Chapter 70 Yang Shiqi's Opinions on Water Control

Empress Renxiao is the empress of Emperor Taizong and the daughter of King Zhongshan.

It can be seen that before the army, Emperor Taizong's side was not completely unanimous.

Zhu Qizhen sighed in his heart, but naturally he didn't speak.

After he sent the Empress Dowager back to the palace, he summoned Yang Shiqi alone again.

And today the gas is getting colder.

There is a bit of autumn high and cool, but the rainy season of the orthodox five years has also passed.

This time the summer flood is not much calm, although only the Hutuo River is still broken in the north, and most of the other places are infinitely shocked, but it does not mean that the entire Ming Dynasty is safe and sound.

There was a flood in the Qiantang River in the south of the Yangtze River, but fortunately, whether it was the Hangzhou prefect Guo Zhong or Zhou Chen, they were all first-class capable officials. This matter was handled very well.

The scope of the impact is not large.

Zhu Qizhen only exempted the local money and grain, and did not need to transfer food from other places for emergency relief.

With Li Shimian taking Wang Ying, a thousand households of Jinyi Wei, to travel between Nanjing and Tianjin, the food dilemma in Beijing of the Ming Dynasty has gradually been lifted, and the north is about to have a bumper harvest.

Of course, this year's harvest will not be too good.

But after the autumn harvest, a large number of farmers have time.

The idea that Zhu Qizhen was preparing to build a large-scale water conservancy came to mind. It's just that this time Zhu Qizhen learned to be obedient, and before making a decision, he was ready to ventilate with Yang Shiqi in advance.

Yang Shiqi also knows this.

Zhu Qizhen and Yang Shiqi talked a few words about the floods in the south of the Yangtze River, and they got straight to the point.

Zhu Qizhen said: "After Hongxuan, the water and drought in the world were uneven, and the drought and locusts were combined, and Zhili was especially important. What do you think of what I said before? ”

Yang Shiqi pondered for a while, seemed to be brewing words, and said slowly: "Your Majesty loves the people, and the people of the world have thanked you, but the court disaster has just passed, the treasury is empty, and even though a lot of grain is shipped by sea, the grain reserves still do not meet last year's standards." Now is not the time for a major construction project. ”

"Your Majesty is the Lord of the world, and you should regard the world as one. Although Zhili is the land of Jinggi in the Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan is also the fundamental place of the imperial court. This is also the second. ”

With these two ends, the minister thinks that he should think about it in the long run, so that everything can be perfect. The water conservancy project reported by Zhili has been verified by the Ministry of Industry, and every winter and spring is repaired one or two, and His Majesty is rich in spring and autumn. Why rush. ”

When Zhu Qizhen heard this, he was very dissatisfied.

But thinking of the Empress Dowager's advice, the anger in his heart was suppressed little by little. After thinking about it carefully, I have to admit one thing, that is, Yang Shiqi's method may be bad in one way or another.

But overall, it's very safe.

Stability is more important than anything else when it comes to controlling the world.

But Zhu Qizhen also clearly felt the flaws. That's slow, and you can't plan it as a whole.

If the entire Haihe River Basin is regarded as a whole, this time the overall governance, Yu Qian can consider more aspects. However, if restrictions are made, then these water controls will only exist in terms of repair.

It's not that the repair is bad.

But Zhu Qizhen flipped through a lot of documents and understood one thing a long time ago, that is, the problem of Hebei's water system has long reached the point where it is impossible to do anything about it.

Zhu Qizhen thought about a lot of ideas for a while, and finally decided to put it off.

Anyway, there is still some time before the autumn harvest, and after the autumn harvest, it is not too late to talk about this matter.

Zhu Qizhen said: "What Mr. said is extremely true, this matter, when I summon Yu Qian and others into Beijing, it is not too late to discuss it, but there is one thing, I want to ask Shoufu's opinion." ”

Yang Shiqi listened and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. With the victory of Luchuan, the return of the class teacher to the dynasty is imminent, and this time Zhu Qizhen let Yu Qian relieve the disaster and let Li Shimian transport grain.

Yang Shiqi clearly felt that Zhu Qizhen's prestige in the court had risen sharply, and Zhu Qizhen's self-confidence was also increasing day by day.

Under such circumstances, Zhu Qizhen really wanted to do something. Yang Shiqi may not be able to stop it.

This was determined by the political system of the Ming Dynasty.

