The new office building of the Ming Dynasty Central Government Office is currently the most important project of the imperial court.
The person directly responsible is of course Lei Hong, the Minister of Construction of the Ming Dynasty.
After Lei Hong received the order, he immediately had a lot of doubts.
The order did not mention the approximate address of the new imperial building, nor did it mention that I should survey and select the address.
The Ministry of Construction is only responsible for the engineering design of the new Central Government Office Building itself.
However, the engineering design itself is directly related to the state of the land to be used for construction.
What kind of building should be built based on the condition of the foundation? Don’t mess with it if you don’t know the foundation.
Lei Hong thought about it for a long time, and combined with other public orders, a guess appeared in his mind:
"Is Your Majesty planning to temporarily move all the imperial ministries to Nanjing, and then rebuild them directly on the original sites of the government offices after freeing up the space?"
This guess was so reasonable that other project leaders had similar ideas.
However, this is inconsistent with the custom of receiving emperor's orders after the Renwu Dynasty.
Starting from Emperor Shizu, orders have always been simple, direct and easy to understand, and they will not deliberately fail to explain things clearly.
Unless the emperor really didn't expect it at the time.
If it was really to free up space and arrange for the yamen to be temporarily relocated, it would be impossible not to make the purpose clear.
Moreover, if an eighty-meter-high office building is to be built on the original site, it will directly block the Forbidden City behind it.
In addition, when doing engineering design, it is necessary to communicate clearly the requirements with Party A. Lei Hong has many questions that he wants to confirm.
For example, should this new office building be divided into multiple courtyards as before, or should it be combined into a conjoined building?
In this office building, should we arrange large conference rooms and halls of sufficient size?
Should a special office and rest room be reserved for the emperor?
Out of caution, Lei Hong still called the General Affairs Department and made an appointment to meet Emperor Zhu Jianyan.
At the same time, major craftsmen from the Ministry of Construction were convened to discuss and sort out important issues that needed to be confirmed before design.
Then after the morning meeting the next morning, according to the notice of the General Affairs Department, he stayed and went to the office alone to meet the emperor.
After Lei Hong said hello, he sat down at the emperor's head and first asked about the location.
Zhu Jianyan's initial public order did not directly mention the issue of location, that is, the location of the new office building of the imperial court would not be disclosed to the public.
Because the location is actually in Yingtian Mansion, not Shuntian Mansion.
If this address is made public directly, the people below will immediately understand that the emperor has the idea of returning to Yingtian Mansion.
It would be best not to make this news public right away.
However, Zhu Jianyan had completed university-level cultural courses and had been an intern in local and central government offices for more than ten years. He was not the otaku emperor before the Renwu Dynasty.
He knew that the problem could be hidden from the outside world, but there was no way to hide it from the engineering staff.
Zhu Jianyan looked around, asked all the people to exit, and then made it clear to Lei Hong:
“The issue of site selection has been handed over to the Royal Engineering Company.
“The new Yamen’s office building is placed around the new palace of Yingtian Mansion.
“Now the Ministry of Construction can do its own general design of the shape and structure of office buildings.
“When the survey results come out, detailed engineering design will be done based on the results.
“This design can be done together with the new palace design.
“The Ministry of Construction and the Royal Engineering Corporation have independently come up with several different types of plans.
“The palace should be divided into two large areas, the living area and the ceremonial area.
“The residential area is designed according to the pattern of a palace, so there is no need to have a serious and neat layout, and there is no need to deliberately build high-rise buildings.
“The ceremonial area is designed according to the serious standards of the traditional Forbidden City and must realize all the ceremonial functions of the Forbidden City.
“But without my oral instructions, this matter should not be made public for the time being.
“The site survey must not be disclosed to anyone until detailed engineering design has begun.
“Once engineering design has begun, it must not be disclosed to anyone other than those directly involved in the design.”
Lei Hong was stunned when he heard the news.
The emperor actually wants to move the capital!
After this earth-shattering news came out, all the previous doubts were suddenly cleared up.
The new office building will of course be placed next to the new palace.
The new government building was allowed to be built higher because the palace also had to be built higher!
Thinking of the emperor's gag order, Lei Hong quickly stood up and promised seriously:
"Lei Hong, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, sincerely obeys the imperial edict."
