If a large number of eunuchs went to Liaodong on their own, they would definitely attract Chongzhen's attention.
But now it's not so obvious just for their nephew.
It is normal for these people to resign and sell off their property, and Jinyiwei Tongdong Factory is still in the hands of the eunuchs.
It is normal that Chongzhen's ears and eyes are blocked.
Now Emperor Tianqi's hundred-day mourning has ended.
Although the construction of the mausoleum has just begun and it is not possible to bury him yet, the funeral ceremony has been completed.
In fact, the crisis in Chongzhen was not completely resolved at this time, although many members of the eunuch party resigned in the previous dynasty, which caused the eunuch party's reputation to plummet.
However, the palace is still completely under the control of Wei Zhongxian, and it is impossible for Wang Chengen to affect the eunuch's control of the palace.
So he must endure it.
Zhang Yan told Chongzhen that all water and food must be taken carefully to avoid being plotted by Wei Yi.
In order to deal with Chongzhen, the eunuchs still used the tried and tested method before and presented beautiful women to Emperor Chongzhen.
Not only that, but also uses the aphrodisiac Ecstasy incense.
However, Emperor Chongzhen was indeed much stronger than his father and brother, Emperor Taichang and Emperor Tianqi in terms of resisting beauty. These methods did not make Chongzhen addicted.
Finally, Wei Zhongxian directly resigned as Admiral of Dongchang to test Chongzhen's attitude.
Chongzhen refused, but he comforted her and allowed Mrs. Fengsheng to leave the palace and live in a private residence.
Then Wei Zhongxian asked various places to stop building their own shrines.
Zhu Youjian approved that the former temple should be kept as it was and would not be rebuilt.
Finally, he asked his party members to praise him, and Zhu Youjian always read these memorials very happily without any sullenness. He also continued to praise Wei Zhongxian and his party members Wang Tiqian, Cui Qixiu and others.
These series of temptations also made the eunuchs finally let down their guard.
Emperor Chongzhen was only 16 years old, so maybe he was too careful.
Although Yang Weiyuan, the censor, was also an eunuch, he had conflicts with Cui Chengxiu. On the one hand, he impeached Wei Zhongxian's capable general Cui Chengxiu, but on the other hand, he praised Wei Zhongxian.
This just gave Zhu Youjian the opportunity to have an attack. He directly pushed ahead and eliminated Cui Chengxiu. This move undoubtedly sent a signal.
Cui Chengxiu was the leader of Wei Zhongxian's "Five Tigers". He was not only a member of the cabinet, but also served as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and the Censor of Zuodu.
His downfall also sounded the clarion call for a counterattack against the eunuchs!
The imperial court's memorials to impeach Wei Zhongxian appeared one after another, but Zhu Youjian remained calm and allowed them to develop until the wave of attacks on Wei Zhongxian reached its peak. Jiaxing County Gongsheng Qian Jiazheng listed Wei Zhongxian's ten major crimes in the memorial.
One is to merge the emperor.
The ministers must be credited for being sparse, and they should be loyal and worthy to match the late emperor.
The second is the contempt for the queen.
Luo Zhi, a relative of the emperor, was in danger of becoming a middle-ranking official.
The third is to engage in troops.
Recruiting people without qualifications and building internal training.
The fourth is that there is no king.
Major military and national affairs are blocked by the sky with one hand.
The fifth day is Kepei.
The newly crowned king of the three vassals is not as good as one of the Fu vassals.
The loyal and virtuous are granted the title of Duke, and they are blessed with thousands of hectares of wealth.
Sixth, there is no saint.
If he dares to use a knife to punish me, I will marry Zu Dou.
Seven days of abuse.
He openly attacks the title of Duke, and is shy and ignorant.
Eighth: Indiscriminate use of martial arts.
The military ministers risked their lives to defend the encirclement, while the loyal and virtuous people stayed in Zunzu to risk rewards.
Ninth, it is said to build a shrine for students. Each shrine can be built for no less than 50,000 people. This will not be a loss for the people.
