Chapter 149: The Great Work of the Yellow River

Yu Qian started from Qiantang and headed north. For a time, the chief engineer who presided over the Yellow River was still absent.

But the whole north was moved by the construction of the Yellow River.

Fortunately, Naoli is fine, but it is only the Daimyo Ichigyofu that suffers. The disaster relief in Shandong and Henan has cost half of the household's life.

This is also the reason why Zhou Chen wants the first money for repairing the river and wants to pay it out of the inner treasury, because the disaster relief money is not a small amount. The guards in Henan and Shandong were also mobilized.

Before Yu Qian arrived, he had already seen officials from all sides gathered.

Yu Qian did not go to Beijing at all, but first arrived at the breach of Baliu Village on the Yellow River.

Wang Yonghe, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Zhao Xin, the governor of Henan, and Zhang Ji, the governor of Shandong, have a large number of prefects behind them, and even dozens of officials of all sizes in the county.

Yu Qian is no stranger to this.

Yu Qian served as the governor of Henan, and his familiarity with the Yellow River was no worse than Zhao Xin.

The water of the Yellow River turned into two streams in front of Yu Qian, one to the north, occupying seven or eight tenths of the water flow, rolling to the northeast. In other tributaries, however, it continues to flow eastward in the old river. The water flow is very scarce, if you look at it in the Yellow River channel more than ten miles wide, it seems to be dry, and even in many places, the people on both sides of the river can wade.

Yu Qian looked at the break under his feet and said to Zhao Xin: "Haven't you tried to gag it?" ”

Zhao Xin said: "Lord Bing, I have tried, but it doesn't work at all, no matter how much you cast, you will be pushed away." Now the plan can only be to plug the gap in winter. ”

Yu Qian said: "How many people in Weihui were affected? ”

Zhao Xin said: "Almost everyone in Weihui has been affected by the disaster, and 200,000 relief grains have been allocated, but it can't last long. ”

Yu Qian said: "What is the situation in Shandong? ”

Zhang Ji looked at Zhao Xin and sneered, and said: "Shandong is a hundred times larger than Henan, half of Shandong has become a Zeguo, and the floating corpses are hundreds of miles, all of which are given by Lord Zhao." ”

Shandong Governor Zhang Ji is also an old minister. At the moment, he couldn't hold back his anger.

For him, it was a disaster. Almost overnight, the flood rushed straight to the city of Jinan, if it weren't for the high pool of Jinan City, it couldn't be said, Jinan would have ended up with Zhang Qiu.

Not to mention, Zhao Xin brought trouble to Shandong. It is likely that his career will be ruined because of the disaster relief, and the flood alone will threaten his life.

Zhang Ji will not give Zhao Xin a good face.

Yu Qian said: "How many people are there? ”

Zhang Ji said: "For a while, the food was not clear, but now Dongchang, Jinan, and Yanzhou are full of displaced people, old and weak women and children, ragged, begging along the streets, and there are many new ghosts in the mass graves outside the city every day

, and the list goes on. ”

"The Shandong treasury has been used, I'm really afraid it's ------"

Zhang Ji was speechless for a while.

Yu Qian also understood Zhang Ji's words, in fact, sometimes there is a disaster of fire and water, and killing people is only a moment, if he dies at that time, there will not be much to do.

The real suffering was the people who did not die at that time.

If you think about it, you will know that the Yellow River rolls over the land of Shandong, and I don't know how many fertile fields have been washed into rivers, not to mention that the Yellow River has too much sediment. Just rushing over it leaves behind a foot of mud and sand that hides the ground.

It became a sandy land that could not be planted.

This is how the desert of Lankao, Henan Province, came about.

Therefore, there is no need to think about the achievements of half of Shandong Province this year.

The people had nothing to eat, so they fled and begged.

Within a few days, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, not to mention the threat to the Ming regime, and there were countless and indescribable evils alone.

Yu Qian has been in the place for a long time, how can he not understand this.

Although the Yellow River is in serious trouble, the most hidden danger is the danger of people's hearts.

Therefore, the breach of the Yellow River can be postponed, but the breach of the people's hearts must be blocked as soon as possible, and the hearts of the people who are not restrained are not much different from the beasts.

