On the morning of August 18, the 14th year of Zhengtong of the Ming Dynasty (1449 AD), there were bursts of heart-wrenching crying in the Golden Hall of the Ming Dynasty.
This is the most important dynasty meeting in the history of the Ming Dynasty. In a sense, this dynasty meeting will determine the fate of the Ming Dynasty.
The theme of the dynasty meeting is very simple: Should I escape or fight?
1.
One month ago, Ming Dynasty received information: Yesen led the invasion of the Oirat army. Under the instigation of the eunuch Wang Zhen, Zhu Qizhen decided to lead the army to fight in person. On July 16, Emperor Yingzong Zhu Qizhen ordered his younger brother Zhu Qiyu to stay in Beijing, personally led more than 100 officials and led an army of 500,000 from Beijing, in an attempt to replay the glory of his great-grandfather Zhu Di to sweep the desert.
On August 15, the Ming army was attacked by the Oirat army in Tumu Fort , resulting in a big defeat. More than 100 high-ranking officials below the British Duke 7 Zhang Fu were all killed in battle, and Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty himself became a prisoner of the Oirats.
After General Fan Zhongyu ran into the culprit Wang Zhen in the chaos army, he swung his hammer and smashed Wang Zhen's head, and then died in battle. This big defeat is known in history as the "Tumu Incident".
When the news that Emperor Zhu Qizhen was captured and the entire army was wiped out back to the capital, the entire Ming Dynasty fell into horror. Queen Sun and Queen Qian quickly collected all the gold, silver and jewelry from the palace, trying to redeem the captured emperor. Zhu Qijue, the younger brother of Yingzong, who was in charge of the country, held an emergency court meeting to discuss countermeasures.
At the meeting, ministers, you look at me and I look at you, and they will only cry and have no choice but to do anything.
Everyone knows that the elite of the entire court was destroyed in Tumu Fort, and only a few old, weak and remnants were left in the capital. Moreover, even the emperor was captured. The Ming army can be said to have a very low morale. How can we resist the sharp Yesian army?
Faced with the severe situation, many ministers have made up their wishful thinking: Beijing cannot be saved, so it is better to flee to Nanjing, the deputy capital. Although doing so will lose half of the country, everyone is safe and will not affect their continued officialdom and enjoy a better life.
If you don’t run away and you’re surrounded by it first, it would be too late!
Faced with such a severe situation, Zhu Qiyu, who presided over the court meeting for the first time, was also at a loss. When he asked the ministers for advice, many officials would just cry loudly, and how could they come up with any suggestions?
After the ministers cried for a long time, the Hanlin Academy spokesperson Xu Feng finally spoke. He told Zhu Qiyu: "I looked at the celestial phenomena at night and found that my life has passed away today. Only by moving south can we keep the Ming Dynasty's aura!"
Xu Zhen's words hit the thoughts of most ministers, and many ministers nodded one after another. At this moment, a lion-like roar suddenly sounded in the crowd: "Whoever mentioned moving south again should be beheaded immediately!"
people turned their heads and looked, and it was Yu Qian, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War, , and roared. Yu Qian walked into the hall and said loudly: "The capital is the foundation of the world. If it moves, it will inevitably go. Do we still have to repeat the mistakes of the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty? "
Yu Qian's roar awakened some officials who still had conscience. Ministers such as Wang Zhi, Shang Lu, Wang Rong came forward to support Yu Qian's opinions, which made the hesitant Zhu Qijue finally strengthened his confidence: if you want to not destroy the country, you can only resist Yesen with one heart.
So Zhu Qijue ordered Yu Qian to be promoted to acting Minister of War, and he was fully responsible for the defense of Beijing.
2.
In the 31st year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Yu Qian was born in a family of officials in Hangzhou. When he was a teenager, Yu Qian studied very hard. In addition to the Four Books and Five Classics, he also liked to study military arts. He regarded Wen Tianxiang, a national hero of the Southern Song Dynasty, as his idol, and vowed to be a person like Wen Tianxiang when he grew up.
When Yu Qian was eight years old, one day he walked past a temple wearing red clothes and riding a black horse. An old monk in the temple thought the child was very interesting, so he recited a couplet to tease Yu Qian: "Red Boy, parade on a dark horse."
