China knows everything for 5000 years

Chapter 54

At dawn the next day, Wacha's pursuers arrived. They surrounded the Ming army tightly and launched an attack.The battle lasted all night, and the Ming army resisted the enemy bravely.He also knew that the Ming army had many soldiers this time, and they would not win if they fought hard, so they resorted to a trick of retreating, and at the same time sent envoys to the Ming army's tent to pretend to make peace.Yingzong and Wang Zhenxin thought it was true, and quickly ordered people to draft an edict, and then negotiated with the military camp first.At this time, Wang Zhen ordered the soldiers to find water to drink. The soldiers rushed to jump over the trench, and the whole team was in a mess.The Wacha army, who had been ambushing for a long time, took advantage of the situation and charged from all directions.The Ming soldiers rushed to escape, and countless people were killed or trampled to death by the rebels.During the scuffle, more than 50 important ministers including British Duke Zhang Fu, Consort Du Wei Jingyuan, Minister of War Kuang Ken, Minister of Household Wang Zuo, cabinet scholars Cao Nai, Zhang Yi, servants Ding Ming, Wang Yonghe and other important officials died in battle.Facing the disastrous defeat, the guard general Fan Zhong hated Wang Zhen, who commanded blindly, and said: "I will kill you, a traitor, for the people of the world." He swung the sledgehammer in his hand and beat him to death.Under the protection of the guards, Yingzong rode a horse to break through the encirclement, even if he rushed left and right, he couldn't get out.Helpless, Yingzong jumped off his horse, sat cross-legged, and resigned himself to fate.The Wacha army rushed over and captured Yingzong.In history, this incident was called "civil engineering change".

In the battle of Tumubao, the elite troops of the Ming army were destroyed. More than 20 mules and horses, as well as a large amount of armor and equipment, all became Yexian's spoils of war.What is even more tragic is that the emperor also became a prisoner of the enemy, and the Ming Dynasty encountered an unprecedented crisis since the founding of the People's Republic.

●Yu Qian defends the city of Beijing
In 1449 A.D., in the battle of Tumubao, the 50 troops of the Ming army were completely lost, and the dead officials died. The king's life was tied to the leader of Wacha.The news quickly spread to Beijing, and panic spread across the court.The queen mother and the empress were so anxious that they cried and found a large amount of gold and silver treasures, silk and satin from the inner treasury of the palace, and sent eunuchs to take the treasures to find the Wacha army, hoping to redeem Yingzong Zhu Qizhen.The leader of Wacha also became more arrogant because he captured Yingzong first. He not only refused to follow him, but also threatened to break through the capital.

At this time, defending the capital has become a top priority.In order to calm people's hearts, the Queen Mother announced that Zhu Jianshen, the eldest son of Yingzong, would be the crown prince, and Zhu Qiyu, the younger brother of Yingzong, would supervise the country.At the same time, the Empress Dowager summoned all the ministers to discuss the countermeasures against Wacha.Minister Xu Youzhen said: "Waci's army is strong, it is better to flee to the south, avoid it for a while, and then make plans." As soon as this remark came out, he was immediately reprimanded by Yu Qian, the minister of the Ministry of War: "Whoever advocates escaping should be beheaded." The capital is the foundation of the country, once the imperial court withdraws, the hearts of the people will be dissipated, have you forgotten the lesson of the Southern Song Dynasty?" Yu Qian's generous speech touched many ministers, and some vacillating ministers also echoed.Therefore, the queen mother decided to let Yu Qian be in charge of commanding the army and the people to defend the city.

Yu Qian was ordered in the face of danger, and resolutely took on the important task of defending the city.On the one hand, he stepped up the deployment of troops to strengthen the defensive forces of the capital and nearby passes; on the other hand, he rectified the interior and arrested a group of spies from the Wacha Army.At the same time, the leader of Wacha also hijacked Yingzong many times to invade the border. In order to avoid Yexian's threat, Yu Qian and other ministers asked the Queen Mother to officially announce that Zhu Qiyu would ascend the throne. Zhu Qiyu repeatedly refused in fear, and Yu Qian said loudly: "We are completely For the sake of the country, not for your personal consideration." Zhu Qiyu was then ordered to ascend the throne as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, calling Ming Yingzong the Supreme Emperor.After Daizong ascended the throne, he also knew that the Yingzong in his hand was worthless, but he was unwilling to give up like this, so he aggressively invaded Beijing under the pretext of sending Ming Yingzong back to the court.

