Because of his busy work, Shen has always taken care of Shi Xing these days, giving Shi Xing a token to enter and leave the palace at night, allowing him to go out of the city and go home in the middle of the night.

This gave Shi Xing a lot of convenience, allowing him to take a shortcut through some palace gates outside the Forbidden City.

It was like this for the past few nights, Shi Xing worked overtime quite late, and it was quite late to go back, but it was smooth, but the carriage stopped two or three times tonight, and Shi Xing didn't care once or twice, and the third time Shi Xing couldn't help it, and lifted the curtain next to the car to look out.

"What's going on? Stop-and-go? ”

Shi Xing asked the attaché outside the car.

"Ministry, it was a few teams of soldiers and horses blocking our way, not wearing black tiger armor, it looked like it was a Beijing camp guard, it looked like it was going in the direction of Dong'anmen."

"Jingying soldiers? Dong'anmen? Aren't the guards of the Imperial City in the inner city in charge of the four guards of Teng Xiang? What are the guards involved in the camp? ”

Shi Xing felt strange, what happened to the appearance of these military horses in the inner city in the middle of the night? He secretly became suspicious, so he asked the attaché to come forward and ask, not to reveal his identity, just to say that he was the official of the Ministry of Rites.

In the past few days, it is not only the Ministry of War that has been busy, but also the Ministry of Rites, and some officials of the Ministry of Rites have also obtained temporary tokens to enter and leave the palace.

The attaché was soon back.

"Ministry, that's indeed the Beijing battalion soldiers, it's Jinwu Left Guard and Yulin Left Guard, they said that they were ordered to mobilize and routinely change guards, telling us not to pass through here, and asking us to take a detour, Ministry, do we have this order?"

Shi Xing frowned when he heard this.

"Ridiculous, how could this official have given such an order? And how could Jinwu Left Guard and Yulin Left Guard switch guards with Teng Xiang Fourth Guard? Isn't that a joke? ”

This point Shi Xing is clear, this is simply impossible to happen, after the civil fort, the civilian official group got involved in the military power, and gradually stripped the Jingshi Forbidden Army founded by Zhu Yuanzhang from the emperor's control.

Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention of creating the forbidden army was to establish a strong army for the emperor to personally control, at first there were twelve guards and horses, and later in the Zhu Di period, because Beijing was in a place prone to war, so ten guards and horses were added.

During the Xuande period, in order to further expand the emperor's military power, Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty selected the elite soldiers of the world's guards, as well as the elite men who fled back from Mongolia, and together formed the Tengxiang Four Guards, and added four guards and horses on the basis of the original 22 guards.

The meaning of Teng Xiang Siwei is the same as the meaning of Jin Yi Wei, different from the other twenty-one guards, Jin Yi Wei belongs to the commander of Jin Yi Wei, and Teng Xiang Siwei is handed over to several eunuchs of the Imperial Horse Prison to manage, and the degree of closeness is even greater than that of Jin Yi Wei.

Therefore, Tengxiang Siwei can be regarded as the forbidden soldiers among the forbidden soldiers, the emperor's real guards, and the last line of defense.

After the civil fort, the power of the civil official group swelled, and gradually stripped the 21st Weijing battalion soldiers, including the Jinyi Wei and Tengxiang 4 Guards, from the direct control of the emperor, while only the Jinyi Guard and the 4 Teng Xiang 4 Guards of the 26 Wei Forbidden Army were returned to the emperor's control.

The remaining twenty-one guards soon declined, with little combat effectiveness, and the mission of guarding the inner city and the imperial city fell on the four guards of Tengxiang, which were the last line of defense around the emperor, and were not usurped by civil officials because of the relationship between the eunuchs.

Later in the Xianzong and Wuzong periods, Zhu Jianshen and Zhu Houzhao both tried their best to strengthen the number and combat effectiveness of the Tengxiang Four Guards under a limited framework, and by the heyday of Wuzong, the Tengxiang Four Guards together had 40,000 soldiers and horses, and accompanied Wuzong to several expeditions, with great prestige, and the civilian government was breathless.

