Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Youjian's division of Dongning Island as the prince's territory naturally had a profound meaning.

Because in his view, the weakening of imperial power was inevitable and could not be reversed by one or two capable monarchs.

Just like the current Ming Dynasty, if Emperor Tianqi had not appointed the eunuch party to destroy the original order and physically eliminate many stubborn ministers, Zhu Youjian would not have been able to easily seize power no matter how resourceful he was.

However, even so, they still held on tightly to the core powers of the civil officials, such as the power of voting, sealing and rejecting, and recommending in the court. Even if forcibly seizing them was successful, it would also lead to great backlash.

The knowledgeable people in the court and the public will also be disappointed and will not work hard for the autocratic monarch.

So after careful consideration, Zhu Youjian chose to standardize these systems and share power with officials.

With his knowledge and ability, this is the case. It would be even worse for the monarch who grew up in the deep palace.

It is foreseeable that the imperial power will continue to decline under the continuous support of civil servants.

Zhu Youjian had no intention of going against the historical trend. His plan was to maintain a bottom line so that the royal family could retain a certain amount of power even if it declined.

This is how the inner court and the outer court are divided, cutting off the power of the outer court officials to interfere in the palace and giving the royal family a base.

The enterprises controlled by the inner court and the companies in which the Imperial Assets Commission has a stake are intended to enable the royal family to smoothly transform in the future and to form a capital consortium with the royal family as its core.

This was even more true as the enfeoffment of royal family nobles and the Lifanyuan were directly governed by the emperor.

Anyone who is not necessarily an emperor or has ambitions to usurp the throne must be careful of vassal states rising up in rebellion to eliminate treacherous officials around the emperor.

The Imperial Family would in fact become the bond for the Ming Dynasty to control the vassal states, so that even if the ministers and the parliament had power, they would not dare to abolish it easily.

If a capable monarch emerges, he can use the martial law system that Zhu Youjian had already established to mobilize the Jinyiwei and the army to deal with restless ministers and parliamentarians.

These are the barriers set up by Zhu Youjian for the royal family. He hoped that even if the royal family lost power in the future, his descendants would be able to survive in the process.

To this end, he did not hesitate to take the risk of letting the prince lead the troops and allocated fiefdoms and territories to the prince.

Dongning Island may seem to be just a connection to Zhuolu District, but in Zhu Youjian's heart, it is the territory he chose to leave for the royal family.

It's just that he, as an emperor, theoretically owned the whole world, so it was impossible for him to divide a territory for himself and treat it differently. So he chose to let the crown prince take charge and divide Dongning Island into the crown prince's territory, with the same legal principles as a vassal state and a territory.

In the future, as long as the feudal system is not abolished, the prince's territory will most likely be retained, and after the royal family loses power, they will still have a piece of land to rule.

This land also has great potential and can accommodate a larger population than places like Beihai Island.

As long as it is managed well, it can have the strength that is no less than that of a vassal state.

It can be said that this was Zhu Youjian’s long-term plan, which was for the sake of his descendants.

As for the current plan, it is to increase the troops under his direct control by allocating troops to the prince.

While assigning Zhuolu Central Guard to the Crown Prince, Zhu Youjian also gave the Imperial Horse Administration the jurisdiction over Zhuolu Left and Right Guards. The number of guards controlled by the Imperial Camp increased from four guards to six guards.

However, Zhu Youjian's thoughts obviously went beyond this. After all, as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, how could he have only six guards like the crown prince?
If you want to become an emperor like Taizu and Chengzu, you must have twelve or even twenty-six personal guards like them!

He planned to take advantage of the adjustment of the capital's garrisons to continue his efforts to increase the number of troops under his direct control.
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On the 23rd, the regular court session.

Just when the officials thought that the issue of the prince's fiefdom was settled and the six guards of the Eastern Palace had basically become the consensus of the officials, Zhu Youjian, listening to the memorial of Yuan Keli, the co-director of the Privy Council, suddenly asked: "After the Zhuolu Central Guard is assigned to the prince, will it still use this name in the future?"

"Is there a better name that would be more suitable for the prince's status?"

Yuan Keli and other privy ministers also thought about this and said:

"The six guards of the Eastern Palace in the previous dynasty included the Crown Prince's Left and Right Guards, the Crown Prince's Left and Right Imperial Guards, and the Crown Prince's Left and Right Cleaning Guards."

"I and others think that we can change the names of the Zhuolu Central Guard and the Dongning Five Guards to these six guards, and set up the Crown Prince's Left and Right Guards and the Crown Prince's Left and Right Internal Guards as the Crown Prince's personal guards, making a total of ten guards for the Eastern Palace."

Zhu Youjian was not very satisfied with this and said:
"Our dynasty has established a new system, why must we use the old name of the previous dynasty?"

"The names of the five Dongning guards do not need to be changed. As for the Zhuolu Central Guard, it can be changed to Yulin Central Guard."

"In addition, the Crown Prince is allowed to select 500 men from the Yulin Left Guard, Yulin Right Guard, Yulin Vanguard Guard, and Yulin Rear Guard to serve as his personal soldiers, and appoint his trusted followers to lead them, collectively known as the Ten Guards of the Eastern Palace."

In this way, the prince's military strength increased from six guards to ten guards.

When the ministers heard this, they immediately burst into a buzz. No one had expected that the emperor would increase the number of troops for the prince.

Many people couldn't help wiping the sweat off their foreheads, and they wanted to question the current emperor in the court:

Are you so confident in the crown prince? Aren't you worried that he will lead his troops to force you to abdicate?
It was already worrying to hand over the three Zhuolu guards near the capital to the crown prince, let alone the four Yulin guards in the capital.

Yuan Keli objected as soon as he heard it:
"Your Majesty, it is not a blessing for the court if the Crown Prince controls too many troops."

"I think that the Crown Prince can just select 500 men from each of the five Dongning guards as his personal soldiers, and there is no need to recruit troops from the four Yulin guards."

Zhu Youjian shook his head and said:

"No! No!"

"The soldiers and horses drawn from the Dongning Guards form the Dongning Army, and they are to fight for the Crown Prince outside."

"The soldiers and horses drawn from the Imperial Guards are the Imperial Guards. They are the personal troops of the Crown Prince and are responsible for protecting the Crown Prince."

"If you are worried, you can hand over the Four Imperial Guards to the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and the troops and horses that the Crown Prince has drawn will be arranged by the Imperial Horse Supervisor."

"The prince is in charge of only two thousand men selected from among them, so he is called the Guard."

Now the ministers understood that the emperor did not want to give the Four Yulin Guards to the prince, but wanted to assign them to the Imperial Stables.

After the civil officials in the court understood this, they instinctively opposed it. Previously, the Zhuolu Left and Right Guards were assigned to the Imperial Horse Administration in the name of watching over the Zhuolu Central Guard. The two guards in the Zhuolu District were not worthy of their special attention.

Now the emperor wanted to transfer the four Yulin guards in the capital to the control of the Imperial Stables, which made many civil officials suddenly alert and realized that the emperor wanted to increase the military forces under his control.

They finally managed to wrest control of the Beijing Camp from the emperor and the nobles bit by bit, and clamped down on the 26 guards of the Upper Straight Guards, which belonged to the three major camps. How could they be willing for the emperor to establish another Beijing Camp and rebuild the so-called personal army?

These people disagreed with assigning the Yulin Zuowei, Yulin Youwei, and Yulin Qianwei to the Imperial Horse Administration on the grounds that they originally belonged to the Shangzhi Qinjun. They believed that they should be under the jurisdiction of the Jingying and continue the original system. (End of this chapter)