Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 561 Decent
Yongle City was originally a temporary capital and was built as a military fortress.

As Su Ze's territory grew larger and he had more and more officials under him, the housing in Yongle City was no longer sufficient.

However, during times of war, these government offices could not be moved outside the city, so the housing in Yongle City was very crowded, and many high-ranking officials had to live with others.

But even so, Yongle City is not enough.

Chongwen Pavilion is an example. When Wang Sizheng was still teaching in Chongwen Pavilion, there were less than a hundred students in Chongwen Pavilion and they could be assigned to single rooms.

However, there are now more than 600 students studying in Chongwen Pavilion, and there are still many students waiting for admission. Now, six people can live in a dormitory in Chongwen Pavilion, and there are even landlords outside Chongwen Pavilion who rent houses specifically to students.

After the construction of the new city of Chang'an was completed, moving the capital to Chang'an became a natural thing.

There was no opposition in Yongle City to the move of the capital.

This is a new city in itself, and there are not even any local nobles. The nearby land is also barren, and no one has purchased property here.

When the capital was moved in April, Su Cho, the Prime Minister of the Administrative Affairs Hall, was appointed as the ambassador in charge of the construction of palaces and went to Chang'an to inspect the palaces, terraces and temples.

In addition to this, there was the ceremony in which Su Ze was conferred the title of King of Tang.

Su Tong, the Minister of Rites, was the first to step forward and draft the enthronement ceremony for the King of Tang.

In this matter, all dynasties have contributed rich samples, such as Wang Mang and Cao Cao of the Han Dynasty, and the Eastern and Western Jin Dynasties provided even more samples. Su Tong himself was proficient in these rites and rituals, and he quickly worked out a set of procedures.

The young emperor Yuan Xu also showed a considerable degree of cooperation.

The main reason is that Su Ze has had a very good reputation in recent years.

Erzhu Rong was killed. He was Su Ze's biggest political rival, so naturally he had to be criticized and denounced.

However, Su Ze even forgave Erzhu Rong's family, and Princess Beixiang still retained the title of Princess of Wei. Su Ze even left a mansion for Princess Beixiang in the new city of Chang'an near the imperial palace.

Yuan Xu had a weak character and was served by powerful officials from the moment he ascended the throne.

To be fair, Su Ze was the one who gave him the most freedom among these powerful ministers. He was also the most lenient to him on the surface and the most impeccable in terms of etiquette and system.

Yuan Xu is not a fool either. As he grows older, he also understands the current situation in the world.

The fate of the Great Wei Dynasty had been almost ended by the struggle for power among the kings, the misrule of his mother, and the Rebellion of the Six Garrisons.

As the last king, his life now is already quite good.

Yuan Xu even cooperated very well and proposed that he did not want to live in the new palace in Chang'an, and wanted to "give" the palace in Chang'an to Su Ze as his palace as the King of Tang.

Of course Su Ze refused all of this.

Politics is something that is supposed to be respectable.

Especially when the world is about to be stabilized, matters concerning systems and etiquette and laws should be taken more seriously.

These are all to be told to the people of the world.

Su Ze conquered the world by relying on his strong army, but if he ignored dignity and everyone said that "the emperor is the one with strong army", then he would not be able to hold on, but what about his descendants?
Soon after, a theory about the Mandate of Heaven of the Great Wei began to circulate among the scholars in the north.

This theory states that the Mandate of Wei had already ended during the Rebellion of the Six Garrisons.

Prince Jiangyang was in power, the evil queen was in power, Luoyang fell, and Erzhu Rong launched the Heyin Rebellion. Originally, the mandate of the Wei Dynasty should have ended at this time.

It was only because Duke Su, now the King of Tang, raised an army to defend the country that he saved the young Emperor Yuan Xu.

But at that time, the Mandate of Heaven of Wei had already been severed, and various rebel kings took turns to occupy Luoyang, causing great suffering to the people. The King of Tang could not bear the world being in such a state, so he raised an army to stabilize the world. Therefore, the young Emperor Yuan Xu should have handed over the world to the King of Tang.

