In that year, in order to avoid creditors, Wei Zhongxian entered the palace from the palace. However, Wei Zhongxian was not willing to be a small slave who served others all the time, a small eunuch who was enslaved by others.
Because Wei Zhongxian's city government was very deep, the effort to observe and observe colors exceeded that of many people.
At that time, he knew that the young and beautiful Keshi, because he was the crown prince's nursing mother, was quite powerful in the imperial palace, so he felt that it was profitable, so he created an opportunity to approach the Keshi, and gave the Keshi many benefits in the open and secret. At this time, Keshi was in the palace, a person was inevitably a little weak, and he also wanted to find someone to help her, and it just so happened that Wei Zhongxian appeared.
After that, the two people who were pregnant with ghost fetuses hit it off and formed a couple. Moreover, the two even openly entered into pairs, which really attracted the attention of many eunuchs and palace women. Of course, their behavior not only aroused the jealousy of other eunuchs and palace women, but also gossiped. Soon, the news reached the emperor's ears.
However, the emperor, remembering Keshi's breastfeeding grace, not only did not punish them, but also made Keshi Lady Fengsheng, indirectly acknowledging the improper relationship between Wei Zhongxian and Keshi. Wei Zhongxian, because of his exposure to the light of the Ke clan, was even made a bingbi eunuch, which controlled the power of the imperial court to issue edicts. At this point, the power of the two people can be described as soaring, and no eunuch or palace lady dares not listen to them.
At that time, Keshi used very cruel means in the palace to persecute the palace maids, eunuchs, and even the emperor's concubines who were working against her. Later, the queen learned of this and was very angry. But unexpectedly, the matter reached Keshi's ears, and After Keshi knew about it, he designed to kill the child in the queen's belly. Suddenly, the harem was smoky miasma.
There are even rumors that the emperor even had the power to choose concubines controlled by the Ke clan. In the imperial court, Wei Zhongxian launched a large-scale persecution of the Donglin Party, creating many unjust, false and wrongly decided cases. In addition, he instructed his righteous sons and pawns to listen to the words of ordinary people throughout the country. As soon as he heard that some people were dissatisfied with him, he used means to kill them.
Suddenly, the people everywhere did not dare to speak freely, and the people of the whole country cried out in misery. Later, Wei Zhongxian was exiled, knowing that his political enemies would certainly not let him go, so he committed suicide on the way. The Ke clan in the imperial palace was also killed by the new successor emperor. In fact, Wei Zhongxian's rise to the peak of his power was mainly during the reign of Emperor Mingxi Zhu You.
Moreover, Wei Zhongxian did not gain power immediately after Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne, but gradually grasped the actual power of the Ming Dynasty. After the successful struggle for power with the Donglin Party, Wei Zhongxian could be regarded as truly grasping real power.
According to this point in time, Wei Zhongxian's actual time in power was only three years.
So, during the three years that Wei Zhongxian was in power, how much influence did he have on the politics of the Ming Dynasty?
In fact, during the Han and Tang Dynasties, all eunuchs were unclean. Therefore, the eunuchs in that period basically exercised their rights on behalf of the emperor. But in the Ming Dynasty, eunuchs were all pure, so eunuchs became the emperor's domestic slaves, and their status was very low, just listening to orders. As a result, many people speculated that Wei Zhongxian's series of actions had all been tacitly approved by Zhu You.
Is this man, who was called the "Carpenter Emperor" by later generations, not just a faint and incompetent person, as people think? It can be seen from the Records of Emperor Mingxi that Zhu Youxiao was actually a very intelligent emperor, and his insight and talent were not only higher than ordinary people, but also had a high sensitivity to politics and military affairs. Therefore, it is not without any basis as to whether Wei Zhongxian's actions have been tacitly accepted by Zhu Youxue.
However, if we look back at Wei Zhongxian's life, can we draw such a conclusion, that is, whether Wei Zhongxian's several years in power really caused immeasurable losses to the Ming Dynasty, and these harms were really irreparable?
The answer is no.
