There is a modern song called "Descendants of the Dragon". There is a line in the song that goes like this: "There is a river in the far east, and its name is the Yellow River..."
The Yellow River is the mother river of the Chinese nation. This turbulent mother river has given birth to the splendid Chinese civilization, but it has never been a "good mother". The continuous diversion and flooding in history have brought countless disasters to the people of the Yellow River Basin. A devastating disaster. Even in the modern era of the 21st century, there are still a large number of floating corpses on the Yellow River!
Throughout the development of human civilization, it is actually a history of the struggle between man and nature, with some harmonious coexistence and some tense situations. With the vigorous development of Chinese civilization in the Yellow River Basin, more and more human activities and the expanding population encounter floods, which will inevitably lead to flood disasters.
Judging from the dynasty changes in Chinese history, the Yellow River Basin has been in a cycle of decline-war-reconstruction-prosperity-decline. Each new round of prosperity is a new round of disaster for nature. As the farming civilization of the Han culture moved more and more southward, the sediment accumulated for hundreds of years finally ushered in a new round of explosion.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Yellow River breached and changed its course more frequently.
According to "Introduction to River Management in the Ming and Qing Dynasties", in the 277 years of the Ming Dynasty alone, the number of Yellow River breaches and diversions reached an astonishing 456 times, which occurred once every seven months on average. . In the 1,500 years from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the end of the Tang Dynasty, the number of embankment breaches in the entire Yellow River Basin was only more than 60 times, with an average of only one embankment breach and flood every twenty-five years!
River floods not only took away millions of lives, but also caused a large number of refugees to flee and migrate, forming a population flow situation of "big disasters and big tides, small disasters and small tides". In the Ming Dynasty, about one-tenth of the more than 60 million registered people in the country became refugees. Not only did they live in a foreign land without a fixed place, but they also suffered from famine and countless people died of starvation.
The Henan region has suffered the most. In the early Ming Dynasty, 72% of floods occurred in Henan Province!
Of course, in this case, the court spent countless money on building river embankments and controlling floods every year. During the Ming Dynasty, the annual cost of building river embankments and controlling floods accounted for about 10% of the imperial government's fiscal revenue. During the Qing Dynasty, this ratio once reached 20%!
In the Manna Hall, the atmosphere suddenly became tense.
Li Er asked with an ugly face: "There will be a flood in Luoyang in nine years~? Li Zexuan, did Lingxu really predict this before his death~?"
The five ministers in the main hall looked at Li Zexuan with burning eyes. The Yellow River burst its banks and flooded Luoyang. This was not a small matter. The real person Lingxu had been mythologized by many people. The prophecy he uttered had to be Make people pay attention!
Last year, Li Zexuan said that a locust plague would break out in Guanzhong in June this year. In the end, a group of generals headed by Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin came forward to guarantee it, and the imperial court sent a fleet south to trade and exchange food.
At that time, Chang Sun Wuji and a group of civil servants felt that even if the locust plague did not break out as scheduled, the imperial court would not lose money in exchange for so much food at such a low price from a small country in Southeast Asia! And everyone can predict that the decisive battle between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks will be within the next few years. Even if there is no locust plague, the Tang Dynasty will still need a lot of food and grass to prepare for the war!
That’s why they agreed with Li Zexuan’s strategy of collecting grain in Guangtun!
But now Li Zexuan says that a flood will break out in Luoyang in nine years, causing the whole city to be flooded. Is this okay?
You know, Luoyang City's status in the Tang Dynasty was second only to Chang'an. In the first year of Emperor Yang's great career in the Sui Dynasty, Luoyang was established as the eastern capital. After Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty, he even ordered palaces to be built in Luoyang. Later, Wu Zetian, who had monopolized power and became the ruler of the dynasty, directly made Luoyang the eastern capital. The name was changed to the divine capital, which shows Luoyang's important position in the Tang Dynasty!
Chang'an City was the political center of the Tang Dynasty, and Luoyang was the economic and cultural center of the Tang Dynasty! Although the population of Luoyang City is not as large as that of Chang'an, it is not far behind, with a population of at least 700,000 to 800,000!
If the entire city of Luoyang is flooded, the loss will be really huge!
Under the gaze of everyone, Li Zexuan bowed his hands to Li Er with a solemn expression and said: "Your Majesty, this matter is of great importance. I dare not speak nonsense! My master once said that in the eleventh year of Zhenguan, the sky was filled with yellow air, heavy rain, and the grain water overflowed. The Luoyang Palace is four feet deep, destroying the left gate and destroying the palace and temple for 19~!"
The matter was so important that Li Zexuan really didn't dare to talk nonsense. According to official history, Luoyang City would indeed be flooded in July of the 11th year of Zhenguan, but these words were not said by the real person Lingxu, but written in the history books!
"What? Water entering Luoyang Palace?"
Hearing what Li Zexuan said was serious, as if he had seen it with his own eyes, Li Er's face was suddenly covered with a layer of haze. The terrain of Luoyang Palace is so high. If even Luoyang Palace was flooded four feet, wouldn't the people The flood is overwhelming and millions of people are dead?
"Then if we follow your words and plant trees in the Yellow River Basin, the flood disaster in Luoyang nine years later can be avoided~?"
There was no snow in Chang'an City all winter last year, and this year's locust plague was almost a foregone conclusion. Li Er did not dare to ignore the prediction made by Li Zexuan's master Lingxu.
Li Zexuan pondered for a moment, then cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, as the saying goes, it takes ten years to grow trees and a hundred years to cultivate people. It does not take a day or two for a sapling to grow into a big tree. Improving the soil structure of the Yellow River Basin cannot be completed within a year or two." of!
I cannot guarantee that afforestation will change the fate of Luoyang that will be flooded nine years later. However, compared to building dams and providing disaster relief and controlling floods, afforestation is definitely the most effective and cheapest way to control the Yellow River at the moment!
Once there is a large-scale protective forest in the Yellow River Basin, the sediment content in the Yellow River will be greatly reduced. Even if the Luoyang flood in nine years' time cannot be avoided, there may be overhanging rivers and dam failures in ten or twenty years. If the dike breaks, it will never happen again easily! This is a matter that will serve the present and will benefit the future. Your Majesty is wise and powerful, and has high aspirations. I hope that Your Majesty will make a prudent decision! "
Although the occurrence of Yellow River floods in the Tang Dynasty was indeed more frequent than in the previous dynasties, compared with the subsequent Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, it can be said that the floods in the Tang Dynasty were not at all frequent and not serious at all!
However, as a descendant of the Yan and Huang Dynasties, and as a time traveler who knows the future, Li Zexuan feels that he has the responsibility to control the Yellow River when it first starts to become dirty, since he is reborn in such an open and tolerant era, so as to avoid In future generations, hundreds of millions of Han people will die in floods!
Those people who died in the Yellow River floods were all his compatriots!
His prosperous Tang Dynasty did not allow for any regrets! Therefore, Li Zexuan spent a lot of effort and words to persuade Li Er and these imperial ministers to believe that his afforestation and waterproofing policy might not be used for thousands of years. Some people remember Li Zexuan, Marquis of Yong'an, but those who grew up drinking the water of the Yellow River can only remember him as the initiator of afforestation!
.....................
Sogou reading website:
