"The Jiujiang River Levee incident did happen because someone thought that the money used to build the levee was a windfall that they could use. There were people who embezzled and misappropriated the money. The various departments and Party committees in Jiangxi had repeatedly emphasized these points during their presentations. But my comrades in the Jiangxi Water Conservancy Department believed what the Jiangxi Ministry of Water Conservancy said and believed that the problem of siltation in the rivers was serious. Since the river had silted up, it would at most become shallower. When there was a flood, he just needed to stack more sandbags and other things on the river. They didn't listen to our frontline research. Because the greening of the upper reaches is getting better, the clarity of the Yangtze River's water has increased. The water has become clearer and eroded the riverbed. The area below the traditional embankment has been hollowed out. When it encounters a flood, it will collapse … "
The young water conservancy worker talked loudly about his views on the broken dike. It could be seen that this was definitely not the first time he had talked about it, because he did not recall or feel uneasy. On the contrary, because he was immersed in the story of the broken dike, he became a lot more emotional. Based on his scientific confidence, his personal emotions had a considerable influence.
The Minister of Water Resources also felt a little touched. He stole a glance at Wei Ze and saw that Wei Ze had his left elbow on the table, his thumb and index finger gently rubbing the beard on his chin, listening attentively to the young water conservancy staff member's explanation. The Minister of Water Resources was also a professional. After connecting the dots, he had an idea. He lowered his head and began to write on the draft paper in front of him.
The Yellow River of the Han Dynasty referred to by the Military Governor Vaize flowed through the Hebei Plain and finally into the Huaihai Sea. Because the sediment content of the Yellow River was increasing, the river channel was changing more seriously. The Dreamy Cloud Swampland was also silted up due to the sediment carried by the Yangtze River, causing the various water outlets that were connected to the Dreamy Cloud Swampland to be blocked. After that, it slowly disappeared under the efforts of the diligent and willing Chinese people to reclaim land from the lake.
What this young water conservationist was talking about was the problem of clean water flushing the river. His Majesty, Vézé, was a scholar. He had his own plans for the establishment of the Water Conservancy Department. These contents could not be hidden from him. The Minister of Water Resources felt that he had finally grasped the focus of the Emperor's concern, which made him feel much more relaxed.
By the time the young comrade from Jiujiang Branch finished his speech, the head of the Water Conservancy Department had also finished his draft. He stood up and said, "Let's take a break first."
Then, the minister walked to Vézé's side, bent down, and asked in a low voice, "Commander-in-chief, do you want to call this young comrade over for questioning?"
Vézé thought for a moment before replying, "There's no rush."
The minister stood up and waved at the two participants. Both of them quickly walked to the director. The director said a few words, and one of them immediately went to invite the young water conservancy personnel who had just spoken out to go out with him. The minister also left the conference room with another person. At this time, everyone was discussing in a low voice. Seeing that the young colleague who spoke had received special treatment from the minister, most of them looked at him enviously. No one paid attention to the minister's actions.
The minister led another young man to an office outside. He took out the document he had just written from his pocket. "Junchen, you are my favorite student. You have a very clear understanding of the information. Take a look at the outline and see if you can write it before the end of this afternoon's meeting. "
The young man took the outline and carefully read it twice. With a youthful vigor, he replied, "Teacher, I can write it. However, the Tianjin section and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal section … The situation in the Yellow River at that time wasn't like this. "
The minister did not look unhappy when his student found fault. He said generously, "It's all up to you. Do you think you can finish it in a few hours? "
"If I can really come up with a complete document, I will definitely be able to do it tomorrow," Lei Junchen said.
"No. It's still a different matter whether the Yellow River starts construction or not, so you don't have to write a complete document. Instead, you can make requests. Write down all the things that are unclear and can't be completed as requests. It doesn't matter if you ask for a sky-high price. Do you understand? "The minister made it very clear.
"Then … four hours," Lei Junchen replied.
