The Ming Dynasty had a number of powerful eunuchs, the most famous of whom were Liu Jin, Wang Zhen, and Wei Zhongxian. Liu Jin was often associated with the "Eight Tigers", who not only caused chaos in the dynasty, but also wantonly amassed wealth. When he finally raided his home, there were tens of millions of taels of gold found in his home, plus silver and other things, which was really rich and invincible. How did he get so much money? Corruption, of course. The reason why he can have corrupt means is from the beginning of his promotion.
The History of Ming records, "Liu Jin, a native of Xingping. Ben Tan clan son, according to the surname of the lieutenant Liu to enter, assume his surname. When Filial Piety is done, he should die and be spared. Already, he had to serve the Eastern Palace of Emperor Wuzong. Emperor Wuzong ascended the throne, holding the bell and drum division, together with Ma Yongcheng, Gao Feng, Luo Xiang, Wei Bin, Qiu Ju, Gu Dayong, Zhang Yong, and was fortunate with the old grace, and the person was called 'Eight Tigers', while Jin You was cunning. That is to say, Liu Jin followed Zhu Houzhao when he was still the crown prince, and after Zhu Houzhao ascended the throne, Liu Jin was naturally promoted and extremely favored. And this "Eight Tigers" offered eagle and dog dramas every day, and did everything they could to please the emperor. The "Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty" records that "Jin Chaoxi and his party of eight people, for the dogs, horses, eagles, dogs, song and dance gladiatorial fights to entertain the emperor, the emperor fox." ”
Liu Jin and others were therefore more valued, and many ministers could not see it. Soon, some important ministers of the DPRK impeached the "Eight Tigers" headed by Liu Jin on the charge of "eight tigers seducing and causing trouble to the dynasty." "The foreign court knew that the eight people tempted the emperor to travel to the banquet, and the university scholars Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and Li Dongyang suddenly advised and did not listen." "Shangshu Zhang Sheng, Tao Huan, Hu Yu, Yang Yiying, and Zhang Jian, Yushi Wang Zhuo and Zhao You, and Nanjing to Shi Yushi Li Guanghan and Lu Kun, etc., handed over the chapters and commented, and did not listen."
Liu Jin
In the end, there was no way, Yang Yuan, who was serving as the supervisor of the five senses, made a clever move, borrowed the "theory of astrology" that the king firmly believed, and wrote to Zhu Houzhao, saying that he had recently observed the celestial phenomena at night, and saw that the stars had changed, and if he did not deal with Liu Jin, he would be afraid of causing a catastrophe! "The five senses supervised Yang Yuan's words with stars, and the emperor's intentions were quite moving." However, he still remembered his feelings with Liu Jin since he was a child, and did not want to kill Liu Jin, so he found the eunuchs Chen Kuan, Li Rong, and Wang Yue, a eunuch who was known for his loyalty but was actually Liu Jin's nemesis, and asked them to come to the cabinet for consultation, and finally decided to send Liu Jin to Nanjing, away from the Forbidden City, which was a strategy for Mingzhe to protect himself.
However, no matter how hard Wang Yue and others tried to persuade Liu Jin, the latter did not agree to go to Nanjing, and at the same time he was also very flustered, because once he left Zhu Houzhao's side, Liu Jin's opponents in the court could have a hundred ways to make him die without a place to die, and leaving Zhu Houzhao also meant that Liu Jin would definitely fall out of favor. Jin was terrified, and Night Rate Yongcheng waited for Emperor Fu to weep. Emperor Was moved, and Jin Yin said: "Wang Yue, the slave killer." Yue Jie's courtiers wanted to make access to the upper and lower levels, so they first went to the ears they were afraid of. And the eagle dog has lost tens of thousands of things. If the Si Li supervisor is a person, the left class official An Dare to do so. "The emperor was furious, and li ordered Jin to take charge of the ceremonial superintendent, Yongcheng to take charge of the East Factory, and the West Factory to use the big hand, and yue and Heng and Zhichong to clean the army in Nanjing at night."
"When the ministers enter the dynasty, they will be ambushed, and the governor has changed, so Jian and Dongyang will go." Originally, these people thought that the collective resignation would put some pressure on Zhu Houzhao, but they did not expect that Zhu Houzhao actually approved their resignation. "The emperor stayed alone in Dongyang, while Ling Jiao Fang entered the cabinet."
Li Dongyang
At this time, Liu Jin finally eliminated the political enemies of the dynasty, but he was not satisfied, and he still had to cut the grass and remove the roots, so he sent people to "hunt down and kill Yue and Heng Yutu, and fold their arms, and Shi Zhengde also in October of the first year." "Jin Zhizhi, so he dismissed Han from his civil post, and the staff instructed Liu Jian and the emigrants to give six people, including Lü Chong, Liu Hao, and Nanjing, and Fifteen others, including Yushi Bo Yanhui."