Yu Qian straightened his chest and replied loudly: "Son of the Red Emperor, kill the White Snake in power! "When the old monk saw that the child met such a neat and imposing second couplet in the blink of an eye, he couldn't help but sigh: "This child will definitely become the prime minister who saves the world in the future! "
Yongle In the 19th year, Yu Qian passed the imperial examination and embarked on a career in the officialdom. When he took office, Yu Qian recited a poem to bid farewell to his family: "Drawing his sword and dancing in the atrium, singing a great song to shake the forest; my husband's intention is like this, and he will not learn from corrupt scholars and sorrows! "
Yu Qian was lucky because Yang Shiqi and Yang Rong were in power at that time. Yang Shiqi admired Yu Qian very much and concluded that he was "a rare genius who will become a pillar of the future! "
It is precisely because of the appreciation of Yang Shiqi and Yang Rong that Yu Qian's career was relatively smooth. Before the "Tibetan Change", he had already taken the position of Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War and became a senior cadre.
At this court meeting on this day, facing the upcoming Oirat soldiers, facing the panicked people in the city, facing the difficulties of the emperor being captured, the loss of all the elites of the Ming army, and the low morale, facing the "escape faction" of Xu Feng and others, Yu Qian remembered his song " Lime Song ", remembering his ambition of "not afraid of being broken to pieces, and keeping his innocence in the world", and facing a game of dead chess that seems unsolvable, Yu Qian still took a brave step: I will take responsibility for the rise and fall of the country!
3,
On October 11, 1449 AD (the 14th year of Zhengtong), Yeshen led tens of thousands of Oirat troops to the city of Beijing and lined up outside Xizhimen. At the end of the city of Beijing hundreds of meters away from Yeshen, Yu Qian was leading the army and civilians of the capital to be on high alert. Everything is showing that a great war is about to break out.
Before the battle started, Yeshen sent someone to shout at the Ming army on the city wall: " The Emperor of Ming is here, don't you put down your weapons and open the city gate to welcome it? "
Yesen's move was very vicious. To put it bluntly, he wanted to use the captive Ming Yingzong to earn Beijing City Gate without any blood. What he did not expect was that Yu Qian had already seen through his move and made a response in advance.
After Ming Yingzong became a prisoner, Yu Qian was eager to feel that the court must support a legitimate emperor in order to stabilize the hearts of the people, stabilize the political situation, and smash the conspiracy of the Tissue to hold Ming Yingzong hostage and threaten the Ming Dynasty. So Yu Qian suggested to Empress Dowager Sun that the country should not be without a king for a day, and asked the Empress Dowager to "the country is in danger and the hearts of the people are surging." At that time, Zhu Qijue was made emperor to calm the hearts of the people.
Yu Qian knew that this practice might bring danger to himself in the future, but at the critical moment when the country was destroyed and his family was destroyed, he had no time to consider his safety.
Yu Qian's strong advice, Zhu Qijue, the younger brother of Emperor Yingzong of Ming, ascended the throne, and respected Emperor Yingzong as the emperor, and was the Ming Daizong. This important measure ended the situation where the Ming Dynasty had no emperor, and crushed Yexian's conspiracy to use Zhu Qizhen to threaten the Ming Dynasty and won political initiative.
Although Yu Qian cracked Yexian's conspiracy, the situation in Beijing was still very strong Crisis. The battle of Tumu Fort lost all the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty. There were only tens of thousands of old, weak and disabled soldiers left in Beijing, and there were not many decent horses in the city. This number of people was obviously unable to resist Yesian. So before Yesian arrived, Yu Qian ordered all the adjustable soldiers in the Ming Dynasty to go to the capital urgently, and finally got nearly 100,000 people in front of Yesian.
Yesian didn't know these situations. He took it for granted that there was only one empty city left in Beijing, and as long as he ordered an attack, he could be taken down in minutes. After using the conspiracy of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty to threaten the Ming Dynasty, Yesiancheng decided to launch an attack at Xizhimen.
The Oirat soldiers who had just won a great victory in Tumu Fort did not take the Ming army seriously. With Yesen's order, thousands of Oirat soldiers shouted and rushed towards Xizhimen.
Xizhimen's guard Liu Ju , Gao Li and Mao Fushou also pulled out their waists and shouted "kill the enemy" and led the Ming army to rush towards the Oirat soldiers.