In October of the same year, the Wacha army quickly reached the city of Beijing and set up camp outside Xizhimen.Yu Qian immediately called the generals to discuss countermeasures.General Shi Heng believed that the Ming army was weak, and advocated withdrawing the army into the city, and then closing all the city gates for defense. After a long time, perhaps Wacha would retreat automatically.Yu Qian disagreed, and he assigned generals to lead the troops out of the city and set up a formation outside the nine gates of the capital.

After Yu Qian arranged the troops from all walks of life outside the city, he personally led a team to garrison outside the Desheng Gate, and asked the guards in the city to close all the gates, expressing his determination to advance and never retreat.Yu Qian issued a military order: the general lost the team to take the lead?Those who retreat, the general will be beheaded; soldiers who do not obey the general's command, and those who flee before the battle, will be beheaded by the soldiers in the rear.The soldiers were moved by Yu Qian's firm spirit, their morale was boosted, their fighting spirit was high, and they were determined to fight to the death with the Wacha army and defend Beijing.

At this time, Ming troops from all over the country received orders from the imperial court, and they also successively marched to Beijing to support them.The Ming army outside the city increased to 22.The Ming army was powerful and heavily guarded. They also launched several attacks first, but they were all bravely blocked by the Ming army.The people outside the city also cooperated with the Ming army, jumped on the roof and walls, and threw bricks and tiles at the enemy.After 5 days of fierce fighting, the Wacha army suffered heavy casualties.He also suffered heavy losses first, and was afraid that his retreat would be cut off by the Ming army, so he dared not fight again, so he had to retreat with Yingzong and the defeated generals.Yu Qian waited for Yingzong to go far away, and took the opportunity to bombard the Wacha soldiers with artillery, causing heavy casualties to the enemy.So far, the defense of Beijing ended with the victory of the Ming army.

●Zhu Qizhen restores the throne
In 1449 A.D., after being defeated by the Ming army under the city of Beijing, he was still ambitious to make a comeback.

In 1450 AD, Yexian started a fierce battle with the Ming Dynasty again, but was defeated by the Ming Dynasty army.Repeated military failures brought trouble to Yexian. The opposition within the tribe took the opportunity to step up their opposition to him, and the war brought great disasters to the Mongolians. food etc.As a result, the Wacha tribe complained from top to bottom, and the people were very angry.In order to get rid of this predicament, he couldn't wait to seek peace with the Ming Dynasty, saying that he would return Yingzong Zhu Qizhen to the Ming Dynasty and restore normal relations with the Ming Dynasty.For this reason, he sent envoys to Beijing several times to make peace with the Ming Dynasty, and asked the Ming Dynasty to "greet and drive" back to Beijing quickly.But Daizong Zhu Qiyu reacted coldly to Yexian's suggestion.It was precisely because his elder brother Yingzong was captured that he became emperor. If Yingzong "welcomes back" back, should Yingzong be the emperor, or should he be the emperor?Daizong was unwilling to abdicate, so he was unwilling to "welcome the driver".However, many ministers in the DPRK whispered and condemned Daizong for being too selfish, and they all said: "Your Majesty, if the country is the most important thing, it is better to welcome him back to Beijing as soon as possible, so that the relationship with Wacha can be restarted. " Daizong had no choice but to agree after much deliberation.In July of the same year, Yang Shan, the censor of the right capital of the Daizong faction, went to Wacha as an envoy.This created a big problem for Yang Shan.Because there was no mention of "welcoming the driver" in the imperial edict, as if there was no such thing at all, and the gifts brought were pitifully small, which were only symbolic.Daizong originally thought that Yexian would be angered by this, so that he would continue to detain Yingzong.However, Yang Shan cleverly said that the imperial edict does not mention greetings or generous gifts, which is conducive to the development of friendly relations in the future, and so on.He was also eager to get rid of the burden of Yingzong, so he ordered Yingzong to be released back along the way.

