The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 268 Landscape and Shipping

Zhu Jianxuan was stunned when he heard half of it.

Almost subconsciously, I wanted to ask in return, what does a direct canal mean?
There is a height difference of dozens of meters between these two large lakes. How can the water flow directly through them?
But when Zhu Jianxuan heard Jiao Xun's last two sentences, he immediately reacted.

You can't just look at the drop, you also have to look at the slope.

The drop of dozens of meters, evenly stretched over a few kilometers, makes the river slope become only one percent.

Every hundred meters it decreases by one meter, and every meter it decreases by one centimeter.

In such a river channel, the water will only flow normally and will not turn into a waterfall.

If you want it to be smoother, continue to lengthen the river channel.

After the Qinglong Lake outlet dam is completed, the water level difference between the two lakes will be narrowed to 44 meters.

The straight-line distance between the two lakes is 40 kilometers, and the river channel is not straight, with a total length of more than 50 kilometers.

If the river channel drop is arranged completely evenly, the slope can be reduced to one thousandth.

If the river channel is lowered by one millimeter for every meter, it will definitely be able to pass straight through, and the water flow will be relatively smooth.

The key issue is still cost.

The steep slope that divides the two major lake basins was called the Nicaragua Cliff by Americans and Canadians in the past.

Between the two lakes, a canal with a length of 40 kilometers, a width of 100 to 200 meters, a water depth of about 10 meters, and an overall uniform slope was built.

It means building a slope with completely uniform inclination between the water surfaces of two large lakes and two land planes separated by cliffs.

The water surface is lower than the ground, so generally we have to dig downwards.

Even if the water level of Qinglong Lake rises to 130 meters, the deepest part of the slope must be dug at least 50 meters.

And the deepest place happens to be the cliff itself.

According to the cross-sections of the existing river banks on both sides of the Longque River, there are stones below the ground soil layer, and the cliff itself is the thinnest place in the soil layer.

Many stones can leak out directly.

How difficult is it to dig fifty meters deep into the stone ground?
This thing is not very good in terms of engineering and cost.

Moreover, in order to prevent water from cutting down, cement and rocks must be used to build an overall hardened riverbed after digging.

It would be impossible to build a canal of this level unless there were already hundreds of millions of people living around the Great Lakes and a huge amount of industrial raw materials and products relied on this river for transportation.

But Jiao Xun was not talking nonsense. The key is still how to deal with the waterfall.

If we abandon the Great Falls completely and directly use the original river channel of the Longque River as a canal, it will be feasible in terms of engineering and cost.

That is equivalent to turning canal construction into river dredging.

The cliff that produces the waterfall is blasted away from the bottom, so that the slope of the river upstream of the waterfall becomes relatively uniform.

Use boulders or concrete to fill in the pool below the waterfall to make the downstream river channel more uniform.

If we abandon the direct canal and build a lock canal, the difficulty will be lower.

After the water level of Qinglong Lake rises to 130 meters, it is estimated that four locks will be enough.

The key is to give up the Niagara Falls, the top natural wonder of the North American continent and the second largest waterfall in the world in terms of water volume.

Is it worth destroying this waterfall for the sake of low-cost and efficient navigation?
But anyway, since I'm here, I should go and take a look.

Zhu Jianxuan remembers that the Longque River turns at the waterfall, and the waterfall generally faces west, which is the Canadian side in history.

Now the station of Longque Zuowei is on the east side of the river. To enjoy the view of the waterfall, you have to cross the river to the other side.

Zhu Jianxuan casually asked the people accompanying him:

"Do the officials, civilians and soldiers here usually need to cross the river to the other side? How do they get there?"

Zhu Jianxuan's way of asking was very strange. He did not say that he wanted to cross the river, but instead asked how people here usually cross the river.

The commander of the Dragon Bird Left Guard immediately reported:

"Your Highness, there is a bridge in the middle of the river where it is narrowest, and there are ferries in the areas where the river is wide on the north and south sides and where the water flows slowly.

“The east side of the river is the land reclaimed by the Dragon Sparrow Left Guard, and the west side is the land reclaimed by the Dragon Sparrow Right Guard.

“Normally, people don’t need to cross the river for farming, but the people of the two garrisons have begun to intermarry, so they need to visit relatives and exchange what they have.

"We built a road between the two guard posts and constructed a large wooden bridge."

Zhu Jianxuan waved his hand directly:
"Show me the bridge."

The commander immediately took the order and led everyone south along the river. About two kilometers away, they arrived at the wooden bridge across the river.

Zhu Jianxuan was a little surprised when looking at the bridge.

Although the river channel here is indeed narrow, the distance between the two banks is estimated to be at least two hundred meters, and the width of the water surface is estimated to be nearly one hundred meters.

