In the first year of Chu Chengshun, at noon on October 23rd, the eighth year of Chongzhen.
Wuchang City, which had just experienced a fierce battle, with traces of war still remaining everywhere, even the city walls collapsed in two places, and the direction of the city gate tower was full of craters and shell craters, ushered in its new owner with a history of thousands of years: the Great Chu Empire Emperor Luo Zhixue.
At the gate of the city, a large number of soldiers lined up to see him off. Luo Zhixue, who was riding a maroon tall horse and dressed in armor and military uniform, rode slowly into the city. Behind him were a group of important civil and military officials from the Chu Empire.
Walking to the city gate, looking at the word Wuchang that was missing a corner on the city gate, Luo Zhixue stopped the forward movement of his horse, pointed at the word Wuchang on the city gate and said to Guo Quanshu, who was one step behind: "Guo Aiqing will go back and repair this sign. In addition, Wuchang will be the capital from today, and Wuchang Prefecture, Hanyang Prefecture, Xiaogan County of De'an Prefecture, and Huangpo County of Huangzhou Prefecture will be merged into Hantian Prefecture, under the direct jurisdiction of Gyeonggi Province!"
After everyone behind them heard this, Guo Quanshu, the Counselor and Minister of Civil Affairs in the queue of civil servants, immediately bowed and said: "I obey the decree!"
The people behind him didn't say anything about this. After all, the decision to establish the capital in Wuchang had already been finalized when the country was founded and proclaimed emperor.
The reason why Luo Zhixue went to Hanyang to proclaim himself emperor was to directly regard Hanyang and Wuchang as the capital.
After all, Hanyang and Wuchang are separated by only a river, so they can be regarded as one. Moreover, this place is right in the middle of Huguang and is along the Yangtze River. It is very important in military strategy.
This place was an important military town more than a thousand years ago. During the Ming Dynasty, this place was also an important military town, especially before the Ming Dynasty completely pacified the southwest region.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, in addition to its military role, Wuchang also became the political and economic center of the Huguang region. Wuchang on the south bank of the Yangtze River was mainly used as a military and political center, while Hanyang on the north bank of the Yangtze River was a commercial and economic center.
And with the gradual development of Huguang, and after Huguang has become well-known in the world, its economic status becomes even more important.
The newly born Great Chu Empire had to choose a place as its capital in its own control area, and had no choice but Wuchang City.
At the same time, Wuchang City alone is not enough. Hanyang and Hankou in the north must also be added.
For this reason, Luo Zhixue simply merged these two prefectures into one, and then added Xiaogan County of De'an Prefecture and Huangpo County of Huangzhou Prefecture, and merged these places into a Jingshi Prefecture directly under the central government.
At the same time, the name cannot continue to be Wuchang or Hanyang.
The capitals of traditional dynasties usually have special names. It is common practice to have the word "天", which means the place of the emperor.
For example, the names Yingtianfu, Shuntianfu, and Chengtianfu are commonly used.
For the same reason, it was also the reason why the city was renamed Anlu Mansion immediately after the Baoxiang Army captured Chengtian Mansion in the Ming Dynasty.
Because Anlu Mansion is called Chengtian Mansion, it is because this place is the hometown of Emperor Jiaqing and has strong political significance. The Chu Empire will naturally change its name as soon as possible.
After the merger, the Wuchang and Hanyang areas will also have the word "天" in their names.
Yingtian, Shuntian, and Chengtian are all temporarily occupied by the Ming Dynasty. There is also a more pleasant word Fengtian that no one has used yet. Historically, this word was first used by the Nanming Dynasty and later by Dongdu. Shengjing was the name of the companion capital. Luo Zhixue felt that this word was a bit offensive, so he abandoned it.
After Luo Zhixue thought about it for a while, he combined the local Hanyang and Hankou and other places, and at the same time, in order to show that the Chu Empire was an orthodox Han dynasty, he took the word "Han", combined with the word "天" representing the emperor, and merged it into "Han Tian" ’, the capital city that was merged from Wuchang and Hanyang areas was also called ‘Han Tianfu’.
However, Han Tianfu was very large, and the real location of the imperial palace was still in Wuchang City.
Because this place is easy to defend but difficult to attack, its military significance is even more important. At the same time, there is a complete Chu Palace here that can be used as a royal palace.
At the same time, there are also official buildings of many administrative agencies such as the Chief Envoy, Wuchang Magistrate, and Dusi scattered around the Chu Palace.
These places can then be used to house various central institutions of the Chu Empire.
It's still the same as before. Major institutions don't even have enough office space, so they have to occupy a large number of ordinary houses, and multiple departments are crowded together to work.
However, in Luo Zhixue's mind, Wuchang City of Han Tianfu was only temporary as the capital.
After all, the strategic goal of the Chu Empire and Luo Zhixue's ambition was to unify Kyushu.
As for letters from a unified Kyushu, Wuchang is a little less interesting as the capital.
For a traditional feudal dynasty, especially when productivity is still relatively low, the location of the capital basically determines the strategic development direction of the empire.
For the Ming Dynasty, Jinling was the capital in the early stage because it was to make better use of the Jiangnan area. This same place was also the original base camp of Zhu Yuanzhang.
