History has long concluded about Wei Zhongxian’s merits and demerits: Wei Zhongxian is a powerful eunuch who harms the country and the people, and is the culprit of the fall of the Ming Dynasty!

In terms of personal moral qualities, Wei Zhongxian is indeed a big bad guy. In terms of consolidating personal power, the cruelty and vicious methods used by Wei Zhongxian do indeed exceed the lower limit of being a human being.

However, even history cannot justify itself: during the reign of Wei Zhongxian, the national power of the Ming Dynasty was still steadily rising, but during the period when the Donglin Party was in power, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed.

But civil officials always have reasons. They believe that the reason why the Ming Dynasty destroyed the country was because Wei Zhongxian had a great disaster to the Ming Dynasty. Even if Emperor Chongzhen and the Donglin Party tried their best, they were still unable to save the situation and could not be saved.

Is it really that way?

Before Tianqi died, he specifically instructed Chongzhen: "Loyalty, virtuous, honest, loyal, loyal, and can be considered a major event."

When a person is about to die, his words are good. Zhu Youxiao gave such a high evaluation of Wei Zhongxian at the last moment of his life, although it was mixed with strong emotional factors, but the main reason was that he realized Wei Zhongxian's soberness and decisiveness in handling "big matters", especially in the key issues of maintaining the overall situation, knowing people well and placing clear rewards and punishments.

But Chongzhen didn't listen. I guess when facing Tianqi's heartfelt advice, the only word that came to his mind was the word "hehe".

Until March 14, 17th year of Chongzhen, the fifth day before he hanged himself on the coal mountain to sacrifice his country, Chongzhen was desperate and heard the words "If the loyalty and virtuous are here, the current affairs will not come to this point" by the eunuch Cao Huachun, who finally understood the profound meaning of Emperor Tianqi before his death and emphasized Wei Zhongxian's "being honest and loyal, and being able to plan major events."

Chongzhen must not help but regret it. It must be known that the person who said "If Zhongxian is here, current affairs will not come to this point" was Cao Huachun, who had a personal grudge against Wei Zhongxian.

Among the many eunuchs in the late Ming Dynasty, Cao Huachun was a typical representative of his friendship with the Donglin Party!

Even Cao Huachun could speak for his enemy Wei Zhongxian, which shows that his words were actually from the heart, and it was a sudden remorse after the pain penetrated into the bone marrow.

Chongzhen, who woke up, was completely spiritually collapsed. The first order he gave after he woke up was to bury the remains of Wei Zhongxian. This was not only his reaffirmation of Wei Zhongxian's value and achievements, but also his complete denial of his seventeen-year ruling career.

It should be noted that during his seventeen-year ruling career, the thing that people talked about most was that his young man succeeded to the throne and used thunder to destroy Wei Zhongxian's group, which made him praise from the government and the country, and everyone regarded him as the only hope to save the situation.

However, this only highlight eventually became the most regretful thing that Chongzhen had, which is a great irony.

It is true that Wei Zhongxian's morality was corrupt, and he claimed to be nine thousand years old and established a temple for himself, and other brainless behaviors highlighted his ugly behavior of a villain's success. But overall, Wei Zhongxian's achievements in the Ming Dynasty were ultimately more important than demerits.

Zhu Youjian said: "Of course I know the harm of the Donglin Party. Although they always act like serving the country and the people, in fact, they still become the spokespersons of the interests of the Jiangnan Gentlemen Group.

They control public opinion. As long as the government is inconsistent with their intentions, they will set off a huge wave of opposition and wantonly attack the government. They also rigorously ignorantly the relationship between the central and local governments, making the court's major policies unable to be implemented locally.

Although the Donglin Party is not short of real heroes and gentlemen who serve the country and the people, they are mixed with fish and dragons. They sit on the side of the Jiangnan Gentlemen Group and will never destroy their own positions. They will always speak for the Jiangnan Gentlemen Group.

When the late emperor was in power, you tried your best to suppress the Donglin Party and collect taxes from the gentry group. Although this kind of action slandered the world, it was undoubtedly a good medicine to prosper the life of the Ming Dynasty. I also deeply believe it."

