Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The reason why Zhu Youjian established the Military Guard was naturally to facilitate local cooperation.

Avoid conflicts between civil and military officials after the separation of the Five Cities Military and Military Division and the Three Cities District.

At the same time, he also wanted to use civil officials to supervise military officials and nobles. After all, he was a little worried about simply letting nobles guard the city gates.

Furthermore, he continued:
"The defense of each gate of the five cities must be confirmed by the internal officials of the nine gates."

"For all matters concerning the city gates, the commander of the Five Cities Military Department and the Five Cities Guard Commander must confirm with the gatekeepers."

It can be said that all aspects have been taken into consideration, so that civil officials, military officers, and eunuchs cannot mess around at the city gate.

When the ministers and nobles heard this, they did not raise any objections.

Because the affairs of the city gates were previously managed by the Nine Gates Internal Officials and the Five Cities Military Officers.

Now that the emperor has assigned the Wucheng Bingmasi to the Five Military Commandery, the nobles should be secretly happy about it. Why would they raise any objections?
This is even more true for civil officials. After the Five Cities Guards were established under the mediation of the emperor, they were also able to intervene in the affairs of the city gates. In particular, the officials of the Five Cities Military Command would be concurrently held by officials of the Five Military Commands. This meant that they had control over some people in the Five Military Commands, and with the cooperation of the Guards Commanders of the Five Military Camps, they would sooner or later be able to infiltrate the Guards system.

It can be said that after this adjustment, both the civil servants and the nobles were happy.

Although the Wucheng Bingmasi had a few more mothers-in-law above it, its rank was upgraded from a sixth-rank yamen to a second-rank yamen.

The only one who suffered was the Inspector-General of the Nine Gates, who went from having the final say to having to consult with civil and military officials.

However, Zhu Youjian did not need to discuss this with them separately.

He has complete control over the powers of these eunuchs.

Moreover, the management of the various gates in the capital city was not very good under the management of these eunuchs.

Zhu Youjian had no intention of using them to collect city gate taxes, so he simply reduced their power.

To prevent the Nine Gates Neiguan from becoming the Nine Gates Admiral in the future and becoming more and more powerful.

After using the power of the inner officials to make concessions, Zhu Youjian's demands naturally followed. He ordered people to take out the map of the capital city drawn by the Weiwei Temple and said to Chen Qiyu, the Minister of the Imperial Household:
"I asked the Ministry of Works and the Imperial Household Department to renovate the streets of the capital. Have you made a plan?"

"There is also a newly opened city gate. Has the location been determined?"

Chen Qiuyu happened to have discussed with Zhang Wenyu, the right vice minister of the Ministry of Industry, a few days ago to determine issues such as the stations and routes of the Beijing-Tianjin Railway.

Upon hearing this, he immediately replied:

"Minister Zhang and I have tentatively agreed to open a gate each on the north, east, and west sides of the capital."

"The northern city gate is just north of the bell and drum towers, making it convenient for the Beijing-Western Railway to be extended in."

"Minister Zhang plans to build a bell and drum tower market while building the new bell tower, modeled after the Yuan Dynasty. This will make it convenient for people to visit the new bell tower and buy clocks, astronomical charts and other items."

This idea was actually proposed by Zhu Youjian. He asked Zhang Wenyu and others to plan new streets, and of course did not forget to build several commercial centers.

The famous Wangfujing in Beijing in later generations is now the residence of princes and nobles, so it is certainly impossible to build a market.

So he chose Dengshi as the commercial district of East City, moved the Rong government away, and built a department store.

The Bell and Drum Tower Market is the North City Market he planned, which was built when the surrounding buildings were demolished during the construction of the new bell tower.

Pointing to the map of the capital's streets, Chen Qiyu said:
"When the Yuan Dynasty built Dadu, it was determined that the main street was 24 steps wide and the small street was 12 steps wide."

"According to the new system, the width of the street is 12 zhang, or 40 meters."

"It's just that the length of the Qianyuan step is slightly shorter than the new system. It's actually only about 37 meters wide."

"This time, we are going to rebuild the bell and drum tower area according to the new regulations of 40 meters, from Bei'an Gate to Xincheng Gate, as the North Street of the capital."

Zhu Youjian approved of this plan.

However, Li Banghua, the Imperial Guardsman of the Beijing Camp, frowned and said:

"Your Majesty, if you open a new gate in the capital, you must assign people to guard it."

"That would put more pressure on defense and require more troops."

"I think the current nine inner and seventy-six outer city gates are just right, and there is no need to open new gates."

Many of the ministers also agreed with him.

These people don't want to build anything, or even make any changes.

However, the Privy Council was established by Zhu Youjian to reform the court system. They naturally had no position to oppose the reform and were easily defeated by Zhu Youjian:

"How can we build a new clock tower if we don't open the city gates?"

