Zhao Jun nodded and said, "Well, the river has been under management for many years. This time, I am inspecting the local governance on behalf of the court. The upper reaches are of utmost importance. I hope you won't disappoint me."
Wang Yan smiled bitterly and said, "In recent years, Shaanxi Road has been planting a lot of trees and digging many canals. There must be some effect, but it is not easy to improve it in a short period of time."
"Well, I understand you. During the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, Guanzhong was over-exploited. It will be a long process to recover."
Zhao Jun pointed out: "However, no matter how difficult it is, we must do it. This involves the great cause of future generations, and we cannot be careless. Especially since Guanzhong has been a fertile land since ancient times, we cannot let it go to waste due to over-cultivation. We must properly manage it."
"yes."
Everyone nodded repeatedly.
Zhao Jun emphasized, "As the saying goes, it takes ten years to grow a tree. We should plant more fast-growing trees along the banks of large rivers to stabilize soil erosion. This will keep the river water clear and eliminate the problem of siltation downstream."
"yes."
Everyone agreed again.
Afterwards, everyone followed and Zhao Jun continued to head towards Chang'an.
Over ten days in early May, he traveled along both sides of the Wei River and the Jing River to investigate the local water, soil, and agricultural conditions.
Compared to the last time I came to Guanzhong during the Baoyuan period when I traveled around the world, nearly ten years have passed, and the Guanzhong Basin has indeed changed a lot.
Not only have many barren lands been rehabilitated, but a large number of river tributaries have been dredged and many water conservancy facilities have been built. Even many uninhabited wilderness areas have become lush and green.
According to the information collected by several transport envoys of Qinfeng Road and Yongxingjun Road, Guanzhong had been under management for eleven years since Fan Zhongyan was appointed as the governor of Shaanxi Road in the fourth year of Jingyou.
During this period, successive military and political leaders in Guanzhong defended against the Western Xia invaders from outside and governed the Guanzhong Plain from within, achieving good results.
Including population, farmland area, water conservancy construction, etc. have all grown extremely rapidly.
For example, in terms of population, before the third year of Jingyou, the population of Yongxingjun Road was only 820,000 households, but this year it has exceeded 1.2 million households, with an average annual growth of 4%, and the population has increased by about one third.
Before the Jingyou era, the Guanzhong Basin had approximately 600,000 households and a population of over 3 million. Today, the Guanzhong Basin has 900,000 households and a population of approximately 4.5 million.
It seems like a lot, but before this, the entire Yongxingjun Road, including Qinfeng Road, had a total of only 1.27 million households, about 6 million people, while the population of the entire Song Dynasty was already about 80 million.
In comparison, the population during the Tang Dynasty was only 50 to 60 million, with more than 4 million in the Guanzhong Basin alone. If the territories of the current Yongxingjun Road and Qinfeng Road are included, the population density is obviously much higher than that of the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, it can be predicted that before the third year of Jingyou, the population density of the Guanzhong Basin was far lower than that during the Tang Dynasty. In addition to the impact of the wars during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the reason was that the Guanzhong Basin was over-cultivated, causing the land to become increasingly barren.
Nowadays, the population is increasing. In addition to the policy of equalizing the land tax, which has led to the emergence of many unregistered households and newborns, and the fact that people can have children without worry and boldly, the most important reason is the large number of immigrants.
In the past, excessive cultivation in Guanzhong led to increasing poverty and population outflow.
Now that the ecology of Guanzhong has recovered and the land has become more fertile, the population has naturally begun to move back.
Zhao Jun toured the Guanzhong Basin and was quite satisfied with the local governance of the officials in charge. At least the ecology of Guanzhong has recovered initially.
What remains is to continue to increase our efforts, continue to plant trees, stabilize the soil and water, and protect the ecological environment.
For this reason, Zhao Jun asked local officials to introduce policies. It is certainly unrealistic to ban the felling of trees now, but it is required that the felling should not be done indiscriminately, the seedlings should be protected, and more coal resources should be used to replace charcoal.
Even though coal also emits a lot of carbon dioxide and pollutes the environment, it is at least much better than cutting down a large number of trees.
In late May, after inspecting the banks of the Weishui and Jingshui rivers and visiting the Guanzhong Basin, Zhao Jun planned to go north along the Yellow River to the Loess Plateau, which is the area of Yan'an, Luliang and Yulin in later generations.
The main reason why the Yellow River turns yellow is the massive soil erosion on the Loess Plateau, which causes the soil to be washed away by the river water, thus changing the color of the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
Therefore, managing the Loess Plateau is of utmost priority.
However, the imperial court has been fighting in the northwest in recent years, and Fuyan Road is on the front line, mainly focusing on military preparations, so there is really not much time for governance.
It was not until the last two years that tree planting activities were started, but there was not much effect in a short period of time, so the Yellow River is still yellow and is still mixed with a lot of silt.
In early June, Zhao Jun's fleet went upstream, passed Tongzhou and Danzhou, and arrived at Yan'an Prefecture. It was midsummer and the sun was high in the sky.
Zhao Jun stood on the boat, a gentle breeze blew, and the mountains on both sides were ups and downs. Although there were many weeds and trees growing on the hills, many places were bare, revealing a lot of loess.
He looked around and said to Wang Yan, Fan Xiang, Jingtai, Gao Jixuan, Liu Ping, Zhu Xun, Liu Yi and others who were accompanying him on the inspection: "The great river passes through this Loess Plateau, carrying countless silt downstream. Therefore, to control the river, we must control this plateau. It is certainly very difficult to control it at the moment, but we can start by planting some fast-growing trees that can fix sand, such as willows, poplars, and white poplars."
These trees are native to the country and are drought-resistant and can fix sandy soil. A thousand years ago in the Song Dynasty, the barrenness of the Loess Plateau was not as exaggerated as in later generations, and there were still large forests and grasslands.
Therefore, if it can be managed early, turning the Loess Plateau into a plateau of green grass and trees may not be a dream.
"yes."
Everyone wrote it down one by one.
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