The tenth day is to clear the joints.
Cui Chengxiu, the god's son, and Cui Duo, the evil son, posted the articles and re-edited the virtuous books.
All kinds of rebellion are too numerous to describe, and they are endless.
At this time, Zhu Youjian suddenly took action and angrily denounced Wei Zhongxian's crimes in front of the civil and military officials of the court.
At this time, most of the senior officials of the eunuch party had been eliminated in the previous dynasty, and the remaining people were like frightened birds. No one dared to speak out to defend Wei Zhongxian.
The ministers were even more excited, and many people suggested that Wei Zhongxian should be cut into pieces like the eunuch Liu Jin of the previous dynasty was done!
At this time, there was no longer a Hakka in the court who had colluded with him, the "Feng Sheng Lady".
However, Eunuch Wei would naturally not admit these accusations.
He is also well aware of the principle of "confession, leniency, and jail time." If he pleads guilty in court, wouldn't it mean that an old man is eating arsenic - he is tired of living?
Wei Zhongxian knelt on the ground and said with tears in his eyes: "At the beginning of the late emperor's accession to the throne, there were internal and external troubles, and the treasury was empty. In order to raise military pay, the slaves had to crack down on corruption and increase commercial taxes. It really offended many people!"
"Even if they continue to confuse right and wrong, attacking the slaves will not change the fact that the Jianlu were destroyed."
"The servant's nephew Wei Liangqing escorted the army to Liaodong and was granted a title for his meritorious service. It was the late emperor's permission to grant him a title for his meritorious service. All the way from Suningbo to Ning Guogong, all the ministers had no objections. How come these have become slaves today?"
"The country is in dire straits, and the vassal king has no choice but to appropriately reduce regulations. Are these the slaves' sins?"
"My servant worked hard to expand the wealth for the imperial court. In the fifth and sixth years of Apocalypse, the income of the imperial court exceeded ten million taels. It also allowed His Majesty to have a surplus to train a new army. Are these all my fault?"
"It's a small matter for me to be wronged, but it's a big deal for these people to insinuate, slander and slander the late Emperor. Your Majesty, please be clear on this!"
Wei Zhongxian is shameless anyway, and when you talk about me, you are talking about the late emperor.
Of course, he also knew that the things he did in private could not withstand investigation, so after some impassioned remarks, he still said: "I am unwell and have applied for leave. I hope your majesty will agree!"
Zhu Youjian also knew that Wei Zhongxian had many gang members and it would be difficult to eradicate them all at once, so he had no choice but to agree to his leave first!
But now that his face has been broken, he naturally no longer shows mercy.
Soon Chongzhen replaced Wang Tiqian as the chief minister of rites with Cao Huachun.
Cao Huachun had already won Zhu Youjian's trust. Although he had been serving Zhang Yan in Kunning Palace over the years, he often extended a helping hand to Zhu Youjian, and with the recommendation of the emperor's sister-in-law Zhang Yan, he became the director of etiquette. The position of the palm seal.
Cao Huachun's little follower Duduo also successfully rose to the position and became the eunuch in charge of Cining Palace. If Zhang Yan was promoted to the Queen Mother, she would naturally move into Cining Palace and give up Kunning Palace to Empress Zhou of Chongzhen.
Tian Ergeng, the commander of the Jinyi Guards and the left governor, has always been Wei Zhongxian's right-hand man.
If Chongzhen wanted to capture Wei Zhongxian, he would naturally have to capture Tian Ergen.
Tian Ergen controlled the North Town Fusi, while Li Xianzhong's second brother Li Shizhong controlled the South Town Fusi.
Naturally, Chongzhen could not replace Tian Ergeng with Li Shizhong, but the current top brass of Jinyiwei were either Wei Zhongxian's minions or Li Xianzhong's subordinates.
Chongzhen decided to reuse young people, and he appointed Qianhu Luo Yangxing of Jinyiwei as the commander of Jinyiwei.
Although Luo Yangxing was only a member of a thousand households, his father was Luo Sigong, the former commander of the Jinyiwei, and his great-grandfather Luo An also once commanded the Jinyiwei.
