Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2340: Fortunately in Nanjing (VII) Internal Defense

Gao Youshi was allowed to stay at Chunhe Palace by the emperor this time, and about 20 of his family members were also allowed to accompany him. Gao Qi was the one with the highest status among them. To some extent, he played a role similar to that of a housekeeper, so he was also granted special permission to enter and leave the palace at any time, but he had to register and report when entering and leaving the palace, stating the reason for entering and leaving.

Gao Qi registered his reason for leaving the palace this time because Jingguo needed to temporarily buy some daily necessities. The Nanjing Palace Supervisor was a low-ranking government office with very loose systems. In addition, the person's status was special and his reason sounded completely reasonable, so naturally no one dared to question him and he was released from the Nanjing Forbidden City without hesitation.

What Gao Qi didn't know was that just as he left, the eunuch Tian Yi, who was in charge of Nanjing, had already reported the relevant matters to the emperor and came to the palace gate.

Tian Yi waved his hand to let the strangers who came to see him leave, leaving only the inner court eunuch who was in charge of guarding the palace gate. He asked directly, "After we entered the palace just now, did any of the entourage of the Duke of Jingguo leave the palace?"

The palace eunuch hurriedly hunched his back and said, "Please let the guard know that Jingguo Duke's cousin Gao Qi just left the palace just now, just in the blink of an eye."

Nei Shoubei refers to the "Eunuch who is the Imperial Commissioner for the Garrison of Nanjing". This is also the position of the eunuch who is in charge of the garrison, but it has a different name from the eunuchs who are in charge of the garrison in other regions. The garrisons in other places are all "Eunuch who is the Imperial Commissioner for the Garrison of XX Place", but Nanjing is "Eunuch who is the Imperial Commissioner for the Garrison of Nanjing", which shows that this position emphasizes the word "garrison".

However, there was not only one "garrison commander" in Nanjing. There was also a "meritorious official in charge of garrisoning Nanjing". Therefore, the "inner garrison commander" and "outer garrison commander" had to be divided according to the difference between the inner court and the outer court.

Regarding the power system of "Ming Nanjing", the most common saying in later generations is the "Three Major Ministers" theory, that is, the Nanjing Minister of War, the Nanjing Garrison Meritorious Official, and the Nanjing Garrison Eunuch are listed as the three giants of the Nanjing system. This statement is indeed correct, but the simple word "parallel" does not actually explain the details of the power structure of the "three giants".

Simply put, are there any differences in the power of these three giants? Of course there are.

Nominally speaking, "Nanjing Minister of War and Counselor of Mechanical Affairs" ranked first, "Nanjing Garrison Eunuch" ranked second, and Nanjing Garrison Meritorious Official ranked third.

However, the reason why "Nanjing Minister of War and Counselor of the Ministry of War" ranked first was mainly because he took advantage of the overall strength of the civil service group in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. It does not mean that his actual power or even status can really be ranked first among the three important officials in Nanjing.

In fact, according to the "ritual system", the "Nanjing Garrison Honorable Official" must be a noble, and according to the Ming Dynasty system, each of the Nanjing nobles is a "superior", so in theory, he should have the highest "status"; if we do not consider the ritual system but consider the closeness, then the "Nanjing Garrison Eunuch" should have the highest status because he is an external official of the Silijian and is the emperor's "close official three thousand miles away". In short, no matter what, the "Nanjing Military Minister Counselor" should not be ranked first.

But what I just said is only "in name", so what about the reality? This starts with the real power organ in Nanjing - the "Nanjing Garrison Hall Meeting".

The two capitals system was not a product of the Ming Dynasty. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, Luoyi was the Eastern Capital. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Luoyang was the capital and Chang'an was the Western Capital. The Sui Dynasty established its capital in Chang'an, and Emperor Yang of Sui built Luoyang as the Eastern Capital. The Tang, Song, Yuan and other dynasties thereafter also had two capitals.

