The secret service agencies of the Ming Dynasty, because they were independent of the official government, often ran amok and were unreasonable, and this phenomenon has become a major harm to the country.
Zhang Tingyu of the Qing Dynasty once said: "The East Factory of the Ming Dynasty is rampant, and the personnel arrested will be beaten to the skin and flesh, whether they are guilty or not." How can the existence of such unreasonable institutions in the country allow the people to live and work in peace and contentment? In the "History of Ming", there was a record of a case of these Ming Dynasty agents who "sat on the booty comparison", and to this day, this story is surprising and creepy to read.
During Zhu You's school days, Jin Yiwei commanded Tian Ergeng and Zhenfu Xu Xianchun to plot a case together with some secret agents. When they tried the Zuo Capital Yushi Yang Lian and yushi Zuo Guangdou, in order to be able to seek some benefits, they actually launched a "comparison of doing stolen goods", that is, they compared who took the most bribes from prisoners. They demanded that the prisoner raise enough money for a period of two days, or else use the penalty of a secret agent.
There are five major punishments for the Jinyi Guard, namely: equipment, shackles, sticks, fingers and sticks. If the prisoners do not pay the full amount of money, then these five major punishments will be used one by one, and when the time comes, they will definitely be unable to survive and die. And Xu Xianchun, who watched the liveliness on the spot, not only did not have the slightest sympathy, but also continued to insult there.
One night, Xu Xianchun arranged for the prisoners to live separately, and after this arrangement, the guards discussed privately: There must be a punishment like "wall standing" tonight. "Bi ting" is the punishment of the agents to execute the prisoners, and after this punishment is implemented, Yang Lian dies in pain, while Zuo Guangdou is locked in his head and pulled to death. After these prisoners died, they would often be left for a few days, and when the maggots were almost eaten, the jailers would come to deal with them, and they would simply wrap the bodies in reed mats and still go to the mass burial site.
Things in prison are very secretive, and the prisoner's family generally does not know the time of the prisoner's death.
Then, why would Tian Ergeng and Xu Xianchun be so bold as to execute imperial court officials without permission?
In fact, these were all instigated by Wei Zhongxian.
Since wei Zhongxian presided over the affairs of the east and west factories in the third year of the apocalypse, he had reused some cool officials to torture some officials, so that the officials could explain the results that Wei Zhongxian wanted. And these cool officials are what was mentioned earlier: Tian Ergeng, Xu Xianchun and others. They recognized Wei Zhongxian as a dry father and completed the coercion of confessions for him. Of course, they never dared to interrogate prisoners privately, and only when Wei Zhongxian assigned personnel to be present could the interrogation begin.
Such a result also enabled Wei Zhongxian to fully grasp the dynamics of interrogation and intervene at any time.
Then, why did Wei Zhongxian have to give such a cruel hand to Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou?
In fact, this is all the result of the struggle between the Donglin Party and the Castration Party. Since the beginning of the Wanli Calendar, the struggle between the two parties of the Ming Dynasty has not stopped. The Donglin Party had always had an advantage during the Wanli Dynasty, not the Donglin Party, and in order to combat them, they attached themselves to the new force Wei Zhongxian, hoping to use this force to completely destroy the Donglin Party.
Wei Zhongxian saw that so many people were willing to depend on him, and his power was constantly expanding, so he agreed with their point of view: he began to persecute the Donglin Party and some upright ministers.
In the fourth year of the Apocalypse, Yang Lian impeached Wei Zhongxian, listing his twenty-four counts. Immediately afterward, they all gave Wei Dazhong, Zhu Guobi, the Marquis of Funing, and Chen Danheng, the Shangshu of the Nanjing Bingbu, together with them, explained Wei Zhongxian's illegal behavior and asked the emperor to sanction Wei Zhongxian. In addition, Ye Xianggao and The Rebbe Shangshu Weng Zhengchun also participated, writing to the emperor to condemn Wei Zhongxian in order to appease the anger of the hundred officials.
With so many people playing, Emperor Mingxi Emperor Zhu You should be able to know the severity of it, and finally, he arrested Wei Zhongxian and interrogated him. This emperor believed in Wei Zhongxian too much, and he preferred to oppose the hundred officials rather than believe that Wei Zhongxian had problems. The emperor not only did not interrogate Wei Zhongxian, but also issued a heavy order to the ministers who impeached Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian saw that his position was stable, and he was also able to let go of his hand to deal with these Donglin Party members.
In the end, this group of ministers who opposed Wei Zhongxian were either killed or forced away, or dismissed or excluded. Then, Wei Zhongxian began to organize the persecution of the Donglin Party. They made a list, listed Gu Xiancheng and others as "evil parties," and used the Jinyi guards and factory guards in their hands to strike at the people on the list. As long as they enter the list, whether they are guilty or not, they will be destroyed.
At that time, there were many people persecuted by the "factory guards", among them, the "Prison of the Six Gentlemen" was the largest. The "Six Gentlemen" refers to: Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Wei Dazhong, Yuan Huazhong, Zhou Chaorui and Gu Dazhang.
In the fifth year of the apocalypse, Wei Zhongxian and his henchmen forged some false testimonies in order to launch an investigation into the "Six Gentlemen", after which they were all arrested and imprisoned. The factory guards were in prison, tortured and eventually mutilated to death. The punishments used by the factory guards against the six gentlemen were very cruel, for example, when Yang Lian passed away, he was pressed with dirt on his body and his ears were pierced by iron nails.
