One
We look at the Ming Dynasty from the perspective of God, and feel that the early Ming Dynasty was quite a revival of the glory of the Han and Tang Dynasties, the people's livelihood at home was stable and the economy was prosperous, and the foreign invasion of Mongolia and the West basically completed the achievements of the coming dynasty of all nations.
But the more strange it was in the later stage, all kinds of demons and monsters came out, the emperor was either alchemy or otaku, and the ministers stalked the emperor by the neck, as if the Ming Dynasty did not surname Zhu.
The reason for such a split of the Ming Dynasty is that in the 81st year of the founding of the state, it suffered a disastrous defeat, cut off the national fortune that was like the sky, and never got up again for 200 years.
This failure is the "change of the civil fort." ”
Two
From the three dynasties of antiquity to the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Tianxia system was the mainstream mode of China's handling of international affairs, namely-
As the co-lord of the world, the Han dynasty of the Central Plains has nominal leadership over the places where "the sun and the moon shine and the rivers go", and the surrounding barbarian tribes recognize the Central Plains dynasty as the co-lord of the world, accept the canonization of the Central Plains dynasty, and pay tribute to the capital once a year or three years.
Until the Song Dynasty, because of the lack of armed forces, it could not defeat the Liao and Jin countries, and for the first time in history, it lost its status as the co-lord of the world, so that Liaojin could call itself China.
This means that the Song Dynasty has never been able to use the Tianxia system to deal with international affairs.
Therefore, after Zhu Yuanzhang established Daming in Nanjing, his first task was to rebuild the system of the world, make Daming the co-master of the world, and deal with international affairs, so Zhu Yuanzhang said in the "Emperor's Edict":
"The king of China, since the end of the Song Dynasty, the true man of Heaven's Mandate entered China in the desert as the lord of the world, and passed on to his descendants for more than 100 years. Now the fate is also over, and the rich and powerful in the sea are in dispute. The people of Huai, heaven favored the spirit of the ancestors, and took advantage of the autumn of the deer to send heroes to the right. That is, the emperor is located in the southern suburbs, and there must be the name of the world. ”
What Zhu Yuanzhang meant was that the national fortune of the Song Dynasty ended, the Yuan Dynasty inherited Chinese orthodoxy as the master of the world, and now the national fortune of the Yuan Dynasty has also come to an end, and the future Chinese orthodoxy is the Ming Dynasty.
That is, Zhu Yuanzhang recognized that the Yuan Dynasty was Chinese orthodoxy, while the Ming Dynasty inherited from the Yuan Dynasty.
There are several benefits to this.
Territorial disputes can be resolved first.
We all know that the Yuan Dynasty's large land area, including the Mongolian steppe, northeast, western regions and other places are all of the Yuan Dynasty, only by recognizing the legitimacy of the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty can justifiably say that these places have been Chinese since ancient times.
If the Yuan Dynasty is not recognized and directly inherits the legal system of the Song Dynasty, then the territorial affairs will not be clear. After all, the Song Dynasty did not even return Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty, which inherited the Song Dynasty, has what qualifications to say that it has been since ancient times?
Zhu Yuanzhang's recognition of the orthodoxy of the Yuan Dynasty was also preparation for future expansion.
Second, the ethnic issue can be solved.
At that time, the ethnic issues were very complicated, and the Mongols, Semu, Hui, Northern Han and Southern Han were basically separate, and it was difficult to integrate complex ethnic groups without a common memory.
Now Zhu Yuanzhang said, since you can live together in the Yuan Dynasty for a hundred years, then Daming is the successor of the Yuan Dynasty, and it is reasonable and legal for you to continue to live together under the banner of Daming.
This inherits the common national memory of the previous hundred years by recognizing the legal system of the Yuan Dynasty.
This is the meaning of Zhu Yuanzhang, who started his rebellion, inheriting the Yuan Dynasty with no conscience.
From Zhu Yuanzhang's accession edict, it can be seen that his ambition is not only to restore the Han family within the Great Wall, but to inherit the legal system of the Yuan Dynasty, and then inherit the position of the Yuan Dynasty in the tianxia system, and finally restore the glory that the Han and Tang Dynasties once had as the Han Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang's ambition can be called national rejuvenation.
To achieve national rejuvenation, two prerequisites are needed: strong national strength to submit to neighboring countries, and economic development to attract neighboring countries.
Annan, Laos, and North Korea are all small and weak countries, and in the era when China was the only one, no matter which dynasty unified China, they all had to come to worship the dock, so the only stumbling block to rebuilding the world system was Mongolia, which still had its strength.