In August of this year, Yingzong returned to Beijing with Yang Shan.Out of etiquette, Daizong ordered all the officials to greet him at the Anding Gate, while he greeted him at Dong'an Gate.The officials were not sure how Daizong would arrange Yingzong. They only heard Daizong say: "Brother returns to Beijing safely, and my heart is wide open. Brother will live in Nangong for the time being and have a good rest. We will talk about it later." Nangong is located in the southeast corner of the Forbidden City (now Beijing South In Chizisanku Hutong).As soon as Yingzong entered Nangong, he realized that he was under house arrest by Daizong and lost his personal freedom.In order to keep his throne, Emperor Daizong made deliberate plans. There were two strategies: one was to make a comeback with Jueyingzong, and the other was to establish another prince.For this reason, Daizong issued an imperial edict in 1452 AD to abolish the prince Zhu Jianshen (the eldest son of Yingzong), demote him to be the king of Yi, and appoint his only son Zhu Jianji as the prince.So far, Daizong felt a little relieved.But he didn't dare to slack off in the slightest, and he was afraid that the restoration of the Yingzong would cause serious disasters, so he sent people to closely monitor Yingzong Zhu Qizhen's every move.

Later, Daizong fell seriously ill, and Zhu Jianji, the former crown prince, died. The succession of the throne became a matter that the ministers were eager to implement. When they wanted to establish a new crown prince, the ministers began to argue again, and they could not agree.Marquis Shiheng of Wuqing knew very well that Daizong's illness would be difficult to recover, so he discussed with his fellow eunuch Cao Jixiang, Taichangqing Xu Bin, and deputy capital censor Xu Youzhen to support Zhu Qizhen again.On the morning of the 1457th day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of Zong Jingtai in the Ming Dynasty (AD [-]), Shi Heng, Xu Youzhen and others used the border police as an excuse to urgently order their troops to enter the city to strengthen their defenses.Then he went to Nangong to meet Zhu Qizhen.When they arrived at Nangong, they destroyed the wall and broke in. Fu Yingzong boarded the chariot, entered the palace from Donghua Gate, and ascended to the emperor's seat in Fengtian Hall.At this time, the sky was bright, and it was time for the morning court.Civil and military officials have come to the palace as usual.Xu Youzhen and Shi Heng shouted: "Everyone, come to Fengtian Hall to meet the emperor in person! The emperor has an important decree!" All the officials were puzzled in their hearts: Daizong had been sick for a long time, why did he suddenly recover today, and met him in Fengtian Hall ?Because the ceremony is held in Fengtian Temple only when there are grand ceremonies, I don't know why it happened today.All the officials entered Fengtian Gate, only to hear the big bell ringing in the bell tower, and they hastened to walk towards the main hall.After arriving at the main hall, all the officials were stunned: the one sitting on the throne was clearly the Supreme Emperor Zhu Qizhen, not the current emperor Zhu Qiyu!Shi Heng said loudly: "Listen everyone, the Supreme Emperor has been reinstated as the emperor, please enter the palace to congratulate him!" Only then did the officials know that a coup d'état had taken place in the palace!Seeing that this was the trend of the times, all the officials turned the rudder with the wind, knelt down and professed their ministers one after another, shouting long live three times.Zhu Qizhen finally succeeded in restoring the throne, which is known as "the change of seizing the door" in history.

Zhu Qizhen's first edict after the restoration was to abolish Daizong Zhu Qiyu and restore him to the throne.A few days later, under the guise of Taixue's "Decree", he announced several major crimes against Dai Zong: "Since he was greedy for the throne, he had no intention of restoring it, but he used evil schemes and turned it into a claustrophobic strategy. He abolished the crown prince and established his own son privately. Defeat the rules, disturb the Yi code, the gods indulge in adultery, trust the treacherous... unfilial, unfraternal, unkind, unrighteous, filthy and virtuous, and gods and men are all angry!" Yingzong ordered Zhu Qiyu to be imprisoned in the West Palace.Yingzong changed the year name to "Tianshun", and changed the eighth year of "Jingtai" to the first year of "Tianshun".After Yingzong put Zhu Qiyu under house arrest, he sent people to closely monitor his movements.One day, the confidant eunuch reported to him: "Although King Kuang is seriously ill, he has improved a lot recently, and his health seems to be much better." Yingzong changed his face when he heard this.He originally wanted to make a good name, and let his half-brother who was seriously ill die of illness, but now it seems impossible.Therefore, he ordered his confidant eunuch Jiang An to bring the white silk to the West Palace and bestow Zhu Qiyu with death.Zhu Qiyu refused to hang himself, so Jiang An had to do it himself and strangled him to death.After Zhu Qiyu's death, Emperor Yingzong pursued him as "King Li" and buried him in Xishan.After Yingzong executed Zhu Qiyu, he "give death" his funeral concubine Tang and others, and killed all his former ministers Yu Qian and Wang Wen.Shi Heng, Xu Youzhen and others were promoted to officials and nobles respectively.When the people in Beijing heard that Yu Qian was wronged and killed, they wept bitterly, secretly collected Yu Qian's bones, and transported them back to his hometown of Hangzhou for burial.

