Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen How Emperor Hongzhi Copes with "Extreme Weather"

On the question of why the Ming Dynasty perished, modern historians once put forward a new point of view: the Ming Dynasty perished during the Little Ice Age. The Little Ice Age is a term in natural science, which means that extreme weather frequently occurs in a region or even the whole world within a period of time.In terms of national development, it means that for several years, a country has experienced continuous floods and droughts, constant plagues, huge blows to agricultural production, and countless deaths of people due to natural disasters.For the feudal dynasty that depended on the sky for food, such a blow was undoubtedly fatal.

According to the standards of the Little Ice Age, the last days of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty were indeed a period of frequent disasters.In the 17 years since Chongzhen ascended the throne, natural disasters with huge destructive power occurred almost every year, from severe drought in Shaanxi, to severe drought in Henan, to severe drought in Shanxi, plus plague in Hebei, locust plague in Shandong...continuous intensification of natural disasters Domestic conflicts were caused, leading to riots, coupled with the continuous invasion of the Qing Dynasty, internal and external troubles, and finally the country fell.

But if the Chongzhen period was a "Little Ice Age", then the Ming Dynasty experienced more than one Little Ice Age. At least, the initial period of the reign of Hongzhi Emperor Zhu Youtang (AD 1488-1505) in the Ming Dynasty was also an extreme. Periods of frequent weather. However, the Ming Dynasty during this period, instead of subjugating the country like the Chongzhen period, was reborn under the reasonable governance of Zhu Youtang. It not only resisted natural disasters, but also created the "Hongzhi prosperity" that future generations talk about.There are many praises of later generations for this period, which can be found in historical materials.However, what has been neglected is a little-known fact: Emperor Xiaozong Hongzhi's "great disaster resistance" in the early days of his enthronement.

If you want to select the most miserable emperors in the history of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Xiaozong Zhu Youtang may be one of them. His father, Ming Xianzong Zhu Jianshen, was one of the famous "yongjun" in history. He reigned for 22 years, of which 16 years did not go to court, which was the first "precedent" for the emperor of the Ming Dynasty to be passive and sabotage.In terms of administration, he favored the eunuch Wang Zhi and others, which led to the corruption of the government and the inefficiency of the government. A group of capable officials were demoted and dismissed. Old, Six Masters of Clay Sculpture".There are also many criticisms in his private life. He only favors Concubine Wan Gui, who is 19 years his senior, and allows her to mess up the harem.Zhu Youtang's mother was an ordinary court lady in the harem. When she was favored by Zhu Jianshen and gave birth to Zhu Youtang, she was almost aborted by Concubine Wan Gui. Later, in order to avoid persecution by Concubine Wan Gui, she hid her name in the deep palace for 6 years.After Zhu Youtang and Zhu Jianshen's father and son recognized each other, Zhu Youtang's mother was persecuted to death by Concubine Wan Gui.Since then, Concubine Wan Gui has been seeking to depose Zhu Youtang, which has led Zhu Youtang to live cautiously for several years under the constant difficulties of Concubine Wan Gui.In the end, he ascended the throne safely, which can be said to have gone through hardships.

After he came to the throne safely, Zhu Youtang discovered that what his father left him was a complete mess.However, the house leaked and it rained all night. The Ming Dynasty in this period was a period of frequent extreme natural disasters. Only in the 22nd year of Chenghua (1486 AD) when Zhu Jianshen died, a major earthquake occurred in Shaanxi and floods occurred in Henan.After Zhu Youtang ascended the throne, in the first year of Hongzhi, there was drought in Shandong and flood in Jiangsu.In the second year of Hongzhi, there were floods in Henan and drought in North China.In the third year of Hongzhi, there was a flood in Zhejiang.In the fourth year of Hongzhi, there was drought in Shaanxi and floods in Jiangxi.In the fifth year of Hongzhi, Susong River flooded, Guangxi plague...

In addition to natural disasters, the country's internal and external problems are more messy, the treasury is empty, and the finances are close to collapse. When Zhu Jianshen was in power, he was addicted to cultivating Taoism and alchemy, and almost squandered the country's wealth.Government officials are dawdling, working as monks for a day and hitting the clock for a day, and corruption is getting worse.In terms of foreign aggression, the Mongolian Tatars and Oirat ministries continued to harass, and border wars continued.After Zhu Youzhan ascended the throne, he strictly set things right, deposed stupid officials, promoted capable officials, rectified official corruption, and reduced the burden on the people.But to make every effort to govern, the top priority of the country is disaster relief.

