Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 591: How much of the Yellow River control is a natural disaster? How much is man-made?

Civil and military officials crowded over and stared at the sand table on the ground, finding it quite novel.

Those who dare to respond to the imperial edict must have some ability.

The sand table these people made on the ground has rivers, height differences, lakes, cities, and is marked in a very realistic manner.

The explanation of the sand table exercises is almost all based on reality.

First, silt accumulation causes the river flow to be blocked.

Second, Hongze Lake is a suspended lake on the ground, and Gaojiayan is the most vulnerable link in the entire Yellow River defense.

Third, dam construction and flood discharge must be strengthened together.

It draws on many ideas from predecessors, such as Pan Jixun's "Bundling Water to Attack Sand" in the Ming Dynasty.

Building dams in key river channels forces river water to flow through narrow channels, forcing the flow rate to increase and flushing silt deposited at the riverbed into the sea.

This process is long, with a little progress every year.

……

Li Yu just listened.

The ministers would express their opinions and make comments from time to time.

The Yellow River flows through southern Henan, northern Anhui, and northern Jiangsu, and finally flows into the Yellow Sea. As a lake at the junction of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, Hongze Lake plays a role in storing flood water during the flood season.

Li Yu suddenly spoke:
"Hongze Lake is much higher than the shore. Why?"

Everyone was stunned.

To control the Yellow River, we cannot avoid controlling Hongze Lake.

But the issue of Hongze Lake is very delicate and complex. Essentially, it is not simply a water conservancy issue.

……

One person stepped out, clasped his hands and asked:

"I would like to ask Your Majesty, will the imperial court guarantee the Yellow River Control Project?"

"what for?"

"In the Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River was controlled. The first thing was to protect the imperial mausoleum of our ancestors, and the second was to protect the grain transport. Therefore, dikes were built every year in Hongze Lake. The dikes of Gaojiayan became higher and higher, and the silt in the lake became more and more, so that the hanging lake became more and more serious. When there was no other way, the imperial mausoleum was protected, not the grain transport. The solution was to open the gates and release the floodwaters eastward to Jiangsu."

"During the Qing dynasty, there was no concern for the imperial mausoleum, so they only protected the grain transport. When that became impossible, they released the floodwaters to Anhui."

"Therefore, I dare to ask Your Majesty, is there a guarantee?"

The crowd was in an uproar.

……

Li Yu smiled and looked at the man.

He was dressed in plain clothes, young, thin, with a look of neither servility nor arrogance in his eyes, revealing a reserved look.

"What's your name? Where are you from?"

"I am Zhou Wang, a native of Xinghua County, Yangzhou Prefecture. He was a student in the Qing Dynasty. His ancestors once worked in the Hedao Yamen."

Li Yu thought for a moment and said simply:
"I want to control the Yellow River, but I don't have to protect it. As long as the Yellow River can be stable and long-term, and the silt at the bottom of Hongze Lake can be reduced, I can flood wherever it is necessary. The former Ming Dynasty's imperial tombs can be flooded, and the canal does not have to be protected."

These words were like a stone thrown into a lake, causing ripples.

Huang Wenyun, director of the Water Resources Agency, understood that His Majesty had no baggage and that the Yellow River could be controlled without any guarantee.

but,

This is a good thing.

Treating jaundice is difficult in itself, but if you remove the burden, the difficulty will be much easier.

……

Zhou Wang gritted his teeth and expressed his thoughts:
"Your Majesty is wise and has unparalleled courage. I suggest that you carry out both water conservancy and active flood discharge. Instead of diverting the water, build dams to merge the waters and use the rapids to flush out the silt in the downstream river channel. In 10 or 20 years, the river channel will surely be deeper and wider, and the flood discharge capacity will be greatly increased."

Li Yu asked calmly:
"What does it mean to release the flood?"

"The Yellow River bursts its banks every two years. Before the siltation is resolved, more breaches are bound to occur. My suggestion is that it is better to proactively breach the banks rather than passively causing them to collapse."

"Flood Sizhou and Fengyang!"

……

Everyone gasped and stared at this guy.

Li Yu was very calm.

