The army that protects the emperor is collectively called the Yulin Army by ordinary people. In fact, the composition of the guard force of the Manchu royal family is still very complicated.
The armed force closest to the emperor is, of course, the bodyguards with swords, warriors who can stand outside the emperor's bedroom and carry weapons. Of course, there is no need to ask about loyalty and martial arts. Many of them are children of the nobility. They are led by the ministers who lead the bodyguards. The official name is It's called the pro-military camp.
If the emperor wants to travel, go hunting or something, the guard force at this time will also mobilize the troops of the forward battalion in addition to the pro-military camp. The soldiers who make up the forward battalion are selected from among the Eight Banners soldiers, each with a bow and a horse. They are all good at field combat.
In addition to the pro-army camp and the vanguard camp, there is also a guard camp. This is the army guarding the walls of the Royal Palace. They are the ones who patrol the walls of the Forbidden City. However, during the Xianfeng period, the work of the guard camp was replaced by the newly established Shenji Replaced by the military battalion, the guard camp gradually lost its past glory.
In addition to the above, there are also Jianrui Camp, Firearms Camp, etc. that protect the royal family, but their strength is much weaker than the above.
These battalions with various names form what the common people call the Yulin Army. In addition to the Yulin Army, the capital also has infantry commanding yamen led by nine admirals. What they protect is the so-called Four Nine Cities. They are responsible for the tall outer city wall system of Beijing.
The emperor created such a cumbersome security force because he was afraid that one day a powerful official or an unworthy descendant would come up and lead a bribed soldier to stage a mutiny. The more yamen he created and all levels of government fought with each other, this was how the emperor was safe. ensure.
To put it more clearly, the emperor's safety is achieved by the overt and covert fighting of his subordinates, and it definitely does not depend on his superior martial arts or advanced weapons.
Facts have proved that this arrangement of the Qing royal family is very correct. The bloody storm in Sijiu City has never stopped since the Qing Dynasty. During the Shunzhi period, the powerful officials fought openly and secretly in Sijiu City to compete with Dorgon for power. In the early years of Kangxi, for Killing an Obai would turn the world upside down.
The most impressive thing is that in the last years of Kangxi's reign, Jiulong seized the throne. These promising sons tried their best to find ways to control the armed forces that defended the capital. If it weren't for the large number of battalions and the scattered power, the princes would have been unable to do so. If these camp heads were stewed in a spoonful, Kangxi would probably have his hair cut off.
Even Yongzheng's final rise to power was inseparable from the strong assistance of his uncle Longkodo, the nine-door admiral at the time. Think about it, the commander of the garrison in the capital has supported you. Are your political enemies still running away?
Putting aside the palace coup more than a hundred years ago, let's talk about the Xinyou coup six years ago, where the eight ministers Gu Ming were taken down. It would be a thick book to write about the bloody events.
The chaos in the Forbidden City today is exactly the same as in history. It was not for nothing that Cixi had a direct descendant, Ci'an, and Ci'an was still the proper empress dowager of the East Palace, and her reputation was already higher than that of Cixi.
If Xianfeng's secret decree hadn't been exposed prematurely, if the little Wuyin hadn't fanned the flames behind her, Cixi would have really not dared to compete with her sister.
But things are different now. With Xiao Letian, the troublemaker, the gap between the various factions in Manchuria has become even greater. Not to mention anything else, the conservative faction and the reformist faction among the top management of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are now divided. There is an incompatibility between water and fire.
Cixi was too good at taking advantage of chaos. Seeing that Ci'an was a bit tolerant of the reformists, Cixi naturally wanted to extend an olive branch to the powerful conservatives. From then on, the power of the Demon Queen secretly expanded, much faster than in real history. Even faster.
The Shenji Camp that defended the capital was originally a newly established organization during the Xianfeng period. At that time, Cixi already had a small amount of power. Naturally, she would not let go of the opportunity to mix in the sand. Therefore, this time the palace transformed the Shenji Camp was Cixi's biggest Rely on.
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was a loser. Seeing that the situation was not going well, he went home and pretended to be sick. The deputy head also became Cixi's direct descendant. As a result, half of the people in the Forbidden City had declared their allegiance to Cixi.
There are also loyal ministers and righteous men under Ci'an. The pro-military camp was established at the founding of the Qing Dynasty. Their allegiance to tradition is reliable. At the most critical moment, the pro-military camp will naturally stand on Ci'an's side, and so will our ancestors. He is a conservative person, and he understands the reason why the East Palace is larger than the West Palace, so this group of secret eagle-clawed grandsons in the Forbidden City naturally want to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors.
Now the melee has reached a stalemate. Cixi wins because of the number of people, but Ci'an wins because of the elite soldiers. A single ancestor can hold back a group of rebels, and the guards with swords in the personal barracks do not care about their martial arts skills. Or not, but their status is frighteningly high, and all of them are from Eight Banners nobles.
The battle in this group was a bit post-modern in the end. The enemy and we actually knew each other and knew their families well. They usually went to teahouses and visited brothels together. They were all good players who played together. Even if both sides were their own masters, they would attack each other. They all left three points of friendship.
