Chapter 291 Fortunately, Nanjing (9) Cooperation is nothing more than sharing the spoils
Tian Yi nodded and said: "We understand, Mr. Gao, please continue."
Gao Qi said: "What my uncle means is that you have been in the position of Nanjing garrison eunuch for thirteen years and have a deep foundation. If you can go one step further and become the Royal Horse Supervisor, it will be a matter of course. Moreover, the Royal Horse Supervisor's Palm Seal is a matter of course.
He has a respected position in the inner court. Compared with the Admiral of Dongchang, his power is not far behind, and..."
Seeing Gao Qi deliberately pause, Tian Yi had no choice but to cooperate and ask: "And what?"
Gao Qi then smiled mysteriously and said, "Besides, my uncle said that the power of the Royal Horse Supervisor will continue to expand in the near future."
"Oh, is there such a thing?" This was an answer Tian Yi never expected, and he couldn't help but ask: "I don't know how to expand it?"
In fact, Tian Yi is of course very clear about the power of the Royal Horse Supervisor. It can be said that it is already very large. The reason why Tian Yi still thinks that the Dongchang Admiral is better than the Royal Horse Supervisor is actually not mainly about power.
Consideration is not based on size, but purely on status, or to put it more bluntly: Admiral Dongchang is closer to the emperor than the Royal Horse Supervisor.
Among the twenty-four eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, the Si Li Jian and the Yu Ma Jian have always been the most worthy of attention. The Si Li Jian approves cabinet votes on behalf of the emperor, handles confidential matters with the cabinet, and is actually the "internal minister"; the Yu Ma Jian and the Ministry of War
Together with the governor, he holds the military command and is actually the "Privy Council" of the inner court.
In fact, in addition to this, the Royal Horse Supervisor also managed the grassland and the imperial village, ran the imperial store, and handled finances with the household department. He was the Ming court, or the emperor's "internal steward"; and the West Factory, which was set up twice,
It was also supervised by the Imperial Horse Supervisor. At that time, they were all fighting against the Dongchang Branch, which was the Supervisor of Ceremony. Of course, there was no West Factory in the Wanli Dynasty.
Let’s briefly introduce the two major powers of the Yuma Jian: military power and financial power.
Let’s talk about military power first. Since the Royal Horse Supervisor is in charge of royal horses, there are naturally people who raise and train horses. This gave rise to a forbidden army led by the Royal Horse Supervisor - the Tengxiang Four Guards and the Four Guards, and the Warrior Battalion.
In October of the 10th year of Hongzhi, Ma Wensheng, Minister of the Ministry of War, reviewed the establishment of the forbidden troops in the Ming Dynasty in a memorial, and mentioned the forbidden troops commanded by Yumajian:
"My great ancestor, Emperor Gao, ruled the world, governed by ancient laws, and was extremely familiar with the methods of military preparation. Therefore, I set up the Sixteenth Guards' personal army to command the envoys, which were not affiliated with the five prefectures and were forbidden soldiers... In Yonglezhong, the personal army was re-established.
The military commander envoys the Twelve Guards, and selects the able-bodied officers and soldiers from all over the world, as well as the men who have returned from the captives, and recruits them as warriors. There are often thousands of people, all of whom belong to the Imperial Horse Guards.
The officers and commanders, their armor and equipment are all different from those of other armies."
It can be seen from this memorial that the Imperial Horse Guards began to take charge of the horse-breeding personnel and then the forbidden soldiers during the Yongle period; the original source of this forbidden army was the able-bodied men selected from various guards, as well as the young men who escaped from Mongolia.
A man in his prime; this forbidden soldier does not belong to the Twelve Guards (later called the Twenty-two Guards) under the jurisdiction of the Pro-Army Commandery Division, but his status is obviously higher than that of the Twelve Guards, and he is a forbidden soldier among the forbidden soldiers; this soldier
The duty of the forbidden soldiers is to "break up the guard", that is, to serve as a guard.
In the sixth year of Xuande (1431), this forbidden army had 3,100 people and was given a formal name: "Yulin Three Thousand Households". Two years later, based on this, the guards of the Beijing Army were enriched.
