Why did Zhu Yuanzhang make its capital Tianfu?

1368, after becoming emperor in Yingtian (now Nanjing), Zhu Yuanzhang began to consider choosing the capital. Zhu Yuanzhang has five places to choose from: Yingtian, Kaifeng, Fengyang, Chang 'an and Luoyang, but none of them can completely satisfy him. After 10 years of hesitation, the capital was finally locked in Yingtian and renamed Nanjing. But since then, Nanjing has become a lingering pain in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart. Until his death, he was thinking about moving the capital. What made Zhu Yuanzhang dislike his capital city so much?

Arguably, Yingtian was the place where Zhu Yuanzhang developed his power. Based on the palaces left over from the Wu Dynasty, Yingtian was naturally the first choice. Besides, most of the ministers of civil and military affairs around Zhu Yuanzhang are children of Huaixi, and out of their attachment to their hometown, they also hope to set the capital near Yingtian. However, choosing a capital city is not a simple matter. It is necessary to integrate various factors, usually including political, military, economic and geographical conditions.

Yingtian has its advantages. Backed by Zhongshan and facing the Yangtze River, the terrain is very dangerous. Jiangnan, where it was located, was also the economic center of the country at that time. It is not only rich in grain, but also developed in textile industry and salt industry and prosperous in business. As the saying goes, "the wealth in the world comes from the southeast, and Jinling is its club", and its economic conditions are very superior.

But Yingtian also has its shortcomings. From a military point of view, its geographical position is not ideal, not in the center of the country, but in the southeast, far from the customs. At that time, although the Yuan army retreated to the pass, the threat was still there. Without modern communication equipment, it is difficult to direct operations at such a long distance. This is a major defect of Yingtian. Moreover, Yingtian is called "the capital of short-lived dynasties" in history. Song, Qi, Liang and Chen of Soochow, Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties all established their capitals here, but the life span of the dynasties was not long. Zhu Yuanzhang was very taboo about this and felt unlucky, so he couldn't make up his mind about making his capital in heaven.

In September of the second year of Hongwu (1369), Zhu Yuanzhang held a capital meeting and proposed to build the capital in another place for ministers to discuss.

In view of the fact that the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty have not been eliminated, ministers still advocate building the capital in the Central Plains, and put forward several plans to build the capital in Chang 'an, Luoyang, Kaifeng and Peiping. Everyone thinks that Chang 'an is the solid city of Wei Cheng, Luoyang is the land of abundance, Kaifeng is the old capital of the Song Dynasty, and Beiping has a complete imperial palace of the Yuan Dynasty, which can preserve the strength of many people.

Zhu Yuanzhang commented on various suggestions made by ministers. He thinks that although what everyone said is very reasonable, it is obviously not suitable for the situation at that time. Chang 'an, Luoyang and Kaifeng are the old capitals of Zhou, Qin, Wei, Tang and Song Dynasties. If you want to build a capital in these places, you must rely on Jiangnan for labor supply, which is bound to increase the burden on the people in Jiangnan. The Ming dynasty has just been established, and the people's power has not been restored. Taking Kaifeng as an example, after more than 20 years of war, farmland production has been deserted and land and water transportation is not smooth. The people can't afford to build the capital again. The same is true of Peiping. Although there are palaces in the Yuan Dynasty that can be used, once it is designated as the capital city, it still needs some renovation and construction, and it still takes a lot of manpower.

Zhu Yuanzhang then put forward a new plan to establish a capital city in Nanjing and his hometown Fengyang. The reason for building two capitals is to make up for the geographical shortage of Nanjing. Zhu Yuanzhang believes that Nanjing is known as the "paradise on the Yangtze River, the land where dragons live" and can be used as the capital, but it is difficult to control the situation in the north far away from the Central Plains, and Fengyang is much closer to the Central Plains, so it can be set up as the capital. The new plan was supported by a large number of followers of Zhu Yuanzhang headed by Li Shanchang, but some ministers put forward different opinions. There was a minister named Hu who argued for the capital Chang 'an from a geographical perspective. Liu Bowen directly opposed Fengyang, its capital, saying that Fengyang was not the place where the son of heaven lived. However, Zhu Yuanzhang's farmers' consciousness of "returning home in honor of ancestors" is very strong. He felt that Hu's suggestion was reasonable, but he didn't adopt it. Liu Bowen turned a deaf ear to the opposition and decided to designate Fengyang as Zhongdu.

The construction of Zhongdu was carried out in an all-round way under the command of Zuo Prime Minister Li Shanchang. After nearly six years of construction, in the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), a brand-new capital with a certain scale rose in eastern Anhui. At the beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang rejected the opinions of Hu, Liu Ji and others. Instead of advocating frugality, he demanded that Zhongdu be built magnificently. There is a simple reason. Zhu Yuanzhang wants to move the capital in the future so as to live in his hometown for a long time. So when he heard that the construction of Zhongdu was "completed", he rushed there excitedly. Unexpectedly, in Zhongdu, he encountered an incident in which a builder expressed his dissatisfaction with heavy labor with the "fatigue method" of bewitching witchcraft. It turned out that in order to build Zhongdu, the Ming government mobilized a lot of manpower from all over the country. Among them, there are nearly 90,000 craftsmen, hundreds of thousands of sergeants, civilian workers and criminals, and a large number of immigrants who have moved to Fengyang from all over the country. After the war, Fengyang area was sparsely populated, with poor farmland and extremely heavy labor. The workers' life is miserable, and "no support and no return" leads to "many diseases and many deaths". There is a strong dissatisfaction and anger in the workers' hearts, and the craftsman's dislike of the town is the outbreak of this dissatisfaction and anger.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the "killing" of craftsmen who were tired of the town law, the dissatisfaction of construction craftsmen with heavy labor still frightened him. Zhu Yuanzhang still clearly remembers that the Yuan Dynasty provoked a peasant uprising by driving 6.5438+0.7 million soldiers and civilians to repair the Yellow River. He began to realize that the Yuan Dynasty had just been overthrown, the poverty situation of ordinary people had not improved, and the war of reunification continued. At this time, it is a great mistake to build a grand capital on a large scale. In fact, what worries Zhu Yuanzhang most is not this matter, but the expanding concept of "Anhui fellow villager" who followed him in the southern expedition to the north during the construction process. He had to consider that once Fengyang was established as the capital, if ministers used the intertwined clan and village relations in their hometown to expand their power, it would directly threaten his imperial power, and the situation would be difficult to control. With this in mind, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately ordered to stop the capital construction project. A month later, I completely gave up the plan of "moving the capital to Zhongdu".

In the 11th year of Hongwu (1378), after the capital was established, Zhu Yuanzhang changed Nanjing to be the capital, and besides Beijing, it was still called Kaifeng House.

Finally, the hesitant problem of building the capital of 10 was solved.