Emperor Xuanzong of Ming Dynasty Emperor Zhu Zhanji can be said to be a competent emperor. Under his rule, the Ming Dynasty was consolidated. However, his reign was not long.
On the third day of the first lunar month in the 10th year of the Xuande year (1435), Zhu Zhanji, Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, contracted an incurable disease and Long Yu passed away at the age of 38. He has been in office for less than 10 years.
Then the great bachelors Yang Shiqi , Yang Rong and others supported his son Zhu Qizhen as emperor, which was Yingzong.
Zhu Qizhen is the eldest son of Emperor Xuanzong.
First of all, his unique life experience destined his life to be full of legend.
The heirs of Emperor Xuanzong have always been in trouble. The main palace Queen Hu is well-behaved, virtuous and gentle, and is a rare good queen. But she failed to give birth to a prince for Xuanzong, and the most beloved Concubine Sun also failed to give birth to a son.
In order to make her position more stable, Concubine Sun tried every means to squeeze out Queen Hu and become independent.
One day, news came out in the palace that a maid was pregnant after being blessed by the emperor.
She immediately sent someone to hide the palace maid, and then bribed the imperial doctor to tell Xuanzong that she was pregnant, and pretended to be pregnant.
After the palace girl gave birth to a child, Concubine Sun immediately sent people to snatch the child, killed the palace girl and silenced her, and then sent people to notify Xuanzong, lying on the bed pretending to be weak after giving birth. Concubine Sun relied on this baby boy to become Empress Sun, and the child born to this palace maid was the future Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen.
At that time, veteran ministers such as Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, Yang Pu still played an important role in the court, allowing the better political conditions of the Renxuan period to continue.
Ming Yingzong was young and very playful. He felt that several ministers were strictly supervising him every day, which made him feel very bored. Only his companion eunuch Wang Zhen understood his thoughts.
In feudal society, there are many lessons learned about eunuchs interfering in government affairs and causing chaos in the country. When Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was in power, he established rules that did not allow eunuchs to participate in national affairs.
He carved this rule on a large iron plate and hung it in the palace as an ancestral precept that his descendants must abide by from generation to generation.
However, this rule was abolished when Emperor Chengzu of Ming Dynasty was born. Zhu Di, who seized the throne of his nephew through the " Jingnan Campaign ", was always highly nervous. Rumors that Emperor Jianwen was not dead spread everywhere, and the court was full of rumors. Many ministers are not very supportive of him. In order to consolidate his power, Zhu Di needed a powerful intelligence agency. Although Jinyiwei could also perform this function, in Zhu Di's mind, he still felt that the eunuchs around him were more reliable.
After all, in the process of raising the army, some eunuchs headed by Zheng He played a great role.
And they are right next to you, making it easy for you to get the latest information. After
moved his capital to Beijing, he set up the " Dongchang " organization outside Dong'an Gate to spy on ministers and people to see if anyone among them was up to no good.
He made his trusted eunuchs the leaders of Dongchang. As a result, the eunuchs became increasingly powerful and returned to the political stage.
Wang Zhen, the eunuch who studied under Ming Yingzong, was originally a Jinshi.
was sentenced to castration and worked in the palace because of his crimes. Wang Zhen was good at catering to the little emperor's psychology, and came up with many tricks for the young emperor to play every day. Soon he was promoted to Chief of Ceremonies and eunuch. At this time, Wang Zhen became domineering and interfered in the government affairs.
In the second year of Zhengtong (1437), the Queen Mother Sun decided to kill Wang Zhen, and only spared his life after Yingzong's pleading.
Since then, Wang Zhen has restrained himself a lot. However, the Empress Dowager passed away soon, and no one in the court could suppress Wang Zhen.
The eunuch group headed by Wang Zhen returned to the political stage.
After the demise of the Yuan Dynasty, the northern Mongolian tribes fell into a state of chaos and split into three major tribes: the Tatars, the Walas and the Ulyankhas. The various tribes conquered each other, and fighting continued.
The Ming Dynasty government adopted a policy of both tolerance and defense towards the various Mongolian tribes, and granted various official positions to the leaders of each tribe.
During the Yingzong period of the Ming Dynasty, the Wala tribe was the most powerful. They often carried out provocative activities on the borders of the Ming Dynasty .
