"Shun Qing, you are here, take a seat, but the Ministry of Industry has already drawn up the charter?"
On this day, Wei Guangde met Jiang Zhi, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, who came to the room on duty, thinking that he was here to see off his father. That said, submit the various possible consequences of Pan Jixun's water control method.
However, when Jiang Zhi came in front of Wei Guangde, he looked a little ugly and said: "Up to now, Pan Weiliang's water control method has caused more and more controversy in the Ministry of Works, and a charter has not yet been formed."
“What?”
Wei Guangde said in disbelief.
His request is very simple. Regardless of whether it is feasible or not, the Ministry of Industry only needs to brainstorm and analyze the possible consequences of using this method to control water.
To put it bluntly, the only thing left is for the cabinet and the ministers to work together to calculate the gains and losses and make the final judgment.
But I didn’t expect that the Ministry of Industry still can’t come up with such a simple request.
“Why?”
Wei Guangde’s tone became stern and he asked.
"Some predictions are very controversial, and even related to the success or failure of this law."
Hearing Wei Guangde's unkind tone, Jiang Zhi had no choice but to tell the focus of the debate in the Ministry of Industry over the past two days.
Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the importance of Qingkou hub in the water transportation system has increased significantly.
At that time, the Yellow River occupied the Huaihe River channel and carried a huge amount of sediment, causing the downstream river bed to continuously silt up and cause frequent flooding.
Qingkou Junction is not only the intersection of Huanghuai River but also the only way for the Grand Canal to go north.
Three streams of water meet here and interact with each other.
If grain from the south wants to move north safely, it must face the intrusion of sediment from the Yellow River.
As a result, a protracted debate has arisen around the management of the Yellow River and the guarantee of transportation and access to the canal.
The method of "confining water to attack sand and accumulating clear water to brush yellow" proposed by Pan Jixun is very different from the traditional method of diverting water to control yellow, and is also the focus of controversy.
After all, before that, the "diversion and killing" method of river control was the main method used in all dynasties.
The traditional diversion method is to reduce the impact of floods by dispersing water flow, but this method will cause the flow speed to slow down, sedimentation is easy, and the effect is not good in the long term.
Pan Jixun advocated blocking branch river channels to converge the Yellow River water to form a single river channel, using the power of water flow to wash away sediment and maintain the depth of the river channel.
The innovation of this method lies in its theoretical basis and practical effect, but it has also caused controversy.
Pan Jixun's theoretical basis is that the Yellow River has a large sediment content, and diversion will lead to slow water flow and sediment deposition.
The water-beaming sand attack concentrates the power of the water flow and uses the water flow to wash away the sediment and maintain the depth of the river channel.
This theory was innovative at the time, but some people questioned its scientificity and feasibility.
Sure enough, as soon as Jiang Zhi opened his mouth, he expressed the concerns of Cen Zhongmian, the head of the Ministry of Industry, who was also the official who was the most important opponent of Pan Jixun's law of restricting water and attacking sand.
"What did he say?"
Wei Guangde became interested when he heard that a small official in the Ministry of Industry dared to raise objections and his attitude was extremely firm. He also wanted to know how he would be criticized by future generations. How did the people of the Ming Dynasty view the miraculous method?
Jiang Zhi glanced at Wei Guangde and then said slowly: "In his opinion, although the theory of beaming water to attack sand has certain truth, it can only work in a short time and cannot solve the problem. The fundamental problem is that several years later, the Yellow River is still in trouble.
He compared the Huaihe River to a flock of sheep and the Yellow River to a fierce tiger. The clear water and the yellow river are like a flock of sheep resisting the tiger, which is doomed to fail.
He also disagreed with Pan Jixun's statement that "when two rivers flow together, Haikou will dredge itself" and believed that it was destined to fail.
The main thing is that he made a small model at the Ministry of Industry to actually verify the harm of this method.
It has been proven through examples that when the project of dredging the Yellow River is abandoned, the sediment is still deposited downstream, the river bed becomes higher and higher, the slope of the whole river becomes lower and lower, and the river speed further decreases, forming a vicious cycle.
In addition, he also believed that the tide effect at the estuary cannot be solved by itself, and the floods in the lower reaches of the Yellow River will intensify. ”
"The Ministry of Industry has also done experiments?"
Wei Guangde asked in surprise.
“Yes, according to the method proposed by Pan Jixun, he also carried out the actual verification process of the water beam attack sand attack method to the Ministry of Industry, so we made a model in the back garden of the Ministry of Industry and conducted it several times Test.
The effect should be said to be good, which shows that the water beam attack method is effective.
However, after Cen Zhongmian’s point of view came out, we also conducted a test, which was more expensive. Time.
Because he also admitted that Pan Weiliang's method may be effective in the short term and can make the canal, Yellow River channel and Huai River smooth, but the process will only be short-term, and the troubles of the Yellow River will become more and more serious in the future.
The most important thing is that after the water is restrained, it will be difficult to dredge the river channel, because the dredging will reduce the scouring effect.
