After leaving Guozigou Village, the car went straight to Xuzhaigou Coal Mine. The reason why he was going to Xuzhaigou Coal Mine was that Song Yong had a good relationship with the mine's manager. He wanted to see what Xu Liu was trying to achieve by getting close to Song Yong.
Xuzhaigou Village was a remote administrative village in Shiwan Village. The further they went into the ditch, the more difficult the road became. Not only was it difficult to drive, but it was also an uneven dirt road. The car swayed left and right like a sieve, bumping up and down, and it felt like it was falling apart. Fortunately, the car's performance was good, so it didn't jump high and fall heavily. However, when it passed a few big potholes, it scratched the car's undercarriage, making it impossible to drive.
Not only that, but the coal hauler didn't slow down at all. It stepped on the accelerator and went on a rampage, not afraid of the damage to the road. After passing through a place, it kicked up dust on the road like a sandstorm, and the road ahead was gray.
Nanyang County's traffic was backward, this was an indisputable fact. There was only one provincial road in the county, and there were no other roads. Once natural disasters like rain and snow happened, they couldn't get out or in, and immediately became an isolated island. However, the provincial road had not been repaired for a long time, and it was full of potholes, no different from this dirt road. Even the provincial road could not be repaired, let alone this kind of rural road.
As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, you have to build roads first. Building roads was an important project during Zhang Zhiyuan's reign, but the county didn't have the money. They wanted to build roads, but even the cleverest housewife couldn't cook without rice. According to the development plan, Zhang Zhiyuan planned to build up the economy first, and then squeeze out funds to build roads with great fanfare. However, Zhang Zhiyuan was about to leave in the near future. Could this project be realized by future generations?
After passing through the "sandstorm," they came to a relatively spacious place. Spring was approaching, and the grass by the roadside had already sprouted, adding beauty to the gray weather. However, the beautiful moment only lasted for a moment. When they were about to reach Xuzhaigou, Lu Yiwei couldn't help but frown when he saw the scenery in front of him.
On both sides, the withered grass was covered with thick layers of ash, and even the yellow soil was covered with black charcoal, forming a sharp contrast with the place they had just been in. Looking at the stream on the left, the ice layer had thawed. It should have been a gurgling stream, but instead, the black, smelly water flowed freely to the east. Lu Yiwei recalled the sweat that flowed down the face of the miner just now. One was water from the surging waves of hard work, while the other was dark brown water nailed to the pillar of shame. It was as if the earth was crying, shedding tears of helplessness and despair.
"What's going on?" Lu Yiwei asked solemnly.
Jiang Yucheng leaned over to take a look and said with a relaxed expression, "The Xuzhaigou Coal Mine is low-lying and happens to be located in a water-rich area. There were five or six high-powered water pumps in the mine that were constantly pumping water. Otherwise, the construction could not be carried out. The water flows down from the mine, so it must carry some cinders with it. It's not a big deal. "
Jiang Yucheng made it sound easy, but Lu Yiwei couldn't. Although he had never studied geology, he understood one thing. If the coal mine continued to be pumped like this for a long time, it would inevitably cause the underground water to seep or stop flowing, and the local people's water supply would become a problem. Have the profiteers thought about it?
The car suddenly stopped. Shen Pengfei took out his phone and wanted to make a call, but there was no signal. He turned around and asked Jiang Yucheng, "Village Chief Jiang, do you have a signal on your phone?"
"Yes, what's wrong?" Jiang Yucheng took out his phone and looked at it.
Shen Pengfei said angrily, "I don't know which dog dug the road again. Hurry up and call Xu Liu. Ask him to send an excavator over to fill in the road."
Lu Yiwei got out of the car and saw that the road in front of him had indeed been dug up. Shen Pengfei also quickly got out of the car and said, "Mr. Lu, we might have to wait for a while. Xu Liu will send a car over immediately."
"Why did they dig up the road?" Lu Yiwei asked even though he already knew the answer. The place with the most illegal mining in Shiwan Village was Xuzhaigou. This place was rather remote, and people from the county rarely came here, let alone outsiders. If a stranger came, he would be immediately recognized. Such a unique advantage was also an important reason why illegal mining was rampant.
Shen Pengfei said angrily, "Maybe … maybe it was the villagers who dug it up."
"Villagers? Why would the villagers dig up the road? "Lu Yiwei said coldly. He could tell that this enterprise manager, Shen Pengfei, and deputy village head, Jiang Yucheng, were not telling him the truth at all. They were trying their best to hide some facts.
"This … I'm not sure either!" Shen Pengfei hummed and hawed for a long time, but he could not give a reason.
At that moment, an old farmer walked over with a hoe on his shoulder. He stopped and sized up Lu Yiwei and his group. Then, he shook his head helplessly and left.
Seizing the opportunity, Lu Yiwei went up to the old farmer and asked, "Old friend, are you from Xuzhaigou?"
Hearing that the other party had a county accent and was dressed like an official, Lu Yiwei said indifferently, "My ancestors have been."
