Chapter 666: River Management

In the end, the three companies and banks had to urgently issue additional small-denomination banknotes to make up for the shortage of copper coins, and gradually recycled old copper coins.

This directly caused the shortage of foreign trade money, so the scattered Japanese money occupied the overseas market, and its usage share became increasingly important in Japan, North Korea and the Liao Dynasty.

However, Su You has not had time to carefully analyze the pros and cons here. It is already remarkable that he can solve the money shortage in the Southeast and take care of his own family first.

Everything in the Kaifeng Prefecture was on track. Su You began to review the land in sixteen counties for the second time. Based on the reports from the masses, he punished a group of powerful subordinates who deceived the superiors and concealed the situation from the villagers.

At the same time, the illegal water tankers on the Bianhe River were inspected and ordered to be demolished within a time limit or relocated to the recently dredged Guangji River, Huimin River, and Jinshui River. The Bianhe River is a water transport hub, and only basic water conservancy facilities are allowed to be retained.

The three places are just a little far away from Bianjing City, but the conditions are actually not bad. The Guangji River connects to Dingtao and Yuncheng; the Huimin River connects to Xinzheng and Yingchang; and the Jinshui River is even more powerful, connecting to Zhengzhou.

Suyou offered generous conditions and planned three old counties as new bases around Bianjing: Zhongmu, Weishi, and Dongming.

The three places are all at the junction of three rivers, roughly a hundred miles away from Bianjing, and can be reached in one day by water or two days by land.

Zhongmu is a new grain processing base planned by Suyou, supplying Zhengzhou and Bianjing.

Weishi has a large number of coal mines and hot springs, which can become a coal industry base and winter vegetable base.

There is not much in Dongming, but the environment is beautiful and there is a large forest that can become a base for animal husbandry.

The three places already have a certain foundation, but they are far from developed and have great potential to be tapped.

So Su You sent a report and drove all the workshops of the powerful people on the Bian River to these three places.

But I still give a stick to a sweet date. Every inch of land on the Bianhe River is precious. Anyone who relocates a watermill will be given a large homestead in three other counties by the Kaifeng Prefecture, plus a pile of wooden components, and they will be pulled there by boat.

The size of the waterwheel mill can be expanded three times!

The slogan is very loud and simple, and it is actually convenient to go back and forth. The workshop turns into a farm in an instant!

This is still very attractive to a considerable number of workshop owners. They produce and process hundreds of miles away and then bring them to Bianjing by carriage or ship. Although the transportation cost increases, the labor cost and production material cost are reduced.

A lot.

It is not difficult to convert the home in Bianjing City into a shop, and enjoy the manor supervising the production a hundred miles away. The brothers in the city can take care of the business, or they can be transferred here. It is not difficult. Anyway, people now have many brothers.

Compared to Bao Heizi Noodles, who was forced to do so by force, Xiao Su Taibao's skills can be called spring breeze and rain.

The weather was very hot in June, so Su You basically ran on both sides of the Yellow River and Bianhe River, watching the billowing yellow current that was higher than Bianjing City roaring eastward. The terrifying scene made people tremble with fear.

Huang Huaixin and the old river workers surrounded Su You and said that the water this year was small.

Su You was speechless. How desperate are the people of Bianjing to dare to sleep under the Yellow River?

An old river worker tremblingly knelt down to Su You: "Little old man, three generations of river workers, Weng Weng, uncles, and younger brothers, all died on the edge of the Yellow River. Su Shaobao was a detriment to the interests of the people, but his merits are immeasurable. In August of the second year of Zhiping,

We can handle this catastrophe in the future.”

In August of the second year of Zhiping, the Yellow River poured into the Bian Canal and flooded the entire southeast of Bianjing. Afterwards, officials cleaned up the mess in the city and found the bodies of 1,580 victims.

I don’t know if the river worker’s relatives were also among the victims that year. Su You helped the old man who was crying so hard: “Old man, we have only managed the upstream and downstream areas. Things are still very difficult. In the future, maintenance and inspections will be carried out.

Dredging the rivers, we must not slack off every day, as the iron-clad river and water officials, the heavy responsibility rests on your shoulders."

In June, Su You wrote to Zhao Xu that the first phase of the Kaifeng Prefecture's river control project was completed. However, after inspection, the situation was still very serious.

At the beginning of the dynasty, river disasters were obviously not serious for three reasons:

First, the government attaches great importance to it and sends officials to inspect the river embankment every year and plant mulberry and jujube to strengthen the embankment;

The second is to plant poplar and elm trees extensively as disaster-resistant timber;

The third is to carry out major dredging every two years to dredge the rivers around Bianjing in a timely manner and ensure timely drainage.

