In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

On April 10, Zhao Jun went north along the Yellow River. He set out at 7 a.m. and arrived at Huazhou, 80 kilometers away, at 6 p.m.

It was dusk, and the Yellow River was not particularly turbulent. Mud was surging and yellow sand was flowing.

They stayed in Huazhou for one night. On the next day, April 11, accompanied by Zhu Xun, Liu Yi, the governor of Huazhou, and the county magistrate, they inspected the local water conservancy.

"Governor, since the opening of the canal, not only has the traffic from Hebei to Henan become much more convenient, but the water flow of the river has also decreased a lot."

The governor of Huazhou smiled and said to Zhao Jun: "In the past, once there was a heavy rain, the upstream would rise and the downstream would definitely be flooded. Now it's good. The water volume of the river rose sharply last summer, and the south bank was not flooded after the canal was built."

Although the canal was a project promulgated by the court, not a local initiative, the construction of the canal happened to be during his term of office in the sixth year of the Qingli period, which was undoubtedly his achievement.

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "This canal has indeed brought many benefits, but you didn't mention the most important point."

"Uh"

The governor of Huazhou hurriedly said, "I am stupid, please help me."

Zhao Jun looked at the two banks of the canal outside the city.

Huazhou was originally a lower state on the south bank of the Yellow River, with only three county towns, Huazhou, Zaocheng, and Weicheng, with a small area and little arable land.

The reason is that there are few rivers, including only one Dagong River in later generations.

Now that the canal has been opened, a large number of diversion channels have been built from Huazhou to the south of Jingji Road, and even several canal tributaries have been divided to irrigate the fields, which has added a lot of farmland.

In addition to farmland, the villages and towns along the coast are also quite prosperous, providing night accommodation, meals and other services for ships passing by, and gradually there is business.

Zhao Jun said: "After the canal was opened, the local people used water to irrigate farmland and reclaimed countless fields. Merchants who came and went needed accommodation at night, and they supported countless shops and people. You haven't calculated these."

"Yes, yes, yes."

The prefect of Huazhou said repeatedly: "It is the lower official who is confused."

Zhao Jun emphasized: "If you want to be rich, you must build roads first. This sentence is not empty talk. Convenient transportation and transportation can lead to prosperity. The state government should redouble its efforts and consider people's livelihood more."

"Yes, yes, yes."

The prefect of Huazhou kept nodding. Although Zhao Jun's words were not heavy, and even a tone of effort could be felt, he was already sweating.

This young prefect is said to be only 34 years old this year, but the aura and oppression he gave him were real. His words and deeds were like a mountain.

Perhaps in the eyes of ordinary people, officials such as prefects and county magistrates who are high above and almost the highest level that ordinary people can see are just ants in the eyes of the prefect.

After inspecting Huazhou, Zhao Jun's fleet went east along the Yellow River for more than 50 kilometers and arrived in Puyang on April 12.

This is the central area of ​​the entire Yellow River governance, because the Yellow River burst its dike here in history. The Shanghukou dike in the east of Puyang burst, and the Yellow River, which originally flowed eastward, flowed northward, flooding a large area of ​​land in the lower reaches of Hebei, causing countless people to be displaced.

When Zhao Jun arrived in Puyang, the governor of Chanzhou and the magistrate of Puyang County came to greet him, and Gao Chao, who was entrusted by Jia Changchao with an important task and was the chief engineer of the Yellow River Mouth, came with him.

Gao Chao was about 40 years old. He was originally just an ordinary river repair worker, but he was reused by Jia Changchao because he proposed the three-section pressure sweeping method.

At this moment, Xiaowu Village, west of Puyang City, is the place where the second failure to return the river in history caused the Yellow River to change its course again, from the original Henglong East Flow Channel to the North Flow Channel.

It was this diversion that caused the lower reaches of Hebei to become a swamp, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, and there were heavy casualties.

"Minister."

Beside the riverbank of Xiaowu Village, Gao Chao pointed to the Yellow River tributary flowing slowly to the north in the distance and said: "It takes more than a day or two to manage a big river. There are mysteries in blocking and dredging. In order to repair this tributary, we mobilized more than 300,000 civilians to connect three big rivers, including Guangji Canal, Zhangshui River, and Hulu River, and more than ten small rivers. It took nearly two years and finally completed it."

