At the beginning, the King of Xiang Zhu Yiming strengthened the fortifications in Xiangyang, recruited rebel generals and soldiers, and accepted Zhu Yiming as soon as he came. Regarding Zhu Yiming's hasty behavior, the supervisor Zhang Kejian and the promotion official Kuang Yueguang and others thought it was unacceptable, but the King of Xiang refused to listen. The spies sent by Zhang Dong were able to penetrate into the two cities of Xiangfan and cooperate with the Qi army at the critical moment to attack Xiangcheng in one fell swoop.
In early April of the fourth year of Hongguang's reign (1630), three major corps of the Qi State besieged Xiangyang Prefecture. General Mi Qianchun and supervisor Zhang Kejian went out of the city to fight, and Mi Qianchun died in the battle.
Zhu Yiming ordered the armies in Fancheng and Gucheng to retreat and defend Xiangyang with all their strength. He also diverted water into the moat, lined up cannons along the river, and soldiers surrounded the city to guard.
Later history books commented on the Battle of Xiangyang, which determined the fate of Nanming. The soldiers of Nanming were killed in battle, and Xiang Wang Zhu Yiming could not escape the blame.
On April 15, Fancheng, Gucheng, Yicheng and other places outside Xiangcheng fell one after another, leaving Xiangyang alone.
When the Qi army approached the city, Zhu Yiming personally supervised and led Zhang Kejian, the deputy envoy to supervise the military preparations, Kuang Yueguang, the official, Li Dajue, the county magistrate, and Li Anmin, the guerrilla, to go out of the city to fight.
The Ming army was defeated again and suffered heavy casualties.
The next day, the Ming army drove the people to the city and threw rolling logs and stones to resist the Qi army's ant attack. The engineers of the First Corps built an earthen city at the east gate of Xiangyang. The artillerymen pushed the artillery up the earthen wall and bombarded the city head fiercely, causing casualties to the people. It was so tragic that I couldn’t bear to see it.
The Qi army also built a dike on the Han River, used the gate on the west of the city to collect the river water, and sent troops to guard the water mouth on the east side of the city. The river water poured into Xiangyang City.
The flood roared, and the Qi and Ming sides fought fiercely for a long time. The Ming army was suddenly hit by the flood and collapsed instantly. The Qi army's cavalry took advantage of the situation to cover up the attack. The Ming army rushed out of the city. Some were drowned, and some were killed by the enemy. There were many casualties. heavy.
On April 17, at dusk, King Xiang retreated to Wengcheng, and he and Zhang Kejian and others led the remaining troops to separate the pi (a small concave-convex wall on the city wall) to defend. Supervisor Gao waited and escaped over the city wall, and the Ming army collapsed completely.
The Qi army took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack. Prince Xiang led his sergeants to fight with shields, but was defeated again.
That night, a fire broke out in the watchtower in Xiangyang. The Qi army entered Wengcheng from Xiaoximen and Xiangyang fell.
Seeing that the situation was irreversible, Zhu Yiming dismissed his slaves, wore swords and seals, and hanged himself to death. Zhang Kejian, the supervisor of the army, and Li Dajue, the magistrate of Xiangyang County, also committed suicide. The servant Wang Shiming caressed the corpse and cried loudly, then set fire to himself and died.
This incident spread to southern Zhili. Emperor Hongguang mourned after hearing the news and ordered a minister to prepare the funeral. He posthumously named King Xiang Zhong and was known as King Xiang Zhong in history.
Since then, the Battle of Xiangyang, which lasted for nearly four months, finally ended. Emperor Wuding and his soldiers firmly occupied a large area east of Shanxi, west of Hefei, south of Sakhalin Island, and north of Jingzhou.
On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the Qi army bypassed the Huaihe River defense line, drank horses from the Yangtze River, and threatened Wuchang Prefecture.
