The great eunuch Liu Jin, a well-known figure in the history of the Ming Dynasty, like many powerful eunuchs, once had power in the opposition, but unlike other eunuchs, his ending was the most tragic. How miserable? Ling Chi was executed.
People who know what kind of punishment Ling Chi is, will feel miserable, and Liu Jin, who created Ling Chi's highest record, is as high as 3357 knives, which is a record in the history of zhengshi. We can't travel through ancient times to see what is going on, and it is estimated that even if we crossed, I did not dare to look at it, and from some records of wild history, I could see some details of Ling Chi.
Ling Chi in the Ming Dynasty stipulated that there were 3600 knives, all of which were required, the first twelve hundred knives, known as "fish scales", what is called fish scales, that is, using fishing nets to wrap the prisoner's body, exposing the skin, and then the executioner used a knife to cut out the copper coin-sized meat on the human skin, and this thousand two hundred knives shaved the prisoner's body again until the body was complete. However, it does not harm the main organs and large blood vessels. It just hurts the skin.
The middle twelve hundred knives, known as the "meat cutting", are the muscles that begin to cut the prisoner's bare outside, and the executioner who is good at execution will move the knife along the prisoner's muscle, carefully avoiding the blood vessels, and the cutting of the meat is deeper. And the meat that comes down will be bigger. In the Qing Dynasty, when some people wrote about Ling Chi, they wrote about this "meat cutting", and there was such a sentence, called blood running out and yellow water coming out.
The last twelve hundred knives, known as the "soul chasing", under normal circumstances, no one can carry to such a point, therefore, this thousand two hundred knives, often cut the corpse, so it is called the soul chasing, when a person's flesh and blood are exhausted, the bones are left, the executioner will start the last process, dismantling the bones, the head, the whole execution process will end.
The number of Ling Chi knives suffered by Liu Jin was 3357 knives, that is to say, he had already experienced the process of "chasing the soul", historical records record that Liu Jin was shaved for three days, and some records said that he had died the next day, and later only shaved his body. Either way, Liu Jin was stabbed with at least a thousand knives before he lost his breath. It's miserable enough.
In history, Liu Jin was not the worst in the group of great eunuchs, nor was he a stupid person who was illiterate, on the contrary, he still had some talent and did some practical things, but these facts seemed very insignificant.
First, Liu Jin's road of struggle
The Grand Eunuch Liu Jin, during the Hongzhi period, officially appeared on the stage of history, known as the Prince's subordinate, that is, the later Zhengde Emperor. Like many great eunuchs, he was very shrewd before his career, very pleasing to the crown prince, and after the prince became the Zhengde Emperor, he received a very high status and treatment as he wished. At this time, he did not have the power to turn to the opposition, because the power of the courtiers was quite large.
During this period, the Ming Dynasty experienced the prosperity of Hongzhi Zhongxing, and the entire court swept away the ming and secret struggles and corruption since Emperor Ming Yingzong, and began to unite as never before, and the spiritual outlook of the imperial court was renewed, so that the spiritual outlook of the whole country was also renewed. After decades of decline, the Ming Dynasty finally ushered in the dawn.
Although Zhu Youfan was very accomplished, he did not live too long, he reigned for eighteen years, and when he died, he was only thirty-six years old.
Zhu Youfan died, but his team was still there, at this time, the core of the officials of the Ming Dynasty was Xie Qian, Li Dongyang, and Liu Jian, these three people had their own strengths, but they were all capable figures, and in the center, there were also some very talented figures, such as Yang Tinghe, who would play a great role in the Zhengde Dynasty.
In the local area, there are also many talented people emerging, such as Yushi Yang Yiqing, and Wang Yangming, who has already penetrated the unity of knowledge and action, it can be seen that although the Hongzhi Emperor died, the Ming Dynasty still has a considerable talent reserve, and these people want to rub their fists and prepare to show their skills, create a rule of righteousness, and then go down in history.
But in this, there is one more Liu Jin. The Zhengde Emperor was only fifteen years old, Liu Jin was a person close to the Zhengde Emperor, and this Liu Jin, although at the beginning, was also willing to make some contributions, but his ability was far less than those who preceded him, and he did not have much ability to govern the country, but only through the means of tax reduction and tax reduction, strengthening law enforcement, etc., to do some new policies.
