More than 500 years ago, there was a great battle in Tumubao in the east of present-day Huailai County, Hebei Province. As a result of this battle, the "generation of monarchs" became "prisoners of the ranks", and the 500,000-strong army was completely annihilated. This is the famous battle known in history as the "Civil Revolution". And the fiasco of this war actually stemmed from the dictatorship of a eunuch, who was Wang Zhen during the Yingzong period of the Ming Dynasty.
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang learned the lessons of the eunuchs of the previous dynasties and dynasties, and made various restrictions on the eunuchs at the beginning of the founding of the country. For example, it is stipulated that eunuchs are not allowed to be literate, they are not allowed to concurrently serve as foreign ministers, they are not allowed to hold more than four ranks, and they are not allowed to be in the palace. An iron plaque was erected outside the door, with the inscription "Ministers (eunuchs) are not allowed to interfere in political affairs, and those who are predestined will be beheaded". However, in the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, this rule was broken, and the palace officially set up the eunuch school "Inner Study Hall", selected some smart and clever little eunuchs to study in the hall, and sent university scholars to teach. As a result, many eunuchs approved the chapter for the emperor when the emperor was indulging in wine and having fun, which became a precedent over time, called "Criticizing Zhu.""。As a result, the power of the eunuchs was further expanded, and the situation of the eunuch Wang Zhen's dictatorship appeared during the Ming Yingzong period.
Wang Zhen, a native of Ulzhou in the early Ming Dynasty, had read private schools and was familiar with documents. I wanted to enter the official career through the exam and soar, but after failing to pass the test, I gradually lost confidence. The road to promotion has been blocked for him, and he has to make other plans. According to records, Wang Zhen was sent to the army for violating the criminal law, just in time for the emperor to issue an edict "Those who have children are allowed to enter the palace", and Wang Zhen was castrated into the palace. Wang Zhen knew that if he wanted to get ahead in the palace, he had to rely on the important backers in the court. Later, he successfully found his big silver mountain, the crown prince Zhu Qizhen. Historical records at that time recorded that Wang Zhen was "cunning" and good at figuring out the minds of others. After Wang Zhen entered the palace, he won the love of Emperor Xuanzong with his sensitive mind, and Emperor Xuanzong liked him very much, so he appointed him as the director of the East Palace, serving the crown prince, who was later Emperor Yingzong, and accompanying the prince to study. At this time, the prince was still a child, and Wang Zhenluo used a little means to make the prince respect and fear him, and called him "sir". Wang Zhen, who is quite scheming, also knows that the child he accompanies is the future Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to showing a serious side, he also tried his best to please the prince and dig out his heart to please the prince. Originally, children have a strong dependence, and getting along day and night makes the prince and Wang Zhen inseparable and have a very close relationship.
Xuanzong died of illness in the first month of the tenth year of Xuande. The crown prince Zhu Qizhen succeeded to the throne for Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, and after Yingzong ascended the throne, it was natural to reuse the person he loved, and Wang Zhen relied on his close relationship with Yingzong to serve as the most powerful eunuch among the eunuchs. After Wang Zhen took control of the government, he not only fought against the same party at home and exerted great coercion, but also opportunistically and destroyed the border defense, and finally attracted the invasion of the Warat nobles.
In February of the fourteenth year of Ming orthodoxy (1449 AD), the leader of the Mongolian Wara tribe also sent more than 2,000 people to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. also attacked Datong all the way first, "the soldiers were very sharp, the Datong soldiers lost, and the castle outside the fortress was sunk." Datong general Wu Hao died in Maoerzhuang. The news of the defeat on the Datong front continued to reach Beijing, and Zhu Qizhen, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was instigated and held hostage by Wang Zhen and prepared to march in person.
In this regard, the ministers tried their best to dissuade them, but Yingzong still listened to Wang Zhen's demagogy and decided to recruit in person. After two days of hasty preparations, Wang Zhen took Yingzong hostage and led an army of 500,000 from Beijing.
This huge army left Yongguan to Xuanfu and arrived in Datong in August. Along the way, the soldiers suffered from hunger and cold, and their morale was greatly reduced, and the news of defeat came from time to time at the front, which caused chaos in the army.
Guo Jing, the guard of Datong, told Wang Zhen the truth about the fiasco in various places, and Wang Zhen panicked and urgently ordered the class teacher. Wang Zhen's hometown of Ulju was on the way to retreat, and in order to show his prestige, he invited the emperor to "visit" his hometown. As soon as the army set off, Wang Zhen regretted it again, he thought, 500,000 horses passed through Ulzhou, wouldn't the crops in his fields be completely destroyed? So he ordered to go back to the original way. In this way, the first troops also won time and gradually approached the Ming army. On August 13, the Ming army retreated to Tumubao, and the next day, they also caught up and quickly surrounded Tumubao. Tumubao is a place with no water source, and 500,000 hungry and thirsty soldiers are desperate. Seeing this situation first, he pretended to retreat and sent an envoy to make peace. Wang Zhenxin thought it was true, and urgently ordered the camp to be moved to water. At this time, the Warat cavalry suddenly killed from all directions, and the Ming army was suddenly in chaos, and the soldiers threw away their armor and fled in a hurry, trampling on each other, and countless people died. Emperor Yingzong had to dismount and sit cross-legged to wait for capture, and most of the ministers accompanying him were killed in battle, and the Ming army was completely annihilated. The culprit Wang Zhen had already been gnashed by the soldiers, and in the midst of the chaos, the guard general Fan Zhong beat him to death with a hammer and scolded bitterly: "I will punish this traitor for the world." ”
The Great Battle to Refute Rumors The Tumubao Incident, Yingzong was captured, almost all the 500,000 troops of the Ming Dynasty were annihilated, and almost all of the more than 100 civil and military generals who were recruited were killed on the battlefield. Later, Zhu Qiyu of the Ming Dynasty also raided Wang Zhen's mansion. The results of the search made the new emperor and his ministers dumbfounded: there were more than 60 treasury of gold and silver, hundreds of jade plates, more than 20 coral trees up to six or seven feet high, tens of thousands of horses, and the rest of the treasures were innumerable. Only a year after the Tumubao Incident, the captured Yingzong returned to the palace from Mongolia, and later, after 8 years of conspiracy and preparation, he launched the "Rebellion to Seize the Gate" to overthrow Emperor Jing and once again become the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. However, Ming Yingzong carved the appearance of Wang Zhen with wood and enshrined it in Zhihua Temple. He also carefully repaired a Jingzhong Temple for Wang Zhen, and ordered someone to write a beautiful epitaph, vigorously advocating Wang Zhen's loyalty. These actions of Yingzong are quite puzzling to us. If Yingzong was in a young age before and did not distinguish between loyalty and treachery, then the humiliation of Tumubao has not yet alerted him, and we can only summarize Zhu Qizhen, who is called "Yingzong", with the word "mediocre".