Chapter 1960 Through the river and Huai, re-creating the gap
After the white waves were yellow water waves. Because they rolled up and rolled up a lot of soil, the water rushing in the front was definitely not clean. However, the moment they saw this water, countless people still came together.
Earth-shattering cheers broke out.
Water, the water that the dry land longed for, has finally arrived!
The Chasm, this canal that once spanned north and south in ancient China and nourished the Central Plains, has dried up for hundreds of years due to wars. Now, water once again nourishes the dry river and the endless fields around it.
Water is the life of agriculture.
When the land in the Central Plains does not have to worry about water, anyone will be shocked by the productivity that can be unleashed.
These people who have lived on this land for generations are watching the turbulent waves flow from north to south, and gradually enter the large and small aqueducts as the water level rises, and then enter the aqueducts.
In the pool at the end, all that was left in my heart was excitement and excitement.
Wheat, which had already grown well thanks to the winter snow, seems to be growing more vigorously at this time.
From this field along the ancient but brand-new canal to the mouth of the Chaogou River, there is even more lively scene.
Ships of various sizes gathered on the river. If it weren't for the fact that they were mainly merchant ships and there were not many naval warships with characteristics such as paddle wheels and paddle poles, the other side might have panicked and thought that the Han army was preparing to cross the river to attack.
Where the chasm enters the river, flags are flying on the newly built sluice, and on both sides of the sluice, people are singing and dancing to celebrate the successful release of water.
Li Xingchen was standing on the sluice. He had just personally issued the order to release the water, and he was watching the surging Yellow River water rushing south. And it should be that at about the same time, in the south, Yingshui, Woshui, Rushui and Qingshui and other places
The gate should also perform the same operation.
The water of the Yellow River flows from north to south, and the water of the various tributaries of the Huai River flows from south to north. They will eventually converge somewhere in the gap, reviving this canal that has been silent and disappeared for hundreds of years.
The Honggou dredging plan was one of the major winter plans that the Han Dynasty finalized at the beginning of winter. Before the spring plowing had begun, people were gradually gathering. In order to make good use of the slack period in winter, the imperial court decided to dredge Honggou, which had been dry for hundreds of years.
Start with the canal.
Firstly, the fields along the way need a canal to help irrigate, and secondly, there also needs an unobstructed waterway from the Huai River to the big river. Otherwise, the southern naval warships, grain transport fleets, etc. will not be able to reach the Central Plains quickly.
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Instead of spending money and food to build a new navy in the north, it would be better to find a way to transfer the navy from the south. Therefore, opening the gap will kill two birds with one stone.
The last time the Honggou was dredged was during the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, wars broke out frequently. This man-made canal, located in the hinterland of the Central Plains and at the heart of Tianxia Zhulu, naturally became deserted because there was no regular dredging.
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Over the past three hundred years, the situation has changed, and this ravine has gradually been lost in the lush grass.
The only good thing is that the dredging of the ditch was relatively thorough back then, so the river can at least roughly find its original direction and outline. Although the river channel has been divided into sections by roads, or completely covered by windy sand and weeds,
But at least the general direction can still be figured out.
The Han mobilized the people along the way, and even dispatched local garrisons in important frontline towns such as Xingyang, and finally completed the preliminary cleaning and dredging of the divide. Because the clearing of the divide was directly related to north-south transportation and irrigation along the way, it gained support from the people and
Without the full support of the industrial and commercial industries, it would definitely not be a project that can be easily completed in one winter.
Of course, this project is only "preliminarily completed".
Only a few state capitals have completed the construction of supporting irrigation facilities. In addition, there are still a large number of tributary river channels, gates, reservoirs and other planned facilities that have not been constructed. What is really completed are only the gates and main river channels at the north and south entrances and exits of the divide.
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But now the Han Dynasty is eager to use the Chaogou River to connect the north and the south, so it can't take care of so much at the moment. Let's release the water first. As for the remaining facilities, it won't be too late to build them slowly after the farming is idle this winter.
Anyway, we can’t catch up with this year’s spring plowing, right?
Li Xingchen stamped his feet on the ground. The gate made of stones under his feet was very solid.
Before the dredging of Honggou, the Ministry of Industry consulted a large number of historical materials and conducted field investigations along the route - the Ministry of Industry had already begun to complete these tasks as early as the Han Dynasty's Northern Expedition.
Li Xingchen always requested to prepare for a rainy day. As an ancient canal that still has a river channel, once it can be dredged, Honggou will directly promote exchanges between the north and the south. It has irreplaceable significance for the Han Dynasty, so it is inevitable to investigate Honggou.
According to the conclusion of the Ministry of Industry, it is feasible to complete the dredging of the chasm in a short period of time to make it capable of passing medium-sized ships. However, there are several reasons why the chasm has been dredged again and again and blocked again and again in history.
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One is that the sediment content of the river is increasing day by day. As the climate gradually cools and the war destroys, the forests in the upper reaches of the river gradually degrade into grasslands and even deserts. As a result, the river carries a lot of sediment down the upper reaches, and this sediment gradually accumulates.
On both sides of the lower reaches of the river, the riverbed and banks are constantly raised, and they are also involved in middle and lower reaches tributaries such as the Chasm, causing more and more sediment in the Chasm, and eventually becoming clogged.
Another reason is actually directly related to sediment. The elevation of the river bed makes it gradually difficult for the river water to flow into the chasm. In addition, the original terrain of the Central Plains is slightly higher in the north and low in the south. The water in the chasm flows from the big river to the Huai River.
If it is poured in, the river water cannot enter the chasm. It is naturally unrealistic to rely solely on the Huai River to flow to higher places.
Of course, years of war and unregulated and restricted irrigation water have also resulted in more water being used in the Shangri-La and less remaining.
The gradually silted up river channel, the less and less water flow, and the unorganized water intake on both sides of the bank naturally caused this former Central Plains artery to be lost in the luxuriant grass.
In response to these problems, the Ministry of Industry put forward the concept of "building gate canals, deploying them in a unified way, and making more use of them".
In short, by building sluices and even reservoirs at the entrances and exits of the Honggou and on each river section, we can avoid the problem that only the river water flows south and the Huaihe River cannot flow north. In addition, the water in Honggou must be used for irrigation on both sides.
, so the amount used by a state capital is uniformly allocated by the imperial court, and water diversion channels are built centrally. State capitals cannot dig diversion channels and tributaries without authorization, so as to prevent the state capitals near the north and south water inlets from taking too much water, and the state capitals in the middle reaches without water.
Available questions.
And "making more use" naturally means using the old rivers, canals and lakes as much as possible. Honggou is originally a canal with "all the internal organs". There is no problem in dredging the old rivers to create new ones.