During the reign of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, troops and horses were inspected at any time. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, military parades were held several times at the school grounds outside the Meridian Gate, but there was no special etiquette for military parades.
During the reign of Emperor Chengzu, the navy displayed its power in Southeast Asia. Among them, the Xiyuan Military Parade held in the 19th year of Yongle was visited by envoys from 27 countries. It was the most glorious military parade in the Ming Dynasty.
At that time, the troops in the Beijing camp were neatly organized, marching in unison, and their armor was bright. In particular, the display of firearms frightened the envoys of various countries. The envoys of Timurid completely ignored the previous diplomatic rhetoric that "our country has no such custom" and took the lead in kneeling and kowtowing, "kowtowing to the ground" and offering famous horses.
After this grand military parade, the Egyptian envoys who watched the military parade returned home and immediately lifted the ban on Eastern merchant ships in the Red Sea. Immediately, a huge fleet led by Sanbao eunuch also arrived at the coast of the Red Sea, proclaiming the country's prestige to all nations.
In the fourth year of Xuande's reign, Emperor Xuanzong held a "military parade" in the suburbs, which was a military parade that completed the ritual system. Later, during the Zhengtong and Tianshun reigns, the Yingzong conducted parades of troops and horses. The scales varied, and the etiquette gradually became more complicated, but the beauty of the troops and horses became worse and worse.
In the ninth year of Chenghua, a full hundred years ago, Emperor Xianzong held a military parade in Xiyuan. In the fourteenth year, another small-scale military parade was held at the southern foot of Long Live Mountain. In the following nearly a hundred years, formal and ritualized military parades also disappeared.
More than ninety years later, in the third year of Longqing's reign, a large-scale military parade was held in the northern suburbs of the capital. This military parade was strongly advocated by Zhang Juzheng, and its main purpose was to review the Beijing camp and improve the combat effectiveness of the Beijing camp. Zhang Juzheng said in his memorial: "Today's people are so lazy. If we don't borrow the power of heaven and read the instructions in person, it will not be enough to revive the weak spirit and inspire the soldiers' morale."
Unfortunately, due to Emperor Longqing's poor health during this review, government affairs gradually became slack. The etiquette was lively and lively, but it was just empty words. In this grand parade four years later, Zhu Yijun and Zhang Juzheng, who were completely disappointed with the Beijing camp, really wanted to use the power of God to reward and punish them!
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In order to make this military parade effective, after the autumn harvest of the first year, Zhang Juzheng obtained Zhu Yijun's consent and ordered the Chengtian Mansion to level out an area surrounded by hills, rivers and small forests in the Nanhaizi Royal Garden, thirty miles south of Chengtianmen. A large school ground used for military exercises.
Nanhaizi was called "Nanyuan" in later generations, and it was a royal hunting ground in the Yuan Dynasty. It was called "Dismount your horse and let it fly", which means it is not far from the city and you can get there just by getting on and off your horse. Because the Yongding River runs through it, there are many lakes and luxuriant animals and plants. After Chengzu established his capital in Beijing, he drove away all the residents living in Haizi, built a wall of 120 miles around, and built palaces and palaces.
Originally, in the early Ming Dynasty, there were large campuses in Xiyuan, Long Live Mountain and other places, and several military parades were held in these places. However, over the past hundred years, military preparations have been weakened, and the campus was either a palace or farmland, and no traces have long since been lost.
The large teaching ground that Chengzu once set up outside Zhengyangmen is still there, but the place is small and not suitable for training large armies. It is mainly used for daily training by the Beijing camp. The Beijing camp's "sharpening their guns before battle" was carried out in this large school field.
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On the morning of the 25th of the first lunar month of the second year of Wanli, Yang Bing, Wang Lin, and the inspecting Kedao officials led the troops from the Beijing camp into the Nanhaizi University Campus.
To the east of the school grounds is a small river less than two feet wide, and to the west is a low hill with some trees on it, but not a single leaf at this time. To the south and north is flat land. Flags were placed all around, enclosing a square site about seven or eight miles long and wide.
Because Jizhou soldiers were stationed directly in Nanhaizi after they came to Beijing, there were already military personnel and science and technology officials who had led soldiers from Jizhou Town into the school grounds. By the time the Beijing camp arrived, Qi Jiguang had already set up camp at the western corner of the hilly area in accordance with the arrangements of the Ministry of War.
When we drove in to take a look at the majestic Jingying Camp, we saw that although the Jizhou Barracks was not big, the four corners were neatly tied, and all the antlers and horses were available. Except for the sound of horns and camp drums, the whole camp was solemn and there was no human noise. .
