The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 168 Jinling Imperial State

Under the watchful eyes of several chamberlains and imperial officers and soldiers in the Forbidden City, the three luxury carriages flying the flags of Qi slowly started, drove away from the square, turned into the wide Yudao Street, and headed towards Jinzi Street, which was bustling with traffic and pedestrians. .

"Uncle Prince Dan, the emperor of Qin doesn't seem to want to see us very much." Qi Zexuan lowered the heavy curtains, turned his head, smiled and said to Qi State's special envoy of condolences, Prince Dan Qi Weining, "an hour During the meeting, he almost didn’t give us any good looks, making it seem like we owed him a lot of money.”

"The Emperor of Qin lost his mother, and the whole country is grieving. In addition, such a big country has countless government affairs to deal with. It is a great honor to be able to spare an hour to meet with our uncle and nephew." Qi Weining said. With a calm look, he said, "You haven't seen those envoys from foreign vassals. Even the chief minister of Qin's cabinet will not come forward to receive them, let alone meet the emperor."

"No, Uncle Dan Wang..." Qi Zexuan shook his head and said: "I don't think Emperor Qin was too sad because of the death of the Queen Mother, so he put on a cold face. What he said was different. There is clearly a trace of resentment towards our Qi country. Don't you feel it?"

"Li Linzuo, the general manager of the southeast of North Korea's Quan Zhi, wrote to the King of North Korea a month ago to ask for the title of Silla County King for himself." Qi Weining said: "You know, the title of the King of North Korea who was canonized by the Qin Dynasty was only that of County King, and Quan knew the state affairs of North Korea. And Li Linzuo's move is nothing more than sealing off the territory for other countries and wanting to stand side by side with North Korea. Tell me, if he didn't have Beiming's instigation and encouragement behind him, how dare he do such a thing?"

"So, Emperor Qin thought that our Qi State was also involved in this matter?" Qi Zexuan was dumbfounded.

"What do you think?" Qi Weining reached out and flicked the hair clippings on his fox fur, sighed, and said, "Looking at this posture, Beiming is definitely going to launch a big battle in North Korea."

"Beiming and Qin are going to fight another Korean War?" Qi Zexuan frowned and said, "With Beiming's strength, I'm afraid they won't be able to defeat Qin."

"For so many years, the Beiming Dynasty has been relying on the belief of returning to the Central Plains and restoring the Ming Dynasty. It has been holding on until now. Otherwise, as time goes by, the country will sooner or later become discouraged and settle for the status quo." Qi Weining said: "There is a huge gap in strength between the two countries. If there is no chaos or turmoil in the Qin State, counterattacking the Central Plains is tantamount to wishful thinking. In fact, the emperors and ministers of the Northern Ming Dynasty also understood this, but in order to maintain the legitimacy and legitimacy of their own dynasty, they Justice, in order to unite people's hearts and assimilate the nation, can only be accomplished through war after war."

"Yes, I heard that Beiming recruited a lot of Japanese and barbarians from Yunzhou and Andingfu (Japan's Mutsu region, that is, the northeastern part of Honshu Island), and all of them were transferred to North Korea. I'm afraid it was for the purpose of consuming them. ." Qi Zexuan said with a smile: "Our Qi State has shaped and formed the main ethnic group of our Qi State through one war after another, coupled with the assimilation education that spared no effort. This Beiming is following the example, completely Copy the path we have taken and build their own unique Ming Kingdom."

"That's right." Qi Weining nodded with a smile and said, "Moreover, Beiming's development level cannot be lower than Qin's, and its exploitation and oppression of the people cannot be greater than Qin's. Policies to attract all types of talents must be formulated. So. , it can rely on its relatively advantageous economic capabilities and various measures to benefit the people, forming a certain attraction for the people in Qin. In the case of a long-term confrontation between the two countries, it can avoid being internally attacked by Qin. disintegrated."

"It is true." Qi Zexuan was thoughtful as he played with a jade Ruyi given to him by Emperor Qianyuan. "Since ancient times, only those who win the hearts and minds of the people can win the world. Whether it is the Northern Ming Dynasty or our Qi State, only people can win the hearts and minds of the people." Only when you see the gap between the inside and outside can you feel your own good life. Only in this way can you unite people's hearts. No matter where you come from, you can be proud of your country."

Qi Weining's eyes showed approval.

Their uncle and nephew arrived in Qin by boat as early as mid-August. On the order of Emperor Taiping, they came to visit the Empress Dowager of Qin on behalf of the Daqi royal family to show the closeness of the two royal families.