Therefore, after Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, he successively launched 13 Northern Expeditions against Mongolia, and by the time he died in 1398, he basically completed his strategic goals, divided the Northern Yuan into pieces, and no longer dared to have the idea of entering the Central Plains.
At the same time as the military conquest, Zhu Yuanzhang was still engaged in border defense construction.
He divided his sons into the military towns of Xi'an, Taiyuan, and Beiping to serve as clan kings, guarded the Zhujia Jiangshan in peacetime, and led the army to march in wartime, and at the same time set up the Weisho Tunjun Army outside the Great Wall, allocated land to the soldiers to build houses, and let them be stationed there for generations to come, guarding the frontiers for the motherland.
This two sets of border defense systems of clan king + guard office basically consolidated the northern frontier of Daming, as long as there was no internal turmoil, the Mongols could not take advantage at all, and Daming crossed the Great Wall and gradually encroached on Mongolian territory.
Those Mongolian tribes who surrendered to sincerity could be reorganized into organizations such as "so-and-so guards" in the future, and sent troops in peacetime tribute and wartime, becoming a member of the Ming Dynasty's world system.
According to Zhu Yuanzhang's ideas, as long as the later emperors do not change their course and act according to the established line, Daming will be invincible, and sooner or later he will become the same co-lord of the world as the Yuan Dynasty.
But after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, his deployment was completely overturned, and the Ming Dynasty went down another path that was never envisaged.
Three
When Zhu Yuanzhang died in 1398, Zhu Yunjiang, the Jianwen Emperor, who had no experience in the world, issued a series of stupid policies, which offended not only the princes of the domain, but also the military generals of the court and the wild, but the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty smiled and felt that they had met the true son.
Zhu Yunjiang's divine operation allowed the ambitious Yan king Zhu Di to find an opportunity, coupled with the army surrounding Beiping Zhu Di's life, so Zhu Di gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, launched the Battle of Jingjian, killed Nanjing and seized Zhu Yunjiang's throne, and changed Yuan Yongle.
The so-called eternal happiness probably means eternal happiness.
Zhu Di, who became the emperor, is forever happy, but the other clan kings who are sealed in the frontier are unhappy, everyone is Zhu Yuanzhang's son, is it not good to be poor in the frontier together, why should you Zhu Di get rich first, this breaks the balance between brothers.
You Zhu Di can rebel and seize the throne, so why can't we?
Zhu Di also knew very well in his heart that Zhu Yuanzhang's family law was that the eldest son inherited the throne, and his own throne was not in the right way, and the brothers of the clan king with heavy troops would definitely not be satisfied, so they could only cut the clan personally——
King Ning moved to Nanchang, King Liao moved to Jingzhou, King Shen changed his title to Luzhou, and King Gu was abolished as a commoner... All the lords who led the troops did not end well.
During Zhu Yuanzhang's Hongwu period, there were often records of the clan king leading troops to conquest, such as "King Qin Fengzhao rebelled against Fan", "King Zhou and King Hui of Jin led the Henan Shanxi army out of Setuntian", "King Yan Di led the general army Zhou Xing out of Liaodong Sai", etc., which were very reused by the clan king.
However, since Zhu Di ascended the throne and changed Yuan Yongle, there has been no similar record in the history books, and it can be said that everyone in the Ming Dynasty was qualified to lead troops to fight, but the king of the clan did not.
The system of kings of the Ming Dynasty, which Zhu Yuanzhang painstakingly managed, was basically abolished.
And without the unified army of the clan king town to guard the frontier, those guards and tun troops lost support, it was impossible to hold out for a long time, so Kaipingwei, Dongshengwei and other frontier guards were either moved to the interior or abolished, and the important Daning City was ceded to Duoyan Sanwei.
The frontier guard system established by Zhu Yuanzhang was also gradually abandoned.
The border defense system of the clan king + guard post has withdrawn from the historical stage, but the threat of Mongolia is still there, and civil officials and nobles also need checks and balances, what to do?
Zhu Di did two things.
On the issue of border defense, Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, merged the Beijing army and the northeast border army into one, and controlled the border horses along the northeast.
In terms of checks and balances of power, Zhu Di gave the eunuchs some power, making the eunuchs who held power become the personal tools of the emperor, as a substitute for the functions of the clan king's auxiliary government.
In 1403, Zhu Di ordered Gu Cheng, He Fu and other noble generals to guard the frontier, and at the same time selected strategic eunuchs as supervisors, and stipulated that the status of eunuchs was above that of Xungui generals, and then Zhu Di created three battalions, and also let eunuchs be supervisors.
