As the saying goes: "The empire is like a big ship, and the helmsman is the emperor", but the country has never been carried forward by the emperor alone, and among so many departments in the country, there are some institutions that are dedicated to serving the emperor, and the names of these departments are also strange.

Like the Qing Dynasty's "Tiger Gun Battalion", "Good Fight Battalion", "Shangyu Spare Office", "Eagle Dog Raising Office", and "Royal Bird Gun Office", these five institutions are all the emperor's exclusive "team", and their roles are also different.

Good Fight Camp

At first glance, when the name of this organization is heard, it gives people the feeling that the officials in this organization are very flexible, after all, "good at fighting", it must be good at fighting.

In fact, there is something to do with this strangely named organization and its flexibility, and most of the people in this organization are people with strong "professional ability".

There are wrestlers who specialize in wrestling, equestrian masters who specialize in horseback riding, archer pullers with amazing arm strength, and strong weightlifters.

They are similar to a performance team, and the professional name should be "Royal Circus", and when the emperor needs them, these skilled masters will do everything in their power to show their professional ability.

But such an institution is also set up with special officials to manage, and generally speaking, a master with special skills will recruit 300 people.

Then there will be a presidential minister, and basically the presidential minister will be in charge of all the affairs of the organization, and there will be left and right wings under the presidential minister, and there will be three wings in each wing.

In addition to performing specifically for the emperor, sometimes on some important occasions, such as the emperor banqueting ministers or other foreign envoys, the Shanpu camp will perform on the stage.

Generally speaking, after the performance, those who perform well are rewarded by the emperor, while others are also able to receive small gifts as appropriate.

Tiger Gun Battalion

This institution is similar to the "Three Thousand Battalions" and "Shenji Battalions" of the Ming Dynasty, equipped with powerful lancers and musketeers.

However, the duty of these people is not to defend the Jingshi, and their most important task is only one, that is, to ensure that the emperor can take advantage of the joy and return when hunting.

The people who make up this organization are much more noble in terms of status, you must know that if you want to enter the Tiger Gun Battalion, you must be a person from the Three Banners.

In addition, anyone has to go through an interview, and those who are weak and not skilled will not be able to pass the interview, and the selection requirements can be said to be not low.

These hunting troops, composed of powerful officers and soldiers, must ensure the safety of the emperor when hunting, of course, they cannot steal the limelight of the emperor when hunting, they will be scolded at the least, and they may lose their jobs at the worst.

The Tiger Lance Battalion will also have a presidential minister, as well as three flag commanders and several Tiger Lance Commanders, who will usually find a place with more prey before the emperor visits the hunting grounds.

Then they will camp in groups, and by the time the emperor comes, the prey has been driven into the encirclement by them, and at this time, it is already a matter of ease for the emperor to raise his hand and shoot the prey with an arrow.

Shangyu spare place

The name of this institution makes people a little confused at first glance, after all, I really can't think of anything in my mind that can match these words.

Actually, there is only one use for this institution, and that is entertainment, but it does not take care of all kinds of entertainment activities, on the contrary, this institution only specializes in fishing and bird hunting.

So he has another name, which is called Sticky Pole, but the strangest thing is that most of the people in this institution are not professionals who specialize in fishing and birding.

It is a guard, generally there will be about forty guards in the Shangyu reserve to act as the sticky pole leader, the first-class guard is only one person most of the time, the second-class guard is three, and the third-class guard is as many as twenty-one.

It seems unconscionable that there are only two hookmakers, given that there are only a handful of specialists in fishing and birding.

In fact, this has a lot to do with the actual scope of work of the Shangyu Reserve Office, although the Shangyu Reserve Office was ostensibly an institution dedicated to the emperor's fishing and bird hunting.

But most of the time, the personnel of the Shangyu Reserve Office will be arranged to carry lanterns, help and other errands, and there may be times when the emperor and the ministers who follow him want to go fishing on a whim, then the hookmaker will go out.

In general, the usefulness of this institution is not great, but it can still be a part-time and multi-faceted career when needed.

Keeping eagles and dogs

The purpose of this institution is obvious, the Eagle Dog Breeding Department, as the name suggests, is a department dedicated to raising eagles, hunting dogs and other beasts of prey for members of the royal family.

You must know that although the emperors of the Qing Dynasty have lived in the Central Plains, their roots are still outside the Guan, and it is their tradition to raise some birds of prey or hunting dogs every day.

The Eagle Dog Breeding Office is set up in the Donghua Gate of the Imperial Palace of the Forbidden City, which houses a variety of birds of prey and fierce hunting dogs, all of which need to be domesticated by animal trainers and sent to the royal family.

These birds of prey are not ordinary birds of prey, like the famous Hai Dongqing, which was once bred in the place where eagle dogs were raised, and some precious birds of prey are even comparable to two boxes of gold!

In ancient times, it was difficult to guarantee the life safety of the emperor, and if it was not guaranteed, there would be unscrupulous people who maliciously domesticated some hunting dogs or birds of prey to attack the emperor.

Therefore, this institution will also have a management minister, who is also a person who is more trusted by the emperor, and under the management minister, there will also be two commanders in the eagle and dog breeding offices.

Below are the five Lan Ling guards, the deputy leader of ten people, and finally the professionals who raise eagles and dogs, and there is no fixed number of eagles and dogs they raise.

And these bred eagle dogs will participate in performances on some specific occasions, such as the emperor's banquet or entertaining foreign envoys.

In everyday life, members of the royal family can also go to the eagle dog to adopt a "pet" of their own, but sometimes they have to get the emperor's "permission".

In addition to performing specific performances in everyday life and entertaining members of the royal family, these eagles also have a specific purpose.

That is to help the emperor to carry out hunting activities, the emperor went out hunting all kinds of equipment is ready, and the eagle dogs needed for hunting are naturally indispensable.

Therefore, at the beginning of the emperor's hunting, these eagle dogs had to go through layers of selection, and only those who met the criteria could be qualified to participate in the hunt.

Shotgun Place

Although this institution has the word bird in its name, it has nothing to do with birds, and its most important use is the gun, which is the so-called bird gun.

Some emperors liked to collect all kinds of guns, and the Imperial Bird Gun Office was a place to help the emperor collect all kinds of guns, which were collectively referred to as the management of imperial guns.

The Imperial Shotgun Department also has its own supreme chief, generally speaking, it is designated by the emperor, under the supreme commander, there are two people each in charge of Lan Ling and two people in the deputy chief, and there will be five people in the shotgun chief.

During the hunt, these people would be in charge of the emperor's guns, which had to go through a series of tests before they could go to the hunting grounds.

After all, this is something for the emperor, and if the emperor is injured due to the accidental misfire of the gun or the damage of some parts, then it is a great crime to kill the head.

For this, the personnel of the Imperial Shotgun Division are naturally very clear in their hearts, so they will experiment with these guns themselves before they are used by the emperor.

However, this Imperial Shotgun Office is also the most idle of the five institutions, and it is generally only used to prepare guns when the emperor is hunting.

There was nothing to do the rest of the time, after all, the emperor didn't go hunting every day, so the personnel at the Imperial Shotgun Department were very leisurely, and they belonged to two days of work and a week of rest.

In general, these five institutions are dedicated to the service of the emperor, although each performs its own duties, but the role is actually similar, and it is difficult for ordinary people to enter these institutions to work, but in this way, everyone must also understand the purpose of these institutions.

Article source: "History of the Qing Dynasty"