I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 392 The Crown Prince Returns

...

September, the nineteenth year of the Hongwu reign.

After personally presiding over the provincial examination in Kaijing, Crown Prince Zhao Shou returned to Bianliang (Kaifeng) in the eastern capital, following the decree of his father, Emperor Zhao Yu.

Zhao Shou did not choose to return to Bianliang (Kaifeng) by sea, but instead chose to travel by land.

He wanted to take a good look at the landscape of the Song Dynasty along the way, because after returning to Bianliang (Kaifeng), the capital of the Song Dynasty, he might not be able to come out again for many years.

Zhao Shou and his party first traveled along the post road in Jibei, stopping frequently, traversing the entire Jibei region, and then crossed the Yalu River by small boat, arriving in Liaoning Province.

After careful comparison, Zhao Shou found that Liaoning, which is closer to the Central Plains, was significantly faster in post-war reconstruction, especially Dalian, which has a seaport and railway access and is already on par with other port cities.

Back when Zhao Shou first arrived at Liaoning Road, the barren coastline of Dalian Bay was dotted with only a dozen or so small, leaky fishing boats leaning precariously on the frozen mudflats. The planks were cracked with gaps the width of a finger, haphazardly stuffed with straw and rags. The fishing villages along the coast were even worse; the low thatched huts were so shabby that even the chimneys looked dilapidated. Many roofs were missing corners and could only be barely propped up with branches, with bits of straw falling down with every gust of wind.

Back then, there were no trains roaring through the city. The only "official road" that could be used by carriages and horses was actually a compacted frozen road. As soon as spring came and the ground thawed, the road surface turned into a muddy mess, and the wheels would get stuck, requiring four or five people to push it to move it.

At that time, the mud walls of the place where he lived were pitted and uneven from the rain, the well in the yard had cracks, and the water drawn up had a muddy smell.

This is already the best place to live near Dalian. Further east, some villages don't even have proper houses, and the people can only dig dug dug-down caves in the mountains to keep warm.

As for the warehouses and shops that are now commonly seen at the docks, there were none back then. There were only a few peddlers carrying loads of goods, going from street to street selling needles and thread, and the goods on their loads were not worth more than a few strings of cash.

"Your Highness?"

Yang Yizhong's call pulled Zhao Shou's thoughts back to the present. He looked at the train roaring past in the distance, its carriages printed with the words "Dalian-Bianliang," and then turned to look at the bustling dock. He suddenly felt that the changes in these few short years might be greater than those in the previous hundreds of years.

Zhao Shou did not take the train from Dalian to Bianliang, but continued south along the official road.

During this process, Zhao Shou met with Liu Fa, Song Jiang, Zhong Shidao, Chen Gou, Li Gang, Zhao Ding, Li Guang and others, and listened attentively to their views on the current war, the current state of the Song Dynasty and its future policies.

After that, Zhao Shou began to travel south along the Liaoxi Corridor.

When Zhao Shou led his officials from the Eastern Palace and his personal guards to Jinzhouwei, dusk had already fallen over the mountain ridges of the Liaoxi Corridor. He reined in his horses, his gaze passing over the rows of rammed earth city walls and settling on the distant, undulating beacon towers.

This is the "Liaoxi Three Defense Lines" built by the Song Dynasty over five years. This defense line extends from Pingluanying Prefecture to Jinzhou, Ningyuan, and Shanhaiguan, like an iron chain that firmly locks the passage between the northern grasslands and the Liaodong Plain.

This defensive line is not simply a patchwork of city walls, but a four-in-one defense system of "city-fortress-beacon tower-road".

Its outermost layer consists of beacon towers scattered along the mountain ridges on both sides of the corridor, with one tower every ten miles. The towers are made of rammed earth and covered with blue bricks. The tops are equipped with watchtowers and fire pits. Once the movement of the northern cavalry is detected, smoke is lit during the day and fire is lit at night, and the message can be transmitted to the central government in a very short time.

