The wind and waves in the north were dangerous, and the Song (Northern Song Dynasty), Jin, and Xixia were coming and going, fighting one after another, and a military revolution had already begun. However, the gorgeous and prosperous scene inside and outside Jinling City was especially better than before.
This southeastern city was originally a city surrounded by silk, brass, rice, salt, and tea, and was extremely wealthy.
The silk industry in Jinling itself is very developed, and the land outside the city is extremely fertile and rich in rice. To the east of the city are Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Xiuzhou, Mingzhou and Yuezhou, the land of fish, rice and silk. To the west of the city are Chizhou, Shuzhou, Xingguojun, Xinzhou, and Raozhou, which are good places that produce copper coins and are also rich in fish, rice, and cloth.
In the Huainan coastal area northeast of Jinling, the famous Huai salt is produced. The Jiangnan mountainous area south of Jinling City is rich in tea. As for the coast further south to Fujian and Guangdong, it has been an important maritime trade center for thousands of years and can also bring huge financial resources to the Jinling court.
The officials and people from Bianliang, Songzhou (formerly Yingtianfu), and Xuzhou who followed Zhao Huannan to Jinling, especially the industrial and commercial traders in these Central Plains cities, have now pushed the prosperity of Jinling City to a new height!
This city, located on the banks of the river, has absorbed the essence of the prosperous land in the southeast. Now it has received talents, capital and technology from the northern Central Plains, and has also been carefully managed by Zhao Huan and his Jinling court. In just two or three years, it has become the most prosperous, civilized and affluent place in this era.
On the Yangtze River, boats come and go, and on the Qinhuai River, there are boats and oars like clouds. The blue-grey brick-clad city wall meanders along the Yangtze River and Qinhuai Waterway. It is not only tall and solid, but also built according to the dangerous mountains and rivers, making it absolutely easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Probably because today's Jinling is so prosperous, and every inch of land seems to be very precious, so much so that the king who has established his capital here wants to use strong city walls to firmly protect all the prosperity and wealth. Therefore, the addition and expansion of Jinling City began in the first year of Jingkang and continued until the autumn of the third year of Jingkang, but it was still not completed. And the construction seems to be getting bigger and bigger, and it looks like it will continue for many years to come.
However, the Jinling court, which lost Kaifeng Prefecture, Daming Prefecture, and Songzhou (Lao Yingtian Prefecture), still learned the lesson of a large and difficult-to-defend city, and did not build a large and difficult-to-defend "Great Jinling Tomb."
Instead, construction of Jinling New City, Mufu Mountain City, Zhongshan City, and Xuanwu City were successively started to the north and east of the old Jinling City left over from the Southern Tang Dynasty. If all four castles are completed, it will form a situation of five cities in Jinling, connected to each other and protecting each other.
If a powerful enemy invades, the Jinling court can guard five castles at the same time when it has sufficient troops, or it can concentrate its troops to defend one of the castles when it lacks troops.
When the autumn of the third year of Jingkang came, the masonry walls of Jinling New City, which was built according to the terrain of the Yangtze River, Qinhuai River and Mufu Mountain, were almost completed.
The total length of this ring of city walls is about thirty-five miles, and it is roughly divided into four sides. The east, south, and west sides are all drawn into straight lines. On the north side, it starts from the west bank of the Qinhuai River and is built along the south bank of the Yangtze River until it reaches the western foot of Shogunate Mountain. Then it turns south and builds straight to the shore of Xuanwu Lake, then turns west and builds it to the west bank of the Qinhuai River, and finally to the west bank of the Qinhuai River. The north repair is connected with the north wall of Jinling New City.
The lengths of these four walls vary greatly. The longest one is the north wall, which stretches for thirteen miles along the river bank. The city is strong and impregnable, which is what reassures Zhao Huan the most.
The shortest of the four walls of Jinling New City is the west wall, which is only three miles long. However, this three-mile city is extremely strong and is the top priority of the entire new city's defense system. Because this section of the city wall completely encompasses the mouth of the Qinhuai River. It was not built with the Qinhuai River as a natural moat, but instead wrapped a three-mile-long Qinhuai River channel. Between the west bank of the Qinhuai River and the city wall, the Yangtze River Navy's command office and some barracks were also built.
However, the Yangtze River Navy's shipyard and warship dock are not within the city, but on the western bank of the forked Qinhuai River outside the city. At this time, the Qinhuai River will be divided into two after passing through Jinling New City. All the way to Jinling Old Town, which is now the most prosperous commercial district in the world! The other road flows from the east of the old city of Jinling. Zhao Huan's Yangtze River Navy wharf and shipyard are located on the channel and both sides of the Qinhuai River.
The three-mile-long Qinhuai River Road protected by Jinling New City is usually a passage and a customs place. In case of war, it can be used to berth the warships of the Yangtze River Navy. The original customs office (on the east bank of the Qinhuai River) will be converted into a shipyard for building warships.
In addition, the Customs and Excise Department located on the east bank of the Qinhuai River also has a tall exterior wall built along the bank of the Qinhuai River. Once the east wall of Jinling New City falls, this high wall will become an "inner wall" of Jinling New City, relying on the Qinhuai River waterway to prevent the enemy from continuing to break through.
