Chapter 24 Yu Gong Dike

Zhu Qizhen stayed in Tianjin for a day, then traveled west and began to inspect water conservancy along the way.

The planned route is to go west to Baoding from Tianjin, first inspect the Triangle Lake and Baiyangdian, Daqing River, then go to Baoding Fucheng, then go south to inspect Yangcun River, and then turn west to Zhending Mansion, and go south from Zhending Mansion to inspect Hutuo River and Ningjinbo. Continue south to inspect the Zhanghe River. Then go south to the Daimyofu, take a boat from the canal to the north, go out of Zhili Province to Linqing Prefecture in Shandong Province, continue to enter the canal system, and take a boat to Tianjin City.

Zhu Qizhen wants to take a look at it in two months.

Because two months later, it's May.

When the wheat is harvested, it is a little too much to let the place receive his army of more than 10,000 people.

So the time is relatively tight, and Zhu Qizhen didn't think about it carefully, the reason is very simple, he doesn't understand. Of course, there are also people he has already sent to investigate and secretly visit, I don't know how many times, and even Yu Qian has people from Jinyiwei around him.

Yu Qian's every move, Zhu Qizhen can know as long as he wants to know.

Zhu Qizhen's tour is more to express his political attitude.

To the west of Tianjin, it is the triangle lake, here, Zhu Qizhen saw, Yu Qian worked hard to build the embankment, this north-south, 100 miles long stone embankment, the cost is about two million taels. And the governance of the entire triangle lake, Daqing River, and Baiyangdian Lake costs more than 10 million taels.

is the total point above the whole.

Zhu Qizhen ascended the embankment. This levee is not a shore on one side and a lake on the other side of the other levee, but a lake inside and outside this levee. It's just an artificial gap.

Yu Qian personally introduced the role of this embankment to Zhu Qizhen.

Yu Qian said: "Your Majesty, since the minister was ordered to control the water, he has been thinking that the water conservancy in Hebei cannot only discharge floods, but also store water in case of drought. How to choose between the two is what the minister has always been worried about. ”

After thinking about it in every possible way, he decided to make the current plan. First of all, connect the triangle lake and the Wei River, so that the water of the triangle lake directly flows into the Wei River, in order to store water in ordinary seasons, but also in order not to collapse the canal, so the minister needs to limit the amount of water flowing out of the triangle lake, there is a current practice. ”

"This causeway, on the east side of the Triangle Lake, blocks the Triangle Lake. If it is the dry season, the water level is relatively low. Naturally, this embankment cannot be crossed, if the flood season rises, the water level of this embankment, the minister also asked the local elders, when the lake water overflows to this position, it is just when the water of the triangle lake begins to pour back. ”

"So when the time comes, the lake will form a flood."

"And when the lake rises to this point, it doesn't rise too much, so that the downstream doesn't have to suffer flooding, and the upstream can leave enough

Enough water to be used in times of drought. ”

Zhu Qizhen looked at the current water level, and the entire causeway was probably more than a foot above the water surface. On the other side of the levee, there is water in some places, and in other places it has simply dried up.

Zhu Qizhen will understand, and now it is a spring drought. It is also normal to have such conditions.

Yu Qian pointed to the iron gate in front of him and said, "Your Majesty, please see, there are six iron gates on this embankment, which are used for drainage before the rainy season. ”

"Generally speaking, before the heavy rain, all six iron gates must be pulled up. All the water in the lake is released, but the terrain around the triangle lake is very low, and it is impossible to release it all. ”

This is also where Yu Qian is helpless.

The reason why Triangle Lake has become the largest lake in Hebei is precisely because of the topography, if not because of the topography. Even after he opened all six gates, there was still a considerable amount of water left in the triangular lake.

Zhu Qizhen looked at this iron gate. The iron gate is not above the embankment, but has a high platform on the embankment. Or it can't be said to be an iron gate, but a structure of wood and iron, with parallel runners like city gates on both sides, an iron rat and an iron ox on both sides. It should be a counterweight.

Whereas, there are six ploughing oxen on either side of the parallel runner. Zhu Qizhen knew at a glance that this iron gate could only be pulled up slowly by pulling the runner with animal power.

This kind of mechanism is not much different from the jack gate at the city gate.