There are eight prefectures and one ward in Hubei Province (Wuchang Prefecture, Hanyang Prefecture, Huangzhou Prefecture, Chengtian Prefecture, De'an Prefecture, Xiangyang Prefecture, Jingzhou Prefecture, Yunyang Prefecture and Shizhou Prefecture). Except for Wuchang and Hanyang, the other prefectures The county watched the wind and fell.
At this time, the weather was getting hotter and hotter, and the soldiers in Shandong, Liaodong and other places were not accustomed to the acclimatization and there were many epidemics. The soldiers were exhausted and could not bear to fight anymore. The Supreme Emperor ordered his men to take a rest and fully digest the results of the Battle of Xiangyang.
Although the military operations have temporarily stopped, the civil and commercial battles have just begun.
The traditional project of allocating land to local tyrants was carried out in Junzhou, Xiangyang, Suizhou, Huangzhou and other places in an orderly manner.
The tenant farmers and fishermen who were allocated fields in various parts of Hubei were all eating pots of milk to welcome the king's army. Young men from all over the country joined the army enthusiastically. Millions of farmers joined the Daqi Peasants' Association in order to defend the "Qi Dynasty Land Acquisition System" and this new political power.
On May 15th, the Emperor's Xingluan was moved from Jingle Palace to Xiangwang Palace.
In the first year of Zhengtong, the fifth son of Zhu Gaochi, Emperor Renzong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanyang was renamed King of Xiang from the title of King of Xiang, and his vassal seat was moved from Changsha to Xiangyang.
Before Zhu Zhanyang came to Xiangyang to serve as King of Xiang, Xiangyang had built a splendid and magnificent Prince Xiang's Mansion for him, covering an area of about 60 acres. It had a main hall, a back hall, a main door, a ceremonial gate, and left and right rooms. It was the largest palace in Xiangyang City. magnificent building,
When Liu Zhaosun was studying in his previous life, he visited Xiangyang Mansion. The magnificent palace had been burned to the ground by Li Zicheng. What was left to people more than four hundred years later was the screen wall in front of the palace, which is the famous green screen wall.
Because of the arrival of the time travellers, Xiangyang Mansion was completely preserved.
And Li Zicheng, who once occupied Xiangyang, renamed it Xiangjing, established a political power here, and burned it when he left, has become the guardian of Xiangyang Mansion in this dimension, at least the guardian of Emperor Wuding.
At this moment, Lin Yu and the others were guarding the surroundings, closely monitoring every move of the people around the palace.
Because Emperor Wuding brutally suppressed bandits, cleaned up Taoists, and suppressed local tyrants and evil gentry in the Jingxiang area, he offended many people. Almost every day, people tried to assassinate the Supreme Emperor. Although these dead soldiers were just moths in the fire and did not cause much trouble. The storm, however, disturbed the coir raincoat guards and the imperial guards. Zhang Dong had to join forces with Pei Dahu to send more manpower to strengthen the protection of the palace, for fear that anything would go wrong.
But Liu Zhaosun himself was calm and composed, and he seemed not to care about these assassinations.
At this moment, the Supreme Emperor held Jin Yuji's slender hand, strolled to the green screen wall, and pointed to the inlaid cloud dragon to explain to Jin Yuji.
"In the first year of Zhengtong in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanyi moved to Shiyi from Changsha and built a palace. This wall was the screen wall in front of the palace at that time."
Jin Yuji stopped to watch, and saw "Two Dragons Playing with Pearls" engraved in the middle of the white marble screen wall. On the left and right sides were engraved giant dragons flying among "sea water flowing clouds", and on the left and right sides were engraved a dragon flying toward the center. Block, there is great potential to win the pearl, the surrounding frames are carved with small dragons in different postures, the foggy sea is vast, and the dragons are vying for it, lifelike.
Jin Yuji stretched out her hand to touch the swimming dragon on the white marble, and murmured: "The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty are indeed extraordinary. Emperor Zhu Gaochi treats his son so well. I don't know how much money, manpower and material resources it costs to build this screen wall and this palace..."
Liu Zhaosun blurted out: "If you like it, I will order it to be demolished and moved to the new capital."
