"The Book of River Guides"!
A strange book that was later described on the Internet as a memorial that directly destroyed three dynasties.
The emperors and ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty were indeed a group of people who made decisions on national affairs on the spur of the moment.
And influenced by the "Book of Diverting Rivers to Their Shapes", he decided to commit suicide by changing the Yellow River's course.
It can be said that it did indirectly cause the Three Returns River, turning the mother river into a stepmother river, causing harm for hundreds of years.
But in fact, this thing and Li Chui himself are mostly demonized.
As a student studying history, Zhao Jun naturally has to look at the problem objectively, and not just beat someone to death subjectively.
At least in terms of foresight, Li Chui does have a unique vision.
Apart from the fact that the memorial was too crooked and did not take people's livelihood into consideration, but also mentioned frequently that if the Yellow River flowed north, it would cause the Liao Kingdom to invade southward, the specific plans in it were still worthy of recognition.
Because the specific plan is to dredge the river, dig artificial rivers to discharge floodwaters, and use both dredging and blocking at the same time, which is also an old method that has been used since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Later, Jia Lu of the Yuan Dynasty, Pan Jixun of the Ming Dynasty, Jin Fu of the Qing Dynasty and others used a similar method, blocking and dredging at the same time.
So in a sense, Li Chui can only say that his starting point was wrong, but he took the right path.
However, the court was in great chaos in the later period of Emperor Zhenzong's reign. Ding Wei and the other five evildoers, together with Emperor Zhenzong's incompetence in his later years, made the court a mess. His suggestions were not adopted, and the opportunity was missed.
Zhao Jun heard that everyone knew about the "Book of River Diversion," so he nodded and said, "Yes, that's the harmful thing. However, the strategy in it is not a big problem. It's the old method of digging canals to release floodwaters and reduce the pressure on the old channel to the sea."
"I remember that the book 'The Book of River Diversion and Scenic Spots' mentioned dredging nearly ten rivers, including the Yuhe River, Baigou River, Chihe River, Hengzhang River, Hutuo River, Chanyuan Canal, Bianqu River, and Xidahe Gudu River!"
Yan Shu opened his mouth wide: "Such a large project is probably no less than cleaning the Yellow River's ancient ditch."
"It's definitely not a project as big as cleaning up the Yellow River."
Zhao Jun said, "Li Chui's flood discharge plan involves digging six channels to connect more than ten rivers in Hebei. This will not only relieve the pressure on the Yellow River, but also allow for the construction of extensive agricultural and water conservancy facilities by planning the drainage basins of the six channels. It will also strengthen the military defense of eastern Hebei geographically. The engineering effort will be much smaller than dredging the old Yellow River channel."
"But even so, the manpower and material resources required are enormous. If the project were to begin in the Jingyou year, the Song Dynasty would be facing imminent war with the Western Xia, and would have to spend military expenses and dig rivers and build canals. There simply wouldn't be enough money to do it."
Zhao Zhen couldn't help but say.
Only those who manage the household know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are. The national treasury is almost empty, with only more than one million strings of cash left. This river repair project will probably cost at least tens of millions of strings of cash. How can we afford to spend so much money?
"But this is already a relatively feasible method. Moreover, the Yellow River was relatively well during the Jingyou period. It hadn't been delayed until it returned to the river after the Three Changes, which made it even more difficult to control. As long as we can dig the canal first, relieve the flood pressure of the Yellow River, and solve the urgent problem, we can continue to dredge it with other methods."
Zhao Jun said: "During the Yuan Dynasty, the Jialu River was built by simultaneously blocking and dredging, digging the Jialu River to release floodwaters. In the Ming Dynasty, Pan Jixun adopted the method of 'restraining water to flush out silt' based on the Jialu River. He built new channels to release floodwaters while building dams to accumulate water and flush out silt. In the Qing Dynasty, Jin Fu, on the other hand, shouldered the responsibility of 'restraining water to flush out silt' while using manual labor to clear silt. This two-pronged approach is all part of their experience."
The old Yellow River waterway is more than 600 kilometers long, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are quite spacious, with an average width of about 500 to 600 meters. To clean up such a large amount of silt, even in modern society, the manpower and material resources required are immeasurable, and it may cost hundreds of billions of RMB to do it.
In ancient times, completing this project would be no less challenging than rebuilding the entire Grand Canal. Even with the money, it wouldn't be completed in a few years; it would likely take decades or even centuries.
Therefore, dredging the Yellow River waterway and digging out the riverbed that is ten meters higher than the original river channel is as difficult as climbing to the sky.
But there is no problem in digging a few new river channels to discharge floodwaters, because Jia Lu in the Yuan Dynasty, Pan Jixun in the Ming Dynasty, and Jin Fu in the Qing Dynasty all did so.
Among them, Jia Lu dug the "Jia Lu River", Pan Jixun dug the "New Canal for Grain Transport" and "Kui River", Jin Fu dug the "Huai'an River", "Zhong River" and "Qingkou River", and there are countless other large and small diversion canals and canals.
Therefore, many things are determined by human effort. If Jia Lu, Pan Jixun, and Jin Fu could do it, why couldn't they do it in the Song Dynasty before the Yellow River became completely turbulent?
However, Zhao Jun felt that there was no point in saying this.
He said, "Of course, I say this only to tell everyone that the Song Dynasty's ruling class lacked foresight. The dog emperor and his incompetent ministers were dumber than pigs. They could have stopped the Yellow River before it flooded at minimal cost, but they dragged their feet and chose the most disgusting method to deal with it, causing harm for thousands of years. Song Renzong should be nailed to the pillar of shame."
Zhao Zhen was almost crying.
Ever since he mentioned Sanyi Huihe, he has been called a pig-head.
The key point is that Zhao Jun used to occasionally scold people like Lu Yijian for sharing his pressure, but the three changes back to the river happened in the middle and late stages of his administration, and he was scolding people like Wen Yanbo and Fu Bi, the later prime ministers. None of them were present, so he had to bear everything alone?
For a moment, Zhao Zhen looked at Fan Zhongyan with resentment, wondering why Fan Zhongyan was asking about Sanyi Huihe when he was fine.
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