In 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide and martyrdom. But just five days before Chongzhen committed suicide, watching the king approaching the capital step by step, Chongzhen heard the eunuch next to him say, 'If the father-in-law is there, things will not end here'", after listening to this sentence, Chongzhen finally understood the words that the emperor said before his death, ''Mr. Wei can be of great use''.' In an instant, he repented, and then he built a monument for Wei Zhongxian.
Wei Zhongxian was a notorious eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, and we know a lot about his deeds, first of all, he was a person with a particularly strong heart, he was castrated himself, he entered the palace to interview eunuchs, and he stepped to the peak of power step by step with the courage to put himself to death and be born later. Because for an eunuch, in this process, if there is a wrong step, Wei Zhongxian will fall into a catastrophe.
Although Wei Zhongxian took crazy revenge on those who had persecuted him after he came to power, his men built ancestral shrines for Mr. Wei in various places in order to curry favor with him, one of which was intended to be built opposite Yue Fei's tomb on the edge of Hangzhou's West Lake. Although this is a very insulting thing to Yue Fei, it can also be seen from the side that Wei Zhongxian is a person who pays great attention to face and wants to leave a good image for future generations. In order to do this, Wei Zhongxian worked very hard, in the economic aspect, he raised taxes on industry and commerce, reduced taxes for peasants, and at that time caused a reduction in grain production due to the Xiaoice period, and Wei Zhongxian's measure reduced the burden on the peasants, and at the same time, the increase in mineral taxes could not only make up for the reduction of agricultural taxes, but also provide military salaries for soldiers in the northeast.
At the same time, Wei Zhongxian was very decisive in handling major matters, and he boldly used Xiong Tingbi, who was framed after the defeat of Liaodong, deposed Yuan Chonghuan, who had spent a lot of money on the front line but gained little, and was afraid to go to war, and reused Sun Chengzong and Zhao Nanxing, who were old and heavy. Therefore, in the battle with Houjin at that time, both sides had their own victories and losses, far from the embarrassing situation in the Chongzhen period in which hundreds of thousands of Ming troops were repulsed by tens of thousands of Qing Dynasty troops.
Later, after the Chongzhen Emperor came to power, he took the admonition of the Elder Brother of The Revelation as a bystander, listened to the rumors of the Donglin people, got rid of Wei Zhongxian, and abolished Jinyiwei and Dongchang, and at the same time abolished all of Wei's measures, whether right or wrong. So the rich merchants became richer, but the peasants were forced to live, and in the end, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong led the peasant revolt and overthrew the Ming Dynasty.
If Chongzhen were given a chance to choose again, he would definitely listen to his brother Emperor Tianqi and reuse Wei Zhongxian to balance the power of the ministers in the court, rather than allowing the Donglin people to dominate.