At least now, no one can stop the Ming Emperor from exercising his authority. Including Yang Shiqi. Yang Shiqi saw that Zhu Qizhen was willing to back down, so he naturally didn't want to be hard up, and said: "Your Majesty just asks, the old minister knows everything, and he has no end to it." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "I have checked the documents in various places, and I found that it seems to be too good, and the trees in Yanshan have been cut down, but I don't know if this is the case? ”

Yang Shiqi listened and didn't speak for a while. He was silent for a while, and said: "What Your Majesty said, there should be nothing wrong, there may be trees in the depths of Taihang Mountain, but the mountains in the neighboring counties are all bald, as for Yanshan, even more so, Emperor Taizong saw that there were no trees in the mountains, and he had specially issued a ban, Yanshan was close to the Great Wall, and all trees were planted as barriers, and the people were forbidden to cut down, but it was only inside and outside the Great Wall. It's not just a few miles away. In the rest of the place, the rest of the trees are large beams and small are firewood. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Mr. has also seen the demonstration of the year, the reason why the flash flood in Zhili is very urgent, is because the mountains have no trees, there is no ability to reserve water sources, a heavy rain, the water in various places immediately converges in the river, as for the skyrocketing a few zhang a day, as for the uncontrollable." ”

"That's why I want to call on the people to plant trees. What does the gentleman think? ”

Yang Shiqi said: "Your Majesty's heart is good, but I'm afraid this matter will not work." ”

"Imperial court

It is not that the people have been called on to plant trees, but the amount of wood used by the people daily is huge, even if they plant more, they will be cut down one by one, and it will take at least a few years for a tree to grow into firewood, but it takes a day to cut it down. ”

"And it's even more difficult to plant trees in the mountains."

"Trees live on water, and wherever there is a water source in the mountains, it is occupied by the mountain people. It is not easy to reclaim the fields in the mountains, and it is absolutely impossible for them to give up such trees. ”

In fact, Yang Shiqi didn't know whether what Zhu Qizhen said was right or not.

For Zhu Qizhen, planting trees to maintain water and soil is common sense, but Yang Shiqi doesn't know whether what Zhu Qizhen said is right or not. He just avoided the important and made the difficulties clear.

However, on the whole, Yang Shiqi did not oppose this policy, after all, it was an axe to enter the mountains and forests at the right time, which was still the meaning of Mencius.

Zhu Qizhen also knew that this was impossible.

Because the amount of wood used in ancient times was too large, even if we don't talk about firewood, just talk about the wood used in furniture construction. It's an astronomical amount.

How is it possible, in a word, just plant trees to maintain water and soil.

In fact, nature has its own ability to recover, but it is clear that the resilience of the northern forest has been suppressed by humans.

The continuous floods, droughts and locust plagues are actually nature's reward to mankind.

Naturally, good will be rewarded, and evil will be rewarded.

After all, Zhu Qizhen has been an emperor for a few years, he is not so naïve, and even what he said just now has a little bit of knowingly asking. He continued: "I know that this matter is difficult, but even if it is difficult, I must do it, because only in this way can we solve the problem of flooding and drought in the north once and for all. ”

"Your Majesty is wise." Yang Shiqi sang in his mouth, what did he think in his heart, anyway, Zhu Qizhen couldn't see through it.

Zhu Qizhen came at his own pace and said, "Shoufu, do you know that I have banned firewood in the Jingshi?" ”

When Yang Shiqi heard it, he immediately remembered, isn't it just Mentougou? The red light flashed in Yang Shiqi's heart. Said secretly: "Does Your Majesty want to replace firewood with coal?" This is absolutely unacceptable. ”

Firewood has no cost, coal costs money, and for the people, how to choose is simply a matter of self-evidentness.

Therefore, the matter of replacing firewood with coal, if it is used in Beijing, it is okay, after all, the population of Beijing is concentrated, and the firewood is not enough, and even people are used to sell firewood from Tongzhou to Beijing.

Therefore, it is feasible to replace firewood with coal, but in addition to Beijing, where is there a big city in the north that can compare with Beijing?

Even Kaifeng may not be able to compare with Beijing.

So what works in Beijing may not work elsewhere.

Zhu Qizhen was as Yang Shiqi said, and said: "I want to replace firewood with coal, so that the people of the world can cut down an inch less wood, and there will be less floods." ”