The influence of the Luo family in Jinyiwei is unmatched by any other family.
Moreover, Luo Sigong had only left Jinyiwei for five or six years, and his influence was still there.
Chongzhen's move undoubtedly made the young Luo Yangxing grateful to him, and he took good control of Jinyiwei.
Then he asked his confidant Wang Chengen to supervise Dongchang.
In this way, Wei Zhongxian's arm was basically cut off by Chongzhen.
This result had long been expected by Wang Tiqian. Anyway, his property and his nephews had already been transferred to Liaodong, and he had no worries at this time.
Wang Tiqian said: "'Nine Thousand Years Old' is a good friend of the Liao Kingdom. Why not ask him to save the life of his nephew Wei Liangqing?"
It is said that only those who are confused by the authorities know clearly, in fact, Wang Tiqian, Tian Ergeng and others have already transferred their property to Liaodong.
On the contrary, Wei Zhongxian relied on Emperor Tianqi's deathbed recommendation and felt that Chongzhen would not kill him, so he delayed taking action.
At this moment he just woke up from a dream.
Soon Wei Zhongxian found Shi Junjie, the head of the Intelligence Department, in "Heaven and Earth". Li Xianzhong was naturally salivating over his property in Suning.
However, Li Xianzhong seemed very embarrassed about taking in Wei Liangqing.
Chongzhen will definitely attack Wei Zhongxian next. Wei Liangqing is a key criminal, and it is impossible for the court to let him go unpunished in Liaodong.
This might lead to open confrontation between the imperial court and Liaodong.
In the end, after Wei Zhongxian spent 1 million taels to buy his life, Li Xianzhong agreed to kill Wei Liangqing under the guise of a bandit.
Then let Wei Liangqing become a wealthy man in Liaodong anonymously.
However, Suning had already been targeted by the court at this time, so it became very difficult for Wei Zhongxian to transfer assets.
Naturally, no one dared to take over his large number of fixed assets in Suning.
Although Eunuch Wei was selling them at almost cabbage prices, no one would dare to accept these things now, not to mention buying them, even if they were given as gifts.
To have anything to do with Wei Zhongxian at this time would be like lighting a candle in the pit - seeking death (shit)!
Moreover, several of Wei Zhongxian's properties in Suning have long been targeted by Jin Yiwei.
Fortunately, when Li Xianzhong bribed Wei Zhongxian in Suning, he directly gave him a secret house with a secret passage inside.
Wei Zhongxian hid part of the silver here.
In the end, only 2.2 million taels were transferred, which was less than one-third of Wei Eunuch's cash.
And Wei Liangqing's "resurrecting the soul through borrowing a corpse" also failed.
It's not that this trick isn't easy to use, it's just that there have been quite a few eunuchs using this trick recently.
It had long since attracted the attention of the court.
Wei Liangqing himself was captured by Luo Yangxing's Jin Yiwei on his way to Tianjin.
After that, Zhu Youjian sent Wei Zhongxian to Fengyang for resettlement. On the way to Fengyang, Wei Zhongxian still raised a group of desperadoes to follow and protect him.
After hearing this, Zhu Youjian was furious and ordered Jin Yiwei to arrest him and take him back to the capital for trial.
Li Yongzhen learned the news and quickly sent someone to report Wei Zhongxian secretly.
Wei Zhongxian knew that he would inevitably die, so he drank heavily with his accomplice Li Chaoqin until the fourth watch.
On the eighth day of April in the first year of Chongzhen (1627), the powerful "9,000-year-old" Wei Zhongxian committed suicide by hanging from a beam at the Keshi Hotel in Nanguan, Fucheng.
Emperor Chongzhen had been bullied by the eunuchs and had long hated Wei Zhongxian, so he naturally ignored his brother's words.
After the Jin Yiwei brought Wei Zhongxian's body back to the capital, Emperor Chongzhen ordered it to be dismembered and his head hung in Hejian Mansion.
