I

   Chapter 932 928 [Yellow River]

  A total of 47 people were beheaded this time, including 32 officials, 9 merchants, and 6 non-official and non-business civilians. These six people are all accomplices involved in the case, such as Du Xingxue from Shanghai, and those who personally killed them, and some of them absconded without knowing where to go.

   There were many exiles, a total of 122 officials and 17 merchants were exiled. Including their family members, a total of more than 1,600 people were exiled, and more than 800 were exiled to Tibet and Heilongjiang.

  The so-called ghosts in the case were investigated, and two were interrogated.

  One is the customs secretary of the Ministry of Finance. Because the Ministry of Finance assisted in the investigation, this guy received the news very early and quietly tipped off the news to let the local authorities prepare. There is also a low-level clean government official. His elder brother works in the Shipping Department of Ningbo City, and he also secretly passed on the news.

  The house raids and fines are still in progress.

   Especially fines, the imperial court ordered maritime merchants from all over the world to pay in full by February next year. If the time limit is exceeded and the penalty is not accepted, the government will take action and forcibly auction their fixed assets.

  Coastal areas are full of wailing, and there are many people with poor capital turnover. It is estimated that 10 to 20% of maritime merchants are on the verge of bankruptcy.

  The private banks were extremely excited, Huizhou merchants, Jiangxi merchants, Western merchants, Lake merchants, and Sichuan merchants transported box after box of silver to the port. Not enough cash to pay the fine? We have money in our hands, and the loan interest rate is not much higher than usual. You maritime merchants use cargo ships and shops as collateral.

   What's more, direct acquisition or shareholding, want to take the opportunity to participate in maritime trade.

  Take the Longyou Merchant Gang in western Zhejiang as an example. They mostly do business in remote inland areas. Occasionally someone goes to sea, not by sea, but by opening a shop overseas, or buying local products overseas. Now it's cool, the opportunity has come, and if the money is not enough, many companies will raise funds, and we must open up the sea route of the Longyou Merchant Gang.

  The semi-monopoly situation of coastal wealthy merchants over maritime trade, because of this corruption and tax evasion case, was torn open by the court.

  Many mainland wealthy businessmen have dug out all the silver hidden in the cellar!

   Zhao Han did not continue to pay attention to the coast, because the Yellow River diversion project, which lasted more than ten years, will be completely completed by this winter.

  Zhang Guowei specially sent a capable man back to explain his entire project to the emperor.

   This person is called Zhai Maohua, and he is the head of the Water Department of the Ministry of Industry.

Pointing to the map, he said: "The dividing line of the Grand Canal is Nanwang in the north of Jining. The terrain here is the highest, which is the ridge between the north and the south. In the early Ming Dynasty, the water was controlled and Wenshui was diverted to Nanwang, which made the river diverge from north to south. It flows south to Xuzhou and Pizhou accounted for four tenths of the water, and six tenths flowed northward to Linqing. Gates were set up in sections along the way to store and release floodwater, and to lift ships. In the Guanjia Lake in the west of Huai'an City, 20 miles of canals were dug , for Qingjiang Pu, to guide the lake water into the Huaihe River, and build four gates to vent it from time to time."

  Zhao Han seemed to understand, but also didn't seem to understand.

Zhai Maohua continued: "This time Zhang Shangshu governed the Yellow River. In order to solve the shipping of the Grand Canal, he also adopted the method in Huai'an in the early Ming Dynasty. All the residents in Anshan and Liangshan had to be relocated, because when the water from the Yellow River came, Anshan Lake The area may be expanded several times. In the north and south of Anshan Lake, six gates are set up in sections. The Yellow River does not flow directly into Anshan Lake, but a 20-mile canal is dug to connect with Anshan Lake. When the Yellow River floods, it can flow Enter Anshan Lake for flood discharge. When the Yellow River is dry, the six gates release water to ensure the smooth flow of the canal.”

