prosperous age

Although only the first cycle was carried out, both Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng had actually noticed that there was obvious accumulation of yellow sand in the river section near Huai'an downstream.

After Zhu Heng found out, he said: "This is also what Chief Cen and his colleagues thought. The siltation in the middle and lower reaches will cause the slope of the river to decrease, and the silt will eventually be blocked near the downstream estuary.

If this continues, this place will be flooded all year round.

This is mainly due to the reduction in water volume in the Huanghuai River caused by the economic transport. If the canal is abandoned, the situation may improve. "

"According to what you said, if the court stopped diverting water from the Yellow River and Huai River to replenish the canal, perhaps the situation would be better?"

Zhang Juzheng asked.

"Indeed."

Zhu Heng pointed to the two water outlets representing the north and south of the canal and said: “Every time water is diverted here, there will be obvious silt blockage. If this continues for a long time, it will inevitably affect scouring.

The two estuaries and downstream of the canal are the main locations for silt blockage.

Shipwrecks often happen again and again. If we want to avoid such incidents, the imperial court can continue to dig new canals and switch to different river entrances. "

By this time, Zhang Juzheng understood that the canal was actually the key to solving the Yellow River flood problem.

If the imperial court abandoned the canal, although the Yellow River floods could not be eliminated overnight, the frequency of Yellow River floods could at least be delayed.

Thinking of this, Zhang Juzheng glanced at Wei Guangde next to him and thought: Perhaps he insisted on abandoning the canal and adopting sea transportation because he had seen through the flood problem in the north.

The Yellow River flows from west to east. As long as we insist on using river transportation, the canal will always converge with the Yellow River. The problem of the canal cannot be avoided in the management of the Yellow River.

But Zhang Juzheng was also very clear about one thing, that is, if the court really abandoned the river and went to the sea, although it could alleviate the trouble of the Yellow River floods, it would still have to face the problem of the livelihoods of millions of people on both sides of the canal.

Yes, there are probably hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the canal for their survival, and they have their own families, so the population affected is very large.

If the court really follows Wei Guangde's suggestion and abandons the canal to connect the north and the south, how will these people make a living in the future?
For a dynasty, stability is the most important thing.

Faced with this difficult problem, Zhang Juzheng actually already had his own considerations in mind.

Even if the Yellow River flood cannot be solved, the canal cannot be stopped.

This is for the sake of the country and world peace.

Zhang Siwei said nothing at this time.

In fact, he had more connections with the canal interest groups than Zhang Juzheng. After all, his family was a big businessman, and many of his family branches had already moved to Yangzhou and other places. Most of their businesses also relied on transporting goods through the canal.

Wei Guangde supported sea transportation, which was actually no secret in the court.

In fact, as early as the Jiajing period, Wei Guangde supported the strategy of transporting goods to Liaoning by sea.

Although it was not implemented for long, Emperor Longqing soon relaxed the maritime ban after he ascended the throne, and they all knew it.

However, at this time, there was no one like Xie Qian in the cabinet that dominated the court, making it difficult to stop the official court from implementing this policy.

Moreover, with the increase in the number of ships coming and going, the customs duties in Yuegang are also rising. The Emperor's Southern Storehouse is not just a casual talk.

The customs duties at Yuegang have grown from tens of thousands of taels a year in the beginning to a huge amount of one million taels now. It is a financial and tax base that no emperor can give up.

From the sea transportation to Ji Liao to the opening of Yuegang, to the present time, Wei Guangde has always supported sea transportation to replace canal transportation. In fact, his political stance is very clear.

However, Zhang Siwei also knew that if Wei Guangde's plan came true, those wealthy families who had purchased assets around the canal would suffer heavy losses.

Because most of these assets are based around the shipping capacity of the Grand Canal.

Once the prosperous trade along the Grand Canal is no longer there, these investments will be wasted.

The Zhang family naturally has assets allocated in this area. One of the reasons why Zhang Siwei entered the cabinet was to prevent the release of such policies.

However, what Zhang Siwei was curious about was that, according to his understanding, Wei Guangde seemed to have also purchased a lot of land in the new section of the canal, that is, near the Jiayun Canal.

Wei Guangde also purchased a lot of assets, especially in several towns along the river.

It is somewhat contradictory to show today the harm that the canal has done to water conservancy in the Huanghuai area.

Isn't he worried that this will lead to losses in assets around the Jiayun Canal?

But today in the Ministry of Works, apart from Zhu Heng mentioning the dangers of diverting water for transportation, no one else talked about this matter, let alone discussed the rise and fall of the canal.

Everyone tacitly avoided this topic. After all, the Ministry of Industry has been looking for the so-called best of both worlds.

However, everyone actually realized that nothing is perfect in this world, and if they want to control the Yellow River, they have to abandon the canal.

