Why there are floods in the Jiangbei area and even Fengyang Prefecture in Anlu Province is an obvious question. It is because the Yellow River takes the Huaihe River and flows into the sea, but the amount of water released from the lower reaches of the Huaihe River is limited.
Normally, the water of the Huaihe River itself can flow out to the sea. Well, if it is a rare flood season, floods will also occur.
And when a large amount of water from the Yellow River joins the Huaihe River, even in normal years, the river water will be silted up and unable to go out to sea in time. If it is the flood season, it will be even worse...
How did Hongze Lake come from?
This lake did not exist at the beginning. In the early days, there were only many small lakes here...
However, during the Song Dynasty, after the Yellow River took the Huai River and entered the sea, the Yellow River water poured into the Huai River, and the water volume increased. Eventually, the small lakes in this area gradually connected together, forming the early Hongze Lake.
Later, in order to prevent floods, successive dynasties, especially the Ming Dynasty, continued to build Hongze Lake embankments over the past two hundred years, which eventually led to the complete formation of Hongze Lake.
Today's Hongze Lake is the fourth largest Danshui lake in China.
Therefore, it took more than 400 years for the Yellow River to seize the Huaihe River and flow into the sea, and finally created Hongze Lake.
Looking at the formation of Hongze Lake, we can also simply understand how powerful the Yellow River is in taking away the Huaihe River and entering the sea. As for floods, they are incidental to nature.
After several years of investigation and investigation, officials from the Ministry of Water Resources finally came to the conclusion that if the flood-prone situation in Jiangbei, Anlu and even Henan is to be changed, the Hongze Lake levee alone and the flood control levees along the way are far from enough.
There are only two ways. One is to excavate the lower reaches of the Huaihe River to create an outlet with a larger water output. This is obviously impossible, not to mention this year, even in the 21st century. Things are too big in the project...
Then the only remaining way is to change the course of the Yellow River to reduce the pressure on the lower reaches of the Huaihe River. At the same time, after the Yellow River is changed, there will be a new outlet through the new river channel, and the water discharge volume will be greater during the flood season, reducing flooding along the Yellow River. disaster.
Based on this, the Ministry of Water Resources formally proposed a plan to divert the Yellow River.
Luo Zhixue also agreed with this, but in terms of specific plans, Luo Zhixue put forward several requirements.
The artificial diversion of the Yellow River must be based on the sole principle of benefiting the country and the people.
Under this principle, considering the high sediment content of the Yellow River and the future elevation of the river channel, it is necessary to ensure that the new river channel will be usable for the next hundred years or even longer to avoid the situation of an above-ground river channel.
When choosing a new river channel, we must consider the migration of people as much as possible. If we can move as few people as possible, we should move as few people as possible.
The amount of engineering work for the new river channel should be as small as possible to reduce costs.
The time cannot be delayed too long. The longer it is delayed, the lower the possibility of manual diversion, because as the world becomes more peaceful, the people and agricultural production in the candidate river channels will recover better and better, and the difficulty of relocation will become greater. The bigger it gets, the bigger the losses become.
Finally, Luo Zhixue emphasized that no matter what the plan is, the replenishment of the relocated people must be in place. The first choice is farmland compensation. It is necessary to ensure that every relocated people can get a piece of land to survive after arriving in their new home. Secondly, Provide help in cultivating the land, such as cattle, seeds, food rations during migration, etc.
In short, migration cannot become a migration of blood and tears, but a migration that people readily accept and even feel that they are taking advantage of it.
Among the many demands, the issue of relocation and resettlement is the one that Luo Zhixue attaches the most importance to. Others are nothing, except for the issue of relocation and resettlement of the people, which cannot be relaxed in any way.
Luo Zhixue will never allow a good thing that is supposed to benefit the country and the people and cost a lot of money to eventually turn into a bad thing that will be scolded by the people and even leave a millennium of infamy.
How can I put it, Luo Zhixue engaged in the artificial diversion of the Yellow River because he was trying to leave a good reputation that would last through the ages... If this name became infamous for thousands of years, Luo Zhixue would be so angry that he would vomit blood.
If anyone makes Luo Zhixue unhappy at this point, Luo Zhixue will make him and his whole family unhappy for the rest of his life. No, he won't even have a chance to be unhappy, he will just confiscate his family and exterminate his family!
YY
A group of people from the Ministry of Water Resources were surprised and delighted after hearing the many requests made by Luo Zhixue.
What is surprising is that Luo Zhixue's requirements are not low, and he is hinting both inside and outside of his words... Don't let me get out of this matter, otherwise I will kill your whole family... If this matter is not done well, it will be really fatal.
