There were two kinds of imperial killing institutions in the Ming Dynasty, collectively known as factory guards.
The Wei refers to the Jinyi Guards, who are the Emperor's pro-army, a formal unit with an organization, a system, and a competence that exceeds the Laws of Heavenly Reason, and their members are composed of relatives of the Emperor and the Ministers of Culture and Military Affairs and their sons who have made meritorious contributions to the Jiangshan Society. For example, the imperial guards at all levels in the imperial palace must be selected from among the members of the Kinniku guard in order to perform these roles.
The factory mainly refers to the East Factory and the West Factory, but during the Zhengde Emperor, an internal factory was also added, but it was only withdrawn in a short time. Whether it is the East Factory, the West Factory and the Inner Factory, their supreme leader is the Emperor. These people are the spies of the emperor's personal leadership, they have no formal structure, the system and personnel do not have a certain quota, and they are an institution that really ignores the laws of heaven and earth, and is sophisticated.
The difference between the factory and the guard is that the Jinyi guard has a formal structure, and the wei commander is the real military commander, and they are all excellent soldiers. Therefore, the implementation of tasks is vigorous, decisive and efficient.
The members of the factory are divided into two types: one is transferred from the Jinyi guard, called the criminal officer; the other is to recruit some talents with special skills outside (such as strong martial arts, flexible minds, and unmembered means, etc.) These talents are called block heads and fans according to the size of the position. These recruiters are more sinister and cunning with vicious intentions, as long as they are given enough money and power, they can do bad things. But the most important point is that their main leader must be a eunuch also known as a viceroy, so it is also called a governor or a viceroy. In the two factories, the emperor below is the eunuch who has the final say. But there can be no eunuchs inside the Jinyi Guard. The factory had only one eunuch in the position of absolute power, no second person, and only occasionally, with the acquiescence of the emperor, the overseer who controlled the factory could bring a few powerless little eunuchs to serve his own life.
When it is necessary to go to the imperial city and outside the city to handle cases or to arrest officials and officials in various parts of the world, then it is the matter of blocking heads and fans. It is impossible for eunuchs to lead the team to do these sword-wielding things, and most of the eunuchs living in the palace are cowards, and asking them to do these things is tantamount to joking. Official intrigue and trickery are the masters of these overseers. They will only drive those who block the head and the fanzi to achieve their own and the emperor's goals. In the final analysis, both the factory and the wei were a means for the Ming dynasty to ensure that its jiangshan community was stable and that the supreme imperial power was not infringed.