The south of the Yangtze River is good, and the scenery is old.

The sunrise river flowers are red, and the spring river is as green as blue.

In February of the first year of Wenchang, Yang Yi took his family back to the north, traveling to Huzhou, Suzhou, Taihu, Wuxi and other places along the way; Yang Yi took Qing Niang and them to linger in the long rainy alleys of Suzhou, looking at the oil-paper umbrellas flashing in the ink-splashed landscape paintings.

Or go hand in hand in the antique town, under the eaves of the water, and look closely at the patterns on the thin tire celadon vase.

Or take a boat ride on the ancient arched bridge and watch the smoke rise from across the river.

Or hide under the banana leaves sticking out of the wall of someone's horse's head, and watch the Wufeng boats gliding in the drizzle falling on the river.

The smile in the eyes of Qing Niang lived the early spring of the whole south of the Yangtze River, the pear nest on the cheeks was drunk with red flowers and green willows on both sides of the river, and occasionally the small orders written by the ink and pen were delicate as shy flowers on the ground, graceful as the reflection of the green mountains on the lake.

Qing Niang's poems, piano exercises, and Hunan string dances make Yang Yi feel that he is a paradise on earth wherever he goes.

Wu Shanqing, Yue Shanqing, the green mountains on both sides of the strait greet each other.

A river of smoke and rain.

A trip to sing, a trip to dance, Luo with the spring breeze to form a concentric.

Hand in hand in the middle of the picture.

When he arrived in Yangzhou, Yang Yi followed Liu Qingqi's edict and had to leave his wife and children behind and rush into Beijing alone.

The edict mentions two things, one is about the northwest, with Renduo Baozhong and Wei Ming Awu successively serving as the chief cavalry generals of the Song army, Zhuo Luo and the Southern Army Si Du led the army Qi Ligang to join the Great Song Dynasty, the "Helan thief" continued to grow, and the Liao State was too busy to take care of the Western Xia, and the situation in the Western Xia became more and more chaotic.

The imperial court planned to take this opportunity to attack Liangzhou and further seize the Hexi Corridor.

Another thing is that this year's work of dismantling the Xiang army in Hebei, Hedong, Gyeonggi, and Shaanxi has already begun, and the imperial court intends to recruit 100,000 laborers from the reduced Xiang army to open the curtain on the control of the Yellow River.

Each of these things was very important to the Great Song Dynasty and should not be taken lightly, so Liu Qingjing urgently ordered Yang Yi to return to Beijing.

The curtain of river governance is finally about to be hung up!

Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the feudal towns were seriously divided, the five dynasties were in constant turmoil, and no one paid attention to the governance of the river and the construction of embankments for a long time, which caused the Song Dynasty to repeatedly break the lower reaches of the Yellow River, which brought profound disasters to the people of the Great Song Dynasty, and since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have exceeded 70 times.

In the eighth year of Taizong's Taiping rejuvenation (983), the Yellow River broke through Hancun in Huazhou, and flowed southeast to Xuzhou to enter Huaishui; After that, the Yellow River broke three times in Zhenzong Xianping (1000), Tianxi three years (1019), Tianxi four years, and the river took Huai, of which the break of Tianxi four years lasted seven years, flooded more than 30 counties, and was regarded as the seventh major diversion of the Yellow River in history.

During the Qingli period of Renzong, the Yellow River broke from the merchant woman of Lanzhou (Puyang City, Henan), and the river course flowed northward from the name change, passing through Jizhou to Qianningjun (Qingxian County, Hebei), and entering the sea.

Ten years later, during the reign of Renzong Jiayou, due to the break between Daimyo and Enzhou, a stream of water flowed to Dezhou, Cangzhou and Wudi County into the sea.

Since then, the lower reaches of the Yellow River have been divided into several streams that flow north and east.

In the second year of Xining (1069), Shenzong appointed Wang Anshi as the governor of the government, and the following year he visited the prime minister, opening the historical curtain of reform.

One of the most important of a series of new laws introduced by Wang Anshi is the Farmland Water Conservancy Law.

