My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Chapter 498: Chapter 328: The Yellow River’s Roar, The Earth Pivot’s Sacred Manifestation

The difficulty of dredging the Yellow River is self-evident, as a poem attests:

”Through fractured stone and clouds, by narrow gorges bound,From shattered cliffs, a furious, white-capped torrent pounds.The Suspended River hangs, a sword of direst threat,By deep-sunk silt transformed to hills of mud and wet.The flood crests surge like untamed horses, wild and free,The old course shifts, bringing all humanity misery.A thousand years of troubles stretch for endless miles,The Earth Pivot cannot tame the water dragon’s wiles.”

In the past two thousand years, the Yellow River has undergone six major course changes. The most recent occurred during the Ming and Qing dynasties, when the river shifted from flowing south into the Yellow Sea to flowing north into the Bohai Sea.

Drought in the dry season and floods in the rainy season. The upstream waters are steep and turbulent, while downstream lies an eight-hundred-li stretch of the Suspended River.

To this day, the threat of flooding from the Yellow River has never been truly resolved.

This is especially true in the Kaifeng and Xinxiang regions, where the highest points of the Suspended River are 13 and 23 meters above ground level, respectively—a true case of ”the Yellow River’s waters flowing from the sky.” If the river were to surge and the dikes burst, the consequences would be inconceivable.

Many people have proposed solutions. The most notable among them is to divert the Yellow River back to its Ming and Qing dynasty-era old channel, dredge it to make it navigable, and simultaneously level the eight-hundred-li Suspended River. This would theoretically solve the problem once and for all.

However, the reality of the challenge is far greater.

First, why did the Yellow River change course in the first place? It was because the original channel had become so clogged with silt that it had already become a ”river above ground.” When the dikes eventually breached, the water naturally flowed to lower ground, carving a new path.

The original riverbed is, on average, four meters higher than the surrounding land. Even if the Yellow River Old Channel were restored, the engineering workload would not be significantly less.

Second, in the many years since the river changed course, less than a third of the original 728.3-kilometer Yellow River Old Channel remains intact. The rest has long been repurposed for other uses.

For example, in Dangshan County, a 46.6-kilometer stretch of the Yellow River Old Channel became a vast, sandy expanse. To combat desertification, locals planted drought-resistant pear trees. Today, over 70% of the area is covered by pear orchards, and the famous Dangshan pears are sold throughout the country.

Furthermore, more than ten natural attractions have been developed along the Dangshan Yellow River Old Channel, including ”Oolong Draped in Snow,” ”Old Yellow Reflecting Snow,” ”The Pear Tree King,” and the ”Pear Capital Museum.” In 2016 alone, during the Dangshan Pear Blossom Festival, the county received over 600,000 tourists, generating more than 240 million yuan in tourism revenue.

’Tear it all down just to restore the river channel?’

That was clearly unrealistic.

In truth, the Yellow River has been under constant management, with measures like the water and sediment regulation of the Xiaolangdi Project. But these solutions take time; significant results might not be seen for decades. However, a massive flood is predicted for the summer two years from now. They couldn’t afford to wait.

Li Xiang stood beside Hukou Waterfall, watching the turbulent current as a thousand thoughts raced through his mind.

With a flicker of movement, he appeared at the source of the Yellow River. He activated his Earth Escape Technique and traveled downstream along the river’s course. As he moved, his Earth Vein Perception Ability was fully engaged, covering a 35-kilometer radius around him.

It took him two days and two nights to meticulously survey the entire route, from the Yellow River’s source to its mouth at the Bohai Sea, gathering a vast amount of data in the process.

Afterward, he returned to the Imperial Capital. In Jiang Cai’Er’s study, he took out his laptop and began to write a proposal.

Jiang Cai’Er was, of course, delighted to see him, but she was preoccupied with a major research project and didn’t have time to spend with him.