People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 420 The water in the Yellow River is clear, Li Yuanhao dies, and the world is in good health
On April 10, Zhao Jun went north along the Yellow River. He set off at seven o'clock in the morning and arrived at Huazhou, 80 kilometers away, at six o'clock in the afternoon.

It was in the evening, and the current of the Yellow River was not particularly fast. The mud was surging and the yellow sand was rolling.

They stayed one night in Huazhou, and on April 11th the next day, accompanied by Zhu Xun, Liu Yi, and the magistrate and county magistrate of Huazhou, they inspected the local water conservancy.

"Zhiyuan, since the opening of the canal, not only has the transportation from Hebei to Henan become much more convenient, but it has also reduced the flow of the river a lot."

Huazhou Zhizhou smiled and said to Zhao Jun: "In the past, when there was heavy rain, the water in the upper reaches would rise, and the lower reaches would be flooded. But now it's better. The water volume of the river surged last summer. With the canal, the south bank has not been flooded."

Although the canal was a project promulgated by the imperial court and not a local initiative, the sixth year of the Qingli period when the canal was built happened to be during his term of office, which is undoubtedly his contribution.

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "There are indeed many benefits to building this canal, but you didn't mention the most important point."

"Forehead"

The magistrate of Huazhou hurriedly said: "This official is stupid, please ask the magistrate to clarify my doubts."

Zhao Jun looked towards both sides of the canal outside the city.

The so-called Sanyi Return to the River is actually the process of changing the Yellow River from Henglong Road back to Shanghu Road. The Song Dynasty tried to commit suicide three times and failed three times, allowing the Yellow River to harm one side.

On the afternoon of April 13, Zhao Jun visited the most important project of Yellow River management.

"Ah."

Huazhou Zhizhou kept nodding. Although Zhao Jun's words were not serious and could even feel a trying tone, he was already sweating profusely.

The magistrate of Huazhou said repeatedly: "This is because the lower official is confused."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Leave professional matters to professionals. The court will not interfere with how you govern, but I hope you must be careful when determining your plan, because even professionals may make mistakes sometimes. And once it fails, even just once, the harm will be huge, and hundreds of thousands or even millions of people may be homeless. Do you understand?”

Gao Chao shook his head and said: "Although the method of concentrating water to wash away sand is good, it is impossible to completely remove the sediment accumulated at the bottom of the river. We can only wash away a thick layer on the surface, delaying the river for decades."

"Yes Yes Yes."

After the canal was opened, a large number of diversion canals were built from Huazhou to Gyeonggi Road in the south, and several canal tributaries were even branched out to irrigate the fields. This resulted in a lot more farmland.

Gao Chao said: "The imperial court attaches great importance to it. Prime Minister Jia has visited the river mouth many times and proposed a method of confining water to flush out sand. He built a dam at Henglong Road, closed the water at Longkou, and tightened the river channel at Shanghukou to allow the water to hit the river bed. The sediment at the bottom finally cleared up a lot of the sand in the old channel, allowing the river to return to its original channel again.”

The reason is that there are few rivers, including only one Dagong River in later generations.

This is because Zhao Jun has taken effective reform measures in recent years to make the imperial treasury rich. Otherwise, according to the previous situation of the Song Dynasty court, a large amount of money had to be spent on military affairs, and there would be no extra funds to control the Yellow River.

Huazhou was originally just a lower state on the south bank of the Yellow River. It had only three counties: Huazhou, Xucheng, and Weicheng. It had a small area and little cultivated land.

Zhao Jun emphasized: "If you want to get rich, build roads first. This sentence is not empty talk. Only when transportation is convenient and convenient can it prosper. The state government still needs to redouble its efforts and consider people's livelihood more."

Zhao Jun nodded slightly: "This three-pronged strategy is the best way to manage the Yellow River. In your opinion, how long will it take for the river to be completely moved back to its original course?"

Zhao Jun then visited Beiliuhe and Nanfenliuhe.

Even in the summer and autumn flood seasons, with the diversion capacity of these rivers, they can presumably bear such a large flow of water to prevent the Yellow River from flooding.

