In 69 AD, the second emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Liu Zhuang of the Han Ming Dynasty, had been emperor for twelve years.
In the previous 12 years, Liu Zhuang vigorously suppressed the nobles and heroes, coordinated the cultivated land and population of the whole country, and vigorously developed production. Under his rule, the national power of the Eastern Han Dynasty flourished. A world of great rule has gradually begun.
At this time, Liu Zhuang felt that he had saved a little money in the past few years, and the treasury was quite abundant. So next, Liu Zhuang plans to do a big project.
At that time, Liu Zhuang found a person named Wang Jing and asked him a lot about water control in person. And Wang Jing's answer also made Liu Zhuang very satisfied. So in the end, Liu Zhuang ordered Wang Jing to take the lead and take charge of the Yellow River to govern the Yellow River!
In this way, the famous 'Wang Jing's water control' in history officially began.
In the following ten years, with the support of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty and the strong national strength of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Jing began to make every effort to solve the flooding of the Yellow River. After more than ten years of hard work, in the end, the flood problem of the Yellow River was finally reduced to a very low level by Wang Jing.
In the 800 years since, until the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were no major floods in the Yellow River. It wasn't until nearly a millennium later that the Yellow River began to rage again. But at that time, it was already in the Northern Song Dynasty.
It can be said that Wang Jing's efforts have protected the Central Plains for more than 800 years! From this point of view, Wang Jing's contribution to history is actually far greater than that of those princes and generals!
So what is the real Wang Jing's control of the water in history? What methods did this strange man of water control in the Eastern Han Dynasty use to make the Yellow River stable for 800 years?
In fact, we have to start with the flooding of the Yellow River itself.
As the mother river of Chinese civilization, the significance of the Yellow River in history naturally goes without saying. As early as thousands of years ago, our ancestors took root in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and began to establish civilization.
But since our ancestors settled in this area, the flooding of the Yellow River has been bothering our ancestors.
The main reason why the floods of the Yellow River are difficult to control is because of geographical reasons. Because when the Yellow River flows through the Loess Plateau, it will carry a large amount of sediment down. When the sediment reaches the lower reaches of the river, it will make the riverbed higher and higher, and then the river will overflow from the original channel, flooding the people living on both sides of the Yellow River.
In fact, there are not a few rivers like this in the world. But the problem is that if it is a small river, even if it overflows, it will only flood dozens of miles at most, and everyone can afford this loss. Even if the flood comes and everyone runs away in advance, the problem can basically be solved.
But not the Yellow River.
Because the amount of water in the Yellow River is so large, once the water of the Yellow River overflows, it will soon flood a radius of thousands of miles. Because the flood area is so large, when you see the flood, it's too late to run.
Moreover, even if you are lucky enough to have a relatively high hill around your home. When the flood came, you hid in the mountains for a while and survived. But when you come down, you find that all the food within a radius of a few hundred miles is gone, and you have nothing to eat.
In this case, you will either have to transfer food from further afield. But in this way, at least before Qin Shi Huang unified the world, everyone definitely did not have this ability. The other way is that you pack your things and run away. Since this place is often flooded, why don't I find a place where there are no floods?
In fact, the vast majority of ethnic groups in history, when they encounter this situation, choose the second way. In the face of such natural disasters, they tend to run away. Anyway, the world is so big, there are always some places with less flooding.
So in their ancient mythology, when the Great Flood came, they ran away. Or build a big boat, run to the boat yourself and take refuge, and wait quietly for the flood to pass.
But our ancestors were more head iron.
Our ancestors believed that although the heavens and the earth are big, our home is here. Away from home, no matter how good other places are, they are not our home. So then, everyone began to think about how to deal with this kind of flooding.
At the beginning, a smart man stepped forward. This person pointed out that since the root cause of the flooding of the Yellow River lies in the overflow of the river and the flooding of the surrounding area of the riverbank. Wouldn't it be better for us to raise the banks of the river so that the river could not overflow in the future?
There are not many records in the history books about who first came up with this idea, because it is too long.
But in myths and legends, the person who proposed this 'good idea' was Dayu's father 'Kun'.
And then, when this plan was proposed, many people also felt that it was feasible. So next, our ancestors began to implement this plan.
But soon, our ancestors discovered a new problem.
That's the amount of work, it's too big! With the productivity of the time, it was simply impossible to accomplish this task!
In fact, we can do a simple calculation: let's say that in order to control the Yellow River, we need to increase the banks on both sides of the Yellow River by one meter! Taking into account the length of the Yellow River, plus the amount of earthwork needed on both banks. In the end, the amount of work calculated is at least equivalent to building ten Great Walls!
