Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

With the overall reshuffle of the capital's guards this time, Zhu Youjian certainly wanted to regain some power.

Zhu Youjian paid the most attention to the imperial guards. He asked Yuan Keli:

"How was the Imperial Guard station managed in the past?"

"In the future, we need to form a customized system and clearly assign responsibilities to individuals!"

Yuan Keli had been thinking about this matter these days, and immediately replied:

"The Shangzhi Qinjun is different from the ordinary Jingwei Command. Its full name is Shangzhi Qinjun Command, and there are a total of 26 of them."

"At the beginning of the country, Taizu set up the General Command of the Imperial Army in front of the tent, and appointed Feng Guoyong as the commander-in-chief."

"Later, it was changed to the Jinwu Imperial Guards Protectorate, with a protector-general, of the second rank."

"Later, the Imperial Guards' Protectorate was abolished, and the Imperial Guards' Command Offices of each guard were assigned to take charge of the imperial guards."

"I think we should re-establish the Imperial Guards' Protectorate and appoint a commander-in-chief and a military protector."

This was in accordance with the emperor's thinking, separating military command from military administration. Also, because it was now a battalion system, the guards only served as a source of soldiers, and after being recruited, they were managed by the Beijing Battalion.

Therefore, the Protectorate of the Imperial Guards was mainly responsible for military and political affairs, and was mainly managed by the Protector General who was a civil servant.

Zhu Youjian was of course dissatisfied with this and said:
"We already have the Jinwu Guard Commandery, so there is no need to set up a Jinwu Guard Guard Commandery again."

"I think it would be sufficient to appoint someone with the title of Jinwu Guard Commander-in-Chief as the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, and there is no need to set up another government office."

This leaves aside the military guard, just like the Five Military Commandery without the military guard.

However, the commander-in-chief of the Jinwu Guard was just an additional title, and the power of appointment lay in the hands of the emperor.

The ministers obviously did not approve of this arrangement. Yuan Keli said:

"The governor of the Jinwu Guard is just an honorary title. It cannot be transformed from honorary to real and a new governor's office cannot be established."

"If there is no Imperial Guard Protectorate, I think it should be managed by the Five City Military Guards and the local garrison guards according to the Imperial Guards' stationing locations."

This is even worse than setting up a Protectorate of the Imperial Guards, because it is equivalent to handing over the Shangzhi Imperial Guards completely to the local authorities. How can they be managed in the future?

Zhu Youjian argued with his ministers for a while, and finally, after thinking about it, he stated his purpose:
"The Imperial Guards can be established, but they cannot be in charge of all the Imperial Guards."

"The Four Tengxiang Guards and the Zhuolu Left and Right Guards are supervised by the Imperial Horse, while the Zhuolu Left and Right Guards are managed and supervised by the Zhuolu Garrison District."

"The Jinyiwei, Qishouwei, and Jinwu Four Guards are directly managed by the Jinyiwei Supervisor's Southern Office. The Jinwu Four Guards are responsible for the four districts in the Central City, so they are supervised by the Central City Military Department."

"The places where they settle and cultivate are also supervised by the local military guards or garrisons to prevent others from occupying the land."

There are both concessions and progress here. The biggest change is that after the Jinwu Left and Right Guards were incorporated into the Jinyiwei Supervision, the Jinwu Front and Back Guards were also allocated into it.

The concession was to clarify the supervisory power of the regional guards over the garrisons, although it was only to assist.

The ministers discussed this issue and could not make up their minds for a while.

Yuan Keli glanced at Han Yu and knew that after he proposed to transfer the Jinwu Left and Right Guards to the Jinyiwei, the current situation was inevitable.

After all, the front and back guards of Jinwu also contain the word Jinwu, so the emperor would definitely include these two guards in it.

This made him sigh inwardly, and he tacitly agreed to this matter, saying:

"So among the Shangzhiqin Army, there are twelve guards directly under the inner court."

"The rest of the imperial guard posts should be managed by the Imperial Guard Protectorate."

Zhu Youjian's arrangements had not yet stopped, and he said:

"It's not urgent what the Imperial Guards are in charge of."

"We should first decide which guard posts the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace has."

The adjustment of the personal guards this time can be said to be triggered by the allocation of guards to the crown prince. And the crown prince's enthronement is also imminent.

All the ministers concentrated and held their breath, listening to the emperor's arrangements.

Zhu Youjian did not use the name of the crown prince to increase his military power this time, saying:
"In addition to the Zhanshi Mansion, the Eastern Palace should also set up a Weilu Mansion to be responsible for military affairs."

"The Dongning Military and Civilian Office has jurisdiction over the five Dongning guards. From now on, the Eastern Palace will lead the office to send officials to serve as the prefect of Dongning Prefecture."

"And send generals to command the Dongning Army selected from the Dongning Guards."

This is the management of the prince's territory, and the ministers have no objection.

Moreover, the remote place of Dongning Island is not worthy of their attention.

What they are more concerned about is Zhuolu District near the capital.

