Chapter 44 Section 4: Jialuwan River Stream

After a long period of sedimentation, the original low-lying and deep riverbed managed by Wang Jing and Wang Wu was gradually raised again.By the Tang Dynasty, the flooding of crevasses began to increase.In the eighth year of Qingli in the Northern Song Dynasty (1048 A.D.), the river broke through the Shanghu [saosao] in the east of Puyang, and finally led to a major diversion, flowing northward through Guantao, Linqing, Wucheng, Wuyi, and Qingxian And other places, so far Tianjin enters the sea.In the second year of Jianyan in the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1128), Jin soldiers went south, and Du Chong, who stayed behind in Tokyo, tried to block it with river water and decided to open the Yellow River South Bank.The military goal was not achieved, but it caused a catastrophe in eastern Henan, western Shandong, and northern Jiangsu. The lower reaches of the Yellow River once again migrated, seizing the Sishui and Huai River channels, and joining the Si and Huai rivers into the sea.

There are many problems with this new lower reaches of the Yellow River formed by man-made breaches.The section from the crevasse to Surabaya was formed during flooding, and the riverbed is very shallow, which is very easy to overflow and cause disasters; the section below Surabaya is narrow, and there are dangers of floods in Xuzhou and Luliang, so it is difficult to accommodate the flood of the Yellow River during the flood season.Therefore, since the Jin Dynasty, it has frequently burst and flooded.In the fourth year from Yuan to Zhengzheng (AD 1344), the Yellow River breached the Baimao Dike in Shandong Province. The canal waterway for grain transportation to the north.The Yuan Dynasty government then made up its mind to control the river.

Jia Lu was one of the ministers who advocated thorough control of the river after the river broke through the Imperata dyke.On the issue of how to control the river, he advocated blocking the breach of the Baimao embankment, diverting the river from the south, returning to the old roads of Surabaya and Huai River, and entering the Yellow Sea in the east.The amount of work required to divert the river to the South River is huge, but it is beneficial to the transportation and meets the requirements of the Yuan Dynasty government.Therefore, in the eleventh year of Zhizheng (AD 1351), Emperor Yuan Shun ordered him to be the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and led 150,000 people from Bianliang and Daming, and 20,000 soldiers from Luzhou and other places to the construction site.Construction officially started in April of that year.

Generally speaking, the construction sequence of Jialu's river harnessing this time is to first control the old course of the Yellow River below the Baimao Dike breach, and then block the Baimao Dike breach.This is due to the large amount of engineering required to control the old roads, such as dredging and widening the riverbed, straightening bends, and building dikes. It is most convenient to construct before the mouth is blocked and when the riverbed is dry.However, if the plugging project is arranged in the later stage, it will encounter the flood season of the Yellow River between July and September, and the blocking during the flood season is very difficult, which is a taboo for river control.Because Jia made a detailed plan for the blocking project in advance, and made careful preparations and deployments, the blocking project, like the dredging project, went smoothly.In November of that year, all projects were completed.More than 280 miles of the old course of the Yellow River were dredged successively, more than 700 miles of dikes were built, and 107 large and small crevasses were blocked and treated.Such a huge amount of work took only eight months, which is not easy.Generally speaking, the streams of the treated river flow through the counties and cities of today's Fengqiu, Caoxian, Shangqiu, and Dangshan, and below Xuzhou, follow the Sishui and Huaishui rivers, and flow into the Yellow Sea.

Jia Lu is a responsible and innovative water conservancy official. At that time, the breach of Baimao embankment was 400 steps wide, and the midstream was more than three feet deep. The waves were rough and extremely difficult to block.He adopted a series of creative measures to solve it.The first step is to cross a straight river above the crevasse to replace the original section of the river, which is more curved and whose main stream goes straight to the crevasse.This greatly reduces the difficulty of blocking.The second step is to build a thorn embankment on the straight river above the breach, and try to direct the river to the opposite side.This further reduces the difficulty of plugging.In the end, the blockage was successfully completed and the task of diverting the river to the south was accomplished.These new technologies have great significance in plugging engineering (Fig. 15).

Jia Lu has the courage to be responsible and innovative, and his achievements in river governance are basically affirmed by people.However, due to his hasty construction, "not sympathetic to the people's strength" and forcing people to work day and night, this river harnessing became the fuse of the peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and was also criticized by people.Although there are some shortcomings in Jia Luzhihe, the achievements are still important.The following poem reflects the basic views of later generations on him.

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