The grand master of the Wala tribe also often sent envoys to pay tribute to the court in order to obtain rewards by defrauding them.
The Ming Dynasty has always attached great importance to diplomatic relations, and will always give very generous rewards to tribute envoys, regardless of whether the tribute is good or bad, and it will be given to as many people as they come.
The Wala tribe took a fancy to this. In the spring and February of the 14th year of the Zhengtong year (1449), the Wala tribe first sent an envoy of 2,000 people to pay tribute to horses, but they pretended to be 3,000 people.
The eunuch Wang Zhen originally secretly colluded with Wala to resell horses and had close contacts. As soon as he saw that the other party was committing fraud, he ordered the horse price to be reduced in order to gain benefits from it. As a result, the negotiation between the two parties collapsed.
In fact, Wala Ming's tribute was mainly for reconnaissance and to find out the truth of the Ming court. The Grand Master also mentioned marriage with the Ming Dynasty royal family, but for perfunctory purposes, Wang Zhenye agreed privately.
The court disagreed at all, and replied to Wala's edict that there was no intention to allow intermarriage. Wala felt that he had been fooled, and the hatred between the two parties deepened.
When Wang Zhen saw that Wala refused to submit, he canceled the reward, and Wala launched a war in this name.
In order to establish the so-called great achievements and leave a name in history, the eunuch Wang Zhen encouraged the Yingzong Yujia to conquer personally.
Twenty-one-year-old Yingzong knew nothing about military affairs like Wang Zhen. He only had naive ideas about war and hoped to have the opportunity to achieve a career like his second ancestor.
At that time, the main forces of the Ming Dynasty were fighting outside and could not be transferred back at all. The ministers in the court urged Yingzong not to go to war personally, but Yingzong would not listen at all. Moreover, Wang Zhen had monopoly power and ignored the opinions of the courtiers.
So an army of 500,000 people was assembled from around Beiping. On July 17, the 14th year of Zhengtong (1449), Yingzong and Wang Zhen led the army and set off in a mighty manner.
It was raining heavily at that time, and rumors about the unfavorable start of the army spread. The morale of the army was weakened. In addition, there was insufficient food and salary support. The soldiers were hungry and cold. People died of starvation along the way, and morale was very low.
In addition, news of defeats from the front kept coming, and Wang Zhen, who had no combat experience, was at a loss.
Seeing the corpses of the Ming army killed by Wala lying all over the field, Yingzong and Wang Zhen became frightened and ordered their troops to withdraw.
Wang Zhen was from Yuzhou , not far from Datong where the army was stationed. Therefore, Wang Zhen asked Yingzong to give him the opportunity to return home in glory and let the army retreat through Yuzhou. Although Wang Zhen's proposal was immediately opposed by everyone, who believed that it would delay the retreat, Wang Zhen, with Yingzong as his backing, was simply unscrupulous, so the army retreated towards Yuzhou.
At this time, Wang Zhen suddenly changed his mind. The reason was that he was worried that the passing of the army would trample the crops in his hometown, and he would be stigmatized, so he began to withdraw the troops along the same route, wasting precious daylight on meaningless actions.
When the army quickly retreated to Huailai, Wang Zhen ordered to stay in place and wait because the supplies could not keep up.
If Yingzong could have entered Huailai in time, the Oala army would have been helpless. However, the army stopped for a day and night at the civil fort , which was only 20 miles away from Huailai city., and was finally caught up and surrounded by the Oala army. .
The Ming army's water source was cut off and they were trapped to death. He also pretended to negotiate peace first, and took advantage of the Ming army's relaxed defense to launch a general offensive. The Mongolian cavalry broke through the battle formation to cover up the enemy. The Ming army trampled on each other. The dead were everywhere in the mountains and fields. They were unable to organize resistance, and the entire army was soon wiped out.
British Duke Zhang Fu, Shangshu Kuang Ye, Wang Zuo, bachelor Cao Ding, Zhang Yi and others all died in the battle. Wang Zhen himself and his brother Wang Lin also died in the fighting.
Among the ministers who followed the emperor, only Xiao Weizhen, Yang Shan and a few others escaped. More than 500,000 troops were wiped out, a large number of equipment, food and other baggage were seized, and Yingzong was captured. This is the famous Tumu Fort Incident. In this way, Yingzong began his one-year life as a captive.
