216 Suppressing the River and Winning the Huaihe River
"Difficult!" Ma Yu answered Su Hao's question with one word.
"Haha, being able to ask Brother Duwen to say a difficult word shows how difficult this matter is." Su Hao chuckled.
Ma Yu's answer did not surprise Su Hao. As early as when Li Long revealed to Su Hao about sending him to Huai'an to regulate the river, he had already said that regulating the river was a thankless task.
A hard job worthy of the title. As a traveler, Su Hao also knew that the flooding problem of the Yellow River and Huaihe River had not been solved until the 20th century. It is conceivable how difficult this problem was in the Ming Dynasty.
.
Ma Yudao: "This Huai'an Mansion is the intersection of the river, Huaihei and transportation, and it is also the key to river management. The strategy set by the current court can be simply put into six words: suppress the river, seize the Huaihei, and protect transportation. There are these six
Restricted by one word, if we want to make a difference, I'm afraid it won't be easy."
"What does it mean to suppress the river, seize the Huaihe River, and protect transportation? Can Brother Duwen explain clearly?" Su Hao asked. He could understand the words Ma Yu said, but he didn't know the specific background.
"Instead, please sit down and let me talk to you slowly." Ma Yu said.
Su Hao sat down, pulled out a piece of paper, and began to listen to Ma Yu's story. While listening, he also recorded some key points on the paper. Ma Yu also took a pen and drew a map for Su Hao at any time, explaining the various locations.
With Ma Yu's narration, the situation of Huai'an river regulation gradually formed an impression in the minds of Su Hao and others. Among all these people, only Su Hao had been to Huai'an in his previous life.
He knows more about the local situation than Ma Yu and others.
In ancient China, "river" was generally used as the abbreviation of the Yellow River. Wang Xijue asked Su Hao to manage the river, which actually meant managing the Yellow River. The Yellow River is thousands of miles long and spans the entire north of China. Su Hao is responsible for the Huai'an section of the Yellow River.
This is because this section of the Yellow River has important connections, which not only involves the Yellow River itself, but also the Huaihe River and the canal.
The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River originally ran eastward from Kaifeng and entered the sea through Lijin, Shandong Province. However, due to the extremely large amount of sediment in the Yellow River, the river bed will continue to rise due to siltation. After the river bed rises to a certain level, once it breaks through, the Yellow River will change its course.
, entering the sea from other places. In history, the Yellow River has changed its course southward many times and entered the sea through the channel of the Huaihe River. This is called seizing the Huaihe River.
In the second year of Jianyan of the Southern Song Dynasty, that is, 1128, a large-scale southward migration of the Yellow River occurred to seize the Huaihe River. From that time until 1855, the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River continued to seize the Huaihe River for more than 700 years, bringing great consequences to the lower reaches of the Huaihe River.
Infinite disasters.
The Yellow River captures the Huaihe River, not simply sharing the sea channel with the Huaihe River. After the Yellow River captures the Huaihe River, the sediment it carries will quickly fill the river channel and raise the river channel. At this time, the original Huaihe River will be blocked by the raised river channel.
, thus losing access to the sea and causing waterlogging within the basin, which is the biggest hazard to the Yellow River's seizure of the Huaihe River.
The two sides of the Huaihe River are the hinterland of China's Central Plains. Historically, they were rice granaries that raised millions of Chinese people. After the Yellow River captured the Huaihe River, the Huaihe River became a harmful river with frequent disasters, seriously threatening the livelihood of the people.
From common sense, in this case, the government should actively block the gap in the Yellow River, return the Yellow River to its old course, and return the Huaihe River's outlet to the sea. However, the government must consider not only the Huaihe River problem, but also another problem for the government
What is more important is the tank transportation of the canal.
The section of the canal from Huai'an to Xuzhou follows the old course of the Yellow River, which is Sishui. In order to prevent the Yellow River from changing its course and affecting the channel transportation, since the early Ming Dynasty, the government has formulated the so-called strategy of suppressing the river to seize the Huaihe River and ensuring transportation, that is, sacrificing the Huaihe River to use
Divert the Yellow River water to ensure the smooth flow of the canal.
Canal transport is related to the supply of the Ming Dynasty center and is a top priority. In comparison, the tens of millions of people in the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River are nothing more than carelessness. If any river management plan affects the smooth flow of the canal, then
It cannot pass through the center. Trying to regulate the Yellow River and Huaihe River while protecting the canal is tantamount to dancing in shackles.
Over the years, the Ming government invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources in regulating the Yellow River. The most effective one was the work done by Pan Jixun, who is currently the governor of the river. Pan Jixun regulated the river four times, which lasted more than 20 years.
From the forty-fourth year of Jiajing to the present, his philosophy of river management, according to his own summary, has six points, namely: "stop the breach to straighten the river, build embankments to stop the breach, repair the gates and dams to prevent the external river, create
Roll the dam to strengthen the embankment, stop the dredging project to save waste, and ignore the idea of opening up the old Yellow River to still benefit the river."
Among all the river control methods, the one he was most proud of was "confining water to attack sand".
The so-called water beam attack is a method commonly used by people in later generations to release floods and flush sand. They build dams to raise the water level, and then use the potential energy generated by the high water level to wash away the sediment accumulated on the downstream rivers, thereby achieving the effect of dredging the rivers.
