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In 1461, the eunuch Cao Jixiang attempted a coup to replace the Tianshun Emperor with the crown prince, but failed. This would be the first and last time in the Ming Dynasty that eunuchs tried to take over the government by force. But what if Cao and his son (Cao Qin, the Wikipedia article on this event gives way too much focus on him) had succeeded? How would China look like if the eunuchs had managed to take power by force, as opposed to their usual modus operandi of secretive influence? While the Ming Dynasty wasn't as eunuch dominated as some dynasties, with eunuchs only holding power for short spans at a time, it certainly saw its fair share of scheming. If the eunuchs deposed an emperor by force and made it a trend, would the rest of the Ming Dynasty's years look more like the eunuch-dominated Han and Tang Dynasties? Or would the backlash force them out of power?
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