While developing science and technology, Yinreng did not forget to protect the environment.
Later in his life, he also lived in Kyoto for a period of time. Every autumn and winter, the overwhelming sandstorms would cover every corner of Kyoto. If he went out without wearing a mask, the spit he spit out would be black and yellow.
Although sandstorms are not as frequent now, they are already beginning to show signs of happening.
Therefore, the large area from northern Mongolia to Lake Baikal is within the scope of environmental governance.
In addition to spending huge amounts of money to build reservoirs in those places, Yinreng also intended to divert water from Lake Baikal to Mongolia south of the desert.
If the canal could branch off in Mongolia in the northern desert and directly connect the canal to Tianjin and Haikou, the water shortage problem in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region would be directly solved.
The capital city today is not the capital city of later generations that has completed the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.
There is a severe water shortage.
Moreover, the transportation capacity of Mongolia in the northern desert will also be greatly improved. No matter how you look at it, it will be a great thing that will benefit the present and future generations.
Yinreng once read an article about Lake Baikal in later life. The freshwater resources of Lake Baikal alone account for 20% of the world's freshwater resources. Now it has been taken into the hands of the Qing Dynasty. If it is not utilized, it will be a huge loss for the people of the Qing Dynasty.
After he put forward this idea, he was opposed by nearly half of the civil and military officials in the court.
The reason is simple: it is extremely expensive and there is no return in the short term. In addition, construction on that frozen soil is several times more difficult than inland.
Besides, in such a cold and harsh place, even if a canal was dug, there would not be much supplies to transport. Why waste so much money on useless work?
Yinreng clearly explained to these people the number of new people living around the capital in the past twenty years and the fact of water shortage.
The permanent population within a hundred miles of the capital alone increased by nearly 800,000.
This is just the permanent population. If we add in the traveling merchants, the population will increase by another 100,000 or 200,000.
In other words, in just twenty years, the net growth rate of the capital's population reached an astonishing 1.9%, almost doubling.
As for other areas, he has sent people to the grassroots level to collect statistics. Although the data has not been fully counted, according to the data feedback from Chengde, the population growth rate should be between 1.6 and 1.7.
If the symbol of a prosperous era is population growth, then Yinreng felt that he seemed to have achieved it now.
Then again, with so many people in Beijing eating, drinking, defecating and urinating, who doesn't need water?
The inner city is relatively easy to deal with, as the population density is low and all the inhabitants are wealthy families, and every household has a well available.
But the people in the outer city and suburbs are not so lucky. Even if they have wells, they have to use them sparingly. If the year is good and God gives them more rain, the people will have plenty of water. But if God is unfaithful, the people may not be able to take a bath for the whole year.
When those statistics were thrown in the faces of the opponents, everyone fell silent.
Finally, Yinreng gave them two choices: either draw water from the major rivers in the south and send it to the capital, or dig a Grand Canal starting from Lake Baikal.
Under pressure from Yinreng, the civil and military officials of the Manchu court studied the plan for three days and finally agreed to the plan of digging a canal from Lake Baikal.
There is no way. The terrain in Mongolia is high and the construction difficulty is relatively low. If water is transferred from the south to the capital, the difficulty will increase significantly.
By then, more money will be poured into it.
After another two months of work, the construction plan was basically finalized. Yinreng then proposed to start construction at multiple locations, recruiting workers to open kilns in the sections of the river planned by the court, calculating the direction and finally connecting them into a river channel.
So in the spring of the eighteenth year of Xiangyi, a groundbreaking project began.
The imperial court began to levy corvee labor near the planned river channel.
Today, corvee labor is no longer equated with people's miserable lives. Once the imperial edict is issued, countless people are willing to sign up.
Digging a canal was hard and tiring, but the imperial court really gave money and truly cared about the lives of the people.
Now, two years have passed, and nearly one-tenth of the river channel from Lake Baikal to the capital has been completed. This speed has exceeded Yinreng's expectations.
He originally thought that he would not be able to see the canal opened in his lifetime, but he did not expect the construction speed to be so fast.
However, the construction of the canal section between southern Mongolia and Lake Baikal has not been going very smoothly.
The reason was that not many local herdsmen applied for the job. In their minds, their cattle and sheep were much more important than digging the canal.
Yinreng had no choice but to transfer a large number of people from the Central Plains. The Qing troops stationed in Mongolia also had to take turns serving on the construction site for ten days every month.
It is mandatory, but there will be salary subsidies.
But the construction speed there is far slower than that near the capital.
The progress in two years is only about half of the other half.
Yinreng felt a little upset at first, but later he calmed down.
Even if the digging is slow, it has started, right?
As long as people keep working hard, the canal will be completed sooner or later.
Nowadays, the infrastructure of the provincial capital cities of each province is very good, and the construction methods of the provincial capital cities are also spreading to the subordinate prefectures and counties at a very fast speed.
The ambition that Yinreng had when he invented the bicycle, to make all the people use bicycles as a means of transportation, was basically realized five years ago.
The average price of a bicycle now is one tael and seven cents, which is affordable for most families who can make ends meet.
The railway tracks connecting the capital to the central plains and even the southern coastal areas have almost been laid. Although there are only one or two stations in each province, it is enough for the Qing Dynasty today.
As for the southwestern mountainous areas, Yinreng was also planning to develop them.
However, the construction in those places is also quite difficult, so we should focus on the simple ones for now. Once the tasks at hand are almost completed, the railway planning in the southwestern mountainous areas will be put on the agenda.
As Yinreng got older, his energy gradually declined. Before this year, Yuanbao was not old enough, so even when Yinreng taught him how to handle government affairs, he basically kept a low profile, allowing him to spend a stable, fulfilling and comfortable youth.
When he entered the court at the age of fifteen and took part in government affairs, Yinreng named him the crown prince.
By this year, Yuanbao was already eighteen years old, so he was detained in the imperial study and followed him to handle government affairs every day.
As long as he simply pretended to have back pain and leg cramps, Yuanbao would willingly help him do all the work.
Unless there was a problem he couldn't solve, he would not bother Yinreng at all.
But the downside is that Yuanbao is worried about his health and doesn't let him leave the palace to work.
So Yinreng, who was only 58 years old, began to live an alternative retirement life.
Apart from not being able to leave the palace and wander around, which was a bit boring, his life was very free.
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