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The entire eastern Hebei region suffered severe damage. For many years, rebel armies and bandits roamed freely, and the local people's livelihood could not be restored. During the war, it was difficult to provide soldiers, laborers, and provisions.
It even severely disrupted Shandong. For example, the rise of powerful bandits like Song Jiang was due to the famine that lasted for several years after the disaster.
Fu Xingzhong said, "Before the two rivers are used to control the flow of water and attack the sand, the Yellow River can be diverted to release silt on the north bank, which is the method Wang Anshi used back then."
“With Yellow River silt for irrigation, the saline-alkali land in Cangzhou can be treated quickly and on a large scale.”
"Once the Ergu River begins to divert water to attack the sand, there will be virtually no more floods here, and the surrounding five prefectures can all become fertile land."
"Large-scale diversion of silt from the Yellow River will require a lot of manpower, right?" Zhao Yuan asked.
Fu Xingzhong said, "One to two hundred thousand people."
Zhao Yuan remained silent upon hearing this.
Cangzhou and Hejian are already sparsely populated areas. If another 200,000 people are conscripted to manage the river, will agricultural production still be guaranteed?
Fu Xingzhong said, "Widening the Erguhe North Road requires relocating a large number of people."
"Firstly, they are reluctant to leave their homeland, and secondly, the northward flow of the river is prone to breaching its banks, so these people are unwilling to migrate north."
"Then I'll have no choice but to become a tyrant again,"
Zhao Yuan shook his head and sighed.
"Perhaps ten years from now, they will be able to understand."
Fu Xingzhong said, "Not only will we understand, but we will also be grateful to His Majesty."
Cangzhou and Hejian need to divert silt from the Yellow River, but they lack enough laborers.
The two rivers flow through areas that require the relocation of people, but these people are unwilling to come to Cangzhou and Hejian.
At this point, the imperial court had to force a relocation.
Furthermore, troops will be deployed there to brutally suppress any unrest.
Zhao Yuan said, "You can start with small-scale diversion of the Yellow River and release of silt. Once I quickly destroy the Jin Kingdom, I will be able to raise funds and supplies to manage this area."
Fu Xingzhong said, "I am not urging Your Majesty to attack the Jin, but given the current situation along the Yellow River, the sooner these matters are handled, the better."
"If the delay exceeds five years, the Yellow River could breach its banks at any time."
"At that time, we can only resort to the same old tricks, just like in the seventh year of the Zhenghe era, and flood the entire Cangzhou, half of Hejian, half of Daming, and some surrounding prefectures and counties in order to protect Kaifeng and Shandong."
If that's the case, hundreds of thousands more will die and millions more will be displaced.
We must speed up the process of destroying the Jin dynasty and free up funds and resources to manage the river!
...
Continuing north, inspecting along the way, they soon arrived at the Juma River.
The banks of the Juma River are lined with endless rice paddies.
Every now and then they would come across ponds and lakes, with lotus leaves stretching to the sky, an endless expanse of green, making Zhao Yuan feel as if he had returned to Jiangnan.
"This place is excellent!" Zhao Yuan nodded in approval.
Fu Xingzhong said, "This is the result of several years of governance."
"In order to resist the Liao Dynasty, the Song Dynasty deliberately made the Juma River too deep to navigate by boat and too shallow to wade in."
"Therefore, dredging is carried out every year to ensure that the river is not deep, and the river is full of hidden stakes."
"However, at the end of the Song Dynasty, due to the long-term truce with the Liao Dynasty, the Hebei border defenses gradually fell into disrepair."
"For the past thirty or forty years, the annual maintenance of the Great Wall in Hebei has been perfunctory and irresponsible."
"Some officials and powerful figures also risked their lives to reclaim land from the lake."
"As a result, the lake area is gradually shrinking, the rivers are severely silted up, and floods occur on both banks whenever there is a flood."