Later, Zhu Di established his capital in Youzhou. One of the important reasons was that Zhu Di's base camp was in the north. After Zhu Di led his army south to seize the throne, at that time you asked Zhu Di to stay in Jinling City as his capital. Who knows where Zhu Yunwen's remnants would be? Tian is about to enter Jinling City...
Another secondary reason is that the main threat to Mingting at that time was in the north.
At that time, the Beiyuan and later nomadic tribes such as Waci and Tatars were the main threats to the Ming court for a long time.
Setting the capital in Youzhou can better deal with this threat, concentrate more resources, and at the same time direct the northern war effort nearby.
This is the reason why the emperor guards the country.
For the Chu Empire, the future capital would be Jinling City or Youzhou City.
These two places are geographically more suitable as capitals, have convenient transportation, and have stronger political significance.
Specifically, Luo Zhixue personally prefers Jinling City.
After all, the economic conditions along the Yangtze River are relatively good, with Huguang and Jiangnan. As long as these two places are managed well, the foundation of the Chu Empire will not be lost.
Even if one day the frontline is defeated, Luo Zhixue is sure to use the money, food and human resources along the Yangtze River to arm a large army in a short time to continue the war.
At the same time, if Jinling City is established as the capital, it can further stimulate the development of the shipping industry, industry and commerce, especially the development of maritime transportation, and lay the foundation for subsequent overseas colonization and the start of industrialization.
Another aspect is that the current basic base of the Chu Empire is in the north of Chu, and the follow-up will be Huguang, and in the mid-term it will definitely be the areas along the Yangtze River, including Jiangnan.
It is also very necessary to set the capital in the base camp.
Compared with Jinling City, Youzhou has the advantage of being able to better control the northern region, especially when it comes to fighting with the grassland peoples.
However, the material consumption will be very large, and the consumption of national power will also be very large.
Why the scale of water transportation in the Ming and Qing dynasties was so large was not because the capital was in Youzhou, and a large amount of materials, especially grain and grass, had to be transported from the south to the north, which cost a lot.
And it’s freezing cold!
It's very cold in Youzhou City these days, and there's no air conditioning or anything.
Now is the Little Ice Age, and the Little Ice Age will last for a long time. At least Luo Zhixue will not see the end of the Little Ice Age in his lifetime, unless he can live for more than two hundred years.
And Luo Zhixue doesn't want to spend the rest of his life wearing thick clothes and facing the stove when autumn first comes.
The climate in Jinling City is much better. There are four distinct seasons throughout the year, with light rain in spring, scorching sun in midsummer, and falling leaves in autumn and snow in winter!
When Jiangnan is conquered, Luo Zhixue will directly move the capital to Jinling City.
As for places like Huguang, Wuchang, and Youzhou in North Zhili, they can establish direct-governed prefectures in due course.
Not only Wuchang and Youzhou, but also places like Guangzhou in the south, Chang'an in the west, and Chengdu in Sichuan can all have direct-governed prefectures.
Used to strengthen political, military and economic control.
In the end, Luo Zhixue felt that it was unnecessary for the emperor to guard the country's gates and the emperor to personally guard the borders.
With that free time, Luo Zhixue can manage the Yangtze River Basin well, and it would be better if he pushes an army of 1.8 million people across it...
Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, stayed in Jinling City and launched an expedition to the north, still overthrowing Meng Yuan.
Chongzhen screamed so loudly in Youzhou that he didn't hang himself.
Regardless of whether to defend or expand, strong national power is the kingly way, and everything else is a trivial way.
In a few decades, when Luo Zhixue builds railways and other things, let alone the north, maybe the army of the Chu Empire will be able to fight all the way to the English Channel.
If the emperor really wants to guard the country, then Luo Zhixue will have to move the capital to Paris...
Isn’t that nonsense!
Luo Zhixue had already made up his mind on the matter of the capital. When he entered the city today, he just made a symbolic remark to show off.
After crossing the city gate, Luo Zhixue went straight to the Chu Palace under the escort of a large number of soldiers.
Of course, the current Chu Palace has been converted into an imperial palace. Several other Ming vassal palaces under the control of the Chu Empire, such as Xiangyang Palace, Jing Palace, etc., all serve as palaces.
The Prince of Chu's Mansion is a royal palace built based on the model of the Imperial Palace in Jinling City. It has all kinds of buildings, so it is quite suitable to be used as a royal palace.
After entering the palace, Luo Zhixue held a banquet in the palace that night and entertained all the ministers to reward his civil and military officials for their hard work in crossing the Yangtze River and attacking the city.
Early the next morning, Luo Zhixue began to wash and dress under Hou Yunmeng's service.
It was said that Hou Yunmeng was waiting for her, but in fact Hou Yunmeng only talked and occasionally took some clothes. It was the palace ladies who were familiar with the clothes and served them.
After all, Hou Yunmeng is no longer the ordinary little palace maid she was before, but was awarded the title of talented person by Luo Zhixue.
Despite the fact that Cai Ren is considered a low-level title in the harem concubine hierarchy established by the Great Chu Empire.
But this is already the highest-level harem title in Da Chu's harem.
The reason is also very simple, Luo Zhixue is not married yet!