Of course, if the Empress Dowager was seriously ill and passed away, they would serve as condolences and express their condolences to the Empress Dowager of Qin in the name of the Da Qi royal family.

After all, the old queen mother of Qin was the daughter of Taizu, and in terms of seniority, she was the aunt of Emperor Taiping. As a junior member of the royal family, it is not an exaggeration to say that he should pay homage, burn a few sticks of incense, kowtow a few times, and write a few elegiac couplets.

Unexpectedly, although the Queen Mother was bedridden and unable to take care of herself, under the careful care of Qin's imperial doctors, she still supported her illness until this early winter.

After hearing the news that the Queen Mother had passed away, the uncle and nephew immediately changed into plain clothes the next morning, rode a carriage into the Forbidden City, and in the name of the Da Qi royal family, paid homage in front of the Queen Mother's Zi Palace to express their condolences.

In the following days, the two of them, as juniors of the Queen Mother, accompanied the princes, grandsons, princes, officials, princesses, eldest daughters, officials, wives, etc. of the Qin Dynasty to participate in a series of "small burials" and "big burials" of the Queen Mother. National funeral etiquette.

On this day, when Emperor Qianyuan was kneeling to worship the Queen Mother, he saw his uncle and nephew, expressed his gratitude, and took an hour to have an informal talk with them in Wuying Hall.

Emperor Qianyuan gave Qi Zexuan his favorite jade, Ruyi, and comforted him, expressing his high hopes for the continued friendly cooperation between Qin and Qi in the future.

As the eldest grandson of the imperial family of Da Qi, Qi Zexuan has naturally received systematic political education since he was a child. He also has an in-depth understanding of the Qin State. He also knows that the current relationship between Qin and Qi is somewhat subtle, and there are differences in the closeness. There is a bit of caution, and there is also a hint of confrontation in the cooperation. Coupled with some geopolitical conflicts and trade disputes, the two sides maintain a complicated relationship where the interests and differences are constantly entangled.

It stands to reason that with Qi Zexuan's noble status, he would not have to brave the risk of sea storms to come all the way to the Qin Kingdom to condolences (worship) the Empress Dowager of Qin. If there is an error in this, it will inevitably cause shock to the royal family and then affect the empire. of inheritance.

But when he visited Qin this time with King Qi Weining of Dan, he took a "big iron ship" that was considered to be extremely safe. He followed the ports and strongholds with convenient supplies along the way and successfully arrived in Qin in just one month. country.

After decades of development, Qi's shipbuilding industry has made great progress. After the Qi Navy successively commissioned several ironclad ships, civilian steel ships also began to be put into operation on a small scale in the domestic maritime transportation industry.

In May of this year, an iron ship named "Great Eastern" with a displacement of more than 6500 tons was officially put into service after several rounds of sea trials and began to transport passengers and cargo between the mainland of Hanzhou and Qin.

Construction of the iron ship began in early 1724 and was ready for launch in October 1726.

On the Great Eastern, the end seams were joined by two rows of rivets, while all side joints were joined by a single row of rivets. Workers at Daxing Shipyard used about 300 million rivets to piece together about 30000 small iron plates into a seamless iron hull. Except for a few particularly large iron plates connected to the tail frame, the remaining iron plates are no more than 300 cm long and 90 cm wide.

The iron ship was built sideways on the Daxing River (today's Brisbane River). Due to the limitation of the width of the water surface, a lot of effort was spent on moving it from the dock into the river.

In November 1726, the "Great Eastern" made an offshore seaworthiness voyage to Paradise Island (now Tasmania). Many problems were discovered, and some people also had some concerns about its performance.

After three months of repairs and improvements at Daxing Port, the ship sailed to Quang Ninh (today's Cilegon City, northwest of Java Island, Indonesia) in February 1727. Some of people's concerns about it were soon confirmed.

If the ship is handed over to a well-trained captain and management personnel, it will not be difficult to maintain a speed of 14 knots per hour with very little fuel consumption as designed, and it has already achieved this in previous sea trials. .

According to the original ideal design, this large-tonnage iron ship sails at a speed of 14 knots per hour. The ship will take about 75 days to complete the round-the-world voyage. If the coal consumed by accidental events is not taken into account, the ship's normal daily coal consumption is only 130 tons, so if it completes the circumnavigation of the world in 75 days, the total consumption will not exceed 10000 tons.