  Zhao Han understood this time, Anshan Lake is specially used for flood discharge, and its function is the same as that of Hongze Lake when the Huai River was taken into the sea. The current Anshan Town and Liangshanji will be submerged to the bottom of the lake in the future. In the long run, Anshan Lake will become a ghost like Hongze Lake.

  Zhao Han asked: "The Yellow River brings a lot of sediment, will it silt Anshan Lake and Quhe in the future?"

"It will definitely," Zhai Maohua explained, "it is unavoidable. In the early Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River was treated for about 150 years. Qingjiangpu and Hongze Lake were silted up. Now some places are less than two feet deep. Zhang Shangshu The method is the same, it will silt up in about one or two hundred years. The more serious the silt and silt, the larger the area of ​​Anshan Lake and the shallower the water of Anshan Lake.”

   This is really helpless, the mother river has long been ruined.

  After 25 years of Jiajing, what has the lower reaches of the Yellow River become like?

   It can no longer flow directly into the Huaihe River, but seizes the river channel of Sishui, passes through Sishui and then flows into the Huaihe River. The section of the Yellow River from Dangshan to Xuzhou is often unable to flow through. It needs to go through the Zhuohe River and Qingou in the north to enter the canal, which caused the canal there to be blocked. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, water transportation could only go along the middle canal.

   Fortunately, the section of the Huaihe River from Hongze Lake to the sea can still be cured. Unlike in history, after another two or three hundred years, the Huaihe River could not enter the sea, and could only enter the sea through the Yangtze River.

Zhai Maohua continued: "For the new Yellow River, the dams need to be built year by year. There is also the Abandoned Yellow River, the river network is extremely complicated, and it may flood in the future. Both sides of the two Yellow Rivers must be continuously dredged and embanked to plant trees. Next In ten years, it may cost tens of millions of taels of silver."

   "Don't say tens of millions of taels of silver, even thirty or fifty million taels should be paid." Zhao Han sighed.

  …

  Winter is dry.

  In the upper reaches of Kaocheng, tens of thousands of civilians are busy.

   There was no corvee in the Datong New Dynasty, but Zhang Guowei also had no money to pay wages. In the prefectures and counties along the way to control the Yellow River, as long as there are two or more males in the family, one person will come to help.

  For a family that runs the river, one person works, ten mu of land is tax-free, and food and housing are included.

  Including the waived agricultural tax, Zhang Guowei definitely spent more than a few million taels of silver.

  Zhang Guowei is standing on the embankment. He is 62 years old. He has been working hard for more than ten years, and his health is getting worse.

   Now, I can finally take a break.

   There are several embankments in Huanglinggang, all of which were built by the Ming court. Now, it is being dug up one by one by workers.

   There are no earth-shattering scenes. The Yellow River in the dry season is too shallow, and it can't even flow north by itself. Workers have to dig all the way to dig out a lower river channel for drainage.

   This continued for more than ten days, and the dry and shallow Yellow River finally flowed northward.

  The workers braved the severe cold to build embankments on the original river. First load the soil further upstream, build a simple dam to block the water, then remove the accumulated water behind the simple dam, and start building the first dam.

   It is necessary to dig down several feet, dig under the yellow sand, and then pour compacted compound soil.

   Although cement has been invented, it is not qualified for embankment construction. At critical times, the old method still works. This kind of composite soil is as firm as iron and stone after it is built.

  The first dam is several miles long.

   Followed by the second, third, and fourth dams. In the future, the Yellow River will be slowed down by several dams, and will be completely blocked at the last dam.

   Behind the dam, the Yellow River will be abandoned in the future. Don't even think about sailing, farming is too much, it can only be used for agricultural irrigation. Moreover, flood control has to be done, because there are other rivers pouring in, and if you don't pay attention, the embankment will burst again.

   It only depends on whether the lower reaches of the Huaihe River can be rescued. After all, in this time and space, the Yellow River has not flowed for two to three hundred years, and the sedimentation is not so serious.

  Looking at the gradually formed dam, Yue Xinmin couldn't help feeling: "The sword that has been hanging in Sizhou for hundreds of years will finally be lifted in the future, and the people of Sizhou can sleep peacefully."

