The Flood Controller's Wife

Premise

The ancient kingdom was plagued by harsh natural conditions that the people were powerless against. The most fertile lands that gave them abundant harvest and fed entire families and villages were situated around the golden huang river and the yang dragon river. The population who lived around the big huang river and Yang river basins prospered whereas their neighbors labored day and night and lived in poverty.

Like two sides of the same coin, the river that promised prosperity had an ugly side. On rainy seasons, the dragon roamed across the eastern sky and poured rain day and night unceasingly causing the golden river to flood its banks. The water flew so aggressively like a storm that vanquished entire villages overnight and swept away months of hard labored crop fields.

The remaining survivors built again, labored again, and grew crops again. The dry seasons came; the river water was at the lowest and brought severe famine and shortages of food. Life was harsh, yet the people persevered, they were used to it after centuries.

LiYu was the governor of Shu state (at present day Qi kingdom) and his son LiQi travelled across the ancient kingdoms by horseback and drew a map of the rivers and waterways. After many years of studying the river systems, he developed a method that harness the river water to channel and divide water among the different parts of the kingdom. As a result, famine problems and flood in certain regions able to be controlled.

The harvests of that year were plentiful and abundant so were the following years. The people were so grateful to LiYu that they erected temples bearing his name and bestowed him a title Water God.

Legends were that Liyu descended from the heavens and went everywhere with his powerful magic staff. The staff of the water God was forged from the shell of an ancient magic turtle that once held up the sky. The staff had a round orb at the tip and it was said that it held the ancient turtle's eyes. The staff could detect hidden water sources in the driest regions or foretell impeding storms. Some even said that the staff could even summon the YinLong, mighty green dragon that can bring rain or swallow floodwater.

Contrary to the legends about him, LiYu was a humble visionary who purely wanted to ease the sufferings of the citizens by saving them and their crop produce from floods and famine. He dedicated his entire life to designing water devices and perfecting the water map. He wrote texts that described his knowledge and inventions about the river and flood system.

However, his son LiQi had other plans. He used the knowledge and map of the water networks to control several state governors and strengthen his political footing. He became powerful enough to cut off the water supply of the capital, depriving the capital state of water. The people who were greatly affected marched to the kingdom and demanded the emperor to reverse the situation.

Amidst the chaos, LiQi bargained the emperor for his family's safety in exchange for the dragon throne. Running out of options and time, the then emperor was forced to abdicate to save his life and his family. LiQi became a powerful emperor that controlled the whole kingdom through water.

The ancient oracle's words indeed came true: He who controls the water controls the people.

LiYu was an old man by this time and he realized that his beloved son had changed into a tyrant despised by the people. He wanted to continue his legacy so before he died, he sent the ancient texts and his life's work to his trusted friend, the oracle Hebo who lived in seclusion since the ancient king was dethroned.

LiQi was an ambitious and cruel king. Since sitting on the dragon throne he held several military ghost campaigns to expand his territory. His victories were mostly determined as he was geographically superior compared to his neighboring states. To further strengthen his rule, he rounded up the best engineers and planners and together they developed an intricate device that merged themselves into rivers and was rumored to have the power to control the water supply of the entire ancient world.

The aim was simple - he who controls the water controls the people. The secret mechanisms were hidden and placed strategically. It held the power to cut off water supply and cause flooding in many areas throughout the kingdom. The overly ambitious project took ten years and thousands of workers to complete. The ones who knew too much were killed after completion in order to maintain the highest secrecy.

Famine and flooding were the people's biggest enemies and the one who could control them became the emperor of the people. However, after the problem was resolved, the people did not get to enjoy prosperity for their new king LiQi imposed heavy taxation and used his newfound wealth to further his ambitions and indulge in carnal pleasures of the harem.

Liqi's greatest treasure was probably the water map that contained the location of the secret flood control devices throughout the kingdom. The information was scattered around the engineers and he was the only one who knew about its details in entirety. Being an excellent calligrapher and painter, he had drawn the entire map himself for his own personal view. Rumor had it that one of sons from his concubine chanced upon the map saw it. His own flesh and blood had to pay the blunder with his life. The king had grown more insane and paranoid with his power. He had become a cold-blooded murderer who did not care about his own son.

After that, he kept the water map in a secure place and had it guarded it day and night to ensure no one could find its location.

Hebo, the revered oracle of the previous royal family came to visit him and told him to change his ways or await an impeding catastrophe but he was imprisoned for heresy.

Unbeknownst to the king, there were army generals who opposed him and were slowly building a strong enough army to overthrow his cruel regime. On an agreed date, a group of army generals took over the palace. It was a peaceful takeover. The paranoid king who spent day and night indulging in carnal pleasures was in bed in his royal harem when they murdered him behind close doors.

The generals that took part in the rebellion agreed on a truce against one another and settled into four different territories that they agreed upon. The High priestess Hebo who served as an oracle to the previous king stayed neutral and fought to ensure a peaceful territorial division between the generals. Due to his influence and efforts, he was given given the fourth neutral territory. These territories would later develop into Qi, Xu, Wen and Shu kingdom.

Soon, the stories about the previous emperor's atrocities and the building of flood control and flood inducing device whose perceived power shook the whole kingdom lay forgotten. The two maps what were painstakingly made by Liyu and Liqi over many years of hard work had both mysteriously disappeared from the ancient world and no one had seen them again.