However, the imperial court could not really abandon the canal, and could only choose to treat the symptoms without any corrective measures, such as dredging blockages and sealing breaches, in order to maintain the canal.

In fact, there was no need to continue the experiment at this time, but the people from the Ministry of Works continued to inject water to fully demonstrate the Yellow River flood.

This may also prevent several cabinet ministers from excessively holding the Ministry of Works accountable when floods strike the Huanghuai region again in the future.

After all, this flood is a natural disaster and is beyond human control.

This kind of water injection and scouring continued until the eighth time, when siltation finally occurred in the Yellow River channel, completely blocking a section of the river. The silt had blocked the Yellow River water's path to the east.

Even if someone opened the bluestone again to increase the water flow and speed up the scouring of the silt, the effect was very obvious and very bad.

"This is what the Ministry of Industry said. Although the water-binding and sand-attacking method can alleviate the problem, it cannot fundamentally solve the problem of silt blockage."

Zhang Juzheng asked.

“Indeed, Your Excellency the Prime Minister should have noticed that the first two times were fine.

However, the silt carried by the Yellow River will continue to accumulate, and after many times, the scouring effect is greatly reduced by half.

In this case, the only way is to continuously increase the height of the Gaokou Weir to allow Hongze Lake to store more water to flush the river channel.

But this will inevitably threaten the safety of Sizhou City by the lake and the nearby ancestral tombs."

Zhu Heng not only pointed out the ineffectiveness of Pan Jixun's method, but also specifically pointed out the harm of this matter, as it concerned the Ming ancestral tombs.

"Perhaps it won't be a threat there in ten or twenty years, but in thirty or fifty years, the ancestral tomb will certainly be flooded."

Zhu Heng said with certainty.

When Zhang Juzheng heard Zhu Heng's words, his expression suddenly became unsettled.

This is a serious political incident.

In fact, water management in the north has always been based on ensuring the safety of the Ming ancestral tombs as the top priority, followed by the canal, and finally the safety of the river.

Now the Ministry of Works has made it clear that implementing Pan Jixun’s method would endanger the Ming ancestral mausoleum.

If he insisted on doing this, once there was a problem with the Ming Mausoleum, he, as the Prime Minister, would have to bear the responsibility. This was not a matter of life and death, but at that time, even decades later, he would be held accountable by the court.

In fact, for the scholars of that era, posthumous reputation was still very important.

The reason why many people write books is to leave a good reputation after their death so as not to be forgotten by future generations.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng was only attracted by Pan Jixun's method at the beginning because he thought it made sense.

By storing water in Qingkou to flush away the silt in the Yellow River, the problem of siltation in the river can be solved.

But now he understood that there was poison behind it, which was Hongze Lake.

"What if we build a dam between Hongze Lake and the Yellow River and only let the Huai River wash it away?"

Zhang Juzheng still didn't give up and asked.

"When the Yellow River was diverted into the lake, it was originally intended to divert the water and reduce its power. If the Yellow River is allowed to flow freely, there will be dangers in these places every year."

Zhu Heng was referring to the section of the river below Xuzhou, where the Yellow River has several bends.

When the imperial court dug canals to divert the Yellow River water into Hongze Lake, it was actually to ensure the safety of the river channel, which was a way to divert floodwaters.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

This is also the most commonly used method of flood control throughout the dynasties. For example, the Dujiangyan Irrigation System is actually a water diversion faucet that divides the raging flood into two and alleviates the impact of the flood on the main river channel.

"Moreover, if the Huai River is used to flush the river channel alone, even though the Huai River has a large volume of water, it would be difficult to store so much water."

Zhu Heng added.

In fact, in ancient times, Chinese scholars already had their own way of estimating the amount of water. They had mastered the way to calculate the amount of water based on flow rate and volume.

However, mathematics was generally considered a side path in ancient China and was always inferior to the eight-legged essay, so it was only circulated among a small number of professional and technical officials.

Occasionally, there are people who are interested in mathematics, so-called mathematicians, but most of them are just interested in it. There are very few people who focus on and promote mathematics.

At this point, there was actually no need to continue the experiment.

As the river channel was blocked, the water level of the Yellow River continued to rise and continued to spread out of the river channel.

But in general, everyone has already come to an understanding of Pan Jixun's method of controlling water and attacking sand, which is that it is effective in the early stages and the Yellow River may be relatively docile in the first few years, but floods will reoccur after a few years.

The most critical thing is that if this continues, it will become a vicious cycle, and the Qingkou Weir will have to be continuously strengthened to allow Hongze Lake to accumulate more water for flushing, which will then threaten Sizhou City and the Ming Dynasty's ancestral tombs.

