Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1780, Building the Jingjiang Levee

"Thousands of miles of Yangtze River, dangerous in Jingjiang, nine twists and turns, it really deserves its reputation!"

On a hilltop near the Jingjiang River section, Zhong Fan took a telescope to carefully observe the topography, topography, and trend of the entire river section, and he sighed.

After the Haohao Yangtze River exited the Three Gorges exit, the terrain gap suddenly became larger. At the same time, the terrain in the Jingjiang section also became open and flat. Due to the flat and open terrain, a complete river channel has been formed.

From time to time, the river course is constantly changing and changing here. After a flood, another river course may be changed.

In the Yangtze River Basin, during the rainy season, the rainwater from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River surges down. At the small mouth of the Three Gorges, energy is accumulated. The huge drop pours down, carrying a huge amount of energy, which is extremely easy to cause floods in the Jingjiang River area. disaster.

Almost every year there are floods and disasters, so that although the area around the Jingjiang River is fertile and wild, there are few people because they dare not live here. to be destroyed.

"Mr. Zhong, this section of the Jingjiang River is the most dangerous part of the Yangtze River. Not only our side of the Jingjiang River will be affected, but Hanyang downstream will also be affected."

"If you want to govern here, it will be extremely difficult!"

Next to Zhong Fan, Zhang Si'an, Huguang's political envoy, shook his head while speaking.

As Huguang's political envoy, he is aware of the dangers of the Jingjiang River, which is flooded almost every year, and it is rare to say that there are years that can be clean.

Check the local chronicles of Jingzhou, and almost all the records in it are related to the flood disaster in the Jingjiang River.

"It's very difficult!"

"However, if it can be managed well, a large piece of land around here can be turned into fertile fields for thousands of miles, and after the Yangtze River is dredged, large ships and ships can go directly to Jingzhou in the future, and it will be much more convenient to go out in the future."

Zhong Fan nodded, and then pointed to the vast wilderness below the mountain. Because the Jingjiang River often bursts its embankments, a large area of ​​land around it is barren, and it has become a water town of Zeguo, where a large number of birds can be seen living. As for the village and the like are all distributed in places with higher terrain, and they dare not build houses in places with lower terrain.

"What Zhong Gong said is reasonable. If the Jingjiang River can be well managed, the surrounding area can indeed become a land of fish and rice, and it must not belong to the land of Jiangnan."

When Zhang Si'an heard this, his eyes lit up immediately, and he looked at the land in front of him. If it became fertile and wild, there would be at least several million people that could be supported here.

"If we build a levee here in Jingjiang to protect the Jingbei Plain to the north, at least several million acres of fertile land can be created here."

Zhong Fan opened the map, took out a pen and drew a line on the map. This line started from the Zaolin area and went down to the Jianli area, with a total length of more than 300 miles.

"My lord, is such a project too big?"

"Although there are a large number of embankments that have been built by predecessors here, and with the help of mountains and so on, the length of the embankment we want to build is still hundreds of miles long. If people are mobilized, it may not be possible to repair it in one or two years."

Zhang Si'an looked at the map carefully and said hastily.

In fact, Jingjiang has a tradition of building dikes since ancient times, and all dynasties have also built dikes here. At the beginning, during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Jingzhou Governor Heng Wen ordered the construction of golden dikes along Jiangling City.

In the Tang Dynasty, a large section of embankment above Shashi began to be built. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the rear embankment was gradually built downstream, and it gradually formed a larger scale in the Yuan Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, there has always been a tradition of building dikes to prevent floods, and Huguang has been building this for a long time, so Zhang Si'an is very familiar with this. Zhong Fan just draws a line, and he knows that the project is very large. , It is definitely not something that can be repaired in one or two years.

Among them, there is the most difficult one, the diversion port of Haoxue Town, which has a huge amount of work and is also very difficult.

"The amount of work is huge, but it is also a major event that will benefit the present and benefit the future."

"Now, our Ming Dynasty is at its peak, prosperous and strong, without any internal and external troubles, and the national treasury is full. The emperor is an eternal sage, and all the princes in the court are capable ministers in governing the world."

"If we don't seize the opportunity and time to build the levee now, I'm afraid it will be difficult to have a better time than now."

"Liu Gong put forward a grand plan for the upcoming Ming Dynasty, not only to dredge the Yangtze River, drive the development of Huguang and Jiangxi, but also to build a large-scale railway. Among them, there is even a railway planned to be built to Tianfu."