The key is: how to save? Among other things, what about money?A penny is hard to kill a hero, and disaster relief needs money. Even if Zhu Youtang is the grandson of the seventy-two changes, he can't change a dime. Zhu Youtang is not Sun Houzi, he only solved the problem by doing one thing - cutting the flesh. In fact, the family property of the Ming Dynasty was still very rich at that time. The key was that the money was not used properly, just like an obese patient, where the fat that should not grow was full of fat.Therefore, in order to solve financial problems, we must be diligent and thrifty, and we must be willing to cut meat.

First cut off the old man’s flesh: the temples and monasteries left over from the Chenghua Dynasty, closed their doors, confiscated them, confiscated them, mastered abbots, reformed through labor, returned to vulgarity. Then cut your own meat, the gods will not raise it, and the life of the court must be diligent and thrifty: only the livestock used for cooking in Guanglu Temple will be reduced from 100,000 per year to 40,000 per year, and the amount of spices will be reduced from the original 2685 per year. Jin reduced to 1635 catties per year.Of course, the number of personnel has also been reduced. The staffing of the palace has been reduced by nearly half compared to before enthronement, and various expenses have been reduced by 60%.

Government reform is certainly not idle.Bandit operations such as the abolishment of idle officials and the acquisition of them are all stopped.Palace banquets, including diplomatic activities such as receiving foreign envoys, are also kept simple.In short, four words: save if you can. After saving food and clothing, the various expenses in the early years of the Hongzhi Dynasty were actually reduced by 80% compared with those in the Chenghua Dynasty.Most of the money turned into a batch of wholesale food and supplies to the disaster area, all of which Zhu Youtang picked out through his teeth through careful planning.

Once the money is out, it's time for disaster relief. At that time, the most destructive and longest-lasting disasters were floods.The vain disaster relief money will not fill this bottomless pit, and if the toss continues, Bill Gates will go bankrupt. Zhu Youtang knew that water conservancy projects must be repaired to completely solve the problem.At that time, there were three hardest hit areas in China: Henan, Huaibei, and Suzhou and Hangzhou.The key to treating floods is to choose the right people.Zhu Youtang found three panda-level water conservancy talents: Bai Ang, Xu Guan, and Liu Daxia.

The first person: Bai Ang, the household servant.Starting point: Kaifeng, Henan.Object of struggle: the Yellow River. In May of the second year of Hongzhi (AD 1489), the Yellow River flooded and broke through Huanghuagang in Kaifeng. The south of Shandong and most of Henan were flooded. The Ming Dynasty government successively invested more than 50,000 people in disaster relief. After tossing until August, the disaster was finally resolved. ease. Many ministers who are familiar with the floods gave Zhu Youtang a blow at this time: the current floods are just the beginning, and even bigger floods will come again, and even the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal may be blocked. fix it!In September, Zhu Youtang issued a decree to order Bai Ang, the servant of the household department, to repair the Yellow River and issue 200,000 civil servants. The governors of Shandong, Henan, and Beizhili provinces were all subject to Bai Ang's control. The Yellow River was healed. In today's textbooks, the Yellow River is honored as the mother river of the Chinese nation, but looking through the long volumes of ancient Chinese history, we have to find sadly that this great mother is more like a crazy monster, with countless blood and tears. The records of flood disasters were thus written.How to deal with this monster?The areas on both sides of the Yellow River regard dam repair as the main task. As a result, the dams are either washed away by the roaring water of the Yellow River, or the east does not make troubles, and the west just presses down the gourd and picks it up.Then dig artificial canals to dredge the waterways. Isn't that what Dayu and his old man did?But it was only when the work started that I realized that the speed of artificially digging the river was far behind the speed of the flood.You are sweating profusely to catch up with the project, only to find that you have been submerged in the vast waves. On this issue, the famous traitor Xu Youzhen (that is, the one who killed Yu Qian) once conducted a classic experiment, the operation is as follows: Find two water tanks with equal capacity, fill them with water of the same quality, and open a large hole at the bottom of each tank , A number of small holes with the same area as the large hole were opened at the bottom of the other box, and water was started to be released. It turned out that the water tank with several small holes was drained first. Xu Youzhen used this experiment to illustrate: In terms of digging canals to alleviate floods, rather than digging one large canal, it is better to