In 1584, when the officials who raided the house pushed open the gate of Zhang's mansion, the seventeen members of the Zhang family had already starved to death, and Zhang Juzheng's son hanged himself because he could not bear the humiliation.
The officials who raided the house copied 100,000 taels of silver from Zhang's mansion, and countless jewels and jades were counted. Wanli immediately ordered that Zhang Juzheng be stripped of all his official titles, and his nickname of "Wenzhong Gong" was also seized, and the whole clan was exiled.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty was jubilant, Zhang Juzheng fell, his changes fell, the Wanli Emperor won, and the ministers thought they had won, but they forgot that when Zhang Juzheng went to the pavilion to pay respects, the Dawang Dynasty was already defeated, and the wind and rain were shaky.
In that year, Emperor Longqing had just died, and the ten-year-old little emperor Wanli was put on the throne. Young lords and ministers, treacherous clouds above the court, bloody wind and rain, and power games are constantly staged.
When the Ming Dynasty was in danger, Zhang Juzheng relied on thunderous means to visit the prime minister, implement changes, and apply fierce medicine to bring the Ming Dynasty back to life. Some people say that the last 76 years of the Ming Dynasty relied on Zhang Juzheng to continue his life.
However, Zhang Juzheng also became scheming and infamous for being dictatorial and authoritarian. So, what kind of person is Zhang Juzheng? Why did the first generation of Shousuke end up so miserably?
All of this has to start with Zhang Juzheng's first auxiliary road.
01
Cabinet entry
Late one night in 1572, Emperor Longqing, who was only 36 years old, suddenly suffered a stroke in the Qianqing Palace and was dying. Gao Gong, the first assistant of the cabinet at the time, and Zhang Juzheng, the second assistant, were urgently summoned to the palace.
Emperor Longqing on the sickbed was already dying, and when he saw Gao Gong and the others in front of the bed, Emperor Longqing struggled to get up and said intermittently: "I ...... I suddenly suffered from a vicious disease, and I feared that my life would not be long in coming, and I had negative ...... There is a request from the emperor, but the prince is young, and in the future, this major event in the world will be entrusted to Mr. ”
As soon as the words fell, Emperor Longqing fell headlong on the couch and died of anger. Seeing this, Gao Gong knelt down and walked forward to Emperor Longqing's couch, calling out to the emperor loudly, but Emperor Longqing at this time did not respond.
Thinking back then, Emperor Longqing was still his student, he taught him to read and write, and taught him to deal with the scene of the government vividly, and now, only six years after ascending the throne, he has already driven the crane to the west, Gao Gong can no longer suppress the grief and indignation in his heart, and cried bitterly:
"Your Majesty, the crown prince is young, he has just turned ten years old, how can this world be governed!"
Hearing this, everyone looked sideways and had different thoughts.
In order to avoid complications, the eunuch Feng Bao immediately got up and recited the edict aloud:
"The East Palace is young, I am now Fu Zhiqing and other three ministers, and the eunuch Feng Bao assists with the eunuch Feng Baoxie, abiding by the ancestral system, protecting the emperor's map, and the Qing and other merits are in the community, and they will not be lost for eternity, and they will be admired for this time."
Gao Gong listened to the edict, and was shocked for a while, so he stood up and asked Feng Bao loudly, why is the eunuch of the master of ceremonies and the seal not Meng Chong? The answer Gao Gong received was that Meng Chong was dismissed due to his unfavorable work, and Feng Bao temporarily assumed the position of the eunuch with the palm seal.
When the first emperor was there, the court and the central government had always discussed matters with Gao Gong, so why was there no rumor at all about the replacement of the palm print eunuch now? Gao Gong insisted that the matter was suspicious, and his attitude towards Feng Bao was even tougher, and he repeatedly pressed questions.
Feng Bao has been in the palace for many years, and the management will observe the words and feelings, but he is not a soft persimmon who is bullied, he saw that Gao Gong did not forgive, and said sharply: "Lord Gao, the edict of the first emperor is here, why don't you believe it?" Could it be that the emperor has just died, and you have to resist and disobey the order? ”
Seeing that the dispute between the two was getting more and more intense, Zhang Juzheng had no choice but to be a peacemaker and defended Gao Gong: "Doesn't Gonggong Feng know that Gao Ge is an old man, the emperor died, he will inevitably be anxious and sad, and please don't misunderstand." ”
Feng Bao saw that Zhang Juzheng came forward to defend it, and it was not easy to save his face, so he had to press the resentment in his heart and stop talking.