   "Sizhou still needs to be treated, and Gaojiayan is always a disaster." Zhang Guowei said.

   "If the Yellow River doesn't go, Gaojiayan will be much better managed." Yue Xinmin said.

  Yue Xinmin, the first Jinshi of the Datong New Dynasty, volunteered to run to control the Yellow River. Just because he is from Sizhou, the Yellow River is dead, and Sizhou is in trouble.

  How dangerous is Sizhou?

  The terrain is four meters lower than Hongze Lake!

  Although Pan Jixun was the first person to rule the river in Ming Dynasty, he was scolded miserably by the people of Sizhou.

  Gaojiayan (Hongze Lake Embankment) is sixty miles long and one foot two feet high. It was used by Pan Jixun to store clear water and wash yellow. This is tantamount to artificially raising the water level of the Huaihe River. Once the flood floods, it will rush directly to Sizhou City.

  At that time, Chang Sansheng, an official of Sizhou, published a letter "Reporting the Water Hazards of Yamen in Beijing". Hearing the name of the memorial, one can know how angry Chang Sansheng was, criticizing the disadvantages of building Gaojiayan one by one, and then...he was dismissed from office.

  In the Qing Dynasty, high dams continued to be built, and the area of ​​Hongze Lake continued to expand. Sizhou City was also swallowed by Hongze Lake, and hundreds of thousands of people in the city were buried in fish belly.

  As a native of Sizhou, at this moment, Yue Xinmin wanted to cry.

  He knows water conservancy. If the Yellow River does not change its course, Sizhou City will be submerged sooner or later.

Zhang Guowei admired Yue Xinmin very much. He encouraged him: "You are the first scholar in the new dynasty, and you have made great achievements in water control. Your future is limitless. After the Yellow River is cured, I will join the cabinet. This is what His Majesty promised at the beginning. The entire Huaisi water system will continue to be rectified. Whether it is blocked or blocked, you can judge for yourself, and Huaisi must be cured."

   "Students, remember!" Yue Xinmin bowed down.

  When Zhao Han first joined the army, Zhang Guowei was already controlling the water, and the Jiangnan water network was governed by him submissively.

  Yue Xinmin is his chosen successor, and he will definitely be the pillar of water control in the future.

   Today's Hongze Lake is not as big as it will be hundreds of years later. Gaoyou Lake is not connected into one piece, it is scattered Wudang Twelve Lakes. These lakes are all the result of the Ming and Qing dynasties, in order to keep water transportation.

  Yue Xinmin suddenly said: "Your Majesty, can you do business?"

   "Yes." Zhang Guowei laughed.

  Zhang Guowei's management of the Yellow River is like Cameron filming "Titanic", asking for an additional budget while working on it.

  Although the emperor allocated funds many times, it still exceeds the budget by more than 800,000 taels.

  There are a lot of engineering materials, the payment is still owed, and the merchants have received a bunch of IOUs. The first thing Zhang Guowei did when he returned to Beijing was to ask the emperor to settle the payment for the goods. It is not a problem to be in arrears with merchants all the time.

   Fortunately, the Datong court has a strong reputation. Otherwise, those merchants would not be willing to pay on credit if they were beaten to death.

   Deep winter.

   Zhang Guowei came to Xuzhou and saw nearly a thousand exiles outside the city. He couldn't help but ask, "Why are there so many prisoners?"

  The accompanying officials gloated: "These are rich people, either officials from the Municipal Bureau of Shipping, or big merchants along the coast. This winter they will be sent to Xuzhou for centralized custody, and next spring they will be sent to Heilongjiang."

  The exiles do not go directly by sea because Xuzhou has a special government office.

  All immigrants and exiles going to the north must be registered in Xuzhou, which is equivalent to the big pagoda tree in the early Ming Dynasty.

  After listening to the officials' narration, Zhang Guowei just sneered. He worked so hard to manage the Yellow River, and these officials made a lot of money. deserve it!

  (end of this chapter)