Following Wei Zhongxian's suicide, the court also publicly liquidated the eunuchs.
Two days later, Hakka was taken out of her private house and escorted to the Clothing Bureau, a place in the palace that punishes palace maids, and was tortured and interrogated.
As eight women who were about to give birth were found in his residence, Hakka finally could not withstand the torture and confessed that these people were cooperating with Ren Huang's concubine to fake a pregnancy in order to pretend to be the late emperor's prince.
This incident was a scandal in the palace, and eventually the imperial concubine Ren was secretly executed by someone sent by the empress dowager Zhang Yan.
The Hakka family was whipped to death in Huanyi Bureau.
Later, Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian ordered Han Xu, a veteran of the Donglin Party and the former chief minister of the cabinet, to take charge of the trial of Wei Zhongxian's case.
Emperor Tianqi reigned for six and a half years, and Wei Zhongxian controlled the government for almost five years, with many party members.
Many people just followed the crowd. Originally, Emperor Chongzhen only wanted to get rid of his core members, while others were given a lighter punishment.
Some who don't do much harm can even be retained.
However, the Donglin Party has been persecuted terribly by the eunuch party headed by Wei Zhongxian in recent years.
First, the "Six Gentlemen of Donglin" such as Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou died tragically, and then the "Seven Gentlemen of Donglin" such as Gao Panlong, Miao Changqi, Zhou Shunchang and others were persecuted.
More than a hundred Donglin Party members and their family members died directly and indirectly at the hands of the Eunuch Party?
There are more than a thousand officials of the Donglin Party, large and small, who have been implicated in various ways, dismissed, reprimanded and dismissed from office?
How is it possible to turn this story around just by punishing a few chief culprits?
Under the repeated insistence of Sun Chengzong, Han Xu and other Donglin Party members, it was finally decided to eliminate all evil and all eunuch Party members would be dealt with.
A large number of officials were convicted separately: Cui Chengxiu and six other people were identified as the treason and accomplices and were immediately executed (at that time, Cui Chengxiu had hanged himself first and ordered the killing of the body).
Nineteen people including Tian Ergeng and Xu Xianchun were designated as close acquaintances and were executed later in the fall.
More than 180 people were convicted of being acquainted with close servants and were sentenced to military exile, imprisonment, or dismissal from their posts.
In the end, a total of 258 people were included in the eunuch list and would never be hired.
Wang Tiqian and other members of the Eunuch Party who luckily escaped death moved their families to Liaodong because they were afraid of being liquidated again by Emperor Chongzhen and the Donglin Party members.
At this time, they had been convicted, and Li Xianzhong naturally refused to accept anyone from this kind of consortium.
In fact, many people were just forced to adhere to the eunuchs and did not do many harmful things.
The expansion of the attack scope by Donglin Party members is nothing more than to free up more official positions so that their own people can take office.
Moreover, many of their nephews are also distinguished scholars. Now there is a shortage of civil servants in Liaodong who can be supplemented.
Of course, except for a few talented eunuchs, Li Xianzhong still didn't use them.
On the one hand, this is clearly against the imperial court, and on the other hand, these people can easily bring down the official atmosphere of Liaodong.
Originally, Han Xu and others included Li Xianzhong, Yan Mingtai, Xiong Tingbi and others in the list of eunuchs.
But in the end it was crossed out by Sun Chengzong.
The court has no control over Li Xianzhong, Duke of Liao, and Yan Mingtai, Governor of Liaodong. Could it be that if you put them on the list of eunuchs, the court will punish them?
If the crime can't be cured, then why are you on the list, other than to slap the court in the face?
Although everyone is well aware of the relationship between Liaodong and the imperial court, on the surface, Liaodong still surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.
Moreover, Liaodong also paid tribute of 600,000 taels of copper ingots every year.
If you really want to piss off Li Xianzhong, it's not impossible to get him a "Qingjun side" to break into the capital directly.
It is estimated that he would not dare to kill the emperor, but it is still possible to clear the emperor.