Strictly speaking, the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty were formed after Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing. After Emperor Renzong ascended the throne, the situation changed. In the first year of Hongxi, Emperor Renzong decided to move the capital to Nanjing, still making Yingtian the capital and calling Beijing "Xingzai".

However, Renzong's reign lasted less than a year, and the plan to move the capital to Nanjing was aborted. After Xuanzong ascended the throne, he did not agree to move the capital, but continued to maintain some of Renzong's practices, still calling Beijing "Xingzai" and Nanjing "Jingshi".

It was not until Emperor Yingzong ascended the throne that the relationship between the two capitals was clarified at the institutional level, with Beijing once again being the capital and Nanjing the temporary capital. After that, the two-capital system became a custom until the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty were different from those of other dynasties and had their own inherent characteristics, the most notable of which was the official system. Other dynasties generally only set up local supreme officials such as "Jingzhao" and "Liushou" in their capitals, rather than setting up government offices at all levels in an organized manner.

The official system of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty was basically a replica of that of Beijing, and the ranks of officials in Nanjing were the same as those in Beijing. However, in order to distinguish them, the word "Nanjing" was added to the titles of officials in Nanjing as usual.

Nanjing was far from the imperial power, so the emperor naturally sent important officials and confidants as the absolute core of the regime. However, after all, there was only one emperor, so Nanjing did not need to set up a cabinet like Beijing to serve as an advisor to the emperor. Therefore, compared with the six ministries in the two capitals of the north and south, the cabinet was still unique and special.

Since important officials were to be stationed in Nanjing, the Ming Dynasty set up four official positions at that time: Nanjing garrison, assistant garrison, garrison eunuch and counselor of machinery, and formed a leadership organization called "Nanjing Garrison Office Meeting" to manage the relevant affairs of Nanjing and Nanzhili.

After the capital was moved to Beijing in the 19th year of Yongle, the official in charge of the Central Military Governor's Office was ordered to garrison Nanjing. The official title at that time was "Controlling the Nanjing Guards."

After Renzong ascended the throne, he appointed Li Long, the Earl of Xiangcheng, to garrison Nanjing; during the Xuande period, the title of "garrison" was changed to "garrison", and it was stipulated that the garrison of Nanjing should be held by dukes, marquises, earls and other nobles, and at the same time, the garrison of Nanjing should also take charge of the Central Army Commander's Office.

There are specific records about the duties of the Nanjing garrison: "All matters concerning the Nanjing garrison shall be handled by the garrison commander every day together with the counselor. On the first and fifteenth day of each month, the garrison commander, counselor and other officials and officials of various prefectures shall meet with the inner garrison commander to discuss and carry out affairs."

It is not difficult to see from here that the "Nanjing Garrison Hall Meeting" is the highest authority, so later in the "History of Ming Dynasty" there was a statement that "Nanjing regards (internal and external) garrisons and counselors of mechanical affairs as important positions."

Specifically, the establishment of the position of the counselor of the machinery was later than that of the garrison, and it should have been in the early years of the Zhengtong period. According to records, in the tenth year of Xuande, "Emperor Yingzong ascended the throne and ordered the Shaobao and Nanjing Ministry of Revenue Minister Huang Fu to be the counselor of the machinery."

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court believed that the power of the Nanjing high-level officials was still too concentrated, so in the third year of Jingtai, an assistant garrison commander was appointed, who was also a duke, marquis, or earl. According to the rules, the assistant garrison commander would also be in charge of the five prefectures.

During the Chenghua period, the imperial court issued an order that the Nanjing Minister of War concurrently serve as the counselor of the Ministry of Revenue, and this became a custom from then on. [Note: Please note that Huang Fu previously served as the counselor of the Ministry of Revenue of Nanjing, but from this point on, it was clearly stated that the Nanjing Minister of War concurrently served as the counselor of the Ministry of Revenue.] In this way, the status of the Nanjing Minister of War was improved and ranked first among the six ministries of Nanjing.