"You must know that since ancient times, the road to Shu has been difficult to reach the blue sky, and ordinary roads are difficult and dangerous. Do you know the difficulty of building a railway to go to Tianfu?"

"Compared to that, the Jingjiang embankment in front of you is nothing at all."

Zhong Fan said with a smile.

The construction of embankments and dredging of rivers is nothing more than a large amount of work, but in terms of technical difficulty, there is no comparison with building a railway to Tianfu.

"Build the railway to Tianfu, Sichuan?"

"Here, how much money do you have to invest in?"

When Zhang Si'an heard this, he couldn't help opening his mouth wide.

It is definitely not a joke that the road to Shu is difficult to climb to the blue sky. The closed Sichuan Basin is surrounded by tall mountains, and the road to Sichuan is really too difficult.

Now it is said that the railway will be built to go to Tianfu in Sichuan. It is very crazy to think about it.

"There is a lot of silver, but the court has no shortage of silver."

"Liu Gong said that all parts of my Ming Dynasty must develop in a balanced manner. Sichuan is a land of abundance, with fertile land, open and flat terrain, but the transportation to the outside world is extremely inconvenient."

"If the railway can be built, it will be equivalent to opening up the veins of Sichuan. Whether it is the development of Sichuan itself, or the relocation of people from Sichuan to places outside the customs and overseas, it will become very easy."

"Like Huguang and Jiangxi, which are located inland, with the development of overseas trade and overseas colonization, the speed of development in recent years has been somewhat slower than that of coastal areas."

"However, if the Yangtze River is dredged and a large number of ports and wharves are built, the development of Huguang and Jiangxi will soon be able to catch up."

"The railways, highways, ports, and wharves are all arranged for the long-term stability of my Ming Dynasty and the balanced development of all parts of my Ming Dynasty."

"The rain and dew from the Son of Heaven must be evenly sprinkled on every piece of land and every citizen of my Daming!"

Zhong Fan nodded, and also told Zhang Si'an something about the court.

Although Zhang Si'an was a great official in the frontier, even he was similar to Zhong Fan, but one was the left minister of the Ministry of Industry of the imperial court, and the other was the chief envoy of the local government, so there was still a difference.

Zhang Si'an may go to Nanjing to retire in a few years, but Zhong Fan may become a minister and a cabinet minister. With the emperor's side, the chances of promotion are much greater than those in other places.

"Liu Gong is majestic and far-sighted, which is really admirable."

After Zhang Si'an listened, he also gave a sigh of admiration.

"Yeah, it's really admirable."

Zhong Fan also nodded in deep agreement. Only in this era, after experiencing the great changes that have taken place in Ming Dynasty in recent years, can he understand Liu Jin's great contribution to the Ming Empire.

Daming originally had internal and external troubles, empty treasury, slack armaments, and people struggling to survive. However, in less than 20 years, great changes have taken place in Daming.

In today's Ming Dynasty, the national power is at its peak, the country is rich and the people are strong, the soldiers are strong and the horses are strong, the people live affluently, and they have thousands of miles of territory. All these are inseparable from the major national policies proposed by Liu Jin.

It can be said that without Liu Jin, there would be no Daming today.

Liu Jin became the chief assistant of the cabinet, and even put forward a huge infrastructure plan to build railways and roads, ports, docks, reservoirs, and dams to balance the development of various parts of Ming Dynasty. It can be said to be a complete and comprehensive plan.

At the same time, these major events are done based on the current national conditions of Ming Dynasty. If everything can be done well, it will be a matter of merit in the present and benefit in the future.

"So, even if the project is huge, we still have to build it."

"Furthermore, the Jingcheng Institute of Mechanical Engineering has invented a lot of new construction machinery. If these construction machinery are used in large quantities, it won't take long to build the Jingjiang embankment."

Zhong Fan said with a smile.

The Ministry of Industry is engaged in infrastructure construction, which naturally requires all kinds of machinery, and at the same time, it is the most capable of using these machinery.

With the emergence of the internal combustion engine, the horsepower of the internal combustion engine is getting bigger and bigger, and various cars have appeared one after another, among which there are large trucks that can transport a large amount of goods, which are used to transport soil, rocks, building materials, etc. very fast and very fast. convenience.

In addition, there are construction machinery such as large forklifts and excavators newly invented by the Jingcheng Institute of Mechanical Engineering, which greatly improves the efficiency of the project.

In the past, a lot of manpower may be needed to do projects, but now these construction machines can be used in large quantities. Fewer people are needed, but the efficiency has improved a lot.

(End of this chapter)