Sergeant Ma and the former Shenwu avant-garde officers and troops were organized into Tengxiang left and right guards, Wuxiang left and right guards, collectively known as the "Four Guards", also known as the "Four Guards Army".
If according to the nominal formal establishment, the Ming Dynasty had 5,600 people per guard, then the Fourth Guards should have more than 20,000 sergeants. During the Jingtai and Chenghua periods, the three major battalions of the Beijing Army were reorganized into regiment camps.
The warriors of the Four Guards and the strong banner troops were transferred, and the warrior battalion and the Four Guards Battalion were formed, and the camp officers were selected from the commanders of the Four Guards.
The two battalions were in Hongzhi and had as many as 40,000 people during the Zhengde period. After many rectifications, the final quota was more than 6,500 people. During this period, although the establishment changed frequently, they were always led by the Royal Horse Supervisor.
Although the Yumajian commanded the military ban since Yongle and Xuande, it really came into play and attracted people's attention after the Tumu Revolution in the 14th year of Zhengtong (1449), when the Waqi cavalry attacked the capital, Beijing.
The defense battle lasted for five days under Yu Qian's organization. The fiercest battles took place at Xizhimen and Zhangyimen.
Since the three major battalions of the Beijing army, the main force of the Ming army, were captured, the one guarding Xizhimen was Liu Ju, the nephew of the imperial eunuch Liu Yongcheng, the right army commander. The ones who took the initiative to attack Wa Ci's army at Changyi Gate were the four remaining soldiers of the imperial eunuch who stayed in Beijing.
Warriors of the Guard, Flag Army.
In February of the first year of Tianshun (1457), Yingzong was restored and executed Hao Yi, the imperial eunuch. The reason was that Hao Yi had planned to mobilize the warriors of the Four Guards to capture and kill Cao Jixiang, the eunuch and eunuch who supported Yingzong in seizing the throne. In the fifth year of Tianshun (
1461), when Cao Jixiang and his adopted son Zhaowu Bo Cao Qin launched a mutiny in Beijing, the main force that put down the mutiny and killed the second Cao Cao was the warriors of the Four Guards and the banner army.
In the ninth year of Zhengde (1514), Emperor Wu selected elites from the 12 regiments of the Beijing Army and organized them into the front and rear battalions. They trained together with the Warrior Battalion and the Four Guards Battalion in the West Official Hall as the "selected front". It can be seen from this that
, this is a force with very strong combat effectiveness.
Both the inner court and the outer court have a very clear view of the status and role of the forbidden soldiers commanded by the Yumajian in the entire Beijing army. In the inner court, Hongzhi and Zhengde's Yumajian eunuch Ning Jin once declared: "Teng
Xiang and other warriors of the Four Guards Banner Army were established by our ancestors as forbidden soldiers to prepare for the guards and retinue. They were called raising horses, but they were actually used to guard against treachery and insult."
Xu Jin, the Minister of War during the Zhengde period, also believed: "Although warriors are known as raising horses, they are actually forbidden soldiers. They guard against rape and insult, which is of great importance."
Commanding the Imperial Guard gave the Yuma Jian a special status among the yamen of the inner court. It was not only the basis for the eunuchs to participate in military and political affairs, but also enabled the Yuma Jian itself to gradually possess a variety of military functions and be regarded as a military yamen in the inner court.
Since it has been regarded as a military yamen, it naturally has its specialized tasks. To sum up, there are about five tasks:
The first is that the retinue goes out to fight and holds the fire talisman.
Since they were in charge of the forbidden troops, the eunuchs who guarded the horses naturally had the responsibility of accompanying the troops on expeditions. Since Yongle, there were four emperors in the Ming Dynasty who had personally led the troops on expeditions, namely Chengzu, Xuanzong, Yingzong, and Wuzong.
Chengzu conquered Mongolia five times, and the imperial eunuch Hai Shou accompanied him on at least two expeditions, and the imperial eunuch Liu Yongcheng accompanied him three times. Xuanzong conquered Han King Gao Xu, and the imperial eunuch Liu Shun followed him, and was ordered to fight with Yangwuhou Xue
Lu, Qing Pingbo Wu Cheng led 20,000 troops as the vanguard.