"Oh." Lu Yiwei could hear the coldness in the old man's voice, so he continued to ask, "Old friend, do you know who dug up the road?"
"Hmph!" The old farmer snorted through his nose, then turned around and left quickly.
From the old farmer's attitude, Lu Yiwei could tell that it was not the villagers who did it. It was obvious who did it!
On the mountain not far away, there were hidden pits for illegal mining. They rested during the day and worked at night, transporting goods through the night to reap huge profits. The illegal miners had a strict management system. Some were in charge of production, some were in charge of transportation, and some were in charge of surveillance. Every step was closely coordinated and watertight.
Taking the road as an example, there were two possibilities. The first was that they planned ahead and connected the transportation at night. During the day, they dug up the road to avoid inspection by the law enforcers or reporters. Even if they managed to get through this checkpoint, there were still many other checkpoints that had people on guard. Especially if an unfamiliar vehicle or stranger appeared, they would definitely be on high alert. They would evacuate the crowd and hide their equipment in advance to prepare for any accidents. This caused a lot of trouble for the law enforcers. They could not obtain evidence, let alone catch the culprit.
The illegal miners had always been using "guerrilla tactics" with the law enforcers. Under normal circumstances, they would get the news in advance when the higher-ups came to inspect them. As for who leaked the information, they would know very well. With the cooperation from both inside and outside, it was extremely difficult to get rid of a den.
The last time Zhang Zhiyuan carried out Operation Storm, he had done a lot of preparation work in advance. There were very few people who knew about this work. Before the operation, the relevant personnel's communication equipment was confiscated. Even so, there were still fish that slipped through the net. It could be said that those who were caught were small shrimps with no connections or background. The real big fish had already gotten the news and escaped.
There was another possibility. Someone saw a car with a county leader's license plate coming in. Someone tipped them off in advance and dug up the road at the last minute. Lu Yiwei went forward to observe carefully. He saw that the soil was fresh, and the tire marks were also very fresh. That was the second possibility. What was surprising was that the road was dug up in such a short period of time. Who tipped them off?
Lu Yiwei turned around and looked at the two uneasy people. He had an answer in his heart. It was his own decision to come to Xuzhaigou Coal Mine. Other than the two of them, no one else knew about it. From the looks of it, the two of them were inextricably linked to the local coal boss. Lu Yiwei decided to dig deeper into this clue to see how many people from the township government were involved.
Not far away, a Mitsubishi off-road vehicle drove over at high speed, followed by an excavator. Shen Pengfei threw away the cigarette butt in his hand and said, "Standing Committee Lu, they're here."
The off-road vehicle stopped, and Xu Liu from Xuzhaigou Coal Mine ran over in a hurry. He shook Lu Yiwei's hand and said, "Standing Committee Lu, I'm really sorry. I didn't know you were coming. I don't know which son of a b * tch dug up the road. It'll be done soon. Please wait a little longer. "
As he spoke, the excavator drove over and quickly filled up the road. The group got into the car and drove to Xuzhaigou Coal Mine.
Xuzhaigou Coal Mine was much smaller than Guoguogou Coal Mine. There were two rows of simple prefab houses on both sides of a pit, and a winch house in the middle. That was all.
The scale was small, and the production process was naturally crude. Xuzhaigou Coal Mine still used traditional coal trucks to transport coal, and the underground workings relied on manual labor to load the coal shovel by shovel. When the coal seams were shallow, the workers had to crawl on the ground and dig bit by bit with the pickaxe. Such a crude production method was common in Nanyang County.
"Please come in!" Xu Liu lifted the curtain and got busy. After Lu Yiwei entered, he saw Song Yong sitting there drinking tea. Song Yong got up and looked at Lu Yiwei with a complicated expression. He seemed to want to explain something, but he did not speak.
When Song Yong left last night, he told him who he was with. Just based on this, Lu Yiwei could not say anything. "You didn't go back last night?"
Song Yong said honestly, "I came back late last night, so I came to the mine with Xu Liu. We played cards for a while and were about to go back to the township government. I heard you were here, so I waited for you."
"Oh." Lu Yiwei sat on the spacious sofa and carefully looked at Xu Liu's office. Although it was dark outside, the decoration inside was not sloppy at all.
The desk was bigger than his own, and there was a huge Pixiu on it. There was also a Wall Street bull squatting on the floor. There was a bookshelf behind the desk, and it was filled with books. Looking at it carefully, there were both the essence of Chinese literature and foreign classics. There was no lack of economic works such as Capital, The Wealth of Nations, and so on. Chairman Mao's classic poem, Spring Snow in Qin Garden, was hung on the wall. The sofa was made of high-quality calf leather, and even the cups were particularly exquisite.
Lu Yiwei had long heard about the luxurious life of the coal bosses. But because of his work, he did not have much contact with them. The one who had more contact with them was Niu Fuyong. And this Xu Liu in front of him should be considered a boss with better taste.
Lu Yiwei smiled and said, "Boss Xu seems to be a person with good taste."
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