A huge map, hanging in the Political Affairs Hall, draws sketches of the lower Yellow River area, but unlike common sketches, this map contains many closed circle patterns.

Cooperating with several sand tables with a large number of colorful flags, at this moment, the Ministry of Works officials explained to the emperor and the magistrates where the approximately flood discharge area was.

Flood discharge means draining flood water. It is a water control term. It generally refers to the over-water level of the weir (reservoir dam) due to continuous heavy rainfall. In order to avoid flooding and overflowing or dam collapse, the gate must be opened to drain water downstream areas.

Similarly, when a major flood occurs in the Yellow River, in order to protect the surrounding areas of a certain section of the river from flooding, it is necessary to rely on other regions to divert floods, and to save important areas at the expense of these areas.

This is to lose troops and protect the commander. These areas that were sacrificed are flood discharge areas.

Although the water conservancy project in the Yellow River Basin is large in scale, no one can guarantee that the Yellow River embankment in various places can block the sharply rising water level. Once the water level exceeds the limit, instead of being in trouble with everyone, it is better to sacrifice some places to ensure safety in other areas.

This involves the demarcation of flood discharge areas, which will turn into a vast ocean, with buildings damaged or even destroyed, and farmlands flooded.

Flooded farmland may not be restored in the next few years, resulting in a major impact on agricultural production.

Since the first year of Mingde, the water conservancy projects for the Yellow River Basin were built in a whole under the unified planning of the Ministry of Industry, so the flood discharge area was also planned in advance.

These flood discharge areas are not delineated at will, but are determined based on the on-site survey results, comprehensive historical materials, and carefully compared and discussed.

As the possibility of a major flood this year becomes increasingly greater, the prisoners must know the situation of these flood discharge areas, and then make arrangements as soon as possible to evacuate the people in the flood discharge areas.

It is impossible not to evacuate. Even though they know that these areas will be flooded, they allow the people to live in place without doing anything. At that time, the flood will be overwhelming and the lives will be devastated. This is a sin.

However, if the situation is not serious enough to open the gate to discharge the flood, the people in the flood discharge area will be evacuated in advance, which will cause a labor shortage. There will be insufficient labor recruitment during flood control. The river embankment that would not have collapsed will collapse. Who is the responsibility?

In this regard, the Ministry of Works of China has a "plan", which is to conduct surveys in flood discharge areas, measure the "contour lines" in various places, and calibrate the "higher altitude" areas, and serve as the shelter camp address for people from all over the country.

Why is it said to be "higher altitude" rather than "higher terrain"? Because this involves a technical issue.

Because of the different reference objects, the height of the terrain of each region is relatively important. If we want to judge the height of the terrain between certain regions from the overall perspective, we need a unified reference object, that is, sea level.

The water flows to the lower places, whether it is the Yangtze River, Yellow River or Huai River, it eventually flows into the sea. This means that the sea contains all rivers, which means that the "terrain" of the sea is the lowest.

Then, the "altitude" measured in various places using sea level as a unified reference is very helpful for judging from the overall perspective where the "high" and "low" basins in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.

Since the first year of Mingde, the Ministry of Industry's survey team has traveled all over Henan and Hebei, conducting a "study" of the areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and its main tributary basins, initially measured the altitude of various places, and drew "contour lines".

Contour lines are areas with the same altitude in a certain area. They are connected with closed lines. This line is contour lines, like annual rings of trees.

With this contour map, people can easily determine which areas in large areas have higher terrain (altitude) and really have a major flood, and people will take refuge in this area without any accidents.

The reason sounds simple, but it is difficult to achieve, because it must be based on a large number of effective on-site survey data. Now, the booklets that the emperor and the priests are looking at, the maps hanging, and the areas with flags on the sand table are the crystallization of the years of hard work by countless surveyors.

Being prepared for any eventuality is the careful preparation for many years. Therefore, when danger comes, at the Political Affairs Hall meeting, officials of the Ministry of Works can provide detailed data to allow the emperor and the priests to have first-hand reliable information when formulating flood prevention, flood control and disaster relief policies.

The flood discharge areas that have been planned have also been planned as well as refuge areas, also known as "water escape highlands". Local prefectures, counties and governments can mobilize manpower and material resources in advance, establish temporary refuge areas in water escape highlands, and then evacuate the people to these places for resettlement in advance.

Most of these water-evacuation highlands are in the prefectures, counties and counties. Therefore, after the government evacuates the people, the young and strong can still be organized and invested in flood prevention and flood control and refuge areas.

At the same time, the capitals of each prefecture, county and county all have city walls. Even though most of them are rammed earth walls, the wall foundation is reinforced and even if it is soaked in floods, it will not collapse in a short time, so it can also be used as a place for residents to avoid water.

The warehouses of the states and county seats have been newly built, expanded and renovated, all of them are located at higher terrain, and even high platforms are artificially stacked to raise the foundation.

The locations of these warehouses have been calibrated as "altitude", which is prevented from flooding.

Only when the warehouse is safe and the family is properly resettled can the young and strong people feel at ease. The government organizes young and strong people to fight against floods, and there is sufficient food and supplies, so that everyone has no worries.

All of this is part of the flood control system in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. After more than ten years of construction, the current results have been achieved. However, this is data on paper. Although some departments have checked it over the years, the real situation needs to be confirmed.

Just as the army has had the bad habit of vain since ancient times, warehouse management also has the problem of fake accounts. It may be a granary that stores 100,000 stones of grain on the books, but in fact only 30,000 stones are included.

Perhaps the registration warehouse on a granary store is stored in the good rice that was stored last year, but in fact, it is very likely that the rice that has been stored for seven or eight years, and there are many moldy diseases in it and cannot be eaten at all.

These are all very likely problems. Although some departments conduct random inspections every year, today is different from the past. If you don’t go through it carefully, the deception of the grassroots corrupt officials will directly lead to major deviations in the decision-making of the officials of the Political Affairs Hall.

According to the numbers on the books, the slaughtermen would think that 500,000 stones of grain were stored in a certain state, which was enough to help the victims, so they decided not to mobilize foreign food for emergency treatment. As a result, when the victims were hungry and lined up for the grain silo to release the grain, they found that the granary was empty.

In this way, it is easy to get into trouble, and one thing happens is a big deal. Therefore, while preventing floods, we must seize the time to investigate and see what the warehouses in the mayors of disaster-stricken prefectures and counties are in fact.

Once a problem is found, it must be remedied in time.

Perhaps, during the investigation, strange events such as "fire dragon burning warehouses" and "sincere soldiers borrowing grain" will occur, but such dirty behaviors can be investigated later. The most urgent task is to survey the situation and be a "confidant".

Yuwen Wen did not dare to take the administration lightly. Of course, he would not think that all the summed numbers were fine, but after more than ten years of hard work on governance, he did not think that the actual situation would be much worse.

In order to fight floods, the imperial court began to promote water conservancy since the first year of Mingde. This was not only the Yellow River Basin, but also the Yangtze River and Huaihe River Basin. Yuwen felt that he had invested so much money and grain, and the water conservancy project he had created could not be a tofu project.

But everything is spoken by facts. He must take a good look at the quality of the large-scale flood control and water conservancy system built during the Mingde period.

If it's really a tofu project...

OK, I admit my mistake and issue an edict to blame myself!
Chapter completed!