Chapter 490: The Tracks of Yu

Diwu Lun's declaration indeed stirred up a hornet's nest — the officials who normally revered him as a living sage suddenly showed their true colors.

The man who followed Geng Chun south to intercept the Red Eyebrows was Gu Gong, Governor of Qinghe; he opposed both keeping Cheng Tou Zilu to absorb the Red Eyebrows and taming the river.

"My late father, the former Inspector of Liang Province, Lord Gu Yong, once said: The Great River is the classic artery of the Central Realm. When a sage king rises, it yields charts and writs; when the kingly way decays, it dries up and breaks. That it now bursts its banks and floods unchecked, submerging hills and mounds, is a portent of calamity — in truth, it stems from grave flaws in the governance of both Han and Xin."

"Having long served in Qinghe, I know well that as the age declines, the Great River floods ever more frequently, its breaches and course-shifts growing wider. Thus, from Yu the Great's taming of the waters through Xia, Shang, and Zhou, river disasters were utterly unheard of; only from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States onward, as rites crumbled and music fell into discord, did the river break down."

"Now Your Majesty inherits the failings of Han and Xin. So long as you cultivate governance within, bringing a renewal of spirit, the calamities and anomalies will vanish of themselves."

Wasn't this the very same rhetoric the Confucian crowd used to hoodwink Wang Mang? Reasoning backward from the result — "What the Central Realm needs is not river control, but rites and music." As if simply returning to the Three Dynasties would make social problems and environmental disasters disappear. How could that be possible?

Diwu Lun felt that the two-thousand-bushel officials of Hebei, whom he had left largely untouched earlier for stability's sake, were now overdue for a sweeping shake-up.

And this fellow was no isolated case. Feng Qin, the Governor of Henei whom Diwu Lun had always esteemed, actually held the same view: "Before Emperor Wu of Han, ice-flood disasters in spring and winter were never heard of; they only appeared thereafter. Once Your Majesty unifies the realm and governs with benevolent rule, the ice floods will vanish of themselves — there is no need to rush into water control..."

At that, Diwu Lun had Du Shi, Superintendent of Waterways and Parks, step forward and give Feng Qin a thorough explanation of why there had been no ice floods in the past, yet there were now.

Du Shi said: "If the winter is warm and temperatures high, the river does not freeze, so naturally there are no ice floods. If winter temperatures are very low, with little difference between upstream and downstream, the freezing periods are similar, and ice floods are likewise unlikely."

"However, since the Han, the climate has grown considerably colder than in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and thus ice-flood disasters have arisen."

In recent years, Diwu Lun had revived the offices of the Celestial Officials and the Grand Clerk, assigning them one task: to consult various calendrical systems and seasonal ordinances, comparing them with the recent decades. The conclusion they ultimately reached was that the climate was changing, and temperatures were slowly dropping.

Beyond the delayed seasonal markers, one piece of evidence was that bamboo, which in the Spring and Autumn period could grow as far north as You Province, had now retreated to the Henei line and was increasingly withered. And the old saying "tangerines south of the Huai remain tangerines" had now become "tangerines north of the Yangtze turn to trifoliate oranges."

Yet what they were living through was not a so-called "Little Ice Age," but rather a transition from a great warm period toward a cold one. To Diwu Lun's perception, the temperature was roughly similar to two thousand years later. But with alternating cold and warmth, the fluctuations were considerable; in Han times there had been both midsummer snowfalls and ice-free winters. Wang Mang could be counted unlucky — the dozen-odd years of his rule saw an especially high number of extreme weather events.

Confronted with this ironclad evidence, Feng Qin and his ilk changed their tune, but still insisted that the shift from warm to cold was a matter of Heaven-human resonance, tied to politics — that so long as Diwu Lun governed with love for the people, the climate would warm again of its own accord, and so on...

Seeing that they had hit a wall, the Hebei magnate-born ministers, led by Pi Tong, began using a different line of argument to dissuade Diwu Lun.

"Though the Great River's old course was laid down by Yu the Great — and the works of a sage, a merit for ten thousand ages, are divinely inspired and hard to alter — yet, to our knowledge, the Great River's breaches ordinarily occur around Pingyuan and Dong Commandery, where the terrain is low and the soil loose. We have heard that when Yu the Great tamed the river, he left this entire region empty as wasteland, to serve as a flood-discharge area. In Xin times, when Wang Mang sought river-control strategies, someone made just such a proposal."

"Now the Great River has flooded unchecked for many years, its new course cutting through Dong Commandery and Pingyuan, entering the sea at Qiansheng in Qing Province. The Great River Red Eyebrows under Cheng Tou Zilu mostly hail from there. Since these three regions are already ruins, their common folk largely refugees scattered across the land, it would be better to leave them entirely empty as flood-discharge zones, building no official post-houses or civilian dwellings there..."