Below the beacon towers were clusters of fortified villages built along the official road. Each fortified village had a circumference of three li, walls that were two zhang high and the base of the walls were one and a half zhang thick. Inside were archer camps and granaries, which could garrison a hundred soldiers for defense and also shelter nearby civilians for refuge.

The core of the defense line was the "five-city linkage" consisting of the three major cities of Pingzhou, Luanzhou, and Yingzhou, and the two garrison cities of Jinzhou and Ningyuan.

Pingzhou City guards the western entrance of the Liaoxi Corridor. The outer side of the city wall is reinforced with three layers of barricades. Each barricade is equipped with two eight-ox crossbows and one Li Lin cannon. The moat is three zhang wide and two zhang deep, and the bottom of the moat is densely covered with sharp wooden stakes.

Yingzhou City controlled the eastern end of the corridor. The city had a naval dock that could accommodate twenty small warships, serving both land and river defense purposes.

Luanzhou City is situated in the "waist and belly" of the Liaoxi Corridor, bordering the Jizhou Plain to the west and the Jinzhou Mountains to the east, with the flat river valley formed by the Luan River at its foot. This is the "transfer station" of this defensive line. If Pingzhou is attacked, supplies can be sent down the Luan River from Jizhou; if Jinzhou is in danger, cavalry can rush along the official road and arrive in a day.

Jinzhouwei is like an iron lock that chokes the "throat" of the eastern section of the Liaoxi Corridor—its south side is the shallow waters of the Bohai Bay, its north side is the foothills of the Songling Mountains, and the only passage passes through the foot of the garrison city.

Ningyuanwei served as the "vanguard" to the east of Jinzhouwei. Backed by Shoushan Mountain and facing the Bohai Sea, it was only sixty li away from Jinzhouwei, precisely positioned at the "threshold" between the Liaodong Plain and the Liaoxi Corridor.

As for Shanhaiguan (then called Yuguan), it was the westernmost "gateway key" of this defense line. It was located at the intersection of the Yanshan Mountains and the Bohai Bay, connecting the Liaoxi Corridor to the east and the North China Plain to the west. This formidable pass completely blocked the gap between the mountains and the sea.

The five cities were connected to Shanhaiguan by a two-zhang-wide "official road and horse road running parallel". The horse road was paved with gravel to allow cavalry to quickly provide support. A water station and post station were set up every fifty li along the official road to ensure the transportation of grain and fodder.

This defensive line was set up by Li Lin in imitation of the Guan-Ning-Jin defensive line of the Ming Dynasty, just in case.

In the event that the Song Dynasty is defeated by the Jin Dynasty, or if nomadic or hunting tribes invade from the south, the Song Dynasty can rely on this defensive line to resist and protect its soldiers and civilians from disturbance.

In addition to its strategic importance, this defensive line also contained many ingenious designs. For example, the beacon tower relay system between the cities was not a simple linear connection, but rather formed a complex network structure. Even if one beacon tower was destroyed by the enemy, the message could still be quickly transmitted through other routes, ensuring that the court could keep abreast of the enemy's situation.

Furthermore, hidden passageways were constructed within the "fortified village complex." These passageways were buried deep underground, their entrances extremely concealed, their exact locations known only to generals and important officials. If a fortified village was surrounded by enemy forces, the defenders could use these passageways to contact neighboring villages, providing mutual support and even, if necessary, escaping to safety. While the passageways themselves were not spacious, they were large enough to accommodate dozens of people moving quickly, and were equipped with ventilation shafts and storage areas at intervals, stocked with dry rations, water, and simple weapons for emergencies. It's no wonder the Song Dynasty took such meticulous care in building this defensive line; indeed,
Firstly, the nomadic and hunting peoples outside the Great Wall truly love to raid southwards. This is not only because they have the nature of bandits, but also because if they do not raid southwards, they may lose up to 90% of their population in the face of harsh winters or other natural disasters. Therefore, they are bound to raid southwards. As such, the Song Dynasty must prevent this from happening.
Secondly, with the Song Dynasty planning to move its capital from Tokyo to Beijing, the Guan-Ning-Jin defense line became the first vital line of defense protecting the new capital. If this line were lost, northern nomadic and hunting tribes could advance along the Liaoxi Corridor directly to Beijing, jeopardizing the new capital and potentially leading to the downfall of the Song Dynasty. Therefore, this defense line was not only a military barrier but also crucial to the fate of the Song Dynasty, allowing no room for negligence.

It was precisely because Zhao Shou was aware of these things that he came to personally inspect the Guan-Ning-Jin defense line.

After personally inspecting every defensive facility along the Guan-Ning-Jin defense line, Zhao Shou then headed to Beijing.

After its reconstruction, the new Beijing is no longer just a royal capital, but a "triple city" that combines military defense, canal transport hub and industrial vitality. Its layout not only inherits the magnificent framework of the original Yanjing city, but also expands outward by more than ten times, and adds a new atmosphere of roaring machinery.

The outer city was the first line of defense for Beijing, extending along the old course of the Yongding River and the Chaobai River, with a circumference of over 100 li. The city wall was built using a new method of "rammed earth encasing bricks + steel reinforcement grouting". The base was 35 feet wide, the top was still 22 feet wide, and the height exceeded 40 feet - nearly 10 feet higher than the outer city of Bianjing, the old capital of the Song Dynasty.

The outer city had ten gates. Among them, Guangqumen and Dongbianmen guarded the Grand Canal wharf in the direction of Tongzhou. The gates were equipped with railway tracks that directly connected the wharf cargo yard with the main residential area in the city. Yongdingmen faced the official road and railway station to the south. Two cast iron watchtowers were installed above the gate. The towers were equipped with telescopes that could observe objects hundreds of miles away. The base of the towers concealed gun positions and ten heavy Li Lin cannons, which could provide overwhelming firepower to any enemy.

Passing through the outer city leads to the inner city, which is also the defensive core of Beijing.

Although the inner city wall was slightly shorter than the outer city wall (35 feet high), it was thicker and 40 feet wide at the base. Every five li along the wall, there was a "horse-faced enemy platform". The enemy platform not only had traditional arrow slits, but also round cannon holes, and was equipped with medium-sized Li Lin cannons that could rotate 360 ​​degrees. It could provide fire coverage for the attacking enemy and also form crossfire.

Of the nine gates of the inner city, "Zhengyang Gate" is the most magnificent. The gate is divided into three sections: the middle section is for the passage of royal ceremonies and trains (the railway runs across the city gate, connecting the East Station of the Inner City and the Western Garden Palace), while the two sides are for the passage of carriages and people. The three characters "Zhengyang Gate" on the gate were personally inscribed by Zhao Yu, and the gilded bronze characters shine brightly in the sunlight.

Wangfujing Street in the inner city had replaced Zhouqiao Night Market in Tokyo as the new wealth core of the Song Dynasty. The shops on both sides of the street were mostly two-story brick and wood structures. The ground floor sold silk, porcelain, and Western clocks, while the upper floors housed the offices of money shops and various financial institutions. The red brick buildings of the "Great Song Money Shop" and the "Royal Money Shop" were particularly eye-catching. In the square in front of the buildings stood a cast-iron flagpole, with a huge wooden sign hanging below the yellow dragon flag at its top, displaying the gold-silver exchange rate for the day in black paint.

The innermost imperial city and palace city were symbols of the Song Dynasty's imperial power.

The imperial city wall was 25 feet high. Although it was not as thick as the outer city wall, it had an electrified barbed wire mesh installed on top. The corner towers at the four corners were made of reinforced concrete and had signal rooms inside, which could be linked with the cannon positions and beacon towers of the inner and outer cities via wires.

The palace was ahead of its time by nearly a thousand years in the use of electric lighting.

The vermilion walls and yellow tiles of the Forbidden City have begun to take shape. Although the Xihua Gate on the west side and the Shenwu Gate in the north are still surrounded by scaffolding, just looking at the completed core area is enough to make Zhao Shou, who has lived in the imperial palace of Bianliang City in Tokyo since childhood, secretly marvel.