After he came to power, no matter how opposed Sima Guang, Wen Yanbo and others, he decisively repaired and dredged the Ergu River, dredged the east stream, and blocked the north stream; After completing this matter, he also set up a "Yellow River Dredging Division" in Kaifeng, and sent people to be responsible for dredging the Yellow River for many years to prevent sediment accumulation.

This move was vigorously obstructed and sabotaged by Sima Guang, Wen Yanbo and others, who at that time were officials in the Daimyo's mansion and thought that Wang Anshi's dredging of the Yellow River was "laughed at by the world and thought it was child's play".

And several times on the book said: "Jun Chuan Si Jun River body, the beginning and end of the river bottom, the depth is difficult to understand." ”

That is to say, if you dredge the Yellow River, will the river become deeper, how much sediment has been washed away, and we will not be able to dive to the bottom of the water to check, so it will only make the world laugh, stop.

Some people have more sufficient reasons for opposition, even if it is only the dredging and rectification of local areas, but they are also deeply afraid that the gathering of people to control the river will lead to a major rebellion; Not to mention anything else, Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall, causing the drums of Yuyang to sound; Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty dug the canal, causing the world to rise together; This is all a lesson from the past! So let's do nothing!

It's safe that way.

What's more, it is said that "opening the river (i.e., dredging the Yellow River) is like setting fire, and not opening the river is like a fire", which means that it is the same whether it is governed or not.

It's good, it's powerful! Those who hold this view must not be on the edge of the Yellow River!

If it is governed, it may cause trouble among river workers; If you don't govern, you won't be able to rush to my house anyway; Therefore, it is better not to govern, the sky is going to rain, the mother is going to get married, let it go!

They are afraid of rebellion, they are afraid of rebellion, but there is no opinion of the spectrum, once it is strong, he is the truth, and he can work.

The dredging of the Yellow River was eventually abolished, and the work of harnessing the river came to a standstill.

In the fourth year of Yuanfeng, the Yellow River broke at the mouth of Xiaowu Si in Lanzhou, injected into the Yuhe River in the north, roughly entered the Yongji Canal along the old road of the Wang Mang River, and entered the sea after passing through several prefectures and counties such as the Qinghe River, destroying countless farmlands and causing extremely heavy losses.

At the same time, the eastward flow of water has been greatly reduced, the siltation of the river channel has become more serious, and the Yellow River has generally resumed its northward flow.

During the Yuanyou period, due to the fact that the Shuo, Luo, and Shu parties were busy with internal fighting, coupled with the shrinking of finance and taxation, and the redundant soldiers and redundant personnel, the effectiveness of river control work was even worse, resulting in frequent floods.

Now that the reformists have been in power for several years, they have plowed a piece of the external environment, at least there is no need to worry more about Liaoxia taking the opportunity to attack, and the river control project has been officially put on the agenda.

When Yang Yi returned to Tokyo, it was just in time for a heated discussion on river governance.

On the solemn Jinluan Palace, hundreds of officials gathered to discuss the governance of the river.

As soon as Li Chengzong, the water supervisor of the capital came up, he proposed that all the 200,000 troops laid off this year be requisitioned and transferred to river workers, and that river service should be exempted from money throughout the country.

The so-called 'river service exemption money' has a long history, that is, to collect taxes from the people to govern the Yellow River, this law was basically abolished after Wang Anshi implemented the exemption law, Li Chengzong was anxious to succeed, and wanted to set this bad example.

It doesn't matter what others think of Yang Yi, he absolutely doesn't agree to open this kind of opening again, today he will govern the river and collect free money for river service, and tomorrow he will have to collect war taxes for war, what is this?

Yang Yi said: "The river control project is huge, it is by no means an overnight achievement, and rushing to achieve it will only make people's livelihood wither and cause chaos." Since the first year of Shaosheng's unified taxation, the imperial court has exempted all miscellaneous taxes in addition to regular taxes. ”

Indeed, the unified taxation and the integrated payment of grain by the officials and gentry have already offended the gentry of the whole country, and if miscellaneous taxes are issued again, the ordinary people will also be chilled, and the court will be in danger.

