The Death of Yu Qian, the Hero Who Saved the Ming Dynasty (II)

Yu Qian ordered all the city gates to be closed, and then ordered: If the generals in the front retreat first, they can behead the generals! The sergeant will retreat in the lead, and the rear team will cut the front team! All the officers and men of the army understood that this was a death battle that determined the fortunes of the Ming Dynasty. The generals waited for the arrival of the Wala army. On October 11, when the soldiers of the Wala Army approached the city, Gao Li and Mao Fushou, deputy commanders of the Ming Army, took the initiative to meet the vanguard troops of the Wala at Zhangyi Gate, recaptured more than 1,000 ming soldiers and civilians who were captured, won the first battle, and greatly encouraged the morale of the army. Yu Qian also sent people to attack at night, making him tired. On October 12, it was also decided to play the hostage card of Yingzong, he lined up the main force outside xizhimen, abducted Emperor Yingzong to Tucheng outside the Desheng Gate, asked the imperial court to send Yu Qian, Shi Heng and other senior generals to personally greet him, and demanded tens of thousands of gold, in an attempt to capture the ming army and force the Ming Dynasty to sacrifice the city. Emperor Ming of the Ming Dynasty, zhu Qiyu, the original King of Qi, said, "No! It was only then that I found out that the Ming Dynasty had little interest in the bait Yingzong in his hand. Looking at Emperor Daizong's meaning, he may still wish that Emperor Yingzong would die quickly.

Frustrated, he also decided to put Yingzong in front as a shield and attack deshengmen with all his might. Yu Qian ordered Deshengmen's large army to hide and wait, pretending to be defeated and retreating. He was also eager to win, and immediately waved more than 10,000 elite horses to roar in pursuit, and as a result, the army entered the ambush area, Yu Qian commanded the Divine Machine Battalion to fire fire bolts and rockets, and the army of Ye Xian was killed and turned over on horseback, and the position was in chaos. Shi Heng, the commander-in-chief of the Ming army, led the ambush troops to rush into the enemy position and fight bravely. The Wala army collapsed, and Yaxian's younger brother Polo and Pingzhang were all killed. He also hurriedly transferred his troops to attack Xizhimen, the governor Sun Bo fought with all his might, and the defenders of the city also fired fire bolts and rockets at Walla, and Gao Li, Mao Fushou, Tao Jin, Shi Heng and others also came to support in time. First, they had to withdraw their troops from Xizhimen. On October 14, the Wala army changed to attackIng Zhangyi Gate, and the deputy commander-in-chief Wu Xing fought with his life, and together with the governor Wang Jing, defeated YeXian's forward. The enemy army was retreating, and the eunuchs sent by the Dai Sect to supervise the army led hundreds of cavalry to pursue the enemy position, hoping to seize the credit. The Ming army's position was suddenly chaotic, Wu Xing died in the chaos of arrows, the Wallachian army took advantage of the void and counterattacked inside the Zhangyi Gate, just at the critical juncture of the nine deaths, the residents of the capital climbed up to the roof and threw bricks and stones at YeXian's troops, and the killing sound was tremendous for a while. Yu Qian sent Wang Hu and Mao Fushou to reinforcements, which pushed the enemy back. The two armies held each other for five full days.

Seeing that the peace talks could not be achieved, and the battle had been lost one after another, he also had the intention of retreating first, and he heard that the troops dispatched by Yu Qian before would soon drive to the capital Qinwang, fearing that his back road would be cut off, so on the evening of the fifteenth day, with Yingzong, yuliangxiang fled all the way. Yu Qian sent his generals in pursuit, fought another battle at Gu'an and Bazhou, and captured eighteen enemy generals. At this point, the defense of the Beijing Division was basically over. After the tumu fort change, almost everyone thought that the Ming Dynasty had exhausted its strength: the emperor had taken prisoner, Daming's elite troops had been swept away, the capital was opened and financial resources were lacking... Daming seemed destined to perish. Under such conditions, Yu Qian led a second-line army of the old, weak, sick and disabled, turned the tide of battle and forcibly renewed his life for the Ming Dynasty. After the war, in terms of merit and reward, Emperor Ming of the Ming Dynasty should be given the post of Qian Shaobao and governor. Yu Qian said, there are many fortresses in the four suburbs, this is the shame of Dr. Qing, how dare you ask for rewards and merits! Resolutely resign.

