(Text/That Stop)
In 1644, Li Zicheng, the king of the invasion, attacked Beijing, and for a time the city was full of fire, and the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youguan Mingzhong gathered hundreds of officials, but none of them came, and the Chongzhen Emperor, who knew that he would not be able to escape the disaster, did not repeat the mistake of Jing Kang's shame, drew his sword and killed the concubine princess, and came to Coal Mountain.
Looking at the only remaining eunuch Wang Cheng'en, Chongzhen had mixed feelings, when the Southern Song Dynasty fell, there were still 100,000 people jumping haimingzhi, and now, only one person follows him. Chongzhen, whose heart was like ashes, wholesale the covering, took off the dragon robe and wrote: "Death, faceless to see the ancestors in the ground, remove the crown, to cover the face." Let the thief split the corpse, and do not hurt the people. ”
The Son of Heaven guarded the gate of the country, the king died, and Chongzhen retained the last dignity of the Ming Dynasty when he was dying, which was really a song and a tear.
Earlier, when Beijing was destroyed, the eunuch Cao Huachun said to Chongzhen: "If the loyal are here, current events will not end here." The loyal sage in his mouth was Wei Zhongxian, a great traitor who had fallen into power during the Apocalypse. Why does Cao Huachun have such an evaluation of a giant traitor?
Wei Zhongxian was born in the city of rogues, like to gamble, did not enter the palace before the marriage, and has a daughter, originally the family is not rich, Wei Zhongxian is obsessed with gambling, the casino is full of deceit, not long Wei Zhongxian fell into ruin.
Wei Zhongxian, who had nothing, did not give up because of this, but chose to continue to gamble with usurious loans and mortgage his wife, which was simply mad. Finally, full of joy, he went in, and the gray face came out. In order to avoid gambling debts, Wei Zhongxian, who was desperate, had a horizontal heart, anyway, he was already married and had children, there was no regret, he simply purified himself directly and entered the palace as a eunuch.
After entering the palace, Wei Zhongxian gave full play to the essence of the rogue's skin, in order not to be humiliated, he offered his affection to the eunuch Wang An of the Imperial Palace, and he was extremely flattered, and he also befriended the emperor's eldest grandson Zhu Youxiao's mother Keshi, this time Wei Zhongxian won the gamble, and after Zhu Youxiao succeeded to the throne, Wei Zhongxian became a eunuch of the Imperial Guard Bingbi, and his power fell to the opposition.
Zhu Youxiao was a carpenter emperor, who loved the carpenter work of swords, saws, and axes, and had no interest in the government of the dynasty, and did not bother to ask questions, so the power of the emperor's Zhu Batch fell into the hands of Wei Zhongxian, who took this opportunity to enlist courtiers and use his power for personal gain.
At that time, most of the readers who claimed to regard the world as their duty were worshipped under the Donglin Party, and these people were verbally critical of Wei Zhongxian's actions, eager to eat his flesh and sleep on his skin.
However, the entire Ming Dynasty had reached the brink of collapse, plagues were everywhere, natural disasters were continuous, and the state finances were tight, which made Wei Zhongxian depressed, the national treasury had no money, how could he be greedy for money?
Therefore, Wei Zhongxian extended his hand to the Jiangnan region where industry and commerce and trade were developed, restored the industrial and commercial taxes and sea taxes that had been deposed at the end of the Wanli Calendar, and began to levy a lot of excesses on these rich merchants, which reduced a lot of burdens on the state finances. In fact, Wei Zhongxian himself did not know that he just wanted to greed for some money, but unexpectedly solved the big trouble of the country.
In the Liaodong region for many years of conquest, Yuan Chonghuan was ordered to defend against the enemy outside Guanwai, and built the "Guanning Jin Defense Line", from Ningyuan to Jinzhou, almost all the cities were renovated and reinforced. Even the weapons and equipment were updated at the same time, and the King of Yan did not make the hungry ghost, if it were not for this money, I am afraid that the Emperor Taiji would have entered the customs long ago.
Of course, this is not a deliberate glorification of Wei Zhongxian, but some of his inadvertent actions did continue a wave of national fortunes for Daming.
