In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 453 The show begins

Starting from the Western Han Dynasty, the Yellow River broke out repeatedly, causing floods to affect Jinan. Of course, there were also people who managed it. For example, Wang Jing of the Eastern Han Dynasty regulated the river and built embankments at Xingyang and Lijin to enter the sea. This 'Eastern Han River Channel' lasted for thousands of years, and the effect was Not bad. After entering the Song Dynasty, the Yellow River burst its banks many times. In the first year of Jingyou (1034), the tenth year of Xining (1077), and the fifth year of Mingchang in the Jin Dynasty (1194), the banks burst in the tenth year of Xining. The Great Battle is divided into two branches, one of which joins the Beiqing River and flows into the sea.

The Beiqing River flows from the Qing River (ancient Jishui) in the south of the economy. This is the most important change affecting Jinan recently. By now, the Yellow River has seriously affected Jinan.

Later, Liu Yu of the puppet Qi Dynasty dug the Xiaoqing River, and then Du Yun in the early Southern Song Dynasty broke the embankment and diverted the river into Sishui. Most of the Yellow River flowed southward into the Huaihe River. Then it had to wait until Xianfeng changed its course hundreds of years later. The Yellow River replaced the Daqing River and became an important river running through Jinan. Rivers have a huge impact.

The main reason why Zhao Yurui dared to control the river with confidence was that his thinking was different from that of the ancients.

How did ancient people manage rivers?

Most people in ancient times tried to make up for the situation, that is, when there was a flood, the embankments burst, and then they started to manage it. If the country was at its peak, it would be better if there were rich people, but if there were natural disasters or man-made disasters, in the late dynasty, even governance might not be possible.

For example, after the Yellow River burst in Tongwaxiang during the Xianfeng period, the river spread for hundreds of miles and flooded more than 40 states and counties. At that time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was rebelling, and the court was exhausted and unable to control it, so it could only diffuse the water at will, allowing the floods to spread. It took more than 20 years to change the route. It was only after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was pacified that I had time to take care of it, which also caused a major impact.

Zhao and Rui asked Wu Qian, Wang Gang and other court officials who were good at water conservancy to be divided into two groups, each with a group of people. In the early stage, they visited all the important river crossings in the country to observe which directions were prone to levee breaches, and how to deal with the levees after they broke, and finally formed a copy. The drawings were reported to the court.

They ran it all over the past two years, formed the copy and handed it to Zhao Yurui. Zhao Yurui read it and asked them to change places.

His steam pump has been developed to replace a large amount of manpower, thereby reducing the difficult project of manual excavation and water release.

Zhao Yurui led the water conservancy ministers to rehearse the Yellow River bursting its banks. In Zhao Yurui's words, even if the Yellow River will not burst its banks in the future, our water conservancy construction will also benefit the local people.

After several years of running around, they initially thought that the area where dikes needed to be built was more than 800 miles long, occupying a quarter of the area.

Zhao Yurui actually knew nothing about regulating the Yellow River, but with the blessing of his traverser, the Song Dynasty's water conservancy officials discovered future flood problems early.

After all, if these places are not relocated, they may be flooded in the future.

Because the Yellow River floods mainly breaks its banks in Henan, thus affecting Shandong.

Fortunately, Zhao Yurui's Song Dynasty has a shortcut.

Sichuan's main sales are Shaanxi and Ningxia, and even the Western Regions.

Then integrate the plans of the two waves of people and let them comprehensively compare them to form the first step of governance goals.

The usual method is to cut off a section of the river first, drain the water, and then use manpower. This kind of thing is time-consuming, laborious and expensive, so few dynasties in the past have done this.

The two waves of people ran for another two years and came up with their own plans.

Now Zhao Yurui's officials predict in advance and then make important diversions based on the terrain.

The first is to build embankments on both sides of the lower reaches of the Yellow River, especially those at important locations. They should be built in advance to prevent embankment breaches.

In recent years, Zhao Yurui has increased the domestic production and sales of white sugar. Sugar factories in Shandong mainly sell to Mongolia and Henan.

The imperial court is divided into four levels. The first level is the area that is in urgent need of reinforcement, and the fourth level can be slowed down.

Luokou is named after ancient Luokou. It is located in the north of Jinan City, with Xiaoqing River in the south and Daqing River in the north. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, four major salt warehouses were set up in Luokou, covering an area of ​​more than 300 acres. It was the largest salt transshipment center in Shandong. Hub, at that time, it was sold to Jiangsu, and salt imports from Anhui and Henan were all exported from here.

Now that Zhao Yurui is doing this, Xiaoqinghe can continue to do it as long as he does it well. Even if he doesn't do it well, Xiaoqinghe can persist for hundreds of more years.

The only difficulty is that the steam boiler must be burning next to the steam pump around the clock.

In fact, this kind of problem can be discovered as long as someone studies it carefully and conducts on-site inspections. However, if the highest rulers in ancient times did not say anything, the people below usually would not take it seriously.

The third step is to change the route.

The main sales in Zhejiang and Jiangnan are Japan and Korea.

