Zhang Juzheng's ending is extremely sad. His popularity reached its peak less than a year after his death, when raids followed. The target of this raid was not gold and silver treasures, but people, because Zhang Juzheng's reforms and changes offended many bureaucrats.
If it weren't for his eldest son Zhang Jingxiu who committed suicide to attract the attention of the imperial court, the Zhang family might have been completely extinct. And what about Zhang Juzheng himself? Even though he has been buried in the ground, there are still some good people clamoring to dig him out.
Digging out the radish and bringing out the mud, although Zhang Juzheng has fallen, can Feng Bao escape? No, and the time to liquidate him was earlier than Zhang Juzheng.
In the tenth year of Wanli, Wanli received a copy of Feng Bao's twelve major crimes, and he directly ordered Feng Bao to be assigned to Nanjing, and confiscated all his property, which is the so-called copying of the family.
You must know that Feng Bao is a eunuch who grew up with Wanli, and there is a deep relationship between the two. However, why did Wanli only raid Zhang Juzheng's house in the eleventh year, and attack Feng Bao in the tenth year?
The reason is that Wanli's hatred for Feng Bao is no less than that for Zhang Juzheng.
Anyone who is familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty, or who is curious about the history of the Ming Dynasty, must have heard of Zhang Juzheng's name. The number of first assistants in the Ming Dynasty was numerous and difficult to count, but Zhang Juzheng was unique.
He was the only Shoufu in the Ming Dynasty who dared to reform and change the law, and this type of ** was extremely rare in the entire history of feudal dynasties. Zhang Juzheng's light is so dazzling that people often ignore that he can achieve such an achievement without the support of Feng Bao, a eunuch.
Feng Bao entered the palace during the Jiajing Dynasty, and his promotion speed was terrifying. Some eunuchs spent their lives doing chores, but he became the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch Bingbi before the end of the Jiajing Dynasty, and his status was the most respected among all the twenty-four eunuch yamen.
Because the celebrant is the head of the eunuch yamen, he can approve and manage other eunuchs, which should not be taken lightly. In the first year of Longqing, Feng Bao was not only the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi, but also the eunuch of the commander of Dongchang, and he was already one of the three kings of eunuchs.
Although he has become the second king, he still wants to become the first king, and it just so happened that the eunuch in charge of the seal left due to a mistake in his work, and Feng Bao took the opportunity to fill the vacancy.
Normally, the position of the eunuch with the palm seal of the master of ceremonies would be occupied by an experienced and qualified old eunuch like Feng Bao, but this time there was an accident, and the position of the eunuch with the palm seal was replaced by Chen Hong, who had nothing to do with the eunuch, and he was originally just in charge of the warehouse.
Why is that? It turned out that the cabinet chief assistant Gao Gong played a role in this. So, why was Feng Bao able to rise so quickly? That's because he was different from other eunuchs.
Some of the other eunuchs couldn't even recognize the whole word, and some were only able to recognize the whole word, and there were only a handful of people who were proficient in scripture and history, qin, chess, calligraphy and painting, and Feng Bao was one of them, Feng Shuanglin, who was known as the "Confucian style".
If he hadn't entered the court as a eunuch, he might have become a showman. However, it was precisely because of his excellence that Gao Gong's jealousy and suppression were aroused.
In the feudal dynasty, the relationship between the eunuch group and the civil official group has always attracted much attention. As the leader of the civil official group, how did Gao Gong intervene in the affairs of the eunuch group? This is mainly due to his relationship with Longqing.
He had tried to use this layer of connections to transfer the power of the celebrant to the cabinet, but Longqing was not stupid, and he believed that if he did, the emperor's existence would become meaningless.
Therefore, he categorically disagreed. In order to control the celebrant eunuch, Gao Gong adopted the method of looking for incompetent eunuchs to replace him, and Chen Hong was one of them. However, due to Chen Hong's incompetence, he was soon replaced.
The next eunuch to serve as the celebrant and the eunuch in charge of the seal was Meng Chong, the eunuch of the catering eunuch. As can be seen from Meng Chong's name, he is in charge of managing the food. Although Meng Chong's work efficiency was comparable to that of Chen Hong, he was able to hold this position until Long Qing's death.
Why? It turned out that Meng Chong knew very well how to please Longqing. Although he was a eunuch, he had a wealth of experience in the matter of clouds and rain, and he also collected various spring palace pictures and sent them to Longqing.
Such an intimate eunuch, how could Long Qing be easily dismissed?
Feng Bao scolded Gao Gong at home, because Gao Gong controlled the cabinet and the celebrant with one hand. Feng Bao doesn't want to suffer a dumb loss, he is secretly looking for political allies, hoping to bring down Gao Gong one day.
He found Zhang Juzheng as his ally, determined to make Gao Gong pay. It is said that Zhang Juzheng once said: "Under the arch of shame, Yin and Bao are life and death, and Fang Si is so tilted." ”
This shows that they had a very close relationship and that they were planning together how to overthrow the high arch.
Zhang Juzheng is the second assistant of the cabinet, and although his status seems to be very high, he is actually only one of three people. Because everyone else was pushed out of the cabinet by Gao Gong.
