The eunuch power of the Ming Dynasty was completely dependent on imperial power. Because, in a highly bureaucratic empire, a person who wants to challenge the imperial power lacks the power to rely on.
There is no such thing as a huge family of high-ranking officials and generations of great wealth; there is no warlordized army; and there are no powerful royal princes and foreign relatives.
In this context, without the government constructed by the imperial power, the whole society is in a mess. In this context, anyone who tries to challenge the imperial power will have no hope.
Although Wei Zhongxian and his gang knew that the result of waiting for them was a hopeless result. But no one dared to try to resist. For they all know that all resistance is in vain; if there is no resistance, the future, although bleak, is still a glimmer of hope; if they resist, they will only make their deaths more ugly, but there will be no possibility of optimism.
No matter how people gave Wei Zhongxian, they orchestrated all kinds of rebellious charges. But one thing is obvious. After the Emperor of the Apocalypse was critically ill or dead, neither Wei Zhongxian nor his henchmen issued a single order that was clearly contrary to the emperor's will. No one dared to try to impose his will on the new emperor.
With the authorization of the emperor, Wei Zhongxian's approval of the song can make the entire empire obediently obey the order! If the emperor's authorization was lost, would Wei Zhongxian's approval still have this effect? Apparently not. Even if it can barely play a small role, it will only lead to a bigger crime for yourself.
In this context, Wei Zhongxian naturally did not dare to approve any of the recitals. He obediently handed over the symbol of imperial power (the power of the Approving Chapter) to the new emperor. In fact, after the death of the Apocalypse, Wei Zhongxian and his gang no longer dared to touch the imperial pen that symbolized power.
The imperial pen of the Approving Chapter is the "scepter" of the Empire, and whoever owns him has the power to dominate the Empire. For the process of approving the recital is the process of exercising the supreme power of the Empire.
Wei Zhongxian never really enjoyed this kind of power, and he always exercised the relevant power under the authorization and supervision of the Emperor of the Apocalypse. This can be seen from the fact that when he faced the enemy's attack, he simply cried out for the emperor's support; we can see from the fact that as soon as the Emperor of the Apocalypse died, he no longer dared to exercise this power.
When the Emperor of the Apocalypse was alive, Wei Zhongxian's power seemed to be greater than that of the heavens; but as soon as the Emperor of the Apocalypse was critically ill and died, Wei Zhongxian immediately had nothing. Anyone with the slightest political savvy will see this clearly.
Therefore, as soon as the Emperor of the Apocalypse died, people began to try to draw a line with Wei Zhongxian; so the situation of beating the falling water dog quickly formed.
As early as when the Emperor of the Heavenly Revelation was critically ill, Huo Weihua (then Bingbu Shangshu) already knew clearly that Wei Zhongxian's unlucky days were coming soon. In the era when people were angry with Wei Zhongxian, Huo Weihua was the first to jump out and openly confront Wei Zhongxian. His intention in doing so was very simple, that is, to draw a line with Wei Zhongxian, because Huo Weihua was a key member of the legendary castration party.
The backbone members of the castrated party dared to openly punch Wei Jiu-thousand-year-old in the face, and Wei Jiu-thousand-year-old did not dare to treat the other party as such. The fallen leaves know autumn, the day when Wei Zhongxian was overthrown, has begun to enter the countdown!
Wei Zhongxian believed that in the great victory of Ning Jin, Yuan Chonghuan had neglected his duties. However, Huo Weihua clearly believed that Yuan Chonghuan had not neglected his duties; he was even more openly upset about Yuan Chonghuan.
We can imagine that when Wei Zhongxian saw Huo Weihua's recital, he must have been furious, because, didn't you explicitly sing to Lao Tzu on stage? Fuck you, why didn't you sing to Lao Tzu before?
However, at this time, Wei Zhongxian did not dare to do anything to Huo Weihua. Otherwise, Huo Weihua would not have dared to do such a thing.
No sooner had the emperor died than someone began to attack Lu Wanling. Because Lu Wanling said not long ago that Wei Zhongxian could be compared with Confucius.
September...... Guozi Siye Zhu Zhijun impeached the prisoner Lu Wanling and Cao Dai to ask Wei Zhongxian Guoxue to commit a crime and order him to be imprisoned. Excerpt from the "Ming Dynasty Chronicles" to quote Fan Shuzhi's "Biography of Chongzhen"
At first, everyone could not judge the situation clearly, so they only dared to start with a small Lou Luo like Lu Wanling, because Lu Wanling was nothing. The problem was that once he saw that the little Lou Luo who attacked Lu Wanling was fine, the attack naturally began to escalate.