"Well, I don't know how to control water. I only know that there are only two ways to control water: blockage and dredging. For example, the strategy of beaming water to wash away sand is essentially to block water, and then use the momentum of water to wash away the sand."

Gao Chao was about forty years old. He was originally just an ordinary river construction worker, but he was reused by Jia Changchao because he proposed the three-section pressure method.

The current Yellow River management project is actually based on the methods of diversion and water confinement to flush out sand originally proposed by Zhao Jun.

Perhaps in the eyes of ordinary people, officials such as magistrates and magistrates, who are almost the highest level that ordinary people can see, are nothing more than ants in the eyes of the magistrates.

"The villain feels that it is possible to completely move back to the original path, but it is difficult to guarantee that the river will not burst its banks again."

"Zhiyuan."

The imperial court dug seven or eight rivers, including canals, in Hebei and Henan, costing more than 10 million yuan, and using civilian labor more than 1 million times. The cost was very high.

Gao Chao felt a chill in his heart and accepted.

By the river embankment in Xiaowu Village, Gao Chao pointed to the tributary of the Yellow River flowing slowly northward in the distance and said: "Constructing the river is not something that can be done overnight. There are mysteries in the blockage and sparseness. In order to repair this tributary, we used civilians to build it. It cost more than 300,000 yuan and connected three major rivers including Guangji Canal, Zhangshui River and Hulu River, as well as more than ten small rivers. It took nearly two years and was finally completed. "

"At that time, the river changed its course, causing the river to shift northward. Although it eventually flowed into the Bohai Sea, it caused great harm to the people along the coast."

This is the central area of ​​the entire Yellow River management, because historically the Yellow River burst its banks here. Shanghukou east of Puyang burst its banks. The Yellow River that originally went eastward flowed north, flooding a large area of ​​land in the lower reaches of Hebei, causing countless people to be displaced.

This young magistrate is said to be only 34 years old this year, but the aura of superiority and the sense of oppression he gives are real, and every word and action hits him like a mountain.

"Yes Yes Yes."

Shanghukou actually broke its banks once in the first year of Jingyou, causing the Yellow River to change its course from the old Yellow River route to the Henglong Road.

In addition to farmland, villages and towns along the coast are also quite prosperous, providing overnight accommodation, meals and other services to ships passing by, and gradually business has emerged.

At this moment, Xiaowu Village in the west of Puyang City is the place where the second failure of returning to the river in history caused the Yellow River to change its course again, from the original cross-Long east flow to the north flow.

When Zhao Jun arrived in Puyang, the magistrate of Chanzhou and the county magistrate of Puyang came to greet him. Also with him was Gao Gao, who was entrusted with the important task of being the chief engineer of the Yellow River Estuary by Jia Changchao.

Shanghukou outside Puyang East City.

"Yes."

It was this diversion that turned the lower reaches of Hebei into a swamp, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and causing heavy casualties.

At this time, at Shanghukou, you can see that the Yellow River divides again here. One goes north along the Henglong Road, and the other goes east along the old Shanghukou Road. And obviously the water flow along the old road is much greater than that going north.

After inspecting Huazhou, Zhao Jun's fleet traveled more than fifty kilometers east along the Yellow River and arrived in Puyang on April 12.

Judging from the current situation, although it is not the flood season of the Yellow River, Zhao Jun looked at the water flow of the Yellow River and found that the water flow dropped a lot during the non-flood season. It can be said that the effect is significant.

Zhao Jun said: "Once the canal was opened, the people here used water to irrigate their farmland and cultivated countless fields. The merchants who came and went needed accommodation at night, how many shops they had to feed, and how many people they fed. You haven't even counted these."

"As the saying goes, you must treat the symptoms before you address the root cause. It seems that these countermeasures are only a temporary solution. If you really want to cure the root cause, you still have to make the river clear."

Zhao Jun sighed.

No matter how you clean up the silt downstream or divert the Yellow River, as long as there is still a steady stream of water and soil erosion upstream and a large amount of sediment is washed down, the river downstream will always be blocked.

Once blocked, the river bed will rise, and the water flow that could originally be accommodated by the river bed cannot be accommodated. Once it encounters a flood season, it will surge out and cause flooding.

