Which eunuch in the Ming Dynasty wanted to be emperor?
Everyone who is familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty knows that the turning point from prosperity to decline of the Ming Dynasty was the "Tumu Fort Incident." The subsequent victory in the "Battle of Defense of Beijing" established Yu Qian's title of hero and historical status. But that is Such a great hero was framed by Xu Youzhen and others after the "Second Gate Incident", and was eventually unjustly killed by Zhu Qizhen, the Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty. Fortunately, justice prevailed, and Yu Qian's charisma conquered his former opponent, Li Xian.
In order to seek justice for Yu Qian, Li Xian took advantage of the great conflict between Xu Youzhen and Shi Heng to plan their internal strife, thereby getting rid of the resourceful Xu Youzhen, and then used the secret of the "house-stealing incident" to get rid of him. If Shi Heng, who holds military power, is eliminated, then two-thirds of the justice Li Xian wants to get for Yu Qian will be basically completed.
It seems that Cao Jixiang is the easiest to solve among the three. But things often go against expectations. The easiest to solve is the most difficult to solve, because unlike Xu Youzhen and Shi Heng, Cao Jixiang has the ambition to be an emperor. .
Cao Jixiang is not a smart man, so his ambition is destined to be ruined. The deaths of Xu Youzhen and Shi Heng could have warned him, but instead of restraining himself, he wanted to go all out. His main helper is his adopted son, Cao Qin. Like Cao Jixiang, Cao Qin has no ability but dreams of sitting on the throne, so he and Cao Jixiang actively plan. The specific plan is: Cao Jixiang. Ji Xiang acted as an internal agent in the palace, and Cao Qin led his troops directly into the palace, then killed Zhu Qizhen, and then became the emperor himself. Although this plan was simple, it was very difficult to implement, which determined their final decision. The ending doesn't matter if they die, it just depends on how they die.
Of course, if two important figures had not appeared at the critical moment, they might have succeeded. It is a pity that these two key figures are not included. Li Xian, because Cao Qin controlled him as soon as he rebelled, he was stabbed and almost died. One of the two key figures was Wu Jin and the other was Wu. Jin was the first to know about Cao Jixiang's plan, but he was alone and could not do anything at all. However, he remembered one person, and that was Sun Jue. It turned out that Sun Jue was appointed by Zhu Qizhen to prepare for the expedition to Wala. , but he did not go back because he was not feeling well. When Wu Jin found him, he had no choice, because although he was the commander-in-chief who was about to go on an expedition, he did not have the military symbols to mobilize the troops, so they had no choice but to mobilize the troops in desperation. They split up to move reinforcements.
Wu Jin found many ministers' mansions in the city, hoping that they would summon their servants to exterminate the rebels, but no one responded, so he summoned his own servants, but there were not many. There were only a dozen of them, and they went to find Cao Qin aggressively. It didn't take long for them to encounter Cao Qin. The two sides didn't talk nonsense, and they immediately attacked. Wu Jin was outnumbered and died gloriously, but he successfully delayed Cao Qin's attack. The action plan bought time for Sun Jue to move in to recruit troops.
Like Wu Jin, Sun Jue didn't know how to move in to rescue troops, but he had his own way. Although he didn't have military symbols, he believed in it. Can mobilize part of the army. After Sun Jue arrived at the barracks, he didn't say anything. He just yelled with all his strength: Someone escaped from the prison of the Ministry of Punishments and escaped. Everyone, follow me to catch him. If you catch him, you will be rewarded. Not to mention, his shout really worked. Although most of the soldiers were asleep, there were some who were not asleep and some who were already asleep but wanted to make a fortune. So he successfully summoned more than two thousand soldiers, and then he They marched into the city with great force. When they arrived in the city, the soldiers were looking for the thief, but they couldn't find the thief. Instead, they met Cao Qin who was attacking the palace gate. I saw Sun Jue shouting again: "Everyone, go and kill the traitors. If you kill the traitors, you will be rewarded heavily." When these soldiers heard that they were rewarded, they started fighting with Cao Qin and others. The two sides fought from midnight until noon the next day before they completely wiped out Cao Qin and others. Cao Qin himself was also captured alive. And his adoptive father, Cao Jixiang, quietly arrested him when he got the news in Zhu Qizhen.
The reason why Cao Jixiang, the mastermind, was caught so quickly was because the Ming Dynasty formulated a method to directly contact the emperor in case of emergency.
Wu Jin and Sun Jue had already used this method to tell Zhu Qizhen about Cao Jixiang and Cao Qin's rebellion before they separated to move reinforcements, so Cao Jixiang was arrested so quickly. Otherwise, if Cao Jixiang secretly opened the palace door, Zhu Qizhen might be gone.
No matter what, Cao Jixiang and his son were finally arrested, and Zhu Qizhen was not polite to them and directly executed them in Lingchi. In this way, Cao Jixiang, the only eunuch in the history of the Ming Dynasty who wanted to be emperor, finally died because of the timely appearance of key figures Sun Jue and Wu Jin.
As mentioned earlier, the deaths of Xu Youzhen, Shi Heng and Cao Jixiang enabled Li Xian to achieve two-thirds of the justice he wanted to seek for Yu Qian, while the remaining one-third was to restore Yu Qian's justice. reputation. However, Zhu Qizhen knew that he had been the one who unjustly killed Yu Qian, but he never admitted his mistake and did not restore Yu Qian's reputation. Instead, he silently handed over this task to his son Zhu Jianshen, who later became Emperor Chenghua.