When Yingzong resisted Wa Ci, the imperial eunuch Lai'ergan joined the expedition. Wuzong, on the other hand, visited Xuanda in the north and went south to Huaiyang. He was accompanied by the eunuch Zhang Zong, the imperial eunuch, to supervise military affairs.
As for the military talisman fire tablet in charge of the Royal Horse Supervisor, we can get clues from what happened when Chengzu passed away in Yumuchuan in July of the 22nd year of Yongle, and the Young Horse Supervisor Hai Shou and the Cabinet Yang Rongchi reported to the Crown Prince (Renzong). One year later
When Renzong passed away, it was Haishou who "retired" the crown prince (Xuanzong) in Nanjing. During the Zhengde period, every time Wuzong mobilized troops, he would have the envoys in the Royal Horse Prison holding talismans.
The second is to supervise the capital camp and sit in the camp and supervise the guns.
During the Yongle period, three major battalions of the Beijing Army were established. Among them, the Fifth Army Camp had one admiral, the Three Thousand Battalion had two admirals, and the Shenji Camp not only had two admirals, but also had five subordinate armies, each with a sitting camp.
One member of the chamberlain, one member of the chamberlain.
At that time, in the three major camps of the Beijing Army, there were five standing ministers, six ministers sitting in the camp, and twenty ministers overseeing the guns, for a total of thirty-one members, all of whom were eunuchs, minor eunuchs or eunuchs with higher status. Among them, the more senior eunuchs
The famous ones include Wang Yan, Wang An, Zhang Tai, Zhao Jun, etc. The yamen of Zhang Tai and Zhao Jun are unknown, while Wang Yan and Wang An were eunuchs.
The regiment camp was established in December of the third year of Jingtai, under the control of Yu Qian, the Minister of the Ministry of War, Shi Heng, the Marquis of Wuqing, and Liu Yongcheng, the eunuch, and controlled by Cao Jixiang. Cao Jixiang was the eunuch of the internal eunuch at that time, and the eunuch of the internal eunuch was ranked before the imperial eunuch, and Cao Jixiang
However, he is ranked after Liu Yongcheng, the eunuch of the Royal Horse Eunuch. This is not only because Liu Yongcheng has been famous for a long time and has more seniority, but also because of the special status of the Royal Horse Eunuch in the business affairs.
The regiment camp was reestablished in April of the eighth year of Tianshun, and was headed by Huichang Hou Sun Jizong and eunuch Liu Yongcheng as "general supervisors". This was the beginning of the eunuchs and eunuchs overseeing the Beijing camp alone with the honorary ministers. After that, Wang Zhi, Fu Gong, Li Liang, Miao
Kui, Gu Dayong, Zhang Zhong and others all used the imperial eunuch to supervise or supervise the Beijing camp. Although during this period, the imperial eunuch Zhang Yong and others also supervised the Beijing camp, but the imperial eunuchs and eunuchs were generally responsible for supervising the Beijing camp and sitting in the camp.
It has become a common practice for horse guards to serve as ministers.
The decline of the Royal Horse Prison's status in the Beijing Camp depends on Gao Jingshi's reform of the Beijing Camp military system. Gao Jingshi reformed the Beijing Camp twice, and the result was that the main field force in the Beijing Camp became the Imperial Guards, and the Imperial Guards were commanded by military generals (
Commander and other positions), with civilian officials serving as supervisors (i.e., "declaration of political affairs" and other positions, which can be regarded as a castrated version of political commissar).
As a result, the status of generals and civil servants has been improved, and only the world in which eunuchs were injured has been achieved. However, Gao Pragmatic did not go all the way. He left a backdoor: the imperial guards were deployed during wartime, and the emperor temporarily dispatched internal troops.
Officials, supervisors and troops accompanied him.
The reason he gave at the time was: If an army has too many chief officers, its combat effectiveness will be affected. Therefore, there are no internal officials to supervise the army in peacetime, and civilian officials can declare the government. But when sending troops in war, you cannot just listen to one-sided reports. You need military commanders.
