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The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

author:Listen to the view of history

#历史开讲 #

When it comes to spies, everyone is no stranger. The old-timers of the 70s, 80s and earlier may habitually add the word "dog" in front of this word - after all, in those film and television dramas I watched as a child, there are basically few good birds in all the spies who appear, and they are all villains or their lackeys.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

When it comes to spies, it often reminds us of all sorts of big badasses

But in fact, secret service should be regarded as a neutral term that refers to special workers who serve the security, military, and political systems, usually government employees. It's just that they generally perform their duties in secret, and their duty is to deal with domestic and foreign threats and ensure national security. Therefore, agencies such as the FBI, CIA, KGB, MI6, Mossad and other agencies that we are familiar with are actually secret service organizations, of course, including relevant departments on the mainland, which is an indispensable part of a country's government's performance of duties, and it cannot be said that those who do this job are all bad guys, right?

Although the hero of the enemy and my hatred are correct, they cannot be generalized.

If you mention ancient spies, the first thing that people with a little historical knowledge can think of should be the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty was the only dynasty in China that implemented the rule of secret agents and implemented it throughout the 5,000 years, and it was also a dynasty with many secret service organizations, especially good at "building factories" - such as the Dongji Factory, which was established in the eighteenth year of Yongle (1420 AD), that is, the famous East Factory; For example, the Xiji Factory, that is, the West Factory, which was built in the thirteenth year of Chenghua (1477 AD); Another example is the Great Neihang Factory, also known as the Inner Factory, which was personally established by the great eunuch Liu Jin in the first year of Zhengde (1506 AD). In other words, this is not the Ming Dynasty attracting investment and setting up industries, in fact, all of them are supervision, secret agents and secret police agencies. As long as the name is displayed, both the officials and the people are trembling, and it has the effect of clearing the street and stopping the children's weeping.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

The factory guard spy is one of the most famous "specialties" of the Ming Dynasty

It is precisely because of this that almost no one except the emperor does not annoy this gang of dog spies, and will attack them at the first opportunity. Therefore, it was not so easy to be a spy in the Ming Dynasty, and if you were not careful, you would be killed. For example, the West Factory, which once had the ability to overwhelm the East Factory, was once withdrawn by two establishments and two withdrawals, and it has existed for less than 10 years in total. As for the inner factory, it was even worse, born and died because of Liu Jin, and it did not last for 5 years to add a piece before and after.

The only ones who can survive all kinds of winds and waves and stand firm are the East Factory and Jinyiwei - the "factory guard" we know well actually refers to these two major secret agencies. It's just that compared to the East Factory, which was born at the hands of Zhu Di and died with Zhu Youjian, Jinyiwei can really be regarded as accompanying the Ming Dynasty, and not a single scene has fallen.

Today, let's talk about those things about Jinyiwei.

01

Although the Ming Dynasty is a paradise for spies, it does not mean that there were no spies in previous dynasties.

The earliest secret service organization on the mainland recorded in the existing records appeared in the Western Han Dynasty, and its founder was Liu Heng, the Han Emperor who was known for his benevolence and love for the people and generous administration.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Who would have thought that the terrifying edict was actually made by Liu Heng, the Great Benevolent Monarch of the Ages?

In fact, Liu Heng was also a last resort. After Liu Bang's death, Zhu Lü assumed power and the emperor became puppets, and fought fiercely against the Xungui clique that supported Liu's orthodoxy. In the end, although the latter won and supported Liu Heng to succeed him, this group of nobles who actually controlled the power of the dynasty dared to depose even the emperor, what else did they dare not do? Therefore, before Liu Heng succeeded to the throne, he had to force Zhou Bo to personally guarantee his own safety, otherwise even Chang'an City would not dare to enter.

You can imagine how humiliated and helpless Liu Heng, the emperor, was at that time. He very much wanted to wipe out Zhou Bo and other powerful people, but the problem was that if he dealt with these people through the formal judicial procedures of the imperial court, it would be basically in vain. Because these guys did not rebel firstly, and secondly, their minions were all over the government and the public, even if they were sent to trial, the results would definitely be irrelevant.

Therefore, after Liu Heng completed his careful preparations, he established a special organization directly under the emperor, the Zhao Prison, also known as the Imperial Prison Prison. This is not a simple prison, at its peak there were tens of thousands of detectives, arrests, interrogators, and more than 100,000 people imprisoned. It was precisely by relying on the edict that Liu Heng wiped out Zhou Bo and other unruly magnates.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, in order to strengthen his control over the localities, he established a secret police agency called the embroidered messengers. The embroidered envoy is nominally the imperial history of the imperial history of the imperial history house, but in fact it is very similar to the brocade guard of the Ming Dynasty - wearing embroidered clothes, holding scepters and tiger talismans, he patrols the inspectors everywhere, and if he finds illegal problems, he can directly deal with them on behalf of the Son of Heaven, and treat normal judicial order as nothing.