"Well, I don't know how to manage water. I only know that there are only two ways to manage water, blocking and dredging. For example, the strategy of blocking water to flush sand is essentially to block water, and then use the impact of water to wash away the sand."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Professional matters should be left to professionals. The court will not interfere with how you manage, but I hope you must be cautious when determining the plan, because even professionals may fail. Once you fail, even if it is only once, the harm caused will be great, and hundreds of thousands or even millions of people may be homeless. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

Gao Chao's heart trembled and he bowed his hand in response.

Zhao Jun then visited the Beiliu River and the Nanfenliu River.

The current Yellow River management project is actually based on the diversion and water-binding sand flushing methods proposed by Zhao Jun.

The court dug seven or eight rivers in Hebei and Henan, including the Grand Canal, cost more than 10 million guan, and mobilized more than a million civilians, which was very expensive.

This is because Zhao Jun's reform measures in recent years have enriched the court's treasury. Otherwise, according to the situation of the Song Dynasty court in the past, a large amount of expenses would be spent on military affairs, and there would be no extra funds to manage the Yellow River.

Judging from the current situation, although it is not the flood season of the Yellow River, Zhao Jun looked at the water flow of the Yellow River. The water flow has dropped a lot during the non-flood season, which can be said to be effective.

Even in the summer and autumn flood seasons, with the diversion capacity of these rivers, they can presumably bear such a large flow of water and prevent the Yellow River from flooding.

On the afternoon of April 13, Zhao Jun visited the most important project of Yellow River management.

Shanghukou outside Puyang East City.

Shanghukou actually broke its banks once in the first year of Jingyou, causing the Yellow River to change its course from the old Yellow River route to the Henglong Road.

The so-called Sanyi Return to the River is actually the process of changing the Yellow River from Henglong Road back to Shanghu Road. The Song Dynasty tried to die three times and failed three times, allowing the Yellow River to harm one side.

At this time, at Shanghukou, you can see that the Yellow River divides again here. One goes north along the Henglong Road, and the other goes east along the old Shanghukou Road. And obviously the water flow along the old road is much greater than that going north.

"At that time, the river changed its course, causing the river to shift northward. Although it eventually flowed into the Bohai Sea, it caused great harm to the people along the coast."

Gao Chao said: "The imperial court attaches great importance to it. Prime Minister Jia has visited the river mouth many times and proposed a method of confining water to flush out sand. He built a dam at Henglong Road, closed the water at Longkou, and tightened the river channel at Shanghukou to allow the water to hit the river bed. The sediment at the bottom finally cleared up a lot of the sand in the old channel, allowing the river to return to its original channel again.”

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded slightly: "This three-pronged strategy is the best way to manage the Yellow River. In your opinion, how long will it take for the river to be completely moved back to its original course?"

"The villain feels that it is possible to completely move back to the original path, but it is difficult to guarantee that the river will not burst its banks again."

Gao Chao shook his head and said: "Although the method of concentrating water to wash away sand is good, it is impossible to completely remove the sediment accumulated at the bottom of the river. We can only wash away a thick layer on the surface and delay the river for decades."

"As the saying goes, we must treat the symptoms before we can cure the root cause. It seems that these countermeasures are only a temporary solution. If we really want to cure the root cause, we still have to make the river clear."

Zhao Jun sighed.

No matter how you clean up the silt downstream or divert the Yellow River, as long as there is still a steady stream of water and soil erosion upstream and a large amount of sediment is washed down, the river downstream will always be blocked.

Once blocked, the river bed will rise, and the water flow that could originally be accommodated by the river bed cannot be accommodated. Once it encounters a flood season, it will surge out and cause flooding.

Therefore, in essence, the dredging of the Yellow River can only be a means to delay the flooding of the Yellow River. If we really want to control the river, we still have to do a good job in upstream environmental protection.

But for now, there should be no possibility of the Yellow River bursting its banks, at least for a long time to come.