, civil servants, and internal officials reported the war situation to the court and the emperor respectively. With such comparison and care, the common people could almost avoid the worry of concealing reports or making random reports.
The third is to go out to the borders and provinces.
After Chengzu ascended the throne, he ordered the Marquis of Zhenyuan Gu Cheng and the governors Han Guan, Liu Zhen, and He Fu to go out to Guizhou, Guangxi, Liaodong, and Ningxia. He also ordered the eunuchs who had strategists to accompany them, and gave them the robes of princes, and placed them among the generals.
1. After that, in Yunnan, Datong, Gansu, Xuanfu Yongping and other border towns, the chief ministers all had eunuchs out of the towns, who were called "Guardian Zhongguan" or "Guardian Internal Minister".
After Chenghua and Hongzhi, except for the garrison eunuchs in Nanjing and other places who were the "foreign missions" of the ceremonial eunuchs, the rest of the guard and gun supervisors and internal ministers were mostly from the Yuma eunuch.
[Note: I would like to correct the previous article here. I said before that there was only one "garrison" eunuch in Nanjing. This statement was wrong. There were also three garrison eunuchs in Fengyang, Tianshoushan and Chengtian. Including Nanjing, there were four in total.
However, it is the Nanjing garrison eunuchs who have the highest status and the greatest real power.]
The fourth is the supervisory army.
The supervision of the army mentioned here is the evolution or extension of the eunuchs' duties and responsibilities when they go out to the town and supervise the capital camp, sit in the camp, and supervise the guns. "History of the Ming Dynasty: Preface to the Biography of the Eunuchs" says: "In the Ming Dynasty, eunuchs went out as envoys, went out to conquer the city, and supervised the army.
The division of towns, the assassination of the subjects, and the great power all began in Yongle."
In fact, the special campaign of eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty not only "started from the Yongle period", but was actually limited to the Yongle and Xuande periods. The only "special campaign" eunuchs found in historical materials are Zheng He, Yi Shiha and two or three others. It started from the Zhengtong period
, the eunuchs' exclusive conquests are no longer the norm, and the supervision of the army has become a system.
Zheng Xiao's "Jin Yan" talks about the situation of the Beijing camp's expedition: "If there is something to do, there is no need to choose, but if a certain battalion is assigned to go to the expedition, the general of the certain battalion and the soldiers of the certain battalion will set off." So the Beijing camp went out for the expedition, and the admiral of the Beijing camp's honorable ministers and camp generals set off.
They are the commander-in-chief, deputy general, staff general, etc., and the commander-in-chief and the commander-in-chief who sit in the camp and supervise the guns are the supervisors of the army. The commander-in-chief of the Ministry of War in the capital or the censor of the capital supervises the military affairs, thus forming the title of honorary minister or military minister, commander-in-chief of the soldiers, and internal ministers and supervisors.
The army, the power of civil servants and admirals.
Take several military deployments with great influence in Chenghua as an example: In the first month of the first year of the year, troops were deployed in Dateng Gorge, Guangxi. Zhao Fu, the commander-in-chief of the military affairs department, was the chief military officer of the general who conquered the barbarians. Lu Geng, the eunuch, and Chen Xuan were the supervisors of the army. Han Yongzanli, the civil servant and imperial censor of Zuo Jindu,
Military affairs. In December of the same year, Jingxiang deployed troops. The honorary minister Fu Ningbo Zhu Yong was appointed as the chief military officer of General Jinglu. Tang Shen, the eunuch, Lin Guifeng, the young eunuch, supervised the army.
Military Affairs: In the first month of the 16th year, the "Taolu" were conquered. The Honorable Minister Baoguo Gong Zhu Yong (the same person as Zhu Yong above, who was promoted to Baoguo Gong due to his meritorious service) was appointed as the chief military officer.
Yue Admiral supervised military affairs.
The same goes for the use of troops in various places. Between Zhengtong and Zhengde, each side had military ministers in charge of the army, guarding the inner ministers, and patrolling the civilian ministers, which were called "three halls." When there was a war, the military ministers would lead the army, the inner ministers would supervise the army, and the civil ministers would supervise the military affairs. Because of the Chengdu
In the Hua Dynasty and after Hongzhi, the eunuchs who served as admirals, sit in camps, supervise guns, and guard the ministers were mostly appointed by Yuma Jian, so supervising the army also became an important responsibility of Yuma Jian.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The fifth is the admiral of Xichang. As I mentioned just now, it did not exist in the Wanli Dynasty, so it’s okay not to mention it.
