Yan Song, a traitor and powerful minister, was born in Yan Song in the 16th year of Xianzong Chenghua (1480) and died in the 45th year of Sejong Jiajing (1566). His proper name was Xiexi and Fenyi (now Fenyi in Jiangxi). In the 18th year of Hongzhi in Ming Dynasty (1505), he was a scholar, edited by Jishi Shu. Worked as a waiter in Nanjing Hanlin Academy for a long time, and toasted imperial academy. Jiajing (1522- 1566) was favored by Emperor Sejong Zhu Houxi. He was a famous traitor in the twenty years of Ming Dynasty, specializing in state affairs, greedy and treacherous. Flattering Yan Song, a big official, has no special talent, but in order to make a big official rich, you can flatter him. In the seventh year of Jiajing (1528), Yan Song was the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites, and was ordered by Zhu Houzhi of Sejong to sacrifice to Xian Ling (Sejong's father's mausoleum, near Hammer Xiang in Hubei Province today). Afterwards, Yan Song flattered Sejong Zhu Houxiu and said, "When I put my precious book on the bed to calm my nerves, it should stop raining. Zaoyang (now Zaoyang, Hubei) is also a rocky land, surrounded by many ancient birds. When the monument was transported into Hanshui (now Hanshui, Hubei), the river suddenly rose. These are the will of heaven, please ask the assistant minister to write an article and carve stone records. " Sejong Zhu Hou was very happy after hearing this. Soon, Yan Song was appointed as the left assistant minister of the official department, and later he was promoted to the official department minister. Sejong Zhu Houxi was the cousin of Zhu Houzhao, the emperor of Wuzong, and sealed the country in Huguang and Anlu (now Anlu, Hubei). Since Zhu Houzhao had no son, after his death, Empress Dowager Cixi and cabinet record Yang Tinghe made a decision that in the name of testamentary edict, Sejong Zhu Hou would inherit his brother and heir to the throne. "Sejong Zhu Hou strangled the emperor's throne, that is, he came for his father and offered Chu Wang Zhu Hu Hang to Xian Di. In the seventeenth year of Jiajing (1538), Sejong Zhu prepared to respect the temple and put the god in the ancestral hall, which was above it. At first, Yan Song and his ministers objected, and Sejong Zhu Houqing was very unhappy. He wrote "Tang Ming or Ask" for the courtiers to consult the ministers. At the same time, Tang Zhou, assistant minister of the official department, was jailed. When Yan Song saw this situation, he was frightened, so he changed what he had said before, and carefully planned the etiquette of Zhu Ancestral Temple, a master of gods. After the ceremony, Zhu Hou, who deeply loved Sejong, was rewarded with gold coins and other things. Since then, Yan Song has become more and more flattering, and more and more flattering. When posthumous title Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's Emperor Gaozong was chased by Sejong Zhu Hou, the university students and Gu claimed to see five-color auspicious clouds, so Yan Song invited the emperor to be congratulated by his ministers, and with his years of knowledge, he wrote Qing Yun Fu and Ode to Great Gifts. Sejong Zhu Hou was overjoyed after reading it. The following year, Yan Song was promoted to Prince of Taibao, and his reward was treated equally with assistant minister (cabinet minister). In the Ming dynasty, the emperor and the crown prince used black gauze to fold towels, which was called the wing good crown in the Tang dynasty. Sejong Zhu advocated Taoism; Wear a fragrant towel crown instead of a wing crown, and give five fragrant towel crowns to Xia Yan, Yan Song and other ministers. Xia Yan thinks that this kind of fragrant leaf towel is not the crown that ministers should wear, which violates the ancestral system. But Yan Song didn't miss this opportunity to please the emperor. When Emperor Sejong Zhu summoned him, he not only wore a fragrant towel crown, but also specially caged him with gauze to show his solemnity. When Sejong Zhu Hou saw this, the more he liked Yan Song, the more he doubted Xia Yan. The insidious Yan Song took the opportunity to vilify Xia Yan in front of Sejong Zhu Houqing, who flew into a rage and immediately resigned as a university student. In August of this year (twenty-first year of Jiajing 1542), Yan Song filled the vacancy left by Xia Yan after he left office, joined the cabinet to participate in maintenance, and began to master the power of the cabinet. At that time, Yan Song