Liu Jin, the great eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, was ordered to be executed by Ling Chi by Wuzong, and he must be executed for three days according to the regulations. On the first day, Liu Jin did not die, and had a meal. The next day, Liu Jin scolded, so a walnut was stuffed in his mouth, and the execution continued, but he didn't hold on to it that day and died, but the executioner continued the execution. On the third day, Liu Jin was cut 3,357 times, and the execution was over.
More than 3,000 pieces of meat that were cut off were looted by the people of the capital, and some people even did not hesitate to spend money to buy a piece as an appetizer. All of these people either have relatives and friends who have been ** by Liu Jin, or Liu Jin is extremely hated for what he did before. So, why is Liu Jin so hated? How did he get to power? How did it fall?
Soaring in a moment.
Ming Xiaozong Zhu Youzhu was one of the few good emperors in the history of the Ming Dynasty, but his fertility was not very good. This seems to be the "custom" of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, all the emperors who are slightly better, most of the heirs are not prosperous, such as Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji only has two sons, Emperor Jingtai only has one son who died young, Xianzong has a first son when his hair is gray, and Xiaozong is no exception, only two sons Zhu Houwei.
Xiaozong pursued monogamy, and there was only one woman in the harem, that is, Empress Yuan and Zhang. The eldest son of the two is called Zhu Houzhao, and the second son is called Zhu Houwei, but Zhu Houwei died of illness when he was a little more than a year old, so Zhu Houzhao became the only son of Xiaozong.
The greatest advantage of being an only son is that there is absolutely no one to compete with him for the throne. Zhu Houzhao was made the crown prince from the age of two to the throne at the age of fifteen, during which no one could pose a threat to him, and the position of the prince was more stable than any prince in history.
On the surface, this seems to be a good thing, but in fact it is a big bad thing, because the crown prince's position is stable and he has peace of mind, so Zhu Houzhao has no pressure, and he doesn't think about how to increase his talents every day, but thinks about how to play new tricks. This is actually not surprising, just like many children nowadays, children with average family conditions and sensible children, always studying hard, hoping to change their fate through the college entrance examination. And those rich second generations don't need to think about it, so they naturally spend more energy on playing, so they ......How many rich second generations have you seen who are good learners?
The one who played best with Zhu Houzhao was a eunuch named Liu Jin. Liu Jin is said to be very cultured, and he is particularly good at flattering Zhu Houzhao, coaxing Zhu Houzhao very happy, and taking Liu Jin and a group of other eunuchs to play and play every day without moderation.
The prince didn't study well, this matter is very serious, but it is not so serious that it is incorrigible. The problem is that when Zhu Houzhao was fifteen years old, Xiaozong suddenly fell ill and died, and Zhu Houzhao had to inherit the throne. Fifteen years old, it is the time when a person's playfulness is the heaviest, if Zhu Houzhao can be the prince for a few more years, maybe in a few years, when the playfulness is gone, he will study hard, and naturally stay away from people like Liu Jin. However, now that he is only fifteen years old, and he is still a child, he has to look at the recitals sent by the ministers, and the words are esoteric and uncircled, and it seems that it is difficult to think of them without a headache. And when discussing with the ministers, they are all about national affairs, and the subtleties are far from being understood by Zhu Houzhao, so they are inevitably boring.
Zhu Houzhao thought about it, how can these things be kicking, catching crickets, chasing rabbits, singing, wrestling, calling girls, and visiting kilns for fun, how can these ministers be as good as those eunuchs around me, and what they say is what I like to hear. So, Zhu Houzhao ordered Liu Jin and other eight eunuchs to be transferred to the inner court to hold various positions, known as the "Eight Tigers", among which Liu Jin was the highest in charge of the "Five Thousand Battalions", so he was called the head of the Eight Tigers.
In this way, Liu Jin went from being a little eunuch who was nothing to becoming a hot eunuch with real power and a celebrity next to the emperor!
How many bad things Liu Jin has done.
At first, the ministers didn't care about the "Eight Tigers", thinking that they were just a few little eunuchs playing with the emperor, but they soon found out that these eight people had done too many wrong things to seduce Wu Zong, but it was too late.
In order to invite pets, Liu Jin and others presented eagle dogs, singing and dancing, horns and other toys to Ming Wuzong to Zhu Houzhao every day, and lured Ming Wuzong to "micro-clothes" out of the palace every once in a while. More importantly, Liu Jin instigated Zhu Houzhao and openly violated Xiaozong's edict and ordered the eunuchs in the foreign army to pay a "contract fee" of "ten thousand gold" each. In the name of Wuzong, Liu Jin also set up more than 300 "imperial villages" around the capital, disturbing the people and encroaching on profits, causing public resentment to boil.
