In September last year, Luzhou, Fengyang, Huai'an, and Yangzhou were hit by catastrophic floods, and according to the statistics of the Division, millions of victims were generated, and the imperial court spent more than 5 million taels of silver on disaster relief alone.

And this year, when Zhu Yijun arrived, there were floods in this area, and there were floods in Kaifeng, Nanyang and Suzhou, Xichang areas in Henan.

It can be said that floods often occur in the entire Jianghuai region, even in nearby areas, and the Yellow River in this area floods almost every year, and there are also droughts in the basins that do not flood.

This is of course related to the climate of the Xiaoice River, but it is also related to the forced diversion of the Yellow River into the sea.

Because the normal flow of the Yellow River should have been from North China into the sea.

It was only during the Yuan Dynasty that after the flooding of the Yellow River, it was changed to enter the sea from the Huai River, and since then, especially after the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing, it has been artificially forced to maintain the status quo in order to transport water and water.

However, the natural flow of the Yellow River is originally from North China to the sea, so it will often break its course due to climate reasons, just like the tail of the dragon, often swinging to the north, and a swing will cause a large area of flooding, so that floods in this area are frequent.

Historically, after the Yellow River was reverted, the frequency of breaches and diversions was indeed greatly reduced, and the frequency and severity of floods in the entire Yellow River basin were also greatly reduced.

Because the flooding of the Yellow River has always been a headache in the history of the Ming Dynasty, of course, in other dynasties, the flooding of the Yellow River is also a headache, but in the Ming Dynasty because of the Cao Yun became particularly serious, almost once a year, so many of the Ming Dynasty's water control ministers realized that this was related to forcibly letting the Yellow River seize the Huai into the sea.

What's more, the Han people already have a philosophical idea of following nature.

Therefore, in the court, the ministers represented by Pan Jitao and Liang Menglong actually advocated returning the Yellow River to its original path.

Just returning the Yellow River to its original course involves the impact on Cao Yun, and the impact on the farmland and villages occupied by the new channel when the new channel is excavated.

"Pan Qing, I remember, you mentioned that if you want to completely solve the flood of the big river, you basically still have to let the big river go to sea from the north, but if you change it like this, it will hurt the luck and cost a lot, so you have to wait for the time, and now the time is ripe?"

Zhu Yijun was also drenched in autumn rain outside that day, and asked about the new head of the household department, Pan Jitao.

Pan Jitao replied: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that it has basically matured, and now the court has abundant financial resources; Second, when the officials entered and the people retreated, there was no shortage of people; The three are now in the unai salty suit, which is the time for His Majesty to make a big change. ”

"That's what I think, too."

Zhu Yijun looked at the other ministers as he spoke: "I don't know what the ministers think?" ”

At this time, Wang Xijue arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, in the opinion of a foolish minister, if you want to change the river back to its old way, you must first change the transportation to land transportation or sea transportation; The Cabinet has already agreed that although there are now horse-drawn trains for land transportation, which can carry a large amount of goods at one time, it is only necessary to continue to build larger projects, so that the train routes that have been built everywhere will be completely coherent and become a large route across the north and south! ”

"It's better to have a railroad instead of a wooden road, so it's more durable, because the north and south carry a lot of goods."

"It's just that iron is more valuable than wood, and if the imperial court wants to build such a long railway, it must recruit more soldiers to protect the railway and prevent theft.

"In this way, it will undoubtedly increase the expenses of the imperial court."

"The same is true for shipping, there must be a special fleet, new ports must be built, and there must be a place to supply and shelter the new ships from time to time, and even then there is no guarantee that the ship will be overwhelmed by sudden storms."

"In any case, it is still a very risky act to transport a large amount of military rations that the border towns rely on and the white grain needed in Beijing by sea every year, after all, once there is a strong wind, the loss will be the foundation of the entire country, and it is indeed difficult to prevent piracy at sea, and ordinary losses must be greater than land transportation and Cao transportation."

"In short, whether it's land or sea, it's very expensive."

After Wang Xijue said this, he bowed to Zhu Yijun:

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that with such a big expense, it is better to move the capital, change the northern capital to Beiping, and let the royal nobles and the officials of the ministry return to the southern capital!"

"Your Majesty, it is naturally inappropriate to move the capital!"

"The north is already very cold, there are many droughts and locust plagues, not as mild as the south and the water system is developed, so both living and farming are cheap, once the Son of Heaven is not in the north, it will completely make the north even have no value of imperial power in the north."

"In this way, the people in the north will definitely want to move south more and more, especially the rich and noble, then the north will inevitably be more empty, and the world will be chaotic because of this."

"And in the future, if there is no chaos in the world, the imperial court will definitely withdraw from the overseas relatives and guards, and then abandon the land, turn Huanghuai Jingxiang into a frontier, and then die in the north."

"Gain, except for the Son of Heaven, no one is at ease, let the nine-sided soldiers and horses be controlled by others, after all, once the nine-sided soldiers and horses do not have the Son of Heaven in Beiping to control them, and they will directly choose to go south, and they will not hesitate to support the vassal king as the king in order to seize this flowery world."

