Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 671 Turning Waste into Treasure
"The old course of the Yellow River starts from Lankao, Henan in the west, along Shangqiu, Yucheng, and the borders of Dongming, Caoxian, and Shanxian counties in Shandong, enters Dangshan in the north of the river, and then enters Huaihe in the east, and enters the sea at Taozikou. The total length is [-] miles. Now the Yellow River diverts through Shandong. , eight hundred miles to sea. Its old road is like a huge ridge, stretching across the Huaibei Plain from west to east."

Yang Wencong, the new Governor of River Channels, and Lu Zhenfei, the Governor of Water Transport, went to the upper study room to face the saint together, and several prime ministers were also there.

"The Yellow River has flowed in this old course for nearly 300 years, carrying a huge amount of sediment accumulation, making it a suspended river on the ground. After the breach was diverted, the upstream water flow was cut off, the river course was abandoned, and ridges were formed. Now the disposal of this old course is also very important. .”

Lu Zhenfei used to be one of the eighteen arhats in Donglin, and he had high qualifications and prestige in Donglin. During the Chongzhen period, he served as the governor of water transport and governor of Huaiyang. Later, Hong Guangli, Ma Shiying and others replaced Lu Zhenfei with Tian Yang.Lu Zhenfei still has a lot of real political achievements no matter in water transport or local affairs.

He also knows the old course of the Yellow River very well.

"The old course of the Yellow River can be roughly divided into three sections. To the west of Xuzhou is a wide channel. The river channel is more than 300 feet wide and generally more than two feet deep. The distance between the left and right embankments is about [-] miles.

The section from Xuzhou to Huai'an is a narrow channel, and the section from Huai'an to Dayujian is an estuary section. "

The Yellow River is different from rivers like the Yangtze River. It is not a relatively fixed channel, but a suspended river on the ground. Even its channel is extremely wide. In addition to the river, it is mainly based on embankments. They are extremely far apart, at least twenty miles wide.

But the actual river is only two miles away, and there are wide river beaches on both sides.

Usually, the common people will also plant some miscellaneous grains, such as beans, on the river beach.However, the river beach in the embankment is prone to flooding and damage, or even no harvest.

Therefore, the river beach land has not been included in the official land register of the imperial court. It is the same as some sandbars such as Chongming in the Yangtze River Estuary. It is occupied by local powerful families. Whoever occupies it first will own it, and there is no need to pay taxes, etc. .

Of course, the actual local government generally still collects some of these beaches.

Not to mention that it is 400 miles from Lankao to the mouth of the Huai'an River. Even if Lankao goes to Xuzhou, there must be a small [-]-mile old road. The [-]-mile-wide embankment is still [-] miles away. Calculating the wide beach, this beach has an area of ​​[-] million mu.

It used to be a river course, so the floodplain is not considered a field, and the harvest is difficult to guarantee, but now the river is abandoned, without water, and it has become a ridge, so the 400 million mu of beachland has become a good field.

Most of the old courses of the Yellow River are suspended rivers on high beaches, generally one to two feet above the surrounding ground, and some can even reach nearly three feet. Now it has become a watershed between the Huaihe River and the Shu, Yi, Si and other rivers. A watershed has been artificially created.

Now that the Yellow River is diverted, for the people in southeastern Henan, southwestern Shandong, and Jiangbei, this is finally getting rid of the huge threat of the Yellow River flood for 700 years, not to mention that there are still 400 million beaches that can be turned into fertile land.

Now the powerful landlords in many places are taking the idea of ​​the old river beach, reclaiming it privately and occupying it at will, and even filling the river canal.

"I believe that although the old road has lost the water of the Yellow River, it still has to retain its ability to carry water. It should be dredged, and some dams, reservoirs, and supporting canals should be built accordingly, so that the old road can be fully utilized and transformed. Turn trash into treasure."

After all, Zhu Yihai is satisfied with Lu Zhenfei's words, this is the way to do practical things.

It is feasible to transform floodplain areas into fields. Although floodplain areas are weaker in resisting disasters such as floods, droughts, alkalis, etc., they are generally much stronger than some mountainous slopes and dry lands.

If the old road is dredged well, it can also provide water conservancy for more than a thousand miles of land on both sides of the strait, and it can also reduce floods and so on.

Now such a swarm of land reclamation and occupation will definitely not work, and overall planning is required.

It is necessary to dredge the rivers and maintain their water-carrying capacity, but also to transform and utilize them. Build gates, dams, reservoirs, and canals to store water, prevent floods, and irrigate. The vast river beaches must also be transformed.

"The soil of the river beach is different, such as silt, sand, loam, saline-alkali soil, etc. The silt soil is mainly distributed in the slow-flowing section of the river bank, and the sandy soil is distributed in the section where the original river flow is relatively fast.

Overall, the soil quality is not high. Taking Xuzhou as an example, only [-]% of the land can be transformed into upper fields, and [-]% can be transformed into middle and lower land, and more beaches and underground fields cannot reach it. "Lu Zhenfei took out the detailed data.

Zhu Yihai nodded.

"Food is the most important thing for the people, and the land is the lifeblood of the people. These lands should be comprehensively managed and utilized to turn waste into treasure. Although there are many lands, they can be planted and developed according to different geological conditions. Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry Comprehensive development of agriculture, vice and fishery," Zhu Yihai gave instructions, "We must deeply develop the fertile beaches as grain fields, and properly transform the low- and medium-yield fields."

"The rest of the crops that produce less than [-] catties per mu per year can be used to benefit forest trees, fruit trees, even mulberry trees, cotton, and even build some reservoirs, ponds, etc. to raise fish and lotus root, etc., and can also be used as pastures and pastures. Cattle and sheep."

