Wei Zhongxian was poor when he was young, mixed in the streets, illiterate, but he knew how to shoot archery and ride horses, liked gambling, obsessed with wine, Wei Zhongxian often gambled with a group of evil teenagers, once, he felt very distressed after gambling and lost, he hated himself and called himself li jinzhong, because he was familiar with the eunuchs in the palace, rumors were rumored that the whole body was not purified, and there was still a testicle. Later, he changed his original surname back to Wei Zhongxian and was given the name Wei Zhongxian by the emperor.
Wei Zhongxian was elected to the palace during the Wanli Dynasty and formed a deep relationship with Zhu Youxiao's nursing mother Keshi.
In the forty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar and the first year of Taichang (1620 AD), Emperor Mingshen Zhu Yijun and Emperor Mingguangzong Zhu Changluo died within a month, and Emperor Xizong Zhu took the throne. Wei Zhongxian and Keshi were favored by Emperor Xizong, and within a month, Feng Keshi was made Lady Fengsheng, and her son Hou Guoxing, younger brother Ke Guangxian, and Wei Zhongxian's brother Wei Zhao were made Jinyi Wei Qianhu. Wei Zhongxian was soon promoted from The Salary Division to the position of Eunuch bingbi and viceroy of Baohe Sandian (三店). Wei Zhongxian was illiterate and was not allowed to enter the ceremonial supervisor as a rule, but because of keshi, he was able to make an exception.
Keshi is vicious and vicious. Wei Zhongxian did not know the book, but he had a good memory, sexual suspicion was cruel and vicious, and he was flattered. Zhu Yu colonel trusted these two people very much. The two men were even more arrogant. At the same time, Wei Zhongxian also led the affairs of the East Factory, cracked down on dissidents, framed the ministers, and squeezed out the Donglin Party, and the henchmen were all over the government and the opposition.
Zhu Yu is clever, active in axe sawing and painting and other things, and has been tireless for many years. Every time when cutting ink in the pulling line, Wei Zhongxian's generation often came to play things. Colonel Zhu Yu was very bored and said absurdly, "I already know that you are good to do it yourself." Wei Zhongxian therefore allowed himself to do whatever he wanted.
He traveled many times a year, always sitting Wenxuan, feather curtains, four horses flying, the sound of drums and dysprosium, with the rumbling wheels, hidden in the flying loess. The Jinyi Guards Official School had a jade belt around its waist, stepped on the boots and boasted, carried a knife with it, and was sandwiched between the left and right, and the cooks, youling, hundred plays, and slaves, these retinues, were tens of thousands. The music of the hundred officials must be caught up with fast horses. Wherever he passed, the scholar and the doctor prostrated himself and shouted at the nine thousand years old, and some people simply called him "nine thousand nine hundred years old" and "held up the one who was obedient to the admonition but worshiped the dry father, performed five prayers and three prostrations, and called out to the nine thousand nine hundred years old grandfather." And Wei Zhongxian still looked left and right, ignoring it.
The Ke clan lived in the palace, coerced the empress, and abused the palace concubines. Occasionally out of the palace and back to the private residence, the attendants are prominent, illuminating the road, looking like the emperor's honor guard. Wei Zhongxian was originally stupid and had no strengths, so his henchmen taught him day and night, and he had Keshi as the internal master, so the crowd of murderers raged and poisoned the sea.
In the autumn and August of the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627), Zhu Youxiao died, and Chongzhen Zhu Youjian took the throne. In February of the second year (1629), Zhu Youjian summoned Wei Zhongxian and asked the internal officials to read his ten major sins, and Wei Zhongxian was very frightened. In November, Wei Zhongxian was sent to Fengyang for resettlement, and Wei Zhongxian, on his way to Fengyang, still raised a group of outlaws, and Zhu You, furious when he heard about it, ordered Jinyi wei to go and arrest him and escort him back to Beijing for trial. When Li Yongzhen heard the news, he quickly sent someone to secretly report to Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian knew that he would not be able to escape death, and when he arrived in Fucheng, he heard the latter order, so he and his accomplice Li Chaoqin drank bitterly at the Guanke Inn in Nanguan, Fucheng, and finally hanged themselves together. Zhu Youjian ordered Wei Zhongxian to be dismembered and hung in Hejian Province. Keshi was whipped to death in the Raccoon Bureau.
Why didn't Wei Zhongxian, who was "nine thousand nine hundred years old", directly depose the emperor?
The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were only attached to the emperor, and their power was "pseudo-power", they did not have an official and a half-position, and they did not have a single soldier or pawn. Once the emperor wanted to deal with political affairs, he could exercise Zhu's persuasion on his own. Even if the eunuch was more powerful, he was worried that his master would fall. The reason for Wei Zhongxian's power was one sentence: "Because the emperor is favored by his old man." ”
In addition, Ming eunuchs had no military power. During the Tang Dynasty, eunuchs were in charge of the Forbidden Army, and the Shence Army formed by the eunuch Yu Zhao'en during the Anshi Rebellion was long served as the Central Army's Arch Guard Jing Division, and has always been controlled by eunuchs. Eunuchs with military power naturally controlled the emperor and deposed him at any time.