My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 329: Maoling City in one step!
"Regarding Maoling, grandson, I actually have some plans that I want to report to the Empress Dowager."

Since the topic of imperial mausoleums and mausoleum towns came up, Liu Rong naturally followed the topic and wanted to tell Empress Dowager Dou about his general plan for his own mausoleum town, Maoling Town.

From the perspective of later generations, this incident is actually very magical.

A feudal emperor discussed with his grandmother, the Empress Dowager, who also held imperial power but was older, how to use his own death and where he would rest after his death...

It's a bit outrageous no matter how you look at it.

After all, in the inherent cognition of most later generations, the ancients, especially the ancient nobles, were actually very taboo about talking about death.

In fact, let alone ancient China which is more than 2,000 years away from later generations - even in the 20th century, the eve of a new era, except for martyrdom and death, any topic about death is still closely tied to the word "unlucky".

What's more, even in the new China of the 21st century, there are still many superstitious people who adhere to this taboo.

The most exaggerated thing is that homestays in some areas actually avoid using the number four because of its homophony!

Why not buy a house on the fourth floor?
Don't start with four when giving gifts~
The license plate should not contain the number four, which can be said to be "comprehensive".

This is still the case in the new era, let alone the Han Dynasty which was still in a backward and ignorant civilization stage more than two thousand years ago.

In fact, the vast majority of people in the Han Dynasty today are also very secretive about similar topics.

And this taboo is the same as in every dynasty in China: from bottom to top!

The more prominent a person's status is, the more serious the taboos are!

The lower-class farmers may just be afraid to mention the word 'death';

For lesser nobles, the taboo is expanded to include all words that sound like "death".

As for the top nobles, it has even reached the point where any words with similar meanings, or even the homophones of these words, are best not mentioned.

Just like the word "gu", it means the past, the past, but also means the dead.
Therefore, before the nobility, this word is often used very cautiously, and it is not used until it is absolutely necessary - unless the intention cannot be accurately expressed without using this word, and the relationship between the two parties in communication is good enough and there will be no conflict because of it, otherwise the word "therefore" should never be used.

The word "therefore" is like this, and other words such as "death" and "death" are naturally even worse.

In fact, this is true not only for the Han Dynasty today, but for every dynasty in ancient Chinese history.

Superstitions and taboos about this kind of thing may vary in depth, but it is the same: the higher you go up the pyramid, the deeper the taboo.

But within this category, the current Han Dynasty is an obvious outlier.

——Unlike most feudal dynasties: the emperor of the Han Dynasty never hesitated to talk about death!
For example, Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, was obviously from the same era as Qin Shihuang, but when faced with the word death, he remained calm and indifferent, which was completely opposite to the first emperor.

As the First Emperor grew older, he began to do everything he could to seek immortality and medicine to prolong his life.

When Liu Bang was on his deathbed in his later years, he cursed the imperial physician who lied and said "I can cure Your Majesty" because he was worried about being blamed: "Birth, aging, illness and death are the laws of nature. Do you think I don't understand this principle?"

Facing the arrival of death, Liu Bang faced it calmly and did his best to arrange everything for his successor: Liu Xiaohui, and his beloved son Liu Ruyi.

The same was true of the later Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, Liu Heng.

This saintly king, whose power was greater than his fame, left a stain in history books of "not caring about the common people but asking ghosts and gods", but he also remained completely calm when facing death.

It was precisely because of his calmness in facing death that when Emperor Wen of Han, Liu Heng, died at the age of 47, he left behind a middle-aged emperor who had been a crown prince for 22 years and was already over 30 years old, with full wings and extremely sophisticated political skills: Emperor Xiaojing Liu Qi.

In addition to arranging a successor, Liu Heng even left a will to tell the world: People eat grains and cereals, and they will inevitably grow old, get sick and die. This is the way of heaven and cannot be avoided.
I am of low moral character, I have done nothing in my life and have made no contribution to the world. My funeral should be frugal and my burial objects should not include gold, stone, pearls or jade.

A person who cannot face death calmly cannot arrange - or even "handle" his or her own affairs after death in such a calm manner.

It can only be said that in the face of the word death, the emperors of the Han Dynasty - especially those in the first half of the Western Han Dynasty - basically achieved a calmness that most feudal emperors could not achieve.

How calm are you?

——Not only are they not afraid or taboo, and do not have unrealistic fantasies about immortality, they even think about using their own death and the special status of feudal emperors after their death to benefit the regime!
The specific means of making profits is the mausoleum town system that originated from Emperor Taizu Gaohuangdi Liu Bang and has been continuously improved to this day.

Indeed, the foundation of the mausoleum system is an imperial mausoleum that is built from the time the emperor ascends the throne until his death - the construction will continue for as many years as the emperor is in power.

