What impact did Chongzhen's killing of Wei Zhongxian have on the Ming Dynasty?
In 1644 AD, Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, led his army to capture Beijing, and the city was instantly ablaze. Emperor Zhu Youzhen rang the bell to summon hundreds of officials, but no one responded. He knew that his fate could not be changed, and in order to avoid repeating the mistake of Jingkang's shame, he killed the concubines and princesses around him.
Then, he came to the coal mountain and looked at Wang Chengen, the only remaining eunuch around him, and he had mixed feelings. At the time of the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were still 100,000 people jumping into the sea, and now, there is only one person by his side.
Chongzhen's heart was like ashes, he put on a covering, took off his dragon robe, and wrote: "I died, I saw my ancestors in the ground without a face, and I took off my crown and covered my face with hair." Let the thief** destroy the corpse, don't hurt the people. "The Son of Heaven guards the country, and the king dies. Chongzhen maintained the last dignity of the Ming Dynasty before his death, which is really touching.
When Emperor Chongzhen was facing a difficult situation, the eunuch Cao Huachun once said: "If Wei Zhongxian is still here, then the situation may be different." "This Wei Zhongxian is a controversial big man during the Apocalypse.
So, why did Cao Huachun have such an evaluation of this traitor? It turned out that Wei Zhongxian was born in a poor family, and he used to be addicted to gambling and even owed a lot of gambling debts.
Even though his family was not wealthy, he still did not stop gambling and even mortgaged his wife. His gambling career ended in failure, but instead of giving up, he chose to become a eunuch in the hope of changing his fate.
After entering the palace, he gave full play to his skinny nature, was courteous to the eunuch Wang An, and befriended the nurse of the emperor's eldest grandson, Zhu Youxiao. In the end, he succeeded in becoming the eunuch of the master of ceremonies and the eunuch Bingbi, and his power was enormous.
Zhu Youxiao, the emperor seems to be more interested in carpentry work, but he is not enthusiastic about court politics. As a result, the emperor's power to approve Zhu fell into the hands of Wei Zhongxian, who took the opportunity to entrap the courtiers for personal gain.
At this time, most of the scholars who claimed to be responsible for the world worshiped under the Donglin Party, and they hated Wei Zhongxian's actions verbally and literally. However, the entire Ming Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, plagues were rampant, natural disasters continued, and the country's finances were strained.
This made Wei Zhongxian feel a lot of headaches, without money, how could he be greedy for money? Therefore, he extended his hand to the industrial and commercial and developed Jiangnan region, restored the industrial and commercial tax and sea tax that were abolished in the last year of Wanli, and began to levie on the rich businessmen on a large scale, thus reducing the burden on the national finances.
In fact, Wei Zhongxian himself didn't know, he just wanted to be greedy for some money, but he unexpectedly solved the country's troubles. In the case of years of conquest in Liaodong, Yuan Chonghuan was ordered to resist the enemy's attack, and built the "Guanning Jin Defense Line" outside the pass, from Ningyuan to Jinzhou, almost all the cities were renovated and reinforced, and even the equipment was updated.
If it weren't for this money, I'm afraid Huang Taiji would have entered the customs a long time ago.
Some of Wei Zhongxian's unintentional actions did renew a wave of national fortunes for the Ming Dynasty, but this was not to glorify him. The border generals began to build a shrine for him, because he was their god of wealth, and there were people in the court who were easy to do, so as to vote for his trust, things would be much easier.
Under Wei Zhongxian's continuous suppression, the Donglin Party members were demoted from Beijing, and those who remained above the court were also restrained everywhere, powerless to fight against his eunuchs. During this period, the lives of ordinary people were a little better, the imperial court did not raise taxes on them because of the continuous war, and Li Zicheng, as an ordinary postman, could also get his salary on time, and the rich merchants may have been miserable, because most of the taxes were scavenged from them.
In any case, the situation in Liaodong during the Apocalypse was far better than that in the Chongzhen period. In 1627, Zhu Youxiao died, and because he had no heirs, his younger brother Zhu Youzhen succeeded him.
In his early years, when he was the king of letters, Zhu Youzhen knew that Wei Zhongxian had stolen the authority of the country, embezzled internal funds, and framed Zhongliang, and the Donglin Party members were all patriots, so after ascending the throne, he was no longer like Zhu Youxiao, and let Wei Zhongxian behave indiscriminately, and began to liquidate the eunuch party.
Wei Zhongxian fell to the bottom in an instant, and was first driven out of the capital, but Chongzhen was still angry and forced him to commit suicide. The tree fell and scattered, and the rest of the eunuchs also got the punishment they deserved, and the Donglin party, who was deeply relied on by Chongzhen, returned to the court, and for a time everyone was in the court.
Chongzhen is young and vigorous, but he forgets that the emperor's duty is not only to eliminate evil, but also to weigh the interests of all parties. In all dynasties, the emperor single-handedly fought against the civilian clique tantamount to his own death, so the emperors of successive dynasties either reused capable ministers, or reused eunuchs, or provoked courtiers to fight among themselves, in order to ensure their own rule.
Chongzhen eradicated the eunuchs, but found that he was alone and could not cope with the pressure of the civilian clique. Soon after, he tasted the power of the Donglin Party. Under the banner of not competing with the people, they demanded the abolition of the commercial tax, but in fact it was to protect their own interest groups.
Because the roots of the Donglin Party are in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, they have always relied on wealthy businessmen to provide funds for them to take the examination and become officials. After becoming officials, they used their power to seek political asylum for these businessmen, which is the real *** knot.
Chongzhen is well aware that the country will be more difficult after the abolition of the business tax, but there is nothing he can do about it. The political system of the Ming Dynasty was different from the previous one, and the cabinet chief assistant had the power to reject the emperor's will, which weakened the imperial power and made Chongzhen unable to control the civilian bureaucracy.
During the Chongzhen period, financial difficulties forced him to cancel the taxation of merchants, but the operation of the country still needed funds, so he ordered the peasants to levy additional "three salaries", which made the life of the people more difficult and triggered a large-scale rebellion.
In order to deal with these rebellions, Chongzhen had to cancel some domestic post stations, but this part of the money saved was layered up. In the face of internal and external troubles, the Donglin Party turned a blind eye and only cared about filling their own pockets.
Chongzhen had to cut back on food and clothing to raise military funds for the front, but those ministers cried poor and did not want to pay a penny more. After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, Chongzhen realized the depth of the literati's misconduct of the country, and he said bitterly: "All the ministers can be killed if they are mistaken." ”
Li Zicheng also fulfilled his promise, and after entering the city, he raided the homes of those civil servants and got a huge amount of silver taels. Although Wei Zhongxian is treacherous, he does share the emperor's worries, he is not informal, he just takes money and has to do things; The Donglin Party was sanctimonious, but later it would only compete for power and power, regardless of the safety of the country.
This history warns us that the literati have mistaken the country deeply, and we must learn from it.