Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 333: River management is the path to reshape national destiny! (4k ha)
After Su Yun's operation, the Ministry of Industry ushered in the best opportunity for development, and Su Yun also raced against time to implement his plan.

The first priority is to control the river.

The reason why Su Yun focused his energy on this was because the flooding of the Yellow River was a huge problem during the Song Dynasty and had become a bleeding wound for the Song Dynasty!
According to Su Yun's statistics, the Yellow River bursts or changes course once every one or two years on average, each time flooding hundreds of thousands to millions of acres of farmland.

For example, in the third year of Tianxi, the Huazhou dam in Henan Province broke, flooding more than 30 counties in northern Henan and western Shandong, and destroying millions of acres of farmland.

The most recent one was in the tenth year of Xining, when the Chanzhou dam broke, flooding 45 counties and causing “no mulberry trees could be cultivated for a thousand miles” in the Hebei Plain.

And because of frequent river disasters, land salinization and river siltation have also led to a decline in the quality of arable land, and traditional grain-producing areas such as Hebei and Jingdong Road are gradually being abandoned.

Revenues are falling. After the Yellow River was diverted in Hebei Province, agricultural taxes fell from 15% of the country to less than 5%.

Expenditure is increasing significantly.

A single major disaster would require the allocation of hundreds of thousands of dan of grain. For example, after the disaster in Chanzhou, the imperial court allocated 500,000 dan of grain and 300,000 strings of cash for relief.

The annual expenditure on river management accounts for about 2%-5% of fiscal revenue. The cost of each major breach can reach 1% of the annual revenue (about 60 guan).

The interruption of water transport and commercial decline caused by the Yellow River bursting was also a huge problem.

The Yellow River bursting often blocked the water transport on the Bian Canal, leading to a food crisis in the capital Kaifeng.

For example, after the Huazhou breach, navigation on the Bian River was cut off for several months and grain prices soared threefold.

The long-term impact is that the trade routes in Hebei and Shandong have been abandoned due to floods, and the economic center of gravity in the north has shown signs of gradually shifting southward.

The above are just economic calculations. The most direct impact of the Yellow River bursting its banks is the death of a large number of people.

When the Chanzhou dam broke, "countless people drowned and floating corpses covered the river." According to subsequent statistics, more than 100,000 people may have died that year.

Moreover, not many people were drowned directly. More people may have died in later periods. For example, when the Shanghu River broke out in the eighth year of the Qingli period, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Hebei went south to Kaifeng. At that time, rice was expensive in the capital, and many people starved to death. The death toll was more than tens of thousands!
The number of laborers mobilized for river management often reached 10 to 30. For example, during the Xining period, 10 soldiers and 15 laborers were mobilized to participate in river management, which led to the interruption of agricultural production.

In recent years, a large number of people from Hebei and Shandong have moved south, and the labor force in the north has decreased sharply!
The consequence of this was the overall decline of the northern economy. The impact of the overall weakening of the Northern Song Dynasty's economy was that the cost of defending against the Liao Kingdom increased further. Because the food supply in the north was unstable and had to be transferred from the south, the cost soared!

After a series of investigations, Su Yun came to a conclusion: the total losses caused by the Yellow River disaster in the Northern Song Dynasty are difficult to calculate accurately, but its impact goes far beyond the economic scope!

Economically, it dragged down the finances of the Northern Song Dynasty and accelerated the situation of "poverty accumulation";
Weakening the border defenses militarily, forcing the court to rely on "paying for peace";
The impact on society was that the tide of refugees shook the foundations of the ruling class.

Therefore, in Su Yun's view, river management is the first step in reshaping the destiny of the Northern Song Dynasty!
However, after Su Yun summoned outstanding water conservancy engineers from all over the country to come to Bian Jing for a meeting and discussion, he found that under the current technical conditions in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was extremely difficult to control the river. Otherwise, it would be impossible for a breach to occur every few years, and the court could only tolerate it.

After listening to the reports from the water conservancy engineers, Su Yun concluded that the main reason for the frequent flooding of the Yellow River was siltation!

Silt and sand cause the riverbed to rise, and an elevated riverbed will naturally lead to frequent diversions.

Under Su Yun's encouragement, water conservancy engineers combined the current technical conditions and decided to take comprehensive measures for effective management:

First of all, it is necessary to build and reinforce the embankment systematically, which requires a large amount of rammed earth embankments, supplemented by wooden piles, willow branches and other materials for reinforcement.

