Chapter 111 Section 8 Prince Education Base: Fengyang

Although Fengyang failed to become the capital, the rise of Zhu Yuanzhang still greatly improved its political status. As early as the first year of Wu's recovery of Haozhou, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately promoted Haozhou to Linhao Mansion.In order to cooperate with the construction of the central capital, Zhu Yuanzhang expanded the jurisdiction of Haozhou in the fourth year of Hongwu, so that the territory of Linhao was expanded from four counties to eighteen counties in Kyushu.In the seventh year of Hongwu, it was renamed Fengyang Mansion. This new mansion governed Bozhou, Yingzhou, Taihe, Yingshang, Huoqiu, Shouzhou, Huaiyuan, Mengcheng, Suzhou, Lingbi, Tianchang, Xuyi, Sizhou, Hong Eighteen prefectures and counties, including Huai County, Wuhe, Dingyuan, Fengyang, and Linhuai, have become an administrative region spanning both sides of the Huaihe River and covering a vast area.

After the construction of the Central Capital was stopped, Fengyang's status as the land of Longxing was still extraordinary.In September of the 14th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang set up the left-behind department here, and the left-behind department was set up with a high position and weight.In addition, Fengyang also has government agencies such as the procuratorate patrol station, the Henan police station and a series of imperial mausoleum sacrificial institutions.There are a total of 1,400 officials of various types ("Zhu Yuanzhang and Fengyang"), and the total number of officials at all levels is tens of thousands.

Zhu Yuanzhang also used Fengyang as the prince's education base, and often sent his children back to his hometown to experience life, remembering bitterness and thinking about sweetness.As early as October in the first year of Wu (AD 1367), he sent his thirteen-year-old son Zhu Biao to visit the tomb of his ancestors in Linhao, "to know the hard work of pommel horses", "the difficulty of food and clothing", "the beauty and evil of customs", "It's not easy for me to start a business." In October of the eighth year of Hongwu (AD 1375), Zhu Biao, the crown prince, and princes such as King Qin, King Jin, King Chu, and King Jingjiang were ordered to "travel to Zhongdu to talk about martial arts".In February of the ninth year of Hongwu, because King Qin, King Jin, and King Yan were about to enter the domain, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the crown prince to take them to Fengyang, "to see the place where the ancestors started their foundation, and to know how the king's business thrives."In October, King Qin, King Jin, King Yan, King Wu (later changed to King Zhou), King Chu, and King Qi were ordered to train troops in Fengyang.

In March of the eleventh year of Hongwu (AD 1378), the kings of Qin and Jin were ordered to become vassals, and the kings of Yan, Zhou, and Chu were still ordered to "return to Fengyang".From then on, "the kingdom of all kings, all ordered to leave the imperial mausoleum before proceeding" has become a "rule".In order to provide the prince with a place to practice martial arts, in the 14th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang specially ordered Huang Chen, the captain-in-law, to open a "Guangsanli" martial arts field in front of Dushan in Fengyang, and ordered the kings to practice here for two or three years or six or seven years. And then Fan.After that, in the eighteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Bo, King of Lu, Zhu Tan, King of Lu, and Zhu Zi, King of Chan were sent to the vassals, and Zhu Chun, King of Shu, was also ordered to stay in Fengyang, "the capital of military review".

Zhu Yuanzhang also used Fengyang as a place to imprison the criminal clan.Zhu Shouqian, Zhu Yuanzhang's grandson and Zhu Wenzheng's son, was deposed by Zhu Yuanzhang as a commoner because of some incidents.Because of this precedent, the later emperors of the Ming Dynasty sent the criminal clans to Fengyang for imprisonment.By the end of Ming Dynasty, a total of 116 batches of royal families had been imprisoned here. Due to the above-mentioned facilities, although the central capital has been abandoned, Fengyang, which is economically and culturally underdeveloped and the transportation is not very convenient, has still become the political, economic and cultural center of the Huaihe River Basin, and has become a special and important city in the political situation of the Ming Dynasty. It has always had a major impact on the political, economic, military and social life of the Ming Dynasty.This pattern continued until the end of the Ming Dynasty and spread to the Qing Dynasty.