In fact, Feng Bao and Gao Gong have always had a grudge, Feng Bao served as a eunuch of Bingbi for more than ten years, but only because Gao Gong obstructed everywhere and promoted his cronies and eunuchs, he was unable to be promoted to the eunuch of the palm seal.
And this time, Feng Bao took advantage of the emperor's death and ascended to the throne with his edict, which naturally aroused Gao Gong's dissatisfaction, but because of the edict, Gao Gong could not stop it, so he had to accept the reality.
In Gao Gong's eyes, Feng Bao was a eunuch, but by virtue of the identity of the prince's companion, he was arrogant and domineering, pampered and arrogant everywhere, and when he was appointed as a eunuch, he repeatedly intervened in the government and politics, and if he was promoted to the eunuch of the palm seal, it would be endless troubles.
Gao Gong's worries are actually not unreasonable.
As we all know, one of the main reasons for the political darkness of the Ming Dynasty was the interference of eunuchs. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu explicitly forbade eunuchs to read and write, but in the Ming Xuanzong period, the harem not only set up a school for eunuchs, but also encouraged eunuchs to read and write.
From then on, all the emperor's orders were recorded by the eunuchs with a red pen and then handed over to the cabinet to write edicts. As for the twists and turns, the emperor didn't even look at it, and directly asked the cabinet to give the results, and then handed it over to the celebrant for approval and sealing.
At first, the emperor just wanted to use the celebrant to contain the power of the cabinet and check and balance each other. But over time, the authority of the celebrant is getting bigger and bigger, and even overpowering, and the eunuch of the palm print of the celebrant is even known as the "internal minister".
It can be seen that the top position of this celebrant must be a prominent position, and all officials are subservient.
Now, Feng Bao has become the eunuch of the master of ceremonies, trying to fight against Gao Gong, who is the first assistant, naturally not tolerated by Gao Gong, he swears that he will take back all the humiliation he suffered that day, and the power struggle between the two is also about to break out.
One day, Feng Bao was reviewing the recital as usual, and suddenly, a high-arched recital asking the emperor to withdraw the authority of the celebrant to approve the red seal came into view. After reading the recital, Feng Bao couldn't help but be furious.
So, with a stroke of his pen, he wrote six big characters on the recital: "I know, follow the ancestral system", and rejected Gao Gong's recital. Feng Bao seemed to handle the matter lightly, but his frightened heart had already made waves.
In order to keep his hard-won power, he decided to strike first.
That night, Feng Bao disguised himself and went to Zhang's mansion to meet his second assistant Zhang Juzheng, who saw Feng Bao's visit, although he was puzzled, he still welcomed him into the mansion.
As soon as he sat down, Feng Bao made it clear that he was here to form an alliance. However, after many years of immersion in officialdom, Zhang Juzheng has long been accustomed to seeing the struggle for power and profit in the court, and they are fighting each other.
I think that back then, when Zhang Juzheng first entered the Hanlin Academy, he witnessed the dispute between Xia Yan and Yan Song. The powerful Shoufu Xia Yan was finally murdered by the traitor Yan Song and replaced him, and the ending can be described as tragic.
There is never a shortage of struggles in the court, and everyone comes and goes, like the cycle of fate, never stops. Such as Xia Yan, Yan Song, and Xu Jie, these people also had a lot of power for a while, but most of them had the same ending, either dead or leaving.
Zhang Juzheng has already seen everything clearly, and he knows that if he wants to save his life in the court, he can only "hold the group inside, and the desire to be muddy outside". Internally, we must have insight into the current situation, wait for opportunities, and externally maintain moderation and follow the trend.
Therefore, Zhang Juzheng didn't want to join the team so soon, let alone rashly make enemies with anyone. Therefore, for Feng Bao's lobbying, he remained silent, wanting to further observe and make a decision.
