prosperous age

"Shunqing, you are here, please sit down, but has the Ministry of Works already drafted the regulations?"

That day, Wei Guangde met with Jiang Zhi, the Minister of Works, in the duty room. He thought that Jiang Zhi was here to report the possible consequences of Pan Jixun's flood control method as he had mentioned before.

However, when Jiang Zhi came to Wei Guangde, he said with a somewhat unpleasant expression: "Up to now, Pan Weiliang's water control method has caused more and more controversy in the Ministry of Industry, and it has not yet formed a charter."

"what?"

Wei Guangde said with a little disbelief.

His request was simple. Regardless of whether it would work or not, the Ministry of Industry just needed to brainstorm and analyze the possible consequences of using this method to control water.

To put it bluntly, what remains is for the cabinet and the officials to work together to calculate the pros and cons and make the final judgment.

But I didn’t expect that the Ministry of Industry still hasn’t met such a simple request.

"why?"

Wei Guangde's tone became stern and he questioned.

"Some of the predictions are highly controversial and may even determine the success or failure of this water management method."

Hearing Wei Guangde's bad tone, Jiang Zhi had no choice but to tell him the focus of the Ministry of Industry's debate over the past two days.

Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the importance of Qingkou hub in the water transport system has been significantly enhanced.

At that time, the Yellow River took over the Huaihe River waterway, carrying a huge amount of silt, causing the downstream riverbed to continue to silt up and rise, and floods were frequent.

The Qingkou hub is not only the confluence of the Yellow River and the Huai River, but also the only way for the Grand Canal to go north.

Three streams of water meet here and support each other.

In order for grain from the south to be transported north safely, it had to face the invasion of silt from the Yellow River.

As a result, a protracted debate was sparked over how to control the Yellow River and ensure the transportation of grain transport.

The method of "restraining water to attack sand, storing clear water to flush the Yellow River" proposed by Pan Jixun is very different from the traditional method of diversion to control the Yellow River, and is also a focus of controversy.

After all, before this, the "diversion and killing" method of river management was the main method used by all dynasties.

The traditional diversion method is to reduce the impact of floods by dispersing the water flow, but this method will cause the flow rate to slow down and silt to easily settle, which is not effective in the long run.

Pan Jixun advocated blocking branch river channels to converge the Yellow River to form a single channel, using the power of the water flow to flush out the silt and maintain the depth of the river channel.

The innovation of this method lies in its theoretical basis and practical operational effect, but it has also caused controversy.

Pan Jixun's theoretical basis is that the Yellow River has a high sand content, and diversion will lead to slow water flow and silt deposition.

The water-control and sand-attack method concentrates the force of the water flow, uses the water flow to flush out the silt and maintain the depth of the river channel.

This theory was innovative at the time, but some people questioned its scientificity and feasibility.

Sure enough, as soon as Jiang Zhi opened his mouth, he expressed the concerns of Cen Zhongmiao, the head of the Ministry of Works. He was also the main official opposed to Pan Jixun's method of controlling water and attacking sand.

"How did he say?"

When Wei Guangde heard that a small official in the Ministry of Works dared to raise objections and his attitude was extremely firm, he became interested. He also wanted to know what the people of the Ming Dynasty thought of this method that was praised as miraculous by later generations.

Jiang Zhi glanced at Wei Guangde, and then slowly said: "In his opinion, although the theory of restraining water and attacking sand itself has some truth, it can only work in a short period of time and cannot solve the fundamental problem. As a result, several years later, the Yellow River is still a frequent problem.

He compared the Huai River to a flock of sheep and the Yellow River to a tiger. The clear water and the yellow water were like a flock of sheep resisting a tiger, which was doomed to fail.

He also disagreed with Pan Jixun's statement that "if two rivers flow together, the sea mouth will be dredged naturally" and believed that it was doomed to fail.

He mainly made a small model in the Ministry of Industry to actually verify the harm of this method.

Examples have proven that when the Yellow River dredging project is abandoned, silt continues to accumulate in the downstream, the riverbed gradually rises, the slope of the entire river becomes lower and lower, and the river speed is reduced, forming a vicious cycle.

In addition, he also believes that the estuary is affected by the tide and cannot be resolved by itself, which will aggravate the flood in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. "

"The Ministry of Industry has also conducted experiments?"

Wei Guangde asked in surprise.

“Yes, according to the method proposed by Pan Jixun, he also verified the actual process of the water-binding and sand-attacking method with the Ministry of Industry, so we built a model in the back garden of the Ministry of Industry and conducted several tests.

It can be said that the effect is quite good, which shows the effectiveness of the method of restraining water and attacking sand.

However, after Cen Zhongmiao’s idea came out, we also conducted tests, which was quite time-consuming.

Because he also admitted that Pan Weiliang's method might be effective in the short term and could allow the canal, the Yellow River and the Huai River to flow smoothly, but the process would only be short, and the threat of the Yellow River would become increasingly serious.

The most important thing is that after the water is restrained, it will be difficult to dredge the river channel because the dredging by barriers will reduce the scouring effect.