In the seventh year of Yuanzhen, the imperial court launched a water conservancy project around the Daqing River.

But just adding more buildings is not enough. The second step is to dredge the silt in the river.

Wu Qian went to see what Wang Gang had run over, and Wang Gang went to see what Wu Qian had run over.

Wu Qian and Wang Gang mainly took three steps.

When Wu Qian arrived near Luokou in the north of Jinan City, he saw boats and people coming and going, and traders were like clouds.

By waiting until a flood occurs to repair the damage, it is often too late.

The Daqing River was originally a narrow underground river. In the early days, it was only ten feet wide and only a few feet deep. Both deep and wide were far inferior to the Yellow River. Not to mention the Yellow River bursting its banks, even in the continuous rainy season, when the rainfall was heavy, it would There will be water overflowing.

At the same time, Wang Gang went to Henan to serve as the envoy of Henan and governed at the same time as Wu Qian.

The main sales in Guangdong and Guangxi are Dali, Annan, Champa, etc.

Today's Luokou is no different from the Yongle time in the Ming Dynasty. The imperial court also has a sugar factory in Shandong. Shandong's salt and sugar continue to flow from here to all directions, north to Mongolia and west to Henan.

Among them, we also learned from the practices of the Guangxu period, relocated some nearby people, dug the local area into a river, built high dams around it, and actively changed the course.

Wu Qian was specially transferred to Shandong as an envoy for this purpose. Chen Dai, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, led the people of the Ministry of Industry to fully assist him.

Before the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the Xiaoqing River and the Daqing River had always been important salt transportation channels in Jinan. Later, the Xiaoqing River became silted and overflowed, making it impossible for ships to move, and finally they had to rely on the Daqing River.

Later, the diversion during the Xianfeng period was caused by the imperial court being unable to control it and allowing floods to flow. Therefore, natural disasters continued and floods continued.

Dredging mud was the most difficult task in ancient times. Without modern machinery, it relied entirely on manpower.

Once the Yellow River bursts its banks again in the future, and the Daqing River is more tortuous, the lower reaches will be flooded.

After years of investigation and investigation, Wu Qian and Wang Gang agreed that in the future the Yellow River would burst its banks and a large amount of river water would flow into the Daqing River.

This is a big project. The Yellow River is more than 700 kilometers long in Henan and more than 600 kilometers long in Shandong.

The people in the city will not be flooded because Jinan City is here, but the people outside the city will definitely be unlucky.

The Daqing River passes through Jinan, and the people near Jinan will definitely suffer.

As the largest production area, Damuan sells its products wherever the demand is high, and the price is the lowest. It is also the first choice for foreign businessmen to purchase goods.

Although the court did a good job of keeping secrets, there were always times when oversights were made. At that time, some people already knew about the method of drenching yellow mud with water, and they could also produce white sugar. However, the court controlled private production. This is simple. All sugarcane grown on a large scale by the people has it. The imperial court sent people to check.

Large quantities of sugar cane could only be sold to the imperial court for sugar production, while small quantities of sugar cane could be marketed as fruits.

Private merchants cannot grow large quantities of sugar cane, and naturally cannot obtain sugar cane juice. Even if they know how to make white sugar, it is useless.

But the imperial court also informed private businessmen that if you want to do this business, you can go overseas and colonize the land. You can plant as much sugar cane and produce as much sugar as you like. In recent years, many businessmen near Jinan have considered going overseas, but those nearby are controlled by the Song army, and the risks in places farther away are also great. Currently, within the Song Dynasty, there are still relatively few businessmen who want to colonize overseas.

At about eight o'clock in the morning, as soon as Wu Qian arrived at the shore, he saw a row of large boats slowly leaving Yanyan. These were official boats, filled with refined salt and sugar, and were heading to Anshan Lake in the southeast along the Daqing River. .

Anshan Lake is located in Dongping Prefecture, close to Hebei Daming and quite close to Henan.

The salt and sugar from the imperial court were first transported to Dongping, and then to Hebei and Henan by land.

Usually salt, sugar and other goods shipped from Jinan can arrive in Kaifeng in about 20 days as long as there is no rain or snow, which was considered relatively fast at the time.

Wu Qian stood on the shore and watched these boats leave the shore. After the boats left, another wave of boats not far away was guided to the shore where Wu Qian was.

The ship had just docked and the springboard hadn't been set up yet. Two young men jumped off the pier and came to Wu Qian's side.

"Xiaguan Cao Youliang——"

"Fang Junjie, pay a visit to Ambassador Wu."

Wu Qian quickly returned the favor with fists cupped, and Zhang Peng, the Jinan Jinyi Guard Qianhu next to him, also came to greet him.

The two people opposite were both members of the Imperial Guards in the capital.

Cao Youliang is the younger brother of Cao Youwen. Currently, there are hundreds of Jinyiwei households in the capital.

This time they brought six steam pumps with the ship, and Jin Yiwei was responsible for keeping them confidential.

Wu Qian wanted to control the Tuhe River above the Daqing River and at the same time dredge a section of the Tuhe River.