"Scar Yan San, how dare you touch me... This sword was given to me by Taizu, and I practiced the Thirteen Swords of the Ghost Sect..."
"Liu... you dare to look at me, try looking at me again... you are an unethical thing like a prostitute who doesn't pay you."
"I'm just looking at you, what's wrong...you're a flyover, try touching me..."
"Just give it a try and see the knife..."
Zhong Cui's palace was in chaos. This palace change, which has gone down in history, generally adhered to the principle of not taking action as much as possible, and the principle of more flower arranging and less blood, was completely deadlocked.
Maybe some people in later generations will wonder, this is a palace coup, a power struggle at the core of an empire, how could it become a farce?
This question really stumped a large number of scholars and experts, and the one who finally gave the correct answer was an old Eight Banners dude who had been living in a hutong since childhood.
"This is the survival philosophy of the bannermen of the Forty-Nine City. The bannermen have survived for hundreds of years. What they rely on is not their skill with bows and horses, nor their hard-core crops. They rely on a pair of sharp moves..."
"Bah, who is really going to take action when we are evenly matched? Who is going to be the leader? The leader will die first. What the bannermen are focused on is beating up the dog in the water. Only when one side is really going to be defeated will they really kill. Of course, killing defeated troops requires more blood... As for the strategic stalemate period, it is better to talk more and do less.
The melee in the Zhongcui Palace fell into a stalemate, and another stalemate in the Yangxin Palace was shocking to everyone watching. Cixi stood in front of the young emperor Tongzhi, slapping her son's mouth with her bow from left to right.
"You are the traitor, you are the traitor. Who asked you to give orders to the new military camp? Are you personally in charge? What right do you have to issue orders? Don't you know that Zhou Daoying is from Ci'an?"
Cixi slapped her son, and a string of tears fell from her eyes. She was so sad. She didn't expect that in the end, even her son would not share her heart.
"Who am I doing this for my mother? Isn't it for you? You don't even appreciate it when you do all this for your mother, you rebellious son..."
Otherwise, the royal family has been precocious since ancient times. The little emperor Tongzhi has already entered the rebellious stage at the age of ten this year. It’s not that he doesn’t love his own mother, he is just in this rebellious stage and feels that his mother is too strict. , staying with her is not free at all.
Alas, this unlucky child has no father to cheat on, so he has no choice but to cheat on his mother.
"What the mother did was wrong, but the child is not wrong. Now the Qing Dynasty is flooded with internal and external troubles. How can it withstand the internal strife? This is destroying the foundation of our Qing Dynasty."
There was another snap, and Cixi said tremblingly, "You, you, you... what are you talking about?"
Tongzhi glared at his own mother who was not afraid of him at all. He frowned and said, "I don't need others to tell me this. Even though the imperial court defeated Changmao and Nianjun, it seems that there is hope for ZTE, but it still cannot rely on the skills of the Han people." For the pacification, the two tigers Changmao and Nian were killed, and the Hunan army was the last group of wolves to be raised up."
"Looking at the northwest, Ningxia is already in chaos, Xinjiang's Tianshan Mountains are already at war, Agubai, supported by the Rakshasa Kingdom, is about to establish a state, and E Niang is still dreaming of ZTE."
"Look at Xiyi again. They are developing rapidly, but our Qing Dynasty doesn't even have a railway..."
"Shut up..." Cixi's face was distorted, but this time he did not slap his son. Instead, he shouted to all the confidants in the Yangxin Hall, "Get out, no one is allowed to come in without my order..."
Ci Xi no longer had the strength to fight. She was shivering with an inexplicable sense of fear. "My son, it was Ermao who told you again. Is it this Xiao Letian again? My son, how could you let this evil obstacle be brainwashed into this?" .”
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" I am so devoted to my mother..."
After all, Emperor Tongzhi was a child, and his momentary rebellion did not mean that he did not love his own mother. He was completely stupid when Cixi cried like this.
"Mom, I...I don't mean to be angry with you...I just think that we Manchus have to innovate. If we continue to stick to the same old ways, we will die sooner or later."
"I don't care, I don't care whether the Qing Dynasty dies or the Eight Banners disperses. I just want us two to be prosperous. As long as we live and enjoy the wealth and glory in this world, who cares about what happens after death? I don't care. "
"Silly boy, is there any country in the world that will never perish? Even if the emperors of Europe are so glorious, their fate will be the same as ours sooner or later..."
"Hehehehe..." A night owl-like laughter came from the Yangxin Palace. Emperor Tongzhi looked horrified in the laughter. It seemed like it was the first time he saw E Niang with such a ferocious face.
While laughing wildly, a young eunuch suddenly rushed in from the outside. He knelt on the ground and gasped, "Your Majesty...the Queen Mother...Ci'an, under the protection of the pro-military camp and the ancestors, has broken out to the north. The guards of Shenwumen did not dare to stop them, and now Ci'an and the others are heading straight for Jingshan..."
