History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
The reason why Zhu Di moved the capital is mainly due to the following considerations
1. Political and military influence
Zhu Yuanzhang laid the world, although most of the Yuan capital was captured in the early days, and the Yuan Shun Emperor fled north, but northern Mongolia has always been the biggest threat to the Ming Dynasty, as long as the Ming Dynasty is a little bit windy, war may break out.
In order to solve his worries, Zhu Yuanzhang chose to divide the towns of Zhuzi to guard the frontier, which was also a very good policy at that time. At that time, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, was the main force resisting the Mongol army.
However, when Zhu Di became emperor through the Battle of Jingnan, Zhu Yuanzhang's national policy of guarding the border was destroyed by Zhu Di, and there were too many enemies on the periphery, so he had to not consider moving the capital to Beijing to guard the national gate in order to defend the front line.
In this military background, it was inevitable that Zhu Di would eventually move the capital to Beijing, and finally officially moved the capital to Beijing in 1421.
2. The influence of class interests
Most of Zhu Yuanzhang's founding heroes were Huaixi people, and their base was in Huaixi, so they did not build the capital in the north.
But Zhu Di was different, Zhu Di's land of Longxing was in Beiping, and Zhu Di's ruling group was mostly Zhu Di's staff when he was the King of Yan in Beiping. Their base is in Beiping. Therefore, when Zhu Di first ascended the throne, some people proposed to move the capital to Beiping.
Therefore, as soon as Zhu Di ascended to the throne of the emperor, his subordinates were eager to quickly return to their own base areas, their connections were all in Beiping, and they were not familiar with them in other places.
On the other hand, Zhu Di's throne came to "unjustified", especially Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunjiao's capital at that time were Nanjing, Zhu Di always felt very different in Nanjing, Zhu Di also hoped that he could return to Beiping, and always felt that Beijing was his place. Zhu Di was in Beiping since he was crowned king of Yan in his 10s, and his feelings for Beiping were like his hometown.
Moreover, Zhu Di launched the Battle of Jingnan, and Zhu Yunjiao's whereabouts are unknown. Will Zhu Yunjiao's old courtiers support Zhu Di? In order to deter the old courtiers, Zhu Di slaughtered some stubborn people. Although the massacre served as a deterrent, it also lost the support of the southern people. From these two aspects, Zhu Di also wants to return to Beijing as soon as possible out of his personal feelings.
3. Influence of geographical factors
Beijing's selection by Zhu Di has its own advantages in addition to the above two subjective reasons.
Beijing's terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast. From the entire topography of Beijing, it can be found that the city of Beijing is surrounded by mountains and seas, and the terrain is majestic. We can see this from Tao Zongyi's "Nancun QuitTing Cultivation Road",
"Right embraces Taihang, left focuses on the sea, Fu Zhongyuan, due south, pillow Juyong, Dian Shuo Fang"
And Beijing's convenient transportation, the climate is suitable, Beijing has been positioned as a capital city more than a dozen times in history, its topographic location needless to say is naturally suitable for the capital city.
In the end, this is the reason why I think Zhu Di will move the capital to Beijing.