The Meridian Gate's U-shaped gate tower is now fully completed. The tower is over three zhang tall, and the yellow glazed tiles covering the roof are made with a special formula from the official kilns in Jiangnan. The glaze is richer and more profound than that of the tiles in the Tokyo Palace, and it gleams like honey in the sunlight.

Passing through the Meridian Gate, one arrives at the newly renovated Taihe Hall Square. The square is paved with bluestone slabs from Fangshan, each slab meticulously polished by steam-powered machinery, resulting in a seamless fit that prevents water accumulation even in rainy weather. The foundation of the Taihe Hall is three feet higher than that of the Daqing Hall in Tokyo, and the dragon patterns carved on the three-tiered white marble balustrade appear even more powerful. The twelve golden pillars inside the hall are not traditional wooden pillars, but rather reinforced concrete pillars with a gilded outer layer. The pillars are entwined with gilded bronze dragon patterns, preserving imperial majesty while being more resistant to insects and fire than wooden pillars.

Standing atop the Wanchun Pavilion in Jingshan Park and overlooking the entire city of Beijing, one can clearly see the city's "central layout": the yellow tiles of the Forbidden City shine brightly in the center, surrounded by layers of red walls and gray tiles of shops in the inner city, while the railway station in the outer city echoes the canal boats on the Grand Canal, and the beacon towers in the direction of Shanhaiguan appear and disappear in the distance.

A gentle breeze carries the scents of sandalwood from the palace, as well as the smoke from trains and the exhaust fumes from cars and farm vehicles.

Throughout the city, one could see people of all skin colors and appearances. Arab merchants, wearing turbans, were haggling with silk shop owners in broken Chinese, while their camel caravans unloaded chests full of spices and glass at street corners. Indian merchants, wrapped in saris, surrounded money shops, arguing endlessly about the gold and silver price comparisons on wooden signs, their jeweled necklaces swaying gently with their movements. Western merchants with blond hair and blue eyes preferred to gather near the train station, wearing belted woolen coats, clutching shipping manifests covered in Chinese characters, and occasionally asking passing porters about the latest canal transport schedules.

In teahouses, Song Dynasty scholars and Arab scholars sat side by side at a table, discussing astronomy and calendar over a cup of hot tea; in the market, the dance steps of Hu women intertwined with the folk songs of Bianliang, attracting passersby to stop and watch; even street vendors selling sugar paintings had learned to use simple Persian to attract foreign customers.

This place has become a metropolis where all nations converge, a window for the Song Dynasty to open to the world, and a new world economic, political, and cultural center.

The sounds of conversations in different languages, the styles of clothing, and the flavors of food blended together here, and even the air was filled with a vibrant and inclusive energy, allowing Zhao Shoudu to truly feel the prosperity of the Song Dynasty and its connection with the world.

After inspecting the construction progress of the Forbidden City and discussing related matters with Li Jie and other supervisors, Zhao Shou left Beijing and continued south.

Twenty-odd days later, Zhao Shou arrived at Mount Tai.

Speaking of which, many people had suggested that his father, the emperor, come to Mount Tai to perform the Fengshan ceremony, but his father refused each time. On one occasion, his father even showed a look of disgust.

Many people are puzzled by this. They can't understand why Zhao Yu, with his civil and military achievements, didn't perform the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai, or even disliked doing so.
Zhao Shou didn't dwell on the matter too much. After arriving at Mount Tai, he climbed it without hesitation and composed a poem:
Climb to the top of Yue Mountain and see Kyushu,

The long river, like a ribbon, runs through the barren hills.

The smoke of war has faded and the city walls remain strong.
The railway tracks crisscross the area, attracting numerous merchants and travelers.

Father Emperor's ambition was to surpass the Qin and Han dynasties.
Expanding territory and restoring the old land.

I have always cherished the idea of ​​preserving the status quo.
I wish to protect our nation with benevolent governance.

……

(End of this chapter)