Tangyi abolished the old system of corvee service, and allocated Ding Fu and the money from the service into land taxes. This destined Tangyi to recruit an additional 60,000 to 70,000 young and strong civilians, and the cost was not much lower than recruiting the same size of troops from the imperial army or the guards.

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In addition to a large number of tools for digging rivers and building embankments, the monthly ration of 60,000 young and strong people was as high as 60,000 shi of brown rice.

At that time, there was very little fat in food, and digging rivers and building embankments was a strenuous job. Three kilograms of rations a day for soldiers and civilians on embankments could only be regarded as a basic guarantee. In addition, they had to provide a large amount of pickles; of course, luxury meat was impossible to provide; for

To prevent sepsis, some companies will try their best to provide more fresh vegetables, but the quantity is still very limited.

The good thing is that in the spare time of farming, he can eat well and work on the embankment, and he still gets ten or twenty yuan of salary every day. However, he has no complaints about the newly-attached people in Guangshou Haohuo four states.

Those who really have doubts are some generals within the Zhiji Mansion, which mainly assembles 60,000 to 70,000 troops at a time. Even if the assembly period is only half a year, the cost is expected to exceed one million yuan, and the ultimate goal is just to preserve life.

Is it necessary to prevent Spring City from being flooded?

After learning about Han Qian's decision, Han Daochang secretly came to Shouchun to see Han Qian to discuss the possible development of the situation. He also had doubts about Shouchun making such a big move.

Han Qian will still explain things as clearly as possible internally so that everyone can unify their thinking and improve execution in all aspects.

When the Yu River seizes the Huai River and flows into the sea, he no longer cares about the difficulties faced by the Hehuai River. That is what Zhu Yu needs to consider. But in Huaixi, not only the important town of Shouchun City is at risk of being submerged by floods,

What worries Han Qian even more, or what makes Han Qian dare not be careless at all, is the safety of the approximately 500,000-600,000 acres of irrigation area inside and outside the outer city of Shouchun and east of Huoqiu.

If this irrigation area is flooded, the food supply in Huaixi will directly change from a hard-won easy situation to a shortage.

The cultivated land near Shouchun City seems to only account for 56% of the total cultivated land area in Huaixi, but it is mainly high-yield paddy fields.

However, other areas in Huaixi are still mostly dry land, especially the shallow hills and low ridges in the central and southern parts of Huozhou, Shouzhou, and Guangzhou, where the average yield per mu is low.

Donghu, Liyang, Wushou and other places also have a large number of fields used to grow cotton, medicinal materials and other cash crops.

These many factors make the grain output in Shouchun and eastern Huoqiu areas directly account for about ten percent of the entire grain and grass output in Huaixi.

Once this area is reduced to a vast expanse of water, there will be no harvest in summer and autumn, and the government will need to provide a large amount of additional grain to provide relief to the 780,000 to 80,000 people in Shouchun and Huoqiu.

Calculating everything here, the most serious situation will make Huaixi's total grain supply short by about 15%.

Based on the scale of grain production in Huaixi, even if it shrinks by 15% this year, it will not cause a serious food shortage problem. But will we continue to fulfill our food aid commitments to the Liangjun in Hehuai?

Once the Mongol people's poisonous plan is sold, a yellow flood zone that is one to two hundred miles deep and eight to nine hundred miles long will most likely be formed on both sides of the Jialu River and Shaying River. How many hungry people will die in the wild by then?

, how much food will be needed for relief at that time, so that the rivers and Huaihe Rivers will not be filled with bones for thousands of miles?

Only by preserving the Shouchun Irrigation Area to the death can we raise an additional one to two million grains and grains on the basis of the money and food borrowed from the Hehuai Liang Army to carry out necessary relief for the hungry people in the Hehuai River that will occur on a large scale after the summer.

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Otherwise, all this will cause the government to restart its large-scale grain purchase plan in Jiangdong and other places at a time when it is in a hurry. How much money will it cost?

At present, Tangyi only needs 800,000 yuan to purchase 1.2 million shi of grain in Huaixi, but if he purchases in bulk from Jiangdong and other places, he will need to add at least one million yuan.

What's more important is that once the Yu River seizes the Huai River and enters the sea, it won't stop in a year or two.

At this time, in the Immortal Baoshouchun Irrigation Area, if the Huailiang Army cannot capture Xingyang City and restore the old route of the Yu River, then the negative impact of this incident on the Jialu River, Shaying River, the middle and lower reaches of the Huai River and the coastal areas of Hongzepu will be

One day will not eliminate...

With the accumulation of several unfavorable factors, it was difficult for Han Qian to predict the direction in which the subsequent situation of the Tangyi Army would turn.

In any case, Han Qian had to do everything possible to defend the Shouchun Irrigation Area. At the same time, after Han Daochang returned to Jinling, the Chishan Society directly launched a grain procurement plan in various places to deal with possible food shortages in Huaixi.