This was followed by segmented maintenance, which divided the Yellow River into several sections and appointed dedicated officials, such as the "River Embankment Envoy", to be responsible for inspections and repairs to prevent a total collapse.

The third is to dredge the river channel and divert it to reduce siltation, and organize laborers to dig sand and dredge on a regular basis.

The fourth is the construction of flood diversion areas, opening up flood retention areas in low-lying areas and sacrificing local farmland to protect the downstream.

Of course, some people have also proposed promoting tree planting in the middle reaches of the Yellow River (such as Shaanxi and Shanxi), reducing soil erosion, setting up "water monuments" to monitor water levels, establishing a post horse express system, evacuating coastal residents in advance, and so on.

These proposals show that the water conservancy engineers of the Song Dynasty were indeed capable. Some of the solutions they proposed addressed the root causes, while others addressed current problems.

But after calculating the cost, not only did the water workers gasp, even Su Yun felt that the money required was too much!
If large-scale dredging, embankment construction and flood diversion projects are implemented, a one-time investment of approximately two to five million strings of coins will be required, and the subsequent annual maintenance costs will increase to more than two million strings of coins!
These costs can be calculated. Material costs including wood, stone, willow branches, etc. account for the bulk, at least 40% to 50% of the total expenditure, which means it will cost more than 2 million strings of cash.

The cost of manpower mobilization, including laborers, soldiers' rations and wages, accounts for 30 to 40% of the cost.

As for the remaining 10% or 20% of the cost, hehe, the water workers did not say anything, but Su Yun knew in his heart that it was called corruption loss, which could be as high as 20%. This is still considered money spent wisely. If there are officials with even darker intentions, they will directly reduce it to 70% or 80%!
Do you think this is the end?
It's a long way to go. Su Yun knows that there are even greater hidden costs involved, such as indirect expenses such as post-disaster relief, tax reductions and exemptions, and immigrant resettlement, which may exceed direct project costs.

But fortunately, these are expenditures of the imperial court and have nothing to do with the Ministry of Works, so there is no need to worry about these issues.

The sailors proposed these methods, and during the discussion process, Su Yun was inspired, or had several ideas.

One is the proposal of the theory of restraining water, attacking sand and storing clear water to flush out yellow water.

Another idea is to build a concrete embankment.

The main reason for the flooding of the Yellow River is the siltation in the upper reaches, which causes the riverbed to rise. The method of restraining water to attack the silt and storing clear water to flush the Yellow River can replace artificial dredging.

The proposal of this theory made the sailors very excited, and they immediately carried out theoretical demonstration and possible practice.

Su Yun called together the material craftsmen of the Ministry of Works to discuss the feasibility of concrete. The reason why the Yellow River flooded repeatedly was, first, the siltation, and secondly, the river bank was built with mud, which could not hold up for long under the long-term erosion of the river water, so it was easy to collapse the bank.

If the theory of using water to flush sand and storing clear water to flush yellow water can be successfully put into practice, and if cement concrete is used to build river embankments, perhaps the problem of yellow water can be greatly reduced, thus restoring the vitality of the Song Dynasty.

However, after discussing with the craftsmen, we found that there were many difficulties.

There are both technical and economic aspects involved.

It was not difficult to find raw materials for cement in the Song Dynasty. Within the territory of the Song Dynasty, such as Henan, Hebei, Shaanxi and other places, there were abundant limestone reserves, and the mining technology was also very mature. Lime was widely used in the Song Dynasty.

As for clay, it is very easy to obtain in the Yellow River Basin. We just need to screen out the clay with high silicon and aluminum content.

As for gypsum, Su Yun had the impression that the mines were widely distributed. Although the Song Dynasty had not yet developed it systematically and required additional exploration and transportation, it should not be difficult to find.

As for fuel, there is no need to worry. Coal mining in Song Dynasty has reached a certain scale, such as in Shanxi, Henan, etc., which can support the demand for high-temperature calcination.

There are two technical difficulties now, one is the kiln temperature and the other is the crushing process.

According to the craftsmen, this calcination process has very high temperature requirements, which may not be achievable with current technology, and one must find a specialized kiln master to learn how to do it.

Su Yun sent someone to find the porcelain kiln master. The master gave a description of the temperature and Su Yun frowned immediately. According to the master's description, the temperature might be quite off!
But this is not a problem. Perhaps the target temperature can be achieved by improving the kiln structure and ventilation system, such as increasing the chimney height and forced air blowing.

The second is the crushing process. In the Song Dynasty, there were hydraulic stone mills that could initially crush the raw materials, but the fineness was not enough and required manual secondary grinding.