In fact, in order to achieve the design requirement of 6500 horsepower, it consumes much more fuel, making its daily coal consumption around 180-200 tons, which exceeds the design requirement by 40-50%, which is also disappointing. Extremely speechless.

However, even if the coal consumption of this iron ship greatly exceeds the design requirements, its safety performance and long-distance seaworthiness, as well as its tonnage scale, are enough to prove that this ship is still a relatively successful product - of course, you have to exclude the coal consumption Too large, resulting in additional operating costs.

In early August, after arriving in Qin State, with official permission, the iron ship "Great Eastern" set out from Shanghai County, along the Yangtze River Estuary, all the way to Nanjing. When it was anchored in the center of the river - there was no way, the tonnage was too big, making it unable to dock at the docks on the riverside, which caused huge shock to the residents on both sides of the river.

The people of Qi not only built such a huge ship, but they also made it out of steel. What a miracle!

Every day, countless gentry and common people from the Qin State came to the center of the river in small boats to watch the big iron ship up close.

The ship's hull with a cold metallic sheen, several thick chimneys, long chain anchors, towering ship towers, and the proud-looking sailors on both sides of the ship all made the people of Qin who came to watch feel in awe. Extraordinarily complex.

These Qi people have come up with another amazing "novel thing"!

Moreover, they drove all the way along the Yangtze River to Nanjing in such a grand manner, clearly showing off to our great Qin!

"If we send a powerful fleet, can we fight all the way from the mouth of the Yangtze River to the gates of Nanjing like the Great Eastern?"

Qi Zexuan did not return to the Sifang Pavilion where he was staying with Qi Weining. Instead, he separated in Confucius Lane and continued to tour Nanjing with several imperial guards.

"The beautiful land in the south of the Yangtze River, the imperial state of Jinling".

This song "Entering the Dynasty" written by Xie Tiao, a poet of Xiao Qi, is based on the grand occasion of the princes and princes entering the dynasty. It depicts the splendor and prosperity of the Jinling imperial capital in a bright and majestic way.

Jiangnan has a vast land, beautiful scenery, and rich products. Jinling has a long history and is favored by kings. It has been the capital of nine dynasties (Sun Wu, Eastern Jin, Liu Song, Xiao Qi, Xiao Liang, Chen Dynasty, Southern Tang, Ming, and Qin), making it The whole city shines with splendor and splendor.

China has thousands of years of civilized history and a complex space spanning tens of thousands of miles. In this time and space, more than two hundred places have served as capitals.

Since the development of more than 200 places, the situation has certainly been very different. Some are still prosperous cities, or some are overgrown and uninhabited.

The most praised among them are the so-called seven ancient capitals - Xi'an, Beijing, Luoyang, Nanjing, Kaifeng, Hangzhou and Anyang.

From the thousands of years of history, it is not difficult to find that Nanjing has a very obvious destiny of ups and downs. That is, the unification of China will lead to the decline of Nanjing, and the division of north and south will lead to the prosperity of Nanjing.

The prosperous Nanjing is what Zuo Si of the Western Jin Dynasty wrote in "Ode to Wu Du" as "the four seas flow and all nations meet". It is also what Xiao Qi Xie Tiao described in "The Song of Entering the Dynasty" as "the beautiful land in the south of the Yangtze River and the imperial state of Jinling".

The decline of Nanjing is what Liu Yuxi in the Tang Dynasty wrote in his poem "Woyi Lane", "Wild grass and flowers beside the Suzaku Bridge, the setting sun at the entrance of the Bird Clothes Lane", which is the "continuation of "Visiting the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum in Nanjing" written by Tian Mu during the Ming Dynasty. So many things have happened in the past, they are as short-lived as a shooting star."

Does this kind of Nanjing have the "Jinling King's spirit" when it succeeds and the "Jinling King's spirit" when it fails?

Is this kind of Nanjing a capital city with a very strange historical process, an embarrassing political status, and whose destiny is often controlled by others?

In fact, according to Nanjing's geographical situation, it is very suitable for building a large city and a capital. In the era of cold weapons, for a place to become a capital, it must have good military geographical conditions, and it must be able to attack when advancing and defend when retreating.

Nanjing’s ability to advance, attack, and retreat are as follows:

To the north and west of Nanjing is the Yangtze River. This section of the Yangtze River is very wide and difficult to cross by boat. Since ancient times, even if the northern army wanted to cross the Yangtze River and attack Nanjing, it would not cross the river from Nanjing. Instead, it would go either to Yangzhou (such as the Qing Dynasty soldiers going south to attack Jiangnan) or to Hexian County.