The embroidered messengers were active until the Xinmang period, until Liu Xiu, the emperor of Han Guangwu, banned them.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Although the story is fictional, the spies and spies in it have a origin

During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao once established an organization responsible for internal intelligence and communications, called "Hegemony", mainly as a staff member, and also set up a secret spy agency "School Affairs" for enemy intelligence. Later, Sun Quan also followed suit, not only establishing similar organizations called Zhongshu and Dianxiao, but also developing them into a spy organization to monitor the domestic ministers and powerful people, which caused anger and resentment for a while:

"Lu Yi and Qin Bo are Zhongshu, canonical schools of official offices and prefectures and county documents. As a result, he gradually became a weifu, so he created the advantage of obstruction, raised crimes and adultery, and heard about it, and repeated the scandalous accusations of deep cases, ruined the minister, and excluded the innocent. (Records of the Three Kingdoms, Volume 52, Wushu Zhi Zhang Gu Zhuge Bubian VII)

In the end, Sun Quan had to disband him in order to avoid being drowned by Spit Xingzi.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Northern Wei also had an organization similar to Eastern Wu, called "houguan", whose duty was to "add internal and external marquis, serve the outer prefectures and towns of Zhucao, and clutter the prefectures and temples in order to lose a hundred officials" (Book of Wei, vol. 111, Zhi 16). Later, because the opposition was too loud, he was removed by Emperor Yuanhong of Wei Xiaowen.

There are some in the Northern Dynasty, and of course the Southern Dynasty cannot let it be uniquely beautiful, so Southern Qi also created a "signer marshal", served by the emperor's cronies, acting as eyes and ears, asking everywhere who wanted to rebel.

Legend has it that the Tang Dynasty was full of spies, but in fact there were only two "serious" secret services in the history books. The first is the Lijingmen Prison, set up by Wu Zetian for Lai Junchen and other cool officials to try cases. This prison was originally named because it was located at Lijingmen, but because "those who enter this gate are all examples" (Old Book of Tang, Volume 186, Legend 136) - that is, whoever enters the gate of this prison has to go out sideways, hence the name "Zhijingmen" ("actually" here means to end, to end).

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

The official identities of Lai Junchen, Zhou Xing and others are judicial officials, so they are only cool officials and not spies

The second is the "Inspectorate Hall", built by Li Fuguo, a great eunuch during the Middle and Tang Dynasties, and is the earliest full-time secret police organization in Chinese history:

"The hundred divisions of the slaughter, from time to time, are all because of the decision of the auxiliary country. He often received affairs at the gate of Yintai, and dozens of people were placed in the inspection hall, and the officials were small and ignorant, that is, they were sent to the news. Prefectures and counties are according to the feng, and the three divisions are prisoned, and the auxiliary country must be decided, and they are arbitrarily distinguished, all of which are called edicts, and those who dare not disagree. (Old Book of Tang, Volume 184, Legend 134)

In addition, the eunuchs led by Li Fuguo also controlled the elite forbidden army such as Yulinwei, Shenzejun, and Jinwuwei, and transformed the regular army into a spy similar to the East Factory, which had the possibility of controlling the power of the dynasty and even deciding the emperor's rise and death.

The secret service agency of the Song Dynasty is the famous Imperial City Division.

The predecessor of the Imperial City Division, Wu Desi, appeared as early as the fifth dynasty, and its main responsibility was to monitor and spy on the military leaders of the clan who wanted to rebel all day. After the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, this tradition was followed, and in the sixth year of the Taiping Xingguo (981 AD), it was renamed the Imperial City Division by Emperor Taizong of Song.

The Imperial City Division was not under the jurisdiction of hundreds of officials in terms of organization, and was directly responsible to the emperor, and its duties seemed to be very similar to Jinyiwei, such as being responsible for the palace guards and protecting the emperor's safety, and also had the privilege of spying on intelligence and secretly supervising the ministers. But the difference between the two is also huge, the most important of which is that the Imperial City Division only has the power of reconnaissance, but not the power of arrest, interrogation and judgment. Once a problem is discovered, it can theoretically only be reported to the emperor, and the emperor will appoint the relevant legal department of the imperial court to deal with it, and the imperial city department itself has no law enforcement power.

The Mongols who established the Yuan Dynasty had no tradition of spying and refused to accept the Han system, so the Yuan Dynasty did not have any serious spies. The Qing Dynasty, which was also built by foreign races into the Central Plains, is a scene of spies running amok in various wild histories and literary works, and there are sticky rods and blood droplets, which seems to be more frightening than the Ming Dynasty.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

The sticky rod is not worthy of the name, and the blood droplets are empty

Actually, this is all.