If things continue like this, sedimentation in the downstream rivers will become more serious.
The water flows to lower places. This method may reduce the slope of the entire river, reduce the river speed, and the scouring effect will be greatly reduced, and in the end it will be completely ineffective.
The most worrying thing is that a vicious cycle will be formed, that is, the river bed will rise faster. ”
"Have those who support Pan Weiliang come up with a way to deal with it?"
Since the opponents have stated the reasons for their opposition, those who support him should also have a way to deal with it.
Well, this is ancient dialectics. Just ask each other questions and then find a way to solve them. In the end, who can have the last laugh.
Sure enough, Jiang Zhi hesitated a little and said the solution of his supporters, "That is to raise the weir and dam.
They believe that clearing the mouth will cause siltation, so they can build a high weir to contain it. , the embankment is stretched to tie it up, blocking the water of the Huaihe River. If you win against Huangjiao, you will not be able to defeat it. "
"That is to say, what they think is similar to what we said before, that is, to continuously raise the river dam and lift the Yellow River?"
Wei Guangde knew what it meant as soon as he heard it.
It should be pointed out that although the Yellow River has been raised due to siltation, it has not yet reached the level of a "hanging river".
After all, the river dams in the Ming Dynasty also had "scumbag" engineering. Once the flood broke out and the river embankments breached, the Yellow River would find a lower location to flow in, and then find a new entrance to the sea or river.
Anyway, the water of the Yellow River will eventually flow into the sea because of China's topography, which is high in the west and low in the east.
However, the Yellow River seeks its own path, and the result is floods. Countless people will be displaced and their fields will not be harvested.
This is also a heavy loss that the feudal dynasty cannot afford.
“The most terrifying consequence is here. Once the weir dam is continuously raised to store water in Gaojiayan, the water level of Hongze Lake will inevitably continue to rise, and the lake water will submerge more places and form a large artificial lake. "
Jiang Zhi said again. Although they had talked about Hongze Lake before, after all, the lake level is still within the tolerable range and it will not cause serious trouble.
However, according to Pan Jixun's method of concentrating water and attacking sand, in order to ensure the amount of water flushing the Yellow River, the water volume of Hongze Lake must be continuously increased, that is, a higher dam must be built to store water.
“From the perspective of the imperial court’s water control logic, in order to achieve the goal of ensuring water transportation, when encountering floods, priority should be given to ensuring the safety of areas north of the Yellow River and south of the Huaihe River, while areas south of the Yellow River and north of the Huaihe River Will be the first to do so
Xuzhou, Huai'an, Fengyang, Sizhou and other places will inevitably be affected by floods year after year. "
When talking about Fengyang and Sizhou, Jiang Zhi increased his tone.
He is also reminding Wei Guangde that if this method is really implemented, the safety of the imperial mausoleum will really not be guaranteed.
"The flood in the ancestral mausoleum is the first priority, followed by luck and people's livelihood."
Wei Guangde said at this time.
In fact, these words were not what he said, but the offensive formed by the court after Hongze Lake was formed during the Hongzhi period.
That is to say, the Ming Dynasty court at that time was actually aware of the possible harm caused by the formation of Hongze Lake.
Of course, the purpose of building weirs and dams at that time was not to store water for irrigation, but to store water and protect water transportation.
When the canal is short of water, water from Hongze Lake is used to replenish the water in the canal.
The direct impact was that after the Yellow River captured the Huaihe River, it had nowhere to vent and poured into Sizhou City.
In order to ensure the safety of the ancestral mausoleum in the north of the city, the people of Sizhou City suffered many disasters, and the ancient city did not escape the fate of sinking to the bottom of Hongze Lake.
In this regard, Sizhou people have not resisted.
Originally in history, Sizhou Jinshi and former Huguang Councilor Chang Sanxing once went to Shu, insisting on changing Pan Jixun's practice of building Gaojiayan, believing that this would cause Sizhou City to suffer a devastating blow from floods.
In order to refute Chang Sansheng, Pan Jixun did not discuss it from a technical perspective, but put Chang Sansheng's remarks into context.
He wrote: "Now your majesty will accept the words of Ke Chen and use stones to build them, thinking that there are hundreds of millions of borderless plans. The three provinces are so eager to destroy them, how can you endure it?"
< br>Let Emperor Wanli think that the objections were directed at the emperor himself.
In order to explain the rationality of his river control method, Pan Jixun even regarded the "Huanghuai Confluence" as the foundation for maintaining the feng shui of the ancestral mausoleum. Imperial Feng Shui.”
In some popular science books and biographies of later generations, in order to pursue the so-called impact of words, they deliberately downplayed the complexity of history and directly adopted the statement that the Yellow River had no major troubles in more than two hundred years.
There are even some so-called popular science works that deliberately create a black-and-white confrontation between Pan Jixun and his opponents, attributing the criticism to "rigid stereotypes" and portraying Chang Sansheng and other opponents as ugly enemies.
