Chapter 1264 The Founding of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 1264 The Founding of the Tang Dynasty

Three streets and nine lanes are beautiful around the city, and thousands of doors open at dawn. The double-story road leads obliquely to Queque Pavilion, and the intersection leads directly to Fenghuangtai.

This is a line from the poem "Imperial Capital" by the early Tang poet Luo Binwang, which praised the prosperity of Chang'an. It is not inappropriate to use it to describe the current Chang'an City. Of course, the Chang'an City referred to here is the new Chang'an City that was built in the first year of Tongzhi in the Former Wei Dynasty, not the old Chang'an City of the Han and Wei Dynasties that the Former Wei Dynasty used to make do with what it had.

After several years of construction, the new Chang'an City located on Longshouyuan is now a large scale. In particular, the main part of the inner palace and the imperial city, which were originally given priority, was completed more than a year ago, and the details have been improved since then.

As for the residential buildings planned in the city, although the construction progress was not too fast at the beginning, as the city construction began to take shape, and there were frequent petitions from people in Shuzhong, Shannan and other places to the court hoping to move to this new capital to settle down, and willing to donate their own wealth and labor to assist in the construction of the city, the construction speed of the city squares suddenly accelerated.

Since the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, the central authority has been constantly weakening, collapsing and changing, and the local powerful families have gathered to protect themselves and their power has continued to grow. Even if a new regime is established, it is necessary to make a certain degree of compromise and concession to these local forces in order to coexist peacefully.

In all dynasties, in order to strengthen their rule, the rulers would try every means to concentrate a large number of personnel and materials around the capital that they could reach, and often moved the powerful and wealthy families from all over the country to fill the capital.

Now that the people from all over the country are eager to move to the capital, the court will naturally not refuse this and is happy to see the scattered people and resources gather in the capital. These scholars and civilians were thus closer to the center of power and had the opportunity to obtain more political resources, while the court strengthened its control over internal personnel resources and rapidly improved the prosperity of the capital, which was naturally a good thing for both sides!

Today, the pattern of the new Chang'an City's inner palace, the imperial city's hundreds of offices, and the outer city's hundreds of squares has been formed. A brand-new and majestic city has emerged from scratch on Longshouyuan, making the original Chang'an City look even more narrow and cramped, with no atmosphere at all.

With the official opening of the new Chang'an City, the world is also undergoing a huge change of the old and the new. And shortly after the official opening of the new Chang'an City, the city witnessed and recorded a grand event, that is, the King of Tang accepted the abdication of Emperor Yuan Kuo of Wei, and officially ascended the throne in the Taiji Palace in the inner palace of the new Chang'an City, and established a brand-new Tang Empire!

Tang Wang Li Ji was the popular choice and the people of Guanzhong wanted him to be. Now that he had returned with the might of destroying Qi, Li Ji's claim to power was a natural outcome and in accordance with the will of heaven and people.

Due to the intense calls from both inside and outside, Li Tai accepted the abdication of the Wei Lord in the original Chang'an Palace after returning to worship the ancestors of the Wei family before the New Year. However, at that time, there were still some ritual artifacts and cultural relics in the inner palace of Chang'an New City that needed to be made in a hurry, including the Circular Mound that was used for a few days, which had to be rebuilt in the southern suburbs of the new city. In addition, the important ritual artifacts and cultural relics seized from the two capitals of Qi, such as the imperial seal, all needed to be arranged into the ceremony. Therefore, Li Tai temporarily ruled as the "regent" and actually exercised the power of the emperor.

It was not until everything was ready that on the New Year's Day, Li Tai officially ascended the throne in the Qianyuan Hall, the main hall of the Taiji Palace in Chang'an New City, accepted the worship of the ministers, and promulgated a series of new dynasty rituals and systems.

The new dynasty took the Tang Dynasty as its national name. As for the reign title, Li Tai finally decided to use "Kaihuang" as his reign title after summarizing the suggestions of his ministers.

This was not just out of his unspeakable bad taste, but also because he felt that "Kaihuang" was a very grand and majestic reign title among the emperors of all dynasties.

The reign title of the emperor began with the founding of the Han Dynasty by Emperor Wu. Since then, it has become a symbol for the emperor and the regime to show their pattern and ambition, and to place their ideals and visions. In some special periods in history, the reign title is enough to become a synonym for the regime, which is of great significance to a regime.

Li Tai does not like the reign titles that are simply made up of grand words. He prefers the reign titles that both show grandeur and fully reflect the initiative of the ruler. "Kaihuang" is very consistent with his aesthetic taste.

The Sui and Tang dynasties were a period when the Han Dynasty was revived and became great again. There were many emperors' reign titles that reflected this atmosphere, including Emperor Yang of Sui's reign title "Daye", which gave people a sense of majesty. Emperor Taizong of Tang's reign title "Zhenguan" was taken from the "Book of Changes" of the Way of Heaven and Earth. Zhenguan means the righteous way of heaven and earth to show people. The Zhenguan era did not disgrace the meaning of the reign title, and it was a rare era in ancient society that lived up to its name.

