The Xiannong Altar in Jinling City of the Great Chu Empire is located in the southern suburbs. This place was originally the Xiannong Altar during the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, built the Xiannong Altar here and performed the plowing ceremony here.
Subsequently, Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Di both held the emperor's personal plowing ceremony in this Xiannong altar until Zhu Di officially moved the capital to Youzhou City.
But later, after more than a hundred years of neglect, this place was no longer what it used to be.
After the Chu Empire established its capital in Jinling City, in the first year due to time constraints, it only repaired the previous dilapidated buildings. In the second year, it was completely demolished and started all over again, and a brand new Xiannong Altar was designed and built.
The building structure changed from a civil structure to a brick structure, and many ancillary buildings were built at the same time, such as the main hall for the emperor to change clothes and rest, and the main hall for a group of ministers to change clothes and rest, which is dedicated to storing various items for the plowing ceremony. The main hall for growing farm tools and so on.
The reason why there are so many buildings, and their purpose is not only to serve the emperor, but also to serve the ministers, this is because the emperor’s personal plowing ceremony is not just about the emperor farming by himself... in fact, the emperor brings a vote The ministers farmed together.
The number of participants reached dozens of people... This was below a certain level, and they were not even qualified to be at the top, let alone farming with the emperor.
The emperor's personal plowing ceremony began in many feudal dynasties in the past and has continued to the present. It has evolved into a very important political ceremony.
At present, the emperor's plowing ceremony in the Chu Empire is an important occasion comparable to the annual Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival state banquet. They are both very rare. The important ceremony held by hundreds of officials is not only about plowing, but also includes a series of sacrificial activities.
The overall scene is very serious and symbolically significant.
The emperor's own plowing reflects the great Chu Empire's emphasis on farming and mulberry farming, and on people's livelihood... Because everything else can be done without, but people cannot live without food. From this, we can see the importance of farming and mulberry affairs.
In the Da Chu Empire, it seemed that there was a lot of industry and commerce, but in fact, the Da Chu Empire attached great importance to a series of primary industries such as agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishery, far more than the traditional feudal dynasty!
You can even simply think that the ultimate goal of the Da Chu Empire's series of external expansion actions is to obtain land and then obtain more food.
This is also the reason why the Chu Empire’s series of behaviors during its external expansion were completely different from those of European colonists.
The colonial activities of European colonists were to obtain economic benefits... But the overseas expansion of the Chu Empire was not so vain. It was purely to obtain more food and economic crops, and the economy Crops can also be regarded as food to a certain extent, because a large amount of imported cash crops can allow domestic land to grow food instead of cash crops, thereby ensuring domestic food security.
Then there are the various water conservancy and flood control and irrigation measures that have never been slacked off in the more than 30 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Year after year, huge funds have been invested in the construction of various water conservancy and flood control irrigation measures. The ultimate goal is to obtain more food... Among them is the super-large project of artificial diversion of the Yellow River.
Therefore, no matter what kind of industry and commerce the Great Chu Empire is engaged in, in fact, the most important thing in its heart is agriculture and animal husbandry, the primary industries.
After all, gold and silver don’t fill your stomach!
The only thing that can fill your stomach is food!
Therefore, in overseas trade, even if you make money in the end, a considerable part of the funds will be used to import grain and various cash crops.
Grain and cash crops are currently the largest bulk of goods imported from overseas in the Chu Empire, and they account for a very high proportion.
The Chu Empire, which attached so much importance to food security, naturally also attached great importance to the political occasion of the emperor personally farming.
Early in the morning, Luo Zhixue set out from the palace with the prince, dozens of imperial ministers, and more than a hundred high-ranking nobles who were qualified to attend.
Luo Zhixue rode in a royal golden carriage, flanked by dozens of imperial guards from the Imperial Palace riding tall horses like Jinling horses.
These royal guards all wore shining breastplates... and sabers, and looked fully armed... Of course, the breastplates they wore were just fake... they looked shiny, but in fact they were very thin.
Not only them, there are also the First Cavalry Regiment of the Guards who serve as guards and the emperor's guard of honor. The half-body plate armor they wear is also just a look-alike... very thin!
Plate armor has gradually withdrawn from the equipment sequence of the Chu army's regular army. Especially after single-shot breech-loading rifles and breech-loading artillery began to be equipped in batches, the Chu army equipped with new breech-loading guns now does not even have a queue. Play, start playing skirmishers... Who would wear extremely heavy armor on the battlefield?
