If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 238 Shuntian Palace

Lan Qier did not say what choice she would make. After passing through Xifengkou, the Ming army arrived at the foot of Beiping City after a few days' march.

At this point, the imperial court's northern expedition has come to a successful end, and this army can be disbanded on the spot and return to their respective places of origin.

Of course, the imperial troops from the Beijing camp still have to follow the emperor, but they don't need to follow so many people. A considerable part of the Beijing camp troops will return to Nanjing first.

After all, Zhu Di planned to stay in Peiping for a while. It was impossible for the imperial court to maintain such a large army all the time. Not only would the finances be overwhelmed, but the soldiers would also be war-weary.

So after the army arrived in Peiping, the first thing Zhu Di did was to disband the army and return to their original garrison. The same was true for the Forbidden Army. Only the Yanshan Three Guards, Three Thousand Battalion and Shenji Battalion, as well as the Jinyi Guards, were left around. All other armies took advantage of Tianjin, sailed southward by sea or canal, and returned to Nanjing.

The emperor wanted to stay in Peiping, which was a very troublesome thing for the court.

After all, although it would take a few days to get there from Nanjing to Peking by speedboat along the canal, this would undoubtedly add a lot of unnecessary expenses to the court.

Not to mention anything else, since the emperor is stationed in Peiping, everything in Peiping must be carried out in accordance with the emperor's requirements. In addition to visiting, all kinds of memorials and documents that need to be read by the emperor must be sent to Peiping as quickly as possible. For the emperor to deal with.

In the past, when the emperor was fighting outside, these things could be left to the prince who was in charge of the country. But now that the war is over and the emperor has returned to the country, government affairs will naturally be returned to the emperor's hands.

However, Zhu Di is obviously not a diligent emperor like his father Zhu Yuanzhang, so most of the government affairs are still handled by Zhu Gaochi in Nanjing. Zhu Di only receives the various government affairs that Zhu Gaochi has handled and checks whether the various instructions are appropriate. That’s all.

In fact, even if Zhu Di is in Nanjing, Zhu Gaochi is still basically doing everything. Zhu Gaochi has already been in charge of the Ming Dynasty.

After all, it has long been known to everyone in the court that more than half of the officials in the imperial court came from the disciples of the Prince of the East Palace. In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor could no longer speak as easily as the prince.

Just like before the Northern Expedition, the emperor said that he wanted to fight, but the prince said that if he didn't have the money, the battle would not be successful.

Of course, Zhu Di could still forcefully suppress Zhu Gaochi's objections if he wanted to, but this was a last resort option for Zhu Di.

After all, the majority of the ministers in the court supported the prince. It was also true that the court had no money before the Northern Expedition. Otherwise, there would be no need for Zhu Zhanjuan to come forward to borrow money from businessmen to raise military expenses.

All in all, with the prince supervising the country in Nanjing, Zhu Di lived a very happy life in Peiping.

Zhu Di felt comfortable living in the former Prince Yan's Mansion. No one bothered him here with various government affairs, allowing him to reminisce about his days as Prince Yan to his heart's content.

For Zhu Di, if there was any time that was the most comfortable in his life, it might have been the days when he was the King of Yan before Zhu Yuanzhang died.

At that time, he didn't need to worry about state affairs, he only needed to consider how to manage the affairs of the King of Yan, and the only thing that the King of Yan needed to worry about, as the King of Yan, was fighting.

This is exactly what Zhu Di likes. Zhu Di, who has determined to be a general in his life, is passionate about war.

So this is exactly the life Zhu Di likes.

Especially at that time, Empress Xu was still there, and the three sons around her were also brothers and sisters. Their relationship was not as stiff as when they fell out over the position of crown prince. It can be said that the Yan Palace was really happy and harmonious.However, Jianwen's reduction of vassal status after he succeeded to the throne completely forced Zhu Di to a dead end, and he only escaped disaster by pretending to be crazy and acting stupid. Then, as everyone knew, Jingnan launched an army.

As to whether Zhu Di had ambitions or was forced to do nothing, perhaps only Zhu Di himself knows this.

But no matter what, the world has returned to Zhu Di, and he is already Emperor Yongle, no longer the King of Yan.

Walking in the familiar city of Peiping, Zhu Di's face was full of nostalgia. After all, this was the place where he had lived the longest as an adult. He had long been accustomed to life in this city and was familiar with everything in the city.

This made Zhu Di always have an idea when he succeeded to the throne, and wanted to move the capital of the Ming Dynasty to Peking.

After all, Nanjing was not a suitable capital. It had already been revealed as early as Zhu Yuanzhang's time. Otherwise, Zhu Yuanzhang would not have built Fengyang as the central capital. Later, he sent Prince Zhu Biao to inspect various places many times to see where it was suitable to move the capital.

It's a pity that Zhu Biao died early, and the matter of moving the capital of Ming Dynasty was shelved. It was not until Zhu Di succeeded to the throne that it was put on the agenda again.

For Zhu Di, he was not as hesitant as his father. The Yongle Dynasty was also richer than the Hongwu Dynasty, so since he succeeded to the throne, Zhu Di had been planning to move the capital.

In the first year of Yongle, when Zhu Di took over the throne, he designated Peiping as Beiping Prefecture, changed Beiping Prefecture to Shuntian Prefecture, and recruited the population to enrich Shuntian Prefecture.

In the fourth year of Yongle, Zhu Di sent people to build Beiping and strengthen the city defense. At the same time, he also expanded the original Yan Palace to make it meet the requirements of the imperial palace.

In the seventh year of Yongle, Zhu Di used Beiping as his base for the northern expedition. At the same time, he began to build Changling in Changping near Beiping.

In the eighth year of Yongle's reign, after returning to the army from his personal expedition, Zhu Di temporarily ordered a meeting to open up the river and open up water transportation from the north to the south.

At this point, all preparations for the imperial court to move the capital from Nanjing to Peiping have been completed. All Zhu Di lacked was an opportunity.

Now that the army has returned from the northern expedition, Zhu Di temporarily stayed in Peiping. This actually sent a very bad signal to the court, that is, Zhu Di did not want to return to Nanjing.

After all, at this time, Prince Yan's Mansion had already expanded most of the palaces, and had begun to take on the style of the Forbidden City in later generations. Zhu Di's plan to move the capital was to move the imperial court from Nanjing.

However, historically Zhu Di was not in a hurry to move the capital. It was not until the 14th year of Yongle that he began to propose moving the capital. He also eliminated officials who opposed the move of the capital one by one, paving the way for the move of the capital. It was not until the 18th year of Yongle that he officially moved the capital. Moved from Nanjing to Peiping, and changed Peking to be the capital.

It's just that the work of moving the capital may be done slowly, but Zhu Di's determination to move the capital has already been made.

What he is not sure about now is whether there will be many objections in the court and whether forcibly moving the capital will be detrimental to the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty.

After all, with the establishment of the Qi Luck Compass, all Ming Dynasty decrees had to consider their impact on the national destiny, and Zhu Di was not immune.

In this regard, Zhu Zhanyu was undoubtedly a good information target, so Zhu Di asked Zhu Zhanyu about the issue of moving the capital and wanted to hear his opinion.

(End of this chapter)