was over 60 years old, but he was full of energy. He served Sejong Zhu day and night in Xiyuan, and he became more and more popular with Sejong Zhu. Before long, he was promoted to the position of Prince Taifu. Refuse colleagues to form a party to consolidate power. Although Yan Song joined the cabinet, he was not satisfied with it. He tried every means to crack down on and crowd out his colleagues in order to monopolize the state affairs. College student Zhai Luan's qualifications and fame are above that of Yan Song. In order to crowd out Zhai Luan, Yan Song secretly sent an envoy to see Wang, arguing that Zhai Luan cheated in the imperial examination on the grounds that his second son was promoted to Jinshi with him. As a result, under the influence of Yan Song, Zhai Luan and his son were both deposed by Sejong Zhu Hou, and Yan Song became bigger and bigger. In the 22nd year of Jiajing (1543), Zan Xu and Zhang Bi, ministers of the official department, joined the cabinet and participated in the maintenance together with Yan Song. But Sejong Zhu only asked Yan Song to discuss something, but Yan Song ignored them and acted arbitrarily. In this regard, Xu Zan slightly expressed his dissatisfaction. Yan Song, who had ulterior motives, played Sejong Zhu and said, "When servants serve the emperor together, they should work together and should not dislike each other. A few years ago, Xia Yan and Guo Xun were courtiers, but they were suspicious of each other, which was not a courtier's way. Minister Yan Song was summoned by the emperor alone many times, but it was not safe. I'm afraid my colleagues will get suspicious and make the same mistake. Please follow the ancestors who went to Xia (Yuanji) and Sanyang (Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and Yang Pu) to tell stories. If you are called, you should join the cabinet minister. "Yan Song slide backwards here, that he can be kind to colleagues. In fact, what he means is that other cabinet ministers are jealous of themselves. In this way, Yan Song gained the favor of Sejong Zhu Houxi by slandering others. Soon, Yan Song was promoted to official department minister, university student, Shaofu and Prince Taishi. In the 24th year of Jiajing (1545), in December, Sejong Zhu left his post because of an old illness, and Zhang Bi died and entered the cabinet again. After Xia Yan joined the cabinet, his position was still above that of Yan Song. Yan Song was unwilling. On the surface, he was self-effacing to Xia Yan, but secretly he was waiting to frame Xia Yan. Sejong Zhu Houxiu is a very suspicious person. He often sends court guards to spy on the actions of ministers. Every time Yan Song came to spy on himself in the palace prison, he deliberately did something to please the emperor, such as reading blues lyrics under the lamp at night. The so-called Qing Ci draft is the emblem of Taoist priests playing immortals on the altar. It is called a green word because it is written in Chinese characters on green paper. Because Sejong Zhu advocated Taoism, and Yan Song were both favored because of their good writing of Qing Ci, at that time, some people ridiculed Yan Song as the "Prime Minister of Qing Ci". After Xia Yan entered the cabinet again, she was old and weak, and went to bed early every night. When Sejong Zhu learned that Yan Song had been reading Blue Ci in the evening and had fallen asleep, he became more and more fond of Yan Song, but gradually disliked it. In the 25th year of Jiajing (1546), with the support of Xia Yan, Zeng Mi, the Trilateral Military Governor of Shaanxi Province, put forward a plan to recover the Hetao area occupied by Mongolian Tatars. Hetao area (east of Helan Mountain in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, and along the Yellow River in the south of Langshan Mountain and Daqingshan Mountain) is bounded by rivers in the east, west and north, and borders on border towns such as Yulin (now Yulin in Shaanxi), Ningxia (now Yinchuan in Ningxia) and Piantouguan (now Pianguan in Shanxi) in the south. The land is fertile, irrigation is convenient, and it is suitable for farming and mulberry. Controlling Hetao area is of great significance to the northern border defense in Ming Dynasty. However, in order to frame Xia Yan, Yan Song used the fear of the Mongolian Tatar Army to attack Xia Yan, and had planned to recover the Hetao area, which was "exultation" and "belligerence". At this time, there happened to be a fire in the inner