Blood droplets are illusory, but there is a real thing at the sticky pole, which appeared as early as the Kangxi Dynasty. The sticky rod office, also known as the Shangyu reserve office, was originally an internal affairs agency that assisted in escorting the emperor on his patrols and responsible for the emperor's entertainment. When the Yongzheng Emperor Yin Yu was fighting for the reserve, he used the sticky rod to spy on intelligence and eliminate dissidents. After assuming the throne, Yin Yu retained the function of spying on intelligence at the sticky rod and gave it a certain right to arrest, but only in the internal music office - every day the guards at the sticky rod had to go to the internal music office to receive the play, if they found that there was something suspicious in the music office, the sticky rod guard had the right to arrest it, but still did not have the right to dispose of it.

02

Therefore, there are basically spies in all dynasties, but only the Ming Dynasty is worthy of the "honorary title" of secret service rule. Why? Because the secret services of other dynasties are either not permanent, or usually only have reconnaissance powers, at most a limited power of arrest, the power of interrogation and judgment are by no means light.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

For secret service organizations, interrogation is basically equivalent to torture, and it is the key to their ability to be above the regular legal department

For example, the Tang Dynasty's example of the Great Prison. Although Wu Zetian's purpose and results in setting up this institution were no different from those of Jinyiwei and Dongchang, Lai Junchen, Zhou Xing, and others who worked inside held the official positions of Cheng in the imperial history and the attendant of the Criminal Department, respectively, and were serious officials of the court law department - we can accuse them of being cool officials, but we can never say that they are spies.

Why?

Because of this thing of spies, no one except the emperor is not annoyed. Originally, everyone had a good life, even if they fought openly and secretly for power, even if they made mistakes and committed crimes, everything was dealt with within the rules that could be known. Even the emperor, in fact, did not have the privilege of casually "pushing his courtiers out of the noonday gate to ask for beheading", which only appeared in the script and play. Even if he wanted to issue a decree, he had to consult and discuss with the courtiers to reach an agreement, otherwise it would be a disorderly order, and the relevant departments would refute it, so that the emperor's face would be planted in the mud.

But with special agents it's different. The spies only listened to the emperor and had the privilege of being above the regular legal department of the imperial court, and could arrest, torture, and try anyone at will. Moreover, this process does not need to be made public, let alone allowed to be supervised by any institution or individual except the emperor, in short, it can do whatever you want.

Therefore, as long as there are spies, the safety of anyone's life and property, and even personal privacy, cannot be guaranteed, which is intolerable to those noble ministers who have climbed to the top of power and wealth with great difficulty. And the result of this is a complete rupture in the relationship between monarchs and subjects, which is an outcome that no dynasty or emperor can bear.

Therefore, in most serious dynasties, the slightly rational emperor is very cautious in his attitude towards the spies, or they stay away, and even if they really need to, they only grant them limited powers, such as spying on intelligence and acting as eyes and ears. That's why we see that those years when spies were popular, either in a divided and chaotic era, or the imperial power was greatly threatened, so they used spies as an emergency. Once the situation improves, the secret services will soon be dismantled and purged, and a harmonious relationship between monarchs and subjects will be quickly re-established.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

All dynasties treated spies as rags that were thrown away with dirt, with the exception of the Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty was an exception. And all this started with Jin Yiwei.

In the twenty-fourth year of Yuan Zhizheng (1364 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang defeated Chen Youshu and officially became the commander-in-chief of the Jiangnan rebel army, so he became the king of Wu. When he became king, the shelves naturally had to be put up, so he set up a pro-army organization called Gongweisi, which administered seventeen guards and horses, subordinate to the capital governor's office, responsible for the security and security of His Royal Highness King Wu.

Four years later, Zhu Yuanzhang declared himself emperor, established the state as a great Ming Dynasty, and changed the Gongwei Division to the Command Department of the Former General System of the Guards, and still had jurisdiction over the 17th Guards Army, which was divided into the Central, Left, Right, Front, and Back Five Guards Army and the Yiluan Division. It was not until the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382 AD) that Lao Zhu abolished the pro-military capital and Yiluan Si and set up Jinyiwei.

In other words, Jinyiwei was born in Zhu Yuanzhang's guards, and the security of the original mission and standing guard with signs did not have half a dime to do with the special agents.

Then why did Lao Zhu suddenly come up with such a special organization as Jinyiwei, which also set up the Nanbei Zhenfusi and the 14th Guard Office under it, responsible for escorting guards, reconnaissance and arrest, and jailing?

The reason is the Hu Weiyong case.

Hu Weiyong, this person, you say that he is arbitrarily domineering, forming a party for personal gain, and corruption is all reasonable, but it is only said that this is going to rebel, and no one in the entire Ming Dynasty seems to believe except Zhu Yuanzhang. Even if he really thought about rebelling, as long as he was swept away by the gloomy eyes of the emperor sitting on the throne, I was afraid that no matter how big his ambition and strong desire for power would collapse in an instant.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Hu Weiyong's rebellion is a joke, and Zhu Yuanzhang is not targeting him

Joke! Playing rebellion in front of Lao Zhu, it is better to quickly wipe his neck.

But Zhu Yuanzhang had to say that Hu Weiyong wanted to be opposite, in fact, it was not Hu himself, but the phase under his ass.

