Chapter 409: Selecting people to improve the school affairs office
Cao Shuang thought for a while and then warned: "When selecting people, we can no longer choose from noble families. We only need to go to various places to select some orphans who have no food to eat.
This matter needs to be done more secretly, so that no one with any intention can detect it, and all the money and food needed can be drawn from the treasury."
Yang Zong spoke again: "I'll do it right now."
Cao Shuang looked at the sun going west outside the west hall and said: "There is no rush at this moment. I will have dinner in the mansion before going back. You can just take my handwriting to handle this matter tomorrow. I will give you two years."
Time, two years must be spent to get this matter done.”
Cao Shuang thought that these two years were enough for Yang Zong to build up a large team of the school affairs office, and it was also enough time for him to learn from the systems of later intelligence agencies to improve the school affairs office.
The Song Dynasty was an era of frequent wars, and the fierce competition between countries reached the pinnacle of the art of intelligence acquisition.
The Song Dynasty was an era of frequent wars. The fierce competition between countries made the art of using "Jian", or other countries' intelligence acquisition, reach its peak.
In the sixth year of Taiping and Xingguo's reign (981), Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty changed the Wude Division to the Imperial City Division, responsible for guarding the palace and spying on intelligence.
It should be noted that the Imperial City Division belonged directly to the emperor, and its nature was more similar to that of the Imperial Guards of later generations, which was quite feared by the scholar-bureaucrats at that time.
The war between the two Song Dynasties was raging, which made espionage activities extremely active during this period. The identities of spies also became very complicated and spread across all walks of life.
Small businessmen, monks, even enemy generals, wives and concubines, and even envoys on foreign missions may all be spies.
After a hundred years of development, in the Ming Dynasty, the master of the terrifying secret service finally appeared - Jinyiwei.
The names of Jinyiwei and Dongchang in the Ming Dynasty are well known to everyone.
But it is worth mentioning that in fact, the only full-time spy agencies produced in the Ming Dynasty were Jinyiwei and Dongchang.
In many film and television dramas, Jinyiwei and Dongchang are notorious, but at that time, Xichang and Minghangchang were even more notorious.
During their existence, these two "factories" were far more powerful than Jinyiwei and the "old brand" Dongchang. Even Jinyiwei and Dongchang were under the supervision and control of the expert factory, just because their existence time was shorter than those of these two "factories".
It is an old organization that is often ignored by future generations.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he felt deeply that the world was unstable and the country was in danger. For this reason, he focused on cultivating the Jinyi Army among the pro-army. The Jinyi Army was originally one of Zhu Yuanzhang's "Twelve Guards of the Pro-Army". However, these twelve guards
Not all of them have "bright futures". For example, mausoleum guards can only guard the imperial mausoleum. If you become a mausoleum guard, you will basically have to deal with the dead for the rest of your life.
Jinyiwei were very easy to identify in the Ming Dynasty because they had three major characteristics: "riding tall horses, speaking with a capital accent (Beijing dialect), and wearing flying fish clothes."
If you see such a person in the crowd, no need to ask, most likely it is Jin Yiwei.
Jinyiwei is Zhu Yuanzhang's most powerful weapon to control the world.
As Zhu Yuanzhang's most trusted person, Jinyiwei controlled the imperial prison of the Ming Dynasty. Like the imperial prison of the Han Dynasty, this prison was very special. Initially, only high-ranking officials and dignitaries could be imprisoned in the imperial prison.
In other words, if you are caught, it proves that you are still a bit powerful, but on the other hand, it also proves that you are basically hopeless.
The four major cases in the early Ming Dynasty, the Hu Weiyong case, the Lan Yu case, the Kongyin case, and the Guo Huan case, together killed more than hundreds of thousands of people.
This huge trial and arrest work was almost all led by Jin Yiwei, which shows the huge power of Jin Yiwei. At that time, there were more than 10,000 people in Jin Yiwei, and tens of thousands of people were controlled by Jin Yiwei.
The organizational structure of Jinyiwei is actually very simple; the military official system of Jinyiwei is one commander, with an official rank of third rank, and is also the highest officer of Jinyiwei.
