Jinyiwei and Dongchang were established in the Ming Dynasty, the early days of the Ming Dynasty were still relatively turbulent, Ming Taizu in order to strengthen the emperor-centered central power system, set up an institution for collecting military and political intelligence, personally in charge of the emperor's palace honor guards and close guards around. After years of evolution and development, in the fifteenth year of Hongwu, the pro-military capital weifu and the Yiluan Division were abolished, and the name was officially changed to Jinyiwei.
Jinyiwei apparently existed as the emperor's bodyguard agency, but its main duty was actually to monitor the officials and people and steal intelligence, and the commander of the Jinyiwei was also known as the Jinyiwei commander, which was generally undertaken by the emperor's most trusted cronies or the closest relatives. Ming Taizu jumped from cloth to emperor, and the huge gap in his status led him to want to hold power tightly in his hands, and the Jinyi Guard at that time was the department he was born to hold power.
Jinyiwei was appointed to the emperor, not controlled by officials, directly obeyed the emperor, helped Ming Taizu monitor the movements and small actions of various ministers, and at the same time, Jinyiwei was also responsible for managing all affairs related to the emperor in the palace, collecting enemy military information, and so on. In this way, Ming Taizu could know the secrets of the chancellor at any time and hold the power more firmly in his hands.
In the process of the development of Jinyiwei, the power is also growing day by day, and with the acquiescence of the emperor, Jinyiwei can secretly seize and interrogate ministers of various ranks without reporting to the emperor, and even in special cases, they can also behead first and then play. Such a monstrous power made Jinyiwei once frightening.
After Zhu Di succeeded to the throne, Zhu Di also learned the appearance of his father and emperor and took jinyiwei with him from time to time, but Zhu Di enjoyed the protection of Jinyiwei at the same time, and he was very afraid that the power of Jinyiwei would threaten his status and safety, and even in the end he was out of his control, but it was more than worth the loss, so in this psychology, Zhu Di established the East Factory.
Zhu Di hoped that the East Factory and the Jinyiwei could check and balance each other, but Zhu Di's original intention in establishing the East Factory was to suppress the Jinyiwei, which led to the status of the East Factory being actually higher than that of the Jinyiwei at that time.
While balancing the Jinyi guards, Zhu Di did not forget to balance the East Factory, and he single-handedly established the West Factory, the West Factory and the Jinyi Wei East Factory and called the Factory Guard. These three checks and balances reached a delicate balance for a long time, and all three belonged to the direct subordinates of the emperor, but because of Zhu Di's selfishness, there was a slight distinction between high and low ranks.
During the period of the existence of factory guards, the Ming Dynasty also appeared a unique factory guard system.
In modern film and television dramas, it is often portrayed that the factory guard system of the Ming Dynasty, the most common thing is the East Factory and the Jinyi Guard, the most common plot is also the two of them fighting each other openly and secretly, in fact, although the two open and secret struggle hurt some imperial court ministers, but during the prevalence of the factory guard system, the Ming Dynasty folk is indeed a scene of peace and happiness, for the people, it is also a good thing.
Compared with the well-known degree of the second factory and one guard, there is a department, although it is not very famous, but it holds a greater power than the second factory and one guard, that is, the neihang factory, the neihang factory was set up by Ming Wuzong, the original intention of Ming Wuzong to set up the neixing factory is to suppress the two factories and one guard, the neihang factory is behind the secret surveillance of the factory guards, and even the attitude of the top leader of the factory guard to see the leader of the inner factory is also respectful.
Officials of the general class, people who see the inner factory are very cautious, the reason is that the people in the inner factory have greater power than the factory guards, for some officials of low rank, the inner factory even has the right to directly detain, because the inner factory is directly under the emperor's orders, no one except the emperor's words are ignored, and after catching people, they will use various means to make people confess, the means are poisonous, and people will see them as if they had seen the king of Yama, and avoid them.
In a sense, the inner factory has subtle similarities with the Jinyiwei in its heyday.
After the establishment of the inner factory, the unique investigation system of the Ming Dynasty was established, these four institutions performed their duties but checked and balanced each other, the Jinyi wei was responsible for supervising all the officials and people, the East Factory was responsible for supervising the Jinyi guards, as well as the officials and people at all levels, and the neixing factory was responsible for supervising everything, including the two factories and one guard, the Jinyi guards and the officials and the people, so that the layers of progress were carried out layer by layer, and the inner factory instantly became the most powerful person.
However, although the power of the Inner Factory was monstrous, it only existed for a short period of five years, and in five years, the Inner Factory mutilated many loyal and good generals, and they curbed the way that news spread from the mouth of the officials to the emperor's ear, but all those who were unfavorable to the Inner Factory were destroyed and destroyed.
After the fall of Liu Jin, the leader of the Neihang Factory, the Neihang Factory and the West Factory were abolished, and only the East Factory and the Jinyi Wei were left, and after Wei Zhongxian came to power, he even mutilated Zhongliang, not only caused many tragic cases, but also aroused the indignation of the people because the factory guards spread all over the country.
The most prosperous period of the Ming Dynasty relied on factory guards, but there was still a saying in the folk, "The Ming Dynasty died at the factory guards."