Chương 650: The Four Great Capitals

In the evening, Liu Ce summoned his core team, including Fang Xuanling, Xun You, Song Yingxing, Shen Wansan, and Li Jing, at his temporary headquarters in Chang'an Station.

Several people sat around a small, makeshift table with a map of Chang'an spread out on it.

Liu Ce looked around at the four men and suddenly asked, "Tell me... what's the situation inside Chang'an City right now?"

The group looked at each other.

Minister of Revenue Shen Wansan spoke first, counting on his fingers:

"The inner city's economy is... utterly ruined. Commerce in the inner city has almost disappeared. Only a few scattered shops remain at the site of the former Ninth Market; most shops have closed down, merchants have either fled or scattered, and there isn't even a decent restaurant left."

Minister of War Li Jing replied in a muffled voice: "Don't even mention the inner city's infrastructure. The city walls are old, that's true, but the streets inside? Some are collapsed, some are overgrown. The drainage system is broken; whenever it rains heavily, the city floods, the water reaches knee-deep, and the stench is unbearable."

Fang Xuanling carefully chose his words: "... How should I put it? The city's reputation remains, but its bones are broken. The ancestral temples are worshipped every year, but people leave after the worship; no one really settles here. All the powerful families who have the means have moved to Luoyang, Ye, or Jiangnan. Those who remain are the old, weak, sick, and disabled who cannot move."

"To sum it up in one sentence," Liu Ce interrupted him, "the inner city of Chang'an is an old capital that is mostly dead and barely clinging to life."

No one objected.

There was a few moments of silence.

Liu Ce stood up and walked to the window.

Outside the window, the twilight descends on the eastern outskirts of Chang'an... The silhouette of the gray city walls is against the orange-red sky, and the distant Ba Bridge looks like a thin ink mark. The Wei River ripples in the setting sun.

The Shenwu sat quietly on the tracks inside the station. The chimney had cooled down, but the boiler still retained a faint warmth, like a giant beast panting after a long journey.

Several workers were busy near the coal pile at the locomotive depot, and the sound of shoveling coal could be heard from afar.

"Chang'an," he said, his voice low but clear.

"It was once the greatest city in the world. Two hundred years ago, its name meant the heart of the empire. It was truly the center of the world... not geographically, but in terms of civilization."

At that time, the gates of Chang'an were filled with camels from the Western Regions every day...

He turned around and looked at the group: "It shouldn't be like this today."

"It wasn't a natural disaster that made it like this. It was man-made. It's the result of hundreds of years of turmoil, abandonment, and forgetting. It's the result of successive rulers thinking, 'Since the capital has been moved to the east, the west can just be made do.' They've made do with what they have today, creating a ruin that grew out of a vegetable garden."

"I'm going back to Luoyang tomorrow. This matter needs to be resolved."

..................

After returning to Luoyang, to the Liangyi Hall.

The train returning from Chang'an arrived in Luoyang in the afternoon. Liu Ce didn't rest; he immediately took a bath, changed into casual clothes, and rushed into the Liangyi Hall.

Everyone who was supposed to come has arrived, and some of them still have the感慨 (gǎnkǎi, mixed feelings) of their trip to Chang'an on their faces.

Once the palace doors closed, Liu Ce cut to the chase:

"Most of you witnessed Chang'an yesterday. I won't repeat it. I've called you here today for one question... Why did Chang'an become so dilapidated?"

Xun Yu said, "In my opinion, the fundamental reason is that... since Emperor Guangwu established Luoyang as the capital, the political center of the country has shifted eastward, Chang'an has lost its status as the capital, and the court naturally stopped investing heavily in its development. Over time..."

"You're being too kind," Liu Ce interrupted, waving his hand.

"I'm not talking about whose responsibility it is, but about the root of the problem... single-core development."

He picked up a pen, stood on the blackboard against the wall and wrote: Luoyang = Everything, then drew a big X next to it.

"Look at the current situation of our Han Dynasty... The lifeline of the entire country is tied to Luoyang. The first railway was built from Luoyang to Chang'an, the Ministry of Works Research Institute is in Luoyang, the Imperial University is in Luoyang, the steel rolling mill is in Luoyang, the steam engine is in Luoyang, the central government is in Luoyang, the head office of the bank is in Luoyang, and even the most profitable water transport hub is in Luoyang..."

He turned around and tapped the blackboard with his pen: "This isn't called establishing a capital. This is called putting all the eggs in one basket and then placing the basket on the edge of a cliff."

The entire hall was completely silent.

Minister of Revenue Shen Wansan's lips moved, wanting to refute, "Luoyang is located in the center of the world, with convenient transportation in all directions, how could it be on the edge of a cliff?" But when he thought of the vegetable garden in Chang'an... Didn't the Western Han Dynasty also think that Chang'an was as stable as Mount Tai? He silently shut his mouth again, his fingers tapping lightly on his knee.

Liu Ce continued, "What is the lesson of Chang'an? It's not that it was unworthy to be a capital. It's that once a country has only one absolute core, all other places can only serve as blood banks... Once the blood is drained, it will naturally collapse."

Conversely, it's the same... What if something happens to Luoyang one day? Plague, floods, mutiny, even if the supply lines are cut off... the whole world comes to a standstill because this country has no backup. There's not even a way out.

He slammed the pen into the chalk box: "So my conclusion is simple... we can't develop with a single core. For the Han Dynasty to thrive and live long, it needs multiple hearts beating at once. That's called 'multi-core development'."

He flipped the blackboard over... On the back, a rough map of the Han Dynasty's territory had already been marked with red and blue charcoal pencils, with circles drawn in four locations: Northwest Circle – Chang'an.

Central Plains Circle – Kaifeng.

Northern Circle – Zhuozhou (Zhuoxian County).

Southeastern region – Nanjing.

"Four secondary capitals," Liu Ce said.

"Chang'an is the Western Capital, Kaifeng is the Eastern Capital, Zhuoxian is the Beijing Capital, and Jinling is the Nanjing Capital. Four directions, four anchor points. No empty titles... We're pouring real money into them: building roads, canals, factories, schools, relocating businesses, and stationing troops."

Let each of them grow into a regional economic center and strategic pivot, and then use these pivots to drive the development of the surrounding provinces. The final result will not be one Luojing (modern-day Luoyang), but one Luojing plus four smaller Luojings... no, it should be described as a chain of beads.

The hall erupted in a frenzy, but this time it wasn't a noisy argument; instead, it was a dense buzz of discussion. Everyone was rapidly mentally scanning maps, with some even gesturing distances on the map with their fingers.

Xun Yu was the first to grasp the logic, stroking his beard and nodding, saying: "Chang'an controls Guanzhong and controls the Silk Road; restoring its status will stabilize the Northwest; Kaifeng is located at the throat of the Grand Canal, the hub of the nation's grain transport; Zhuozhou... controls Yan and Ji, protecting the northern frontier, and is the first line of defense against the northern enemy; Jinling..."

He paused, glancing at the emperor... These positions were chosen too carefully, each one situated at the very heart of the region; removing one would affect the entire area.

"Nanjing is a land of wealth and resources in the southeast, a region crisscrossed by waterways," Fang Xuanling finished for him, his voice tinged with emotion.

"Making Nanjing a secondary capital... was not only an economic consideration, but also a way to appease and win over the South. With Nanjing as the political center, the gentry and wealthy merchants of Jiangnan felt a sense of belonging."

Minister of Revenue Shen Wansan frowned, his calculating face instinctively switching to "Where will the money come from?" mode: