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Qianqing Palace.

Xu Ying and Zhang Guowei, who returned to Beijing together, were called by the emperor to eat and drink.

The monarchs and ministers sat down to greet each other, and without saying a few words, Zhang Guowei said: "The diversion of the Yellow River is just the beginning. In the next 20 to 30 years, the water networks in Shandong and Jiangsu will need continuous management. Henan can't relax its vigilance and pay little attention to the Yellow River. It’s broken again. Your Majesty, please appoint an admiral for river management in three provinces to take charge of river engineering and river courses in the three provinces.”

Zhao Han asked, "Do you have anyone to recommend?"

Zhang Guowei said: "Wailang Zhu Zhixi, a member of the water department of the Ministry of Industry, is honest and selfless, and is proficient in water conservancy. He can be of great use. There is another young man named Yue Xinmin who can also be trained. With these two, he can save fifty Years of water control."

Zhu Zhixi was born in Yiwu, Zhejiang. His father Zhu Sanfeng was born in poverty. He went north to seek refuge with relatives and became rich in business in Beijing. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, business in Beijing was bleak. Zhu Sanfeng lost all his capital and took his family back to Yiwu to buy land for farming. His mother also spun and weaved cloth to subsidize the family.

There was also a severe drought in Zhejiang, and the days became more difficult every day. His mother sold gold and silver jewelry to support her son to study. When the Datong army came to Zhejiang, Zhu Zhixi had already passed the examination of scholar.

Now that Zhang Guowei is back in Beijing, Zhu Zhixi is in charge of the finishing work of the Yellow River Project.

Historically, Zhu Zhixi governed rivers in the Manchu Qing Dynasty for more than ten years, serving as minister of the Ministry of War (vacant post) and governor of the river. Upright and selfless, with all his energy and dedication, he died of exhaustion in the post of Zhihe. Moreover, he sympathized with the river workers and kept fighting for money and grain subsidies for the river workers.

Later, Zhu Zhixi was enshrined as the river god by Yongzheng, and he was worshiped as the Dragon King, and the folks called him "Zhu Dawang". He was chased by Qianlong as a Marquis, and enjoyed the national spring and autumn sacrifices. Qianlong successively gave him seven titles of immortals. During the Guangxu period, the imperial court also built a special temple in Yiwu to offer sacrifices, and Emperor Guangxu personally inscribed the plaque.

Zhao Han nodded and said, "Sure, these two should be reused."

How outrageous was Jiangsu in the early Qing Dynasty? From 1647 to 1697, in the entire fifty years, only nine years were not accompanied by floods and droughts. And in these nine years, there were only three years without floods.

The Qing Dynasty lasted 268 years from the entry of the Manchus to the Revolution of 1911. Among these 268 years, Jiangsu had 165 years of concurrent floods and droughts. There were no years with concurrent floods and droughts, and there were also separate droughts or floods. Anyway, as long as the Yellow River does not divert, the natural disasters in Jiangsu will not stop.

The Datong New Dynasty was early to manage Jiangsu's water conservancy, but the Yellow River has not been diverted before, so it can only be repaired everywhere. The Huaisi River Basin is flooded every year, and the rest of the local areas are also often droughty. To basically solve the problem, tens of millions of taels of silver will have to be spent to control the river for decades.

The same is true for Shandong and Henan. Although the Yellow River diversion project has been completed, it will continue to invest money every year in the future.

Zhao Han and the ministers attached great importance to this. Although the cabinet officials complained about spending too much money every year, they only talked about cutting education, military, and immigration expenditures. No one had ever used their brains on river management funds.

Even when the Yuan Dynasty was in financial difficulties, they still knew how to levy corvée to control the Yellow River. Of course, the main reason was that most of the capital (Beijing) had no food to eat, the floods flooded the water transportation channels, and the sea lanes were harmed by Fang Guozhen. Even though it knew that the management of the Yellow River would brew a major uprising, the Yuan court had to bite the bullet and do so, and officials who expressed concern were also dismissed.

