Chapter 13 Chapter Three Yuan, Ming and Qing Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal

Since the Song Dynasty, the Taihu Lake Basin has become the most important grain-producing area in my country. There is a saying that "Suhu is cooked, and the world is full".The Yuan Dynasty took Dadu as its capital.There are many officers, soldiers and people in the capital city, and the consumption of food is huge, and more than 2 million shi of foreign food need to be transferred every year.The Taihu Lake Basin has become the main source of food for most people. At first, the Yuan government adopted a two-pronged approach to transport grain from the south to the north.One pipeline is by sea.The grain ship anchored from Liujiagang, Taicang, Jiangsu, went out of the Yangtze River estuary and went north along the coast, bypassed the Shandong Peninsula, sailed into the Bohai Bay, approached the shore to Zhigu (today's Tianjin City), and then followed the Baihe River (today's North Canal) to Tongzhou ( Today Tong County, Beijing).Sea transportation has advantages, such as large volume, saving manpower and cost, but there are more shipwrecks and ships often drift away, which is not as safe as river transportation.

Another channel is the river.Ship grain from the south of the Yangtze River and arrive at Tongzhou along the Jiangnan Canal, Huaiyang Canal (Yangchu Canal), Yellow River, Yuhe (Wei River, equivalent to the middle section of Yongji Canal), and Baihe River.This path has many problems.The Yellow River runs west-east, and the grain ships going north have to detour westward to Fengqiu, Henan. Difficult to do. The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty urgently needed a direct and safe waterway from Dadu to Jiangnan.In order to realize this wish, the key issue is whether the canal can be drilled in the Shandong area. As long as a canal is dug here, the problem of direct transportation from north to south can be easily solved.Kublai Khan sent Guo Shoujing, an outstanding water conservancy expert, to conduct in-depth investigations in the local area. After obtaining a positive answer, in the 19th year of Zhiyuan (AD 1282), he appointed the Minister of the Ministry of War, Oruchi, to organize manpower in Jeju (now Jining City). construction.Completed in the second year, this is the Jeju River.It starts from Luqiao in Jeju in the south and ends in Anshan in Xucheng (where the government is located in today's Dongping County) in the north, with a length of about 150 miles.It is located on the west edge of the Luzhong Mountains, and its terrain is slightly higher than its north and south.The construction of this canal and the solution of water source and gradient problems are the key points and difficulties of the project.

Wenshui and Surabaya are two slightly larger rivers near the canal, both of which originate in the mountains of central Shandong.The former flows west to north and is the upper source of the Daqing River.The latter flows west to south and is a tributary of the Huai River.Between the two, there is a small water called Guang [Guang Guang] water (it is said that Guangshui is a branch of Wenshui River), and the terrain of its basin is slightly higher than Wen and Si.Therefore, the builders built a dam on the upper reaches of Wen and Si respectively, concentrating the two waters of Wen and Si in the Qingshui, and then along the Qingshui River to Rencheng (in today's Jining City) to enter the newly opened Jeju River.Part of the Jeju River flows southward, returning to the old course of Surabaya, and then connects to the Huai River; part of the water flows northward, returning to the old course of Wenshui, and the Wenshui flows down to the Daqing River.The piercing of the Jeju River connected the Huai River and the Daqing River.The Wen and Si rivers have large differences in water volume between the rainy season and the dry season. In order to make up for the abundance and ensure that the Jeju River has a certain amount of water all year round, the builders built some water tanks beside the river for adjustment.

Since the Jeju River is located on the west edge of the Luzhong Mountains, it is higher than the Sishui River in the south and the Wenshui River in the north, so the vertical gradients of the north and south river beds are relatively large.The slope is too large, not only difficult to navigate, but also easy to lose the river.The Jeju River originally lacks water sources, and if too much water is lost, it will lead to a suspension of navigation.In order to solve this problem, builders built a number of gates on the river section with a large gradient. When there is no boat, the gate is closed to preserve water, and when the boat comes, the gate is opened for navigation.

The Daqing River was originally the lower reaches of the Guji River, which poured into the Bohai Sea.In this way, the tank boats coming from the south can follow Sishui, Jeju River, Daqing River, Bohai Sea, and Baihe River directly to Tongzhou.However, the Daqing River is not an ideal waterway. In addition to its own insufficient water volume, there are also problems such as tidal topping and sandy estuaries, which often hinder tank boats.People believed that there was still a need for further improvement of the inland waterway between the north and the south, so the Huitong River Project came into being again.

It was Yin Han Zhonghui of Shouzhang County (where the government is located in the northwest of Liangshan County, Shandong Province) and Shi Bianyuan of Taishi Academy first suggested that the canal be drilled.After the imperial court sent people to conduct in-depth on-site investigations and confirmed that it was feasible, they ordered Chang Suer, the judge of the Jianghuai Province, Zhang Kongsun, the Minister of Rites, and Li Chuxuan, a doctor of the Ministry of War, to be responsible for the construction, and 30,000 men were enlisted to serve.The construction started in the twenty-sixth year of Zhengzheng (AD 1289). It starts from Anshan in Xucheng in the south, connects to the Jeju River, and ends in Linqing in the north, where it joins the Wei River. It is about 250 miles long.The channel project for sailing ships was dug in that year, and the dams and gates to solve the problems of gradient and water conservation were completed in succession later.This newly dug channel was originally named Anshan Canal. Later, because it was an "unprecedented" waterway "connecting the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers", Kublai Khan was very happy and officially granted it to the suburbs of Beijing. It is called "Huitong River".

The terrain in the west of Shandong is higher than that of Jiangsu in the south and Hebei in the north. It is the ridge of the North-South Grand Canal. The water source is relatively short and the project is very complicated. However, people still try their best to build Jeju and connect the two rivers, so that the north-south water transport can be connected. The front line has epoch-making significance in the history of canals in my country.At that time, although the two rivers were unable to navigate larger ships due to technical reasons, and thus did not replace sea transportation as the main channel for north-south water transportation, it laid the foundation for the Ming Dynasty to complete this task.