The next day, Feng Bao handed over the approved recital to the cabinet, and Gao Gong was angry when he saw Zhu Pi of the recital, and he said angrily: "It is because of the observance of the ancestral system of the palm seal of the celebrant that it has led to the current situation of the dictatorship of the eunuchs. ”
As soon as the words fell, I saw Zhang Juzheng coming to visit, and Gao Gong immediately handed the piece in his hand to Zhang Juzheng and said: "Look at the Zhu Pi on this piece, if it wasn't Feng Bao, could it still be that 10-year-old kid who did it?" ”
Gao Gong's words shocked Zhang Juzheng's heart, "10-year-old child", this is Gao Gong's name for the current emperor. Although Zhang Juzheng is still respectful on the surface, he does not agree with it in his heart.
Xiao Wanli's body has long shown the talent and bearing that the young son of heaven should have, he never wastes his studies, always forgets to sleep and eat, even if he studies until late at night, the second day will never delay the early dynasty, such an emperor will be a spoiled child?
Gao Gong's contempt and disrespect for the emperor made Zhang Juzheng's heart begin to sway, and he was worried that what Feng Bao said would become a reality. If one day, Xiao Wanli really becomes a marionette in the hands of Gao Gong, and the Ming Dynasty will be hopeless.
After several trade-offs, Zhang Juzheng made the final choice.
That night, he wrote a secret letter to Feng Bao, explaining Gao Gong's decision to impeach Feng Bao in a joint cabinet. On the other hand, after Feng Bao received Zhang Juzheng's secret letter, he was also shocked.
He thought, Gao Gong, really can't stay any longer!
One day, Empress Dowager Li summoned Feng Bao and asked him about Xiao Wanli's study, Feng Bao immediately said a few beautiful words for Zhang Juzheng, and then changed his words, and Gao Gong reprimanded Wanli as a spoiled child, and said it to Empress Dowager Li word for word.
As soon as these words came out, the Empress Dowager Li was immediately furious, and Feng Bao saw that the Empress Dowager was already angry, so he continued in a hesitant manner: "On the day of the death of the first emperor, Lord Gao also said that the emperor was only ten years old and could not govern the world. ”
In order to protect himself, and to take the opportunity to uproot the big trouble of his henchmen, Feng Bao said all his slander. But Gao Gong's sentence "The prince is young, just turned ten years old, how can this world be treated" is a heartfelt worrying statement.
At that time, the People's Dynasty was already in a state of devastation, the people were struggling to make a living, the state finances were even more than enough to make ends meet, and the economy was on the verge of collapse. Gao Gong, who is the first assistant, is very aware of the national situation at this moment, and he is worried, so he makes such an exclamation.
However, the speaker has no intention, the listener has a heart, and when this sentence came to Feng Bao's mouth, it became evidence of Gao Gong's intention to monopolize the government, and also brought Gao Gong's political career to an end.
On the other hand, Gao Gong did not know anything about the current situation, he was actively contacting the courtiers, single-handedly planning a plan to impeach Feng Bao with hundreds of officials, and decided to implement the impeachment plan in one fell swoop at the court meeting on June 16 to defeat Feng Bao.
However, what he didn't expect was that when he walked to the court with confidence, what was waiting for him was the will of the officials.
On that day, the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty had already been ranked above the main hall, but after waiting for a long time, the emperor did not come, and when everyone was whispering, Feng Bao stood in the center of the main hall with the edict of the Empress Dowager Li.
Seeing this, the ministers fell to the ground one after another, Feng Bao cleared his throat, and said loudly: "Tell the ministers of the five governments and six ministries of the cabinet, the university scholar Gao Gong is in power, and he is self-dictatorated, and the emperor is not allowed to be in charge, and my mother and son are frightened day and night. He ordered him to return to his hometown and stay idle, and he was not allowed to stay, and the post of first assistant to the cabinet was taken over by Zhang Juzheng, the second assistant. ”
After listening to the will, Gao Gong's heart was in turmoil, and when he got up, he felt dizzy, and almost fell to the ground, but fortunately, Zhang Juzheng stepped up and helped him, Gao Gong glanced at Zhang Juzheng, leaving only a sigh, and slowly walked out of the court.
Some people say that Zhang Juzheng colluded with eunuchs to seize a high position, which is a stain that cannot be erased in his life. Some people also say that Zhang Juzheng's actions and the inevitability of the change of power are the result of his political wisdom.
Zhang Juzheng didn't care about these rumors, and he never thought of justifying them. He didn't care what others thought of his ascension to the position of first assistant, he just wanted to save the diseased and dangerous Ming Dynasty from the brink of collapse.
