Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 324 This is truly a thoroughbred steed of our family!

Liu Bian gently placed his exam paper on the table, then eagerly picked up the record of the exam questions and answers and began to read it carefully.

The more he looked, the more admiration he felt, and he couldn't help but greatly appreciate this member of the imperial clan named "Liu Fu".

Unlike other candidates who were recommended for the civil service examination, Liu Fu did not answer all types of questions, regardless of their abilities.

Even if you're not good at it, you still have to answer!
This is the strategy that the local prefect, prime minister, and family elders repeatedly instructed each candidate on before they participated in the imperial examinations; as long as the answers were not too outrageous, they would be fine.

Whether you are good at this subject or not is not up to you to decide; only the emperor's opinion matters.

Perhaps a suggestion happens to suit the emperor's wishes and please him, thus leading to its being given an important position?

That's a quick success!
However, Liu Fu's answer only covered water conservancy, and the detail and length of his discussion on this one question were more than twice as long as the answers of any other candidate for the civil service examination combined.

On this examination paper presented to the emperor and important officials of the court, no one dared to write carelessly, and there was a time limit, which meant that Liu Fu actually had no spare time to answer other questions.

Due to the highly specialized nature of the water conservancy policy questions, only one question was set out, which concerned the idea of ​​dredging the Bian Canal.

Liu Bian allowed the candidates to answer freely on the matter of dredging the Bian Canal. They could answer questions about the advantages and disadvantages of dredging the Bian Canal, reasonable dredging methods, or suggestions for its reconstruction. Even criticisms of Liu Bian for wasting manpower were acceptable, as long as they were reasonable.

The Bian Canal was no ordinary canal; for the Later Han Empire, it was the "main artery" connecting to the heart!
The Bian Canal was a water conservancy project built to cope with the Yellow River's course changes since the founding of the Xin Dynasty (11 AD), in the face of its turbulent and frequently changing course.

Although the Yellow River is the cradle of Chinese civilization and the true mother river, this mother seems to prefer harsh discipline to gentle care for her children, "forging" the Chinese people in her unique way.

Well... only those who survive the brutal beatings of the Mother River are qualified to call themselves her children.

Therefore, in order to deal with the floods caused by the diversion of the Yellow River, in the twelfth year of Yongping (69 AD) of Emperor Xiaoming, Wang Jing received the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", "Book of Rivers and Canals", "Tribute of Yu" and other works on river management from Emperor Xiaoming. After a long period of dedicated study and practical application of these works, he transformed them into practical methods of water management and accumulated sufficient experience before starting to manage the Bian River.

Although it was called managing the Bian River, it was actually about calming down the mother river's bad temper.

That summer, Wang Jing mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers and laborers to personally survey the terrain and plan the dike lines.

First, the Yellow River dikes were built, stretching over a thousand li from Xingyang to Qiancheng Estuary (now within the territory of Lijin, Shandong Province), and then the Bian Canal was repaired.

Although it was called a renovation, due to the Yellow River changing its course, more than half of the former Bian Canal sections were either submerged by the river or no longer had water flowing through them. Wang Jing boldly changed the course, connecting the usable old Bian Canal and building new sections, straightening bends, dredging shallows, and reinforcing dangerous sections.

The most ingenious of these is the water gate method.

A water gate was set up every ten li along the Bian Canal. By using multiple water gates and switching the water intake gate, water could be drawn from one section of the canal to stop the sediment from settling, and then water could be supplied from another section of the canal, thus achieving the effect of dredging without stopping navigation.

The construction of the Bian Canal, through the "river-Bian diversion" method, ensured that when the Yellow River flooded, the river flowed into both the main channel of the Yellow River and the channel of the Bian Canal at the same time, thus dispersing the intensity of the water flow and ensuring relative peace and tranquility in the Yellow River basin for more than a hundred years.

In the more than 100 years since the completion of the Bian Canal, there has only been one instance of "river overflow and dike breach" in the Yellow River basin, which was caused by the Yellow River overflowing its banks. All other breaches were caused by torrential rains.

However, despite the water gate system which facilitated dredging, the Bian Canal was not cleaned for nearly fifty or sixty years during the Later Han Dynasty.

Although the Bian Canal utilized the drop in riverbed elevation to greatly increase the flow velocity of the water within the canal, thereby enhancing its ability to flush and transport sediment and using the force of the water flow itself to flush most of the sediment into the sea and significantly reduce the siltation of the riverbed, this does not mean that the riverbed will not silt up.

Under normal circumstances, this would not be a problem, but if there is more than a month of rainy days, it could lead to floods in the Yellow River basin.

During the Little Ice Age, it was not uncommon for disasters to occur. For example, in the first year of Liu Hong's Xiping reign (172 AD), there was a period of more than 70 days of continuous rain after the start of summer, which caused flooding in the Yellow River basin and even caused the Luo River to overflow into Luoyang City.

