Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 151: South-to-North Water Diversion, Discussion on the Administration of Shaanxi and Gansu [Request for Subscription]

"That's why, in the summer of 2020, even though the maximum flood peak from upstream was even more severe than in 1998, 34 percent of the peak was reduced before reaching the downstream of the Three Gorges Dam."

"It also caused the highest water level of the Jingjiang River in Hubei to be 1998 meters lower than in 2..."

After seeing this, Zhu Biao, Zhu Biao and others knew that the Three Gorges Reservoir Project did play a big role in flood control in later generations.

The video then introduced several other flood control works or measures that are coordinated with the Three Gorges Dam and other reservoir groups.

The first is the Jingjiang Dam on the north bank, the second is the flood storage area on the south bank, and the third is the river data module.

Lao Zhu and others understood the functions of the first two at a glance.

Needless to say, dikes are the most traditional way of flood control, and flood storage areas have given great inspiration to Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, and Li Wenzhong.

As for the last river data module, the feeling of Lao Zhu and others could be described by a word from later generations: it was incomprehensible but powerful.

Therefore, when the video was clearly entering the next part, Lao Zhu called for a pause and started communicating with Liu Kuan and others.

"The Three Gorges Reservoir is something we, the Ming Dynasty, probably won't be able to build anytime soon, but we can learn from it by building river embankments and specialized flood storage areas to prevent floods."

China is too vast and has a wide variety of terrain. Therefore, in the more than ten years since Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, droughts and floods have occurred frequently in various places.

Taking the Yangtze River floods as an example, they mostly occurred in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which is also the area of ​​several prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River.

Although floods occasionally occur in the Huguang section of the Yangtze River, the scale is not as large as in later generations. Secondly, the population of Huguang is not large at present, so the population and economic losses caused by floods there are far less than those in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Zhu Biao continued, "Your Majesty is right. In the past, we built river embankments with rammed earth and bricks, which was quite labor-intensive and expensive."

"But now that we have cement, building levees is much easier and less expensive. Building flood control levees is less of a burden than before, so we can build more levees."

"As for flood storage areas—I have reviewed historical records of flood control, and many of them describe the practice of artificially breaching ditches to divert floodwaters to barren lands in order to preserve fertile lands."

"However, even in the barren lands, there are already people living there. Although the population in the barren lands is often smaller than that in the fertile lands, they are all innocent people. How can we bear to sacrifice them?"

"If, like later generations, we select an area in advance as a flood storage area, relocate the local people to other places, leaving only a few behind, and then establish a high-level flood prevention and early warning system, we can greatly reduce the losses during the flood release. This is indeed a good strategy!"

Old Zhu nodded repeatedly as he listened, then looked at Liu Kuan and asked, "Do you have any suggestions?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, although the Ming Dynasty does not have the conditions to build the river data module mentioned in the video, it can use meteorological observations to predict the arrival of rainfall in advance and even estimate whether the rain will form a flood peak."

"In this way, we can predict flood peaks to a certain extent and evacuate residents in flood storage areas in advance."

"That makes sense." Old Zhu nodded again. "It seems that weather forecasting is really important."

At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang signaled Liu Kuan to continue playing the video, while thinking in his heart that when setting up a weather department in the Imperial Observatory later, he would have to select capable officials and allocate more funds to enable it to develop as quickly as possible.

This video is divided into three parts.

The first part talks about flood control, using the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges Reservoir Project as examples.

The second part talks about water diversion, mainly including artificial canals such as the Red Flag Canal built since the founding of the People's Republic of China, as well as the famous South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

The last part talks about river ecological protection, mainly including reducing soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, protecting the natural ecology of river sources and estuaries, and reducing water pollution.

When the video froze at the last frame, Zhu Yuanzhang withdrew his gaze with a thoughtful look on his face.

He pointed to several princes over ten years old behind him, Zhu Xiongying and Li Wenzhong, and called Liu Kuan to talk to the emperor who was sitting a little away from the crowd.

As soon as Old Zhu opened his mouth, he couldn't help but express his feelings about the water diversion projects in later generations.

"In the west, a water tunnel nearly 200 miles long was dug through the Qinling Mountains to divert water from the Han River to irrigate the Guanzhong Plain."

"To the east, the aqueducts and pumping stations allow the Yangtze River's water to flow northward, crossing several provinces, traveling one to two thousand kilometers north, passing through dozens of cities, and providing access to river water for hundreds of millions of people!"

"The courage and ability of this later imperial court in building fortifications are truly admirable and amazing!"

As he spoke, Lao Zhu changed the subject and asked, "However, I can still understand the water tunnels and aqueducts, but what about the pump station complex?"

Liu Kuan explained, "A pumping station is a site where water is pumped from a low place to a higher place. A pumping station cluster is a cluster of multiple pumping stations built in one place."

"The term 'pump' refers to a machine called a water pump in later generations. Later water pumps were primarily powered by electric motors and internal combustion engines, but early ones were powered by steam." "However, steam-powered water pumps are quite effective for extracting groundwater from mines. I don't know how efficient they would be for regulating water to alleviate droughts."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Water pumps... Since we in the Ming Dynasty can manufacture them, we must build them as soon as possible. If you have the drawings of this machine, please copy them and send them to us later."

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, I don't have any blueprints for the water pump, but this machine is not difficult to develop. Once the Machinery Manufacturing Bureau is on track, we can order them to develop it."

