Yan Song, it can be said that everyone knows everyone.
Only the emphasis on selfish desires, the eradication of dissidents, the persecution of loyal subjects, the corruption of the dynasty, the disaster of the country and the people, the power of the imperial family, the first traitor of the Ming Dynasty are all used to describe him, you think he once covered the sky with one hand, in fact, he is a professional household with a back pot.
The historical Yan Song was not so heinous at the beginning, and in that era he could be called a genius and a promising young talent.
He entered the county school at the age of nine, passed the county examination at the age of ten, and lifted at the age of nineteen, compared with Fan Jin, who was more than half a hundred talents, it is not too much to say that Yan Song is a wizard.
In the end, the reason why he ended up as the first traitor of the Ming Dynasty and the infamy of ten thousand years can be said to be 30% of his own sins, 30% of them have suffered for others, and 40% of them are obviously for the Jiajing Emperor.
Why?
Yan Song's family was originally a famous and prestigious family in the Song Dynasty, but in the Ming Dynasty, the family conditions plummeted. His father repeatedly failed in scientific expeditions, and he attached great importance to his career, knowing that he had no chance in this life, so he began to cultivate him from an early age.
This guy is also powerful, much better than his father, at the age of twenty-five, Yan Song finally fulfilled his father's wish, passed the examination for the Yi Ugly Branch, was selected as a Shu Jishi, and was later awarded the editing.
Perhaps heaven was jealous of the talents, and after being a Shu Jishi for a period of time, Yan Song suddenly fell ill, and at that time, when the eunuch Liu Jinquan fell to the world, Yan Song, who was jealous and hateful, simply retired from the government and returned home, did not associate with the adulterers, and became a wild crane.
It doesn't matter, ten years have passed. Yan Song began to feel tired, his talent had nowhere to show, and his life was getting poorer and poorer, when was a head,
So he re-entered the official arena, which was darker than it had been a decade earlier.
Like other famous courtiers in history, Yan Song also began to blacken and began to pursue his rights.
At this time, the most critical figure in Yan Song's life gave him great help, that is, his fellow countryman Xia Yan.
During the Jiajing period, the emperor was addicted to Taoism, was good at the art of immortality, was indifferent to political affairs, and the affairs of the dprk and China were handled by the courtiers. Libu Shangshu Xia Yan was favored by Sejong and was also Yan Song's compatriot, so Yan Song desperately tried to please Xia Yan.
Xia Yan originally thought that Yan Song was on the same road as himself, and he was very important in the heart of the Jiajing Emperor at that time, and often let Yan Song show his face in front of Jiajing. Unexpectedly, over time, Yan Song actually confronted himself, followed Jiajing's temperament and allowed him to pursue the cultivation method, and became a big red man around the emperor.
He had already felt that the emperor's move was a misguided xia yan and tried to dissuade the emperor, but in the end there was a gap with the emperor. Therefore, under Yan Song's repeated frame-ups, in October of the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing, Xia Yan was finally used by Yan Song to let emperor Jiajing "learn" of Xia Yan's slander of himself, so he ordered him to be beheaded and shown to the public, and also exterminated, and Xia Yan's cronies were either degraded or punished.
Yan Song re-appointed as the first assistant of the cabinet, and from then on, he was good at dictatorship, and the era belonging to Yan Song also began.
But in fact, it was the Yan Song era that opened under Jiajing's control.
Jia Jing, this person can be said to be born to be the material of the emperor, because he knows that he only needs to control the position of the head of the cabinet, and Yan Song will willingly help him deal with the affairs of the imperial court.
He can spend all his time "cultivating immortals" in order to achieve immortality.
Even if Yan Song didn't want to, there were other people vying for it, and it didn't matter whether Jia Jing was loyal or adulterous in this position.
In any case, this person must obey his own words, as long as he does not violate his own bottom line, no matter what means he uses to manage the government, as long as he can move out the expenses to refine Dan, and can also help himself carry the pot, this is enough.
Facts have proved that Yan Song has indeed lived up to Jiajing's expectations. In order to help him pursue immortality, Yan Song has been doing his best to control the government for twenty years, no matter how much manpower, financial resources, and material resources he spends.
So Yan Song had only been entrusted with heavy responsibilities because he could help Jiajing cultivate?
It is undeniable that Yan Song, in addition to his favor with Jiajing, was also a courtier with great power and political wisdom. Otherwise, Jiajing would not have been able to use him for twenty years, and in the end, even if he was found to be greedy and raided his home, he only killed his son Yan Shifan, and did not give him death.
Looking back at the Jiajing period, when the country was in chaos, officials were greedy and greedy, the treasury was empty, the Wokou attacked, and the people were miserable.
During Yan Song's reign, he did not ignore these things. Instead, in the face of the collapse of the state's finances and the successive wars on the north and south lines, he has always done his best to implement effective policies, and it is precisely because of his cabinet that he can barely support the overall situation of government affairs.
In the north, for example, a series of measures were taken to temporarily appease the aggressors. In the south, in order to pacify the Wokou, he always supported the policy of the Governor of the Southeast. It was with the support of Yan Song that the generals at that time were able to boldly implement the strategy of pacifying the enemy, laying the foundation for the eventual pacification of the enemy.
This also proved Jiajing's foresight, only Yan Song could stabilize the situation and balance the forces of all sides, otherwise he would not be able to cultivate the Tao with peace of mind.
The reason why I say this is because some of the things Yan Song has done: who to eradicate, who to use, and who to punish are all the meaning of Jiajing.
As an empathetic courtier, it was naturally easy to figure out the meaning of the emperor, it seemed that Yan Song looked at who was unhappy to eradicate whom, but in fact, he eliminated a lot of people who Jiajing looked unhappy.
Even if some people were dissatisfied, they did not dare to directly scold Emperor Jiajing, and could only sprinkle their anger on Yan Song, feeling that he was causing trouble and attacking Yan Song, and Yan Song could block back, jiajing naturally would not have a bad reputation.
Therefore, instead of Xu Jie, Gao Gong and Yan Song fighting to the death for power, it is better to say that Jia Jing deliberately played them around and played with their palms.
In general, the real Yan Song in history is a person who is not good or bad, and it is most appropriate to describe it in four words: the great traitor is like loyalty. After all, it seems that the Jiajing Emperor ignored the government and was actually very authoritarian.
Under such a rule, if Yan Song disobeyed, within a year, he would probably lose his official position or be beheaded like his predecessor.
Yan Song was always gentle and restrained, remained respectful, and carefully pursued his own policies, because he knew that sooner or later he would fall, but he just wanted to make this day as late as possible. As Yan Song's line in the "Great Ming Dynasty" TV series said: "There is only one person in the Ming Dynasty who can call the wind and rain, and that is the emperor!" In the end, the Jiajing Emperor only defeated Yan Dang, not Yan Song, which shows that this sentence is very intriguing...