Grandmaster of Northern Song Waterworks and Locks

During the Taiping Xingguo era, the Taihu embankment collapsed. Zhang Yan, a junior official in the Ministry of Works, used on-site hydrological measurements to warn of the disaster, only to be framed by powerful local families and banished to the desolate Furong Weir.

There, he measured the tides with floating markers and water clocks, reinforced the sluice foundations with gabions and timber piles, and devised a hub system of "tiered gates and sediment-diversion channels," determined to carve out a way to survive amid the floods. He was fortunate to have the veteran river worker Chen Mo pass on tide charts, the Xiang Army's Wu Huan protect the construction site, and grain merchant Shen Sitong open up financial channels. Together, the three built a river sluice that kept transport flowing and fields flourishing.

He never stopped there. In the northern frontier, he built "ice dams and hidden channels" to fend off Liao cavalry. In Bianjing, he tore down the mansions of nobles to build drainage systems. He controlled the Yellow River and reformed canal transport, measuring rivers with his level while battling entrenched interests.

When faced with doubts, Zhang Yan said only, "Gates may decay and books may burn, but the principles of water management, knowing when to divert and when to block, and keeping public and private interests distinct, must live on in the hearts of the people and the land." This is the story of a Northern Song technocrat who forged an epic through water management.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.