The idea of ​​harming one's neighbor is not surprising. It would be rare if this guy suggested flooding his own hometown first.

He continued to ask others:

"Would you like to hear all your plans?"

One person stepped forward quickly:
"Your Majesty, I think the Yellow River disaster did not take several years to form, and naturally it cannot be solved by several years of efforts. The doctrine of the mean is more in line with the way of heaven. I suggest that we dig a southern flood discharge channel to discharge part of the flood from Hongze Lake through Gaoyou Lake and Shaobo Lake to the Yangtze River. This route can make use of lakes and natural rivers, and the amount of engineering is acceptable."

Huang Wenyun nodded slightly.

He also felt that Zhou Wang's ideas were too radical.

It is better to be moderate. Floods can only be prevented, not cured.

I am from Jiujiang and am very familiar with the temperament of floods.

……

Another person from Henan Province suggested:

"Your Majesty, I believe that we should build a flood reduction dam in Henan to slow down the flow of flood water and reduce the pressure downstream. This is a fundamental measure."

Others suggested:
"Your Majesty, I suggest that you build dams with cement and merge some low-lying areas along the lake into the lake area to expand the lake capacity and try to avoid breaches. Because every time a dam breaches, the Yellow River becomes more difficult to control."

One circle is finished.

The last person to speak was a young man.

"Your Majesty, I believe that the key to controlling the Yellow River is to unify responsibilities and powers. Anhui and Jiangsu are two provinces, which hinder each other and make it difficult to implement. It is best to merge them into one province."

Huang Wenyun came over and introduced in a low voice:
"He is Wang Yuansheng, the grandson of Wang Sansong, a gentry in Fuliang County, Jiangxi Province. He is known as a child prodigy."

Fellow villagers help each other.

Since they are all from Jiangxi, Huang Wenyun was happy to lend a hand.

……

Li Yu had a good impression of Wang Sansong and was familiar with Fuliang County, a tea-producing area.

He asked with a smile:

"How do we merge?"

"Your Majesty, I suggest that the areas north of the Yangtze River in Anhui and Shu provinces be merged into one province, with a governor who also serves as the governor of river management. This way, we can be impartial, without any internal constraints, and put an end to the wrangling between the upper and lower reaches."

Seeing that Li Yu was not upset, Wang Yuansheng continued:
"The Yellow River disaster began in the Song Dynasty, when Du Chong dug a dike to use the Yellow River water to block the Jin army. Later, the Jin army repeated the same trick and dug a dike to block the Mongolian army. This is the origin."

"During the Ming and Qing dynasties, in order to protect the grain transport, they were very restrained in controlling the Yellow River."

“So, human harm is the key to the Yellow River flooding.”

These words made everyone present nod their heads frequently.

Even Li Yu couldn't help but sigh:

"The Yellow River's disaster is half caused by man and half by nature. If man had not sinned, the disaster of the Yellow River would not be as severe as it is today."

"Everyone has something to say today. I will reward you 50 silver coins each. We will discuss this matter at the court. That's all for today."

……

The imperial carriage left first, and the important ministers also returned to the nearby official residence in carriages.

The sand table stands quietly by the lake.

The next day, it was washed into Jinji Lake by a rain.

Huang Wenyun and Wang Yuansheng left together in a carriage and chatted about their hometown ties.

"My dear nephew Yuansheng, your advice today really touched His Majesty's heart."

"It's all thanks to Master Huang's cultivation."

Huang Wenyun was secretly delighted.

He had selfish motives in advising this kid and making suggestions in front of the emperor from the perspective of "reducing internal friction."

If Your Majesty adopts it, we will plan to establish Jiangbei Province.

Then, the new governor’s first task is to control the Yellow River.

Most of the people in the Wu court's central government are from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, and whoever sits in this position will involuntarily favor his fellow countrymen.

The reason is very simple. You can't let your fellow villagers overwhelm your fellow villagers, right? Do you still want to return to your hometown? Do you still want the reputation of your hometown?
Only children care about right and wrong; adults only care about stance.

Therefore,
As a Jiangxi native, I have a good chance of securing the position of Governor of Jiangbei.

