In the morning, in the Zhengshi Hall, Yuwen Wen and the three senior officials were listening to the report. The officials who were doing the report were currently under the jurisdiction of Shandong Water Control Envoy. They were ordered by the Ambassador of Water Control and the Right Pushe of Shangshu to introduce the disaster of the Yellow River to the Emperor and the Zhengshi Hall.

The flood peak of the Yellow River flood season has entered the sea, which means that the flood season is coming to an end. Overall, the middle and lower reaches are safe. This result is something that everyone has never expected before.

The imperial court's pre-expectation was that some downstream areas would open floodgates to discharge floods, sacrifice themselves, and save themselves. The prefectures and counties along the Yellow River strive to prevent floods and fight floods. In addition, the river embankments and various water conservancy facilities built over the past decade have good quality, which has achieved good results in successful flood control.

However, after the flood, epidemic prevention and disaster relief work must be done well. Although the Yellow River water has not plagued the coastal areas, frequent rainfall still causes waterlogging in some areas, and the local river water level has risen, which has also caused certain personnel and property losses.

Disaster victims need relief, and epidemics also need prevention and treatment.

There will be a major epidemic after a major disaster. This is the lesson learned from countless blood and tears over the past thousands of years. Therefore, the next task of the Shandong Water Control Envoy Department is to urge all localities to prevent and provide disaster relief. Therefore, the officials in the Political Affairs Hall at this moment must also explain the next epidemic prevention work to the emperor and the three high officials.

Yuwen Wen took the information, listened to the explanation, and looked at the map that painted the situation in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, falling into deep thought.

If he remembers correctly, the Yellow River should be in the "Anhui Period". A major flood like this year has a very low chance of occurrence. In other words, after the Yellow River breaks out this year, it is likely that it will not happen again in the next ten years.

The so-called "safe flow" of the Yellow River refers to the hydrological phenomenon of the Yellow River in a specific historical period. That is, from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the early Northern Song Dynasty, for nearly eight hundred years, the Yellow River was very "quiet", with basically no frequent floods, and no such major disasters as diversion.

The Yellow River has been flowing "stable" for eight hundred years.

Compared with the tyrannical Yellow River after the Song Dynasty, the Yellow River during this period seemed to have changed into a "river pattern".

There have been many arguments about the "anliu" of the Yellow River during this period in later generations that Yu Wen Wen was not a water conservancy expert, so of course he was not very clear about the specific details, but thanks to the developed media, he had a superficial understanding.

From historical records, that is, from the Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty, in the past thousand years, there were few records of the Yellow River overflowing and diverting the route in historical records. This can be considered that in the pre-Qin period, the Yellow River was very "quiet".

Of course, this "quietness" is relatively speaking, which does not mean that there were no floods in the Yellow River during this period. On the contrary, the lower reaches of the Yellow River were diverted during the Spring and Autumn Period.

By the Western Han Dynasty, the Yellow River began to be restless. From historical records, we can see that the Yellow River was suffering from frequent floods during the Western Han Dynasty, and even diverted five times.

This situation continued until the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Eastern Han Dynasty court invested huge manpower and material resources to control the Yellow River. Water management expert Wang Jing presided over this huge project and directed hundreds of thousands of people to build various water conservancy facilities. Finally, he "appeased" the restless Yellow River.

This comfort has made the Yellow River "quiet" for nearly eight hundred years.

Although the Yellow River also had heavy waters during this period, if it was simply frequency, it was not less than that in the Western Han Dynasty, but the severity of the flood was much lower than that in the Western Han Dynasty.

Moreover, during these eight hundred years, it also included the long period of separatist rule by the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the late Tang vassal states. When the Central Plains were in full swing, there was no central court to govern the Yellow River, but the Yellow River was still so "quiet", which shows how great the contribution of Wang Jing of the Eastern Han Dynasty to control the water.

All this came to an abrupt end in the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, the riverbeds in some sections of the lower reaches of the Yellow River were even higher than the ground and became a hanging river, so they began to become restless.

The situation where the Yellow River flows peacefully is gone forever.

Thinking of this, Yuwen Wen was a little moved, feeling that it is very likely that during his "terminus", such a large-scale flood like this year will not happen again. He felt that the soil erosion in the middle reaches of the Yellow River finally made the already quiet Yellow River become irritable.

There is a debate in the academic community about why the Yellow River has been safe for 800 years. If you simply attribute all the credit to Wang Jing's water control, it seems that it is not convincing enough.

However, everyone's opinions were relatively unified about the reasons for the irritability of the Yellow River since the Northern Song Dynasty:

Since the Tang Dynasty, severe soil erosion in the middle reaches of the Yellow River has led to the once lush plateau turning into a loess plateau with gullies. The sand content of the Yellow River has increased dramatically, so the silt rate in the lower reaches has accelerated, and the riverbed has gradually increased.

In addition, Guanzhong was demolished, economic and political centers transferred to Kaifeng, a material transfer hub of Tongji Canal (Bian Canal), in order to ensure the shipping of Tongji Canal, the rulers had to desperately maintain the water level of the Yellow River and constantly raise the embankment, so a hanging river appeared.

It is a natural law to flow to the lower part. When the riverbed is higher than the surrounding area, the river becomes irritable and restless, and it will cause heavy water at any time, and it will change its course at any time, and even has the catastrophic consequences of taking the Huai River into the sea. Isn’t it normal?

Therefore, soil erosion caused by indiscriminate deforestation is the fundamental reason for the irritability of the Yellow River. At this time, even if Wang Jing reborn, he would not be able to appease this violent "dragon".

Since the Song Dynasty, there have been capable ministers in all dynasties to control water, but no matter how capable the ministers are, they cannot comfort the Yellow River. Therefore, if you want to cure the root cause, you must start by protecting the environment and avoiding soil erosion.

However, it is not easy to stop deforestation.

When the population in the middle reaches of the Yellow River increased, it needed a lot of fuel and large-scale construction, so the scale of logging and logging expanded, and more and more green mountains became bald. Without the protection of vegetation, soil erosion naturally became more and more serious.

However, it is impossible for the government to close the mountains. First of all, wooden buildings have to be repaired every once in a while, and sometimes fires have to be rebuilt, which determines that the annual logging volume cannot be low.

Secondly, people in various places need fuel to make fires, cook, lighting, and drive away the cold.

If the people are not allowed to pick them, it is equivalent to letting the people die in the midst of hunger and cold. If everyone cannot survive, they will rise up.

When people are not well fed and their survival is a problem, choose one of the environment and people's livelihood. Which ruler should choose? The answer is self-evident. Even if you know that it is not good to cut down, you can only ignore it.

Yuwen Wen's thoughts spread more and more, and gradually became distracted, so that when the official who was explaining asked for instructions, he didn't hear it. He waited until the eunuch beside him whispered to remind him, but he was a little confused.

It was like a student who was absent from class, and was called by the teacher to answer questions, but he didn't even know what the question was.

Seeing the emperor distracted, Wang Xun quickly rescued the scene: "Your Majesty, although this Yellow River flood season has not caused huge losses, the water control ambassador made suggestions to reduce the rent and regulation in various places this year as appropriate..."
Chapter completed!