If this continues, siltation in the downstream river will become more and more serious.

Water flows to lower places, so this method may reduce the slope of the entire river, the river speed will decrease, the scouring effect will be greatly reduced, and finally become completely ineffective.

What is most worrying is that this will create a vicious cycle, that is, the riverbed will rise faster.”

"Have those who support Pan Weiliang proposed any countermeasures?"

Since opponents have stated their reasons for opposition, supporters should also have ways to deal with them.

Well, this is the dialectic of ancient times. Everyone raises questions to each other, and then tries to find solutions. In the end, we see who has the last laugh.

Sure enough, Jiang Zhi hesitated a little before stating the supporters’ solution, “That is to raise the weir.

They thought that since Qingkou was silted up, they could build a high weir to contain it, and build a dike to contain it, so as to block the water of the entire Huai River and fight against Huangjiao. They did not expect that they would be outmatched. "

"So, what they are thinking is similar to what we said before, that is, to keep raising the dam and raise the Yellow River?"

Wei Guangde knew what it meant as soon as he heard it.

It should be pointed out that although the Yellow River channel has risen due to siltation, it has not yet reached the level of a "hanging river".

After all, the river dams of the Ming Dynasty were also shoddy projects. Once a flood broke out and the river embankment broke, the Yellow River would find a lower terrain location on its own and flow into it, and then look for a new estuary or river estuary.

Anyway, the water of the Yellow River will eventually flow into the sea because of China's terrain, which is high in the west and low in the east.

However, if the Yellow River finds its own way, the result will be floods, countless people will be displaced, and the crops will be destroyed.

This is also a major loss that the feudal dynasty cannot afford.

"The most terrible consequence is this. Once the Gaojiayan dam is continuously raised to store water, the water level of Hongze Lake will inevitably continue to rise, and the lake water will flood more places, forming a large artificial lake."

Jiang Zhi said again. Although they had talked about Hongze Lake before, the lake surface is still within the tolerable range and will not cause any major disaster.

However, according to Pan Jixun's method of controlling water and attacking sand, in order to ensure the amount of water to flush the Yellow River, the water volume of Hongze Lake had to be continuously increased, that is, to build higher dams to store water.

"From the perspective of the court's logic of water control, in order to achieve the goal of ensuring water transport, when encountering floods, priority should be given to ensuring the safety of areas north of the Yellow River and south of the Huai River, while areas south of the Yellow River and north of the Huai River will inevitably bear the brunt and become the objects of sacrifice.

Xuzhou, Huai'an, Fengyang, Sizhou and other places will inevitably suffer from flood damage over the years."

When talking about Fengyang and Sizhou, Jiang Zhi emphasized his tone.

He was also reminding Wei Guangde that if this method was really implemented, the safety of the imperial mausoleum could not be guaranteed.

"The flooding of the ancestral tombs is the first priority, followed by luck, and then people's livelihood."

Wei Guangde said at this time.

In fact, he did not say this, but it was the offensive launched by the imperial court after Hongze Lake was formed during the Hongzhi period.

That is to say, the Ming Dynasty court at that time had actually realized the potential harm caused by the formation of Hongze Lake.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Of course, the purpose of building the dam at that time was not to store water to flush the Yellow River, but to store water to ensure water transportation.

When the canal is short of water, the water stored in Hongze Lake is used to supplement the water volume in the Caoyuan canal.

The direct impact was that the Yellow River had nowhere to vent after taking over the Huai River and thus flooded into Sizhou City.

In order to ensure the safety of the ancestral tombs in the north of the city, the people of Sizhou City suffered repeated disasters, and this ancient city ultimately could not escape the fate of sinking to the bottom of Hongze Lake.

The people of Sizhou did resist this.

Originally in history, Chang Sanxing, a Jinshi from Sizhou and former councilor of Huguang, once submitted a memorial, firmly demanding to change Pan Jixun's practice of building Gaojiayan, believing that this would lead to a devastating flood in Sizhou City.

In order to refute Chang Sanxing, Pan Jixun did not discuss it from a technical perspective, but instead exaggerated Chang Sanxing's remarks.

He wrote: "Your Majesty has accepted the advice of the imperial officials and used stone paving to build a plan that will benefit millions of people. The three ministries and other departments want to destroy it immediately. How can you bear it?"

This made Emperor Wanli believe that the opposition was directed at him himself.

In order to illustrate the rationality of his river management methods, Pan Jixun even regarded the "confluence of the Yellow River and the Huai River" as the foundation for maintaining the feng shui of his ancestral tombs. "The Yellow River and the Huai River confluence into the sea, where water meets the heart of heaven and all waters converge. This is the true feng shui for emperors for all eternity."

In some popular science books and biographies of later generations, in order to pursue the so-called impact of the text, the complexity of history was intentionally downplayed, and the statement that the Yellow River had not been a major threat for more than two hundred years was directly adopted.

