The ancient capital, as the political center of the ancient dynasty, has a decisive significance in the political life of the country. It is not only the embodiment of national politics, but also often coincides with the economy and culture. Historically, Chang'an, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Nanjing, and Beijing are all well-known ancient capitals. They are not only geographically important, guarding the thoroughfare, but also have excellent economic hinterland and cultural heritage.
In 1368, after Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he initially chose to set the capital at Nanjing. But in fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was not very satisfied with Nanjing, his own land of longxing. One is that although the city of Nanjing is the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, it is only a temporary divided force in a remote corner, and the various dynasties and states are not long-lasting; the second is that the northern region at this time has mostly just been recovered, and the northeast region is not returned to the rule of the Ming Dynasty until Feng Sheng recruited the Yuan Dynasty Taiwei Naha in 1385, and it is urgent to stabilize the foundation of rule and win the hearts and minds of the people.
Therefore, at the beginning of his reign, Zhu Yuanzhang had the move to establish a new capital. During this period, there were even construction moves in Fengyang, but the cost was huge, and the zhongdu Fengyang had no necessary economic and cultural foundation, and the transportation of materials was also very inconvenient, so it was not possible. Subsequently, he sent the crown prince Zhu Biao to inspect Xi'an as a capital on the pretext of inspecting Xi'an, the capital of the Qin king Zhu Zhu, but in the end, after the prince returned to Nanjing, he fell ill and died young, and the matter of moving the capital was also shelved.
Just after the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao ascended to the throne, the city of Nanjing at this time gradually became the economic, political and cultural center of the time, and the hinterland of Gyeonggi was the most developed jiangnan region in China at that time.
However, a battle of Jingnan brought zhu di, the king of Yan, to usurp the throne. After Zhu Di, the King of Yan, whose power was rooted in Beijing, ascended the throne in Nanjing, there was not only an opposition force in the southern region at this time, such as the former imperial literati such as Xiaoru and Jingqing above the court, but also the people's sentiment towards Zhu Di, who usurped the throne. Therefore, Zhu Di began to move the capital. The destination of the capital move is naturally his base camp, Beijing. In 1421, after more than ten years of construction, he officially moved the capital to Beijing.
The city of Beijing was the capital of the Jin and Yuan dynasties in history. As a nomadic people from the north, such a capital strategy is actually no problem in the face of the Central Plains forces, and it can be attacked and defended. But as the capital of the Central Plains Dynasty, Beijing had very unfavorable conditions - that is, Beijing was in the land of four wars. At the time of the Warring States, the overlord of the early Warring States period, Wei Guodingdu Daliang, was finally lonely and destroyed by Qin because of the land of four wars, and the city of Beijing was such an embarrassing situation.
Beijing is only more than a hundred miles away from the Great Wall to defend the Mongol departments, and once the enemy chieftain breaks through the line of the Great Wall, the capital is in danger, and this also has the situation of the Ming Dynasty royal family after Zhu Di "Tianzi guarding the gate of the country" - this is the Han style bone, the dynasty wind bone, and also the dynasty danger.
One is that even if all the Qinwang troops enter beijing to rescue, it is only beyond the reach of the whip, it takes a long time, just like in 1630, in the midst of the change of his own body, Huang Taiji led the army into Kou, breaking through the line of the Great Wall from Xifengkou, the situation was dangerous, and the only people who could really enter the Qinwang in Beijing were Shanxi general Man Gui, as well as Yuan Chonghuan and Qin Liangyu; the other was that south of Beijing, for the plain terrain, once the city was in danger, if you wanted to run and flee, there was nowhere to escape. In 1644, when Li Zicheng attacked the city of Beijing, the embarrassing situation of the Chongzhen Emperor was reflected in the final hanging; the third was the problem of grain transportation, although the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal at that time was through, but the North Canal was insufficient, the need for water at the gate to carry water, and the complicated transportation were also hidden worries.
However, as an emperor, Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor, naturally had to stabilize the foundation of his own rule before he would care about the matters behind him. Even at that time, some subordinates had proposed that "the swallow-shaped victory has been dominant since the past, but it is not two hundred miles away from the border plug, there is no barrier, and the Son of Heaven is his own guard." Fortunately, Hu Ren Weili was plundering, and there was no contention for the emperor's zhi'er"? he also refuted it, and still insisted on making this decision.
And just after Zhu Di moved the capital, he himself led his troops to personally conquer the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty five times, and finally died on the way back to the division. Just 20 years after the relocation of the capital to Beijing, the city of Beijing ushered in its first crisis. In 1449, Emperor Mingyingzong Zhu Qizhen personally marched, 200,000 troops in the Battle of Tumu Fort was completely annihilated by Vala, Zhu Qizhen was imprisoned, and 66 ministers led by zhu Qi, including the British Gonggong and Hubu Shangshu, were martyred. The Wala army, directly approaching Beijing, led by Xu Youzhen and others, advocated moving south, but thanks to the great pillar Of The Great Ming, Yu Qian, who turned the tide, he won the victory in the defense of Beijing. Subsequently, in 1511, Liu Liu and Liu Qi's rebels besieged Beijing; in 1550, the Gengzhi Rebellion, the Jurchen (Manchu) people, who became increasingly powerful, also besieged the city four times in 1630 (that is, the change of their own hands), 1636, 1638, and 1642, so that Beijing had been besieged seven times in the more than 200 years after Zhu Di moved the capital.
In 1644, Li Zicheng left Shaanxi, the military was extremely strong, Daming was about to collapse at a touch, and the eighth army came to Beijing, which also ended the Ming Dynasty's guozuo.
References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Chess Game of the Great Qing Dynasty