Chapter 46 Section 13 Chongzhen moved his little finger

No amount of praise can change Wei Zhongxian's short-sighted reality.He has never had a clear understanding of his status.He doesn't seem to realize that his power is built on icebergs, and that without the support of the Emperor, he is effectively nothing.He never imagined what kind of fate he would face after the iceberg melted.He was just dominated by instinct and vanity, like a drunken driver, driving Daming's carriage indiscriminately, rushing crookedly towards the abyss of destruction. However, there is no lack of smart people in his group. They realized the fatal flaw in Wei's power base: the emperor will die one day, not to mention that most emperors of the Ming Dynasty were short-lived.Once the emperor dies, the Wei Dynasty is likely to fall apart.Therefore, they secretly advised Wei Zhongxian to take advantage of the power of the Wei family to stand on their own.Only in this way can we ensure the long-term interests of the Wei Group.

However, upon hearing such a suggestion, Wei Zhongxian's face paled in shock.He sternly warned the counselors not to say such things in the future, Wei Zhongxian is a man of great loyalty, how could he have such a heart?In the decree, he boasted that he was "loyal with all his heart" and devoted himself to the country. This is the truth.How could a "great man" and "loyal minister" like him do such a rebellious thing that despises human beings? Just like how easy it was for Wei Zhongxian to gain power, the experiment that fate stopped on him also happened so suddenly.No one expected that in the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627 A.D.), the twenty-three-year-old emperor suddenly became seriously ill.In May of this year, he started to suffer from backaches, fever, and swelling all over his body, showing signs that his time was approaching.Judging from the symptoms, he probably had acute nephritis.

Wei Zhongxian showed the true qualities of an old servant.At the age of sixty, he lived in the Maoqin Hall, which was very close to the emperor's bedroom, and served the emperor day and night.In order to save the emperor's life, he came up with countless ways.He invited a wizard to exorcise the emperor. He distributed red stickers with Jinshou characters in the palace to drive away the disease with a golden and red festive atmosphere.As the emperor's condition worsened day by day, he wept secretly many times. But everything was of no avail, and three months later, Emperor Tianqi passed away.Due to childlessness, his younger brother Zhu Youjian inherited the throne.

Wei Zhongxian cried until the sky was dark.He was close to his father and son for Emperor Tianqi, and the sudden death of the emperor hit him quite hard.He was absorbed in grief, unaware that danger was quietly gathering above his head.He also knew that after the new emperor ascended the throne, he might not trust him like the first emperor, and he would no longer have such great power, but with his loyalty, the future would not be so bad.This philistine is terribly politically obtuse. Other members of the Wei family group are much wiser than him. During the period when Emperor Tianqi was seriously ill, some people had already deliberately opposed the Wei family in government affairs, in order to draw a clear line between themselves and Wei Zhongxian in front of everyone.Wei Zhongxian was still ignorant of this.

The new emperor, Chongzhen, was completely different from Emperor Tianqi. This person "enjoyed reading books, and even when he was more than ten years old, he liked to sit quietly." He has a strong interest in politics, and he wholeheartedly wants to save Daming from danger.He hated the Wei Group's misconduct to the extreme. At the beginning, he was still in awe of Wei Zhongxian, deterred by the great power of the Wei family, he did not take any action for the time being.However, after a period of observation, he discovered that this behemoth was actually a paper tiger. Two months after he ascended the throne, he decided to do it.

He first signaled his ministers to impeach Wei Zhongxian, and the anti-Wei energy accumulated for a long time poured out, and the memorials to impeach Wei were overwhelming.On the first day of November in the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627 A.D.), Emperor Chongzhen issued a proclamation declaring that the Wei family was a villain who "should be an inch, and the Nianzi Palace is in the funeral, and the aunt is in Fengyang." With an order, the old servant Wei Zhongxian obediently rolled up his bed and went to the ancestral mausoleum in Fengyang to guard the mausoleum. However, the emperor's "Guzhi Fengyang" was just a polite remark, it was to save face for the late emperor, how could he really raise the tiger's legacy.Chinese politics has always paid attention to cutting the weeds and eradicating the roots, and there is only a dead end in front of Wei Zhongxian.On the sixth day of November, after learning that the emperor wanted to take his life, Wei Zhongxian hanged himself on the southbound road.

Wei Zhongxian's body was initially buried hastily in Fucheng, but later, in order to show the law of the country, it was dug up and sentenced to Lingchi, and it was displayed to the public in his hometown.Wei Liangqing, the virtuous son of the Wei family, was executed, and other family members were sent to the smoky ground for permanent exile.