Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

With an adequate source of soldiers, these privy ministers were more at ease in arranging the garrisons in the capital.

In particular, Yuan Keli, who was in charge of the reform of the garrison, wanted to clean up the accumulated problems and establish a career, so he said to the Privy Council ministers:

"Your Majesty will make all the arrangements for the thirty-six guards of the imperial army."

"The fifteen guards under the Wucheng Bingma Division will be assigned four to five hundred hectares of land to each guard according to the previously agreed method, and organized into simple guards with 135 hereditary officials and 500 hereditary soldiers."

"Let the Eight Guards of the Five Military Commandery figure it out on their own. Anyway, the Five Military Commandery is near the capital, and there are many pastures that can be cultivated."

"The six artisan guards are arranged by the Equipment Department and the Works Department. The six guards in Tianjin will be changed according to the local guards."

"The last ones left are the twelve Lingwei and the five Daning guards."

"Your Majesty, what instructions do you have for these twelve mausoleum guards?"

The last sentence was said to Li Fengxiang, the seal holder of the Imperial Stables.

Although the Twelve Mausoleum Guards did not belong to the imperial guards, their arrangements obviously required the emperor's approval.

Li Fengxiang did not answer directly, but asked Yuan Keli:

"What are your plans?"

"How should we arrange the twelve guards of Tianshou Mountain?"

Yuan Keli did not answer, but looked at Zhu Xieyuan.

The Great Wall commander, the privy minister who often returned to Beijing to manage affairs, said:
"The Mausoleum Guards are quite large, but they have many vacancies."

"During the Jiajing period, there was a saying that 'the eight guards guarding the mausoleum numbered less than 10,000.'"

"In the 29th year of Jiajing, the grassland tribes invaded from the south and arrived at the Dongshankou in the mausoleum area. The mausoleum guards had no one with a club to resist them. The court could only allocate three large groups of troops from the Beijing camp to defend Hongmen and Dongshankou. Due to improper dispatch, the mausoleum area Kangling Garden, Gongbu Factory and other places were looted."

"Afterwards, the court drew personnel from the eight mausoleum guards and organized them into two camps, with 4000 people in the Yong'an Camp and 3000 people in the Gonghua Camp."

"Later, it was upgraded to Changping Town, which was responsible for guarding the border troops and the imperial mausoleum. The Tianshou Mountain garrison became a subordinate of the Changping general."

This is the general management of the mausoleum area, but it is actually more complicated.

That is because there is still a part of the mausoleum troops who have not been incorporated into the camp. It is quite common for these people to "buy idle numbers and have no practice of drums and gongs on weekdays", and they are simply unable to shoulder the responsibility of guarding the imperial mausoleum.

In the first year of the Tianqi reign, Wen Qiu, the governor of Ji and Liao, and others implemented the "rotation" system for the Ling troops who were not incorporated into the camp soldiers, sending them "to go up the mountain in rotation with the Changping camp troops, changing them once a year."

This is quite similar to the policy promoted by the current emperor: "Use the garrisons as the source of soldiers and the camp soldiers as the combat power", "Half of them are responsible for local guarding and reclamation, and the other half take turns going to Beijing and the border."

The only difference is that the management of the guards is still the old system. Unlike the current emperor, who directly distributes land to soldiers as hereditary land.

Therefore, the number of desertions in the mausoleum guards was quite serious. There were a large number of hereditary officials, but only 30% of them were military households. Each guard had a staff of 5,600 people, but actually had only 1,500 to 1,600 people.

In this regard, Zhu Xieyuan's suggestion is:

"In order to maintain the Feng Shui and trees in the Tianshou Mountain area, only about 10,000 people can be settled there. If there are more, they will have to move out."

"The mausoleum area doesn't actually need that many guards. I think the 12 mausoleum guards can be changed to simple guards. In addition to hereditary officials, each guard can have 500 hereditary soldiers and 500 military households."