palace, and the queen died. Sejong Zhu was quite afraid of the above changes. Yan Song took the opportunity to say: "The reason for the disaster is that Zeng and others want to recover the Hetao area and disrupt state affairs." Sejong Zhu Hou, when he lost confidence, fired Xia Yan and sent him to prison. Other officials who supported the plan to recover the Hetao area were also punished by demotion, salary reduction and litigation. Soon, the Tatar army invaded Yan 'an (now Yan 'an, Shaanxi) and Ningxia (now Yinchuan, Ningxia), and Yan Song took the opportunity to tell Sejong Zhu that the Tatar army had been sent to recover the Hetao area. Sejong Zhu also executed Zeng for the crime of opening the border. Although Yan Song killed Zeng, he is still there, and Yan Song is unwilling not to kill him. Therefore, Xia Yan's bribery is fabricated. As a result, Xia Yan was also executed by Sejong Zhu Hou. After Xia Yan's death, Yan Song ascended the high position of Huiji (the minister headed by the cabinet) and completely grasped the power of the cabinet. While rejecting his colleagues, Yan Song tried his best to cultivate his close friends and put his cronies in charge of confidential departments to consolidate his power. Yan Song took his son Yan Shifan as his favourite and his friends as a party. There are more than 30 adopted sons, and ministers Guan Peng, Ouyang Bijin, Gao Yao and Xu Xuan are all confidants of Yan Song. The General Political Department is an important department responsible for submitting papers. In order to control the headquarters, Yan Song appointed his adopted son Zhao Wenhua as the general political envoy. If the paper is submitted, Zhao Wenhua will send a copy to Yan Song and then type it. The official election and the Ministry of War are two humble official positions, but because the official election is responsible for the promotion and transfer of officials, and the Ministry of War is responsible for specific affairs such as the military system, it is more confidential. Therefore, Yan Song firmly controlled the situation, and his cronies Wan Zhen and Fang Xiang served as Wen Xuanlang and Xu respectively. The two of them often hold the above-mentioned account books, which are randomly filled in by Yan Song, and are sometimes called "two civil servants" in Yan Song's mouth. Yan Song, a common people who embezzled and accepted bribes, relied on power, embezzled and accepted bribes, encroached on people's property, and did many evils. During Yan Song's rule, North Korean officials were promoted and demoted not by virtue, stupidity, honesty and ability, but by the amount of bribes paid to Yan Song. So every day, people who pay bribes come to Yanfu in an endless stream and confront each other on the road; Gifts, documents, measuring cars. Does not ministers to Zhiyuan bribe Yan Song with thirteen thousand gold, a promotion. A juren, Pan Hongye, bribed Yan Song to be appointed as the magistrate of Linqing, Shandong Province. After Qiu Luan, a criminal officer, was dismissed, he bribed Yan Song and his son with huge sums of money to be reinstated and became an important company commander in Fu Xuan and Datong. At that time, North and South officials, censors and other supervisory officials believed that Yan Song was the first greedy minister in North Korea. Yan Song and his son occupy more than 150 farmland near Beijing. In addition, there are dozens of fertile fields and beautiful houses in Nanjing and Yangzhou. Each of these properties is worth several thousand dollars, but when Yan Song and his son buy them by force, the seller often gets only four or five tenths of the silver. The land occupied by Yan Song and his son in their original place is even more amazing. Yuanzhou (now Yichun, Jiangxi) has four counties, and seven-tenths of the land is occupied by Yan family. Because Yan Song and his son plundered the people's wealth, the fisherman benefited, and their family wealth could be richer than that of the emperor. Yan Song's mansion is carved with beams and painted columns, with lofty walls, and its momentum in the imperial court continues unabated. As for gold and silver jewelry, it is even more difficult to count. Yan Song's son Yan Shifan once boasted: "The court is not as rich as me." Later, Yan Song lost all his money and copied more than 30,000 taels of gold, more than two million taels of silver, and other pearls were worth two million taels. Even Yan Song's servant Yan Nian has tens of thousands of meters. The life of Yan Song and his son is quite extravagant and decadent. Especially Yan Song's son Yan Shifan, a beautiful wife and concubine, lives in groups; Clothes are auspicious; Decorate with pearls and jade; Zhang Xiang's bed is surrounded by golden tents; Singing and dancing at night, dissolute. For this corrupt life, Yan Shifan said smugly: "The court is not as happy as me!" Yan Song's treachery directly weakened the frontier forces of the Ming Dynasty, and caused a serious threat to the Ming Dynasty by the northern aristocratic Tatar army and the southeast Japanese pirates. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, the Monwa thorn department gradually declined and the Tatar department rose. Soon, Tatar Dayan Khan unified the Mongolian ministries. In the 23rd year of Jiajing (1544), Dayan Khan died, and his grandson Anda Khan dominated. During this period, Mongolian Khan led troops to harass the mainland many times. However, since Yan Song came to power in the Ming Dynasty, the frontier generals bribed most of the frontier commissary to Yan Song in order to protect officials and get promoted. As a result, the soldiers were hungry and tired, and the border defense was poor, so they could not resist the harassment of the Mongolian Tatar aristocratic rulers. Especially in the 29th year of Jiajing (1550), Tatar Anda Khan led an army into the suburbs of Beijing, and Beijing was in a great state of emergency. However, regardless of the military emergency, Yan Song only considered that if it was difficult to hide the defeat in the war in the suburbs of Beijing and it was difficult to escape as a cabinet record, he would do everything possible to stop the war of resistance. Imperial secretary Zhao Zhenji advocated sending troops to defend the capital, but Yan Song vilified his crazy life, which led to Zhao Zhenji being exiled and relegated by Sejong Zhu Hou. Yan Song also instructed Ding Rukui, the minister of the Ministry of War, to say: "The suburbs of Beijing are no better than the frontier fortress, and the defeat of the frontier fortress can be concealed, and the losers in the suburbs of Beijing know it. The Andan army has plundered enough and left. Our best policy is to strengthen the city wall. " Therefore, the Ministry of War issued an order not to play easily. Wang Jun, a regular army, went to Beijing, and Yan Song recommended his confidant to be a general to take charge of the regular army. Under the control of Yan Song and Qiu Luan, loyalists from all walks of life just sat and watched the Anda army kill and plunder people and property. The troops led by Qiu Luan even followed the Anda army and robbed them in troubled waters. Burning, killing and looting are worse than the Anda army. Until the Anda army burned and looted in the suburbs of Beijing for several days, escorting a large number of men and women, gold, silk and property to leave proudly. Qiu Qicai led the army to pretend to pursue and killed dozens of people's heads to take credit. Sejong Zhu Hou was released without verification, and even added Qiu Luan as a Pacific Insurance and gave him gold coins. However, Sejong Zhu still felt humiliated by the emperor for Enemy at the Gates. In order to vent his anger, he put Ding Rukui, the minister of the Ministry of War, in prison. Yan Song was afraid that Ding Rukui would expose his crime of instructing him not to go to war at this time, so he comforted Ding Rukui and said, "Stay with me, you won't die." However, when Sejong Zhu Hou lost his temper and wanted to execute Ding Rukui, Yan Song was silent again and said nothing. When Ding Rukui was executed, he realized that he had been cheated and shouted, "Yan Song missed me!" In the 29th year of Jiajing (1550), it was Geng Xunian, which was called "the Change of Gengxu" in history. There are many reasons for this incident, but it is directly related to Yan Song's perverse behavior and lax border defense. Southeast pirates are Japanese pirate groups. As early as the early Ming Dynasty, the enemy appeared on the southeast coast of China. However, at that time, the national strength of the Ming Dynasty was strong and the coastal defense was consolidated, which had not caused great disaster. During the Jiajing period (1522- 1566), the coastal defense of the Ming Dynasty was very empty because of the ignorance of Sejong Zhu and the greed of Yan Song. For example, the number of foot soldiers in Liaodong, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, which