Chapter 49 National Water Conservancy Policy

Zhou Mengchen was very clear about the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty. Under Zhou Mengchen's various methods, the Ming Dynasty's treasury had a little surplus, but that was all. The Ministry of Revenue could not afford the repair cost of tens of millions of taels.

Not to mention, 50 million taels of silver.

With so much money, the court will not have to shrink its hands and feet.

Unfortunately, there is no such plan. So this plan is definitely impossible to implement.

But now this plan is to smash the spear at Xu Jie.

As a minister of the aspect, Zhou Mengchen did not need to consider the court. He just needed to complete his own tasks. What is Zhou Mengchen's task? It is to govern the river. Since he wanted to govern the river, it would be best to propose the most perfect plan.

As for funding, it was the affairs of the court and the Ministry of Revenue.

When the imperial court hires people, it is necessary to provide funds.

This plan is enough to let the people and gentry suffering from the Yellow River see hope. They may not be unaware of Zhou Mengchen's plan, it is a painting cake. But they don't mind, under the leadership of Zhou Mengchen, they went to the court to make a fuss.

After all, a crying child has milk to eat.

If you don’t make a fuss, how can the court know that the people below are suffering?

Even if this plan cannot be fully passed, we can still obtain more funds for river management, so why not do it?

So what is Zhou Mengchen's plan?

Zhou Mengchen thought about it and thought of it, using one principle as the general principle of governing the river.

This principle is to increase redundant storage.

Zhou Mengchen stretched out all the ideas and started thinking from the most fundamental way. Why did the Yellow River flood? It's very simple. The river channel is not enough. Then just make the river channel enough.

This is the idea of ​​river management and water division.

Under limited conditions, various clever methods are used to allow the river water to carry mud and sand into the sea. This is the idea of ​​binding water to attack sand.

Zhou Mengchen felt that the two were not contradictory.

Zhou Mengchen’s new plan has three main points.

First, below Xingyang, Pan Jixun’s strategy of blocking water and attacking sand was adopted. According to this plan, the thousands of miles of Yellow River embankment would have to be renovated, which cost a lot.

Second, the Huanghuai River is diverted. The new river is opened, and the Yellow River is led east from Xuzhou, and along with the Huai River into the sea. There is a project volume of hundreds of miles here. Of course, this is not the only solution. There is another solution, which is to lead the river into Zhangqiu. Let the river flow east along the Daqing River.

The second solution is the Yellow River channel in later generations.

In fact, this river is also the old path of the Yellow River. The Yellow River breaks its dam and moves unstable. Almost all rivers in the entire North China Plain are occupied by the Yellow River.

However, this plan also requires the construction of a long-term river canal. I don’t know which one has more advantages.

This is the matter of execution to investigate.

Third, that is to divert and discharge floods.

Zhou Mengchen was preparing to follow Wang Jing and open a river on the Yellow River. A new canal was dug in Zhengzhou to connect with the Jialu River. Once the flood peak was too large, the gate would be opened and the flood would be diverted into the Jialu River. However, the Jialu River was introduced into the Huai River.

The project volume is also very large.

The first is to dig the river channel between the Yellow River and the Jialu River. This is not too long. It is just within the urban area of ​​Zhengzhou in later generations.

Second, that is, strengthening and expanding the Jialu River.

It is not just the Jialu River, but all the rivers from the Jialu River to the Huai River.

The reason is simple. Therefore, the current Jialu River can not handle the flood diversion of the Yellow River at all. Zhou Mengchen even planned to travel in the middle of the Huai River to find a place to build a large reservoir as a place to release floods from the Huai River.

In this way, the river water that is diverted by the Yellow River can be introduced into the lake. This lake can regulate the water volume of two rivers, the Yellow River and the Huai River.

Of course, Zhou Mengchen also knew that this project was huge and it was not easy to choose a site alone. However, in Zhou Mengchen's impression, the two Huai Rivers, to be precise, in the northern part of Anhui Province, some places have always been national-level flood discharge areas, which shows how the terrain of these places is. It should not be difficult to establish an artificial lake.

Another one is to connect to the Wei River from the north bank of the Yellow River.

