Chapter 327: Moving the Capital to Beijingcheng, Establishing Zijincheng; The Jurchens Seek Survival Through Risky Moves

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As Zhao Yu renamed Yanjing "Beijingcheng" and officially established it as the new capital of Great Song, and adopted Zhang Chun's suggestion to name the new imperial palace "Zijincheng," large numbers of Han people chose to move north.

They included Song officials, artisans, laborers, shrewd merchants, and members of powerful clans sent ahead to prepare for their families.

Under the influence of these Han people, the Yan-Yun region was no longer dominated by Hu Ren and Han children, but gradually being occupied by true Han people.

Of course, this was not a bad thing for the original inhabitants of the Yan-Yun region.

The influx of large numbers of Han people into Beijingcheng brought enormous commercial opportunities.

Not to mention anything else—just the price of housing had multiplied many times over.

All they needed to do was sell their original homes, and they could live in comfort for generations.

——The new Beijingcheng was not built atop the old Yanjing, but primarily on a much broader area north of the original Yanjing, which was now incorporated into it as part of the new city.

Specifically:

Officials from the Ministry of Works carefully surveyed the surroundings of Yanjing, studying its topography, hydrology, and geology.

The site selection for the new Beijingcheng was the most critical priority, requiring consideration of defense, feng shui, transportation, and future urban development.

They consulted numerous ancient texts and drew on historical experience in capital site selection, ultimately choosing the alluvial fan plain of the Yongdinghe, where the terrain was higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast—avoiding flood threats while facilitating drainage.

This location had the Yanshan to its north as a natural barrier, open space to its south for urban expansion, and the Gaolianghe and Jinshuihe rivers flowing along its eastern and western sides, ensuring ample water supply and convenient water transport—truly an ideal place to establish a capital.

Additionally, as a capital under Confucian ritual system, its planning strictly followed the principles of "harmony between heaven and humanity" and "imperial authority at the center":

After the site was confirmed, the planning and design phase began.

The Ministry of Works assembled the nation's most elite architects and master craftsmen to draw detailed blueprints for the new Beijingcheng and Zijincheng.

The layout of the new Beijingcheng followed traditional capital regulations: square and symmetrical, with a central north-south axis dividing the city into eastern and western halves. Its streets crisscrossed, with main roads wide and flat enough for seventy carts to travel side by side, while secondary roads and alleys tightly connected all urban districts.

Furthermore, the construction of the new Beijingcheng fully considered feng shui:

Centered on Zijincheng, the central axis extended from Yongdingmen to the Bell Tower, with all major buildings symmetrically arranged along the axis to emphasize imperial authority's "central position" and "supreme status";

With the Yanshan at its back, the Yongdinghe to its left and the Chaobaihe to its right, the Nanyuan to its south and the Bell and Drum Towers to its north, it formed the traditional feng shui pattern of "Four Spirits Guarding";

The imperial city enclosed Zijincheng, the inner city enclosed the imperial city, and the outer city protected the southern sector, creating a "city-within-a-city" hierarchical structure that embodied the graded order of "imperial authority protected layer by layer."

The design of Zijincheng was the most critical priority.

Unlike traditional wooden structures, both the new Beijingcheng and Zijincheng employed the most advanced and mature reinforced concrete construction of the time.

This structure was sturdy and durable, with excellent fire resistance and far superior defensive capabilities compared to wooden buildings.

To ensure quality, the Ministry of Works dispatched personnel early on to select the highest-grade steel and cement from across Great Song—steel requiring high strength and good toughness, cement requiring rapid setting and high hardness.

Because Zhao Yu demanded not only quality but also speed, the Ministry of Works planned for five hundred thousand artisans and three million laborers to work simultaneously, divided into specialized teams.

Notably, the new Beijingcheng would adopt the sewage and water supply system proposed jointly by Zhang Chun's five daughters.

For this, Seeing Ma Xiao Jiao invented tap water, faucets, showerheads, flush toilets, bathroom fixtures, basins, flush valves, valve cores, bathroom accessories, bathtubs, and other sanitary equipment.

——In fact, China's earliest water supply project was designed by Su Shi. Twenty years earlier, during his exile to Huizhou, he addressed the problem of Guangzhou residents drinking alkaline, salty water by proposing to channel spring water from the Dishi Rock on Pujian Mountain into the city via bamboo pipes, and he drew detailed construction blueprints. The project was completed two years later, becoming China's earliest ancient water supply system.

Of course, what Zhang Chun's five daughters developed was not such a simple water supply system, but a highly advanced sewage and water supply system.

To be clear, Zhang Chun's five daughters undertook this effort merely for their own convenience.

In fact, as early as when they built Yanfu Palace, they had already been working on this system, though it was not yet mature then.

After more than a decade of research and refinement, the system had now become highly mature.

Notably, the main material used in Zhang Chun's five daughters' sewage and water supply system was not steel, but ceramic.

The five daughters did not avoid steel because they didn't want to use it—they simply lacked the steelmaking technology to produce sufficiently durable steel pipes.

Ceramic, however, was different.

In fact, since the Qin and Han dynasties, China had widely used ceramic pipes (such as the Han Dynasty's ceramic drainage pipes in Chang'an); by the Song era, the technology was even more advanced.

Of course, ceramic pipes had limitations (such as brittleness and poor resistance to violent impact), but for underground installations primarily transporting liquids, these drawbacks had minimal impact—even negligible.

It must be noted that, in planning the new Beijingcheng, the five daughters even reserved areas for future electrical wiring.

This was because Seeing Ma Xiao Jiao had recently invented direct current electricity and arc lamps.

It was believed that within just a few years, the new Beijingcheng would enter the era of electric lighting.

In short, the new Beijingcheng was both an immensely strong reinforced concrete fortress and a human paradise blending advanced technology with traditional wisdom, exuding prosperity and comfort.

As the new Beijingcheng's blueprints were gradually implemented, five hundred thousand artisans and three million laborers flooded into this land like a tide, their roles clearly divided and their cooperation seamless, under the meticulous organization and supervision of the Ministry of Works—the construction of the new Beijingcheng and Zijincheng proceeded in orderly fashion…

By the way, since Yanjing had been renamed Great Song's Beijingcheng, Zhao Yu also adjusted the other capitals.

The Eastern Capital remained unchanged: Kaifeng Prefecture.

The Western Capital was changed from Luoyang to Chang'an.

The Southern Capital was changed from Shangqiu to Jiangning.

At the same time, Zhao Yu ordered the Western and Southern Capitals to accelerate construction, so the court could better control the west and south.