Zhongli, there would continue to be border battles from time to time, but no large scale war for years. In 511, when Emperor Wu received petition from an old peasant, who stopped him on the road when he was in the vicinity of Jiankang to offer sacrifices to heaven, that his criminal laws were too severe for the commoners (in particular, if one person committed a crime, the entire clan is punished), while being overly relaxing for officials and nobles, Emperor Wu considered revisions to the law. However, at the end, all he carried out was that criminals' clan members would not be required to undergo hard labor if they had seniors or children in their household, and he did not further reform his laws. Starting in 514, Emperor Wu started carrying out a major construction project, downstream from Shouyang on the Huai River—a major dam that was intended to create a reservoir to flood Shouyang to allow Liang to capture the city. He started the project despite opposition from his engineers (who believed that the Huai River contained too much dirt in its water for a dam of the size necessary to be built). Despite engineering difficulties, however, the dam was successfully built by the general Kang Xuan (康絢) -- albeit at a major loss of life among the workers, due to the amount of work necessary and the diseases that occurred among them. (Zizhi Tongjian described the casualty rate to be at 70% to 80%.) Northern Wei's regent Empress Dowager Hu (who became regent over Emperor Xiaoming after Emperor Xuanwu's death in 515) sent armies commanded by Li Ping (李平) to attack Kang's escort forces, but could not damage the dam, which was finally completed in summer 516. it was described to be four and a half kilometers long, and the army pitched camp on the dam itself. Kang skillfully maintained the dam, and Shouyang began to be flooded. However, Emperor Wu recalled Kang to the capital and put the general Zhang Baozi (張豹子) in charge of the dam. Zhang, far less skillful and attentive than Kang, did not maintain the dam. With Huai River's water level greatly rising in winter 516, the dam collapsed, leading to more than 100,000 deaths downstream, and Shouyang was saved. It is unclear when Emperor Wu began to be a devout Buddhist, but by 517 Buddhist influences on his policies began to