As a typical product of the river civilization, successive Central Plains Empires have spent a lot of resources on water system governance. There is no shortage of prescient actions to make up for the loss of sheep after the catastrophe, and there is no lack of foresight to consider more factors.
These characteristics are concentrated in the Ming Dynasty in the 15th-16th centuries AD. Among them, an important decision by Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant minister, was included. Not only did it completely destroy Yun Mengze, which had been the first water of Jingxiang since ancient times, but also transferred the heinous flood to the shore of Dongting Lake in the south.
In the pre-Qin era, the area of Yunmengze exceeded the sum of Pengze + Taihu Lake
As early as the pre-Qin era when the princes were constantly competing for hegemony, Yun Mengze was the largest lake in the inland. Although due to topographical restrictions, a complete "super inland sea" has not been formed, there are several freshwater lakes that are roughly connected, with a total area of about 450 kilometers. Compared with the downstream Pengze and Taihu Lake, they are not inferior. And because of the blessing of the Yangtze River in the south and the Han River in the north, there is an unusually abundant flow of water to form a relatively stable wetland ecosystem. Whenever the flood season comes as scheduled with the rainy season, it will become a pressure dredging pipeline against the peak of the flood. The Chu royal family also privately owned the entire area as a natural paradise for the monarch to travel and hunt.
From the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, it passes through the Han River in the middle basin
However, it was in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period when the nations were vying to develop wasteland, a series of changes from the north began to gradually affect the ecology of Yun Mengze. In particular, when the Qin people in the founding of the State Pass engaged in an arms expansion war, it was bound to turn mountainous forests into arable land for the sake of the surge in grain reserves. Coupled with the fact that the rulers built large-scale works for palaces, urban expansion, and the construction of personal tombs, the environmental degradation process of the entire Guanzhong Basin soon began. Affected by this, the total amount of sediment far exceeded that of the past, and began to be washed away from the Han River Basin by the highlands. The northern part of The Ancient Cloud Mengze is increasingly swampy, and only the southern region can rely on the rolling torrent of the Yangtze River to maintain its original appearance.
The Qin army went south along the Han River to the Yunmengze Waters
In 278 BC, the Qin general Bai Qi was ordered to march south along the Han River and attack the capital of Gyeonggi, the state of Chu, located in present-day Jingzhou, Hubei. In view of the consistent fierce resistance of the local military and civilians, they deliberately chose to build a dam upstream to block the water, and then replace the soldiers with deadly artificial floods to open the way for themselves. At this point, the Chu people, who maintained the overall environment of Guyun Mengze, were expelled from this area and replaced by Jiangling County, which was directly at the mercy of the Xianyang court.
Increased agricultural reclamation in the Han Dynasty forced Yun Mengze to move eastward
Since then, large-scale agricultural reclamation has continued to oppress the original Yunmengze waters. Especially in the Han Dynasty, when the central government sent agricultural officials to personally supervise the grass-roots labor, the wetlands on both sides of the Yangtze river and the Han River were reclaimed in large quantities, but they could not solve the problem of flood season tides very well. Therefore, Yun Mengze conformed to the trend of the times and used the newly injected water of the two rivers to move eastward and settle in the area of today's Qianjiang City. It was only the name Huarong at that time that it was a title that was enough to be remembered by future generations forever. Because of the large amount of silt from upstream, more swamps and dirt trails have gradually formed around the waters. One of them also became the way to survive after Cao Cao's defeat at Chibi, and thus achieved a slightly embarrassing story through the ages.
Human activities have caused Yun Mengze to constantly shift his position to the east
In the wei and jin dynasties, Yun Mengze, who was "driven" by manpower, ran to the vicinity of today's Wuhan. Everywhere you pass, large areas of seasonal rivers or newly opened wetlands are left behind, and the area of the main part is increasingly withering. However, as long as the flood season of the Han River and the Yangtze River does not stop, the flooding will still regularly affect the surrounding people. To this end, successive dynasties have begun to target small repair strategies, and irregularly organize manpower to build embankment sections. Although it was always easy to be blocked by periodic dynastic changes, it was still completed in the middle of the Ming Dynasty in 1524. At this point, Yun Mengze has completely degenerated into a series of small and medium-sized lakes, but it also continues to contain huge hidden dangers.
