The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Shu Da, Zi Wei, this is the memorial submitted by Pan Jixun, the governor of Hecao. Please take a look."

Wei Guangde handed the memorial sent by the Ministry of Works directly to Zhang Juzheng and asked him to take a look first.

In the summer of the fourth year of Wanli, the Yellow River broke through Cuizhen, the Yellow River flowed north, the Qinghekou silted up, the whole Huainan moved, the Gaoyan Lake embankment was seriously damaged, and the Huai, Yang, Gaoyou, and Baoying were all flooded.

The cabinet was deeply worried, and there were also differences in water management in the court, so the decision was delayed.

Wu Guifang, the Minister of Hecao, proposed to restore the old course of the Yellow River, while Fu Xizhi, the Chief Hedu Yushi, wanted to plug the breach and return the water to the canal, but the two disagreed.

After that, Wu Guifang died of illness in office, so Zhang Juzheng decided to replace Jixun as the Right Yushi and the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works.

After Wei Guangde handed over the memorial, he sat there without saying a word, actually thinking about the pros and cons of Pan Jixun's memorial.

The Ming Dynasty court was in financial distress. Although the Ministry of Revenue had increased its income by minting silver and gold coins that were circulated throughout the country, it could only barely maintain a balance with a slight surplus.

Moreover, such a surplus was only temporary.

As the war in the southwest developed, the war was still supported by the fiscal revenue of the southwest in the past two years, but once it was used up, it would eventually need subsidies from the court.

By then, I am afraid there would be another deficit.

With the rewards after the war, the deficit would only be greater.

Therefore, some officials from the Ministry of Revenue have suggested tightening the expenditure of Xuanda for tribute and strictly controlling the amount of rewards.

The appetite of the Altan tribe is getting bigger and bigger. At the beginning, it was still a tribute trade of more than 100,000 taels of silver every year. Now this number is constantly increasing, and there are signs that it has gradually become a burden on the court.

For this reason, officials in the court have great opinions on this.

The original intention of negotiating peace with Altan was to save expenses so that the court would not have to invest heavily in the northern border towns.

However, the military expenses became tribute expenses. Although the court could also increase some supplies for this, the court still suffered losses in the end.

Among them, the supporters were mainly from the Jiangxi and Shandong factions, because in the past few years, people around Wei Guangde had learned that Wei Guangde was actually not aware of the terms of the peace agreement in advance.

After Emperor Longqing handed him the terms of the peace agreement, Wei Guangde was dissatisfied with the vague description of the tribute.

However, his memorial was sent back to the capital too late, and it received strong support from cabinet ministers Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng. In addition, under the promotion of the power of Xuanda Governor Wang Chonggu and Datong Governor Fang Fengshi, the peace agreement was reached.

The Ming Dynasty reached an agreement with Mongolia on the enthronement of Altan Khan, tribute and mutual trade, but many aspects were vague, giving others a lot of room for maneuver.

Therefore, although the Ministry of Revenue solved some financial pressures by casting Tongbao, it was only happy for a while, not to mention that it was overwhelmed by the heavy burden.

To put it bluntly, Pan Jixun's memorial will cost money again, and according to the Ministry of Works' estimate, money will be poured into it almost every year in the future.

Although the Ministry of Works can levy corvée labor for river works, there must be a limit.

The Ministry of Works feels a lot of pressure to repair the river embankment on such a large scale.

After all, the Yellow River control has already consumed a lot of river works, and so far, although Pan Jixun's suggestions are novel, after discussion and analysis, everyone still does not think highly of his opinions.

Of course, the Ministry of Works can't actually come up with any other better solutions.

In fact, even in the future, if we have to control the Yellow River, ensure transportation, and ensure that the Ming ancestral tombs are not lost, I am afraid there is no good way to achieve all three.

"Shan Dai, how likely do you think this memorial is?"

Zhang Juzheng had finished reading the memorial and handed it to Zhang Siwei next to him. He sat directly next to Wei Guangde and started asking.

"Weiliang's memorial is actually six proposals, plugging the breach to save the river, building embankments to prevent breaches, restoring sluices to prevent external rivers, creating rolling dams to consolidate embankments, stopping dredging to save waste, and abandoning the proposal to open the old Yellow River to facilitate crossing.

Building embankments, restoring sluices, and creating rolling dams, the Ministry of Works believes that the river project is too big.

Although the method of restraining water and attacking sand is very good, it is not without harm."

Wei Guangde began to tell Zhang Juzheng all that Jiang Zhi had said before and the Ministry of Works's discussion.

Sure enough, Zhang Juzheng's face kept changing after hearing the consequences.

Even Zhang Siwei, who was next to him, put down his memorial and listened to Wei Guangde's statement, frowning.

"He asked to open the old river. Is he also considering a workaround, that is, once the Yellow River is blocked, open the sluice of the old river to relieve the river disaster?"

