On the way to Wei Zhongxian's home, the Wei Mansion, Xue Lian happened to meet Wei Zhongxian who had just returned from serving Emperor Tianqi in the palace. The two groups of people immediately drove together, and Xue Lian also got off his horse.
Entering Wei Zhongxian's carriage, they were very happy to see each other. Xue Lian also joked with Wei Zhongxian: He didn't even eat his dinner, and he was going to the Wei Mansion today to starve Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian laughed heartily and said to himself
There is nothing that can be done about this little brother's rogue behavior.
The relationship between Xue Lian and Wei Zhongxian is quite close. Their friendship has even surpassed the relationship between ordinary brothers. Not to mention that Xue Lian can joke with Wei Zhongxian casually, nor can Xue Lian recruit his own daughter.
As a son-in-law, such private matters are entrusted to Wei Zhongxian. Just from the name Xue Lian calls Wei Zhongxian, we can see the friendship between Xue Lian and Wei Zhongxian. Xue Lian calls Wei Zhongxian "Wei Gong", and Wei Zhongxian also
I really like Xue Lian calling him this way. Because before Wei Zhongxian became successful, both of them were in the palace of the emperor's eldest son (the emperor's eldest son had not yet become the prince), and Xue Lian respectfully called Wei Zhongxian "Wei Gong". Although
Now, people outside call Wei Zhongxian "Nine Thousand Years Old", but Wei Zhongxian understands that when they call him this, they are either flattering or forced by his own power, and few of them treat him sincerely. And Xue Lian treats him sincerely.
My respect and friendship have remained the same for almost twenty years and have never changed.
In the palace of the eldest son of the emperor at that time, there were eunuchs such as Wang An and Wei Zhongxian, gentlemen (civil servants) who taught the emperor's eldest son and his grandchildren, officials such as the chief historian of the eldest son's palace (civil servants), and accompanying readers like Xue Lian
(Xungui), these dozen people formed a very tight-knit small group in order to promote the eldest son of the emperor to the position of prince. And this small group finally established a goal in the process of promoting the eldest son of the emperor to the position of prince.
The bitterness and suffering in this process made parties like Wei Zhongxian and Xue Lian reluctant to recall it.
But when the eldest son of the emperor finally became the prince and successfully inherited the throne, the people in this small group immediately parted ways, and in order to compete for power, they also launched a fierce life-and-death struggle. The degree of cruelty was unimaginable.
. And in the fight with these evenly matched former comrades, although Wei Zhongxian won the final victory, he was also bruised and bruised. In the battle with these people, Xue Lian's attitude towards Wei Zhongxian was that he would never give up.
, and Xue Lian himself is also an important weight. When he was escorted to Wei Zhongxian's side, the dawn of victory appeared in front of Wei Zhongxian.
The importance of Xue Lian is reflected in two aspects:
The first aspect is that he has a high status and influence in the circle of nobles. Because at that time, he once became the companion of the eldest son of the emperor. According to folk rules, the current Emperor Tianqi should also be called
Uncle Master, so Xue Lian had a very close relationship with the royal family, so he naturally became the spokesperson of the nobles in front of the emperor. There is another aspect, his wife, Mrs. Zhang, is the legitimate daughter of the old British Duke, and now
She was the half-sister of the British father-in-law, so Xue Lian's wife's family was also very powerful.
In the Ming Dynasty, the British Duke Zhang family, the Chengguo Duke Zhu family and the Dingguo Duke Xu family in Beijing, together with the Wei Guogong Xu family in Nanjing and the Guizhou Duke Mu family in Yunnan (locally known as the Tu Emperor in Yunnan)
, but their influence on the court is relatively small), together they formed the leading group in the circle of nobles. Although, after the Tumubao Incident, the influence of nobles has been greatly reduced, but their influence is not small.
It is equivalent to having no influence. When Wei Zhongxian fights against an evenly matched opponent, these influences can become the last straw to overwhelm the opponent.
Another aspect is that Xue Lian has a reputation for knowing military strategy in the entire circle of nobles and even in the court. It should be said that Xue Lian's political skills, whether in terms of political sense or political struggle methods, are not very superb. Especially
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, this group of monstrous political struggle masters, whether civil servants or eunuchs, was particularly ordinary. However, due to Xue Lian's knowledge of military strategy, there were few people in the entire Ming Dynasty who knew military strategy.
In the human environment, his status is particularly important.
Here, the author will briefly introduce the political environment in the late Ming Dynasty and the ins and outs of the formation of political groups.
As long as there are any works and documents about the Ming Dynasty, there is one person who cannot be bypassed, and that is the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty - Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor, has two biggest characteristics:
One is that Zhu Yuanzhang had a particularly strong desire for power. In fact, in any dynasty, the emperor and ministers always had many conflicts over the distribution of power, and Zhu Yuanzhang also encountered this problem. So after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the domestic situation just changed.
To stabilize the situation, Zhu Yuanzhang launched several large-scale campaigns to purge heroes. He took advantage of this opportunity to abolish the "prime minister", the highest position among civil servants, leaving the civil service group without a leader; he also implicated a large number of massacres of military generals and nobles, leaving
The Xungui Group was ineffective. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang completely controlled the power in the court, allowing the severely weakened civil servant group and the Xungui Group to check and balance each other. In the end, all matters in the court were completely decided by Zhu Yuanzhang alone. Of course, this kind of
The method of governing is based on the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang is a model worker among emperors, because the intensity of Zhu Yuanzhang's daily work can make any workaholic fall down after hearing about it.
Another characteristic is that Zhu Yuanzhang treated his relatives, especially his children, very lovingly, even to the extent of doting. Zhu Yuanzhang established the government structure and bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty. This system was so mature that it was basically used until
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, he also prescribed jobs for all people in the world, and these jobs could not be changed, but had to be passed down to descendants (such as military households, craftsmen households, etc.). Even whether a craftsman household was a carpenter or a blacksmith was very stipulated.
(clear). So in the end, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that as long as his descendants followed the system he established, they would enjoy the country smoothly and pass on the Ming Dynasty to all generations safely.
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang also had some other small characteristics. For example, he was particularly concerned about the lives of the people, so the taxes in the Ming Dynasty were very low. The commercial tax was only one-thirtieth (think of the current 17% value-added
Tax). Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang killed the heroes, no one dared to rebel because no common people would support them.
Due to Zhu Yuanzhang's prestige and prestige as the founding emperor, some of the systems and policies he formulated greatly affected the government's decision-making after the Ming Dynasty. The policies formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang may be in line with the actual situation during his reign, but with the development of society,
Especially in the southeastern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, with the emergence of capitalism, the policies he formulated were no longer able to solve these new situations. However, because the later Ming Dynasty government wanted to maintain the ancestral system, these untimely policies were also
Failure to change eventually led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty. One of the main reasons for the demise of the Ming Dynasty was that the large private businessmen and landowners had a lot of money, but the Ming Dynasty government, due to policy reasons,
They could not collect taxes from them, which led to the government's bankruptcy. In addition, in order to solve the government's financial crisis, the Ming government levied huge taxes on the vast number of free farmers, which happened to encounter a famine, causing a major peasant rebellion.
It’s really a standard case of government forcing the people to rebel.