“After the Jin dynasty occupied this area, they also neglected everything, and the rivers and lakes became even more silted up.”
"Countless people, unable to bear the exploitation by the Jin state, fled south."
"When our Great Ming Dynasty recovered this place, it was a vast expanse of mud and marshland stretching for thousands of miles, with lakes of all sizes scattered haphazardly, and the population had already dwindled to less than one-tenth."
"After the people were relocated, hundreds of waterways and ditches connecting the lakes were dredged immediately."
"Moreover, this area is entirely former Song Dynasty military farmland. Any private land here is illegal and stolen, and the Ming Dynasty will not recognize it."
"These thousands of miles of fertile land have all been distributed to the relocated people, and no powerful clan or local tyrant can take them over."
"People are full of energy, and the first year after relocation has been very successful!"
"Not only was the south bank of the Juma River like this, but after the Jin Dynasty ceded territory to sue for peace, the court also resettled and exiled many people to the north bank."
"Today, the north bank of the Juma River is also a field of fragrant rice."
“Since last year, we have been removing hidden stakes in rivers and lakes.”
"The Juma River will be dredged next year so that it can be navigable again."
Chapter 3401 Conscripting Laborers
Zhao Yuan asked, "The imperial court did not allocate any funds, so how did you conscript laborers?"
Fu Xingzhong said, "After the first year of bumper harvest, everyone in the people was overjoyed."
"The following year, when the rivers and lakes were managed, the call to action was met with overwhelming support."
“The local people bring their own tools and dredge the silt in their own villages and towns.”
"The men dug and carried the materials, while the women cooked and delivered the food; they didn't ask the government for a single penny."
"And they had no complaints at all; everyone was all smiles."
"Only those who work on the river a little further away will have their meals provided by the government, but they still won't be paid wages."
“If the people are pleased, then everything can be accomplished.” Zhao Yuan was very pleased.
Fu Xingzhong said, "Because no matter how hard or tiring it is, they are doing it for themselves."
The area surrounding the Great Wall of Water, which stretches for thousands of miles, was well-managed after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, provided that officials did not act recklessly and provided some orderly guidance.
Do you own several thousand acres of land?
Sorry, the government doesn't recognize it.
Because this area was entirely a military settlement during the Northern Song Dynasty, your family's land must have been illegally seized.
You should be secretly happy that the change of dynasties didn't cost you your head.
All the land was distributed to ordinary people, and there was no annexation of land.
At most, some local minor officials might allow their own family or relatives to take a few extra acres when the land was distributed. It's not a big deal.
Everyone has land, and it's distributed fairly evenly.
Since the water conservancy projects are being managed within the village and town, and all the benefits go to the villagers, how could they not be enthusiastic?
The government only needed to issue corresponding instructions to each village according to the requirements of the river management official. The respected elders of the village would then lead the entire village to work during the off-season.
Even the elderly, women, and children helped out while delivering meals.
Looking at the rice paddies before him, Zhao Yuan suddenly asked, "It's getting colder and colder these days. Can rice still be grown in the north?"
Fu Xingzhong explained, "These are all early-maturing rice varieties."
"Due to climate reasons, the planting time is later than in the south, so we can harvest before the weather turns cold."
In the early Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty frequently invaded.
Therefore, the Northern Song Dynasty built the Water Great Wall system, connecting hundreds of lakes and nearly a hundred natural rivers of all sizes.
Hundreds of artificial canals were dug for this purpose.
Firstly, it could effectively resist the invasion of the Liao Kingdom; secondly, it could provide military provisions by cultivating land locally.
The effect was very obvious; countless saline-alkali lands in Hebei were transformed into paddy fields.
If the Liao army couldn't get through, they could only detour south along the western route of Hebei—the Jin army also couldn't get through, and had to detour through Zhengding as well.
The first year of land reclamation failed because of problems with rice seeds.
The following year, they switched to early-maturing rice and immediately reaped a bumper harvest.