A well-known example is that in the original history, Shi Kefa, the Minister of War of Nanjing, was elected as the leader of Nanjing before and after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. The reason was that Shi Kefa also held the important position of Counselor of the Ministry of War. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty had a strange attitude towards civil officials. They relied on them but also used various means to restrict them. They trusted them but also had to find people to check and balance them. This was also the reason why eunuchs were able to interfere in government affairs.

The same is true for the Nanjing official system. As the capital, Nanjing is also a key area of ​​national revenue. The emperor certainly does not trust Nanjing to be managed by the nobles. Moreover, the nobles in Nanjing are all founding nobles, and they are not as trustworthy as the nobles in the Jingnan period. As mentioned earlier, the emperor also wanted to check and balance the civil servants in the six ministries in Nanjing.

So soon after the establishment of Nanjing Garrison, when Emperor Renzong first ascended the throne, he sent eunuchs from the inner court to garrison Nanjing. Zheng He was the first eunuch to garrison Nanjing, and later a deputy eunuch was added. In fact, in the late Ming Dynasty, because of the great power of eunuchs, the number of deputy eunuchs at most reached six or seven.

Finally, back to the previous question, who is the real top leader of Nanjing, the counselor of the aircraft maintenance, the Nanjing garrison meritorious official, or the Nanjing garrison eunuch? The "counselor" of the counselor of the aircraft maintenance first excludes the Nanjing military minister, after all, "counselor" is originally one of the "participants in the praise", which is an "assisting" position.

This leaves the inner and outer garrisons. On the surface, the Nanjing Garrison Honorable Officer and the Nanjing Garrison Eunuch are of the same level, and because they are divided into inner and outer, they are not subordinate to each other. But as mentioned before, the Garrison Eunuch is an external official of the Imperial Household Department, and he himself is on a temporary basis in the Imperial Household Department. With this obvious difference in closeness, the actual status of the Nanjing Garrison Honorable Officer is greatly reduced.

Again, the power structure is a concentric circle. The closer you are to the core, the higher your power status. So why do subordinates often have to be polite or even respectful to the secretaries of their superiors? Because the secretaries are closer to the leaders.

The Cabinet was originally just an advisory body to the emperor, so why has it now become the "Prime Minister's Office" that leads the six ministries? Because the Cabinet is closer to the emperor.

Under such circumstances, after the mid-Ming Dynasty, every time the "Nanjing Garrison Hall Meeting" was held, the garrison eunuch was often listed first, which also proved that the garrison eunuch's status was higher than that of the Nanjing garrison.

The case of the Nanjing Minister of War and Counselor of the Ministry of War was very interesting. When officials mentioned the three important officials of Nanjing in their memorials, he was often ranked first. However, when he actually attended the "Nanjing Garrison Hall Meeting", he was mostly ranked last.

  As for the real power, it is difficult to explain clearly because it is divided into too many situations. However, if we only talk about ordinary times, then the situation is generally like this:

The Nanjing Military Department's Minister of War's Counselor has similar powers to the Beijing Military Department, and is in charge of personnel, logistics and other general affairs of the Nanjing and Nanzhili armies, but does not directly manage the troops. At the same time, he often has a certain say in the military affairs of the southern provinces and can give advice to the Beijing central government;

The Nanjing Garrison Honorary Officer managed the 49 garrisons under the Central Military Governor's Office, with powers similar to those of the Five Military Governor's Office in Beijing, but he was in charge but not in charge. He also had nominal command over the defense of Nanjing, but he was in charge but not in command, unless there was an imperial order for him to lead troops into battle (which was rare, almost never).

In addition to the powers mentioned in the previous chapters, the eunuchs guarding Nanjing also had military power and commanded the 17 guards of the emperor's bodyguards in and around Nanjing City (including special guards such as the Jinyiwei and Xiaolingwei near Nanjing), as well as the Jianghuai and Jichuan navy responsible for river security.