There are no piers or pillars in the middle of the river. The bridge has only one arch and the span is over one hundred meters.

The bridge deck is about eighty to ninety meters above the water surface. The bridge deck itself is completely flat and perfectly aligned with the ground on both sides. Vehicles can pass directly without any steps.

Below the straight bridge deck is a semicircular bridge hole with a radius of more than 80 meters. The main body is made of large logs spliced ​​end to end.

As the actual supporting structure of the bridge, the two ends of the bridge arch are pressed on the inner walls on both sides of the river channel, transferring the bearing force to the foundation of the river bank.

There are also many large wooden supports between the arch ring and the bridge deck, which should have formed a modern complex truss structure.

In the urban areas of the Ming Dynasty, bridges of this size are not uncommon, but most of them are built with steel structures.

The craftsmen of Longque Guard used local materials to build a bridge of this size using wood.

There are wooden doors that can be opened and closed at both ends of the wooden bridge.

On both sides of the wooden gate and at the four corners of the bridge, there stands a watchtower.

Zhu Jianxuan rode his horse to the front of the bridge. Looking at the flat bridge surface that was at least eight meters wide, he could not help but exclaim:
“This is the largest wooden bridge I have ever seen.

“However, there are many large trees in North America, and there is currently a lack of steel, so other development sites also need to build bridges.

"I wonder if there are bigger wooden bridges somewhere else..."

Jiao Xun thought for a moment and said:

“There is probably no wooden bridge larger than this one at present.

“Next to Taipingwei is the Mei River (Ohio), and the width of the river is nearly one kilometer.

“If a bridge needs to be built, it will certainly be much larger.

“If Taipingwei is used as the central capital in the future, it will definitely need to develop across the river, so we need to consider building a bridge.

“But it’s hard to say whether we will continue to use wood at that time.”

Zhu Jianxuan nodded slightly, rode across the bridge, came to the ground on the other side of the river, and continued walking south along the river bank.

After walking for a while, they heard a thunderous rumble in the distance.

Zhu Jianxuan knew that this place was not far from the waterfall.

As Zhu Jianxuan continued to move forward, the sound of the waterfall became more and more obvious, and the water flow in the river became more and more turbulent.

Mist slowly appeared in the river, reflecting a rainbow in the morning sunlight.

After walking for more than 500 meters, a huge "water mountain" appeared in the middle of the Longque River. The total width may be more than one kilometer, divided into three groups by islands in the river, and the waterfall with a height of more than 50 meters finally appeared in front of Zhu Jianxuan.

At this time, above the waterfall inside the entire river channel, the rising water mist covered the river channel, making the entire waterfall flow seem to be in the clouds.

Zhu Jianxuan was quite shocked by the scenery before him, and was also somewhat surprised to find that the waterfall was almost facing the river.

The front faces due north, or even slightly east, and should be visible from the east bank of the river.

But if you want to see the front of the waterfall, you can only go to the middle of the river.

Instead of being facing northwest as in the memory of the previous life, it faces the land on the west bank of the river.

However, Zhu Jianxuan reacted quickly.

A waterfall in its natural state will continue to retreat because the water will continue to erode downwards.

The riverbed beneath the waterfall will continue to collapse and recede.

The location of the Great Falls two hundred years later may be several hundred meters different from that of the Great Falls today, and these few hundred meters are exactly where the river turns.

The waterfall was originally supposed to be on the northern cliff edge, at the natural boundary between the two lakes.

In the future, the waterfall should continue to retreat to the edge of Suzaku Lake (Lake Erie), and then the waterfall itself will completely disappear.

After the water level of Zhuque Lake drops by tens of meters, a naturally flowing sloping river channel will be formed between the two lakes.

At the same time, a new large waterfall will be formed between Ziwei Lake (Lake Huron) and Zhuque Lake (Lake Erie) due to the drop in water.

Then it continues to repeat the fate of the previous waterfall, constantly retreating until it disappears.

However, Americans and Canadians in the past cared a lot about this waterfall. After World War II, they began to use modern methods to transform the waterfall and reinforced the river channel under and behind the waterfall.

The renovation project has significantly slowed down the retreat of the waterfall, extending the expected time for the waterfall to disappear from tens of thousands of years to hundreds of thousands of years.

The annual retreat rate has been shortened from about one meter to three centimeters.

The difference has been shortened from being noticeable to the naked eye in decades for a generation to a level that is difficult for several generations to directly perceive.

Today's Ming Dynasty immigrants are also interested in this waterfall.

A forest has been preserved on the banks on both sides of the waterfall, and several pavilions have been built using several trees as pillars for people to rest and shelter from the rain.

After all, this is a wonder in the world, and there will always be officials and civilians in the garrison who want to come and see it.