When describing Pan Jixun’s theory of consolidating water and attacking sand, he used the word “earth-shattering”, and when talking about his opponents, he used the word “encirclement and suppression on top of the agenda.”
This also formed the reason why Wei Guangde had a great impression after hearing the "Water Confinement and Sand Attacking Method" at first, and he believed from the bottom of his heart that this method might solve the Yellow River floods.
However, after several discussions with Jiang Zhi, and after learning about the complexity of Huang Zhi from the officials of the Ministry of Industry, he gradually woke up from his sweet dream.
It seems that Pan Jixun's "Water Confinement and Sand Attacking Method" is not only not a good medicine to control the Yellow River, but also a poison.
As for why the Manchus and Qing Dynasties still insisted on using Pan Jixun's method of water control, it may also be because they were convinced by Pan Jixun's subversive theory and thought that this could solve the increasingly troublesome Yellow River floods.
After all, the Ming Dynasty began to use this method to treat water since the Wanli period, and the effect was indeed remarkable in the first two years.
But in the middle and late Wanli period, floods in the Yellow River became more frequent, and until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, perhaps in the eyes of the Qing emperors, this was God's warning to the Ming Dynasty, indicating that they would perish and be filled. replaced by Qing Dynasty.
So, the floods in the Yellow River in the late Ming Dynasty were not due to the ineffectiveness of water-reinforcement methods, but a warning from God.
If it didn’t work in the Ming Dynasty, it would be fine if it was replaced by the Qing Dynasty.
It was just a good idea, but in fact it turned out to be wrong.
In 1855, the Yellow River migrated north again and burst in Tongwaxiang, Henan Province. This ended the situation where the Yellow River flowed southward to seize the Huaihe River and entered the sea. It instead entered the sea through Shandong. The Qingkou hub suddenly withdrew from the torrent of history. .
The Qingkou Junction in later generations has only scattered ruins left, making it difficult for people to imagine the grand scene of the intersection of three rivers.
On the dam, there are vegetation on both sides. The roar of the Yellow River's waves is no longer in my ears, replaced by the chirping of birds from time to time.
Pan Jixun and others went to Gaojiayan, which is the Hongze Lake embankment that was subsequently raised. In the photographer's lens, one side is the quiet Hongze Lake water, and the other half is the lush embankment.
"If the protection of luck is taken out of water control, can the Ministry of Industry have a way to control the Yellow River?"
Wei Guangde thought about it carefully, and after weighing the benefits and losses, he finally made up his mind to do a good job The plan is to have a fierce battle with the luck-preserving faction.
The Yellow River is already in great trouble. It is also intertwined with the important tasks of protecting the emperor's mausoleum and the canal, but protecting people's livelihood is put last. He thinks it is unacceptable from the bottom of his heart.
Since Pan Jixun's method of constricting water and attacking sand cannot solve the fundamental problem and may cause even greater troubles, then we should remove the firepower from the bottom of the cauldron and remove luck first, and only consider protecting the emperor's mausoleum and protecting people's livelihood.
As for the Grand Canal, Wei Guangde planned to forcefully promote sea transport to replace river transport. He took advantage of Yu Dayou's thousands-mile expedition to convince the Ming Dynasty that sea transport was safe.
Just kidding, tens of thousands of troops traveling thousands of miles to fight across the sea is enough to illustrate the safety of the Ming Dynasty's ships.
Get some Spanish and Portuguese people to the capital?
Suddenly, an idea appeared in Wei Guangde's mind.
This group of barbarians traveled tens of thousands of miles to the Ming Dynasty to do business. It would be good for them to have a good impact on the ideas of the Ming Dynasty officials.
It’s funny to say that although the Ming court had known about the presence of Yi merchants along the coast since the Hongzhi and Zhengde dynasties, it had not accepted their tribute because it did not know where their country was.
Yes, diplomacy in the eyes of Westerners would turn into tribute when it came to the Ming Dynasty, paying tribute to the Ming Emperor as an envoy of the vassal state.
Rather than the reciprocal exchanges between countries that Westerners are familiar with.
Now in the Ming Dynasty, the original stubborn sea-banning faction has ceased due to the de facto opening of customs, and even actively participated in it to benefit from sea trade.
However, the way they make money is still by transporting goods from the Ming Dynasty.
The flow of goods between the north and the south has always relied on the transportation capacity of the Grand Canal.
Among them, it is naturally related to the movement-protecting faction who, for the sake of their own interests, tried their best to prohibit sea-going ships from transporting to the north.
In fact, it is not that goods from the south are transported northward, but this behavior is mostly carried out in the form of "smuggling", and the quantity is very small, which cannot achieve economies of scale.
After Wei Guangde learned about the big trouble of water control in the Yellow River, he simply gave up river transportation and fully promoted sea transportation.
However, before that, he must obtain a clear guarantee from the Ministry of Industry that the Yellow River floods could be successfully controlled without regard to river transportation.
If this cannot be done, the forced promotion of sea transportation will inevitably encounter unimaginable huge resistance. (End of chapter)