"My concubine is not talking about the palace wall," the Empress Dowager Cisheng hesitated.
"That is?" He thought of Yang Qing'er and the young emperor Liu Kan who stayed in Shenyang.
The two looked at each other, smiled, and stopped talking.
Emperor Wuding sighed and turned around to ask Qian Qianyi, who was standing far away:
"Master Qian, how long did the Battle of Xiangyang last in the Southern Song Dynasty?"
When Qian Qianyi heard the Emperor's question, he immediately stepped forward and shook his head:
"Back to Your Majesty, from the beginning of the Battle of Anyangtan in the third year of Xianchun of Song Dynasty, Mongolian general A Shu attacked Xiangyang, through Lu Wenhuan's breakthrough, Zhang Gui and Zhang Shun assisted Xiang, the Battle of Longweizhou and the Battle of Fancheng, to Lu Wenhuan in the ninth year of Xianchun It took nearly six years to exhaust all efforts to reduce the Yuan."
Liu Zhao and Sun clapped his hands and laughed loudly: "Did you hear that? Queen Mother Jin, the Mongols fought for six years, and I only fought for four months. Although they have temporarily captured it, there are still many things that need to be dealt with. When Jingxiang is completely pacified, Kan'er will naturally be They came over that time,"
Emperor Wu Ding looked up at the towering Zhaobi in front of him and said thoughtfully:
"At that time, they can come and see Daqi's new capital and see how it rises from the ground."
~~~~
In early June, the combat mission of mopping up the rogue Ming army was basically over. Emperor Wu Ding saw that the people's support was available, so he decided to strike while the iron was hot and start the capital construction project that he had always wanted to do.
After listening to the opinions of experts such as Lei Jiangtou, Ke Zhen'e, Li Sanguang, Francisco, and Xu Guangqi, and conducting on-the-spot investigations, Emperor Wuding finally set the center point of the new capital ten miles east of Junzhou City, in the southern part of the Xiangwan Basin near the Han River place.
After the site selection issue is finalized, "hot samples" need to be carried out before the official start of construction.
The so-called "hot model" refers to the production of architectural models. Some parts need to be ironed with a soldering iron, hence the name.
Lei Jiantou first glued Yuanshu paper and Korean paper into sheets layer by layer, then cut and shaped them, painted them with colors, and finally glued them together to form a complete model.
The capital city was planned and built strictly in accordance with the royal city planning ideas of the ancient Zhou rites. Its plane is rectangular and covers an area equivalent to 90 square kilometers (the required area exceeds the 87 square kilometers of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty).
Liu Zhaosun looked at the dense engineering drawings drawn by Francisco and Jinnige, and then looked at the hot stamping sample made by Lei Jiantou, pointed to the location of the moat, and asked the capital designers:
"This moat has been turned into a winding path by you. Do you think it is difficult for the enemy to break through the city defense? Why do you do this?!"
Everyone looked at each other, and Ke Zhen'e, the empire's chief fortune teller and Yin Yang Feng Shui master, quickly stood up and explained:
"Your Majesty clearly knows that the capital city is surrounded by walls, and there is a turret at each corner of the city wall. The turret is located at the position of the Qian Gua, and the Han River is led into the moat to surround it. This is completely consistent with the principle in the Book of Changes that heaven creates water, and earth creates 60% of it. It is true. The so-called..."
"Okay, stop talking!"
The Supreme Emperor pointed to the two rivers leading into the city and questioned his ministers.
"This place is close to the Nanyang Basin. You lead the river into the city. If you encounter a heavy rain that only happens once in a thousand years, do you want all my subjects to go see the sea?"
Liu Zhaosun recalled that in his previous life, whenever the city encountered a bad apocalypse, he would listen to experts talk about the once-in-a-hundred-year event, as if one hundred years was a very common unit of time.
