The one eye of the stone man could instigate the Yellow River to rebel!
The stone man who stirred up chaos in the late Yuan Dynasty was dug out by the Yellow River river workers when they were digging the Huanglinggang channel. This time the Yellow River burst its banks precisely in Huanglinggang!
Since Emperor Zhengde succeeded to the throne, Huanglinggang alone has been breached three times in just eight years.
Huanglinggang is east of Kaifeng, Henan, and there is a breach there. Why did Wang Yuan lead his people straight to Shandong?
First, it is much faster to go south along the Grand Canal by boat; second, to inspect the situation of the Cao River in Linqing, Shandong.
As for the Huanglinggang breach, Liu Kai, the governor of the river who worshiped the river god, was trying to atone for his sins and rush to repair the dam. Although Zhu Houzhao wanted to remove him, at least he was familiar with the situation and had to be recalled after the flood situation had eased.
Wang Yuan led his troops from Beijing and arrived in Linqing Prefecture in a blink of an eye.
Li Xing, a retired eunuch in his sixties, was also brought here by Wang Yuan.
Li Xing stood on the deck, pointed to the river in the distance and said: "From the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty to the present, the Yellow River has mainly flowed through Kaifeng, passed Huanglinggang, turned to the southeast, flowed through Xuzhou, merged into Sishui, and entered the sea through the Huaihe River. But every time it breaks,
All of them will lead to the diversion of the Yellow River. The breach in the 24th year of Hongwu was particularly shocking. At that time, the Yellow River was divided into three: one went from Shouzhou to Huaihe, which was called the "Big Yellow River"; one went from Xuzhou to Huaihe, and was called the "Little Yellow River";
Shandong flowed into the Huitong River, bringing a large amount of sediment, which caused siltation of the Huitong River, and the Grand Canal was suspended for twenty years!"
This corrupt old eunuch actually worried about the country and the people: "What are you afraid of now that the Yellow River bursts? I'm afraid that floods will pour into Shandong, cutting off water transportation, which is related to the safety of the country."
Wang Yuan looked at the boats going south and north on the river, and he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It seems that the flood has receded and the Cao River is open to navigation again."
Li Xing smiled and said: "God bless, the burst will not be severe this year, otherwise we will have to wait for the dry season in winter to retreat."
Wang Yuan said: "Please tell me, Mr. Li, where the Cao River in Shandong is easily affected."
Li Xing pointed to the front and said: "One place is Linqing, where the Wei River and the Zha River meet. There are many tributaries of the Yellow River in the upper reaches. Once the Yellow River breaks through in Henan, it will easily flood for hundreds of miles! The other place is further south.
Jining is flooded more often than Linqing. However, Linqing is more likely to be cut off because it is afraid of both floods and droughts."
"Why is this so?" Wang Yuan asked.
Li Xing explained: "The Zhahe and Weihe rivers are low-lying, so they are not afraid of floods. But whenever the rainfall decreases in March and April, or during the dry season in winter, water can only be stored by closing the gates. Once enough water is stored, then
When the locks are opened for navigation, the water will be exhausted once the locks are opened, and all the canals at the back will be stranded."
Wang Yuan ordered the boatmen to continue moving forward, observing back and forth for nearly half a day, and basically understood what was going on.
Li Xing said: "The Yellow River burst this year, causing Linqing to be suspended for nearly two months. The floods have receded, but it will soon be a dry season, and water transportation will still have to be intermittent. The price of rice in the capital will inevitably rise sharply this year. If Wang Xueshi can solve Linqing's problem,
To solve the water transportation problem, even if we ignore the Yellow River burst, it is still a great and unique achievement!"
This year the Yellow River burst, and water transport officials were the first to suffer. A total of more than 20 people were fined because the grain delivery was delayed by more than three months.
Wang Yuan smiled and made no comment, and only asked the boatman to dock at the dock outside Linqing City.
They were all wearing casual clothes. At the gate of the city, Wang Yuan took out his waistband and said, "Wang Yuan, the bachelor of the Hanlin Academy and the censor of the river patrol, is here. Let me go up to the city tower to have a look!"
What the hell is a censor patrolling rivers?
I only mentioned that the governor was a river censor, but I really didn’t see enough people patrolling the rivers.
The general who defended the city was startled and asked: "But the king who killed Liu Liu, Liu Qi, and Qi Yanming?"