The imperial dynasty was like a family business, with the emperor as the chairman, his brothers, descendants and relatives as shareholders, and all court officials as workers. The prime minister, the head of a hundred officials, is equivalent to a general manager who is a professional manager.

Therefore, the power of the prime minister is very large, so that the emperor can sleep restlessly, so since the Qin and Han dynasties, he has been constantly cut and divided power. But the emperor can remove the prime minister, but he cannot abolish the position of prime minister, because the previous move will be supported by most officials - after all, everyone is waiting in line to become the prime minister, which round of the reigning does not get the throne? The latter move is unlikely to be supported by anyone - if the prime minister does not exist, what is the rush for everyone who has worked hard to become an official?

Moreover, if there is no prime minister, all government affairs will have to be pressed on the emperor. This huge workload is not something that ordinary people can bear, even Qin Huang Hanwu, Tang Zong and Song Zu can't stand it.

But Zhu Yuanzhang felt that he could do it, so he planned to try.

But the problem is that even if he catches Hu Weiyong's pigtails and hands them over to the Three Laws Department (Criminal Department, Dali Temple, and Duchayuan) for trial, it will not be a problem to kill Old Hu, but if he wants to abolish the prime minister, there will definitely be no official who will support it.

To this end, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to go on a killing spree, which led to the establishment of Jinyiwei, responsible for the follow-up handling of Hu Weiyong's case. And the first commander of Jinyiwei, Mao Qiao, also lived up to his trust, and fabricated crimes to kill more than 30,000 people, including the founding heroes of the country, such as Li Shanchang, the Duke of Han, Lu Zhongheng, the Marquis of Ji'an, and Tang Shengzong, the Marquis of Yan'an.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Zhu Yuanzhang used the Hu Weiyong case to end China's thousand-year-old tradition of prime ministers

In the layers of human heads and the smelly pool of blood, Zhu Yuanzhang announced that the Ming Dynasty would never have a prime minister from now on, and sure enough, no one dared to object.

In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393 AD), due to the death of the crown prince Zhu Biao and paving the way for the succession of his grandson Zhu Yunjiang, Zhu Yuanzhang also instructed Jinyiwei to command Jiang Ying to set off the Blue Jade Case, and the Blue Jade of the Duke of Liang was skinned and exterminated, including more than 15,000 generals in the army such as Feng Sheng, the Duke of Song, Fu Youde, the Duke of Yingguo, and Cao Xing, the Marquis of Huaiyuan.

In these two cases, the first two commanders of Jinyiwei, who had "made great contributions", made Mao Xiao and Jiang Ying both unloaded and killed donkeys afterwards to calm the anger of the public. Immediately, Lao Zhu announced that Jinyiwei had abused his power, acted as a favor, abolished the internal and external prisons from his duties, and handed them over to the legal department.

It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards spies is actually no different from that of previous emperors, he uses it when it is useful, and throws it as a rag as far as it is when it is finished.

But his descendants obviously had different ideas.

03

After the success of Zhu Di's "appeasement" in the Ming Dynasty, a major problem he faced was the disposition of the Jianwen Yu Party. After being completely angered by Fang Xiaozi, Zhu Di's attitude towards this group was to kill them all. However, the government and the public generally had a sympathetic attitude towards the Jianwen Yu Party, and if Zhu Di followed normal judicial procedures, it was obvious that Zhu Di would not be able to achieve his goal.

So he thought of Jinyiwei, who had been reduced to a cold Yamen for 10 years, and appointed Ji Gang as the commander of Jinyiwei.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

It should be correct to say that Ji Gang is the most arrogant and notorious commander in the history of Jinyiwei

Among the 37 Jinyiwei commanders in the final Ming Dynasty, no one dares to compare with Ji Gang in terms of audacity and wanton behavior. He not only took advantage of the search for Jianwen Yu's party to wantonly copy and excessively link up, torture and slaughter loyal and righteous people, but also secretly concealed imperial crowns and secretly stored private soldiers and weapons, intending to rebel. In the end, the conspiracy was leaked, and Ji Gang was also executed by Zhu Diling.

It can be said that the most glorious moment in the history of Jinyiwei occurred in the 15 years when Ji Gang made them the boss.

How arrogant was Ji Gang at that time? It can be said that except for Zhu Di, he does not put anyone in his eyes and dares not to give the slightest face. Even later, he even dared to touch Zhu Di's tiger butt:

"Dragon Boat Festival, the emperor shoots the willow, and the subordinate calms Pang Ying: 'I can't shoot, if I break the willow and make noise, I will win the public's opinion.'" As she said, there is no one who dares to correct. Tsunade said: 'It's incompetence that makes me difficult. 'Misdeeds. (History of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 37, Legend 195)

This is simply a copy of the Ming Dynasty in which Zhao Gao refers to the deer as a horse - Ji Gang deliberately missed the shot, and then had to say that he shot it. As a result, in front of the livid-faced Emperor Zhu Di, none of the civil and military officials present dared to stand up and accuse this nonsense!

