Chapter 57 Chapter 9 White Wolf Mountain

From March to August in the eleventh year of Jian'an (206), Cao Cao had been resting in Ye County and spent half a year of leisure time.It wasn't until August that news of the pirates' disturbance came from Guangjun, the governor of Qingzhou, which was newly located on the Shandong Peninsula, and Cao Cao decided to conquer it himself. Changguang County is located at the front end of the Shandong Peninsula today. There used to be Donglai County here. After Cao Cao occupied a part of it, he set up Changguang County. Today's Penglai, Weihai, and Qingdao are all included in it. Cao Cao appointed He Kui as the prefect of the county.

Changguang County is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and many people make a living by fishing in the sea.Guan Cheng, a native of Changguang County, gathered more than 3,000 disciples and became bandits.This group of people can fight when they can fight on the shore, and if they can't fight, they go to sea. The government has no navy, so there is nothing they can do about it. Cao Cao received He Kui's report on the bandits, and led Zhang, Le Jin, Li Dian and other troops to send troops eastward to attack the pirates in person. From Ye County to Changguang County, it is a long-distance march to pass through Dongjun, Jibei Kingdom, and Taishan County of Yanzhou Governor's Department, Langye Kingdom of Xuzhou Governor's Department, and Beihai Kingdom of Qingzhou Governor's Department.In order to deal with these thousands of pirates, it should not be so mobilizing, let alone let Cao Cao go out in person.

However, Cao Cao still led the troops in person. He led the army to Chunyu (now Anqiu, Shandong) in the territory of Beihai State, and established a frontline headquarters here.Afterwards, Cao Cao ordered Le Jin and Li Dian to march into Changguang County to suppress Guan Cheng. Guan Cheng didn't expect that he wasn't even a local separatist force, at best he was just a gang of evil forces, and he actually invited Cao Cao to go on an expedition in person, and famous generals like Zhang, Le Jin, and Li Dian joined forces to fight him.He knew what to do, so he made a symbolic resistance to save himself a little face, so that he could hang out in this area in the future, and then retreated to some islands in the sea.

At this time, everyone believed that troops should be sent to these islands to clean up (the discussants wanted to raise troops to attack them).He Kui, who is very familiar with the local conditions, has a different opinion. He believes: "Guancheng these people are not naturally fond of making troubles, they just lack education, so they don't know how to return to the road of good Now the persecution is too urgent, they are afraid of being wiped out, they must fight to the death, even if they can win, but they will have to pay a high price, it is better to show kindness to them, let them regret themselves, and they can be pacified without soldiers."

Cao Cao accepted He Kui's suggestion. Indeed, Cao Jun has no experience in naval battles.Although these people have lived in the sea for a long time, once they enter the sea, it is their world. One can be used as ten, and one can be used as a hundred. Once they fight, it is really hard to say what the outcome will be.Now the Guanchengsuo's troops have retreated to the island and defended according to the danger. It is not easy to clear them up. If they can be recruited, it should be the best policy. Huang Zhen, the prime minister of Changguang County, was brave and resourceful, and He Kui recommended him to go to the island to complete the mission of appeasement.Huang Zhen went to the island to find Guan Cheng, stated her interests to him, expressed her willingness to recruit, and Guan Cheng accepted the recruit.

In the autumn of the 11th year of Jian'an (206), the battle of Dongzheng Guancheng ended without pain or itching. For Cao Cao, it took so much effort to not fight. Although he was happy, he still felt that he was not happy enough. People who are used to fighting are always restless, always looking for opportunities to fight. In fact, if Cao Cao wants to fight, there are still enough battles for him to fight.The reason why the troops came out this time is to solve the management and commitment is one aspect, and the preparation for the next military operation is the important purpose. The problem of management and maintenance was resolved in August, and Cao Cao did not return to Ye County until February of the following year. During these months, he inspected the northern states and counties, focusing on the progress of the construction of water conservancy projects that had started in various places. .

