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

Chapter 239 The Proposal to Move the Capital
Moving the capital was a large-scale political event that lasted for more than 70 years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty and went through the six dynasties of Hongwu, Jianwen, Yongle, Hongxi, Xuande, and Zhengtong.

After all, it involves the relocation of the entire country's ruling center to the north, changes in the country's strategic defense, the views of the six generations of emperors on this matter, the attitudes of the two major groups of civil servants and Wu Xun in the court, etc...

To say it is a trivial matter is obviously not prudent.

Speaking of which, this matter is actually related to Zhu Yuanzhang's original decision to make Nanjing his capital.

Nanjing City was still called Jiqing Road at that time. After Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated the troops of Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang, he occupied this place and changed Jiqing Road to Yingtian. While calling himself King of Wu, he also established the core of his rule here.

After all, Nanjing was the largest and most prosperous city in Zhu Yuanzhang's hands at that time. After occupying this city, Zhu Yuanzhang's economic and military strength had been greatly improved, which also laid the foundation for his subsequent unification of the north and the south.

But it is obvious that Lao Zhu does not like the city of Nanjing. He has been planning to move the capital since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

After all, Nanjing City is located south of the Yangtze River. No unified Central Plains dynasty has ever set up its capital in such a southerly location. Although Nanjing City is also an ancient capital, it is not the capital of an orthodox Central Plains dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang only regarded Nanjing as a temporary capital at that time, and planned to move the capital to other places later.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang mainly considered the Guanzhong area and Fengyang, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown.

Among them, Fengyang was Lao Zhu's favorite, and he even built Fengyang for a time, and everything was built in accordance with the standards of the national capital.

However, due to a civil uprising during the construction process and Liu Bowen's dissuasion, Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to leave it alone. In addition to establishing Fengyang as the central capital of the Ming Dynasty, even the construction of Fengyang City was stopped.

After that, Zhu Yuanzhang made several moves to move the capital to Kaifeng, Chang'an and other places, but sending Prince Zhu Biao to investigate led to the prince's untimely death, and the capital move was delayed.

Later, it was Zhu Di who took the throne. He had been planning to move the capital since the beginning of his succession, and he carried it out unswervingly.

Unlike Zhu Yuanzhang, who was struggling with where to move the capital, Zhu Di chose Beijing as the new capital of the Ming Dynasty from the beginning.

In fact, Beijing has advantages as the capital of the Ming Dynasty. This is not just as simple as Zhu Di living in Beijing when he was King of Yan.

Beijing's predecessor was Dadu of the Yuan Dynasty. After it was conquered by Xu Da, it was renamed Peiping, and then became the residence of the King of Yan.

Based on the Ming Dynasty's recognition of the Mongol and Yuan Dynasty's orthodoxy, Yuan Dadu, as the old capital of the previous dynasty, could be directly established as the imperial capital of the new dynasty.

It's a pity that Xu Da only defeated Dadu nine months after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne as emperor in Nanjing, and missed the opportunity to become the imperial capital of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, the north was undecided at that time, and the Mongols could come back at any time. It was indeed unsafe to place the capital directly in the north.Therefore, Hongwu never considered moving the capital to Beijing.

And now Zhu Di has completed all the preparatory work for moving the capital to Beijing. The only thing missing is actually moving the capital here. In addition, now that he has returned from the Northern Expedition and just arrived in Beijing, he naturally has the idea of ​​​​moving the capital.

However, in the face of Zhu Di's consultation, Zhu Zhanquan recalled the analysis of the pros and cons of making the capital of the Ming Dynasty Beijing in later generations. After thinking about it, he said: "Moving the capital to Beijing will help bridge the north-south division that has occurred since the Southern Song Dynasty. This is a good thing. , which can allow our Ming Dynasty to truly unify the north and the south.

At the same time, placing the capital in the north can also better suppress the northern grassland tribes and strengthen the defense of the northern border. However, after we pacified the grassland and restored the King of Sai system, the issue of military defense in the northern border is no longer a problem. I am focusing on the key points, so this point can actually be ignored. "

Listening to Zhu Zhanyu's analysis, Zhu Di nodded slightly. Although Zhu Zhanyu did not express his support for moving the capital, Zhu Di still heard that Zhu Zhanyu was inclined to move the capital to Beijing, which made him feel very good.

However, what Zhu Zhanjun said next made Zhu Di feel a little embarrassed, because Zhu Zhanjun began to analyze the disadvantages of moving the capital to Beijing.

"To move the capital to Beijing, the first thing that must be resolved is the opposition in the imperial court. After all, the adults in the imperial court are accustomed to living a comfortable life in Nanjing. It is really torture to ask them to move to Beijing. "The first thing Zhu Zhanqi put out was not a particularly serious problem, but the Ming Dynasty's capital move would not go smoothly unless this problem was solved.

"I have expected this. If it doesn't work, I will use force. But I still have to think of a safer way, otherwise your father will definitely object." Zhu Di naturally understood this, although it was not possible to rely on imperial power to force him. No, but he still wants to be popular as the emperor.

"My father is definitely opposed to moving north, but the reason for his opposition should be finance and taxation." Zhu Zhanyu nodded affirmatively, and then explained: "The seven provinces in the south of the Yangtze River are the most important sources of fiscal revenue for our Ming Dynasty. Without the taxes from the seven provinces south of the Yangtze River, Ming Dynasty's finances would be unable to make ends meet.

Since the imperial capital is in Nanjing, it can naturally raise taxes more effectively and avoid problems in the fiscal and taxation areas in the south of the Yangtze River. This is probably my father's most insistent point against moving the capital.

In addition, he has a soft ear. As long as those civil servants tell him more about the shortcomings caused by moving the capital to the north and the fact that my father himself does not like Beijing, he will definitely be the core figure who opposes moving the capital.

Grandpa, if you want to move the capital to Beijing, it's impossible without solving my father's problem. "

Hearing what Zhu Zhanjun said, Zhu Di also felt a headache. After all, he knew what kind of temper his prince was, and if he really wanted to fight him, he would be asking for his own anger.

But Zhu Di was the emperor no matter what, so he rolled his eyes and said to Zhu Zhanyu: "Boy, that's your father, then go and solve it. Grandpa has entrusted this errand to you. You have to do it." Okay, from now on your title will be King Wu, and I will not take back your Tianjin fiefdom after the capital is moved.

But if you can't handle this job well, then you will be demoted to the rank of county king. Don't even think about the fiefdom of Tianjin. I will take it back directly. You can go back to Japan and stay there. If nothing happens, don't come back. "

Hearing what Zhu Di said, Zhu Zhanqi smiled indifferently: "Convince my father? Isn't this something that you can do with your hands?"

Zhu Zhanjun was not worried about Zhu Di's threat at all. Moving the capital to Beijing would be beneficial to the Ming Dynasty. As long as he stood on this point, it would not be difficult to convince Zhu Gaochi.

(End of this chapter)