In the end, Xiong Tingbi, a bachelor of the cabinet and minister of the Ministry of Punishment, was designated as an eunuch and dismissed from his post for investigation.
Xiong Tingbi had served as Minister of War for many years and had always supported Li Xianzhong. Naturally, he could not treat Xiong Tingbi badly.
In addition to preparing a mansion and thousands of acres of farmland for Xiong Tingbi in Kaiyuan, he was also appointed governor of Monan to lead Monan.
This inspection of the eunuch party's property also made the Ming court gain a lot.
A total of more than 5 million taels of gold and silver were seized, in addition to no less than 3 million taels of farmland, shops, calligraphy and paintings, etc.
Wei Zhongxian's uncle and nephew are big heads.
This also made Emperor Chongzhen energetic and determined to do something big.
However, at this time, the Chongzhen Dynasty was basically controlled by the Donglin Party.
The first assistant, Sun Chengzong, and the second assistant, Han Xu, were both members of the Donglin Party. Seven of the nine cabinet members were from the Donglin Party.
Although Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, was not a member of the Donglin Party, his political views were still very close to those of the Donglin Party.
It stands to reason that since the country's finances are well-off, the people should first be exempted from "Liao pay".
However, Bi Ziyan also has another identity, that is, he is the brother of Bi Zisu, the governor of western Liaoning, who committed suicide in shame and anger during the "Western Liaoning Mutiny".
Therefore, Li Xianzhong can be regarded as Bi Ziyan's enemy.
Bi Ziyan and the Donglin Party held the same view. Liaodong was a serious concern of the Ming Dynasty, so the "Liao pay" must not be cancelled.
"Liao's pay" has also changed from originally guarding against Jianlu to now guarding against Li Xianzhong, the Duke of Liao.
Now that the eunuchs have been eliminated, the "evil policies" left by the eunuchs cannot be retained.
Therefore, the Donglin Party members proposed to significantly reduce the commercial tax and mining tax that the Eunuch Party had previously imposed.
Now that overthrowing Wei Zhongxian's eunuch party has become a political slogan for Chongzhen, he had no choice but to agree to the suggestions of the Donglin party members.
In the end, Tianqi's efforts to increase fiscal revenue were canceled except for the trade with the Dutch in Yuegang, Fujian.
For Donglin Party members, simply abolishing commercial taxes is certainly not enough.
In the past, Wei Zhongxian was able to bring down the Donglin Party mainly by relying on the factory security agencies in his hands and the checks and balances on the cabinet by the Chief of Ceremonies.
Although Wei Zhongxian was defeated by them, the Donglin Party will still be restless as long as these things that restrict them still exist.
Who knows whether Wang Chengen, Cao Huachun and others will become the next Wei Zhongxian?
Will the Donglin Party members face another major persecution?
So the Donglin Party members began to deceive Chongzhen.
First, they wrote letters one after another praising His Majesty for quickly eradicating the eunuchs with thunderous means. He was the Holy Lord and Mingjun of the Ming Dynasty.
This made Emperor Chongzhen very proud and a little elated.
Of course, this is just an introduction. Their real purpose is to learn from the experience and prevent the tragedy of the eunuch party from happening again.
Dongchang and Jinyiwei were Wei Ni's most reliable minions, especially Dongchang, who tortured loyal people, expropriated and exploited the common people, and did all kinds of evil.
In order to prevent the Eunuch Party from resurrecting, they suggested that His Majesty dismantle the East Factory and restrict the Imperial Guards. This would save the court a lot of expenses; more importantly, it could prevent the Eunuch Party from causing chaos in government.
Why do they have completely different attitudes towards Dongchang and Jinyiwei?
That's because Jinyiwei is a place where the descendants of the noble and high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty are mixed together.
Whether they are nobles or the descendants of high-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty, they will all attack the official position of Jin Yiwei.
Among the more than 30,000 Jinyi guards under Luo Yangxing, there are thousands of noble sons and daughters who are just working for a living.
Abolish Jin Yiwei?
What a joke.
Anyone who dares to mention the abolition of the Imperial Guard will definitely be attacked by a group of people.