dig several small canals with the same total flow (Xu Youzhen Zhang Qiu water control, or when dredging a large ditch, or If there are many branching rivers, one is divided into one urn orifice, and ten are divided into ten orifices according to the square of one urn orifice, and the water is used to open the orifice, and the ten orifices are exhausted first). This experiment was also tried by American physicist Smith more than 400 years later. This is the famous water tank experiment in physics.The famous Panama Canal was dug successfully based on this theory. Although the theory is correct and has achieved success in water control, many people do not believe it.It doesn't matter if other people don't believe it, Bai Ang, the minister in charge of water control, believes it. Bai Ang, courtesy name Tingyi, was born in Wujin, Changzhou, Jiangsu.A Jinshi in Tianshun year, he served successively as Li Kege Shizhong, Minister of the Ministry of War, Minister of the Ministry of Households, etc. His main work experience includes: supervising the construction of imperial tombs in Fengyang, and destroying Japanese pirates along the coast of Jiangsu. Looking at his resume, he either fought wars or repaired graves. It seems that it has nothing to do with water conservancy work, but there are reasons for choosing him. First of all, because water control is a war, it needs to mobilize manpower and coordinate command. Those who can control water may not lead troops, but those who can lead soldiers will definitely control water.Quite a number of water conservancy talents in ancient China have a glorious history of fighting on the battlefield. Secondly, he is an upright official, and he has passed tens of millions of project funds from his hands without blinking an eyelid. He is quite strict with himself.What's even more amazing is that he has strict requirements on his ancestors.He went to Fengyang to supervise the construction of the imperial mausoleum, and seeing the local disasters, he suggested to the central government: Let’s build the Taizu’s tomb in a shabby way, and the rest of the money will be used to help the victims?This kind of thing is really outrageous in a feudal society, but Bai Ang doesn't care, he has always insisted on a belief: the hunger and cold of the common people are more important than the grave of the emperor's house. A person who is not even afraid of Zhu Yuanzhang is certainly not afraid of floods.Therefore, he is the most suitable. There is a reason why Bai Ang is not afraid of floods. 20 years ago, he was promoted to the imperial court, and Xu Youzhen was his teacher.Although their master-student relationship was very short (Xu Youzhen fell from power soon after), he learned Xu Youzhen's talents and ideas in water control better than others. This time, the 46-year-old Bai Ang took over the teacher's gun, and he faced a more powerful opponent - Huang He. Full of ambition, Bai Ang came to Henan, and he found that the entire Central Plains was already a vast ocean, spreading to Henan, Shandong, Hebei, Jiangsu and other regions.He and his river-ruling army are like Noah's Ark in the Bible story. Bai Ang didn't panic, the Yellow River will eventually flow into the sea, the key to water control is how to make the Yellow River flow into the sea in the most stable route.Therefore, Bai Ang proposed a water control strategy: blocking the north and dredging the south. North blocking is to build dams along the area north of the Yellow River to prevent the Yellow River from spreading northward; south dredging is to dig canals in the south bank of the Yellow River to divert the flow to relieve the pressure of flood peaks, and to connect several waterways on the south bank of the Yellow River to guide the Yellow River. The water flows into the sea through the Huaihe River. In a word: driving the Yellow River down to the sea safely is victory! But a good theory may not be omnipotent. Where to build dams, where to dredge, and where to discharge floods all need to be carefully considered.Bai Ang grasped two key starting points: Henan Yangwu and Suzhou Gubian River. The specific operation method is: build a long embankment along Yangwu, Henan, prevent the Yellow River from going northward, dredge the ancient Bian River in Suzhou, divert the water from the Yellow River into the Bian River, and then manually excavate the line to connect the Bian River and the Huai River, so that the Yellow River flows into the sea through the Huai River .The construction method was completely carried out in accordance with Xu Youzhen's experimental theory, and large and small canals were excavated on the south line of the Yellow River to divert them into the Huaihe River. Correspondingly, in the construction and excavation of large and small dams and diversion canals, Bai Ang carefully considered all possibilities: while building the embankment, he also built a dam under the embankment to relieve the water potential.From Henan to Jiangsu, and from Jiangsu to Shandong, thousands of large and small diversion canals have started construction. They are like tough network cables, thin and dense, entangled with the huge body of the Yellow River beast.This is