"The emperor, the ancient heaven, the meaning of light, is called the emperor because it gives life to all things; the emperor, the lord of living things, the sect of prosperity, is called the emperor because of his procreation."
The throne, which symbolizes the peak of power and wealth, was once the throne that many people flocked to, whether the Three Kingdoms were established or the nine sons seized the throne, on the road of imperial power, there was always a dark tide, and the steps were frightening.
However, there was an emperor in the Ming Dynasty, who stood at the top of the dynasty twice, and the story behind him was even more legendary.
Ming Xuanzong
Xuande ten years, 36 years old, reigned for ten years of Ming Xuanzong suddenly died, in 1435, only 9 years old Zhu Qizhen, took over the banner of the Son of Heaven, inherited the throne, the year name changed to orthodox. A child who is only 9 years old is a child of greed, and it is the age of greed, where he knows the good strategy of governing the country and the iron wrist of the superior.
The lord was suspicious of the country, and the empress dowager Zhang Shi listened to the government and single-handedly handled the affairs of the country, and the wise and far-sighted Zhang clan cleared the obstacles for the first young lord of the Ming Dynasty and laid a solid foundation for Zhu Qizhen to show his mighty and hegemonic career in the future.
The Zhang clan knew people and made good use of them, and the auxiliary government officials "Sanyang" were all ministers of the qi stock, and under their efforts, the Ming Dynasty not only did not fall because of the succession of the young lord, but maintained the prosperity of the rule of benevolence and righteousness, and all walks of life in the country flourished. However, this excellent situation began to become delicate with the death of Empress Zhang in the seventh year of orthodoxy.
Empress Zhang
Eight years after the death of Empress Zhang, the 17-year-old Zhu Qizhen gained power at the same time, but also gained the troubles and bitterness of being an emperor, at this time, foreign relatives monopolized power, border wars continued, can be described as internal and external troubles.
Zhu Qizhen, who had been controlled by his grandmother for many years, seemed to be trying to prove his power, and he promoted Wang Zhen, a eunuch suppressed by the Zhang clan, and stripped the "Three Yangs" of their position of power. Under his rule, the Ming Dynasty not only did not have a new look, but led to the dictatorship of eunuchs, and the government and the public were in a miasma of smoke, and the people were also bitter.
In order to secure his throne, Zhu Qizhen must prove his ability, and soon, this opportunity will come.
In the fourteenth year of orthodoxy, the Tumu Fort rioted, the Mongol army was menacing, the whole country was panicked, and there were not many lieutenant generals, at this critical juncture, Zhu Qizhen made an extremely bold decision - the imperial conquest. But the young and vigorous Zhu Qizhen did not think about how much he would pay behind this hasty decision.
Zhu Qizhen left his younger brother Zhu Qiyu to oversee the country, and he took the favored eunuch Wang Zhen to go out with him, but Wang Zhen had always only slipped his tongue and pleasing the emperor, and where he understood the principle of leading soldiers to fight, he had to talk nonsense about the way to use soldiers, such a war was doomed to failure.
After the Battle of Tumubao, the Ming army was defeated, and the 23-year-old emperor Zhu Qizhen was detained as a prisoner, becoming the only emperor of the Ming Dynasty to be captured.
After Zhu Qizhen was captured, the officials of the imperial court, led by Yu Qian, categorically rejected The Blackmail of Wa Lai's demand for benefits from the Ming Dynasty, and installed Zhu Qizhen's younger brother Zhu Qiyu as emperor with the era name Jingtai.
In order to show their determination not to submit to the Mongols, Yu Qian and Empress Sun even ordered that border officers and soldiers should not be allowed to negotiate hostages with the Mongols such as Vala, and although the captured Zhuqizhen people were alive, they were no different from dead, and the imperial court posthumously named him Emperor Taishang, never mentioning the matter of exchanging hostages back.
Under the leadership of the new emperor, the Ming army defeated the Mongol army and successfully defended the Beijing Division, and the crumbling Ming Dynasty also turned the tide under the rule of Zhu Qiyu.