●Zhu Houzhao is extravagant
Ming Xiaozong Zhu Youcheng only loved Empress Zhang all his life, and Empress Zhang only gave birth to two sons for Xiaozong. The second son died early, and the eldest son Zhu Houzhao was regarded as the apple of his eye since he was a child.Zhu Houzhao was established as the crown prince when he was 2 years old.Among the accompanying eunuchs in the East Palace, there are 8 eunuchs known as the "Eight Tigers". They are headed by Liu Jin. In order to curry favor with the future new emperor Zhu Houzhao, they often organize various performances and activities for Zhu Houzhao to play.The young Zhu Houzhao was addicted to it, and he couldn't extricate himself all his life.

After Zhu Youtang's death, 15-year-old Zhu Houzhao came to the throne as Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, and thus began his licentious emperor career.Under the guidance of Liu Jin and others, Zhu Houzhao played more and more outrageously after ascending to the throne.He first built many shops in the palace to imitate the appearance of the market, let the eunuchs pretend to be bosses and ordinary people, and himself pretended to be a rich businessman, and had fun in it.In order to get rid of the shackles of the Forbidden City, he built the Leopard House and Xuanhua (Xuanhua, Hebei) Zhenguo Mansion, which were filled with female singers from Jiaofangsi, Korean beauties, dancers from the Western Regions, young girls from Yangzhou, and even prostitutes, widows and other women. Living a life of wanton prostitution.Later, playing in the capital could not satisfy him, so Zhu Houzhao ignored the state affairs and took his favorite minister Jiang Bin and others to look for flowers and ask Liu everywhere.He often broke into people's homes at night to force women to accompany him. When he met a favorite, he had to take him back to the palace, which made the people complain.

Zhu Houzhao was negligent in politics and licentious, and Liu Jin monopolized power. Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao thought he had an opportunity and rebelled.Zhu Houzhao led his troops to the expedition, but halfway through the journey, the imperial envoy Wang Shouren had put down the rebellion.So, he directed another scene of farce: he released Zhu Chenqi, then captured him himself, and then held a big celebration banquet to celebrate his victory in suppressing the rebellion.Due to Zhu Houzhao's licentiousness all day long, his body became increasingly weak, and finally died of illness in the leopard room, ending his absurd life.

●Zhu Houcong specializes in Taoism
Ming Shizong Zhu Houcong reigned for 45 years. Although he did not reuse eunuchs, his belief in Taoism caused serious harm to politics.He believed in alchemists and wanted to live forever and become a fairy.Soon after he ascended the throne, he stayed in the palace and prayed every day.Since 1534 AD, Sejong no longer went to court.

Shizong devoted himself to cultivating Taoism and loved Qingci.Qing Ci is a prayer written by Taoist priests on green vine paper, which is used to burn and worship heaven.Anyone who can satisfy him by entering Qingci can enter the cabinet and be called the prime minister of Qingci.Sejong was also arbitrary, self-righteous, and refused to advise and protect his shortcomings. Therefore, those who speak out and dare to advise have no place, and only those who flatter and flatter can be favored and promoted.During Sejong's reign, there were fewer honest ministers and more traitors, resulting in mutual strife in the cabinet, and the competition between the chief ministers (prime ministers) of the cabinet became increasingly fierce, eventually resulting in a situation where the treacherous ministers controlled the court.

●Yang Jisheng impeached Yan Song
Ming Shizong Zhu Houpao was obsessed with Taoism, and Yan Song, a university scholar, was good at drafting documents for worshiping gods and catered to Shizong, so he gradually gained the position of the chief assistant of the cabinet (equivalent to the prime minister).Yan Song doesn't have any talents, he only knows how to flatter and flatter the horse, so as to win Shizong's favor.After he became the first assistant, he and his son Yan Shifan formed a party for personal gain, corrupted the law, committed crimes, and betrayed the country for glory.This aroused the indignation of some upright ministers, especially Yang Jisheng, a member of the Ministry of War, who was filled with righteous indignation.

