Chapter 48 228 The fiasco of the civil castle

When Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was in power, he learned the historical lesson that eunuchs' monopoly power caused chaos in the country, and established a rule that eunuchs should not be allowed to intervene in state affairs.He wrote this rule on a large iron plate and hung it in the palace, hoping that his descendants would abide by it from generation to generation. But by the time of Ming Chengzu, this rule was abolished. Ming Chengzu won the throne from his nephew. He was afraid that the ministers would oppose him, so he especially trusted the eunuchs around him. After he moved the capital to Beijing, he set up "Dongchang" outside Dong'anmen to spy on ministers and common people for suspicion of rebellion. people.He was afraid that the ministers outside would be unreliable, so he asked his trusted eunuch to be the admiral of the East Factory.In this way, the eunuch's power gradually increased.In the time of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, even the emperor's review of the memorials was handed over to an eunuch who was called the supervisor of ceremonies.In this way, the power of the eunuch is even greater.One year, the palace recruited a group of eunuchs.A hooligan in Weizhou (now Yuxian County, Hebei Province, Weiyinyu) named Wang Zhen, read a little when he was young, failed to pass the imperial examination several times, and worked as an instructor in the county. Later, because of a crime, he should have been exiled into the army , He heard that the palace was recruiting eunuchs, so he voluntarily entered the palace and became a eunuch.There are not many literate eunuchs in the palace, only Wang Zhen can read and write, and everyone calls him Mr. Wang.Later, Ming Xuanzong sent him to teach Prince Zhu Qizhen to study.Zhu Qizhen loved to play when he was young, Wang Zhen thought of various ways to make him have fun, Zhu Qizhen liked him very much.

After the death of Ming Xuanzong, the prince Zhu Qizhen who had just turned nine years old came to the throne, this is Ming Yingzong.Wang Zhen served as the supervisor of ceremonies and helped Ming Yingzong to review the memorials.Ming Yingzong blindly pursued fun and didn't care about state affairs at all.Wang Zhen took the opportunity to seize the military and political power of the imperial court.Whoever dares to offend Wang Zhen will be dismissed from his post or exiled into the army.Some princes and relatives liked Wang Zhen and called him "Father Weng".Wang Zhen's power can be regarded as the sky.

At this time, the Wala (sound la) tribe of the Mongolian people in northern my country became stronger.In 1449 A.D., the Oirat leader also sent 3,000 envoys to Beijing to pay tribute to horses and demand rewards.Wang Zhen discovered that he also lied about the number of people first, and cut the bounty and horse price.He first proposed to the Ming Dynasty for his son, but was also rejected by Wang Zhen.This angered Yexian, and Yexian led the Oirat cavalry to attack Datong.The Ming generals who guarded Datong sent troops to resist, but were defeated by the Oirat army. Officials at the border made an emergency to the imperial court, and Ming Yingzong hurriedly summoned his ministers to discuss how to deal with it.Datong was not far from Wang Zhen's hometown, Yuzhou. Wang Zhen had a large amount of land in Yuzhou. He was afraid that Weizhou would be invaded by the Oirat army, so he strongly advocated Yingzong to lead troops to conquer.The Minister of the Ministry of War (the Minister of the Ministry of War and the Minister of War are the chief and deputy chiefs of the military department) Kuang Ye (sound kuangye, 野同野) and his minister Yu Qian believed that the imperial court was not fully prepared and could not personally conscript.Ming Yingzong was a man without his own opinions. He did what Wang Zhen said, and decided to conquest in person regardless of the minister's advice.