The concept of condensing water to wash away sand was first created by a scholar in Yucheng County, Shandong Province, but it was only in the hands of Pan Jixun that it became a reality.
Pan Jixun first strengthened the dams on the north and south banks of the Yellow River to make them less likely to breach. Later, he personally supervised the construction of the more than 60-mile-long Gaojiayan Dam to raise the water level of Hongze Lake. Hongze Lake is the reservoir of the Huaihe River.
The lake water contains less sand. Pan Jixun diverted floodwater from the lake into the Yellow River through the Gaojiayan Dam, diluting the Yellow River water and scouring the lower reaches of the river. This process, called storing the Huaihe River and flushing the Yellow River to benefit transportation, once played a role
Very good effect.
However, the good times did not last long. Impounding the Huaihe River and flushing the Yellow River could not completely solve the problem of raising the Yellow River. In order to maintain the gap between the water level of Hongze Lake and the Yellow River, Pan Jixun had to continue to raise the height of the Gaojiayan Dam. Hongze
The increase in lake water level has put Sizhou, Fengyang and other prefectures upstream facing the threat of floods. In recent years, floods have occurred frequently in Sizhou and Fengyang, and even once submerged the ancestral mausoleum of Emperor Ming. This illustrates Pan Jixun's river control strategy.
, has become unsustainable.
This time, Wanli and Wang Xijue sent Su Hao to Huai'an to regulate the river. In fact, he was seriously ill and sought medical treatment. In the entire Ming Dynasty, the person who knew the most about water conservancy was Pan Jixun. If Pan Jixun could not handle things well, others could not intervene.
Although the cabinet knew that there was something wrong with Pan Jixun's river control methods, it was extremely difficult to find a replacement for him.
The appearance of Su Hao gave everyone some hope. Su Hao is an alternative. What makes him unusual is that what he learns is not the knowledge that everyone is familiar with, but the knowledge cloaked in the garb of the Buddha. Wanli and
Wang Xijue had a glimmer of hope, thinking that Su Hao might be able to find a different strategy to manage the river and get rid of the current predicament.
What methods can be used to solve this problem? Su Hao himself was lost in thought. There was a lot of experience in regulating the Yellow River and the Huaihe River in later generations, but in the Ming Dynasty, some of the experience may not be applicable. We still have to see it on the spot.
Let's talk about the situation. However, Su Hao believes that he will definitely not be helpless. At least the geology and surveying and mapping he is proficient in can play a role in river basin management. At worst, he can do hydrological survey for Pan Jixun.
It's a disgrace to your mission.
While Su Hao was meditating, Ma Yu had already finished introducing the situation of river control. Next, Jiang Yida introduced to Su Hao the economic and social conditions of Huai'an Prefecture.
"This Huai'an Prefecture was originally a land of fish and rice. It is said that the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers are well versed in the world. During the Three Kingdoms period, Deng Ai once farmed here. It was a prosperous place. Nowadays, due to the Yellow River taking over the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River being flooded, this place has become a prosperous place.
The people are in dire straits. Since the beginning of our dynasty, there have been floods, droughts, hail and locusts in Huai'an Prefecture, and various disasters have occurred one after another. In the fifteenth year of Hongzhi, Yancheng encountered three major disasters in a row. First there was a severe drought, and then there was a locust plague, and the locusts ate all the seedlings.
Then there was another earthquake, which was as loud as thunder and destroyed the city walls. Whenever there was such a big disaster, there were records of people eating each other." Jiang Yida said.
"People eat each other..." Su Hao couldn't help but shudder. How miserable must this be for such a situation to happen?
"Brother Gai, after listening to my younger brother's introduction, what are your thoughts on how to control the river?" Ma Yu asked.
Su Hao shook his head and said: "Governor Pan has been managing the river here for more than 20 years. If there is any obvious good way, he must have thought of it and done it. I haven't seen the Yellow River so far. What ideas do I have now?
It’s too early.”
Ma Yu nodded and said, "What brother Gai said is true, but my younger brother is impatient."
Tan Qidao: "Brother Gai, you have always had great talents. I believe that you will be able to find a better river management strategy than Governor Pan. By then, we brothers will be able to take advantage of brother Gai and leave a name in history."
ah."
Su Hao smiled and said: "Brother Bingnan is overrated. What I have learned is just some surveying and land surveying skills. River management is also a new thing for me, and I am not sure about it. If I want to make some achievements,
, I’m afraid we still need our brothers to work together and brainstorm.”
Ma Yudao: "Based on my younger brother's experience when he was building a reservoir in Fengcheng, in my opinion, no matter what method is used, the most important thing is that the military, government, and people work together. Only in this way can water damage be completely cured.
Nowadays, we don’t understand the situation of these three parties. We are completely in the dark. We don’t know what kind of person the Huai’an prefect is. If he is a corrupt official or a mediocre person, we may not be able to handle our affairs.
.”
Su Hao nodded and said: "Brother Duwen is right. I want to wait until we arrive in Huai'an to visit Governor Pan first, and then go to see the governor of Huai'an to see who he is. Whether he is a corrupt official or a mediocre official, we
Only when we understand it can we prescribe the right medicine. In addition, we need to explore the public opinion. The real power lies among the people. It is the people who ultimately determine the success or failure of river management." (To be continued. Please search Piao Tian Literature for more novel updates.