Gu Qianfan, the protagonist of " Menghualu ", makes his debut as the " Imperial City Division Commander". Throughout the play, the Imperial City Division is also at the forefront of the court struggle.
So, what does the Imperial City Division do? Did this institution actually exist historically?
The Imperial City Division really existed. According to the records in "History of the Song Dynasty·Zhiguanzhi", the Imperial City Secretary "is in charge of the ban on entry and exit of the palace city, and all matters related to the guards in the Zhoulu and the opening and closing of the palace gates are all under the jurisdiction of Yan." Translated:
The Imperial City Secretary He is responsible for managing the palace gate keys and palace guards.
In order to strengthen the management of various gates in the imperial city, the Song Dynasty formulated a very specific door talisman system. Each gate had two bronze talismans and an iron plate on the left and right. The left talisman was in charge of the guard, and the right talisman was used to open the gate. The keys are kept by another person. In other words, the gates entering and exiting the Imperial City are under the control of the Imperial City Manager.
In addition to being a doorman, Imperial City Secretary is also responsible for the guards on duty in the palace.
During the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin period, he selected a part of the elite troops to serve as marriage officers in the Imperial City Division.
When Zhao Guangyi came, he selected a group of cronies as his personal bodyguards, and all of them were handsome and outstanding in martial arts.
From this point of view, the Imperial City Division is the core part of the palace defense system, equivalent to the emperor's direct "security team."
Gatekeepers and security guards were just the initial businesses of Huangcheng Division, and they were later expanded. If you want to explain this clearly, you must first understand another organization - Wudesi .
Secret Service Organization - Wude Division
Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin launched a Chenqiaoyi mutiny , and the yellow robe was added to the emperor's throne. In other words, he came to power through a coup. Therefore, he was very worried that his comrades who had fought together before would mutiny one day and oust him from power?
Therefore, in order to understand the true thoughts of these generals, Zhao Kuangyin remembered a spy agency- Wude Division , and put one of his confidants in charge of Wude Division.
This Wu Deshi was good at strategy and cunning. When he was in office, Wu Desi quickly took control of all kinds of information in the country and even spied on the privacy and secrets of officials.
According to records, when the prime minister Zhao Pu mentioned the military commander, he was a little frightened. Every time he saw the military commander talking to Zhao Kuangyin alone, he was very worried, worried that he would cause trouble.
Once, Zhao Pu felt worried when he saw that Zhao Kuangyin had left Wu Deshi to talk alone. The next day, he reported to the emperor and said: "Wu Deshi is a treacherous person. Your Majesty, you talked to him for so long yesterday. I am worried about him." He wants to accuse the ministers of the DPRK."
Zhao Kuangyin didn't take it seriously after hearing this. He said to Zhao Pu, I just let him talk, don't be jealous, lest others laugh at the disharmony between our king and his ministers.
The era after the Wude Division - the Imperial City Division continues its mission
In August of the fifth year of the Taiping Xingguo reign in the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Guangyi suddenly received a secret letter from the then Minister of Finance.
In this secret letter, the Minister of Finance told Song Taizong: There are several close ministers around you who collude with officials and relatives in the capital to make profits through smuggling by relying on their power and privileges.
Song Taizong was furious after seeing it, and immediately ordered an investigation. He found that this was a corruption case involving internal and external collusion. The leaders were the emperor's personal guards, including two top officials of the Wude Department. Coupled with the numerous criminal records of Wude Division, it had long aroused dissatisfaction among ministers and people, so in the second year, Song Taizong ordered that Wude Division be merged into the Imperial City Division.
However, it is impossible for the emperor to give up such a powerful tool for monitoring ministers and maintaining his rule. It turns out that the chief of the Wude Department just took off the title of "Wude Envoy" and replaced it with the official name of " Imperial City Envoy ".
In this way, the secret service agency of the Song Dynasty was nominally disbanded, but in fact it was continued under the name of "Imperial City Secretary", the royal security guard.
