The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty was Zhu Yuanzhang, who in history can be said to be one of the greatest founding emperors. The reason is that Zhu Yuanzhang defeated the Yuan Dynasty, and after the Yuan Dynasty was defeated, it represented that the Han people came out of the oppression of the Yuan Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, the Han people were liberated, and the status of the Han people was greatly improved.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he began to exert great efforts to rule, and he single-handedly created the rule of Hongwu, and under such circumstances, the Ming Dynasty became strong. The early and middle development of the Ming Dynasty was good, but after the Wanli Emperor, the Ming Dynasty went into decline. From this point of view, the Ming Dynasty went to its demise, and by the time of the Chongzhen Emperor, the Ming Dynasty had no chance to save it.
The Wanli Emperor did not go to the ming dynasty for thirty years, and under such circumstances, the Ming Dynasty formed a very serious party struggle, and it is undeniable that the party struggle was one of the fundamental reasons for the demise of the Ming Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, from the beginning of Zhu Yuanzhang to the end of the Ming Dynasty, an institution ran through the entire Ming Dynasty, which was the familiar Jinyi Wei.
Today, the image of Jinyiwei has been put on the big screen. The Jinyi guard in the film and television image is wearing a flying fish suit, holding an embroidered spring knife, and has eight faces. During the Ming Dynasty, Jinyiwei experienced glory to loneliness. The initial jinyi guard was not of high rank, but the power of the jinyi guard was greater than that of many official positions, and even the first assistant of the cabinet had to fear the three points of the jinyi guard.
Under normal circumstances, the Jinyi Guard has nothing to do without climbing the Three Treasures Hall, as long as it is targeted by the Jinyi Guard, then the ending will not be much better. When the Ming Dynasty was just established, Zhu Yuanzhang set up the "Arch Guard Division", which was later renamed the "Pro-Military Duwei Mansion", which ruled over the Yiluan Division and was in charge of the emperor's honor guards and bodyguards. This was the predecessor of the Kinnikushi, after which the Arch Guard Division was reformed.
In the fifteenth year of Hongwu,500, he abolished the pro-military capital Weifu and Yiluan Division, and replaced them with Jinyi Guards. From this until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the name of Jinyiwei was not changed. Jinyiwei was responsible for patrolling and arresting hundreds of officials, only to the emperor, and the three divisions could not interfere, that is, Jinyiwei directly obeyed the emperor's orders. As a result, almost no one in the Ming Dynasty dared to provoke the Jinyi guards.
By the time of Zhu Di, the development of Jinyiwei had reached its peak. Since then, the status of The Guards has continued to rise, and the number of people has also increased. By the time of the Jiajing Emperor, the number of Jinyi guards had reached as many as 150,000. From the time Zhu Yuanzhang established the JinyiWei until the time of the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Jinyiwei existed for a total of 290 years.
Why did such a powerful "guard army" disappear when the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself? On March 18, 17th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng's army came to the city of Beijing. At the time of crisis, the Chongzhen Emperor chose to hang himself, and before committing suicide, the Chongzhen Emperor killed all his wives, children, and children. During the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, the last Jinyi Wei commander was Luo Yangsheng, who was deeply trusted by Chongzhen and was the governor of Zuo Du (左都督) of the official Zhizheng Erpin (正二品).
When the Ming Dynasty was in danger, Luo Yangsheng chose to betray the Chongzhen Emperor. When Li Zicheng attacked the city gates of the capital, Luo Yangsheng was not defending the Chongzhen Emperor or fighting bravely to kill the enemy, but chose to open the city gates for Li Zicheng. When the Chongzhen Emperor was desperate, he called on his subjects to collect military salaries, but Luo Yang was not able to get a penny. Later, Luo Yangsheng surrendered to Li Zicheng, but took out tens of thousands of taels of silver.
At that time, there was only one person in the entire Jinyi Guard who resisted desperately, and this person was Li Ruolian. At that time, Li Ruolian was dead set on guarding Chongwen Gate, and when the city was destroyed, Li Ruolian shouted: "Death! That is, today's thing; woe! Why should posterity know! After that, Li Ruolian hanged himself. The rest of the Jinyi guards defected to the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, such as the commander Ma Jixiang and others.
It is worth mentioning that although Luo Yangsheng defected to Li Zicheng, Li Zicheng's Great Shun Army was simply vulnerable. After the Qing army entered the customs, Luo Yangsheng was driven out by the Manchu Qing, and Luo Yangsheng took advantage of the situation to become a "three-surnamed family slave" and surrendered to the Manchu Qing. As the commander of the Jinyi Guard, Luo Yangsheng actually chose to surrender, which really disgraced the face of the Ming Dynasty.