This article is an intensive reading of Chinese history serial 283, "Ming Dynasty History" serial 08, welcome to watch.
Emperor Wuzong of Ming had no sons, and after his death, the empress dowager and the head of the cabinet, Yang Tinghe, summoned Zhu Houxi, the son of Emperor Wuzong, to succeed to the throne in the name of Emperor Wuzong's will.
Zhu Houxi was a cousin of Emperor Wuzong and was enfeoffed in Huguang'anlu (present-day Hubei). After he ascended the throne, he changed the following year to the first year of Jiajing, which was for Sejong. He was only 15 years old.
01, the ruler Yang Tinghe
After Emperor Wuzong's death and before Zhu Houxi ascended the throne, Yang Ting and the prime minister ruled for nearly forty days. Yang Tinghe was a first assistant who was interested in rectifying the government. He was a native of Xindu, Sichuan, and in the fourteenth year of Chenghua (1478), he was admitted to the jinshi at the age of 19, and Zhengde entered the cabinet in the early years to participate in the aircraft maintenance. At that time, the eunuch Liu Jin had exclusive power, and Yang Tinghe could only entrust him with a slight remedy.
Emperor Wuzong went out on a longitudinal tour many times, and Yang Tinghe repeatedly went to the court to obstruct him, but he was not adopted. As soon as Emperor Wuzong died, he designed for the empress dowager, arrested the chancellor Jiang Bin, and issued a will in the name of Emperor Wuzong, dismissing the Weiwu battalion and regiments to train the troops, sending Jiang Bin back to the towns, and ordering each of the official schools of the so-called "military gate" of the Weiwu general to return to the main guard, and all the imperial shops run by Emperor Wuzong were closed, and the thousands of fan monks, Shaolin monks, and drama prostitutes in the leopard room, the boatmen of the Nanjing "fast horse boats" who specialized in entertainment, and the beautiful women who had been collected from all over the country were all dismissed and released.
Moreover, it also stopped the construction of unhurried affairs in the capital and collected all the gold treasures in the Xuanfu Palace to the imperial treasury.
When Sejong ascended the throne, Yang Tinghe took the opportunity of drafting the edict of the throne to further implement reforms in the name of Sejong, cutting 148,700 workers from the Jinyi Guards and the Flag School of the Internal Supervision Bureau, and reducing the grain by more than 1,532,000 stones.
As a result, most of the villains who became officials by fengying and favoring were deposed, the tyranny of the Wuzong period was completely eliminated, and the subjects of the world were praised as the new heavenly son saints, praising Yang Ting and gonggao.
02. Sejong Chongdao
Sejong's greatest interest in life was to worship the Immortal Path and pray for eternal life. The first to lure him to this path was Cui Wen, the eunuch of the Warm Temple. It was in the second year of Jiajing (1523), when Sejong was only 17 years old, and Cui Wen tempted him to build and pray in the Qianqing Palace and other places. After playing for a month, he could not withstand the bitter advice of Yang Tinghe and some officials, so he stopped.
The next year, Sejong played this trick again. At this time, Yang Tinghe had already resigned, and some of the officials in power not only did not stop him, but instead catered to Sejong's habits in order to gain his favor and exchange their positions of power. For example, the university scholar Zhang Xuan was commissioned to build a temple for Sejong in the Chin'an Temple, and echoed Sejong's meaning, writing several poems about Jai-chan.
Libu Shangshu Xia Yan also rose step by step because he was good at writing green words.
Because Sejong was convinced of the various deceptions of the Taoists, his favor for the Daoists reached the point of no return. The Taoist priest Shao Yuanjie claimed to be able to ask for rain and snow, and Sejong gave him a jade belt crown and a jade, gold, silver, and zoji, giving 100 stones of Lu rice and 30 acres of land every year, and also built a real mansion for him, allocating 40 lieutenants to the battle of the real mansion.
In the fifteenth year of Jiajing (1536), Sejong had a son, who he believed was the merit of Shao Yuanjie's prayer, and he awarded Shaoyuan Festival Ceremonial Department Shangshu, a pint of clothing, and gave white gold, Wenqi, Baoguan, Dharma, and Mink. In the eighteenth year (1539), Shao Yuanjie died, and Sejong mourned for this, ordering the government to hold a funeral for him, according to the rank of count.
