readx; --Chapter Beginning-->

Li Laiheng announced the holy decree, but the nearly 1,000 courtiers and eunuchs inside and outside the Qianqing Palace were silent, and everyone was completely stunned by the content of the holy decree. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

"Whew! … Ten thousand... Hooray, don't you want minions?! ”

Suddenly, I don't know which eunuch howled like a pig, and in an instant the court and outside the hall cried, from the eunuch of the celebrant to the eunuch of the pen, down to the ordinary little eunuch, hundreds of eunuchs rushed to the sky and beat their chests, and the scene was spectacular.

The eunuchs of higher status fell to their knees again and kept kowtowing to Emperor Chongzhen, willing to be beaten and punished, no matter what, only begging the emperor not to drive them out of the palace. The misery of his feelings makes people feel sorry.

Zhu Youzhen showed a bright smile and said: "Don't be sad, all the internal officials, I made it very clear in the holy decree that it is not that you have made any mistakes, but that I want to treat you well." What's so good about being a cow and a horse in the palace? I have already arranged a place for you to live in the capital division, so you don't have to work hard anymore, and you can also receive food and clothing on a monthly basis, what are you not satisfied with? ”

"But... But the slave has been waiting in the palace for a long time, and he can't live without the Long Live Lord! Long live the lord, the servants are willing to be cattle and horses, and please long live..."

Before these eunuchs could finish speaking, Li Laiheng suddenly sank his face and shouted: "The Holy Lord has issued an edict, which is very interesting to you, why are you people still talking here?" Come on! ”

As soon as the words fell, hundreds of armored warriors poured in from outside the Qianqing Gate, surrounding hundreds of eunuchs. Li Laiheng sneered and said, "Edict, send all fathers-in-law out of the palace to be honored!" ”

At the sound of the order, the warriors dragged the eunuchs up from the ground without saying anything, and said "Congratulations to your fathers-in-law", but their hands were pushing and shoving, driving the eunuchs out of the Qianqing Gate like a flock of sheep.

Zhu Youzhen just smiled coldly, and said to Li Laiheng: "Lead people to all parts of the palace, escort all the eunuchs out of the palace, and don't disturb others." ”

Li Laiheng took the order and left, and after a while, the cry of a male duck peculiar to eunuchs was faintly heard everywhere in the Forbidden City. Zhu Youzhen leaned back on the dragon chair for a long time, and said lightly: "Zhongqing, continue to do things!" ”

Only then did the courtiers gradually react from their extreme shock. They never thought that the emperor summoned eunuchs from all over the country into the palace, so as to drive all the eunuchs out of the palace and abolish the eunuch system!

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, eunuchs have played an important role in the political system. Because the Wenchen clique was extremely powerful, even strong enough to weaken and confront the imperial power, the emperors were not as strong and diligent as Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, and were often coerced by the Wenchen clique and lost in the battle between "monarchical power" and "relative power".

Therefore, in desperation, the emperor supported the eunuch forces to deal with the civil official group. Because most of the eunuchs were uneducated, and eunuchs could not rebel, they could only exist dependent on the emperor, and the emperor thought that they were more loyal than the ministers. Moreover, the emperor was born in the deep palace since he was a child, and he mingled with the eunuchs all day long, so he was naturally emotionally close to them.

As a result, the eunuchs, with the connivance of the emperor intentionally or unintentionally, gradually grasped the power of the court. Among them, the most iconic is that the celebrant is in charge of approving red, which can compete with the cabinet and the six courts; Dongchang can detect and interrogate hundreds of officials, above all institutions.

Of course, the civil official group is unwilling to accept this, and throughout the entire Ming Dynasty, it is almost a history of struggle between civil officials and eunuchs. In this life-and-death contest, the eunuch group has gained the upper hand many times due to the secret support of the emperor. And because the eunuchs themselves are of low quality, extremely greedy, and often seek their own personal interests under the banner of running errands for the emperor, in the past two hundred years, there have been several power tilts and disasters? Country? Misfortune? The super eunuch of the people.

For example, Wang Zhen, a eunuch in the orthodox period, was instigated by him that Zhu Qizhen, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, rashly drove the expedition first. As a result, Wang Zhen was blind in command, and he was stunned that the three major battalions of the Ming army were annihilated, and Yingzong was captured, which was the famous "Tumubao Change".

Another example is the eunuch Wang Zhi in the Chenghua period, who commanded Xichang and commanded the "Twelve Regiment Battalions" of the Beijing Division, which opened a precedent for eunuchs to be in charge of the forbidden army. Because his power leans toward the government and the opposition, there have also been cases where someone has pretended to be him to deceive more than 10 provinces, inspected, tried cases, and even trained troops everywhere, but no one dared to ask about it.

Another example is Liu Jin, a eunuch in the Zhengde period, who colluded with seven other eunuchs, known as the "Eight Tigers", and took advantage of Emperor Zhu Houzhao's playful characteristics to gradually take power into his hands, and was known as the "Emperor of the Land". Later, the emperor discovered that millions of taels of gold and silver were copied from his mansion, which shows the fierceness of his corruption.

And the most recent living example is the "nine thousand years old" Wei Zhongxian. Hundreds of dignified officials of the Donglin Party were killed or degraded by him, and the government was played by him in the palm of his hand, if it were not for Emperor Chongzhen's thunderous means to bring him down, I don't know how long he will be in trouble!

Therefore, as long as they are courtiers, they sincerely hope to completely defeat the eunuch forces, because the eunuchs not only compete with them for power, but also make them suffer spiritual insults. Therefore, Zhu Youzhen expelled the eunuchs, and many people applauded in their hearts, feeling that they had finally breathed a bad breath in their chests.

But what the ministers didn't expect was that Zhu Youzhen went further, not only depriving the eunuchs of the right to participate in politics, but even abolishing the "profession" of eunuchs themselves!

This is not trivial, because the history of eunuchs has been nearly 2,000 years, not only the royal family and ministers, but also the society has adapted to the existence of this "industry", and there are even "knife makers" who have ancestral castration skills. In addition to the eunuchs who entered the palace, they took the initiative to castrate themselves in order to enter the palace, but there were many people who were not ranked. Once the eunuch system is abolished, how can the palace ban be maintained? Who does the labor? And what about those "eunuch-in-waiting"?

But these are still minor problems, and some very clever ministers have seen that the young emperor is definitely a deviant now, and no one can find out what is going on in his heart, and he has no intention of following any of the old rules! Abolishing the eunuch system is only the first step, what shocking things will he do next? Nobody knows!

Therefore, some conservative ministers immediately raised objections, believing that although there were national thieves like Wei Zhongxian among the eunuchs, most of them still kept to themselves. There must also be eunuchs in the palace, otherwise it will be difficult to maintain. Besides, Taizu has used eunuchs since the founding of the country, and now it will be abolished, I am afraid that it will be contrary to the ancestral system.

Zhu Youzhen listened and said solemnly: "I believe that anyone in the harem will cherish themselves and clean themselves, and there is no need to use eunuchs for peace of mind. Miscellaneous work in the palace, the palace maid can use the palace maid, and if he can't do it, he can recruit some miscellaneous servants and strictly supervise it. As for the ancestral system mentioned by Qing and others, it is not called the ancestral system that is immutable. Taizu also practiced 'human martyrdom' during his time, and later abolished it, is this also not following the ancestral system? Which concubine do you want to be martyred for the first emperor? ”

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