Tibet.

Chapter 1378 Internal Security Reform (Part )

Before dawn the next day, Li Ye returned to Chang'an on horseback under the protection of hundreds of guards.

An hour later, Li Ye was sitting in his imperial study.

The New Year holiday was very short, and the memorials on the table seemed to have been read just yesterday. Li Ye flipped through them. Normally, he would not leave memorials over the New Year, but this time he left two memorials over the New Year.

It is also because these two memorials are rather special. One memorial is a draft for this year's imperial examination. After last year's imperial examination, Li Ye put forward a suggestion that, when the levels are equal, he hopes that the admission will tend to favor children from poor families.

In order to respond to his own suggestions, the Political Affairs Hall proposed a plan for differential admission. If 100 people were admitted today, then the number would be cut off to 110 after the provincial examination by the Ministry of Rites, and then the names from 91st to 110th would be determined in order, and the ranking would be slightly biased towards children from poor families.

But Li Ye felt that this plan seemed unfair, so he had to think about it.

Li Ye picked up his pen and approved his idea, selecting the names between 96th and 105th, and shortlisting the children from poor families.

If the scope is narrowed a bit, it will be basically fair.

Another memorial was a proposal by Yan Zhenqing to abolish the Inner Guards. The proposal stated that the Inner Guards were originally established to deal with the sabotage of various hostile forces and were indeed necessary. However, with the unification of the world, the hostile forces had disappeared, but the power of the Inner Guards had become increasingly stronger, causing fear in Chang'an and the people of the world.

A small case that could be solved by the county government was finally solved by the internal security. The case was magnified and often ended up with the destruction of a family.

'When the world was in turmoil, the inner guards still had 20,000 troops. Now the world is peaceful, but the inner guards have 40,000 elite troops. Who are their enemies? Your Majesty had no intention, but the harsh rule has just begun to emerge. The people are terrified when they hear about the inner guards and hide when they see them. The inner guards are rampant in Chang'an. This is definitely not a scene of peace and prosperity.'

This memorial caught Li Ye by surprise. When did the inner guards run rampant in Chang'an? When did the inner guards interfere in the affairs of the county government? When did the inner guards become a tyrannical government?

After thinking for a moment, Li Ye pulled the rope, and a moment later, Wei Gao appeared at the door, "Your Majesty, please give your orders!"

Li Ye waved his hand, "I want to ask you a few questions!"

Wei Gao walked forward and stood with his hands hanging down. Li Ye asked, "You are a local, right?"

Wei Gao nodded, and Li Ye asked again: "Do you often drink with friends outside?"

Wei Gao hesitated for a moment, but still nodded. There was no need for him to lie about such a thing.

"Do you think the internal guards are disturbing the people?" Li Ye asked.

Li Ye saw that he was a little hesitant, "I want to hear the truth, otherwise why would I ask you?"

"Your Majesty, the reputation of the Internal Guard among the people is indeed not very good."

"Tell me more about it!"

"I have a story to tell you. I have a classmate friend whose father-in-law runs a medicine shop. There was a patient who was dying, so his family came to buy ginseng to prolong his life. In the end, the patient died. The family was not happy and thought that the medicine shop was selling fake ginseng. They went to the inner guards to complain, saying that the medicine shop was selling fake medicine. The inner guards sealed the medicine shop, arrested the people and tortured them, but they couldn't find any evidence. My classmate friend came to me to use his connections, and the people were released first. As a result, when he returned home, his father-in-law was angry and resentful, and his injuries were serious. He died in less than three days. In the end, no evidence of selling fake medicine was found, the matter was left unresolved, and the false accuser was not punished at all."

"anything else?"

"Also, your majesty does not allow officials to visit prostitutes. This should be a moral issue. There is no such article in the Tang Dynasty law, so it should be the Censorate that impeaches, but the inner guards intervened. When an official drinks in a restaurant, even if he asks a few singing girls to sing a song to liven up the atmosphere, the inner guards will come to arrest him, detain him overnight, and fine him ten strings of cash. This has become a common occurrence, and low- and middle-level officials hate it."

"So where do you think the problem lies?"

"I think the internal security has too much power. They can do whatever they want. They can go into any store and arrest people as long as they suspect that they are selling contraband salt or contraband. Will they be investigated to the point of ruining their families or being let off lightly? It all depends on whether the store is willing to pay a huge bribe.

There are two more shops competing with each other. As long as one shop is willing to spend some money and make up some stories, the Internal Guard can help it kill its competitor. Your Majesty, the various practices of the Internal Guard have long caused public outrage, but there is no place to seek justice. "

Li Ye took two steps with his hands behind his back and said, "If I want to personally experience the inner guards' methods, is there any way?"

Wei Gao pondered for a moment and said, "There is a way!"

Li Ye immediately notified everyone that he would go to Xingqing Palace at noon. He then took a half-old carriage to leave the palace and headed for Chunming Gate. As expected, when Li Ye arrived at Chunming Gate, he found that it had been blocked by the inner guards and no one was allowed to enter or leave.