The manpower, time, and material costs involved are obviously a huge expense.

In addition, there is a city that needs to be built within a short period of time after the emperor ascends the throne and immediately accommodate tens of thousands of "rich people".

You have to know that the total population of Chang'an City today is only 300,000!
And this Han capital Chang'an, which can accommodate 300,000 people, is 100% the largest, most magnificent, most densely populated and most populous city on the entire earth at this time!

It took the first Shaofu of the Han Dynasty, Wuhou Yang Chengyan, thirteen years to build such a city of Chang'an.

However, the mausoleum town system was required to accommodate the mausoleum towns that were forcibly migrated from Kanto, but there was simply not enough time to build them.

——Liu Bang, the Emperor Taizu Gao, ascended the throne in the fifth year of the Han Dynasty, i.e. 202 BC;
In the ninth year of the Han Dynasty, that is, in 198 BC, the proposal of "strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches" by the Zhong Daifu Lou Jing was approved by Liu Bang. The first batch of local tyrants in Guandong and nobles of the former six kingdoms were forcibly moved to Guanzhong.

But during this period, the Han Dynasty did not have the spare capacity to build a mausoleum or a city specifically for these 100,000 people.

After all, the Han Dynasty at this time did not even have the military funds to quell the rebellion of the princes of different surnames, and had to resort to the method of "printing money", that is, issuing unlimited amounts of three-zhu coins, sacrificing social and economic order in exchange for funds to quell the rebellion.

Therefore, this first batch of immigrants from Guandong were concentrated near Liu Bang's imperial tomb: Chang'an, and settled in an area like ordinary villages.

During the reign of Emperor Xiaohui, the Han dynasty, having freed itself from the continuous wars, was able to restart the construction of its capital, Chang'an.

It was not until the reign of Empress Dowager Lü - or even in her later years, that is, in 182 BC - that the court in Chang'an officially issued an order: to build the Changling Mausoleum.

No one knows how long it took the then Han Shaofu to build Changling Town.

But just two years after the decree of "Cheng Changling" was issued, Empress Dowager Lu died in Changle Palace;
What followed was the Lü Rebellion, and the princes and ministers joined forces to punish the Lü clan.

By the time King Dai Liu Heng succeeded to the throne, the immigrants from Guandong who had been scattered around Changling were now surrounded by the four walls of Changling.

In other words, the construction of Changling City took only two years of the Han Shaofu at most.

Almost immediately after Emperor Taizong ascended the throne, that is, in the first year of his reign, he began to build the Ba Mausoleum: Ba ​​Mausoleum.

As for Ba Ling Yi, it was not until the sixth year of Emperor Taizong's reign, in 174 BC, when Chen Ping died and Zhou Bo stepped down, that construction began. Three years later, Ba Ling Yi was completed.

The Yangling town of Emperor Xiaojing Liu Qi was established at about the same time.

——From the first year of Emperor Jing’s reign, the construction of Yangling and Yangling Town began at the same time. By the third year of Emperor Jing’s reign, Yangling Town had just finished pacifying the Wu-Chu Rebellion.
The Chang'an court, taking advantage of the power to suppress the rebellion, moved a group of local tyrants from Guandong who should have been moved to Guanzhong long ago to Yangling Town.

Although the decree was issued, it took some time for Guandong to return to stability after the rebellion was quelled. The subsequent promotion of the "Plan to Reduce the Feudal Servants" also occupied most of the attention of the Chang'an court, which delayed this batch of mausoleum immigrants for two years.

This delay lasted until Emperor Xiaojing passed away, and Liu Rong was enthroned as the current emperor...

In fact, as early as the beginning of his reign, Liu Rong should have issued an edict as soon as possible: to launch the Yanglingyi immigration plan that had been delayed by the court that year, and at the same time start the construction of Liu Rong's imperial tomb and mausoleum town.

However, since he ascended the throne, Liu Rong has devoted most of his energy to the war with the Huns.

Now that they had finally won a real victory and gained a certain degree of strategic initiative, Liu Rong had the energy and naturally had to start dealing with this matter.

There is nothing much to say about migrating to Yanglingyi as soon as possible.

Yangling City had been built long ago and all affairs had been settled long ago. Liu Rong had no intention of making changes and had no room for maneuver.

But Liu Rong felt that there was great potential for his own city of Maoling.

Again, the same thing;
The emperors of the Han Dynasty not only did not shy away from talking about death, they even wanted to use their own deaths to benefit the ancestral temples and the country.

If the native Han emperor was like this, it was impossible for Liu Rong, a visitor from later generations, to have a lower level of awareness than his ancestors of this era.

Thus, a mausoleum town plan that was somewhat shameless but could bring tangible benefits to the Han family and serve as a model for future monarchs appeared in Liu Rong's mind.

