In July of the third year of Chongzhen, the capital of the Ming Dynasty entered midsummer, and it also ushered in the hottest month of the year.

On July 12 of this month, from the Zhangjiawan Wharf on the west bank of the Tongzhou Canal through Tongzhou City, the first cement concrete official road of the Ming Dynasty was built to the west, and after more than three months of construction, it was finally paved to the Chaoyang Gate of the Ming Dynasty.

On this day, outside the Chaoyang Gate, until the front of the Dongyue Temple, both sides of this section of the official road were crowded with people watching the excitement.

A huge stone mill driven by ten horses in front of and behind, from east to west, and then from west to east, repeatedly rolled the road surface poured with cement, sand and concrete, and rolled this section of the road surface smoothly.

Hou Tianxi, the military attache of the imperial chamberlain, followed the housekeeper Ma Qian of the Military Aircraft Department, and some people from the front division of the Jinyi Guard Palace, rode on horses and stopped behind the lively crowd.

Of course, they didn't come to see the excitement.

They came to this place to greet the new governors of the five armies and the guards who had come to Beijing from other places to take up their posts.

In the past few days, the officials of the Military Aircraft Department and the Ministry of War, Chen Shiqi, the military aircraft senator, Ma Gan, the personnel of the Military Aircraft Department, and the Lang Zhong and foreign men of several departments of the Ministry of Military Affairs, have been busy with such things.

Today, Ma Gan, a member of the military aircraft house, specially brought Hou Tianxi, the military attache of the imperial chamberlain, because the head of the Governor's Mansion of the Internal Guard Army, Zuo Du, the governor of Yi Bo Hou Liangzhu, had previously sent a family member to contact Hou Tianxi, saying that he would be able to rush to Beijing from the direction of Tongzhou in these two days.

To come to Beijing from the direction of Tongzhou, of course, you have to go to Chaoyangmen, so Ma Gan took people and waited on the official road near Dongyue Temple not far from Chaoyangmen.

I didn't expect that the concrete official road that was built from Tongzhou to the west was actually repaired all the way to Chaoyang Gate in the past two days, making it the same as when I went to Zhongyue Temple to open a temple fair, crowded with people, crowded with people.

Ma Gan, Hou Tianxi and others were afraid of missing Dingyi Bo Hou Liangzhu and his party, so they had to find a conspicuous place, with the scorching sun on their heads, and waited here for a long time.

If it was left in the past, such as the major event of welcoming the governor of the five armies, the road outside the Chaoyang Gate would have been closed and emptied.

Whether it is a normal market or a temple fair, they all have to make way for the important events of the imperial court, not to mention things like road construction that make the sky dusty.

But for the construction of this road, Shuntianfu had nothing to say, and the soldiers and horses of the five cities of the Beijing Division did not dare to care.

Even Ma Gan, a member of the military aircraft house, and Hou Tianxi, the military attache of the imperial attendant, came here with a cadre of Jinyiwei, and they did not stop.

I could only avoid the dusty section of the road from a distance, standing on the edge of the crowd and waiting silently.

Because Ma Gan, the military aircraft house, they knew that it was Emperor Chongzhen himself who ordered the construction of this road, and the person who undertook this matter was the father-in-law of the current emperor and the father of the empress, Jiading Bo Zhoukui's family.

As for the person who paid the money, it was Emperor Chongzhen, and there were also tax customs located at the west gate of Tongzhou and the Chaoyang gate of Jingshi.

For Ma Gan and others, this is also a new thing.

In the past, the tax customs set up by the household department in various places, whether on the canal, at the post road pass, or at the city gate, have always only enjoyed the power to collect the tax and silver of the carriages, horses, and merchants, but they have never heard of the tax customs and the duty of building bridges and paving roads.

But after thinking about it carefully, Ma Gan discovered the truth contained in it.

Since you have the right to collect taxes and silver from the merchants and merchants who pass through this road, you must of course also be obliged to keep the road smooth and smooth.

Just like the customs on the canal, taxes are levied on merchant ships coming and going, and naturally the channel of the canal should also be dredged and maintained.

Nowadays, under the auspices of Yuan Keli, the governor of Caoyun, the customs on the Grand Canal, which runs through the north and south, have formed such a rule, and any section of the canal is silted up or congested, and the tax customs on the canal are held accountable in addition to the local Caoyun branch.

Now Emperor Chongzhen has taken the lead in Beijing again, just to promote this rule to the customs customs in various places.

On the morning of 12 July, Ma Gan, Hou Tianxi and others waited in front of Dongyue outside Chaoyang Gate under the scorching sun until late afternoon before they picked up Hou Liangzhu and his entourage, who had rushed to Beijing in the dust.

Hou Liangzhu and Hou Tianxi, father and son, were very happy to see each other in different places, and after meeting and greeting Ma Gan and others for a while, they immediately followed them into the capital.

In the past few days, in the process of the imperial court's reorganization of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, the newly appointed civil and military officials and noble soldiers, except for Mao Weizhang and other individuals, have also been the same as Dingyi Bohou Liangzhu, who have resigned their original positions and affairs in their hands, and entered Beijing under orders, met the emperor one by one, and then waited to take office.