However, these are all solvable problems. Su Yun believes that with the knowledge he has and the existing technology from the Song Dynasty, cement can definitely be made, but the key is to be able to calculate the economic accounts.

But Su Yun quickly decided: It must be done!
This is difficult, but it must be done!
Moreover, now that we can rely on the major project of Yellow River management, we have as much as two to three million strings of cash available for the research, development and production of cement. If we miss this opportunity, it will be difficult to create and promote cement in the future.

So Su Yun began to divide the Ministry of Works into two groups. One group was to have the navy take people to survey the Yellow River and formulate a plan to control the Yellow River. This process might take many months, or even a year and a half.

This is because although the Yellow River has been maintained every year before, the current method is different from before. It can be said to be a brand new river management plan, so it takes much more time.

It just so happens that Su Yun also needs time to research and develop cement.

The research and development of cement is a scientific project and cannot be done on a whim. Not only does it require the development of a suitable precise proportion of cement, but it also requires the development of a homogenization process.

Cement requires limestone, clay, and iron ore to be mixed in strict proportions. For example, the ratio of Portland cement is 80% limestone, 15% clay, and 5% iron ore. If you don't know this ratio, you will need to keep trying.

However, the Song Dynasty lacked the means of chemical analysis and relied on experience to make adjustments, resulting in large fluctuations in the strength of finished products. Therefore, it was necessary to train a group of material engineers who could use experience to make adjustments.

Therefore, this process takes a lot of time. If it follows the general scientific research procedures, the process from research and development, to small-scale trials, to process improvements, to final large-scale production may take up to five to ten years.

But Su Yun doesn’t have that much time now. From research and development to final large-scale production, he only has half a year to a year to catch up with the Yellow River Control Project.

In this case, time is very tight.

Without an extremely strict organization to coordinate, it would be impossible to complete this task in such a short time.

Because during the R&D process, one must not only coordinate the major mines, but also the porcelain factories, craftsmen, develop various tools for production, formulate various process standards, etc. This is not something a loose team can do.

Therefore, Su Yun began to smile bitterly. He found that if he wanted to do something at this time, he had to start from scratch.

For example, now he has to start setting up a research institute.

But fortunately, he had this plan originally, and he took this opportunity to set up the research institute!

Su Yun originally planned to build an institution that would gather craftsmen from all walks of life to develop and promote tools, and to spread the various cutting-edge technologies of the Song Dynasty to the public. There were many engineering technologies accumulated during the Tang and Song dynasties, such as Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bitan" of the contemporary dynasty.

Su Yun has read this book, which covers astronomy, mathematics, physics, geology, chemistry, biology, medicine, engineering technology, etc. It can be called a "milestone in the history of Chinese science"!
There are also books like "Yingzaofashi" which have not yet appeared. They are the earliest official architectural technical specifications in China, which record in detail the design, construction, materials and work restrictions of wooden structures in the Song Dynasty.

Although these books appeared in the Song Dynasty, they were not widely promoted, let alone used on a large scale in real life.

This is what later generations called the research results not being transformed into applied results, a large amount of technology being shelved, and the people still using the old technology.

Su Yun plans to build an organization, one of which is to collect cutting-edge technologies from all walks of life and promote them so that various new technologies can be used on a large scale in the industry.

The second is to carry out special research and development to target the technical pain points of various industries and promote the advancement of industry technology.

The third is to realize his own technical ideas, which inevitably include developing new technologies such as steam engines, cement, explosives, and firearms.

It was just right to take advantage of this opportunity to establish this research institute, to provide continuous standardized guidance in the research and development of cement, and to form a working method similar to that of later scientific research.

Of course, Su Yun never engaged in scientific research in later generations, but he had engaged in management. He was confident that he could use the advanced management methods of later generations, and then let contemporary engineering and technical personnel follow his ideas to carry out a revolutionary innovation. With the collective efforts of all, it might not be impossible to come up with a set of mature scientific research standards!
Su Yun had high expectations for this organization. Given the current situation in the Song Dynasty, it was too difficult to break through politically. He had made some efforts in the military, but in fact the resistance was too great. So, he decided to try another way and promote an industrial revolution in the Song Dynasty!
The industrial frenzy will inevitably change the economic foundation of the Song Dynasty, and then the wave will naturally roll up to the superstructure.

Of course, Su Yun could not predict what the effect would be, but in any case, the Song Dynasty needed such an industrial revolution!
(End of this chapter)