The Jingying camp was set up near the river, and people were shouting for a while. Yang Bing was so busy that he was sweating profusely and his voice was hoarse before he settled the soldiers and horses.
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Wait until Yang Bing and others have settled down. Eunuch Zhang Jing, the imperial eunuch, arrived with the warrior camp and the four guard camp. This time, in addition to the 1,500 imperial troops who were banned in the palace, Zhang Jing brought all the remaining 5,000 military horses from the Royal Horse Supervisor to the school grounds to take charge of security work.
The Warrior Battalion and the Four Guards Battalion of the Royal Horse Guards are the strongest military force in the hands of the royal family. For the Forbidden Army, all tall and powerful men are selected for training. Their armor and weapons are all selected from the best, and their uniform colors are different from those of ordinary Ming soldiers and even Jin Yiwei.
The Royal Horse Supervisor was originally the Admiral Liang Yong. Later, Zhang Jing fawned over Zhu Yijun, and since he was responsible for construction affairs and had a closer relationship with the Royal Horse Supervisor, Zhu Yijun deposed Liang Yong in October of the first year and promoted Zhang Jing to the rank of Admiral. Royal horseman eunuch. Zhang Jing regarded himself as the emperor's caring person. In the past few months, he wanted to raise his tail high to the sky. He ignored Yang Bing and Qi Jiguang's coming to fawn over him and found a piece of flat ground behind the viewing platform that had been set up in the north to build a meal.
After lunch, Zhang Jing ordered ten squads of the Imperial Guards to patrol the entire Nanhaizi Garden twice with their swords. Not to mention, he actually caught a whole family sneaking into Nanhaizi to build a shack. A piece of land was actually opened. Zhang Jing asked several forbidden soldiers to capture them and take them to the government, where they were inspected again before giving up.
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On the 26th, a rare windless sunny day in winter, Zhu Yijun stopped going to court early in the morning.
One morning, Xu Congcheng, the consort of the imperial consort, was sent to the Grand Campus to worship the god of flags and banners. Zhu Xixiao selected four generals and two thousand infantrymen from Jinyiwei to wait on the commander outside the left gate of Chang'an. Under the unified arrangement of the Ministry of Rites, the Director of Ceremonies decorated the six ceremonial elephants from nose to tail, and arranged them in the Huangjimen Square together with the front and rear bands, Wu Chen Jialu books, etc.
Zhu Yijun, wearing a black gauze winged crown and military uniform, first went to Shenxiao Hall and other places to pay homage to his ancestors and the late empress, and put on a fur cloak. At Huangjidian Square, ride on a large horse chariot.
The two bands, big and small, played music together, and the elephants raised their trunks and called. Baiguanshan shouted long live and danced with the animals. Then, the elephants and other animals left the scene, and officials of fourth rank and above from almost all departments of the central government, including the Cabinet and the Sixth Ministries, gathered around the chariot according to rank, or lined up to follow it, and arrived outside the left gate of Chang'an.
The big band is in front, the small band is behind, and the ministers and four thousand officers and soldiers in uniforms are still surrounding. They start from outside the left gate of Chang'an and arrive at Nanhaizi Campus.
The roads along the route were guarded and swept by troops from the Five Cities. Dongchang Fanzi occupied all the private houses and commanding heights of streets passing by one day in advance. Since the emperor ascended the throne, the people had not seen the emperor's rituals, so the road was not blocked.
During the march, I had heard that there were lively crowds of people in the capital standing on both sides of the road. Under the system of the Ming Dynasty, when people saw a great leader, they did not need to bow before them, but just turned sideways and bowed their heads.
The people in the capital were dazzled when they looked at the seven or eight miles long Dajia Lubu. When the emperor's banner, surrounded by the banners of Sifang, Sidu, Five Mountains, Five Stars and Twenty-eight Constellations, Ganyu and Eight Winds, appeared in the distance, the thousands of Han generals held up pairs of shining golden imperial guards, Ligua and other military staffs, as well as various ritual vessels such as canopies and pillars held by hundreds of eunuchs are already in front of you, which is dizzying.
All of this makes the people of the world feel that the imperial power Wei Wei and the emperor are like gods in the sky.
I don't know if Shuntian Prefecture arranged it intentionally, but when Zhu Yijun looked through the cracks in the lattice of the big horse chariot, he saw that the people in the capital all had rosy faces, and their clothes were neat and tidy, and there was not a single person with any appearance.
No one dared to look directly at the chariot. When Zhu Yijun passed by, he saw that most of the people just turned sideways and bowed their heads, and some knelt there and kowtowed - some people actually placed flowers and fruits as offerings and burned incense to worship, which made his heart tingle. It felt like the sinister wind was going straight into my neck.