The minister looked at his watch. It was already 11 am He nodded. "It's all up to you this time. Don't lose the prestige of your grandfather, Lei Hu. "
After saying that, the minister patted Lei Junchen on the shoulder, turned around, and left the temporary office. As the host of the meeting, the minister was very busy. At 11: 30 am, the meeting ended. Then, he had to arrange for everyone to eat. He had to invite His Majesty, Comrade Vézé, to eat. There was work to talk about during the meal. After the meal, the meeting continued at two in the afternoon.
At three o 'clock in the afternoon, Lei Junchen went on stage with a stack of manuscripts. The minister was a very smart person, and no one was a fool. His Majesty, Comrade Vézé's performance gave the smart people a direction, and some of the smart people liked to show off. After a variety of connections in the afternoon, everyone quickly understood the target that the Emperor favored. Therefore, the two people who went on stage between two and three o 'clock were in low spirits. They still followed the traditional thinking of the siltation of the river. Although there was nothing wrong with the content, knowing that they could no longer receive the Emperor's favor was a bigger blow than the content of their report.
The minister's draft was a study on the restoration of the Han Dynasty's Yellow River. It ingeniously linked several times when the Yellow River's siltation was not so serious to several times when nomads invaded. The prosperity of the Central Plains civilization meant that agriculture was developed, and the damage to the soil and water would naturally become serious.
Listening to Lei Junchen's speech, the minister's face was expressionless, but he was very satisfied. It was a great thing to have such a talent who could be used at the critical moment. Lei Junchen cleverly combined the morning's erosion of the riverbed with the siltation of the Yellow River to create a suspended river. After all the elements were complete, the summary content was' the Min dynasty's national land greening policy, immigration policy, and the policy to restore the northwest plateau to a semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral area '. Good, good!
The minister could see that His Majesty, Comrade Vézé, had really listened. However, what puzzled the minister was that His Majesty, Comrade Vézé, did not look happy at all. His eyes were cold, as if he was thinking about something else. He was so close, but he gave people the feeling that he was a thousand miles away. The minister could not help but sigh in an unfathomable way.
However, in the evening, Vézé received the four young comrades who gave their speeches in a very conventional manner. Other than the one from Jiujiang Bureau, there was also Lei Junchen and two other people who studied the siltation of the river. The minister was secretly pleased. No matter how knowledgeable and capable His Majesty, His Majesty, Vézé, was, in fact, responsible for the specific matters. Among the four, other than the comrade from Jiujiang Bureau whom the minister did not know well, the other three were all his students. With these three people as the pillars, the minister's position would probably be stabilized for a long time.
Of the two who studied the siltation of the river, one studied the Grand Canal, and the other studied the Huai River. Together with the two who studied the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, the four most important rivers in Asia during the Min dynasty were gathered. Vézé did not immediately listen to their academic views, nor did he express his own opinion. He only asked the four to introduce their departments.
The four introduced themselves one by one. The minister's three students when he was a teacher at the School of Water Conservancy introduced themselves smoothly. However, the comrade from Jiujiang Bureau seemed to think that the punishment given to Jiujiang Bureau was unfair. His words were full of dissatisfaction. After the four of them introduced themselves, Vézé said to the comrade from Jiujiang Bureau, "Chen Buyi, if your father Chen Zhe heard what you said, he would probably scold you. You think the reason for the punishment is not right, so the punishment is not right. However, the punishment is because the water department did not complete your duties. If you had explained the problem of water eroding the riverbed and hollowing out the bottom of the levees, and the higher-ups didn't listen, you would have done your duty. You have done your duty, and it would be wrong to punish you. However, you obviously did not do your duty. Shouldn't you be punished? "
When Chen Buyi heard Vézé's words, his first reaction was to retort. However, after thinking about it, he also felt that what Vézé said was not unreasonable. However, Chen Buyi still put on a look of indignation even though he was holding back his anger.
