high official

Chapter 625 Beijing Beijing
The unexpected contraction of Wang Xian's party made Ji Gang and Han Wang's party who were full of revenge come to nothing, and it also made people who were worried that the tense situation would continue to escalate out of control feel a little more relaxed.

However, the fierce struggle has never eased. It has only temporarily turned from an open struggle to a secret one, and the focus of the struggle has shifted from Nanjing to Beijing...

In June, the Beijing city is scorching hot and the loess is all over the sky.This second capital city of the Ming Dynasty is now under construction everywhere. Millions of peasants and prisoners are sweating profusely under the scorching sun, like groups of hardworking worker ants, building this new city of the Ming Dynasty, which is much larger than the capital. .

In fact, Emperor Yongle has always attached great importance to the construction of this "Land of Dragon Xing" since he succeeded to the throne.In the first year of Yongle, following Emperor Taizu's approach to Fengyang, Beiping was established as Beijing, and Beiping Mansion was changed to Shuntian Mansion, and all officials were at the same level as the capital.At the same time, rich households in the south of the Yangtze River, businessmen from Shanxi and refugees from various places began to be moved here to enrich the imperial capital.

In the fourth year of Yongle, Zhu Di issued an edict to recruit 60 civil servants to build the Beijing imperial palace and city walls. In the seventh year, he built the Changling Mausoleum in Changping, near Beijing.Building his eternal resting place in Beijing instead of Nanjing has clearly revealed the emperor's mind to his subjects-he has made up his mind to move the capital!
In the eighth year of Yongle, Zhu Di ordered a meeting to open the river, re-dred the Grand Canal, and open up the north-south water transport. This year, this huge project that used millions of people was finally basically completed. From then on, the massive materials needed for the construction of Beijing can be relatively economical It is conveniently transported from all over the country to Tongzhou, which greatly speeds up the construction projects in Beijing.

So far, the square outer city wall with a circumference of 45 miles has been basically completed, and the rest is to build the magnificent city gate.The straight and wide stone streets that can accommodate eight cars in parallel have long been put into use, and the construction of the palaces and government offices in various places in the capital is also in its infancy, and will soon enter the stage of fine carpentry.Only the construction project of the Forbidden City, which is the most important part of Beijing city construction, has almost returned to the original point.

Of course, this is not because the officials in charge of the construction deliberately neglected it, even if they borrowed a hundred of their guts, they would not dare to offend the moody Emperor Yongle. In fact, the Forbidden City project enjoys absolute priority in terms of manpower and material resources. There is only one reason for the current predicament, and that is that Emperor Yongle is too demanding!
Compared with the hasty construction of the Jinling Imperial Capital at the beginning of the country, Zhu Di has always had only one requirement for the construction of Beijing City, that is, to strive for perfection, there is no best, only better!Every piece of blue brick and every piece of Zhuwa fired for the city of Beijing has the name of the kiln and the year of production on the side or back. Conduct a retrospective investigation, as long as the verification is clear, the lighter will be punished heavily, and the more serious will be beheaded!
Not only are the requirements for materials very stringent, but all the construction processes adopt a strict "continuous inspection layer by layer" system for construction. Craftsmen who implement the next project are required to strictly inspect the previous process. If you are qualified, you can refuse the construction. If there is a problem and you don’t find it, or you still continue the construction even though you know there is a problem.

The supervisor in charge is a joint supervision team composed of the emperor's most trusted eunuchs, princes, and civil officials. These officials in charge of supervision patrol the construction site with a sledgehammer all day long, and from time to time they swing the sledgehammer to hit things here and there. With one hammer, it goes without saying that the project that was directly smashed, even if it was not smashed, they can also judge which section of the city wall cut corners and which section of the city wall was not built according to the requirements through the sound of the hammer.The person who is found responsible for the problem often has only one ending, that is, beheaded and ransacked...

Moreover, these supervisory officials are extremely serious and responsible, and there is absolutely no possibility of being bribed, because they know how much His Majesty the Emperor cares about the construction of Beijing City. In fact, one of the important reasons for Emperor Yongle to visit Beijing this time is to personally Oversee the construction of Beijing City.Since Shengjia arrived in Beijing in mid-May, the emperor, who was over fifty years old, immediately inspected the construction work of the capital without taking a rest.

His inspection method is simple and crude, but extremely effective - the emperor will randomly select a location and order people to break open the repaired project to check whether there is any cut corners.For example, when inspecting the city wall, he had people break open the mortar for inspection, and found that the mortar was "slightly mixed with mud" and "gap exceeded", and then more than ten craftsmen and foremen in charge of this place were beheaded on the spot.The next day, several supervisory officials who supervised the project here were severely punished, including the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, the Minister of Construction and Repairs, and other directly responsible persons.

Therefore, everyone responsible for the construction of the Beijing city is trembling and treading on thin ice, and they all use the highest level to build this ideal city for the emperor.But even this level of effort still couldn't satisfy Emperor Yongle—especially the Forbidden City!After inspecting the three major halls that were about to be completed, Zhu Di came back with a dark face. The next day, the emperor summoned a group of ministers and construction officials to the West Palace to discuss matters.