Since then, Liu Jin no longer has any worries, relying on Zhu Houzhao's favor, he began to deal with every official who did not like himself, nitpicking on all kinds of trivial matters, but whenever he found the slightest problem, he immediately punished him severely, and at the same time, all kinds of false accusations, liu Jin's eagle dogs were all over the country, and he constantly monitored all kinds of ministers every day, and once he found problems, he was either punished or framed, and even all kinds of unjust, false and wrong cases were frequent. In addition, Liu Jin also arbitrarily promoted his appointment, even the bricklayer who painted the walls of the palace, as long as he said two kind words, he would also promote him to an official, Liu Jin's power became more and more rampant, and even beat Yang Yuan, the superintendent of the five senses, to death. "The jin is becoming more and more arrogant, and maoju bureaucrats are meticulous, spreading out lieutenants, and spying near and far, so that people can not be saved." Because of his skill, the Party was castrated and divided into all sides of the town. Xu Datonggong moved the official school to more than 1,560 people, and passed on the instructions to hundreds of Jinyi officials. "When Fan Jin arrests, every criminal sits in the neighborhood, or the residents who overlook the river sit on it." Repeated prisons have been raised, and unjust accusations have been all over the road. ”
Liu Jin's political enemies were almost all eliminated, while the Eight Tigers were all promoted, stirring up the Ming Dynasty's political arena.
Liu Jin thought of many ways to embezzlement. "Jin is anxious to pay bribes, and all those who enter the court and send envoys have generous offerings." "His party Zhang Cai said: 'Those who give to the public today are not necessarily private wealth, and they often lend money to the capital, but they are repaid with treasury funds. The public complains about the troubles. 'Jin Ranzhi. "In the modern case of Beijing debt: The rich people are entrusted with bribes to go to the Capital Division, and those who cannot leave beijing in the event of a monthly election of officials measure the distance of their land, the abundance of their lack, or seventy or eighty-two hundred and two, which is called a buckle, and even those who have four or five buckles, and those who take the most profits." Everyone was afraid of Liu Jin's power, so they had to nod their heads one after another, and they all dared to be angry and dare not speak. "Fang Jin's use of things is even more vicious, especially the evil counselors, and those who are afraid of disasters often commit suicide." At that time, the cabinet Jiao Fang and Liu Yu, the officials Shangshu Zhang Cai, the Bingbu Shangshu Cao Yuan, and the Jinyi Wei commander Yang Yu and Shi Wenyi were all Jin's heart. Change the old system, so that the world inspectors into the capital to receive edicts, lose Jin bribes. Inspector Yan Sui inspected Liu Yu and was arrested and imprisoned. After the Xuanfu Inspector Lu arrived, he was offended several times, and he bribed, but ordered the probationary office to be regarded. All command the following movers, JinDi book piece paper said 'a certain award of a certain officer', the military department that is, to follow, do not dare to repeat. The side will be out of order, bribed, that is, do not ask, there are anti-promotion. ”
With so many ways to make a fortune, Liu Jin was still not satisfied, so he sent many of his cronies to various places to serve in various places, and then acquiesced to them amassing wealth for themselves by virtue of their positions.
Liu Jin was once lawless, no matter whether the official was doing business or entering the capital to meet the court, even if he was on official business, he had to pay bribes to him, and later even made trouble to the point that some officials wanted to do things but suffered from lack of money and could not do it, and finally directly committed suicide, such as Zhou Key, who was given a position in the matter. "Give zhou key to investigate the matter, and commit suicide without gold."
All in all, this Liu Jin's desire is completely indistinguishable from the bottomless pit, in order to satisfy the greed in his heart, Liu Jin's means of accumulating wealth can be described as extreme, in just a few years, he has obtained tens of millions of gold, and silver is countless.
Of course, these data were all recorded in the future when Liu Jin's forces collapsed and were raided. The Ming Tong Jian records: "The Zhao Dynasty did not have Liu Jin's family, and the gold was 1,257,802 gold and 25,958,360 taels of platinum. The ming Dynasty courtier Wang Jun's family property when Liu Jin was raided was as follows: "Zhengde Chinese did not have Liu Jin's goods, 240,000 gold ingots and 57,802 yuanbao, 8 million silver and 1,583,602, gems 2 buckets, golden armor 2, golden hook 3,000, jade belt 4,162 bunches, lion man belt 2 bundles, gold and silver soup 500, oyster clothes 470 attacks, tooth 200 ingots, wearing palace cards 500, gold medal 3, gong robe 4, eight-clawed golden dragon armor 3,000, jade qin 1, jade seal 1. The above gold totaled 1,257,802 and silver totaled 25,958,3602. "This number is indeed amazing enough, just this tens of millions of gold is enough to be jaw-dropping, plus other things, it is estimated that he will not be able to spend it in ten lifetimes."