The east wall of Jinling New City is more than seven miles long between Mufu Mountain and Xuanwu Lake. A trench was dug outside the wall, and a sheep and horse wall was built. Inside the wall, there were inner trenches and inner walls. Within the inner wall, along the royal road leading to the palace, there are many military camps and government offices, all with outer trenches and high walls. You can carry out layer-by-layer defense and resist step by step!
The southern wall of the new city is located directly between Xuanwu Lake and the Qinhuai River (a small part crosses the Qinhuai River), and is more than ten miles long. Like the east wall, it is also protected by outer trenches, inner trenches, sheep and horse walls, and inner walls. It is very strong.
The palace city where Zhao Huan currently lives is located around the Lion Mountain on the east bank of the Qinhuai River. The palace city is also a castle that can be defended independently. The city wall of the palace city is about sixteen miles long. There are trenches outside the city, and there is also a Lion Rock City inside the palace city.
Zhao Huan, who obviously lacked a sense of security, placed his palace and sealing warehouse in Lion Rock City, and also built a warehouse in Lion Rock City that could store tens of thousands of stones and rice.
It was approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Zhao Huan, who had finished his official duties, took a chariot back to the newly built Lion Rock Palace. He got off the chariot outside the Queen's Kunning Palace and walked inside. Although the emperor of Jinling, who was not yet thirty years old, was not as strong as his father Zhao Ji and brother Zhao Kai, he was still in good health. Apart from being cowardly, there is nothing wrong with him. The "good news" coming from the north recently has made his illness worse, and his brows are always frowning.
Of course, Empress Zhu Lian was notified of the official arrival, but she did not greet her at the main entrance of Kunning Palace as per the rules, but only greeted her at the entrance of the main palace - this was because she was very busy these days, busy preparing for the "Emperor Dowager". "Brother" Zhao Kai is preparing Mid-Autumn Festival gifts.
Because the news came that Zhao Kai personally conquered Lingxia and won a great victory, so of course the Emperor of Jinling should have expressed something - a reward is a must! In the "official announcement" of the Jinling Emperor, Zhao Kai was the emperor's younger brother!
And the land of Lingxia was lost for more than a hundred years, and now it was recovered in one fell swoop. It also forced the Western thieves to declare themselves as vassals, and even donated 80,000 horses - this was brought out by Li Qianshun in tears, which almost made him feel distressed. died!
In addition, Zhao Kai also received 100,000 life-buying horses from the 100,000 party members in the land of Lingxia. Although the quality of these horses did not meet Zhao Kai's requirements, the harvest this time was still very generous.
Zhao Kai's gains were obviously not a good thing for Zhao Huan, but he still had to hold his nose and celebrate the bad things as good things, and also had to pay a large bonus to Zhao Kai, who was trying to usurp the throne.
Moreover, he was also worried that Zhao Kai would only take money but not appreciate it, and would send troops to capture Jiangdong as soon as he turned around... So he could only find ways to pretend to be sick and play the emotional card.
He first announced to the outside world that he was seriously ill. He had not been in court these days. He secretly held a small meeting with several ministers in the Chongzheng Hall of the Imperial Palace in Jinling New City to deal with the government affairs... Of course, the government affairs Not good either!
The three years of Jingkang are almost over, and there are not many disasters in Zhao Huan's territory. Even the Yellow River's seizure of the Huaihe River did not cause the Huaihe River to flood - of course it will not flood, because the Jin Kingdom does not care about the Yellow Flood Area, so that The Yellow River floodplain area became a flood storage area, so not much Yellow River water entered the Huaihe River.
In addition to no disasters, agriculture, industry, and commerce across the southeast are still prosperous!
In particular, the copper and iron industries in Jiangxi and Jinghu South Road have experienced explosive growth since the first year of Jingkang due to the migration of northern craftsmen to the south!
In addition, Ezhou in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River has also prospered rapidly due to the emergence of the "E-Han Mutual Trade". The trade on the Yangtze River has even exceeded that of the Xuanhe period when the world was peaceful.
With the prosperity of agriculture, industry and commerce, the taxes of the Jinling court have been increasing in the past two years. At the same time, the expenses of the Jinling court were not much, so there was a large and worrying surplus...
To be honest, he is probably the first and maybe the only emperor in Chinese history who dislikes too many taxes!
Having more money is not a good thing! Zhao Huan's understanding of finance is "old party style". He believes that the world's wealth is determined, not in the court, but in the people... Oh, it should be not in Jinling, but in Luoyang!
If the Jinling court had too much money, then the Luoyang court would definitely be in deficit! Zhao Kai followed Zhuang Zong again and did not know how to be thrifty. If he had no money to spend, he would definitely come to grab it.
So while Zhao Huan was handing out "rewards", he also had to play the emotional card... Brotherly love was too much to think about, so he had to have some uncle-sister-in-law love and sisterly love.
Therefore, Zhao Huan asked his queen Zhu Lian to personally prepare Mid-Autumn Festival gifts for Zhao Kai and Zhu Fengying (Zhu Lian's sister), and also asked Zhu Lian to sew a set of Gunmian clothes (one of the Nine Tins) for Zhao Kai. And attached a letter to win over feelings.
Zhu Lian was born into a wealthy family and was good at playing chess, calligraphy and painting, but was not good at craftsmanship. It was really difficult for her to sew Gun Mian's clothes. At the same time, she also had to personally prepare the Mid-Autumn Festival gifts for Zhao Kai and Zhu Fengying. This was another big task, and the time was tight. She was really busy!