02
A generation of virtuous ministers
In 1572, the 47-year-old Zhang Juzheng finally ascended to the position of first assistant. After 20 years of ups and downs in officialdom, he has already seen the ending. Therefore, all along, he has been conscientious and tried his best to hide his edge, and this time, he finally reached the top.
However, in the face of the power he suddenly possessed, Zhang Juzheng seemed a little confused.
At this time, although the Ming Dynasty seemed to be strong, it was already at the end of its strength, the treasury was empty, the fiscal deficit was as high as three million taels, and even the officials' salaries could not be issued, and there were already many complaints underneath.
In the face of such a strong and middle-class dynasty, Zhang Juzheng wants to save it by himself, which can be described as difficult as climbing to the sky, but his ideal of assisting the world to save the country does not allow him to give up, he thinks, the only way is to change!
However, throughout the ages, there have been many reformers, such as Shang Ying of the Qin State and Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty, although they were all supported by the emperor, but the final result was nothing more than disrepute.
However, Zhang Juzheng doesn't care, he wants to change, he wants to save the country, he wants Ming Zhongxing. After thinking about it, he slammed the first hammer of reform into the bureaucracy.
In 1572, Zhang Juzheng wrote to the Wanli Emperor. To put it bluntly, now the officialdom is difficult to return, because there is no assessment system for officials, and in the long run, political affairs are wasted and disasters are endless.
In the future, all the work performed by the officials of the six ministries will be evaluated by the six departments and handed over to the cabinet, and the cabinet will judge the appointment of officials according to the results of the evaluation every year.
It turned out that since Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, in order to inspect officials, six departments were specially established, and the six departments could directly report the illegal acts of all officials in the imperial court to the emperor, which also led to the party disputes in the Ming Dynasty often starting from the six branches.
Zhang Juzheng's "Examination Law" included the six departments in the cabinet, which greatly weakened the power of the six departments, but this move also changed the official system inherited by the Ming Dynasty for two hundred years.
In fact, Zhang Juzheng's "Examination Law" did not violate the guidelines, but according to the ancestral system, and the basis of the "Examination Law" came from the "Daming Huidian", which was also the rule set by Emperor Taizu that year.
The little emperor had just ascended to the throne, and his foundation was still unstable, and he was afraid that a rash change would cause a shock to the country, so he wanted to refuse, but under Zhang Juzheng's patient explanation, Emperor Wanli finally agreed to implement the change, which made Zhang Juzheng happy.
The development of things was also as Zhang Juzheng expected, because the precedent of the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang in the "Daming Huidian" was borrowed as the basis for the implementation of the "Examination Law", and there was almost no resistance after the introduction of the new law.
After the implementation of the new law, the enthusiasm of the officials was mobilized, which gradually smoothed the operation of the imperial court, and the redundant officials at the central and local levels were abolished, and the court presented a clear scene.
While the "Examination Law" was becoming more and more effective, Zhang Juzheng set his sights on the economic problems of the Ming Dynasty.
Since Emperor Longqing ascended the throne, the treasury has been empty year after year. Zhang Juzheng found that the root of the problem was that a large amount of land was secretly annexed by landlords, and in order to evade taxes, these landlords colluded with corrupt officials to conceal the land in their hands, resulting in a sharp drop in tax revenue.
For this reason, Zhang Juzheng strongly promoted the clearing of acres of land and conducted a comprehensive inspection of the land throughout the country, and once the reported amount of land did not match the facts, the land would be confiscated by the imperial court.
However, Zhang Juzheng's reform measure seriously touched the core interests of the bureaucratic landlords, and officials in various localities could not sit still one after another and began to point the finger at Zhang Juzheng.
The sound of impeachment hit like a wild wave, and at first, Zhang Juzheng didn't care about it, until an impeachment note from Liaodong disappointed Zhang Juzheng.
This impeachment chapter came from the hand of Liu Tai, the governor of Liaodong, he was a student of Zhang Juzheng, two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, students impeached teachers, this is the first time, Zhang Juzheng felt shameless to face the hundred officials, so he decided to ask the Wanli Emperor to resign.
Emperor Wanli received Zhang Juzheng's resignation and tried every possible way to keep him, he understood that the reform of the law had reached the point where it had to be implemented, except for Zhang Juzheng, no one dared to do this, and no one dared to take it.
