The new office building of the Central Government of the Ming Dynasty is currently the most important project in the imperial court.

The person directly in charge is, of course, Lei Hong, the secretary of the Ming Dynasty.

After Lei Hong received the order, he immediately had a lot of doubts.

The order did not mention the approximate predetermined address of the new imperial building, nor did it mention that he should survey and select the address.

It was just that the Ministry of Construction was responsible for the engineering design of the new Central Government Office building itself.

However, the engineering design itself is directly related to the state of the land to be built.

What kind of foundation state to build what kind of building, I don't know if the foundation can't mess around.

Lei Hong thought about it for a long time, and combined with other public orders, a guess appeared in his mind:

"Is Your Majesty going to temporarily move the various departments of the imperial court to Nanjing, and after vacating the space, directly rebuild them on the original sites of the yamen?"

This speculation is so plausible that other engineering leaders have similar thoughts.

However, this is inconsistent with the habit of getting orders from the emperor after the Renwu Dynasty.

Since Emperor Sejo, orders have been pursued to be simple, direct and easy to understand, and will not deliberately fail to make things clear.

Unless the emperor really didn't think of it at the time.

If it was really to make room for the purpose of arranging for the temporary relocation of the yamen, it would be impossible not to make the purpose clear.

Moreover, if an 80-meter-high office building is to be built on the original site, it will directly block the Forbidden City behind.

In addition, to do engineering design, it is necessary to communicate with Party A clearly about the needs, and Lei Hong has a lot of questions to confirm.

For example, whether this new office building will be divided into multiple compounds as before, or will it be a conjoined building.

In this office building, should there be large conference rooms and halls of sufficient size?

Do you want to reserve special offices and lounges for the emperor, etc.

Lei Hong was cautious, but still called the political secretary and made an appointment to meet Emperor Zhu Jianyan.

At the same time, the main craftsmen of the Ministry of Construction were convened to discuss and sort out important issues that needed to be confirmed before design.

Then, after the morning of the next morning, according to the notice of the General Administration, he stayed and went to the office alone to meet the emperor.

After Lei Hong greeted An, he sat in the position of the emperor's head and first asked the question of site selection.

Zhu Jianyan's initial public order did not directly mention the issue of site selection, that is, not to disclose the location of the new office building of the imperial court.

Because that location is actually in Yingtianfu, not Shuntianfu.

If this address is directly disclosed, then the people below will immediately understand that this emperor has the idea of responding to Tianfu.

It's better not to make this news public right away.

However, Zhu Jianyan has completed a university-level cultural course, and has also interned in the local and central government offices for more than ten years, not the kind of otaku emperor before the Renwu Dynasty.

He knew that the problem could be hidden, but there was no way to hide it from the engineers.

Zhu Jianyan looked around, and after asking all the personnel to withdraw, he directly explained to Lei Hong:

"The question of site selection has been handed over to the Royal Engineering Company.

"The office building of the new yamen is placed around the new palace of Yingtianfu.

"Now the Ministry of Construction can do its own general design of the form and structure of the office building.

"Wait for the survey results to come out, and make a detailed engineering design according to the results.

"This design can be done together with the design of the new palace.

"The Ministry of Construction and the Royal Engineering Company have each independently come up with several different types of proposals.

"The palace was to be divided into two large areas, the residential area and the ceremonial area.

"The residential area is designed according to the pattern of the palace, and there is no need for a serious and neat layout, and there is no need to deliberately build high-rise buildings.

"The ceremonial area is designed according to the serious standards of the traditional Forbidden City, and it is necessary to realize the full ceremonial function of the Forbidden City.

"But without my message, don't make this matter public for the time being.

"The site survey is completed and the detailed engineering design must not be disclosed to anyone until the detailed engineering design has begun.

"Once the engineering design has begun, it must not be disclosed to anyone other than those directly involved in the design."

When Lei Hong heard the news, he was a little stunned.

The emperor actually wanted to move the capital!

After this earth-shattering news came out, all the previous doubts were suddenly cleared.

The new office building, of course, was to be placed next to the new palace.

The reason why the new Yamen building was allowed to be built higher was because the palace was also going to be built higher!