The Oirat soldiers never thought that the Ming army's resistance would be so heroic. As soon as they came into contact, the Oirat soldiers who underestimated the enemy were charged by the Ming army, killing hundreds of people, and the rest fled in all directions.
Yesen was angry.The Ming army, which he thought was vulnerable, was wiped out by his vanguard. He was determined to adjust his strategy and focus his offense on Deshengmen in the north of Beijing.
Yu Qian also thought of this. He realized that Deshengmen was facing the Oirats and would inevitably be the focus of the opponent's attack. Therefore, when dividing combat tasks, I left the arduous task of defending Deshengmen to myself.
Before the battle, Yu Qian issued an order: "As soon as the battle starts, he will fight to the death. The general will kill the general who refuses to retreat first. The army will kill the general who refuses to retreat first. The latter team will kill the front team!" At the same time, he also ordered the Jinyiwei to patrol the city, and see soldiers who do not participate in the war.
Seeing that Yu Qian had such courage, the morale of the soldiers was greatly boosted, and they all expressed their willingness to obey Yu Qian's command and live and die with Beijing City.
The battle started. Yesian's younger brother Boluo Maulohai led 10,000 elite cavalry and rushed towards Deshengmen. But the Oirats did not know that Yu Qian had already made preparations to ambush the most combative Shenji Camp of the Ming Dynasty in the folk house outside Desheng Gate ("set an ambush in the empty house").
rushing to the front Boluo Maulohai, and you can almost see Yu Qian's appearance standing on Desheng Gate. He laughed wildly and danced with his sabre, and seemed to see such a picture in his mind: Deshengmen was captured, and all the Ming army became ghosts under his sword!
At this moment, the gunshots. The gunshots came from Shenji Camp. They used civilian houses as their base to shoot the Oirat cavalry from all directions. The Oirat cavalry became the living target of Shenji Camp, and many people were shot dead on the spot. Boromao Luohai himself died under the gun of the Shenji Camp, and 10,000 cavalry were almost wiped out.
who suffered a crushing defeat refused to give up, and then turned to attack Xizhimen and Zhangyimen, but all failed. During these days, Yu Qian traveled between the various city gates of Beijing every day, regardless of his own safety, and encouraged the soldiers to fight bravely. Seeing the commander sacrificed his life so much, the soldiers were greatly motivated and guarded Beijing as if they were iron barrels.
After five days of stalemate, I saw that I could not get any advantage. The conspiracy of Emperor Yingzong of Ming to threaten the Ming Dynasty was not realized. In addition, I found out that all the troops of the royal army were advancing towards Beijing. I was afraid that the retreat would be cut off and had to take Emperor Yingzong to retreat north. At this point, the Battle of Beijing ended.
4.
To be honest, the Ming army is definitely not a rival to the Oirat in terms of combat effectiveness, but Yu Qian and the Ming army have something that the Oirats do not have.
This thing is belief, the belief in defending one's own home. People with this belief know that they are fighting to defend their parents and relatives behind them, and their struggle and sacrifice are valuable, so they always have endless courage.
It seems that once the Beijing defense war fails, the history of the Ming Dynasty and even China will be rewritten. Once Beijing falls, half of the northern Ming Dynasty will inevitably be difficult to protect, and the history of the Ming Dynasty will also be changed.
When everyone thought it was impossible, Yu Qian was like a rock, using a miracle to turn the tide and turn the Ming Dynasty into safety. His achievements have long been concluded.
After the victory of the Beijing Defense Battle, many of Yesian's subordinates were unwilling to fight again and proposed to negotiate peace with the Ming court. He also saw that the captured emperor, Ming Yingzong, also lost his value, so he returned Zhu Qizhen to the Ming Dynasty.
The arrival of Emperor Yingzong of Ming Dynasty, the current emperor Zhu Qijue was naturally unhappy, because he, who had just become emperor, would he be willing to give up his position easily?
So he put his brother under house arrest in Nangong, and then abolished the position of prince of his brother's son, Zhu Jianshen, and made his own son, Zhu Jianji, the crown prince. Zhu Qijue's real idea was that he wished that this brother would die soon so that the throne would be passed on from his lineage.