However, after Wuzong fell into the water and died, after Jiajing Longqing and the early Wanli period, today's Tengxiang Siwei has only 6,500 people, and the actual number is estimated to be less than this number, and all aspects are far inferior to Tengxiang Siwei in the Wuzong period.

However, as the emperor's last psychological line of defense, the civil official group will not instruct the remaining 21 guards to try to control the defense of the inner city and the imperial city, but will give it to the four guards to be responsible, as the last veil of warmth between the monarch and the minister.

The remaining twenty-one guards are mainly responsible for guarding the outer city, and have not been mobilized to the inner city, unless there is really something important, and the cabinet can only mobilize the twenty-one guards into the inner city or even the Forbidden City after obtaining the emperor's permission.

Before Zhang Juzheng, the power of the cabinet was not very prominent, so the leading power of the Beijing camp soldiers was in the military department, after Zhang Juzheng, the power of the cabinet swelled, and the power tilted to six departments, and Shi Xing himself also had to hand over part of the power to the cabinet to supervise the use, which naturally included the dominance of the Beijing camp soldiers.

The current Beijing camp is basically a military general and noble as the governor and the distributor of interests, and the military department secretary or squire concurrently serves as the Rong Zheng Shangshu, as the deputy of the military commander, and actually controls the Beijing camp.

Originally, this situation would produce some unpredictable variables because of Xiao Ruxun's appearance, and Shi Xing was also worried about this, because the emperor had issued edicts to him several times, asking him not to hinder Xiao Ruxun too much, but to cooperate with Xiao Ruxun from all aspects, which made it difficult for Shi Xing to do.

Even so, Shi Xing didn't know that there were Beijing soldiers entering the inner city tonight and Tengxiang four guards changing guards.

This is nonsense!

Could it be that the emperor allowed it? The reason? Why didn't you give yourself a notice?

As the secretary of the military department, Shi Xing felt that the problem was a bit serious, so he no longer concealed his identity, got out of the car directly, walked quickly to the side of the army that was marching over there, and grabbed a person who looked like an officer and asked.

"What part of the men are you? On whose orders did you change the guard in the middle of the night? ”

The officer glanced at Shi Xing, and saw that he was dressed in a big red robe, and he should be a big official, so he asked tentatively, "I don't know who you are?" ”

"Bingbu Shangshu Shixing!"

Shi Xing directly revealed his identity.

The officer obviously didn't expect the military department to appear in front of him, and was so frightened that he quickly knelt down on one knee.

"The last general will meet the ministry!"

"Get up, you haven't answered the officer's question! What's going on? ”

The officer stood up and said cautiously: "If we go back to the ministry, we have received an order from the cabinet, and Your Excellency has ordered us to change guards with the soldiers and horses guarding here. ”

"Cabinet? Teng Xiang Siwei and the Warrior Battalion are the commanders of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and the Imperial Horse Supervisor also cooperates at the same time? Is this an order from His Majesty? ”

The officer hurriedly said: "These generals don't know, the last general only knows that when we came here, there were only a few officers of the Black Armor Army waiting for us to change our guard here, as soon as we arrived, they left, we took advantage of the situation to change the guard, and we were also acting on orders." ”

"Ridiculous! Mobilize the army to change the guard, even if it is an order given by the cabinet, you should inform the official and say nothing, what is this? When I'm a soldier, is it an ornament? Is there still a Ming military department in his eyes? ! ”

Shi Xing was very dissatisfied with this, and severely reprimanded the officer, but the officer had no choice but to speak: "Then, why don't you ask Shi Butang to go to the cabinet to ask?" Our order was issued by the Cabinet, and there may be someone on duty in the Cabinet at this moment. ”

Shi Xing's eyes widened.

"You don't need to say it! Come on, let's go to the cabinet and ask Shen Cheng what is going on! ”

Shi Xing returned to the carriage indignantly, and the attaché immediately drove the carriage in the direction of the cabinet.