The history books record: "The departure of the inner minister from the town began here. ”
In 1405, the Mongol rangers went to northern Jin, and Zhu Di sent Wang Cong, the marquis of Wucheng, and the eunuch Shanshou to lead troops to scout the enemy outside Serbia. In the same year, Zhu Di prepared to go to the West to declare his national prestige, and the person in charge selected was the eunuch Zheng He.
Another sentence is written in the history books: "This is the beginning of the eunuchs' military service." ”
The fundamental reason why the clan king was replaced by a eunuch was that the clan king had the ability to rebel, the eunuchs had no descendants, the palace was their only home, and the emperor was their only master.
History came to this point, Zhu Yuanzhang prepared to move the capital to Xi'an, and the first dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, with the princes, nobles and civil officials as the pillars, became the second dynasty of the Daming Dynasty with eunuchs, nobles and civil officials as the pillars to move the capital to Beijing.
But Zhu Di was successful.
After conquest of Annan, Zhu Di successfully recovered the Chinese homeland that had been lost for 400 years, and with this merit, the noble general Zhang Fu was made the Duke of England and Mu Sheng the Duke of Qian.
After five personal conquests of Mongolia, Zhu Di used his strong military ability to completely beat Mongolia into a guerrilla army and incorporated it into the world system, allowing Mongol leaders to take a fixed route every year and bring native products to Beijing to pay tribute to the emperor.
In return, the emperor was to reward rich goods, often worth several to ten times the value of the native products.
In addition, the tea horse division set up by Zhu Yuanzhang is to exchange 100 kilograms of tea for a Mongolian high-class horse, and the price of medium and inferior horses should be reduced proportionally. In order to satisfy Mongolia, Zhu Di changed 80,000 jin of tea leaves to 70 horses, and the price of each horse increased by more than ten times.
The Ming Dynasty lost money in the economy, won political face, and perfected the world system.
In terms of the narrative of the world, all countries that accepted the canonization of the Ming Dynasty belonged to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, so the Ming Dynasty, which canonized Mongolia, established the Old Port Xuanwei Division, and arrived in East Africa by fleet, deserved the evaluation of "far away Han and Tang dynasties".
The achievements are great, but the Second Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty founded by Zhu Di, whether it is selecting strategic eunuchs or personally conquering Mongolia, is extremely dependent on the personal ability of the emperor, which is essentially a strongman politics, which is very different from Zhu Yuanzhang's national system construction.
Encountering a majestic emperor like Zhu Di, the Ming Dynasty could rise strongly, and once the mediocre replaced the political strongman in charge of the Ming Dynasty, the decline of the national fortune was inevitable.
Four
In 1424, Zhu Di died in Yumuchuan, and was succeeded by Crown Prince Zhu Gaoji, who died 10 months later and succeeded by Crown Prince Zhu Zhanji.
In Zhu Di's later years, the Ming Dynasty had a saying that "officials are greedy and cruel, not to restore the old Hongwu", and the treasury was empty for many years, so Zhu Gaoji and Zhu Zhanji chose to rest and recuperate, unwilling to start fighting again like Zhu Di.
It was precisely because of this governing philosophy that Zhu Gaoji received the number of Renzong Temple and Zhu Zhanji received the number of Xuanzong Temple, and their eleven years of reign were called "Reign of Renxuan", known as the prosperous era.
But I think that both Zhu Gaoji and Zhu Zhanji are overestimated, and the historical evaluation is somewhat untrue.
When he first took the throne, Zhu Gaojie was ready to follow the example of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, so he called on the civil officials and nobles to give advice, and as a result, the Hanlin Yuan attendant read Li Shimian's letter and gave Zhu Gaojie a few suggestions, and Zhu Gaojie was furious and summoned Li Shimian into the palace to discount three ribs.
After beating Li Shimian, the civil officials and dignitaries no longer dared to give their opinions, and Zhu Gaojie was sullen again: "I let you speak, why don't you say it?" ”
Just about breaking Li Shimian's three ribs at you, who dares to say?
Compared with Zhu Gaoji's unbelief, Zhu Zhanji is different.
Once Zhu Zhanji was reading the history of Song in the palace, and then made a comment: "The Song Emperor has lost his weakness. However, his generals are handsome, although they are not allowed to show their talents, and they are all covered by villains. The death of the Song Dynasty is also the fault of the villain. "He is saying that the Song Dynasty's military preparedness and even the death of the country were all because the emperor was deceived by villains and could not reuse military generals.
I can't figure it out, what kind of villain can fool the emperor of the Song Dynasty for three hundred years? If the emperor has been deceived by villains, this Song Dynasty should die.