On the one hand, Wei Zhongxian was their god of wealth, and on the other hand, there were people in the DPRK who were good at doing things, and as a matter of submission to Wei Zhongxian's trust, things would be much easier to handle.
Under the constant suppression of Wei Zhongxian, most of the Donglin party members were demoted from Beijing, and those who remained above the court were also restrained everywhere and unable to oppose Wei Zhongxian's castrated party. The life of ordinary people during this period was a little better, the imperial court did not raise taxes on them because of years of conquest, Li Zicheng, as an ordinary postman, could also get his salary on time, and the rich merchants may be miserable, because most of the taxes were looted from them. In any case, the entire situation in Liaodong during the Apocalypse period was far better than during the Chongzhen period.
In 1627, Zhu Youxiao died, and since he had no heirs, his brother Zhu Youjian succeeded to the throne. In his early years as king of xin, Zhu Youjian knew that Wei Zhongxian was good at stealing state authorities, stealing internal funds, and framing Zhongliang, and that the Donglin Party members were all patriots, so after ascending the throne, the powerful Zhu Youjian no longer allowed Wei Zhongxian to act recklessly like Zhu Youxiao, and began to liquidate the castration party.
Wei Zhongxian fell to the bottom in an instant, and was first driven out of the capital, but Chongzhen was still angry and forced him to commit suicide. The trees fell and scattered, and the rest of the castration party also received the punishment they deserved, and the Donglin party members, who were heavily relied on by Chongzhen, returned to the court, and for a time the people were in full swing.
But Chongzhen was too young to forget that what the emperor had to do was not to eliminate evil, but to balance the power of all sides, from ancient times to the present, if only relying on the strength of the emperor alone to oppose the entire group of civil officials, it was exhaustion and difficult to do, so for thousands of years, the emperor either reused the nobility, or reused the eunuchs, or let the courtiers fight among themselves, and the emperor could sit back and relax.
Chongzhen, who eradicated the castration party, became alone against the entire civilian-official clique, and could not cope with this situation at all. Soon after, he tasted the power of the Donglin Party.
Soon, the Donglin Party members who had regained power began to write collectively, demanding the abolition of the commercial tax levied by Wei Zhongxian, etc., in the name of it, and not to fight with the people for profits. In fact, the real purpose is to protect their own interest groups.
Because the foundation of the Donglin Party is in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, for a hundred years they have relied on rich businessmen to pay for them to rush to the examination to become officials, and after becoming officials, they will use their rights to seek political protection for these businessmen, and the real collusion between officials and businessmen will be done.
Chongzhen did not know that after the abolition of the commercial tax, the state would have no money, but he himself was helpless! The political system of the Ming Dynasty was different from other dynasties, and the cabinet chief believed that the emperor's will was incorrect and could be dismissed, which led to the weakening of imperial power, and chongzhen could not take the civilian official clique.
Unable to withstand the buzzing and screaming of these Donglin Party members, Chongzhen abolished the tax on merchants, but the country needed money for operation, and this part of the money was gone, so it had to be filled from other places, so in desperation, Chongzhen ordered the peasants to add "three salaries" -- "Liao's salary, training salary, and suppression salary".
In order to deal with these rebellions, more money can only be needed, and open source cannot be achieved, only throttling. So Chongzhen canceled some domestic stations, which was good, Li Zicheng had no job, and also began to make a fuss. However, all the money saved did not fall into Chongzhen's hands, but was embezzled layer by layer.
In the face of these internal and external troubles, the Donglin Party members turned a blind eye, in addition to filling their own pockets, they did not pull out a dime, Chongzhen has been cutting back on food and clothing for more than ten years, raising military funds for the front, there is really no way, looking for these ministers to collect donations, who knows, those people are crying poor, unwilling to pay a penny.
Later, after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, Chongzhen suddenly woke up and uttered a heartfelt sentence: "All the ministers can be killed by mistake." Li Zicheng did not disappoint him, and after entering the city, he raided the homes of those courtiers, and the silver obtained was as large as ten million.
Although Wei Zhongxian was adulterous, he did share the worries of the emperor, he was a scoundrel, no matter how red tape he was, he only knew that he had to do things with money; the Donglin Party was morally upright, but later it would only fight for power and power, regardless of the security of the country. The depth of the literati's misleading of the country must not be ignored.