The ministers led by Li Yingsheng, the imperial historian, went up one after another to expose the various crimes committed by Wei Zhongxian, but Xizong did not see the ministers' concerts, because all the concerts had to be reviewed by Wei Zhongxian before being forwarded to Xizong.

When Wei Zhongxian found out that there was a note of impeachment against him, he withheld it, and then rebuked the ministers in the name of Xizong. Wei Zhongxian instructed his henchmen to give Fu Yue and his nephew Fu Yingxing false accusations against Wang Wenyan to Xizong, who listened to and believed it, arrested Wang Wenyan and imprisoned him, and handed him over to Liu Qiao, the head of the Zhenfu Division, for trial, and finally Wang Wenyan was punished by the court staff and dismissed. Wei Zhongxian thought that Liu Qiao's punishment of Wang Wenyan was too light, and in a fit of anger, he dismissed Liu Qiao and pushed one of his henchmen, Xu Xianchun, to the post of the head of the Fu Division.

Yang Lian, the deputy capital imperial historian, was very indignant when he saw Wei Zhongxian's lawlessness, and Yang Lian sorted out Wei Zhongxian's actions into twenty-four counts, risking his life to play Xizong.

The chapter wrote: "The first crime, Wei Zhongxian was originally a scoundrel in the market, middle-aged and clean into the palace, after winning the emperor's trust, he arbitrarily disrupted the government and destroyed the ancestral cabinet voting system. The second crime, in order to get rid of dissidents, Wei Zhongxian instructed his henchmen Sun Jie to frame the ministers Liu Yiliao and Zhou Jiamo, which led to the departure of the two, and the emperor was charged with expelling the old ministers of the previous dynasty. The third crime is that Wei Zhongxian's rewards and punishments are unclear, reversing right and wrong, excluding the fair and selfless loyal ministers Sun Shenxing and Zou Yuanbiao, and protecting Fang Congzhe, who created chaos......"

The above words are true, but the people around the emperor are afraid of the power of the eunuchs and do not dare to play, and no one plays the hundreds of officials in the outer court to watch the development of the situation. Although some people exposed the crimes of the eunuch, the Hakka exonerated him in front of the emperor, so that the lawless eunuch still went his own way. ”

"Now the eunuchs are leaning on the door wall, and the big and small things in the palace are all loyal and virtuous. The emperor is in the prime of life, how can he be subject to eunuchs and villains? The emperor is asked to summon hundreds of civil and military officials, severely punish him, correct the law of the country, and send the Hakka out of the palace to eliminate hidden dangers. If you can get rid of this great harm for the country, even if you die, you will not hesitate to ......"

Any one of the charges made by Yang Lian in the recital could put Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka clan to death, and the news of Yang Lian's recital soon spread among the hundred officials, and all the righteous ministers admired him. After Wei Zhongxian saw the concerto, he thought that this matter was not trivial, so he took advantage of the fact that the concerto had not yet been handed over to Xizong, and hurriedly gathered the Hakka family and Wang Tigan and other henchmen together to discuss countermeasures.

After some conspiracy, everyone went to Xizong together, and Wei Zhongxian came to the emperor and cried: "The slave is dedicated to doing things for the emperor, but I didn't expect to be maliciously slandered by Yang Lian and others." Even if a slave dies, he will not be able to repay the emperor's kindness, so how can he do something unfavorable to the emperor? I beg the emperor to remove me from the position of a slave so that I can devote myself to serving the emperor. ”

The Hakka family also took the opportunity to say that Wei Zhongxian was loyal and had never done anything illegal, and Yang Lian and others were framing Wei Zhongxian. At this time, Xizong did not read the recital, but ordered Wang Tigan on the side to read it to him, and Wang Tigan deliberately distorted the original meaning when reading Yang Lian's recital according to the plan formulated in advance, and omitted the key points. After reading each article, Wei Zhongxian defended himself, and under their confusion, Xizong not only did not blame Wei Zhongxian, but thought that Yang Lian was chasing after the wind and shadows, and ordered Yang Lian to be reprimanded.

The emperor's rebuke of Yang Lian made the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty very angry, and more than 70 ministers from the imperial history Zuo Guangdou, Tuntian Shilang Zhong Wan Jing, Du Shi Wei Dazhong, Chen Liangxun to the matter, and Yuan Hua Zhong to the imperial history, jointly petitioned for the impeachment of Wei Zhongxian.