Therefore, after Yang Yi came forward to oppose it, many people expressed their support for Yang Yi's words, and Li Chengzong's proposal was immediately rejected.

However, things soon reached another impasse, that is, the dispute between the "North Stream" and the "East Stream".

Since the Yellow River has flowed north, whether to flow north along the Yellow River or divert it back to the east, the debate between the two has not stopped.

Now it's here again.

For a long time, the governance of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River has been closely related to the political, economic, military, ethnic relations and many other social problems of the Great Song Dynasty, and has produced mutual influences, not simply a problem of river governance.

In the past, due to military considerations, there were a large number of "redundant soldiers" in the imperial court, but in the struggle against the Liao State and the Western Xia, they were in a passive situation for a long time; Naturally, the rulers combined the management of the lower reaches of the Yellow River with the military defense system on the northern border; It is hoped that the Yellow River will be used to strengthen the military defense of the north.

It can be said that the defense of the Liao State has always been one of the important reasons for the scholars of the government and the opposition to consider in the river control project.

Especially after the alliance of the Yuanyuan, the development of the river control project is more closely linked with the formulation of the national policy and military policy of the Great Song Dynasty, which reflects the basic strategy of the Great Song Dynasty to focus on border defense from one side, and on the whole, in the previous special environment, the Great Song Dynasty on the one hand to strengthen the management of the Yellow River, on the other hand, hope to play an important role in the defense of the Yellow River against the Liao State.

It also led to the imperial court's long-term fatigue in dealing with the two fronts of governing the river and the imperial Liao, which was also a helpless situation formed by the situation in the previous objective environment.

Now the court is once again caught up in this kind of controversy, because there are still many people who cannot eliminate the idea of including the Yellow River in the military defense system.

Now that the Liao State is weakened and the Great Song Dynasty has the upper hand militarily, is it necessary to use the Yellow River as a military barrier?

Yang Yi personally thinks: Yes.

Because you have the upper hand for a while, it does not mean that the generation will be strong at all times, except for the Yellow River in the north of the capital, there is no danger to rely on.

Some people may think that "strengthening the country is not at risk of mountains and streams", but should expand outward as much as possible, but Yang Yi believes that it is inevitable for the country to expand outward when it is strong, but the premise is to first make its own foundation secure.

Otherwise, the more you expand outward, the more the defense line is stretched, and once something happens, the capital will be lost in an instant, and your head and brain will be wiped out, so what's the point? Therefore, it is better for the capital to have some support.

In addition, if there is no danger to defend the capital, it must be garrisoned with heavy troops, how much will it cost in a hundred years, who can count?

Those who now advocate the northward flow say that the eastward flow of the main river is "the nature of the river". At the beginning, Wang Anshi blocked the north stream, and it was a lesson to break the gap again in a few years, so he should go north and increase the height and strengthen the embankment along the north stream.

However, those who advocate the eastward flow believe that the northward flow is a trick to steal peace, and the terrain of Hebei is flat, the water flow is gentle, and the sediment is easy to deposit, and it will soon become an above-ground river.

Moreover, after the northward flow, the downstream channel is equivalent to half of the lengthening, and if you only take care of the immediate convenience, it will be more difficult to prevent and control it in the future.

In addition, the northward flow passes through plain areas suitable for farming, which directly encroaches on and indirectly destroys countless fertile land, causing great damage to the livelihood of the people in Hebei.

Moreover, after the Yellow River flowed north, it was to seize the lower reaches of the Yuhe River and Hulu Lake into the sea, and the Yuhe River and the Hulu River lost their channels into the sea, and the two rivers were silted up and flooded one after another.

Yuhe undertakes the important function of transporting military food and materials along the border in the north, and is also the main channel for the circulation of goods in the south to the north. After being robbed by the Yellow River, the river was silted up, and the function of water transportation was almost lost.

Yang Yi did not have much interest in the dispute between the "North Stream" and the "East Stream", he rarely spoke, and probably many people still think that this time the river control is just like before, tinkering.

But in fact, in the plan of Yang Yi and Zhang Dian and others, it will be a huge project similar to the excavation of the canal by Emperor Yang of Sui.

(To be continued)