In order to ensure Qianlong's personal safety, what preparations did the court and localities need to make before the southern tour?

Among the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty, only Kangxi and Qianlong had records of southern tours, both of which were six. Since Qianlong, no emperor has ever visited the South. On the one hand, Qianlong has established the ancestral system: future emperors are not allowed to visit the South. Second, the Southern Tour is based on national strength. Even if future emperors want to visit the South, they may not be able to do so.

Generally speaking, Kangxi’s six southern tours did not cost much, but Qianlong’s was different. Each southern tour was huge and costly. According to statistics, the six southern tours alone were allocated several million dollars by the Ministry of Household Affairs. Ten million taels, and indirect costs amount to hundreds of millions of taels.

Qianlong was the emperor who traveled the most and most frequently in Chinese history. According to statistics, the number of Qianlong's tours is: six times to the south, 52 times to the Rehe Summer Resort, 66 times to visit the East and West Tombs and the Three Tombs outside the Pass, eight times to the east to Mount Tai and Qufu, and 66 times to the Songshan Mountains in Zhongzhou Once, we toured Wutai Mountain six times, and toured Panshan Mountain many times. The total number of patrol activities was more than 150 times, an average of more than two times a year.

Among Qianlong's patrol activities, the southern patrol scene had the greatest and most profound impact. He went south to Jiangsu, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou and other places in Zhejiang six times to conduct inspections. Qianlong himself said in "Records of the Imperial Southern Inspection": "In the fifty years since I came to the throne, I have carried out two major events, one is the Western Division, and the other is the Southern Inspection."

It can be seen from this that Qianlong will The southern tour was another major political achievement in his life besides the use of troops in the northwest. The so-called "Western Division" uses military means to suppress rebel and separatist activities in order to consolidate the border and maintain national unity. The southern tour used gentle methods to eliminate the hostility of Jiangnan scholars and merchants, and achieved the purpose of promoting social development and stability through win-over and favor.

I don’t want to discuss the merits and demerits of Qianlong’s southern tour here. Here I will mainly introduce what preparations the court should make before Qianlong’s southern tour, and how should local officials take over? From these two aspects, we can roughly see the grandeur and expense of Qianlong's southern tour.

Every time Qianlong visited the south, he was accompanied by members of the royal family, princes and ministers, Zhangjing bodyguard officials, soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, etc. Together, these people totaled about 2,500 people. After the date of each southern tour is determined, each department will conduct careful and thorough planning and preparation in the previous year.

As a rule, the year before the southern tour, a prince or prime minister should be appointed to conduct camp affairs, and guides and local officials should be dispatched to conduct detailed surveys of the roads along the way, build bridges and roads, and repair palaces.

All palaces, scenic spots, camp sites, place names, and mileage must be drawn and submitted to Qianlong. In addition, the Military Aircraft Department, the Cabinet and other departments must carefully prepare the southern patrol team. Every time they visit a place, they must submit a map and a list of historical sites, detailing the history, geographical location, humanities and customs, ancient inscriptions, and the dynasty’s history. Deeds and other matters, so that Qianlong could understand the historical evolution, mountains and rivers, and the status and trend of folk customs and education wherever he went.

Qianlong’s Southern Tour also had strict rules in terms of itinerary arrangements. The daily itinerary of the southern patrol team must be based on ancient rituals, that is, "the ancient ones traveled fifty miles auspiciously." The land route can be about fifty or sixty miles per day, and the water route can be eighty or ninety miles. The round trip from the capital to Hangzhou is more than 5,000 miles, and the city is divided into forty stations and thirty palaces. Where there is no palace, yellow cloth cities and yurt tents are built for accommodation.

Whenever they encounter the junction of states and counties during the southern tour, local officials will build wooden arches and write down the names of places on both sides of the junction. All roads passing by are splashed with water and dust, stone bridges and stone roads in Huangpu are paved, and waterway piers are paved with carpets. In addition, although Qianlong's southern tour did not carry out casual tours, music and drums were still played in the morning and evening every day to demonstrate the ceremony.

The emperor’s travel is the No. 1 project in Tianzi, and nothing is more important than the emperor’s personal safety. Before any southern tour, soldiers from the most elite troops of the Eight Banners must be selected as bodyguards. When traveling, Luanyu was surrounded by iron walls and tight security.

Before Qianlong's trip, the Ministry of War and local officials had already led their soldiers to inspect the clear roads on the way. The local police officers were equipped with chains and other restraints to respond to those who had the temerity to ask for an interview, submit poems, etc. Anyone else will be arrested for "colliding with the guard of honor".

If you are traveling by water, in order to avoid the Royal Boat being blocked, grain ships and salt ships are often rushed in advance in the first winter, and when the Royal Boat passes by, all ships will be evacuated in advance.

The southern patrol fleet was huge, with more than a thousand ships connected one behind the other, giving it a royal look. The boats of the imperial ministers, the ministers in charge of the bodyguards, and the guards of the Qianqing Gate sailed in front, followed by the boats of the royal boat, the military aircraft office, the bodyguard office, the cabinet and the Ministry of War officials, and at the end were the accompanying boats such as sedan chairs and musical instruments. In addition, there will be local officials on the shore leading soldiers to walk along the river, ready to be dispatched at any time.

Emperor Qianlong's royal boats were named "Anfu Sail" and "Xiangfeng Boat". These two royal boats required 3,600 trackers, divided into six teams. Along both sides of the river, at all tributaries and bridgehead village entrances, guard stations must be set up and soldiers guarded.

During each southern tour, it is the spring plowing season, and any farming activities such as farming and irrigation along the way are not prohibited. However, when a Luan driver passes by, all men must avoid it, but women can listen.

At the beginning of Qianlong's southern tour, local officials had to put down all government affairs and come to pick him up in court clothes from thirty miles away. As for the prestigious elders and birth supervisors of the people, they must line up in an open place and kneel on the ground to receive the driver. Old men and women over eighty years old must wear yellow silk coats awarded by the government and kneel to receive the driver.

Qianlong’s six southern tours in his life were long, involved, and massive. This will inevitably consume a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, which will put huge pressure on the national treasury and also cause a huge economic burden on local governments.

Although Qianlong said that the Southern Tour was one of the most important achievements in his life, he also knew in his heart that the Southern Tour had a greater negative impact. Fortunately, Qianlong lived in an era when the Qing Dynasty was at its peak. At that time, and after Jiaqing, even if the emperor wanted to tour the south, the country did not have the financial capacity.