Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1701 The Restoration of the Nile River
“Wait, what are you planning to do in Egypt?” Victoria asked. “We were thinking of building a series of small and medium-sized dams to regulate water flow. You said these dams could also create artificial flood peaks?”

"Yes." Shangluo nodded. "Actually, we've already started construction in the capital region."

In my hometown of Shangluo, within the "capital region," the Xiaolangdi Dam has been built and operating for many years. After its completion, the Xiaolangdi Dam could gradually lower the Yellow River's channel through annual flushing.

Within the current capital region, the imperial court has not yet begun constructing projects "similar to Xiaolangdi," as this requires in-depth research into the modernization of water conservancy engineering. While the court possesses the necessary knowledge, all projects concerning the Yellow River must undergo thorough discussion before implementation. After all, there are simply too many people living along the Yellow River; even the slightest mishap would be a grave offense.

The main task of the imperial court at present is to reduce the sediment content of the Yellow River. The main measure is to industrialize the Loess Plateau so that people no longer need to collect resources from nature and can instead use natural gas for cooking, electricity for lighting, and so on.

If no one cuts down trees for fuel, the Loess Plateau will naturally turn green, and soil erosion will be alleviated.

The imperial court has acted in this way in many places. This is why Grand Secretary Wen emphasized that "industrialization and modernization are the true means of environmental protection." Because sacrificing the quality of life for all humanity in the name of environmental protection is tantamount to "leading beasts to devour humans," which violates moral principles. The ultimate goal of environmental protection must be for humanity itself; furthermore, whoever benefits should protect it. There is no logic in having one country protect the environment while another benefits.

For the sake of the people and the nation's well-being, the imperial court truly wanted to find a solution to the Yellow River problem. Even if it was difficult, this matter had to be handled properly. The reason it hadn't been done yet was simply because the court was unsure of the correct approach—however, since Shangluo had already provided the correct answer, the problem had been solved.

The Xiaolangdi Project is the best solution to the Yellow River problem at present. Through the coordination of a series of water conservancy projects, a large amount of clean water is released before the flood season each year when the Yellow River is not carrying too much silt. The resulting flow of clean water can flush away the silted-up riverbed and carry the silt into the sea.

This plan gave the imperial court a strong incentive to try it, because at least it sounded safe. Although it required the coordination of a series of complex water conservancy projects, the imperial court was least afraid of complex technologies and was best at solving complex problems.

“But isn’t this far too complicated?” Victoria asked. “Can Egypt really handle such a complex project? They even need to start learning to write now.”

Shangluo shook his head: "The problem with the Nile is much simpler than that with the Yellow River. The reason the Yellow River is so complicated is because it has such a high sediment content—for example, why is it necessary to flush it before the flood season? Because during the flood season, the Yellow River is muddy. If you release muddy water to flush the riverbed, it will only cause more sediment to accumulate. Only by releasing clean water before the flood season can the riverbed be flushed."

But the Nile River doesn't have this problem at all.

The Nile River contains only 1.6 kg of sediment per cubic meter. In contrast, the Yellow River contains as much as 37.7 kg of sediment per cubic meter in a normal year, with the highest historical record being an absurd 920 kg per cubic meter—a water-cement ratio even higher than that of cement.

The Nile River carries approximately 1.3 million tons of sediment annually. The Yellow River, on the other hand, carries roughly 16 billion tons. With a population of 8 million in the region, if everyone were to move sand from the lower reaches of the Yellow River, each person would need to move about two tons per year to complete the task.

In other words, the Yellow River is absolutely impossible to control by human power, because the extra sand added each year will inevitably accumulate downstream, and it is simply impossible to move 16 billion tons of sand by human power. If the Yellow River is not controlled, it will breach its banks, and even if it is controlled, it may not be able to prevent breaches, because the imperial court cannot determine where this mass of cement will block the river during the flood season, and ultimately can only let the Yellow River choose its own course.

“My God!” Victoria exclaimed in shock, “That river really is water, and not cement?”

"So now you know what kind of monsters we fight every year, right?" "I was going to say it's your mother river that you can't move. But thinking about it, it seems she does move sometimes."

"So, you've never heard of the Nile River shifting its course?"

Victoria shook her head.

“So the Nile problem is much simpler,” Shangluo replied. “At least she won’t move. As long as she doesn’t move, everything is easy to handle.”

The people in the capital region are fine; the problem is with the Yellow River.

The Nile River itself isn't the problem; the problem lies with the people. It's because Egyptians are overly reliant on the Nile's blessings that they struggle to adapt when the river doesn't flood.

What the court needed to do was to carry out a series of modifications to the Nile River, making it more suitable for the Egyptians' physique without damaging it.

“Actually,” Victoria thought for a moment, “according to Roman custom, we could have disregarded the Egyptians’ opinions and built the Aswan Dam directly. But later, we abandoned the project for a crucial reason.”

"Because of what?"

“Evaporation,” Victoria replied. “The Aswan Dam is too close to the equator, and the evaporation rate in a year is simply too high. If we were to dump large amounts of Nile water into the Aswan Dam, it would make the project easier to implement, but it would also cause a huge amount of water resources to evaporate and become unusable. Your decision, on the other hand, would save a lot of water.”

The Aswan Dam is located at a latitude similar to Guangzhou, but even closer to the tropics. If the dam complex were moved north to Thebes, it would be roughly at the same latitude as Fuzhou.

“Ah,” Victoria sighed, “it’s a miracle, a miracle.”

The Nile River can be dammed. This is a bold undertaking that previous generations failed to achieve. Once realized, the hydrological conditions of the Nile River basin will become much more stable. With proper annual water diversion, artificial flooding can be created in the main channel of the Nile.

In the past, whether the Nile River would flood or not could only be resolved by the pharaoh seeking divine intervention—including praying to the god Amun.

Now, all that's needed is a group of engineers to control the gates. Power that once belonged to the gods has fallen into human hands like never before. This is the first time in Egyptian history.

(End of this chapter)