Due to the large number of prayer activities, the imperial court increased its burden on the economy and was seriously corroded politically. Economically, at that time, the cost of civil engineering prayers in the palace, only incense wax, cost more than 200,000 catties of yellow wax every year, more than 100,000 catties of white wax, and hundreds of thousands of catties of incense, which shows that the waste in this regard is very amazing.
Politically, as I said before, it is absurd that a Taoist priest can be an official to the rank of a pint and a secretary of state. And Sejong himself was obsessed with seeking the Tao of Immortality, ignoring the government, and the ministers who dared to obstruct them would send their staff to prison.
In the eighteenth year of Jiajing (1539), he wanted the 4-year-old crown prince to supervise the country and concentrate on his cultivation for a year or two. Qing Yang of the Taibu Temple advised him the most: "If you don't get close to the sound, if you restore Yuanyang, you will naturally live a long life." And the Yellow and White Technique, the Medicine of Jindan, are enough to hurt the vitality and cannot be believed. Sejong was furious and threw him into Jinyiwei Prison, where he was tortured to death.
After two years, when Emperor Yushi Yang saw that Sejong was really making trouble, he took on the responsibility of a spokesman and said, "Those who rule for the king must serve the heavens and the people, so that they can get what they deserve." Now the hungry people are unsurprisingly, and they have been entrusted with the work of the trenches, and the work of civil engineering has been more than twenty years; they have also appointed ministers to build a thunder altar far away, and for the sake of a soldier, they suck the blood of the people. So why should the people get what they deserve? ...... Golden Purple Red Thread, Reward and Fang Shu, Bao Fu's position, sit and talk about the Tao,...... The indiscriminate use of famous utensils has reached an extreme end. When Sejong saw the song, he was furious and threw him into prison.
03, the palace maid killed the emperor
Sejong believed in Taoism, but did not follow the Taoist advice of purity of heart. During his reign for more than forty years, he frequently sent officials to the people to select ladies. In the early years of Jiajing, Sejong was made empress dowager, and there were many concubines.
In the ninth year (1530), Zhang Xuan, a scholar who was good at being a good concubine, suggested that "beg for a lady and count for her heirs" on the grounds that her concubines had never had children. Sejong saw the song and was in line with his wishes, and immediately ordered the ministry of ceremonies to send officials to Nanjing, Beijing, Shandong, Henan and other places to select folk women to enter the palace. A few months later, more than 1,200 women were selected to enter Beijing, and after many re-elections, 9 people were named concubines.
Fifteen years later (1536), on the grounds that the imperial heir was not born, he once again elected a lady and made many concubines from the middle book. Later, there were many general elections for palace women, more than a thousand.
The status and situation of the palace maid was worse than death, which eventually led to the murder of the emperor by the palace maid.
In the early morning of October 21, 1542, the twenty-first year of Jiajing, Sejong was asleep in the Qianqing Palace, and more than a dozen palace ladies led by Yang Jinying conspired to strangle him to death. After they had discussed, one of them covered Sejong's face with a yellow silk rag and desperately lifted his neck, and the rest of them rushed up, one holding his chest, one holding his abdomen, two holding his hands, two holding his legs, and then Yang Jinying put the rope on his neck, and the two palace women each held one end and pulled the noose vigorously.
Seeing that this viva grandfather was about to die, it was a pity that Yang Jinying mistakenly tied a dead knot when he knotted the rope, so he pulled for half a day and did not strangle him. At this time, one of the palace ladies saw that things had not been done, and rushed to report to the queen, and all the dozen palace ladies were captured.
After interrogation, the case involved the Duan Concubine Cao Clan and the Ning Concubine Wang Clan. Sejong ordered that Yang Jinying and 16 other palace ladies be escorted to Shicao, where Ling Chi was executed and the corpses were beheaded for public display. Concubine Cao and Concubine Ning were also executed by Ling Chi in the palace. The families of the offenders were beheaded and their family property was confiscated into the officials.
The year of this incident was the year of Nongyin, which was historically called the "Change of the Palace of Nongyin."