During the time of Xiaozong, the politics were relatively clear, and most of the ministers left to Wuzong were honest people. These people saw that the Eight Tigers were acting so recklessly, so they united to write the Eight Tigers, but Wu Zong ignored them. The ministers were not discouraged and continued to **, and the momentum became more and more immense. In the end, Yang Yuan, the supervisor of the five senses, wrote a book to admonish him by means of a change in the astrological signs, and Wu Zong was a little scared and agreed to deal with the Eight Tigers.
But how to deal with it, Wu Zong and the ministers had a disagreement, Wu Zong sent the eunuch Wang Yue to the cabinet to discuss with the ministers whether to demote Liu Jin and others to Nanjing. This is actually Wuzong making concessions, but the cabinet headed by Liu Jian, the minister of Gu Ming, resolutely disagreed, and asked Wuzong to kill Liu Jin. Wu Zong saw that everyone was against the Eight Tigers, so he was ready to agree.
Here Liu Jian and others were ready to continue to enter the palace to admonish in order to strengthen Wuzong's determination to kill Liu Jin and others, but unexpectedly there was a traitor at this time, that is, Jiao Fang, the secretary of the ministry, Jiao Fang told Liu Jin the situation secretly, Liu Jin was able to act in advance, and took the Eight Tigers and others to Wuzong to cry, talking about the happy time of playing together, Wuzong was also a little unbearable.
Next, Liu Jin's words directly changed the direction of things, Liu Jin said to Wuzong, "The eunuch Wang Yue colluded with the cabinet ministers to get rid of us, in fact, it was to restrict your majesty's access, think about it, we are just doing some things like flying eagle hounds, how can it affect national affairs?" If the eunuchs are of the same mind as you, then how dare these civil officials persecute you? ”
Sure enough, Wuzong was furious after hearing this, and felt that as an emperor, he would be persecuted by his courtiers, and was very dissatisfied, and decided to put on the prestige of the emperor, not only did not punish the Eight Tigers in the canon, but also ordered Liu Jin to be in charge of the ceremonial supervisor, Ma Yongcheng was in charge of the East Factory, and Gu Da was in charge of the West Factory, and Wang Yue was arrested overnight and sent to Nanjing to fill the army.
University scholars Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and Li Dongyang were forced to ask for resignation, and Wu Zong approved the resignation of Liu and Xie, but left Li Dongyang. Li Dongyang no longer insisted on resigning, and stayed in the cabinet with humiliation and burden, so as to rescue those upright people who were ** by Liu Jin**. The vacancies of Liu and Xie were filled by Jiao Fang and Wang Wei. Jiao Fang is a villain, and Wang Wei is a gentleman. Wang Wei was recommended by the minister and was a gentleman. And Jiao Fang was forcibly stuffed in by Liu Jin. In addition, the Hangul of the Household Department was also ordered to give office.
After this battle, the Eight Tigers won a complete victory, and no one could shake their status, and Liu Jin was even more arrogant and arrogant. All the ministers who had opposed him were ordered to resign or framed and belittled. If the relatives and friends of these people try to rescue them, they will be wiped out by Liu Jin, and so on, often one person is killed, and dozens of people are implicated in losing their officials and dying.
For example, when Liu Jian and others resigned, Nanjing sent a letter to Dai Mo and six others in the matter asking Wuzong to retain them, so they were hated by Liu Jin. Liu Jian and the others walked well, and Dai Mo and the other six people were all punished with canes. Fifteen people, including Yushi Bo Yanhui, were demoted because they had spoken for Dai Mo and others, some were demoted, some were forced to resign, and some were cut down. After Dai Mill was convicted, Wang Shouren, the director of the Ministry of Military Selection, and others were demoted or beaten with a rod for saving Dai Mill and others. Wang Shouren, the famous Wang Yangming, was beaten with a cane for forty because he angered Liu Jin, and was demoted to Guizhou Longchang as a post house. Liu Jin felt incomprehensible and sent people to chase and kill along the way, but Wang Yangming faked and committed suicide by diving to escape.
In addition to wantonly killing Zhongliang, Liu Jin also wantonly amassed wealth. All the eunuchs who were guarding outside the town should give him 10,000 taels of silver per person as usual, and the eunuchs are still like this, and those foreign officials who served as Shangshu and governors can be imagined. When the first pilgrimage from all over the country to Beijing is to pay him a bribe, which is called a "meeting gift". Although it is easy to send thousands of taels, it may not be beneficial to send it in, but no one dares not to send it. For Liu Jin, there are too many people who come to give gifts, and he may not know who came, but who didn't come, he knows it clearly.
In the first half of Wuzong's reign, it was tantamount to giving the emperor to Liu Jin, and Liu Jin could say nothing about the appointment, promotion, and promotion of **, and he didn't need to tell Wuzong. Therefore, from the princes, ministers, and relatives below, they did not dare to fight against him, and every time they met Liu Jin in private, they all knelt down one after another.
