Chapter 6 Factory Guard
At the beginning, neither the Wandu Sifu nor the Xuanfu officials could accept Deng Changjiang's investigation conclusion that "sporadic Tatar thieves entered the country, robbed, killed, and silenced themselves, and now they have escaped without a trace." Ma Xing was even more furious and slapped the table and greeted all the female elders of Deng Changjiang (including collaterals).
That night, someone saw Deng Changjiang sneaking into the Ma Xing camp. The two chatted in the big tent all night. In the middle of the night, the captain of the camp was beaten up by the commander's personal soldiers and sent wine and food to the commander's tent. The next morning, both generals were completely drunk, and their eyes were still red and swollen, as if they had cried loudly.
Then, Ma Xing became adamant that it was the Tatars who did it. He slapped the table and began to scold the Tatars. He vowed to lead his troops and kill all the Tatars... Although the Ming Dynasty regarded military affairs as trivial. , but after all, it is an important border area, and the weight of Ma Xing, the chief military officer, must be much heavier than in other places. Since his attitude is so resolute, the civil servants can't say anything.
The factory guards who came down from the capital didn't want to suffer the consequences of eating sand in this shabby place. Since the local civil and military officials agreed, of course they would rather do less than do more. When eating cards, they had to go to several theaters to "inspect" them. After a while, they also "nightly interrogated" the local fans who were somewhat famous. They showed off enough authority and airs. Five or six days later, they also carried out "sporadic Tatar murders and robberies" and ordered the local government to pursue and suppress them with all their strength. "The conclusion is that Da Bao Xiao Bao went back to Beijing to make a business trip, not to mention...
About half a year later, in Shenmu County, Mizhi County and other places in northern Shaanxi, a group of bandits suddenly appeared out of thin air, as if they were popping out of the cracks in the rocks.
Guan Shengyun's name finally appeared in the court's side newspaper for the first time...
"Changwei" is a general name, "Changwei" refers to Dongchang, and "Wei" refers to Jinyiwei.
Folks usually talk about the East Factory and the West Factory together, which is not rigorous.
Strictly speaking, the "guard" is called Jinyiwei from beginning to end. It was formerly Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial army. The leader is called the commander, who is usually a general trusted by the emperor. There are three "factories": Dongchang is Zhenggen, and its full name is "Dongjishi Factory". It was founded by Zhu Di and accompanied the entire Ming Dynasty almost from beginning to end. Xichang's full name is "Xijishuchang", which is only in Chenghua and Zhengde dynasties existed intermittently three times, with a cumulative lifespan of ten years and five months. There is also an "expert factory", also called an "internal service factory". Not many people know about this. It only existed for five years from the first year of Zhengde to the fifth year of Zhengde.
When mentioning the East-West Factory, people often think that they are all eunuchs, but this is not true. The leaders of the East and West factories were eunuchs, called "factory owners", "factory masters" or "admirals". Most of the staff below are not eunuchs - many officials are even selected from the royal guards.
Everyone is familiar with the East Factory. Today we will focus on the West Factory.
In the first month of the twelfth year of Chenghua, Zhu Jianshen, Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, led hundreds of officials to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth. The sun was shining brightly when Mingming set out, but suddenly there was a strong wind and the gloom was overwhelming, and some people actually died because of it! Today, it may be pneumonia or the like, or it may be an underlying disease caused by an acute viral respiratory or digestive system disease, but people who do not have knowledge of modern medicine will not have common sense of hygiene, let alone antibiotics, and it is universal. If you are malnourished, you will die. From word to word, some people said that they were frozen to death. In addition, people at that time were generally superstitious. Everyone, including the emperor himself, firmly believed from the bottom of his heart that the Holy Emperor was a god and not a mortal. Who else could make trouble in front of the Holy Emperor except a demon?
This matter has always been a lingering knot in Zhu Jianshen's heart.
When there is wind, there will be waves.
Soon, there were rumors in the palace: Someone saw a fox-like animal coming out in the middle of the night, and it even hurt people! Whether it was because there was no electric lighting, dim candlelight and panic, mistaking the dancing shadows of the trees for vixens and running around and breaking their heads in fright, or being so frightened that wild animals scratched their faces, or accidentally breaking royal utensils. It's normal to want to escape for any reason - but people at that time didn't think so! What they think is: The Holy Emperor is entrusted with the task of transporting all evils to stay away, right? Now there is a commotion inside the palace—how powerful do you think this evil spirit is?