Ming Yingzong asked his younger brothers Ying (cheng) Wang Zhu Qiyu (sound yu) and Yu Qian to stay in Beijing. He and more than a hundred officials including Wang Zhen and Kuang Ye led an army of 500,000 to set off from Beijing and march towards Datong in a mighty way. go. This time, the troops were never well prepared, and the discipline of the army was lax.There were heavy storms and rains along the way, and within a few days of walking, there was no food relief. The soldiers were hungry and cold.When they arrived near Datong, the soldiers were even more panicked when they saw the corpses of Ming soldiers lying everywhere in the fields in the suburbs.A minister found that morale was low and advised Yingzong to retreat. He was scolded by Wang Zhen and punished by kneeling for a day.

A few days later, the vanguard of the Ming army was wiped out by the Oirat army on the edge of Datong City, and the Ming army from all walks of life retreated one after another.At this time, Wang Zhen felt that the situation was critical, so he ordered the troops to retreat back to Beijing.Originally, the sooner the better, the better, but Wang Zhen thought of his hometown Weizhou to show off his prestige, and persuaded Yingzong to live in Weizhou for a few days.Hundreds of thousands of soldiers left Datong and ran for 40 miles in the direction of Weizhou.Wang Zhen thought about it again, so many soldiers and horses arrived in Weizhou, wouldn't the crops in his farmland suffer loss, and hurriedly ordered to go back.Such a tossing delayed the time for withdrawing troops, and was overtaken by Wala's chasing troops.

While resisting, the Ming army was defeated and retreated all the way to Tumubao (in the east of Huailai, Hebei today).At that time, the sun had just set, and someone advised Yingzong to rush for a while before it was dark, and enter Huailai City (now Huailai, Hebei) before resting.But Wang Zhen insisted that the army stop at the Tumu Fort because the thousands of cars carrying his property hadn't arrived yet.The name of the civil castle is called a castle, but in fact there is no castle to defend.The troops of the Ming army drove for several days, thirsty like fire, but there was no water source in the Tumubao.There is a river fifteen miles away from Tumubao, which has been occupied by the Oirat army.The soldiers dug a well on the spot, dug two feet deep, but found no water.

The next day, just after dawn, the Oirat army rushed to Tumubao and surrounded the Ming army tightly.Ming Yingzong knew that there was no way to break through, so he had to send someone to ask for peace first.I also asked first that Ming Yingzong led a large number of Ming troops. If he wanted to fight a tough battle, he would also suffer losses, so he pretended to agree to a peace negotiation and stopped the attack. Ming Yingzong and Wang Zhenxin thought it was true and were very happy, and ordered the soldiers to find water nearby.The soldiers scrambled out of the ditch and ran towards the river, making a mess, and the generals couldn't stop it even if they tried to stop it.

At this time, the soldiers of the Oirat Army who had been ambushing for a long time rushed over from all directions, all of them swung their long knives and shouted loudly: "Those who surrender will not be killed!" When the soldiers of the Ming army heard this, they threw away their helmets and armor one after another, and ran wildly.The Oirat army pursued closely, and countless people were killed or trampled to death by the rebels.Kuang Ye was also killed in the chaos. Ming Yingzong and Wang Zhen led a group of forbidden troops, and tried to break through several times but failed to rush out.Wang Zhen, who is usually domineering, was trembling with fright at this time.Fan Zhong, the general of the Imperial Army, hated this traitor for a long time, and said angrily: "I will kill you, a traitor, for the sake of the people of the world." As he spoke, he swung the big hammer in his hand and hit Wang Zhen on the forehead. Throwing it away ended up in Wang Zhen's life.Fan Zhong rushed to the Oirat army by himself, fought for a while, and fell down after being shot.

Ming Yingzong saw that there was no hope of escape, so he jumped off his horse and sat cross-legged on the ground waiting to die.The Oirat soldiers caught up and captured Ming Yingzong.In history, this incident was called "civil engineering change". After this battle, more than half of the 500,000 Ming troops were lost, and the vitality of the Ming Dynasty was seriously injured.The leader of the Oirats also became more arrogant first, and Beijing was also threatened by the Oirats.The responsibility of guarding the capital fell on Yingzong's younger brothers Zhu Qiyu and Yu Qian.