Because all this may have been deliberately arranged by Emperor Mingxi, and Wei Zhongxian was just a pawn of him. Therefore, everything Wei Zhongxian did, and the influence he caused, may be under the control of Emperor Mingxi.
Although eunuchs were in power during the reign of Emperor Mingxi, Wei Zhongxian was able to climb from a rural area to a high position step by step, and it was indispensable to the help of one person, that is, Keshi.
Keshi can be said to be Wei Zhongxian's right-hand man, and she has another identity, that is, Wei Zhongxian's lover. In his early years, Wei Zhongxian was able to gain a foothold in the imperial palace thanks to a great eunuch he had worked hard to appease, that is, the Wei Dynasty, which was very powerful in the imperial palace at that time. In fact, the Wei Dynasty was originally a good friend of the Ke clan, and the two people were about the same age and had a similar status in the palace.
Later, under the arrangement of the Wei Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian stayed in the palace as an errand boy and thus became acquainted with the Keshi. At that time, according to the regulations in the palace, after the prince was weaned, the nursing mother had to leave the palace. However, Keshi was very city-oriented, and in order not to leave the palace, she tried everything to make the young Zhu Youxiao very dependent on herself and unable to leave herself.
Moreover, Zhu Youxiao's mother died early, and Keshi has always played the role of Zhu Youxiao's mother. It is precisely because of such a special emotional experience that Keshi can finally successfully stay in the palace. At that time, Wei Zhongxian also saw Zhu You's dependence on Keshi, so he tried his best to be attentive to Keshi and please Keshi. It was not until later, when Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne as emperor, that keshi's status was raised.
Although there were many rumors about her and Wei Zhongxian in the palace, Zhu Youxiao not only did not punish the two, but instead named the Ke clan "Lady Fengsheng".
In addition, Wei Zhongxian always unremittingly brandished his own small hoe. In the end, Kung Fu paid off, and Keshi abandoned his old friend and married Wei Zhongxian for food.
However, Wei Zhongxian, as a great eunuch at the end of the Ming Dynasty, although known as "nine thousand years old", was the darkest period of the Ming Dynasty during his reign. The Donglin party members of the Ming Dynasty had a very bad attitude toward Wei Zhongxian and repeatedly impeached the emperor. It was precisely for this reason that Wei Zhongxian regarded the Donglin Party members as a thorn in the flesh. Moreover, in the imperial court at that time, the struggle between the parties was very fierce, and the Donglin Party had many enemies.
As a result, many of the Political Enemies of the Donglin Party turned to Wei Zhongxian. Later, Wei Zhongxian's power grew stronger and stronger, and his wings gradually became fuller, and he began to carry out an extremely cruel suppression of the Donglin Party. He first found a reason, and the staff killed Gongbu Langzhong Wanyi. After that, the redesign deposed Ye Shanggao and the official Shangshu Zhao Nanxing and others.
Among them, the most tragic deaths were the "Six Gentlemen of Donglin": Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Yuan Huazhong, Wei Dazhong, Zhou Chaorui, and Gu Dazhang. According to historical records, Yang Lian's death was extremely tragic, "the soil sac pressed his body, and the iron nails penetrated his ears." Therefore, it can be imagined that Yang Lian was actually tortured at that time. Wei Dazhong, on the other hand, was tortured to death in prison, and it is said that when people found him, his whole body was rotten, and only a white bone remained. In addition, when Zuo Guangdou and the others were found, the body was already mutilated and crawling with maggots.
What was even more cruel was that after these people died, Jin Yiwei also removed the throat bones of these people in order to flatter Wei Zhongxian, and the cruelty of the means was heinous. In addition, there is a rumor about Wei Zhongxian, there were once four people drinking in the secret room, and after one person was drunk, he scolded Wei Zhongxian, and the other three were too frightened to speak out. It didn't take long for the East Factory to send someone over and take the man away.
It can be seen from this that Wei Zhongxian's power at that time was great.
Resources:
[Records of emperor Ming Xizong, End of the Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty, Ming History Volume 244, Liechuan No. 132]