As the saying goes, "one after another," more terrifying things happened.
It is said that there is a businessman named Zhao, named Zhao Ling'an - well, rest in peace, look at this unlucky name! On the road, I "picked up" a girl whose face was covered with a veil. I lifted up the veil and took a look. Oh my God, she is so beautiful. It is indescribable! So Lao Zhao "took" her home and wanted to do something unspeakable... As a result, the whole family named Zhao died unexpectedly the next day. Not only everyone died, but the cats, dogs, crowing roosters, and donkeys... Once she was spared, Qingguo Qingcheng disappeared - obviously, the man named Zhao did not tie her up with iron chains.
It's not okay to leave it alone - later, many people discovered this matter, and it spread a lot. People everywhere said that they had seen such things as picking up women... The government kept receiving reports: someone found an unaccompanied woman after dark. Wandering somewhere, a murder occurred not far away!
Off topic. According to Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West", there are four continents in the world: Luzhou in the north, Buzhou in the south, Hezhou in the west, and Fengzhou in the east. These things were known to some bipedal beasts who had become spirits in Dongxu Fengzhou, so they began to "pick up" women with iron chains and pulled out their teeth. These evil beasts were also called ghosts and sorrows, and they were never heard of again. Which one was captured by the ghost, or the whole nest was destroyed - even though everyone hopes so.
Back to business.
There was a Taoist priest named Li Zilong in the capital, who was famous for his magic and deception. I met two eunuchs, one named Wei Sai and the other named Bao (I forgot the name). The two idiots heard that Master Li had a profound knowledge of heaven and earth, and could draw talismans to catch ghosts and exorcise demons by chanting spells. They thought that if Master Li could come to Da Nei and catch the vixen, Isn’t this a monumental contribution? This Li Zilong, like today's "masters", inflated his ego under the praise of a group of brainless people, forgetting that he was a liar, and also forgot the most important thing - the imperial palace. How can we allow... to run rampant!
So he went there with great ambition.
So he was caught naturally.
So of course I peed.
If you pee, you will be incoherent - incoherent means having evil intentions, and having evil intentions means having evil intentions - this logic is as irrefutable as one plus one equals two, right?
Two fools and a liar were chopped down.
After experiencing the above things, the more Zhu Jianshen thought about it, the more he became afraid. He felt that Dongchang was useless, so he recruited the most trusted eunuch Wang Zhi, selected some smart guys from the Jinyi Guards, disguised themselves as civilians, and went out of the palace to observe—— Wang Zhi also "lived up to the holy expectations", and there was a constant stream of gossip, so Zhu Jianshen simply appointed Wang Zhi as the admiral and started anew, setting up a permanent institution as the West Factory.
The officers of the West Factory were selected from the Jinyi Guards, and then each of them recruited subordinates - there was no fixed position or staffing, so it is not difficult to imagine how fast and disorderly the expansion was. The three legal departments of the Ming Dynasty: the Ministry of Punishment, the Inspectorate, and the Dali Temple all had to handle affairs according to normal procedures; and these guys were under the direct jurisdiction of the Holy Emperor's inner court, and the court's laws could not control them. In addition, everyone was doing meritorious deeds (fa) (cai). ) are eager, of course they act recklessly: Once you "suspect" someone or a certain official, you don't have to report it, you have to arrest him first and then attack him - oh, wrong, arrest him first and then beat him! Under three trees, what can you ask for? By the way, the one that Xichang is most familiar with is the "crime of evil talk", which requires serious punishment and speed, and it is true.
For a time, people were angry and angry, and the government and the public were in an uproar.
With the exception of the ruthless Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, who completely inherited Lao Zhu's ruthless genes, throughout the Ming Dynasty, the civil service group was always competing for power with the Holy Emperor. The content and excuses can be summarized in two lines:
"Your Majesty, look at that so-and-so. It's so outrageous. I have summed up the eight deadly sins and deserved to be punished! Don't hug your empress all day long and ignore the government affairs! By the way, normal people like to have a change of taste when they have nothing to do. Just dote on that one. One, this is obviously unreasonable - why is this? According to logical inference, it is obvious that she was transformed into a vixen and confused the Holy Emperor! Listen to everyone, your harem is 'filthy'! You can't help but In charge of government affairs, let go of that vixen and give the order to kill whoever it is!"