Thousands of people gathered at the city gate, jumping and cursing, but it was useless. The city gate would not open, and no one explained to them when it would open.

If the people had been explained earlier that they would have to wait for an hour and a half, many of them would not have waited and would have headed directly south to leave the city.

Li Ye's face suddenly looked a little ugly. It was now 8:30 in the morning, and there were still three hours before he was supposed to go to Xingqing Palace at 11:30, but the city gate was blocked. That was to say, every time he went out, the city gate would be blocked at least three hours in advance.

He immediately said to Wei Gao: "Go and ask why the blockade has lasted for so long?"

Wei Gao went to ask, and soon came back to report: "They said that this is the rule of the inner guards. When the emperor travels, the area must be cleared in advance, one hour or one and a half hours in advance. If the time is too short, it will be difficult to deploy control and will give assassins an opportunity."

Li Ye was speechless. The internal guards were performing their duties and could not be blamed. Although it took a little longer, they did not do it on purpose. They were just being cautious.

Because the inner city wall is unguarded, it is easy for assassins to lurk there, so the inner guards need to patrol the inner city wall while closing the passage, and most of the time is spent on this.

But making people wait for three hours is indeed too long.

Li Ye said to Wei Gao again: "Go and inform them that I have cancelled my trip to Xingqing Palace. Ask them to cancel the sealing of the gate!"

Li Ye took the carriage back to the palace gate, feeling really bad.

Li Ye has realized that the root cause of the Internal Guards' disturbance to the people is actually himself. The Internal Guards are the army, not a civilian government. If they do things with the military's thinking, it will naturally cause public resentment.

The army demands absolute obedience and strict enforcement of orders. No appeals are allowed and orders must be carried out even if they are wrong. If ordinary people are wronged and want to appeal, but have no way to do so, they will naturally become extremely angry and die of depression.

The Internal Security Guards are only responsible for themselves, and they really don't have to consider the feelings of others. If they do not allow officials to engage in prostitution, the Internal Security Guards will carry out their orders to the letter and will not consider the feelings of the officials at all.

They arrest people when they have suspicion, without considering any evidence. If they find that they have arrested the wrong person, they release him/her without considering the suffering of the arrested person or his/her property loss.

This is actually the characteristic of military control, which only facilitates military management and never considers the interests and feelings of the people.

But it was impossible to abolish the Internal Guards. Li Ye needed the Internal Guards to consolidate his rule. He abolished the eunuch system, so an organization like the Embroidered Uniform Guards was needed.

The key lies in the system and its implementation. I have told Li Chenghua more than once that we should focus on the big issues and let go of the small ones, but in the end it was obviously not implemented. Even disputes between ordinary people were interfered with, which caused people to criticize.

Another problem is that there are too many Internal Guard troops. They are in charge of too many things, so the organization will become too large and the army will expand. Too many troops will lead to a mixed bag of good and bad soldiers. Some soldiers want to use the power of the Internal Guard for personal gain, which will lead to some Internal Guard soldiers extorting shops in Chang'an, causing public resentment.

The Internal Security has reached the point where it must be reformed. First of all, the size must be reduced. 40,000 people are indeed too many. Reducing it to 10,000 is about right. The Internal Security does not depend on the number of people, but on the elite.

The second is institutional constraints. What can the internal security guards do and what can’t they do?

Li Ye thought of Baihu Hall, a system of his own creation that clarified the division of authority from the source.

An institution similar to the White Tiger Hall can be set up for the Inner Guard. In fact, the Inner Guard also has the position of judge, but first of all, the judge is not independent and is subject to the chief officer. Secondly, the judge makes judgments after the fact, which is not very meaningful.

If there is such a faucet-like organization, then no matter what the Internal Guard does, it must follow the regulations. For example, if one wants to go out, the notice will first be sent to the White Tiger Hall of the Internal Guard, and the White Tiger Hall will clearly state that the city gates will be closed for a quarter of an hour, and the generals are not allowed to close the gates at will. If the generals extend the closing time without authorization, it will be a violation and they will be punished. If they are punished three times, they will be demoted.

For example, if someone comes to complain that a certain store sells fake medicine, Baihutang will be the first to receive the complaint. It will then determine that the procedure is incorrect and refute it, and the Internal Security Bureau will not file a case.

Because the Inner Guards are connected to other government offices, when there are big things that the government offices cannot handle, they come to the Inner Guards for help, and only then can they take action. This is in line with the principle of focusing on the big and letting go of the small.

Secondly, the general of the internal guard cannot make the decision to go out to enforce the law without receiving the dispatch order from the White Tiger Hall. The same goes for the soldiers, who cannot go out on the streets to check people at will.

Thinking of this, Li Ye replied to Yan Zhenqing's memorial, "The Internal Guard should not be abolished, and reforms can be carried out!"

(End of this chapter)