This amount of work, in ancient times, especially in the pre-Qin period, was basically absolutely impossible to complete! So later, in myths and legends, Kun completed this kind of task, and it did not rely on manpower. Instead, they stole the soil from the sky, and then used it to turn it directly into a river embankment.
In other words, in the eyes of the ancients, this amount of work cannot be completed by manpower at all, only God can do it.
But the problem is that there is no such thing as soil in reality, and all projects have to be completed by manpower. So how to solve this problem?
So next, someone came up with a simplified version.
Although it is impossible for us to raise the entire embankment on both sides of the Yellow River! But we can raise some of the lower ones! **The river bank is relatively low, so let's go to increase it**!
According to this simplified version, the amount of work was instantly reduced to one hundredth, or even one thousandth. In this way, we can complete the project.
But later, when this simplified version of the project was completed, everyone quickly found that the effect of this project was also greatly reduced! Although some of the lower places are indeed stable for a few years after they are raised. But after a few years, the river will still overflow from other places.
In the end, there will be more and more loopholes, and the work will get bigger and bigger! When the amount of water is relatively large one day, the entire Yellow River will directly flood the entire line! All the previous works were washed away.
How can this be done?
So at this time, everyone began to think about why this situation happened. In the end, it was discovered that the root cause was actually the sediment carried by the Yellow River. Because the sediment in the Yellow River will settle and raise the riverbed. Therefore, even if the banks of the river are raised, the problem seems to be solved in the short term. But after a few years, as the sediment gradually silts up, the riverbed at the bottom of the river will get higher and higher, raising the water level again.
This also means that if we keep solving problems with the idea of heightening the two sides of the strait, we will never be able to finish this work!
So after that, someone came up with a new idea.
This idea is called 'blocking is better than sparse'.
According to this new way of thinking, although we cannot increase the height of the banks of the Yellow River indefinitely, we cannot fundamentally solve the flood problem. But we can guide the Yellow River, and when the Yellow River is about to flood, we will find a river next to it. Let's let the excess water of the Yellow River flow out of this river, isn't that okay!
Judging from historical books and myths and legends, the first person to put forward this idea in ancient times was Dayu. And after this idea was put forward, it quickly became our magic weapon for water control. For thousands of years since then, until today, this has been one of our main ideas for managing the Yellow River.
However, with this correct idea, there are still big problems in the next implementation process.
Because of this amount of work, it is still too large.
Imagine if we wanted to dig a new river thousands of years ago, or use an existing river to divert some of the water from the Yellow River. Moreover, this part of the river water cannot exceed the upper limit of the river's banks. This difficulty is also quite exaggerated.
And the most important thing is that before Qin Shi Huang unified the world, no country or regime could include the entire Yellow River into its territory. Including the previous Xia and Shang dynasties, their royal direct territory only included a certain section of the Yellow River.
This means that they don't need to control the entire Yellow River, they just need to make sure that this section of the Yellow River in their country does not overflow.
But this kind of construction plan without overall planning is destined to be impossible to solve the problem. Because if too much water is released upstream, it can easily cause flooding if it exceeds the upper limit of the downstream.
Therefore, until the Qin Dynasty, everyone was basically helpless about the Yellow River. At most, a certain section of the tributary can be used to divert part of the Yellow River when the flood peak arrives in the summer. In this way, it is possible to reduce the number of floods, but not the Yellow River.
And after Qin Shi Huang unified the world, judging from the historical records, Qin Shi Huang had the idea of governing the Yellow River.
But as a result, because the history of the Qin Dynasty was too short, this plan could not be implemented on a large scale, and the Qin Dynasty died. Moreover, the capital of the Qin Dynasty, in today's Xi'an area, is also in Guanzhong. Therefore, during the period of Qin Shi Huang, the first task of the Qin State was to build the Great Wall to defend against the Xiongnu, and to build Chidao to strengthen its control over the empire.
As for the Yellow River, due to geographical reasons, no matter how flooded the Yellow River is, it is impossible to flood directly to Xianyang. Therefore, this project is destined to be delayed.
As a result, it dragged on to the end, and before the Qin Dynasty began to govern the river, the Qin Dynasty died.
And after that, in the Western Han Dynasty, the situation was actually similar.
Because the capital of the Western Han Dynasty is still on the side of Guanzhong. No matter how much the Yellow River floods, it will not flood Chang'an. In addition, in the early Western Han Dynasty, during Liu Bang's reign, the main problem was to solve those princes and kings with different surnames. In the later period of Wenjingzhizhi, the main task was not to engage in big projects, and everyone lived honestly.
Therefore, in the early period of the Western Han Dynasty, everyone was still helpless against the flooding of the Yellow River. Although the state has set up some 'river embankment attendants', many places are also raising the embankment every year. But these measures can only slow down the occurrence of floods at best.
The first to start gathering the strength of the whole country to solve the problem of the Yellow River was actually Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
In the early period of the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when he was just in power, he actually thought about solving the Yellow River problem. But as a result, the prime minister who managed the court at that time was his own uncle Tian Wei. And Tian Wei himself has a lot of land on both sides of the Yellow River. This also means that once the river is to be built on a large scale, it will inevitably encroach on the land of the grass.
If it was just Tian Wei alone, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty might still be able to be selfless and forcibly start work. But under the circumstances of the time, many other nobles of the Han Dynasty also had land next to the Yellow River. They only hope to raise the embankment on one side of the Yellow River and break the embankment on the other side, so as to protect their land.
In this way, in the face of the pressure of a large number of nobles, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty could not force the start of work. After all, at this time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was in a hurry to fight the Xiongnu, and it was precisely the time when he needed to unite the entire country. So next, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty postponed the matter of governing the river. At the same time, in order to avoid the flood causing public anger, the high-level of the Han Dynasty at that time began to publicize to the outside world, saying that the flood of the Yellow River was the will of heaven and could not be violated.
Of course, even so, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty later dealt with his own uncle, and at the same time suppressed many nobles and reduced the pressure on governing the river.
In this way, after another 20 years, after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty completely defeated the Xiongnu and went to Mount Tai to seal the Zen, he began to take action against the flooding of the Yellow River. After returning from Feng Chan, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty personally went to the mouth of the Yellow River, which is in the area of Puyang, Henan Province today.
Next, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used a lot of manpower to completely block the place where the embankment broke. At the same time, he also ordered many places along the Yellow River to strengthen the embankments. And soon after, the Yellow River broke in the area of Guantao in Hebei. The area of the flood caused by the breach was not large, but a new river was formed. After the emergence of this channel, the pressure of the Yellow River flooding plummeted.
So in the decades that followed, the flooding of the Yellow River was much lessened.
It was not until a few decades later, in the late Western Han Dynasty, that the newly formed river was cut off due to flooding. As a result, the Yellow River began to flood again. Probably during the reign of Emperor Han Cheng, Emperor Han Cheng dredged the river that had been washed out before, and once again divided some of the pressure, which was only dealt with for a few more years.
However, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty did not last long to repair the river this time. Many, just over twenty years later, the Yellow River is overflowing. But this time, it was just in time for Wang Mang to take power. Wang Mang admired ancient times, and he felt that the Yellow River should not be governed at all! Wang Mang believes that the flooding of the Yellow River is the will of heaven and a means for God to punish the world.
Because of Wang Mang's inaction for a long time, the river embankments built in the Western Han Dynasty were basically abandoned. In the later years of Wang Mang's reign, the Yellow River flooded frequently, which was one of the fundamental reasons for the collapse of Wang Mang's regime.
Later, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the floods of the Yellow River were still raging in the early stage because no one took care of them. Even because of the war, there are many people who plan to use the Yellow River to fight.
For example, when Liu Xiu had just gone north to Hebei, someone once proposed to him that he should rip up the embankment of the Yellow River and flood the Red Mei Army downstream. If Liu Xiu really did this at that time, it is estimated that millions of more people would die as soon as he gave the order. Fortunately, Liu Xiu later rejected this suggestion and did not become a sinner in history.
After the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Liu Xiu completely unified the world, he began to rebuild the Yellow River. However, at that time, the Eastern Han Dynasty had just ended the war and its national strength was limited. Therefore, when the Yellow River was being repaired, it did not dare to engage in too big a project. But at the same time, it is not possible to repair the Yellow River, because the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty is in Luoyang, not in Guanzhong.
When there was a big flood in the Western Han Dynasty, no matter how much the Yellow River flooded, it could not flood Chang'an. But now, once the Yellow River floods, Luoyang will be completely flooded.
In this way, after Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, the country had recuperated for a generation, and its national strength had increased significantly. At this time, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty dared to propose to repair the Yellow River. And after that, someone recommended to him this Wang Jing, who is good at cultivating rivers.
In this way, the story of Wang Jingzhihe gradually began.
After being appointed by Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty as the person in charge of river governance, Wang Jing did a lot of research work. As a water conservancy expert, Wang Jing knows very well that the best way to control the Yellow River is to find a river and drain the excess water from the Yellow River.
