Liu Jin, a powerful official, gossips.

Daming Li Si personally sealed the eunuch, the eunuch in the prefect factory, and Liu Jin, the leader of Zheng De's "Eight Tigers". The eunuch was in office during Zheng De's reign. He ascended the throne in Zheng Deyuan's year and was executed in Zheng De's five years. He really stood in the center of the stage for only five years.

In the past five years, Liu Jin bullied his superiors and deceived his subordinates, formed a clique for personal gain, cracked down on dissidents, and took bribes and perverted the law, which was hated by the literati. However, few people mentioned that Liu Jin's appearance helped Zhu Houzhao, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, quickly stabilize the throne and eliminated the legacy of the courtiers' administration during Hongzhi period. In Liu Jin's New Deal, he accumulated a lot of experience and lessons for the later "Jialongwan Reform".

Liu Jin in my eyes is a paranoid person. He walked for most of his life and finally made a fortune. He wolfed down the ugly food and looked up at the archway, which was contradictory and complicated.

We have the date of birth and death of Liu Jin, but few of her early deeds. I just know that he is from Xingping, Shaanxi, and his real name is Tan. Later, he became the adopted son of a eunuch named Liu and changed his surname to Liu.

I have a sentence from Liu Jin's early years. Liu Jin's grandfather was an official in Beijing and was killed for participating in the anti-DPRK struggle. Liu Jin's father narrowly escaped and went into exile in Shaanxi, making a living by selling fresh fruit on the street. Although not rich, life is easy.

Until one day, Liu Jin and his father met the eunuch who came out to buy in the street and had a conflict. In order to protect Liu Jin, his father was beaten to death by eunuchs and their entourage. In a rage, Liu Jin accidentally stabbed each other. When Liu Jin ran home, Liu's mother learned about it and was afraid of being traced by the government, so she asked Liu Jin to leave her hometown and then committed suicide as her husband.

Liu Jin, who was alone, went through difficulties and obstacles, came to Beijing, became a little yellow door, and then recognized a eunuch named Liu as an adoptive father. But Liu Jin still spent many years at the bottom of the eunuch. At the end of Hongzhi, the great eunuch Li Guang fell, and the eunuch named Liu was also implicated. Another right officer saw Liu Jin's pity and recommended him to serve the prince in the East Palace. The prince is Zhu Houzhao, the future Ming Wuzong, and the eunuch who recommended Liu Jin is the famous eunuch-Wynn.

This story is by no means made up by me, and it is highly credible.

Liu Jin should have come to Zhu Houzhao in Hongzhi's later years and early fifties. Liu became the leader of the Eight Tigers, which is closely related to his good at teasing teenagers.

It is actually very difficult for a man in his fifties to win the favor and recognition of teenagers. But Liu Jin did it and became the best among many eunuchs in the East Palace. This powerful internal drive comes from his desire for power.

Without power, grandpa can only give in easily; Without power, father can only be killed in the street; Without power, the adoptive father who has been in the palace for many years can only be slaughtered by others.

Does Liu Jin hate eunuchs? Sure, but he hates the world even more. However, he is just a civilian, with no relatives and no reason. If he wants to succeed in his career, the road to the imperial examination has nothing to do with him. Only when he enters the palace innocently will he have a chance. So he hated eunuchs, but he made his own yellow door without hesitation.

He tried his best to please everyone, and even got the nickname "Liu", but his eunuch road still didn't improve. Until he came to Prince Zhu Houzhao.

With such a life track, how can we expect Liu Jin to grow into an orthodox and upright person? All his greasy, slick, cunning, and even biting, in the final analysis, are just the survival skills he spent most of his life with blood.

As I said before, in the Ming Dynasty, the so-called eunuch was the imperial party. Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen 16 years old, Wang Zhen began to take power; When Zhu Youxiao came to power at the age of sixteen, Wei Zhongxian was born. Now 15-year-old Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao ascended the throne, and Eight Tigers stepped onto the historical stage.

There is also a strange rule of the Ming emperor. The last monarch had a close relationship with courtiers, and the contradiction between successors and ministers often intensified after they came to power. There is a simple reason. In addition to the so-called "once every emperor has a courtier", it is more important that the new emperor must be compensated by courtiers if he wants to establish prestige and centralize power.

The "Eight Tigers" headed by Liu Jin are old people in the East Palace. When the master became emperor, a rising tide lifts all boats, and his political status rose one by one, he began to work in key departments. That's understandable. But the courtiers at that time thought of Wang Zhen and Wang Zhi and were determined to nip Liu Jin and other potential threats in the bud.

When the cabinet and six ministers asked for the killing of the "Eight Tigers", Liu Jin knew that her most dangerous moment and her greatest opportunity had arrived at the same time. He took the old people in the East Palace into the palace overnight and went to Zhu Houzhao to cry, pointing to the greatest fear in the emperor's heart: What will your majesty do with yourself in the future when the Li Si prison and courtiers unite?

Zhu Houzhao understood that Liu Jin's words were by no means alarmist. The young emperor finally made up his mind to have a showdown with his courtiers. After that night, Liu Jin became Daming's new eunuch, and other members of the "Eight Tigers" also held important positions in Dongchang, Xichang, Jingying and Twelve Supervisors respectively.

