Before his death, the Chongzhen Emperor complained that the reason why the Ming Dynasty was destroyed was because these ministers were shameless and incompetent, and perhaps we will still remember that sentence, that the emperor is not the king of the subjugated country, and all the ministers are the ministers of the subjugated country.
In fact, the Chongzhen Emperor was right, the Ming Dynasty had basically rotted in the later period. Because the world is no longer the emperor alone, but the civilian official clique has overshadowed the emperor, the people can only survive in it.
So, before the Chongzhen Emperor, was there anyone who could make adjustments? Not to mention, there was an emperor who had tried, and this person was the Zhengde Emperor, but he was known as the Great Emperor of History. So what's going on here?
In the official history books, the Zhengde Emperor was a proper emperor, who did not like to play with women, but also favored eunuchs, and was very absurd in governing, resulting in chaos in the government.
We do not deny that the Personal Character of the Zhengde Emperor was very poor, but historians once told us that the evaluation of a person's good or bad should not only be defined by morality, but should be more based on his contribution to the overall development. So did the Zhengde Emperor contribute to history? Personally, I think that this person's contribution is still quite large, and even he almost subverted the future of the Ming Dynasty.
Royal Conquest. If you are more familiar with history, you should know that before the Zhengde Emperor, there was a Ming Yingzong in the Ming Dynasty, who led more than 200,000 troops to the Northern Expedition, and as a result, he was beaten and lost his armor, and even the emperor was arrested. This incident was the eternal pain of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also an important reason why the Ming Emperor no longer dared to march on the northern imperial family.
Whenever they think of this, onlookers will feel a pang of regret, because in the distant past, the Mongols who Zhu Yuanzhang beat did not dare to turn back, and the Arutai who zhu Di fought in the desert north of the five expeditions doubted life, even if it was Zhu Zhanji, who was slightly weaker, he personally carried a knife to slash and kill the Mongols, and the northern tribes who hit did not dare to go south to herd horses.
It can be said that the blood of the Ming Dynasty has never been broken, but it was cut off by Ming Yingzong. Some scholars have even analyzed that since the defense of Beijing, the emperor no longer has military command, and his power has been plundered by civilian officials.
It was in such a downturn that the Zhengde Emperor made a different choice from his ancestors, not only to control the military power, but also to restore the honor of his ancestors.
So, the emperor set aside his identity as a king, turned himself into an independent general, and then led an army of more than a hundred thousand to fight the little Prince of Mongolia. The history books record that although the number of deaths in this great war was not more than a dozen, the Mongols did not dare to attack the border for a long time.
It should be said that the Zhengde Emperor did the right thing in this matter, and even swept away the depressed atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty, saying that he had the demeanor of Zhu Yuanzhang or Ming Taizong.
Therefore, just by this matter, Zhu Houzhao is not the Emperor we imagined, but a promising prince who changed the atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty. But Zhu Houzhao's needs are not only here, he also has to do more big things.
Balance between culture and martial arts. The history books record that Zhu Houzhao has successively put together a series of events, including vigorously improving the status of the warriors and frantically suppressing the power of civilian officials. Perhaps modern people will find it a little incredible, thinking that this is persecuting Zhongliang. However, we must understand that during the Zhu Yuanzhang period, we once wanted to establish an ideal state, that is, to balance the two sides of the civil and military affairs, the civilian officials to strive to maintain internal affairs, and the group of military generals to ensure national security.
However, during the reign of Emperor Ming Yingzong, the emperor failed to grasp the balance, resulting in the almost total annihilation of the military general Xun Gui's clique. Taking advantage of the momentum of the great man Yu Qian, the civilian official clique not only seized the emperor's military power, but also later betrayed Yu Qian, and through the change of the door and the subsequent coup d'état of Li Xian, the group of military generals was wiped out.
Therefore, during the period of the Zhengde Emperor, the civilian official group was already too big to fall, and the military general group could no longer see the seed. In this case, the Zhengde Emperor used the power of eunuchs and military generals to suppress civilian officials, and even the emperor said that only three of the 10 people in the civil officials were good people, and 7 of the 10 people among the eunuchs were good people.
It should be said that under the operation of the Zhengde Emperor, the civilian official clique suffered heavy losses, and several seeds also appeared in the wujun clique. But the balance between the civil and the military still has not been achieved, and several eunuchs are also disrupting this balance. When the Zhengde Emperor was alive, because of the chaos of the eunuch clique and the birth of Wang Yangming, the emperor himself died in the struggle to lose the balance of culture and martial arts.
However, as far as this matter is concerned, the Zhengde Emperor still has the idea of turning the tide, if he succeeds, then the Chongzhen Emperor will certainly not have the despair of facing the Donglin Party, and the Ming Dynasty will be able to continue for some time. Judging from this matter, the Zhengde Emperor was much stronger than the emperor after Akihito, at least the first person after the four generations of emperors, after all, he dared to challenge the dilemma, and his failure was not entirely his pot.
Originally, the above two things were enough to wash away the name of the Zhengde Emperor, and when our descendants evaluated him, they would also say with emotion that this was a brave emperor and a place with lofty ideals, but it was only lost to many variables like Wang Yangming.
However, the Zhengde Emperor also did one more thing, and if this thing was done, he would not only be able to wash away his own infamy, but even become an emperor for thousands of years.
Go to the West. In this regard, everyone may wonder, among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, only Ming Taizu is barely qualified to be called the Emperor of the Ages, a small Emperor, how can he have such an honor? Not to mention, the Zhengde Emperor was once only a little bit away from this title.
According to historical records, the Zhengde Emperor, while strengthening his armaments, also thought of opening up overseas trade. This is very rare, because even Emperor Xuanzong of Ming later resolutely opposed Zheng He's voyage to the West. However, the Zhengde Emperor saw it very clearly, and he felt that if he wanted to strengthen the centralization of power, he must strengthen the central revenue, and Zheng He made a fortune when he went to the West.
Some scholars have analyzed that the reason why Zheng He went to the West was criticized mainly because the Western Ocean was in the form of official trade, so all the money went into the national treasury, and there was no benefit in the hands of officials. Therefore, the Zhengde Emperor wanted to strengthen the centralization of power, and even wanted to re-establish overseas markets and order.
If this thing is done, then there is no doubt that the Ming Dynasty will not only not be defeated by wild boar skins because of lack of money, but even, under the centralized system, the overseas market expansion of that year may be able to catch the last train. This kind of possibility may really be able to push the Ming Dynasty to another world.
Therefore, of all the things that the Zhengde Emperor did, this matter was the most important for the Ming Dynasty. But unfortunately, the civilian bureaucracy is also an old fritter, and they absolutely do not allow the emperor to abandon them to get rich, let alone allow the centralization of power to reappear. Therefore, those civilian officials actually burned all the materials of Zheng He's voyage to the West, and then they had nothing to do with me. Even, seeing that the civilian official clique was about to be suppressed, they even announced to the outside world that the Zhengde Emperor had fallen into the water and died.
Looking back on this history, we should really change our understanding of the Zhengde Emperor, he is a person with extremely poor moral character, but this is also a person full of infinite hope, who was expected to become an emperor for thousands of years, but history did not give him enough opportunities.
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