They take bribes, bend the law and do whatever they want. It is not difficult for them to cheat the emperor alone, but it is not easy to escape the eyes and ears of the Manchu military attache. Courtiers always resist eunuchs in various ways and retaliate against their aggression, so the biggest threat to eunuchs' participation in politics is not the emperor himself, but the monitoring and exposure from ministers of civil and military affairs. Eunuchs often observe and test the attitude of ministers in order to realize their wishes smoothly. Those who agree collude with each other, while those who disagree are strictly excluded, and they use many political skills in collusion with traitors to crack down on smuggling of dissidents.
Calling a deer a horse is the eunuch's first move to the minister. Once eunuchs gain the favor of the emperor, they always take strict precautions against courtiers who threaten their status, in case they make irresponsible remarks in front of the emperor and add trouble to themselves. To this end, it is a prerequisite to find out who is a friend and who is an enemy. Taking deer as a horse is an important way to test courtiers, grasp ministers' attitude towards themselves, and distinguish between friends and enemies. This dramatic detection method was founded by Zhao Gao, the eunuch of the Qin Dynasty. Zhao Gao was the first eunuch in the history of China to control the emperor's extravagance. He forged the testamentary edict of the first emperor, killed his son Fu Su and made Hu Hai the second emperor. He also instigated Hu Hai to overhaul the mausoleum of the first emperor and use harsh means to deal with the people. He also built Lishan Miyagi on a large scale, which made the world angry and the uprising rose. On the one hand, Zhao Gao used the theory of "repeated disrespect" to deceive Emperor II and cover up his guilt; On the other hand, he threatened the ministers of the DPRK with an arrogant attitude, practiced a dictatorial politics of obeying me and opposing my death, and crowded out and framed the officials of the DPRK.
Nevertheless, he was not at ease, so he invented a trick to test the attitude of the DPRK minister. One day, he asked for the promotion of the second emperor to the head of the court, so that he could lead a deer without horns to the temple. Zhao Gao pointed to the deer and said to II, "Your Majesty, what a unique horse this is!" Hu Hai looked up and saw a deer standing in front of him. He said, "The Prime Minister is wrong. Where is this horse? Isn't it a deer? " Zhao Gao retorted, "No, it's not a deer, it's a horse. Please take a closer look. " Hu Hai looked around as if he didn't believe his eyes. In his view, this is not a horse, but a deer. In fact, Zhao Gao turned black and white, calling a deer a horse, just to see the attitude of the ministers, so when he saw that Emperor II insisted on identifying it as a deer, he said, "Your Majesty doesn't believe it, please ask the ministers."
Hu Hai said to the courtiers standing on both sides, "I think this is a deer. The prime minister said it was a horse. Do you think it is a deer or a horse? " Ministers all know Zhao Gao's arrogance, even the prime minister Reese was hacked to death by him. How dare we say "no"? So many people say this is a horse. Zhao Gao a look, self-righteous. But just then, three or five people who didn't know the depth were still arguing that it was a deer. So Zhao Gao already hated these ministers. Zhao Gao directed this child's play, that is, a deer is a horse, which became the yardstick for Zhao Gao to distinguish between friends and dissidents. With this subtotal, Zhao easily found out the attitude of courtiers towards himself. So as soon as he went out to court, he sent someone to kill all the ministers who said they were deer on the road.
Wei Zhongxian in the Ming Dynasty also knew this. He tried his best to please and flatter, and was favored by Emperor Zhu Youxiao of Xizong. After Wei Zhongxian became a eunuch, he ganged up for selfish ends, spared no effort to crack down on his political enemy Lindong Party, and did many bad things. However, some shameless people, in order to take advantage of Wei Zhongxian's arrogance and the potential to continue to climb, have blown up an unhealthy trend of eulogizing Wei Zhongxian and building shrines all over the country. Pan Ruzhen, the humble governor of Zhejiang Province, was the first to invite the establishment of the Wei Zhongxian Temple in June of the sixth year of the Apocalypse. He said: "Wei Zhongxian, the East Factory is diligent and loves the people, and the people in counties and counties have boundless virtue. Please ask the public to build a shrine. " "king of the children" Zhu Youxiao immediately instructed: "It is advisable to follow the crowd and use Jiansheng Hall." Since then, the wind of building temples has intensified and quickly spread throughout the country. From Ming Tai, Li to Yao, ordinary military businessmen and even hooligans are scrambling to follow suit. They seized private land, demolished houses, and even cut down trees in cemeteries. How dare ordinary people object! All the shrines were magnificently built, which shaped Wei Zhongxian into a savior who could talk and fight.
Corresponding to the trend of building shrines, Wei Zhongxian regards the attitude towards shrines as the standard to measure whether people are loyal to themselves. Quite simply, advocating is loyalty, and opposing is difference. Wei Zhongxian used this as a boundary to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, and took the opportunity to cultivate private parties and eliminate dissidents. Pan Ruao invited to build a holy temple, but Li Zhi was only one day late for the draft, and was immediately regarded as a dissident and dismissed the people. Hu of Jizhou Road was arrested and sentenced to death because he didn't write an article when building a shrine, and Geng Ruqi of Zunhua Road didn't bow down when building a shrine. With the prevalence of building shrines, flattery has reached an absurd level. Li Yong-zuo of Fengcheng even sang praises to Wei Zhongxian and was named Prince Taibao. At that time, all the players were afraid to call Wei Zhongxian by his first name, but called him "the minister of the factory", and the emperor's letter of appreciation also used the highest praise. People call him 9900 years old, and the world is crazy because of worship. Yue wrote in "Miscellaneous Poems of the Ming Dynasty": "The adopted son worships the camp gate, and the punch line is the most unique. If you want to be a child who is not so old, you must sigh from yourself. " It's about people's crazy worship of Wei Zhongxian. At that time, the traitors among the 100 officials prostrated themselves before Wei's door as godsons, with as many as "five tigers", "ten dogs", "ten sons" and "forty grandchildren". Gu Bingqian, the etiquette minister, was old and senile, stroking his long beard and said to Wei Zhongxian, "I wanted to be your godson, but my beard turned white." So he made his son Wei's grandson. Wei Zhongxian gave him 200 taels of Wen Yin as a reward in heaven.
Wei Zhongxian used the wind of building a holy temple to test his ministers, identify friends and enemies, exclude dissidents and install confidants. 1967 became one of the three eunuchs in Ming dynasty. Although he was in power, he often tried to test people's hearts by referring to a deer as a horse, which shows that there are many cautious people in the rampant eunuch group. They often rely on these wisdom skills to deal with courtiers in order to be invincible.