Zhao Han and Zhang Guowei discussed the matter of river control, and started chatting with Xu Ying again.

Xu Ying suggested: "This time, only six major ports have been investigated by the Municipal Shipping Department. There are so many ports in the country, it is impossible to check them one by one. For the remaining ports, officials and merchants can be ordered to surrender. Officials who surrender, the crime will be reduced by three." etc. Maritime merchants who surrender themselves shall pay five times the fine for tax evasion. Then select a few ports for spot checks.

Zhao Han thought about it carefully: "This statement is feasible. Next year, five more ports will be randomly inspected, and one port will be randomly inspected every year thereafter. Regardless of the number of years, as long as it is found that there is no surrender, it will be delayed until 20 years later and will be severely punished!"

This year, only the six major ports were investigated. Some of the officials who were beheaded and exiled are still working in the six major ports, and some have been transferred to other places. When they were interrogated, some accomplices were also confessed, involving magistrates and other port and shipping bureaus.

Anyway, the case is not over yet, and the trial is still going on.

If the country's ports are inspected, the Inspectorate will not be able to do other things in the next few years, and all manpower will have to be invested in the investigation of the Municipal Shipping Department.

The only way to solve the problem is, as Xu Ying said, that those who surrender themselves will be reduced in crime and cooperate with spot checks. Those officials and maritime merchants have been terrified. As long as no murder case is involved, many of them must be willing to surrender.

And based on these surrenders, more people who are unwilling to surrender can be interrogated. Once they come and go, the efficiency of the investigation can be doubled.

Zhao Han picked up the jug and wanted to pour wine for the two of them himself, but Xu Ying and Zhang Guowei quickly stood up and refused. Zhao Han pushed Xu Ying's hand away, filled the wine glass casually, poured another glass for Zhang Guowei, and the two quickly bowed to express their thanks.

After clinking glasses, Zhao Han said, "The lower reaches of the Huaihe River is the channel from Hongze Lake to the sea. How big a boat can it be?"

Both of them were familiar with the situation, and Xu Ying replied: "Don't even think about big ships. The water is shallow in winter and spring, and floods in summer and autumn. There are only four or five months of each year, so small boats can pass unimpeded. The coastal Huaiyan, or go to Haizhou ( near Lianyungang) and transported to Shuoxiang Lake via the Lianhe River. To the north, you can go to Shushui to Shandong, and to the south to continue to go to the Lianhe River to Andong into the Huaihe River. You can either load the ship at the clam port, transport it to the Yanhe River directly to the Yangtze River, or go to Jing to the Grand Canal between Huai'an and Yangzhou."

In another time and space, hundreds of years later, Shushui has been diverted hundreds of thousands of miles. Shuoxiang Lake and its surrounding lakes all dried up. Clam Harbor, Yunyan River, Sheyang Lake and Lianhe River are also gone.

Zhao Han said: "The Huaihe River needs to be dredged. First, dredge the river channel near Qingjiangpu, and then dredge Hongze Lake to the sea. During the dry season every year, migrant workers are recruited to dig out the river bottom sediment. These migrant workers are recruited from nearby cities and villages, and the government provides meals. It can also reduce and exempt family taxes, and give priority to recruiting unemployed people in big cities. These unemployed people can be given a small amount of wages. Every winter, the river is dredged, and the sediment is dug out a little bit. After 20 or 30 years, it should be able to be cured."

Places like Huai'an, Yangzhou, and Qingjiangpu are not going to be abolished if the water transport is gone. Not only are the main north-south waterways, but also Huaiyan must pass through here.

Dredging the Huai-Si water system, in addition to flood control, can also ensure the transportation of Huai salt. A few more canals will be dug to connect irrigation areas, and industry, commerce, and agriculture will follow suit.

New China excavated the main irrigation canal in northern Jiangsu and the Huaihe River's waterway, and Zhao Han ordered the dredging of the existing Huaihe River, which is equivalent to combining the functions of the northern Jiangsu general irrigation canal and the Huaihe River's waterway.

