Before the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion, Nanjing was the largest city in the south, with a city wall of more than 100 miles in radius and a population of more than one million. After the Taiping Army captured Nanjing, a large number of people fled.

Because of the food shortage in the city, Hong Yang expelled the people out of the city. After the Tianjing Incident, there were numerous casualties among soldiers and civilians in Nanjing.

By the time the revolutionary army entered Nanjing, its population had dropped sharply to more than 200,000, business was stagnant, and everything was in dire straits. The empire announced that it would move its capital to Nanjing. After more than a year of hard work, the city of Nanjing quickly recovered its vitality.

Yang Xuan was ambitious and determined to build Nanjing into one of the best metropolises in East Asia. To this end, he instructed the Nanjing Special City to formulate a "New Capital Plan."

Similar to the "Greater Shanghai Plan" of Shanghai Special City, the "New Capital Plan" is committed to promoting the urban construction of Nanjing. The difference is that Nanjing is the capital of the Chinese Empire, and the Empire will fully support Nanjing's implementation of the "New Capital Plan" from the national level.

Capital Plan".

After a long period of argumentation and discussion, the "New Capital Plan" has finally been released. Today, the Military and Political Committee will discuss and study the plan, and once it is passed, it will be implemented immediately.

All the committee members were very interested in this and read the "New Capital Plan" in advance.

The first page of the plan is a preface, written by Yang Xuan himself: "The capital of a country is not only the hub for issuing orders, but also the gathering place of cultural essence. Nanjing's future development is almost unlimited...

"Just because it is so majestic, it is necessary to have a long-term and complete construction plan at the beginning of the project to avoid mistakes and keep the data in line. This plan is not only related to the capital, but also serves as a design initiative for cities across the country...

…

"A country must have its own culture. China is one of the oldest countries in the world. For thousands of years, it has been known to the world as a cultural country. The capital of the country is the gathering place of national culture, and it cannot but be expressed in this way, and it can be seen by the eyes and ears of outsiders.

, one can use the spirit of the people...

"Today, the state system has been renewed, and governance is different from that of the past. Public buildings in the capital, as a display of the national spirit, must adopt forms unique to China, based on the principles of science and technology, and focusing on the advantages of our country's fine arts...

"Buildings, roads, and bridges should all have a spirit of hard work, a majestic and solemn form, and a spirit of martial enterprising. Therefore, the construction of a new capital is actually a major event in empire building, and it is what the Chinese think of the world's culture.

Make due contributions..."

Although it is a thin booklet, it has gathered the efforts of many people. To this end, Nanjing City has set up a special capital construction office, which has attracted many technical experts, including professors from the Department of Architecture of Jinan University College of Engineering, Shi Shi Lei.

The backbone of the family.

Almost all important palace buildings and royal projects such as Manchu palaces, imperial mausoleums, and imperial gardens were contracted to the Lei family. The Lei family was originally from Jiangxi and had been engaged in construction and carpentry for generations. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, some of the Lei family began to move to Nanjing.

After the San Francisco Rebellion, the Manchu Qing Dynasty finally established its rule over China. Led by Lei Fafa and Lei Faxuan, some Lei clan members began to come to Beijing to participate in the construction of palaces.

Lei Fafa's exquisite skills were favored by the Qing court, and he was soon promoted to the general manager of the style house. The style house was a specialized design agency for royal architectural styles in the Qing Dynasty. All royal buildings and large buildings to be built and repaired were designed.

It must go through the design and supervision of the style room.

Since then, the Lei family has been in charge of the style house for a long time, as if it were hereditary.

Roughly starting from the Daoguang period, Emperor Daoguang was frugal by nature, and the imperial court was short of finances and unable to carry out large-scale construction projects. The Shinglei family in the north had no projects in their hands and their income dropped sharply.

Shanghai promoted the "Greater Shanghai Plan", and the empire built railways and bridges in the south, attracting many people from the Lei clan to come and serve.

According to the "New Capital Plan", Nanjing will plan six areas according to different functions:

(1) Outside Chaoyang Gate, the southern foot of Purple Mountain is the political area, which mainly accommodates various state agencies. This area is wide in area, suitable in location, and has undulating terrain, making it easy to create beautiful landscapes and magnificent buildings.

This place is far away from the old city, and the cost of demolition and land acquisition is low; the terrain is relatively high and easy to defend. Building high-rise buildings on the flat land will also help to remove the old and install the new, giving the people a refreshing feeling.

(2) To the north of the Drum Tower, the Fuhougang area is a municipal administrative area. The terrain of this area is higher than that of nearby areas, which can highlight the dignity of the municipal government and attract the attention of citizens. This area is large, has convenient transportation, and is close to residential areas.

Facilitate the implementation of municipal administration and understand the public sentiment.

(3) Both sides of the Yangtze River and Xiaguan Port are industrial zones. The south bank of the Yangtze River is the first industrial zone, focusing on the development of light industry with low pollution. The north bank of the Yangtze River, with Pukou as the center, is the second industrial zone, giving priority to being a heavy industry base.