This is the big taste of Liu Jin.

Why was Liu Jin scolded so fiercely? Because in the matter of rectifying courtiers, Liu Jin is fierce and unscrupulous.

In the year of Zheng Deyuan, courtiers rallied to mend after the sheep died and ended in failure. The direct result was that Liu Jian and Xie Qian in the cabinet left their posts, and then Liu Jin began to retaliate according to the list. From six ministers to the history of imperial science and technology, from the head of the capital to the local magistrate, Liu Jin suppressed by various means, such as dismissal, demotion, salary reduction and staff accountability, involving dozens of people.

Things like Wang Zhen and Wang Zhi have never been so bold. But it's not over yet. In the second year of Zheng De, with Liu Jin's growing power, Liu Gonggong directly summoned ministers to kneel in the south of Jinshui Bridge and directly announced the list of so-called "traitor parties" to the ministers by means of "correcting letters".

This list includes almost all officials, large and small, who opposed Liu Jin at the beginning, up to dozens of people. This is Liu Jin's highlight moment. I use the word "cried" here and put it in quotation marks for two reasons.

First, in this matter, later generations generally believe that Liu Jin is a false imperial edict, because such naked humiliation of ministers is quite different from Zhu Houzhao's later style of acting; But I think, considering the political immaturity of Zhu Houzhao in the early years of Zheng Dechu, Liu Jin's action is likely to be approved by the young emperor.

Secondly, Liu Jin, as the handprint eunuch of Si Li Jian, joined the eunuch's opinion directly after the cabinet ticket was handed in, which made sense logically on behalf of the emperor.

Whether this list of "traitors" was Liu Jin's idea or Zhu Houzhao's inspiration, it reflected the determination of imperialist parties to suppress courtiers. But I can't help asking a question. Did Liu Jin really do enough kung fu to deal with detained people?

There is no doubt that Liu Jin is a "cruel official" in Zhengde.

Liu Jin invented the so-called "cangue punishment", and buckled a large cangue of more than 100 kilograms on the prisoner, making him kneel for several days, and many people died. If Liu Jin wants to touch anyone, as long as he makes a gesture, his men can immediately remove the other party. But Liu Jin is not really "fierce" because he can still hear insults.

I don't know if my meaning is clear. Judy always kills the minister, but seldom hears scolding him? Zhu Houzhao occasionally hit the courtier's board, and the name of the bad king spread at once. Liu Jin is also in this situation.

To put it bluntly, the imperial party used the method of publishing the list of "traitor parties" to deal with courtiers, saying that the demonstration was greater than the real interests and could not achieve the purpose of real intimidation.

Zhu Houzhao later understood that he simply ignored the cabinet and courtiers, set up another leopard room, and set up a new stove to govern the country.

But Liu Jin was pushed to the forefront of the storm, and everyone looked at him with red eyes. If Liu Jin's coming to power in the year of Zheng Deyuan and the personnel adjustment of the cabinet are regarded as the self-protection of the "eight tigers", then the list of "traitors" published by Liu Jin in the year of Zheng Deyuan basically doomed him to a tragic end.

Did Liu Jin understand her situation at that time? He must know. But he didn't look back. In his fifties, he could only go all the way to darkness, and never thought about his own retreat. This is also caused by his paranoid personality. So on the next road, he clearly saw many pits, but he jumped into them without hesitation.

At the beginning of the article, I said that Liu Jin's eating was ugly. Liu Jin was selected as one of the "50 richest people in world history". It is said that his property was robbed and his wealth was converted into 300 million taels of silver.

His wealth collection is almost pervasive. As long as it passes through his hands, no matter what purpose it is used for, it will be severely intercepted; All the officials who come to Beijing will send him a "meeting gift". If they don't have enough money, they can borrow usury from Beijing, and Liu Jin is also a lender. Even later, as long as an official was promoted, Liu Jin gave gifts to show his gratitude.

Ironically, Liu Jin, an insatiable person, was an anti-corruption expert at that time. Since the third year of Zheng De, Liu Jin has dealt with a large number of corrupt and bribery officials. Some of them paid bribes to Liu Jin, and some were known by Liu Jin to pay bribes to others; At the same time, he strictly restricted officials from abusing the imperial post. Even if the official is on a business trip normally, it needs to be approved at different levels before it can be used.

Liu Jin restored the "rice criminal law" in the early Ming Dynasty, and officials could reduce their sentences by "fines for missing the border". However, the number of rice essence is very exaggerated. At the beginning, Liu Jin punished Han Wen, Minister of Housing, on the grounds of "punishing rice for losing the edge", which directly led to the bankruptcy of the Han family. This is the minister of housing.

Check the disk. The so-called inventory is to check the inventory. Inventory has been in the Ming Dynasty for a long time, but it was carried out on a large scale nationwide like Liu Jin, and it was not strictly implemented until the early years of Zheng De.