There are two Tongzhi, whose official rank is from the third rank (equivalent to the deputy commander), three Jinshi, whose official rank is the fourth rank, and two Zhenfu who manage the North and South Zhenfu Division respectively (equivalent to the two wardens), whose official rank is the fifth rank, fourteenth rank.
There are a total of 14 people in the thousand households, with an official rank of up to fifth rank, and there are several hundred households below.
The way these people usually work is to supervise one level at a time and never communicate with each other.
That is to say, each informant in Jinyiwei has a single line of contact and will never inquire about the intelligence of his superiors and subordinates. If he jumps over the rank, it will be a dead end.
According to the Jinyiwei system, once the surveillance target is discovered, he or she will be replaced or commit suicide to avoid information leakage.
Jin Yiwei's informants were all undercover in the mansions of high-ranking officials, and some stayed undercover for several years. At that time, all the ministers in the court were very frightened by Jin Yiwei.
Some bureaucrats during the Hongwu period even went crazy with fear when they heard that they were going to Jinyiwei's prison.
It can be said that Jinyiwei's monitoring of the words and deeds of officials reached a pervasive level. At that time, there was a man named Qian Zai. When he went to court, he recited a poem:
The four drums are banging and the clothes are on. It's too late to make an appearance at the Meridian Gate.
When will I be able to enjoy the countryside and sleep until food is ready in the human world?
As a result, the next day, Zhu Yuanzhang asked him the first sentence he saw: Your poem was well written yesterday, but I didn't think you were too late?
How about you change it and replace your dissatisfaction with worry? There is a murderous intention in Zhu Yuanzhang's words - how dare you complain about the emperor?
Qian Zai was so frightened that he immediately kowtowed and apologized. Soon after, he resigned and returned to his hometown.
But Zhu Yuanzhang did not relax his surveillance. It was not until his death that Zhu Yuanzhang transferred back the Jin Yiwei who monitored him.
Similar to Jinyiwei is Dongchang. The power of Dongchang in the Ming Dynasty was even more astonishing than that of Jinyiwei. The agents of Dongchang had even reached the level of spying on civilians, which shows that the aura of white terror was all over the dynasty. Tingzhang agent investigation and dragnet
, pervasive.
But in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, the rulers of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties learned from the experience and lessons of the Ming Dynasty and did not establish an open secret service agency.
But as we all know, in the early Qing Dynasty, the southern region was the area with the strongest anti-Qing and restoration forces. In order to consolidate his rule, Kang Zhaoshi established the "Three Weaving Department" in Jiangnan. In addition to supplying silk fabrics to the palace, the most important function was to provide silk fabrics to the emperor.
Provide secret information.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Cao Xueqin’s grandfather Cao Yin provided Kangxi with a lot of important information when he was weaving in Jiangning. Kangxi even told Cao Yin many times: "In the future, I will hear that the place is small and small."
Everything must be done in a secret way."
The secret folds were presented directly to the palace and were only viewed by the emperor. The first two people to use the secret fold system were Jiangning weaver Cao Yin and Suzhou weaver Li Xu.
Cao Yin's secret folds are all written on long pieces of paper. The paper is folded into an accordion shape and can be unfolded flat or folded into a booklet 20 cm long and 10 cm wide.
Put it in a small envelope sealed with a seal. The top of the seal is written "solid", the bottom is written "sealed", and the envelope is written "memorial".
Then cover the small envelope with a large envelope, tie the large envelope with a white paper strip, write your rank and name under the paper strip, wrap the outer package with white paper, and put it at the opening of the package.
Write the title and name again below, and the last few words used to seal the title are "Chen Yin" and "叩 Fen".
The secret folder was finally put into a special leather box. The leather box had two keys, one was given to the memorial official, and the other was kept by the emperor. No one could open it.
Kangxi attached great importance to confidentiality. He told Cao Yin: "If there are any difficult matters, you can write a secret document and ask for an order. No one can write any memorials, but if there are rumors, it will have a lot to do with it. Be careful, be careful, be careful, be careful."
We often say, "Speak important things three times." Kangxi said it four times in a row, which shows that he attached great importance to secrets.
Kangxi never used his hand when giving instructions. Once he was unable to write due to a pain in his right hand, so he used his left hand to give instructions. He had to do it personally. This shows that there were no organizations in the Qing Dynasty to spy on civilian intelligence, but they were hidden in the dark and organized.