The army conquered various places in Henan, and Su He was temporarily idle in Kaifeng City.
He called Qian Mingyi, the governor of Henan, and Li Shengming, the prefect of Kaifeng, to board the Yellow River embankment.
They stood on the embankment of the Yellow River and looked northward at the vast plain area including Kaifeng City.
The Qin Army specifically measured the height of the Yellow River above Kaifeng City near Kaifeng, which was generally between five and six meters.
All it takes is a small breach in the Yellow River embankment, and massive amounts of Yellow River water will flow into the land of Henan.
The vast area of Henan will become a swamp within three to five years, making it impossible to grow food.
This is the Little Ice Age and the weather is erratic.
Manifested in most areas of the north is continued drought.
Henan has also experienced varying degrees of drought in recent years.
Especially last year, the severe drought and military disaster caused many people from Henan to flee to Shaanxi and Huguang.
Su He looked at the Yellow River embankment under his feet. History records that six years later, there would be widespread heavy rains in the north.
The Yellow River embankment breach near Kaifeng was one of the several Yellow River breaches recorded in history, and the consequences were far-reaching.
Henan became a vast country, and more than a million people were killed directly or died of starvation in the later period.
This time in history, the Yellow River burst, draining away the last trace of vitality of the Ming Dynasty.
If Suhe wants to secure its position, it must tame this unruly mother river.
He looked at Li Shengming, the prefect of Kaifeng, and asked, "Li Aiqing, what do you think when you look at this hanging river?"
Li Shengming, the prefect of Kaifeng, was comforting the people of Kaifeng who were affected by the disaster.
When he was busy at work, King Qin took him to the embankment of the Yellow River.
This is definitely not about visiting the scenery, but leaving more important things to him than governing Henan.
Li Shengming knew that this was the time to show off his talents.
He looked at the frozen Yellow River and thought about Qin King Su He's question.
He thought for a moment and then said: "Your Majesty, if the Yellow River is well managed, it can support tens of millions of people along the river.
Poor management will cause disasters along the Yellow River every few years.
Creating hundreds of thousands or millions of refugees will also cause food harvests to disappear in one or several provinces, placing a huge burden on us.
A long-lasting and stable dynasty in history must manage this mother river.
But with the accumulation of sediment in the Yellow River, the Yellow River has become increasingly difficult to manage.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the management of the Yellow River was extremely poor. The emperors of the Song Dynasty did not know how to manage the river and often messed around, causing serious disasters on both sides of the Yellow River.
Major events such as the Yellow River bursting and changing its course have happened many times.
Wei Chen believed that we should not be afraid of spending money to regulate the Yellow River. He spent millions of taels of silver coins to repair all the Yellow River levees and reinforce the problematic Yellow River levees.
Before the Yellow River levee breaks, there will inevitably be multiple warnings.
As long as there are dedicated people patrolling the embankment, they can discover the problem in time and find out the problematic areas of the Yellow River embankment.
Timely repair and reinforcement of the Yellow River embankments can reduce the disasters caused by the Yellow River. "
When Su He heard Li Shengming's answer, he was not satisfied.
Li Shengming's answer is what has been done in all dynasties.
If someone does a good job, it will only reduce the disaster in the Yellow River.
Because of someone's mistakes, disasters continued to hit both sides of the Yellow River, and the mother river turned into a disaster river.
However, these methods only treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. Repairing the Yellow River embankment is very expensive, but there is no way to prevent the disaster.
Once the officials become corrupt and no one cares about the Yellow River embankment, it will cause many disasters.
He looked at Qian Mingyi, the governor of Henan who had been thinking beside him, and asked: "Mingyi, what do you think of the Yellow River, a river hanging above the ground?"
Qian Mingyi stayed with King Su He of Qin for a long time, and practiced in Ningxia and other places for several years, and his knowledge increased.
He has a certain understanding of King Qin Su He.
Knowing that King Qin Su He asked this question, he would definitely not choose the past dynasties' method of regulating the Yellow River.
"Your Majesty, Dayu's mastery in controlling floods lay in removing blockages and combining them.
When a river floods, just blocking the river is treating the symptoms but not the root cause. Sooner or later, it will no longer be able to block the river.
The Yellow River is a hanging river that has been hanging over the land of Henan.
No matter how well the embankments on both sides of the Yellow River are reinforced, the Yellow River will inevitably burst in the event of a natural disaster.
The difficulty of the Yellow River lies in the fact that it is an above-ground river and that the river contains huge amounts of sediment.
If you want to control the Yellow River, you must treat the root cause. Even if it costs a lot, you must completely control the Yellow River. "
Su He listened to Qian Mingyi's suggestion, and his thoughts were similar to his own.
As the founding monarch of the country, Su He had strong authority and courage, and spent massive amounts of money to thoroughly control the Yellow River.