Dingyi Bohou Liangzhu, because of the relatively long distance, and the burden of escorting 40,000 Mongols from the Ordos tribes westward from northern Sichuan to Tibet along the way, was the last of all the Zuodu governors to arrive in Beijing.

On April 1, the men, women, and children of the Ordos tribes set out for the south, leaving the river and heading to their distant settlements, and in late June, nearly three months had passed, before entering the Songpan region in northwestern Sichuan.

After receiving the imperial court's will to appoint him as the actual governor of the Inner Guard Army, Hou Liangzhu handed over his military affairs to Deng Xi, the deputy chief soldier who had come to take over his post as the chief soldier of Sichuan, and did not return home, so he went directly to Beijing.

On the morning of the second day when Hou Liangzhu arrived in Beijing, Emperor Chongzhen summoned him with the Minister of Military Aircraft, the Secretary of the Military Department, and others to summon him on the cloud platform behind the Jianji Palace and in front of the Qianqing Palace.

This is also the legendary Yuntai summoning pair in later generations.

Hou Liangzhu trembled and reported to Emperor Chongzhen and the military ministers and military officials who were standing on the side, and the military department Shangshu and other bigwigs of the DPRK and China, about the passage of the Ordos Mongols into the Songpan area through northern Sichuan and other places, and also reported the situation of the local military and Mintun after the pacification of Xuyong and Shuixi.

At the same time, Hou Liangzhu also mentioned to Emperor Chongzhen the risk of rebellion in the surrounding Tusi in the Songpan area of northwest Sichuan, and reminded the emperor that the Dege Tusi and Baili Tusi continued to grow by trading with wealthy families in Taomin and other places, and one day they might be harmed by Sichuan.

After listening to Hou Liangzhu's face-to-face report, Emperor Chongzhen also explained to him his thoughts on the important tasks of the Governor's Mansion of the Internal Guard, and then gave Hou Liangzhu a mansion prepared in advance by the Jinyi Guard and the Internal Affairs Mansion in the inner city of Beijing as the Dingyi Bo Mansion, and allowed Hou Tianxi, the military attache of the Imperial Chamberlain, to return home and stay after being on duty during the day in the future.

After meeting with Hou Liangzhu, on the day of the Midyear Festival on July 15, the great court meeting in the Jianji Hall in the Forbidden City was held as usual.

Zhang Weixian, the Minister of Military Aircraft, appointed the Metropolitan Governor of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, who was sick and also participated in the court meeting, as for the other governors of the newly established Five Military Governors, they were all listed.

In the morning, Emperor Chongzhen very rarely wore a crown of heaven, dressed in a full set of crown clothes of the Son of Heaven, and came to the Jianji Hall solemnly and punctually under the guidance of a group of imperial attendants, military attachés and soldiers of the Gong Guard.

For many days, Emperor Chongzhen met with the new governors of the five armies one by one, and the left and right protectors of the five armies, and the civil and military of the Manchu Dynasty knew that the reorganization of the five armies had reached the final moment.

Today, the civil and military ministers who are qualified to come to the Jianji Hall to participate in the court meeting, when they saw Emperor Chongzhen wearing clothes, they all knew at the moment that the emperor attached great importance to today's court meeting.

As soon as Emperor Chongzhen came in, all the civil and military ministers immediately under the guidance of Wang Jiayan, the imperial servant in the palace, rushed to the emperor who ascended the throne, and performed three kneels and nine bows.

The role of leading the ministers to salute at the court meeting has always been held by the eunuch who holds the seal of the celebrant and the seal.

However, since Liu Zongzhou asked for the establishment of the palace servant imperial history, and Emperor Chongzhen immediately agreed, it didn't take long for this role to be changed to the palace servant imperial history by Liu Zongzhou's book.

This is also one of the manifestations of the deterioration of the power of the position of the eunuch in charge of the seal.

As for the thoughts of people like Liu Zongzhou, of course this Chongzhen Emperor knows now.

In the final analysis, it was just that Liu Zongzhou, a self-proclaimed civil official, was as hostile to the eunuchs as ever, unwilling to accept the eunuchs' reprimands above the court meeting, and then thought about weakening the eunuchs' power.

But how meaningful can such a small action be?

Even if the emperor does not use ministers in court affairs, can civil officials easily control the court?

For Emperor Chongzhen, who saw through these little tricks, these small actions were of little significance.

Emperor Chongzhen slowly sat down on the throne, looked at the civil and military ministers kneeling in the hall, and did not let them shout long live as usual.

Today, he did not intend to discuss with the ministers of civil and military affairs in the palace, but directly read out the holy decree that had been brewing for a long time.

Looking at the courtiers below with solemn expressions but each with their own thoughts, Emperor Chongzhen waited until they paid their respects, and then said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the matter of the reform of the Ming military system has long been decided, and the new position of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies and the candidates for the left and right governors and the left and right protectors have also been determined.

"The reason why it has been postponed to this day has not been announced to all the people in the world is because of the handover of the old and the new, which is a matter of great importance, and the new establishment of the capital of the five armies, the capital of the governor's office, the superintendent and other senior officers, have not all arrived.

"Today, the functions of each government have been clarified, and the governors and guards have also arrived, everything is ready, and it can be handed over, and the world will be announced from now on to implement the new system!"