Is it clearer now? Yes, the Nanjing Military Minister Counselor has the most extensive management, but his management is very general and he can hardly intervene in the details directly; the Nanjing Garrison Meritorious Official is like a mascot, nominally commanding the army, but in fact he only commands and does not lead, and is almost just a person in charge of the statistics of the Nanzhili Garrison.

Only the eunuch garrisoning Nanjing had the authority to manage and mobilize the main military forces in Nanjing City and surrounding areas on a daily basis. His actual power was similar to that of the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Stables in Beijing.

However, the Imperial Horse Supervisor was in Beijing, and above him were the two great gods, the Eastern Depot Superintendent and the Imperial Household Supervisor, so he was completely under the emperor's nose. But what about the Nanjing garrison eunuch? There was nothing above him - in the inner court system, all those who were higher than him were thousands of miles away.

Therefore, as long as there was no emperor residing in Nanjing, the eunuchs garrisoning Nanjing could almost be said to be exercising imperial power.

At this time, Tian Yi heard the palace eunuch's words, narrowed his eyes slightly, and asked: "Nephew? Gao Qi... Is he in a hurry to leave?"

The palace monitor's heart skipped a beat when he heard this, and he instinctively felt that he needed to answer this question carefully. He pondered and said, "I can't tell from his face whether he is anxious or not, but he is young and his pace is indeed very fast."

"Haha, haha!" Tian Yi laughed immediately and said with satisfaction: "Good, very good, we got it." After a pause, he asked again: "Where are Zhang Xin and Zhao Sheng now?"

The palace supervisor glanced around and whispered, "It is said that Deputy Garrison Commander Zhang went to the Duke of Wei's residence, and Deputy Garrison Commander Zhao seemed to have gone to the Earl of Chengshan's residence."

Tian Yi seemed a little surprised, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Are they not together?"

The palace supervisor replied, "The Jinyiwei reported that after the two of them served the emperor into the palace, they first went to Wuying Hall for a secret meeting, then left the palace through Xihua Gate and returned to the capital together (Nanjing City has three "circles", from the inside to the outside, they are the palace city, the capital city, and the outer city. The capital here refers to the area outside the palace city and inside the outer city, mainly located west of the imperial palace). Then they went their separate ways, one to the Duke of Wei's mansion, and the other to the Earl of Chengshan's mansion."

Tian Yi thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "It's a little late to think about colluding with others now. Besides, things have come to this point. I don't rush to inform Elder Shen before he moves into Chunhe Palace tomorrow, but instead go to meet the two ministers. It's really meaningless."

After saying that, he looked at the sky, sneered, and said, "Well, since they want to die, we are colleagues after all, so we have to see them off... prepare the sedan chair and return home."

The palace supervisor immediately agreed and arranged for the sedan bearers to come over. Taking advantage of this opportunity, he asked again, "Internal Guard, today, all the nobles in Nanjing are busy making contacts, and only you, the old man, are sitting on the Diaoyutai, unmoved by any wind."

"Ah ha?" Tian Yi laughed out loud, shook his head and said, "You have practiced a lot of vision, but your vision is still shallow. We are not sitting on the Diaoyutai, nor are we immune to the wind. We don't want to make contact... To tell you the truth, we are also in a hurry to go back home now, otherwise when the cousin of the Duke of Jingguo comes to my house later, won't there be no one to receive him?"

The palace eunuch was very surprised: "Isn't he going to purchase expenses and utensils for Duke Jingguo? Why is he going to his uncle's house?" It turned out that this person was actually Tian Yi's nephew.

  Tian Yi patted his nephew on the shoulder and sighed, "Think about it carefully. Your uncle is old and he won't live for many years. If you don't use your brain, what will happen in the future?" After saying that, he went straight to the green sedan chair that had just approached here, leaving the palace eunuch scratching his head with a worried look on his face as he looked at his uncle's back.
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PS: Some book friends asked when the new book would be released, which was a bit awkward. On one hand, some people demanded that the book should not be "unfinished" and should be written in detail in the style of the previous book; on the other hand, some people felt that the work that needed to be done had been basically done and it was time to end it...