The emperor of the Ming Dynasty, reading history and reading such a conclusion, can only show that Zhu Zhanji's understanding is very shallow, and his personal ability is only the capital of the middle.
Under such cognitive ability, behind the "rule of Renxuan" of Zhu Gaoji and Zhu Zhanji, the rapid deterioration of the internal affairs of the Ming Dynasty, the rapid decline of international power, and the gradual transformation of the world system -
In 1424, Zhu Gaoji appointed Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and other cabinet scholars as six shangshu, and then the "three Yangs" were in charge, and all military and political affairs participated in decision-making, and they relied on their prestige and seniority to help the cabinet obtain the military and political decision-making power of the Ming Dynasty.
In 1426, Zhu Zhanji opened the Neishu Hall, asked Hanlin to teach eunuchs to read, and then handed over cabinet votes to the eunuchs for approval, so that eunuchs could use imperial power to participate in decision-making.
In 1427, Zhu Zhanji, believing that fighting in Annan would cost food and wages, ordered 86,000 southern Ming troops to retreat north, abandoning this ancient Chinese land. In the same year, Kaipingwei was abandoned, and Beijing was reduced by 300 li, and Beijing completely became a border city.
In 1429, the Songhuajiang Shipyard was abolished, and the Ming Dynasty withdrew from the northeast.
In 1430, Zheng He went to the West for the last time, and since then, on the grounds of working for the people and losing money, he has never gone to the West, and the connection between the Ming Dynasty and overseas vassal countries has basically been severed.
In 1434, Vara Taishi annihilated Arutai and dominated the grassland, and Zhu Zhanji did not care.
Rest and recuperation are not big projects, things that should be done must be done, and responsibilities that should be fulfilled, but the above things show that Zhu Gaoji and Zhu Zhanji are indulging in the glory of the prosperous world of the four seas and are no longer actively enterprising.
And this pile by pile, gave up the high-quality assets left by Zhu Di, but did not reform the inferior assets left by Zhu Di, but continued to carry forward.
For example, allowing Mongolia to annex each other caused the Mongol forces to be no longer balanced, and once the strongest king was contested, it would seek to unify Mongolia and harass the Daming border.
For example, the question of clan kings and eunuchs.
Zhu Zhanji did not realize that the prince and brother of the Yuanfang Domain, who had lost his military strength, could actually be awarded military and political posts according to the ancestral system as an assistant to the emperor.
If the eunuchs could be replaced by the princes and brothers of the distant domain, the Ming Dynasty might not have the problem of "too many princes of the domain", nor would there be a problem of Wang Zhen and Wei Zhongxian and other eunuchs being scolded and then smeared to the emperor.
Such a Ming Dynasty is a normal dynasty.
It is a pity that Zhu Zhanji's cognition limited the development of the Ming Dynasty, and he really lived up to the evaluation of "Good Saint Sun".
And Zhu Zhanji's inaction amplified the hidden dangers left by Zhu Di to the Ming Dynasty after the "Battle of Jingji", and directly led to the "change of the Tumu Fort" many years later, pitting Zhu Qizhen of Ming Yingzong.
In other words, Zhu Qizhen became an international student in Vara and 80% of the tuition fees were given by Zhu Zhanji.
Five
In the first month of 1435, Zhu Zhanji died, and Zhu Qizhen, who was only 9 years old, succeeded to the throne, and Wang Zhen, who was born in the inner study hall, was in charge of the chief supervisor, and seven years later, Zhu Qizhen became pro-government.
From the death of Zhu Di to the pro-government of Zhu Qizhen, the Ming Dynasty has been "resting and recuperating" for twenty years, which is equivalent to a generation in the era when the average life expectancy is not high.
To be honest, after Zhu Qizhen succeeded to the throne, he had a bright and monarchical atmosphere.
When he was 10 years old, Zhu Qizhen went to the school to practice martial arts, and ordered the generals to demonstrate their riding and shooting ability with three arrows as a standard. Jing Yuan was three times in the horse capital, and Zhu Qizhen was rewarded with a glass of wine.
Some people say that when Wang Zhengong performed martial arts, he was directly promoted if he performed well. But Zhu Qizhen said, I don't do this kind of indiscriminate reward, I want to be promoted and exchange credit for it.