So it didn't take long for someone to start attacking Choi Chengxiu. Of course, when everyone attacked Cui Chengxiu, they did not dare to point the spearhead directly at Wei Zhongxian for a while. At least, for a while, we did not dare to abandon the tone that the factory ministers were honest and honest, and the factory ministers were bent on serving the country and the people.
However, in this wave of attacks, Choi Chengxiu can only accept the fate of returning home temporarily.
"When Emperor Zhuang Lie ascended the throne, his party knew that loyalty and meritocracy would be defeated, and they would carry each other within. The deputy capital Yushi Yang asked Yun Chengxiu to keep the system, and Yushi Yang Weiyuan and Jia Jichun attacked one after another, and Chengxiu begged. Emperor Yu stayed. In chapter three, Wen Zhi orders multiplication. (Biography of Ming Shi and Choi Chengxiu)
In this context, even the most stupid person knows that if he continues to follow Wei Zhongxian, there will definitely be no good results! Therefore, things that were not conducive to Wei Zhongxian were naturally happening and proceeding, and Wei Zhongxian could only watch with his eyes open, but he could not do anything to stop it. At present, only more and more people are joining in the attack on the "castration party" and betraying the "eunuch party", and there is absolutely no one who dares to stand up for the interests of the "eunuch party".
Because the emperor did not dare to openly oppose Wei Zhongxian. Therefore, the emperor also reported some vague criticisms of those who attacked Wei Zhongxian's cronies; in short, words should not be spoken indiscriminately.
The problem is that to openly attack Wei Zhongxian's cronies is to get a few words of criticism that are not painful or itchy. This kind of punishment is really equivalent to no punishment. As a result, various attacks on Wei Zhongxian's cronies began to increase. Seeing this result, the emperor's confidence finally changed.
Shortly thereafter, the song that attacked Wei Zhongxian also began to appear.
The emperor did not know what to do for a while. Because, he really didn't dare to oppose Wei Zhongxian. Therefore, he adopted a dismissive attitude towards the relevant chapters. Ostensibly, the emperor did not support attacking Wei Zhongxian. The problem was that the result of attacking Wei Zhongxian turned out to be nothing, which in itself encouraged everyone to attack Wei Zhongxian. As a result, more and more pieces of music attacked Wei Zhongxian.
As this trend developed, more and more people began to point directly at Wei Zhongxian; and the content of the attacks became more and more sensational and unscrupulous. At this time, Wei Jiu was already a dead tiger, and naturally some people began to use it to show their loyalty and bravery to the new emperor. If Wei Jiu was still a living tiger, who among these people would dare to do such a thing? Which of them is like a tiger hero? They are just politicians who kill tigers and show themselves.
The Emperor of the Apocalypse died on August 22;
On October 22, Lu Chengyuan impeached Wei Zhongxian,
On October 24, Qian Yuanwu once again impeached Wei Zhongxian,
On October 25, Shi Gongsheng attacked Wei Zhongxian,
On October 26, Qian Jiazheng held Wei Zhongxian's ten major crimes!
In this context, the emperor asked a eunuch to read a recital attacking Wei Zhongxian in front of Wei Zhongxian. The crimes listed in this song are enough to shoot Wei Zhongxian ten times. Although, the emperor did not use this to question Wei Zhongxian Xingshi. However, Wei Zhongxian was already lost and discouraged.
At that time, the emperor did not seem to be able to figure out how deep the water was for Wei Zhongxian. Therefore, he did not dare to confront Wei Zhongxian head-on. All in all, someone wrote a recital that said you were rebellious, and I asked the eunuch to read it to you; I wonder what you think about it? The question is, what can Wei Zhongxian think?
Based on Wei Zhongxian's original intention, he definitely wanted to say that this was all slander, and we should arrest him for the crime of slander! The question was, when Wei Zhongxian arrived at this point, how dare he say such a thing?
Based on Wei Zhongxian's meaning, he must have wanted to kneel on the ground and cry and beg the emperor to believe him; ask the emperor to understand him. The problem was that looking at the emperor's expression, Wei Zhongxian knew that all this was just in vain.
Therefore, Wei Zhongxian went to find Xu Yingyuan.
Xu Yingyuan was the chongzhen emperor's number one close eunuch. Because Wei Zhongxian and Xu Yingyuan used to be on errands in the Prince's Mansion, they also knew each other as old acquaintances.