Liu Jin made a thorough and strict liquidation of grain, hay, trench and horses in Fu Xuan, Datong, Gansu, Liaodong, Guizhou and Huguang. As long as the problems are found out and the accounts are inconsistent, the officials involved will be severely punished, and everyone will feel insecure for a time. Of course, in addition to investigating corruption, there is also the meaning of the central court and local governments grabbing financial power.

Including the New Deal promoted by Liu Jin, it still has positive significance in many aspects, such as adjusting the supervision system, approving land, limiting grace and restraining honor, saving finance, reforming salt law, rectifying folk customs and so on.

We found that since Zheng De's third year, Liu Jin began to introduce various reform measures, which was rare in the Ming Dynasty. So that later generations attributed part of the failure of Liu Jin's New Deal to Liu Jin's quick success and instant benefit.

But someone asked Liu Jin why she was in such a hurry. At that time, Liu Jin was powerful, and everyone knew that deepening reform would touch vested interests. Liu Jin can take his time and take it one step at a time. Why did he throw it all away at once?

Because Liu Jin vaguely noticed something.

In the third year of Zheng De, Zhu Houzhao officially moved out of the palace and entered the leopard room. This act, which was regarded by later generations as a groggy and playful emperor, made Liu Jin realize that his role in the emperor would be greatly reduced.

First, Qian Ning began to rise. Qian Ning was originally attached to Liu Jin. Later, he made a lot of contributions in the process of building the Leopard House for Zhu Houzhao, won the trust of Zhu Houzhao, was accepted as the "adopted son" by the emperor, and was promoted to a thousand-person Royal Guards.

Although Qian Ning belongs to the eunuch group, he is not a eunuch himself. After Zhu Houzhao moved into the Leopard House, he began to collect "semes" widely, which made Liu Jin smell the danger.

Second, after entering the Leopard House, Zhu Houzhao began to indulge in martial arts aboveboard. The security guard of the leopard room was from three units at that time. One is the Royal Guards, the other is the eunuch army, and the other is the border guards transferred to Beijing. Through various drills in Leopard House tinker, Zhu Houzhao gradually strengthened contact with the military and began to control the military power.

Later, marginal figures like Jiang Bin will become Zhu Houzhao's confidant, which is related to this. By the way, the eunuch army was led by Zhang Yong.

Thirdly, in Zhu Houzhao, Leopard House got rid of the shackles of courtiers and Empress Dowager, and gradually became the new military and political hub of Daming. Zhu Houzhao has set up a set of administrative system by itself, with the cabinet completely overhead, and the six ministries have become purely executive bodies, so it is difficult for foreign officials to see Zhu Houzhao.

The fact that Liu Jin was alienated from the emperor actually started from this time; The internal differentiation between the "Eight Tigers" also intensified from this time.

With Liu Jin's "calling the wind and calling the rain" outside, the patience of courtiers and emperors finally reached the limit.

One thing has been neglected, that is, in the fourth year of Zheng De's reign, at a wine offering ceremony in imperial academy, Wang Yunfeng invited Liu Jin to visit imperial academy in order to please him, requesting the court to compile Liu Jin's actions into a book and write them into the national decree.

Liu can only be regarded as proficient in pen and ink, but he is barely illiterate. Let Liu Jin go to imperial academy for inspection? Imperial College is the highest official institution of higher learning, and the students in it are all students of the emperor. And edit Liu Jin's words and deeds into a book? What is Zhu Houzhao?

Zhu Houzhao seems to be drinking and having fun in the leopard room, but his eyes glance at Liu Jin intentionally or unintentionally. He saw all eunuchs around Liu Jin, from cabinet assistant minister to master Liu Pin, bowing around Liu Jin; He also saw the ire of Zhang Yong and Gu Dayong, the hatred of military commanders, and Zhu Houzhao drank the wine in the cup with a smile.

In the fifth year of Zheng De, King Anhua rebelled. Zhang Yong, one of the Eight Tigers, and Yang Yiqing, the capital, went to suppress the rebellion. In the end, in order to bring down Liu Jin, they formed a temporary political alliance and returned to the DPRK in series with several courtiers. Soon, Liu Jin was executed by Ling Chi on charges of rebellion.

In the Ming dynasty, it was a joke to say that eunuchs around the emperor were plotting. Who does the emperor trust most? The kind of person who will die if he leaves the emperor. There is no doubt that Liu Jin is such a person, but this time it was not he who left the emperor, but Zhu Houzhao who gave him up on his own initiative.

Zhu Qizhen used Wang Zhen, and after the restoration, it also commemorated Wang Zhen's temple; Zhu Youxiao used Wei Zhongxian, and before he died, he did not forget to tell his brother to reuse eunuchs. Even when Wang Zhi was in its prime, Zhu Jianshen at least left a good dead end for Wang Zhi. Where is Liu Jin?

With the fall of Liu Jin, Zhu Houzhao created a new situation in which military commanders balanced courtiers, and Liu Jin was the initiator of this change. But in the final analysis, Liu Jin's final fate is still related to his paranoid personality, even if he eats less ugly, even if he converges a little.

If life kisses you with pain, you can choose to forgive in addition to fanning it back.

A word from the family, chatting to relieve boredom.