Between the fathers, sons, daughters-in-law and brothers of the Eastern and Western Song Dynasty, they were busy staging ethical dramas of kindness, filial piety and family affection, but the Great Zhou Republic in the north was falling into exhaustion.

That's right, it's exhaustion!

To Zhao Huan and Du Chong, the two war criminals who should be on the gallows!

The Yellow River has flooded again, and it has been diverted again! The Yellow River, which had been seized from the Huai River to the sea in the previous year, branched off again near Liangshanbo, flowing all the way south into Huai and all the way east into Ji.

This is a matter of course, and after each major diversion of the Yellow River, it usually takes many years to finally settle down.

Historically, Du Chong dug the Yellow River in 1128, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have been fluctuating for decades, flowing into Huai in the south, Ji in the east, and diverting from the south to the east. It was not until 1194 that the route to the sea was finalized, and it was not until 1855 that it flowed eastward again. However, during this period, there were also many medium-scale diversions, which could make Shandong, Henan, Anhui, northern Jiangsu and other places miserable.

In the end, it was settled in New China......

After hundreds of years of tossing, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have naturally been completely abandoned, and China's economic center has left the Central Plains, where it used to be prosperous.

And now, the process has just begun, and perhaps it could be reversed.

“…… This time, it flooded many territories in Puzhou, Yunzhou, Qizhou, Zizhou, and Qingzhou. In particular, the two prefectures of Pu and Yun were particularly severely affected. Many of the military households that were resettled there last year were also affected! ”

In a large meeting room of the Tianjin Municipal Senate, Zuo Xiangzhang Zhifeng was in front of a large map platform to brief the members of the newly established Senate Water Conservancy Branch on the situation of the Yellow River flooding again this summer.

Wu Haogu was also in the chamber. He was not a member of the Water Council, but was in charge of the military and diplomatic branches of the Senate, which were established primarily to facilitate the study of practical matters by the Senate. However, there is no clear distinction between the various "branches", and "door-to-door" is also allowed, because there are many important issues that cannot be dealt with by one "branch" alone.

For example, the problem of the Yellow River and the Huai River!

"Didn't I just fix it last year, why did it flood again this year?" Huang Shilang of the Water Conservancy Branch raised questions.

Huang Shilang is an expert in engineering construction and knows a little about water conservancy, so he is in charge of the affairs of the two branches of water conservancy and construction.

"Last year, the focus of Hegong was to protect Xuzhou." Mu Gongyang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, replied, "The focus is on the construction of the Liguo Dam, the flood discharge area of Surabaya Lake, and the dredging of the river channel from Surabaya to Huai. Unexpectedly, this year, the Yellow River diverged eastward......"

The Yellow River has now lost control of its original course and is flowing turbulently!

"Actually, it's not bad to separate the east!" It was Su Yan who spoke out, who is now the head of the Ministry of Works in Wu Yijiu's cabinet, "If the Yellow River can be divided into two streams, east and south, the pressure on the downstream can be greatly reduced, and it is not easy to form a large flood." ”

"Can it maintain a two-rate rate?" Su Dalang, a veteran in charge of the finance branch, asked, "The Yellow River is not willing to flow eastward...... The riverbed that flows east is too high, right? ”

The Yellow River originally flowed eastward, but in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a trend of diverting the north-south flow!

Because of the fear that the northern flow of the Yellow River would make the Liao people go down the river (in fact, the Liao people are countercurrent), the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty tossed out the "Three Easy Return to the River", and artificially wanted to divert the Yellow River! As a result, there was a big disaster, and Su Dalang knew about these things, so he was very worried.

"If you count Du Chong this time, the Yellow River is the four changes! What a sin! Su Dalang shook his head again and again.

"What do the river workers say?" Wu Haogu asked at this time.

He didn't know how the Yellow River flowed in history, but he knew that the current terrain in northern Jiangsu was very wrong...... That's a lot less!

Considering that northern Jiangsu is an impact plain, the missing land must have come from the siltation of the Huai River.

But how can there be so much sediment in the Huai River? Think about it, you can only rely on the water of the Yellow River.

In other words, the Yellow River's seizure of Huai Huai is a general trend. This general trend cannot be changed artificially!

This is because the Yellow River is diverted because of the siltation of the lower reaches, which raises the riverbed. It is a natural law for water to flow downward, how do you change it? The Yellow River will choose to flow south, it must be because the rivers flowing east and north have been silted up and raised severely, and only the south flow is relatively cool. Later, the south-flowing channel gradually silted up, while the middle channel gradually elevated, and the eastward flow was relatively smooth.

In short, this can only be done in the same way......

"People on the river workers think that the southward flow is the way to go," replied Su Yan, a waiter at the Ministry of Works, "but the flood distribution area of Liangshanbo and the river that flows east into Ji must also be preserved." In order to avoid excessive water flow in the south and cause the flooding of the Huai River. ”

He paused, "The people of the River Engineering Bureau believe that in order to prevent a major flood in the Huai River, it is necessary to unify the flood discharge of the Yellow River and the Huai River, and cannot fight separately. If there is more precipitation in the upper reaches of the Huai River, it is necessary to activate the Liangshanbo flood discharge and Jishui flood. ”

Not to mention, the water conservancy experts from the new-style universities are more capable than the group of self-taught water conservancy experts in the Northern Song Dynasty! I know that we want to govern the whole basin, and we can't treat the head with a headache and a sore foot!