By the time of the Ming Dynasty, the northern part of Yunmengze had been blocked by the dam
The main reason why Yun Mengze has been able to maintain its existence in the long history is that it is located between the two major waterways of the Han River and the Yangtze River. Although repeatedly destroyed by sediment accumulation and thought reclamation, it will be reborn later with the absorbed river water. Using the depressions in the lower reaches, new lake surfaces continue to form. In this process, although the surrounding villages and fields have been repeatedly affected, as long as there is still a relatively generous output space, there is no fear of causing too serious disasters. However, when the Ming Dynasty completely blocked the area in the direction of the Han River with dams, the flood that was released from nowhere was more deadly and violent than in the past.
Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty cabinet who was born in Jingzhou
After 1576, Zhang Juzheng, who was born in Jingzhou, became the first assistant minister of the Ming Cabinet. Large-scale political and economic reforms were initiated, and in order to improve the financial dilemma, he ordered a re-measurement of local agricultural products. In order to reclaim more sources of taxation and benefit his hometown father and elderly, he decided to build a new imperial embankment south of Yun Mengze. In this way, the lake, which could still be directly the same as the Yangtze River, was completely cut off by the artificial barrier of bluestone + rammed earth. Coupled with the obstruction of the direction of the Han River in the early years, it is considered that he was actually sentenced to death. The increasingly dry swamp has become a new source of land for departments at all levels.
Yun Mengze's blockade directly created a large increase in the area of Dongting Lake
Of course, as the price of the project, Hunan, located on the other side of the Yangtze River, will not be spared. In the past, the tide, which had always been the main target of yun mengze, began to pour southward without choice. Dongting Lake, which is not very large, has been accumulated into the largest lake in modern times beyond Poyang Lake. As for the residents who originally lived near the area, I am afraid that they will have to flee their homes after a fluke.
It is located near the Ming Tombs near the lower reaches of the Han River
In addition, even if he does not open a back door for his hometown, Zhang Juzheng has good reason to lead the flood threat to the south. Originally, in the lower reaches of the Han River adjacent to the Yunmengze area, there was also the mausoleum of Zhu Youqiu, the king of the clan. The experience of this prince during his lifetime was not prominent, but he was the uncle of Emperor Mingwuzong Zhu Houzhao, the biological father of Emperor Sejong Jiajing, and the direct ancestor of Emperor Shenzong Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun. If we do not do it once and for all in the simplest and most brutal way, it will bring hidden dangers to our political future. As for how many disasters will be caused in the future, it is not something that the old and decaying body needs to take care of.
Hai Rui, who presided over the Suzhou Creek diversion project to the Huangpu River
In fact, the Ming rulers often took a very different approach to the water systems of different regions. For example, in order to forcibly inject flow into the Grand Canal system, the lower reaches of the Yellow River were constructed by dredging the river channel and opening more branches. When encountering the Suzhou Creek, which is also silted due to excessive sediment, it is directly replaced by the tributary Huangpu River. In order to block the sea outlet east of Taihu Lake, the sea ban situation in The southern province was strengthened. It can be seen that there is no uniform technical guideline, only double standards that are constantly derived to meet other needs.
During the Qing Dynasty, there were still many lakes in the hometown of Yun Mengze
As for yun mengze, until the Qing Dynasty, there were still large areas of remnants that were faintly visible, leaving behind many lakes with considerable areas. However, the heavy responsibility of carrying the flood peak has been completely inherited by Dongting Lake, and it has repeatedly led to the collapse of the south bank dam. In the end, even the much-enlarged Dongting Lake was overwhelmed by the excess sediment. So much so that after the catastrophic floods of 1998, experts proposed to focus on it. However, how much substantial improvement can be made, I am afraid that only later generations can see clearly.
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