The study in the Qianqing Palace is much more comfortable than that in the palace. The furnishings and appliances here are not comparable to those in the palace. There are many eunuchs and maids on call at the door and outside of the study.
The eunuchs brought to the palace and Zhang Zuo did not make arrangements. The female envoys brought over were divided into two groups, one group went to Renshou Palace, and the other group stayed in Qianqing Palace.
The maids who stayed in Qianqing Palace were headed by Zhu Qingping, who was raised by the Jiang family as a daughter and has been growing up in the palace. Although he is only twenty-six years old now, he is very calm and collected.
After coming in with snacks and hot milk, she found that the atmosphere in Xinan Pavilion was not right.
Quietly putting these on the small table next to the desk, Zhu Qingping looked at Zhang Zuo and Huang Jin before retreating.
Now, when Zhang Yong heard the emperor's question, he immediately kowtowed and said: "Gu Dayong has told the slaves that they will die, and they should never use the grace given by Long Live Lord to respect their status."
"I don't blame you. The fact is that with your cooperation, it would be easier for me to accept some things." Zhu Houcong was pragmatic, "It's just that you think that I am too young and ignorant."
"My slaves acknowledge my guilt!" The three eunuchs kowtowed and admitted their guilt one by one.
Gu Dayong has gone through the process of giving gifts to Zhu Houcong. How could he underestimate him?
But even if he wanted to show his loyalty, he could only show his most important bargaining chip when he was summoned - even though this bargaining chip belonged to the emperor.
Gu Dayong, the great eunuch who had been in the Zhengde Dynasty for sixteen years, held the title of "eunuch in charge", which was superior to the eunuch in charge of the ceremony. After being summoned to Prince Xing's Mansion, Gu Dayong said this: "Your Majesty, I am here to meet you privately. Because whether you see it or not, the courtiers' slaves cannot hide away. I am not afraid of death in the future, but I am afraid that I will not be loyal to your majesty, and your majesty will not know the situation, and will be manipulated by the courtiers in the future!"
Doesn’t that mean you have made your miserable situation clear?
Now Zhu Houcong looked at the three people kneeling on the ground and nodded: "Get up first. Gu Dayong said that his position as the eunuch in charge was not in compliance with the old system, and he was guilty of meeting in private. He would not die a good death no matter what. He asked me to protect him You two, what are you saying that if all three of you leave, my will will definitely not be able to leave the Forbidden City. You were very courageous at that time, but now tell me in detail, how come my will can't leave the Forbidden City?"
Gu Dayong could only kneel down again: "It's my fault that I'm too worried. His Majesty is like a saint coming to the world, and all the courtiers worship him. The slaves are just thinking ahead for their master, and are afraid that the ministers will destroy the capital camp that the late emperor finally saved. Military power was taken away again."
Zhang Yong also hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, on the night of the late emperor's grand visit, the slaves later discussed privately. The elders recommended the slave to be the governor of the nine gates of the capital. It was really hard to play hard! The slave is also in charge of the Royal Horse Supervisor and the commander of the Tengxiang Four Guards Warrior Camp. . With such a high and powerful position, if you go back and impeach on any charge, you can add the basis of treason..."
"How dare you slaves to take advantage of your kindness?" Gu Dayong praised anxiously, "In the sixteenth year of his reign, the late emperor changed the Twelfth Regiment Camp into the East and West Official Hall, and worked hard to achieve the current situation. Now the training camp of the Mighty Regiment has been disbanded, Zhang Zhong and the others are also in jail, Your Majesty, the civil servants have been trying to regain control of the capital camp since the Tianshun period after the Seizing of the Gate incident."
This is what Gu Dayong relied on for a private audience that day: the military power of the capital!
In their words, the civil servants represented by Yang Tinghe were aggressive.
Among the many powers now, including financial power and personnel power, on the one hand, courtiers can interfere with the emperor's decisions through "voting," "admonishment," and "refutation." On the other hand, they can also prevent many decisions from being implemented through execution.
And Gu Dayong wanted to represent Zhang Yong and the others, and make Zhu Houcong trust their loyal ministers by giving private interviews and giving people instructions, and successfully accept one of the important legacies left by Zhu Houzhao: part of the military power.
Logically speaking, the imperial power is supreme, and military power naturally belongs to the emperor.
But how to implement it specifically? Restrictions on money and food, the decentralization of many powers such as commanding and deploying troops and supervising troops will greatly reduce this power.
It can only be said that civil servants already have a very large say.
The Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army, what does it mean in front of the Ministry of War?
