But Li Xuan knew that diversion of the Yellow River was not easy to do, not to mention extremely difficult, and with the empire's current technical strength, the risks were also very high.
If an accident occurs, the trouble will be huge. The Yellow River is not a small river, but a big river. Once an accident occurs during the diversion process, the Yellow River does not flow through a certain area as planned, but has gaps in certain areas.
If accidental diversion occurs, a large area will be affected.
And the scale of the disaster will definitely be the most serious since the founding of the Tang Dynasty.
This is why the empire currently prefers to invest huge sums of money every year to maintain flood control projects in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Huaihe River, rather than diverting them.
But Li Xuan knew that this matter would have to be done sooner or later. In the past, it was just the technical ability, especially the large-scale construction ability, that was lacking, but now the construction ability is slowly improving. After a while, especially when the internal combustion engine technology matures.
, when a large number of construction machinery appears, it will be much easier to carry out large-scale infrastructure construction.
When the time comes, we will take the initiative to artificially divert the Yellow River. If the main preparations are done well, then it can be said that it is completely feasible.
Large-scale infrastructure construction, especially projects with huge amounts of earthwork, is not impossible to rely solely on manpower, but it will take a very long time.
Now the empire is building a canal in Panama, and the construction basically relies on manpower. Now there are more than 100,000 people working on the canal construction site, and the mortality rate is extremely high. Tens of thousands of people die every year...
This thing is totally taking human lives!
This is why the Panama Canal Company only recruits indigenous workers.
If so many people of the Empire died while digging the canal, all the management of the company would probably be shot.
As for the Suez Canal in Egypt, which the Empire is currently negotiating with the Ottoman Empire, no matter how the follow-up negotiations go, it is expected that when the construction is completed, it will probably be in the same model as the Panama Canal, with mainly indigenous laborers, and the Imperial people will at most
They just serve as some managers, and I don't think they even work as supervisors.
But in the mainland, you can't do anything. If you don't see the Datang Railway Corporation building railways, you have to be honest and honest. You will never dare to risk human life to fight for progress. The only exception is criminals.
After all, there are very few prisons in the empire, so there are not many criminals who have the opportunity to go to jail. Most of the sentenced criminals, except for direct execution of the death penalty, are basically exiled.
There are local exiles and overseas exiles. There are many modes of local exile, but in the past twenty years, they have mainly been sent to remote and dangerous places to build railways.
If you are exiled overseas, you will be sent to an uninhabited overseas territory, such as the Alaskan region of North America in the Arctic region. There are not even a few indigenous people on that slope, except for ice and snow.
There are also other areas with harsh environments. Not only are the natural environments of those islands harsh, but the indigenous people in some places are even very ferocious, eating people as well as eating food. No normal immigrants would want to go there.
For the colonial development of these places, Datang often adopted special methods, exiling criminals for colonial development, and dispatched labor recruitment teams from several major labor service companies to perform guarding, cleanup tasks, etc.
As for ordinary immigrants, the imperial officials will not send them to these shabby places for immigration.
Of course, if you seek death and voluntarily immigrate to these places or go on adventures, the imperial officials will not object, and will even welcome you. Some places will even give you free weapons for self-defense.
It can be seen that the empire still cares about the life and death of its people, but it does not treat its own people as consumables and send them overseas to immigrate like some colonial countries, completely ignoring the huge casualties in the immigration development process.
This is true even overseas, let alone at home.
When some large-scale projects are to be carried out, although they also use the human wave tactic, they absolutely dare not use the human life tactic. When a company is engaged in a project, the death of a worker is a work-related injury, and a large amount of money has to be paid to the worker's family. If it is due to corporate management problems,
As a result of the casualties, the patrol station came to arrest people within minutes.
Because this is a ‘production accident crime’ and is illegal!
A huge project like diversion of the Yellow River is very difficult and risky to rely on current technical means. Naturally, Li Xuan would not start it rashly. If he really wanted to do it, he would have to wait until the internal combustion engine was quickly developed and various mechanical projects were successfully completed.
So after approving Chen Lifu's proposal, Li Xuan called his accompanying secretary in: "How is the progress on the internal combustion engine side now?"
When the accompanying secretary in front of him heard this question, he secretly thought that it was not good. He knew about internal combustion engines, but he had not paid much attention to internal combustion engines.
Seeing his look, Li Xuan knew that this person who was accompanying him was not very clear, but Li Xuan didn't say anything. His accompanying secretaries were also very busy people. They were busy helping Li Xuan deal with various important matters every day.
There is little time to pay attention to a specific project in detail.
He immediately said: "Go and find out the current progress of the internal combustion engine project, and then report back!"
The accompanying secretary immediately said: "I obey your order!"
Each of Li Xuan's four accompanying secretaries was a busy person and naturally would not handle these matters personally. Therefore, he did not pause after leaving the house and directly called one of his second-class secretaries over: "Song Tao, please
All the information on the internal combustion engine project has been collected and a report will be made, which Your Majesty will want to see in the near future."
Song Tao immediately stood up and said: "Don't worry, sir, I will start preparations now!"
Song Tao immediately began to collect information manually, but the information in the Hanlin Academy was not perfect. After collecting and sorting it out, he found that it was all old information from a few months ago, which was obviously not possible.
This is information for His Majesty to see. How can it be done if it is all old information?
Immediately, he sent another third-class secretary to Hangzhou overnight. There was the first and currently largest internal combustion engine manufacturer in the empire. Although they currently produced gas engines, they were still classified as internal combustion engines.
As for Song Tao himself, he took his men out and prepared to go to the Internal Combustion Engine Laboratory of the Royal Institute of Technology in person to inquire about the situation.
In the afternoon, Song Tao and his men arrived at the Royal Institute of Technology in a four-wheeled carriage from the Hanlin Academy.
If it were other places, just relying on the big words "Hanlin Yuan" on this carriage and the pass, it would be able to pass without hindrance.
But at the Royal Institute of Technology, Song Tao still had to produce a document issued by the Hanlin Academy to prove his identity and explain his purpose.
Otherwise, he wouldn't even be able to enter the Royal Institute of Technology.
After entering the Royal Institute of Technology, I found someone from their school affairs office, and then I was taken to the steam engine laboratory.
When I arrived, before I even entered the door, I heard a strange clicking sound coming from inside, a bit like a steam engine, but not quite like it.