After his death, future generations of monarchs will never have the courage and determination to regulate the Yellow River.
"Mingyi, please introduce in detail the plan to control the Yellow River."
When Qian Mingyi listened to Qin Wang Su He's question, he knew that his suggestion had been approved by Qin Wang Su He.
"Your Majesty, my plan to manage the Yellow River starts from two aspects.
The first point is to control the sediment in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
The Yellow River produces sediment, which is a large amount of loess in the Shaanxi-Gansu region, which is washed into the Yellow River by the river.
The method of surface management is to plant multiple trees.
Shade trees in the Shaanxi-Gansu region can greatly reduce the amount of yellow sand entering rivers.
In addition, large reservoirs have been established in various places, and at the right time every year, water is released to impact the sediment in the Yellow River.
The Yellow River sediment can be washed into the sea, and the Yellow River's overhanging river will not be raised.
The deep-level treatment method is to find the reason why large areas of loess are formed in the Shaanxi-Gansu region.
During the Tang Dynasty, there were large forests in the Shaanxi-Gansu region and the land was extremely fertile.
What it is like now is mainly due to the contradiction between man and land.
As the population increases, if you want to obtain more land, you have to cut down forests for farming.
This has resulted in the land gradually becoming deserted, serious soil erosion, weakening the fertility of the land, and a large amount of sediment washed into the rivers.
The population that the Shaanxi-Gansu region can carry is limited.
Nowadays, due to natural disasters and other reasons, the population of Shaanxi-Gansu region is very small.
Just plant a large number of trees to solve the problem of sediment entering the river.
I suggest that relevant laws be introduced to prohibit large-scale felling of trees in the Shaanxi-Gansu region. "
Su He listened to Qian Mingyi's suggestion, and he agreed with it.
The main reason for the disappearance of forests in the Shaanxi-Gansu region is that there are too many people, which requires more land to grow food and more firewood for heating.
Then the forest can only be cut down.
The secondary reason is that the precipitation line has moved southward, causing forests in the Shaanxi-Gansu region to be no longer able to be formed by the power of nature.
Now the population of Shaanxi and Gansu is very small, and immigrants from other regions need to be immigrated.
Now is the time to plant massive forests while limiting the population.
With industrial development, land can also support more people.
China will only be short of people in the future, and will never be short of land to accommodate people.
Qian Mingyi looked at King Qin Su He with a satisfied smile.
He continued: "The fundamental way to control the Yellow River, a hanging river above the ground, is to make it no longer a hanging river above the ground."
Li Shengming, the prefect of Kaifeng, who was standing aside, heard Qian Mingyi's words and asked in surprise:
"How is this possible? The Yellow River is five or six meters above the ground. How can we dig it down?"
Qian Mingyi smiled and said: "Why do we need to dig the original channel of the Yellow River?
Just calculate the flow of the Yellow River and build a dam next to it.
The open space between the original Yellow River channel and the new dam is the new Yellow River channel.
Once a new river channel is built, the Yellow River can be diverted artificially.
We only need the amount of work to build a new levee.
This will completely solve the problem of the Yellow River, a suspended river above ground. "
When Li Shengming, the prefect of Kaifeng, heard what Qian Mingyi said, he asked in surprise: "Governor Qian, your method is very good, but it requires too many silver coins.
Without tens of millions of taels of silver coins as a foundation, this project cannot be built.
When building a new Yellow River embankment, should it be built with reinforced concrete? "
Qian Mingyi shook his head and said: "I don't know how to use reinforced concrete. I asked the experts who study cement.
He said that the expected lifespan of cement buildings produced now is only about 40 years.
After more than ten years, the cement building will continue to weather. After more than twenty years, the outermost layer of cement can be crushed directly by hand.
When we build projects that will last for hundreds of years, cement is not the material of choice.
The cost of concrete is also too high and is not suitable for building very long Yellow River embankments.
Reservoirs are built with cement because they can be continuously repaired.
Under normal circumstances, the dam will not be repaired frequently, so it needs to last longer.
Common gravel and soil are still used to build the Yellow River embankment. The materials are easy to obtain and cheap. "
Su He listened to Qian Mingyi's method. This method was similar to what he thought. It was to abandon the original river channel and build a new one.
The original plan for Suhe River was to build two dykes.
Now according to Qian Mingyi's method, the Yellow River problem can be solved with only the amount of work to build a dam.
Su He looked at Qian Mingyi, nodded and said: "This is a very good idea. If this project is really completed, there won't be any big problems in the Yellow River for hundreds of years to come.
But it required an extremely large amount of silver coins to be invested, at least 20 million taels of silver coins, and took more than ten years to complete. "
Su He had previously calculated the silver coins and time needed to rebuild the dike.
