On the day of the double eleventh day of the second year of Xuande (1427), the fifth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanji, ushered in his eldest son, named Zhu Qizhen, which was later Ming Yingzong, and in the book of the seal, Zhu Zhanji of Ming Xuanzong made the following explanation: "As the king of the world, Er is the eldest son of Ming. Therefore, the great foundation of the right country and the heavenly order of ten thousand years are all in Er. Now the name of The Qi Zhen is Qi Zhen , the great righteousness of the husband qi, and the way of the town of peace and tranquility. It can be seen that Zhu Zhanji has high expectations for his eldest son. The lucky one who "traveled the fastest" was made crown prince at four months, and because his mother Sun Guifei gave birth to a dragon son, sun Guifei was made empress, and the original Empress Hu was deposed.
Ming Yingzong Zhuqi Town
Just after the Spring Festival in xuande ten years ago, Zhu Zhanji, who was only 35 years old, died, and the 35-year-old is definitely considered to have died young! It is a pity that the dragon chair returned to the west before it was hot. According to historical records, the average life expectancy of the emperors of the past is also 39 years old, the early death of the emperor is not unusual, the reason why the emperor died early is not that the day is rational and causes the whole day to overdraft, but because the ancients lack the most basic medical knowledge, even the imperial doctor is only engaged in some marginal metaphysical prescriptions, and do not know what is inflammation What is an infectious disease, of course, can not be the right medicine, sometimes a small wound infection will die, The mortality rate of the infants of the royal family and nobles is no different from that of the common people and even the wild gorillas, and the crown prince and grandson can grow up smoothly depends on luck. After the ascension to the throne, Zhu Qizhen changed his era name to orthodox first year in the second year, and Zhu Qizhen was only 8 years old, still only a first-year primary school student, not only did not understand anything, but also would not do anything, so the great affairs of the dynasty were assisted by the empress dowager Zhang Shi, and the cabinet was still presided over by the three Yang (Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu) who assisted his father and his grandfather at that time, so the "rule of RenXuan" of "stopping soldiers and raising the people" that began from Zhu Qizhen's grandfather Ming Renzong Zhu Gaozi was continued in his hands.
Zhu Qizhen's grandfather, Emperor Akihito, reigned for less than a year at the age of 46
Zhu Qizhen's father, Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, Zhu Zhanji, died at the age of 35
Zhu Qizhen, who was indulging in greed, appeared around a eunuch he revered as "Mr." Wang Zhen, who was also the most critical figure who led to the subsequent Ming Yingzong's experience of various dog blood. The history books record that Wang Zhen entered the palace because he had no hope of entering the military, so he entered the palace by himself, but the ancient readers generally despised eunuchs very much, and because of repeated attempts and few people who came from the palace in history, there was another rumor about Wang Zhen, because he was addicted to gambling, lost very badly and could not repay the debt, resulting in being kicked by the creditor and rotten, and then had to be castrated because of the excessive injury of the lower body. In any case, Wang Zhen was also a sage who had been reading sage books for many years, which was obviously different from other dull and pedantic and thoughtless eunuchs, although Wang Zhen was an eunuch, he still had lofty ambitions, and he knew that if he wanted to survive the cruel palace struggle, it was far from enough except to be patient and self-denying. Because Wang Zhentong's knowledge of ancient and modern times, he was selected to serve the then crown prince Zhu Qizhen to live and sleep, Wang Zhen played with him and often told Zhu Qizhen some strange things, making Zhu Qizhen and his relationship closer and closer, which made Wang Zhen stand out from the general eunuchs, and Zhu Qizhen became Wang Zhen's invincible patron! Soon after Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne, Wang Zhen was appointed "Si Li Jian", the highest position among the twenty-four eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty. Due to the high degree of centralization of power in the Ming Dynasty, the emperor gathered great power in one, and things large and small had to be approved by him, even if the emperor had the art of splitting the body, he could not cope with the massive work, so in a specific environment, the emperor's administrative affairs naturally fell into the hands of the great eunuch Wang Zhen, and Zhu Qizhen naturally became the Emperor of Leisure, and he liked this intimate eunuch very much.
