The old lady is reborn

Gong Qifang thought for a moment and said, "About forty."

Song Ying thought that this was a bit beyond the limit, but not by much.

In the past, the situation in Kyoto was complicated, with the Sixth and Ninth Princes each leading a group of ministers to fight openly and secretly with the previous emperor.

Lord Weng, who was loyal to the previous emperor, was assassinated by the Sixth Prince's men. At that time, many people's guards exceeded the custom.

Everyone surpassed, so no one would say anything. They reached a tacit understanding that everyone turned a blind eye.

Later, the Sixth and Ninth Princes fell, and the court officials were reshuffled;

The purge in the army was completed;

The gang that had grown up under the patronage of Lu Dekai, a trusted minister of the Nine Princes, was also wiped out;

The situation His Majesty is facing today is completely different. He has the conditions to have a strong and centralized imperial power.

To this end, the Emperor has reiterated the number of guards that princes, princes, princesses, and ministers of all ranks can have.

If the number exceeds this, it will be suspected of raising private soldiers.

Now it’s not about turning a blind eye. People are secretly comparing who has more guards and whose guards are more capable.

Nowadays, if you have too many guards, or the number of first-class guards exceeds the limit, it may attract the emperor's attention to some extent.

Taking the prince's palace as an example, the new order stipulates that the palace can have a maximum of 35 guards, including a maximum of 15 personal guards for the prince himself.

In other words, including those who guard the house, a royal palace can only have a maximum of thirty-five guards.

However, when the previous emperor was alive, he turned a blind eye to the fact that his four sons had a large number of guards.

After all, the former crown prince has passed away, and the sixth and ninth princes are eyeing him covetously. It would be good for his four sons to have more guards.

If the guards of the other princes suffered heavy losses at Eagle's Beak Cliff, the Third Prince was completely defeated after it was discovered that he was colluding with the Sixth Prince.

When the fourth prince ascended the throne and became emperor, many of his guards were automatically transferred to the Yulin Guard.

As a result, the first people that the current emperor would focus on would be his second brother and fifth brother.

The fifth brother seemed to be particularly nostalgic. After his old men were killed or injured and could no longer serve as guards, and the situation became increasingly unclear, he simply did not recruit any new guards.

But the second brother was also a wise king, and his people were in good condition to begin with, with almost no casualties.

Now it is equivalent to asking him to reduce a lot of guards, which is really embarrassing.

Under such circumstances, he only retained forty people, which meant that he did exceed the limit by a few people.

But to say that he is an honest man who did his best seems to be true.

After the new system was promulgated, Song Ying also wondered what should happen to his fifteen flying eagles?

However, Huaiyuan came back and said that the Ministry of Revenue had already told him that the monthly salary, four seasons' clothing, and the necessary food and meat expenses for the fifteen Flying Eagles would all be converted into silver and distributed by the Ministry of Revenue in the future.

To be paid together with Huaiyuan’s salary.

After hearing this, Song Ying looked at his son and said, "This means they are no longer the flying eagles of our Nan'an Marquisate. From now on, they are people of the imperial court.

To put it in a positive light, the government paid for our guards, but if you think about it, it’s like having people from the court in our house…”

Huaiyuan said: "According to your Majesty's intention, from now on, the guards in the palaces of the princes, princes, and princesses will all be dispatched by the court. And the number of guards will be reduced significantly.

During the time of the previous emperor, these princes and princesses were his own family members. He would send people from the Yulin Guard and the Imperial Guard to serve them, and he did not care much about the death squad guards they found, raised and trained themselves.

There is nothing wrong with doing this nowadays, but people are used to it, so when it’s suddenly tightened, they feel a little uncomfortable.”

Then he smiled as if he remembered something and said, "Marquis Dongyang is really a smart man."

Song Ying asked: "His family is a family of scholars, few of whom hold high positions. There are many who have passed the imperial examinations, but the family mainly relies on farming and studying.

Such families didn't have enough guards before, right?"

Huaiyuan nodded: "That's right. The emperor asked the Marquis of Dongyang to fill the number of guards as soon as possible. After all, the court is paying for it, so this benefit should not be missed.

But the Marquis of Dongyang said that the two guards he had now were enough and they only needed to keep watch and there was no need to fill up the number.

But since all marquisates have it, then he, the Marquis of Dongyang, cannot refuse this benefit.

So he asked His Majesty to have the Ministry of Revenue pay him the money as usual, and he would not be compensated as a guard, and he could spend the money however he liked."

Song Ying also smiled: "He is indeed a smart one."

Naturally, His Majesty will be pleased to see that the Marquis of Dongyang's Mansion will not recruit additional guards.

But he was smart enough to ask for the money from Your Majesty because he was good at calculations and it was not that the court was taking advantage of him.

It's not that he was dissatisfied with the court's actions, but he said in a quarrel, "I don't want anything, but he still wants the silver." So this matter was handled flawlessly, and the current emperor would not think too much about it.

This is a gift to your majesty. No wonder your majesty laughed and scolded after hearing this.