We started by talking about the four criteria for the ministers of sheji, and now looking back, Yu Qian's support for the new emperor and the organization of counterattacks have an impact on the overall situation; he put forward that "sheji is important and the king is light", in order to protect the safety of the people, it is said that changing the emperor will change the emperor, which is a good minister based on the people; as for the outstanding ability and noble discipline of helping the crisis and fixing the situation, governing the country and the country, not to mention, it is not exaggerated to say that Yu Qian is the hero who saved the entire Ming Dynasty. Such a great heroic figure ended up with an extremely tragic ending. After returning to the garrison first, he detained Yingzong, who had become the Emperor Taishang, for nearly a year, and seeing that he could not squeeze any oil and water out of him, and he was always chased and beaten by the Ming army, he was also very upset, so he sent people south to ask for peace, saying that he was willing to let Yingzong Zhu Qizhen go back. He was willing to release people, but the Ming Dynasty Emperor didn't want it yet! Emperor Daizong Zhu Qiyu, who was commissioned at a time of crisis, can be regarded as a Ming Emperor in general, and he lived up to the expectations of the people and turned the Ming Dynasty's society into safety, which is worthy of recognition. But once a person becomes an emperor and has tasted the sweetness of power, he will not easily give up his seat. Emperor Ming was reluctant to welcome his captured brother back to China, and he quarreled with his courtiers over this. At this time, Yu Qian spoke[2] and admitted that Emperor Jingtai's throne had been stabilized, so there was no need to doubt that the Emperor Taishang should be welcomed back as soon as possible.

At Yu Qian's suggestion, Emperor Daizong Zhu Qiyu reluctantly welcomed his brother Zhu Qizhen back to Beijing and imprisoned him in the Nangong. The titular Emperor Taishang was guarded by Jinyi Guards, tightly controlled, and the locks on the palace gates of Zhu Qi Town were filled with lead, leaving only a small hole to deliver food and drink to Zhu Qi Town. Emperor Jingtai's covetousness for the throne is actually understandable, but he abolished Zhu Qizhen's son's position as crown prince and replaced his only son, Zhu Jianji, with the title of Prince Huaixian, which is a bit unreasonable. In the third year of Jingtai (1452), Zhu Jianji was made crown prince, and died in November of the following year. As soon as Crown Prince Huaixian died, the ministers began to privately discuss that they should restore King Yi (Emperor Yingzong's son Zhu Jianshen) as crown prince, but Emperor Jingtai believed that he was not yet thirty years old at this time, and it was the so-called Spring and Autumn Festival, and he also expected to give birth to a dragon breed as soon as possible and build another parent-child crown prince. Contrary to expectations, in more than three years, The Jingtai Emperor not only did not give birth to a man and a half a woman, but was seriously ill due to indulging in female sex, and his health deteriorated. In the seventh year of Jingtai (1456), Emperor Jingtai fell ill. In the eighth year of Jingtai (1457), Zhu Qiyu was seriously ill, and Shi Heng saw Zhu Qiyu's illness and thought: Emperor Jingtai was already seriously ill, and if there was an accident, there was no prince, if he took advantage of the situation to ask the Emperor Taishang to restore the throne, it would be a great achievement. Who is Shi Heng? It was the chief officer and soldier who had been promoted by Yu Qian in the front.

He immediately found Zhang Jing, the former governor of the right capital, and the eunuch Cao Jixiang, told them that Zhu Qiyu was no longer able to do so, and discussed finding a way back for himself. These three ambitious speculators decided to bet on the Taishang Emperor Zhu Qizhen and support the restoration of Zhu Qizhen, and if this matter can be successful, the three of them will be great heroes and will certainly be able to soar. Shi Heng and Zhang Jing went to look for Xu Heng again overnight. Xu Heng was greatly excited, declaring that he was watching the sky at night, seeing that the purple was slightly changing, and the emperor star was shifting, urging Shi Heng to start as soon as possible. After careful planning, several people decided to do it on the night of the sixteenth day of the first month. On the day of the sixteenth day of the first month, Yu Qian and several other ministers consulted and decided to play together to ask Prince Fu liyi to be crown prince. The crowd elected the university scholar Shangrui as the chief writer, drafted and folded the "Restoration of The Waste", and then the ministers signed it one by one. After the evacuation, it was already the Western Mountains of the Sunset, and it was too late to play the imperial court. The Qunchen then decided that the next morning, when Zhu Qiyu was approaching the court, he would hand over the song again. Unexpectedly, the coup d'état broke out that night. In just a few hours, not only did it change the history of the Ming Dynasty, but also changed the lives of many people.

