I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 465: Skilled and Courageous to Treat Huang

Both Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng held the title of Minister of Works, but Pan Jixun was always busy with river management outside, while Zhu Heng was in charge of the Ministry of Works affairs in Beijing.

"Master Pan, Minister Zhu, I have invited you here today because I have something important to discuss with you."

After Zhu Yijun and the other two had performed their greetings, they spoke loudly.

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng were both ministers of the Ministry of Works and were experts in river management.

In the autumn of the 44th year of Jiajing, the Yellow River broke its dike at Feiyun Bridge in Pei County and flowed eastward into Zhaoyang Lake.

The local terrain is high, and the Yellow River can no longer flow eastward after entering the lake. The canal channel is silted up for more than 100 miles, seriously blocking the north-south water transport.

Zhu Heng, the Minister of Works of Nanjing, rode a fast horse to the breach and found that most of the river was silted up and turned into land, making it difficult to dredge.

Therefore, a plan was proposed to decongest where possible, modify where possible, and dig where possible.

Another on-site investigation revealed that the new river previously dug by the censor Sheng Yingqi, which ran eastward from the south of Zhaoyang Lake to Xia Village and then southeast to Liucheng, still existed at the old site.

Zhu Heng then decided to dig a new river channel based on the old site and build a dike at Lümeng Lake to prevent it from bursting.

Pan Jixun, who had been working on river management, thought it would be more convenient to dredge the old canal, and his opinion disagreed with Zhu Heng.

Zhu Heng insisted on his opinion, directed the water from the Niuyu, Xuesha and other rivers to the new canal, built the Majiaqiao embankment to prevent the breach of the Feiyun Bridge, and personally supervised the construction.

Later, Pan Jixun resigned due to mourning for his mother, and Zhu Heng took over all river management affairs.

On November 1, Cao Pu's deputy envoy Chai Lai was impeached and dismissed, and officials and soldiers who did not contribute were severely punished, which caused a lot of discussion and public outcry.

Zhu Heng insisted on his opinion and continued to open a new river channel.

In the autumn of the 45th year of Jiajing, the Majiaqiao area broke again, some of the old rivers that had been dredged were blocked, and some of the newly opened river channels were damaged. Zhu Heng was impeached again, and the censors demanded that the construction be stopped immediately and Zhu Heng be dismissed.

Zhu Yijun insisted that Zhu Heng continue to be in charge of river management.

In the autumn of the 45th year of Jiajing's reign, the new river channel was finally completed. It was 194 miles long and the grain ships could enter the river from Jingshan, avoiding blockages and going straight down to Shanyang.

Zhu Heng listened to the opinions humbly and found that the main reason for the Xinhe River bursting was "using one dike to protect multiple streams". He then dug four tributaries to divert the flow and reduce the impact of the flood on the Xinhe River embankment.

At the same time, it was suggested to dig new canals in Dongping, Yanzhou and other places to avoid the water of the Yellow River and maintain a stable canal flow, so that the water transport would be less affected by the Yellow River in recent years.

Only then did the local authorities realize Zhu Heng's abilities, and they began to praise him for "cutting down on unnecessary expenses and saving a lot", "a single expense can achieve a hundred goals, temporary work can provide permanent relief", and "there is no better court official than Heng".

After Pan Jixun's mourning period ended, Zhu Yijun asked him to continue river management. Zhu Heng was transferred back to Beijing. He first presided over the land survey in the nine border areas for a period of time. Now his main task is to build a tomb for Emperor Longqing.

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng were both capable officials in river management. They had conflicts and disputes from time to time, but they actually had a very good personal relationship.

When they heard Zhu Yijun summon the two of them and said this as soon as they met, they couldn't help but look at each other in surprise.

Especially Pan Jixun, who had been Zhu Yijun's teacher, knew that his student was a deep-minded person and rarely expressed his opinion so anxiously.

"Your Highness, please give us your instructions!"

"When Grandfather Emperor was still alive, I looked through the documents in the Western Garden and the Inner Forbidden Library and discovered a problem.

The three prefectures of Yanzhou, Dongchang and Jinan in western Shandong, and the five prefectures of Daming, Guangping, Shunde, Zhending and Hejian in Zhili, were all fertile during the Tang and Song dynasties.

The yield per mu was between 1.2 and 1.6 dou, which could be called the granary of the north. However, after the Yuan Dynasty, and into the present dynasty, these places suddenly became barren and poor, with the yield per mu often less than 1 dou, and a slight imbalance in wind and rain would lead to famine.

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng looked at each other, surprised and happy.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince cares about the people's food and clothing and has the common people in his heart, which is a great thing.

It's amazing that he had such a sharp eye and could find such a problem from a pile of old papers.

"Your Highness, what do you think is the reason?" Pan Jixun asked.

“At first, I was puzzled.

Why did the same place, Henan in the Central Plains, remain unchanged, while the prefectures and counties of Shandong and Zhili, which are not far away, underwent such great changes?

I asked Yang Jinshui to send more people to conduct on-site inspections, and to ask local elders about the situation by going from village to village as a trader. Then I asked the Royal Guards to collect the county annals.
After sorting out these data, I realized that there is actually only one root cause. "

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng asked in unison: "Your Highness, what is it?"

“Water shortage!”

"Lack of water?" Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng seemed to be thinking about something, with gleams in their eyes.

"Yes, there is a water shortage! The northern regions have always been short of water, especially in recent years, the weather has been changeable, and sometimes the land is barren for thousands of miles.

It just so happened that the Yellow River, the main water supply artery that used to flow through these prefectures and counties, had changed its course.

In the second year of Jianyan in the Former Song Dynasty (1128), in order to resist the southward advance of the Jin army, the Tokyo garrison commander Du Chong broke the Yellow River dike in Huazhou, causing the Yellow River to burst and flow southeastward into the sea through the Sishui and Jishui rivers. For more than years since then, the Yellow River has changed its northern route to the southern route, taking over the Huai River and flowing into the sea.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand, and Qi Yan and the eunuchs came over pushing a screen with a map hanging on it.

"Master Pan, Minister Zhu, look, this yellow line is the current channel of the Yellow River from the Huai River to the sea. This red line is the old channel of the former Song Dynasty North Road.

The change in the course of the Yellow River has caused great harm. I have summarized three main consequences.

First, the Yellow River seized the Huai River’s estuary. Not only did the Yellow River seize the Huai River’s estuary, it also carried silt, which accumulated over the years, raised the riverbed, and blocked the river, causing disasters in the Huai River nine out of ten years.

The originally prosperous Huai River and Huai River regions have become flooded at any time, and millions of people have suffered greatly. Therefore, it is said that to control the Huai River, we must first control the Yellow River!"

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng nodded repeatedly, and strongly agreed with Zhu Yijun's proposal to control the Yellow River before controlling the Huai River.

"Second, the silt carried by the Yellow River not only clogs the Huai River, but also floods every year. This year it bursts here, next year it bursts there, and the river water rushes into the Grand Canal, blocking the Grand Canal. This means that the canal needs to be dredged every year, which is very costly."

"Third, the Yellow River changed its course, and the water-scarce northern region lost an important water source. Although the Yellow River has a violent temper and is difficult to predict, it is the mother river of China.

Now, many prefectures and counties in Shandong and Zhili have lost the irrigation of the Mother River, and over the years, they have become barren and poor. "

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng were capable ministers in river management. After carefully pondering Zhu Yijun's words, they felt that they made a lot of sense.

There is little rain in the north. Shandong and Zhili have many rivers, but they are only abundant in spring and summer, and dry up quickly in autumn and winter. No matter how violent the Yellow River is, its water flow far exceeds the total flow of other rivers.

Besides land, the most important thing for farming is water.

Without water, no matter how fertile the fields are, not much crops can be grown.

Pan Jixun understood his student's thoughts and asked quickly, "Your Highness, do you want the Yellow River to be redirected back to the north?"

Zhu Heng was shocked.

Change the course of the Yellow River?
This is a huge matter. If you are not careful, it will lead to disaster!
During the early Song Dynasty, the dispute between the North Flow and the East Flow lasted for decades.

Beiliu can facilitate the transportation of food, wages and supplies to the Hebei front.

Flowing eastward would add millions of acres of fertile farmland and prevent the Yellow River from being used by the Khitan, making it a natural barrier to protect Shandong in the Central Plains.

So Dongliu's view prevailed.

However, controlling the Yellow River has always been no small matter, especially changing its course. This is a huge matter that needs to be handled with caution. Thorough preparations must be made, including field surveys, planning discussions, and construction deployment.

It just so happens that the father and son, Shenzong and Zhezong, may not have high skills, but they are very brave and believe that man can conquer nature.

Several large-scale construction projects were carried out in an attempt to change the course of the Yellow River and tame it completely. However, they were severely defeated. Every time the river was diverted, it broke its course again, and thousands of miles of fertile farmland and houses were destroyed. Finally, it became docile and behaved itself.

Your Highness, do you want to come here too?
Zhu Yijun said frankly: "Master Pan, that's right, I want the Yellow River to return to the north."

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng's faces changed. They were about to speak out their advice, but Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "Master Pan, Minister Zhu, please listen to me."

"I know that controlling the Yellow River is not a trivial matter. In fact, I have always believed that controlling the Yellow River in the middle and lower reaches is only a temporary solution and does not address the root cause."

Pan Jixun was stunned: "Your Highness, why do you say that?"

"The Yellow River is prone to flooding. What is the root cause?"

"Too much mud and sand!" Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng answered in unison.

That’s right, the biggest problem of the Yellow River is too much silt. Over the years, silt is deposited in the river channel, quickly raising the riverbed. Over time, the riverbed in some places is higher than the ground on both sides.

Once the rainy season arrives, floods will occur and the dams will burst.

"Yes, you two gentlemen know the river very well. Yes, if the silt is not removed, no matter how high the dam is built in the middle and lower reaches, it will not be able to prevent the river from bursting one day.

Therefore, I believe that to control the river, we must first control the sand, and to control the Yellow River, we must start from the upper reaches. "

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng's eyes lit up and they continued to listen with great interest.

"I ask Mr. Cao to serve as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, to supervise the military affairs of the three towns and to implement the plan of building the northwest. Here are some details, please take a look at them, gentlemen."

Qi Yan handed two documents to the two men.

The two of them read it quickly and looked surprised.

"Vegetation to protect soil, returning farmland to pasture, returning pasture to forest. Your Highness, it takes great courage to make such a plan!"

"You can't take endlessly from the land. You have to know how much the land can produce and how many people it can support.

Rather than fighting against poverty and drought, it is better to move people to other prosperous places.

The Ming army and navy fought wars in the south and the north, explored everywhere, and searched for fertile land all over the world to settle and feed the people of the Ming Dynasty.

I said to Cao Gong and Xu Zhenming that it would be enough to leave a suitable population in the northwest and move the rest out. I have plenty of rich lands for resettlement.

If it’s not enough, then just fight again! The world is so big, the land is so vast, it belongs to those with virtue!”

Zhu Yijun said loudly, with great enthusiasm.

"Man follows the earth, the earth follows the sky, the sky follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature! If man steps back, after ten or twenty years, the heaven and earth will follow the Tao of nature. The vegetation will flourish, the water and soil will not be lost, and the silt in the Yellow River will naturally decrease.

This is the method to cure jaundice fundamentally.

In the past ten or twenty years, we have not stopped. The Imperial Astronomical Observatory used glass columns and mercury to develop a barometric altimeter, which can measure the relative height of various places based on sea level. It is called sea level height, and the error is very small and extremely accurate.

We can send out surveying teams to survey the sea levels in Henan, Shandong, Zhili, and Huaibei. Water flows to lower places, and we can use these height data as a guide to accurately plan new river courses, conduct excavation, and prepare to divert the Yellow River back to the north.

Zhu Yijun turned to Zhu Heng and said, "Mr. Zhu, in the 45th year of Jiajing, you dug a new river channel to avoid the Yellow River and facilitate the transport of grain. During that time, the new river channel burst twice, but you persisted and concluded that the main reason for the new river bursting was 'using one embankment to protect multiple streams', so you opened four tributaries to reduce the impact of floods on the new river bank."

Zhu Heng said quickly: "I am a stubborn person. Fortunately, Your Highness advised the late emperor to let me continue the excavation so that I would not give up halfway."

Zhu Yijun smiled and said: "When we do things in our dynasty, any slight mistake or setback will cause a great uproar. Especially those imperial censors will jump out and criticize, shouting for war and killing, but they don't know that success is full of twists and turns, and requires perseverance.

I think the same idea can also be followed in the North Yellow River Road.

While the Yellow River is still in the south, we spent three to five years mapping the sea level in various places, and another five years digging river channels along the low-lying areas. From Henan and below, more river channels were opened to drain sudden floods during the rainy season and to divert water for irrigation in normal times.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has developed cement, it will be possible to open cement plants and steel plants in Shandong, Zhili and other places, and use reinforced concrete to build river embankments, which will be much stronger than the current river embankments.

Open more gates on the river and reserve flood discharge areas in low-lying areas. Once floods occur, the gates can be opened to divert water or discharge floodwater to ensure safety in all areas.
We should implement various good measures according to local conditions. I believe that in our hands, we can see the Yellow River become our true mother river, changing its violent temper to become gentle and loving! "

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng looked at the Yellow River on the map, thought about the hardships and difficulties in controlling the Yellow River over the past decade, and recalled Zhu Yijun's words, and couldn't help but feel excited.

Let the Yellow River become the true mother river of the Ming Dynasty!
This is the ultimate ideal of every person who manages the Yellow River.

If the Yellow River is cured, not only will there be millions of acres of fertile land in the north, the flooding of the Huai River and the water transport problem will also be solved. This will be a great achievement that will last for thousands of years and will go down in history!

Pan Jixun and Zhu Heng nodded, their eyes red, and said to Zhu Yijun: "Your Highness, as long as the Yellow River can be cured, I am willing to travel north and south of the river for ten or twenty years, regardless of wind or rain, and devote myself to the cause until my death.

If I cannot survive that day, let my descendants and students continue to control the Yellow River!"

Zhu Yijun looked at these two ministers who had been working in the wild all year round to control floods. Their skin was dark and rough, which was completely different from the civil servants such as Li Chunfang, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng who came from noble backgrounds.

He nodded solemnly: "I wish to work with you two gentlemen to control the Yellow River in my lifetime and benefit future generations!"

(End of this chapter)