Yang Jisheng, from Baoding.Yang Jisheng was an upright man, and he couldn't look down on Yan Song's behavior, so he impeached Yan Song to Emperor Shizong, exposing Yan Song's ten crimes, all of which had real evidence.The memorial hit Yan Song's vital point, and Yan Song was so angry that he bit back in front of Shizong and framed Yang Jisheng.Sejong was furious and put Yang Jisheng in prison.Later, Yan Song urged Shizong to kill Yang Jisheng.

During Yan Song's time in power, he committed many evils, which aroused strong dissatisfaction among upright ministers.After careful consideration, Yu Shi Zou Yinglong decided to start with Yan Shifan.After seeing Zou Yinglong's impeachment of Yan Shifan, Shizong ordered Yan Shifan to be punished, exiled to Leizhou, and ordered Yan Song to retire.Before arriving in Leizhou, Yan Shifan and his accomplices sneaked back to their hometown, took in a group of Jiangyang thieves, and colluded with Japanese pirates to escape to Japan.This incident was exposed by another censor, Lin Run.Shizong was shocked after reading this memorial, and immediately ordered Yan Shifan and his accomplices to be executed, and Yan Song dismissed as a civilian.The biggest treacherous official of the Ming Dynasty completely fell here.

●Qi Jiguang expelled Japanese pirates
During the reign of Emperor Shizong Zhu Houcong of the Ming Dynasty, the government became more and more corrupt day by day.Seeing the corruption of the Ming Dynasty government, the foreign bandits also took the opportunity to invade.Among these foreign invaders, the Japanese were the most powerful. They repeatedly invaded the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, and the Japanese invaders were called Japanese pirates in history books.The Japanese pirates' aggression aroused strong indignation from the soldiers and civilians of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty government also organized the military and civilians to expel and fight against the Japanese pirates.In the fight against Japanese pirates, there is a national hero with outstanding achievements, and he is Qi Jiguang.

Qi Jiguang was born in the general family. He liked to read military books since he was a child, practiced martial arts diligently, and was determined to go to the battlefield. He once wrote the famous sentence "I don't want to be a Marquis, but I hope Haibo is peaceful". At the age of 17, he inherited his father's position as the commander of the Dengzhou Guard. At the age of 25, Shi Shidu commanded the gold affairs, led the soldiers and horses of 24 guards in the three battalions of Dengzhou, Wendeng, and Jimo in Shandong, drilled the navy, reorganized the army, and fought against the Japanese pirates who invaded the coast of Shandong.

In 1556 A.D., Qi Jiguang served as the commander of the Zhejiang Metropolitan Commander and Counselor with sufficient wisdom and ability, and guarded the three prefectures of Ningbo, Shaoxing and Taizhou.In Longshan (now Ningbo), Jinyun, Tongling and the Japanese pirates fought three battles and three victories.In actual combat, Qi Jiguang observed that the Ming army's discipline was lax, its quality was poor, its combat capability was low, and it was difficult to win a big victory against the Japanese, so he wrote many times to request training for the new army.In 1559 A.D., Qi Jiguang recruited farmers and miners in Yiwu for 4 crimes, organized and trained them into the Qi Family Army, and became the main force against the Japanese.Later, Qi Jiguang created a "mandarin duck formation" suitable for both offense and defense in view of the wide variety of weapons and equipment of the Ming army, the many swamps along the coast, and the scattered small groups of Japanese pirates. He changed his formation according to the location and defeated the Japanese pirates repeatedly.Taking advantage of the gaps in combat training, he wrote "Ji Xiao's New Book", expounding the theories and methods of selecting soldiers, forming troops, drilling, and going out, and using this to train Qi's army, making Qi's army famous all over the world.

In 1561 AD, Qi's army defeated Japanese pirates in Taizhou, Xianju, Taozhu and other places, winning all nine battles.More than 1400 Japanese pirates were captured and killed, and more than 4000 Japanese pirates were burned to death or drowned. It was known as the "Taizhou Victory" in history, and the Japanese plague in Zhejiang was basically eliminated.

(End of this chapter)