That night, Shi Heng and others took advantage of the night to go to the Nangong to find the Emperor Taishang, we said earlier, the locks of the Nangong Palace doors were all filled with lead, and they were unusually strong, and they could not be opened. Shi Heng asked people to hang a thick piece of wood with a rope, and dozens of officials and soldiers raised the wood and slammed the door. Although the door was not knocked open, the courtyard wall collapsed, and the crowd rushed in. Zhu Qizhen was still not resting at the moment, he was reading with candles, when he saw a large group of military generals break in, he thought that his brother had sent someone to kill him, and he couldn't help but panic. When the crowd saw this, they prostrated themselves on the ground together and shouted in unison, "Please emperor Taishang ascend to the throne!" Zhu Qizhen understood: "Do you want to ask me to reset?" Caution is required. Shi Heng and the others invited the Emperor Taishang into the palanquin, and at this time the sky was already slightly dewy, and the Emperor Taishang asked Shi Heng and the others for their official positions and names as they walked. A group of people hurried to the Donghua Gate, the guards refused to open the door, and the palanquin shouted: "I am the Emperor Taishang!" "The gatekeeper is also dumbfounded, what is the situation? Don't dare to stop ah, donghua gate open, Shi Heng directly sent the emperor into the Fengtian Gate, watching the emperor ascend to the throne in the palace, Xu Heng led the crowd to kneel and worship, shouting "long live long live"! A few days ago, Emperor Daizong had just announced that he was going to meet with the courtiers in the early morning of the seventeenth, so the Minister of Culture and Military Affairs came to wait outside the palace gate early in the morning, and suddenly heard a voice from inside the palace, "Long live", and everyone was shocked. At this moment, the bells and drums sounded in unison, and the palace door opened widely. Xu Heng came out and announced to all the courtiers: Emperor Taishang has been restored to the throne, please come inside and congratulate! Emperor Taishang said to his ministers: "Emperor Jingtai is seriously ill, and the courtiers are welcoming the reinstatement, and you continue to do your duties as before. Shi Heng and other military generals stood aside, staring at the tiger. The courtiers looked at each other and had to kneel down to pay their respects. At the same time, Emperor Daizong, that is, the Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu was freshening up in the sleeping hall, preparing to go to the court, when he heard the bell beating the drum in front of him, the Jingtai Emperor was very sensitive and immediately asked around: "Could it be that Yu Qian is not successful?" "What do you mean?" That is, did Yu Qian plot against the usurpation of the throne in the previous dynasty? Left and right were stunned and did not know how to answer. After a moment of embarrassment, the eunuch Xing'an echoed, saying that the Emperor Taishang had been reinstated and was not about modesty. Zhu Qiyulian said, "Good, good, good." He took a few breaths, returned to bed, and lay down facing the wall. After the restoration of Emperor Yingzong, the era name was changed, and the eighth year of Jingtai was changed to the first year of Tianshun (1457). Emperor Yingzong, who had regained the throne, learned the lesson of Emperor Jingtai and showed no mercy to his ill brother, ordering his men to strangle him alive in the palace, and Emperor Jingtai was only thirty years old when he died. This is not to mention, Emperor Yingzong "destroyed the Shou Mausoleum and buried xishan with the prince's ceremony", and did not allow his brother to be buried in the imperial tomb. Among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, only two emperors could not enter the imperial tomb, one was the Jianwen Emperor who died and his whereabouts were unknown, and the other was this Jingtai Emperor.

