Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

This adjustment of the alleys and lanes clearly prioritizes transportation.

To this end, Zhu Youjian opened three new city gates and planned various streets, repeatedly emphasizing to his ministers the need to open up dead-end roads.

The purpose is, of course, to make it easier to get out in the future when something unexpected happens.

He couldn't let the capital city become a big cage and trap himself inside.

(Routes from the Imperial Palace to each gate)
However, such a plan also allows the enemy to access various parts of the capital once they open a city gate.

Chief of Staff Yang Sichang said with some worry:
"Adjusting the streets and alleys in this way will make traveling within the city more convenient, but it will make defense more difficult."

"The guards at each city gate only have one or two thousand regular soldiers, and half of them have to stay in the garrison."

"There are less than a thousand soldiers actually available."

"I am concerned that if there are any gates that allow traitors to enter the city, they will have unimpeded access within the city."

Zhu Youjian frowned, realizing that this was indeed a hidden danger.

He said to Yang Sichang:

"In this case, what methods do you have to alleviate the hidden dangers?"

Yang Sichang tried his best to express:

"I think that in addition to the soldiers guarding the city gate, we should also send some people to guard the nine wards in the middle city."

"This way we can supervise them and continue to increase our forces when the city gates are in danger."

This proposal made Zhu Youjian's eyes light up, and he praised Yang Sichang highly:

"Mr. Yang, this is a very good idea. I am worried that there is one guard in the middle city, which is a bit of a waste of manpower."

"It would be most appropriate to send some of them to assist in the defense of the city gate."

He immediately gave the order:

"The five guards of the imperial army and the four guards of the imperial guards are responsible for the nine districts around the imperial city. Like the nine guards at the city gates, they will recruit military and civilian households and set up one to two thousand soldiers and households to cultivate the land within the third ring road."

"Each guard usually sends 500 to 1,000 soldiers to guard the five gates of the nine quarters of the imperial city, and sends at least 200 soldiers to assist in defending one city gate."

Zhu Youjian planned to arrange these nine guard posts around the imperial city. Before, he thought that it was a bit wasteful to have one guard post for each block, but now that Yang Sichang proposed a strategy of joint defense, he felt that it was extremely appropriate to have one guard post for each block.

It just so happens that each guard can help defend one city gate to prevent the senior guards at a certain city gate from rebelling and secretly opening the city gate.

Hearing the emperor's praise, Yang Sichang tried even harder to show his performance and continued:
"There are also guards at the warehouses in the city. They need to assist in the defense as well."

"Guards must be arranged in Taicang, Xintaicang, Nanxincang, Beixincang, etc."

This is a point that Zhu Youjian overlooked because he was more concerned about the city gate.

However, the importance of various warehouses in the capital is obvious.

However, he did not directly assign a guard to guard each warehouse. Instead, he looked at the Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan and asked him:
"How are the warehouses in the capital arranged now?"

Although the Ministry of Revenue's warehouses had been assigned to the Taifu Temple for exclusive management, Bi Ziyan was still aware of this and immediately replied:

"Each guard in the capital has a warehouse, and each warehouse has granaries and open space."

"Among them, there are 11 guards in the Old Taicang, 8 guards in the Nanxin Warehouse, 6 guards in the Haiyun Warehouse, 7 guards in the New Taicang, 5 guards in the Beixin Warehouse, 4 guards in the Dajun Warehouse, 2 guards in the Jiyang Warehouse, 2 guards in the Lumi Warehouse, 4 guards in the Xixin Warehouse, 1 guard in the Daxing Zuowei Warehouse, and 2 guards in the Taiping Warehouse. There are also four warehouses, namely, the Chang'an Gate Warehouse, the Dong'an Gate Warehouse, the Xi'an Gate Warehouse, and the Bei'an Gate Warehouse. A total of 56 warehouses in Beijing."

"There are also six warehouses in Dayun Central Warehouse, six warehouses in Dayun West Warehouse, and four warehouses in Dayun South Warehouse in Tongzhou, totaling 16 warehouses in Tongzhou."

"These warehouses belong to various guards. Now that the guards in the capital have adjusted their defense areas, I think the granaries and open spaces should be redistributed."

Obviously, he had this plan in mind a long time ago. He took advantage of the adjustment of the garrison to clean out the warehouse and see how much stuff was in the warehouse in the capital.

Zhu Youjian also had the same idea, nodded and said:
"The warehouses should be cleaned up, especially those who have unclear accounts and poor management since the first year of Chongzhen, and those who have been held accountable should be held accountable."

"Because of the accumulated problems over the years, I will not force you to do anything. But the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Censorate need to come up with a plan on how to deal with the offenders and how to supervise them in the future."

"This matter will be handled by Yuan Qing, the Minister of the Imperial Household Department, and the Minister of Logistics. They will formulate a new management system. If anything goes wrong in the future, I will only hold you responsible."

Then he continued:

"The guard work of each warehouse will also be assigned by personnel from each guard."

"The logistics department organized them into a guard team to be responsible for the management of the entire warehouse."

"When the nearby city gates are in danger, the guards of each warehouse have the responsibility to send troops to support them."

"But be careful about the number of people you send out to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the chaos to attack the warehouse."

After making this arrangement, Zhu Youjian looked at Yang Sichang expectantly to see if he had any good ideas.

Yang Sichang had already thought of a solution that he thought was more appropriate, and said:
"I think that the newly opened Donglu Gate, Xilu Gate, and Beilu Gate should not only have city walls built outside the city walls, but also inside the city walls, and the nine guards of the imperial city should be responsible for the defense."

