Throughout the ages, the status of castrated people has hardly been too high, but in the late Ming Dynasty, it was an exception, and the great eunuch Wei Zhongxian was not like the Ten Permanent Attendants of the Late Eastern Han Dynasty, nor like Li Lianying after that, his power was almost above that of ten thousand people under one person, and even interfered in monopolizing power to influence the judgment of the emperor.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > young man began his career as a eunuch due to gambling</h1>
Speaking of Wei Zhongxian, this is not his real name, as for his original name has no way to verify, he was a local scoundrel in Hebei when he was young, he had not read books, so he could not read, he liked to ride horses and shoot arrows all day, and he was addicted to wine.
Then, under the leadership of his friends, he became addicted to gambling, and because of gambling, he owed a huge amount of foreign debt, so he was very distressed, and in a rage, he took himself to the palace and became an eunuch.
However, at that time, he was very familiar with the eunuchs in the palace, so he changed his name to Li Jinzhong, entered the palace as a eunuch, and during the Wanli years, due to the marriage of the then grand eunuch Wei Dynasty, Li Jinzhong changed his name to Wei Zhongxian, and thus began his career as a eunuch who climbed up a little bit.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > and "married" the palace women</h1>
However, after becoming a eunuch, Wei Zhongxian did not give up the pursuit of female color, and soon after entering the palace, he set his sights on a wet nurse named Keshi, but at that time, Keshi was closely related to the Wei Dynasty who introduced and promoted him, so Wei Zhongxian began to hate Wei Dynasty to the bone.
Once in the warm cabinet of the palace, Wei Zhongxian bumped into Wei Chao and Keshi together, jealousy prompted Wei Zhongxian to fight with Wei Chao, the noisy voice soon attracted the attention of Emperor Zhu Youxiao, after learning the origin of the matter, Zhu Youxian gave Wei Zhongxian the Keshi who originally belonged to Wei Dynasty.
Later, fearing that the Wei Dynasty would wait for an opportunity to retaliate, Wei Zhongxian further instigated Zhu Youxiao to punish him, and eventually the Wei Dynasty was sent to Fengyang as a coolie.
At this point, Wei Zhongxian was even more unscrupulous in the palace, not only designing to kill Zhu Youxiao's concubines one after another, but even the children who were still in his womb, and as many as 3 pregnant concubines died in Wei Zhongxian's hands.
Wei Zhongxian's various measures in the court made most of the ministers dissatisfied, and Zhou Zongjian, Zuo Guangdou, Dong Hanru and others wrote to advise the emperor to execute Wei Zhongxian, but none of them succeeded.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > strike the Donglin Party claiming to be nine thousand years old</h1>
As Wei Zhongxian's power grew, the ministers hated and feared him, so in the fourth year of the Apocalypse, the Ming courtiers began to unite to attack Wei Zhongxian and his henchmen, and the deputy envoy Yang Lian wrote a letter to impeach Wei Zhongxian for 20 major crimes, for which Wei Zhongxian was very afraid, and asked Zhu Youxiao in advance for the crime, asking him to be stripped of his position as the duke of the East Factory.
However, Keshi and other eunuchs interceded with Wei Zhongxian one after another, and Zhu Youxiao, who had not paid attention to political affairs for a long time, felt unclear about this, so he credulously believed the words of Wei Zhongxian and others, and reprimanded Yang Lian and others.
After that, the power of Wei Zhongxian's party grew larger and larger, and later through framing and other means, Yang Lian and others were thrown into prison and executed one by one.
Since then, these Donglin party members have been ostracized and suppressed by the castration party on various charges, and Wei Zhongxian has also used this to consolidate his position and claim to be nine thousand years old.
However, the good times did not last long, after which Zhu Youxian died, and the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian ascended the throne, he knew that Wei Zhongxian was a great traitor and a great evildoer, so soon after taking office, he wiped out Wei Zhongxian's party, and at first Chongzhen decided to exile Wei Zhongxian to Fengyang, but because Wei Zhongxian raised a group of dead soldiers, this angered Zhu Youjian, so he added an edict later, requesting that Wei Zhongxian be escorted back to Beijing.
Wei Zhongxian, who knew that he could not escape the blame, hanged himself in the inn, and after his death, all his henchmen were executed by raiders, and Keshi was also flogged to death in the place where the clothes were washed in the palace.
Since then, the eunuch era of the Ming Dynasty has completely ended, and the Ming Dynasty has gradually embarked on the end of the road.