Thinking of the emperor's gag order, Lei Hong hurriedly stood up and seriously agreed:

"Lei Hong, the secretary of the Ministry of Ministers, respectfully obeys the holy decree."

This news should only be known to himself, and if it leaks out, the emperor will most likely arrest him directly.

Zhu Jianyan nodded slightly:

"Any other questions?"

Lei Hong hurriedly put forward the most important questions, and directly took the notebook to prepare for the record.

Zhu Jianyan explained his requirements in turn:

"Since we are still in the stage of divergent thinking, we can do more about the design draft.

"In terms of office buildings, some can be designed individually, multi-stored, and with courtyards.

"The Tessie people also have good attainments in building buildings, which can also be properly referenced.

"In the office building, a special office area and even a living area should be set up for the emperor.

"There should be meeting rooms and auditoriums that were directly connected to the emperor's office and living quarters.

"It's convenient to live directly in the office building for work and meetings when there is an emergency.

"You can also consider a design that integrates the office building with the palace building.

"The palace in the ceremonial area, although it has to be serious, does not need to be completely copied from the Forbidden City.

"Buildings can be distanced appropriately and trees planted appropriately.

"The focus of the Ministry of Construction was on the design of the imperial court office building and the ceremonial palace......"

The new palace and the new building were big things, and they were big things for the emperor.

So Zhu Jianyan arranged and discussed with Lei Hong for most of the morning.

Until noon, Lei Hong left Zhu Jianyan's office and returned to his office building.

After lunch, we began to organize people to do the draft design in the afternoon.

Ten days later, Lei Hong took a pile of preliminary simple design plans and met Zhu Jianyan again after the morning court.

Put the draft of the best features screened in advance on the top and put it on the conference table in front of Zhu Jianyan together.

Lei Hong stood next to him and first introduced the current design ideas to Zhu Jianyan:

"Your Majesty, according to the calculations and assessments of the engineers, without taking into account the cost and geological conditions, we are able to build buildings with a total height of more than four hundred meters......"

"Four hundred meters—"

Zhu Jianyan was obviously a little surprised.

I thought that the 200 meters that my son negotiated with his father was exaggerated enough.

I didn't expect the engineering people's assumptions to be even more outrageous.

This proposed maximum height is twice as high as the two of them envisioned:

"It's almost a mile away!

"Can a building of this height really be built? How is this going to be built?

"Is a tall building of this height strong enough? Will it twist or even collapse because of the storm? ”

Lei Hong continued:

"If the geological conditions are right, a building that can really reach 500 meters, which is a mile of land, can be built.

"In particular, the ceremonial capital hall of the imperial court can be poured with reinforced concrete downstairs to build a tall pedestal.

"As long as the bottom area is large enough, even if the base is more than 200 meters high, it can still be as stable as Mount Tai.

"The building itself is not a problem, and as long as the core is thick enough, it can be stable at a height of 500 meters.

"The engineering people did careful calculations and simulations.

"The ministers can be sure that we have mastered the latest construction technology and can realize the construction of a 500-meter-high building.

"Of course, if a tall enough platform is not built, and a straight tube building with the same depth at the top and bottom is built alone, it is still uncertain whether it can remain stable above 400 meters.

"So if you want to build a 400-meter tall building, you should prepare a 100-meter foundation for insurance and caution.

"The design plans completed by the engineers are all planned in this way."

Zhu Jianyan listened to these introductions and finally accepted this fact.

It is probably the Ming Dynasty's policy of restricting high-rise buildings that has suffocated these engineers who want to build high-rise buildings.

So this time, I took out all the most exaggerated ideas.

However, Zhu Jianyan immediately had a new question:

"But...... The height of 400 meters is still too exaggerated.

"Even if there is a 100-meter pedestal below, which is completely solid, there is a height of 300 meters above.

"Such a huge space...... Is it really appropriate to make it a separate single-story hall?

"The question is, can it be done? The height of a single layer of 300 meters? ”

Lei Hong immediately said very frankly:

"Your Majesty's concern is indeed a big problem for the craftsmen in the design.

"At present, we do not have the experience of designing and constructing a single ceiling height of more than 50 meters.

"For the ceremonial palace of the imperial court, it is difficult for us to make full use of the space in the palace.