a large-scale water conservancy project spanning four provinces in the Central Plains, but the construction time is very limited: the construction must be completed before the next rainy season, otherwise a new round of floods will return, and all the hard work will be turned into nothing. Bubbles. The project was huge and the construction period was urgent, so Bai Ang faced the difficulties.He has fully continued the tradition of not being afraid of heaven, earth, and Zhu Yuanzhang. He is meticulous in project supervision, and he will do whoever is caught by officials who violate discipline. Especially when it comes to the sensitive issue of diversion and flood discharge, Bai Ang is merciless. Protecting the property of the common people has caused the local officials in several provinces to complain endlessly. Because of this, the entire river control project is progressing smoothly, but Bai Ang is not at ease. He vaguely feels that there seems to be a huge loophole hidden in his seemingly flawless river control plan. Finally, when he came to a place and carefully observed the local water conditions, he found the loophole. This loophole is called Shandong Zhang Qiuhe.The Zhangqiu River is connected to the Yellow River in the west and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the east. It is the hub of waterway transportation in northern China. In the project of diverting the Yellow River into the sea that determines the success of water control, it is an important inflection point on the entire road from the Yellow River to the Huaihe River via Shandong. Because of the special geographical reasons, for a long time, when the Yellow River lost its temper, Zhang Qiuhe was allowed to be implicated. It was not until 1453 AD that Xu Youzhen rectified it with his original water control strategy, and it was peaceful.When Bai Ang came to inspect the work, the Central Plains was covered with ocean, but here it was peaceful. But Bai Ang keenly discovered: this calm is temporary, and this is the biggest loophole of the water control plan. The core of all water control plans is to allow the Yellow River to flow into the Huai River.There is a premise for this: when the water of the Yellow River enters the Huaihe River, the flow has been greatly weakened.But what about a bigger flood?Once the flood entering the Huaihe River exceeds the bearing capacity of the Huaihe River, the banks of the Huaihe River will inevitably suffer catastrophe, and the Zhangqiu River will be the first to burst its embankment, which will become the fuse of the entire Huaihe River flood.Realizing the seriousness of the problem, Bai Ang hurriedly wrote a memorial to the imperial court, suggesting that 12 canals should be dug from Dongping, Shandong to Qingxian County, and part of the Yellow River water would be channeled into the Daqing River and Xiaoqing River in Shandong into the sea, so as to relieve the diversion pressure of the Huaihe River.This is a strategy of getting twice the result with half the effort: not only avoiding the flooding of the Huaihe River, but also solving the water problem in the arid areas in the north of Shandong, it can be said to be a one-shot win, foolproof. However, Bai Ang received the central reply: No!The stunned Bai Ang thought over and over again, but he just didn't understand what was going on. After Bai Ang's memorial was delivered, there was an uproar in the hall, and several important officials discussed it: the unanimous suggestion is not to repair it!The key is money. Repairing water conservancy costs money. The national treasury itself is not rich. Now we invest more for a possibility that may not appear. Isn’t this a disease?The officials in Shandong didn't do it either: Henan sent water to do my business, and you brought the Yellow River water to my house, didn't you cause trouble for me?The officials even scolded Bai Ang like hell.Ironically, Liu Ji was the most important person who supported Bai Ang's opinion. Only he insisted that this is the best way to prevent problems before they happen, but his correct voice was quickly drowned out by overwhelming voices of opposition up. Bai Ang sighed and continued working.In the summer of the third year of Hongzhi, this large-scale water conservancy improvement project connecting the four provinces of the Central Plains was completed. Since then, the middle reaches of the Yellow River, which has suffered from floods, have been relieved of floods for more than half a century.After returning to Beijing, Bai Ang received a commendation, and was later promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, and continued to adhere to the stern and selfless work style.After retiring, Zhu Youtang personally inscribed the eight characters of "Magnificent quantity, enlightened talent" for him, which stands today in the ancestral hall of the Bai clan in Changzhou, Jiangsu.In the fifth year of Hongzhi, the Yellow River flooded again, and the location became the Huaihe River Basin in northern Jiangsu. If Bai Ang's advice had been followed, all this could have been avoided. Speaking of this flood, the second water conservancy talent was introduced: Liu Daxia. Liu Daxia, courtesy name