Zhu Jianxuan dismounted outside the pavilion, tied the horse to a tree trunk outside, and walked into the pavilion near the river to enjoy the scenery.

The others also dismounted and followed. Zhu Jianxuan pointed at the waterfall and asked Jiao Xun:
"The simplest and most efficient way to build a canal connecting Qinglong Lake and Zhuque Lake is to flatten this waterfall, right?"

Jiao Xun immediately bowed and said:
"Yes, Your Highness. Whether you are planning to build a direct canal or a lock canal, it is most convenient to use the original river channel of Longque River and eliminate the influence of the waterfall."

Zhu Jianxuan looked up at the waterfall again:

“But if we use the river, whether it’s to build a canal or to build a lock, this rare natural wonder will be destroyed.

“However, if we choose another location to dig a canal, the width and depth of the river will hardly reach the scale of the Longque River.

“Should we sacrifice shipping for the sake of landscape, or should we sacrifice landscape for the sake of shipping?”

Zhu Jianxuan seemed to be asking the officials around him, but he did not call on them by name to answer, so most of them did not dare to speak up.

After Zhu Jianxuan finished speaking, he began to think about his previous life.

In the original history, neither Americans nor Canadians tried to destroy the Great Falls when they were working on navigation plans for Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

When the two countries later built hydroelectric power stations, they both tried to divert water to places other than the waterfalls and built artificial lakes to store water for power generation.

The two parties later reached an agreement to control the proportion of water pumped so as not to affect the water volume of the waterfall.

This may be because ever since the British and French established colonies here, this huge waterfall as a natural wonder has been a symbol to attract immigrants.

At the same time, the United States’ relations with Canada were not very good in the first 100 years after its founding.

The Longque River where the waterfall is located is the boundary river between the two countries.

Both countries are wary of each other beyond the border and have no inclination to cooperate in developing the falls.

The key is that the Canadians built the Welland Canal on their side, opening up the waterway between the two lakes.

The Americans built the Erie Canal to circumvent the problem of navigation between the two lakes.

When relations between the two countries improved and the United States became a world power, the tourism industry began to develop again.

The Niagara Falls belongs to New York State and is a tourist attraction that many New Yorkers have longed to visit throughout their lives. If we wanted to destroy the Niagara Falls at that time, we would be committing a huge crime.

The corresponding countries are Brazilians and Paraguayans.

In order to build a large hydroelectric power station, the two countries built a dam and submerged the Guaira Falls on the border.

The water volume and scale of Guaira Falls are much larger than those of Longque Falls.

With a poor economic foundation and a naturally sluggish tourism industry, both countries need sufficient electricity even more.

So even if they held a funeral for the waterfall, the two countries still submerged the waterfall.

Zhu Jianxuan thought about it for a long time by the river, and finally made up his mind when he was about to return to the base.

Zhu Jianxuan directly told the officials and craftsmen who followed him:

“Let’s use the existing Longque River to build a lock canal.

"The lock canal will not destroy the falls completely, it will just flood them with river water.

"In a few decades, when the Ming Dynasty has sufficient engineering construction capabilities, it will be able to build a large enough artificial canal somewhere else.

“We can come back and remove the lock canal from the river, and the waterfall view can be restored.

"The priority now is to continue development and construction. It is not yet time for us to fully develop cultural landscapes and vigorously engage in tourism.

"The transportation capacity of the lock canal is now fully sufficient, and there is no need to build a direct Grand Canal for the time being."

A group of people immediately agreed with their hands clasped:

"I obey your orders."

Zhu Jianxuan arranged the direction of the canal and rode to the Longque Youwei’s base for inspection in the afternoon.

After staying at the Longque Youwei Yamen for one night, he ordered the militia officers of the two guards to summon all the militiamen in the two guards the next morning.

Zhu Jianxuan divided the 10,000 soldiers he brought with him into two teams, each team being combined with a division of local militia.

Then Zhu Jianxuan directly commanded them and conducted intensive training for three consecutive days.

After the training, Zhu Jianxuan made his own rules and held a simple sports meeting for officers and soldiers.

Simple field sports such as running, swimming, high jump, long jump, fighting, wrestling, shooting, archery, horse riding, cycling, and football were held.

Soldiers who perform outstandingly and get high scores and good rankings will receive a bonus and a certificate of honor directly.

The championship awards for each event were signed and presented personally by the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty.

There were no special preparations and the competition venue was very rough, but it was divided into several locations, so that all the people in the garrison had the opportunity to watch a few games.

Zhu Jianxuan and the officers and soldiers of the two garrisons were busy for more than ten days.

He also attracted a lot of attention and popularity among the officers, soldiers and civilians of the two garrisons.

(End of this chapter)