responsibility for themselves and devote themselves to the reconstruction of social moral and cultural order and political and legal order. Their personality spirit is always worthy of praise and admiration. However, in the actual operation process, Lin Dong's conservative views and impulsive attitude led to fierce party struggles in the late Ming Dynasty, which not only brought a devastating blow to himself, but also had a huge negative impact on the country and the nation. For example, there were many problems when Liaodong fought Manchuria.
Lindong represented the interests of merchants and landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces at that time and opposed the imperial court's taxation of industrialists and businessmen. They took advantage of Emperor Chongzhen's elimination of Wei Zhongxian's influence to cancel or reduce the tax burden of overseas trade tax, mining tax tax, salt tax and tea tax, which made the source of fiscal revenue in the late Ming Dynasty more single and the tax source of the imperial court more dependent on ordinary farmers. Coupled with various natural disasters at that time, a large number of farmers went bankrupt, which directly led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
In order to win the hearts of the people, Lindong Party, which was in power again, was exempted from many taxes. However, Lindong Party's defense against Liao Dynasty cost the national treasury 9 million taels of silver every year, and it consumed the finance of Ming Dynasty within a few years.
These Lindong party member, whose mission is to promote Confucianism, are just a group of literati and Confucian generals who are good at empty talk and lack the skills of governing the country. Most of the memorials presented are stupid and corrupt, absurd on paper and not helpful to the country in moral articles. Moreover, the struggle between the DPRK and the party has intensified, attacking each other and restricting each other.
Chongzhen is ambitious and makes great efforts to deal with this situation.
In seventeen years, he changed seventeen ministers of punishments and fifty cabinet college students, all to no avail. At that time, when Li Zicheng surrounded Beijing, the national treasury was in deficit. Chongzhen borrowed money from courtiers, without losing his patriotic words. They have no money. No, Li Zicheng charged them 70 million as soon as he entered Beijing. They would rather destroy the country than pay the price for it. Some Lindong party member simply surrendered to Li Zicheng, such as Hou Yao who recommended Yuan Chonghuan as Minister of Dashun Industry. Disappointed, Chongzhen remembered what his brother Zhu Youxiao said to him before he died: the profound meaning of Wei Zhongxian's "loyalty, great things can be counted".
On March 14th, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, on the fifth day before hanging himself in Jingshan Park, Wei Zhongxian's body was secretly buried in Biyun Temple in Xiangshan.