Two years ago, after the start of the Zhang River treatment project near Ye County, Dong Zhao proposed to him a larger-scale water conservancy project construction plan, suggesting that taking advantage of the opportunity that the northern states and counties have been calmed down, relying on the existing rivers to overhaul artificial canal. This project is huge. It consists of a series of artificial canals, which connect several rivers in North China, thus weaving a criss-crossing network of rivers that can communicate with each other. These canals are mainly composed of Baigou, Pinglu Canal, Quanzhou Canal and Xinhe Canal.Cao Cao approved the plan and appointed Dong Zhao, who was familiar with northern affairs, to supervise the construction.

The construction of Baigou was the earliest, and the construction began in the first month of the ninth year of Jian'an (204).Baigou was originally the old course left after the Yellow River diverted to the south, also called Suxudu. Due to lack of water, it was not navigable.Cao Cao ordered the water from the nearby Qi River to be drawn in to enrich the water volume of Baigou.The specific method is to build a weir at the Qishuikou (now Qi County, Henan Province) where the Qi River enters the Yellow River by piling to block the water in the Qi River, and then build an artificial canal on the north of the weir to guide the water into Baigou.In order to control the flow of the Qi River, stone weirs were built in Dunqiu County to block the water that might re-enter the Yellow River.

After sailing through Baitong, you can go directly to Neihuang (now Neihuang, Henan) from Ye County, where it meets Huanshui (now Anyang River), and from there you can reach Guantao (now Guantao, Hebei), Guangzong (now Weishan, Shandong) County) and other places, and finally connected to the Hutuo River (now the Hutuo River), becoming an important waterway on the North China Plain. Two years later, that is, the eleventh year of Jian'an (206), the Pinglu Canal was dug under Dong Zhao's auspices, with the purpose of continuing the northward movement of the Hutuo River and extending the water network connecting the Baigou to the north.For this reason, an artificial canal was built between the Hutuo River and the water, connecting the two, and making the artificial river network in the North China Plain reach farther north.

However, the two parts of the Hutuo River and the water in the existing "Shui Jing Zhu" can no longer be seen, so the specific construction route of the Pinglu Canal has not been tested. " and other works, there have been some sporadic accounts of this. According to these records, it can be inferred that the northern end of the original Pinglu Canal was about Duliu Town, Jinghai County, Tianjin City, and the southern end was about Qing County, Shandong Province. This section was later the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.Based on this, scholars generally believe that the main project of the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was first constructed by the order of Cao Cao.

The Quanzhou Canal also started construction in the eleventh year of Jian’an (206). After the Pinglu Canal connected the Hutuo River with water, the construction of the Quanzhou Canal extended the river network to the north again, reaching the Lu River, which is the Haihe River Basin in today’s Tianjin area. According to the "Shui Jing Zhu" records, its northernmost point can at least reach Yongnu County of Youzhou Governor's Department (today's north of Wuqing County, Tianjin). The downstream of the Lu River was turbulent, which was not conducive to navigation. Later, the second phase of the Quanzhou Canal was built, that is, a canal was built from the Baoqiu River to the Ru River, which is the Xin River, to solve the problem that the boats could not continue northward after arriving at the Lu River. "Shui Jing Zhu" records the Xinhe River in more detail. Its general flow direction is: out of Yanguan Pass, through Gengshui (now Zhou River), Juliang Water (now Huanxiang River), Fengdashui (now Dou River) , Xuxushui (today's Shahe), Suhe (today's Yihe) and many other rivers finally join Rushui in Le'an County. The three artificial canals of Pinglu Canal, Quanzhou Canal and Xinhe are relaying each other, so that the navigable river network continues to extend northward.These areas are roughly equivalent to today's northern Shandong, western Hebei, Tianjin, and Beijing. They were still underdeveloped areas at that time. The terrain here is low-lying, prone to water accumulation, roads and traffic are difficult.After the completion of the well-developed water transport system, the traffic conditions here have been greatly improved. Ships departing from Ye County can arrive at Baigou from Zhangshui and Qishui, and then continue to transfer northward through Pinglu Canal, Shui, Lushui, Quanzhou Canal, Xinhe, etc., until they arrive at Youzhou. This series of water conservancy projects is an unprecedented huge project. Cao Cao's determination to build these projects is by no means just to improve the transportation in the north. Obviously, he has a greater motive.