Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

At the beginning of the construction of the imperial palace in Handu, Zhu Youjian set the rules:

If you can use stone, you must not use wood; if you can use nearby materials, you must not modify it externally; if you can build a big building, you must not make it small.

In the eyes of the common people, the Handu Palace is very "high-end and classy". However, in the eyes of truly knowledgeable people, it is just that - "a rustic nouveau riche building."

Why is this so?

Because in traditional royal architecture, a single wooden pillar costs several times or even hundreds of times that of a stone pillar.

For example, a golden nanmu pillar requires thousands of people to mine it from the Yunnan-Guizhou mountains and then transport it to the capital.

It’s not just the wood that’s precious…

This wasted manpower is enough to carve larger, stronger, and less fragile stone pillars.

Moreover, wooden buildings catch fire due to lightning strikes. This disadvantage...

Although many later generations have conducted research on how ancient buildings were protected from lightning strikes - however, records of fires and burns caused by lightning strikes have never been extinguished in history books.

Fires caused by lightning strikes are very common in the Forbidden City buildings.

Zhu Youjian and "Human Computer" Wu Ganlai discussed it in detail.

This is what this talented person who is good at arithmetic told Zhu Youjian——

“The cost of transporting one golden nanmu beam is equivalent to the manpower required for four stone-carved ‘Emperor Load-bearing Pillars’.

The time spent is more than five times that of the latter. "

Doing more things with less money was Zhu Youjian's best choice when he had no money at that time.

Moreover, as an "angry youth", Zhu Youjian always disagrees - putting gold on one's face means being strong.

In his opinion, being able to feed his own people is definitely higher than the praise from outsiders.

Instead of using limited money to show off your status, it is better to use this money to open up the land where Chinese people can step on.

The new palace...

Anyone who sees it for the first time will be shocked by its size!

However, upon closer inspection, you will find that this is a huge building complex with a full "earth flavor".

There are no low-key yet luxurious materials.

All the buildings and decorations are just plain big!

Chengtian Hall is very large, larger than the three main halls of the Forbidden City in Nanjing and the Forbidden City in Beijing.

The new palace occupies an entire mountain. If you level it, you will find that it is more than thirteen miles long from north to south, and nearly ten miles wide from east to west.

The three main halls on the top of the mountain are even more terrifyingly huge!

Especially the Chengtian Hall, which is directly opposite the Meridian Gate, is the best of the three halls.

Not even counting the base of Chengtian Hall and the ancillary buildings on the left and right, the hall alone can accommodate hundreds of officials in normal shifts.

Both sides can accommodate hundreds of sergeants and eunuchs...

81 load-bearing columns, plus the walls, that is to say - this is a huge scale of ten rooms in width and ten rooms in depth.

Although the distance between the load-bearing pillars is different, even the narrowest distance between the two pillars is exactly one foot, three feet, three inches and three inches.

After the construction of Chengtian Hall was completed, Zhu Youjian personally measured it and converted it into "meters" for later generations.

The bay of Chengtian Hall is more than 70 meters long, and its depth is nearly 50 meters.

81 huge "imperial load-bearing pillars" hold up the double-eaves verandah-style roof, and the golden glazed tiles reflect the faint sunlight in the morning light.

The bronze crane placed in the main hall has its belly filled with spices, and the fragrant and fragrant smoke after burning is slowly dispersing.

Drum tee.

All officials took their positions according to their rank.

A ritual and music play.

The officials quickly lined up according to their rank.

Officials observing etiquette walked among the officials to correct their postures.

Two pieces of ritual music.

Whether it was the senior officials in the palace or the officials in the square outside the palace, they were all silent and standing solemnly.

Three pieces of ritual music.

Wang Chengen walked out from a side door and chanted:

"Your Majesty has arrived, and all the officials are waiting to welcome you!"

All the officials faced the direction of the dragon chair and bent down to wait.

Zhu Youjian walked out slowly and sat on the dragon chair.

The golden whip sounded, and Honglu Temple sang "Nai" before entering the class.

All the officials shouted long live.

After Zhu You checked his body, all the officials divided into civil and military positions and stood facing each other.

Censor Wang Zhang stepped forward and reported the number of people attending today's morning court.

Today is the New Year's Day court meeting, and it is Zhu Youjian's first court meeting after returning to the capital. No one dares to be absent from work.

All came.

Even Zuo Liangyu, who was far away in Annan, had already sent his son Zuo Mengeng to arrive.

The New Year's Day ceremony is for greetings, so there is no memorial title to be read today.

After the officials congratulated each other on the new day, Zhu Youjian cleared his throat and said slowly:

"Today is the first day of the new year. The troubled Jiashen Year has passed, and a new chapter has begun in the Yiyou Year.

I will tell you three things.

First, the northern capital is covered in dust and it is already September.

After the victory of the Ao'er Dusi, it was only a matter of time before the capital was taken back.

The year of Chongzhen was full of disasters, and I even moved to the Han capital.

I decided to update it this year!

Everyone, tell me, what era name should be changed? "

Zhu Youjian's unconventional play shocked all the officials.

Although Chen Qiyu has known about this for a long time, but - there is no such thing!

Although the change of Yuan Dynasty only happened once in this dynasty, it was too common in China.

Therefore, this thing has a fixed process.

Usually, with the cooperation of the Qin Tian Jian, the courtiers discuss several suitable era names, and avoid overlapping with previously used era names, and then formulate several alternative era names, report them to the emperor, and choose one of them for use.

This issue……

How can it be discussed at the high court?

There is no one in Qintian Prison...

The one who can answer the emperor's words is the Minister of Rites.

Chen Qiyu stood up:

"Your Majesty, the matter of changing the Yuan..."

As soon as Chen Qiyu opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Zhu Youjian.

"I know that changing Yuan is complicated.

It has been 780-[-] years since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty began to have era names.

There were so many era names used during this period..."

Zhu Youjian pointed at Wu Ganlai:

"Wu Qing, you have the most knowledgeable mind I have ever seen.

If you don't read books, can you tell every era name throughout the ages? "

Even though today is a great dynasty, there are far more officials than usual.

However, Wu Ganlai, who was in trouble, stood in the center of the court.

He, a seventh-grade official, was able to stay in the Jinluan Palace...

Although he was given this position in Shizhong, despite his inconspicuousness, he actually had a lot of power.

Gai Shizhong was originally a mid-level official in the three provinces under the three-province-six-ministry system.

That is, the third level within the Menxia Province, Zhongshu Province, and Shangshu Province.

In other words, after the Sui and Tang Dynasties perfected the Three Provinces and Six Ministries, this was a position equivalent to the emperor's secretary.

In fact, after the mid-Tang Dynasty, the "Three Provinces" had been abolished. (Although there were occasional resets later, they are no longer mainstream)