Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

however……

When Zhu Youjian, who had always been looked down upon by him, beat him into a loser...

In a panic, Dorgon realized that he had fallen short of the Zhu family, too much...

Dorgon worshiped Emperor Yongle inexplicably.

Even in my dreams, I often dream that I am a general under Emperor Yongle...

Dorgon stood at the bow of the boat.

The canal flows quietly beneath your feet.

he knows--

The canal under our feet was dredged by Emperor Chengzu who spent a lot of effort hiring migrant workers.

In the original Grand Canal, the groundwater level continued to deepen due to the drop in sea level.

In addition, the Huai'an-Yangzhou section at the southern end of the Grand Canal has an altitude of about 10 meters.

The Tianjin section at the northern end is also about 10 meters above sea level.

Only the Shandong section in the middle is generally above 30 meters above sea level.

Elevation map along the Grand Canal

The overall topography of the Grand Canal is like a spindle.

Low at both ends, high in the middle!

The geographical difference and the decline in groundwater levels have caused the canal in the Shandong section to exist in name only.

By the Yuan Dynasty, the canal was completely unable to carry the convenience of shipping.

Especially this section of Shandong is full of siltation and is known as "Shoal 72".

(That is, Linqing-Xuzhou section.)

If you want to transport grain through the Grand Canal, you need to abandon the ship and take the overland route in this section.

There are eight turns along the way, back and forth between water and land.

As for this section in Shandong, it takes more than 170 miles of land route to reach Weihe River. From then on, it is included in the canal and transported to Beijing.

Transporting heavy grain by land naturally costs a lot of money!

Although during the Zhizheng period of the Yuan Dynasty, at the suggestion of Shouzhang Yin and Han Zhonghui, a river was dug from Dongping Minshan to Linqing, the Wen River was diverted to Jueji River, and the Grand Canal was dredged.

The Weihe River that belongs to it is a canal channel, named "Huitong".

That is to say, the section of Huitong River with the highest altitude has been repaired.

but!

The canals dredged in the Yuan Dynasty had narrow banks and shallow water, and could not bear heavy loads.

Therefore, by the end of the Yuan Dynasty, maritime transport was the most important.

Emperor Yongle, who was a talented and resourceful emperor, spent a huge amount of money to dredge the canal after moving the capital to Beijing.

Don't say Zhu Di doesn't know the benefits of shipping!

Before modern society, shipping could not withstand the risk of typhoons in summer and autumn.

Zhu Di personally guards the country with the dignity of the emperor, so there must be no such big loopholes.

Once someone catches you at this time, attack aggressively.

The problem of food shortage will lead to the failure of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Di must dredge the canal and solve the food crisis.

At the same time, the economic development in the north brought about by water transportation was also the reason why Yongle did this.

Whether it was Zhu Di establishing the capital in Beijing or dredging the Grand Canal.

They are all playing a big game of overall chess - using large infrastructure to drive the development of the north.

Because in the early Ming Dynasty, the North and the South were already very different.

The brutal Yuanting greatly reduced the population of Jiangbei.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, population distribution

During the early Ming Dynasty, not only the economy of Jiangnan had completely surpassed that of the north, but the population was several times that of the north.

Zhu Di's decision to make Beijing the capital actually meant to use the location of the capital to promote the development of the north.

Without these measures by Zhu Di, the division of the north and the south would be inevitable.

……

In the ninth year of Yongle, Song Li was ordered to lead 30 migrant workers to undertake the dredging work.

Under the peerless glory of Emperor Yongle, the civil servants and military generals of the Yongle Dynasty were unknown.

They were all overshadowed by Zhu Di's peerless elegance.

In fact, Song Li is an awesome person!

Although he was overshadowed by his contemporary Chen Xuan for a lifetime...

Song Li's skills are not as good as Chen Xuan's.

However, Song Li also understood that there were problems with the Yuan Dynasty's method of managing the canal.