As long as we continue to maintain this, it will be a matter of time before the sediment on the old path of the Yellow River is slowly washed away and the Yellow River is completely moved from Henglong Road back to Shanghu Road.

On April 14, after the inspection in Puyang, Zhao Jun set off again, heading westward along the Yellow River and entering the middle reaches.

More than ten days later, he arrived in Luoyang to check the governance situation in Luoyang.

Because the river channel in the middle reaches of the Yellow River is relatively wide, the water flow is relatively gentle, which is very suitable for building dams to control the flow of water downstream.

In fact, there were Sanmenxia Dam and Xiaolangdi Dam in this area in later generations, which perfectly regulated the flow of the Yellow River, thereby realizing many functions such as power generation, agriculture, and construction.

No major disasters have occurred here, either in history or later. The large Yellow River wetland is a habitat for countless wild animals and is full of vitality.

Zhao Jun heard that in this area, there are not only various nationally protected animals of later generations, such as red-crowned cranes, great bustards, black storks, gray cranes, white spoonbills, swans, etc., there are even giant pandas from the Qinling Mountains.

He disembarked at Mengjin Ferry, and under the guidance of local officials, he saw the vast Luoyang wetlands, the towering Mang Mountains, and saw countless lush trees and beautiful wild animals.

It has to be said that in ancient times without industrial pollution, such unique natural conditions and fresh air really made people feel a sense of comfort that was immersed in the heart and spleen.

The terrain here was also recorded by the recorder on board the ship. In the future, if the industrial capacity is strong, it may be possible to build dams and hydropower stations here.

A few days later, Zhao Jun set off again, heading west along the Yellow River and entering Shaanxi.

Since Han Qi defeated Li Yuanhao in one fell swoop in October of the previous year, he had been transferred back to the Central Committee in June of last year.

After all, he is the Inspector of the Supervisory Yuan. Compared with the Supreme Prosecutor, he certainly cannot leave the court for a long time.

However, he has been operating in the northwest for more than a year, and the management of various areas is basically on the right track, including planting trees and planting more vegetation on both sides of the Wei River and Jing River.

When Zhao Jun's fleet arrived at Tongguan, Wang Yan, the Yongxing military transport envoy, Fan Xiang, the Qinfeng road transport envoy, and the Sixth Route military envoy came to see them.

After the Northwest War started, the imperial court divided Shaanxi Road into two main roads for transfer envoys and five small roads for envoy envoys. Fan Zhongyan was appointed as the envoy envoy of Shaanxi Road and took charge of the military and political power of the entire Shaanxi Road.

Now the imperial court has taken back the Hehuang Valley and divided it into Hexi Road. Therefore, the entire Shaanxi Province is divided into two major roads and six small roads. In the absence of the entire Shaanxi Road, the envoys are basically transferred to the Yongxing Military Road. He was headed by the Qinfeng Road transfer envoy.

The original Qinfeng Road transfer envoy was Yang Kai, but Yang Kai was promoted because he assisted Han Qi in defeating Xixia. He went to the central government to serve as a minister of a certain department. Now Wang Yan and Fan Xiang are in charge.

Below, there are Jingtai, the envoy of Hexi Road, Gao Jixuan, the envoy of Jingyuan Road, and Liu Ping, the transshipment envoy of Yanyan Road.

Although these people are all big bosses of one party, they should be able to secure the people, guard the border, and guard the place.

But when Zhao Jun came, they did not come to greet him, just like when Emperor Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, the local governor did not come to serve him. It was obvious that he was dissatisfied with his career.

"Zhiyuan!"

Many officials were waiting in Tongguan. When Zhao Jun got off the boat, they all bowed and saluted.

Zhao Jun nodded and said, "Well, the river has been managed for many years. This time I am on tour to inspect the local management on behalf of the court. The upper reaches are the top priority. I hope you will not disappoint me."

Wang Yan smiled bitterly and said, "In recent years, Shaanxi Road has been planting trees and digging many canals. There must be some effect, but it is not easy to manage it well in a short time."

"Well, I understand you. When the Tang Dynasty was prosperous, Guanzhong was over-cultivated. It will take a long time to recover."