Shi Heng, Cao Jixiang, and Xu Youzhen welcomed Emperor Taishang's restoration of the throne, and after announcing the courtiers, they immediately arrested Yu Qian and imprisoned him, framed Yu Qian for making inappropriate remarks, and plotted with his ministers to welcome King Xiang of Li and sentence Yu Qian to death. The newly appointed Yingzong was still a little hesitant, saying that Yu Qian was credited. Xu Youzhen said that if he did not kill Yu Qian, the matter of restoration would be unknown. This sentence was very heavy, and Ming Yingzong's idea was decided. On the twenty-third day of the first month, Yu Qian was escorted to the Chongwen Gate and decided to make a decision. Why did Yu Qian, the minister of sheji who continued the life of the Ming Dynasty, die? It has something to do with his personality. There were two people who desperately wanted to kill Yu Qian, one was Xu Youzhen and the other was Shi Heng. Xu Youzhen, whose original name was Xu Heng, was the attendant of the Hanlin Academy who advocated moving south during the change of Tumu Fort. He was a very talented man, and the Ming Shi called him: "A man who is short and fierce, intelligent and intelligent, and happy with fame." All the books of heavenly officials, geography, martial arts, water conservancy, and yin and yang techniques are all well understood. ”

Xu Youzhen was keen on fame, and as early as the nineteenth year of Yongle (1421), he went to Beijing with Yu Qian to participate in the examination, and as a result, Yu Qian entered the high school, but he fell behind Sun Shan. In the fifth year of Xuande (1430), Yu Qian patrolled the provinces of Shanxi and Henan with the title of Right Attendant of the Army, and Xu Youzhen was admitted to the Jinshi and was awarded the Hanlin Academy for editing. His heart was not right, his career was not smooth, and he only became a hanlin court attendant with the title of zhengliupin seventeen years after his citizenship, but he was proud of his talents, thinking that he could know the auspiciousness of the world by looking up at astronomy, and looking down on geography to see the gains and losses of the dynasties, and all the sons and hundreds of families knew everything. Xu Youzhen lived in shame for the first half of his life, and during the change of Tumu Fort, he advocated moving south, which was severely reprimanded by Yu Qian, and his reputation was discredited, and he tried to be promoted several times without success. Reluctantly, Xu Heng changed his name to Xu Youzhen, hoping that his career would go a little smoother. Once, the Guozijian had a vacant position, and Xu Youzhen, in order to win this position, also paid a special visit to Yu Qian, hoping that he would not consider the previous suspicions, recommend himself in front of the emperor, and let himself shine for Daming again. Yu Qian did not waste people because of his words, he believed that Xu Youzhen had certain abilities and ambitions. The talent of man was used by the imperial court, and naturally it was a blessing for the society, so he was happily introduced. However, the Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu could not reach this hurdle, and when Yu Qian recommended Xu Youzhen to him, the emperor immediately remembered the goods that persuaded him to escape! Naturally, this recommendation was not successful. Xu Youzhen did not review his timidity and incompetence, but instead suspected that Yu Qian had deliberately made trouble, and had always held a grudge against Qian.

Before Shi Heng's "change of seizing the door" was implemented, Xu Youzhen seized the four characters of "Early Selection of Yuanliang" in Yu Qian's "Fu Chu Shu" written at that time, saying everywhere that "Yu Qian sent troops to Changsha to welcome The Prince of Xiang.". Xu Youzhen's purpose was to make Shi Heng and others who were opposed to modesty quickly carry out the "change of seizing the door" and welcome the early restoration of the Emperor Taishang. He believes that if Yu Qian is in power, his merits and wealth in this life and this life will end here. The so-called Yu Qian's "welcoming the foreign domain" problem created by Xu Youzhen is actually nonsense. According to the ancestral method formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, the Emperor Gao of the Ming Dynasty, if you want to recruit the prince of the foreign domain to enter the capital, you must hold a gold medal edict. However, the gold medal edicts are all contained in the Great Internal Prohibition, and no one can take them out without the permission of the current emperor or the empress. Therefore, in order to prove Yu Qian's innocence, as long as the yinshou supervisor is instructed to conduct an inventory and review of the archives, if the golden rune of the Xiangwang Mansion is still there, then the so-called theory of welcoming the Xiangwang Shizi will not be self-defeating. The eunuchs were instructed to consult the gold medal edicts of the various royal palaces, and the results were echoed: "The golden runes of the royal palaces are all there, and the golden runes of the Xiang royal palace are missing." When Emperor Yingzong heard that Jin Fu of the Xiang Dynasty was absent, he was furious, believing that Yu Qian was preparing to welcome the Xiang King's son, and immediately ordered Yu Qian to be sentenced to death.

