Chapter 1212: Building a New Capital
The Imperial City of Chang'an has become particularly lively in recent days due to the Tang King's visit to the court. In particular, the Prime Minister's Mansion, which is the place where the Tang King works and receives guests, has been overcrowded in recent days.
Chang'an City is cramped and the planning is messy. This impression has not changed or become accustomed to Li Tai's longer and longer stay in this era. Instead, it has become more and more unbearable as time goes by. This is one of the reasons why he is not very willing to live in Chang'an City.
So after the beginning of this year, the first major thing he is going to do is to rebuild Chang'an City!
In history, in the second year after Yang Jian of the Northern Zhou Dynasty usurped the Zhou Dynasty and established the Sui Dynasty, he ordered the reconstruction of a new city on Longshouyuan in the southeast of the original Chang'an City because Chang'an City had been in disrepair for a long time and had many inconveniences. The new city was named Daxing City, which is the Sui and Tang Chang'an City known to later generations.
When Li Tai first came to Chang'an, he was quite disappointed to see this city, and he had the idea of rebuilding Chang'an City in his heart. However, at that time, he had not yet established a stable foothold in Guanzhong, and his influence was not important. Having such an idea was just a crazy thought in his mind, and he had no ability to complete it.
Later, his status and power rose rapidly until he officially replaced Yuwen Tai as the new overlord of Guanzhong, but at that time, the Western Wei regime had just suffered defeat and chaos, and people's livelihood was in decline, and they urgently needed to recuperate, so large-scale construction plans had to be postponed.
Now, a few years have passed, the people's livelihood in Guanzhong has been greatly restored, and the national strength of the Western Wei has made great progress in the past year. In addition, many people were captured and received in the war with the Northern Qi. A considerable number of these people are single and it is difficult to register them for household management, but at the same time they are a considerable labor force.
Although the war in the past year consumed a lot of Western Wei, it was mainly the materials in the treasury, and the materials in the private sector were still in a state of dormant storage. Although the government's purchase of rice last year has leveraged part of it, there is still great potential to be tapped.
Of course, there is another important reason, that is, there are still a large number of Tongzhi Wuzhu coins in the treasury, which need to flow into the people through some channels and enter the market for trading.
In short, after calculating all aspects of the conditions, Li Tai thought that it was now suitable to build a new Chang'an City, so he formally proposed this matter in the court meeting.
After hearing this, the court officials immediately responded enthusiastically, and the voices of approval were endless. It was not out of blind worship of the Tang King, but the living environment of Chang'an City was really known by anyone who lived there. It can't be said that people can't stand it at all, but if there is a choice, they will never choose to stay in Chang'an again.
After hearing this proposal, the emperor nodded in agreement. Today's Chang'an Great Wall not only gives him a real sense of oppression psychologically, but also in spatial physics.
Because Chang'an itself was built along the Wei River, the imperial city located in the northernmost part of Chang'an City is simply facing the Wei River. As the most important river in Guanzhong, the land on both sides of the Wei River was divided up by the powerful people in Guanzhong to build gardens and villas. It was inevitable that they had to dig canals to divert water to irrigate their respective lands, which caused the Wei River to become shallower. Every year, when the flood season rises slightly, the water in the Wei River may overflow, and the imperial city of Chang'an is the first to be affected.
Although Yuwen Tai and Li Tai have both dealt with the situation of the Wei River, the situation that Chang'an City is too close to the Wei River and its terrain is relatively low is difficult to change, so this phenomenon is only a temporary solution.
That is, Guanzhong also suffered a drought last year. The flood season of the Wei River is extremely short, otherwise the emperor would have to climb up to the high attic in the heavy rain to avoid the impact of the overflow of the Wei River.
Even the emperor and a group of court officials could not stand the living environment of Chang'an City. It is conceivable that the people in the city must have endured more hardships. If it were not for this capital household registration, I am afraid they would not be able to help but pack up their belongings and prepare to run away.
Therefore, after Li Tai proposed this proposal, it was quickly approved and entered the planning stage. During this process, the emperor also came to the Prime Minister's Mansion to express his suggestions on the construction of the new capital to Li Tai.