This set of statements quickly spread among scholars, and scholars from all walks of life began to process and supplement this set of statements.

There are specially written jokes that explain the various chaos during the reign of King Jiangyang and the Evil Queen, combining the Rebellion of the Six Garrisons with the Yellow Turban Rebellion to prove that the Wei Dynasty was about to end.

There was a calculation made for the Great Wei's Mandate of Heaven, and it was calculated that the day when the Great Wei's Mandate of Heaven would end would be the time of the Heyin Incident.

Some people even made far-fetched inferences from ancient books, saying that after the Wei Dynasty, the Mandate of Heaven should have passed into the hands of the King of Tang.

The authorities have a permissive attitude towards these statements, and only some statements that are too outrageous will be banned.

The second year of Wutai, 526 AD, May th.

Su Cho, who rushed back to Yongle City from Chang'an, reported to the King of Tang that the new city of Chang'an had been built, the palaces and terraces had been completed, and they could move into the new city of Chang'an.

Su Ze, the King of Tang, immediately announced that all the palaces of princes, ministers and officials in Yongle City, as well as all the government offices, should immediately set off for the new city of Chang'an.

Su Ze also set up twelve guards in Guanzhong, using the Guanzhong guards as palace guards and Tang Wang's palace guards, and recruited 5,000 guards to escort them to Chang'an.

It became a custom for the soldiers from Guanzhong Prefecture to take turns guarding the new city of Chang'an. Anyone with a discerning eye knew that these were the future imperial guards.

This is different from when Su Ze was in Yulin, when no one wanted to be a soldier.

When they heard that they would be guarding Chang'an for generations to come, the young men in Guanzhong cheered with joy, and some local Zhechoufu even took the initiative to request to take part in the defense.

This is Su Ze fulfilling his promise to the soldiers.

Over the years, countless soldiers who had accumulated military merits returned home in glory. Even the soldiers who died in battle had their remains or belongings personally sent back by local officials and the three chiefs, and received the pensions promised before the soldiers went to the battlefield.

The most famous village among them is a village on the edge of Baohan City, where Su Ze first experimented with the military system when he was serving in Hezhou.

There were thirty people in this village who followed Su Ze back then, and twenty of them have died in battle now. Those who died in battle have received adequate pensions, and the remaining ten have all become mid- to high-level military officers.

Guarding the new capital is an obligation, but also an honor.

For children from ordinary families, studying and going to school are still the highest barriers. Joining the army can change one's own fate and even the fate of the entire family. This is what happens around them.

Moreover, those scholars also said that although the north is almost stable, there will still be many wars in the future.

In the Southern Dynasty, the Western Regions, and the North, the Imperial Guards are the most elite troops and will certainly have the most opportunities to gain military merit in future expeditions.

On the third day of June, Su Ze led civil and military officials to the new city of Chang'an.

Li Gou, the governor of Chang'an, stood on the Ba Bridge in the new city of Chang'an to welcome the mighty troops. Su Ze rode on his horse and looked at the towering city walls. He said to Li Gou with satisfaction:

"The city is well built. Promote Li Gou to be the Minister of Works."

Then Su Ze respectfully invited Yuan Xu to move into the new palace, and he and his wife moved into Yongcheng to the north of the new palace.

Yongcheng is located on high ground, and like Jinyongcheng in Luoyang, it is convenient to station troops there for garrisoning, so that one can rush into the palace from a high position and control the situation at any time. This was the terrain that Li Gou deliberately selected for its construction.

After all, the new capital had just been built and there were many unstable factors. When Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, he first lived in Jinyong City.

The young emperor Yuan Xu was also very tactful. He did not move into the main hall of the new palace, but lived in a side hall. He also asked the King of Tang to lead all the officials to discuss the name of the new palace.

Soon, Su Ze, the King of Tang, presented the final name - Daming Palace.

(End of this chapter)