"How can the people living near the bell and drum tower be willing to move out of the city?"

"If you can solve this problem, you don't have to open the city gates!"

How do they solve this?

Who would want to go outside the city when they can live in it?

The city is protected by city walls, so there is no need to worry about danger even if a war breaks out.

It’s a different situation outside the city. Once a war breaks out, the houses may need to be demolished.

If we don’t have time to retreat to the city, we might even lose our lives.

Therefore, if the conditions permit, people in the city would absolutely not want to go out of the city.

Even in the South City, there are a lot of wastelands. In the name of the people in the capital, South City is still the outer city.

As the host of this matter, Chen Qiyu put forward a series of reasons and explained them carefully to the ministers in Wuying Hall:

"The new city gate not only facilitates travel within and outside the city, but also relocates some people who wish to go outside the city."

“It will also make it convenient for people from outside the city to shop at the Bell and Drum Tower Market when they come to the new Bell Tower School.”

“The railway connecting the various royal palaces and the university town will also pass through the new clock tower and be built directly into the city.”

This is the most convincing point.

As the royal palaces and university towns are growing larger and larger, many dignitaries and parents of students have requested that connecting roads be built to facilitate travel between the capital and the two places.

The nobles all agreed with this idea, thinking that they could take a horse-drawn tram directly from the Bell and Drum Tower to the mansions of the various princes in the future.

After thinking about those students, the other ministers were reluctant to raise any objections.

Some of their relatives' children are studying in schools, and those energetic students are now the main contributors to newspapers and magazines in the capital.

No one wanted to offend these people and their parents, so it was difficult to oppose the proposal to open a new city gate.

After convincing them, Chen Qiyu pointed to the map of the Beijing city and said:
“The Bell and Drum Tower will become a transportation center.”

"Build a tram station and travel to various parts of the capital via the railway on the street."

“To the south, it can connect to the Bei’an Gate in the north of the Imperial City, and to the north, it can connect to the newly opened city gate.”

“It connects to Deshengmen via Xiejie to the west and Dongzhimen via Shuntianfu Street and Dongzhimen Street to the east.”

"This street can also connect to Andingmen in the north and Chongwenmen in the south."

"It can be said that from here, the Bell and Drum Tower can lead to all parts of East City."

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly, very satisfied that Chen Qiyu could understand the concept of transportation center.

What made him even more satisfied was that in the future he could go out directly from the Bei'an Gate of the Imperial City through the Xincheng Gate.

That way, it would be more convenient for him to go to the palaces of the kings in the future, and he could also take the tram. If he encountered an emergency in the capital and needed to leave the city, he could also get out quickly through here.

So, he said to Chen Qiyu:

“Forty meters may seem enough, but it is actually a little insufficient.”

"The railroad tracks for horse-drawn carriages take up at least four meters of space, and the double track takes up eight meters."

"If you consider the safety space, it's best to leave six to eight meters outward from the middle of the track."

"What I mean is that if the street is built with six lanes, the tracks for the horse-drawn carriages should be placed on the second and fifth lanes."

Chen Qiyu calculated and said in confusion:

"Each lane takes up four meters of space, so six lanes only need 24 meters of space."

"The street is 40 meters wide, which is enough for paving."

"Even if someone is occupying the road, we can ask them to vacate it. We need to leave at least 37 meters of street width, and there will be 13 meters left after the 24-meter lane."

If there were only lanes on the road, this would indeed be possible, but Zhu Youjian thought about the planning for future generations and said:

"In the middle of the street, a four to six-meter dividing strip needs to be built, with low-lying flowers, plants and trees planted inside."

"All pedestrians and vehicles must walk on the right side of the dividing strip. Only in the gap left can you turn left and go back on the left side of the road."

“To prevent some people from making sudden U-turns while moving forward and causing traffic chaos.”

"Its exact width and the distance between openings require experiments by people from the Road Research Institute."

This was the requirement put forward by Zhu Youjian based on the streets of later generations.

In later times, almost all wide streets would have dividers, especially on highways, where this was a must.

Although the vehicles were not moving very fast and turning around in the middle would not cause much danger, the traffic congestion was obvious, so he ordered the establishment of a dividing strip on the street.

Chen Qiyu didn't quite understand it at first, but after the emperor explained it in detail, he gradually realized the beauty of it and said:

“That will really make the road smoother.”

"But after subtracting six metres, there is still a surplus of seven metres on the street."

In his opinion, this width is sufficient for pedestrians.

Even because the separation between pedestrians and vehicles is not obvious on the streets of Beijing now, some pedestrians will even go on the road, so there is no need to reserve too many dedicated sidewalks.

But in Zhu Youjian's opinion, seven meters was far from enough. If it was divided into two sides, each side would only be three and a half meters.

