The yellow water is surging and boundless.

At this time, Emperor Hongxing of the Ming Dynasty was on a long embankment made of stones, looking at the boundless yellow water, at a loss.

Zhu Cihong also has times when he is at a loss!

Because he knew that he had met a real strong enemy this time, a strong enemy that Zhu Cihong would never be able to defeat in his life!

This strong enemy is the surging yellow water in front of Emperor Zhu's eyes!

This is the water of the Yellow River that goes south through Xuzhou and seizes Si and Huai!

The Yellow River seized the Huai into the sea is not a year or two, this first happened when the two Song Dynasty intersected, because the Song Dynasty's Tokyo left Si Du Chong in order to prevent the Jin soldiers from going south, in the west of Li Gudu in Huaxian County, artificially burst the embankment, so that the Yellow River flows through Li Gudu east through the south of Huaxian County, Puyang, Dongming, and then flows into Surabaya through Juye, Jiaxiang and Jinxiang in southwest Lu, and flows into Huai from Surabaya. It's been hundreds of years!

If the Yellow River only brings water, it will not be a big problem, at most it will cause the river channel in the lower reaches of the Huai River to widen into the sea, which will be conducive to the economic development around the mouth of the Huai River. But the reason why the Yellow River is yellow and turbid is that it is mixed with a huge amount of sediment. The sediment will settle on the riverbed of the river channel with relatively gentle flow, and over time, the river will gradually rise, forming a hanging river, and in serious cases, it will even cause the river to be silted up and diverted.

Now it has been hundreds of years since the Yellow River seized Si and Huai, and how much sediment it has brought over the past few hundred years is probably already an astronomical amount. Therefore, in the early years, the Whirlpool River and the Yinghe River, which jointly served as the southern waterway of the Yellow River, have been silted up, leaving only one river in Surabaya. And the mouth of the Yellow River into Huai, only the Qingkou near the city of Huai'an is left.

The Yellow River, the Huai River, the canal, and the three rivers are in the Qingkouhui River, and the water flow is large, which can be imagined.

And the river channel that enters the sea from Qingkou to the east has gradually risen and almost disappeared because of hundreds of years of siltation!

Therefore, a large amount of water from the Yellow River and the Huai River had to flow into the Yangtze River through the canal. In order to ensure the safety of the canal, in the 32nd year of Wanli, the Ming court had to spend a lot of money to build a new river parallel to the old canal (Hanzhuang Canal). However, there is still no way to divert the huge water flow into the sea and river in time during the annual wet season.

Therefore, Hongze Lake near Xuyi has become a "reservoir" for storing the water of the Yellow River and the Huai River (Hongze Lake was originally formed after the Yellow River seized Huai in the Song Dynasty), and after the siltation of the bottom of Hongze Lake in a large amount of sediment, the water level of Hongze Lake has also been rising day by day, and it has been flooding year after year.

As a last resort, the Ming court could only build a levee around Hongze Lake. The stone embankment where Zhu Cihong is now located is the Gaojiayan Wanzhang Causeway located in the east of Hongze Lake!

This is a dam of more than 10,000 zhang (more than 30 kilometers), more than 1 zhang high (about 4 meters), and is made of rammed earth and stone. After the completion of this dam, the flooding of Huai'an and Yangzhou provinces east of Hongze Lake has been slightly reduced. However, the west bank of Hongze Lake suffered again, so much so that it threatened the safety of the ancestral tomb of Sizhou.

In order to strengthen the flood in Sizhou, Pan Jitao, a famous minister who presided over the construction of the Gaojiayan project, built a 40-mile-long Quy Nhon embankment in the lower reaches of Suishui, forced Sui into the Huang (Surabaya), and intercepted the Baoling Tomb.

"This levee is very well repaired! How much did it cost? ”

Looking at the boundless yellow water, Zhu Cihong sighed and asked about the silver again.

"Pan Yinchuan presided over the construction of more than 60 miles of Gaojiayan at that time, more than 40 miles of Guiren embankment, 130 miles of plugging breaches, and more than 56,000 zhang of remote embankments on both sides of Xu, Huai, Pi, Su, Tao, and Qing Dynasties, and one dam of Dang and Feng, the project was huge, and the cost of 160,000 yuan was strange."

Answering Zhu Cihong's question was the new governor of the river Fang Gongyue, he had previously been the governor of Ganhu Hubei, and at the beginning of the first year of Hongxing, Zhu Cihong felt that he had plenty of money and was ready to govern the Huai River, so he asked Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu and Zuo Maodi, and the three recommended Fang Gongyue. Fang Gongyue has never governed the river, but the sea pond that has repaired the Songjiang River is also a stone pond, which is more than eight miles long and very strong.

