The first assistant of the Ming Dynasty cabinet was tortured to death by Li Zicheng
During the period of feudal rule, the responsibility of the court was to share the worries of the king and solve problems for the people. This is regarded as the obligation of every **, just like "fighting to the death", it is the responsibility of every ** in the DPRK.
However, when a dynasty goes into decline, the most obvious sign is that the people in the court are superficial, and they only care about their own interests and do not care about the rise and fall of the court. Once such people occupy the court, then the fall of this dynasty is not far off.
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court was in trouble, and Emperor Chongzhen had ardent expectations for the revitalization of the country, but the courtiers did nothing, and even the high-ranking officials, including the cabinet chiefs, were indifferent to the fate of the country.
When Li Zicheng stormed Beijing, the Shousuke's actions made even the enemy feel disdainful, and finally died of a split brain after being tortured for five days and five nights. So, who is this first minister?
What did he do that was chilling? Today we are going to unravel this mystery together. The origin of the cabinet head and assistant can be traced back to the process of Zhu Yuanzhang's overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.
Although the Ming dynasty had followed the bureaucratic system of its predecessors, Zhu Yuanzhang's unease with the power of the prime minister, the leader of the civilian clique, prompted him to have new ideas. In order to implement his plan, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted a tolerant attitude towards Hu Weiyong, the then prime minister of Zuo, but this made Hu Weiyong more and more inflated, thinking that without him, the country would not be able to operate normally.
Hu Weiyong's arrogance and domineering attracted Zhu Yuanzhang's attention, and his behavior of forming a party for personal gain and expropriating arbitrarily made Zhu Yuanzhang feel very uneasy. When Hu Weiyong's son was run over by a carriage and died, he committed suicide to kill the coachman, completely ignoring the laws of the country.
Zhu Yuanzhang realized that the time was ripe, he called Hu Weiyong to him, and in the face of his crying, Zhu Yuanzhang was always expressionless, but coldly said the words "killing to pay for life".
Hu Weiyong realized at this time that he was insignificant in front of Zhu Yuanzhang. After that, the vigorous "Hu Weiyong case" unfolded, Hu Weiyong's bad deeds were exposed one by one, Zhu Yuanzhang took this opportunity to dismiss the post of prime minister, and the post of prime minister, which had existed for more than 1,600 years in history, disappeared.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of this to get rid of the threat from the prime minister, the heavy government affairs made him feel powerless. Therefore, in the fifteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang set up the positions of scholars in Wenyuan Pavilion and East Pavilion.
The prototype of the cabinet can be traced back to the advisory department of Emperor Zhu, but it was officially established during the Zhu Di period. With the expansion of the power of scholars, the first assistant position appeared during the Ming Yingzong period and became the first leader.
In the period of Emperor Chongzhen, although the eunuchs were eradicated, the Ming Dynasty was terminally ill, and how to resist internal and external troubles became his daily thinking. However, the court ** is fighting openly and secretly, slandering others or secretly making trouble for promotion, which makes the court miserable.
In this environment, Wei Zaode stood out for his eloquence and ability to buckle people's hats, and was valued by Emperor Chongzhen.
With his outstanding eloquence and truth-telling temperament, Wei Zaode became Emperor Chongzhen's most trusted minister. Emperor Chongzhen considered him a rare and loyal man, so he repeatedly promoted him, so that he entered the cabinet at a young age.
However, although he was eloquent, he lacked the talent to govern the country. The Ming Dynasty was in decline in useless debates, and the Qing army outside the gate and Li Zicheng's army were waiting for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow to the Ming Dynasty.
In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, when the Ming Dynasty was in danger, Emperor Chongzhen promoted Wei Zaode to the first assistant of the cabinet, hoping that he could bring a ray of life to the Ming Dynasty with his talent and rescue the Ming Dynasty from danger.
However, Emperor Chongzhen was disappointed again. The second month after Wei Zaode was promoted to first assistant, Li Zicheng's army invaded the city of Beijing. Emperor Chongzhen saw that the general trend was gone, and he came to the coal mountain sadly to vent his dissatisfaction by hanging himself.
The Ming Dynasty fell as a result.
When the news of Emperor Chongzhen's suicide came, Wei Zaode, the first assistant of the cabinet, looked as usual, he no longer cared about the survival of the Ming Dynasty, because he had his own mission. Although Li Zicheng overthrew the Ming Dynasty, he was convinced that he was the talent that the new dynasty needed most.
Wei Zaode changed into his official uniform at home and waited for Li Zicheng's summons. However, after waiting for a long time and not waiting for the summons of the soldiers, he decided to take the initiative to find Li Zicheng. However, Li Zicheng was dismissive of this Shousuke-sama, believing that dignified people would not come to take refuge immediately after the death of the old master.
Wei Zaode's actions were not approved by Li Zicheng, and his fate changed as a result.
He asked Wei Zaode: "Why are you unwilling to follow Emperor Chongzhen and die together?" Unexpectedly, Wei Zaode replied shamelessly: "I am ready to serve the new imperial court, **dare to die?" ”
Li Zicheng couldn't cry or laugh after hearing this, so he handed Wei Zaode over to the general Liu Zongmin. Liu Zongmin believed that Wei Zaode's value was to provide soldiers with silver to pay their salaries, and when he heard Liu Zongmin's request, Wei Zaode felt that things were not good, and he showed that he was a clean official and could not take out the silver at all.
In this way, things became simpler, and Liu Zongmin, as a military general, treated Wei Zaode quite roughly. Under the pressure of the clamping stick, Wei Zaode had to take out the tens of thousands of taels of silver he had accumulated, but Liu Zongmin didn't believe that a former lord of the first assistant only had so much money.
After five days and five nights of torture, Wei Zaode died of a split brain, and before he died, he said bitterly: "I failed to be loyal to the emperor before, but now I can only be ruined, and I regret it!" ”