Fortunately, His Majesty has agreed to the artificial diversion plan of the Yellow River and is really ready to implement it. This is a great blessing for the Ministry of Water Resources, which is responsible for river engineering affairs.
As long as this huge project continues to be implemented, the influence of the Ministry of Water Resources will be greatly increased, and many officials of the Ministry of Water Resources will gain enough political capital from it to be promoted.
The ministers of the Ministry of Water Resources are counting on the merits of this project to enter the imperial study room...
How do you measure the importance of an institution in an empire? Putting aside some messy things, the most important thing is staffing and funding.
Because official organizations don’t have much need for profit... they have to do what they should do in daily life. If they do it well, they should be beaten. If they don’t do it well, they will be beaten. Under such circumstances, how can one organization be superior to other organizations? There is no doubt more funding and more staff.
What was the most important department among the civil service agencies of the Great Chu Empire?
Needless to say, it’s definitely the tax department!
Even the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which manages the appointment and dismissal of many civil servants, has to submit to the Department of Taxation. Why?
Because the tax department has the largest number of personnel and the largest amount of funds, tax officials are feared by everyone in the local area... They are even more jealous than the hawks and dogs of the Internal Affairs Department of the Hanlin Academy...
As for the Ministry of Water Resources, among the many civil servants in the Great Chu Empire, its power was neither higher nor lower. If it was to be said that it was important, it was definitely not as important as the Ministry of Taxation, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs.
But let’s say it’s not that good, at least it’s much better than the Department of Transportation, the Patrol Department, the Ministry of Justice and the like.
Because the Ministry of Water Resources is responsible for various rivers and lakes, the construction of vital flood control facilities is fully led by the Ministry of Water Resources.
In order to restore people's livelihood, the Da Chu Empire carried out large-scale construction of various flood control and drought relief facilities in various places. Strictly speaking, these projects were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Water Resources.
In addition, the Ministry of Water Resources is responsible for the dredging and maintenance of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
And having a project means having funds... If you want to build a large-scale water conservancy project in the local area, you have to go to the Ministry of Water Resources to pay homage to the dock and burn incense. Only in this way can you get funding and construction approval.
The so-called power is here!
This is today's Ministry of Water Resources. If we talk about the follow-up implementation of the Yellow River artificial diversion project, such a huge project has not been carried out for more than ten or twenty years, and the estimated funding is huge.
By then, the power of the Ministry of Water Resources will naturally increase. I can't say that it will be ranked in the first echelon of the imperial cabinet, but there is still hope for ranking in the second echelon.
After the meeting, the people from the Ministry of Water Resources left with joy and worry at the same time. They would be very busy next and needed to make a complete plan in the shortest possible time, especially the location and direction of the new river channel. Top priority.
This is not that easy. You can choose a place to serve as a river channel, and the downstream will turn into a vast ocean for you to see in minutes.
Therefore, when selecting a new river channel, detailed on-site inspections must be conducted, and only the best of the best can be selected to finalize the new river channel plan.
After the new river channel plan is finalized, it will enter a long construction period...
Why construction? Because you can't choose a new river channel and then directly blast it to change its course... Then the new river channel downstream will not be able to withstand a large amount of floods, and flooding is inevitable.
Therefore, some crooked river sections must be straightened in advance. If this is not possible, use another place to serve as the river channel. At the same time, if the water release volume of the scheduled river channel is not large enough, then other places must be selected to serve as new river channels to bypass them, or diversions must be adopted, and then there are Set up flood control zones and so on.
The Chu Empire's artificial diversion plan for the Yellow River was not just to find a place to blast and then ignore it and let the Yellow River burst its banks to flow eastward. Book the Xinhe Road all the way east.
If done in this way, it will not only reduce floods, but also improve the shipping and irrigation capabilities of the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
People from the Ministry of Water Resources were busy rerouting the Yellow River, and people from the Ministry of Industry found Luo Zhixue within a few days and petitioned to establish a 'Liaoyang Industrial Base' in Liaodong Province.
This industrial base is not an ordinary or provincial industrial base. According to the current preparations for the industrial base, the establishment of the industrial base requires approval from the next higher level government office.
The establishment of local prefecture-level industrial bases requires approval by provincial yamen, while provincial-level industrial bases require cabinet approval.
However, it is still the provincial agency that submits the application, rather than the Ministry of Industry submitting the application directly.
The industrial bases to which the Ministry of Industry directly submits applications can only be national-level industrial bases.
What surprised the people at the Ministry of Industry was that as soon as the application was submitted, His Majesty directly approved the establishment of the Liaoyang Industrial Base without any further nonsense...
This made the officials of the Ministry of Industry who had prepared countless materials in order to convince Luo Zhixue at the imperial meeting felt very strange!