However, this plan was somewhat explosive even among the angry Emperor of Han.

Therefore, Liu Rong needed to communicate with the other "emperor" of the Han Dynasty, Empress Dowager Dou, in advance to inform her.

To prevent Liu Rong from scaring the old lady and causing unnecessary misunderstandings when he performs the operation in the future...

"My grandson's idea is that Maoling Town can make some changes that are different from Changling Town, Baling Town, and Yangling Town."

"For example, the mausoleum towns in the past were all like the imperial mausoleums - they were built from the time the Han emperor ascended the throne until the Han emperor passed away, and their scale continued to expand."

"There is nothing wrong with the imperial mausoleum being like this;"

"But it is indeed somewhat inappropriate for Lingyi to be like this."

"——A city that is built in one shape at the beginning and then expanded over time can never be as big as one that was built directly from the beginning."

"So, what grandson meant was to get it right in one step!"

"Maoling City should have been built to accommodate 200,000 people from the beginning, rather than 50,000 people and then expanded again and again."

After putting forward his first idea, Liu Rong paused at the right time, leaving the old empress dowager enough time to think and digest it.

It was just as Liu Rong expected - after hearing what he said, especially the number of 'accommodating two hundred thousand people', the old empress dowager's already dim and turbid eyes instinctively showed a hint of doubt.

A city that can accommodate two hundred thousand people!
What concept?
Once such a city is built, it will be the second largest city in the entire known world - the entire heaven and earth, the entire earth, second only to the Han capital Chang'an, and basically on par with the Eastern capital Luoyang!
Different from Chang'an City which is half imperial palace and half residential area, and Luoyang where most of the residents are lower class people, this Maoling City will accommodate 200,000 people from all over the country, all of whom are extremely wealthy and give headaches to local counties. They are powerful and wealthy families that "even a two thousand stone official cannot govern"!

This is unprecedented in the history of the Han Dynasty and even in the entire history of China.

The Taizu Emperor Gaozu created Changling Town by "giving birth first and then building a nest", which can accommodate more than 100,000 people.

Today, there are only tens of thousands of permanent residents in the city, and the rest have either scattered outside the city near Changling Town or moved to the Chang'an area.

Emperor Taizong's Ba Ling Yi was built from the 9th year of Emperor Taizong's reign to the 27th year of Emperor Taizong's reign, and was expanded twice.

The capacity was increased from 30,000 people at the beginning to 70,000 people at the end.

But just like the theoretical human capacity of Changling Town, which is "100,000 people", Baling Town's 70,000 people is the theoretical limit capacity.

The actual permanent population of Baling Town was only between 40,000 and 50,000.

This is why people in later generations always say that the reign of Emperor Wen of Han was the most relaxed and comfortable period in the Western Han Dynasty.

It took a full twenty-seven years, but only forty to fifty thousand local tyrants from Guandong were relocated. Compared with Emperor Taizu Liu Bang's move of 100,000 people at one time - and it was "100,000 for the first batch, and the next batch will be decided later", it was undoubtedly a bit too merciful.

As for the Yangling Town of the late Emperor Xiaojing, it is even more exaggerated.

The maximum capacity is 50,000 people, and it has never been expanded, so the actual capacity is around 30,000 people.

Knowing these data, it is not difficult to find out why Empress Dowager Dou was so surprised by Liu Rong's proposal of "Maoling Town that can accommodate 200,000 people."

——Even if it is just the theoretical maximum capacity, which can accommodate 200,000 people, it still means that this Maoling city is at least equal to two Changling cities, three Baling cities that have undergone two expansions, or four Yangling cities!
If it were the actual human capacity, it would be even more exaggerated!

It can actually accommodate 200,000 people, and the theoretical maximum capacity is at least 300,000!

At least equal to six Yanglings!

For a moment, Empress Dowager Dou fell into a brief shock and a long period of contemplation.

From a practical point of view, Liu Rong's plan makes sense.

——Compared to first building a mausoleum that can accommodate 50,000 people, and then expanding it again and again, each time accommodating an additional 20,000 or 30,000 people, it is obviously a more cost-effective and straightforward way to build a mausoleum that can accommodate 200,000 people in one go.

But the crux of the matter is...

Liu Rong, can you live that long?
Can Liu Rong, who is now 21 years old, really live to see his own tomb, where 200,000 local tyrants from Guandong will be relocated?

What if Liu Rong died young in his twenties like Liu Ying, the Emperor Xiaohui? What would be the use of this mausoleum that could accommodate 200,000 people?
It is impossible for the next Han emperor to use the mausoleum of the current emperor - even until his own death, he would not be able to fill the mausoleum of the previous emperor...

(End of this chapter)