Only he should know this news. If it leaks out, the emperor will probably arrest him directly.
Zhu Jianyan nodded slightly:
"Any other questions?"
Lei Hong quickly raised the most important questions and took a notebook to record them.
Zhu Jianyan explained his requirements in turn:
“Since we are still in the divergent thinking stage, we can do more design drafts.
“In terms of office buildings, we can design some single buildings, connected buildings, and buildings with courtyards.
“Taiwanese people are also very accomplished in building buildings, so we can refer to them appropriately.
“In the office building, a dedicated office area and even a living area should be set up for the emperor.
“There must be conference rooms and auditoriums directly connected to the emperor’s office and living quarters.
“It is convenient to live in the office building to work and hold meetings directly when encountering urgent matters.
“Designs that integrate office buildings with palace architecture could also be considered.
“Although the palace in the ceremonial area must ensure solemnity, it does not need to be a complete copy of the Forbidden City.
“Building distances can be adjusted appropriately and appropriate trees planted.
"The focus of the Ministry of Construction is on the design of imperial office buildings and ceremonial palaces..."
New palaces and new buildings were big events, and big events for the emperor.
So Zhu Jianyan arranged and discussed with Lei Hong for most of the morning.
Until noon, Lei Hong left Zhu Jianyan's office and returned to his office building.
After lunch, I started organizing people to do draft design in the afternoon.
Ten days later, Lei Hong met Zhu Jianyan again after the morning meeting with a bunch of preliminary simple design plans.
Put the drafts that have been screened in advance and have the best features on top, and put them together on the conference table in front of Zhu Jianyan.
Lei Hong stood nearby and first introduced the current design ideas to Zhu Jianyan:
"Your Majesty, according to the calculations and assessments of the engineering staff, without considering the cost and geological conditions, we can build a building with a total height of more than four hundred meters at most..."
"Four hundred meters——"
Zhu Jianyan was obviously a little surprised.
I originally thought that the two hundred meters negotiated by my son and his father was exaggerated enough.
Unexpectedly, the assumptions of engineering people were even more outrageous.
This proposed a maximum height that was twice as high as the two of them had imagined:
“This is almost a mile away!
“Can a building of this height really be built? How to build it?
"Is a building of this height strong enough? Will it twist or even collapse due to the storm?"
Lei Hong continued to introduce:
“If the geological conditions are right, buildings as large as 500 meters or one mile can be built.
“Especially for the imperial ceremonial capital hall, a tall platform can be poured with reinforced concrete downstairs.
“As long as the base area is large enough, even if the platform base is more than 200 meters high, it will still be as stable as a mountain.
“The building itself is not a problem, as long as the core tube is thick enough, it can remain stable even at a height of 500 meters.
“The engineering staff have done careful calculations and simulations.
"I can confirm that the latest construction technology we have can realize the construction of a 500-meter-tall building.
“Of course, if we don’t build a tall enough platform and build a straight-tube building with the same depth up and down, it’s still unclear whether it can still maintain stability above 400 meters.
“So if you want to build a 400-meter-tall building, you should prepare a 100-meter platform out of insurance and caution.
"The design plans completed by the engineering staff are all planned in this way."
After listening to these introductions, Zhu Jianyan finally accepted this fact.
Probably it was the Ming Dynasty's policy of restricting high-rise buildings that frustrated the engineers who wanted to build high-rise buildings.
So this time I came up with the most exaggerated ideas.
But Zhu Jianyan immediately had a new question:
"But... the height of four hundred meters is still too exaggerated.
“Even if there is a 100-meter platform below, and the platform is completely solid, there is still a height of 300 meters above.
“Is it really appropriate to use such a huge space as a single single-story hall?
"The key is, can it be achieved? A height of three hundred meters on a single floor?"
Lei Hong immediately said very frankly:
“His Majesty’s concerns are indeed a big problem encountered by craftsmen in the design.
“Currently we have no experience in designing and constructing a single-story building with a height of more than 50 meters.
“For the official ceremonial palace of the imperial court, it is difficult for us to fully utilize the space inside the palace.