This width is a bit narrow not only for a main street, but even for the sidewalks on the side streets.

Considering future needs, Zhu Youjian said:
"Street trees should be planted between the driveway and the sidewalk to separate vehicles and pedestrians."

"There are also streets above where we will have to dig sewers and lay water pipes."

“The sidewalk on each side of the main road should not be less than six meters, so the street width needs to be 42 meters.”

“If we also set up a dedicated lane for rickshaws, it would need to be 50 meters wide.”

This is probably the width of the streets in Beijing in later times. The width of the main road in Xicheng District in later times reached 44.27 meters. The width of Chang'an Avenue was 50 to 120 meters.

Considering the need to reserve space for future development, such as rickshaw lanes or bicycle lanes, erecting electric poles or laying cables, Zhu Youjian required that the width of the new street be at least fifty meters.

In the future, all reconstruction of street-facing buildings in Beijing must comply with this standard.

For areas that have not been renovated, the requirement is only 37 meters. The sidewalks and rickshaw lanes will be left slightly narrower and will be expanded when the street-facing buildings are renovated.

Hearing that the width of all streets in the capital would not be changed immediately, Chen Qiyu felt relieved and said:

"I will discuss with the officials of the Ministry of Works and determine that the width of the new street will be fifty meters."

"The small streets used to be twelve steps, and the alleys used to be six steps. How many meters are the new standards set at?"

Zhu Youjian estimated it and said:
"There is no need for a dividing strip in the middle of the small street for the time being. Four lanes will suffice, plus a six-meter mixed lane for pedestrians and rickshaws on each side, with a width of 28 meters."

“The existing twelve-step, approximately twenty-meter-wide side street will continue to be used, with only two dedicated lanes in the middle and six-meter-wide mixed passages on both sides.”

"The width of the hutong is actually only nine meters, and many places have been occupied. After the two lanes were divided, there is no room for a dedicated sidewalk, and it is also inconvenient to build a sewer."

"When we renovate in the future, if conditions permit, we will widen it to 16 meters, with two lanes and a mixed channel of four meters on each side."

"Those that meet this standard are called small alleys, while those that do not meet this standard are called fire alleys, or hutongs."

"The minimum width of the fire lane is six steps, which is 30 meters. It should allow two large vehicles to pass through, and pedestrians and vehicles to pass together."

"Formal streets and lanes will all meet this standard in the future. Narrower lanes and roads between private houses will also need to be regulated to minimize dead-end roads and other inconvenient roads."

As he spoke, he also said to Chen Qiyu:

"I asked you to set the standards for highways at all levels. Have you finalized them?"

“What are the requirements for first, second, third and fourth level roads?”

When Chen Qiyu heard the emperor ask this, he became excited and said to the emperor:
"The first-class highway has four lanes. The road width we set earlier is 20 meters, with two meters of sidewalks reserved on each side."

"Now that Your Majesty has proposed a median strip, I think some first-class highways should also have one, and the width can be increased to 24 meters."

“If a four-meter-wide sidewalk is reserved for pedestrians, the width can be set at 28 meters, like the side streets in the city.”

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly and said in agreement:

"There is a lack of roads now, and there should be a lot of pedestrians using them, so their needs should be considered."

"The width of a first-class highway is set at 28 meters."

“If it’s a toll road, it can be built as a closed road.”

In later times, many roads did not allow people from both sides to enter at will. But now it is not allowed.

First, the post road must allow people to pass, and second, closing the road would cost a very high cost.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian only allowed toll roads to be closed, and other roads to be open.

At the same time, he also determined the level above the first-class highway, imitating the highways of later generations:

“Above the first-class highway, there are special-class highways with six or eight lanes.”

"Based on the width of the main street, it can be set at fifty meters or even wider."

"For example, the Beijing-Tianjin Highway has an increasing number of vehicles. If conditions permit, it will be expanded to eight lanes in the future, or even closed to only vehicles."

Chen Qiyu hurriedly wrote it down and said:

"The secondary road is a two-lane road. I intend to set the width to 16 meters, similar to the width of the alley. Only vehicles are allowed to pass through the two middle lanes, and pedestrians and vehicles are allowed to pass through the two sides."

"The reconstruction of post roads in plain areas will mainly be based on the standards of second-class highways. First-class highways will be built where conditions permit, and special-class highways will be built in particularly busy areas."

"Third-level highways are also two-lane roads, but with lower standards. Pedestrians are allowed on the lanes, which are set at 10 meters, similar to the width of the alleys."

"The reconstruction of post roads in mountainous areas is mainly based on the standards of Class III highways, and even downgraded to Class IV highways in some places."

"Class IV roads are single lanes and only require a width of more than four meters to accommodate large vehicles."

"Every village in Zhuolu District has access to roads, and this is the standard." (End of this chapter)