Because Zhu Houzhao tried every means to actually control some of the military power that could be effectively mobilized, Yang Ting and others had to temporarily rely on Zhang Yong to stabilize the situation in the capital.
But at the same time, Yang Ting and others were also moving as quickly as possible, trying to re-tame the part of the military power that Zhu Houzhao had in the hands of civil servants.
The signs were already obvious, first Jiang Bin, then Wei Bin and others, in the secret message sent to Gu Da through the Jinyi Guards, even Zhang Zhong, the Royal Horse Supervisor in charge of the military talisman, was captured.
The next target is undoubtedly the three "remnants" of the Eight Tigers.
Therefore, Gu Dayong had to go to see Zhu Houcong privately and wanted to find a way out.
The military power of the Ming Dynasty has evolved to this point. The Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies has declined, and the Ministry of War has greater power.
The frontier army and other guards used civil servants to control the military and internal supervision over external affairs. They were in a state where civil servants dominated and restrained each other.
The armed forces that the emperor can directly control are mainly the pro-army plus the Beijing camp.
The pro-army mainly defends the imperial city and the palace city. They will not leave the capital unless the sky falls - except for the most famous of the guards, the Jinyi Guards.
The leaders of the East Factory are the eunuchs, but the heads, foremen, stalls, and servants who handle specific tasks are also selected from the Jinyi Guards.
The backbone of the Yiwei Department of the princes' palaces in various places were selected from the Jinyiwei.
There are many, many places where Jin Yiwei walks in every corner of the empire.
Civil servants did not dare to get involved with the pro-army forces, but they had always been thinking about the three major battalions that had appeared since the Yongle Dynasty: the Five Army Camp, the Three Thousand Camp, and the Shenji Camp.
At first, it was just that the world was at peace and the military ministers were suppressed, but that changed later.
The source of the transfer of control of Jingying was the Tumu Fort Incident.
The three major battalions and a large number of honorable ministers and generals were wiped out. Since then, the Beijing camp has continued to change: the Tenth Regiment Camp, the Twelfth Regiment Camp, the East and West Official Halls...
After the battle to defend the capital, the civil servants gained control of the capital camp for the first time.
After the incident of seizing the gate, the capital camp returned to the hands of military generals and eunuchs, and was controlled by the emperor.
In the subsequent Tianshun and Chenghua dynasties, civil servants were unable to get involved in the capital camp again.
But after Emperor Xiaozong succeeded to the throne, things changed again, and the admiral of the Beijing camp became a civilian official.
Zhu Houzhao first controlled Jinyiwei, Dongchang and other key points through the eunuchs and military generals in the Leopard Room, and then built the Zhenguo Palace in Xuanfu. However, he had to wait until he proclaimed himself "General Zhu Shou" and defeated Mongolia. Only then did we have the first border army that we could control.
As for the Beijing camp, it was mainly through the establishment and training of the east and west official offices, allowing the internal ministers to supervise the army and even the admirals to gradually penetrate this force.
King Ning's rebellion gave Zhu Houzhao the opportunity to directly intervene and take over the troops of the Beijing camp - again in the name of General Zhu Shou.
During Zhu Houzhao's sixteenth year in power, he originally left two additional military power legacies: the re-control of the Beijing camp, and the establishment of a powerful regiment training camp newly selected and trained by the "Four Outer Schools".
The former is still there, but the mighty regiment training camp has been disbanded by Yang Ting and them - in the name of ensuring the safety of the succession of the throne and in the form of the Queen Mother's decree.
After Qian Ning was imprisoned, the pro-military system still had no general who could control the situation.
After thinking about this, Zhu Houcong asked: "So the position of commander of Jinyi's army has been vacant now?"
"Your Majesty clearly knows that it has always been empty. Now the servants are in charge of the work." Zhang Yong lowered his head and answered.
Gu Dayong also said: "Your Majesty, no one can arbitrarily decide this position except His Majesty! This servant has followed Your Majesty all the way back to the capital from Anlu. Among the former ministers in the residence, only Luo Qianhu has the highest rank. Although Lu Dianzhan is more senior He has the trust of His Majesty, but he is only a sixth-grade official..."
"Luo An?"
"Exactly. Luo Qianhu is nearly forty years old and in the prime of life. Last year, he took over the post of Zheng Qianhu, the fifth-rank Zheng Qianhu, but his father was already the commander of the fourth-rank Jinyiwei. Now he is specially promoted because of the merits of Conglong. Since Luo An is a third-grade commander, he can temporarily assume the position of commander."
Zhu Houcong looked at him: "You were not idle along the way."
