My father is Jiajing

Chapter 274: Feng Shui Bureau of the Capital
The work finally started.

After procrastinating for nearly a month, Zhu Zaigui finally released the first batch of construction drawings and handed them over to the Ministry of Works, asking the Ministry of Works and Shuntian Prefecture to organize construction workers and laborers to start work.

A construction team of thousands of people arrived at Chongwenmen, one of the southern gates of the capital, under the unified command and dispatch of the Ministry of Works and Shuntian Prefecture. Chongwenmen is one of the three southern gates among the nine gates of the capital, and together with Zhengyangmen and Xuanwumen, they are collectively known as the front three gates.

There is also an iron turtle in the northeast direction outside Chongwenmen. Its shape is very simple and ancient. It is said that there is a sea eye under the bridge of this section of the moat. Therefore, under the guidance of a Feng Shui master, a turtle was used to suppress the sea eye and protect the safety of Beijing.

In addition, according to some ancient ruling ideas and forms that pursued harmony and unity, the feng shui layout of these three gates is also very interesting. Among the three gates, the middle one is "Zhengyang", the left one is "Chongwen" and the right one is "Xuanwu".

The main theme is that a person is both civil and military, and Zhengyang is respected.

However, the priority for construction this time was not Zhengyang Gate, because Zhengyang Gate was the highest-specification gate among the nine gates in the capital and was known as the "national gate". In previous years, the emperors went to the Temple of Heaven to offer sacrifices and to the Xiannong Temple to plough the fields themselves through this gate.

Therefore, in order to ensure that the entrance to the national gate would not be affected temporarily, Zhu Zaigui's preferred construction location was Chongwenmen.

Speaking of Chongwenmen, there is actually an interesting story. The once famous cigarette brand Hardmen actually used the old name of Chongwenmen before it was used.

Therefore, the history of this city gate is actually very long, and can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty capital era hundreds of years ago.

A construction team consisting of thousands of people arrived outside Chongwenmen in a mighty procession. Foreign merchants who came and went from Chongwenmen looked at these workers who suddenly appeared with curiosity.

"What are they going to do?"

A businessman who came from afar asked curiously to his familiar friends around him.

"You don't know, do you? The imperial court is going to expand the outer city of the capital. These people are probably the workers and laborers who will be doing the expansion."

The locals, who were familiar with the situation, provided some scientific information.

The merchants looked at so many workers and laborers gathered here and couldn't help but exclaimed: "The capital is indeed the capital. So many people are needed to expand the outer city."

After hearing the foreign merchant's sigh, the locals smiled proudly, and then curiously asked the foreign merchant: "Are you here to sell wine too?"

The foreign merchant hummed, "The best old wine from Shedian."

"Shedian Old Wine? Never heard of it. Is there any story behind it?"

The local asked again out of curiosity.

The foreign merchant immediately started talking, "This wine originated in the Han Dynasty. Legend has it that when Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty started his rebellion against Mang, he gathered all the wise men in Liuji Tavern in Wandong Town to discuss the uprising."

"Tavern owner Liu served good wine to entertain the guests. When they were half drunk, they had a plan, but they were missing a flag. Emperor Guangwu looked outside and saw the tavern's wine sign fluttering in the wind, with a huge "Liu" in the middle shining brightly. He was overjoyed and said: God is helping me! So he used the wine flag as the commander's flag, raised troops in Nanyang, fought in Kunyang, competed for the throne in Hebei, and finally established the capital in Luoyang."

"After Emperor Guangwu achieved his great success, he remembered the merits of the shopkeeper Liu Liu in Sheqi, so he named the tavern Sheqi Store and the wine Shedian Old Wine. The town was renamed Shedian Town and has been used until now. The wine in my cart is the old wine of Shedian Town, and it tastes very good!" After hearing the story, the locals said "oh" and were not attracted by it. They just said, "I wish you a big sale of wine and a name in the capital."

Because as locals who have lived near Chongwenmen for a long time, they have seen too many fine wines from all over the country passing through Chongwenmen, and each kind of fine wine can tell a long-standing story of wine culture, such as Shanxi's Fenjiu Xinghuacun, Shaoxing's Huangjiu Nuerhong, Sichuan's Shaochun Jiannanchun, etc. Which one is not a well-known wine brand?
Therefore, the locals who talked to this foreign merchant who came to the capital for the first time to sell wine did not think his wine was anything special.

Because of the wine road, there is never a shortage of good wine near Chongwenmen. All fine wine coming from the north must pay taxes and enter the city through Chongwenmen, so there is a constant stream of wine carts passing by here all year round, and the aroma of wine has long been immersed in the air.

The foreign merchants who had chatted for a few words were also queuing up to enter the city to pay taxes, so he soon left here with the wine cart and did not stay long.

The huge number of construction workers and laborers quickly gathered at Chongwenmen, and then the officials from the Ministry of Works who were responsible for directing the construction and the Shuntian Prefecture officials who were responsible for maintaining public order took them to the designated construction site.

Hai Rui naturally arrived early that day and supervised the progress of the first phase of the expansion of the outer city of the capital with Zhang Tianci.

Just as the construction site outside Chongwenmen was in full swing, the actions in Shuntian Prefecture finally became active.

With the help of Zhang Juzheng, Wang Youzhao, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture, finally realized the necessity of the Urban Construction Bureau.

If it is really possible to set up a subordinate office of the Urban Construction Bureau under Shuntian Prefecture, then wouldn't it mean that in the future, when Shuntian Prefecture wants to build major projects, it can skip the Ministry of Works and directly connect with the Ministry of Revenue and get direct funding from the Ministry of Revenue?

When Wang Youzhao thought of this, he immediately became excited. So before Zhang Juzheng could bring out Xu Jie, the big boss behind the scenes, Wang Youzhao impatiently wrote a memorial requesting the establishment of a City Construction Department and submitted it to the Ministry of Public Administration.

Soon this memorial was sent to the Imperial Household Department. When the eunuch in the Imperial Household Department was sorting out these memorials, he was also very aware of the importance of this memorial, so he passed it to Huang Jin as soon as possible.

After reading the suggestions in the memorial, Huang Jin paused slightly. After thinking for a while, he realized that this might be Prince Yu's new trick.

Otherwise, if we rely on Shuntian Prefecture's style, they will never think of such a good way to seize power and gain benefits.

Moreover, this matter is about competing with the Ministry of Works for benefits. Given Yan Shifan's current momentum, they dare not compete with Yan Shifan no matter what.

But now Shuntian Prefecture not only dares to do so, but also has specific suggestions and ideas, which is interesting.

Huang Jin immediately took the memorial to the Wanshou Palace, where Emperor Jiajing was meditating.

"Your Majesty, Shuntian Prefecture has submitted a memorial. I dare not approve it without authorization, so I would like to ask Your Majesty to review it."

After Emperor Jiajing heard what Huang Jin said, he slightly opened his eyes and turned to look at Huang Jin with some curiosity, "What's going on?"

Huang Jin said: "Shuntian Prefecture requests to set up a subordinate government office to be responsible for city construction. However, this proposal seems to overlap with the responsibilities of the Ministry of Works, so I dare not make the decision."

(End of this chapter)