Zhang Juzheng waved his hand to stop the water from being poured in. He had figured it out.

"It's still not okay to do nothing like this."

Zhang Juzheng finally said something, in fact he had already rejected the idea of ​​using water to attack sand from the bottom of his heart.

Political mistakes must not be made, and Zhang Juzheng was very clear about this.

However, the Yellow River flood was imminent, and the court had to take action, otherwise the government and the people would become dissatisfied with the cabinet and the Ministry of Works.

Wei Guangde didn't say anything. If he proposed to stop replenishing water to the canal at this time, it would only be a relief, but it would have no effect on controlling the Yellow River.

To put it more clearly, what they were discussing was not so much about water control of the Yellow River as it was about sand control.

It is easy to control water, but it is not so easy to control sand.

Even though technology has advanced in later generations, there are still not many ways to control desertification, and we can only proceed slowly with perseverance.

Even though Wei Guangde had the court issue an order yesterday to increase afforestation in Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places in the Yellow River basin, in fact, for the current Yellow River, no actual effect will be seen in at least the next fifty years.

It's just that Wei Guangde knows the future. He knows that although the problem cannot be solved in a short time, at least if trees are planted in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, it will at least play a big role in improving the climate and alleviating the pressure there.

In fact, the reason why the Yellow River is like this is closely related to the Loess Plateau.

Although we all know that the Yellow River carries silt because of soil erosion on the Loess Plateau, the root cause is actually more natural factors. Human factors have a certain influence, but they are definitely not fundamental.

According to modern people's exploration of ancient books, the Yellow River turned yellow mainly during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

It is said that the Yellow River was not turbid in its early days, but very clear. The water of the Yellow River in the Western Zhou Dynasty was still clear. For example, "The river water is clear and rippling" is described in "Guofeng·Weifeng·Fadan".

However, in Zuo Zhuan, Duke Xiang’s eighth year, it is recorded that “How long will human life be if we wait for the Yellow River to become clear?” This means that human life is very short and it is impossible to wait for the Yellow River to become clear.

"Zuo Zhuan" was written by Zuo Qiuming, a historian of the State of Lu in the late Spring and Autumn Period. It shows that the Yellow River had begun to become turbid during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

Many people therefore believe that with the use of iron tools and the increase in agricultural activities during the Spring and Autumn Period, the vegetation on the Loess Plateau was destroyed, leading to soil erosion and the water of the Yellow River began to gradually become turbid.

Especially during the Qin and Han dynasties, the emperors who established their capital in Guanzhong carried out large-scale construction projects, including building palaces, tombs, etc., and also established large-scale immigration and garrisoning on the border to defend against the Huns, which aggravated the destruction of vegetation on the Loess Plateau.

The Yellow River was already very turbid during the Han Dynasty, and people called it the "Tuodhyān".

The word "Yellow River" first appeared in Ban Gu's "Book of Han·Geography" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, describing the turbidity of the Yellow River.

But in fact, the Loess Plateau has rugged terrain and numerous gullies. This terrain feature makes the soil easily eroded by rainwater.

The local soil, namely loess, has a loose structure, many pores and vertical cracks, and many substances are easily soluble in water, which makes the soil more susceptible to erosion.

As for the low vegetation coverage rate of the Loess Plateau, its poor protection of the ground and its inability to effectively fix the soil, whether this is caused by man-made or natural reasons is actually worth discussing.

The Loess Plateau is located in the monsoon climate zone, with concentrated precipitation and frequent rainstorms in the summer. This climatic condition causes the soil to be easily washed away, and once the soil is washed away, it will naturally destroy the vegetation on it.

Rather than saying that the vegetation on the Loess Plateau was cut down by ancient people, it is more credible to say that it was destroyed by rainfall erosion.

After all, it is very doubtful whether the population and productivity during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period could really destroy such a huge area of ​​vegetation.

"Let's go back and discuss it. The Ministry of Industry will also have to find a solution."

Zhang Juzheng said only one sentence at last, and then took Wei Guangde and Zhang Siwei back to the cabinet.

Officials from the Ministry of Works stood around the Yellow River map, discussing the solution in groups of three or four.

The Ministry of Industry had actually thought of some solutions, but there was really no precedent for sand control.

Yes, perhaps this is the blind spot of ancient Chinese education, and everyone is accustomed to flipping through ancient books to find solutions.

There are relatively few innovative things.

Of course, it’s not that there is no innovation at all. After all, occasionally some outliers come up with a solution, which is then recorded and applied by later generations.

"It is indeed as you said. Controlling the Yellow River is actually controlling sand, not controlling water."

When leaving the Ministry of Works, Zhang Juzheng whispered to Wei Guangde.

Zhang Siwei beside him also nodded in agreement, supporting this statement. (End of this chapter)