"In this way, half of them will guard and cultivate the mausoleum area, and the other half will go to Changping Town to serve as soldiers. The twelve mausoleum guards can provide 6,000 standing troops."

This was one thousand less than the 7,000 troops provided by the Yong'an and Gonghua battalions. However, Changping Town was fully able to bear this reduction after being supplemented by meritorious soldiers from the southwest.

Moreover, Zhu Xieyuan really didn't think that the Mausoleum Guards had any combat power, and didn't want too many soldiers from the Mausoleum Guards to be in Changping Town. A group of Privy Council ministers nodded in agreement, thinking that Zhu Xieyuan's plan was very appropriate. The Twelve Mausoleum Guards really didn't need many people. No matter how many there were, they couldn't support them, and the military households would flee there.

Li Fengxiang knew that the emperor could not take care of the mausoleum guards for the time being, and could not provide more land in the capital to support the mausoleum guards, so he followed the emperor's wishes and said:

"Each mausoleum guard can have a thousand people, but among the mausoleum guards, there must be personnel specifically responsible for the mausoleum."

"Each thousand households take turns on duty and appoint a commander to be responsible for the maintenance of the mausoleum."

"After we expand our borders on the grassland in the future, we will allocate grassland to the Twelve Mausoleum Guards and expand the force to 4,000 soldiers stationed on the grassland."

"In the future, the mausoleum guards on the grassland will exchange positions with Changping Town and Tianshou Mountain to maintain the mausoleum guards' combat effectiveness."

"If there are officials who cannot be arranged, they can also be arranged to guard the mausoleum."

"His Majesty said that the hereditary officials of the Mausoleum Guard can be counted according to the border guards, and expanded to 150 people per guard."

This arrangement made some ministers frown. Zhu Xieyuan asked:
"Your Majesty, when did you mention Tuobian?"

"Now that the Harashen tribe has accepted the imperial canonization, how will the imperial court place them?"

In response to this, Li Fengxiang smiled slightly and said:

"Wasn't Man Gui's Dongping Earldom recognized by the grassland tribes and placed near Chengde?"

"In the future, your majesty plans to move General Man's territory northward after recovering Liaodong, and transfer the five guards of Daning to the Chengde area for reclamation."

"Each guard post can be placed at the border of each tribe to divide the territory for them."

This sounds simple, but it is not the case at all.

Not to mention whether Man Gui was willing to move north after the establishment of the Dongping Marquisate, even the tribes on the grassland probably would not want the Ming Dynasty to arrange garrisons to move there.

In order to implement this matter in the future, the imperial court will have to send troops to teach those grassland people a lesson.

Zhu Xieyuan thought about this matter and felt that it was really a headache. In the future, the court might force some people to rebel because of this.

However, setting up a garrison on the grassland has real benefits. If the Daning Metropolitan Command can be re-established, the court will not need to deploy so many troops in Shuntian Prefecture.

Chief of Staff Yang Sichang, also thinking about his own experience on the grassland, said:
"The Daning Military Command should indeed be re-established, and the five Daning guards should be relocated there in the future."

"Some tribes in the Halashen tribes were indecisive. They accepted the title bestowed by the Ming dynasty, but at the same time maintained ties with the Jianlu."

"It would be more reassuring to set up a garrison so close to the capital."

Upon hearing this, Li Fengxiang gave a thumbs up and praised:
"As expected of the Chief of Staff recognized by His Majesty, General Yang really hits the mark."

"In the future, not only will the five guards of Daning be transferred to the grassland, but the twelve mausoleum guards and the six guards of Taisun will also be dispatched there."

"Within 500 miles of the Great Wall, everything must be under the control of the Ming Dynasty. No uncontrolled forces can exist."

"In the future, we will not only establish the Daning Protectorate, but also the Wanquan Protectorate, the Datong Protectorate, etc."

"The Great Wall Front Army is not only responsible for the defense of the Great Wall, but also for attacking from the Great Wall to stabilize the northern border."

The emperor told all the ministers exactly what he said. (End of this chapter)