The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 827 The Trend of the Times
The Yellow River is the mother river of China.

In order to protect the Yellow River, improve the ecological environment, reduce natural disasters and maintain living space, the state launched the "Three Norths" shelterbelt project in 1979 and listed this project as an important project of national economic construction.

The 'Three Norths' shelterbelt project refers to a large-scale artificial forestry ecological project built in the three northern regions of China (Northwest, North China and Northeast China). The project has a planning period of 70 years and is carried out in eight phases.

1979年-1999年为第一阶段，分三期工程。1979-1984年为一期工程，1985-1994年为二期工程，1995-1999年为三期工程；

2000-2019年为第二阶段，分两期工程。2000-2009年为四期工程，2010-2019年为五期工程；

2020-2049年为第三阶段，分三期工程。2020-2029年为六期工程，2030-2039年为七期工程，2040-2049为八期工程。

The entire "Three Norths" shelterbelt system stretches from Bin County, Heilongjiang Province in the east to Uzebir Pass in Western Regions Province in the west, reaches the northern border in the north, and borders the Haihe River, Yongding River, Fen River, Weihe River, the lower reaches of Tao River, and Karakoram Mountains in the south. It includes 13 counties (banners, regions, and cities) in 550 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, including Western Regions Province, QH Province, and Gansu Province, with a total area of ​​406.9 million square kilometers and a planned afforestation area of ​​5.35 million mu. By 2050, the forest coverage rate in the Three Norths region will increase from 1979% in 5.05 to 15.95%.

The Three Norths are home to China's eight major deserts, four major sandy lands and vast Gobi deserts, with a total area of ​​149 million square kilometers, accounting for about 85% of the country's wind-sand land, forming a 60-mile wind-sand line from Heilongjiang Province in the east to Xiyu Province in the west. This region suffers from severe wind erosion and sand burial, and frequent sandstorms. In the nearly 70 years from the early 20s to the late 669s, 1300 million hectares of land were desertified, more than 1000 million hectares of farmland were damaged by wind and sand, grain production was low and unstable, more than million hectares of grassland were seriously degraded due to desertification and salinization, and hundreds of reservoirs became sand reservoirs.

据调查，三北地区在上世纪50～60年代，沙漠化土地每年扩展1560平方千米；70～80年代初，沙漠化土地每年扩展2100平方千米。

Annual precipitation in most parts of the Three Norths is less than 400 mm, and natural disasters such as drought are very serious. The area of ​​soil erosion in the Three Norths is 55.4 square kilometers (water erosion area), and soil erosion is particularly serious on the Loess Plateau, with more than 1 tons of soil lost per square kilometer each year, equivalent to scraping off 16 cm of topsoil. The Yellow River flows through Sanmenxia 4 billion tons of sediment every year, causing an average of 10 million cubic meters of sediment to silt up the riverbed of the lower reaches of the Yellow River each year. In some sections of the lower reaches, the riverbed is meters above the ground, becoming a "hanging river" on the ground. The mother river has become a major concern for the Chinese nation.

In addition to the 'Three Norths' shelterbelt project, which is used to improve the environment and reduce soil erosion, the development and management of the Yellow River has never been interrupted since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

For example, the Sanmenxia Water Conservancy Project is located in the lower reaches of the middle Yellow River, connecting Henan and Shanxi provinces. It controls 91.5% of the Yellow River's total basin area, 89% of the water flow, and 98% of the sediment flow. The project started in April 1957 and was completed and put into use in April 4.

In addition, there are also the Sanshenggong Yellow River Water Conservancy Project, Qingtongxia Water Conservancy Project, Liujiaxia Hydropower Station, Yanguoxia Water Conservancy Project, Yellow River Tianqiao Hydropower Station, Bapanxia Water Conservancy Project, Daxia Hydropower Station, and the Longyangxia Hydropower Station which has just been put into use.

The Lijiaxia Hydropower Station and the Wanjiazhai Water Conservancy Project are about to be built, and the Xiaolangdi Water Conservancy Project on the Yellow River has just been put into construction.

Also under discussion or design are the Gongboxia Hydropower Station and the Laxiwa Hydropower Station.

Of course, compared with the funds invested by Panshan Group, the funds invested by the state are much less, and the scale and influence are far less than the Three Gorges Project and the four major hydropower stations on the Jinsha River.

Liu Tao took advantage of this time to inspect the reservoirs and hydropower stations that were under construction or had already been built. Most of them had no problems, but there were still some dangerous ones. Liu Tao repaired these problems without making a fuss.

On this day, Liu Tao met a celebrity in Kunming City - Boss Zong.

Liu Tao does not worship Boss Zong, but he has to admit that he is a ruthless person.

Through various means, he makes all the money into his own pocket. Other governments, foreign capital, shareholding employees, etc. are all pawns in Boss Zong's hands. He is very skilled in using, balancing, attacking and other means.

By the time Liu Tao traveled through time, the Haowa Group had become a family business of the Zong family.

Boss Zong still wants to have a good reputation after his death.

Liu Tao no longer felt the joy he had when he first met the celebrity, because he was now standing in a high place.

No matter how hard these people work, they are far from being as good as him. But now, China has changed a lot, and a large number of private entrepreneurs have emerged, many of whom have never been heard of or seen before.

There are also some trendsetters of the times that Liu Tao knows, but they have been nowhere to be seen and their voices are unclear until now.

In this regard, it can be said that the times create heroes, or it can be said that heroes create the times.

The two are intertwined and constantly evolving.

In this era of turbulent change, anyone who dares to fight, strive and take risks has the potential to make a name for himself.

It may not necessarily be the trendsetters of the time in his memory, but could also be someone else.

For example, among the large number of private entrepreneurs that have emerged, at least 70% are not within Liu Tao's memory.

Maybe they are low-key and unknown, or maybe they seize the opportunity to stand out in this era.

Just over the past decade, China University has continued to expand its enrollment, with at least millions more people attending college and hundreds of thousands more going abroad to study. It is unknown how many of these people have changed their destiny, but it is definitely not a small number.

Times are changing.

The wheel of history is moving forward, but society is constantly changing.

What Liu Tao found interesting was that within one day, he not only met Boss Zong, but also met a celebrity, Boss Mou!

This person has also made a name for himself. He is also a part of the trade with the North, and has done quite a bit of trade.

However, compared with Boss Zong, he is a long way behind, not in terms of ability, but in terms of character.

Boss Zong is currently very low-key, but Boss Mou is very flamboyant, wishing that everyone in the country knew that he is rich.

This kind of personality can easily lead to big losses.

If you are not careful, you will fall.

Even if he was arrested again, it would be normal.

In this era, many private entrepreneurs, if you really dig deeper, will find that they cannot withstand scrutiny. Some of them used to be registered under the name of state-owned enterprises, or they managed state-owned enterprises and later contracted them out, using some means to reform the state-owned enterprises into collectives and then became major shareholders themselves, or they used money to register a company in Hong Kong and acquired state-owned enterprises through this Hong Kong company.

Moreover, many people have a very secure concept about taxes. There is no need to start from other aspects, but only to directly intervene from the tax aspect, which basically cannot withstand scrutiny.

(End of this chapter)