Later, when the Mongols invaded Gansu, Zhu Qizhen ordered Shangshu Wang Ji of the Military Department to temper the Gansu soldiers and horses, and Shangshu Weiyuan of the Criminal Department to deal with the military affairs of Datong, and as a result, "the border was solemn, and the people were called people." ”
Moreover, Zhu Qizhen is very fond of tax exemption, such as "exemption from Henan's disaster-stricken grain," "exemption from drought summer tax in the six provinces of Pingliang in Shaanxi," "exemption from 640,000 stone owed by Lianggi Lake," "486,000 stone of disaster-stricken grain in Shaanxi," and so on.
Such a young emperor, you can't say that he was born a comatose villain.
Even if Wang Zhen was reused, it was under the system of the Second Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty created by Zhu Di, and Zhu Qizhen found a close eunuch as a helper. If you say that you can't reuse Wang Zhen, Zhu Qizhen also has something to say: "Emperor Taizongwen can reuse Zheng He, why can't I use Wang Zhen?" ”
Moreover, is it necessarily wrong to use Wang Zhen?
Not really.
Does Zhu Qizhen's reuse of Wang Zhen, and then let Wang Zhen let go of suppressing civil officials and Xungui, does it mean that Zhu Qizhen's imperial power overwhelmed civil officials and honors, and regained the military and political power and public opinion voice of the Ming Dynasty? Did the civil official Xungui show loyalty to Wang Zhen, did he indirectly swear allegiance to Zhu Qizhen?
Therefore, Zhu Qizhen's reuse of Wang Zhen is the same nature as Emperor Wudi of Han reusing Wei Qing, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang reusing Li Linfu, and Emperor Jiajing reusing Yan Song, all of which are means to consolidate imperial power.
And Wang Zhen is also meritorious.
At that time, Yunnan and Burma had a Luchuan kingdom with very strong military strength and was always ready to expand to Yunnan, and the "three Yangs" of the cabinet believed that Luchuan was a remote barbarian and not worth the labor and money, and did not agree to attack Luchuan.
But Wang Zhen insisted on eliminating Luchuan.
At Wang Zhen's suggestion, Zhu Qizhen appointed Shangshu Wang Ji as the military governor, Jiang Gui as the general of Pingman, Li An, the governor of Tongzhi, and Liu Ju, the governor of the capital, as the deputy general, and the eunuch Cao Jixiang as the overseer, and sent troops to conquer Luchuan.
This war lasted for nearly ten years, with a total of 4.5 million troops, and the Ming army rushed through the southwest region, crossing the Jinsha River in February 1449, and completely defeated the leader Si Jifa of Luchuan in Mengyang, Burma, and the southwestern troops were pleased and sincere: "Since the ancient Han people have not crossed the Jinsha River, now the army is here, it is really heavenly and powerful." ”
Subsequently, Wang Ji and the southwestern ministries agreed: "The stone rotten river withered, and Ernai had to cross", which determined the ownership of the Ming Dynasty east of the Jinsha River.
If Wang Zhen had not insisted on using troops and allowed Luchuan to invade Yunnan, it is conceivable that Yunnan would not have been able to hold it, and now Yunnan would not be a traditional inland province.
Therefore, Wang Zhen was meritorious before 1449, and Zhu Qizhen also had a Ming Jun atmosphere.
The real problem encountered by Zhu Qizhen and Wang Zhen was that when the Ming Dynasty won successive battles in the southwest region, the hidden danger of Zhu Di moving the capital to Beijing and Zhu Zhanji lying down and doing nothing fermented in the northern region of the Ming Dynasty.
As early as 1436, the year after Zhu Zhanji's death, Wa Ra invaded Liangzhou, invaded Shandan, and besieged Datong, and the Ming army was defeated in successive battles, and Wa Ra plundered.
Two years later, Vara became a tai shi himself, basically unifying the Mongolian steppe. In another year, when he dies, he also inherits the throne of Taishi first, and gradually encroaches on the subordinates who are not flowers, "The northern part is subordinate, and the situation is getting stronger." ”
In 1442, the three guards of Doyan annexed Wala, plundering the Guangning avant-garde. This place is near Shanhaiguan, which is already very close to the core area of the Ming Dynasty.
At this point, Vara became bigger and stronger, basically restoring the strength of the Northern Yuan in the early years of Hongwu.
In the spring of 1449, he also sent a huge delegation to the Daming Dynasty to pay tribute, claiming to be 3,000 people, but in fact it was 2,000. According to the practice left by Zhu Di, the Ming Dynasty gave as many rewards as the Ming Dynasty had when he said how many people came, and never counted the number of people.
But for the Ming Dynasty, this year was a good year, Wang Ji had already pacified the Luchuan River, and hundreds of thousands of troops could immediately return to the north, which meant that the Ming Dynasty could fight back against the Walla without spending money to buy peace.
