Hearing his words, everyone recalled the scene of the Chanzhou Battle two years ago when Tokyo Bianliang was flooded, and they couldn't help but shudder.
That is something they never want to recall in their lifetime.
Now that they heard Zhao Jun mention it again, they realized how much impact this route change had caused later on.
However, there has not been a three-way return to the river yet. Does that mean there is still room for turning around?
Yan Shu immediately asked, "If, I mean, if before the Three Changes, there is still a way to control the Yellow River?"
"Of course there is."
Zhao Jun smiled and said, "Jia Chaochang proposed a solution. In the first year of Jingyou, the Yellow River changed its course. While the old course was dry, we could clear the silt and then change it back to its original course."
"This method?"
Fan Zhongyan had built seawalls and several flooded rivers in Suzhou before, so he was quite experienced in river management. He asked in surprise, "Will it cost a lot?"
"Yes."
Zhao Jun nodded and said, "This plan is relatively reasonable and correct, but the workload is too large and it will consume a lot of manpower and material resources. The Song Dynasty had just finished a war with the Western Xia and was threatened by the Liao Kingdom to increase the currency. This seriously increased the financial burden. There was no money left for river repairs. As a result, the plan kept being delayed, and the Yellow River flooded more and more. In the end, Li Zhongchang's Liuta River plan was chosen."
"Liutahe Plan?"
"The Liuta River plan involves digging a small channel connecting Henglong and Shanghu. This channel, later called the Liuta River, will divert water from the north-flowing river into the already low-flowing Henglong Channel, thereby widening the channel and flushing out sediment. Furthermore, this release of water will slow the north-flowing water and reduce the damage to Hebei. When the time is right, the Shanghu estuary will be closed, and the river water will return to the Henglong Channel."
"It sounds like this plan won't cost much."
"It's not big, but the problem is that a small river like the Liuta River simply can't handle the Yellow River's massive flow. Li Zhongchang was also mentally ill to come up with such a rotten idea, and Fu Bi and Wen Yanbo, two idiots, supported him. As a result, after blocking the river mouth, the Shanghukou dam was breached that night, and the river water filled the Shanghu River again. A large number of soldiers and civilians on the dam who didn't have time to leave were drowned, and their attempt to return to the river was unsuccessful."
"Then, in this case, isn't the Yellow River issue a dead end?"
Lu Yijian muttered to himself.
Zhao Jun heard what he said and said, "That's not the case. There were actually three strategies at the time: the best, the middle, and the worst. The best strategy was Jia Chaochang's, the worst was Li Zhongchang's, and the middle strategy was relatively reliable."
"What's the middle strategy?"
"Didn't we just talk about Li Chui? Although Li Chui was a bit crooked and focused on national defense and border banditry, he had a long-term vision. He had long ago analyzed that the Yellow River might change its course, and the plan he proposed was somewhat plausible."
"Guiding the river is a book of beauty!"
Everyone looked at each other and said it almost in unison.
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