In Luoyang, Xijing, after more than a year, the renovation work has basically entered the final stage. The Financial Secretary has successively allocated 4.35 million yuan for the cost of the project, which is equivalent to the current year's fiscal and taxation of Han Dynasty. One-tenth of the total, in addition to official craftsmen, a total of 150,000 civilians were recruited.
It was just a "repair", and the money and food invested by the court were more than the original overhaul of Kaifeng. Of course, this was due to rising prices, and the original repair of Kaifeng severely cut off a wave of wealthy businessmen in Tokyo.
Facts have proved that under high standards and high quality requirements, the investment in building renovation is not much cheaper than rebuilding, or even more expensive. After all, it also involves the issue of demolition.
The renovated Luoyang City is actually still the same, with shadows of the past everywhere, and the original layout has not changed much. In terms of majesty and magnificence, Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties is really the pinnacle of architecture in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and a bright pearl in the history of architecture. After this renovation and improvement, future generations may call it the "Luoyang City of the Sui, Tang, Han and Han Dynasties".
The government invested in the construction of Luoyang, mainly in the palace city, imperial city, outer city, and various public facilities. Government offices, camps, workshops, warehouses, roads, greening and underground pipelines have all been systematically improved.
Many old city walls and gates have been demolished and rebuilt, but Emperor Murong's main focus was on the reconstruction of Luoyang Palace. What was regrettable in Kaifeng was realized in Luoyang. Murong Yanchao's core idea in managing architecture was to be majestic and magnificent, to have a grand layout, to show the beauty of the architecture, and to be worthy of today's Han Empire.
One advantage of the renovation project is that many of the original building materials can continue to be used, which also saves a lot of wood and stone costs.
However, there are a few palaces that are completely new and everything is new. Among the new palaces, the main hall of the palace is the most extravagant.
In the early years, Emperor Liu once expressed that he felt that Chongyuan Hall in Kaifeng was too small and short, and his uncle, who was increasingly obsessed with architecture, also thought so. Therefore, a great deal of enthusiasm was invested in the construction of the main hall.
The finally completed Luoyang main hall is 400 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 192 feet high. Its grandeur may be different from the Mingtang in the Wu Zhou era, but in the contemporary era, it is the only one in the world, and It does not have so much religious color. It is only used to reflect the majesty of the imperial authority and is only used for court meetings or ceremonies. Compared with it, the Palace of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City can only be described as a small witch.
Emperor Liu named the completed Luoyang main hall Qianyuan Hall. After spending so much money and manpower to create spectacles, Emperor Liu, who had always advocated simplicity and simplicity, unknowingly turned into the person he hated in the past.
Although he had repeatedly told Murong Yanchao to control costs, save money and food, and cherish the people's power, in actual operation, it was difficult to achieve perfection.
There were only two additional payments, reaching 900,000 yuan. Adding part of the tax allocation from Luoyang and Gyeonggi Province, the cumulative expenditure reached a huge amount. During the progress of the project, there were over a thousand casualties, and more than 200 people died due to various accidents, and many were overworked.
Under such circumstances, the imperial censors and officials in the court would naturally not remain silent, and there were countless people who proposed impeachment against the Luoyang project.
When the trouble came to Emperor Liu, he remained silent for the first time. Although the handwritten edict reprimanded Murong Yanchao and criticized the waste of money and food and the enslavement of civilians during the project, more people still demanded rectification and dealt with those officials who were eager for quick success and instant benefits. At the same time, they ordered to pay for the casualties. The civilian husband will be compensated double.
Achieving this step is almost the limit. For a project like this that relies mainly on manpower, how can it be possible without hurting or killing people? Emperor Liu is not that naive. We can only prevent and strengthen supervision over possible problems, that's all.
When the government was carrying out large-scale construction projects in Luoyang City, the officials and people in the city also followed suit and repaired their houses to coordinate with the pattern set by the government. Just like the original construction of Kaifeng, residents were allowed to build their own houses, but there were unified requirements for the layout of the buildings.
Uncle Murong seems to be a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The result is that, like Kaifeng, the overall architectural layout of Luoyang is also hierarchical, with obvious levels of officials and civilians.
With the gradual improvement of the new Luoyang City, Emperor Liu also announced in the spring and February of the sixth year of Kaibao (968) that he would visit Luoyang in the west for inspection. Moreover, Murong Yan had more power than the governor of Luoyang.
...
At the foot of Mang Mountain, at the intersection of mountains and rivers, there is a bamboo hut among the green trees. Outside the courtyard, a waterwheel rotates and creaks with the wind, and there are flowers and trees planted in front of the courtyard. There is a plaque on the door with the name "Zhao Lu".
Looking at the surrounding environment, it is quiet and elegant, with a unique artistic conception, as if an expert hermit lives there. However, the place where this hermit lived was too close to the secular world of Luoyang.
In the bamboo hut, there was a sound of reading, the voice was childish. A tall figure, holding a scroll in his hand, was walking among them, paying attention to the seven or eight children sitting there.
The broad-faced man with long beard and gray robe, calm and powerful, is none other than Zhao Pu, the former governor of southwest China who has resigned. Last winter, Zhao Pu returned to Luoyang for his mother's funeral. After handling the funeral, Zhao Pu built this thatched cottage at the foot of Mang Mountain to observe his filial piety. Perhaps because he was lonely, he called his three young children and school-age children from surrounding farmhouses to experience teaching and educating people.
Zhao Pu's knowledge is not high, but that also depends on who he compares with. What he cultivates is managing the world and doing knowledge. The big man is much better than him, but when it comes to being an official and doing things, there are not many people who can do better than Zhao Pu.
Moreover, in his early years, due to his lack of knowledge, he was often criticized when he was around Emperor Liu. In view of this, in his later official career, Zhao Pu also read a lot of books, but he didn't ask for deep explanations.
In later generations, the saying "half of the Analects can rule the world" made Zhao Pu famous. Then many people took it for granted that Zhao Pu only read "The Analects", which is true and false.
Previously, when Emperor Liu listened to Xue Juzheng's lecture on the history of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, when he talked about Shi Le, the founding emperor of the later Zhao Dynasty, when he planned to advocate Zhang Bin, he compared Zhao Pu to Zhang Bin, which was considered a compliment.
Now, having lived in the cottage for several months, Zhao Pu has also been cultivating his body and mind for such a long time. Although he seems to be calm day by day, his heart is as itchy as a cat scratching it.
Zhao Pu is not a person who can sit still for a long time. If he really has to worry about it for a year and a half, he will definitely not be able to bear it. Therefore, during this period, I was in the world and my heart was in the temple, but I was worried about the situation of the court, and I was looking forward to the day when the angel would arrive with orders...
