The heavy rainstorm that swept through Guanzhong lasted from afternoon to early Youshi, and then gradually stopped. The fiery red sun broke through the clouds again, and it seemed to have become clearer. However, the dark clouds in the sky were still moving eastward at a rapid speed. Southern Movement.
At this moment, the Chengqing Hall in the palace was brightly lit and crowded. Many important ministers gathered together and talked about it.
Suwei, Zuopushe of the Shangshu Province and Prime Minister of the Council, looked up at the fiery red sun and the fast-moving dark clouds. He frowned and said, "It rained heavily all afternoon, and then suddenly it cleared up again. What on earth is going on?"
The right servant next to him, Gao Jiong, pinched his white beard under his chin and said, "I'm afraid God will kill you for this."
Pei Ju, the Huangmen servant, frowned deeply and said in a deep voice, "Su Gong, Gao Gong, this heavy rain has not happened for many years, I'm afraid it's not a good sign."
In the main hall, the officials were all talking about the heavy rain.
Although people are limited by knowledge and have a serious lack of ability to predict celestial phenomena, and everything must be judged by experience; however, through the summary of generations and their own experiences, older people have a more accurate prediction of special celestial phenomena. judge.
The northern counties of the Sui Dynasty suffered from severe drought for many years, and the first half of the year was marked by a prolonged drought without rain. Although such heavy rains temporarily alleviated the disaster in Guanzhong, the dramatic change in the sky has been remembered by many important ministers and officials. Haven't seen it for several years.
"The saint has arrived!" At this moment, the energetic voice of the guard came from behind, and the originally noisy voices in the hall fell silent.
Yang Guang, wearing an informal yellow robe, entered the main hall from the back door of Chengqing Hall. He sat behind the desk and looked at the dignitaries below.
"Meet the saint!" All the ministers bowed and saluted.
Yang Guang looked at the officials below and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, please excuse me."
"Thank you, saint!" The voices of the ministers rang out in the hall, and then they all took their seats.
"Everyone has seen it too! This first heavy rain since the beginning of summer has temporarily relieved the drought in Guanzhong, but I see the thick clouds drifting to the southeast, and it seems that there will be heavy rain in the southeast." Yang Guang paused After a moment, he said: "This is not a good thing for us in the Sui Dynasty. Moreover, the people in the north are rushing to harvest wheat. If there is a heavy rain, the food income will be greatly damaged. Next, the court must let everyone Counties and counties organized manpower to help the people harvest summer grain."
"Report to the saint!" Su Wei pondered for a long time and said: "After summer, the weather is changeable and unpredictable. There has been no rain in the north for many years. Raining at this time is normal. Nowadays, various places are working hard to harvest summer grain and seize the time to dry it. Even though Rain will not affect Xia Liang's income, I hope the saint can rest assured."
Yang Guang nodded and said solemnly: "At the same time, we must also prevent the occurrence of flood disasters. Although the Yellow River levee is safe, the river, Han River, and Huai River levees have not been repaired as a whole. Officials in the three major river basins are ordered to prepare for flood disasters, prevent floods from bursting over embankments, and ensure that floods are contained within the river channels."
When the officials below heard this, they were all shocked. Su Wei raised his hands worriedly and asked: "Sage, as far as I know, although the river, Han River, and Huai River embankments are somewhat dilapidated, when the saint was stationed in the south, he once The Jiangshui, Hanshui and Huaishui rivers have been greatly improved. Could it be that the heavy rain this summer is so serious?"
"No one can say for sure, but it's always good to take precautions." At the beginning of the year, Yang Guang saw a long drought in the north and asked Zhang Qiu Taiyi, the master of astronomy. Zhang Qiu Taiyi said that there will be heavy rain this year, which is very likely. The situation of drought in the north and floods in the south required the court to make some necessary preparations.
Judging from the current situation, Zhangqiu Taiyi's prediction is slowly being fulfilled. The court must be on guard and some necessary preparations must be made.
After Yang Guang finished his instructions, he remembered the flood disaster in the third year of Renshou. However, after Yang Lun repaired the Yellow River embankment, the Yellow River has become much calmer than in the south in recent years. However, he still felt uneasy and shot Su Su to Zuo Pu, who was in charge of people's livelihood. Wei asked: "Xiang Su, have there been any reports sent to the court from Jing, Yang, Yu, Xu and other states recently? Have there been heavy rainstorms in various places?"
"Sage, the land and officials of Huanghuai and Jianghuai have not reported any reports, and no one has said that there will be heavy rain." Su Wei said this.