Sejong was not strangled to death by the palace maid, believing that he was "relying on the heavens and the earth to curb the palace changes". But from then on, he no longer dared to live in the Qianqing Palace, and moved to the old palace of King Yan of Xiyuan, declaring that he was an outsider, and he wanted to stay in Xiyuan and concentrate on the Xuan Cultivation Dao.
Originally, after he buried Empress Zhangsheng in the eighteenth year (1539), he no longer regarded the dynasty, and after moving to Xiyuan, he did not return to the palace. For the next twenty years, except for the few days when li Dabing came to Beijing, he returned to the Fengtian Palace, and lived in Xiyuan all the other times, never returning to the palace to deal with the government affairs, and only before he lost his breath, the courtiers moved him back to the Qianqing Palace.
04, Hairui Shangshu
Sejong frequently set up prayers in xiyuan, collected reishi mushrooms, and built palaces, but it was not as he claimed to concentrate on the xuan cultivation. When he moved to the West Garden, all the concubines of the harem accompanied him. Subsequently, there were many general elections for palace women, and only Jiajing had four general elections in the twenty-sixth year (1547), thirty-one years (1552), thirty-four years (1555), and forty-three years (1564), and 1,080 women were elected, all of whom were young girls between the ages of 8 and 14.
Why are so many girls elected, and they are all so young? It is said that the Taoist tao Zhongwen told Sejong that if he could often take the "congenital Dan lead" medicine, he could live forever. The so-called "congenital Dan lead" is a "medicine" refined from the menstruation of a little girl. So many young girls were chosen to enter the palace, which was to prepare for refining medicine.
Another use of so many girls entering the palace is to provide Sejong with sexual pleasure. According to the custom in the palace, all palace women, female officials, and emperors who have slept, that is, the so-called imperial blessings, have titles. However, there were too many people in Sejong's imperial fortune to be able to seal them one by one, so there is a saying of "unsealed concubines", often after the death of a person, he was posthumously named as a concubine or concubine.
The reason why it was too late to be canonized was because Sejong later ate too many hot tonics, and often paid a little attention to a certain palace girl, and was immediately blessed, so the canonization was not in time.
In Order to please Sejong, Sejong was in Xiyuan, and the four overseers competed to offer so-called auspicious things such as turtles, cranes, deer, and ganoderma lucidum, and the ceremonial officials wrote a large congratulatory table and echoed flattery. After the courtiers offended Yang Zhi and Yang Jue, no one dared to advise again, except for Hai Rui, the head of the household department, who was not afraid of death, and yu Jiajing's forty-fifth year (1566) in February 1566, he neglected to criticize the reverse scales.
Hai Rui said in Shuzhong: His Majesty falsely said that eternal life can be attained, he is bent on cultivating Xuanxuan, exhausting the people's fat paste, indiscriminately rejuvenating civil engineering, and for more than twenty years he has not looked at the dynasty, and the law and discipline have been relaxed. ...... Insulting subordinates with suspicion and slander, people think that they are inferior to kings. ...... Corrupt officials, the people are not happy, the water and drought are not timely, and the thieves are blazing. Now the people are saying, "The one who is good, the one who is at home, and the one who is at peace, is also the one who is at peace." That is to say, the people are exhausted and have children. Your Majesty thinks about today's world, what kind of world is it? ......
Hai Rui's letter is sparse, the words are cut, and the sentences are reasonable, reflecting the sincere heart of the courtier. However, after the fainting Sejong saw it, he was furious, threw the song on the ground, and roared, "Quickly arrest him for me, don't let him run!" ”
A eunuch next to him said, "This man is known as a fool. I heard that when he was neglected, he expected to die, bought a coffin, said goodbye to his wife and children, and waited for the sin of the dynasty, and his servants had all been scattered, and none of them dared to stay, and he would not run away. “
After Sejong listened, he didn't say anything, paused for a while, and then picked up shu and recited it again and again, and sighed for shuzhong's words. However, he later considered Harry's performance to be an insult and ordered him to be arrested, charged with capital crimes, and imprisoned.