Shiyong, was born in Huarong County, Hubei Province. He was a Jinshi in the seventh year of Tianshun. He was first selected as a scholar of the Imperial Academy, and then transferred to the Ministry of War (General Staff of National Defense) in the first year of Chenghua. He has been engaged in the national military for a long time. He has been working in this unit for 23 years in the planning of the operation. At the beginning of the Hongzhi Dynasty, Liu Daxia was 52 years old and had been sent to the localities for a long time, working from Guangxi to Zhejiang.In the fifth year of Hongzhi, he was the chief political envoy of Zhejiang. He was punishing corrupt officials in Zhejiang and recovering the lost public funds. After packing his bags, Liu Daxia realized that the so-called promotion was actually a hard job: the Yellow River flooded. In the spring of the fifth year of Hongzhi, the Yellow River broke through Zhangqiu Town, Huangling Port and other places, taking the Wenhe River into the sea, and the two sides of the river became thousands of miles away.What is even more dangerous is that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal running through the north and the south was also blocked, and the water transport in the south was completely paralyzed. This is troublesome. You must know that the supply of materials in Beijing is maintained by water transportation. Once the water transportation is paralyzed, not to mention the national economy and the people's livelihood, what will the young and old in the capital eat. It must be resolved as soon as possible! So Zhu Youtang quickly arranged and mobilized 150,000 civilians to repair the river.At this time, Chen Zheng, the commander-in-chief of the front line and the minister of the Ministry of Industry, became sick from overwork and couldn't afford it, and finally "sacrificed at work".When a person is dead and the job is not finished, who should be sent?Zhu Youtang was worried, and at this moment, Wang Shu on the side made his suggestion again: Let Liu Daxia go. So Liu Daxia set off as the right deputy capital censor. This time his task was far more difficult than calming the chaos.The progress of the project is slow, and the recovery of water transportation is urgent. The Yellow River flood is once in a hundred years. The specific river control strategy is to refer to the method of the Yuan Dynasty minister Jia Lu to control the Yellow River: divert it into the Huai River.The method of operation is: excavate several main roads, guide the Yellow River into the Huaihe River, and enter the sea through the Huaihe River.In short, it was a big project to do everything possible to prevent the Yellow River from going northward, and it was the only correct way under the conditions at the time. At this time, Liu Daxia made a strange decision: to dig a canal to the north at the breach of the Yellow River. This made the experts very puzzled: Isn't it necessary to prevent the Yellow River from going north, so why dig north?Isn't this nonsense? It sounds silly, but it's true. Because Liu Daxia knew that the most urgent task was to restore the north-south waterway transportation, and the water transportation was interrupted. To restore it as soon as possible, a temporary river must be excavated to reconnect the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.This is of course risky, but as long as the other rivers can do a good job of diverting, this is the fastest way.At the same time, this canal, which is a temporary river channel, can also divert the flow into the Huai River and play a role in alleviating the flood peak. So hundreds of thousands of people started construction, and the facts were exactly as Liu Daxia expected. The north-south water transportation resumed again, and the transportation line connecting the Ming Empire was finally unimpeded again.In the subsequent diversion project, the Yellow River flooded continuously, and it was this moon river that relieved the pressure of the flood peak time and time again, ensuring the smooth progress of the project. The restoration of water transportation is only the first step in harnessing the Yellow River, and diverting it into the Huaihe River is the highlight.Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers worked hard day and night.In order to complete the task as soon as possible, Liu Daxia went all out. The old man in his 50s worked around the clock every day, and he didn't sleep fully every day. He lived and ate all on the construction site.The leaders are all "models to take the lead", and the people below dare not be negligent. They twisted up and down to form a rope, and finally completed the construction task with quality and quantity. After two years of hard work, the Yellow River successfully diverted its course from entering the Bohai Sea via Shandong to entering the Yellow Sea via the Huaihe River.Hundreds of thousands of refugees can finally return to their homes, and the vast yellow flooded areas of the Central Plains have also been able to resume production. This is a great pioneering work. Liu Daxia's name, also accompanied by this great pioneering work, has remained on both sides of the Yellow River