You may say it's not good, but it's accomplished, and it's definitely worth celebrating.
But if you say okay, I always feel something is wrong. They are ready to overcome many difficulties to convince Luo Zhixue. After all, it is a national-level industrial zone, and it is also an industrial zone with huge investment. This investment is not a small amount, and there will be more It affects the industrial layout of the empire. Logically speaking, it is not that easy to take shape...
However, Luo Zhixue agreed before they started to exert any force.
Comparing the artificial diversion of the Yellow River by the Ministry of Water Resources, the difficulty of the two is completely different. You must know that the Ministry of Water Resources has begun to publish various reports on the artificial diversion of the Yellow River in the past few years. Last year, it compiled a lot of information. He described the pros and cons to Luo Zhixue in detail. When Luo Zhixue held the imperial meeting this year, he explained it in detail, and finally Luo Zhixue agreed to this plan.
Logically speaking, such a large project in Liaoyang Industrial Zone also has to go through such complicated steps. However, what the officials of the Ministry of Industry did not expect was that His Majesty directly approved it without asking, and then started What do the people from the Ministry of Industry plan to do with the Liaoyang Industrial Zone? What about the detailed plan?
This stunned the people at the Ministry of Industry...because they haven't made a detailed plan yet!
According to their assumptions, now should be the stage of persuasion, and then all parties will wrestle for several months. When all parties finally compromise and reach an agreement, Your Majesty will approve... By then, their Ministry of Industry will have almost made a detailed plan. .
Now... they haven't started getting into the detailed planning stage yet.
As a result, officials from the Ministry of Industry seemed to have entered overtime mode... A large number of officials from the Ministry of Industry worked overtime day and night, reading countless materials, especially those in industrial zones such as Dangtu, Dayun, Songjiang, and then Liaodong. The various survey reports sent back from there will eventually have to be coordinated with the finance department on funding issues.
Hundreds of people stayed up all night every day, and finally came up with the preliminary plan within five days...
When Luo Zhixue saw that Yuan Gaofeng, the Minister of Counselor, had red eyes and dark circles as big as pandas, he thought of the top-secret report from the Internal Affairs Department not long ago, saying that after Yuan Gaofeng secretly raised a pair of twins outside, He couldn't help but said: "Old Yuan, your health is very important!"
Yuan Gaofeng, who had led hundreds of people to stay up late for several days to make reports, couldn't help but be deeply moved when he heard this. Your Majesty still knows the hard work he has put in!
Immediately he looked very touched and said: "Thank you for your concern, your majesty. It is my duty to share your worries...and I am still young, so it doesn't matter."
These words made Luo Zhixue feel weird... Damn, you raised a bunch of daughters outside and tormented yourself like this, and you said you were sharing the worries for me... You really wanted to share the worries, but I didn't see you doing that. A pair of twins were brought to the palace... I heard from the people in the Internal Affairs Department that those twins were the most beautiful in the world.
Sure enough... this person is prone to making mistakes after being an official for a long time. Yuan Gaofeng has been serving in the Central Committee for many years. He will be replaced in a few years, but it is difficult to find the next Minister of Industry. , not only must have sufficient prestige and qualifications, but also have considerable experience in political struggle, and then must be proficient in industrial and commercial affairs.
It’s hard to find!
Yuan Gaofeng did not expect that Luo Zhixue was already thinking about the candidate for the next Minister of Industry.
At this moment, Yuan Gaofeng had respectfully handed the detailed plan for the Liaoyang Industrial Base to Luo Zhixue, and at the same time began to explain it.
"The Liaoyang Industrial Base will rely on local iron ore and coal resources. According to preliminary local survey results, we have discovered iron ore and a lot of coal mines in the Xianningying and Anshanbao areas, so we plan to In these two places, two steel plants will be built.”
"In addition to the steel plant, we will also invest in the construction of various supporting industries such as machinery, textiles, and oil extraction."
"Because we have also found that the Northeast is more suitable for growing soybeans. Recently, the demand for soybeans in some of our chemical plants has increased rapidly. Therefore, we are preparing to vigorously promote the planting of soybeans in Liaodong. This will not only promote the agricultural development of Liaodong, but also Promote the development of local soy-based chemical and food processing industries."
"In this way, the Liaodong region can implement steel-based heavy industry, soybean-based chemical industry and food processing, and adopt a new development model that walks on two legs, with industry and agriculture running in parallel!"
While Yuan Gaofeng was eloquently introducing the industrial and even agricultural layout of Liaodong, Luo Zhixue sighed... Forget it, let him work for a few more years!
Let the Palace Affairs Department find the twins and so on!