Of course, Han Qian's large-scale gathering and mobilization of troops in Shouchun made Jinling, Huaidong, and Xiangbei sleepless and disturbed those who did not know the truth.

It is true that Tangyi had maintained a standing army of about 50,000 troops, including naval troops, infantry camps and cavalry, before the New Year. A few days after the New Year, Han Qian suddenly set off from Liyang and rushed to Shouchun to carry out the campaign.

There was an unprecedented military mobilization and the total number of troops in the newly formed Fourth Town Army alone reached more than 70,000.

In other words, Tangyi's 50,000 active standing troops suddenly increased to 120,000.

Who else would be able to sleep peacefully on the couch next to Tangyi?

Jinling, Chuzhou and Xiangcheng sent envoys to Shouchun every once in a while to see Han Qian and ask what happened.

Han Qian also had no intention of concealing it. He told the truth about the Weizhou rebels and the Mongols' intention to force the Yu River to change its course. He also reminded Huaidong to strengthen the dams, ditches and other water conservancy facilities on the east bank of Hongzepu and the south bank of the Huaihe River.

Repair.

After the Chu-Liang peace talks, Jinling, Xiangbei, and Huaidong were able to send merchants into the areas controlled by Xu Ru, Song, Chen and other rivers and Huailiang troops. They also heard about Liang Shixiong organizing soldiers and civilians to dig embankments in the east of Xingyang City, but regardless of Huaidong,

, Xiangbei or Huaidong, but they don’t think the situation is as serious as Han Qian imagined.

In addition to the Mongol camps on the north and south sides of Zhaotangdi, which have not yet further assembled soldiers and civilians, Liang Jun's response in Xuzhou and northern Ruzhou was much calmer than what Han Qian said, and there was no sense of urgency for an impending disaster.

, not to mention organizing troops and horses to attack Xingyang City with all their strength before the rainy season comes.

Others did not believe it, and Han Qian had no obligation to make them believe it, but he gathered so many people in Shouchun, and after February entered, they all spent on strengthening the south bank embankment, building the Longchishan weir lake, and dredging the flood channel.

In addition to more than 60,000 young and strong laborers, Han Qian also successively recruited nearly 20,000 mules and horses from various places, and thousands of vehicles (vessels) of various sizes to transport sand, gravel, soil, wood, etc.

Reinforcing and heightening the levee is one aspect, but due to material limitations at the present time, the levee is mainly made of piled earth. No matter how hard it is reinforced, the overall strength is extremely limited and cannot withstand it.

Excessively high water retention levels, flood diversion, and flood discharge are the keys to protecting the Shouchun Irrigation Area.

Ji Xiyao led the water conservancy engineers of the Engineering and Construction Department to draw a flood control zone from southwest to southeast in Shouchun City that was more than fifty miles long from east to west and several miles to ten miles wide from north to south.

In order to ensure that the connection between Shouchun City and the mainland is not cut off, the section of the post road located in the flood control zone needs to be widened and raised. However, when the post road passes through the flood control zone, sufficient flood control culverts must be reserved.

In order to save time, Han Qian directly ordered that the iron beam bridge components prefabricated elsewhere be shipped directly to Shouchun for first use, and a total of 120 meters of continuous arch iron beam bridge was built in the post road crossing flood zone first;

The bridge piers are also excavated and the foundation is poured with reinforced stone, mud and river sand.

In early February, the Weizhou rebels dug a dike east of Xingyang.

However, the flow of the Yu River during the ice-free period was very small, and the riverbed in the Xingyang section of the Yu River had not yet completely lifted off the flat ground, and the terrain east of Xingyang City was rugged. Throughout February, the Yu River embankment was not seen breaking through to the Jialu River.

, the Shaying River has a substantial impact.

The upper reaches of the Yu River began to thaw in late February, and the flow of the upper reaches of the Yu River increased. A large amount of broken ice was discharged from the gap to the south, intruding into the low-lying area west and south of Xingyang City on the west bank of the Jialu River, turning it into a vast ocean.

It also completely blocked the channel for the Hehuai Liang Army to attack Xingyang from the eastern foot of Songshan Mountain.

However, the Jialu River (Chankou) has been the core waterway connecting the Hehuai River and the Huaihe River since the Qin and Han Dynasties. The water conservancy facilities are relatively complete. Not only are there sluices and ship locks between it and the Yu River, but there are also dams on both sides.

Carrying a large amount of broken ice, the water discharged from the south of the breach was blocked by the embankment on the west bank of the Jialu River. It mainly flowed to Xingze and other places between Xingyang City and the Jialu River embankment. Until the end of March, the territory of Xingzhou became a vast area.

The ocean is vast, but it has not had a serious impact on the areas on both sides of the middle and lower reaches of the Shaying River.

At this time, the Weizhou rebels and the Mongols no longer concealed their ferocious and sinister intentions. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were driven to both sides of the Zhaotang embankment east of the breach, and hundreds of thousands of loads of sand were dumped every day.