After talking about military power, let’s talk about financial power. However, because Zhu Yijun, under Gao Pragmatic’s persuasion, had already slowly let the tenants redeem the Huangzhuang, and the Huangdian was too scattered and fragmented, so the Huangzhuang and Huangdian are not discussed here.
, just talk about another seemingly inconspicuous business - ranch.
Uh...forget it, I won't go into details about the pasture, otherwise it will take thousands of words. A simple summary is: the early system was chaotic, and the pastures designated for the supervision of the royal horses were wantonly occupied by various forces. By the Zhengde period,
The power of the eunuchs increased greatly, so they began to go overboard. Not only did they take back the previously occupied pastures, but they also occupied the land of various forces, so that the eunuchs controlled more than ten thousand hectares of pastures.
Some people may say that Gao Pingshi gave the emperor 80,000 hectares of cultivated land in Nanyang in one go, while the imperial eunuch only managed to get 10,000 hectares of pasture by robbing it, which doesn't seem to be much?
If you have to compare 80,000 hectares and more than 10,000 hectares, then of course the 80,000 hectares is astonishing, but we have to be reasonable - the 10,000 hectares of land near the capital, and the 80,000 hectares of land in Nanyang, which is extremely underdeveloped, are really
Can you make a simple comparison? This is like a three-story building in the center of Shanghai in later generations, and a three-story building built by yourself in your hometown in the countryside. Both houses are occupied by people, but are they comparable in price?
Therefore, the more than 10,000 hectares of land on hand by the Royal Horse Supervisor are actually a large amount of assets. However, since we are talking about assets, it can be seen that they are not actually used for growing grass and grazing. In fact, these lands are almost all fields.
However, the Yumajian exchanged the output of the fields for money, and then used the money to purchase forage. With this change, the Yumajian could not only complete the forage tasks required by the court, but even make a fortune every year.
Tian Yi was not surprised how Gao Jingshi knew that the authority of the Royal Horse Supervisor was about to be expanded. He was undoubtedly the most favored minister and important minister of the Wanli Dynasty. If the emperor wanted to do something, Gao Jingshi would definitely be the first to know. Even more exaggerated.
To put it bluntly, even if the emperor has not thought about it, Gao Pragmatic has the ability to make the emperor think about it and then guarantee that the emperor will agree.
Tian Yi just wanted to know how the authority of the Royal Horse Supervisor could be expanded, so after he raised this question, he kept staring at Gao Qi. He not only wanted to hear Gao Qi's answer, but also wanted to see Gao Qi's expression.
Find out some other inside stories.
"The Royal Horse Inspector's job is to raise horses, but now the imperial court is about to take over the Hetao. Doesn't the Royal Horse Inspector not want to build a pasture at the end of the Hetao, so that he no longer has to rely on buying horses and grass, and may even do some horse selling business in the future?
?”
When Tian Yi heard this, he slapped his thigh and suddenly realized. He said to himself: He has really stayed in Nanjing for a long time and has lost his sensitivity to things in the north.
Since Liu Wei regained the Western Regions, the Ordos tribe has been determined to be "moved to Qihe" by the imperial court, and the leader of the tribe, "Mongolian Jinong", will also be "deputy governor for generations" and become the second-largest figure in the Western Regions of the Ming Dynasty. In this way
First, all the troops moved to the Western Region, and because Tumut also expanded westward to the northern part of the Western Region, they have now been persuaded by Gao Pragmatic not to take an inch of the Hetao land.
In this way, the entire Hetao will be empty and will be fully taken over by the imperial court. The Hetao is not small, and it can support a strong Ordos tribe. How much pasture will there be? With such a piece of fat, the imperial court can and will
Who wouldn’t be jealous of someone who had something to do with this matter? As an inner court institution whose main job is to raise horses, shouldn’t the Royal Horse Supervisor get a share of the pie?
