What Li Nan said was very reasonable, and all the ministers agreed with it, so the plan to replace the locomotive of the train across the country was temporarily postponed.

The transportation department that Zong Ze is now in charge of actually has jurisdiction over many things, not only the construction and transportation of roads in various parts of the empire, but also other infrastructure construction, and the more important thing is water conservancy.

The Yangtze River and the Yellow River are both rivers that have nurtured the Chinese people, among which the Yangtze River is okay, which is considered to be worry-free, but the Yellow River is different.

The flooding of the Yellow River has always been a very difficult problem for the Northern Song government. Since the Han Dynasty, after several relatively large floods and diversions, the Yellow River has been treated, and in the next nearly 800 years, there has been a relatively mild situation.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, according to incomplete statistics, the Yellow River and its tributaries overflowed 154 times, with an average of about 0.92 times per year. The main trunk of the Yellow River alone has been flooded and even diverted nearly 80 times over a long period of time, affecting many areas in the Huai River and the Yuhe River basin, and exerting a major impact on the economy, politics, military and other aspects of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Now that the empire has accepted all the territory of the Song Kingdom, it is natural that the Yellow River, which frequently causes disasters, will continue to govern this great river.

Before the Song Dynasty, due to the low level of productivity, science and technology were not yet developed, and the ability of human beings to conquer and transform nature was not strong enough, and the damage caused by human beings to the natural world was not enough for nature to retaliate against human beings in a relatively short cycle.

And when the Han Dynasty enjoyed 800 years of peace, this uncontrolled destructive exploitation of nature accumulated to a certain extent, and when the capacity of nature reached its limit, it would retaliate against human beings in the form of disasters, and the Northern Song Dynasty was at this stage.

Therefore, in a sense, the Song Dynasty was somewhat unlucky enough to bear the consequences of the evil planted by its predecessors and ancestors.

From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and then to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the impact of the warlord secession struggle has brought about two consequences. First, it has led to the destruction of vegetation and ecological environment in the area around the Yellow River, causing frequent disasters. Second, it also conceals the damage caused by nature to a certain extent, and natural disasters are very likely to be written off by historians under the guidance of the principle of "studying the changes of the past and the present". Even if it is recorded, it has long been consumed by the relentless flames of war.

Zong Ze was an old minister of the Song State, so in order to control the flooding of the Yellow River, he mobilized a large number of well-preserved relevant materials from the Ministry of Industry of the former Song State.

After the research of Zong Ze and other officials of the Ministry of Communications, it was found that the current flooding of the Yellow River mainly has several aspects.

First of all, the Yellow River basin has a wide affected area, and the number of floods is frequent, and it covers almost all areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in Henan and Shandong, the Haihe River basin in the middle of Hebei in the north, and Jiangsu and Anhui in the Huaihe River basin in the south.

The second is the frequent diversion and diversion of the Yellow River, and in the Northern Song Dynasty alone, the Yellow River caused seven overflows caused by diversions.

For example, the most serious diversion of the Yellow River in the 10 years of the Song Dynasty caused a total of 380,000 households to be displaced, 300,000 hectares of fertile land were submerged, and 45 prefectures and counties were affected.

Another point is that the affected areas are concentrated, especially in Hebei. The reason for this is also because the Hebei Road bordered the Liao State at that time, and neither country cared about this area, and the lower reaches of the Yellow River also became a barrier for the Northern Song Dynasty government to take passive defense against Liao.

Zong Ze introduced so much to Li Nan and others, first, to let everyone know that the Yellow River flooding is very serious, and second, to hope that the emperor and his ministers would pay attention to this matter, mobilize a large amount of funds, manpower and material resources as soon as possible, and increase efforts to control the Yellow River.

Li Nan recalled how to manage the Yellow River in later generations, but unfortunately most people don't know much about this aspect, so they thought about it for a while, and there were no good ideas.

The current financial situation of the empire is not very good, and it is estimated that it will take three to five years to recover, and the domestic taxes are not only to support the military funds of the major armies, but also to Tibet, as well as the construction of schools and roads in the country.

Seeing that His Majesty the Emperor was worried about money, Karina, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, suggested: "Now that the taxes of the people of the empire are too low, the minister thinks that they can be raised slightly." ”

"No way!" Regarding the adjustment of taxes, Li Nan immediately expressed his opposition.

The empire has not been established for many years, and now there are still wars abroad, and the people at home come from all countries and races, and it has not been stable and happy for long, and it has not yet reached the level of adjusting taxes.

"The construction of schools cannot be stopped, and the construction of roads in Tibet cannot be slowed down."

Li Nan hesitated for a moment, and said to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Karina and the Home Secretary Tyrion: "You draw up a charter, let's issue a batch of treasury bonds, and first make up the money for the control of the Yellow River." ”

"National debt?" Hearing the new term spoken by the emperor, many of the courtiers present showed puzzled expressions.

"Hmm." Li Nan knew that everyone did not know the meaning of national bonds, so he explained: "National bonds are also known as national bonds. This is based on the credit of the empire, and the main purpose is to raise funds from the people through the sale of government bonds, and interest will be paid at a certain period of time and the principal will be repaid at maturity. ”

The ministers digested the treasury bonds that Li Nan said, and when they understood, the Minister of Commerce and Energy, Ashur, couldn't help but say: "The issuance of treasury bonds by the empire, will this make the people have any bad thoughts?" ”

"It doesn't matter, the treasury bonds we issued are set for five years, and they are called the Yellow River treasury bonds. At the same time, I asked the newspapers to explain the use of the money and tell the people that the bonds were voluntarily purchased, and I believe that the people who have spare money will like this kind of stable investment. ”

Although there are still many courtiers who feel that the issuance of bonds in the name of the state still has some bad impact on the prestige of the empire, since Li Nan has made up his mind, it is inconvenient for everyone to say anything.

After the sale of the treasury bonds, the money for the control of the Yellow River also came out, and Li Nan instructed Zong Ze: "You can no longer govern the Yellow River like the previous dynasties and generations, simply block it, but also consider other means of governance."

For example, grass and trees should be planted along the banks of the Yellow River, and farmland should be returned to forests and pastures, so that the soil and rocks will not go downhill and the clear water will flow for a long time; Secondly, it is necessary to build terraces and dam silt to reduce sediment entering the river. ”

After pondering for a long time, Li Nan finally added: "In the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, some reservoirs should also be built, so that the reservoirs can not only be used to store water, use hydraulic power, but also control sand and flood control, and regulate the runoff of the Yellow River, while the downstream can only strengthen the embankment to ensure that the embankment is foolproof." ”

If Zong Ze was only grateful to Li Nan for his kindness before, then now when he heard these words, he really felt that His Majesty the Emperor was really a genius, and he could even put forward so many far-sighted good methods in terms of water power.