Stone and soil were transported into the river to build dams.

Unlike the Nanliang State's construction of the Fushan Weir in the middle reaches of the Huaihe River more than 400 years ago, which was an adventure destined to fail, the Yuhe River near Zhaotang Embankment is extremely siltated, and most of the water in the upper reaches of the Yuhe River comes from the west.

The breach on the side of the river discharged to the south, causing the actual flow surface of the Yu River near Zhaotang Embankment to be less than 200 meters wide in mid-to-late March, and the deepest water level was only a little over one meter.

Around the end of March, the Mongols quickly and successfully blocked the Yu River near the Zhaotang Embankment. Subsequently, they only continued to widen and heighten the dam, and even tried to build a road directly across it.

The Yu River leads to the south bank of the Chi Road, so that the troops and horses of the Mongol people in Huai, Wei and other states can directly enter Wuzhi and other places on the south bank, or attack the western flank of Bianjing.

If Tangyi delayed responding to all this until now, he would have missed nearly three months, extremely precious response time. In addition to moving tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians from Shouchun and Huo

Apart from withdrawing from the area east of Qiu and giving up Shouchun City and the nearby irrigation area of ​​500,000 to 600,000 acres, there is no other better option.

Entering April, the Weihe Plain in the upper reaches of the Yu River and the northwest region further north and west, as well as the Xu, Ru, Chen, Song, Qiao, Ying, and the Funiu Mountain, Song Mountain and other mountains on the west flank, and the Botong Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain on the north bank of the upper reaches of the Huai River have entered one after another.

rainy season.

As April almost entered, a flood stagnation formed in the upper reaches of Xiashikou, and the water level became higher every day. By mid-to-late April, the water level of the Huaihe River west of Shouchun City was higher than the newly built overflow stone weir on the south bank of the embankment.

It was still too difficult to build a large sluice. There was only three months of construction time. Han Qian did not cut open the embankment to build a large sluice between the Huaihe River and the discharge zone. Instead, he dug a slot on the embankment and filled it with concrete.

Pour deep pile foundations, then lay strips of stone, build overflow stone weirs, and guide the Huaihe River water up to the warning level into the discharge channel on the south bank of the embankment, so that the turbid floods can bypass Shouchun City from the south and flow through the city.

Going to Wabu, this will always keep the water level in the flood detention area in the west of Shouchun City below the safe level.

At this time, north of Wabu Dang, the Beifeishui River channel connecting the lower reaches of the Huaihe River is still being widened at an accelerated pace; the flood storage capacity of Wabu Dang is also limited, and floods must be discharged to the lower reaches of the Huaihe River in a timely manner.

The water situation in Shouzhou is not serious yet.

The summer grain harvest in Shouchun Irrigation Area will be carried out as scheduled in late April, mainly beans and wheat, with a harvest of almost 500,000 dan, followed by autumn grain sowing, mainly rice, and it seems that it will not be affected much at present.

Serious impact.

However, by the end of April, the Xuruqiaoyingchenbo prefectures along the Jialu River and Shaying River were plunged into a vast ocean, and countless people were forced to leave their homes.

The Jialu River and the Shaying River start from the north bank of the Yu River east of Xingyang, then zigzag southeastward to the Huaihe River 40 miles west of Shouchun. The total length of the main stream is nearly 900 miles.

Even if Emperor Zhu Yu of the Liang Dynasty had discovered the treacherous plot of Liang Shixiong and the Mongol people at the beginning of the year, let alone the Hehuai Liang army at this time, even when the Liang Kingdom was at its peak, it was impossible to arrive in time for the beginning of summer in such a short period of time.

The embankments on both sides of the Jialu River and Shaying River will be reinforced to a standard that can withstand floods three or four times higher than in previous years.

Emperor Zhu Yu of the Liang Dynasty did not even think about attacking Xingyang City before the rainy season to gain control of the Yuhe embankment in Xingyang, Wuzhi and other places.

Not to mention that the war was too hasty, and the offensive positions could be flooded at any time. There was really no chance of winning, and they could only fall into the calculations and traps arranged by Liang Shixiong and the Mongols.

Emperor Liang Zhu Yu delayed taking any action until late April.

At this time, the floods on both sides of the Shaying River were monstrous. Ruzhou, Caizhou, Xuzhou, Yingzhou, and Chenzhou to the west of the Shaying River had been cut off from Song Qiao and Bianjing in the east by the monstrous floods.

The flood zone continues to expand to both sides, and will last until at least August. Only then can the floods that hit everything be reduced.

At this time, the Hehuai Liang Army was also cut into east and west parts again.

At this time, Emperor Liang led the elite troops on the west wing, abandoned all the large war equipment and baggage at the rear, passed directly through the dangerous pass between Shaoshi Mountain and Funiu Mountain on the northwest side of Ruzhou, and entered the upper reaches of the Luo River.
To be continued...