Chapter 53: Yu Qian's return

Orthodox nineteen years, at the end of October.

The flood season has completely passed.

Whether it is the Huai River or the Yellow River, the last wave of surging floods this year has finally not made any major moves.

Only then did Yu Qian have the opportunity to return to Beijing to report on his work.

As soon as Yu Qian arrived in Beijing, Zhu Qizhen immediately ordered Yu Qian to meet him again.

When Zhu Qizhen saw Yu Qian again, he couldn't help but feel that Yu Qian was old.

At that time, he was in the prime of life, and it was Yu Qian who was in the year of fighting, and now he is nearly sixty years old, his temples are gray, and he has seen his old state between actions.

Although his eyes are still like electricity, he is bright.

At that time, Yu Qian, who was in his thirties and high-spirited, was still much weaker.

No matter how great a hero you are, you can't escape the wear and tear of time.

Zhu Qizhen sat down with Yu Qian and said, "Mr. has worked hard. ”

Yu Qian said: "The old minister does not dare to be, the old minister lives in a gorgeous house, has a servant, eats the court's money, why bother, only pity the people of Jianghuai, every year will encounter floods, food and clothing life to go to the flood, pen and ink can hardly say its hard work." ”

Zhu Qizhen could naturally hear Yu Qian's hidden exhortation.

As Zhu Qizhen's prestige became more and more prestigious, most of the courtiers no longer dared to give direct advice, which was all implicitly expressed.

Zhu Qizhen sighed in his heart: "Yu Qian probably doesn't object to using troops against the tile thorn in his heart, but he probably thinks that the inside is heavy and the outside is light, and he should not send troops outside when there are many disasters in the country." ”

It's just that Zhu Qizhen is also helpless.

Who knows what those years will be going to be smooth and rainy?

Zhu Qizhen could only divert the topic and said: "Mr. is between Jianghuai, which is the blessing of the people of Jianghuai." ”

Yu Qian said: "Otherwise, the minister inspected the water conservancy in Huai'an and Fengyang, relying on His Majesty's wisdom in the sky, the separation of the river and Huai, and the communication between the north and the south through the river, and the difficulties of the people, so that there is today's situation, otherwise the floods between the Jianghuai and Huai rivers in recent years will only be more extensive and the people will only be more miserable." ”

In the past, the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the canal were implicated in each other, forming a very complex water system, which affected each other and affected the whole body.

There's no way to start.

Therefore, Zhu Qizhen would rather spend a lot of effort, even depleting his war reserves, to build a new river of the Yellow River. Because only after the Yellow River is decomposed into this complex water system, the relationship between the Huai River and the canal can be relatively simple, and it is possible to repair it

Otherwise, even if it costs hundreds of millions, it can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

It is important to know that as far as nature itself is concerned, most rivers have the instinct to divert back and forth, and if you think about it, if the rivers are not diverted, how did the alluvial plains downstream of most of the rivers come from?

Confinement of rivers to their channels is in itself contrary to the nature of rivers.

So

With the overdevelopment of the lower reaches of the river, flooding is inevitable.

Even so, compared to the action of nature, the life span of human beings is too short, so the real construction of a solid embankment can support more than 100 years.

However, the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the canals are entangled together, and the rate of sediment accumulation in them is several times that of natural evolution.

Instead of force, it actually distorts natural nature.

Even if it affects a lot of things because of the use of the Yellow River, Zhu Qizhen does not regret it.

Zhu Qizhen said: "This is all the virtue of Mr. Politics. ”

Yu Qian said: "Without Your Majesty, what can the minister do?" Only His Majesty's benevolence is the blessing of the community. It's just that Your Majesty cleaned up the water conservancy in Hebei and rectified the new course of the Yellow River, why don't you get rid of the evil? ”

"Where in the world is the most flooded? Nothing but the Yellow River? Nothing but Fengyang? ”

"Fengyang is the emperor's hometown again, how can Your Majesty sit back and watch your father and fellow villagers suffer from the flood and ignore it?"

"The minister looks at Hongze Lake, it is already a hanging lake on the ground, threatening the ancestral tomb, Your Majesty would rather not think about it?"

Zhu Qizhen was speechless for a while.

Whether it is as an emperor or as an ordinary person, his family's ancestral grave always has to be taken care of, Yu Qian said this, so that Zhu Qizhen really couldn't think of anything to refute.

Yu Qian continued: "The minister knows that the imperial court is nervous now, but as long as His Majesty agrees, the minister will dredge the Huai River and build the Hongze Lake embankment without using the Jingshi. ”

Zhu Qizhen was immediately interested when he heard it.