How did the good XiangwangFu Golden Rune suddenly disappear? When Emperor Xuanzong of Ming died, the crown prince Zhu Qizhen was only nine years old, and the then empress dowager Zhang Shi liked Emperor Renzong's fifth prince, Zhu Zhanyuan, the fifth prince of Xiang, so he wanted to establish King Xiang as a king on the grounds that "the state has a long prince and the blessing of sheji", and ordered yinshou to take out the golden rune of king Xiang and prepare to send someone with the golden rune to Changsha, Hunan, to welcome king Xiang into the capital to succeed him. This move was resolutely opposed by the imperial court ministers headed by the three cabinet elders, and after some persuasion, Empress Zhang also felt that her reasons were not as just as good as the name of "establishing the country as a concubine", so she canceled her own proposition. However, Empress Zhang was old after all, and her memory was not good, she took out the Golden Charm of the Xiang Dynasty Palace, but forgot to send it to the Collection of the Yinshou Supervisor, so the important evidence of the "Xiangwang Golden Rune" remained in the Deep Palace Warm Pavilion where Empress Zhang lived from the tenth year of Xuande (1435) to the first year of Tianshun (1457). And the evidence of "Yu Qian is preparing to meet the Prince of Xiang" cannot be refuted! If yu qian offended Xu Youzhen out of consideration for the sake of the country and offended Shi Heng, it can only be said that Yu Qian is really too upright. Shi Heng's merits in the defense of Beijing were not as good as Yu Qian's, and he was promoted by Yu Qian all the way. Afterwards, Shi Heng was made a marquis, and he felt a little guilty in his own heart, so he wrote to recommend Yu Qian's son Yu Tian to be an official. This incident was originally Shi Heng in order to repay Yu Qian's favor of recommendation, but also a good intention, the result was that after Yu Qian knew, he politely refused and directly punched his face.

Later, Yu Qian played again and transferred Shi Heng's nephew Shi Biao away from Datong Town. Of course, Shi Biao is indeed at fault first, he is greedy and cruel, and his reputation is extremely poor. But this move made Shi Heng angry with humility. From Shi Heng's point of view, Yu Qian did not give himself face! I will reward you for you, and if you don't appreciate it, you will stab me with a knife!" How could Yu Qian, who did not understand the unspoken rules of the official arena, not be hated by his colleagues? The people who planned the "change of seizing the door" were basically people who had been impeached by Yu Qian. When these people held great power, they took revenge by any means and poisoned Qian. Yu Qian is loyal and honest, but he is too honest and honest to handle relations with his colleagues. There is a small thing from which we can see yu's humble and outspoken character. Once, Yu Qian told Li Xian, a new soldier's attendant, why didn't the old man in the official department tell the old man to return to his hometown? Li Xian said that he had heard that the official had sued several times, but the emperor did not agree. Yu Qian said that it was that he had not been sincere in his complaint. Li Xian said, No, I think he is still quite honest. Yu Qian said that if he really wanted to retire, he would be sick in bed and would not go to the court for a month, and the emperor would definitely let him go. "When the water is clear, there is no fish, and when people are aware, there is no vain." We can see that in addition to the incapacitated destiny, Yu Qian, such a heroic minister of the society, finally died of grievances, and he was also inseparable from his own character. Although the white is slightly flawed, Yu Qian is still a great man worthy of our praise and commemoration.

Let's end with a poem by Yu Qian. This poem is called "Lime Yin", which is a seven-word poem written by Yu Qian when he was seventeen years old, which is like a mysterious prophecy that foreshadows Yu Qian's fate of dedicating himself to the country and flowing through the ages. When we read this poem again today, we can still feel the high wind and bright festival of "a piece of Dan's heart shining on sweat and green": "A thousand hammers chiseled out of the mountains, and the fire burns like idleness." The shattered bones are not afraid, and they must remain innocent in the human world. ”