Hai Rui is a native of Qiongshan (on Hainan Island), the character Ruxian, known for his rigidity, so he calls himself Gangfeng, and people call him Mr. Gangfeng. He is not a magnate, selfless in iron,and enforces the law like a mountain. Later, when he was appointed to inspect the Yingtian Ten Provinces, many corrupt officials were afraid of him and resigned first. Some of the powerful families used to paint the gate with red paint to show off their wealth, and as soon as they heard that Hai Rui had arrived, they quickly put a black paint on the gate. The eunuchs who weaved the gates also reduced their retinues, and did not dare to be as arrogant as in the past.
Hai Rui has always been jealous of the merger of large households and small people. Whenever he went to a place, he destroyed the mighty and the strong, and supported the poor and weak, and he took and returned to the Lord where the land of the poor and the small was occupied by the powerful. At that time, the first assistant of the cabinet, Xu Jie, resigned from his home, and his family violated the law, and Hai Rui still asked questions according to law, leaving no affection. His orders soared, his subordinates were worried about them, and some rich and wealthy people who usually did not do evil had to flee to other places.
Hai Rui was transferred in Yingtian and other places only for half a year, and when he left office, the people wept and made offerings, and were known as the first Qing officials of the Ming Dynasty.
Sejong prayed for eternal life, but the result was counterproductive, and he eventually died of illness in December of the 45th year of Jiajing due to taking too much Dan medicine. Hai Rui was only released after Sejong's death.
05, Yan Song is adulterous and greedy
Sejong's fainting made the traitors an opportunity to take advantage of it. Yan Song, a famous traitorous minister of the Ming Dynasty, was born at this time.
In the Middle of Yan Song's characters, Jiangxi is pleasant and good at writing poetry, originally just a small official in the Hanlin Courtyard, and with his ability to be flattering, he rose step by step.
While debating the honorific title of Sejong's biological father, Zhu Youyi, many officials were deposed, deposed, or degraded, but Yan Song pandered to Sejong's wishes and carefully planned the ceremonies, thus winning Sejong's favor. Yan Song then used his literary talents to write prayers for Sejong. This is more than satisfactory to Sejong, who reveres Taoism.
In the twenty-first year of Jiajing (1542), Yan Song joined the cabinet as a rebbe Shangshu and a scholar of Wuyingdian University, and began to grasp heavy power. Two years later, he was promoted to the rank of first assistant, and from this time to the time when Yan Song was deposed in the forty-first year of Jiajing (1562), the first assistant was served by Xia Yan for only two years in between, and the rest were Yan Song, who had been in charge for 20 years.
In addition to being good at flattery and flattery, Yan Song has no other special talents. The reason why he was able to steal power and commit adultery was mainly due to Sejong's fainting.
When Yan Song entered the cabinet, he was already over 60 years old and old and confused. Sejong Asked, he was often dumbfounded, unable to understand the purpose of it. However, he had a treacherous and clever son, Yan Shifan.
Yan Shifan held on to his father's power, and the official was served by the Ministry of Works. He was well versed in current affairs, was quite familiar with the national scriptures, and saw the codex consulted by Sejong, and was often able to figure out the songs and cater to Sejong's meaning. He also bribed Sejong's close attendants with heavy bribes, and told them to report Sejong's words and deeds to him, no matter how big or small. Therefore, whenever Sejong wanted to do something, he had already made preparations and did it to the satisfaction of Sejong.
Yan Song saw that his son was treacherous, so he secretly let him enter the direct office to plan the bill. The ministries asked him to adjudicate, and he always said, "I will make a decision after I have discussed it with the child." ”
Therefore, the whole court said that the emperor could not go a day without Yan Song, and Yan Song could not go a day without his son. Some people simply call them "big beggars and small beggars."
Officials who went to Yan Mansion to ask for instructions from Yan Shifan were endless, and the doors were like a city. Some petty officials waited all day in Yan Mansion without being summoned. The scholar-doctor held his breath sideways, and the unscrupulous people ran to his door, and the basket of gifts looked at each other.