, hesitated for a moment, and then silently left a leeway for himself: "The memorial that was submitted in the past few days said that the sun was shining everywhere and the sky was clear and cloudless. It would obviously take some time for the dark clouds in the sky to begin to move. Jianghuai and Huanghuai. In addition, the distance between the north and the south is long and transportation is inconvenient. Memorials from various states and counties in the south may still be on the way."
After hearing these last words, Yang Guang frowned inadvertently. He knew that Su Wei was such a person and had such a temperament, but Su Wei said too many words that were irresponsible and did not dare to do his best. It is inevitable that Yang Guang, who has heard too much, feels dissatisfied. He glanced at Su Wei and said calmly: "Immediately send a letter to Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Jiaozhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Xuzhou to order relevant officials to inspect the river embankments in various places to prevent summer floods. In addition, let them pay attention to the celestial phenomena. If there are any Extremely heavy rains have continued to fall, and we will immediately report the situation with an emergency call of 800. No mistakes are allowed."
"Old minister, I obey!" Su Wei accepted the order.
In fact, the Sui Dynasty has been experiencing constant disasters since the founding of the country. Drought in the north and floods in the south are common. Sudden drops in temperature and sudden snowfall in June and July are normal. Therefore, the ministers in the palace have long been numb to various natural disasters. If something happened, They would be surprised if no disaster occurred for a year.
At this time, when they heard Yang Guang's very serious words, they all felt disapproval. They secretly felt that the emperor was being alarmist and too nervous. It was just a heavy rainstorm that came and went in a hurry. There was no need to be nervous at all. This mobilizes the troops and mobilizes the masses. However, due to Emperor Yang Guang's growing authority and stable imperial power, and because he was thinking about the people of the world at this time, no one dared to oppose him.
. . . .
After discussing the two important issues of harvesting summer grain and preventing floods, the officials and ministers related to civil affairs and people's livelihood left one after another. A group of soldiers and generals were left behind by Yang Guang.
This time, most of the people were missing, making the empty main hall seem even more empty. It was getting late at this time, and Yang Guang was too lazy to change to the smaller side hall. He looked at Li Yuan and nodded to him, Signaling him to start.
Generally speaking, court meetings are presided over by the palace minister. If the court encounters any major events or makes any important decisions, the palace minister officials will copy the topics in advance and then distribute them to various ministries, departments, and important officials. Let everyone be mentally prepared so that when the next meeting is held, everyone can give a more detailed explanation and solution to the problem. Of course, things like what was discussed before are purely emergencies and are no longer included in this list.
But now, the normal way of discussing matters in court meetings is a little abnormal. Just because no one has received the agenda before, it is obvious that the emperor suddenly thought of some important matter and took it out to discuss with everyone while everyone was there.
Li Yuanguan paid homage to the young eunuch in the palace and was in charge of such issues. After getting Yang Guang's signal, he stood up and said loudly to everyone: "Masters, there are several issues today: First, the Yongji Canal has been excavated under the leadership of Yan Bi, the great craftsman. For a long time, however, he revised the plan over and over again, and the progress was even more unsatisfactory. Do you have any doubts about this?"
The Yongji Canal was another major project of the Sui Dynasty. In view of the fact that the overall planning and segmented contracting methods of the Tongji Canal were very good, and the people along the way could work nearby during the slack season, Yang Guang obtained additional income to subsidize their families. Coupled with the supervision of Gao Jun and Pei Yun, the process of digging the Tongji Canal not only caused no major deaths or complaints, but was also very popular among the people, so he immediately ordered the construction of the Yongji Canal in Hebei.
Although the Yongji Canal is more than 2,000 miles long, it is actually the same as the Tongji Canal in that it utilizes all natural rivers and old canals. It only needs to be dredged one by one and connected into one, then it will be a through-line The amount of work on the north-south arteries is far less than that of digging mountains. The main reason why it has not been completed is that the excavation plan has been changed again and again.
The first construction plan for the Yongji Canal was to divert Qin water into Baigou, which was also the southern section of the Yongji Canal and was the channel that was planned to be dug before.
As for Baigou, it is an old canal of the Cao Wei Dynasty. In the ninth year of Jian'an, when Cao Cao went north to conquer Yuan Shang, he "contained the water from Qi into the Baigou to connect the grain road." After Cao Wei's restoration, the water volume of Baigou increased, and together with the Qinghe River connected to it, it became the main water transport line in Hebei. The Yongji Canal is based on the old Cao Wei Canal and expands the channel into a large canal, which is also the middle section of the Yongji Canal. In later generations, Tianjin City to Zhuojun was the northern section of the Yongji Canal. This section mainly transformed the ancient Lu River.
The lower reaches of the two natural rivers of Sangganshui and Sangganshui.
However, after on-site inspections by Yang Da, Yan Pi and others, they found that the Yongji Canal on paper that "reaches Yuhe in the south and connects Zhuojun in the north" is unreasonable, and the problem mainly occurs in the southern section of the Yongji Canal.
