Han Shizu

Chapter 2147: Emperor Shizong Chapter 22: The Third Year of Jianlong
In the summer of the third year of Jianlong (1020), Emperor Liu Wenji, who had just concluded his first tour in his life, stayed in Tokyo Kaifeng. This was the first time in more than ten years that the emperor of the Han Empire visited this city again.

For a long time, the Han Dynasty has been implementing the capital system of "two capitals given equal importance, and other capitals as accessories". However, the principle of "two capitals given equal importance" was actually somewhat broken in the late Kaibao period.

On the one hand, Empress Fu died in Tokyo, and Kaifeng was a sad place for Emperor Taizu. In addition, he was lazy in his later years and basically never visited Kaifeng again. In the Yongxi era, during the fourteen years, Emperor Taizong devoted all his thoughts and energy to the governance of the country, the improvement of the system, and the rectification of malpractices. He did go to Kaifeng once, but that was it.

During the Pingkang period, Emperor Kangzong also spent some time in Dongjing. However, in Kangzong's opinion, what Kaifeng had, Luoyang also had. At the same time, the palace in Kaifeng was not as magnificent as Ziwei City, and the palace garden for hunting and playing was not as vast and rich as Luoyang Xiyuan. At the same time, he was controlled by a group of Yongxi ministers, so he naturally had no interest in Dongjing. When Kangzong came to power, he was ambitious and could not be satisfied with just Dongjing. Going south or north was his choice.
When Liu Wenji succeeded to the throne, he focused his main energy on consolidating his position and reshaping the imperial power. Entering the Jianlong era, as Liu Wenji gradually made his own strong voice of the times, he finally had the time to turn his attention beyond Xijing, and Tokyo came into his sight.

Just like the concubines in the palace, if they lose the emperor's favor, it means they have fallen out of favor, which means their status and power in the palace have declined. Although they are not completely the same, similar principles can still be applied to the status of the two capitals. At least in the past thirty years, in the minds of many people, Luoyang, the Western Capital, is the most legitimate capital of the empire, because the emperor and the central court are there, and everyone is used to it.

But these people obviously did not include Kaifeng. In the minds of the people of Tokyo, they were the center of the world and the most relied-on force for the rise of the empire, pacification of the world, and repelling the barbarians. When Kaifeng provided support for the great achievements of Emperor Shizu, Luoyang was still just an empty title of "ancient capital" and was desolate and dilapidated.

Of course, Kaifeng also has its reasons to be proud. Politically, although its status has declined, it is still the capital of the empire, the legitimate imperial capital, and no one can deprive it of its name and reality as "Tokyo".

In terms of population, Kaifeng was the only city in the Han Empire with a population of over one million. Over the past few decades, with the improvement of productivity and economic prosperity, large cities have emerged from the south to the north of the Han Empire. By the Jianlong era, cities with a population of over 100,000 were everywhere, and some even exceeded 500,000, such as Yangzhou, Jinling, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Damingfu, and Youzhou. However, they were still far from the one million mark.

Population size has always been an important indicator of a city's comprehensive strength. Kaifeng is special in that when the central government agencies and major offices were stationed in Luoyang, it still maintained a population of over one million. To be realistic, if the court moved back to Kaifeng one day, it would not take too long, just three to five years, and Luoyang would definitely not be able to maintain its status as a "million-person city". This is also the gap between the two capitals.

Economically, there is no need to mention it. In the third year of Jianlong, Dongjing City was still the most important economic center of the Han Empire, with the strongest economic strength in the country, and its economic status was unshakable. Located in the center of the world, with important water and land connections, and gathering wealth from all directions, this was Dongjing's incomparable advantage.

Over the past few decades, the southern economy has occupied an increasingly larger proportion in the empire's economic territory, especially the southeast region, which has visibly surpassed the Central Plains and Hebei. However, no matter how well it develops, its wealth must eventually be honestly and continuously transported to the central region. The empire spent a huge amount of money to build water conservancy projects in the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers and develop river transportation in the north and south for this purpose.

The amount of salt, tea, grain and cloth transported from the southeast to the north each year was a huge amount of materials, and most of these materials were transported through Tokyo, eventually reaching Luoyang and being distributed to other prefectures, states and counties in the north. This alone had an unimaginable impact on Tokyo's economy.

At the same time, the southern coastal cities, which combined the advantages of land and sea and accelerated urban development under the trend of overseas trade, had huge potential, but their political disadvantages were difficult to make up for. Therefore, for a long time, Tokyo's economic position in the empire was difficult to shake.

On the other hand, Luoyang had shown signs of food shortages since the reign of Emperor Taizong, and every year it had to coordinate 50 to 100 shi of various types of grain from Kaifeng in order to stabilize prices and meet the needs of Xijing.