Yan Song's father and son relied on their power and recruited money and bribes. The promotion and demotion of Korean and Chinese officials was not based on their own merits and incorruptibility, but only on the amount of bribes they had given to Yan Song. For example, qiu Luan, a criminal officer, had been idle for a long time after his dismissal, and in order to restore his official duties, he bribed Yan Song's father and son with heavy money. Yan Song then made him an important official position such as Xuanfu and Datong Commander-in-Chief. Zhao Wenhua, the chief of the Ministry of Works, was demoted from Beijing to a state judge because of his greed. By bribing Yan Song, he re-entered the DPRK and became a henchman of Yan Song, rising step by step.
At that time, many officials who were dismissed for crimes inside and outside the imperial court were reinstated by bribing Yan Song. Yan Song further recruited these people to his subordinates and became his own party henchmen. For those officials who did not want to be dependent, Yan Song's father and son, while cracking down on persecution, did not forget to take the opportunity to blackmail. For example, the famous anti-Wu general Yu Dayu was a man of integrity, would not be greeted by horses, and should not be happy with Yan Song's father and son. Yan Song instructed his party to frame him and arrest Yu Dayu and imprison him. Many officials in the DPRK cherished Yu Dayu's talents, so they together gathered 3,000 taels of silver to bribe Yan Shifan, and Yu Dayu saved his life and was sent to Datong Shubian.
Due to the large-scale looting and bribery, Yan Song's family wealth was comparable to that of the emperor. In the capital, his mansion is connected to three or four squares, and there is an artificial lake with an area of tens of acres. In his hometown, he also has five mansions, all of which are carved beams and paintings, with high walls, and their majesty and magnificence do not diminish the imperial hall. As for gold and silver jewelry, it is even more difficult to count, and later when Yan Song was defeated and raided, he also copied out more than 30,000 taels of gold, more than 2 million taels of silver, and other pearl treasures were worth millions of taels.
Yan Shifan once boasted that "the imperial court is not as rich as me", and even his rich servant Yan Nian had tens of thousands of family wealth.
With so much treasure, their lives are naturally extravagant and eroded. In particular, Yan Shifan, "the daughter of Pink Dai, the house of the house; the text of the dragon and phoenix, decorated with pearls and jade treasures; the elephant bed, surrounded by gold draperies; the song of the night strings, the declaration of adultery." So corrupt, he was not ashamed, but said triumphantly: "The court is not as happy as me!" ”
Yan Song's father and son committed adultery and bribery, causing the indignation of upright officials, and they went up to expose the crimes of their father and son. However, the faint-hearted Sejong did not know of his adultery, and Yan Song often took advantage of Sejong's refusal to advise and protect his shortcomings, manipulating right and wrong in front of Sejong, provoking him and attacking the officials who framed and impeached and reported. At that time, the most hated thing in the world was the prison of killing Shen Lian and Yang Jisheng.
06. The prison of Shen Lian and Yang Jisheng
Shen Lian was a Jinyi wei experience, and he hated that due to Yan Song's greed and treachery, the invasion of the Mongols in Jiajing in the twenty-ninth year (1550) made jingshi trapped and endangered, so he went to a sparse place, scolding Yan Song for "greedy nature, sick people anointed blindness; foolish heart, stubborn iron stone." "The Shuzhong calendar refers to the ten major crimes of Yan Songna's bribery of the general Shuai, the power of the officials, the request for care according to the age of the law, the shady government, and the unauthorized favor and harm to the government, and asked Sejong to kill the traitorous courtiers to thank the world."
However, after the song was presented, Yan Song was unharmed, but Shen Lian was punished by the court for the crime of slandering the minister, who was a security guard. After Shen Lian was promoted to security, the people knew that he was belittled because of cursing Yan Song, and they respected him very much, and asked him to be a teacher and teach the children of the township. Shen Lian bundled up 3 straw men, compared to Li Linfu, Qin Ju, and Yan Song, and often used grass as a target in addition to teaching, and practiced archery with his children. When Yan Song learned of this, he cut his teeth in hatred and instructed his party to slander Shen Lian for plotting rebellion and arrest and execute him. Shen Lian's two sons were also killed by the staff.