Although the method of diverting water into the canal in the Yuan Dynasty was an idea to solve the problem of shallow water in the canal, the old management strategy of the Yuan Dynasty is absolutely undesirable!

And what exactly is this problem, you have to visit the locals everywhere to truly understand it!

After he was appointed, he went around looking for good people, and finally found Bai Ying, a local old man in Wenshang who understood the problem.

Only then did Song Li understand that the water inflow point chosen by the Yuan Dynasty was not the commanding heights of the canal!

Just because of the wrong geographical location, the Yuan Dynasty's river management efforts became a bubble.

Song Li was the minister of the Ministry of Industry, but he did not have the arrogance of a senior official.

He was not ashamed to ask questions again and again, and approved the strategy proposed by Bai Ying:

——"Build a city and a Daicunba reservoir, and build embankments spanning five miles to contain the flow of Wenshui River, so that no water can flow into Ganshui from the south and return to the sea from the north. The water from various springs will be collected, and it will flow out of Wenshang to Nanwang. South The topography of Wangwang is high, and its water flows from the north to the south, so it is called a water ridge."

To put it simply, it means building reservoirs, digging river channels, gathering rivers in Shandong, and changing the direction of the rivers.

It is the Ming Dynasty’s version of the “South to North Water Diversion”.

Then, the river water is diverted and merged into the canal at the Nanwang section of the canal, which is the commanding heights.

Utilize the influx of large amounts of river water to raise the water level of the canal, making the Shandong section navigable!

Song Li built countless reservoirs to collect water from various rivers.

At Wenshang Nanwang, it merges into the canal.

Nanwang is the highest point of the canal!

Song Li built a diversion dam here in Nanwang to divide the incoming river water into two channels, north and south.

One stream flows southward, and this stream of water flows in the direction of Xuzhou and Peixian County.

Song Li's dike-building strategy resulted in about three-fourths of the water flowing southward, and about sixty-sevenths of the water flowing northward to Linqing.

Therefore, there is another saying that "three points go to the south of the Yangtze River".

Song Li cut off the river at Nanwang, the highest point of the canal, to replenish the water source, and designed reservoirs and weirs to store water.

Since then, the Grand Canal has been replenished by a large amount of water and finally restored its carrying capacity.

At the same time, due to the high terrain in Shandong, the canal has a large drop.

In order to cope with the spring and winter seasons, the river becomes smaller, resulting in insufficient water flow in the canal——

Song Li adopted the epoch-making design of water gates.

That is to say, in the Grand Canal, a dam is built and a step-down method is adopted to ensure the water level of the canal.

At the same time, the gates were widely repaired, and the gates were used to control the water volume while allowing boats to pass through.

This has led the world's trend.

The design of dams in later generations all followed this principle.

From Fenshui North to Linqing, 17 sluice gates were built along the way, allowing boats to reach Linqing directly;

From Fenshuinan to Guyou, 21 sluice gates were built along the way, allowing boats to reach Suzhou and Hangzhou directly!

Since then, several new locks have been added, with a total of more than [-] ship locks installed in the Shandong section!

Li Liufang, a poet from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, was inspired by the canal and wrote a poem when he was passing by the canal.

The title of the poem is "Drama in a Boat on the Zhahe River in Changqing Style".

The poem has five characters, two sentences to one line, and the whole poem has 20 lines.

This is a long poem of two hundred words.

The poem begins:

"The Ji River has fifty gates, and the gate water does not wet the rails.

A sluice is placed every ten miles to store water like marrow.

Walking through a gate for a day, guarding the gate is like guarding a ghost.

When you get into the water, look ahead; when you get into the water, look at your tail. "

The fourth sentence of this poem vividly describes the scene when the double gates of the Grand Canal were opened and closed in the Ming Dynasty.

——When walking downstream, pay attention to the bow of the boat so as not to hit the lock.

When walking upstream, pay attention to the stern of the boat so as not to affect the gate that is about to close.

……