Since then, the river has become increasingly troubled, for four reasons:

First, the state's finances have been unable to take a breather in Renzong's later years, which has led to the collapse of river services and serious siltation;

Second, heavy embankment construction and light dredging caused the river bed to rise. Now from Shuidongmen to Yongqiu, the river bottom is nearly ten feet higher than the flat land outside the embankment.

Third, in the past, beachfront wetlands had a huge role in water storage and flood control, but officials were eager for quick success and encouraged reclamation, resulting in a complete loss of flood storage capacity along the river.

Fourth, wealthy and powerful families occupied the rivers and built gardens, which narrowed the rivers, blocked flood discharge, and even affected water transportation.

As long as these four items are solved, the flood in Bianjing will be reduced to the level at the beginning of the dynasty.

Whether to treat it and to what extent it should be treated is no longer a problem that can be solved by the power of the governor of Kaifeng. This is a national project.

I would like to ask Your Majesty to summon officials from two or more systems to discuss and determine the plan.

Zhao Xu made the report and asked Wang Anshi to summon officials to hold a major court meeting.

The first issue discussed is whether what Su You said is true.

This is actually the simplest. Su You took out more than a dozen maps of Bianjing over the years and clearly marked a large amount of hydrological data, water regimes over the years, comparisons of disaster intensity, geographical environment changes, and fish scale land register maps along the river over the years.

On the map, all participants in the discussion can see the historical changes of Bianqu over the past century at a glance, and finally reach a consensus.

Many officials, including Zhao Xu, knew for the first time today why the Yellow River is obviously north of Kaifeng, but the place where floods occur is always southeast of Bianjing. It turns out that the disaster was caused by the Bian Canal.

The Bian Canal leads the Yellow River water from Biankou, a hundred miles upstream of Bianjing, and then flows through the southwest corner of Bianjing City, bypassing the south of Bianjing, and flowing to Yingtianfu in the southeast.

Because the terrain is flat, the sediment from the Yellow River accumulates from the south of the city to Yongqiu, raising the river bed. When floods come, there is no way to channel them. Once the embankment breaks, the entire southeastern part of Kaifeng Prefecture will turn into a big puddle.

The reason is very simple, and the method is also simple. It is nothing more than restoring the Bianhe River to its original appearance through measures such as returning farmland, dredging, and clearing obstacles.

However, in practice, it is difficult.

Fortunately, Zhao Xu and Wang Anshi were both determined and stubborn, so they finally decided on a compromise plan.

Dredging and obstacle removal must be strictly implemented. The River and Drainage Department is responsible for the dredging work, and the original system of the country must be restored, with annual state allocations, and carried out unswervingly.

The gardens and estates of powerful families along the river were all demolished, starting with the properties of the Cao family, the Gao family, Qi Wang, and Da Zongzheng.

However, it would be difficult to return the farmland, so Su You suggested dredging the river and then carrying out a land conversion project in the southeast of Chenliu County. After all, it involves land compensation. The land around Kaifeng Prefecture is so expensive that no one can afford it.

!

Even so, the demolition of more than 200 dormitories and gardens would involve tens of millions of dollars in assets!

In order to offset the resistance of powerful families, Su You reported to Zhao Xu that three places within one day's water journey from Bianjing, especially Weishi and Dongming, had hot springs in one place and forests in the other, which were very suitable to be developed into manors.

As for other businesses, how about His Majesty's decree to award some land in several places to powerful families as compensation?

Then we in Kaifeng Mansion will expand the roads leading to these three places so that the carriages can run quickly, which will be convenient for both land and water in the future.

In fact, taking a short vacation to recuperate is much more comfortable than being crowded with people on the outskirts of Bianjing.

So Zhao Xu waved his hand and agreed. Sitong Construction will first go and draw out the best land for my elders and brothers to build a garden. I will pay for the money!

After dealing with the relatives and the royal family, no other powerful family dared to jump.

After Su You showed the renderings of the manor built by Sitong to the nobles, the illegal buildings along the Bian River were demolished very quickly.

Damn it, this is how Fu Bi and Sima Guang played in Luoyang! If I had known that this was the case, what else would there be to say?!

King Qi, have you found out clearly whether the two empress dowagers finally chose hot springs or mountains? Not sure? If you don’t know, go and find out!

The powerful people were arrogant at first and respectful at the back, which in turn made Su You dumbfounded.

Zhao Xu was so generous. He gave his uncle and younger brother the standard of living in a village of 200 acres.
Chapter completed!