After Shen Lian, Yang Jisheng, a member of the military department, impeached Yan Song for ten major crimes in the thirty-second year of Jiajing (1553), the main ones being: pretending to be a beggar and making a bad ancestor into the law; serving Shizong's joy and anger to arbitrarily wield the blessings of the emperor and stealing the power of the king; letting Shi Fan take the vote on his behalf and indulging in adultery and stealing power; his descendants were ineffective and officials, risking the military merits of the imperial court; taking bribes for personal gain, quoting traitors; guarding against the generals, not attacking the answers, misleading the state military plane; slandering the good in the world, and dethroneizing the power of the state.
Yang Jisheng said: Yan Song's ten great sins were achieved by relying on the five traitors, and the five traitors were roughly: bribing the emperor to become his own spies; controlling the Department of Communications and Politics and making him his own eagle dog; forging in-laws with factory guards so that he could have anything to do with himself; imprisoning officials and making them their slaves; and snaring ministers and making them his confidants.
After the song was handed over, Yan Song instigated Sejong and sentenced Yang Jisheng to a hundred rods and put him in prison. Later, he was further framed and killed.
When two officials from the Punishment Department tried the case, they said a fair word for Yang Jisheng, one was demoted and the other was imprisoned. The governor Ofquire Wang Confession sympathized with Yang Jisheng's death, and Yan Song remembered the hatred in his heart, and afterwards found an excuse to frame wang and kill Wang Confession. None of the officials who opposed Yan Song were not framed, and the light was demoted, and the heavy was beheaded.
07, the real reason why Yan Song fell out of favor
Yan Song's defeat was in the forty-first year of Jiajing (1562). Before that, Yan Song's wife died, and Yan Shifan had to escort the mourner back to his hometown. Yan Song could not leave his son, so he asked his grandson to escort him home and let Yan Shifan stay in Beijing. Sejong granted his request.
However, because of his mourning, Yan Shifan could not enter the straight room to vote for Yan Song, so Yan Song's own vote proposal often could not meet Sejong's meaning, and he gradually lost Sejong's favor.
Yan Song and Fang Shilan Daoxing had contradictions. Lan Daoxing was favored by Sejong, so he took advantage of the opportunity of Fu Qi to say that Yan Song's father and son were traitors as immortals.
The words of the alchemist Sejong were the most listenable. At this time, Yushi Zou Yinglong also went up to expose the crimes of Yan Song's father and son. Therefore, Sejong deposed Yan Song and put Yan Shifan in charge of Leizhou Wei.
Yan Shifan did not arrive in Leizhou, fled back to his hometown halfway, enslaved 4,000 people in his hometown to build a mansion for him, and also robbed the women of the people, plundered the soldiers and the people, and still ran amok and committed evil. Sejong sent him to Beijing and beheaded him in Xishi in 1565.
When the Beijing scholars heard that Yan Shifan had been sentenced to death, they all clapped their hands and applauded, and on the day of the execution, they all agreed to go to the West Market with wine to see the execution. Two years later, Yan Song also fell ill and died.
08. The death of Xia Yan
Sejong's faint decay and Yan Song's greed and treachery caused the Ming Dynasty to become politically corrupt and the country's strength to weaken day by day, which directly and seriously weakened the Ming Dynasty's border defense forces.
Originally, from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, due to the destruction of the military canton system, soldiers often had a shortage of food. When Yan Song was in power, he embezzled a large number of military funds. The imperial court issued silver to the border troops, "Toward the gate of the branch, into the palace of the traitor, four losers, and six givers." "Moreover, the generals at that time often obtained official positions or were promoted through bribery, and these people would not lead soldiers to fight, but would only embezzle and exploit, withhold military salaries, and abuse soldiers, so the contradictions between officers and soldiers were constantly intensifying, and mutinies often occurred.
In the Jiajing Dynasty, there were five large-scale mutinies. The reason for the mutiny was either the withholding of food and pay from the soldiers, or the abuse and excessive supervision of the generals. Of the five mutinies, four occurred in Bianzhen, one in Ganzhou (present-day Zhangye, Gansu), one in Liaodong, and twice in Datong.
After the mutiny, the rebels killed the generals, occupied the city to confront the army sent by the imperial court to suppress it, and even lured the Mongol soldiers into the blockade and plundered. The deepening of contradictions between officers and soldiers and the frequent occurrence of mutinies in the border armies were a manifestation of the Ming Dynasty's army's weak combat effectiveness and the weakening of the border defense force.