Going back several decades, there was even a bizarre weather event in the Yellow River basin where torrential rains lasted for over a hundred days.

Floods are often accompanied by a host of other disasters, such as famine and plague.

Liu Bian knew he couldn't communicate with Heaven to reduce disasters or pray for the Yellow River to flood less often. Therefore, the only thing he could do was to plan ahead and do his best to improve the Han Dynasty's disaster resilience. The farmland irrigated by dredging the Bian Canal and other waterways that diverted water from the Yellow River was merely a side benefit; the core purpose was to enhance the Han Dynasty's disaster resilience.

Many people failed to see this point, but the young Liu Fu saw it through at a glance and clearly explained it in his policy essay.

This foresight alone surpasses that of many water conservancy professionals.

What surprised Liu Bian even more was that Liu Fu did not just talk about the core purpose, but went into detail about the number of laborers involved in the construction, the estimated grain consumption, the construction cost, and even suggested the location of the new dikes and canals based on the changes in the river course and the terrain.

Although Liu Fu's answer sheet contained many errors, slight deviations in data, and some waterway diversions that still had a theoretical feel, these were problems caused by a lack of data support and experience; the overall framework and ideas were correct.

If Liu Fu were given sufficient confidential data support, along with training, experience, and on-site investigations, he might indeed be able to oversee the rerouting of many sections of the Bian Canal in due course.

Liu Bian read through Liu Fu's examination paper and the transcript of the examination questions and answers more than ten times before slowly putting it down. He tapped the table lightly with his fingertips, pondered for a long time, and then suddenly looked up at Du Xi and said loudly, "This is truly a fine steed of my family! Zixu, all government affairs for today are postponed. I want to summon this great talent immediately!"

Du Xi looked up from the pile of documents and saw that the emperor's face showed such rare joy. He couldn't help but wonder what kind of person could make His Majesty attach so much importance to him, even to the point of postponing official business for a day.

The emperor's diligence in governing is known throughout the court and the country, and anyone who can persuade the emperor to postpone his official duties must be a rare talent.

However, Du Xi did not immediately agree. It was not that all government affairs could be postponed immediately with just a word from the emperor. Du Xi had to sort out today's plans based on the emperor's previous instructions, the emperor's government affairs handling plan and schedule, before he could give a response.

There's nothing too important in terms of government affairs; the most important thing today is grading the exam papers for the "Filial Piety and Incorruptibility" examination.

There is still a plan to visit Shangfang today to inspect the progress of the research and development of new agricultural tools and to encourage Shangfang craftsmen and confer titles, but this can be postponed.

After confirming, Du Xi calmly replied, "Yes!"

Upon hearing this, Gao Wang, who was standing to the side, whispered to the eunuch beside him to inquire about the time, and then bowed and said, "This servant will go and arrange the lunch banquet."

He knew the emperor's habits all too well.

Whenever a great talent was encountered, the emperor would immediately summon him to the second floor of the Yuntai Pavilion for a private audience.

After renovation and expansion, the second floor of Yuntai Pavilion is now the emperor's exclusive place for governing. Only Hu Zhao, the secretary of the emperor, and Du Xi, the secretary of the emperor, are allowed to stay on the second floor to work.

If a banquet was to be held, it would also be held on the second floor. Therefore, the emperor would often summon talented individuals who were entering his sight for the first time to have a private audience on the second floor.

When the conversation became particularly lively, the emperor would forget to eat and sleep. So the emperor simply invited this talented man to a private meal, and even broke the rule of "not speaking while eating" by presenting his poems and answers to him while eating.

Liu Bian nodded slightly, subconsciously rubbed his hands together, and couldn't help but pick up Liu Fu's answer sheet and the record of the questions and answers again to read, with an uncontrollable smile on his lips.

Those who receive such treatment are few and far between in the court, and most of them are officials who have already embarked on their official careers. The most recent example is Pei Mao, the newly promoted Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. The emperor even talked with him all night, and in the end, the two of them slept side by side.

Furthermore, since Yuntai Pavilion was the office of the Imperial Secretariat, there was even a saying circulating in the court and among the people: "In the morning you are a peasant slave, in the evening you ascend Yuntai Pavilion, and from then on all roads will be smooth."

This is the first time in the new dynasty that a candidate for officialdom who has not yet officially entered the civil service has received such an honor.

More than half an hour later, Liu Fu was finally summoned to the palace.

It wasn't that Liu Fu couldn't be found, but rather that the etiquette for entering the palace for the first time to meet the emperor was complicated. One had to bathe and be incense, and also had to be taught the most basic etiquette before one could finally meet the emperor.

With everything prepared, this young talent, who might soon embark on a smooth path, finally stepped onto the stairs leading to the second floor of Yuntai Pavilion with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation—the stairs that would pave his way to a bright and promising official career.

(3001 words)
(End of this chapter)