Wei Zhongxian, formerly known as Wei Jinzhong, a native of Suning in Hejian, he was playful by nature, and gradually developed the habit of being lazy and lazy, and became a scoundrel in the market when he grew up. Unable to repay his gambling debts and humiliated by many gamblers, he had no choice but to leave the palace, and later entered the palace as a eunuch.

After Ming Xizong ascended the throne, he began to rise steadily, opening the prelude to the darkest eunuch dictatorship in Chinese history. He claimed to be 9,000 years old, excluded dissidents, and arbitrarily dictated state affairs, so that people only knew that there were loyal and virtuous people, but did not know that there was an emperor. After Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he cracked down on and punished the eunuchs, punished Wei Zhongxian's ten crimes, ordered him to be arrested and punished, he finally hanged himself, and the rest of the party was completely purged.

In the second year of Longqing in the Ming Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian was born in a poor family in Suning, Hejian, he did not like to read and write since he was a child, played outside all day long, and made friends with some ruffians. As he grew older, he became more and more idle, proficient in eating, drinking, prostituting and gambling, he loved to gamble, and often hid in Tibet in order to escape gambling debts. When he grew up, he married Ma and had a child, but he still did not get rid of his bad habits and was called a scoundrel in the market.

One day he went to gamble again, and because of his bad luck in gambling, he lost all the money in his hand, and finally owed gambling debts, because he couldn't afford to pay them, so he ran to a restaurant and hid. Unexpectedly, the creditor still found him, dragged him to the street, beat and scolded him, humiliated him, and asked him to use his wife to pay off the debt. Wei Zhongxian was ashamed and angry, and felt embarrassed, so he abandoned his wife and children and ran away from home and wandered around.

During his wanderings, he was looking for a way to get ahead, and after some painful thinking, he finally made up his mind to become a eunuch in the palace from the back of the palace. At that time, being a eunuch was a very fashionable profession, because eunuchs had the opportunity to get close to the emperor, and once they received the emperor's favor, they would enjoy endless glory and wealth, and even the whole family could follow the light. So Wei Zhongxian ruthlessly left the palace, set off to Beijing, asked someone to find a way, and finally entered the palace.

When he first entered the palace, he was the lowest eunuch and was arranged to work as a miscellaneous servant. This kind of day is too far from Wei Zhongxian's ideal day, so he relied on his flattering ability to join the door of the great eunuch Wei Dynasty, and from this time on, he changed his surname to Li and his name to Jinzhong. It didn't take long for him to win the favor of the Wei Dynasty with his rhetoric, and at the age of twenty-two, he had already been transferred from an ordinary miscellaneous eunuch to the eunuch Bingbi, the eunuch of ceremonies, and Sun Xian, who was in charge of the East Factory, in charge of the treasury.

There are many benefits to be gained from managing the treasury, which makes Wei Zhongxian gradually rich. And this job is also much easier than the original job. After gaining a foothold in the palace, Wei Zhongxian reverted to his original surname, and in the days that followed, he tried his best to tie up with the Wei Dynasty and worship the Wei Dynasty as brothers with different surnames. The Wei Dynasty was very happy with him, so he recommended him to Wang Cairen in the harem and made him a catering eunuch, responsible for managing the food.

Wang Cairen was a concubine of Emperor Wanli of Shenzong and the biological mother of Zhu Youxiao, the grandson of the emperor, and the eunuch who managed the affairs of the imperial palace at that time was Wang An. Wei Zhongxian was introduced by the eunuch Wei Dynasty and joined Wang An's disciples, and was gradually reused.

This was an important turning point for Wei Zhongxian, because it was a great opportunity to contact the future emperor. Because Zhu Youxiao was young, Wei Zhongxian grasped the characteristics of children who like to play, tried every means to make Zhu Youxiao happy, and from time to time sent some rare playthings and various delicacies to the prince, so as to win Zhu Youxiao's favor.

Zhu Youxiao's nurse is named Keshi, this is a very urban woman, and she is also very vicious in doing things, and Keshi also knows that Zhu Youxiao is the emperor sooner or later, so he always tries his best to please him. According to the practice of the palace, after the prince stopped breastfeeding, the nurse had to leave the palace, but the Hakka family didn't want to leave, so she tried everything to make Zhu Youxiao feel dependent on her.