From "Security Team" to Secret Supervision - The Increase of the Power of the Imperial City Division
The Imperial City Division has a "Detective Division" whose members are called "Chazi". At the beginning, the Detective Department specialized in detecting intelligence in the army to prevent anyone from rebelling.
Later, the scope of the Detective Department gradually expanded, and gradually expanded into the officialdom, becoming a comprehensive law enforcement agency integrating arrest, interrogation, conviction and imprisonment.
According to records, during the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty, the then Chief of the Imperial City Department received a rumor that there was a businessman named Zhang Hua in the capital, who was actually a spy sent by the Khitan.
If we follow the normal legal procedures of the Song Dynasty, after someone reports the case, it should be interrogated by Dali Temple, and the case file will be handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for review. The judgment process also needs to be supervised by the Yushitai.
However, after the Imperial City Division found out about this, they just waved their hands and did not let other agencies participate at all. From arresting the suspect, to interrogating and judging the case, and escorting them to prison, they all did it themselves. They even wrote the official documents of the case themselves.
In the end, because the espionage case involved many officials and caused a big fuss, Song Renzong was alarmed, and the emperor ordered the censor to review it. During the review process,
discovered that Zhang Hua was just an ordinary businessman and was not a Khitan spy at all. He had been wrongly accused before.
The reason why the imperial court distributed judicial power to so many departments was to check and balance power among each other and prevent officials from protecting each other and subduing each other. And if the Imperial City Secretary went through the process on his own, how many unjust, false and wrong cases would occur? !
The Imperial City Division also has an important task: serves as the "face" of the imperial court. As mentioned earlier, the employees in the Imperial City Division are all handsome guys (laughs) .
Whenever the Song Dynasty sent envoys to other countries, they were accompanied by personnel from the Imperial City Department. This not only protected the diplomats' personal safety, but also monitored their words and deeds in foreign countries; they could not go out to embarrass the court, but also ensured that they We cannot be tricked by foreign countries into leaking information about and Song Dynasty . The original intention of
was good, but in execution, there was a big deviation. These people from the Imperial City Department are usually just low-level officials running errands in the capital. They have low academic qualifications and poor cultural standards. But when they go on missions, they become special supervisors of the emperor. The envoys dare not offend and can only punish them. Their words and actions turn a blind eye. These people had no one to supervise them, so they let themselves go one by one. When they arrived in other countries, they began to act recklessly, causing extremely bad influence.
In order to prevent such a bad thing from happening again, only senior officials from the Imperial City Department were sent to accompany envoys abroad.
The intelligence treasury has two fronts - the expansion of the secret powers of the Imperial City Division
The business scope of the Imperial City Division also includes exploring public opinion.
According to historical records, during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, there was an old man who was shopping for vegetables. He said a few bad words to the court near the Xuande Gate of the imperial palace, and was arrested by the Imperial City Secretary and sent to Kaifeng Mansion.
There is also the notorious prime minister Qin Hui. He often arranges for people from the Imperial City to hide in the streets and alleys, and arrest people when they hear someone saying bad things about him.
However, the Huangcheng Division does not only do bad things among the people, it also assumes the responsibility of market supervision. For example, check whether market prices are stable and whether anyone is driving up prices; for example, record natural and man-made disasters, natural disasters, and crop harvests to find out whether local officials are falsely reporting political achievements, or fabricating disasters to embezzle relief funds, etc.
For example, once the Yellow River burst, the emperor ordered the Imperial City Department to send people to inspect the damage every day; when it rained continuously, the Emperor also sent the Imperial City Department to various counties to check the damage to rice fields.
In the Song Dynasty, in order to prevent soldiers from escaping, they would tattoo their unit numbers on their faces, so that their identity would be known at a glance even if they were wearing casual clothes.
Those in the "Inspection Department" under the Imperial City Department were specially allowed to change their tattoos to their legs, and they could safely wear casual clothes to conduct secret activities.