At this time, Zhang Juzheng thought of the last thing mentioned in Pan Jixun's memorial, abandoning the proposal to open the old Yellow River to facilitate crossing.

In fact, it means that when building the Yellow River embankment, the old Yellow River must also be dredged. The meaning is self-evident.

"Yes, he probably knows the consequences. In the long run, the Huai River alone can only remove part of the silt, and cannot wash it away completely, so the riverbed will eventually be blocked.

When the riverbed rises, it will endanger the surrounding areas, so the old river channel will be dredged to prepare for flood discharge."

Wei Guangde said, "According to what he said, two embankments must be built on both sides of the Yellow River. Not only the river embankment must be built, but also another remote embankment must be built in the back."

In fact, this approach has been widely accepted in later generations, that is, to reserve flood discharge areas.

However, the problem is that the current Ming Dynasty finances have some difficulties in supporting one river embankment, let alone two.

To put it bluntly, the ancients were actually eager for quick success and wanted to solve all problems with one method.

Therefore, water control suddenly put in many problems that needed to be solved, and they were entangled with each other.

Of course, it seems that the real solution to the Yellow River flooding problem is climate change.

However, Wei Guangde couldn't say this.

"This time, in fact, the main reason for talking about this matter is that our cabinet ministers need to know about this matter. I have asked Jiang Zhi to return to the Ministry of Industry to list all possible results, and then it will be up to all of us to judge. What to do.”

Wei Guangde said.

"Do you support this memorial?"

Zhang Juzheng was keenly aware of the change in Wei Guangde's attitude. Although it seemed that he had raised many issues, they were all considered from the perspective of the implementation of this memorial.

In the end, the Ministry of Industry was even asked to list the possible consequences.

In fact, this is just a matter of making a choice among these consequences. If there are items that must be protected, then you must make an early decision.

For example, the Mingzu Mausoleum is a big deal.

Zhang Juzheng instantly guessed Wei Guangde's plan. Since he followed Pan Jixun's memorial, the rising water level of Hongze Lake might endanger the Mingzu Mausoleum, so he built a dike near the Mingzu Mausoleum to protect it.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng's guess is correct, and political risks cannot be taken.

After thinking about it, Wei Guangde felt that it was not impossible to use the Huaihe River to flush the river. It could at least alleviate the problem of sediment blockage in the Yellow River.

Although it can't all be solved.

However, the risk of a hanging river on the ground cannot be taken, especially if Hongze Lake is turned into a hanging lake.

The safety of the Ming Zu Mausoleum is already a factor that can destabilize their official hats.

Then we should change the approach and build embankments around the Mingzu Mausoleum in advance to protect the Mingzu Mausoleum.

As for the people around him, there seems to be no good solution.

In fact, even if the court did not control the water, the people on both sides of the river were still under the threat of floods in the Yellow River.

Wei Guangde nodded, and Zhang Juzheng fell silent.

He could guess some things without explanation.

Zhang Siwei is also very conflicted, which can be seen from the change in his face.

I'm afraid he didn't expect that he would face such a problem soon after joining the cabinet.

If there is merit, the cabinet will naturally be the first to take credit.

Later generations often said that Yan Song in the Jiajing Dynasty would snatch the credit of those below him every time he encountered major events. In fact, this statement is wrong.

The first priority for credit is the leadership of the cabinet, followed by the execution credit below.

Correspondingly, even if it was not taken as a serious matter, it was also the cabinet ministers who were scolded by the emperor. They were responsible for the leadership's oversight.

This time too, Zhang Siwei has realized that the conversation between the two just now was actually an attempt to find out the possible responsibilities of the cabinet after the accident.

For example, the embankment of the Mingzu Mausoleum should be built first to protect the Mingzu Mausoleum.

Even if the Yellow River floods are out of control, at least the Ming Zuling Mausoleum will be saved. They will be scolded but will not be dismissed from office. The actual responsibility is still the river officials.

As long as we avoid fatal political risks, everything else is not a problem.

"Actually, Wei Liang's memorial gave me some hints."

However, Wei Guangde suddenly spoke.

"Oh, what hint?"

Zhang Juzheng asked curiously.

"Building remote embankments after the embankment, the open space between them can be used to carry out floods when floods come. Although it takes up farmland, it is a good way to alleviate floods, but it is too expensive."

Wei Guangde said.

According to Pan Jixun, it is equivalent to widening the river embankment, and the investment of manpower and material resources is not small.

"In my opinion, if a special flood discharge area is selected along the Yellow River waterway, if the water is not usually large, there is no need to activate it.

However, if the water potential is too high, in order to protect the embankment and fertile farmland on both sides, the flood discharge area can be opened and the river water can be poured into it to share the water flow pressure.