Or: "Your Majesty, don't worry about running the country or the court, just leave it to us! Go back to the palace quickly, take down the queens and give birth to a bunch of babies, that's your job Work is serious, don’t worry about so much else!”
All in all, if you lose power, you can raise the banner of the emperor to govern the government and let him take charge of his opponents. If you gain power, let the emperor go back to the palace to play. Don't worry about what I do.
Seeing the lawless tossing of the West Factory, everyone in the civil service group could not sit still. A cabinet bachelor led a group of people to write a letter: "'People's hearts are full of doubts and worries', which greatly destroys the good situation of stability and unity! The minister concluded Three of Wang Zhi's ten deadly sins should be punished, don't you believe? Look - in July last year, a monster appeared and hurt people, right? Now Wang Zhi is recklessly killing Zhongliang, right? This is fulfilled, it is irrefutable proof! Hurry and kill him !”
The smart Zhu Jian thought deeply: "That's right! The presence of monsters must be a sign of something bad to come. Of course there is no doubt about this. Now that Wang Zhi and the others have been tossing it, it may have come true..." So, he ordered the dismantling of the West Factory—— This time round, West Factory only existed for five months.
Not long after - a month was really not that long - the smart Zhu Jianshen was still afraid. A man named Dai Jin figured out Xianzong's thoughts and fell in love with him, and wrote a letter: "Wang Zhi is a very loyal person! I The Ming Dynasty was no place outside the law, and Xichang was an indispensable and important force in maintaining stability and unity..." So Xichang was restored again - this time, Xichang existed for five years.
Later, in the dynasty of Xianzong's grandson Wuzong, the eunuch Liu Jin came to power. In order to compete with the civil servant group, Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao asked Liu Jin to reestablish the West Factory.
After Liu Jin reestablished the West Factory, he discovered a new problem: Although the East Factory and the West Factory were under his own control, just like two subsidiaries, in order to show their loyalty and performance, they began to fight among themselves, stopped doing serious business, and undermined each other. ! How to do it? Simply, register a new company - thus creating another "expert factory"!
In the fifth year of Zhengde, Liu Jin was executed, and Xichang and Mingxing factories were subsequently abolished - Xichang's life span was still five years this time.
Since then, Xichang has permanently disappeared from history.
Off topic.
Liu Jin, like many demonized eunuchs, seems to be more stupid than "bad" - sometimes, he should be considered to have good intentions. For example, he once ordered that all widows must remarry. His special background is that there are many malicious people who, in order to embezzle the meager property of orphans and widowed mothers, do everything possible to prevent them from remarrying to make a living - if you marry someone, the family property will belong to someone else! The reason for not being allowed to remarry is to seek family property, so the husband's family abuses orphans and widowed mothers in various ways: selling the baby, starving the mother to death, and then sharing the things among everyone!
Of course, the Confucianists don't care whether you have good intentions or not. Since you are fighting for power, you should die - as the saying goes (the word is pronounced "wangbadan"), "Starving to death is a small matter and a breach of integrity is a big deal." So you broke the widow's integrity and ordered her to remarry? Not only is it a heinous crime, it is simply challenging human ethics and destroying the order of the universe! How could this happen? If the widow is allowed to remarry, the world will disappear, the heaven and earth will be destroyed, and the universe will explode!
If you have nothing to say, join him!
Eunuch Liu was not as ruthless as the later Eunuch Wei, so he never fought against the civil service group, and he ended up very miserable: he was labeled as a "rebellion" and chopped into pieces.
3357 dollars.
The people of the Ming Dynasty are like this, they neither recognize people nor reason, they only recognize swords: if you hold a sword in your hand, they will kneel on the ground and kowtow to you. In the blink of an eye, the sword falls on you, and they will consciously and enthusiastically dig into their pockets to buy it. Your cut flesh.
We will talk about Eunuch Liu in the future.