are located in the front line of coastal defense, is only one-third of the original; One tenth of the coastal warships had to raise fishing boats to make up for the police force. Whenever the Japanese invaders attack China on a large scale, people's lives and property are slaughtered and plundered by the Japanese because they are unable to resist. In the three or four years after the thirty-first year of Jiajing (1552), hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were killed by the Japanese army. Therefore, the enemy was the most serious scourge in southeast China during Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty (1522- 1566). Yan Song, who manipulated cabinet power, sheltered and connived at Japanese bureaucrats and attacked and framed anti-Japanese generals. For example, Ruan E, the governor of Fujian, bribed Yan Song with a large sum of money after the crime, but he was exempted from punishment. On the contrary, Zhang Jing, an anti-Japanese general, defeated the Japanese in Zhejiang in the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing (1555), captured and beheaded 2,000 Japanese, and achieved the greatest victory since the Anti-Japanese War. Yan Song's adopted son Zhao Wenhua did not take bribes at that time, but was framed to death by Yan Song and Zhao Wenhua for taking credit. Yu, a famous anti-Japanese fighter, is an honest and frank person, and he will not please others. Yan Song was angry that he overreached himself, so he made trouble and arrested him. Many officials in the DPRK cherished the general, bribed Yan Song with 3,000 yuan to save his life and sent him to Datong to guard the border. Due to the perverse actions of Yan Song and his henchmen, the coastal defense officials in the southeast fell apart, the law and order were corrupted, and the enemy became more and more fierce. Reversing black and white to frame the government, many honest officials are very angry with Yan Song and his son for their greed, treachery and wrong country and people, and have exposed their crimes. Among them, the most famous is Jin Yiwei's experience in Shen Lian and Yang Jisheng, the minister of war. In the 30th year of Jiajing (155 1), Shen Lian pointed out that the Anda army's March into the suburbs of Beijing was all caused by Yan Song's greed and ignorance. Shen Lian also listed ten major crimes such as Yan Song bribing generals, monopolizing the power of the official department, asking for help according to age, framing officials, and specializing in state affairs. Please the emperor so treacherous court official Yan Song, to thank the world. In the thirty-second year of Jiajing (1553), Yang Jisheng, the minister of the Ministry of War, made a comprehensive disclosure of Yan Song's crimes. He classified Yan Song's crimes into ten crimes and five crimes of rape. These ten sins are: act like a prime minister, and evil ancestors become law; Forge the emperor's intention to betray traitors; Take the imperial military, and the children and grandchildren will be officials; Taking bribes for personal gain, citing ministers' greed, abuse and evil; Abandoning combat readiness will delay the national military aircraft. Yang Jisheng also pointed out that Yan Song succeeded by peddling five traitors. The outline of these five traitors is; Pay a thick bribe to the palace supervisor of the emperor's attendants and make him his own spy; Strictly manage the General Political Department, the key department in charge of the memorial hall, to make it its own eagle dog; Cooperate with officials of the factory and Wei (the emperor's secret service organization) so that the emperor's minions can also serve themselves; Do everything possible to win over officials and make them their slaves; Trap ministers and make them your cronies. Obviously, these essays are sharp expositions and criticisms of Yan Song's crimes. However, because Yan Song confused right and wrong, reversed black and white, and took advantage of Sejong Zhu Hou's fault of not defending himself, he was angry at Sejong Zhu Hou, so that Yan Song was unmoved at all, while the official himself was persecuted and hit by various kinds. For example, Jin Yiwei experienced Shen Lian and was punished with a scepter and demotion. After Shen Lian was demoted as a security guard (now northwest of Huailai, Hebei Province), he tied three right-wingers as Li (a traitor in the Tang Dynasty), Yan Song (a traitor in the Song Dynasty) and often