Huaihe River is one of the "four blasphemies" in ancient China, which is of great significance in the ancient history of China. In this ups and downs of the world, it is often used to draw a line. However, although the Huaihe River flows through today's Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, its total length is only 1000 km, and its drainage area is only 270,000 square kilometers. Especially "low-key" is that such a "famous river" has no estuary. Its water flows into the Yangtze River through Hongze Lake, and then into the sea through the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Compared with the equally famous Yellow River and Yangtze River, it seems to have no meaning of existence.
But in fact, "Huaihe River does not enter the sea" is not an interesting natural landscape. On the contrary, it symbolizes a lasting disaster in the history of China for thousands of years: the Huaihe River flood!
In fact, it turns out that the Huaihe River has a mouth to the sea. According to the Gong Yu, the Huaihe River "starts from Tongbai, starts from Yishu in the east and ends at the sea in the east", which summarizes the characteristics of the Huaihe River in one sentence: the Huaihe River originates from Tongbai Mountain in Nanyang, Henan Province, and the whole basin is adjacent to the Yellow River basin. It flows through Funiu Mountain to the west, reaches Yimeng Mountain to the north, and approaches Dabie Mountain and Yangtze River basin to the south. From the map, except for the mountains and hills in the west, south and northeast, the whole basin is almost a vast plain, with fertile land, rich products and rich resources, which can be called the "treasure land" of China.
Although the geographical area of Huaihe River Basin only accounts for 1/35 of the territory of China, its population exceeds1.600 million, and the cultivated land area accounts for 1/8 of the total area of China. It is also an important coal and sea salt producing area. The output of wheat, rice and cotton also ranks in the forefront of the country. Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, Qufu, Xuchang and other historical cities are almost all prosperous because of the Huaihe River. In ancient history, it also had the reputation of "being familiar with Jianghuai and being sufficient in the world". Today, the position of Huaihe River Basin is still extremely important. The Huaihe River is peaceful, and the world is peaceful.
But historically, the Huaihe River is not "safe".
In fact, when Gong Yu recorded the "independent property rights" in the Huaihe River, it was the golden age in the history of the Huaihe River Basin: in the early years, there were tributaries such as Bianshui, Shui Ying, Sishui, Yishui and Rushui, forming a dense water network.
Two years before the Southern Song Dynasty, Hongze Lake did not exist. On the contrary, hundreds of large and small lakes are scattered along the Huaihe River. Developed hydraulic conditions not only promoted the development of agriculture, but also gave birth to a new type of artificial canal. The earliest artificial canals in China —— Hangou and Tongji Canal, which connected the north and south in the Sui Dynasty, were dug in the Huaihe River basin. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the "Jianghuai-Hebei" water transport network centered on the Huaihe River Basin was the main artery of China at that time.
It can be said that the flood in Huaihe River basin was inevitable at that time, but it was really out of proportion to "disaster-prone". On the contrary, it has the reputation that "Wan Li Road is not as good as Huaihe River". For example, Xiang Yu, who occupied Xianyang, why did the monkey rush back to Pengcheng? This is not only for "going home with wealth", but what really attracts this "overlord of the western regions" is the Huaihuai Plain with developed transportation and convenient economy. Before the "Shame of Jingkang" in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Huaihe River Basin was the core agricultural economic zone in China.
However, the Huaihe River "estuary" crisis has a long history. From the map, the Huaihe River is located on Yimeng Mountain, high in the north and low in the south, and the Yellow River is the "river on the ground". The risk of the Yellow River seizing the Huaihe River will exist for a long time. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, the Yellow River eroded the Huaihe River. Coupled with the Huaibei Plain, it has always been a battleground for military strategists and will always be a war. After losing their lives, the local hydrology and landforms were completely destroyed by the war. Therefore, Jian' an for two years.
What is more serious than the loss of the estuary is that the rolling Yellow River has brought a lot of sediment and deposited a lot of sediment on the Huaihe River. The old Huaihe road below Huaiyin is completely blocked, and the sewage outlets from Huaihe River to Yishui are broken. The Huaihe River is helpless and endlessly flows into a lake east of Xuyi, which is today's Hongze Lake. A similar situation occurred in other parts of the Huaihe River Basin. For example, Surabaya, which was taken away by the Yellow River, also formed Nansi Lake and Roman Lake in Shandong.
It can be said that after this great change, the Huaihe River, which was originally unblocked, was cut into pieces. Anyone who is familiar with geography will know that the Huaihe River is "silted into a lake" everywhere. Once the rainfall exceeds the capacity of the lake, it will inevitably be submerged. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, there were many shocking floods in the Jianghuai area.
