I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 382 The Yellow River changes its course to Shandong
This year, only some areas in various provinces have experienced drought, but since the beginning of summer, it has been rainy in the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

This seemed to alleviate the drought, but it caused the water levels of the Yellow River and Zhun River to surge.

There was no drought in the Huangzhun area, but floods occurred.Sun Jiagan was very lucky. Together with Li Fu, he was transferred from the Imperial Academy to become the governor of the river.

The Ming Dynasty had its capital in Nanjing and there was no need for water transportation, so there was no governor of water transportation and river governor.

Sun Jiagan, the river governor, is a temporary appointment, and his main duty is to fight floods and provide disaster relief.

When Li Fu was launching a major case in Jiangxi, Sun Jiagan was equally busy in the Huanghuai River Basin, and even ventured into the Yellow River disaster area many times to take charge of local officials' rescue and disaster relief work.

From busy summer to autumn, the rainfall decreased, and the yellow flood-stricken areas were slightly relieved.

Zhu Yijiong looked at the memorials in his hand that officials from various places reported the disaster situation, and sighed: "How difficult it is for people's livelihood! The people finally escaped the war and chaos, but they cannot escape this natural disaster."

Sun Jiagan had been recalled to Nanjing and said at this time: "Your Majesty, the floods in the Huanghuai River are not natural disasters, but man-made disasters."

"Man-made disaster?" Zhu Yijiong frowned and asked, "Did Sun Qing say that the Qing Dynasty cut corners when building flood control dams, which led to the breach?"

Sun Jiagan said: "That's not the case. On the contrary, the flood control dams of the Qing Dynasty are related to water transportation. No matter how courageous the officials responsible for this matter are, they will not dare to be greedy. Even if they are greedy, they will not be greedy too harshly. However, Huang Huai The flood problem does not lie in the dams at all, or it could be that too many dams have been built, which has seriously affected the local hydrology."

"Why is this?" Zhu Yijiong doesn't know much about water control.

Sun Jiagan said: "In the fifth year of Shaoxi's reign in the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River broke through Yangwu and divided into two branches, the north and the south, at Liangshan Bo. The south branch merged with the Si River and flowed south into Zhun. This was the beginning of the Huang Zhun flood. In the following dynasties, flood control was all done to protect the flood. In order to keep the canal smooth, we adopt the method of building high embankments and blocking the Huanghuai waterway. This is a symptom but not the root cause!"

This is normal. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Beijing was the capital. No matter who was the governor of water transportation or the governor of rivers, the first priority was to ensure the water transportation of the Grand Canal.

Otherwise, do you want to starve the emperor or starve all over Beijing?

Not to mention the official hat, the relatives of the nine ethnic groups still don't want it.

Starting from the Hongzhi period of the previous Ming Dynasty, the Ming court continued to try to control the Yellow River, but it was always hampered by the Grand Canal water transportation.

All river control officials could only adopt negative measures and build more and more river embankments to block the entire Huanghuai Waterway.The consequence of this is that the clear mouth where the Yellow River, Zhun River and canal meet is heavily silted up and eventually flows into Hongyi Lake.

Hongze Lake was originally just a collection of small lakes and swamps. It was thanks to continuous water control during the Ming and Qing dynasties that it continued to expand.

The Qianming Dynasty quickly discovered this problem, and then built embankments in Hongze Lake to artificially raise its water level.It is intended to curb the expansion of Hongze Lake and at the same time, use its lake water to store clear water and wash away the sediment of the Yellow River, thus playing the role of the Yellow River flowing into the sea.

It's a pity that this method didn't even support the Manchus behind them. Not only could the Qings and the Yellows not be brushed, but it also caused the Hongze Lake bed to be continuously raised and the lake surface to become wider and wider.

Until the Kangxi period, water transportation was seriously blocked by Hongze Lake. In order to prevent Beijing from running out of food at any time, Kangxi ordered to build 39 dams in Hongze Lake again.

In the 19th year of Kangxi's reign, the dam was completed and the water from Hongze Lake flooded the ancient city of Sizhou.

Half of Sizhou became part of Hongze Lake, and almost all the people in Sizhou were wiped out.

Because the Manchus were only responsible for building river embankments and not relocating people.

The current Sizhou City under the Ming Dynasty should actually be called Hong County. After the Tang Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Suzhou.

What's ridiculous is that Sizhou was submerged by Hongze Lake, and the Manchus finally put this huge blame on Lao Zhu.

Zhu Yijiong asked: "What method can Sun Qing use to control the Huanghuai floods?"

Since Sun Jiagan said this, there must be a way to manage it.

Sun Jiagan immediately replied: "The first method is to continue to use the previous strategy of confining water to attack sand and storing clear water to clear the yellow river. In the river sections where floods are frequent, we can continue to build river embankments and dams, and dig to divert the river to relieve the pressure on the river bed. ."

Zhu Yijiong said: "This method seems to be the same as what Sun Qing said before. It treats the symptoms but not the root cause!"

Of course, treating the symptoms does not cure the root cause, because this is the water control method used by the Qing Dynasty for 200 years. It is just to make mistakes and try to prevent water transportation from being damaged as much as possible.