The two dams cost 4,000 to 5,000 taels of silver coins and took more than twenty years.
Qian Mingyi's plan only requires the construction of a dike.
The time required can be reduced by half. This is also a project that takes more than ten years to build.
Qian Mingming said: "Your Majesty is right. Building this dam and changing the suspended river into a normal river requires an investment of a lot of silver coins and manpower, and it takes more than ten years.
This plan can only be used as a long-term plan and implemented step by step.
The current plan is to strengthen the embankments of the Yellow River to prevent the Yellow River from bursting in the near future.
At the same time, reservoirs were built on the Yellow River to regulate the water conservancy resources of the Yellow River.
Our experience in Hanzhong and Sichuan shows that building reservoirs can effectively regulate rivers.
Store water in good years and release water in bad years.
While regulating the Yellow River, we must also build supporting water conservancy facilities.
Let irrigation canals go deep into every field. "
Su He said with great satisfaction: "Mingyi, you have an overall plan, that's very good.
Sichuan has basically completed the construction of its water conservancy system.
Rice fields far away from rivers can now be fully irrigated, and food production has doubled.
Henan has vast plains and is one of the best wheat growing areas.
Especially with the emergence of winter wheat and corn, the upward trend of grain output in Henan is higher than that in Huguang.
I predict that Henan will replace Huguang and become the new big granary of China.
In this process, improving the water conservancy system is very important. "
Su He stood on the Yellow River embankment and kept discussing with Qian Mingyi related matters related to the management of the Yellow River.
He would occasionally ask Li Shengming, the prefect of Kaifeng, for his opinion.
When Su He returned to Kaifeng City, he asked Li Shengming to find the old subordinate who managed the Yellow River in Kaifeng City.
There are also officials responsible for regulating the Yellow River in the Ming Dynasty.
Su He listened to them talk about the methods used to control the Yellow River before the Ming Dynasty.
Understand the specific management of the Yellow River in the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty had a complete set of relatively mature and effective methods for regulating the Yellow River.
But with the corruption of officials, this method gradually failed.
Every year, the imperial court allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars to regulate the Yellow River.
The money actually spent on regulating the Yellow River was less than ten thousand taels of silver.
Among the yamen, 80% of them have never been on the Yellow River embankment, and they are all paid workers.
Su He didn't know if after decades of development, it would become like this under his rule.
But he has now decided that before regulating the Yellow River, a complete supervision system must be established.
The Yellow River Yamen was established in Suhe, specifically responsible for managing the Yellow River.
This yamen is affiliated to the cabinet, and all affairs of the yamen are supervised by the cabinet.
At the same time, he asked the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the censor to focus on the Yellow River Yamen.
The tax bureau also has tax police stationed to check the tax payment status of Huanghe Yamen at all times.
These are all civil service systems, and Su He wanted to prevent the civil service system from colluding.
He asked Su Changsheng to send someone to keep an eye on the Yellow River Yamen.
In this era, secret service agencies like the Secret Guard naturally have no dealings with the civil service group.
Let them keep an eye on the civil servants of Huanghe Yamen. Even if the multiple insurances fail, there will still be people who can serve as Su He's eyes and ears.
After Su He made the plan, he immediately called Qian Mingyi, the governor of Henan.
Qian Mingyi came to see Su He soon.
Su He looked at him standing aside and said with a smile:
"Mingyi, don't be too formal, sit down and have a sip of tea, I have something to give you.
I plan to set up a Yellow River Yamen under the direct control of the cabinet to specifically manage the Yellow River and manage various matters related to the Yellow River.
The top priority now is to build reservoirs and strengthen the dams on both sides of the Yellow River.
The long-term goal is to thoroughly control the Yellow River, re-route it to a new waterway, and eliminate the hidden danger of the river hanging above the ground.
Mingyi, after considering your suggestion for a few days, I think it is very feasible.
Qian Mingyi is now appointed as the Minister of the Yellow River concurrently, responsible for managing the Yellow River. "
When Qian Mingyi heard the appointment of Qin King Su He, he was extremely excited and immediately stood up and said:
"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, Mingyi will do everything possible to manage the Yellow River well."
Su He looked at Qian Mingyi's excited expression and motioned for Qian Mingyi to sit down. He continued:
“You don’t have to worry about the money to manage the Yellow River.
Now it is paid directly by the Qin Palace. After the country is officially established, special national bonds will be issued to raise funds for the management of the Yellow River.
Now Henan has a lot of waste waiting for development, and winter is the time of leisure for farming.
A large number of people from Henan can be recruited to manage the Yellow River.
This is also our method of providing relief through work. "
Su He told Qian Mingyi to manage the Yellow River immediately.
It is winter now, which is not suitable for dam building, but we can still make some preliminary preparations.
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