Yuan Huazhong, the imperial historian of Henan Province, wrote in the recital: "Wei Zhongxian obscured the sun and the moon, acted as a blessing, regarded the minister as a slave, and reprimanded the official as an orphan...... The government and the opposition are in danger, and the people and gods are angry. ”

Li Yingsheng also wrote solemnly in the recital: "Yang Lian's impeachment of the eunuch Wei Zhongxian's 24 cardinal crimes is not what Yang Lian said alone, but the common voice of hundreds of officials in the court. ”

In the following days, more than 100 pieces were presented to the imperial court, and Ye Xianggao, an important cabinet minister, and Weng Zhengchun, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, also strongly advocated that Wei Zhongxian be expelled from the palace. But the mediocre Xizong not only did not adopt everyone's opinions, but defended Wei Zhongxian: "Political affairs are personally judged by me. ”

and handed over the matter to Wei Zhongxian himself, Wei Zhongxian knew that Xizong intended to favor him, so after Xizong left the court, he immediately reprimanded the ministers in the name of Xizong. He then instructed his henchmen to collect a list of ministers who were enemies of him, and began to plan what to do with them.

It didn't take long for Langzhong Wan Liao of the Ministry of Industry to go up again: "Wei Zhongxian is cunning by nature, insatiable, has nothing to do, and frames Zhongliang...... How could the emperor keep him by his side?"

After the song was presented, Wei Zhongxian was furious. He took the anger of the previous officials when they impeached him on Wan Liao, and immediately sent his henchmen to Wan Liao's home to arrest Wan Liao, and then took Wan Liao to the palace and beat him with a hundred court rods, so that Wan Liao was beaten to death.

After Wan Liao's death, Lin Ruzhuo, the imperial historian of the city, offended Wei Zhongxian by dealing with criminal eunuchs, and Lin Ruzhui was afraid of Wei Zhongxian's retribution, so he hurriedly fled to Zunhua. Because Lin Ruzhuo was the nephew of Ye Xianggao, a cabinet scholar, Wei Zhongxian took this opportunity to falsely claim that Ye Xianggao had hidden Lin Ruzhuo in his mansion, and sent a large number of henchmen to surround Ye's house and forcibly search the mansion.

Ye Xianggao was a veteran of the Three Dynasties, how could he be insulted by this, he immediately asked the emperor to depose Wei Zhongxian. But Xizong ignored it, Ye Xianggao reluctantly asked to return to his hometown to retire, and the mediocre Xizong immediately nodded in agreement. After Ye Xianggao left, Wei Zhongxian accelerated the pace of cracking down on upright people such as the Donglin Party, and more than a dozen ministers loyal to the imperial court in Yang Lian and Wei Dazhong resigned one after another because of persecution. Wei Zhongxian took advantage of this opportunity to place his henchmen in various important positions.

Under the threat of Wei Zhongxian, many ministers of the court and central government who were greedy for life and afraid of death and forgot their righteousness for profit and righteousness took refuge in him, and a total of more than 80 ministers from the court to the local government took refuge in him. Among Wei Zhongxian's many godson and righteous grandchildren, the five tigers, five biao, ten dogs, ten children, forty grandsons and others are the most famous. They were the right-hand men of Wei Zhongxian's persecution of opponents, and there were countless minions under these lackeys.

Gu Bingqian, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites with white hair, talked about age to be Wei Zhongxian's father, but he took his son to meet Wei Zhongxian, saying that his beard was already white, and it was not appropriate to call Wei Zhongxian his father-in-law directly, so he asked Wei Zhongxian to accept his son as his grandson. Wei Guangwei, a scholar and secretary of the ministry, said that he had checked the genealogy and was Wei Zhongxian's nephew according to his generation, so he also gained Wei Zhongxian's trust.

Whichever official he wants to promote or depose, Wei Zhongxian can help him do it, because both of them have been promoted after defecting to Wei Zhongxian, so the two of them are subservient to Wei Zhongxian and obedient. When Wei Zhongxian brutalized dissidents, the two worked very hard, and many edicts were drafted by them and then issued in the name of the emperor. Through these henchmen, Wei Zhongxian controlled the cabinet, the six ministries, the factory guards, and most of the local governors and governors.

The minions around Wei Zhongxian all knew that as long as they could make him happy, they could get great benefits, so they all tried their best to please him. Wei Zhongxian's birthday is the thirteenth day of the first lunar month, and this time of year is a good time for his henchmen to show their courtesy, and they dedicate to Wei Zhongxian the treasures they have looted in various places.