Yu Qian said: "I can promise on behalf of Zhili Province to transfer 300,000 taels of silver first, but Shandong, how many taels of silver there is with the Henan treasury, you have to report a number." ”

Zhao Xin said: "In the treasury, there are one million taels, but half of them are for river repairs, and the rest have also been classified as river repairs. ”

Yu Qian said: "I know what you mean, this matter is dug up, and immediately mobilize the treasury and silver taels from all over the country, open a warehouse for relief, and return the people to their original hometown." ”

"I'm going to work for relief."

After Yu Qian arrived, he had a detailed discussion with Ruan An for the first time.

Naturally, he also knew that Zhu Qizhen had made up his mind to divert the Yellow River.

Yu Qian has also carefully investigated, and it can be seen from the direction of the water flow that once the mouth breaks here, the flow below the Yellow River is almost cut off. It is clear that the advantages and disadvantages of the new river channel versus the old river channel are clearly illustrated.

Once the new river channel is fixed, there will be no more trouble with breaking the gap for decades.

It's just that the people are waiting to be fed, and the biggest problem now is not to make amends, but to let the people live.

At this point, there are some problems with the decision-making of the imperial court.

The first wave of river repairs in the imperial court has come down.

Yu Qian is naturally not afraid of temporarily moving money and food for disaster relief. After all, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there have been too many magistrates, in an emergency, without orders from their superiors, to open warehouses and release grain.

In this case, it is generally regarded as an act of subordination. Depending on the situation, the consequences are different, and different treatments are made.

The most serious is nothing more than dismissal. Under normal circumstances, not only will it not be pursued

, and will be rewarded.

It's just that sometimes, it's better to do less of this kind of move. Yu Qian chose to wait for relief with work, which is a compromise method, so it is not a misappropriation of river repair funds.

Of course, this is another reason.

Yu Qian has done such a thing, although waiting for relief with work will make the river repair money have a big increase, but on the whole, it is just a disaster relief fund spread into the river repair fund.

In terms of the total amount, I'm afraid it will have to be compressed a little.

Seeing that Yu Qian had already decided, the officials immediately said, "The lower officials obey the order." ”

Yu Qian did not give in, just on the embankment, apportioned the affected places, and let the lower prefectures and provinces be able to report the money.

Yu Qian made an average and asked Henan to give Shandong 500,000 taels of silver, after all, Shandong was in the worst situation. Let officials at all levels go back immediately and open warehouses to release grain. Prepare to start repairing the river.

After sending these people away.

Yu Qian left Wang Yonghe, Ruan An and others behind, just to discuss how to govern the river. Yu Qian said: "Mr. Ruan, come a few days earlier than me, do you have a strategy?" ”

Ruan An said: "Your Excellency, the lower officials have already explored, and the water has not come down from the upper reaches in the past few days, the water level of the Yellow River has retracted somewhat, and the course of the Yellow River has basically been fixed. ”

"Therefore, it is not difficult to build the Yellow River embankment, but it is necessary to repair the outer embankment first, to fix the Yellow River's channel, and it is not too late to build the inner embankment slowly in the dry season. There's nothing hard about it. ”

The method of restraining water and attacking sand is to build three river embankments, and the outermost embankment is the least solid, just the ordinary rammed earth embankment.

There is no technical content, but what really has technical content is the inner embankment.

The key point of water and sand attack is to change the width of the river, artificially make the river turbulent, and wash the river with water power. Therefore, it is impossible for the innermost inner embankment to make the Yellow River as wide as it is now, so it is difficult to start construction until the Yellow River dries up.

"It's just -----," Ruan An said.

Yu Qian said: "What's the problem? ”

"The old course of the Yellow River has almost dried up, and the canal has been used for hundreds of miles to rely on the Yellow River, and now it has been cut off," Ruan An said. I would like to ask the Governor to ponder this. ”

Yu Qian listened. Frowning slightly.

Yu Qian, the governor of the river, has authority not only over the Yellow River, but also over the canal. He thought that the problem with the canal was Zhang Qiu, but now he found that it might not be.

Zhang Qiu's question is not difficult to end.

The two waterways intersect, and there can be more sluices, which can always be passed. For the canal, the problem of too much water is easy to solve, the problem is the lack of water, hundreds of miles of the Yellow River is facing a dry situation, and the boats on the canal can only cross this section of the river?

Is it difficult to fly over?

That's the big problem.

Yu Qian said: "Let's let it go first." Disaster relief is important. ”