Zhao Jun pointed out, "But no matter how difficult it is, we have to do it. This involves the great cause of future generations, and we can't be careless. Especially Guanzhong has been a fertile land since ancient times. It can't be abandoned because of over-cultivation. It must be well managed."

"Yes."

Everyone nodded repeatedly.

Zhao Jun emphasized: "As the saying goes, it takes ten years to grow trees. We should plant more fast-growing trees on both sides of the river to stabilize soil erosion. In this way, the water of the river will be clear and there will be no silt in the downstream."

"Yes."

Everyone agreed again.

After that, everyone followed, and Zhao Jun continued to go to Chang'an.

In more than ten days in early May, he traveled all over the banks of the Weihe River and the Jinghe River to investigate the local water, soil and agricultural conditions.

Compared with the last time he came to Guanzhong during the Baoyuan period, nearly ten years have passed, and the Guanzhong Basin has really changed a lot.

Not only have many barren lands been governed, but also a large number of river tributaries have been dredged, and many water conservancy facilities have been built. Even many uninhabited wilderness have become lush and green.

According to the data of several Qinfeng Road and Yongxingjun Road Transport Envoys, Guanzhong has been in operation for eleven years since Fan Zhongyan was appointed as the General Manager of Shaanxi Road in the fourth year of Jingyou.

During this period, the successive military and political leaders of Guanzhong defended against the Western Xia enemy outside and governed the Guanzhong Plain inside, and achieved good results.

Including population, farmland area, water conservancy construction, etc., all grew extremely rapidly.

For example, in terms of population, before the third year of Jingyou, the population of Yongxingjun Road was only 820,000 households, and this year it has exceeded 1.2 million households, with an average annual growth of 4%, and the population has increased by about one-third.

Among them, before the third year of Jingyou, there were about 600,000 households in the Guanzhong Basin, about 3 million people. Now there are 900,000 households in the Guanzhong Basin, with a population of about 4.5 million.

It looks like a lot, but before that, the entire Yongxingjun Road, including Qinfeng Road, had only 1.27 million households, about 6 million people, while the population of the entire Song Dynasty was about 80 million.

In contrast, the population during the Tang Dynasty was only 50 to 60 million, and the Guanzhong Basin alone had more than 4 million. If the current Yongxingjun Road and Qinfeng Road are included, the population density is obviously much greater than that of the Song Dynasty.

So it can be foreseen that before the third year of Jingyou, the population density of the Guanzhong Basin was much lower than that of the Tang Dynasty. In addition to the impact of the wars of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, it was because the Guanzhong Basin was over-cultivated, causing the land to become increasingly barren.

Now the population is increasing. In addition to the policy of equalizing the land tax, which has led to the emergence of many unregistered households and newborns, and allowing people to have children without worry and boldly, the most important thing is that there are many immigrants.

In the past, Guanzhong was over-cultivated, which led to increasingly barren land and population outflow.

Now that Guanzhong has restored its ecology and the land has become more fertile, the population has naturally begun to move back.

Zhao Jun has been inspecting the Guanzhong Basin and is quite satisfied with the local governance of the officials in charge. At least the ecology of Guanzhong has been initially restored.

What remains is to continue to increase efforts, continue to plant trees, stabilize water and soil, and protect the ecological environment.

For this reason, Zhao Jun asked local officials to introduce policies. It is definitely unrealistic to ban the felling of trees now, but it is required not to cut trees without restraint, to protect seedlings, and to use more coal resources instead of charcoal.

Even if coal will also emit a lot of carbon dioxide and pollute the environment, it is at least much better than cutting down a large number of trees.

In late May, after inspecting the banks of the Weishui and Jingshui rivers and the Guanzhong Basin, Zhao Jun planned to go north along the Yellow River to the Loess Plateau, which is Yan'an, Luliang, and Yulin in the future.

The main reason why the Yellow River turned yellow is that there was a lot of soil erosion on the Loess Plateau, causing the soil to be washed away by the river, thus changing the color of the upper reaches of the Yellow River.

Therefore, the governance of the Loess Plateau is the top priority.