If this is all, Liu Jin may still have some ability, but his greed is beyond the imagination of many people, if the king of corruption in the Qing Dynasty is He yan, then the king of corruption in the Ming Dynasty is none other than Liu Jin.
Starting from Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty was very strict in its management of corrupt officials, even strict enough to embezzle sixty taels, and it was necessary to be skinned. However, after Zhu Yuanzhang, the corruption and bribery behavior was only more and more until it was difficult to control, and after Liu Jin's departure, he even played the corruption and bribery to the extreme.
Gradually, between the emperor and the chancellor, there was a Liu Jin, and Liu Jin's power grew, and he began to falsely pass on the Holy Will, form gangs, and his henchmen were called the Eight Tigers, including Zhang Yong.
Liu Jin falsely preached the Holy Will, formed gangs, and began to exclude dissidents, and a large number of capable people were expelled from the central government. This provoked the anger of the entire group of ministers. When Liu Jin's power was in power, it also became the beginning of his demise.
The Grand Eunuch Zhang Yong, Yushi Yang Yiqing, and the Cabinet Li Dongyang came together, and as a result, the situation took a major turn.
Liu Jin was immersed in joy, but his henchmen had differences, because of their interests, they came together, and because of the imbalance of interests, they had a gap, and Gu Dayong and Zhang Yong were the first to be estranged from Liu Jin. In particular, Zhang Yong, as a eunuch like Liu Jin, he also hoped to gain Liu Jin's power.
Because of Liu Jin's fate, this great eunuch Zhang Yong seemed very low-key, so he was a relatively decent figure among the eunuchs of the entire Ming Dynasty. Liu Jin did not know that Zhang Yong had become inseparable from him. I thought I was still in power.
Among the ministers, there were already many people, or almost all of the ministers, who began to oppose Liu Jin, among them, the most powerful person was Yang Yiqing, this person's official position was Yushi, in ancient times, the official position of Yushi was not large, but it was very important, he was responsible for supervision, impeachment, and the impeachment of Yushi, under normal circumstances, could be exempted from punishment, because this was the function of Yushi. Yang Yiqing was also ostracized by Liu Jin.
These two people, there would not have been much intersection, the only remaining heavy minister in the DPRK, only Li Dongyang is left, this person is an old fox, he is very good at being a person, unlike those very axis of the civil servants, he knows that Liu Jin's strength is too strong, so he chooses to be silent, Liu Jin gradually trusts him, and many government decrees must let him polish. Therefore, Zhang Yong wanted to move to Liu Jin, and the first choice was Li Dongyang.
In the darkness, there seemed to be providence, and in the fifth year of Zhengde, the King of Anhua rebelled. The Zhengde Emperor sent two men to preside over the counter-rebellion, one was Zhang Yong and the other was Yang Yiqing. This is really a bit of a coincidence, the two characters who want to move to Liu Jin, inexplicably came together.
The rebellion was quickly put down, and the two men quickly reached an agreement, Yang Yiqing came up with a plan, and after Zhang Yong's triumph, he immediately participated in Liu Jin's seventeen major crimes. At this time, Li Dongyang, who had been silent, immediately struck, so the crowd gathered firewood and the flames were high, and the anger of Ming Wuzong was finally burned. As a result, Liu Jin fell.
Some people say that Liu Jin's power has fallen so quickly to the opposition, and that is because Liu Jin is only nominally power in the opposition, but the real foundation of the government and the opposition is still those civilian ministers, the entire Ming Dynasty, and the strength of the civilian-official clique cannot be ignored, and can even influence the rise and fall of the country.
How could Liu Jin know how powerful his opponent was. By the time he understood, he was dead.
After Liu Jin's fall, Li Dongyang retired, Yang Yiqing, Yang Tinghe and others entered the core of power, but what disappointed them was that the Zhengde Emperor was too capable of playing, a Liu Jin fell, and more Ministers such as Jiang Bin and Channing appeared, although under the efforts of Yang Tinghe and others, the country was still stable, but the national strength was declining day by day, until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, there was no prosperity like Yongle Hongzhi.