Therefore, in essence, the dredging of the Yellow River can only be a means to delay the flooding of the Yellow River. If we really want to control the river, we still have to do a good job in upstream environmental protection.

But for now, there should be no possibility of the Yellow River bursting its banks, at least for a long time to come.

As long as we continue to maintain this, it will be a matter of time before the sediment on the old path of the Yellow River is slowly washed away and the Yellow River is completely moved from Henglong Road back to Shanghu Road.

On April 14, after the inspection in Puyang, Zhao Jun set off again, heading westward along the Yellow River and entering the middle reaches.

More than ten days later, he arrived in Luoyang to check the governance situation in Luoyang.

Because the river channel in the middle reaches of the Yellow River is relatively wide, the water flow is relatively gentle, which is very suitable for building dams to control the flow of water downstream.

In fact, there were Sanmenxia Dam and Xiaolangdi Dam in this area in later generations, which perfectly regulated the flow of the Yellow River, thus realizing many functions such as power generation, agriculture, and construction.

No major disasters have occurred here, either in history or later. The large Yellow River wetland is a habitat for countless wild animals and is full of vitality.

Zhao Jun heard that in this area, there are not only various nationally protected animals of later generations, such as red-crowned cranes, great bustards, black storks, gray cranes, white spoonbills, swans, etc., there are even giant pandas from the Qinling Mountains.

He disembarked at Mengjin Ferry, and under the guidance of local officials, he saw the vast Luoyang wetlands, the towering Mang Mountains, and saw countless lush trees and beautiful wild animals.

It has to be said that in ancient times without industrial pollution, such unique natural conditions and fresh air really made people feel a sense of comfort that was immersed in the heart and spleen.

The terrain here was also recorded by the recorder on board the ship. In the future, if the industrial capacity is strong, it may be possible to build dams and hydropower stations here.

A few days later, Zhao Jun set off again, heading west along the Yellow River and entering Shaanxi.

Since Han Qi defeated Li Yuanhao in October last year, he had been transferred back to the Central Committee in June last year.

After all, he is the Inspector of the Supervisory Yuan. Compared with the Supreme Prosecutor, he certainly cannot leave the court for a long time.

However, he has been operating in the northwest for more than a year, and the management of various areas is basically on the right track, including planting trees and planting more vegetation on both sides of the Wei River and Jing River.

When Zhao Jun's fleet arrived at Tongguan, Wang Yan, the Yongxing military transport envoy, Fan Xiang, the Qinfeng road transport envoy, and the Sixth Route military envoy came to see them.

After the Northwest War started, the imperial court divided Shaanxi Road into two main roads for transfer envoys and five small roads for envoy envoys. Fan Zhongyan was appointed as the envoy envoy of Shaanxi Road and took charge of the military and political power of the entire Shaanxi Road.

Now the imperial court has taken back the Hehuang Valley and divided it into Hexi Road. Therefore, the entire Shaanxi Province is divided into two major roads and six small roads. In the absence of the entire Shaanxi Road, the envoys are basically transferred to the Yongxing Military Road. He was headed by the Qinfeng Road transfer envoy.

The original Qinfeng Road transfer envoy was Yang Kai, but Yang Kai was promoted because he assisted Han Qi in defeating Xixia. He went to the central government to serve as a minister of a certain ministry. Now Wang Yan and Fan Xiang are in charge.

Below, there are Jingtai, the envoy of Hexi Road, Gao Jixuan, the envoy of Jingyuan Road, and Liu Ping, the transshipment envoy of Yanyan Road.

Although these people are all big bosses of one party, they should be able to secure the people, guard the border, and guard the place.

But when Zhao Jun came, they didn't come to greet him, just like when Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, the local governor didn't come to ride on the horse and behind him. It was obviously because he felt that his official career was too long. "Zhiyuan!"

Many officials were waiting at Tongguan. When Zhao Jun got off the boat, they all bowed their hands and saluted.

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Well, the river has been under management for many years. This time I went out to inspect the local governance on behalf of the imperial court. The upper reaches are the top priority. I hope you won't disappoint me."

Wang Yan smiled bitterly and said: "In recent years, many trees have been planted on Shaanxi Road, and many canals have been dug. The effect is definitely there, but it is not easy to manage it in a short time."