And Zhu Qizhen heard Yu Qian say that there are six iron gates, and there are two counterweights on both sides of an iron gate, that is, twelve, and the statue of this iron gate is the zodiac.

The 12 zodiac signs in later generations are only the phases, but in this era, the 12 zodiac signs represent the heavenly and terrestrial branches, and they want to use 12 hours a day, 12 months a year, which is to be guarded all the time.

Zhu Qizhen sighed, he felt more and more that Yu Qian seemed to want to transform this triangular lake into a reservoir with the help of natural geography, and he secretly said in his heart: "Fortunately, I can't finish it, otherwise I'm worried about whether this embankment can be supported." ”

You have to know how big the triangle lake is in a radius of 100 miles, because of the seasonal changes in the triangle lake, it is difficult to count, but just think about it, you can know how much water and how much pressure there is, it is simply an astronomical number.

Even though Yu Qian has invested heavily in this embankment, starting from laying the foundation, he will not hesitate to pay any price, you must know that it took 700,000 taels to rebuild the three major halls, and this seemingly ordinary embankment costs nearly three times that of the three major halls.

But Zhu Qizhen didn't think that the construction project in this era could withstand such a large water pressure.

However, even so, Zhu Qizhen still sighed very much about this embankment. It is not in the 21st century that the Chinese have become infrastructure madness.

If you look at the construction projects in history, you know that the Chinese naturally have genes in this area.

Yu Qian continued to introduce his actions in governing the triangle.

When he built the causeway, he had already built a rammed earth embankment, and then dug down more than a zhang, because the water in the lake was shallow, almost a foot or two before the water came out.

This is true even during the dry season.

Yu Qian presided over the drainage while continuing to excavate. In the end, the stone foundation of the causeway was secured, and the west side of the dam was also ensured to be the lowest point in the entire triangle.

However, this is not the largest amount of earthwork in the triangular lake.

He measured the extent of the triangular lake for many years, took a median value, and asked the people to take soil from the triangular lake and build a dam hundreds of miles long.

This embankment is not too strong, it is an ordinary rammed earth dam, but the amount of earth is the largest.

Forcefully raised the surrounding area by more than two feet. Many places in the triangular lake have been dug down more than half a zhang. Yu Qian also ordered the people to plant lotus root in the lake, and then every year during the dry season, the bottom of the lake was dug again, and the soil was piled up outside the rammed earth dam. to strengthen the embankment.

In this way, the triangular lake should not overflow during the flood season.

But this is still what Yu Qian is most worried about, without him, the rivers in the upper reaches of the triangle lake carry a large amount of sediment, I am afraid that it will settle in the triangle lake.

Over time, the lake will be filled in.

But there is no way to do it, and you can only choose the lesser of two evils.

Zhu Qizhen thought about managing water conservancy, but he never thought that Yu Qian could do this thing. Zhu Qizhen secretly said in his heart: "Or in my era, there was no battle of Tumubao and the defense of Beijing, but Mr. Yu can still be famous through the ages, just the governance of the triangle lake in front of him shows this." It's just that Mr. Yu's evaluation is not a famous minister who turned the tide, but a figure who has to be said in the history of water conservancy with Li Bing and other famous ministers who control water. ”

Zhu Qizhen still has a small glimpse of the achievements of the water control project, not to mention anything else, this long causeway, later generations will be called Yugong embankment to maintain the water conservancy project in Hebei for more than 200 years. And it is precisely because of the Yugong embankment, because the triangle lake is no longer impermanent, and the triangle lake, Daqing River, Baiyangdian this point of hundreds of miles, has become one of the important grain producing areas in the north of the Ming Dynasty, and is called the granary of the Son of Heaven.

And Yu Qian's worries are also right. The existence of the triangle lake has also become a place where manpower and the power of heaven and earth are contested, and every spring and winter, almost all the people near the triangle lake are dispatched. Dig the triangle deep

It was only after 200 years that new means were introduced to build dams upstream, and the water in the triangle gradually became insufficient.

The triangle lake slowly declined, and later the triangle lake was only left in the area of the public embankment and was preserved, but there is a name, that is, the West Lake. Compared with Hangzhou West Lake, it is known as the North and South West Lake.