My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 559 That's how the Independent Regiment was established.
But the old leader wouldn't ask Wei Dong if he had connections in higher-ups or if he could know any information in advance.

After looking around the ancient town, I requested that no more new houses be approved and that preparations be made for the next phase of renovation and maintenance.

After lunch, everyone headed back.

So the meeting continued on the yacht.

The scenery is indeed beautiful, prompting Wei Dong to jokingly suggest that the scenic area should develop a conference boat project as a tribute to Nanhu Lake.

It's very narrow, except for a few open sections of tidal flats like the ancient town, where the mountains on both sides stand like swords drawn.

Some are steep as if carved by a knife and axe, while others are as soft as a young girl's skirt, as if they were paintings you could reach out and touch.

The clear, winding river, like a blue ribbon, connects these majestic mountains.

It easily creates the illusion of being inside a painting, with the scroll flowing hundreds of feet long.

The white yachts all had their engines turned off to the lowest setting and were drifting quietly.

Qin Yuye, barefoot, clung to the stainless steel gangway hanging over the water, asking Shi Tou on the motorboat ahead to take photos and videos of her.

The assassin was reluctant, but he still did as instructed.

Old Geng had to admit that while both were colorful river landscapes, the river they had lived on for over ten years was slightly wider and lacked this kind of delicate beauty.

Dawa even asked him to take a picture of him as a souvenir. He was used to seeing blue skies and white clouds, but he found this kind of green mountains and clear waters quite rare.

When we arrived in Xiakou County, we didn't leave the group behind, because we all decided to go with the people from Kuizhou County to climb the mountain and see the breathtaking scenery.

Entering the Yangtze River and sailing upstream, the yacht's high horsepower becomes apparent, allowing it to reach speeds of over 30 kilometers per hour.

Let Wei Dong discuss how hydrofoils would have an even greater advantage, since they fly off the water and are less affected by upstream or downstream currents.

During the journey, as we passed the southern slope downstream of the summit of Qutang Gorge, we made the yacht stay as close to the shore as possible. We discussed how we could have set up a cableway there, but ultimately decided that we should go through the residential villages behind the gorge to boost the local economy.

The county leaders on both sides have a clear understanding of the work focus of the Municipal Tourism Development Corporation.

Hong Kong businessmen also said they would gather several Hong Kong cruise ships as soon as possible, either to be used as replicas or to be put into operation directly.

After setting everyone down at the iron chain across the river, Wei Dong also gave instructions to his two employees, reminding them that they would definitely develop a branch in Xiakou County in the future, and the tourism headquarters would also expand its scale. They were now assisting with the construction of the cableway and participating in the preliminary sampling work in the ancient town.

When Director Zi said goodbye, his eyes followed his old leader closely, wishing he could serve him at his beck and call. He asked Wei Dong to ask him to help with the work and to consider the planning of the new tourist town, as well as the tourist routes from the scenic area to the cable car village and then to the mountaintop.

He is capable, but after years of hard work, he hasn't achieved the fame and fortune he desired, which may have caused him to have a mental breakdown.

Wei Dong was instructed to prepare and observe the consequences.

So when the yacht was finally empty, the people who had been forced to stay on the bow, cabin, and stern decks could finally relax.

The old leader gestured for Wei Dong to come with him to the bow of the ship: "What's your opinion of Fan Wenchen?"

Wei Dong continued to speak his mind about the county leader from Kuizhou: "Look, I came to inspect the situation here during the Spring Festival. I toured the county town and that was the first time I met him. He also visited and inspected the construction of Beijiaochang. While others were focused on the buildings, factories, and free markets, he noticed that the entire scale was located on higher ground. He asked me if I was deliberately keeping the water level up. I can't expect the people to spend tens of thousands of yuan to buy a flooded house, can I?"

Counties along the river, including Jiangzhou, have all experienced flooding during the spring and summer high-water season.

On the contrary, after the dam was built, the difference in elevation was reduced, and the commotion of the entire street and market being flooded every year gradually decreased.

The old leader nodded: "He has taken charge of several things in Kuizhou. As for Director Zi, I think you communicate with him more."

Wei Dong had to hold back his laughter, mainly because what happened to that guy later was too outrageous: "My employees said that he was quite helpful in his work. The tourism company is an attempt to develop tourism in a private model. I can guarantee that I am not aiming for profit. The direction is to help the masses improve their lives. But in essence, I will not change the fact that I am a capitalist. So it is still necessary to bring in some state-owned capital to avoid giving people something to say or to prevent people from talking behind my back. I think it is good that Director Zi is here to connect. I am very grateful for the guidance from the county."

What wasn't mentioned was that it was a bit of a waste for Fan Wenchen to come here to develop tourism, although tourism is the only promising sector in these two counties. Wei Dong was able to distinguish between them; although there isn't a clear distinction between political and administrative officials in the interior, there are still some distinctions within the system.

Some people are suited to doing specific tasks, while others are responsible for policy guidelines. For example, Lao Shi is a typical administrative officer, but he made a rare mistake when he jumped from the tax system to the city.

This Fan Wenchen clearly has a good grasp of policies and guidelines. Even if it was because of Wei Dong's slight suggestion, it was still the result of his own attention, thinking and analysis. If he had been left to focus on tourism projects, he might have stayed in this remote mountain village for many years.