Dongchang is different. This kind of spy agency must be resolutely banned.
Chongzhen didn't take it seriously at first, but he couldn't stand the civil officials headed by the Donglin Party who said it every day.
In addition, Emperor Chongzhen himself was often oppressed by Dongchang's minions when he was still King Xin, so he naturally had no good impression of Dongchang.
However, he ultimately did not abolish the East Factory.
It just reduced the size of the East Factory and restricted their actions.
He abolished the imperial edict in Dongchang and abolished their right to monitor hundreds of officials and vassal kings.
If you don't obey the order, you can't monitor at will.
As a result, a large number of Dongchang spies were unemployed, and the originally feared Jinyiwei Tongdongchang basically only had the function of royal bodyguards.
Without the supervision of Jin Yiwei and Dongchang, officials like them can become even more unscrupulous in their corruption.
Of course the deception doesn't end there.
The Donglin party members also said: "Since Emperor Jiajing, many emperors of the Ming Dynasty have neglected their political affairs, so the ceremonial supervisors often overstepped their authority, giving the eunuchs an opportunity to monopolize power."
Chongzhen makes sense when he thinks about it. I am a diligent king.
I can personally review and respond to the cabinet's votes. Why do the Supervisor of Ceremonies need to get involved?
So everyone did it personally, so that the ceremonial supervisor became a decoration.
In fact, the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty has become increasingly mature after more than two hundred years of development.
The "approval" of the Supervisor of Ceremonies and the "voting" of the cabinet are mutual constraints. Only when they restrict each other can the emperor control the overall situation.
Moreover, sometimes the ceremonial eunuchs would take the blame for the emperor. When it was inconvenient for the emperor to do so in person, he would often use these eunuchs to fight with ministers and act as the controller behind the scenes.
When Chongzhen's series of operations were reported back to Liaodong, the civil and military officials in Liaodong were really shocked.
To be honest, Chongzhen's start was definitely in the state of an eternal wise king.
The 16-year-old young emperor used his forbearance to defeat Wei Zhongxian's eunuchs in one fell swoop and regained power. This made many people question Li Xianzhong's choice.
Emperor Chongzhen is obviously much stronger than his brother Emperor Tianqi. Has "Liao Guogong" created a strong enemy for himself?
But in the future, almost all eunuch party officials will not be used. This is a bit too hasty. How can so many important positions be filled at once?
It seems that Emperor Chongzhen is indeed too young.
The next operations shocked everyone, reducing commercial and mining taxes, and continuing to maintain "Liao rates"; abolishing the Dongchang and Jinyiwei; vacating the Supervisor of Ceremonies and using the Donglin Party alone.
Chongzhen's wave of highs and lows made everyone admire Li Xianzhong's "knowledge of people."
Mao Yuanyi even said: "The Intelligence Department has accepted thousands of spies that the East Factory does not want. If Liaodong's recent deficit had not been so severe, my subordinates would have wanted to take over all of them."
At this moment, Li Xianzhong understood the true meaning of the saying "the loyal and virtuous will not die, and the Ming Dynasty will never be destroyed".
It's not that Wei Zhongxian saved the Ming Dynasty, but that Chongzhen directly abolished the Ming Dynasty because of his death.
While Li Xianzhong was undergoing ideological reflection, Mao Yuanyi received an urgent letter.
He said: "To the Duke of Liao, Feng Quan wrote a letter requesting that Tian Ergeng be saved!"
Tian Ergeng had saved a lot of money in Liaodong Bank, but he had already been sentenced to death by Chongzhen. How could he save him?
Mao Yuanyi added: "Feng Quan said that Tian Ergeng knew some inside stories about the murder of his father Li Rusong?"
Tian Ergeng's grandfather Tian Le was indeed the Minister of War of the Wanli Dynasty at that time. His father's death was inextricably linked to Tian Le, and he thought the clues had been lost.
Li Xianzhong said: "The Intelligence Department must rescue Tian Ergeng!"
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(End of chapter)
