Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Listening to the emperor's thoughts, Li Fengxiang, the seal holder of the Imperial Horse Administration, said:
"Your Majesty, even if the Daning Military Command is re-established, we cannot send all the imperial guards there."

"The Zhuolu Left and Right Guards under the Imperial Horse Administration have already completed their restructuring, so you don't need to worry about them. But the Tengxiang Four Guards need to be settled near the capital."

"There are also the six Jinyi guards, the four Fujun guards, the Tongzhou guards, and the three city gate guards, Huben Zuowei, Jiyangwei, and Jizhouwei. They should all be deployed near the capital."

These twenty guards were mainly controlled by the emperor.

Add to that the Crown Prince's ten guards and the Crown Prince's grandson's six guards, and there are a new thirty-six guards for the royal army.

Among the prince’s ten garrisons, there is no need to worry about the five garrisons of Dongning, as there is enough land for immigrants to settle and cultivate.

After the three Yulin guards were dispersed along the Beijing-Tianjin line, they were able to reclaim and exchange enough land.

There is no need to worry about the Zhuolu Central Guard which was changed to the Yulin Central Guard and the Henghai Guard which was changed to the Yulin Back Guard. They both have enough land and can let the Donggong Zhanshi Mansion and the Weishu Mansion be responsible for the Ten Guards.

As for the Six Guards of the Crown Prince, they were mainly controlled by the emperor, and this also required the arrangement of land.

Zhu Youjian pondered over the matter and felt it was indeed a tricky matter.

If there were only one or two garrisons, it would be easy to deal with, but with so many garrisons gathered in the capital, it is really difficult to arrange.

He asked Li Fengxiang:

"Li Qing mentioned this matter, is there any solution?"

Li Fengxiang had thought about this before returning to the palace, and knew that the emperor would most likely take over the work of the personal guards in order to implement the reform of the guards. At this time, he responded:
"The Imperial Horse Administration is responsible for herding horses. There are 57 imperial horse pastures, covering a total area of ​​more than 33,000 hectares."

“Nowadays, many of the land is cultivated by tenant farmers, and some are even occupied by others.”

"I think we can check the pastures and place the four guards of Tengxiang."

Upon hearing this, all the eunuchs looked at Li Fengxiang in surprise.

Who occupied the most pastures in the Imperial Stables? Of course, it was the eunuchs of the Imperial Stables throughout the dynasties.

Li Fengxiang's move was obviously intended to turn against the eunuch families of the former Imperial Stables and force them to return the occupied land.

Zhu Youjian nodded in approval at this public-spirited approach and gave the order:
"The pastures of the Imperial Stables, or the pastures of the various government offices in the inner court, must be tidied up. From now on, they will all belong to the Imperial Stables."

"If we re-establish the Daning Regional Military Commission in the future, we can let them raise horses outside the Great Wall and provide horses to the capital."

"If there is any grassland within the Great Wall that can be cultivated, cultivate it and settle the Four Tengxiang Guards."

"It would be best if these four guards were fully staffed, and mainly composed of sergeants. Each guard should be provided with at least 5,000 hectares of land, so that they can concentrate on serving me."

"As long as the soldiers in the Imperial Camp are willing to continue to serve in the army, they can be included in the Tengxiang Four Guards and granted hereditary officers and sergeants."

As the most courageous force in the inner court, the Imperial Camp controlled by the Imperial Stables was the basis for Zhu Youjian to push for the reform of the guards.

This new army, which had already completed the transformation into firearms and was in the process of being equipped with single-shot muskets, gave Zhu Youjian the confidence to suppress the entire Beijing camp.

Naturally, he was generous with his rewards to these people, and asked them to give away all the grassland that could be reclaimed in the Imperial Stables and distribute it to the soldiers in the imperial camp.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian cashed in the capital accumulated by the Ming Dynasty. If future emperors wanted to do the same, they would not be able to find land.