In order to crack down on dissidents, Yan Song even did not hesitate to use the border defense as a means of framing. The case of the Huifu River Loop is a case in point.
The Hetao area, facing the river on three sides, the land is fertile, suitable for Nongsang, and it is close to the border towns of Yulin, Ningxia, and Biaotouguan in the Ming Dynasty, and who controls the Hetao area, which is of great significance to the northern border defense of the Ming Dynasty.
Since Emperor Yingzong Tianshun (1457-1464), the Mongol Tatars have occupied Hetao from time to time and penetrated deep into the Ming Dynasty's border walls to harass. In the ninth year of Emperor Xianzong's reign (1473), the Ming army defeated the Tatars and forced them to cross the river north. In the eighth year of Emperor Xiaozong's reign (1495), the Tatars again supported the masses into hetao to live in the pastoral areas, and to the Jiajing Dynasty, they continued to invade the border areas of the Ming Dynasty, the largest of which was in August of the twenty-fifth year (1546), when more than 30,000 Tatar cavalry invaded Yan'an Province, penetrated deep into Sanyuan and Jingyang, and killed many livestock.
In view of the occasional intrusion of the Tatars who occupied hetao, the Ming dynasty governor Trilateral Military Department Shilang zeng milled his strength to retake Hetao and put forward eight proposals. Xia Yan, the first assistant of the cabinet, supported Zeng's proposal. Twenty-six years later (1547), Zeng Milling led an army out of the blockade attack, won the victory, and once again proposed a strategy to restore the loop. However, Yan Song had been suppressed by Xia Yan, harbored a grudge, and tried to seize Xia Yan's position as the first assistant, so he used the Hetao issue to frame him. He accused Zeng of taking sides lightly, misleading the country's grand plan, and Xia Yan's support and corrupting state affairs.
Regardless of the merits, the faint-hearted Sejong dismissed Xia Yan and arrested Zeng Qiao and imprisoned him, and the other officials who supported the restoration of hetao either belittled, or stripped, or staffed. Later, the Tatar Khans joined forces in the Loop and plotted against Yan'an and Ningxia. Yan Song also took the opportunity to provoke Sejong and said, "The reason why I answered the people and joined the river loop was caused by Zeng Milling and opening the border. Yan Song's henchmen also echoed the attack. Sejong beheaded Zeng.
In September of the twenty-seventh year (1548), Li Da entered the Xuanfu. Sejong believed that it was because Xia Yan and Zeng Qiao had withdrawn from recovering Hetao that Li Da would retaliate in this way, and quickly beheaded Xia Yan.
Since Xia Yan and Zeng Milling were beheaded, no one dared to mention the recovery of Hetao.
09. The change of Gengji
Corruption within the Ming Dynasty and the weakening of border defenses gave the Tatars an opportunity to take advantage of. In June of the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing (1550), Li Da led his troops to invade Datong. Responsible for the defense of Datong were Xuanfu and Datong's general soldier Qiu Luan. He was a straw bale, and the position of chief soldier was bought from Yan Song's father and son with money. In the face of Li Da's attack, he was in a hurry, so he had to repeat the same trick and bribe Li Da with heavy bribes, begging him not to attack his own defense zone.
After receiving Qiu Luan's heavy gift, he led his troops to the east and attacked Gubeikou. At that time, Sejong was concentrating on cultivation in Xiyuan and was very tired of the border alarms, so the soldier Shangshu Ding Rukuo did not dare to disturb him, did not report to him, but only urged the towns to strengthen their guards. However, the Defenders of Gubeikou were defeated, and the Tatar soldiers drove straight in and reached the vicinity of the capital. Bingbu Shangshu Ding Rukui hurriedly reported to Sejong. Sejong was shocked to hear the thunderbolts on a sunny day, and hurriedly ordered martial law in the capital division, on the one hand ordering the minister of culture and military affairs to guard the nine gates, on the other hand, sending people to recruit volunteers to the people, and passing on the soldiers of various towns to enter the king of Jingqin.