"Alright." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, then looked at Li Wenzhong. "Siben (Li Wenzhong's courtesy name), you've been to Shaanxi. The video just mentioned that the loess plateaus in Shaanxi and Gansu are barren, causing soil erosion and sending over a billion tons of sediment to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River every year."

"Not only is the riverbed in the middle and lower reaches rising, but even the water in the Yellow River is gradually drying up. Is this true?"

A few years ago, Li Wenzhong had trained troops in Chengdu and Xi'an successively. After returning to the capital from Xi'an, he reported to the emperor that the water in Xi'an contained salt brine and was not drinkable. He requested that the water from the Longshou Canal be brought into the city so that the people in the city could get water. His suggestion was adopted by Zhu Yuanzhang.

From this we can see that when Li Wenzhong was in charge of Shaanxi, he not only trained troops and prepared for war, but also paid attention to people's livelihood. He definitely had a certain understanding of the customs and habits of Shaanxi and Gansu.

As expected, Li Wenzhong thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, the Loess Plateau in Shaanxi and Gansu is indeed quite barren, with obvious soil erosion, but it's not as severe as shown in the video."

"But if we leave it alone, as the population of Shaanxi and Gansu grows, the land will inevitably become even more desolate in a few hundred years, and may even be swallowed up by grasslands and deserts."

After hearing about the situation in Shaanxi and Gansu from Li Wenzhong, Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said, "When we were thinking about where to build our capital, we considered Xi'an. Now it seems that this is really not a good idea."

"Thinking back to the Han and Tang dynasties, when they established their capitals in Xi'an and Luoyang, they used the Guanzhong Plain as their foundation, controlling the Hexi Corridor and the Western Regions to the west; overlooking Guandong to the east, and taking into account the south of the Yangtze River. Only then did they maintain their prosperity for hundreds of years, intimidating all directions."

"Now that Guanzhong has become like this, let alone establishing a capital, even the people have a hard time surviving. It's such a shame."

"In the video, in addition to diverting water from the Han River to irrigate Guanzhong, later generations also planted large areas of trees and grass on the Loess Plateau to stabilize the water and soil. Do you think our Ming Dynasty can implement this strategy to protect Guanzhong's... ecology?"

At the end, Lao Zhu paused and still said a new and difficult word he had just learned from the video.

Zhu Biao was the first to speak, "Father, since we are aware of the dangers of soil erosion in Shaanxi and Gansu, we should take steps to control it to prevent harm to future generations."

"We can't yet accomplish a major project like drilling through the Qinling Mountains to divert water from the Han River, but we can protect the ecology of Shaanxi and Gansu."

"From the video, we can see that soil erosion is mainly due to the decreasing number of plants and trees. The scarcity of plants and trees is mainly due to people's use of firewood and livestock for grazing."

"I believe that we should vigorously promote honeycomb coal in Shaanxi and Gansu, and even ban logging in certain areas when the time is right to protect the soil and water."

"In addition, we need to control the population of Shaanxi and Gansu, and relocate some of the people to other places when there is a surplus of people."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded at first, then asked, "Then how should we solve the problem of herders grazing? We can't just ban grazing in different areas, right?"

Although Zhu Yuanzhang was not a herdsman, he knew that for herdsmen, grazing was as important as farming.

If we don't allow the herders to graze, won't that force them to surrender to the Northern Yuan Dynasty?
Upon hearing this, Li Wenzhong said, "Your Majesty, herders are nomadic by nature. When the grass and water in one place are almost gone, they migrate to another place to give the grass a chance to grow."

"Therefore, I believe that the imperial court does not need to ban grazing. It only needs to slightly restrain and guide the herders. After all, the herders do not want the land they depend on for survival to become wasteland."

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't comment on this, but instead looked at Liu Kuan and asked, "Liu Kuan, do you have any good suggestions on this matter?"

Liu Kuan already had an idea and answered directly, "I think what Your Highness the Crown Prince and Duke Cao have said is feasible. In addition, we should encourage the people of Shaanxi and Gansu to plant more trees."

"Although it's impossible to plant trees and grass on a large scale like in later generations under today's conditions, the accumulation of efforts from generation to generation will definitely have some effect."

"As for relocating the surplus population in Shaanxi and Gansu, it can be combined with the future Ming Dynasty's development of the New World. The surplus people in Shaanxi and Gansu can be relocated to Sichuan, Henan, Shandong, Huguang, and other places, and then the people in these places can be guided to reclaim wasteland and cultivate the land in the New World."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "Shaanxi and Gansu not only need to be guarded against nomadic tribes like the Northern Yuan, but they will also be the base for the Ming Dynasty to mobilize troops and transport food and fodder for the future recovery of the Western Regions. We are worried that their population is small."

"If, as you say, we want to control the population, how will we address the military's population needs?"

While Zhu Biao and Li Wenzhong were still pondering, Liu Kuan said, "First, we can build a subway line from Hebei and Shanxi to Shaanxi and Gansu. We can also build a road from Sichuan to Shaanxi."

"Secondly, relying on the Ming Dynasty's advanced firearms, we were able to conquer all the nomadic tribes in the north in a relatively short period of time and then open up the Western Regions."

"Then, following the example of the Han and Tang dynasties, we could build cities in areas with abundant water and grass, and along key transportation routes, with a small number of elite soldiers taking turns garrisoning them. This would greatly reduce logistical pressure."

"In this way, when the Ming Dynasty becomes stronger in the future, we can build one or more railways to the grasslands and the Western Regions. The grasslands and the Western Regions will naturally be stable!"

　First update.

　　Thanks to [道爷是我] for the reward of 100 Qidian coins!
　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)