Zhenguan was also a reign title that Li Tai favored, but after weighing the pros and cons, he still felt that Kaihuang, which opened a new era, was more suitable for him at the moment. If the world is truly unified and the prosperous era is recreated in the coming year, it is not a bad idea to change the reign title to Zhenguan to show people the righteous way. Thinking that he alone would have the opportunity to be able to create and promote the second emperor of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Li Tai was full of expectations.

The coronation ceremony was solemn and lengthy, and because it was held in the Taiji Palace in the inner palace, only the civil and military officials and the imperial guards could witness it. Then the emperor left the palace and went to the Circular Mound in the southern suburbs to offer sacrifices to the heavens, which was a grand event that the people of the entire city could watch along the streets.

The layout of Chang'an New City is the same as the layout of Chang'an City in another time and space that Li Tai knew. The only difference is that Zhuque Street, the central axis of the city, is directly located on the dragon ridge of Longshouyuan, and the Taiji Palace where the imperial city is located is also directly located on Longshou Mountain, which is the location of the Daming Palace in later generations.

Since Longshouyuan itself has ups and downs, such changes have also caused a large increase in the number of workers, requiring a major transformation of the original landform. Li Tai simply carried out the construction of the canals and gullies around Chang'an City together with the construction of the city, making the city planning more coordinated and integrated, and the amount of work increased further. Although many private capitals actively joined the construction of the city later, it took a longer time to complete the overall construction period.

Li Tai didn't care about this. Although from the perspective of later generations, Chang'an has many inappropriateness as the capital of the Tang Empire, from the perspective of contemporary people, Chang'an as the center of the regime has great irreplaceability in terms of human relations and legal principles.

Li Tai's biggest reliance on ending the chaos and completing the unification was the Guanzhong soldiers under his command. This alone determined that he had to establish a foothold in Guanzhong and cultivate Guanzhong deeply. Although he also needed to be inclusive in the process, before completely consolidating his rule, easily changing the fundamental foothold would undoubtedly be a joke of his own survival.

What's more, even if the unification was completed, a magnificent Chang'an City would be of great significance for the balance and response between the East and the West, the adjustment of Guanlong personnel resources, and the future strategy for the Western Regions, Saibei and other regions.

The choice of the times will certainly be somewhat irrational, but it is always a collection of elements from all aspects that collide and run-in, and finally form a direction of things. Some one-sided perspectives are logically valid and reasonable, but they can only be accepted for discussion and are difficult to be used for comprehensive negation.

At least for the time being, the sense of glory and cohesion brought by this new Chang'an City to the new Tang regime, Li Tai and a group of Guanzhong people is unmatched by other places!

As the ceremony in Taiji Palace was completed, when the emperor slowly walked out of the Suzaku Gate of the imperial city, accompanied by civil and military officials and soldiers, the people of Jinnei who had been waiting on both sides of the long street burst into a series of cheers like a tsunami: "Long live our lord! The supreme majesty!"

The word "Long live" is certainly not exclusive to the emperor at present, but it is not an offensive taboo to use it to praise the emperor, and it has always appeared very frequently in similar occasions.

Today was the first time that Li Tai met the people of Jinnei in this new identity, and he was naturally excited. It was a pity that he was wearing a solemn and serious robe today, so he could only sit upright in the carriage, and it was difficult for him to look around, let alone wave to the people on both sides of the long street, but the sound of the tsunami kept pouring into his ears, and he also felt the enthusiasm of the people of Jinnei.

Amid the cheers of the crowd, the imperial procession traveled south along Zhuque Street and reached the Circular Mound in the southern suburbs. After arriving at the Circular Mound, Li Tai first went into the imperial tent to rest for a while, and then when the auspicious time came, he slowly climbed the Circular Mound under the guidance of the ministers to offer sacrifices to the God of Heaven.

Offering sacrifices to the southern suburbs is not a necessary etiquette for the enthronement ceremony, and some emperors have never offered sacrifices to the southern suburbs in their entire lives. But there is no doubt that offering sacrifices to the southern suburbs is the most important item in the country's auspicious ceremony, representing the importance of the divine right of the monarch and the emperor's communication with heaven.

Therefore, even Li Tai attached great importance to this matter and carried out various rituals meticulously. When he stood on the top of the tall Circular Mound Temple of Heaven overlooking the southern suburbs of Chang'an, all the officials, soldiers and civilians around him worshiped around the Circular Mound, and they couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in their hearts as the king of the world.

The excitement did not subside until the ceremony was over and he left the Circular Mound. At this time, Li Tai felt the sweat pouring out of his crown and robes due to excitement. He did not even feel the chill under the winter wind.

After the suburban sacrifice, Li Tai returned to the palace. He took off his crown and changed into a light ochre-yellow robe. He rode a green horse and returned to Chang'an City under the support of the ministers. When he appeared in the eyes of the people in the capital, the cheers inside and outside Chang'an City were thunderous and long-lasting. The whole city was filled with a joyful and festive atmosphere.

Sorry, sorry, I kept you waiting for a long time. I feel much better after a few days of indulgence. Next, I will work hard to finish this final volume! ! !