"This way, even if someone secretly opens the city gate, they will be trapped in the city wall after entering the city."

"I think all the city gates should be rebuilt in this way."

This proposal made Zhu Youjian frown, because the construction of the city wall would obviously affect traffic.

He planned the major streets for the convenience of traffic. He couldn't block the city gates and make it more difficult to enter and exit.

Fortunately, at this time, Xu Guangqi proposed a suggestion that solved this problem:
"I think the newly built city wall should be built in the style of a bastion, not just on the four sides." "Each wall can have a gate hole, divided into dedicated lanes and mixed passages, to facilitate the entry and exit of people and vehicles."

"The moat outside the city should also be widened, leaving only a path leading to the city gate. Sharp-angle gun platforms should also be set up around the city to fire at the enemy when they attack."

Abandoning the traditional arrow tower and urn city, it is suggested to build a small fortress.

Zhu Youjian was also very satisfied with the idea of ​​opening more city gates.

So he immediately said:
"The design of the new city gate and the urn city will be of help to you, Mr. Xu."

"It is necessary to ensure defense and also facilitate access during normal times."

"For example, the defensive pressure of the inner city wall is not that great, so we can open eight or ten gates to correspond to the lanes, sidewalks and Shuncheng Street."

Yang Sichang was shocked when he heard this. He was just thinking about why he should build a city wall like this when he heard the emperor say:

"Inside the city walls, as well as at the intersections on both sides of the main street inside the city gate, a fortress should be built at regular intervals to guard the streets."

"These fortresses should be able to fire from high places and block the streets with muskets and cannons."

"We also need to stockpile roadblocks such as chevaux de frise at ordinary times, and place them on the corresponding streets when the city gates are in danger."

"Mr. Xu and Yang Qing also need to carefully consider the location of these forts and how to arrange the guard work."

This was his consistent idea, to not limit defense work to city walls, but to construct fortified areas.

It was the responsibility of Xu Guangqi and others to build these fortresses that were both beautiful and practical.

Yang Sichang was extremely impressed by the emperor's idea of ​​building fortresses on the main street inside the city gate, and believed that these fortresses connected together would form a series of urn cities.

It will be extremely difficult for the enemy to enter the city through the city gates and streets.

To this end, he added:

"I think the height of buildings around the fort should be restricted to reduce the cost of building the fort."

"Especially nearby pagodas and other buildings, they should all be demolished, or they can be used as fortresses."

This made Zhu Youjian nod his head, because when he was planning to build the outer square, he had proposed a height limit to avoid blocking the view of the soldiers on the city wall.

The reason why the glazed tower of Nanjing's Da Baoen Temple was later destroyed was also because of its height, which affected the city's defense.

Considering that buildings will become taller and taller after the advent of cement, he plans to go a step further and set strict standards:

"The height of buildings within the city, or within the Third Ring Road, must not exceed 30 meters."

"Especially buildings within two miles of the city wall must not exceed two meters to avoid affecting the defense of the city wall."

"The height limit for the entire 50-li area around the capital city is 50 meters, to prevent the enemy from setting up cannons on high ground to attack the city when the range of artillery increases in the future."

This standard made all the officials secretly shocked, and they knew that the buildings in the capital would not be taller in the future.

This has little impact on most houses, but it has a big impact on some wealthy families who like to build buildings.

The Privy Councilor Shen Yongmao said:

"What should we do with the existing houses that are more than three meters tall?"

“Are they going to be demolished completely, including the pagodas and palaces?”

Zhu Youjian certainly wouldn't do that, and said:
"There are buildings that exceed the limit. The General Staff, the Five Cities Military Department, and the Guard Department will investigate to see if they affect defense."

"If the impact is not serious, then we will allow it to be retained and collect an excess tax every year in the future."

"Those that are severely affected but can be used as fortresses will also be allowed to be retained. After they are used as fortresses, they will be exempted from excess taxes and soldiers will be sent to station there."

"If it cannot be used as a fortress but seriously affects defense, then it should be demolished and rebuilt, and rectification should be carried out within a time limit."

"From now on, any building in the capital city that is over three meters high will have to be approved by the Industry and Commerce Department of the district where it is located and the Five Cities Military Department. Construction can only be carried out after obtaining approval documents and paying the thirty-year over-limit tax in one go."

"The city inspectors usually conduct inspections, and the General Staff will conduct inspections every five or ten years to see if there is any impact on defense."

"All cities should do the same, with height restrictions within the city and within ten miles outside the city walls."

"Especially buildings that are over 30 meters and close to the height of the Imperial Palace, except for defensive fortifications, must all be approved by the Imperial Ministry of Works and pay a super over-limit tax."

"These include bell towers that will be built in various places in the future, as well as Buddhist and Taoist temples and palaces."

This was done by Zhu Youjian to prevent other places from following suit and building new bell towers after the new one in the capital.

The approval authority for buildings over 930 meters was given to the Ministry of Works of the imperial court.

Without the approval of the Ministry of Works, even if such buildings are built, the excess parts will have to be cut off.

Even if cement construction technology developed in the future, the buildings in the Ming Dynasty had to be kept below five or ten stories high to avoid having too many high-rise buildings, which would make maintenance difficult in the future.

It can also prevent the construction of large-scale temples and palaces in various places after the economy develops in the future.

To this end, Zhu Youjian stipulated that the approval of temples and Taoist temples must be strict, especially in areas where there are already many temples and Taoist temples.

If the land area exceeds the limit, property tax must be paid. Buildings over 100 mu must be approved by the Ministry of Industry. (End of this chapter)