The ministers of the court had repeatedly asked the Hakka to leave the palace as soon as possible, but the Hakka, who was good at taking advantage of the prince's feelings, still stayed in the palace. After Zhu Youxiao's mother died, Hakka played the role of Zhu Youxiao's mother. Wei Zhongxian saw that the Hakka family occupied a very important position in Zhu Youxiao's heart, so he showed great hospitality to the Hakka family and won her favor.

Zhu Youxiao became emperor at the age of sixteen and was called Xizong. At this time, the status of the Hakka clan also rose, and Wei Zhongxian stepped up to curry favor with the Hakka in order to climb higher, and finally made the Hakka abandon the Wei Dynasty, the Wei Dynasty once formed a pair of food with the Hakka family, and the Hakka and Wei Zhongxian formed a pair of food, that is, the eunuch and the palace maid formed a nominal husband and wife.

The Wei Dynasty was very dissatisfied with this incident, and began to resent Wei Zhongxian, and tried to win the Hakka clan back. But Wei Zhongxian was very resourceful, and as time went by, the Hakka became more and more alienated from the Wei Dynasty. The Wei Dynasty was extremely angry, and in order to recapture the Hakka family, he began to scold Wei Zhongxian in the warm pavilion of the Ganqing Palace, and then the conflict between the two continued to escalate, and the matter became bigger and bigger, and finally reached Xizong Zhu Youxiao.

In order to settle this matter, Xizong personally came forward and asked who the Hakka family was willing to eat with. The Hakka family said that he liked Wei Zhongxian and hated the Wei Dynasty, so Xizong personally named the Hakka family to marry Wei Zhongxian. Wei Chao knew that he could not change the situation, so he had to retreat to the outside. It didn't take long for this Wei Dynasty, who had helped Wei Zhongxian, to be killed by them in Fengyang.

The Hakka family always tried their best to make Xizong happy, so Xizong was also very kind to her, and appointed her son Hou Guoxing as Jinyi Wei Qianhu and named her as the Holy Lady. At this time, the Hakka family has everything in glory and wealth, living a day of brocade clothes and jade food all day long, every time she goes out, there are many domestic slaves and maids serving on the side, she sits on the eight-lift sedan chair and compares with everyone, and all the subordinates in the palace call her a nine-thousand-year-old old lady.

Wei Zhongxian was also gradually appreciated by Xizong with the full assistance of the Hakka family, and it didn't take long for Xizong to promote Wei Zhongxian from the salary secretary to the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch. The duty of the eunuch is to write and approve the ministers' recitals on behalf of the emperor, and he is the closest person to the emperor.

Originally, this position could only be held by literate eunuchs, but Wei Zhongxian was illiterate at all, and the reason why he was able to get this position was all thanks to the help of the Hakka family. Wei Zhongxian had the emperor's backer and the power in his hands, so he intensified his efforts and acted indiscriminately in the palace. Both the maids and the eunuchs were under the control of both of them, and if anyone disobeyed, they were persecuted.

In order to enable himself to gain more power, the sinister Wei Zhongxian figured out Xizong's temperament. He knew that the emperor was active by nature, especially fond of horseback riding and boating, so he did what he liked and ordered people to go to various places to select the best horses for the emperor to ride, which made the palace almost a racecourse.

In addition, Wei Zhongxian often encouraged the emperor to go boating in the North Sea, and in order to win the emperor's happiness, he and the Hakka sometimes acted as boatmen. Wei Zhongxian also organized the palace maids and eunuchs to line up in the palace, and practiced in the morning and evening, which was called internal exercise. The emperor could command people to fight each other like a general, and the rotten life made Ming Xizong gradually abandon the government.

Xizong also has a special hobby of civil engineering, not only can he use axes and saws, but also can build houses, paint, and most importantly, carve and make small crafts. Xizong was fully engaged in his work, and nothing could distract him, even if there were ministers reporting on national affairs, he was extremely impatient.