……

"Yuansheng, you have a bright future."

"Thank you, Mr. Huang, for your support~"

"We are all from Jiangxi, so it should be. By the way, it is said that Fuliang's rice-to-tea conversion was a big deal, and some people died?" "Sir Huang, 9% of the land in my hometown is planted with tea. Some landowners are unwilling to do so, and there are occasional casualties in the fights. In fact, it's not just Fuliang, southern Anhui and northern Jiangxi are similar."

Huang Wenyun couldn't help but sneer.

The Anhui-Jiangxi Tea Chamber of Commerce is really powerful and courageous.

As a traditional scholar-official, he could not stand the arrogance of businessmen today. He could accept the improvement of the status of businessmen, but not so high.

now,

Several powerful and giant chambers of commerce are simply lawless.

The young man Wang Yuansheng's eyes rolled. He had seen through his elders' thoughts. He secretly warned himself to be careful not to be dragged into the vortex of factional struggle by this uncle in the future.

……

How to cure yellowing can basically be summarized into several points:
The battle between confluence and divergence
The debate between rapid flood discharge and layered water reduction
The dispute between protecting Jiangsu and Anhui
The battle between natural disasters and man-made disasters
Two days later, the Wu Ting government came up with a final resolution that took into account the opinions of all parties.

1. Dig the southern line, Hongze Lake-Yangtze River flood discharge channel.

Second, control the water and attack the sand, using rapids to wash away the rivers flowing into the sea within Huai'an.

3. Some key dams and diversion gates are reinforced with cement.

Fourth, organize laborers in the Lixiahe area to dig deeper and wider on the basis of the Salt River to connect to the Yellow Sea. First, to transport salt, second, for irrigation, and third, as a capillary for flood discharge.

5. Establish Jiangbei Province.

……

Huang Wenyun got his wish and became the first governor of Jiangbei Province.

It must be said that he understood His Majesty's temper.

To manage a river, one must first manage its people - this is definitely the right thing to do.

Everything in this world depends on human involvement.

In the study,
He hummed a little tune with pride: "I wish to be a border governor, but I do not want to be an official."

If there were any small town test-takers in the 18th century, Huang Wenyun would be the best. He became a successful candidate in the imperial examinations, married a rich woman, and became a prefect, all by doing test-takers.

He is not afraid of a challenge.

All the way here depends on personal ability.

Moreover, he knew that only people like him who are good at doing tests would be given the jobs that the children of noble families were unwilling to take. Gnawing bones into various ways was the only way for people like him to move up.

Although the Yellow River is hard, it has one advantage - it will not offend anyone.

Things like changing from rice to tea, colonizing, and clarifying taxes can easily lead to factional strife.

……

Jiangbei Province includes almost all areas of Anhui and Jiangsu provinces north of the Yangtze River.

(The narrow strip of land 5 li wide along the Jiangsu River has been separately demarcated by Your Majesty. The capital must have jurisdiction over the north of the river, and the 5 li along the river does not belong to the Jiangbei Province.)
The capital of Jiangbei Province? Huge controversy.

The dispute over the provincial capital is of great significance to the people of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.

Yangzhou, Huai'an, Anqing and Xuzhou all believe that they are qualified to be provincial capitals, and they have good reasons.

In order to persuade the people of Yangzhou to contribute 50 taels to repair the roads in the city, the four major salt merchants made various efforts to gain status, which instead aroused Huang Wenyun's even greater disgust.

finally,
Huang Wenyun took on this bomb alone.

He went against all odds and decided to make Huai'an the provincial capital. I am from Jiangxi, not your hometown, so I won't follow your ways.

The other three prefectures cursed.

The Yangzhou government was particularly unhappy.

……

Huang Wenyun had strong personal abilities. The first thing he did after taking office was to merge the seven counties with the most serious flooding and establish a new Huai'an Prefecture.

The move is intended to prevent internal wrangling.

Regional dispute?

I will first nominally smooth out the territorial gaps between you.