It's a pity that Ji Gang miscalculated. After all, Zhu Di was not Hu Hai, but almost the most domineering emperor in history except for his Laozi and Liu Che, the emperor of Hanwu. Therefore, after the Dragon Boat Festival shooting willow incident, Zhu Di reflected on his practice of messing up the rule of secret agents. One of the results of the reflection was to order Ji Gang to be arrested and interrogated. Less than a day after the trial of the relevant legal department, a "holy oracle" parachuted from the palace, directly giving the verdict, that is, "conspiring against the law" and punishing it with delay.

It shows that the emperor of the dynasty did not respect the judiciary and grossly interfered with trials and judgments in countless cases. But examples of arrests, interrogations, and sentences arranged in a single day without even the minimum procedures like Zhu Di are still unique in the 276-year history of the Ming Dynasty.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Ming Chengzu Zhu Di opened the curtain of secret service rule, and since then it has been out of control

The second result of his reflection is that the restraint and control of secret services must be strengthened. However, the method adopted by Zhu Di was not to restrict Jinyiwei's privileges or even cut and purge them like Zhu Yuanzhang, but to set up a new special agency, the East Factory, to use special agents to fight special agents.

This kind of strange brain circuit is only available to Zhu Di. And the secret service rule of the Ming Dynasty actually began from Zhu Di, and it has been out of control ever since.

So Jinyiwei and East Factory, who is more powerful?

Theoretically, Jinyiwei is not as good as the East Factory. After all, since the day the latter was born, none of the privileged people of Jinyiwei have been left behind, and they also have the responsibility of monitoring Jinyiwei. More importantly, although Jinyiwei is nominally a pro-army of the Son of Heaven, after all, it is an army establishment, and it is indispensable to deal with various official offices of the imperial court, and it is inevitable that interests will be involved and mutually restricted. As the commander of the supreme governor of Jinyiwei, although all of them are the emperor's confidants and cronies, they still belong to the courtiers in terms of identity, and they all have families. No matter how much power is in his hands, who dares to do everything except those like Ji Gang who want to rebel? Even if you are not afraid of things, can't you still think about the future of future generations?

Therefore, regardless of how scary Jinyiwei looks, there are also people who can't be provoked and things that dare not be managed. But for the East Factory, this is not a thing.

Because the leaders of the East Factory are all the emperor's trusted eunuchs. These fathers-in-law are disabled, have no worries about children and grandchildren, and have few family bonds. As the emperor's household slaves, their life and death only depend on the emperor alone, so as long as they can satisfy the emperor, people don't care about other things.

What's more, the East Factory is stationed in the palace, and Jin Yiwei is outside the palace - Jin Yiwei needs to go through formal procedures to deliver news to the emperor and make small reports, while the East Factory only needs to move his legs and open his mouth. So who is closer and more trusted to the emperor is obvious.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Jinyiwei and the East Factory not only have a competitive relationship, but most of the time they are also unjust opponents

Of course, this corollary exists only in theory. Who is more powerful between Jinyiwei and Dongchang depends on each Ming emperor's own ideas.

04

Then let's start with Zhu Di and brush up on the thoughts of each Ming emperor one by one.

In the process of Zhu Di's "appeasement", eunuchs such as Zheng He played a great role and were deeply trusted by him. Therefore, after killing Ji Gang and establishing the East Factory, Jinyiwei was completely reduced to the peripheral and auxiliary organization of the East Factory, and the successor Jinyiwei commanded Sai Hazhi to be completely reduced to decorations.

But after all, Zhu Di still kept a hand - stipulating that in addition to the "factory gong" of the East Factory, other middle- and lower-level subordinate officials, such as the head of 1,000 households and 100 households, and the supervisors, foremen, and divisions of each house, were all filled by Jinyiwei, and served regularly and rotated on time. This is equivalent to letting the East Factory monitor Jinyiwei at the same time, and tacitly acknowledging that Jinyiwei mixes sand with the East Factory to balance the power of the factory guard.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Who is more powerful in all kinds of factory guards mainly depends on the skills and "holy relatives" of their respective bosses

Otherwise, with the strength of the East Factory from the late Yongle period to the orthodox period, it is very likely that Jin Yiwei will be eaten to the bones and scum.

Why? Because Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Di's "good holy grandson", favored eunuchs more than his grandfather. Even in order to develop the IQ of those stupid fathers-in-law, Zhu Zhanji also set up an education and training institution for eunuchs, Neishu Hall, to improve the cultural quality of the father-in-law and support them to actively participate in political affairs.

It can be said that the beginning of the calamity of the dynasty was opened in the hands of Zhu Zhanji, after all, the history books also say that "the prosperity of the eunuch temple began with Emperor Xuanzong" ("History of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 164, Legend 52").