Wei Zhongxian, who knew the emperor's temperament, saw that there was an opportunity, so he specially took out the ministers' recitals when Xizong was focusing on carpentry work and asked the emperor for approval. Xizong said impatiently: "I'm busy, you deal with it first." ”

After a long time, the power to approve the recital gradually fell into the hands of Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian began to do whatever he wanted, and many things were no longer reported to the emperor, but decided by himself. There were some things that the ministers knew were Wei Zhongxian's ideas, but they had to do it.

The more powerful Wei Zhongxian was, the more ambitious he was, and every time he left the palace, he sat in a noble and gorgeous car, dressed in brocade clothes and jade belts, and opened the way with gongs and drums, followed by a huge procession, and the guards with swords in their hands were clustered in front and back. Many of the gentry knelt down on both sides of the road and called him nine thousand years old.

Wei Zhongxian's actions have almost reached the point where there is no one before or after among the eunuchs of the past dynasties, and Xizong's cowardice and mediocrity are also rare. The greater Wei Zhongxian's power, the more frightened he became, afraid that he would be retaliated against by others after losing power, and in order to keep the power in his hands, he began to cultivate his own armament.

He selected sturdy eunuchs in the palace to form a forbidden army, and distributed a large number of firearms from the military department to the eunuchs. In order to control this team for a long time, Wei Zhongxian installed his henchmen in the army and made them hold important positions in the army.

As the team practiced in the Forbidden City, the drums rumbled and the sound of firearms disturbed the palace. Wei Zhongxian wore armor and rode a tall horse to inspect the army, even if Xizong was present, Wei Zhongxian dared to ride a horse back and forth. Xizong did not take this matter to heart, and the extreme connivance made Wei Zhongxian more and more presumptuous.

At that time, many scholars in the imperial court were members of the Donglin Party, and a political group was formed mainly by Jiangnan scholars. The Donglin Party advocated opening up the way of speech and carrying out reforms, and had the power to influence public opinion, and also occupied some important positions in the DPRK and China. Ye Xianggao, the first assistant of the cabinet, Sun Shenxing, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Zou Yuanbiao, and Zhao Nanxing, the imperial history of the left capital, are all members of the Donglin Party, in addition to the left deputy capital Yu Shi Gao Panlong, the left deputy capital Yu Shi Yang Lian, and the Du Yu Shi Zuo Guangdou and others.

At the beginning, Wei Zhongxian's relationship with the Donglin Party was not tense, and he respected Zhao Nanxing very much. However, Zhao Nanxing solemnly warned Wei Zhongxian in a conversation not to have any crooked ideas about the emperor and to serve the emperor with all his heart, which made Wei Zhongxian very unhappy. Wei Zhongxian became the governor of Dongchang, and many opponents of the Donglin Party turned to Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian also needed to make friends with the civil and military ministers in the court, and the two hit it off.

He let Tian Ergeng control Jinyiwei, and Xu Xianchun was promoted to the position of Suppressor and Punishment, responsible for monitoring movements inside and outside the court, discovering abnormalities, and immediately suppressing them. At the same time, in order to expand his power, Wei Zhongxian also recruited a large number of eunuchs in the palace. It didn't take long for the celebrant eunuchs Wang Tigan, Tu Wenfu, Shi Yuanya, Li Yongzhen and others to become his henchmen.

At this time, Wei Zhongxian tried every means to vigorously entrap his henchmen and let his henchmen control the key departments in the court, but what Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka did had already aroused strong dissatisfaction among the Donglin party, and they planned to break up Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka in order to weaken their power. Therefore, the imperial historian Bi Zuozhou and Liu Lan were sparse and suggested that Xizong send the Hakka out of the palace.

However, Xizong was very infatuated with the Hakka clan, and he rejected the Donglin party's suggestion on the grounds that the queen was still young and needed the care of the Hakka clan. However, due to the repeated neglect of most officials, Xizong had no choice but to send the Hakka out of the palace, but it didn't take long for someone to send her back. This made the Donglin Party's plan to break up Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka clan fail, and Wei Zhongxian held a grudge against the Donglin Party members.