"Now the general trend and destiny are in my hands. I know that I still hold this honorable position, not for vanity, but to guard the treasury for the Tang king. In the future, the new capital will be built and the palace will be arranged. The Tang king can follow his own ideas and not take me into consideration. But if I can get this two-entry house in the new capital as the official residence of Henan County, so that I can live here and spend the rest of my life, I will be satisfied."
At this point, the emperor glanced at Li Tai's expression again, and then continued to explain carefully: "So I beg Henan County to be the place of food and fiefdom, because I think of my father's longing to return to Luoxia. Although I have no talent, I am blessed to be able to accomplish great things with the Tang king, so I ask to be placed in Henan to tell my father not to regret it anymore!"
"Your Majesty said that you will accomplish great things with me, which is a good idea. Building a new capital is also a major event for the country. When the city is completed in the future, your Majesty and I can live in the city for a long time!"
Looking at the emperor's cautious look, Li Tai smiled and said again.
Since the resolution to build a new capital has been passed, the next step is to formally plan the site selection and select the team members for the construction of the new capital.
There is nothing much to say about the site selection. Whether it is the actual geographical environment around Chang'an or Li Tai's own wishes, the south side of Longshouyuan is the best choice. After determining the location of the new city, the next step is specific survey and demarcation.
Although the historical Chang'an City has improved compared to the original Han and Wei Chang'an City, with the passage of time and the development of the city, many unreasonable site selections at the beginning of the city construction have also been revealed.
For example, the Taiji Palace, where the palace was located, was low-lying and humid, so it was necessary to choose another location to build the Daming Palace. It was not a big deal to build one more palace, but the layout of the Daming Palace was too prominent, which to a certain extent affected the political situation in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.
Moreover, because the Daxing City overemphasized the neutral pattern of heaven and man in the planning and construction, the overall city planning was relatively rigid, and its functionality was much inferior to the Eastern Capital Luoyang built during the Sui Yang Emperor's period.
Now that Li Tai was preparing to build Chang'an City, these pitfalls that had been stepped on by others must naturally be avoided. Therefore, after he put forward a general idea, he ordered the relevant officials to modify and improve it according to the actual situation.
Gao Jiong, who presided over the construction of Daxing City in history, was not qualified to preside over such a large-scale construction, and the other Yuwen Kai was simply still a baby, so Li Tai naturally had to reorganize the team.
He appointed his cousin Li Shicao as the construction ambassador, and appointed Cui Yansheng, the minister of the ministry, and Xue Shan, the minister of agriculture, as deputy envoys. He also selected officials who were good at construction inside and outside the palace to form a planning and construction team of more than 100 people, including his officials Li Xiaoyong and Zhao Jingzhi.
As for Gao Jiong, a cucumber egg, he was also arranged to be one of them. Although he was not qualified to be the host, he was flexible and there was no problem for him to be a chores. It was also a focused training.
When the team was formed, when everyone saw the conceptual map of the new city planned by Li Tai, which had hundreds of residential quarters and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, they couldn't help but stare at it for a while, a little bit unacceptable.
They knew that the King of Tang had always been bold and ambitious, but such an advanced plan still greatly exceeded their expectations. Is it necessary to build such a big city?
These people undoubtedly underestimated the vitality that could be generated by the great empire formed after the reunification of the world, and Li Tai had expected this.
So when everyone asked whether to reduce the scale of the new city, Li Tai waved his hand and refused without thinking. Although the historical Chang'an City had not been fully utilized after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was still very important to consider whether it was useful or not!
He could accept some changes in other details according to the actual situation, but the basic pattern of hundreds of thousands of houses like a chess board and twelve streets like vegetable beds could not be changed, and the city blocks should not be reduced as much as possible.
So under the framework he proposed, the construction workers began to work hard on the planning and improvement, and carefully calculated the amount of manpower and materials needed to build such a new city.
Of course, Li Tai also understood that the construction of such a large-scale new city could not be completed in one go or in a short time. He only proposed that the construction of the main body of the city and the main functional areas must be completed within the planned construction period. As for the construction of other areas, they can be supplemented in accordance with actual needs later.