The Detective Department's usual investigation content is extensive and detailed, ranging from political failures to civil anecdotes. From relatives of the emperor to important ministers in the court to ordinary people, they are all the targets of the Detective Department's investigations. The most important economic task of the
Imperial City Department is to monitor the "Zuo Zangku" .
Zuozangku was the largest central treasury in the Song Dynasty. It was responsible for central and local expenditures, paying salaries to civil and military officials, generals and soldiers, etc. It can be said that Zuozangku controlled the economic lifeline of the entire Song Dynasty, so it was responsible for its Management is very important.
For this reason, the Imperial City Department set up a marriage officer who specialized in managing Zuozangku, but his term was only half a year. The reason why the time is so short is because Zuozangku is so important.
If one person had been in charge of the central treasury of the Song Dynasty for three to five years, there was no guarantee that no one would have their own ideas about it. Of course, the emperor was not at ease, so he decided to keep his term shorter to prevent others from enriching themselves.
The Imperial City Secretary
Song Zhenzong who was "not doing his job properly" liked to practice Taoism for longevity, and he especially liked his subjects to offer "auspiciousness" to him.
One day, Song Zhenzong had a dream. In the dream, a god told him that if you build a dojo and offer sacrifices to the gods for a month, a book called "大中祥物" will fall from the sky. Three articles.
The emperor was very happy after he woke up from the dream. This was the auspiciousness promised by the gods himself. How could he not refuse it? So, he immediately arranged for the ministers to prepare the dojo.
A month later, the Imperial City Secretary actually came over to report that a piece of yellow cloth was found on the eaves of Zuo Chengtian Gate, and it could not be pulled off no matter how hard it was pulled.
Song Zhenzong was very surprised when he heard this, thinking that this must be the "heavenly book" promised to him by the gods! So he respectfully went to Chengtianmen in person, bowed to the piece of cloth repeatedly, and then ordered someone to take it off.
I only saw what was written above: "Zhao was ordered to prosper in the Song Dynasty and paid to Chong. He lived in his place and kept it upright. The world will be seven hundred and ninety-nine will be determined."
The general meaning is that the Song Dynasty is the destiny of the Song Dynasty. Zhenzong was the chosen one of the Song Dynasty. As long as he stayed upright, the Song Dynasty could continue for thousands of generations.
After Song Zhenzong saw it, it was as expected by the Imperial City Secretary. He was very happy and quickly sent officials to report to heaven and earth to express his gratitude to the "gods" and also changed his reign name to "Zhongxiangfu".
In Song Zhenzong’s dream, didn’t the gods say that this book has three volumes in total? How come it was just a piece of paper and disappeared after just a few sentences?
The Imperial City Secretary performed such a play to make the emperor happy.
These Imperial Guards in the Imperial City Department are rough men and don’t have much ink in their stomachs. It is already very difficult for them to hold back such a few sentences. It is very difficult for them to write three "heavenly books" in praise of their virtues.
There is also an organization in the Imperial City Department called " Ice Well Service ". As the name suggests, it is responsible for providing ice cubes to the emperor and ministers. In winter, the ice well service will send people to find a clean river, wait for the river to freeze, cut it into large square ice cubes, and then carry these ice cubes to the ice cellar and store them until the next day. Take it out and use it again the next summer.
The power of the Imperial City Department, an organization directly under the emperor, actually depends entirely on the emperor's words.
After Song Gaozong, the records about the Imperial City Division began to gradually decrease, but occasionally you can still see records of personnel transfers and changes in functions.
Later, the Song Dynasty had to deal with the intrusion from the northern minority countries. After years of war, a large amount of national resources were dedicated to the battlefield, and there was no spare power to restart this secret service agency. The Imperial City Division gradually declined. Subsequently, with the demise of and in the Southern Song Dynasty, the Imperial City Division was also submerged in the long river of history.