"It only cost 160,000 taels for such a big project?" Zhu Cihong was stunned for a moment, and he didn't explain how greedy the officials of the dynasty were, even if they were not greedy for a penny, such a big project would not be able to do it for 160,000 taels!

"The emperor doesn't know anything," Fang Gongyue explained, "the Huai people have suffered from floods for a long time, and Pan Gong is famous for controlling waters, serving four rivers and being called an honest official." Therefore, the gentry of Huai'an and Yangzhou were willing to donate money and grain, and the peasants were also willing to serve to repair the dam, so they only spent 160,000 yuan, and they were all gold. ”

Zhu Cihong said: "Even so, this silver is still less, this Pan Jitao is an honest and capable minister, and Zhang Wenzhong (Zhang Juzheng) at his top is also the pillar of the country!" Fang Qing, I know that you are also an honest and capable minister, and you are good at building embankments, so the Huai River will be handed over to you...... However, I am richer than the temple master, and I can spend as much as I want, not only on major repairs, but also on minor repairs. If there is a place to break the dam, try to block it in time as much as possible! If it can't be blocked, it is also necessary to protect Huai and grain, and there is no need to consider the canal and the Sizhou Imperial Mausoleum. ”

Emperor Zhu paused, "The canal north of the Huai River is useless, and the Imperial Mausoleum of Sizhou will be moved to Fengyang as soon as possible." ”

Fang Gongyue nodded and said, "The old minister understands that the people take food as the sky, and now there is a shortage of food in the southeast, the price of rice is high, and it is difficult for the small people to make a living......"

Zhu Cihong also sighed: "So Huai Liang can't be lost!" ”

"Baoling Baocao" is a principle of the Ming Dynasty's governance of Huanghuai, that is, to keep the safety of the Sizhou Imperial Mausoleum and the Grand Canal as much as possible. And Baocao is on top of Baoling, because after Zhu Di moved the capital, more than 4 million stone of grain a year is the lifeblood of Beijing, and it must not be lost.

In order to ensure the transportation of grain, when the Yellow River flooded, the Ming Dynasty water control officials had to block the east and north directions as much as possible. At the same time, in order to protect the tomb, it is necessary to plug the southwest. As a result, the water of the Yellow River gradually converged into Surabaya, and all of it flowed from Surabaya into Huai.

As a result, the channel of Surabaya becomes very wide, and when the channel is wide, the flow of water is slower during the dry season, and when the speed is slow, the sediment is easy to silt......

So the riverbed in Surabaya is getting higher and higher!

The same problem also appeared at the mouth of the Huai River, and the riverbed at the mouth of the Huai River was getting higher and higher, and the sea mouth was gradually blocked.

In short, the Yellow River and the Huai River are now strong enemies that Zhu Cihong will not be able to fight for the rest of his life.

Zhu Cihong, who knew that no matter how much money he spent, he couldn't defeat the Huai River and the Yellow River, so he left Gaojiayan with a heavy heart, rode the short and fat horse that Wu Sangui paid tribute to, and returned to his line in Huai'an Bochi Mountain.

When the group arrived, they saw the military advisor Li Yan and the commander of the Jinyi Guard, Zhu Chunjie, who greeted him from the Jinghui Temple where Emperor Zhu was stationed.

Zhu Cihong, who was worried about the country and the people, didn't react at once, and asked: "Where does the joy come from?" ”

Zhu Chunjie smiled and took out the piece of music that Empress Wu Sanmei asked him to bring, and handed it over with both hands, "Emperor, Emperor Zheng Guifei gave birth to the emperor's eldest son!" ”

O eldest son of the emperor! Sure enough, it's a happy event! Although he is not a son-in-law, he is also a successor!

But why was this news brought by the commander of the Jinyi Guard?

Zhu Cihong thought so carefully, as soon as he saw Zhu Chunjie, he knew that something else must have happened!

"Strategist, Chunjie, you follow me," Zhu Cihong smiled, "Talk to me well." ”

As he spoke, Zhu Cihong had already gotten off the Humpty Dumpty horse, walked to the imperial study in Jinghui Temple with Li Yan and Zhu Chunjie, entered the imperial study, and saw that there were no outsiders, Zhu Chunjie took out the intercepted imperial edict and handed it to Zhu Cihong.

Zhu Cihong opened Chongzhen's edict and read it, but remained silent.

"Emperor," Zhu Chunjie said, "These days, the minister has also received many handwritten letters from Gao Yushun, all of which are written to the governors and generals in various places to incite rebellion. ”

"Have you caught the courier?" Zhu Cihong asked.

"I've been caught," Zhu Chunjie said, "but they don't know anything...... The person who acts is quite secretive and does not show his feet. ”

Zhu Cihong snorted: "If you don't show your feet, I know who did it!" ”