After the development is completed, there will be 400 million mu of land. Even if only 60% of it is transformed into good farmland, that means [-] mu of land, and there can be more than one million mu of low- and medium-yield fields with a yield of one or two stones per mu.

In the other 200 million mu, there can be developed a lot of cotton, peanut, corn, potato, sweet potato, etc., and some economic trees and even fruit trees can be planted.

The water surface can also store water for flood control, water irrigation, and raise fish and ducks.

After losing the water from the Yellow River, although the river is basically abandoned, there is no need to worry about floods and waterlogging every year. Not only will the surrounding areas not be flooded by the Yellow River, but this river has also become a treasure.

"Your Majesty, it will take a lot of investment to comprehensively plan and manage and make good use of the old roads. Now the imperial court has to manage the new rivers of the Yellow River and build dams. It is really not rich."

As the governor of water transportation, although the water transportation mainly relies on sea transportation now, Lu Zhenfei believes that the canal is of great help to the economy along the route, so it cannot be abandoned like this.

Now the canal from Huai'an to Hangzhou is not affected. The main reason is that the canal from Jining to Linqing in Shandong is greatly affected and is basically impassable.

He suggested that a way should be found to fix it.

But without the water from the Yellow River, it will cost a lot to repair the canal.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has always been the lifeblood of the empire’s economy. It is a proper golden waterway. Every year, tens of thousands of canal boats go north and south. Not counting private merchant ships, the cities along the canal are also prospered because of the canal.

Suning Changzhen Susonghang and other famous cities in the south of the Yangtze River.

There are also important towns such as Xuzhou in Huai'an, Linqing in Jining, Liaocheng and Dezhou, all because of the canal.

But now that the Yellow River has changed its course, Dezhou, Linqing, and Liaocheng have all become flooded areas, and they have not yet recovered from the war. Jining, Xuzhou and other sections are completely blocked and impassable.

In addition, the imperial court vigorously promotes sea transportation, so now the canal is blocked and broken here in Shandong.

Linqing, once known as the bustling capital of the two capitals, has an urban population of 10,000+. Liaocheng, known as the elbow of the capital of heaven, has gradually dried up its canals. Now even if the whole of Shandong is revived, only Jining, Liaocheng, and Linqing are left. It's just some small boats in the middle of the country, the economy is deteriorating, the industry and commerce are weak, and the vitality is gone.

In the south of Jining, although the river section is not involved much, it is also greatly affected and weakens rapidly.

There is also Lijin on the coast of Jinan. As the estuary of the Daqing River, it has always been the most important salt field in Shandong. It has been prosperous for 900 years, ranking first in Shandong salt fields.

The diversion of the Yellow River has benefited the people of Huai, but it has hurt the people of Qi.

The people in Shandong all hope that where the Yellow River comes from and where it will go back, but now it is not easy to restore the old way, and the cost of governance is too high.

Therefore, the imperial court is unwilling to go south again.

Officials in Shandong proposed diversion, opening the Majia River in Daming Prefecture to reduce the water of the Yellow River, diverting it from Shandong and Hebei provinces into the sea.

Although Hebei has not yet been fully recovered, there are also many officials from Hebei in the DPRK. They were originally allies of officials from Shandong and agreed with Nanliu.

As a result, Shandong officials now proposed to divert people in Hebei, but they quit immediately, and their allies became opponents.

However, there are too many opponents of the restoration of the old road. First, the imperial court is concerned that the cost of managing the old river is too high, and second, the officials of the Jianghuai River are opposed to the restoration of the old course of the Yellow River.

Zhu Yihai himself has no intention of restoring the old road. In fact, the biggest benefit of restoring the old road is to restore the Shandong Canal.

But Zhu Yihai is not willing to restore the Shandong Canal, because the cost is too high and there is no water to save, which is the biggest problem. The cost and benefit are not directly proportional, and it is more advantageous for the court to switch to sea transportation.

Moreover, he also intends to develop the coastal port economy, shifting the focus from along the canal to the coast.

In the past, whether it was Henan, Shandong, Jianghuai, or Hebei, the core and most developed areas were all on both sides of the canal, and all the population, economy, etc. were siphoned into the canal.

Now Zhu Yihai hopes to quickly enter the era of great navigation, so he took this opportunity to simply transfer the economy to the coast.

There is no need to work hard to restore the old Yellow River road and the Shandong Canal.

"I also said before that the Yellow River will flow into the sea according to the new route, and the Shandong Canal will not be restored for the time being. Today, let's talk about the management and utilization of the old route first, and let's not talk about other things." Zhu Yihai said bluntly.

Second assistant Wang Zhiren made a speech.

"It takes a lot of investment to manage the old roads, but the 400 million mu of land can be used to develop a million mu of grain fields, etc., and the value is still very high. I suggest that it is better to put all the old roads into your Majesty's Huangzhuang, and let your majesty pay for it." Money governance not only dredged river canals, but also developed river beaches, and His Majesty spent money on governance, which also saved a lot of expenses for the imperial treasury."

This is obviously too much to please the emperor.

Wen Anzhi directly opposed it.

"I thought that the imperial court should be mainly responsible for planning and management, and the old road is a treasure land, but now in the [-]-mile yellow flood zone of the new river, there are countless villages and fields where the victims have lived for generations.

The imperial court should move those Shandong people from the new river to the old road for resettlement, build villages, and grant land. "

Wang Zhiren thinks that although this seems to be a good idea, it will cost money to relocate, and dredging the canals will cost money and food. Now that the imperial court spends money everywhere, it has to minimize expenditure. If the land is handed over to His Majesty's Huangzhuang and managed by His Majesty, then the income will also be great. Returning to Huangzhuang, this is very good.

"Your Majesty's words are wrong. This is a lazy idea of ​​government. It's bad!"

(End of this chapter)