The way to squeeze out people is to use the official to bring out all your bad things and say it, and even a little bit of chasing after the wind. For example, if you just glance at the buns at a roadside stall, you will be said to be molesting a woman from a good family.
This kind of practice makes many ** unbearable, after all, people want to be faced. So why did Zhang Juzheng and Grohe remain in the cabinet? Zhang Ju is precisely because his ability is not inferior to Gao Gong, and the two of them created "Longqing Zhongxing" together.
And Gao Yi was because the number of people in the cabinet was too small, and he was afraid that he would be called an autocracy, so he was invited to fill the number. After all, Grohe is just an old acquaintance, no**, no**, he can't even afford a house, and he has lived in a friend's house all his life.
Zhang Juzheng had his ambitions, but Gao Gong did not show any intention of retiring during his tenure, and Gao Gong was only in his sixties at the time, who knows when he will die?
Therefore, Zhang Juzheng can stay in the cabinet now because Gao Gong thinks he is competent, but once Gao Gong becomes dissatisfied with him, then he may repeat the mistakes of his predecessors in the cabinet.
Although Zhang Juzheng had a political alliance with Feng Bao, it was impossible to bring down Gao Gong, because the emperor, the celebrant and the cabinet were all under Gao Gong's control, and it was impossible for him to find a breakthrough in these aspects.
Therefore, Zhang Juzheng can only choose to wait patiently, and this waiting process is the opportunity for him to seize the opportunity.
After Longqing's death, Wanli, who was only ten years old, ascended the throne, and Feng Bao became the eunuch of the master of ceremonies. His secret? Using Longqing's edict, Feng Bao claimed that what Longqing said was what Longqing meant, and no one could refute it.
In the days of suppression, Feng Bao always lobbied in front of Wanli and Li Guifei to meet their needs. Although Feng Bao was a good person, why would Wanli question him?
At this time, Gao Gong did not realize the seriousness of the problem, but said to the cabinet self-righteously: "How can the ten-year-old son of heaven rule the world?" Who knows, this sentence actually led to his downfall.
Zhang Juzheng changed this sentence to "How a ten-year-old child is the son of heaven", and asked Feng Bao to tell Wanli's mother and son. Feng Bao hated Gao Gong to the core, seized this opportunity to fall into the ground, and kept saying that Gao Gong wanted to support the vassal king to succeed to the throne and bully orphans and widows.
After Zhang Juzheng took office, he launched three major reforms: Qingzhang Tianmu, the examination method and a whip method. The test method was similar to the current attendance system, which had an impact on the interests of the bureaucracy.
Although this system has tightened the nerves of the **, once the task is not completed, they and their superiors and subordinates will be punished, but it can still be implemented. The reason is that no one dared to rebel against the emperor, and Wan Li, who was dealing with the government at that time, was only ten years old, and the actual decision-makers were Feng Bao and Zhang Juzheng, and there was an alliance between them, and Zhang Juzheng's proposal was naturally approved by Feng Bao.
Therefore, the world of the Ming Dynasty is actually controlled by these two people.
You may be curious, why did the first assistant in Zhang Juzheng's era get along well with the eunuch who holds the seal of the celebrant and the eunuch? This is because Feng Bao's temperament is more like a scholar, which complements Zhang Juzheng's personality, as the so-called world first.
Back then, Zhang Juzheng caught a white swallow, and the swallows were generally black, and he wanted to please Wanli. However, Feng Bao thought that Wanli was young, and if he used strange things to attract his attention, he was afraid that the gains would outweigh the losses.
A eunuch can have such an awareness, how many in the Ming Dynasty? And Wanli's liquidation of Feng Bao may also be related to this matter.
Although the emperor could decide his own fate, Feng Bao and Zhang Juzheng insisted on the goal of cultivating Wanli into an emperor through the ages. Therefore, they not only reported Wanli's absurd behavior to Empress Dowager Li, but also guided him to cultivate in a cultural way.
Although Wanli wrote a good character for Feng Bao, Feng Bao did not appreciate it, and although the words mocking Song Huizong were good, he eventually became a captive. Zhang Juzheng also sided with Feng Bao, believing that as an emperor, Wanli should focus on governing the country, not calligraphy.
Because they understand that no matter how good calligraphy is, it can't govern the country.
In the eighth year of Wanli, his drinking style was very bad, and he even ordered the eunuch to sing for him, so frightened that the eunuch could not speak. On a whim, Wanli swung his sword and cut off the eunuch's hair in place of the head.
The whistleblower of this matter was none other than Feng Bao, who reported the matter to Empress Dowager Li, and even threatened to depose Wanli and make his younger brother emperor. Wanli was deeply frightened by this and wept bitterly.
Although his behavior was despicable, Feng Bao's reports and threats led to more serious consequences. Now that Wanli has grasped the power, Feng Bao has naturally become his primary target.
Whenever Feng Bao appeared, Wanli would immediately shout: "The companion is here, hurry up and sit down." Although Feng Bao had once been his right-hand man, his petty reports and threats had deeply hurt Wanli and made him intolerable.
The fall of the Ming Dynasty was not the fault of Chongzhen, but the fault of Wanli". Although it is true that "a famous teacher produces a good apprentice", human nature is often more important than education.
Otherwise, how to explain that some people who are not highly educated, but can defeat people who are fully educated, such as Zhu Yuanzhang.