“Unless the functions of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Fengtian Hall, Wenhua Hall, Wuying Hall and other palaces are stacked on top of each other, and all are placed in such an extremely huge building...
"Or we can refer to the experience of the Thai people in building churches, put the height of the main body of the building within a relatively reasonable range, and build towers around it to increase the maximum height.
"We have made design plans for these two ideas. Your Majesty, please take a look..."
Zhu Jianyan lowered his head and looked at the design drawings in front of him, mainly those design graphics.
Lei Hong continued to introduce:
“The first set of plans is a multi-layered hall.
“At the same time, a design was adopted to integrate the palace with the central court office building.
“This is the most extreme compact solution.
“The first of this group of plans is a design in which the tallest 420-meter-long main hall is centered, and the office areas of various government departments and offices are placed on both sides of the main hall in the form of annex buildings.
“The civil service system can be arranged on the east side, and military attachés and judicial, supervisory and other departments can be arranged on the west side.
“The second plan is to construct the office building directly into the form of a platform and place it under the main hall.
“In other words, the base is not made solid, but partially hollow.
“Looking from the outside, below the main hall is a platform of 60 to 80 meters.
“But inside the platform are actually the yamen of various ministries of the imperial court.
“The second set of plans are relatively traditional designs.
“The main halls are still stacked on top of each other, and the office buildings and main halls are built independently.
“But there is some form of connection and cooperation between the main hall and the office building.
“Office buildings can surround the main hall, but connect the two sides with corridors.
“The main design plans include placing them on both sides of the main hall, surrounding them, and standing in front of them.
“The third group of options is the most traditional.
“The main palace functions will still be separated, and the office buildings will all be constructed separately.
“At the same time, the height of the palace should not be reached to the extreme, and the maximum height should be placed at two hundred meters.
"Take Fengtian Hall as an example. First, a 64-meter-high platform is built, and a 128-meter-high main hall is built above the platform.
“The office building is outside the palace wall in front, and it can be designed as a series of buildings or as a branch.
“The height ratio between the platform base and the main hall can also continue to be adjusted.
“The fourth group of plans is based on the design of churches and palaces in Thailand.
“First, the main palaces were combined into one, with a 64-meter platform and a 64-meter-high main hall built on top.
"Several high and low towers were built in the front, back, left and right to worship the most important ancestors individually."
Zhu Jianyan looked at the design plan in his hand, listened to Lei Hong's introduction, and asked for details from time to time.
Finally, I selected a few of these plans that I was most satisfied with.
At the same time, different parts of several different plans were combined together to put forward new design requirements.
Let Lei Hong go back and complete the reorganization plan, and further refine it together with the original pre-selected plans.
This time the design took a long time, and it was not basically completed until twenty days, and it took another month to fix the details.
When he showed it to Zhu Jianyan again, the preparations for the southern tour were coming to an end.
Zhu Jianyan took several design drawings and flipped through them:
"Xiyi's method is indeed the most convenient to build, and is probably the most economical in terms of cost.
“But just stacked together like this, it’s not very comfortable to look at.
"A separate tower is built for each generation of ancestors to worship separately, although the layout is similar to the Ancestral Temple before Jiajing.
“However, it will be very troublesome if we add another tower in each generation in the future.
“It’s not a good sign to build more towers in advance…
“So it’s better not to use this plan.
“Although this method of building various government offices inside the platform is the most space-saving, I still think it is appropriate.
“It will probably give civil and military officials the feeling that they live in an underground palace and work, so don’t use it.
“If the platform of the palace is too high, it will be difficult to coordinate the look and feel.
“There will be no higher city walls specifically built in the future, and normal city walls cannot be higher than the platform base.
“If the entire hall is above the palace wall, especially if it can be seen from a distance, it may feel a bit abrupt.
“Instead of building a separate platform for the palace, it is better to build directly on the already high ground.
“But even if these plans and design methods are excluded, the remaining ones still have various problems.
"But...these designs need to be reviewed by the Supreme Emperor, so let's wait until we get to Nanjing.
"Lei Qing should go back and prepare first. When he arrives in Nanjing, he will contact the Royal Engineering Company to confirm the survey results.
"After I discuss it with my father, we will discuss how to build new palaces and buildings."
(End of chapter)