Now the Huai River enters the sea from the old road of the Yellow River, but this old road is the hanging river on the ground, so the water of the Huai River into the sea is too slow. The best way to do this is to open a channel for the Huai River to enter the sea.

It's just that it's not the same as the Yellow River.

The new road of the Yellow River was rushed out by the Yellow River itself.

He took away the old ways of several large and small rivers, so Yu Qian only needed to build embankments along the river.

However, the Huai River has dug a passage into the sea.

This section of the river is not too long, but the amount of earthwork far exceeds that of the embankment of the Yellow River Xinhe. Not to mention the cost of it. After all, if the Huai River does not flow smoothly into the sea, there will be accidents in the future, and this river must be wide and deep.

The cost is too great.

Plus the problem of Hongze Lake.

Hongze Lake is, the water of the Huai River cannot enter the sea, but flows into Hongze Lake, under the siltation of sediment, Hongze Lake is also a hanging lake on the ground. Higher than the nearby ground.

The ancestral mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty bore the brunt.

The opening of the Huai River into the sea and the establishment of the Hongze Lake embankment are one and the other, and the two are one. One treats the symptoms, the other cures the root cause.

The cost is also significant.

Although Zhu Qizhen's recent strategic focus is on the Northern Expedition, Zhu Qizhen's domestic projects are not unevaluated

There are thousands of miles of causeway in Jingzhou, seawall in Zhejiang, and the Dianchi Lake management plan proposed by Cao Nai, the governor of Yunnan, which said that tens of thousands of hectares of new fields could be opened up for Yunnan.

Wait a minute. It's all things that Zhu Qizhen wants to do but can't.

Zhu Qizhen was very curious about where Yu Qian got so much money.

You must know that Yu Qian, the governor of the river, has great power.

The canals, the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the water transport were all under the control of Qian, but the annual funds received by the river governor were limited. Where did Yu Qian get the money?

Zhu Qizhen asked, "What is Mr. going to do?" ”

Yu Qian said: "The minister is going to do two things, rectify the money customs on the river, and now His Majesty is mostly interested in shipping, plus the bumper grain harvest in Hebei, if it is not for the use of troops in the north, the grain in the north is enough." ”

"As a result, the amount of grain has decreased, and now it is only two million stone a year."

"After the dredging of the Huitong River, ships from the north and south continued to come and go."

However, the state spent hundreds of millions of dollars to govern the canal, and the river passes along the way, but they filled their pockets and handed over very little to the imperial court. There are also countless officials and gentry, all of whom are famous and carry goods, and Sven sweeps the floor. The customs can pay millions of taels of taxes for the imperial court every year, and the ministers think that the river customs are in the millions every year. The ministers asked to transfer the seven gates of the canal from the household department to the governor of the river, and the ministers used the tax of the river to control the river. ”

"This is one of them."

"Coastal land, although thin, but not an inch of grass, previously belonged to the salt field, used to harvest reeds, and now the salt field is mostly used for the salt method, no longer need reeds, and because of the Central Plains disaster, the displaced people gradually rise, the minister thinks that when the displaced people are in this tuntian, the field production, included in the river control funds, when the project is completed, it can be divided into counties."

"There are these two, although there are shortcomings, but they are enough to start the construction, please serve the river for a long time, and within ten years, it will be completed. Please remember the suffering of the people of Jianghuai and open the door of grace. ”

Zhu Qizhen listened and sighed in his heart. Yu Qian has been planning this thing for not a day or two, or even a year or two.

It's easy to say, but many of these things can't be understood unless you have personally examined them. For example, the annual income of each pass of the canal is only 100,000 taels.

This is still after Zhou Chen converted the banknote tariff into silver, otherwise all the money he received before would be hard to wipe his buttocks.

From 100,000 taels to 1,000,000 taels, of which there are many transports by sea, it has reached the number of 4 million stones per year. In total, it is now two million more than in the Xuande period.

The canal also has more transportation space, which also greatly increases the commercial atmosphere of the canal.

Zhu Qizhen thought that if the shipping boomed, the canal would decline, but it turned out that Zhu Qizhen thought badly.

Generally speaking, the whole Ming Dynasty has shown a mode of transportation that limits the volume of transportation, although shipping is prosperous, but the overall transportation volume still does not reach the upper limit of north-south exchanges.

It's as if it won't be because of the opening of a high-speed railway, so that the high-speed will not be used.