How Liu Jin fell.
Historical events are always full of coincidences, or many things are destined to happen. When the ministers failed to act, the righteous people all chose to leave the court on their own initiative, and only Li Dongyang stayed in the cabinet. At that time, some people ridiculed Li Dongyang, saying that he was greedy for life and death, greedy for wealth and wealth, and compromised with Liu Jin to keep his position as a scholar. But Li Dongyang cried and said, "If I don't stay, I'm afraid that all the monarchs will die without a place to be buried!" ”
Facts have proved that Li Dongyang is a responsible person, he stayed in the cabinet, used his influence to save many people, including a person named Yang Yiqing, who changed history.
Yang Yiqing was a jinshi in the Chenghua eight-year examination, from the official of the Zhongshu House to the governor of Shaanxi, and was sponsored by Liu Daxia as the "trilateral general system", and he was very good at fighting. Yang Yiqing wanted to build the Great Wall in the western section, but because he refused to bribe Liu Jin, he was falsely accused of ** and imprisoned. Li Dongyang and Wang Wei managed to rescue him, and Yang Yiqing went home to live in seclusion.
In April of the fifth year of Zhengde, Zhu Xuan, the king of Anhua who lived in Ningxia, rebelled in the name of "Qingjun side", and Wuzong hurriedly invited Yang Yiqing to be the "general military affairs" and sent the eunuch Zhang Yong as the supervisor of the army to Ningxia to resist. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yang Yiqing said that Zhang Yong was moved to deal with Liu Jin together.
Zhang Yong and Liu Jin were originally in the same group and were one of the Eight Tigers, but after Liu Jin gained power, he didn't buy Zhang Yong's account, and there was a rift between the two. And Yang Yiqing's words to persuade Zhang Yong were by no means big words such as justice and loyalty, but a real set of rhetoric of "replacing Liu Jin", Zhang Yong was really moved.
After returning from the rebellion, Zhang Yong reported Liu Jin's seventeen major crimes to Wuzong, and Wuzong didn't believe it very much, but at this time he happened to be drunk, so he ordered Liu Jin to be arrested for interrogation (it can be seen that Zhang Yong is also a person who will seize opportunities). Zhang Yong knew the truth of the speed of soldiers, and sent people to lead troops to arrest Liu Jin that night and raided his home.
This copy, sure enough, there was a problem, not only found out **2.5 million taels, **50 million taels, and countless other treasures, but also counterfeit seals, jade belts and other contraband, and two daggers were also found in the fan that Liu Jin often held. Liu Jin often fanned Wu Zong with a fan, and there was a dagger hidden in the fan, wasn't he preparing to assassinate Wu Zong? Wuzong was really furious, convicted Liu Jin of treason, issued an edict to execute Liu Jin Lingchi, and abolished all the measures taken by Liu Jin when he changed the law.
In ancient China, Ling Chi can be said to be the most cruel punishment, but it is rarely used, even if it is a felony of rebellion and rebellion, most of them are beheaded, or hanged, and Ling Chi will not be used easily. Wuzong ordered Liu Jin Ling Chi to be executed, probably because he felt that he trusted Liu Jin so much, and Liu Jin actually wanted to secretly murder him, and he had a feeling of being betrayed, so he was extremely angry, so he ordered Ling Chi.
And a person like Liu Jin will not have any real friends, once he falls, no one will take the risk of saying a good word for him, so as long as Wu Zong speaks, Liu Jin's fate by Ling Chi is already doomed.
In the five years of Zhengde, Liu Jin, who had been a powerful and blessed person for five years, was sentenced to Ling Chi in public. The executioner started to move the knife from the left and right of Liu Jin's chest, and shouted for a while every ten cuts, which actually made Liu Jin take a breath so that he could accept the next ten knives.
On the first day, Liu Jin was cut 357 times, but he didn't die, and he drank two bowls of porridge after he went back.
The next day, Liu Jin scolded loudly, exposing a lot of Wuzong's privacy, and the executioner stuffed walnuts into his mouth and continued the execution. After dozens of knives, Liu Jin couldn't bear it anymore and died of anger.
On the third day, the executioner continued the execution until 3,357 knives were cut, that is, Liu Jin was divided into at least 3,358 pieces. The common people rushed up to snatch the cut flesh and blood to pay tribute to those relatives and friends who had been killed by Liu Jin**, or used it to drink wine to relieve the hatred in their hearts.
To sum up, Liu Jin's fall and execution by Ling Chi was not the reason why a good guy defeated a bad guy, and justice was late but would not be absent, but the result of contradictions and infighting within Liu Jin's group. But no matter how miserable Liu Jin died, he deserved it, he only hated that there were no drugs such as heart boosters in ancient times, otherwise Liu Jin would have to be sober to endure the 3357 knives no matter what!