Between Yangzhou and Zhenjiang, there is Jiangxinzhou in the river, which can be used as a springboard; between He County and Taiping Prefecture (today's Ma'anshan), the river is relatively narrow, and there is also Jiangxinzhou. After crossing the river from these two places, Nanjing can be outflanked from east to west by Zhenjiang and Taiping Prefecture.

Another situation is that if the middle reaches of the Yangtze River are lost and the northern army flows down the river, then the danger of the Yangtze River will be shared by the north and the south. At this time, the importance of Nanjing, a military pass, will be revealed.

After crossing the Yangtze River, there is a wide Qinhuai River outside Nanjing, known as the "small river", which can accommodate a large number of merchant ships and warships. Such a Qinhuai River is equivalent to adding another line of defense to the west and south. Nanjing has Mufu Mountain to the north and Zhongshan to the east, making the entire city surrounded by mountains and rivers. The natural mountains and rivers form Nanjing's natural defense line.

Looking at the Nanjing area itself, it is also quite suitable for the construction of a big city, such as convenient transportation, easy access to water, and not prone to water damage. According to the ancient concept of Feng Shui, Nanjing can be regarded as a treasure land of Feng Shui. Nanjing has all the "four images", namely Zhongshan Dragon Pan in the east, Stone Tiger Nest in the west, Zhuque Bridge and Xuanwu Lake in the north and south.

As a geomantic treasure, Nanjing is also reflected in the economic aspect. The economic production of the Qinhuai River Basin, the mother river of Nanjing, can partially meet the needs of Nanjing as a capital and a big city.

Nanjing and the Sanwu area and Taihu area, which are known as the "granary"--however, in recent decades, the food crops in this area have been decreasing day by day, and crops with high economic value such as cotton and mulberry have been replaced, which can no longer meet food self-sufficiency, and waterways , land transportation is also very convenient.

Relying on such natural conditions and economic foundation, Nanjing has a long history of development and capital history.

However, "the rise and fall are determined by personnel, and the mountains, rivers, and terrain", Nanjing City has been repeatedly attacked and destroyed several times in the course of its thousand-year history. Someone with a high position said, "Since ancient times, there have been few people who have been able to recover from the situation of crossing the south to the north... It is understandable why."

The majority of emperors in the past dynasties settled in the Yellow River Basin, and those who settled here were influenced and influenced by external phenomena. Their scale was often grand, their situation was always grand, and their momentum was always majestic. There is the feeling of a falcon flying across the desert.

As for those who established their capitals in the Yangtze River Basin, with the exception of Hongwu, most of them had not yet started their business, or were in ruins and living in peace and contentment. It is moved and influenced by the external phenomena, its scale is often beautiful, its situation is often clear and hidden, its spirit is often weak, and it has the impression of the moonlight, the slow singing and graceful dancing of the boat.

Naturally, the beauty, seclusion, and weakness of the south cannot match the grandeur, magnificence, and majesty of the north militarily.

However, the falcon flying across the desert in the north is no match for the slow singing and dancing of the moonlit boat in the south in terms of culture.

However, today's Nanjing is also the capital of the Qin Dynasty. It has been fifty-one years (in 1676, Sun Kewang accepted the Zen Ming Emperor and founded the Qin Dynasty). It is prosperous, has a large population, and has a prosperous economy, making it the most prosperous city in the country. .

Although the Empress Dowager passed away and the whole country was in mourning, the soldiers and civilians in Beijing were required to remove their crowns and tassels and their jewelry for women, and wear plain clothes for twenty-seven days. No sacrifices were allowed, and no marriage or entertainment was allowed for a hundred days. But the huge city of Nanjing is still bustling and lively, with all industries prospering and people buzzing.

Accompanied by a group of Qin soldiers and Daqi Imperial Guard officers who protected him, Qi Zexuan was wandering in the streets of Nanjing, looking at the noisy city scene, when he suddenly had a thought in his mind and whispered to a guard officer beside him: " If we can conquer Nanjing in one battle, will we be able to overthrow or defeat Qin?"

Li Yanliang, the captain (captain) of the Royal Guards of Da Qi, heard this and smiled bitterly, and then said softly: "If we only send a fleet to kill, our Qi State will not be able to capture Nanjing City. ... They are targeting us. Qi State has already made complete defense preparations!"

(End of this chapter)