Eastern Capital

Biodata

Geography and Layout

• Luo River: Crosses the city and serves as its principal supply artery, carrying provincial tribute, military and civilian provisions, and bulk merchandise through extensive wharves and warehouses 13.
• Urban divisions: Wards and markets form sharply bounded districts. The river also marks a major social division between the northern government quarter and residential districts farther south 83.
• Climate: Western Park and the Luo River produce thin morning mist. The surrounding Central Plains receive increased midsummer rainfall following Lord White Emperor’s alterations to the Qinling passages and Han River basin 13 38.
• Western connection: The road between the Eastern and Western Capitals is among Great Wei’s busiest and most strategically important routes, with maintained roads and an established official post-station system 45.

Districts and Landmarks

Economy and Society

Commerce and Supply

• Imperial purchasing power: Palace residents, nobles, officials, and soldiers draw upon tax revenues from across the realm, sustaining demand for luxury goods, handicrafts, and personal services 44.
• Large labor market: The city’s million-plus residents provide abundant labor. The narration describes the capital as possibly the world’s largest city and one of its greatest established markets 44.
• Cheap staple supplies: Luokou Granary can release tax grain and cloth at very low prices. Its reserves help keep ordinary residents relatively stable even after the emperor leaves and rebellion spreads 44 184.
• Merchant brokerage: Feng Yong builds his fortune by arranging transactions, credit, and safe stopping places for river merchants, collecting a share of the deals made through his tavern 22.

Social Divisions

• Northern concentration of power: High officials and grandees cluster around the palace, while vital government offices stand north of the Luo River 83.
• Southward decline in wealth: Wealthy officials, merchants, and propertied households occupy the southern bank; districts become progressively poorer farther south, culminating in a Southern City dominated by manual laborers 83.
• Southeastern poverty: The palace’s northwestern position leaves certain southeastern wards as slums 21.
• Regional exclusion: Zhang Xing argues that southerners struggle to establish themselves in the capital economically, culturally, and politically. He accuses its grandees of treating the south chiefly as a source of grain and cloth 83.
• Cultivator concentration: Wealth and privilege allow elite residents to cultivate without the pressures of productive labor, helping draw cultivators into the capital 198.

Government and Security

Factional Politics

• Long-standing rivalry: Ward Chief Liu describes twenty years of conflict between civil and military interests, eastern prominent clans, and the Supreme Pillars of State. Ordinary ward residents and patrol cavalry are repeatedly caught in these struggles 27.
• Aristocratic networks: The Bai family’s extensive positions in central administration, local government, and the army illustrate how lineage connections shape access to office and protection 31.
• Limits of Cao Lin’s control: Even after he assumes authority, rival factions continue pursuing their own interests. His ability and willingness to preserve Great Wei make him a shared concern among otherwise competing elites 250.
• Guanlong priorities: Zhang Xing assesses the capital’s leaders as more concerned with controlling Guanlong and its military forces than with cooperating against outside enemies 252.

Military Resources and Safeguards

• Recruitment center: A forty-thousand-man force directly subordinate to the imperial house helps attract martial talent. The Jing’an Directorate’s rankings intensify the influx and associated public-order problems 59 64.
• Earlier reserves: Before the wider breakdown, grain, cloth, and armor are stockpiled around the city, with two hundred thousand new troops stationed nearby 92.
• Cultivation suppression: Qian Tang warns that Ziwei Palace could use the Crouching Dragon Seal, or another legacy of Lord White Emperor, to suppress cultivation within a hundred li below Meridian Opening. He presents this as a contingency if powerful cultivators leave the city uncontrollable 39.
• Later shortage: Despite its earlier concentrations of troops and supplies, the capital faces severe manpower and equipment shortages after the failed eastern campaign 184.

History

Foundation and Relocation of the Court

Cao Che built the Eastern Capital soon after taking the throne and transferred the imperial seat from the Western Pass region. Zhang Xing regards the relocation, completed within the early years of the reign, as evidence of the emperor’s growing authority and success in reducing the influence of old ministers. By Zhang Xing’s arrival, the city has existed for approximately twenty years 25 71 75.

Zhang Xing’s Arrival and the Ward Conflicts

Zhang Xing initially stays at the Marquis of Ji’an’s estate before renting a courtyard in Xiūyè Ward and joining the Street-Cleaning Tigers. His encounters with gangs, merchants, and corrupt officers expose the overlap between official authority and local commercial power. Bai Yousi subsequently transfers him to her Brocade-Clad Patrol Cavalry 13 22 27.

The aftermath of Yang Shen’s rebellion brings arrests and escalating political tension. At the same time, staple prices rise, precious metals become more expensive, and rents and property prices fall. Summer searches and violence briefly shut down much of the city, but commerce rapidly revives once the restrictions and heavy rain subside 30 35 41 44.

Imperial Construction Projects

The court orders the Bright Hall completed before the Longevity Festival, with Bai Hengqiu overseeing construction. The plan requires one hundred thousand laborers continuously at work, supported by a monthly turnover of two to three hundred thousand conscripted workers for four months. Laborers begin arriving by boat to prepare for Qianyuan Hall’s demolition 64.

The later Great Golden Pillar project increases demand for gold and silver. Officials and guards extort merchants, who pass their losses on through higher prices. Court-imposed price controls lower prices without stopping the extortion; reported victims include a ruined rice merchant and a paper-shop owner driven to suicide 127 131.

The Emperor’s Departure

The third Dongyi campaign ends in disaster, and Cao Che turns toward Jiangdu rather than returning to the Eastern Capital. Senior officials understand that he is avoiding Cao Lin and preserving the army as leverage in their future relationship. Zhang Xing quietly helps arrange the return of Directorate and Crouching Dragon Guard personnel to the capital 171.

The emperor’s absence weakens the Northern Office and drains palace expenditure. Nevertheless, Luokou Granary helps prevent immediate civilian collapse, leaving the city’s most acute tension concentrated within its political leadership 184 203.

Cao Lin’s Emergency Administration

Cao Lin persuades the council to support raising at least one hundred thousand troops and claims sole authority over Eastern Capital affairs. His measures include melting down the Golden Pillar, recasting currency and weapons, recruiting soldiers, and requisitioning servants from great households for the Nanyang front 184 199.

He later accepts proposals to compromise over spring plowing and appoint capable younger members of rival lineages to regional offices. Wartime rules expand local administrative and military authority, enlarge commandery forces, and strengthen communication between Directorate outposts 217.

Campaign Against the Exorcising the Dragon Army

The capital contributes forces to the effort to contain Zhang Xing’s army. Qutu Da brings ten thousand Eastern Capital troops to Luokou Granary, while five thousand Eastern Capital Valiant Warriors become part of a political arrangement involving Cao Lin, Han Yingong, and Zhang Xuguo 233 243.

The government defeat at Lihu shocks the capital. Cao Lin mourns Zhang Xuguo, while Zhang Shiben learns of his son Zhang Changgong’s death. Zhang Xing’s fabricated accounts of the campaign circulate as purported loyalist testimony, stirring public opinion against Han Yingong, although the old Guanlong military leaders do not believe them 250.

Afterward, Zhang Xing judges the capital increasingly unable to turn its nominal resources into effective military strength. He identifies Zhang Xuguo’s death, Han Yingong’s losses, and the leadership’s internal rivalries as major obstacles to another coordinated offensive 252.