In order to save Zhang Juzheng's face, Emperor Wanli ordered Liu Tai to be sent to prison, punished with a cane for 100 years, and sent to the army, but Zhang Juzheng still cared about the feelings of teachers and students and pleaded for Liu Tai. In the end, Liu Tai was demoted to a commoner and never hired.
Since Liu Tai was punished, no one in the court dared to oppose Zhang Juzheng, and Zhang Juzheng's position as the first assistant was no longer shakeable, and Zhang Juzheng's changes were also smoothly implemented.
In less than a year, the treasury of the Ming Dynasty, which had been empty for decades, finally had a surplus, which also means that Zhang Juzheng's changes made the precarious Ming Dynasty begin to recover, and perhaps in the near future, it will usher in a prosperous era.
In the fifth year of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng's father Zhang Wenming died suddenly, and according to the system at that time, Zhang Juzheng had to resign from his official position and go home to keep filial piety for his father Ding for three years.
At this time, it is the fifth year of Zhang Juzheng's implementation of the reform, and it is the most critical time, if he leaves at this time, it means that the reform may be wasted, but if he does not leave, then Zhang Juzheng will face unimaginable political pressure from public opinion.
After thinking about it, Zhang Juzheng still decided to go home to keep filial piety, so he handed in his resignation to Emperor Wanli again.
After receiving Zhang Juzheng's resignation application, Emperor Wanli was also in a dilemma, he was only a 15-year-old boy, and in the five years since he ascended the throne, all political affairs have relied on Zhang Juzheng's teachings, and if Zhang Juzheng is gone, he will have no one to rely on.
He thought that the court could not be without Zhang Juzheng for a day, in order to keep Zhang Juzheng, Emperor Wanli could only "take revenge" and refused Zhang Juzheng's resignation request, but Zhang Juzheng once again insisted on handing in his resignation and asked to leave.
In desperation, Emperor Wanli could only summon Zhang Juzheng into the palace for an interview. In the face of Emperor Wanli's bitter request, Zhang Juzheng could only abide by the saint and continue to stay in office.
At that time, under the guidance of Confucianism, the ancient emperors all pursued "ruling the world with filial piety", but Zhang Juzheng was "retained by love" this time, and was not tolerated by the scholar class who adhered to the traditional concept.
They believe that Zhang Juzheng's actions are contrary to human ethics and a great stain on morality. And how can a person with a moral stain become the head of a hundred officials, and some people even believe that this time to seize the favor and stay in office, it was ordered by Zhang Juzheng to threaten the emperor for his own selfish interests.
For a time, the impeachment recital of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty flew into the Taihe Hall like snowflakes. And this time, the first person to be impeached was Wu Zhongxing, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, and he was also a student of Zhang Juzheng.
After Wu Zhongxing, many officials wrote to impeach Zhang Juzheng. In the court, the fifteen-year-old Wanli Emperor was already furious, and he issued a holy decree that anyone who impeached Zhang Juzheng would be punished with a staff of eighty, and whoever dared to intercede for them would be punished together.
For a while, there was a lot of noise in the court, and they were afraid of angering the emperor. However, in order to rescue his colleagues who were about to be executed, Wang Xijue, who was then the head of the Hanlin Academy, had to take a dozen colleagues to Zhang's mansion to ask Zhang Juzheng to intercede for the officials who impeached him.
They know that at this moment, only Zhang Juzheng can make the emperor retract his will.
When they came to the door of Zhang's mansion, they found that the gate of Zhang's mansion was closed, and asked the gatekeeper, but what they got was Zhang Juzheng's decision to close the door and not see anyone again. Wang Xijue couldn't, so he took advantage of a gap and slipped into Zhang's mansion and saw Zhang Juzheng, who was guarding filial piety.
As soon as Wang Xijue opened his mouth, he begged Zhang Juzheng to intercede for the officials who were about to be in court, and after Zhang Juzheng heard his intentions, he refused in words, and Zhang Juzheng's attitude annoyed Wang Xijue at once.
