Dongchang was a privileged supervision and emotional organization run by eunuchs in China in the Ming Dynasty. It investigated dissidents to suppress opposition forces and was directly responsible to the emperor. The East Factory created a large number of unjust cases against officials, literati and even ordinary people, which was repugnant to the scholars at that time.
When performing official duties, he, like Jin Yiwei, held a "driving post" to prove that he was acting on behalf of the emperor, and the punishments "signed" the activities. The main investigation of factory guards is counterinsurgency and catching dissidents.
The members of the West Factory are selected from the Royal Guards. Xianzong decided that the number of Xuaner (a captain of the Royal Guards) he led was twice that of the East Factory, and he took over the functions and powers of the East Factory and the Royal Guards. Its authority is greater than that of Dongchang and Jinyiwei.
The duty of the West Factory is to investigate the words and deeds of civil servants, detain and torture suspects. The West Factory also confuses the prison with the court, arbitrarily arresting officials at the court, arbitrarily arresting middle and lower-level officials, and not inviting the emperor.
The West Factory directly obeyed the emperor and was not controlled by any other organization or individual. As a short-lived secret service, Xichang has only two magistrates, Wang Zhi and Liu Jin.
East Factory, West Factory, Inner Factory and Royal Guards, collectively called "Factory Guards", are the symbols of "running the country by special agents" in the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing dynasty, "military law" was normalized.
Extended data:
The Royal Guards, the East Factory and the West Factory are all secret agencies of the Ming Dynasty, with different responsibilities.
First, the East Factory
The founder of Dongchang is the Ming Emperor Judy. Judy has been worried about the instability of the throne since she launched the "Jingnan War" to seize her nephew's throne.
On the one hand, there are rumors that Emperor Wen Jian is not dead; On the other hand, many ministers in the imperial court were not very supportive of him. In order to consolidate the political power, Judy urgently needed a powerful autocratic institution, but he felt that the Royal Guards outside the palace were not enough, so he decided to establish a new institution.
In the process of Judy's starting his army, some eunuchs made great efforts, such as the famous Zheng He and Dao Yan, so in his mind, he still felt that eunuchs were more reliable, and they were in the palace, which was more convenient to contact.
In this way, after Ming Chengzu moved to Beijing, a detective agency led by eunuchs was established. Because its address is located in the north of Dong 'anmen, it is named Dongchang.
The function of the East Factory is to "seek rebellion and abuse". And have the power with a security guard ". At first, Dongchang was only responsible for investigating and arresting people, and had no right to interrogate prisoners. The arrested suspects were handed over to the government department of North Town of Jinyiwei for interrogation, but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, Dongchang also had its own prison.
The leader of the East Factory is called the eunuch of the East Factory, also known as the factory owner and factory supervisor, and is the second person among eunuchs after Li Si's supervision eunuch. In addition, there are 1000 households and 100 households in the East Factory, and there are also several team leaders, foremen and secretaries. The officer in charge of the investigation is the service chief and the service chief, who is equivalent to the squad leader, also called the platoon leader. Fan service is what we commonly call fans.
The investigation scope of the East Factory is very wide, the court will jointly try major cases, the North Town of Jinyiwei will torture repeat offenders, and the East Factory will send people to monitor; Every yamen in the imperial court has people from the East Factory on duty to monitor the officials' every move.
Some important yamen documents, such as various frontier newspapers and Ministry of War Tang newspapers, must be checked by the East Factory. Even the daily life of ordinary people, the price of rice, oil and salt, is also within the reconnaissance scope of the East Factory.
The information obtained by the East Factory can be reported directly to the emperor, which is much more convenient than that the Royal Guards have to report by letter. In Dongchangfu, the statue of Yue Fei is enshrined on the left side of the hall, and the story of the pancreatic case is engraved on the right side.
By the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Dongchang's investigation had even expanded to the whole country, and even in the remote areas of Yuanzhou, there was a situation of "people who took clothes as the language of the capital were angry", and the whole country felt unsafe and the people were in dire straits.
On the relationship with Royal Guards, Dongchang came from behind. Because the owner of the East Factory has a close relationship with the emperor and is located in the palace, it is easier to gain the trust of the emperor. The relationship between Dongchang and Jinyiwei has gradually changed from the same level to the superior-subordinate relationship. In the days when eunuchs were in power, the Royal Guards even had to kneel and kowtow when they saw the owner of the East Factory.
Second, the West Factory
Compared with the East Factory, the West Factory only existed for a short time in history. During the Chenghua period in Ming Xianzong, a mysterious case of "the fox came out at night" occurred in Beijing, and then Li Zilong, a demon, used a side door to confuse the people, and even snared many eunuchs, with ulterior motives.
Although Li Zilong and his followers were finally caught by the Royal Guards, Ming Xianzong felt that his stab was insufficient. So, Wang Zhi, the little eunuch around him, was chosen to go to the palace for information. Wang Zhi seized this opportunity, made innuendo everywhere, and collected many so-called "secret news" reports to Xianzong.
Xianzong thought the news was very valuable. He was very satisfied with Wang Zhi's performance and asked him to continue. A few months later, Xian Zong established a new court organization-West Factory, with Wang Zhi as the leader. The officers of the West Factory are mainly selected from the guards, who choose their own subordinates. In just a few months, the number of personnel in the West Factory is extremely inflated, and its power even exceeds that of the old East Factory.
The West Factory was originally set up just to get information for the emperor, but in order to promote a higher position and make a fortune, Wang Zhi tried his best to construct major cases, and the number, speed and number of people involved far exceeded that of the East Factory and the Royal Guards.
West Factory has established a detective network throughout the country, mainly targeting officials inside and outside Beijing. Once someone is suspected, arrest him immediately, without the prior consent of the emperor, and then, of course, use torture to extract a confession, and make the case as big as possible.
For ordinary people, as long as their words and deeds are not very good, they will be severely punished by the West Factory for swearing. In this case, the West Factory was established only five months ago, and people in the government and the public were in a panic. The assistant ministers, led by university students, collectively wrote a letter, complaining to Xianzong about the harm of Chenxi Factory and reporting it to the outside of the law.
Xianzong was shocked when he received the letter, so he cancelled the West Factory and dismissed its personnel. However, the days without the West Factory always made Xianzong feel insecure. After learning the emperor's mind, the treacherous court official Dai Jin took the initiative to write a letter, touting Wang Zhi.
Xianzong was overjoyed and immediately resumed the West Factory. There is only one month from abolition to promotion. After Wang Zhi came back, he handled the case more severely, and Dai Gan was promoted. In the following five years, Wang Zhi led the West Factory to set up numerous "major cases" and cut off courtiers such as Shang Lu and Xiang Zhong who turned against themselves, thus reaching the acme of power.
Later, Wang Zhi's extremely inflated power aroused the emperor's vigilance, Wang Zhi was finally transferred from Beijing, and the West Factory was dissolved.
Third, Jin Yiwei.
Royal Guards was originally a military organization. In the early Ming Dynasty, the military system was relatively simple. Its basic unit is the Health and Welfare Institute, and there are 48 health offices under the jurisdiction of Beijing guards. Zhu Yuanzhang reformed the Guards and established the 12 Sineitai, the most important of which was the "Royal Guards".
The leader of the Royal Guards is called the Commander-in-Chief, who is a general close to the emperor and rarely a eunuch. Its function is to "take charge of the guard, inspect and arrest", that is, some people are responsible for taking charge of the guard, showing etiquette and accompanying the emperor to patrol, which is basically no different from the traditional guard.
Although these people are called "generals", they are actually only responsible for standing in the temple, conveying the emperor's orders and doing security work. These people are not idle people. They are tall and burly, full of aura and loud voices. From the outside, they are quite dignified and have a certain deterrent effect on people.
The Royal Guards are responsible for "patrolling", which is the special feature that distinguishes the Royal Guards from other guards in different dynasties. The original intention of Zhu Yuanzhang's establishment of the Royal Guards was to perform ceremonial ceremonies. Later, due to his wanton slaughter of heroes, he thought that the judicial institutions such as the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and Duchayuan were not easy to use, so he upgraded the security function of the Royal Guards and made it the emperor's private police.
The security agency in charge of criminal investigation is the North-South Town Government Office, in which the North Town Government Office specializes in handling cases decided by the emperor and has its own prison, which can arrest, torture and execute on its own without going through ordinary judicial institutions.
There are five health centers under the county magistrate's department of Nanbei Town. Commanding officers are called thousands of households, hundreds of households, general flags and small flags, and ordinary soldiers are called a captain and lux. A captain and Lux are called "gas-lifting" when they perform the task of catching thieves and rapists. Twist varies from minimum 1000 to maximum 60000.
Generally, the Royal Guards Academy selects people with strength and no bad record from the people, and then promotes them step by step according to their abilities and qualifications. At the same time, the official position of the Royal Guards is also allowed to be hereditary. Zhu Yuanzhang, the first two emperors of the Ming Dynasty, was born in poverty. Zhu Yuanzhang rose to seize the world, and Judy seized her nephew's country by force. Due to the particularity of this background, the Ming dynasty had a strong desire to safeguard imperial power that other dynasties did not have.
This makes the "patrol" function of Royal Guards infinitely expanded. Commander Jin Yiwei took advantage of his position and spared no effort to create trouble, which not only attacked dissidents, but also served as the capital for his promotion.
Fourth, office factories.
After the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Ming Dynasty, Liu Jin, the great eunuch, came to power, and the eunuch forces rose again, and the West Factory reopened, led by eunuch Gu Dayong. At this time, both the West Factory and the East Factory were under the command of Liu Jin, but they did not cooperate with each other, but fought for power and profit and destroyed each other.
In order to change this situation, Liu Jin built an internal factory under his direct command. Its function is the same as that of Dongxi Factory, but the scope of investigation is wider, even including Dongxi Factory and Royal Guards.
For a time, the four secret service agencies, namely the Royal Guards, the East-West Factory and the Inner Factory, coexisted, twiddling and riding were rampant, and the world was in chaos. Until the fall of Liu Jin, Wu Zongcai ordered the cancellation of the west factory and the inner factory.
The spy system of factory health is a personal political measure implemented by the emperor to maintain his rule. Its biggest function is that you can't know whether you are being watched by spies, thus creating a feeling of being watched at any time.
Any action that is not "honest" at all may have unpredictable and terrible consequences, so we dare not act rashly and can only obey. However, spies destroy loyalty, and ultimately it is the whole country that is unlucky.
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