Unfortunately, people's calculations are not as good as God's calculations. More than a year later, the new crown prince Zhu Jianji died of illness. Since Zhu Qijue had no other sons, Yu Qian submitted a complaint from Zhu Qiyu, requesting that Zhu Jianshen be renamed the crown prince. But Zhu Qijue seemed to have not heard it and ignored it at all.
In the first month of the eighth year of Jingtai, Zhu Qiyu fell ill. General Shi Heng colluded with eunuch Cao Jixiang and the Xu Feng who suggested fleeing south a few years ago (he was renamed Xu Youzhen at this time), launched the " Snatch the Gate " and supported the Ming Yingzong who was under house arrest in Nangong to restore the throne.
After the restoration of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, Shi Heng and Xu Youzhen immediately laid their names, arrested Yu Qian, and firmly advocated killing Yu Qian. Xu Youzhen said to Yingzong: "If we don't kill Yu Qian, there will be no legitimate reason for our coup!" In this way, under the joint planning of several conspirators, Yu Qian was finally sent to the guillotine.
The so-called "right reason" mentioned by Xu Youzhen refers to the fact that after Emperor Yingzong of Ming became a prisoner of the Oirats, Yu Qian supported Emperor Daizong of Ming and sat on the throne of the emperor.
After the restoration of Yingzong, we naturally had to find an illegal reason for the Ming Dynasty's rise, indicating that it was illegal for the Ming Dynasty to be supported by Yu Qian, a "trivial minister" like Yu Qian. Since Yu Qian is a "big treacherous minister", he must die.
5.
After Yu Qian was arrested, everyone in the court knew that he was wronged, but because he was upright in daily life, he never formed cliques for personal gain, and offended many people in the court, so not many people were truly willing to stand up and defend him.
Even if some officials submitted memorials to defend him, the emperor, Shi Heng and Xu Youzhen were determined to die. These officials were slight, so what is the effect of their defense?
As a military general, Shi Heng performed very bravely during the Battle of Beijing and made great contributions. But Yu Qian is upright and Shi Heng's generals made a mistake. Yu Qian was merciless when dealing with it, which made Shi Heng very unhappy. He thought Yu Qian wanted to steal his power, so he had long wanted to kill Yu Qian.
As for why Xu Youzhen hated Yu Qian, it would be better explained. After Emperor Yingzong was captured, Xu Youzhen suggested moving the capital to Nanjing, but Yu Qian angrily scolded him and wanted to behead him. Although some people have saved their lives by ceremonializing, they have become a laughing stock for all the people in the world. How could he not hate Yu Qian?
Even the eunuch Cao Jixiang has reasons to hate Yu Qian. After the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne, with the lessons of Wang Zhen, Yu Qian would naturally suppress the eunuch and prevent the eunuch from interfering in the government affairs. Supporting Emperor Yingzong's restoration could give Cao Jixiang a day to make a comeback, so he also wanted to put his humbleness to death.
Yu Qian himself knew this, so after being arrested, he did not defend himself. When being tried in court, an official who participated in the trial sympathized with Yu Qian and was surprised that he did not defend himself. Yu Qian smiled and said, "Heng and others, what's the point of defending?"
Even if Xu Youzhen wanted Yu Qian to die, it might be difficult to find evidence of conviction for Yu Qian. In the end, Xu Youzhen had to tear her face apart and put Yu Qian on the head of a beheaded crime like "welcoming the vassal king".
Although the official in charge of the presiding judge of Yu Qian was Xu Youzhen's best friend, he could not find any evidence that Yu Qian "welcome the vassal king" after searching for him, so he had to report to Xu Youzhen.
Xu Youzhen gave him an answer that made him intimidated for thousands of years: "Although there is no sign, I have the intention."
Following Xu Youzhen's instructions, he used an "intention" without any evidence to convict Yu Qian. This reminds people of another national hero Yue Fei who was wrongly killed. His crime was also based on three unfounded words: "False".