He said sharply: "Lord Shoufu, you are filial piety and loyalty, and the whole country knows it, but at this time, you have to take care of others for your own selfish desires, and abandon the friendship between teachers and students. ”
Zhang Juzheng said with a straight face: "Lord Wang, if I plead, people in the world say that I coerce the Son of Heaven to rule the world, if I don't ask, I will be unkind and unjust." Now that my father has died, I just want to keep filial piety, as for those colleagues, it is all up to the emperor to decide, and I can't do anything. ”
Wang Xijue didn't expect that Zhang Juzheng refused so simply, and he was even more angry, shouting: "Now all this is not caused by you Zhang Juzheng." ”
When Zhang Juzheng heard this, he immediately became angry in his chest, he picked up the dagger on the table, pressed it against his chest, and said: "Lord Wang, if everything today is because of me Zhang Juzheng, if I die, I can block the mouth of the people in this world, then I am willing to die." ”
Zhang Juzheng's awe-inspiring aura made Wang Xijue feel inspired, and in desperation, he had to leave Zhang's mansion, and the officials who impeached Zhang Juzheng were all given court rods, and the execution scene was terrible.
After 49 days of filial piety, Zhang Juzheng returned to the cabinet, and this time, the world found that he had changed, he no longer had the spirit of benevolence, and the implementation of the new policy was more tough and strict. Mr. Zhang's shift may have been motivated by a form of revenge against the wave of impeachment.
Or, he realized that only by carrying out strict reforms can he block the mouth of the world, and only by holding power can he make hundreds of officials surrender and implement his great cause of rejuvenating the country without resistance.
Zhang Juzheng was furious, comparable to the anger of the emperor, and everywhere he went, the officials complained, but they did not dare to resist. However, what Zhang Juzheng didn't expect was that his tough methods finally annoyed Emperor Wanli.
Since then, suspicion and rebellion have been growing between the two former close monarchs and ministers, and eventually turned into a political tragedy that shocked the world.
03
The death of the monarch and the minister
Once, although Zhang Juzheng and Wanli were the orders of teachers and students, and the position of monarchs and ministers, they were like father and son. From the moment Zhang Juzheng became Wanli's teacher, he tried his best to cultivate Wanli into the king of Zhongxing.
It is precisely because of Mr. Thanksgiving's earnest teachings that the Wanli Emperor will support Zhang Juzheng's great cause of reform, which also allows the Ming Dynasty to come out of the predicament of mud feet and begin to move towards the long-lost prosperity.
However, with the continuous expansion of power, Zhang Juzheng's heart is also changing rapidly, especially after experiencing the "love turmoil", Zhang Juzheng changed his previous moderation as an official, and became strong and strict on state affairs and human feelings.
Ya is conceited and unborn, for Liu Tai and others, his ambition is gradually in a trance, and he knows that the world is not seen, and he thinks of robbing it with authority, and he has no scruples.
In the face of officials who did not submit, he no longer pinned his hopes on convincing people with virtue, but suppressed them with tougher means, and his style of acting was more unscrupulous. Zhang Juzheng's change made him get along with Emperor Wanli and began to have a barrier.
In 1578, the 16-year-old Wanli Emperor got married, and the former young son of heaven had become an adult, gradually revealing his desire to exercise imperial power independently. This little boy who once relied on Zhang Juzheng extremely tried his best to become the real ruler of the Ming Dynasty.
After getting married, Wanli was no longer under the control of his mother Empress Dowager Li, and he gradually began to spend money lavishly, and the inner court treasury silver was five or six hundred thousand taels a year, which was not enough for him and the queen to squander.
In order to continue to enjoy the life that the emperor should have, Emperor Wanli ordered that 200,000 taels of silver be allocated to the household department for the expenses of the inner court. However, when the will just reached the household department, it was stopped by Zhang Juzheng.
Zhang Ju saw Emperor Wanli in the front, and in a hurry, he directly asked the emperor where the treasury silver in the inner court was used. Zhang Juzheng's stern questioning made Wanli unhappy, but it was not easy to attack.
Zhang Juzheng repeatedly insisted that the silver of the household department could only be used for state affairs, and the use of the harem could only be withdrawn from the inner treasury. Emperor Wanli saw that Zhang Juzheng was unwilling to let go, so he proposed that if the silver of the household could not be withdrawn, then he would mint copper coins for use.
Unexpectedly, Emperor Wanli's suggestion was once again sternly rejected by Zhang Juzheng, which made the emperor's heart even more unhappy, he thought, he is a dignified son of heaven, and he doesn't even have the right to mint a copper coin, how sad.