But in ceremonial occasions, armor still exists, just to make it easier for soldiers to wear... After all, soldiers need to wear ceremonial armor and stand guard for a long time, so they simply created this kind of ceremonial armor... It's armor, not to mention decoration.
Behind and behind the royal carriage were more than a hundred imperial ministers and high-ranking nobles, who were also riding forward in four-wheeled carriages.
Further out, there were a group of mid-level officials and nobles on foot.
Then there is a large number of Guards soldiers who serve as escorts and honor guards, including the 1st Cavalry Regiment and an infantry regiment.
The huge procession started from the palace and headed all the way to Xiannongtan in the southern suburbs.
After arriving at the Xiannong Altar, Luo Zhixue went to one of the main halls to rest for a while, and at the same time changed into the royal robe, the imperial robe that the emperor only wore on major occasions such as sacrifices.
Then there are the sacrificial activities!
After the sacrifice, we came to the special land cultivated by the emperor himself... The land cultivated by the emperor himself was no more and no less, just one-third of an acre.
This land also has a history... Zhu Yuanzhang was the emperor who cultivated it here.
Although almost all the buildings in Xiannongtan are newly built, the land remains unchanged and remains the same as before.
After everything was ready, Luo Zhixue began to help the plow, and the nine most prominent ministers of the empire, namely the nine counselors, each performed their duties, including those who led the cows, those who sow the seeds behind, and those who fertilized...
At the same time, there were more than 20 co-organizing ministers scattered throughout the fields, pretending to do other things!
As for the others... they are all outside the fields. They are not qualified to work with the emperor, so they can only watch from the outside.
The emperor's own plowing was a ritual, not real farming. After Luo Zhixue helped the plow back and forth three times, it was declared that the emperor was over... The emperor left first, then the counselors left, and the last vote of co-organizers also left!
Of course, after they leave, there will be professional agricultural researchers here to carry out full sowing, follow-up fertilization and watering, etc. In the autumn, Luo Zhixue will bring the ministers to harvest... After the autumn harvest, There will be an autumn court meeting.
At the autumn court meeting, food will be distributed to the emperor and his ministers... This food is grown in this one-third of an acre of land cultivated by the emperor himself.
After the plowing ceremony, Luo Zhixue returned with a vote of ministers!
The whole process seems to be quite simple, but in fact, for this kind of ceremonial occasion, the whole process is actually very complicated, and it takes a long time.
By the way, at the same time, Queen Wang also took a group of court wives to the silkworm altar in the northern suburbs to perform sacrifices and silkworm ceremony, including picking three mulberry leaves... and finally symbolic spinning. However, the spinning machine used is not an ancient spinning machine, but a new hand spinning machine that started the industrial revolution of the empire thirty years ago.
In this way, the emperor personally plowed the southern suburbs, and the queen personally cultivated the northern suburbs. ,
It is an ancient tradition that has lasted for thousands of years in China, and it is not exempt from the custom in the Chu Empire.
After a series of various ceremonies, Luo Zhixue returned to the palace and summoned the ministers for a small court meeting... and imposed some blockades on the meritorious personnel in agriculture... Of course, this was also ceremonial, with various rewards. , promotion, etc. have been finalized long ago, and the parties involved have known about it and made preparations for it. Today is just a public announcement.
This is to further reflect the emphasis on agriculture.
Similarly, the queens and queens in the harem also rewarded some court wives...the court wives they rewarded were actually the wives or mothers of ministers who had made meritorious services in agricultural affairs and received rewards and promotions in the previous dynasty.
In many aspects, the Chu Empire was actually very traditional, especially in ceremonial matters, which basically followed tradition.
Even what he shouts about every day is benevolence and filial piety, self-proclaimed to build the country with filial piety and govern the country with benevolence...
After all, this involves some philosophical concepts about the distinction between monarch and minister. When you deny benevolence and filial piety, you basically deny a set of traditional feudal traditions that have been passed down for more than a thousand years.
This is about the sacred issue of monarchy, not just about benevolence and filial piety.
As a monarchical empire, even though the Great Chu Empire was founded by bandits, in fact the Great Chu Empire has always cared very much about these seemingly frivolous things.
And never forget to promote it.
I just don’t know how many people believe it. Anyway, those natives must have different opinions on the benevolence and filial piety of the Great Chu Empire.
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After the emperor's personal plowing ceremony ended, it also meant that various places in China have gradually entered the spring plowing period.
The Da Chu Empire has a vast territory, and the spring plowing period is actually different in each place. For example, in the southern region, it is obviously warmer and spring comes earlier, and then spring plowing begins.
But in the northern region, the weather will get warmer later. For example, if rice is planted in the northeast, the sowing time will be later than in the south.
