As we all know, the capital of Henan Province was previously Kaifeng, which was later replaced by Zhengzhou. Mainly because Zhengzhou's Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, which runs north and south, and the Longhai Railway, which runs through the east and west, intersect in Zhengzhou, Zhengzhou is lagging behind in the competition of the capital of Henan Province. Zhengzhou can become one of the capital cities of Henan Province and the central city of the country, thanks to Zhang Zhidong.
Zhengzhou, located in the north-central part of Henan, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the transition zone from the yumai to the Huanghuai Plain in the eastern section of the Qinling Mountains, is high in the southwest and low in the northeast. Zhengzhou is bordered by the Yellow River in the north, between the two ancient capitals of Kaifeng and Luoyang, the geographical location is extremely important, and the ancients yunqi "the center of the majestic standoff, controlling the royal danger".
Zhengzhou is one of the eight ancient capitals of China, and the Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty were all set to be here. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the guanguo in Zhengzhou (present-day Guancheng District, Zhengzhou) was a fiefdom of King Wu of Zhou's younger brother Shu Xian. Uncle Guan has a very high status, and together with Uncle Huo and Uncle Cai, he is known as the "Three Prisons". King Ping of Zhou moved east to Luoyang, Zheng Wugong led the Zheng people to move the capital to Xinzheng, and after the destruction of Zheng in Korea, the capital was also moved to Xinzheng, and Xinzheng made the capital of Zheng and Han for more than 500 years.
In ancient times, the advantages of water transport are very obvious, Kaifeng is located in the middle of the Grand Canal, water and land transportation is convenient, is the Jiangnan qianliang from the waterway into Beijing (Xi'an, Luoyang) must pass through. Therefore, Kaifeng has a very heavy position in history, several times as the capital, such as the Xia Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period of the State of Wei, the Five Dynasties Later Liang, the Later Jin, the Later Han, the Later Zhou, the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Jin Dynasty. In contrast, Kaifeng has a higher status in history than Zhengzhou. After the rise of the qing dynasty railway, Zhengzhou gradually became a railway hub and rose rapidly, and the fate of Zhengzhou was determined by the Luhan Railway, the predecessor of the Beijing-Han Railway.
In 1889, Zhang Zhidong, then governor of Liangguang, gave the imperial court "Please Slow Down the Construction of the Jintong Railway to Rebuild the Trunk Road of the Province", suggesting that the Qing court build the Luhan Railway from Beijing Lugou Bridge (also known as Lugou Bridge) to Hubei Hankou Railway (also known as Luhan Railway).
Zhang Zhidong believes that Henan and Hubei have a special geographical location, connecting Zhili in the north, Shaanxi and Gansu in the west, Xiangyue in the south, and liangjiang in the east. In the world, there is no hinterland between Yu and Hubei provinces. With the Luhan Railway, the imperial court could more easily control the provinces of Yu and Hubei and exert influence over the surrounding provinces. The rich resources of the provinces in central China can be continuously transported to the north, which also has a huge role in promoting the economies of the provinces.
The route of the Luhan Railway was designed by Zhang Zhidong, starting from Beijing, passing through Baoding Province, Zhengding Province, Shunde Province (Xingtai), Guangping Province (near Handan), entering Zhangde Province (Anyang), Weihui Province (Zhiji County, now Weihui County-level City), and then crossing the Yellow River. Where to cross the Yellow River is an important question, because the Yellow River is notorious for its frequent breaches and diversions downstream.
It is reasonable to say that the Luhan Railway passed through Kaifeng, the capital of Henan Province at that time, which should be a foregone conclusion, but the riverbed in the Kaifeng section of the Yellow River was very high and became a hanging river on the ground. In case the Yellow River breaks through kaifeng, the entire Luhan Railway will be interrupted. In the end, Zhang Zhidong abandoned the provincial capital Kaifeng and chose Zhengzhou. Because the Yellow River section of Zhengzhou is relatively stable and the soil is hard, it is more suitable for building railways.
In 1889, Zhang Zhidong was transferred to the governor of Huguang and officially supervised the construction of the Huguang section of the Luhan Railway, during which Time Zhengzhou was also upgraded to a prefecture-level prefecture. After the Luhan Railway was completed and opened to traffic, the east-west Biluo Railway (one of the predecessors of the Longhai Railway) also began to be built, intersecting with the Luhan Railway in Zhengzhou.
Photo - Zhengzhou East Railway Station
With the rise of the railway, gradually replacing water transport as the most advantageous mode of transportation, Zhengzhou and Kaifeng have different fates because of the different choices of Zhang Zhidong. In 2020, Zhengzhou's regional GDP was 1,200.3 billion yuan, while Kaifeng was only 237.183 billion yuan, almost equivalent to a fraction of Zhengzhou' size, and the gap was not small.