vented his anger with arrows. Yan Song was furious when he heard that. Soon, he fabricated charges and killed Shen Lian. Another example is that after Yang Jisheng, the minister of the Ministry of War, was imprisoned by Sejong Zhu Hou for framing the minister, Yan Song was still unwilling and wanted to die, and Yang Jisheng was involved in the so-called Zhang Jing case out of thin air and was killed. In addition, there are,, Tong, Zhao Jin, Wang Zongmao, He, Wang Wei,, Xu, Zhou Fu, Wu Shilai, Zhang Chong and Dong Chuance. Those who impeached Yan Song successively were persecuted, relegated and imprisoned by court aides because of Yan Song's framing. In this way, because of Yan Song's arrogance, no one dared to impeach Yan Song again. Unfortunately, Yan Song was defeated in the forty-first year of Jiajing (1562). In those days, relying on his son Yan Shifan, Yan Song even let Yan Shifan sneak into the throne to draft a ticket (the cabinet wrote a batch of answers with a small ticket after receiving the letter, and then the emperor approved it and called for a ticket). Because Yan Shifan is familiar with current affairs, quite familiar with national laws, cunning and clever, considerate, and the voting can cater to the wishes of Sejong Zhu Hou. However, when Yan Song's wife died, Yan Shifan could not take part in his conscription during his father's mourning, but was drafted by Yan Song himself. Because Yan Song is over eighty years old, the draft is often vague, and even the preface is inconsistent with the meaning of Sejong Zhu Hou. Yan Song gradually lost his affection for his wife as soon as possible. At this time, another Fang Daoxing won the trust of Sejong Zhu with her help. On one occasion, Sejong Zhu Hou asked Landaohang if he was a traitor to the court minister, and Landaohang said that Yan Song was the biggest traitor under the guise of being a fairy. Sejong Zhu Houxian asked again: Why didn't Shang Xian punish evil? Landaoxing also borrowed the meaning of the sage and said: Leave it to the emperor. Later, when the Zou Yinglong Empire exposed the crimes of Yan Song and his son, Sejong Zhu dismissed Yan Song and his son defended the frontier. This happened in May of the forty-first year of Jiajing (1562). However, Yan Shifan, who overstepped the king's law, fled back to his hometown in the middle of the garrison, continued to bully the village, stole children, robbed the people of money, and even contacted the Japanese to plot against the enemy, which caused great public anger. Later, the suggestion Lin Run got the above materials and presented them to the emperor for Yan Shifan's crimes of fleeing back to his hometown, slandering state affairs, bossy villages and scheming. Sejong Zhu was furious when he saw the newspaper and was immediately arrested in Beijing. He was beheaded in the forty-fourth year of Jiajing (1565). When Yan Shifan, who was full of evil, was executed, the citizens raised their glasses to watch, and everyone applauded and cheered. The following year, Yan Song died at the age of 87. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (1522- 1566), Yan Song's corrupt administration brought very serious social consequences. First of all, because the national fiscal revenue can no longer cover half of the annual revenue, the finance is on the verge of despair, and the country has reached an unsustainable level. Secondly, due to the weak national strength and lax border defense, the northern Anda aristocratic army harassed and the southeast Japanese pirates ran rampant, causing profound disasters to the people. Third, due to the sharp increase in frontier defense expenditure, the death of Sejong Zhu Hou (asking a Taoist priest to set up an altar) led to an increase in construction costs. In the thirty years of Jiajing (155 1 year), the amount of silver used has reached 5.95 million. So one million two hundred thousand pieces of silver were added, and the additional pie began. In addition, the number of saltworks has also increased greatly, reaching one million taels in Huaibei. These increases and allocations have further increased the burden on the people. In a word, Yan Song's twenty years of monopolizing power and politics was a great failure of the Ming Dynasty. Yan Song's life is a life of greed and treachery, and he has wronged his country and people. Therefore, a generation of powerful minister Yan Song is just a historical figure who has been reviled and left behind for thousands of years.