Regarding the prince's territory, Zhu Youjian arranged:
"Zhuolu Central Guard is assigned to the Crown Prince as Yulin Central Guard, and is also managed by the Eastern Palace Guards Office and supervised by the Zhuolu Garrison District." "Officials of the Zhanshi Mansion concurrently serve as officials of the Zhuolu District."

This was decided before, and no one had any objections.

Zhu Youjian continued:

"The Four Imperial Guards will also be assigned to the Crown Prince. They will move out of the capital and be stationed along the Beijing-Tianjin Railway and Beijing-Tianjin Highway."

"Set up a settlement near the road and serve as the guard of the two roads to facilitate the travel between the prince and Dongning."

The ministers were opposed to the assignment of the Four Imperial Guards to the crown prince, because they did not want the crown prince to have too many troops in the capital in case any incidents implicated them.

They were even more unwilling to have the emperor take control of more guards in the name of giving them personal guards, which would make them feel uneasy.

The emperor was going to send the four imperial guards out of the capital this time, and they were deeply surprised. They began to think carefully:

"If the four imperial guards are transferred out of the capital, there is no need to worry about the crown prince leading them to cause chaos in the capital."

"It's a good thing that the number of guards in the capital has decreased."

The ministers discussed this in a low voice, and most of them agreed with this.

However, Yuan Keli raised a question and said:

"I checked the military selection list of the Ministry of War and found that the only direct imperial guards were the Yulin Left Guard, Yulin Right Guard, and Yulin Front Guard."

"The term Yulin guard only appeared once in the Ming Dynasty Code, so it might have been copied incorrectly."

"After your majesty changed the Zhuolu Central Guard to the Yulin Central Guard, the Yulin only had four guards."

Zhu Youjian was not very clear about this. He simply asked the eunuchs of the Imperial Household Department to count the garrisons according to the "Da Ming Hui Dian" and other materials, and counted all the garrisons that had appeared.

I didn't expect that the Yulin guards didn't exist, which was a bit embarrassing.

But this is just a minor mistake that is not harmful. Just find a guard post and change it to the Yulin guard.

Thinking about the garrisons around the capital, Zhu Youjian said:
"Tongzhou has five guards and Tianjin has three guards."

"Which garrison do you think is suitable to be changed into the Imperial Guard?"

Yuan Ke immediately said:
"The Prince's Guards are also his personal troops. The Tongzhou Guards, which belong to the Shangzhi personal troops, should be changed to Yulin Guards."

Zhu Youjian certainly disagreed with this, because although Tongzhou Wei was outside the capital, it was an important guard post in charge of Tongzhou warehouses.

Without this guard, Tongzhou no longer had the emperor's personal guard.

He postponed the matter and said:
"We'll talk about who will be the Imperial Guards later, let's first decide on the Crown Prince's personal guards."

"Besides the Palace Army Vanguard, what other garrisons do you think are suitable to be handed over to the Crown Prince?"

Li Banghua then said:
"Your Majesty, the vanguard of the palace army is assigned to be in charge of Dashiyongfang and should not be given to the crown prince."

"Even if you want to build a right army, you can use other guards."

"I think we can use the three guards of Yanshan as the crown prince's personal guards."

The three guards of Yanshan were promoted to the imperial guards in the fourth year of Yongle, and they were related to the word "Yan" when Chengzu was the King of Yan. It was not possible to give them to other people. But as the imperial guards of the crown prince, it was fine. (Modification note: the guards of Chaoyang Gate were changed from Yanshan Right Guard to Jiyang Guard)

Zhu Youjian nodded and said:
"The Three Guards of Yanshan can be given to the Crown Prince. They will be stationed in the Haidian District area in the future and will be responsible for recruiting soldiers from the various royal palaces and university towns, and guarding those places at the same time."

"The Palace Army's vanguard must still be given to the Crown Prince, mainly the young soldiers in it, to prepare talents for the Crown Prince."

There is no need to be as defensive as with the crown prince. Instead, we need to strengthen our power to avoid tragedies like that of Emperor Jianwen.

After discussing this, the ministers did not raise any objections. Obviously, they also knew that the power of the crown prince should be strengthened.

Then Zhu Youjian said:

"This way the Crown Prince will have four guards, only one more than the princes."

"I think we need to add two more guards to make up the Crown Prince's Six Guards."

The ministers were discussing where these two garrisons came from.

Among the twenty-six guards of Shangzhi, the four Tengxiang guards were assigned to the Imperial Horse Administration, the six Jinyi guards were assigned to the Jinyiwei Administration, the three Yulin guards were given to the crown prince, and the three Yanshan guards were given to the crown prince.

The other four guards of the Palace Army besides the Palace Army Vanguard were also responsible for guarding the imperial city. The Huben Left Guard, Jiyang Guard, and Jizhou Guard were responsible for guarding the city gates. Obviously, they could no longer be given to the Crown Prince.

The destinations of these twenty-four guards have been determined, and only Daxing Zuowei and Tongzhou Wei can be allocated to the crown prince.

But the Emperor of Tongzhou Wei was unwilling to give it to the crown prince, so how could he be willing to give it to the crown prince?

In addition, the prince still lacks Yulin guards, so the emperor's purpose is obvious, which is to include other guards into the Shangzhi Qinjun. (End of this chapter)