Tian Yi quickly turned from enlightenment to silence, seeming to weigh the pros and cons. Gao Qi was not in a hurry, just waiting for his answer quietly.
After a while, Tian Yi finally said: "Mr. Gao, our family is willing to consider this proposal. However, before that, our family needs to see some sincerity."
Gao Qi smiled slightly and said: "This is natural. My uncle has already explained that as long as the internal defense is willing to cooperate, our Gao family will naturally show enough sincerity first. Let's do this. Early tomorrow morning, my uncle will go to Shu and propose
What do you think about dividing the Hetao grassland into three parts and assigning the one closest to the capital to the Royal Horse Supervisor?"
"Okay! Mr. Gao is really happy!" Tian Yi clapped his hands fiercely, nodded, and said: "Since Mr. Gao is so happy, our family cannot be content with others and provide the first batch of inside information...
Mr. Gao, in addition to Cheng Shanbo who was responsible for allocating the personnel to renovate the palace this time, Wei Guogong and other nobles were responsible for providing various building materials. They replaced more than 90% of the buildings, beams and other parts of the Nanjing Imperial Palace, and built in giant trees, etc.
The price quoted for the materials was falsely higher by several times.
In addition, there are some construction materials such as construction cement, underground pipes, etc. For the sake of convenience, they almost all buy them from Jinghua Trading Co., Ltd. However, they always pass them off as good ones. For example, the declaration form says that they use Jinghua's new waterproof cement.
, in fact, only ordinary cement was used... We forgot the name of that label for a while, but Mr. Gao can check it, this is the Gao family's own account, and you will know it once you check it."
Hearing this, a glint flashed in Gao Qi's eyes, and he said: "Okay, okay, Nei Shou is indeed sincere. Please rest assured, Nei Shou, since it is Jinghua Trading Company's account, I can check it out tonight! In addition, I
The Gao family will also fulfill its promise and promote cooperation between you and Liu Ping as soon as possible."
Tian Yi smiled and said: "Jingguo Gong has always been true to his words. Before he was crowned, he had a good reputation of 'a promise of three hundred thousand taels'. Our family can trust it. However, after all, Liu Zhangyin is far away in the capital, so he must
It will take a lot of trouble to contact you... I'm afraid Mr. Gao still has some things to deal with tonight, so we won't keep you in our house."
Gao Qi stood up, cupped his hands and said, "I'm busy with the internal defense affairs, so I won't interrupt you. I'll take my leave."
Tian Yi also stood up and said: "Master Gao, please go slowly. I don't know if there are smart people in Nanjing today looking at this humble house. We won't see you off in person. Please pay attention to Mr. Gao."
"It's natural." Gao Qi said goodbye and left the study. Tian Yi's housekeeper invited Gao Tao, but Gao Qi still pretended to be Gao Tao's housekeeper, and Tian's housekeeper sent the two of them outside the house. The two sat down.
After getting on the carriage, Gao Qi immediately ordered the driver to go to the Nanjing branch of Jinghua Trading Company.
After returning to the branch, Gao Qi's previous order had taken effect, and the main subordinates he wanted to summon had all arrived. Gao Qi informed them of the information provided by Tian Yi as much as possible, and ordered them to act immediately to collect more information.
There is much evidence about the illegal behavior of Wei Guogong and other nobles in the process of building the imperial palace.
Gao Qi knew very well that although Tian Yi only mentioned Wei Guogong and Cheng Shanbo this time, the matter could not be that simple. Although the two of them had high status, they could not take such a huge kickback alone. The people involved must have
There are many more, and it is definitely not only nobles, but also many officials.
Although the nobles have a high status, the authority to handle many specific affairs is in the hands of officials. They cannot get around it at all and can only drag them together. Isn't this how the so-called complex interest alliance is created through the sharing of spoils?
At the same time, Gao Qi also wrote a letter to inform Gao Pangshi in detail about the progress of the matter, and asked him to get in touch with Liu Ping as soon as possible to discuss tripartite cooperation.
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PS: After two revisions of the manuscript, at least more than 2,000 words of content related to the financial rights of the Royal Horse Supervisor were deleted...