"Well, I understand you. When the Tang Dynasty was prosperous and prosperous, Guanzhong was over-cultivated. It will be a long process to recover."

Zhao Jun pointed out: "However, no matter how difficult it is, it must be done. This involves the great cause of future generations and cannot be careless. In particular, Guanzhong has been a fertile land since ancient times. It cannot be abandoned due to over-cultivation. It must be well managed."

"Yes."

Everyone nodded.

Zhao Jun emphasized: "The so-called ten-year trees mean that more fast-growing trees should be planted on both sides of the river to stabilize soil erosion. If the water in the river is clear, there will be no sediment problems downstream."

"Yes."

Everyone agrees again.

Afterwards, everyone followed, and Zhao Jun continued towards Chang'an.

In more than ten days in early May, he visited both sides of the Wei River and Jing River to inspect the local water, soil and agricultural conditions.

Compared to the last time I came to Guanzhong when I traveled around the world during the Baoyuan period, nearly ten years have passed, and the Guanzhong Basin has indeed changed a lot.

Not only have many barren lands been managed, a large number of river tributaries have been dredged, and many water conservancy facilities have been built. Even many uninhabited wilderness areas have become lush and green.

According to the data collected from several transfer envoys of Qinfeng Road and Yongxing Military Road, Guanzhong has been in operation for eleven years since Fan Zhongyan was appointed as the envoy of Shaanxi Road in the fourth year of Jingyou.

During this period, the successive military and political officials in Guanzhong all defended the Xixia enemies externally and governed the Guanzhong Plain internally, and achieved good results.

Including population, farmland area, water conservancy construction, etc., are growing extremely rapidly.

For example, in terms of population, three years before Jingyou, the population of Yongxing Junlu was only 82 households. This year, it has exceeded 120 million households, with an average annual growth of 4%, and the population has increased by about one-third.

Among them, there were about 60 households in the Guanzhong Basin three years ago, about 300 million people. Today, there are 90 households in the Guanzhong Basin, with a population of approximately 450 million.

It seems like a lot, but before that, the entire Yongxing Army Road including Qinfeng Road totaled only 127 million households, about million people, while the entire Song Dynasty had a population of about million.

In comparison, the population during the Tang Dynasty was only 400 to million, and the Guanzhong Basin alone had more than million people. If the current areas of Yongxing Military Road and Qinfeng Road are included, the population density is obviously much greater than that of the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, it is foreseeable that before the third year of Jingyou, the population density of the Guanzhong Basin was much lower than that of the Tang Dynasty. In addition to the impact of the wars of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Guanzhong Basin was over-cultivated, causing the land to become increasingly barren.

Nowadays, the population is increasing. In addition to the policy of sharing the land from one person to another, which has resulted in the emergence of many illegal households and newborns, so that people can have children with confidence and boldness, the most important thing is that there are many immigrants.

In the past, Guanzhong was over-cultivated, resulting in increasing poverty and population exodus.

Now that the ecology of Guanzhong has been restored, the land has become more fertile, and the population has naturally begun to move back.

Zhao Jun inspected the Guanzhong Basin and was quite satisfied with the local governance of the officials in charge. At least the Guanzhong ecology had initially recovered.

All that remains is to continue to increase efforts to plant trees, stabilize water and soil, and protect the ecological environment.

For this reason, Zhao Jun asked local officials to introduce policies. It is certainly unrealistic to ban the felling of trees now, but he requires that uncontrolled felling be avoided, saplings must be protected, and more coal resources should be used to replace charcoal.

Even if coal emits a large amount of carbon dioxide and pollutes the environment, it is at least much better than cutting down a large number of trees.

In late May, after inspecting both sides of the Wei River and Jing River and inspecting the Guanzhong Basin, Zhao Jun planned to go north along the Yellow River to visit the Loess Plateau, which would later become the Yan'an, Luliang, and Yulin areas.

The main reason why the Yellow River turns yellow is that massive soil erosion in the Loess Plateau caused the soil to be washed away by the river water, thus causing the upper reaches of the Yellow River to change color.

Therefore, managing the Loess Plateau is a top priority.