As for Zhu Qizhen, not to mention, he simply treated the eunuch closer than his own father, first reusing Wang Zhen, and then granting Cao Jixiang great power. As a result, one of these two goods returned him with a civil engineering change, and the other simply rebelled, trying to establish a precedent for the Duke to become emperor. Zhu Qizhen, who was slapped twice in the face, repented and began to let his cronies Ha Ming and Yuan Bin serve as the commanders of Jinyiwei, rebalancing the power of the factory guard, so as not to let the East Factory monopolize.

That is to say, in the more than 40 years since the establishment of the East Factory until Cao Jixiang's rebellion, Jinyiwei has always been suppressed to death, and in extreme cases, Jinyiwei's command has to kneel and kowtow in front of the East Factory.

But in the next 40-odd years, from the fifth year of Tianshun (1461 AD) to the first year of Zhengde (1506 AD), the situation was completely reversed.

Because Wang Zhen and Cao Jixiang were too uncomfortable, from Zhu Qizhen in his later years (in fact, he was only 38 years old when he died) to Zhu Jianshen and Zhu Youxiang's father and son did not trust the eunuchs very much, resulting in the "holy family" of the East Factory also plummeting. For example, when Zhu Jianshen was in power, in order to clamp down on the power of the East Factory, he simply set up a West Factory, and let the eunuch Wang Zhi be the governor and launch the gonggong to fight the father-in-law.

When Wang Zhi fell out of favor, he casually removed the West Factory. What about the East Factory? It's easy to do, just let Jin Yiwei do it.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Yuan Bin is a very key figure in the history of Jinyiwei

When Wang Zhen and Cao Jixiang gained power, Jinyiwei commanded Ma Shun and Lu Qiao to be his lackeys, hating to recognize them as their own fathers. However, since Yuan Bin, who had saved Zhu Qizhen, took over Jinyiwei, he steadily suppressed the East Factory. The successors Menda, Wantong, and Mou Bin were also trusted and relied on by the emperor, and naturally they could continue this strength, so that the East Factory had to shrink its head and be a gray grandson for more than 40 years.

The East Factory went from the Yongle Dynasty to the Orthodox Dynasty, and finally lost its hair, and was trampled under the feet of Jinyiwei since the Tianshun Dynasty.

One report for another - the initial contest, Jinyiwei and the East Factory tied 1:1.

After the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao ascended the throne, the eunuchs regained favor. At that time, Ma Yongcheng, known as one of the "Eight Tigers", was in charge of the East Factory, and Gu Dayong was in charge of the West Factory, which made Liu Jin, the number one eunuch known as the "Emperor", unhappy. However, he was still at odds with Ma and Gu, so he set up a new "big inner factory", referred to as the inner factory, which was claimed to supervise all official and private factories.

But after all, the internal factory is newly established, and it will not be easy to use for a while. So Liu Jin simply chased away Mou Bin and let his dog-legged Shi Wenyi and Zhang Cai serve as the commanders of Jinyiwei at the same time, and since then Jinyiwei has once again become a lackey and thug for his fathers.

But in the relationship with the East Factory, Jinyiwei still stabilized the pressure with the prestige of Liu Gonggong. It's just that before Jinyiwei's strength relied on the emperor, and now it is Liu Jin.

However, Liu Jin was arrogant for a few years, and in the fifth year of Zhengde (1510 AD), he was cut by a thousand cuts, and the inner factory was also withdrawn, but Jinyiwei was not implicated and affected. Why? Because Qian Ning, Jiang Bin and Zhu Houzhao, who successively served as the commanders of Jinyiwei, were full of love - if the strongest pillow wind under the sky blew up, who could stand it?

Therefore, the East Factory still has to continue to be a shrunken turtle, and the future is increasingly bleak. Why? Because the entire Ming Dynasty, except for Zhu Yuanzhang, the Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi, who was the least willing to see eunuchs, was about to ascend to the throne, and he had been sitting on the imperial throne for 45 years.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

The East Factory, which is arrogant to the extreme in various film and television dramas, has actually been crushed to death by Jinyiwei most of the time

Zhu Houxi's attitude towards eunuchs is usable and untrustworthy, so the trade-offs for factory guards can be imagined. Throughout the Jiajing Dynasty, those who could serve as the commander of Jinyiwei and the emperor's most trusted eyes and ears and minions were none other than his henchmen when he was in the "hidden residence" of Anlu (present-day Zhongxiang, Hubei), such as Zhu Chen, Luo An, Wang Zuo, Chen Yin, and Lu Bing. Especially Lu Bing, this Zhu Houxi's milk brother also made a rescue in the Nonyin Palace, can be called the number one confidant of the Jiajing Emperor and the most trusted person in the whole world, official to Taibao, Shaofu, Shaobao, Prince Taifu, Prince Taibao - Lu Bing was thus honored as the first public and orphan in the Ming Dynasty, so much so that the "History of Ming" exclaimed that "the three dukes have no and three orphans, only in Bingjianzhi" ("History of Ming, volume 37, Legend 195").

