The Yellow River waters rushed into the Hetao region, the muddy soup swallowing large swaths of saline-alkali land.
The water level continued to rise, submerging the originally dry depressions.
The veteran soldiers hastily retreated to higher ground.
"Stop!" Lin Siniang shouted loudly.
Sun Qi stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Lin Siniang.
"Don't retreat anymore!" Lin Siniang pointed at the churning muddy water below. "Grab your shovels and cut some branches! Right around this depression, build me a two-meter-high earth weir! Enclose this body of water and divide it into individual plots of bordered fields!"
Sun Qi's face was full of incomprehension.
"Siniang, the water rushed in and washed the land. We just need to wait for it to recede on its own."
"Why waste the effort to build a dam and trap the water?" Sun Qi asked loudly.
Lin Siniang strode over to the edge of the muddy water.
"The most valuable thing in the Yellow River water is this muddy sediment! If we let the water recede naturally, the current will be fast, and the sediment will all run away with it! What do you think we breached the dike and diverted the water for?"
Lin Siniang knew clearly in her heart that the key to treating the alkali soil lay in this layer of mud.
"We build earth weirs to intercept the water in this depression."
"Once the water stops flowing, let it sit for five days. The sediment in the water is heavy and will slowly sink to the bottom bit by bit."
"When the sediment has completely sunk to the bottom and covered that layer of saline-alkali soil, we will then drain the clear water. This is called storing water to settle the sand!" Lin Siniang explained loudly.
After hearing this, it clicked in Sun Qi's mind.
"Understood! Keep the mud, let the water go!" Sun Qi roared, threw away his crutch, hopped on one leg to a shrub, and swung his axe to chop it.
"Get to work!"
The veterans and commoners plunged back into the muddy water.
Earth weirs began to take shape on the water's surface, dividing the depression into more than a dozen square plots.
The Yellow River water was intercepted inside the earth weirs, and the water surface gradually calmed down.
...
This was the first day of water storage.
Lin Siniang led another group of veterans to dig in the wasteland outside the earth weirs.
"Dig deeper! This is called an open ditch!" Lin Siniang waved a pickaxe. "Connect it from the lateral canals to the branch canals, and finally all leading to the main drainage canal outside! This network must be woven densely!"
The veterans sweated like rain, their shovels flying.
Old Zhao lay on his stomach at the bottom of a deep trench dozens of paces away.
He tilted his head, pressing his ear against the moist soil.
After a long while, Old Zhao got up and pointed at his feet.
"Siniang! There's water down here! The undercurrent is heading southeast, and the sound of the water is very muffled!" Old Zhao shouted.
Lin Siniang walked over quickly and jumped into the deep trench.
"Good! Then dig here!" Lin Siniang ordered. "Dig until you see water at the bottom!"
Several veterans jumped down and started digging fiercely.
Before long, underground brine seeped out.
"Bring rocks! And branches and crushed wheat straw!" Lin Siniang directed.
The veterans padded the bottom of the trench with large stones, laid branches on top, covered the top layer with thick crushed wheat straw, and finally filled it with dirt to bury it.
Sun Qi watched from the side, completely confused.
"Siniang, we finally dug this ditch, why fill it up again?"
Lin Siniang wiped the sweat from her face.
"This is called a blind drain," Lin Siniang said loudly.
"Open ditches drain surface water, and blind drains drain the toxic water underground. The underground waterway that Old Zhao heard is entirely saline brine."
"We use stones and branches to create a gap underground, and the brine will flow along this gap into the main drainage canal."
"The wheat straw can block the dirt and prevent the blind drain from clogging. By alternating open and blind drains, the poison in this land can be completely pulled out!"
Sun Qi's throat tightened, and he couldn't speak for a long time.
He had never heard that farming had so many intricacies.
Wasn't this even more meticulous than deploying troops and arranging battle formations?
...
Zhenbei City, the Yamen of the Farming Bureau.
Lord Zhang sat in an armchair, looking at the fat and thin runners kneeling below.
"The dike was breached?" Lord Zhang stood up abruptly.
"It's absolutely true, My Lord!" The fat runner kowtowed repeatedly. "That widow has gone mad! She led that group of cripples and tore down the Yellow River dike! The floodwaters have submerged the entire Hetao region!"
Lord Zhang threw his head back and laughed aloud.