In this regard, Luoyang could not be too arrogant when facing Kaifeng. At the same time, some petitions from Tokyo were heard by the emperor through various channels, hoping that the court could move back to the old capital where the founding of the dynasty was founded. Luoyang could not afford the court, but Kaifeng could.

This time, the imperial carriage entered Kaifeng, and some people in Tokyo, who were overwhelmed with a sense of honor, even regarded it as a victory over Luoyang. Some people even planned to jointly petition for the emperor to reside in Tokyo permanently.
Of course, Emperor Liu Wenji had no intention of moving the imperial court again. There was really no need for it, and it was not necessary for the time being. At the same time, this was a major project that would cost a lot of money and manpower. Liu Wenji was not Emperor Taizu, who could make these decisions with just one word. He had too many things to consider, more than Emperor Taizong.

After returning from the southern tour, he visited Tokyo, which was planned before the tour. Liu Wenji made this decision, on the one hand, because he valued Kaifeng's huge and important role in supplementing Luoyang, and on the other hand, to appease the people of Tokyo.

There were many different factions within the court, and there were two factions in the capital, which had lasted for more than half a century. The Xijing faction had many supporters and was strong, and the Dongjing faction was no less powerful and had a complex network of connections. After all, they were the ones who ruled the empire in the early days of the Han Dynasty. Liu Wenji did not dare to underestimate them, and it was necessary to appease them to some extent.

As for the choice of capital, Kaifeng had many advantages, but one flaw was enough for the emperor to give up on it if it was not necessary. Kaifeng was flat and had no strategic location to defend, so it did not have the "geographical advantage" that a capital city should have.

As time went by, Kaifeng had completely become a peaceful city and a prosperous metropolis. From a military perspective, Kaifeng had no military security except for the imperial guards, inspectors and runners stationed there to protect its safety and security.

Furthermore, the Yellow River and the Bian River basins were flooded from time to time. Even though the court had invested a lot of manpower, money and material resources in the regulation of the two rivers and the construction of dams, it was limited by the times and technology and could only do its best. The Yellow River disaster was still a sword hanging over the heads of officials and people in the Central Plains and the two rivers. Due to the terrain, Kaifeng faced a greater threat than Luoyang. In the former, the Huazhou River burst, causing heavy losses to officials and people. In Liu Wenji's plan, he also wanted to go and see it in person to comfort the people's livelihood.

Liu Wenji's southern tour began in the autumn of the second year of Jianlong. With the consolidation of imperial power and the stabilization of the political situation, the Han Empire ushered in a golden period of development with great prosperity.

Many signs of prosperity are visible to the naked eye, and some data can even be used to support them. For example, the empire's annual tax revenue in the first year of Jianlong was converted into 9150 million copper coins. Who knows, in the future, it may exceed million, just like the population.

Of the more than 90 million strings of cash in tax revenue, gold, silver and copper coins accounted for more than half, and all kinds of grains, silks and other physical objects were still important carriers of tax revenue. As the proportion of coins increased, it even caused concerns among many conservative bureaucrats. After all, compared with gold, silver and copper coins, real grains and silks could reassure people. At the same time, official warehouses and charity warehouses in various places needed to be filled, and the court administration also had a high demand for the use of physical objects.

At the same time, the proportion of commercial taxes was further increased. In addition to the city taxes that accounted for the majority, the customs duties at the river, sea and land ports had increased significantly. The tax revenue of the five major customs alone was as high as 8 million guan that year. Of course, this was based on the increasingly prosperous overseas trade. The achievements of the Liu family's feudal states and major nobles in overseas colonization and development for decades had begun to be truly realized.

By the Jianlong era, the Han Empire's foreign trade, in addition to traditional trading partners such as Goryeo and Japan, was mainly with the Liu clan fiefdoms surrounding the empire. Of course, trade with India and the Arab world continued, but the scale was shrinking, especially the latter.

There are many reasons for this. The violent conflict between Han civilization and Islamic civilization is an important reason. Even though things like "fighting desperately on land and enthusiastic trade on the sea" did happen, the political, religious and cultural restrictions were also real.

On the other hand, the feudal states in Nanyang, which controlled the east-west shipping routes, actually formed a barrier in the process of trade between the empire and the West. Although they did not prevent Western merchants and merchant ships from going to the empire to trade, a large number of Arab merchant ships returned home after completing transactions in Nanyang and obtaining the required goods.
It is worth mentioning that due to frequent wars in the Arab region and the barrier of Islamic civilization, the trade between the Han people and Europeans was seriously affected. From this period on, both regions began to explore new waterways and new trade routes.