Zhu Qizhen, who was imprisoned in the north of the desert and forgotten by everyone, silently endured all this, and in the face of the humiliation of the enemy and the abandonment of the motherland, Zhu Qizhen always kept his identity in mind - the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who was like a hook and endured everything.
Humiliation and torture have transformed Zhu Qizhen from an ignorant teenager into a lion ready to go, waiting for the opportunity to make a comeback to regain his own supreme imperial power and status.
After being repelled by the Ming army again and again, Wala knew that he would not be able to gain any benefits, so he simply released Zhu Qizhen back to Kyoto, so as not to touch the anger of the Ming Dynasty, and could take the opportunity to disturb the imperial court and win an opportunity for Vala to take advantage of, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
However, Zhu Qiyu had already won the support of the government and the public, compared to Zhu Qi town, which favored eunuchs and did not use virtuous subjects, Zhu Qiyu obviously won the hearts of the people, so Zhu Qiyu, who had finally returned to the palace for many years, was enshrined by Zhu Qiyu as the emperor of Taishang and placed in the remote Nangong, in the final analysis, it was just a change of place of imprisonment, from the north of the desert to the deep palace, it became a place, and what remained unchanged was the bitterness and hidden forbearance of no one.
Such a day was eight years, until Zhu Qiyu was seriously ill and there was no one to follow him under his knees, zhu Qizhen finally waited for the opportunity for the Jedi to fight back.
The eunuch Cao Jixiang and others conspired to support Zhu Qizhen, take zhu qizhen, which was imprisoned in the southern palace, and control the palace gates in one fell swoop, without giving Zhu Qiyu a chance to react, and during these years, the ministers who secretly lobbied fell on their knees in front of Zhu Qizhen, embraced his ascension to the throne, changed yuan Tianshun, and the 31-year-old Zhu Qizhen once again ascended the throne of emperor Daming, known in history as the change of the door.
A gentleman takes revenge, ten years is not too late. After ascending to the throne for the second time, Zhu Qizhen changed his previous hesitation and became fierce and decisive, and he vigorously beheaded Yu Qian and a group of Zhu Qiyu's henchmen, and quickly imprisoned Zhu Qiyu.
But before there was time to celebrate the successful restoration, the heroes who originally supported Zhu Qizhen divided the collective with Shi Heng and Cao Jixiang, competing for favors and seizing power, attracting officials to climb over each other, and the eunuch Cao Jixiang was even given the position of supervising the army, creating the first ming Dynasty to serve as a eunuch as a supervisor of the army, and gradually formed the phenomenon of eunuch dictatorship up and down the country, and it seems that history is repeating itself.
But at this time, Zhu Qizhen was no longer what he used to be, and he was no longer the little emperor who only favored eunuchs and did not listen to others. Because Cao and Shi were really too rampant, the loyal and righteous soldiers of the imperial court joined forces to impeach Cao and Shi, and Zhu Qizhen no longer cared about his feelings and decided to start liquidating the two.
Cao and Shi saw that the emperor was suspicious of themselves, and naturally they would not sit still, so they launched a coup d'état and fought to the death. However, the news of their rebellion had long been known to Zhu Qizhen's eyes, and their usurpation plan like a jumping beam clown had failed before it could be acted.
Eventually, Shi Heng was imprisoned and died of illness; Cao Jixiang was executed by Ling Chi, most of his relatives were killed, and the rest were exiled to Lingnan. This incident arose because of these two people, so the history is called the change of Cao Shi, which is also the third shocking change experienced by Ming Yingzong in his life.
After quelling the change of Cao Shi, the life of Ming Yingzong, who had experienced three major ups and downs in his life, was also coming to an end. Throughout Zhu Qizhen's life, he once used eunuchs, causing turmoil in the government and the tragic deaths of countless loyalists; he was also captured and imprisoned, and he was treated with cold eyes and endured humiliation for many years.
After the three shocks, the national strength of the Ming Dynasty was seriously damaged, and gradually declined, even if Zhu Qizhen began to reuse talents and diligently govern the government, it was useless, and the twice-proclaimed emperor failed to enjoy his old age in peace, and died of illness in the eighth year of Tianshun, ending his legendary life.
Text/Bamboo