After receiving the edict of King Qin, the townsmen successively arrived in Beijing. Earlier, after Qiu Luan bribed Li Du not to attack Datong with heavy money, he saw that Li Da would lead his troops to the east, and he estimated that Li Da would go deep into the interior and endanger the Beijing Division, so in order to take the opportunity to ask for merit and gain the favor of Sejong, he asked for help.
Sejong admired Qiu Luan's loyalty and courage, and ordered him to be the great general of Pingyu and restrain the soldiers and horses of the Qin King of Zhulu. Because of the hasty departure of the reinforcements, all the reinforcements arrived on light horses and stars, without food. Sejong ordered a reward. The household department could not come up with money and food, and the official documents were turned around for two or three days, and only a limited number of pancakes were distributed to the soldiers. The soldiers were hungry and tired, some starved to death, and some simply robbed the people. Emperor Sejong, in a fit of rage, deposed Hubu Shangshu and ordered him to wear the guilt.
The soldiers rushed directly under the city of Beijing, plundered the residents of the villages, burned the huts, and set the fires in the sky.
The reinforcements from all walks of life were cowardly and did not dare to go to war, but just sat and watched the Army burn and loot. Qiu Luan's datong soldiers even took advantage of the fire to rob them, even more fiercely than the Jurchen soldiers. Bingbu Shangshu Ding Rukui was panicked and helpless, and asked Yan Song for advice. Yan Song said: "Failure in the border plug can also be hidden from the emperor, and failure in the suburbs of Beijing is difficult to hide." If you have grabbed enough, you will leave yourself, and we only have the best policy. ”
Ding Rukui listened to Yan Song's words and ordered the generals not to go to war easily. The generals were eager to have such an order, so they pushed the boat along the water, saying that the soldier Shangshu would not let him go to war. The common people suffered from the plundering of the Li Da soldiers, and when they heard that Ding Rukuo did not resist, curses were everywhere.
After a few days of looting on the outskirts of Beijing, he escorted a large number of men and women mules and livestock to the west. The hundreds of thousands of troops under Qiu Luan looked at each other, and none of the generals dared to shoot a single shot. Only after the soldiers had retreated far away did Qiu Luan follow him with his army and pretend to pursue them.
He originally wanted to get out of Baiyangkou, but was blocked by the Ming generals, so he returned to the southeast with his crowd and suddenly met Qiu Luan's army north of Changping. Qiu Luan was unexpected, he was almost captured, and the army collapsed. The Cavalry of the Li Dynasty marched in, killing and wounding more than a thousand Ming troops, and the crowd came out of Gubeikou.
Qiu Luan killed the heads of dozens of people and asked Sejong for his merits. Sejong did not verify it, and made him a Taibao and gave him gold coins.
The twenty-ninth year of Jiajing is the year of Gengji, so history calls this event "the change of Gengji". Zhu Houxi felt that this was a great shame, and in order to vent his anger, he arrested Ding Rukui and imprisoned him. Ding Rukuo called for help from Yan Song. Yan Song comforted and said, "With me here, I will definitely not let you die." Later, seeing that Sejong was angry and wanted to execute Ding Rukui, Yan Song was silent. When Ding Rukui was about to be executed, he shouted, "Yan Song misled me!" ”
The "change of Gengji" is not accidental. It is a concentrated manifestation of the Ming Dynasty's political corruption, financial embarrassment, and the abolition of border preparations. After the incident, the Ming ruling class represented by Zhu Houxi did not learn from it, and the Ming Empire became increasingly decayed, like a patient suffering from a cancer, to the point where he could not prolong his life without surgery.
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The content of this article is compiled from the "History of the Ming Dynasty" of the Chinese reading book "Classic Chinese General History" jointly created by China International Broadcasting Publishing House and "Reading History".
There are 16 books in the complete set of "Classic Chinese General History", namely: "Xia Shang History", "Western Zhou History", "Spring and Autumn History", "Warring States History", "Qin and Han History (Part I)", "Qin and Han History (Part 2)", "Three Kingdoms History", "Two Jin And Northern And Southern Dynasties History", "Sui and Tang History (Part 1)", "Sui and Tang History (Part 2)", "Five Dynasties History", "Song Dynasty History", "Yuan Dynasty History", "Ming Dynasty History", "Early Qing Dynasty History", "Late Qing History".
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