Lao Zi is seriously off on the big picture.

Although Wei Dong didn't know Fan Wenchen in his previous life.

But in the eyes of the old leader, Wei Dong was only twenty-two years old, yet he was already so mature in his dealings with people. So the leader suddenly had a brilliant idea: "Why don't I transfer Fan Wenchen to the city, and you come here to serve as a deputy county head, in charge of tourism?"

Wei Dong was almost choked by the oncoming river wind.

Thirty or forty years from now... he doesn't know if it will happen, but in the eighty or ninety years, all sorts of explorations will emerge.

Didn't a crosstalk comedian become a county magistrate?

Those within the system know that the purpose of this kind of temporary deputy county head appointment is actually to solve problems, either by attracting investment or by securing a specific project. Unlike ordinary county leaders who are responsible for the county's work, this is a temporary external appointment.

But he couldn't: "I'm already very busy with work, and I also want to take care of my family. I have two main work directions right now. First, I want to cultivate a nationwide sales system mainly composed of college students. Even if they don't work for me in the future, they will still drive economic development. Second, I want to take care of the people in my hometown and help Shangzhou get rid of poverty and become rich. Even in Shangzhou, I will use corn bioengineering as the main direction. Tourism is just an easy way to achieve impressive results. The essence is still to rely on this kind of agricultural technology project to drive everyone."

The old leader couldn't be more satisfied with this statement: "Yes! It's even better that you can distinguish between primary and secondary issues, but it's obvious that this tourism project would be more likely to succeed if you were in charge. You should also understand that some things are easy to go wrong in implementation."

Of course Wei Dong knew that, taking that ancient town as an example, many travel and photography enthusiasts from the tax office had driven there, and many had visited it long before the preservation and relocation.

They all shook their heads when asked about the before-and-after comparison.

Those who work in taxation know that relocation isn't always necessary. There's a town a dozen kilometers upstream; they just built a wall around it and that was it. Didn't you see that stone pagoda by the river that was later fenced off?

The main reason was the allocation of tens of millions of yuan, which built a new city that was completely out of shape.

As for whether the last ancient town still has any tourist appeal, who cares?

That's why Wei Dong admitted: "Of course I know that doing things in local areas is not so easy, which is why I took nearly half of the revenue and distributed it to various places. Tourism projects need to rely on the improvement of the economic level of the people across the country and the development of transportation. This requires a preparation of ten or twenty years. How could a temporary posting be dragged out for so long? This is in line with the basic laws of commodity economic development."

He also explained: "For example, an ancient town needs people to live and work, not just an exhibition hall. If it's just locals, it's not enough. Young people will definitely all go to live in the county or city. So what do we do? We have to cultivate and create the atmosphere of the ancient town, and invite people from other places who yearn for rural life to open shops and settle down. It's about their interests and hobbies, and they can support themselves through business... Oh, just like those beautiful Hui-style buildings in the ancient town, they took thousands of years to gradually settle down. New urban areas built by administrative orders are not so easy to achieve overnight results."

The old leader was silent for a while before saying, "I was too anxious. I wanted to see Shangzhou do better. Now I admit that the path of commodity economy is correct... but it has to be developed with production-oriented investment and construction like you do, not like You Qili's approach."

Wei Dong thought to himself, "Of course, I always choose the optimal solution." He said calmly, "Then let's speed up the progress of corn bioengineering. This year... the sales of SOD shampoo and cosmetics should be quite profitable. The funds can be used to build the factory. I will communicate more with Shangzhou Machinery Factory in this regard and ask them to participate more in the construction of various factory facilities. It can also help the factory solve problems."

The corn bioengineering project, with a total investment of over 300 million yuan, is large in scale, but apart from the huge factory buildings, the technology involved in corn processing, cogeneration, comprehensive starch processing, glucose production, large boilers, and back pressure units is not particularly difficult or complex.

Only by increasing output on a large scale can we achieve a qualitative leap from quantitative change and obtain benefits.

Therefore, most facilities and equipment can be manufactured by hand, which can significantly reduce construction costs.

The old leader, realizing he had to offer some kind of position, immediately smiled and said, "Good, good, good, then you can go to the machinery factory and be appointed as the deputy factory director!"

No problem, Weidong has been cooperating smoothly with this factory since the air compressor era.

Compared to Hongyan Machinery Factory in Jiangzhou, which mainly produces diesel engines, generators, and internal combustion engines and has branched out into elevator factories, Shangzhou Machinery Factory, a top-tier military factory that relocated here during the War of Resistance Against Japan, now focuses on ductile iron and welded structural parts. It is particularly skilled at manufacturing hydraulic presses and cold storage refrigeration equipment. Since the year before last, it has been working on vacuum packaging machines and has begun to study various automated production lines.

Now, two fully automated sanitary napkin production lines that they modified have been installed in the Jiangzhou factory. Although they run with some bumps and require maintenance at any time, their efficiency is more than five times that of the previous semi-automatic machines, and they require only one-tenth of the manpower.

As long as it doesn't involve the loss of state-owned assets, Wei Dong is happy to assemble a group of elite troops at this stage.

(End of this chapter)