Dredging is the most difficult thing to do here. Drainage is not easy. You have to rely on manual labor to carry water. You don't know how long it will take.

Feudal dynasties in history rarely did this. If they had to do this, they would have to dig out the drainage channels first and drain out a large amount of water. Then the remaining water that could not be drained would be manually picked out.

After Wu Qian reported to Zhao Yurui, he was the first Song Dynasty official to use a steam pump.

The Tuhe River is a river between the Yellow River and the Shang River. After the Yellow River broke its banks in the fourth year of Hongjia of the Han Dynasty (17 BC), it cut off the Shang River's flow path into the sea. In order to release the river water, Xu Shang, the captain of the river bank, led people that year. The earth river was excavated.

After the Tu River was dug out, it made great contributions to flood control and drainage together with the Shang River, but it was not repaired for a long time. After thousands of years, it was merged with the Shang River again in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

Wu Qian wanted to cut off the Tuhe River first, then drain and dredge it, build embankments and reinforce it, and dredge the Tuhe River. The whole project was not small, but if it was really completed, the Tuhe River could still be used for at least several hundred more years. Greatly relieve the pressure of the Yellow River on the Daqing River.

The Daqing River is only one-third as wide as the Yellow River, and the Tu River is narrower than the Daqing River. Wu Qian cut off the Tu River, which is currently the easiest river to dry up.

After Cao Youliang met Wu Qian, he reported to him that he brought eight steam pumps this time.

Wu Qian was shocked because he only applied for six units from the emperor. Unexpectedly, Zhao Yurui waved his hand and sent eight units.

"These are His Majesty's treasures. Envoy Wu must use them carefully."

"That's that." Wu Qian nodded quickly.

Junjie on the side said that after the water pump is used up, it does not need to be returned to the capital. It will have to be transported to the Sichuan Salt Farm for pumping water.

There are more mineral salts in Sichuan, so work cannot be started on rainy days, and the water in the mines is difficult to drain. After the court used it here this time, it had to be transported to Sichuan.

Wu Qian frowned. According to his project schedule, it would take at least one or two months to drain the water here, not to mention the preliminary and later preparation work.

But Cao Youliang told him not to worry and to use it here first.

While the few people were talking, the water pump had already begun to be transported down the ship.

The water pump is divided into several parts, and each part is covered with a cover. From the outside, you have no idea what is inside.

Officials from the Ministry of Industry came down from the boat to direct, and everyone carefully transported the parts to the shore first.

The largest component Wu Qian saw was the steam boiler, which was as big as a cow. There were more than a dozen people on site carrying it.

It's easy to handle after disembarking, there is a trailer on board.

Behind the trailer is a thick wooden board with eight wheels underneath. Each wheel is only the size of a palm and is entirely made of metal.

Everyone put the steam boiler on the wooden board. There were four mules and horses in front to pull it, and there were people pushing it in the back. As long as the road was good, it would be faster.

Wu Qian frowned again.

The places where the silt is to be drained and the places where the water is intercepted are not easy to walk. It will be very difficult to transport this thing.

The main reason is that it is relatively heavy and difficult to use with force. It is difficult for more than a dozen people to lift it. This requires manual transportation, and hundreds of people have to take turns to do it.

But he didn't expect Cao Youliang to come up with a way for him. Don't you want to intercept the river? First find a good place to go, transport it to the boat on Tuhe River, and then transport it from Tuhe River to the bank where you want to intercept it. Wu Qian suddenly smiled and said, He looked at this young man with great satisfaction.

At noon, Wu Qian said he wanted to have dinner with Cao Youliang and the others, and then watch a show.

Cao Youliang and others were also shocked.

Now when people from the imperial court go downstairs, the officials below do not dare to entertain guests, nor can they entertain guests.

Only after Wu Qian explained it did he realize that it turned out that everyone paid for it, and Wu Qian didn't invite him.

The focus of Wu Qian is not to eat together, but to watch a show.

At noon, a small number of local officials, officials from Jinyiwei and Wu Qian accompanied Cao Youliang and the others to have a light meal, and each of them paid two hundred cash afterwards.

Cao Youliang feels that it is not expensive, but it is not cheap either.

Wu Qian seemed to have a bit of a heartache. He was usually a simple person. He probably wouldn't have come to have such a meal if he hadn't been with Cao Youliang.

After eating, everyone went to the back of the restaurant. There was a large courtyard behind, which had been renovated and an open-air stage was set up.

They arrived late, and when they arrived, the place was already overcrowded. Fortunately, the restaurant owner had prepared a seat for them in advance, occupying a high position and looking ahead.

Cao Youliang felt that it was relatively new, because there was no such stage in the capital.

He looked at the audience. At this time, the audience was almost full. There were fifty or sixty people sitting, and there were also forty or fifty people standing behind. There were almost a hundred or so spectators at the scene, and many people climbed up not far away. On the wall, sit on the wall and watch.

They sat down for about a quarter of an hour, and with the sound of a heavy gong, the performance officially began.

(End of this chapter)