The Minister of Water Conservancy did not secretly rejoice at his outsider being reprimanded. When he heard Chen Zhe's name being mentioned by Vézé, the minister felt even more uneasy. Among the old brothers who had retired, the ones who were considered 'old brothers' were the group that Vézé had left Yongan in 1852 and arrived in Changsha. This group of people had participated in the initial process of Vézé's establishment of the General Staff Department. It could be said that they were part of the establishment of the system. This group of people had basically achieved meritorious service through military merits, but Chen Zhe had achieved meritorious service through technical skills. Among the old brothers who had entered the science and technology department, Chen Zhe was fully deserving of the title of number one. More importantly, Chen Zhe was Vézé's personal disciple.
Before the Minister of Water Conservancy could determine the point of conflict of interest, Vézé turned to Lei Junchen. "Xiao Lei, before you wrote this article today, what specific professional research project were you engaged in?"
The Minister of Water Conservancy felt that this was like a bolt of lightning. It turned out that his plan was not unknown. He did not expect the Military Governor Of Vaize to have already figured it out so clearly. Lei Junchen was stunned for a moment, then replied embarrassedly, "Commander-in-Chief, I was researching the trend of urban groundwater."
"That's a good direction," Vézé said with a smile.
Lei Junchen replied, "Back then, I was very troubled when I was looking for a direction, so I asked my grandfather. My grandfather said that I should find a direction that the Commander-in-Chief thought was more promising. I looked around and felt that the trend of urban groundwater could be considered a new direction. "
"Tiger Lei is such a smart person." Vézé only replied this one sentence before turning to the other two.
The Minister of Water Conservancy's heart was already in turmoil. He completely ignored what Vézé said after that. He had originally thought that he could gain some benefits by monopolizing the information, but he did not expect the Military Governor Of Vaize to have even more and more information. After failing to show off in front of an expert, the Minister became very uneasy about his future.
After Vézé let the four young people leave, he said to the Minister, who had an ugly expression on his face, "These young people are very good."
"Oh." The Minister did not know what to say, so he could only respond.
"Also, based on your research, I feel that it seems to be against the restoration of the old Yellow River on the Hebei plains. At least some of the comrades are against it. What exactly is the situation? Tell me, "Vézé asked the Minister.
The Minister received a strong shock again, but things always go in the opposite direction when pushed to the extreme. Instead, he returned to his abnormal normal state in despair. With an attitude that he was going to die anyway, the Minister replied, "Commander-in-Chief, many comrades are worried that it will affect the railway arteries in Hebei. Historically, there were more than a dozen famous rivers in Hebei. Now, many of them have become small rivers or even disappeared altogether. If the Yellow River is restored to the Han Dynasty's ancient river, and a large number of rivers and lakes appear, what will happen to the railway embankments? Historically, the Yellow River has also changed its course many times on the Hebei plains. If there is a major change, Hebei will definitely be in chaos. "
Vézé was not angry. He sighed and said, "If this drags on, more railways will be built in Hebei, and the possibility of the Yellow River returning to the Han Dynasty river will completely disappear. There are so many infrastructure projects in Hebei. Who would dare to work in this area? "
Hearing Vézé seriously discuss the technical problems, the Minister felt a little more at ease. He continued, "The amount of earth and stone needed to restore the old river is an astronomical figure. It is not a good thing to pay such a huge price, but in the end, the economic benefits cannot be balanced. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty dug the Grand Canal, and in the end, the country was destroyed. Although the Min dynasty is powerful, and it is not impossible to dig such a river, it is not a good thing. "
"I understand all this. But it is not easy to get the opportunity to transform the environment of China. If I let it go, I will not be satisfied. "Vézé's voice was not loud, as if he was talking to himself.
Hearing this, the Minister's heart trembled. In all these years, he had never seen Military Governor Vaize overcome so many difficulties with his own will. Although Vézé had led everyone to face so many difficulties, after these difficulties were overcome, everyone realized that at that time, it was just that they did not know where their friends were, and even mistook them for enemies. But now, Military Governor Vaize was fighting heaven and earth. He knew his enemies very well, but he had very few friends. Although the Minister wanted to speak according to Vézé's thoughts, he could not say the words.
"Forget it. There is still a meeting tomorrow. Let us continue listening to everyone's reports. "Vézé suddenly said, and then asked the Minister to leave.
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