Li Fengxiang could only consider the Imperial Stables which he was in charge of, but Gao Shiming, the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department, had to think more.

He asked the emperor:

"Many of the palace officials have farms and fields, most of which were granted by previous emperors."

"How should these be dealt with? Your Majesty, please make arrangements?" Zhu Youjian was pushed by civil officials to move farmland when collecting property taxes before, so he was quite familiar with this matter. After careful consideration, he said:
"The estates of meritorious officials are limited to 200 hectares, and the estates of relatives of officials are limited to 100 hectares as hereditary property for the fifth generation."

"The limit of the land that an eunuch can own depends on his hereditary position. Those who serve in local guards or Jinwu Guards can own up to ten hectares of hereditary land."

"If you are not granted a worldly position, then only one hectare will remain."

"At the same time, we will confer titles on meritorious eunuchs, allow their descendants to open up territories overseas, and build temples to commemorate them."

This was preferential treatment for the eunuchs. After hearing this, all the eunuchs felt that although the emperor had some restrictions on the eunuchs' power, he still treated them preferentially in all aspects.

Especially for the eunuchs who had almost nothing after losing power, the emperor's care for the descendants of the meritorious eunuchs made them feel deeply moved.

Tu Wenfu, who once held the seal of the Imperial Horse Administration and now served in the Imperial Fund Commission, asked the emperor:

"I think the Imperial Fund Committee should take the lead in completely clearing out the various government offices in the palace, as well as the farms and pastures previously granted to nobles, eunuchs, temples and monasteries."

"This way, we can not only use the pastures of the Imperial Horse Administration to house the Four Tengxiang Guards, but also the Six Jinyi Guards, the Five Fujun Guards and other guards."

Zhu Youjian was very cautious about this. He was not worried about the nobles and the eunuchs, but was afraid that the transfer of land ownership would affect the people. He said:

"Most of the farmlands in various places are rented by farmers, or even donated by farmers to avoid taxes."

"If their land is forcibly distributed to the soldiers, will these people be willing?"

Tu Wenfu racked his brains and said with a chuckle:

"When the property tax was introduced earlier, Your Majesty ordered that only one tenth of the tax be levied on the manor land, just like the hereditary land of the guards."

"I think that since they are being treated so well, even if they don't have to serve in the army all the time like the military households, they should still serve for three years after they reach adulthood, just like the military and civilian households."

“If they want, let them continue to rent and grow crops.”

"If they don't want to, let them cancel the lease. If they want to get back the land they donated, let them pay back the taxes they paid over the years, and set a limit of 30 or 50 acres."

Such a good idea made Zhu Youjian's eyes light up.

It even made him think that this policy could be implemented in all government fields:

Anyone who wanted to rent land from the imperial court had to serve as a military civilian after reaching adulthood.

If you don't want to serve, you can cancel the lease.

The millions of hectares of official land owned by the imperial court were enough to recruit nearly half of the Ming Dynasty's farmers into military and civilian service.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian highly approved of Tu Wenfu's idea and asked him to lead officials from the Imperial Assets Commission to be in charge of this matter, with assistance from the Imperial Stables and the Shanglinyuan Supervisor.

He even arranged for Li Fengxiang, the seal holder of the Imperial Stables, who was attending the Privy Council meeting, to inform the Privy Council of this suggestion.

The officials of the Privy Council were also very excited when they heard this suggestion, because when they set up the Jianbian Guard, their biggest worry was that they would not be able to recruit enough soldiers.

If all tenants of government land were included in the military and civilian households, the number of households required to serve in the military would increase by millions.

Even if one man from every ten households contributes, hundreds of thousands of troops can be added.

This makes it easier for them to set up simple guards.

In particular, the emperor was willing to use imperial farms to house his personal guards, which made them more grateful for the emperor's wisdom and reduced so much pressure on them.

As for the remaining guards from Beijing, they will do their best to arrange for them to come. (End of this chapter)