After more than ten years' efforts, the former Cowherd Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in A.D. 1368 and made Nanjing his capital. As we all know, Nanjing is known as the "ancient capital of the Six Dynasties". However, the fate of all dynasties with their capitals here is not very good, and none of them can last long. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, knew this very well and had plans to move the capital.
For thousands of years, many cities were once extremely prosperous capitals, such as Chang 'an, Kaifeng and Luoyang, all of which were considered by Zhu Yuanzhang. However, after a period of thinking, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly proposed to move the capital to his hometown Fengyang. One day in court, Zhu Yuanzhang expressed his ideas and said that he would move the capital to Fengyang to seek the opinions of ministers.
Man Wu knows the emperor's temper. If he resolutely opposes it, there will be no good fruit to eat, but after all, it is very important to move the capital. As courtiers, they must consider the court. Many ministers have put forward their own views. They think everything is in order, and moving the capital may waste people and money. It is best to take a long-term view, but some ministers agree with the idea of moving the capital.
In the second year of Hongwu, Ming Taizu began to call Fengyang Zhongdu to mobilize all kinds of skills, soldiers and civilian workers. Throughout the country, tens of thousands of people have built large-scale buildings and built the Capital Imperial City. At that time, Fengyang was built with three cities: inner, middle and outer, strictly following the traditional symmetry principle, focusing on the layout of Quegong building on the central axis. How prosperous was Zhongdu at that time? There was a poem that said, "There are rich heritages in the capital, and there are two capitals in the palace. Thousands of miles of kings, eight miles of Chen Gong. "
A few years later, Fengyang Palace was basically completed, and other buildings continued, but it had consumed too much silver and the state treasury was stretched. Ministers believe that if this goes on, huge amounts of silver will definitely be needed in the construction, because this palace is too luxurious and makes people complain. But at this time, no one dared to directly remonstrate for fear of offending the emperor.
Perhaps Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Emperor, also heard some remarks, and found Liu Bowen who could pinch and calculate, and asked him to express his views. Liu Bowen thought for a moment, and then replied, "Although Fengyang is the imperial city, it is not the capital." The meaning of this sentence is obvious, which means Fengyang is not suitable to be the capital. In addition, Liu Bowen also made a detailed explanation from the aspects of geomantic omen, which made Zhu Yuanzhang give up the idea of moving the capital to Fengyang, and Hongwu stopped construction for eight years.