Some so-called popular science works even deliberately create a black-and-white opposition effect between Pan Jixun and his opponents, attributing the critical voices to "sticking to prejudice" and portraying opponents such as Chang Sanxing as ugly enemies.

When describing Pan Jixun's theory of controlling water and attacking sand, the word he used was "earth-shattering", and when talking about opponents, the word he used was "extremely radical encirclement and suppression".

This is why Wei Guangde was very fond of the "Water-Binding and Sand-Attacking Method" when he first heard about it, and he believed from the bottom of his heart that this method might be able to solve the cause of the Yellow River floods.

However, after several discussions with Jiang Zhi and learning from officials in the Ministry of Works about the complexity of Yellow River control, he gradually woke up from his dream.

It seems that Pan Jixun's "method of controlling water and attacking sand" is not only not a good medicine for controlling the Yellow River, but a poison instead.

As for why the Qing Dynasty later insisted on using Pan Jixun's method of flood control, perhaps it was because they were convinced by Pan Jixun's subversive theory and thought that it could solve the increasingly troublesome Yellow River floods.

After all, the Ming Dynasty began to use this method to treat water during the Wanli period, and the effects were indeed remarkable in the first two years.

However, in the middle and late Wanli period, floods in the Yellow River became more frequent until the end of the Ming Dynasty. Perhaps in the eyes of the Qing emperors, this was a warning from God to the Ming Dynasty, foreshadowing that they would inevitably perish and be replaced by the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, the Yellow River floods at the end of the Ming Dynasty were not because the method of controlling water and attacking sand was ineffective, but rather a warning from heaven.

If it didn't work in the Ming Dynasty, then it would definitely be fine if it were the Qing Dynasty.

It was a good idea, but in the end it turned out to be wrong.

In 1855, the Yellow River moved north again and broke through at Tongwaxiang in Henan Province, ending the situation where the Yellow River flowed southwards to the Huai River and flowed into the sea via Shandong Province. The Qingkou hub suddenly withdrew from the torrent of history.

Only scattered ruins remain of the Qingkou hub in later generations, making it difficult for people to imagine the grand scene of the confluence of three rivers in the past.

The dam is lined with vegetation on both sides. The roaring waves of the Yellow River are no longer heard, but instead the occasional chirping of birds.

Pan Jixun and others successively raised the Gaojia Weir, which is the Hongze Lake embankment. In the photographers' lenses, one side is the quiet Hongze Lake water, and the other half is the lush embankment.

"If we separate transport protection from water management, can the Ministry of Industry manage the Yellow River?"

After careful consideration and weighing the pros and cons, Wei Guangde finally made up his mind to prepare for a fierce battle with the Baoyun faction.

The Yellow River was already in enough trouble, and intertwined with it were the important tasks of protecting the imperial mausoleum and the canal, yet protecting people's livelihood was put last. He thought this was unacceptable from the bottom of his heart.

Since Pan Jixun's method of controlling water and attacking sand cannot solve the fundamental problem and may even cause greater trouble, we should remove the problem from the root and put Baoyun aside for the time being, and only consider protecting the imperial mausoleum and people's livelihood.

As for the Grand Canal, Wei Guangde planned to forcefully promote sea transportation to replace river transportation. He could take advantage of Yu Dayou's expedition of thousands of miles to make the Ming court accept that sea transportation was safe.

Are you kidding? The fact that tens of thousands of troops traveled thousands of miles across the sea to fight is enough to prove the safety of the Ming Dynasty's ships.

How about bringing some Spaniards and Portuguese to the capital as well?

Suddenly, an idea appeared in Wei Guangde's mind.

These barbarians have traveled tens of thousands of miles to do business in the Ming Dynasty, so it would be a good idea to let them impact the ideas of the Ming officials.

It's funny to say that although the Ming court had known about the presence of foreign merchants along the coast since the Hongzhi and Zhengde dynasties, it had never accepted their tribute because it did not know where their countries were.

Yes, in the eyes of Westerners, diplomacy became tribute in the Ming Dynasty, with envoys from vassal states paying tribute to the Ming emperor.

Rather than the equal exchanges between countries that Westerners are familiar with.

In the present Ming Dynasty, the formerly stubborn faction against maritime trade has ceased its activities due to the opening of the customs, and some have even actively participated in it in order to reap the benefits of maritime trade.

However, their way of making money is still to export Ming Dynasty goods.

The flow of goods between the north and the south has always relied on the transportation capacity of the Grand Canal.

Among them, it is naturally related to the transportation protection faction, which tried its best to prohibit ships from transporting north for the sake of their own interests.

In fact, it is not that there are no goods transported from the south to the north, but this behavior is mostly carried out in the form of "smuggling", and the quantity is very small, which cannot achieve economies of scale.

After learning about the huge difficulties in flood control in the Yellow River, Wei Guangde simply abandoned river transportation and focused on promoting sea transportation.

However, before that, he had to get a clear guarantee from the Ministry of Works that the Yellow River floods could be successfully controlled without regard to river transportation.

If this cannot be achieved, the push for shipping will inevitably encounter unimaginable resistance. (End of this chapter)