Historically, Sun Jiagan's flood control also focused on ensuring water transportation. This was the political correctness of the Ming and Qing dynasties and had nothing to do with talent.

Seeing that the emperor seemed dissatisfied, Sun Jiagan breathed a sigh of relief, and then said: "In this case, I have another way, which is to dig the Yellow River channel, completely give up the fight for access to the sea, and use manpower to change the course of the Yellow River and enter the sea through Shandong .”

The Yellow River changed its course and entered the sea through Shandong. This was the solution that later generations used to solve the Yellow and Huaihe floods.

However, this method was not thought up by the Manchus, but because the Yellow River bed was too high and the sediment deposition was already overwhelming.Finally, in the fifth year of Xianfeng's reign, the Yellow River broke through and changed its course, rushing directly into Shandong, from Shandong to the sea, and turned into a vast ocean along the way.

But now, Sun Jiagan wants to use manpower to artificially divert the Yellow River so that it can flow from Shandong into the sea and completely solve the flooding problem in the Yellow River that has lasted for hundreds of years.

Sun Jiagan dared to propose this plan because he was now an official of the Ming Dynasty.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty was Nanjing, and there were no water transportation problems. There was no need to worry about water control disrupting water transportation, and naturally there were not so many constraints.

If the Yellow River is not diverted to Shandong, water transportation in the north will be cut off. Water transportation has always been just a tool to facilitate continuous blood transfusion from the south to Beijing.

Now that Beijing is no longer the capital, there is no need to transport blood by water.As for the transportation of grain in the north, it can be supplemented by the developed river systems and sea transportation in the interior.

Of course, Sun Jiagan's method also treats the symptoms rather than the root cause, but it is already the best method at the moment.

Even later generations did not have many good methods to control the Yellow River. They also continued to build river embankments and dams.

Because the sediment accumulated in the river bed for hundreds of years is difficult to clean even with modern industry.

It seems that Shaanxi must be captured as soon as possible.

Because the main reason for sedimentation in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is the severe soil erosion in Shaanxi.

The solution for later generations was simple and simple, which was to plant trees everywhere in Shaanxi to alleviate sedimentation downstream.

Zhu Yijiong thought for a moment and asked: "How can we change the Yellow River to Shandong?"

Sun Jiagan explained: "There are many flood channels on the north bank of the old Yellow River that can discharge floods and can also be used to accumulate sediment brought by the Yellow River. However, in order to protect water transportation, the Ming Dynasty and the Puppet Qing Dynasty blocked all the flood channels on the north bank. Wei Chen The only solution was for the imperial court to take the lead and mobilize a large number of civilians to dredge the entire Yellow-Huai River section. During the dry season, the current river channel would be blocked, and the river embankments and dams between the old channels would be demolished, and the Yellow River water would be diverted all the way to Shandong. .”

Zhu Yijiong sighed: "This project is not small!"

Although Zhu Yijiong doesn't know how to control water, the entire Yellow River is thousands of kilometers long.Even if we only excavate the lower reaches of the river, this would require hundreds of thousands of civilians, and it would be impossible to do it, and it would also be a long-term project.

Sun Jiagan nodded: "If you want to use this method, you will have to recruit 100 civilians, and the silver cost will be at least [-] million taels. This is only the initial stage of the project, and all the people in the river area must be relocated, otherwise the project will be difficult to implement. . Now Henan and Shandong have just gone through the war and the population is sparse. This is the right time to migrate. If we wait a few more decades for the population to recover, I am afraid it will not be that easy."

Zhu Yijiong nodded: "That's true."

Sun Jiagan said nothing more, he was waiting for the emperor's decision.

Zhu Yijiong thought for a while and then summoned the cabinet ministers for a meeting.

When they heard that the emperor wanted to control the floods in the Huanghuai River, Wang Li and others were cautious in their speeches.

After all, controlling the Yellow River has been a top priority here in all dynasties.When Emperor Kangxi succeeded to the throne, he wrote three calligraphy scripts: River Affairs, Water Transport, and San Francisco behind the dragon pillars in his main hall.

After some deliberations, Zhu Yijiong finally made up his mind.The Huanghuai flood problem must be dealt with sooner or later. Instead of continuing to make mistakes, it is better to solve them once and for all.

Moreover, regulating the Yellow River is a major project, which not only consumes a lot of money, food and manpower, but is not something that can be solved overnight.

Just the initial identification of various river channels and project locations will take a year or two.Then we will delineate the migration area, dredge and excavate the river in sections, and finally complete the entire project.

It cannot be completed within ten or twenty years.

Zhu Yijiong said solemnly to Sun Jiagan: "This will be a hardship for Sun Qing."

Based on Sun Jiagan's current age and the average life span of ancient people, it is estimated that Sun Jiagan will have to run along the river embankment for the rest of his life.

If you're lucky, it will be completed before you die.

If you are unlucky, you may die halfway through the practice.

Sun Jiagan also kowtowed solemnly: "I will devote myself to my life and die."

He is indeed sincere. For a man who was demoted from the Qing Dynasty to gain such trust, it can be regarded as a good horse meeting a bole.

(End of this chapter)