After this incident, the more Emperor Wanli thought about it, the more angry he became, and the more he thought about it, the more he was embarrassed, but because of Zhang Juzheng's identity, he was not easy to attack. At this time, Zhang Cheng, the eunuch beside Wanli, saw the emperor's thoughts and wanted to flatter.
Zhang Cheng began to constantly slander Emperor Wanli, and criticized Zhang Juzheng for becoming more and more arrogant after he was amorous, and even dared to dismiss the order of the Son of Heaven.
Although Emperor Wanli was furious at Zhang Cheng's words, he had to admit that Zhang Cheng's words did hit his heart.
Since then, although Emperor Wanli still shows respect for Zhang Juzheng on the surface, he will ask him about everything, but in action, he gradually shows his unpredictable side.
One day in 1580 AD, Emperor Wanli drank too much wine at a banquet in the inner court, and he ordered two little eunuchs to sing to cheer up, but the two little eunuchs said no, which annoyed Emperor Wanli at once, and he drew his sword to kill the two.
After being dissuaded by others, Wanli gave up, but he still insisted on cutting off the hair of the two to show that he was "cutting his hair on behalf of the head". This matter reached the ears of the Empress Dowager Li, and she was furious.
Empress Dowager Li never imagined that a once benevolent and kind child would do such a ridiculous thing, so she summoned Emperor Wanli into the harem and wanted to punish him heavily.
In the main hall of Cining Palace, Emperor Wanli knelt in the center of the main hall and constantly admitted his mistakes to the Empress Dowager Li, but the Empress Dowager Li was angry and bluntly said that she would abolish the emperor of Wanli, which scared Wanli to collapse and cry.
When Zhang Juzheng arrived, Emperor Wanli had already cried silently, and after hearing the decision of the Empress Dowager Li to depose the emperor, Zhang Juzheng immediately knelt on the ground and pleaded: "If the Empress Dowager wants to depose the emperor, please abolish me, the head of the cabinet." ”
Zhang Juzheng's words moved the Empress Dowager Li quite a lot, she did this just to scare the ignorant Wanli Emperor, how could he really abolish him, Zhang Juzheng also understood in his heart, so he pushed the boat down the river and acted in such a play with the Empress Dowager Li.
Due to Zhang Juzheng's plea, Empress Dowager Li could not punish him again, so she had to spare Emperor Wanli, and only told Wanli to listen to Zhang Juzheng's teachings more and not to have such absurd acts in the future.
As the emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Li was a smart woman with considerable political vision. She understands that if she wants to support Sheji, Zhongxing Daming can only rely on Zhang Juzheng in front of her.
She hopes that Zhang Juzheng can help their mother and son protect the Ming Dynasty, and she hopes that her son can sit firmly on the throne under the protection of Zhang Juzheng, so Empress Dowager Li has always fully supported Zhang Juzheng.
I have to say that the mother's vision is more long-term than her son Wanli, if Wanli can listen to his mother's admonition and treat Zhang Juzheng's persuasion calmly, the Ming Dynasty may really be able to continue for another hundred years.
However, although Empress Dowager Li was smart, she always ignored the psychological changes of Emperor Wanli, and her affirmation of Zhang Juzheng and her suppression of Wanli intensified the contradiction between Wanli and Zhang Juzheng, and her heart began to gradually show dissatisfaction.
Regarding the changes in Emperor Wanli, Zhang Juzheng also saw it. He has been an assistant for eight years, and the emperor is already 18 years old, so maybe it's time to let go.
Zhang Juzheng has been in officialdom for a long time, he understands the fate of the master, and has also witnessed the tragedy of too many walls falling down and everyone pushing, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of his predecessors, Zhang Juzheng thought twice and decided to resign and go into hiding.
So, he wrote down his resignation and handed it to Emperor Wanli. Seeing the resignation of the Wanli Emperor, he was worried, on the one hand, he had already had a pro-government heart, and Zhang Juzheng's resignation was an opportunity, on the other hand, he had been sheltered by Zhang Juzheng for many years, worried that he would not be able to face the treacherous court alone.
After thinking about it, Emperor Wanli finally took over the idea of being eager to be pro-government. But just when he was about to approve Zhang Juzheng's resignation and retirement, Empress Dowager Li resolutely rejected Zhang Juzheng's resignation and let Zhang Juzheng assist the government until Wanli was thirty years old.