Song Yingxing had a lot of research on water conservancy and immediately explained to the emperor:
"Your Majesty, the moat water system runs through the capital, forming a closed loop at the southeast corner in front of the palace, and flows into the Han River. The cycle repeats and will never cause waterlogging."
Ke Xiazi once again quoted the knowledge of the Eight Diagrams from the Book of Changes:
"This is the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, flowing to the southeast, which symbolizes the prosperity of the world. It is also in line with the concept of opening the sky gate and closing the ground door in Feng Shui. The design is ingenious, giving a sense of majesty, and the omen of the unity of heaven and man arises spontaneously. .Your Majesty, this city is built, and the foundation of Da Qi will last for generations..."
"Why are you building so many turrets at the four corners?"
"Your Majesty has inherited the destiny of Heaven. The Ziwei Yuan where the Emperor of Heaven lives corresponds to the palace where Your Majesty lives. The twenty-eight constellations surround the Ziwei Yuan and protect it. Its horns are headed by Spica, which is the best at fighting. The four-cornered turret is to invite Spica to come down to earth and protect the Great Wall. together."
Ke Zhen'e then began to explain that the Meridian Gate represented due south and was located at the southernmost end of the imperial city. It was called the Meridian Gate, hence the name. The Meridian Gate is visible but belongs to Yin, and the south is invisible but belongs to Yang. The combination of one Yin and one Yang shows that Da Qi wants to balance the world...
Liu Zhaosun was really too lazy to listen to his ramblings, so he turned around and asked Francisco and others about several key issues in city construction, such as water supply, distribution of urban functions, transportation construction, etc. The answers of several experts satisfied the emperor.
Emperor Wu Ding didn't waste any time. He stood up and ordered loudly:
"Then let's start construction. In ten years, allocate 250,000 people to build me an unprecedented city! From now on, it will be the real center of Daqi."
After that, large-scale immigrants began to settle around Xiangyang in Junzhou. Taxes were reduced or exempted for the people, and cattle and seeds were provided free of charge. Xu Guangqi, Minister of Industry, High Priest Francisco, Imperial Traveler Li Sanguang and others left Jingxiang and traveled across the country in search of materials.
The most elite engineers and craftsmen of the Daqi Empire went deep into the forest and went through all kinds of difficulties to harvest the thousand-year-old golden nanmu. They used water power to transport the nanmu to Junzhou in the upper reaches of the Han River. The wood needed bricks and stones. The soil in Suzhou was excellent and the firing method was good. Emperor Wuding specially granted it the title of Royal Kiln Village to produce the floor tiles needed for the main hall, also known as gold bricks. The Shibi bluestone in the middle of the imperial road behind Baohe Hall is seventeen meters long and weighs more than two hundred tons. The boulders came from Liangxiang, Gyeonggi Province. During the cold winter, tens of thousands of workers dug wells every mile or so on both sides of the road. They poured water from the wells on the ground to form an ice road. They pulled it forward and pushed it back. They used the ice road to transport the boulders to the construction site, and finally carved them into stone. . In addition, construction bricks are produced by Linqing, Shandong...
The migrant workers used layers of lime and broken bricks mixed with quicklime and clay to build the foundation, and sprinkled boiled glutinous rice and alum on the foundation. This cost-effective approach made the foundation extremely hard and avoided the potential for settlement to the greatest extent.
In short, every raw material required by the capital is meticulously refined. Of course, these are things for later, and will be introduced in detail later.
On June 16, the second year of Taichu, there was a fierce attack in the south, and Yizhai Jiao was launched.
Emperor Wu Ding decreed that the preliminary construction project of the new capital city officially started.
Before that, **** asked Qiao Yiqi, Wang Huazhen and other veterans what the name of the new capital should be.
The ministers replied: "Handu", "Xindu", "Xinjing", "Zhongdu"...
Emperor Wu Ding felt that these place names were not domineering enough and could not reflect the new atmosphere of the empire.
Jin Yuji said: Why not name it Tianxin City, which means the heart of the world.
The emperor praised him for his kindness.
Then the capital was named Tianxin City.
7017k