First of all, Qinshui is sandy and prone to sedimentation, and the flow of clear water is limited. The accumulated water volume cannot push a large ship, and the large amount of sediment carried by Qinshui will surely sink into the river bed, making it unusable soon. Secondly, the terrain of Hanoi County, where the southern section of the Yongji Canal is located, is gentle. The water flows from east to west through Wen County, Hanoi County, and then enters the Yellow River. However, the impact of the water is far less than that of the Yellow River in the opposite direction. Once the Yellow River water pours into the southern section of the canal, the Yellow River water will The sediment carried will slowly sink into the canal bed with gentle water flow.
Combining the three poems, they believe that if it is built according to the established route, the southern section of the Yongji Canal will be completely scrapped within a few years. Even if the court dredges it, it will be dredged again and again, and the gain will not be worth the loss.
Therefore, it was suggested that the imperial court abandon this section of Hanoi County and transfer the southern section of Yongji Canal to Danshui, Qingshui, and Qishui to feed the canal. The entrance of Yongji Canal was therefore located in the Ji County area of Ji County, not as originally stated In Wen County, Hanoi County in the west, as for the abandoned southern section of Yongji Canal, we can just rely on the bed of the Yellow River.
Yang Guang agreed to this suggestion.
However, not long after, Yan Bi, who carefully examined it, said that the design of the middle and northern sections was unreasonable. He believed that the original rivers and lakes were indispensable irrigation water for the farmland along the coast and indispensable drinking water for the people; if The imperial court connected them together and drained away the water from these rivers and lakes. Then the water levels of these rivers and lakes would inevitably drop and they would not be able to irrigate the farmland "above". In the end, both the people and the farmland were greatly affected.
In view of this, he suggested that the middle and northern sections should follow the river instead of using the original river channels and lakes. In this way, the water used by the Yongji Canal is actually the excess water flowing in from the natural rivers and lakes. The water does not destroy the original "ecosystem", and the original "ecological balance" is also guaranteed.
How to deal with the water in Yongji Canal? He believed that the flood season was not affected at all, and instead solved the flood disaster in Hebei. As for the dry season, the water volume was definitely not enough, but the court could treat the surrounding lakes as huge "reservoirs" and the court could The lake embankments were heightened and strengthened, and then these lakes were used to store water on a regular basis. Once the water in the Yongji Canal was insufficient and the ship could not be pushed, the gates were opened to release water into the Yongji Canal. And the water in those lakes that have been raised and strengthened will not only be able to irrigate places that could not be irrigated before in the future, but also ensure that the current farmland will not be affected in drought years.
Yang Guang also listened to this suggestion. After all, what he wanted to build was a major project that would leave a lasting name in history and be used for thousands of years, rather than a temporary achievement that would waste people and money. Since these good remedies are all right, take into account the interests of all aspects, and perfectly solve all hidden dangers, then why shouldn't he agree?
However, as a result, many natural rivers, lakes, and old channels will no longer be usable, and many mountains will need to be re-excavated. As a result, the amount of work will be greatly increased, and the progress of the project will be greatly affected.
This also made Yang Guang gradually lose his patience.
Especially this year, there was a drought and poor harvest in the north, and the fact that the imperial court had food but was unable to support the north made him even more annoyed. He believes that if the Yongji Canal is fully connected, then countless large grain ships can continuously sail to Hebei and Youzhou through the Yongji Canal, just like the Tongji Canal. Why bother to go to each county to collect grain? ?
More importantly, there is a possibility of fighting this time during the Northern Patrol. If the Yongji Canal is opened, then armor, weapons, soldiers and military pay can be transported to Zhuojun at the northern exit of the Yongji Canal, but everything , all delayed due to insufficient project progress.
After hearing this topic, there was a sudden silence in the hall, and some ministers looked worried.
In fact, since major projects such as Tongji Canal and Luoyang New Capital were completed through work-for-relief and "section contracting" methods, ministers saw that the government's supervision was in place and the people were satisfied, so when they discussed major projects, They no longer object to it as they did before, or denounce it as a waste of money and people. Instead, they consider something deeper.
Because the Ministry of Industry of the Imperial Court, Jiang Zuojian and other construction agencies had precedents and successful experiences in digging the Tongji Canal, the Yongji Canal construction plan was
After repeated revisions, it has become far more reasonable than Tongji Canal. Once built successfully, its benefits will definitely be greater than Tongji Canal, and its harm will definitely be smaller than Tongji Canal. But the emperor was obviously tired of waiting; now he was not only anxious, but also seemed to be planning to launch labor.
If he really did this, it would not be a good thing for the Sui Dynasty!