"That is to say, if the capital is moved, there must be a withdrawal of troops, if there is a withdrawal of troops, there will be abandonment of land, and if there is abandonment of land, there will be the loss of the country."

"As Your Majesty said, although the southern country is good, it is easy to soften people's bones."

"Therefore, the minister thinks that there can be no discussion of moving the capital, and some money to spend must be spent!"

Li Chengliang expressed his opinion at this time.

Wang Xijue followed suit: "Your Majesty, the minister admits that what the prime minister said is the words of the public loyalty to the country, and once the capital is moved, there will be such drawbacks. ”

"But!"

"For example, most of today's profits come from the sea, and because the benefits of sea trade are controlled by the imperial court, the coastal people have not tasted much of the benefits of the sea because of the sea, as well as the benefits of overseas expansion, but because the imperial court's overseas expansion has reached the point of destroying other countries and destroying other peoples, most of the cost of expansion is borne by the coastal people, so that the coastal and even the entire southern country has always had the voice of opposing the imperial court's expansion abroad."

"It's all because they don't get the benefits, but they have to bear the cost!"

"And if the Son of Heaven moves the capital to the south, such a problem can be solved!"

"Although the imperial court controls a lot of sea profits, as long as the capital is moved, it means that even if most of the profits of sea trade are returned to the imperial court, it can also benefit more of the southern people because of the large amount of national funds moving south with the relocation of the capital, and then eliminate the voices of opposition;"

"Second, after the relocation of the capital, the strength of coastal defense will also be strengthened, which will reduce the dissatisfaction of the southern people with overseas expansion."

"At the same time, the problem of perennial river flooding in order to ensure the transportation of water does not exist, and there is no need to spend a lot of manpower, material and financial resources to solve this problem."

Wang Xijue said after speaking: "As for the disadvantages mentioned by the prime minister, the minister thinks that as long as it is divided and controlled, the king is not established, and the clan of the world is moved to the custody of the Beijing division, there will be no such problem. ”

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that what Wang Ge Lao said is very true, as long as the Son of Heaven does not let the ministers of the northern Xinjiang always take charge of the military power, and set up checks and balances such as supervising the army, let alone let him stay in one place forever, and the military and government are separated, there is no need to worry about the withdrawal of the army and the abandonment of the land or even the loss of the country."

At this time, Shen Yiyi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, also followed.

But Shen Li chose to support Li Chengliang at this time and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that what the great uncle said is not enough to make up his mind to move the capital!" ”

"Really?"

Zhu Yijun asked.

Shen Cheng also squinted at Shen Li.

Shen Li said at this time: "Your Majesty Mingjian! Once the capital is moved, whether the ministers of northern Xinjiang can be divided and controlled is not whether the Son of Heaven can know the benefits of division and system, but whether the Son of Heaven is willing and whether the reality allows it. ”

"Secondly, once the powerful Beiyu tribe rises, when it is necessary to gather the military power of the nine sides to confront it, and when the Son of Heaven must gather the military power in one person, who dares to disregard the external insult and internal situation at this time, and discourage His Majesty from continuing to divide and control it?"

"Therefore, the minister believes that all the ideas that rely on the wisdom of the Son of Heaven are unrealistic, there are variables, and the disasters in history will be repeated."

"Therefore, it is better to take advantage of the current sage of His Majesty and the prosperity of the country to solve this problem once and for all, instead of being lazy and leaving this matter to future generations to solve, one is unknown how the virtuous and foolish of future generations are, and the other is that no one knows what kind of situation it will be in the future."

Shen Li directly said here that the system of absolute monarchy will make it difficult to predict whether there will be a national policy that is obviously stupid but real because of the personal qualities of the monarch in the future.

And Pan Jitao, the head of the household department, said: "Your Majesty, in fact, it is more difficult to solve the river disaster in a way that does not move the capital than to move the capital!" It is easier to move the capital, and as Shen Ge Lao said, even if His Majesty does not need to move the capital to solve the river trouble, it is difficult to guarantee that the king of the future will not, and at that time, if the king of the future insists on doing so, who can discourage it? Therefore, nothing can be determined, only to do the present thing. ”

"At the moment, we have to face the difficulties, not the easy ones!"

Zhu Yijun said a decisive word at this time, and looked at the endless autumn rain outside, and said:

"Shen Qing's words just now made me feel empowered! That is, the virtuous and foolish of the king of the future generations can not only be determined, but the environment of the future generations can not be uncertain, the current dynasty, there are no strong prisoners around, if you don't do a few difficult things at this time, it will be more difficult to do in the future, not to mention, now I am in the prime of life, and all the kings are also the ministers of the bones. ”

After Zhu Yijun said this, he turned to look at Li Chengliang, Wang Xijue and others: "Therefore, you can't be lazy." ”

Wang Xijue still wanted to admonish again, so he gave up his hand and said: "But Your Majesty, the complaints of many people in the south can't be ignored!" Even if the current dynasty ignores it, what about the future? ”

"As Your Majesty mentioned before, the rich in the south have begun to marry military households, once the rich and noble combine to the point of completely controlling the imperial court in the future, I am afraid that when the time comes, the imperial court will still only consider the complaints of the south, and will still restore the old system!" (End of chapter)