Such a character became the boss of Jinyiwei, is there still a way to live in the East Factory? As a result, when the East Factory saw Lu Bing, he had to kneel and kowtow to his ancestors, even if he was insulted and beaten by Jinyiwei for no reason, he could only knock out his teeth and swallow blood.

Therefore, in the 61 years from the first year of Zhengde to the forty-fifth year of Jiajing (1566 AD), Jinyiwei continued to maintain the suppression of the East Factory, and the score between the two sides became 2:1.

The 16 years from the first year of Longqing (1567 AD) to the tenth year of Wanli (1582 AD) is the most peculiar period in the history of Jinyiwei and Dongchang. And the only reason for this strange scene was Zhang Juzheng, the first powerful minister of the Ming Dynasty, who claimed to be "I am not a phase, but a regent also" ("Wanliye Ed., Volume 9").

After all, in the past 16 years, the old emperor Zhu Zaijian did not care, and the little emperor Zhu Yijun wanted to manage things but could not manage them, so how should the factory guard agents, as the emperor's minions and ears, deal with themselves? Feng Bao, the governor of the East Factory, was the first to jump out and express his position - Zhang Ju is my eldest brother, and he asked me to do whatever he wanted.

Does Liu Shou, who was the commander of Jinyiwei at the time, have any other way to live? I can only perform desperately and strive to compete for favor in front of Elder Zhang Ge. It's a joke to say - the emperors of the Zhu family can only beat and pull one by one against the factory guards, and they have never been able to twist them into a rope and work together to do things for themselves. But this huge problem actually made Zhang Juzheng easily complete it as a courtier!

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

In the history of the Ming Dynasty, only Zhang Juzheng could make the factory guards live in harmony, and the emperor could not do it

In short, in the past 16 years, the relationship between Jinyiwei and East Factory has been extremely harmonious. It was also with their full cooperation that Zhang Juzheng's reforms were able to go smoothly and temporarily solve the financial problems that had caused headaches for more than 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, it is very understandable that Zhu Yijun wanted to open Zhang Juzheng's coffin and whip him to corpse after he became pro-government. And because of his "Teacher Zhang", Zhu Yijun no longer trusted any courtiers, including Jinyiwei. So the East Factory, which has been unlucky for more than 120 years, has finally risen to prominence.

Even Liu Shouyou escaped by bribing Zhang Whale, the new governor of the East Factory. For most of the Wanli Dynasty, Jinyiwei became the younger brother of the East Factory, so miserable that he often did not even have a command. Even if there is, Xu Maoyu, Song Jin, and Wang Zhizhen are all nameless, and only Luo Sigong is worth mentioning. Not only did he play a great role in the Battle of Wanli Korea and the palace transfer case, but his son Luo Yangli also indirectly served his class, father and son, as commanders of Jinyiwei in the Chongzhen year, which was the only case in the Ming Dynasty.

Immediately afterwards, the moment of the highest glory of the East Factory came.

Today, our impression of the East Factory is actually from the period when Ming Xi Zong Zhu Youxiao was in power and Wei Zhongxian was in power. After being regarded as the "nine-thousand-year-old" eunuch and arrogant of the Eastern Factory, he kicked the disobedient Luo Sigong away and pushed his godson Tian Ergeng to the position of commander of Jinyiwei. Since then, the factory guards have once again merged, unjustly imprisoned, mutilated dissidents, extorted money, and abused the people, and they can simply do whatever they want and do all evil:

"When it was, the East Factory was rampant, and the arrests were either false or real... Folk puppets, or touching loyalty, being captured, even skinned and tongued, killed innumerably, the road is the goal. (History of Ming, Volume 35, Legend 193)
The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Wei Zhongxian's reign as the factory was the most glorious moment of the East Factory, but it only lasted less than 6 years

Duke Wei is indeed ruthless enough, and the East Factory is indeed arrogant enough, but their highlight moment is actually much shorter than we think - from the first year of the Apocalypse (1621 AD) Wei Zhongxian began to soar to the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627 AD) and was forced to commit suicide, he was developed for less than 6 years, and then everything was lost, and he also took the East Factory into the ditch.

During the Chongzhen period, because the successive directors of the East Factory headed by Cao Huachun were relatively low-key, and the command of Jinyiwei made Luo Yangli not only more honest, but also good ability, so Jinyiwei could overwhelm the East Factory in various things. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644 AD), after Zhu Youjian came from Hancoal Mountain, the East Factory disappeared, ending its 225-year history.

But Jinyiwei did not immediately follow in the footsteps of the East Factory.

Because in addition to being a special service organization, Jinyiwei itself also plays an important role in military intelligence and operations. Therefore, the various small imperial courts of the Southern Ming that arose after the death of the Ming Dynasty could not do without the East Factory, but they could not lack Jinyiwei.