First of all, the Wei River was actually a tributary of the Yellow River a long time ago. It can even be said that most of the rivers on the entire North China Plain were tributaries of the Yellow River for a certain period of time. When Cao Cao made a northern expedition, he blocked the passage from the Wei River to the Yellow River and forced the Wei River to flow north, thus transporting military resources to the army.

Some rivers of Wei River are not far from the Yellow River. There are even many rivers around that can be processed.

Just build a short river channel to divert flood into the Wei River.

The Weihe River flows into the canal, or the Weihe River section itself is the Weihe River. With the help of the Weihe River channel, it flows into the sea north. However, in this way, the entire Weihe River will be expanded and the embankment will be reinforced.

This diversion is used to divert floods, not long-term.

The reason why I chose a ready-made river was also due to this consideration.

What would a river look like if there is no water for such a long time? It will become a flat land and may be reclaimed. Moreover, even if it is not artificially damaged, just natural siltation will make the waterway not smooth when the river has water.

Zhou Mengchen mostly chose the original river channel. That is to say, even if there is no Yellow River divert, there is still water in the river channel. It’s just that the river channel is a little wider, and the water in the river is a little less.

In this way, Zhou Mengchen created a complete set of water networks.

The distribution of waterways similar to the Grand Canal of the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

There are main roads where there are bunches of water to attack sand to clean up the sedimentation of mud and sand. Zhou Mengchen naturally would not fully believe in the speed of dredging in this era, so the accelerated steamship was in place.

This steamship was first tried on the Xuzhou river channel, because many people know that the Xuzhou river channel is the most dangerous. It was barely enough to close it before. Once you encounter heavy water again, it will be normal to rinse it in minutes.

Therefore, when Zhou Mengchen was studying the management of the Yellow River, he did not forget to ask Pan Jixun to supervise this section of the river, repair the river embankment, dig sand and dredge water, and other traditional methods.

But, it is not a cure for the symptoms.

The steamboat's sand-drilling boat was effective. The long pipes were inserted into the river bank, and the sand and water were pumped out. In this way, the originally settled sand churned again. The originally clear river water became like mud again.

In this case, no matter how you wash the riverbed, it is still very likely to reduce sedimentation.

There are many new methods like this. For example, Zhou Mengchen had a disciple who suggested that the railway should be directly placed on the river embankment. The reason is that the river embankment is the best foundation. There is no problem in building a railway with the river embankment as the foundation.

It's a very simple thing, but when you go uphill, you have a little higher requirements for the steam engine.

With the train on the river bank, a large amount of materials can be easily transported to the river bank. This way, a large number of migrant workers can be reduced and the burden on the people can be reduced.

Zhou Mengchen was still planning to add the idea of ​​rectifying water conservancy in Henan and Hebei, paying attention to farmland water conservancy.

This is interconnected with the governance of Wei River and Jialu River.

If everything goes well, in order to maintain the long-term water between the two rivers, water can be transferred from the Yellow River. However, although the canal is abandoned, you can still go to the North-Beijing from the south. You can only enter the Huai River from Yangzhou, enter the Jialu River from the Huai River, and enter the Yellow River from the Jialu River. You will probably change the boat here. After all, the two sides are connected through water gates, rolling dams, etc. You cannot cross the boat. Then cross the Yellow River again, enter the Wei River, and change the boat again. The reason is as above.

Then go north along the Wei River and you can reach Tianjin.

In order to maintain this river channel, great efforts must be made to repair the river channel. At the same time, the two rivers can be built on farmland water conservancy. After all, these two rivers are open for use. Once flood diversion is used, the silt and sand of the two rivers will accumulate once. As long as there is complete farmland water conservancy, people can use river mud as fertilizer, and without the forced supervision of the government, some people will be able to digest these river mud.

In short, it is generally very simple, but the details are simply complicated. From the upstream tree planting, the middle stream diversion, and even the people should use more water or less water to plant rice or wheat. Should the Yellow River estuary be diverted or merged?

Should we build a dam or let it be natural?

Wait. If you really want to explain the technical details of this plan, you will probably have to open another book to talk about it.
Chapter completed!