The gift-giving procession still had to wait for the Ganqing palace gate to open, and the steps outside the palace gate were filled with all kinds of gifts, so that dozens of eunuchs needed to move back and forth for most of the day. Due to the large number of officials who came to pay their respects, it was impossible to sit in the room, and many people had to stand aside. The people who worshiped Shou shouted 9,000 years old, and some even shouted: "Grandpa 9,900 years old!" These voices came and went, deafening.

Wei Zhongxian once again arrested Wang Wenyan, the cabinet secretary who was close to Yang Lian, and tortured him in prison, and he wanted to force Wang Wenyan to admit that Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others intended to rebel, so as to achieve his goal of cutting down the grass and eradicating the roots. Xu Xianchun, under the instruction of Wei Zhongxian, used the most cruel criminal law to extract a confession from Wang Wenyan, with weapons, shackles, sticks, hammers, and clamps, Wang Wenyan was beaten to the point that his skin was broken, but he would rather die than falsely accuse Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou.

When there was no way, Xu Xianchun wrote a fake confession, and when Wang Wenyan passed out, he took his hand and detained him, and then killed him. After that, Wei Zhongxian instructed his comrades to sue Yang Lian and others for planning to rebel, and Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Zhou Chaorui, Wei Dazhong, Gu Dazhang, Yuan Huazhong, and other six people were arrested one after another, and according to Xu Xianchun's fabricated false confession, the six people were convicted and escorted to Beizhen Fusi to be physically tortured.

Wei Zhongxian ordered the six to kneel in front of the steps every day, and while subjecting them to various tortures, he also tore all their clothes apart, leaving them naked outside and suffering the humiliation of their personalities. Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others were tortured to the point that they were inhuman, their bodies were blurred with flesh and blood, the wounds of the torture were purulent, and bones were exposed in many places, and their condition was unbearable.

Under the torture of Wei Zhongxian and other minions, Yang Lian was crushed by a heavy object, his ears were pierced into iron nails and killed, and the bloody corpse was crawling with flies and maggots. Zuo Guangdou was even more miserable, he was tortured by cannon burning before he died, his face was burned to the ground, and the muscles under his knees had fallen off, revealing the muscles and bones inside, which was miserable.

After Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou were killed, Wei Zhongxian thought that if everyone died in prison, the influence would be too small, so he announced to the world that he was ready to hand over Gu Dazhang to Jinyiwei for treatment. Gu Dazhang was unwilling to be imprisoned again and humiliated, so he committed suicide by taking medicine. Due to the lack of medicine, he could not die, so he hanged himself, and several others were also tortured and tortured, and died one after another. After that, Wei Zhongxian became more arrogant and domineering, and also accelerated the speed of eliminating dissidents.

In the name of the imperial court, Wei Zhongxian followed a drawn up list of upright officials who opposed him, or cut them down to the rank of the people, or arrested and imprisoned. When more than 50 ministers, including Shangshu Li Zongyan and Zhang Xiangda, were dismissed from their official posts one after another, the court was empty.

Wei Zhongxian did not let go of the people, and if anyone was found talking about Wei Zhongxian, he would be arrested and tortured. Countless people were punished by cutting out their tongues, so that when they met them in the streets, they did not dare to speak, but could only nod their heads to greet each other.

Wei Zhongxian raised a second great injustice and arrested Zhou Shunchang, Zhou Zongjian, Zhou Qiyuan, Yingchangqi, Gao Panlong, Huang Zunsu, Li Yingsheng and others on charges of accepting bribes and forming a party. At that time, Gao Panlong was drinking with two students in the back garden of his home, and when he heard the news of Zhou Shunchang's arrest, he smiled and said to the students: "I have always left life and death behind, and now the opportunity has come." ”

He immediately instructed his wife and children not to panic, and immediately wrote two notes and handed them to his grandson, saying, "Tomorrow I will hand them to the officers and soldiers who have come." ”

Then he drove them all away, dressed himself, bowed to the north, and committed suicide by throwing himself into the pool. His grandson opened the two notes handed by his grandfather and realized that they were suicide notes, which read: "Although I have cut my post at home, I used to be a minister of state. To humiliate the minister is to humiliate the country, I don't bear humiliation, I can only die for the country like Qu Yuan. When the people heard this, they all felt sorry for him.

Except for Gao Panlong, the other six people were tortured inhumanly in prison, and finally died tragically at the hands of Wei Zhongxian. Zhou Shunchang was naked, his head was pressed to death by a heavy object; Yingchang, who refused to write an inscription to Wei Zhongxian, was convicted by Wei Zhongxian of being an anti-Wei crime, and all ten fingers were broken under severe torture; Zhou Zongjian was nailed into his body and then burned to death by boiling water. Several others, after death, were also unrecognizable and unrecognizable.