Therefore, Jin Yiwei survived. It was not until the fourth year of Yongli (that is, the seventh year of Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, 1650 AD) that the last commander Ma Jixiang died in the Curse Water Disaster, ending Jinyiwei's 269-year history.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

The list of previous commanders of Jinyiwei - definitely incomplete and inaccurate, but I tried my best to find it

Oh yes, after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, it completely inherited the various rules and regulations of the Ming Dynasty, including Jinyiwei. But soon the Manchurian princes and ministers experienced the troubles of their former counterparts and asked the emperor to remove this annoying thing. So the Qing Dynasty's Jinyiwei only existed for less than a year, and it was delisted.

From now on, there will be no brocade guards in the world.

05

The flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife are our deepest impression of Jinyiwei, right? But in fact, these are only two of the standard three-piece sets of Jinyiwei. The remaining one is a waist card, which is made of different textures according to different official positions and levels, and is equivalent to a work card, which is used to prove the identity of the licensee's brocade guard.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Flying fish suit, embroidered spring knife and waist tag are all complete, which can be regarded as the standard equipment of Jinyiwei

In other words, only if you put together this three-piece set, you are a genuine brocade guard.

Why emphasize this?

Because of the strict staffing restrictions, when it was initially only responsible for the ceremonial guard, the standard staff was only 1,500. Later, with the continuous expansion of functions and privileges, the personnel were also constantly expanded and injected, such as spies throughout the country, vassal countries, enemy countries, as well as errands, informants, and thugs who acted as peripheral organizations. For example, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty rewarded meritorious personnel, and one of the most common rewards was to award a thousand households of Jinyiwei, hundreds of households and even the title of general banner and small banner, and it could also be hereditary. In the end, there are countless such people, although they only receive salaries and do not work, but it cannot be said that people are not brocade guards.

So in the Chongzhen period at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Jinyiwei claimed to have 150,000 people - you must know that there were less than 500,000 combatable soldiers in the Ming Dynasty at that time.

However, the official establishment of Jinyiwei is only about 10,000 people at most, and the rest can only be regarded as nominal or "temporary workers". In the three-piece set of Jinyiwei, these people can get at most embroidered spring knives that are not necessarily authentic, and the waist brand and flying fish suit are all thoughtful.

Especially the flying fish suit. According to the Ming system, the flying fish costume is a second-grade gift service second only to the python uniform, in addition to the brocade guard, the inner eunuch and the Zaisuke Meng'en special reward can also wear it, so how can it be lightly awarded? According to the example, even a genuine brocade guard can not wear a flying fish suit casually, only if he is sent out of Beijing as a Qin or accompanied by the emperor, otherwise it is a trespass, and it is not possible to be demoted and spanked at light, and beheaded and raided at worst.

So when we see in the film and television that Jin Yiwei catches a thief or the next restaurant is wearing a serious flying fish suit... Just have fun.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Jin Yiwei can only wear flying fish suits when accompanying or carrying out the emperor's order

Of course, people's misunderstanding or one-sided understanding of Jinyiwei is not only this. For example, compared with various "factories" such as the East Factory and the West Factory, which are almost useless except for being spies and doing bad things, Jinyiwei can do too many serious things, such as engaging in military intelligence - whether it is the war against Mongolia, Manchuria, Japan, or the fight against the Wokou and quelling various rebellions in the country, during which countless Jinyiwei officials or spies were born and died on the front line, or spied on military information, or assassinated enemy political leaders, or personally participated in the battle and killed. For example, in the Battle of Wanli Joseon, Jinyiwei sent a large number of spies to Korea and Japan, and there are relevant records in the Ryukyu history book "Treasure of the Past Dynasties":

"Shang Ning, the son of the king of Zhongshan of the Ryukyu Kingdom, in order to escort the official affairs, according to the following on August 29 of this year: Jinyiwei, the commissioner of the Beijing Military Department, commanded Shi Shi to serve Japan on official business, but he did not intend to drive here only to be lost in the wind, waiting for the shipbuilding to return, fearing that it would be far away, and had to quickly take a small boat to China. I can see that the staff is ridiculed. ”

Another public identity of Li Rusong, the commander of the Ming army who led the army to win the first war to aid Korea, was that of Jinyiwei commanding Tongzhi. Luo Sigong, who was the commander of Jinyiwei at that time, was also rewarded by Zhu Yijun as an official and Jin Jue for his outstanding contributions in this war.

Why can't I tell the specific deeds of Jinyiwei, and even cite a piece of information is still from Ryukyu? The answer is very simple, because the history books are all made by civil officials, and civil officials and spies are natural rivals, and Huan Xiucai can't explain when he meets soldiers, and he is bullied all day long, can they still be expected to say good things about Jinyiwei? I didn't make it up and blacken it into briquettes is already considered modest.

The undusted flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife - talk about the floating and sinking history of the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei

Because of the position problem, the civil official wrote a close-up of how the factory guard did bad things when describing history, and basically did not look at the good things

So today, even if we want to say a few good words for Jinyiwei, we don't know where to start.

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