The so-called West Palace is the original Royal West Garden of the Yuan Dynasty.It turned out that when Zhu Di visited Beijing, he always lived in his hidden residence.However, Yanwang Mansion was built on the basis of the Yuan Dadu Imperial Palace, located in the core of the capital.In order to build a new Forbidden City, Yanwang Mansion had to be demolished.But he couldn't have no place to live during his northern tour, so he ordered the Ministry of Industry to build the West Palace in Xiyuan, as the place where Wang Chao lived before the Forbidden City was completed.

Although it is only a temporary residence, but with Zhu Di's temperament of being overjoyed, it is natural that he will not be sloppy at all.Therefore, the West Palace is also built according to the regulations of the imperial palace, and the main hall is also called Fengtian Hall, which is exactly the same as the main hall of the imperial palace in the capital!
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At this time, in addition to the officials in charge of building the city of Beijing, there were Zhu Yong, Duke of Cheng, Xue Lu, Marquis of Yangwu, Xia Yuanji, chief minister of Xing Zai Li, Hu, and Bing, and Yang Rong, a cabinet bachelor. The son looked at the emperor eagerly, and when he spoke his will, he was ready to overcome all difficulties to complete it... With such a master, what else can he do besides being cruel to himself?
But when Zhu Di said his plan, all the ministers almost fainted, shouting the same sentence in their hearts - Your Majesty, I can't do it as a minister...

Because Zhu Di's decision was to tear down the three main halls and rebuild them!And not only the three main halls, but also the main buildings such as Qianqing Palace, Kunning Palace, Wenhua Palace, etc., have to be demolished and restarted!The reason is that the current buildings are too cramped and wretched, without grandeur!

You know, the construction of the Forbidden City alone has cost 9 taels of silver so far, which is close to two years of treasury revenue.However, the emperor wanted to overthrow it and start over with a single sentence. Not to mention that 900 million taels was in vain. A more ambitious construction plan would definitely cost more, or even several times the silver taels! Where did the money come from?In today's Ming Dynasty, whose national power is increasingly embarrassing, it is simply an unsolvable problem!

Therefore, Xia Yuanji, the chief steward of the Ming Dynasty and Shangshu of the household department, expressed his opposition on the spot.He said that the imperial court's money has been completely spent on the Grand Canal, and the Wudang Mountain project and the Cochin Chief Envoy are still sucking blood. Adding such a huge expenditure will completely collapse the country's finances!
Looking at the white-haired, mentally and physically exhausted butler, the emperor finally felt a little embarrassed, and gave him some advice: "Then print more money..."

"Print money?" Hearing that the emperor would print money, Xia Yuanji not only didn't feel comforted, but felt like the sky was going to collapse. "The emperor really thinks that as long as the money is printed, the country can continue to use it? And there is no harm to the country?"

"You think I'm too ignorant." Zhu Di said a little displeased: "Don't you know that if you print more money, the people will suffer more, but I don't spend the money on myself, I spend it for my Ming Dynasty's future plan !” Standing up, he said with a slightly excited expression, “I don’t want to wait for the place where the fireworks are set off in the south of the Yangtze River, but come back to this bitterly cold city of Beijing? Is it because I have feelings for this place? Wrong, I want the emperor to guard the gate and let me be bright.” The common people will never be harmed by the invasion of the Tartars! I even sent my own descendants to Beijing together, shouldn’t the common people make some sacrifices for my Ming dynasty!”

"The emperor's words are inexplicable to the ministers..." A minister whispered: "It's just the size of the Forbidden City, and it won't affect my Ming Dynasty forever..."

"Absurd!" Zhu Di immediately cast a cold gaze: "I want to use the dragon energy of my Ming royal family to suppress the dragon energy of the remnants of the Meng Yuan Dynasty. How the three halls are built and how the Forbidden City is built are related to the spirit of my Daming country." Luck! Do you think it will affect my Ming Dynasty forever!"

The minister hurriedly knelt down to plead guilty: "I'm ignorant, I'm lying, please forgive me..."

"Hmph!" Zhu Di snorted heavily, "For the first time you committed a crime, you were only given a court staff of [-] and a fine of half a year's salary. If anyone dares to say such words of subjugation in the future, they will be killed without pardon!"

"The minister waits to obey the order." All the ministers hurriedly responded.

"Xia Aiqing, do you agree?" Zhu Di also knew that he could do whatever he wanted, and he couldn't do without Xia Yuanji, a financial genius. Now it's time to spend money, so he treats him very differently.

"Your Majesty..." Xia Yuanji looked at Zhu Di, struggled fiercely in his heart for a while, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "Please forgive me for being so hard to obey..."

"You!" Zhu Di's face turned black instantly.

"Your Majesty has learned that the imperial court is no longer eating rations, but eating rations, rations, and even lunch!" Xia Yuanji wiped off his sweat, and said bravely, "This is all due to the excessive issuance of treasure money. In [-], I racked my brains, but the method of banknotes still hasn't improved. If I continue to print banknotes, I'm afraid there will be a big mess..."

"Don't scare me!" Zhu Di's eyes were already icy cold.

(End of this chapter)