The Great Zhou Dynasty has been suffering from the Yellow River for a long time!
How did Liangshanbo come from?
After the Yellow River burst several times, the floods surged eastwards in a mighty manner, and finally ended up at the ancient Juye Lake, where they converged into an eight-hundred-mile water bank in the Liangshan Mountains.
History books record the scene at that time: "The bank was destroyed by 700 steps, overflowing the city, passing through Chan, Pu, Cao, and Yun, and ending in Liangshan."
Later, Liangshanbo had a vast water surface, rich products, and was also an important water conservancy and transportation hub.
But we must never forget that in the process of forming Liangshanbo, how many cities were submerged and how many people were displaced.
River defense is a major issue related to the country, but the Yellow River is so untamed that it forced everyone from the emperor to the common people to study water conservancy intensively.
Even a former playboy like Gu Tingye could casually tell a story.
The same is true for Zhao Ceying.
In fact, Zhao Ceying has always paid great attention to collecting the policies and strategies for river management in counties along the river for his own reference. The dredging rake he mentioned to Wei Chen earlier is one of them.
However, today's strategies to regulate rivers are like laying earth on walls, patching roof leaks and tiles, regulating rivers year after year, bursting embankments year after year, and there is no end to it year after year.
Every summer and autumn, when the river water rises, the people along the river become very nervous. It is common to have three surprises in one night.
Zhao Ceying originally had full confidence in dredging rivers, thinking that this move was quite innovative and might be able to solve the dilemma of river defense in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
But after hearing Wei Chen's explanation, Zhao Ceying realized that compared with the previous method, this dredging rake was just a change of soup without changing the medicine, and it was equally useless.
The hope that was finally born was shattered, which made Zhao Ceying feel a little depressed.
However, Gu Tingye noticed the look on Wei Chen's face when he spoke. Seeing that he looked confident, his heart suddenly moved and he immediately asked: "Does Xingyun have any good ideas in mind?"
After hearing Gu Tingye's words, Zhao Ceying, who was lowering his head and sighing, also became energetic. He quickly looked up at Wei Chen, with hope in his eyes.
"The solution is actually very simple."
Wei Chen's eyes were bright and he said loudly: "Four words, follow the trend! Since the water of the Yellow River can bring sediment, it will naturally take away the sediment."
"Can you bring it or take it away?"
Gu Tingye felt that Monk Zhang Er was confused and did not understand what Wei Chen meant.
Zhao Ceying on the side frowned and seemed to be thoughtful, but after thinking about it over and over again, he still couldn't get the point.
Seeing the two people's confused looks, Wei Chen explained with a smile: "For a long time, the methods used to control floods in the Yellow River can be roughly summarized into two types. In addition to building high embankments and dams on both sides, the other method is to divert the river water. to slow down the water.”
"Concentration makes it urgent, and division makes it slow. This is the characteristic of water flow. Is there anything wrong with making the best use of the situation?" Gu Tingye asked curiously.
Wei Chen smiled and shook his head and said: "Specialization leads to urgency, and separation leads to slowness. Of course this is true, but everyone knows there is another saying, quickness leads to smoothness, slowness leads to siltation!
The water will be slow, the sand will stop when the water is slow, and the river will be full when the sand stops.
The Yellow River carries eight buckets of sand with two liters of water. Once the water slows down, a large amount of sediment carried by the river water will be deposited in the river channel, causing the river bed to become higher and higher.
As a result, the embankment was forced to be raised, and eventually it became a suspended river for boating on the house, like a sharp sword hanging over the heads of all the people along the river! "
"It turns out that this is how the Xuanhe River came to be, and the strategy of dividing the water flow to control the river was actually wrong at the root!"
After hearing Wei Chen's incisive analysis, Gu Tingye and Zhao Ceying suddenly realized.
“There is nothing wrong with water-dividing potential as a method of water control.”
Wei Chen promptly corrected him: "During the autumn floods of the Yellow River, the river water will experience a surge. If the water flow cannot be diverted in time, it is likely to cause the embankment to burst. In order to prevent severe floods, planned flood diversion is necessary.
However, from the perspective of long-term management of the Yellow River, river management is sand control. In normal times, we should still build embankments to contain water and use water to attack sand. This is the strategy of concentrating water to attack sand! "
"Bound water to attack sand?"
Gu Tingye and Zhao Ceying were confused for a moment when they heard this new term coming out of Wei Chen's mouth.
"It means building another embankment within the existing embankment to narrow the river channel, speed up the water flow and take away the sediment." Wei Chen explained patiently.
As he spoke, he picked up a branch and sketched it on the sand beside the river embankment to demonstrate it to Gu Tingye and Zhao Ceying.
"The river water is restrained by the inner embankment, so it will naturally flow down the river bed. The deepening of the river bed is equivalent to the heightening of the embankments on both sides. If things go on like this, the river embankments will naturally be stable, and the situation of the river hanging above the ground will also be greatly improved."
Wei Chen's words were unique and completely different from the accepted views on river management in this era, which made both Gu Tingye and Zhao Ceying think deeply about it.
The two of them thought for a long time based on the schematic diagram Wei Chen drew on the sand, and finally felt that Wei Chen's method was unique and could fundamentally solve the problem of the Yellow River's bed rising year by year in one fell swoop.
Zhao Ceying was once again impressed by Wei Chen's erudition and talent, bowed deeply to Wei Chen respectfully, and sincerely praised: "Sir, you are really the reincarnation of He Bo!"
Gu Tingye said with emotion: "Xingyun, you are from the south of the Yangtze River, but you know how to manage the Yellow River better than us northerners who grew up on the banks of the Yellow River. It's really shameful!"
Facing the compliments from the two of them, Wei Chen just waved his hand modestly.
He knew very well that the water-attacking sand attack that amazed both Gu Tingye and Zhao Ceying was actually just a temporary solution.
The real solution is to clarify the Yellow River so that it no longer carries so much sediment.
In fact, the sediment carried by the Yellow River comes from Guanzhong and Guanxi. Further up, it is as clear as a spring all year round.
The reason is that Guanzhong and Guanxi have suffered from excessive deforestation for thousands of years, leaving barren mountains everywhere.
Whenever there is rain, the sediment will flow into the Yellow River along with the water flow, causing the current situation of the Yellow River where one bowl is filled with water and half is filled with sand.
To cure the root cause, we still need to restore the ecological environment upstream so that the mountains can be covered with lush vegetation again, so as to avoid soil erosion.
To achieve this, the manpower and material resources required are astronomical, and the time consumed is extremely long. If you persist for a hundred years, you may not see much results. This requires the joint efforts of several generations or even more than a dozen generations. Finished business.
However, one of the characteristics of the feudal dynasty is that when people die and political power ceases to exist, it is no more than wishful thinking to expect the imperial court to work together and consistently complete a major plan that will last for thousands of years.
Even if it is a major river defense issue related to the country, there will be no exceptions in this regard.
Wei Chen had already understood this.
Therefore, emergency measures such as restricting water and attacking sand are more practical, which can at least protect the people on both sides of the river from river disasters for decades.