However, I have never walked across the Yellow River, so I don’t know if there is such wasteland on both sides of the river for flood discharge, so I have to have people from the Ministry of Industry check whether there is such open space near the river. "

Wei Guangde explained the idea of ​​a flood discharge area that he had previously thought of. In fact, there is nothing new in essence. It has the same meaning as Pan Jixun's reopening of the old Yellow River route, which is to divert floods.

"Good, great good."

However, this was the first time in this era that someone had raised the issue of setting up a special flood discharge area, which was an eye-opener for Zhang Juzheng.

"In fact, we don't necessarily have to find wasteland. As long as there is a suitable location, we can set up such a flood discharge area."

Wei Guangde said the words flood discharge area and flood discharge area successively. Although they had never appeared before, Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Siwei could still understand what they meant.

Now that you understand the purpose, you will naturally understand the importance of settings better.

The water can be enclosed within a certain range so that it is not completely uncontrollable.

In this way, it is enough to move the people in the flood discharge area to nearby areas.

Even if floods in the Yellow River occur again in the future, at the very least, although the fields will be flooded, the lives of the people will not be endangered. This is worthy of Zhang Juzheng's loud praise.

"This is a wonderful method of lending money, which can be regarded as saving the lives of thousands of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait."

Zhang Siwei also spoke.

"The truth is this, but whether it can really be done and find a suitable place is just my whim, and it depends on the actual situation.

I heard that the Yellow River is already higher than the surrounding terrain due to the sedimentation of the river bed. I am worried that I will not be able to find a suitable place to release the flood. "

Wei Guangde hurriedly added.

"It doesn't matter. At worst, we can carry out river construction and raise the embankments in the flood discharge area, which will alleviate the floods in the Yellow River."

Zhang Juzheng didn't care.

"Can the imperial government finance it? For such a big project, I'm not afraid that it won't be able to support it."

Wei Guangde immediately reminded.

He knew that Zhang Juzheng must have been so excited when he first heard this suggestion that he forgot everything else and did not expect the money to come.

Sure enough, Zhang Juzheng's expression immediately changed when he was reminded by Wei Guangde.

"There is always a way. As for money, if you think of a way, you can always find a solution."

Just when the atmosphere was a little awkward, Zhang Siwei opened his mouth to ease the atmosphere.

"Think of a way."

When Wei Guangde heard this, he couldn't help grinning, thinking of what his predecessor, Yan Song, who had been called a traitor, said this when he encountered problems that the court's finances could not solve.

In fact, the solution is to tear down the east wall to repair the west wall, and try to cover six bottles with five lids, or even more bottles.

In essence, it is still treating the symptoms rather than the root cause.

Of course, his son Yan Shifan was also working hard to enrich himself. This was an indisputable fact, but Yan Song was also working hard to keep the court running.

“The imperial court still needs to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, and the deficit must eventually be turned into a surplus.

Otherwise, if there is a big problem and the court has no money to use, it will not be a solution after all. "

Zhang Juzheng suddenly said, "I looked through the data reported by the Ministry of Household Affairs before. In recent years, the land tax has been significantly different from before. The land area has not increased but decreased. It is really strange."

Unexpectedly, Zhang Juzheng suddenly brought the topic to the issue of clearing his father's land.

Wei Guangde kept silent and didn't say much. He just glanced at Zhang Siwei secretly and saw that his face looked strange. He seemed not to know that Zhang Juzheng had plans to clear the land again.

Thinking about it, the matter of clearing the father-in-law is of great concern. If Zhang Juzheng had not known Wei Guangde as a person, he would not have revealed it to Wei Guangde before completing the articles of association.

After all, how much land did Wei Guangde own? Zhang Juzheng was not around. He only cared about Wei Guangde's family's wealth, which was mostly commercial income rather than the output of the land. Naturally, he would not be too resistant to clearing the land.

Zhang Siwei and Wei Guangde are in similar situations. They are both from business families, so naturally they will not object strongly.

Therefore, through this conversation, Zhang Juzheng obviously planned to let Zhang Siwei know the truth and let him know that the cabinet was planning to clear the father-in-law.

Now that he has joined the cabinet, sooner or later he will find out about this from the discussion between the two.

If you can't hide it, why not tell him openly.

Zhang Juzheng was talking eloquently, comparing the data on land acres in previous dynasties with the current one. Zhang Siwei could guess the reason no matter how slow his reaction was.

He also secretly glanced at Wei Guangde, and seeing that his expression was as usual, he knew that the two of them had discussed it beforehand.

It's just that Wei Guangde didn't speak because he couldn't guess his attitude.

However, it was Zhang Juzheng who brought up the matter, and it was obvious that the initiator was the chief minister.

"There is indeed something fishy about the farmland. It's time to investigate."

After Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, Zhang Siwei could only answer.

"Uncle, it's better to be cautious about this matter."

Wei Guangde followed up after Zhang Siwei expressed his stance.