Why does the Huaihe River enter the sea from the Yangtze River today? In the first year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty, Hongze Lake soared and the south embankment was destroyed in one fell swoop. The out-of-control Huaihe River flows south to the Yangtze River via gaoyou lake and Shaobo Lake. This drastic change has become a disaster along the Yangtze River: the Huaihe River flows into the Yangtze River too small, and every time it flows into the Yangtze River, floods often occur on both sides.
The bigger disaster is still because of the Yellow River: in the fifth year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River changed its course again. After the explosion of Tongfang House in Henan, he ran all the way to Shandong and went into the sea. Its 700-year history of "occupying" the Huaihe River is over. Can Huaihe River "go home"? I can't go back. The old road of Huaihe River has been piled up by silt above the ground. Not only can the Huaihe River enter the sea, but rivers such as Yishui and Surabaya also flood into northern Jiangsu due to the diversion of the Yellow River, which has become a new disaster.
If the flood is still receding, the disaster of saline-alkali land is a painful sequela: the sediment brought by the Yellow River is deposited in the original lakes and ponds of the Huaihe River, and these soils with extremely high saline-alkali content are mixed with the sediment of the Yellow River, forming a large area of saline-alkali land that cannot be planted. How many villages along the route are abandoned and farmers are displaced.
Can't generations resist such a disaster? This problem is too difficult to solve: the edge of Huaihe River basin is mostly mountainous, which makes flood control difficult and lacks good reservoir topography. What about the main stream of Huaihe River? However, the slope is gentle, so as long as the upstream hydrology appears, the river channel will be easily robbed. Under the condition of ancient science and technology, such terrain is extremely difficult to completely control and can only be repaired.
Therefore, from the "capture of Huai River" in the Southern Song Dynasty to the diversion of the Yellow River in the first year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, there were 268 large-scale natural disasters in the Huaihe River basin in six centuries, equivalent to once every two and a half years. What about modern times with relatively developed technology? From the fifth year of Xianfeng to 1949, there were 48 large-scale disasters in Huaihe river basin, which was equivalent to once in 1.9 years, and its intensity far exceeded that in ancient history.
If the Huaihe River disaster in ancient history can still be abandoned by "natural disasters", then the Huaihe River disaster in modern history is an out-and-out man-made disaster: although Beiyang government and Nanjing National Government have the idea of "governing the Huaihe River", they are always reluctant to invest manpower and material resources to do it. Zhang Jian, the top scholar in the late Qing Dynasty and chairman of the National Water Conservancy Commission in Beiyang period, was full of thoughts on managing the Huaihe River, but eventually resigned due to lack of money.
As a result, the Huaihe River in that era was basically in a state of "nobody cares". In addition to natural disasters and wars, the Huaihe River Basin suffered frequent disasters before it was empty. 19 16, 192 1, 193 1, there were many disasters in the Huaihe river basin, affecting tens of millions of people, and the deceased "wandered around". 193 1 year, Xinghua county in Huaihe river basin was flooded overnight. There are only five survivors in Guanzhuang 100 households in Xinghua County. 1938 "Huayuankou Water Release" incident turned 54,000 square kilometers of land in the Huaihe River Basin into a "Yellow River Flooding Area", and/kloc-0.00 billion tons of sediment washed into the Jianghuai Plain and "houses" in many places.
Then, this slogan became a massive movement in New China: from June 1950, 1 1, 3 million migrant workers were mobilized, which affected the official start of the Huaihe River control project in Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. The first phase of the project only took 8 months to build 2 1, 9 1 km dams, realizing "light rain to avoid disasters and heavy rain to reduce disasters". Also in 195 1 year 1 1 month, the Huaihe River Basin ushered in a long-lost harvest.
Then after eight years of tracking, millions of soldiers and civilians shed blood and died. The Huaihe River Basin was once a "Yellow River Flooding Area". By the winter of 1957, 75 large and small rivers/kloc-0 will be treated, 4,600 kilometers of dams will be built, and 9 large reservoirs will be added, with a total storage capacity of 31600 million cubic meters. The history of "one year without disaster" in Huaihe River Basin has finally become history.
However, the threat of "unable to go to sea" has not been eliminated. 199 1 and the two Huaihe floods in 2003 are alarming. The main project of "Huaihai Waterway Entering the Sea" is still in progress. Over the past 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, most of the "peace" of the Huaihe River has come from the efforts of many predecessors and the protection of many water conservancy workers today!