The unexpected contraction of Wang Xian's side made Ji Gang and Han Wang's side, who were full of revenge, pounce, and also made the people who were worried that the tension situation would continue to escalate to uncontrollable zhì to relax a little.

However, the fierce struggle never eased, but only temporarily turned from open struggle to secret fighting, and the focus of the struggle shifted from Nanjing to Beijing......

In June, the sun is blazing in Beijing, and the loess is full of sky. Millions of people and prisoners, sweating like rain under the scorching sun, are like a swarm of hard-working worker ants, building this new metropolis of the Ming Dynasty on a scale far beyond Beijing.

In fact, since Emperor Yongle succeeded to the throne, he has always attached great importance to the construction of this 'land of dragon prosperity'. In the first year of Yongle, he first followed Emperor Taizu's approach to Fengyang, established Beiping as Beijing, changed Beiping Mansion to Shuntian Mansion, and was at the same level as the capital. At the same time, it began to relocate wealthy households from the south of the Yangtze River, merchants from Shanxi and displaced people from all over the country to enrich the imperial capital.

In the fourth year of Yongle, Zhu Di issued an edict to levy 600,000 people, build the Beijing Imperial Palace and city walls, and in seven years, build the Changling Tomb in Changping, near Beijing. By restoring his resting place in Peking instead of Nanking has made it very clear to his subjects that the emperor has made up his mind to move the capital!

In the eighth year of Yongle, Zhu Di ordered a meeting to open the river, re-dredge the Grand Canal, and open up the north-south water transport, and this year, this is a huge project that mobilized millions of people, and finally basically completed, and since then the massive materials needed to build Beijing can be transported to Tongzhou from all over the country relatively economically and conveniently, so that the construction project of Beijing City has been greatly accelerated.

So far, the outer wall of the square with a circumference of forty-five miles has been almost completed, and all that remains is the construction of the magnificent gate. The stone streets, which are straight and wide enough to accommodate eight cars in parallel, have long been put into use, and the construction of royal palaces and official offices in various parts of the capital has also taken shape, and it is about to enter the stage of fine carpentry work. Only the construction of the Forbidden City, the most important task in the construction of Beijing, has almost returned to the original point.

Of course, this is not the official in charge of the construction deliberately neglected, or borrowed a hundred of their guts, and did not dare to make the moody Yongle Emperor angry, in fact, the Forbidden City project in all aspects of manpower and material resources, enjoy absolute priority, the reason for the current embarrassment, there is only one reason, that is, the Yongle Emperor is too demanding!

Compared with the slight rush in the construction of the Jinling Imperial Capital at the beginning of the country, Zhu Di has always had only one requirement for the construction of Beijing, that is, excellence, no best, only better! Every piece of green brick and each piece of vermilion tile fired for Beijing City, on the side or back are burned with the font size of the kiln and the year of production, if the bricks and tiles are found to have quality problems during construction, they can be checked according to the payment on the bricks and tiles, as long as they are verified, the light ones will be severely punished, and the heavy ones will be beheaded!

Not only the requirements for materials are very harsh, all the processes of construction should be carried out in a strict 'layer by layer' system for construction, requiring the craftsmen who implement the next project to strictly inspect the previous process, if they think that they are unqualified, they can refuse to build, if there is a problem is not found, or although they know that there is a problem, they still continue to build, once the incident occurs, they must sit with the person directly responsible, and be punished equally.

The officials in charge of supervision were the joint inspection team composed of the emperor's most trusted eunuchs, princes, and civil officials, and these officials in charge of supervision carried a sledgehammer around the construction site all day long, and from time to time picked up a sledgehammer to smash a hammer in the east and west. The person responsible for the problem is often found to have only one ending, that is, being beheaded and having his home raided......

Moreover, these supervision officials are extremely conscientious and responsible, and there is no possibility of being bribed, because they know how attentive the emperor is to the construction of the city of Beijing, in fact, an important reason why the Emperor Yongle came to Beijing this time is to personally supervise the construction of the city of Beijing. From the middle of May, when the holy car arrived in Beijing, the emperor, who was already over fifty years old, immediately inspected the construction work of the capital without resting.

His method of inspection was simple and crude, but it was extremely effective: the emperor would choose a random location and order someone to smash open the work that had already been repaired to check for any corners. For example, when inspecting the city wall, he asked people to smash open the slurry to inspect it, and found that the mortar was "slightly mixed with mud soil" and "the gap was excessive", and then more than ten craftsmen and foremen in charge of it were beheaded on the spot. The next day, a number of supervisory officials who supervised the project here, including the squire of the Ministry of Works, the battalion secretary and other directly responsible persons, were severely punished, and the minor ones were dismissed from their posts, and the serious ones were dismissed......

Therefore, everyone who is responsible for the construction of Beijing City is trembling, walking on thin ice, and all of them have come up with the highest level to build this ideal city of the emperor. But even this kind of Cheng Dù's efforts still couldn't satisfy the Yongle Emperor - especially the Forbidden City! After inspecting the three major halls that were about to be completed, Zhu Di came back with a black face, and the next day, the emperor summoned a group of ministers and construction officials to the West Palace to discuss matters.