since then.Some prefectures and counties in northern Jiangsu today worship the river god every year, and the river god is Liu Daxia. By the way: Liu Daxia's whole set of river control strategies basically followed the method of the Yuan Dynasty to control the Yellow River, with some small innovations of his own.However, the Yuan Dynasty ruled the Yellow River, but it was full of contradictions, and a peasant uprising that overthrew the imperial rule was ruled.Liu Daxia ruled the Yellow River, but he ruled the country and the people. It can be seen that a good strategy also needs good people to implement it. After Bai Ang and Liu Daxia, the two important ministers governed, the Yellow River, which had been raging for several years, stopped, and the four provinces in the Central Plains resumed production.But the work of another panda-level water conservancy expert is equally important. It can even be said that without his labor, Bai Ang and Liu Daxia's contributions to the Yellow River would have been useless. The third person: Xu Guan.Starting location: Jiangnan.Object of struggle: Su Songhe. In the fifth year of Hongzhi (1492 A.D.), Zhu Youtang was shocked to hear a thunderbolt again: the Susong River in the south of the Yangtze River was silted up and flooded, and the disaster affected Songjiang, Changzhou, Suzhou, Zhenjiang and other important towns, which were the most important grain-producing areas in China at that time! This is a backyard fire.In the Ming Dynasty, the food in the north was mainly supplied by the south, and the food and taxes in the south were mainly from the south of the Yangtze River. Therefore, there is a folk saying that "Suhu is cooked, and the world is full".If Suhu is unfamiliar... The only solution is to control the water.Bai Ang was the most suitable, but Zhu Youtang chose another person: Xu Guan, Minister of Industry. Bai Ang is the servant of the household department, Liu Daxia is the local leader, and only Xu Guan is the deputy minister of the construction department (the minister of the Ministry of Industry). Can't. Xu Guan, courtesy name Yuanyi, was born in Chun'an, Zhejiang Province, a Jinshi in the first year of Tianshun, successively served as the head of the Ministry of War, the right councilor of Fujian, and the governor of Liaodong. Never seen a pig run. But this is not a mess of mandarin ducks.First of all, Xu Guan only did ruthless things. When he was in Fujian, he distributed the food in the official warehouse to the victims without the approval of the leaders, and almost killed the officer in charge of the warehouse.Later, he went to Liaodong as the governor, severely punished lawless military officers, stripped the heinous criminals and paraded them through the streets, inflicting both mental and physical torture.According to the local chronicles of Liaodong, when the name of this uncle was mentioned, many veterans trembled with fright. The ruthless Xu Guan has another characteristic: cautious.He did not fight uncertain battles, and even inscribed a calligraphy with his own handwriting "Seeing is better than hearing a hundred times" for introspection.Water control, a high-tech work, is absolutely impossible without the spirit of investigation and research. And the most important one is that Zhu Youtang is well aware that the floods in the south are different from those in the north. Xu Guan came to the south of the Yangtze River in a hurry. After investigating the disaster situation, he understood: it is different, it is indeed different.Xu Guan has only one task - to clean up the silt.The job may seem simple, but it actually requires more professional skills and is more difficult. The Susong River, today's Suzhou River, is a tributary of the Taihu Lake Basin. Its coast was the most affluent economic belt in China at that time from Suzhou to Songjiang (Shanghai).To this day, the dredging problem in the Taihu Lake Basin is still a major headache for the local government. Why is it difficult? This is a scientific question.The silt brought by the upstream water will deposit in places where the water is calm, forming silt and causing floods.So, cleaning out the sludge is like cleaning out the fish tank at home, it is a necessary job to do every once in a while. But why is the Su Song River the worst?The reason is that the siltation of the Susong River is not only caused by natural disasters, but also by man-made disasters. Man-made disasters are the Zhuangtian along the Susong River and even on the river.The silt soil is fertile, and naturally many people are eyeing it, building dams and polders on the river, and reclaiming good fields.As a result, the flood discharge capacity of the waterway is greatly reduced, causing serious flood disasters.These farmlands are safe and sound because they are built on the dam. In short, they are all cheap for these bastards. As a result, the turbulent Susong River was occupied by people for dam construction in the upper reaches, and in the lower reaches.If things go on like this, no matter how hard you dig and dredge the silt, it will not solve the problem. But this group of bastards are all local wealthy families. The local officials know the harm of