Relatively speaking, however, most areas in the heart of the Empire begin planting around February or March.
Therefore, various places will also hold spring plowing ceremonies organized by the government during this time, and then start spring plowing.
In the Chu Empire, not only did the emperor plow the land, but local officials also held spring plowing ceremonies. In addition to the participation of officials, local gentry, celebrities, and old farmers were also invited to participate.
This is also a very old traditional activity.
Even Songjiang Prefecture, which has extremely developed industry and commerce and has become a standard modern metropolis, is no exception... The local prefect also held a spring plowing ceremony in the suburbs!
Except for some officials or business leaders who were related to agriculture, most of those who attended the spring plowing ceremony actually had nothing to do with agriculture.
For example, Wang Liqing...he was invited to participate in the spring plowing ceremony of Songjiang Prefecture this year.
Frankly speaking, Wang Liqing is engaged in spinning... he is a serious industrial person, and his wife is a rent collector and a restaurant owner, and the property for which the rent is collected is not farmland, but a residential or residential building in the city. commercial estate.
To be honest, the Wang family and his wife really have nothing to do with agriculture...
Of course, if you insist on saying that cotton is used for spinning, and cotton is also a crop and belongs to the agricultural category, then Wang Liqing will not bother to argue with you.
It's a pity that Wang Liqing was still invited to participate in the spring plowing ceremony.
It’s not just him. In fact, most of the people who come are various dignitaries or business leaders who have nothing to do with agriculture... Damn, there are even several people from the financial industry coming this year.
God knows how these financial people got connected with agriculture.
But this is not important. What is important is that the plowing ceremony with the Emperor is an important ceremonial occasion in the political arena of the Chu Empire. The spring plowing ceremony in Songjiang Mansion is also the most solemn political and business meeting in Songjiang Mansion in a year!
Songjiang Prefect and other senior local officials will take this opportunity to bring many entrepreneurs together. In addition to preaching policies and listening to the opinions of entrepreneurs, what is more important is to give the heads of these enterprises a large-scale communication platform to promote various business cooperation.
This can be regarded as the Songjiang Prefecture area’s adaptation to local conditions during the spring plowing ceremony!
After all, if you really only talk about agriculture, in fact, although agriculture still exists in Songjiang Prefecture, the economic output is far less than industry and commerce.
After all, Songjiang Prefecture's own agriculture is actually mainly to supply local consumption, and a large proportion of economic crops are planted.
After all, there is a megacity with a population of more than three million, which requires a huge amount of food, fresh vegetables and fruits to be consumed every day.
Although grain is not very shelf-stable and can easily become moldy and deteriorate after a few years, there is absolutely no problem if it is stored for a year and a half. Therefore, grain can be transported from outside or even purchased from overseas.
But vegetables and fruits are very difficult, because these things go bad easily and their storage time is too short.
In the contemporary Dachu Empire, there is currently no large-scale cheap insurance technology, which results in the shelf life of vegetables and fruits being too short. It is not bad in winter. The weather is cold, which is equivalent to having a natural refrigerator to keep you fresh.
But other times, especially in the summer, there's nothing you can do.
But more than three million people have to eat vegetables and fruits, and the consumption power of the population in these cities is very strong. Songjiang Prefecture is not only the first industrial city in the Chu Empire, but it is also the largest consumer city. The population of many cities is devouring and consuming massive amounts of materials every moment.
In order to supply the demand for vegetables and fruits in urban areas, and also to further increase the income of farmers in suburban and other areas, farmland in Songjiang suburban areas is generally mainly used for growing vegetables and fruits, but less for growing food.
Although there are still large areas of farmland in other places, and the overall food output is quite high... but the economic output is far less than that of industry.
Therefore, in Songjiang Prefecture, agriculture is just the younger brother, while industry and commerce are the big head.
This has also led to the fact that even in occasions such as spring plowing ceremonies where agriculture and mulberry are valued, many entrepreneurs who have nothing to do with agriculture sneak in and participate in exchange meetings.
Wang Liqing was no exception. He walked around throughout the day and met a lot of people. In particular, he was taken to get to know the head office of Songjiang Branch of Hantian Machinery Company.
He had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time...but after being introduced to him for a few words, he was squeezed out...
Because the people around him are the same as him, if they want to meet the big guys and build relationships, no matter what, they have to look familiar...
Why?
Because the equipment of Hantian Machinery Company is a hot commodity, especially their new spinning machine, which is now a real fragrant machine. If you have money, you have to wait in line for three years!
(End of chapter)