Portrait of the Great Eunuch Wang Zhen
A rubbing of the Monument of Emperor Yingzong of Zhihua Temple, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Although the Ming Dynasty drove Yuan Meng out of the Central Plains, the Remnants of the Northern Yuan Regime, Wala, had been waiting for an opportunity to spy on the Ming Dynasty and try to return to the Central Plains. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Wallachia also provoked incidents on the border. In the fourteenth year of orthodoxy (July 1449), on the grounds that the Ming Dynasty was making it difficult for the envoys and tearing up the marriage contract between the two countries and arbitrarily reducing the gift of the year, the Mongol Walla gathered an army to attack the Ming border in a big way, and the Ming army went to meet the battle, but fought several defeats in succession. The Great Eunuch Wang Zhen had led the expedition to Yunnan Luchuan Tusi to win the feat, and also wanted to take this opportunity to continue to show his ability, so he vigorously seduced Emperor Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen to boost morale, at this time Zhu Qizhen was only 23 years old, it was the time of flesh and blood, how could he allow the defeated generals of that year to ride on their heads and hit it off with the Great Eunuch Wang Zhen. Although the Qunchen swore to die, the young emperor Yingzong at that time could not listen to it at all, so Zhu Qizhen, under the slogan of "pro-imperial sixth division, with Linsaixia", sent an army to fight against the Mongol Wa Lai, and the leader of the Wa Lai at that time was "Ye Xian". On July 15, 1449, Zhu Qizhen led an army of 500,000 troops with Wang Zhen, the grand eunuch, to fight in Vala, but the expedition took only two days, and various matters were not prepared, and there was no understanding of the main force of the "YeXian" army, resulting in chaos. Although it was Zhu Qizhen's imperial conquest, all the matters of the march and battle were decided by the great eunuch Wang Zhen, and Wang Zhen was a scholar, who understood the military command, resulting in repeated defeats of the Ming army, and the generals of the group also gritted their teeth and hated this eunuch! What is even more tragic is that the Ming Army has not gone far, it began to lack food, coupled with the wind and rain, the morale of the Ming Army was extremely low, at this time, the army group suggested that Wang Zhenban's division returned to the bow, how to expect Wang Zhen to be angry, still going north. In order to lure the enemy deeper and avoid battle, Wang Zhenfang suddenly realized that he was almost completely annihilated, so he prepared for the return of the squad. At this time, some people suggested that the army return from Bauhinia Pass, but in order to show his might, the grand eunuch commanded the army to pass through his hometown to vent the humiliation of that year, but halfway through the road and afraid of destroying the crops near his house, he returned again, how to expect that the Army of Walla had already come after him. After such a toss in the hands of this eunuch, the 500,000-strong army collapsed. On August 15, 1449, also the 29th day of the Imperial Conquest, the Ming army was besieged at Tumu Fort (near present-day Huailai County, Hebei), and the great eunuch Wang Zhen was once again a riotous operation, the Ming Dynasty completely lost the battle, the army was almost killed, and what was even more shameful was that Ming Yingzong was also captured, at this time only 20 miles away from Juyongguan! At the last moment of the resistance, the guard general hammered the troublesome eunuch to death and shouted, "I am condemning this thief for the whole world!" This is the famous "change of the civil fort" in history. As the first eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Zhen's series of authoritarian interventions were known in history as "Wang Zhen's good government", and the eunuch Wang Zhen's interference in the government eventually led to the failure of the "rule of Renxuan" to continue during the Ming Yingzong period, and led to the transformation of Daming's forces against Yuan and Mongolia from attack to defense.
Emperor Mingyingzong marched in person
Schematic diagram of Emperor Ming's imperial conquest
The change of Tumu Fort caused more than half of Daming's elite to die and injured, and the military generals were all killed, causing the Ming Dynasty to be seriously injured, and before Emperor Ming Yingzong's personal conquest, he arranged for his younger brother Zhu Qiyu to guard the capital division, but this capture caused Daming to lose the king. After the great victory of the Wallachians, he was even more arrogant, kidnapping Ming Yingzong to go south to the Capital Division in the name of "serving the emperor to return", and the "change of Tumu Fort" caused the Ming Dynasty to encounter the biggest crisis in the 80 years since the founding of the Country.
The captive palace women were humiliated