Wei Zhongxian said in surprise: "Since Your Majesty also agrees with my actions, why not let me continue to do it? As long as Your Majesty trusts important officials like the previous emperor, I will do my best to protect the Ming Dynasty forever."

Zhu Youjian shook his head and said, "Times change, I am not the emperor's brother, and it is impossible for you to give you such great trust. The Donglin Party also understands this very well. As long as you are still in the court, you will become a thorn in the eyes of the Donglin Party, and you must pull it out and then quickly.

In this way, the civil servants who were labeled as "eunuch party" by the Donglin Party members in order to drive you out of the court will definitely fight the Donglin Party to death in order to save their lives.

If the court is full of court struggles and attacks, then no one will focus on the government affairs anymore. Can the Ming Dynasty, which faces serious internal and external troubles, still withstand such troubles?"

Wei Zhongxian was silent. The emperor made the words clearly. It was clear that as long as Wei Zhongxian was still standing in the court, the two major political groups, the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party, would inevitably do everything for the sake of party struggles. On the contrary, no one would pay attention to the officials' own work.

If the Ming Dynasty was still in its prosperous era, the dispute between the two parties would be just a scabies and would not hurt the root of the Ming Dynasty; but at this time it was a period of deep crisis in the Ming Dynasty and internal and external troubles. The endless party struggles would only exhaust the Ming Dynasty's energy, making it difficult for the Ming Dynasty to recover and could no longer be cheered up.

"Oh!" Wei Zhongxian sighed and said sadly: "I understand that for the sake of Your Majesty's country and country, I am willing to admit my guilt and punish the law. I hope that Your Majesty can treat my family well and Keshi in view of the fact that the old Majesty has made some contributions to the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Youjian was a little surprised when he heard this: When did I say that I would kill you, Wei Zhongxian?

But thinking about it, I understand why Wei Zhongxian is so pessimistic. He has indeed been a little cruel in suppressing Wei Zhongxian these days, and tortured Wei Zhongxian so hard that he mistakenly thought that he would die.

Zhu Youjian shook his head and laughed: "Eunuch Wei does not need to be so pessimistic. If you do things for the Ming Dynasty, I can't let you lose your fate. In a few days, you will ask yourself to guard the tomb of Fengyang and take good care of your health. Maybe one day, I will use your extremely sharp knife."

"Aowu..."

No one expected that when Zhu Youjian made it clear that he would not kill Wei Zhongxian, Wei Zhongxian actually burst into tears, crying so heartbreakingly, and he was going to die.

Wei Zhongxian is already in his sixties, and he naturally doesn't look much when he cries. His nose and tears are flying, which makes Zhu Youjian feel very disgusted.

Zhu Youjian had to persuade him with kind words, and Wei Zhongxian gradually restrained his crying and said gratefully: "Your Majesty's great kindness and virtue are inseparable from the old minister. The old minister is willing to resign from all positions and go to Fengyang immediately to guard the imperial tomb."

The next day, Wei Zhongxian indeed resigned from his posts as eunuch Bingbi of the Sili Supervisor and the admiral of the East Factory, and asked himself to go south to Fengyang to guard the imperial tomb.

Before leaving, Wei Zhongxian, who knew the current affairs, donated all his property of 800,000 taels of silver to the treasury, and left the capital with clean arms.

As a result, a new page of the Ming Dynasty was opened.

Note: Some people say that Wei Zhongxian confiscated his family and collected millions of wealth. If it were true, would Chongzhen still be poor? The legend of Fan Weicheng of the Ming Dynasty said, "Zhongxian accumulated half of the wealth, and he returned it to the Taifu, and he could get the salary for several years from the nine borders." This shows that Wei Zhongxian has money, but where did the money go?

That's right, it's just subsidizing national supplies and purchasing military supplies. Yuan Chonghuan's memorial said, "The army and horses and hanging curtains that defend the enemy inside and outside the pass are all purchased with family funds, and they are gradually released and helping military supplies." In the sixth year of Tianqi, in the seventh year, Wei Zhongxian was commended for sponsoring military supplies with family funds.

It sounds unbelievable, but it is the truth.
Chapter completed!