Xu Yingyuan didn't see the situation clearly at that time, so he came up with ideas for Wei Zhongxian, and you are now jealous of the emperor, mainly because your power is too big, so the emperor is a little unsteady in his heart. If you take the initiative to resign from the emperor, it is estimated that you will be spared from disaster.
On the surface, there is nothing wrong with what Xu Yingyuan did. But in doing so, he clearly violated basic principles of organization. Because the emperor and Wei Zhongxian are fighting in a fight, you let Wei Zhongxian take the initiative to resign to the emperor, naturally there is no mistake. The question is, why didn't you report this to the emperor in time after the fact?
The main reason why Xu Yingyuan made this mistake is that Xu Yingyuan did not fully understand the situation. In other words, he was confused by Wei Zhongxian's powerful appearance; so he felt that Wei Zhongxian might suddenly counterattack. In this context, after he persuaded Wei Zhongxian to voluntarily resign, he did not report to the emperor in time.
Because Xu Yingyuan was somewhat unclear, was Wei Zhongxian pretending to be pitiful?
If Wei Zhongxian was pretending to be pitiful, and the emperor forced him to become like this, he really could jump the wall in a hurry. If he reported this matter to the emperor himself, the emperor would definitely discuss how to deal with Wei Zhongxian himself, and if he finally let Wei Zhongxian take a bite back, it would be too dangerous.
Afterwards, the emperor knew that Wei Zhongxian's resignation was the idea of xu Yingyuan, his number one confidant. At that time, it was on fire, because what did you want to do when you carried me and Wei Zhongxian behind your back? As a result, Xu Yingyuan, as a eunuch with a great future, suddenly became no longer promising at all. But then again, a eunuch could not even judge this basic situation clearly, and he really did not deserve to be the emperor's confidential secretary.
In fact, Wei Zhongxian was really desperate at that time, so he sincerely submitted his resignation report; and the emperor approved his resignation request at that time. And gave him a more glorious task, that is, to go to Fengyang to guard the imperial tomb.
Up to this point, Wei Zhongxian, who was once invincible, had fallen like a lost dog.
However, even so, some people still told the emperor that when Wei Zhongxian left the capital, he took thousands of retinues with him, and all of them carried weapons. As soon as the emperor saw this kind of recital, he immediately issued a decree, I had planned to send him down lightly, but he did not want to repent, and led a large group of outlaws, carrying weapons. All in all, get him back for me!
Actually? The so-called Wei Zhongxian took away dozens of truckloads of gold, silver and treasure when he left Beijing, and there were thousands of people carrying weapons to follow, which was the most ridiculous thing.
Because he was a fool at that time, he also knew that if he continued to stand behind Wei Zhongxian, there would be no good fruit to eat. In this context, people want to draw a clear line with Wei Zhongxian, but it is too late, how can someone still dare to follow Wei Zhongxian at this time, and still show an arrogant look?
The problem is that it doesn't matter what the truth of the matter looks like; what matters is that it shows that everyone wants the emperor to arrest Wei Zhongxian, and the emperor wants to arrest Wei Zhongxian. Therefore, Wei Zhongxian walked to the halfway point and finally found that he had no future. So he hanged himself in a guest house.
Looking at the indispensable nine thousand years old, he was actually cleaned up by himself in one fell swoop. The Chongzhen Emperor naturally felt that he had political talent that no one could match.
In fact, the Chongzhen Emperor's performance in this process was no different from that of an ordinary person; he began to fear Wei Zhongxian, later more and more despised Wei Zhongxian, and finally killed Wei Zhongxian; all because of the continuous evolution of the political situation, he did not take any remarkable initiative.
It was as if ordinary people, in the past, under Wei Zhongxian's obscenity, dared to be angry and did not dare to speak; later they gradually dared to express dissatisfaction with Wei Zhongxian, and then gradually dared to wantonly insult and spit on Wei Zhongxian. Everything is just an instinctive reaction to the changing situation.
Some people like to say that if the Chongzhen Emperor did not cultivate obscurity and did not avoid Wei Zhongxian at the beginning, he might not be able to achieve victory. The problem is, it's just an instinctive reaction.
All in all, at the beginning, wei Zhongxian was all respectful, opening the factory minister, factory minister honesty, factory minister single-mindedly for the country and the people; later to Wei Zhongxian was no longer respectful.
In short, it began to insinuately try to negate Wei Zhongxian; later, it began to openly deny Wei Zhongxian. And the denial is getting more and more escalating, more and more unscrupulous.
A person does this not so much out of a strategy as out of some instinct for snobbery. All in all, the drum broke through the crowd, and the wall fell on the crowd.
Welcome to the next section on Wei Zhongxian's historical status