However, the court has been fighting in the northwest for many years, and Fuyan Road is on the front line, mainly focusing on military preparations, and there is really not much time for governance.

It was not until the last two years that the afforestation campaign began, but there was not much effect in a short period of time, so the Yellow River is still yellow, and there is still a lot of silt mixed in it.

In early June, Zhao Jun's fleet went upstream, passed Tongzhou and Danzhou, and arrived at Yan'an Prefecture. It was midsummer and the sun was high.

Zhao Jun stood on the boat, and the breeze blew gently. The mountains on both sides were ups and downs. Although the hills also grew many weeds and trees, many places were bare, revealing a lot of loess.

He looked around and said to Wang Yan, Fan Xiang, Jingtai, Gao Jixuan, Liu Ping, Zhu Xun, Liu Yi and others who accompanied him on the inspection: "The river passes through this Loess Plateau, bringing countless silt to the downstream, so the river should be tamed on this plateau. It is definitely very difficult to tam it now, but we can first plant some fast-growing trees that can fix sand, such as willows, poplars, white poplars, etc."

These trees are native to the country and are drought-resistant and sand-fixing. Thousands of years ago, the Loess Plateau of the Song Dynasty was not as desolate as it would be in later generations. There were still a large number of forests and grasslands.

Therefore, if it can be managed early, turning the Loess Plateau into a plateau of grass and trees may not be a dream.

"yes."

Everyone wrote them down one by one.

At this moment, Fan Xiang suddenly pointed forward and said: "Zhiyuan, the river has become clear."

"oh?"

Zhao Jun looked around.

I saw in the distance towards the west bank of the Yellow River, the water flow was indeed much clearer.

Looking from a distance, we can see the rolling waves of Dinghe River in the distance. The clear water flows into the Yellow River, making the river water not as turbid as before.

Obviously, it should have been caused by heavy rains in the upper reaches of Dinghe River, and the soil erosion along the Dinghe River was not that serious.

"Well, it would be great if all the tributaries of the big river were like Dinghe River."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "You guys must also remember to manage more local tributaries, protect local vegetation along the coast, plant more trees, cut less and plant more trees, so that it can last long."

"yes."

Everyone responded.

The ship was still sailing, and it didn't take long to reach Baicao Town.

This is the junction of Dinghe River and Yellow River, located in the area of ​​Xinguan Town, Shilou County, Luliang City, Shanxi Province.

They were preparing to go north along the Dinghe River to Suide.

At this moment, a ship flew down the river and came straight towards the fleet from Dinghe River.

The boat was obviously heading straight for them.

Zhao Jun thought it was the magistrate of Suizhou who had arrived, because he had already sent people to notify the local officials when he arrived, and people came to greet him everywhere he went.

Unexpectedly, he was indeed the magistrate of Suizhou. His boat came closer, and he hurriedly climbed on board. Then he came to Zhao Jun and immediately handed over his hands and said, "Xiaguan Weiju has seen the magistrate."

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "The Governor of Wei arrived faster than I thought. I have just entered Suizhou."

Wei Ju smiled bitterly and said, "It's not that I'm waiting here, but something important happened."

"Is it important?"

Zhao Jun was puzzled for a moment, then frowned and said, "Are the Xia people coming to invade the border again?"

Since the defeat of Xixia the year before last, which not only severely damaged the Xixia army, but also seized a large area of ​​Xixia territory, Li Yuanhao can be said to have suffered a serious loss of vitality.

It's too late for him to lick his wounds now, so he dares to risk his own death by trespassing? This is unlikely.

"There was civil strife in Xixia, and Yuan Hao died in the chaos!"

Wei Ju said without any surprise: "At this time, the Xia people are already in an extremely chaotic state. When the official heard the news, he came immediately."

Li Yuanhao is dead?

And he died in the civil strife in Xixia?

This is really unexpected.

Zhao Jun was stunned for a moment, then looked around, and suddenly laughed loudly and said: "The water in the Yellow River is clear, and the world is blessed!"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Everyone looked at each other, and then burst into cheers and laughter.

It looks like the day when Xixia will be destroyed.

Not far away.