With this sentence "destiny", Xu Youzhen also became a traitor who was cursed and infamous for thousands of years, just like Qin Hui . On the fifth day after the Fifth Day of the End of the Gate, Yu Qian was killed in Beijing on February 16, 1457. History says that "the day the emperor was sentenced, the sky was filled with haze, and all the women and children in the suburbs of Beijing were weeping." After Yu Qian's death, he was buried at the foot of Santai Mountain in Xihu District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, not far from the cemetery of the national hero Yue Fei. These two are both heroes of the Chinese nation. Being able to sleep together in such a beautiful place with beautiful mountains and rivers is considered to be a lifelong life.
6,
After Yu Qian was killed, Xu Youzhen did not intend to let him go, so he sent the Jinyiwei to copy Yu Qian's home, thinking that Yu's home could find something that could be deceived by Yu Qian - such as finding a large number of gold, silver and treasures, so that he could justify his statement that Yu Qian was a corrupt official, and killing Yu Qian himself was "doing the way for heaven."
The result of the house search slapped Xu Youzhen in the face. The Jinyiwei came to Yu Qian's house and turned the corner, but he still returned empty-handed - because Yu Qian's family had no money at all!
Yu Qian's house, Jinyiwei found a tightly locked room and thought there was treasure inside, so he immediately reported to Xu Youzhen.
Xu Youzhen was very excited and led people to break in, but found that there was only one python robe and a sword that Zhu Qiyu gave Yu Qian. Obviously Yu Qian locked them up - because he had never taken them out in front of other colleagues!
Seeing all this, Xu Youzhen had to slip away in shame. The Jinyiwei also sorted out the messy Yu family and left quietly. Needless to say, Yu Qian moved all the Jinyiwei with his integrity, making the Jinyiwei realize that there is still a kind of person in this world, and they only have the world, only the people, but not themselves.
Yu Qian's time from being arrested to being killed was very short, so short that when Empress Dowager Sun, who lived in the deep palace, learned about this, Yu Qian had been killed. After learning about Yu Qian's murder, Empress Dowager Sun was so angry that she hadn't eaten for several days. She beat her chest and stamped her feet and scolded Yingzong, saying, "Yu Qian has made contributions to the country, so she doesn't have to be released into the fields. Why should she put it to death?"
Yu Qian died, so she was happy first. In the following years, the Oirats repeatedly invaded the borders of the Ming Dynasty. Chen Ruyan, a clerk of Shi Heng who succeeded Yu Qian as the Minister of War, was helpless about this. Emperor Yingzong of Ming Dynasty was very worried about this and asked Gongshun Hou Wu Jin what good way to resist the Oirat people?
Wu Jin was not polite and said to Yingzong: "If Yu Qian was still there, he would not have let the Oirats be so rampant!" After hearing this, Yingzong of Ming lowered his head in shame and said nothing.
Good and evil will be rewarded in the end, and no one who framed Yu Qian got a good ending. In the fourth year of Tianshun, Shi Heng was imprisoned for crimes and later died in prison; in the same year, Xu Youzhen was demoted to a commoner; in the fifth year of Tianshun, Cao Jixiang launched a rebellion and was executed after failure. After Zhu Qizhen's death, Zhu Jianshen succeeded to the throne. The first thing he did when he came to power was to order Yu Qian to rehabilitate him. Since then, many emperors of the Ming Dynasty have prosecuted Qian.
Ming Xiaozong In the second year of Hongzhi, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming posthumously named Yu Qian "Su Min" and built a temple next to the tomb to commemorate it, named it "Jinggong Temple". After the Ming Shenzong came to power, he awarded Yu Qian the posthumous title of "Zhongsu" to affirm his lifelong achievements.
I went to Hangzhou once a few years ago. On a winter evening, I visited the cemetery of Tooqian. The weather was a little gloomy that day. There were not many people in front of Yu Qian’s tomb, but there were a lot of burning incense in the incense trough, which means that even in this bad weather, there were still people worshiping Yu Qian.
In front of Yu Qian's cemetery, I couldn't help but recite his famous "Lime Song": "Thousands of hammers and thousands of tempers are made out of the deep mountains, and the fire is burned as if it is easy. Don't be afraid of being broken into pieces, but keep your innocence in the world!"
"Don't be afraid of being broken into pieces, but keep your innocence in the world." This is a portrayal of Yu Qian's life.
Reference materials:
"History of Ming Dynasty·Volume 170·Biography of Biography of 58·Biography of Yu Qian"
Chen Wenmin: "Yu Qian in the Change of Civil and Construction"