The implication was that they hoped Diwu Lun would adopt a policy of turning a blind eye and completely abandon the three "Yellow River flood zones."

Diwu Lun understood their concerns perfectly. Pi Tong and the others came from great Hebei clans; though their loyalty to Diwu Lun was beyond question, they would always consider their home regions. When the Great River breached in Xin times and shifted southeast, one reason Wang Mang had been unwilling to return it to its old course was precisely the fear that, if the work went even slightly awry, the waters would flow back north and destroy Yuancheng in Wei Commandery.

Pi Tong and his fellows harbored the same worry, and simply said: "We cannot let the intact, rich, and populous Wei Commandery and Henei shoulder further risk for the already ruined Dong Commandery and Pingyuan."

Diwu Lun was not so selfless either, and told them plainly: "Gentlemen, you worry too much. I do not intend to return the river to its old course."

If the breach had been plugged when it first happened, that would have been one thing, but now, ten years on, it was too late. The Yellow River's old course had long since run dry; the waters could hardly retrace the tracks of Yu.

What worried Diwu Lun most now was that an unconstrained Great River would ravage far more than just three commanderies.

"From Bohai in You Province, through Qinghe, Xindu, and Hejian in Ji Province, to Qiansheng and Ji'nan in Qing Province, and even across most of Yan Province — all lie under the river's threat."

No one could say what the climate would be next year, or when the Yellow River's next ice flood would strike. Four provinces and dozens of commanderies, long afflicted by disaster, were either core regions already under Diwu Lun's control or places his armies were about to enter. If they all became uninhabited wastelands, the cost would be far too great.

So the Yellow River had to be confined within certain bounds — at the very least, it could not be allowed to wander at will across the great plain. This was the first stage of river control, and it could not wait for the "after the realm is united, there will be time enough to tame it" that Pi Tong spoke of.

Because the common people who had originally lived on these lands, constantly displaced by disaster, were also a massive threat to the State of Wei, which yearned to establish a new order.

Geng Chun proved worthy of being the "Left Chancellor" Diwu Lun had his eye on; his vision far surpassed that of men like Feng Qin and Pi Tong. Not only did he firmly support Diwu Lun's "declaration of war," he also laid bare the deeper worry.

"If the river's scourge is not resolved, Your Majesty may destroy one Copper Horse or Red Eyebrow band, but within a few years, another will rise in the very same place!"

If even the Yellow River could not wipe them out, could the butcher's blade and repression do it?

In any case, there were so many Red Eyebrow captives, and how to use them was a huge problem. Better to keep Cheng Tou Zilu, have him help round up the remnants of the Red Eyebrows and Copper Horses, and then use the "work-for-relief" method Diwu Lun had once employed to deal with the people of Chang'an. Keep this group under control, and under the banner of rebuilding their homes, set them to farming and river work alike. This was the first step in turning refugees back into registered households. To put it darkly, taming the river would require filling it with human lives — and the Red Eyebrows, who could never be fully slaughtered, were ready-made expendable material!

Dou Rong lost no time in voicing his stance: "Your Majesty's brilliance sees that what needs taming is not just the river's waters, but also these 'muddy torrents' of Red Eyebrows and Copper Horses!"

Despite the firm backing of Geng Chun and Dou Rong, the Hebei-born ministers still had many misgivings. Feng Qin worried that the captured Red Eyebrows and Copper Horses, once gathered together, would rebel anew; he harbored a deep-seated distrust of mud-caked bumpkins.

Or take Pi Tong, who, after silently calculating the costs in his mind, felt the investment was too great. The grain, funds, and matériel for water control would still have to come from Hebei and Henei, invisibly saddling each commandery with an enormous financial burden.

After talking himself hoarse reasoning with them, only to get this same attitude, Diwu Lun had no choice but to once again fire up his ministers' morale and talk ideals.

He suddenly pointed to the "Tribute of Yu" map hanging on the wall and sighed: "I have read in the Book of Xia that in high antiquity, the calamity of the river's overflowing floods brought especially grave harm to the Central Realm."

In high antiquity, the Yellow River had no dikes. The "Yellow River flood zone" of that time was the vast Hebei plain, where the river spread out in a braided flow, floodwaters racing unchecked and spilling over into marshes on all sides.

This is the Central Realm's memory of the "Great Flood." But the story that followed was utterly unlike those of other civilizations, which sat waiting for gods to descend from heaven or simply lay flat and waited for the waters to recede.

"Emperor Shun charged Yu, and Yu the Great passed his own door without entering. Together with all under heaven, he dammed and channeled the floodwaters; after thirteen years, the work was done. The nine rivers were dredged, the nine marshes diked, the lands of the Huaxia were made tranquil and secure, and this achievement endured through the Three Dynasties."