Empress Dowager Li's decision completely crushed Wanli's last trace of dignity, and also completely ruined Zhang Juzheng's chance to protect his life. Zhang Juzheng could only return to the cabinet and assist the emperor conscientiously.
However, at this time, Zhang Juzheng was already old, and he was already powerless in the face of complicated government affairs and conspiracy and calculation officialdom, and behind him, Emperor Wanli always looked at him with scrutiny and suspicion.
All this is constantly destroying Zhang Juzheng's body and heart.
Finally, on June 26, the 10th year of Wanli, after ten years of auxiliary government, Zhang Juzheng, who was 58 years old at the time, died suddenly, and the pillar of the Ming Dynasty collapsed, and the whole country mourned.
After Zhang Juzheng's death, the imperial court was nicknamed "Wenzhong Gong", and everything was extremely mournful. However, to everyone's surprise, a reckoning is approaching Zhang Juzheng's family.
With the death of Zhang Juzheng, opposition gradually rose, including Zhang Juzheng's former political enemies, new political groups that gradually grew, and the Wanli Emperor, who was eager to control the situation independently.
In order to firmly grasp the power in their hands and sweep away Zhang Juzheng's power in the court, they all thought of the same method, that is, to defeat Zhang Juzheng.
Half a year after Zhang Juzheng's death, the ministers of the DPRK and China wrote to impeach Zhang Juzheng for his crimes, and Yang Sizhi, the superintendent of the imperial history, even listed Zhang Juzheng's 14 charges and wrote to the emperor.
The emperor looked at these impeachment notes against Zhang Juzheng, and his heart was indescribable for a while, but he clearly understood that only by overthrowing Zhang Juzheng could he rebuild the imperial power and become the real ruler of the empire, so he acquiesced in all this.
However, Nian Zai Zhang Ju is a lonely minister, and he has ten years of auxiliary political work, and now he is dead, Emperor Wanli pretended to be generous and no longer pursued.
Although the emperor did not explicitly punish him, the ministers already knew the emperor's attitude, so they impeached Zhang Juzheng without any scruples. Two years later, Emperor Wanli felt that the time was ripe, and he finally couldn't bear it anymore and attacked his former teacher.
In August of the twelfth year of Wanli, the Metropolitan Procuratorate impeached Zhang Juzheng in accordance with Wanli's will, which was an indictment from Wanli, and he summarized Zhang Juzheng's decades of officialdom.
Zhang Juzheng slandered his relatives, invaded the king's tomb, restrained the officials, and blocked me Cong. …… Authoritarian and chaotic government, reckless and disloyal to the country. should have broken the coffin and killed the corpse, and thought of serving for many years, so as to avoid pursuing the law. "
Wanli ordered that Zhang Juzheng be stripped of all his official titles, and his nickname of "Wenzhong Gong" was also taken away. His son Zhang Jianxiu was also dismissed from all official positions, and the whole clan was exiled.
Zhang Juzheng, who made great contributions during his lifetime, was almost killed by the coffin after his death, which is really sad and lamentable!
04
At last
After Zhang Juzheng's death, the big tree in front of Emperor Wanli finally collapsed, and Emperor Wanli finally ushered in the day he had been looking forward to for a long time. In this carnival of lifting the power of the court and defeating Zhang Juzheng, the Ming Dynasty irretrievably rushed to the cliff.
After Zhang Juzheng's death, the "Examination Law" was abolished, the pedantic and outdated bureaucratic system made a comeback, the Qingzhang fields were completely stopped, the rich and corrupt officials colluded again, and Zhang Juzheng spent ten years of hard work to build the prosperous era of the Ming Dynasty, which was smashed to pieces in only two years.
Once, Zhang Juzheng was ordered to become a lonely minister, he was like a master and a father, loved the young emperor, and tried his best to assist him, he also gave up his filial piety and loyalty, even if he was accused by the world, he had no complaints.
However, he was defeated, defeated by the student he once loved the most.
Zhang Juzheng's life, later generations can not comment, but his reform for the Ming Dynasty extended the life of 76 years is an indisputable fact, in the Ming Dynasty's 276 years of history, he should not be erased.
Later generations may only know that the Ming Dynasty died in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, but they don't know that the Ming Dynasty died in Wanli is a public opinion. Mr. Zhang, if there is an afterlife, I hope you can achieve what you wish and live up to your life's hard work!