As we all know, the Ming Dynasty fell in 1644, but if it were not for someone turning the tide at a critical time, the Ming Dynasty might have become history in 1449. Because someone came out to turn the tide, this gave the Ming Dynasty a later 195 year, but this person was eventually killed by the Ming Emperor.
When this man was killed by the Ming emperor, people all over the world thought that he should not be killed. So who is this person? All this should also start from the environment of the Ming Dynasty at that time.
Picture: The people send him off stills
First, the worries of the Ming dynasty kings
In the late 14th century, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, but for the previous generations of emperors of the Ming Dynasty, they always lived in a state of hidden danger.
1、
Special border problems
Those familiar with ancient Chinese history must know that in the history of China, the war between the farming peoples and the nomadic peoples lasted for more than 2,000 years, and as early as the time of Qin Shi Huang, the Qin Dynasty spent a lot of money to fight the Xiongnu in northern Mobei, and almost all the dynasties after that made great efforts in this regard.
During the Song Dynasty, because the Song Dynasty was initially established, it faced the embarrassment of congenital deficiency: the Song Dynasty did not have Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. This meant that the Song Dynasty lacked the protection of the Great Wall, a defect that led to the two Song Dynasties being passively beaten, until the Mongols in the north of the desert rose up, and finally destroyed the two Song Dynasties, and the Mongols in the north of the desert established the Yuan Dynasty.
After the Ming Dynasty overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, Mobei was still the power of the Northern Yuan, which made the Ming emperors have to worry: Will one day, the Northern Yuan Court will fight back?
Photo: Stills of the Ming Dynasty's troops in the north of the desert
2、
The Ming emperor tried his best to make up for it
In order to make up for this deficiency, the two emperors of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, made great efforts.
During zhu Yuanzhang's reign of more than thirty years, he launched several crusades against the Northern Yuan, and Zhu Di even carried out six crusades against the Northern Yuan, and these six crusades also won and lost against each other.
In fact, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty may not have known such an embarrassing problem, that is, for such a force as the Northern Desert Clan, it is impossible to achieve much effect by relying on the suppression and crusade of force alone.
Therefore, with the death of two generations of Ming dynasty lords, the Ming court's attack on the Mongol tribes also relaxed, and eventually, during the reign of Ming Yingzong, the Mongolian Wallachian department became stronger.
Image: Stills of the Wallachians
Second, the unprecedented crisis of the Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty in 1449 faced a crisis of national subjugation, which was very similar to the shame of Jing Kang in the previous Song Dynasty.
Shame on Jing Kang
In the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the two emperors of the Northern Song court, Song Huizong and Song Qinzong, were captured by the Jin people to the north, along with the two emperors of the Song Dynasty, as well as the Song Dynasty's ministers of culture and military affairs, such a fatal blow led to the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The main reason for the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty is that the entire court of the Northern Song Dynasty has been put in a pot, although the Jin soldiers did not occupy too many places in the Song Dynasty, but the Song Dynasty without a central institution was actually equivalent to losing the capital to fight with the Jin people.
The crisis faced by the Ming Dynasty is very similar to the shame of Jing Kang.
Image: Stills of the crisis facing the Ming Dynasty
The Change of Civil Engineering
When Ming Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty succeeded to the throne, he was still a child who did not understand the world, and for the Mongol attack, Ming Yingzong made a very absurd act, and his behavior almost buried the entire Ming Dynasty, an event that is called the Change of Civil Engineering in history.
Ming Yingzong heard that the Mongols were coming to attack, so he personally led 400,000 elite ming troops to attack, it should be noted that this is almost all the elite of the northern region of the Ming Dynasty.
Ming Yingzong did not know how to lead troops to fight, and under his command, the 400,000 Ming army was almost completely destroyed, and emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty was captured by the Mongols.
The situation faced by the Ming Dynasty at this time was almost similar to the situation of the shame of Jing Kang, but there were still great differences. First of all, at the time of the shame of Jing Kang, the entire imperial court of the Song Dynasty was uprooted by the Mongols, and the Ming Dynasty only captured Ming Yingzong, the emperor, and from this point of view, the situation of the Ming Dynasty was relatively better.
However, there are also disadvantages, when the Northern Song Dynasty fell, the elite troops of the Song Dynasty were still there, and the army ensured the smooth opening of the Southern Song Dynasty court, and Ming Yingzong directly destroyed these more than 400,000 elite troops.
Photo: Stills of the ming dynasty's elite troops being cut off
3、
Turn the tide
After the news of emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty being captured alive reached Beijing, the entire imperial court was in chaos, and at that time, the mainstream opinion in the imperial court was that since there was no decent army in the north to resist the Mongols, then the Ming court could move the capital to the land of Jiangnan and confront the Mongols for a long time.
However, if this plan is implemented, according to the momentum of the Mongols at that time, since the northern region was occupied, it is absolutely impossible to leave the south to the Ming Dynasty, so even if the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to the south, it would probably be destroyed at the same time.
At this time, Bingbu Shangshu Yuqian stood up and turned the tide,
First of all, Yu Qian contacted some of the upright ministers in the imperial court, and with the support of these ministers, Ming Yingzong's younger brother ascended the throne and became the emperor, that is, the Jingtai Emperor in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
After the Ming Dynasty has a new emperor, it can do something else in terms of policy.
Later, Yu Qian strongly persuaded Emperor Jingtai not to move the capital to the south, but to stay in the north to resist the Mongols.
In the end, the Jingtai Emperor was too humble to lead the Ming army and people to resist the Mongol attack, and in the end, the Ming Dynasty achieved a comprehensive victory.
At first, the Mongols detained Ming Yingzong, but over time, they felt that Ming Yingzong had no use value, so they released Ming Yingzong back.
Image: Yu Qian stills
4、
Yu Qian's encounter
After emperor Jingtai reigned for eight years, because he was ill and unable to manage the government, he was restored by a coup d'état launched by Emperor Mingyingzong, and after Emperor Mingyingzong launched a coup d'état, Yu Qian's enemy Shi Heng suggested that Emperor Mingyingzong kill Yu Qian.
Although Ming Yingzong was absurd when he was young, after so many years of hardship, he had already understood what a good person and what a bad person were. Therefore, he felt that Yu Qian was a hero of the Ming Dynasty, and he could not kill Yu Qian under any circumstances.
However, Shi Heng suggested to Ming Yingzong: If you do not kill Yu Qian, your restoration has no legal basis, and killing Yu Qian can be punished with this crime:
When Ming Yingzong was captured, there was still a prince in the imperial court, and Yu Qian did not support the crown prince, but supported Ming Yingzong's younger brother, which was originally a rebellious act.
Ming Yingzong thought about it, and in desperation, he had to take Shi Heng's advice, so he executed Yu Qian. When Yu Qian was executed, everyone throughout the world believed that Yu Qian had been killed, so after The death of Emperor Mingyingzong, the new emperor quickly rehabilitated him.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!