Therefore, Wang Zhenyi uncharacteristically sent people to count the number of the Vara mission, give rewards according to the true number, and deliberately lower the inflated horse price, resulting in the Vara mission not receiving satisfactory trade profits, and the reward was only one-fifth of the expected one-fifth.
At the same time, the envoy sent by the Ming Dynasty to Vara wanted to invite merit, and the imperial master also said that the emperor was ready to marry you and make you the son-in-law of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, the first dowry was sent to Beijing, and the imperial court said that there was no such thing at all, and the Ming Dynasty was not friendly.
In this way, Mrs. Vara also lost his face and inside.
In July of the same year, he finally made up his mind and attacked Daming in four ways—the three guards of Shi Buhua and Duoyan attacked Liaodong, Arazhiyuan attacked Xuanfu, and Beji invaded Gansu, and also personally attacked Datong.
When Wang Ji and Jiang Guizhen defended Gansu, the Ming army could still go out to counterattack Wala, fighting the record of "Xiping in the West", and later Luchuan wanted to fight, Wang Ji and Jiang Gui led hundreds of thousands of Ming troops to march south, causing the emptiness of northern Xinjiang.
Although they now won the battle against Luchuan, Wang Ji and Jiang Gui did not return to the north, so in the face of the all-out attack of Wala, Zhu Qizhen and Wang Zhen encountered the problem that Zhu Di had encountered - there was no one to use.
At that time, the Duke of Qi, Qiu Fubing, defeated the Xuqu River, and Zhu Di "decided to make a personal conquest with the generals who had no enough to serve", and since then began the magnificent five Northern Expeditions, and now encounter the same problem, if you are Zhu Qizhen or Wang Zhen, please think of a question:
"With the successful case of Emperor Taizongwen Zhu Di in front, and the merit of winning the battle against Luchuan, what should I do in the face of Wala's attack and Wang Ji and Jiang Gui did not return to the division?"
According to normal logic, following Zhu Di's personal campaign is Zhu Qizhen and Wang Zhen's first choice.
After all, the Second Dynasty of the Daming Dynasty, which moved its capital to Beijing, pursued strongman politics, and the requirements for the emperor were to be arbitrary in the internal Qiangang and be able to fight good wars externally.
This is the path dependence of Zhu Di after moving the capital to Beijing.
So in July 1449, Zhu Qizhen issued an edict, and dozens of civil officials and nobles entered politics.
There is really nothing to say about the specific course of the war, and it can be said in a few words.
Two days after Zhu Qizhen's edict was issued, he left the city with an army of 500,000 people, arrived at Xuanfu and Datong via Juyongguan, and found that Wala's offensive was fierce, and the Ming army stationed in Datong was full of corpses, and decided to return to Beijing, going around and around to a place called Tumu Fort.
Zhu Qizhen and Wang Zhen should have read the military materials and knew that there was a river near the Tumu Fort, and water could be dug up in the fort, so they decided to camp at the Tumu Fort and leave again at dawn.
As a result, when I arrived at the Tumu Fort, I found that the river was fifteen miles south of the Tumu Fort, and it had been occupied by Vara and that there was no water coming out of the fort, and there was no water coming out of the two wells.
The 500,000 Ming soldiers were poor and lacked, and like Zhang Lingfu, who was guarding Menglianggu, he soon had no combat effectiveness.
The next day, Wang Zhen pretended to make peace with Ye first, and prepared to take advantage of the opportunity of high-level negotiations to let the Ming army move to the river fifteen miles away to drink, but as a result, the Ming army was discovered first as soon as he walked out of three miles, and then ordered the Vara cavalry to repeatedly charge and kill, and the Ming army was in chaos.
The Ming army was originally hungry and thirsty, and now the formation has been scattered, and in the era of cold weapons, this situation is simply impossible to organize a counterattack.
The defeated Ming army felt that they could not win, and the Vara cavalry shouted "those who disarm and throw blades do not kill", so they took off their armor and sat on the ground, gambling with the chance of survival.
Zhu Qizhen and Wang Zhen prepared to break through the siege, but could not rush out, Wang Zhen was killed, Zhu Qizhen "dismounted and sat on the ground, the enemy troops swarmed it, and the emperor went north." ”
Before the outbreak of the war, the purpose was to plunder Daming's property, but I didn't expect to capture the emperor Zhu Qizhen, and after the outbreak of the war, Zhu Qizhen wanted to fight for the country, and as a result, he became a Vara student, such a result was not expected by either side.
I also couldn't imagine that the Ming Dynasty was so vulnerable, and Zhu Qizhen couldn't think of what Emperor Taizongwen could do, why couldn't he do it?