After the Huaihe River is completely dredged, it may be possible to build a port at the mouth of the sea. At this time, the clam port is too small.

Zhang Guowei said: "It is necessary to manufacture a large number of river construction vessels."

"Yes, the Ministry of Finance will allocate funds in the beginning of spring." Zhao Han nodded.

The river engineering boat is equipped with many tools, which can dredge the river bottom and lift up the sediment, and can work even in dry seasons.

Zhao Han believes that the Huaihe River can be dredged, because it is very different from what it will be hundreds of years later.

Let's put it this way, places like Binhai, Sheyang, Dafeng, and Xiangshui are now mostly submerged in the sea, and there is no land at all. Those places were basically formed during the Ming and Qing dynasties by land reclamation from river sediment.

Clam Port is not far from the east of Funing. At this time, it is close to the sea, and it will be more than 30 kilometers away from the sea in a few hundred years. At this time, Yancheng is only 20 kilometers away from the sea, and it will be 50 kilometers away from the sea in a few hundred years!

Just like Hangzhou was a seaport in the Song Dynasty, but it was far away from the sea in the Ming Dynasty. The function of river reclamation is very powerful.

Zhang Guowei said: "In the critical section of the Huaisi River, embankments can be built on the lake. As long as the people are not endangered, the water level can be raised artificially, and the yellow sand can be washed away with clean water. As long as the Yellow River does not flow southward, it can be cleaned continuously every year. Yellow, the sediment will rush downstream little by little, even into the sea. Especially in Sheyang Lake, it is not allowed to encircle the lake to build fields at will. When a circle of dikes is built around the lake, fields can be built outside the embankment, and water can be stored inside the embankment to make it yellow. , and can also be used for flood discharge.”

Although there is no big river connecting Sheyang Lake with the Huaihe River, it was still ravaged by the Yellow River. It gradually became a swamp area in the Ming Dynasty, and basically disappeared hundreds of years later.

It can still be rescued now, and the sediment of the Sheyang River will be washed away into the sea by storing water. It is also possible to excavate artificial canals to communicate with the Huaihe River, and to wash away the sediment in the lower reaches of the Huaihe River over time. The same is true for Shuoxiang Lake in the north, which clears the lower reaches of the Huaihe River through Lianshui. This form uses the power of nature, which is more effective than Zhao Han's dredging by migrant workers.

Zhang Guowei said: "If all the embankments of Sheyang Lake and Shuoxiang Lake are built, it may take more than ten years and consume at least 10 million taels of silver... 20 million silver is also possible. But as long as it is completed, it will not only save The water is painted yellow, and it can also store water and discharge floods, ensuring that the surrounding people will not be flooded."

"Then do it!" Zhao Han gritted his teeth and said, the financial problem was a headache for the ministers.

The more Zhang Guowei talked, the more excited he became: "After embankment is built around the lake, irrigation canals will be dug to lead to the states and counties, and gates will be set up to release water during the dry season. This will solve the drought problem in the surrounding counties."

"After the dam is built, we will dig the irrigation canal!" Zhao Han promised again.

"Your Majesty is holy!" Zhang Guowei felt very happy, this emperor is really obedient, and he will not have to worry about money for water control in the future.

Zhao Han is cleaning the ass of the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. The Huaisi water system has become a mess, and all states and counties have to spend money to clean it up. It can still be saved now, but in New China, it has already been cleared and there is no way to clear it, so we can only start a new stove to dig the main irrigation canal in northern Jiangsu.

Counting the Yellow River Project, it will take decades to get this set up, and it will cost two to three hundred million taels of silver. And you can only manage a rough idea, and you have to maintain it every year thereafter!

Money, silver, Zhao Han had to find a way to get money.

Zhao Han put down his wine glass: "You two, since you have returned to Beijing, let's join the cabinet together as prime ministers."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!" Xu Ying and Zhang Guowei hurriedly stood up and bowed.

The new issue of "Datong Monthly" used an entire page to report in detail on the Yellow River renovation project, and Zhang Guowei's name quickly spread throughout the country.