In the wild expansion of Southeast Asia, some nobles and merchants even proposed to send troops to Arabia to cooperate with the three Anxi countries to destroy the Abbasid Empire, overturn the Islamic world, and completely open up trade routes. This would be more conducive to marketing Han silk, porcelain, tea, and cotton cloth to the world.
Of course, so far, this is just a voice, a greedy desire for expansion that was stimulated during the South Seas colonization movement. There are still many practical difficulties and conditions to put into action, but some sea merchants in the "Southern Liang Kingdom" in Nanjinzhou (the lineage of King Xiao of Liang, Liu Xiao, who had no descendants during his lifetime and was inherited by King Liu Ai of Lu) have organized fleets and plan to continue exploring southward along the African continent.

Although there were still many problems within the empire, on the whole, it still presented an atmosphere of "prosperity and prosperity", just like the period when Emperor Taizong was in power. After the second year of Jianlong, someone in the court was already shouting "Jianlong Prosperity", and they were referring to the envoy Wang Zeng.

However, Liu Wenji did not dare to admit this matter openly or accept it as a matter of course. It is not so easy to create a prosperous era. At least, the difficulties and resistance encountered in the process of rectifying the national affairs made Liu Wenji dare not take it lightly.

At the same time, Liu Wenzhi, who experienced the entire Yongxi era, knew too well the political atmosphere and customs during the Taizong period. Compared with the Yongxi period, his Jianlong period was far inferior.

Apart from other things, the good political style during the reign of Emperor Taizong has not been corrected to this day. Take the anti-corruption campaign in the civil service for example. The rules are still the same as those passed down to Emperor Taizong, and strong support has been given to supervision and law enforcement, but the trend of corruption still persists and continues to rise.

The corrupt officials in the world were like guerrilla warfare with Liu Wenji. Before they were caught, they were all loyal officials. Once they were caught, they were all filthy people. Some people didn't even want to pretend, and almost told Liu Wenji clearly: being an official is fine, but being honest is not.

As for frugality, Liu Wenji also drastically cut down on palace expenses in Ziwei City, reduced the number of palace servants and eunuchs that had been added during the reign of Emperor Kangzong, and discarded all extravagant items.
The emperor lived an "ordinary" life in the palace, but the dignitaries outside the palace were still extravagant and competitive, and had no awareness of the Taizong period. In the final analysis, they still lacked the most sincere respect for the current emperor, especially those meritorious officials and nobles. It's fine to let you be the emperor, but you can't control how everyone eats, drinks, defecates and urinates?

It was only after Liu Wenji dealt with Princess Pingyang's husband Zhu Zhu that those people restrained themselves a little. Princess Pingyang Liu Fei was the legitimate daughter of Emperor Taizong. Her husband Zhu Zhu was exiled to Yanshan North Road for ten years in the first year of Jianlong because of his extravagance, chaotic household management, and violation of laws.

This was obviously a chicken, but what upset Liu Wenji was that after this incident, there were rumors that the emperor wanted to continue to attack Empress Dowager Murong. By the Jianlong period, Empress Dowager Murong, who was basically living in seclusion in Ciming Palace, was alone, and the Murong family was also marginalized in the court. Some old nobles felt pity for this. The emperor did not even spare his own sisters, and even Empress Dowager Murong's only relative, Princess Pingyang. How could he be benevolent, filial, and righteous?

Therefore, the situation of the empire was constantly improving and the country was developing steadily, but the various pressures and worries faced by Emperor Liu Wenji were also accumulating. Liu Wenji chose to go on a tour in the second year of Jianlong. In addition to observing the political situation and checking the results of rectification, he also wanted to go out and relax.

Still the same, learning from the lessons of Emperor Kangzong and following the legacy of Emperor Taizong, the tour was small in scale, with less than 3,000 personnel in the entire camp, most of whom were imperial guards. The rest, except for a small number of eunuchs, were capable officials drawn from various central ministries and offices. As for the prime minister, Wang Qinruo and Ding Wei accompanied him.

Ding Wei was the Censor-in-Chief at the time. His predecessor, Zhang Shixun, the Prime Minister, was appointed Governor-General of the Southeast, which led to major personnel changes in the Council of State. After a struggle, Ding Wei, who was then the Governor-General of Hunan, was quickly transferred to the capital, appointed as Prime Minister, and appointed as Censor-in-Chief.

As for the destination of the tour, it is understandable that he chose the southeast region, which is the rapidly developing economic center and financial and taxation center of the empire. More importantly, during Liu Wenji's latent period, he stayed in Shanghai and Nanjing for a long time. For him personally, they were places with special feelings for him. They were places to accumulate political capital and had great significance, and it also had the meaning of "returning home in glory".

(End of this chapter)