However, the imperial court has been fighting in the northwest in recent years, and Yanyan Road is on the front line. It mainly focuses on military preparations, and there really is not much time for governance.

It was only in the past two years that afforestation operations began. However, there was not much success in a short period of time. Therefore, the Yellow River is still yellow, and it is still mixed with a large amount of sediment.

In early June, Zhao Jun's fleet sailed upstream, passing Tongzhou and Danzhou to Yan'an Prefecture. It was midsummer and the sun was high.

Zhao Jun stood on the boat, a gentle breeze blew, and the mountains on both sides of the bank were undulating. Although there were many weeds and trees growing on the hills, many places were bare, exposing a lot of loess.

He looked around and said to Wang Yan, Fan Xiang, Jingtai, Gao Jixuan, Liu Ping, Zhu Xun, Liu Yi and others who accompanied the inspection: "The big river passes through this Loess Plateau, bringing countless silt to the lower reaches, so it is necessary to regulate the river." It is definitely very difficult to control this plateau at the moment, but we can first plant some trees that grow quickly and can fix the sand, such as willows, poplars, poplars, etc. "

These trees are native to the country and are drought-resistant and sand-fixing. Thousands of years ago, the Loess Plateau of the Song Dynasty was not as desolate as it would be in later generations. There were still a large number of forests and grasslands.

Therefore, if it can be managed early, turning the Loess Plateau into a plateau of grass and trees may not be a dream.

"Yes."

Everyone wrote them down one by one.

At this moment, Fan Xiang suddenly pointed ahead and said: "Zhiyuan, the river has become clear."

"Oh?"

Zhao Jun looked around.

I saw in the distance towards the west bank of the Yellow River, the water flow was indeed much clearer.

Looking from a distance, we can see the rolling waves of Dinghe River in the distance. The clear water flows into the Yellow River, making the river water not as turbid as before.

Obviously, it should have been caused by heavy rains in the upper reaches of Dinghe River, and the soil erosion along the Dinghe River was not that serious.

"Well, it would be great if all the tributaries of the big river were like Dinghe River."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "You must also remember to manage more local tributaries, protect local vegetation along the coast, plant more trees, cut less and plant more trees, so that it can last long."

"Yes."

Everyone responded.

The ship was still sailing, and it didn't take long to arrive at Baicao Town.

This is the junction of Dinghe River and Yellow River, located in the area of ​​Xinguan Town, Shilou County, Luliang City, Shanxi Province.

They were preparing to go north along the Dinghe River to Suide.

At this moment, a ship flew down the river and came straight towards the fleet from Dinghe River.

The boat was obviously heading straight for them.

Zhao Jun thought it was the magistrate of Suizhou who had arrived, because when he arrived, he had already sent people to notify the local officials, and people came to greet him everywhere he went.

Unexpectedly, he was indeed the magistrate of Suizhou. His boat came closer and he hurriedly climbed on board. Then he came to Zhao Jun and immediately handed over his hands and said: "Xiaguan Weiju has seen the magistrate."

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "The Governor of Wei arrived faster than I thought. I have just entered Suizhou."

Wei Ju smiled bitterly and said, "It's not that I'm waiting here, but something important happened."

"Is it important?"

Zhao Jun was puzzled for a moment, then frowned and said, "The Xia people are coming to invade the border again?"

Since the defeat of Xixia the year before last, which not only severely damaged the Xixia army, but also seized a large area of ​​Xixia territory, Li Yuanhao can be said to have suffered a serious loss of vitality.

It's too late for him to lick his wounds now, so he dares to risk his own death by trespassing? This is unlikely.

"There was civil strife in Xixia, and Yuan Hao died in the chaos!"

Wei Ju said without any surprise: "At this time, the Xia people are already in an extremely chaotic state. When the official heard the news, he came immediately."

Li Yuanhao is dead?
And he died in the civil strife in Xixia?

This is really unexpected.

Zhao Jun was stunned for a moment, then looked around, and suddenly laughed loudly and said: "The water in the Yellow River is clear, and the world is blessed!"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Everyone looked at each other, and then burst into cheers and laughter.

It looks like the day when Xixia will be destroyed.

Not far away.

(End of this chapter)