Various coincidences, relying on the path of the Ming Dynasty, contributed to the "Tumu Fort Change" that changed history, completely interrupted the national fortune of the Ming Dynasty, and regained the upward momentum of climbing to the top after the reign of Renxuan.
Six
After the "Tumu Fort Change", the political structure of the Ming Dynasty was reconstructed.
As mentioned earlier, as early as when Zhu Gaozhi was emperor, "Sanyang" obtained military and political decision-making power as a cabinet scholar by virtue of his prestige and seniority, and in the early days of Zhu Qizhen's succession, he repeatedly sent Xungui military generals to sort out border defense affairs, but there were no results, and only then did he promote Shangshu Wang Ji of the military department to control the soldiers and horses of Gansu and open the precedent for civil officials to lead troops.
These two events meant that civilian officials initially received decision-making and executive power in military and political affairs of the Ming Dynasty.
After that, Zhu Qizhen's troops were defeated in Tumu Fort, and the British Duke Zhang Fu, Chengguo Duke Zhu Yong, Taining Hou Chen Ying, Pingxiang Bo Chen Huai, Xiangcheng Bo Li Zhen, Xiuwu Bo Shen Rong, Horse Du Wei Jingyuan, Dudu Liang Cheng, Wang Gui, Li Zhong and other Xungui Wu generals were killed in battle, and the Xunguiwu of the Ming Dynasty would be wiped out.
This result means that the mature generals of the Ming army suddenly disappeared, the new generation of distinguished generals has not yet been trained, and there is a power vacuum in the middle and high levels of the Ming army.
With the Walla troops approaching Beijing, the Ming Dynasty had to rearmament to defend against foreign enemies, which required the Ming Dynasty to have manpower to turn the tide and fill the power vacuum left by the generals.
Who will fill it?
It could only "act according to the established policy" and use the civilian officials who had initially obtained decision-making and execution powers to lead the Ming army to resist the Walla.
At a critical moment in history, Yu Qian, the soldier of the army, with the attitude of "those who move south can be killed", stopped the discussion of the Ming Dynasty moving the capital to Nanjing, and became the backbone of the imperial court, gaining the highest decision-making power and executive power to resist the Walla.
In other words, Yu Qian's line was embraced by the Daming government and the public, and achieved an effect similar to the "Zunyi Conference".
Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu held Yu Qian's hand and said, "Appoint you as the secretary of the military department, I can rest assured that you will do things." ”
The three major battalions in Beijing totaling 180,000 people, most of them were damaged in Tumu Fort, Yu Qian selected 100,000 young and strong from King Qin's army and organized them into ten battalions, Yu Qian personally commanded, and issued a military order to Zhu Qiyu:
"In the affairs of the army, the subject deserves it, and if he does not do it, he will be punished for the crime."
Theoretical confidence and line confidence are overflowing.
Subsequently, Yu Qian recommended the governor Shi Heng as the commander-in-chief of the Beijing camp, responsible for front-line command. He ordered Counselor Yang Xinmin to guard Baiyangkou, promoted Sun Xiang and Langzhong Luotong to the right deputy capital Yushi, guarded Bauhinia Pass and Juyong Pass, and sent 15 Yushi to the four provinces of Shanhe to recruit troops.
Yu Qian also suggested that Zhu Qiyu abolish the eunuchs of the eunuchs, but Zhu Qiyu rarely resisted once and did not listen, which continued the ancestral law of the eunuchs and eunuchs.
Originally, there was no idea of national war, attacking Daming only to seek wealth, but now in the face of the mobilization of the Daming Dynasty, it also tried to attack Beijing first, but did not take it, just to get rid of the flowers and the Ara Zhiyuan was also dissatisfied with the first, and also worried about the fire in the backyard, so he withdrew to the grassland.
The defense of Beijing was a complete victory.
And the route proposed by Yu Qian was a great success, and Yu Qian became the number one figure in the Ming Dynasty.
The civilian official became the number one person, which has never happened since the founding of the Daming Dynasty 81 years ago, which means that Yu Qian, with the merit of the defense of Beijing, raised the career ceiling of the Daming civil official in one fell swoop, and obtained the qualification to command the military and political affairs of the Daming on behalf of the civilian official.
As Yu Qian's subordinates, the new generation of military generals completely lost the right to speak in the imperial government.
Yu Qian is of course a national hero, but his status as a civil official determines that the Ming Dynasty after the defense of Beijing is inevitably Song Dynasty, that is, the Son of Heaven and Shi Dafu share the world, military generals are like lackeys under the civilian officials, the power of civil officials without checks and balances will inevitably be alienated, and the people will be reduced to the blood food of the civilian gentry.