The so-called West Palace is the royal West Garden of the original Yuan Dynasty. Originally, when Zhu Di visited Beijing, he lived in his own submersible. But the Yanwang Mansion was built on the basis of the Yuan Dadu Imperial Palace, which is located in the core of the capital. In order to build a new Forbidden City, the Yanwang Mansion could only be demolished. However, he couldn't go north and couldn't have no place to live, so he ordered the Ministry of Works to build the West Palace in the West Garden, which was used as the residence of the Forbidden City before it was completed.

Although it is only a temporary residence, with Zhu Di's great temperament, he naturally can't be sloppy at all. It is the West Palace is also built in accordance with the regulations of the Imperial Palace, and the main hall is also called Fengtian Palace, which is exactly the same as the main hall of the Imperial Palace of Jingshi!

At this time, in addition to the officials responsible for building the city of Beijing, there were also Zhu Yong, the Duke of Chengguo, Xue Lu, the Marquis of Yangwu, Xia Yuanji, the chief secretary of the three departments of Xingzaili, Hu, and Bing, and Yang Rong, a cabinet scholar...... With such a master, what else can be done except to be cruel to himself?

But when Zhu Di said his plan, the ministers almost fainted together, shouting the same sentence in their hearts - the emperor, you can't do it for the ministers......

Because Zhu Di's decision is to tear down the three major halls and rebuild them! And not only the three major halls, but even the main buildings such as the Qianqing Palace, Kunning Palace, and Wenhua Hall must be torn down and rebuilt! The reason is that the current building is too cramped and obscene, and there is no grandeur!

You must know that the construction of the Forbidden City alone has cost 90,000 taels of silver so far, close to two years of treasury revenue. But the emperor is about to overturn and start over in a word, not to mention nine million taels, a more ambitious construction plan will definitely cost more, even several times the silver taels! Where does all this money come from? In the Ming Dynasty, where the national strength is becoming more and more embarrassed, it is simply an unsolvable problem!

Therefore, Xia Yuanji, the great housekeeper of the Ming Dynasty and the secretary of the household department, expressed his opposition on the spot. He said that the imperial court's money has been completely spent on the Grand Canal, and the Wudang Mountain project and the Jiaozhi Political Envoy Department are still sucking blood, and adding such a huge expenditure will make the country's finances completely collapse!

Looking at the gray-haired and exhausted butler, the emperor was finally a little embarrassed and gave him an idea: "Then print more treasure money......

"Still printing money?" Hearing that the emperor was going to print money, Xia Yuanji not only did not feel comforted, but felt that the sky was about to fall. "Does the emperor really think that as long as money is printed, the country can continue to use it? And there is no harm to the country? ”

"You're too ignorant of me." Zhu Di was a little unhappy and said: "I don't know that if I print a lot of money, the people will be more miserable, but I don't spend the money on myself, I am for the sake of my Ming Dynasty's plan!" Saying that, he stood up, and said with a slightly excited expression: "I don't wait for the place where the fireworks in the south of the Yangtze River are released, and return to this bitter cold Beijing city?" Is it because of feelings for here? Wrong, I want the Son of Heaven to guard the country, so that my people will never be harmed by the invasion of the Tartars! I have even sent my own children and grandchildren to Beijing together, shouldn't the people make some sacrifices for my Ming Dynasty! ”

"What the emperor said made the ministers and others feel inexplicable...... "A minister whispered: "It's just the scale of the Forbidden City, it doesn't affect the eternal stability of my Ming Dynasty......"

"Ridiculous!" Zhu Di immediately cast a cold gaze: "I want to use the dragon qi of my Ming royal family to suppress the dragon qi of Meng Yuan Yu. What the three major halls are built and what the Forbidden City is like is related to the luck of my Ming Dynasty! Do you say that it will affect the eternal stability of my Ming Dynasty! ”

The minister hurriedly knelt down and pleaded guilty: "The minister is ignorant, the minister is vain, please forgive the emperor......"

"Humph!" Zhu Di snorted heavily: "Reading your first offense, you will only be fined for forty years and fined for half a year, if anyone dares to enter this country in the future, there will be no forgiveness!" ”

"The ministers obey." The ministers hurriedly responded.

"Xia Aiqing, do you agree?" Zhu Di also knows that he can toss by his temperament, and he can't do without the tossing and turning of Xia Yuanji, a financial genius, and now it is the time to use money, which is very different from him.

"Your Majesty ......" Xia Yuanji looked at Zhu Di, struggled fiercely in his heart for a long time, and finally gritted his teeth and said: "Please forgive the ministers for being difficult to obey their lives......"

"You!" Zhu Di's face turned black instantly.

"The emperor is clear, the court is no longer Yin eating grain, but eating Yin eating Chenliang, Siliang and even noon food!" Xia Yuanji wiped his sweat and said stubbornly: "This is all caused by the excessive issuance of treasure money, these years, the minister racked his brains, and the banknote law has not improved." If we continue to print money, I'm afraid there will be a big mess......"

"Don't be alarmist!" Zhu Di's gaze was already cold.