"Unless the functions of the Taimiao, Fengtian Palace, Wenhua Palace, Wuying Hall and other palaces are stacked on top of each other, they are all placed in such an extremely huge building......

Or refer to the experience of the Tessians in building churches, put the height of the main body of the building in a relatively reasonable range, and build towers around it to raise the maximum height.

"Regarding these two ideas, we have made a design plan, Your Majesty, please see ......"

Zhu Jianyan looked down at the design drawings in front of him, mainly those design graphics.

Lei Hong continued to introduce on the side:

"The first set of plans is a large hall in the form of multiple layers.

At the same time, the design of the palace and the central court office building was adopted.

"This is the most extreme and compact solution.

"The first of these plans is the design of the highest 420-meter hall in the center, and the office areas of the various departments of the imperial court are placed on both sides of the hall in the form of annex buildings.

"The east side can be arranged with a civilian system, and the west side can be arranged with military attachés and judicial, supervision and other departments.

"The second plan is to build the office building directly into the form of a pedestal and place it under the main hall.

In other words, the base is not made solid, but partially hollow.

"From the outside, below the main hall is a pedestal of sixty to eighty meters.

"But inside the base is actually the yamen of various ministries of the imperial court.

"The second set of options is a relatively traditional design.

"The main hall is still stacked, and the office building and the main hall are built independently.

"But there is some form of connection and cooperation between the main hall and the office building.

"The office building can be wrapped around the main hall, but connected by corridors.

"The main design scheme is placed on both sides of the main hall, surrounded by the surroundings, standing in front of the front and other directions.

"The third set of options is the most traditional.

"The main palace functions will still be separated, and the office buildings will all be built separately.

"At the same time, the height of the palace is not extreme, and the maximum height is placed at a position of two hundred meters.

"Taking the Fengtian Temple as an example, a 64-meter-high pedestal was first built, and a 128-meter-high hall was built above the pedestal.

"The office building is outside the palace wall in front of it, and it can be designed as a multi-story building or a branch hospital.

"The height ratio of the base and the main hall can also continue to be adjusted.

"The fourth group of schemes is borrowed from the design of the church and palace of Tessie.

"First of all, the main palace was combined into one, with a 64-meter pedestal and a 64-high main hall built on it.

"Several towers were built in front of and on the left and right, and were used to worship the most important ancestors and ancestors individually."

Zhu Jianyan looked at the design plan in his hand, listened to Lei Hong's introduction, and consulted some details from time to time.

In the end, I selected a few of these plans that I was most satisfied with.

At the same time, different parts of several different schemes were combined to put forward new design requirements.

Let Lei Hong go back to complete the recombination plan, and make further refinements together with the original several pre-selected plans.

This time, the design took a long time, and it was not basically completed until 20 days later, and it was a month to repair the details.

When I showed it to Zhu Jianyan again, the preparations for the southern tour had already come to an end.

Zhu Jianyan took a few copies of the design drawings and flipped through them:

"Xiyi's method is indeed the most convenient to build, and it is probably the most economical in terms of cost.

"But it's not very comfortable to look at.

"For each generation of ancestors, a separate tower was built for worship alone, although it was similar to the pattern of the Taimiao before Jiajing.

"However, it would be very troublesome to add another tower for each subsequent generation.

"It's not a good sign to build more towers ahead of schedule......

"So don't use this plan.

"Although this method of building the yamen of each ministry inside the base is the most space-saving, I still think it is appropriate.

"It's likely to give civil and military officials a feeling of living in the underground palace and working, so don't use it.

"If the base of the palace is too high, it should not be easy to coordinate in terms of appearance.

"In the future, there will be no higher walls, and normal walls will not be higher than the base.

"If the entire hall is above the palace wall, especially if it can be seen from a distance, it may feel a little abrupt.

"Instead of piling a separate foundation for the palace, it is better to build a place where the terrain is already high.

"But even if you exclude these solutions and design methods, the remaining ones have all sorts of problems.

"But...... These designs have to be seen by the Emperor, so let's wait until Nanjing.

"Lei Qing will go back and prepare first, and go to Nanjing to dock with the Royal Engineering Company to confirm the results of the survey.

"After I've discussed it with my father, let's talk about how to build new palaces and buildings."

(End of chapter)