It can be said that Wei Zhongxian was able to act so arbitrarily and domineeringly, and even defined his orders as holy wills, completely relying on Zhu Youxiao's favor for him.
Wei Zhongxian's original name was Li Jinzhong, he was a social, and later, because he owed too much debt, he simply entered the palace and became a eunuch. Because, Wei Zhongxian climbed Zhu Youxiao's nursing mother Keshi, and they jointly toyed with the little emperor between the palms of their hands. Wei Zhongxian was the little emperor's playmate, and from an early age, he guided the little emperor to spend his mind on carpentry, so that he could immerse himself in it and could not extricate himself.
And Wei Zhongxian could do anything for the emperor, even in the name of the emperor. In addition, Wei Zhongxian also used the party struggle in the imperial court to win over his own forces and achieved the high position of "nine thousand years old". Therefore, Wei Zhongxian had great power in his hands, did not look at anyone in the eyes, and exercised the power of life and death at will. The number of guards he managed, the number of samurai increased to tens of thousands, and they all wore armor and were very arrogant in and out of the Forbidden City.
And Wei Zhongxian also often colluded with the Ke clan to falsely pass on the holy will, deliberately executing those who were unfavorable to them, such as: they let the xuanshi Zhao clan commit suicide, killed Yu Concubine who was pregnant with Liujia, and even removed the title of concubine, and even let Empress Zhang beat the fetus. They treated the imperial concubines like this, and they treated other officials and eunuchs even more recklessly.
Moreover, Wei Zhongxian did not spare even the people, who would be arrested immediately if they had unfavorable words, and then be punished with torture such as skinning and cutting their tongues. Once, there were four people in the capital drinking, and one of them began to scold Wei Zhongxian because he was drunk, but before this person could finish scolding, a factory guard rushed to the scene to take the four people away. And this person who scolded Wei Zhongxian was torn to pieces!
The factory guard can be so arrogant, which is related to the mechanism set up by the factory guard.
Factory guard was established in the early Ming Dynasty, which was used by Zhu Yuanzhang to monitor hundreds of officials and ordinary people. During the Zhu Yuanzhang period, Jin Yiwei also participated in the trial of the case, and later, it was banned.
Zhu Di lived in Beijing, but he was often able to learn about Emperor Jianwen's situation, relying on the eunuchs around Emperor Jianwen. Later, after Zhu Di seized power, he set up the East Factory and used eunuchs to secretly deal with vicious cases of conspiracy and rebellion and rumor-mongering, and the East Factory at this time was equivalent to the power of Jinyiwei.
The consuls of the East Factory were generally eunuchs trusted by the emperor, who also took advantage of the emperor's favor to do some illegal things. During the ming xianzong period, the imperial court also set up a west factory, which was also able to handle cases. During the Apocalypse, Wei Zhongxian gained the right to manage the East and West factories because of the emperor's trust, and in addition, his collusion with Jinyiwei, the secret service agencies of the imperial court were all in Wei Zhongxian's hands.
It can be said that at this time, Wei Zhongxian can deal with it as much as he wants, and no one can restrict him. It can be said that as the emperor's detective agency, the nature of the factory guards in supervising the hundred officials and the common people has not changed. In this regard, Mr. Wu Han pointed out that factory guards are organizations independent of the national judiciary, they can arrest any official or civilian at will, and enjoy the rights of interrogation, conviction and execution, lacking the necessary supervision.
As a result, in the country under the rule of factory guards, officials and ordinary people are all at risk, and their lives are very depressing.
The establishment of factory guards in the Ming Dynasty stemmed from the sense of crisis of the rulers, as Mr. Wu Han said, under this political system, the imperial power only represented the interests of the imperial family and the peripheral special groups, and they were always isolated small groups relative to the people, and even, often on the verge of danger.
Therefore, in order to maintain the imperial power, they tried their best, and the public laws, criminal laws, and courts were not enough, and what they needed was to create a terrible environment in the people, so that the people knew that there was law everywhere around them. Therefore, they set up a special organization dedicated to surveillance and investigation, and anyone in the country would become the target of investigation.
The combination of eunuchs and factory guards was a major feature of Ming politics. The eunuchs, taking advantage of the emperor's favor, took power into their own hands in an attempt to put the emperor in the air. The unscrupulous behavior of the factory guards not only makes it impossible for scholars and doctors to work with peace of mind, but also makes it impossible for businessmen to operate with peace of mind, but also makes it impossible for the people to live and work in peace and contentment, on the contrary, let them live in an environment where everyone is at risk and everyone is on their side, and the social atmosphere and political atmosphere are seriously corrupted.
It can be said that the wanton rampage of factory guards during the Ming Dynasty eventually made the word "factory guard" a symbol of terror. The rulers hoped to eliminate their isolation and ensure their rule through secret service agencies such as factory guards, but unfortunately, they would only raise tigers and completely destroy their rule. In this regard, the "History of Ming" said: "Factory guards are the strength relied on by the imperial power, but they are also the root of the country's demise." ”
Resources:
[Ming Shi Liechuan Liechuan 193rd Chronicles, Ming Shi Youfu Zhi, Wan Liye Won Compilation]