This massive water-based Great Wall system requires maintenance every year.
If left unmaintained for several years, a large number of canals will inevitably become silted up.
The paddy fields were also divided into squares, and the timing of irrigation and drainage had to be managed uniformly.
At its peak, this place was known as the "Jiangnan of the North".
The Liao emperor even wrote a letter to the Song dynasty, hoping that the people on the north bank of the Juma River would also be allowed to fish and gather reeds in the river, and that the Song army should not interfere arbitrarily.
Moreover, the Liao Dynasty also followed the Song Dynasty's example of military farming and created a large number of rice paddies on the north bank.
However, the Liao Dynasty lacked proper management and often "drained the pond to catch all the fish."
When diverting water for irrigation, they completely disregard the consequences and directly drain some sections of the river.
...
The Great Wall built by the Northern Song Dynasty was damaged until the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The main problem is a lack of management; the rules established in the early days are no longer taken seriously.
During the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, the annual maintenance was simply discontinued.
Moreover, the serious problem of land reclamation around the lake has led to frequent flooding in the entire area.
Both the Jin and Yuan dynasties adopted a laissez-faire attitude, especially the Yuan dynasty, which cut down a large number of trees upstream to build palaces, and the Ming dynasty continued to cut down trees without hesitation.
This led to floods every year, turning Hebei's water system into a mess, with only Baiyangdian Lake remaining intact.
Zhao Yuan was very lucky because the water system had not been abandoned for long and was not yet completely in disarray.
The imperial court didn't allocate much funding, yet this vast fertile land recovered to the level of the mid-Northern Song Dynasty.
Zhao Yuan came to the edge of the paddy field and reached out to stroke the rice leaves: "In Jiangnan, the rice should be ready for harvest in another month or so, right?"
"But the ears of grain haven't sprouted yet. What about the yield?"
Fu Xingzhong said, "Just harvest before the frost."
"The yield is certainly not as good as in the south, but it can still be considered good land in the north."
"The fertile land around the Great Wall alone yields 20,000 shi of land tax annually!"
Zhao Yuan was even more delighted to hear this, but then he said with disdain, "The Jin Kingdom has occupied this place for many years, yet they don't know how to use a hen that lays golden eggs."
"They only know how to exploit and plunder, which has forced the people to flee south."
Fu Xingzhong said, "Once the land is fully managed, the land tax may reach 30,000 shi."
The officials in these prefectures and counties certainly have the best performance records, and some of them have already been promoted and transferred.
Since the Juma River was temporarily impassable by boat, Zhao Yuan rode his horse along the south bank.
When Zhao Yuan arrived at Baiyangdian, he saw a vast, boundless lake.
Not only was the water area larger than in later periods, but most of the lakes were connected to each other.
Fu Xingzhong said, "Most of the dikes and embankments have already been demolished. The areas where the Song dynasty's powerful figures converted the lake into farmland will all be returned to the lake within the next two years."
Chapter 3402 Garrisoning Troops to Prepare for Liaodong
The lake is covered with lotus leaves, their emerald green color is delightful.
Zhao Yuan said happily, "Summon the local prefect, sub-prefect, and county magistrate, and I will go boating on the lake with them."
Because troops needed to be stationed to defend against the Liao Dynasty, the Hebei border of the Northern Song Dynasty was divided into many small parts.
With the new Ming Dynasty free from border troubles, it was natural for the boundaries here to be redrawn.
First, Zhao Prefecture was merged into Zhending Prefecture, and Zhao Prefecture was downgraded to Zhao County.
Subsequently, Jizhou and Shenzhou were merged into Hejian Prefecture, and the two prefectures were downgraded to Ji County and Shen County respectively.
Baozhou, Dingzhou, Qizhou, Yongningjun, Ansujun, Guangxinjun, and Shunanjun were merged into Baoding Prefecture, and all the prefectures and military territories were downgraded to counties.