But several tributaries of the Yellow River were not suitable. Because the sediment of the Yellow River is too large, the riverbeds of the previous rivers have also been raised on a large scale. If you want to repair it, you can only continue to raise the river bank, the cost is too high.
Therefore, at that time, Wang Jing put the direction on finding new tributaries. The best is a tributary of the Yellow River that used to flow, but now it has broken again. In this way, as long as someone is sent to dig up the existing river channel, and then divert the water of the Yellow River to it, the problem can be solved.
Following this line of thought, Wang Jing traveled a lot at that time. In the end, Wang Jing found an excellent object.
The goal that Wang Jing found is called the 'Gap Water System'.
It was the place where Liu Bang and Xiang Yu shared the world equally.
Several rivers in this system were once tributaries of the Yellow River, but now some of them have broken down. One of the best tributaries is called the Bianqu. Many people may not be familiar with this name. But in later history, the river had another name called 'Tongji Canal'.
Hundreds of years later, during the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, several rivers, including the Tongji Canal, were connected by the way of population digging, which is the famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
At that time, the Bianqu actually had a greater advantage, that is, the river could be directly connected to the Huai River. In other words, even if the Yellow River floods, the extra river water can flow directly into the Huai River through this Bianqu! In this way, the possibility of flooding in the Yellow River is greatly reduced!
But if we follow this line of thinking, then a very critical problem arises.
Why do you let the Yellow River listen to you? How much water do you let flow in the Yellow River Canal? How much water does the Yellow River just flow? If there is too much water from the Yellow River, and there will be flooding in the Bianqu area, then the next big problem will be!
You know, Bianqu is closer to Luoyang! In other words, if there is a big flood in the Bianqu, Luoyang will be flooded directly. Moreover, the entire Huanghuai River Basin will become a Ze country. By that time, the overall grain output of the Eastern Han Dynasty will drop by at least more than two percent! The country is just waiting for it to collapse!
So, how do you control the traffic? How can we ensure that the water flowing from the Yellow River does not exceed the carrying capacity of the Bianqu, but also shares the pressure on the lower reaches of the Yellow River?
In the end, Wang Jing came up with a 'segmented watergate method'.
To put it simply, after repairing the entire waterway of the Bianqu, Wang Jing built a sluice gate at the interface between the Bianqu Canal and the Yellow River, also called the Water Gate. If the water flowing from the Yellow River exceeds the carrying capacity of the Bianqu, then lower the sluice gate and let the Bianqu rest for a while. And if the water in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is too large, open the sluice gates and let the water of the Yellow River flow a little more to the side of the Bianqu.
In order to better control the amount of water, according to historical records, Wang Jing built a sluice gate every ten miles at that time. With the use of these sluices, the amount of water in the canal can be well controlled.
After the completion of this project, most of the flood problem of the Yellow River was fundamentally solved at once! Because when there is a lot of water, you can directly use the Bianqu canal to divert the excess water of the Yellow River. When there is little water, you can directly lower the gate of the Bianqu and let the channel of the Bianqu be emptied. Next, you can go directly to the bottom of the river to dig sand and clean the riverbed.
In this way, as long as the Bianqu is cleaned every few years, the riverbed of the Bianqu will never become higher! And when the Bianqu can easily drain the excess water of the Yellow River, the flooding of the Yellow River will naturally be solved.
This is Wang Jing's method of river control.
But if we want to be more complicated, we can't say that. Because of the detailed records of Wang Jingzhi River later, including how this sluice was built, how the sluice did not fall under the impact of the Yellow River, ......These things were basically lost later.
So we don't know what Wang Jing made at that time looked like.
But there's one thing we know.
That is, from the completion of this project, the Yellow River was not diverted for the next 800 years, until the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. It was not until after the Northern and Southern Dynasties, because of the long-term confrontation between the North and the South, that the two sides abandoned the work of clearing the river due to war, and also used the Yellow River to attack the enemy, that the project was completely abandoned, and then the Yellow River began to flood on a large scale again.
This is the historical Wang Jing's control of water.
With a mortal body, he fought against natural disasters, and then won, and also protected the future generations for a full eight hundred years.
After repairing the Yellow River, Wang Jing later went to Xuzhou to assassinate the history and Lujiang Taishou. During his tenure, he led the local people to farm, promote cattle farming and silkworm raising, and benefited one party. However, in the end, Wang Jing's career stopped at the level of Taishou, and did not reach the level of the Three Princes and Nine Secretaries.
But compared with Wang Jing, those contemporaries of the ** bigwigs, in fact, no one remembered them later.
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