Moreover, they knew that they needed to set up flood discharge zones and flood distribution channels, as did self-taught Confucian water experts, but to set up flood discharge areas and flood distribution channels, which would take up large tracts of fertile land...... This matter is nothing to the Great Zhou, but it is troublesome to the Great Song Dynasty, which is ruled by scholars.

Land acquisition is a problem, but flood discharge areas and flood distribution channels are reclaimed again...... On the contrary, in the Great Zhou, Western Song Dynasty, and Eastern Song Dynasty, it seemed that there were only big things, and none of them could do it well at that time in the Great Song Dynasty.

"Can we build a big sluice?" Wu Haogu asked.

Ordinary wooden and stone sluices can be built in ancient China. However, it is a bit difficult to test this kind of sluice to block and control the turbulent Yellow River water.

"The people of the Water Conservancy Bureau are trying to build a plate gate with iron bars and marl." Su Yan said, "A sluice gate weighs tens of thousands of catties, and it can only be pulled by iron chains, winches and strong oxen. Combined with the sluice dam made of iron bars, marl and masonry, it is enough to withstand the water of the Yellow River. ”

The so-called iron reinforcement marl building plate is the reinforced concrete version! In the Middle Ages, it was like black technology, and of course, the price went without saying, it must be expensive.

The plaster of the plate is of the highest grade, and the ground iron slag must be added!

Iron bars are a great thing, forged from wrought iron in crucibles.

Such a reinforced concrete gate is naturally reliable, and it may last for hundreds of years.

In addition to the sluice gates to be made of reinforced concrete, the key flood gates must also be repaired with large blocks of masonry cement, so as to ensure that they will not be washed away by water.

However, the rest of the embankments can only be made of rammed earth. Even so, the amount of work is unimaginably large.

And the most troublesome thing is not the amount of work, but the fact that the river course in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River is not fixed. There will be a situation of building and destroying at the same time - because the Great Zhou Republic has no way to complete the construction of thousands of miles of embankments in the shallow water period of three quarters.

So when the Yellow River floods in the second year, for example, there will be a breach of the embankment that has not had time to be repaired! It will even affect some of the embankments that have already been completed.

"Is the budget ready?" Su Dalang asked about money.

Zhang Zhifeng shook his head, "The total budget is not easy to do...... Who knows how many river workers need to be reworked? So now I can only do the budget from the autumn of the 11th year of the republic to the spring of the 12th year, which requires about 6 million taels of silver.

The ruling government was going to use the rent from the official land as collateral and issue bonds to raise the money. ”

In ancient China, for a long time, money was spent every year to repair the river, and there was nothing once and for all.

Therefore, it is impossible to ask Zhang Zhifeng to come up with a total budget, and he can only come up with an annual budget.

And this river worker is also a conscience account to some extent! If the supervision is not effective, the expenditure will be 6 million taels, and I don't know if 1 million will be spent.

"How many bonds will be issued next year?"

"It is estimated that it will cost 10 million," Zhang Zhifeng said, "and it will cost money to clean up the canal and restore the Liguojian iron mine and several coal mines in Xuzhou."

In addition, there was a cost to relocate the soldiers and knights. ”

Now most of the new knights and new soldiers have received the manor and bonuses, but a group of knights who have just settled down have been flooded, which is a lack of consideration by the ruling government and must be resettled at a cost.

"I want 10 million...... Su Dalang looked pained, and set his eyes on Wu Haogu.

During the nine or ten years of the republic, the financial revenue of the ruling government of the Great Zhou Republic was only about 15 million.

Now the debt bill alone costs 10 million!

That's a bit of a deficit, isn't it?

"10 million is 10 million...... Wu Haogu smiled, "As long as Huang, Huai, and Yun can be managed well, I'm afraid I won't be able to pay back in the future?"

However, we also have to spend the money on the blade, and the management of the Huang, Huai, and Yun is a thousand-year-old plan, and there must be no sloppiness...... A government office in charge of river workers must be set up to facilitate the supervision of the Senate. ”

"That's natural." Zhang Zhifeng assured, "A unified river engineering bureau will be established under the Ministry of Industry, which will be in charge of Huang, Huai, and Yundagong." It is necessary not only to control the Huanghuai, but also to manage the canal and waterway systems of Nanzhi, Henan, Shandong, and Hebei. In fact, the Huang, Huai, and Yun are all part of a water system, and only an overall plan can be effective.

The ruling government, the Ministry of Industry, and the River Engineering Bureau naturally welcome the Senate to review and supervise. ”

The censorship and supervision of the Senate of the Great Zhou Republic is not something to be said casually - Wu Yijiu, the head of state, has an opposition in the Senate!

Wu Yijiu is a so-called republican, and there is also a Su Wang Party in the Senate, which advocates the implementation of royal government. Of course, it is not to choose Wu Yijiu to be the king, but to choose Wu Haogu or Wu Yiyong. In fact, the two parties can also be regarded as the "righteous and courageous faction" and the "righteous and courageous faction".

Now if Wu Yijiu's people take advantage of the river work to make a big profit, the righteous faction will definitely not let them go, so they have to clamp their tails a little tighter.

As for Wu Yiyong, the leader of the Volunteer Faction, he has now returned to Tianjin to report on his work, and Wu Yijiu has prepared a new journey for him.