"Exactly!" Wang Yuan said.
The city defenders immediately accompanied Wang Yuan to the city tower, and at the same time sent someone to inform the governor, Malun.
Wang Yuan stood on the city tower, took out his telescope to observe the situation, and visited the four cities in the southeast, northwest and northwest.
Suddenly, an official in his fifties came here with several other officials. He bowed his hands and said, "I am the governor of Linqing Province, Ma Lun, and I have met Wang Xueshi!"
"Prefect Ma, you're polite." Wang Yuan was very considerate and called him "Prefect."
Ma Lun quickly said: "I don't dare to take it seriously."
Ma Lunnai was born in Juren. Being able to become a magistrate, and also a magistrate of Linqing, was already considered very powerful. However, when Hanlin Academy officials were sent to other places, unless they offended the emperor severely, they were basically a magistrate.
Make a decision.
Seeing that Wang Yuan was still observing the waterway, Ma Lun said respectfully: "Scholar Wang, it's getting late. I'm going to prepare some wine. Why don't you go to the state government office for dinner first?"
"Not busy." Wang Yuan said.
"Yes." Ma Lun could only stand beside him and accompany him. Tongzhi, the state judge and other officials also stood there stupidly.
Wang Yuan turned around and said to eight disciples including Wang Wensu, Bao Chaozhen, Bao Chaoxiang, and Zhong An: "From tomorrow onwards, the troops will be divided into two groups. One group will be led by me, and the other group will be led by Shang Bin (Wang Wensu). We will measure each group.
The height of the river and the depth of the water level. Use the method I taught you to draw the map and mark the contours!"
Of course, altitude cannot be measured, so only trigonometric functions can be used to measure the relative elevation of various places.
"As you command!"
All the disciples listened to the order in unison, feeling quite happy that the knowledge they had learned could finally be put to use.
Wang Yuan asked Ma Lun again: "Prefect Ma, where are the Linqing military preparation officials?"
Ma Lun said quickly: "Because the rebels are raging in Shandong, in order to protect the palace, the army has moved to Jining. There is a deputy envoy of Shandong army, named Li Chongsi."
Wang Yuan said to Bao Chaozhen: "Compile a letter for me and give it to Li Chongsi, the deputy military envoy of Shandong, asking him to immediately mobilize the army and people of Shandong and be ready for orders to build water conservancy at any time! I want 50,000 people."
"Yes." Bao Chaozhen was particularly motivated.
A letter can summon the deputy envoy of Shandong Military Preparation, and he can command 50,000 people with just one mouthful. Such authority makes Bao Chaozhen's blood boil.
Wang Yuandao: "Prefect Ma, you also need to prepare money and food. You cannot rely entirely on the allocation from the Ministry of Household Affairs."
Ma Lun had a huge head and said with a grimace: "Scholar Wang, Linqing suffered a military disaster last year and a flood this year, how can we still squeeze out money and food?"
Wang Yuan said with a smile: "It's not available elsewhere, it must be in Linqing. Don't worry, you don't have to pay too much, just try to raise some."
The money and food are all ready-made and do not even need to be transported.
As long as the Ministry of Revenue agrees to allocate funds, Wang Yuan can directly receive the grain in Linqing. Many water ships are blocked here and have not yet left. Moreover, Linqing has a banknote customs, which usually collects countless commercial taxes, and the customs money can be used.
.
Ma Lun asked cautiously: "I wonder where Bachelor Wang plans to build water conservancy projects?"
Wang Yuan pointed to the river in the distance: "I want to make Linqing navigable even in the dry season, and not be afraid of ordinary floods. Think about it for yourself. If this can be done, you will be able to assist as a local official.
What a political achievement this must be!”
Ma Lun immediately became energetic, straightened his back and said, "This is a great thing that will benefit the country and the people. I will do my best to help you, but Academician Wang is the one who is following the lead!"
Wang Yuan then said to officials such as Tongzhi and Prefecture Magistrate: "You also have merit."
All the local officials immediately shouted: "It all depends on Master Wang!"
It was necessary to obtain the support of local officials because Wang Yuan needed to occupy a lot of land to discharge floods during floods and store water during droughts.
(I had something to do during the day today, so I checked a lot of information when I came back. The missing chapter will be filled in tomorrow.)