From what did the earliest royal authority arise? From the need to organize river control! If a regime cannot even handle this task properly, yet finds all manner of excuses and utters words like "let the common people suffer one more year," then it might as well perish sooner rather than later.

"Now the kingly way has fallen into decay; Han and Xin could not tame the river, and the poison has spread for decades. Since I am the true Son of Heaven, I shall not shirk this duty!"

"Wang Mang's restoration of antiquity restored only the names and titles of the Three Dynasties — a mere change of labels."

"What I intend to restore are the tangible, accomplished deeds that Shun and Yu actually did, deeds that benefited the people!"

Diwu Lun swept his gaze over the assembly, from Dou Rong and Geng Chun to Feng Qin and Pi Tong, and said with a smile:

"Shun and Yu had twenty-one ministers — Gao Yao, Xie, Hou Ji, Bo Yi, Kui, Long, Chui, Yi, Peng Zu — who helped Shun and Yu drive out the Four Perils and tame the great flood, and thus their names were preserved in the Book of Documents."

"I only wonder: who shall be the Gao Yao and Peng Zu of today?"

This round of morale-boosting at least somewhat reawakened the inner ideals of these Confucian ministers, enough to dispatch them — especially the several commandery governors from Hebei — to actively assist.

Diwu Lun simply felt utterly exhausted. With a rough-and-ready man like Cheng Tou Zilu, he had to use one kind of rhetoric; to stir his ministers, he had to use another.

For now, he had only just barely unified their thinking. For the concrete implementation, Diwu Lun planned to entrust it to Du Shi, the Superintendent of Waterways and Parks, who had long dealt with "water."

In the several years since Du Shi had entered the Pass, with Diwu Lun's full backing, water-powered machinery had blossomed everywhere in Guanzhong and Henei. The ironworks producing arms and armor now used water-driven bellows; watermills had been built in most places where the current was strong enough, freeing up the labor of hulling grain, and the long-neglected irrigation works of Guanzhong were being repaired.

The next step on the technology tree was to push toward water-powered spinning and water-powered trip hammers.

Now, Du Shi's main task was to shift to the Great River.

"Lord Du, we have no self-renewing soil. We have only people — human lives, and human hearts."

"Therefore, this war can by no means be won in a single battle, nor is it a task of three or five years. We must be prepared for a decade, even several decades!"

The lower reaches were only treating the symptoms and relieving the immediate crisis; soil erosion in the middle and upper reaches was the root cause — but that would have to be reckoned in centuries. One administrative decree could not solve everything. Diwu Lun's establishment of the Five Capitals was also in part preparation for dispersing the population of Jingzhao.

But if this could quiet the Yellow River's great scourge for several centuries or even a millennium, then everything would be worth it.

Dealing with a technocratic official like Du Shi was comparatively comfortable for Diwu Lun; he first made the difficulties clear. River control was a project of enormous investment, and the most urgent task at present was to prepare the technical theory for taming the Yellow River.

Du Shi reported: "In Wang Mang's time, there was also debate over water control. Water engineers from across the realm were summoned, each presenting their proposals. By Your Majesty's command, I have sifted through them and found five main schools: the diversion theory, the flood-detention theory, the hydraulic-scouring theory, the course-alteration theory, and the dike-building theory."

What Diwu Lun had his eye on was the theory of using water power to flush sediment. He had heard that this was proposed by Zhang Rong, a waterworks expert under Wang Mang, who, based on actual measurements, determined that the Yellow River carried "six dou of mud for every dan of water." He advocated using the current's force to scour the riverbed, preventing it from rising too quickly and causing floods. This man had survived the great chaos at the end of the Xin dynasty and had now been rehired by the Waterworks Commandant.

But it was said that this man held a skeptical attitude toward Diwu Lun's plan to harness the river — after all, back in the day, Wang Mang had also spoken eloquently but in reality did nothing at all.

For now, they still had to rely first on the "flood detention theory," confining the Yellow River within a set range so it wouldn't go rampaging all over Guandong at the slightest provocation, thereby minimizing the damage. Of course, Diwu Lun still needed to find enough laborers for the future water-control efforts...

"The manpower will come."

Just as with his plan to incorporate the Chengtou Zilu, Diwu Lun had a "kill two birds with one stone" idea in mind: controlling the waters and controlling the bandits — these two tasks had to be done together.

Diwu Lun stood on the bank of the great river, now calmed after its show of fury, and gazed south. All of this depended on one precondition.

"The only good Red Eyebrows are defeated Red Eyebrows!"

……

PS: Chapter 3 will be up in the middle of the night.