"Good! Very good!" Lord Zhang walked to the desk, unrolled a memorial, picked up a brush, and started writing.
Xu Qinghuan, oh Xu Qinghuan, you sent a widow to cultivate the fields, and now this widow has breached the dike and destroyed the fields. This is a capital offense!
Lord Zhang dipped his brush in ink and wrote furiously on the memorial.
"Lin Siniang, the Farming Envoy of the Imperial Envoy's Office, acted recklessly and privately breached the Yellow River dike."
"Causing the Yellow River water to pour back into Hetao, submerging tens of thousands of acres of imperial farming land. This act not only destroys fertile fields but also completely disregards the lives of the five hundred farming soldiers."
"It is truly an act that brings disaster to the country and the people. I beseech the imperial court to investigate strictly and execute Lin Siniang on the spot to serve as a warning to others."
After writing the last four characters, Lord Zhang set down his brush heavily.
He calculated very clearly in his mind.
Xu Qinghuan was a newcomer who had suppressed Zhenbei City relying on thunderous methods.
But her foundation was too shallow.
This agricultural development was a visible political achievement in Xu Qinghuan's hands.
As long as the crime of Lin Siniang breaching the dike and destroying the fields was substantiated, Xu Qinghuan would not be able to escape involvement.
When that time came, the Farming Bureau could be preserved, and he could take the opportunity to pull Xu Qinghuan down from her horse.
"Xu Qinghuan, despite all your calculations, you didn't calculate that this widow you found was a madwoman, did you!" Lord Zhang sneered aloud.
After finishing the memorial, Lord Zhang stamped it with the official seal of the Farming Bureau.
...
Hetao.
The eighth day of water storage.
Lin Siniang stood on the earth weir, looking down at the water in the bordered fields.
The originally incredibly muddy yellow soup had now become crystal clear.
A thick layer of ochre-yellow mud paved the bottom of the water.
The sediment had settled solidly.
Lin Siniang knew that it was a success.
"Open the gates!" Lin Siniang roared.
The veterans pulled out the wooden plugs at the bottom of the earth weirs, opening the reserved culvert gates.
Once the culvert gates opened, the water flowed outward along the ditches.
Lin Siniang stared intently at the speed of the water flow.
"Slower! Slower!" Lin Siniang commanded loudly. "Plug the wooden plugs back halfway! If the water flows too fast, it will carry the sediment away!"
The veterans hurriedly plugged the wooden plugs back halfway, controlling the water flow.
The clear water flowed slowly.
The water flow could not be fast.
If it were too fast, it would churn up the sunken sediment again.
The water flowed along the lateral canals and branch canals, all the way to the main drainage canal.
At the same time, the blind drains deep underground were also playing their role.
The bitter underground brine flowed continuously along the gaps between the stones and branches, draining toward distant tributaries.
The drainage network operated methodically.
Old Zhao lay on his stomach above the blind drain, listening to the movements underground.
"Siniang! The blind drain is clear! The brine is draining very fast!" Old Zhao reported loudly.
Lin Siniang nodded.
Open ditches drained the clear water, and blind drains drained the brine.
This was what she had figured out after pondering for countless days and nights.
Today, it had finally become a reality on this saline-alkali land.
For a full half-day.
The accumulated water in the bordered fields was completely drained.
The bottom of the depression was exposed to the sunlight.
The gleaming white salt frost was gone.
An ankle-deep layer of ochre-yellow clay covered the ground.
This layer of clay was smooth and fine, emitting the earthy scent of mud.
Sun Qi, leaning on his crutch, hopped on one leg into the bordered field.
He threw away the crutch, thrust his hands into that layer of clay, and dug downward with force.
Digging through the ankle-deep clay, the original saline-alkali soil was revealed beneath.
Sun Qi grabbed a handful of the underlying saline-alkali soil, and then grabbed a handful of the surface clay.
"It's sealed..." Sun Qi trembled all over.
He roared at the surrounding veterans.
"The saline-alkali soil underneath is firmly pressed down by this layer of clay! The toxic vapors can't come up anymore!" Sun Qi yelled at the top of his lungs.
The crowd eagerly jumped down into the fields, digging and feeling the earth with their bare hands.
"It really held!"
"Such rich soil! It's so fertile you could practically squeeze oil right out of a handful!"
"We can plant crops now! The land has come back to life!"
