When Xue Lian was on his way to Wei Zhongxian's home, Wei Mansion, happened to be returning to Wei Zhongxian, who had just finished serving the Emperor of the Apocalypse from the palace. The cars of the two pedestrians immediately merged into one, and Xue Lian also got off his horse and entered Wei Zhongxian's carriage. Seeing each other, both of them were very happy, Xue Lian also joked with Wei Zhongxian: I didn't eat dinner, and today I am going to Wei Mansion to eat Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian was happy, and he was helpless about his little brother's scoundrel.

The relationship between Xue Lian and Wei Zhongxian is quite close, and their friendship has even surpassed the feelings between ordinary brothers. Don't say that Xue Lian can joke with Wei Zhongxian very casually, and don't say that Xue Lian can recruit his daughter as a son-in-law, this kind of private matter is entrusted to Wei Zhongxian, just from Xue Lian's name for Wei Zhongxian, you can see the friendship between Xue Lian and Wei Zhongxian. Xue Lian called Wei Zhongxian "Duke Wei", and Wei Zhongxian also liked Xue Lian to call him so. Because, before Wei Zhongxian did not make a career, both of them were in the palace of the emperor's eldest son (the emperor's eldest son had not yet become the crown prince at that time), Xue Lian respectfully called Wei Zhongxian "Duke of Wei". Although by now, people outside call Wei Zhongxian "nine thousand years old", Wei Zhongxian understands that when they call themselves like this, they are either flattering, or they are forced to treat themselves sincerely because of their own obscenity. And Xue Lian's respect and friendship towards him have been the same for almost the past twenty years, and they have never changed.

In the palace of the eldest son of the emperor at that time, Wang An, Wei Zhongxian and other big eunuchs, gentlemen (civil officials) who taught the eldest son and grandson of the emperor, officials (civil officials) such as Changshi of the emperor's eldest son's mansion, and Xue Lian (Xungui), these dozen people, in order to push the eldest son of the emperor to the position of the prince, formed a very closely united small group. And this small group, Zuihou made great contributions in the process of pushing the emperor's eldest son to the crown prince. The bitterness and suffering in this process simply made parties like Wei Zhongxian and Xue Lian unwilling to recall it anymore.

But when the eldest son of the emperor finally became the crown prince and successfully inherited the throne, the small group immediately parted ways, and there was a fierce struggle between them for power. The magnitude of its tragedy is also unimaginable. And Wei Zhongxian won the final victory in the fight with these evenly matched former comrades-in-arms, but he was also bruised all over his body. And in the battle with these people, Xue Lian's attitude towards Wei Zhongxian was not to give up, and Xue Lian himself was also an important weight, when he bet on Wei Zhongxian's side, the dawn of victory appeared in front of Wei Zhongxian.

Xue Lian's importance is manifested in two aspects:

The first aspect is that his status and influence in the noble circle are very high. Because at that time, he had become the companion of the emperor's eldest son, and according to the rules of the people, the current Emperor of the Apocalypse should also call him his uncle, so Xue Lian had a very close relationship with the royal family, so he naturally became Xungui's spokesperson in front of the emperor. There is another aspect, his wife, Mrs. Zhang, is the daughter of the old British duke, and the sister of the current British duke's half-mother, so Xue Lian's wife's Shili is also very large.

In the Ming Dynasty, the British Gong Zhang, Chengguo Zhu and Dingguo Xu families in Beijing, plus the Wei Gong Xu family in Nanjing and the Qianguo Gong Mu family in Yunnan (in Yunnan they were the local emperors, but their influence on the court was relatively small), they together formed a group of leaders in the circle of honors and nobles. Although, since the Tumubao Incident, Xungui's influence has been greatly reduced, but small influence does not mean no influence, when Wei Zhongxian fights with evenly matched opponents, these influences can completely become a straw for overwhelming the opponent.

Another aspect is that Xue Lian has a reputation for knowing military strategies in the entire noble circle, and even in the court. It should be said that Xue Lian's political skills, whether it is political sense or political struggle methods, are not very superb. Especially in the late Ming Dynasty, whether it was a civil official or a eunuch, there were a group of demonic masters of political struggle, which was particularly ordinary. However, due to Xue Lian's military strategy, his position is particularly important in an environment where there are few people in the entire Ming Dynasty court.

Here, the author would like to briefly introduce the political environment and the ins and outs of the formation of political groups in the late Ming Dynasty.

As long as there are any works and documents about the Ming Dynasty, there is one person who will never be able to get around, and that is the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty - Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor, has two biggest characteristics:

One is that Zhu Yuanzhang's desire for power is particularly strong. In fact, in any dynasty, there are always many contradictions between the emperor and the ministers on the issue of the distribution of power, and Zhu Yuanzhang also encountered this problem. Therefore, after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the domestic situation had just stabilized, and Zhu Yuanzhang launched several large-scale campaigns to purge the heroes. He took advantage of this opportunity to abolish the highest position of "prime minister" among civil officials, leaving the civilian clique leaderless; He slaughtered the generals and nobles in large numbers, making the Xungui group unstable. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang completely controlled the power in the court, and let the civil official group and the Xungui group check and balance each other. Zuihou, the affairs of the court are completely decided by Zhu Yuanzhang alone. Of course, this method of governing is based on the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang is a model worker among the emperors, because Zhu Yuanzhang's daily work intensity can make any workaholic overwhelm when he hears about it.

Another characteristic is that Zhu Yuanzhang treats his relatives, especially his children, very much, even to the extent of doting. Zhu Yuanzhang established the government structure and bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty, which was so mature that it was basically used until the end of the Qing Dynasty. He also appointed jobs for all the people of the world, and these jobs must not be changed, and they must be passed on to their children and grandchildren (such as military households, artisan households, etc.). Even whether the artisan is a carpenter or a blacksmith is clearly defined). Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang believes that as long as his descendants do what he has formulated, they will enjoy the country smoothly and pass on the Ming Dynasty for eternity.

Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang has some other small characteristics. For example, he was particularly concerned about the lives of the common people, so the taxes in the Ming Dynasty were very low. Business tax is only one-thirtieth (think of 17 percent VAT now). Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang killed heroes, no one dared to rebel. Because no common people will support them.

Because of Zhu Yuanzhang's prestige and prestige as the founding emperor, some of the systems and policies he formulated greatly influenced the government's decision-making after the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang's policies may have been in line with the realities of his reign, but with the development of society, especially in the southeastern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, the emergence of capitalism, the policies he formulated were no longer able to solve these new situations. However, due to the fact that the later Ming government wanted to maintain the ancestral system, these anachronistic policies could not be changed, and eventually, this led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty. One of the main reasons for the fall of the Ming Dynasty was that it was very rich in the hands of large merchants and large landowners, but the Ming government could not collect taxes from them due to policy reasons, which led to the bankruptcy of the government. In addition, in order to solve the government's financial crisis, the Ming Dynasty government levied huge taxes on the vast number of free peasants, which happened to encounter a famine, causing a great rebellion of the peasants. It's really a standard official coercion and a civil rebellion.