Nanjing Port will also be divided into two parts: Xiaguan and Pukou, which will cooperate with the two major industrial zones to promote industrial development.

(4) The Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty and the Xinjiekou area are planned as commercial areas. The Xinjiekou area has always been a prosperous commercial district in Nanjing. The Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty is strategically located, with plenty of open space, making it easy to plan and build commercial facilities.

In order to cooperate with the development of the Ming Forbidden City commercial area, the municipal government will build a train passenger terminal north of the Ming Forbidden City to collect trains from all over the country and further promote commercial prosperity.

During the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, this area was originally Mancheng. After the Taiping Army entered Nanjing, they attacked Mancheng and massacred all the bannermen inside. This area had been abandoned for several years. After it was planned to be a commercial district, the land price around the Ming Forbidden City would

will rise significantly, and the government will receive a considerable amount of revenue.

In fact, the Taiping Army implemented separate camps for men and women and a holy treasury system, and all property belonged to the holy treasury. After the Revolutionary Army entered Nanjing, it was equivalent to taking over all assets in Nanjing for free.

The city government can sell urban land to raise funds to promote the "New Capital Plan". This part of the funds will be the most important source of funds for the "New Capital Plan".

(5) The area around Drum Tower and Mount Wutai is the cultural and educational district. With the area around Drum Tower and Jiming Temple as the center, a number of schools are planned to be built.

The new universities include Nanjing Imperial University, Nanjing Audit Institute, Military Staff College, and Military Logistics College.

In addition, Nanjing Education and Education Department will also focus on building a number of vocational education colleges to cultivate talents for all walks of life in the empire.

(6) Construct a number of residential areas in a scattered and hierarchical manner. There are mainly high-end residential areas designed for high-level officials, Catholic areas for religious personnel, and workers' residential areas for workers.

At the same time, the "New Capital Plan" also proposed a public housing model: it is funded by the city government and built to provide housing for needy citizens, technical talents, and intellectuals in the form of low rent or rent-free rent.

Running through the six major functional areas is a transportation network composed of four types of roads. The transportation network is roughly in a square shape and consists of four types of roads: trunk roads, secondary roads, ring roads, and boulevards.

Arterial roads connect major landmarks in Nanjing City, while boulevards are mainly planned along the city wall and Qinhuai River.

In order to facilitate transportation, it was decided to follow the example of Guangzhou and increase the openings of the city gates in Nanjing from one to three. Each city gate will be opened 24 hours a day, instead of opening and closing the city gates regularly as in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. Police will be stationed at the city gates.

Maintain traffic order, but do not check pedestrians.

If there are four types of traffic arteries (railways, canals, trunk roads, secondary roads) that need to pass through the city wall, the city wall must be opened.

In the late Qing Dynasty, many major cities lacked trees, and the hills outside the cities were also bare. Because people in the late Qing Dynasty used firewood as fuel, a large number of trees near the cities were cut down.

In the "New Capital Plan", the government will call on citizens to plant trees widely. Coal will replace firewood as the source of fuel for urban residents.

In terms of municipal infrastructure, the "New Capital Plan" also made detailed plans for drainage channels, public toilets, gas street lights, public carriages, hot water supply, etc.

The "New Capital Plan" proposed the concept of "park" for the first time. The city government will fund the renovation of a number of parks for citizens to enjoy for free. The most eye-catching one is Bailuzhou Park.

The garden was originally a villa for the family of Xu Da, King of Zhongshan in the Ming Dynasty. It is also known as Xu Taifu Garden and Xu Zhongshan Garden by Nanjing people. The garden has the original Yanyu Pavilion, Chunzai Pavilion, Xiao Penglai and other scenic spots, most of which were destroyed by the war.

However, Bailuzhou Park relies on the Ming City Wall to the east, the City God's Temple to the west, and is close to the city and the water. It has an excellent geographical location. "Although the park is abandoned, the poplars are hanging in spring, the reeds are flying in autumn, the battlements are close to the ring, Zhongshan stands in the distance, and the small pond is full of water.

The shadow of the tower is like a wild one, which is quite interesting."

Therefore, someone suggested that Bailuzhou Park should be renovated and used as the emperor's palace. Yang Xuan declined this proposal and insisted on turning it into a park for all citizens to enjoy.

In order to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the revolutionary army, it was decided to build a large revolutionary cemetery. All the buildings in the revolutionary cemetery were designed according to traditional Chinese architectural forms.

However, traditional Chinese architecture uses a lot of giant wood. Especially for important structures such as beams and columns, only rosewood, sandalwood, and even the astonishingly expensive golden nanmu can be used.

For this reason, whenever large-scale construction projects were carried out in the past dynasties, huge costs were often required, and huge trees were often purchased from the mountains of the southwest, or even from Southeast Asia.

The "New Capital Plan" decided to use a large number of modern materials such as steel and concrete to replace giant wood and improve construction efficiency.

Everyone reviewed the "New Capital Plan", but there were differences only on the planning of the political zone. Some people advocated setting the political zone around the Ming Forbidden City, but Yang Xuan insisted on setting the political zone outside the city at the southern foot of Purple Mountain.
Chapter completed!