this move, but no one can control it.Others can't control it, Xu Guan can control it. After arriving at the disaster area, after inspection, Xu Guan ordered: All illegal buildings built on the river must be demolished within a time limit.When the news came, the small and medium-sized landlords panicked, and the powerful families just sneered: "What are you, you are in charge of us." Soon they stopped laughing, Xu Guan not only managed them, but also rode on them.Seeing that the order came to nothing, Xu Guan mobilized his troops to forcibly demolish all kinds of illegal buildings, starting with several royal relatives in Suzhou.This one stone caused a thousand waves, some blocked, some scolded, and the capital did not stop. Officials wrote letters to scold Xu Guan every day, and even the royal family in the harem also took turns calling for grievances.At first Zhu Youtang pretended not to hear, but couldn't take it anymore, so he simply issued an edict: Anyone who dares to make false comments on Xu Guan will be brought to justice. With the support of the leader, Xu Guan worked even more happily.The so-called landlords and bullies are still soft-boned, and they immediately made a 180-degree turn, and families scrambled to demolish illegal buildings.Xu Guan made persistent efforts. He selected a group of middle-level cadres with professional skills and started a large-scale Susong River dredging project.In less than a year, the dredging work in the Susong River Basin was fully completed, and the production line resumed. The matter was over, but Xu Guan did not leave. He wrote letters to Zhu Youtang one after another, advocating further improvement of the Susong River Basin.Because Xu Guan knows that dredging is a long-term job, and it will not be long before the excavation is completed today, and it will be time-consuming and labor-intensive. If you want to solve the problem for a long time, you have to act in accordance with science. Simply digging mud is just a stupid way.Silt is formed by the impact of water flow. If the flow rate of the water channel is increased and the flow speed is accelerated, the amount of silt deposited will be much less, and the daily cleaning and maintenance will also save trouble.In order to completely solve the problem, Xu Guanzuo asked Zhu Youtang for approval and did another thing: digging the river. This is a large-scale river regulation work in the history of Jiangnan. Xu Guan dug several canals to connect the Susong River with several nearby waters.In order to control the flow rate and flow of water, he specially designed the sluice gate and flood storage reservoir.In this way, the Susong River not only relieved the flood, but also played a role in the diversion and flood discharge of several rivers in Taihu Lake.Today, when we go to the south of the Yangtze River, we can still find the ruins of the water conservancy projects built in those years. When you see these, you will definitely sigh from the bottom of your heart: the wisdom of the Chinese is infinite. In the eighth year of Hongzhi (1495 A.D.), the water conservancy improvement project in the Jiangnan area presided over by Xu Guan was completed.This is a project that has lifeline significance for the Ming Dynasty.The Jiangnan region, which accounted for most of the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty, regained its prosperity, and the flood-ravaged Taihu Lake Basin was like a land of fish and rice.Without such a move, the prosperity of the Hongzhi Dynasty would have been nothing but a bubble. After returning to Beijing after success, Xu Guan was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and soon retired. After his death, he was given the posthumous title of Kang Yi.The person who laid the foundation for the century-old prosperity of the south of the Yangtze River is also unknown in the "History of Ming Dynasty" compiled by the Qing Dynasty.The records about him are all sorted out from fragmentary local chronicles of Fujian, Jiangsu, and Liaoning.But I believe that he will not be forgotten by the years due to the prejudice of the historian, because the Susong River, which he has poured countless efforts into, is still surging, and the thriving Jiangnan is the witness of that period of burning blood. Xu Guan is a person who cares about the common people, a brave and fearless person. Compared with many celebrities in Hongzhi's prosperity, he may never be a star, but he is a thick cornerstone, silently supporting the birth of countless happiness. The completion of the transformation of the three hardest-hit areas marked the overall victory of the Hongzhi dynasty's disaster relief work.In the following decades, natural disasters still occurred from time to time, but large-scale natural disasters basically disappeared, and the Ming Dynasty, which had climbed up again, could start production and construction in an all-round way. During Zhu Youtang's reign, the reason why he was called "Zhongxing" was not only because of his victory in disaster relief, but also because of a series of drastic economic reforms he carried out that almost changed the fate of the Ming Dynasty.These reforms are inseparable from one person—Qiu Jun.