After losing political alliances such as clan kings and nobles, in order to compete with the increasingly powerful civil officials, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty could only continue the law of their ancestors, continue to use eunuchs, and barely maintain the imperial power.
So after Wang Zhen, the Ming Dynasty appeared Liu Jin, Wei Zhongxian and other powerful eunuchs.
This Daming Dynasty, which was balanced by civil officials and eunuchs, was no longer dependent on clan kings and nobles, no longer relied on strong emperors, and the separation of powers became a single Daming Third Dynasty.
Why did the later the Ming Dynasty's civil official bones harder?
The fundamental reason is that the Ming Dynasty completed the equity exchange, the civil officials and doctors became the shareholders of the Ming Dynasty, and the emperor surnamed Zhu was just the chairman elected by the shareholders.
The emperor's orders, the civil officials can carry out or not, if the emperor does not like a certain civil official, the person who is replaced is still a class brother with whom he has common interests.
And the core of the agricultural economy is land, land does not run, and grain is not used to sell. Then the civil officials, scholars, landlords and gentry who control a large amount of land under the agricultural economy are naturally closed and backward.
In the cognition of most civil servants and doctors, as long as it is land that cannot grow food, every inch is superfluous, foreign conquest is laboring and losing money, and guarding the frontier is costly.
As a result, the Third Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty continued to shrink, and the Hetao, as the gateway to Beijing, was never recovered, and the guardhouses set up by Zhu Yuanzhang in Hami and Shazhou were finally gone. As for going overseas to declare national prestige and rebuild the world system, civil servants and doctors are basically not interested, but are very interested in smuggling at sea for personal interests.
The great cause of rejuvenation of the Ming Dynasty has been cut at this point, Zhu Yuanzhang's ambition to rebuild the world system is like a cloud of smoke, and Zhu Di's great national prestige cruising the ocean is like a mirror.
The Daming Dynasty, which attacked on all sides, gradually became conservative and introverted, and became a half-dead old empire that did not seek advancement.
The Ming Dynasty completely lost the possibility of being comparable to the Han and Tang Dynasties.
Seven
The national fortunes of the Ming Dynasty stopped at the Tumu Fort, but the problem should be viewed from two sides.
After the change of Tumu Fort, the civil official Dafu took charge of the Ming Dynasty, which completely transformed the Ming Dynasty, which threatened the country, but the Ming Dynasty also extended the country.
Why do you say that?
Because of Zhu Yuanzhang's Daming First Dynasty, the major shareholders are the clan kings and honors, and Zhu Di's Daming Second Dynasty, the major shareholders are the emperor and the honorables, these people are hereditary, and hereditary will inevitably lead to the degradation of ability.
For example, during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, Yangzhou Wei commanded Shan Shou who was originally not accustomed to bow horses, and after inheriting his father's position according to the law, he was sent to Taizhou to suppress bandits, but was frightened by the bandits and left.
This is the second generation of hereditary lords, if the Daming backwater mixes and fails to absorb fresh blood, then two hundred years later, the combat effectiveness of the Daming army will definitely decline exponentially, and the ruling ability of the Daming court will also return to the level of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
After the change of the Tumu Fort, the Daming Dynasty completed the equity exchange, conservative and closed gentry landlord families, and mass-produced endless small towns as subjects, and they became the floating shareholders of the Daming Dynasty, which means that the Daming Dynasty and the families that accounted for the majority of the population realized the binding of interests and obtained a steady stream of fresh blood.
Therefore, the Third Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty will appear Yu Qian, Yang Tinghe, Yang Shen, Zhang Juzheng, Wang Yangming, and finally Yuan Chonghuan, Lu Xiangsheng, and Sun Chuanting.
It was these endless small-town questioners who ensured the mobility of the Ming Dynasty.
And they successively owned the equity of the Daming Dynasty, so they had a sense of belonging to the Daming Dynasty, were willing to form an alliance of interests with the Daming Dynasty, and were born and died for the Daming Dynasty.
After completing this "nationalization" of equity allocation, the Ming Dynasty had a long vitality.
Therefore, the pioneering and enterprising First and Second Dynasties of the Daming Dynasty and the shift to the conservative and introverted Third Dynasty of the Daming Dynasty are essentially exchanging the quality of the regime for the life of the regime.
It can only be said that there must be gains and gains, and there must be losses if there are gains.
If Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di woke up from the mausoleum and saw the small town of the Third Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, they might say with mixed feelings:
"I don't like you, but I thank you."