He told the civil and military officials, wealthy businessmen, and local people in Jiangbei Province:
"In the future, there will be no distinction between Jiangsu and Anhui, and there will be no favoritism. There is only one principle for managing the Yellow River: do what is right and what causes the least loss. Jiangbei Province is a chessboard."

"In counties where the main streams and tributaries of the Yellow River and Huai River pass through, one in three men will be selected. The court wants to solve the Yellow River flood problem in one fell swoop and make Jiangbei a paradise on earth with thousands of miles of fertile land and millions of acres of good farmland."

"This is not considered corvée, but for future generations."

"The food for digging the river was provided by the government, and the people brought their own tools and did the work themselves."

"Write it clearly on the notice. This governor will personally be in charge of the provincial capital. All the families of officials above the county level in Jiangbei Province will move to Huai'an. If the Yellow River collapses, we will all swim together. This governor is from Jiujiang, Jiangxi, and I have been able to swim since I was a child."

Everyone was silent and obeyed the order.

……

The establishment of Jiangbei Province has caused many people to get excited.

The more Jiangning looks at southern Anhui, the more he likes it.

Looking at Jiangning from southern Anhui, the more I look at it, the more I love it.

They are moving around hoping to merge.

People were discussing it every day in restaurants, teahouses, and on the streets, creating a huge public outcry.

All officials and civilians in Taiping Prefecture, Ningguo Prefecture, Chizhou Prefecture, Huizhou Prefecture, and Guangde Prefecture unanimously supported Jiangning as the provincial capital.

The big brother must be Jiang Ning, Jiang Ning must be the big brother.

The people of Ma'anshan are the most proud. They were assigned to Jiangning Prefecture as a county by Wu Ting a long time ago. The people of Ma'anshan are the people of Jiangning. Now, they just sit back and watch the situation.

……

According to rumors in the market, Your Majesty plans to build the Capital Prefecture with Suzhou and Songjiang as the main bodies.

Therefore,
Changzhou Prefecture seems very lonely.

So the people of Jiangning started a petition with 10 signatures: Please set up a Jiangnan Province! Or Jiangning Zhili Prefecture!

He wanted to include the neighboring Changzhou Prefecture as well.

result,

As soon as the signed petition entered Changzhou Prefecture, it was intercepted by angry Changzhou residents and set on fire.

The two sides fought with fists and feet, and the fight was fierce and chaotic.

As a result, the relationship between the two peoples deteriorated sharply. Marriage, business and travel were temporarily stopped.

Huang Wenyun, who heard about this, sighed:
People in Jiangnan still eat too much.

If we bring all these nonsense people to Jiangbei to dig a river for two days, they will have no time to do these boring things.

……

Dig a river!

It became a nightmare for two generations of people in Jiangbei Province.

Fortunately, the new government was relatively merciful. We were given two meals a day, one dry and one liquid. There would be a little oil on the first and fifteenth days of the month.

The Propaganda Department mobilized all its forces and stationed them in Jiangbei, and also transferred 400 storytellers.

There are two main points of publicity:
First, digging a river benefits the country, the people and oneself.

Second, for future generations.

In fact, people in Jiangbei also know that floods are more ferocious than tigers.

If you draw 3 out of 1 Dings and focus on digging the river, the mobilization resistance will not be that great.

This made Huang Wenyun feel relieved.

His original plan was to exile those who refused to obey to Southeast Asia and to designate those counties that refused to obey as flood diversion areas.

Now it seems that I don't need to be a cruel official.

Just take care of the logistics.

As the governor, he actually had two things to do: one, supervise farming, and two, manage the river.

Fortunately, the land distribution has settled down, and the people generally support the new government. If the Yellow River does not flood, a family with 30 acres of land can definitely live a good life.

But the river digging project is huge.

There will be no hope for Jiangbei within three years.

……

Wu Palace.

The three foreign envoys stood awkwardly in the hall.

They came to pay homage on behalf of the Ryukyu Kingdom, the Annan Kingdom, and the Goryeo Kingdom, presenting very humble tributes in an attempt to earn hundreds or even thousands of times more in return.

His Majesty's cold voice echoed in the palace:

"Tell me, what is a vassal state? What is a superior country?"

(End of this chapter)