I was reborn without dreams

Chapter 212 Teammates a Thousand Miles Away

The recovery of Shi Xiangdao's various allowances happened several days later, and it also involved some old debts, which were not matters for Zhang Da'an to concern himself with.

For him, killing Shi Xiangdao was nothing; what caught the interest group behind Shi Xiangdao off guard was a proper show of force.

For a long time, it was all about various "meat megaphones" exchanging barbs, but they were mostly within a large circle, or to put it more directly, within the system.

Zhang Da'an, however, was different; he was not.

He wasn't in the imperial court at all; he lived far away in the martial world.

For anyone else, a "江湖人士" (a person from the underworld) is just a stray dog. Without becoming a committee member or representative, they can't possibly be called a "元外" (a wealthy man) or "大官人" (a high-ranking official).

Zhang Da'an, this anthropomorphic creature, is so overpowered that his existence makes it impossible to know where to begin.

You've already achieved the highest rank in the imperial examinations three times! Are you going to strive to become a high-ranking official like the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, the Grand Secretary, or the Attendant-in-Ordinary?

You became the top scholar in the imperial examination and then started your own faction in the countryside?

Are you crazy?!

Once you're in the system, you're in the game, and the rules are the same as those familiar with the "Shi Xiangdao" type.

Now we have no idea where to start.

There was no way to stop the "three-time champion" except for the "Prime Minister".

With its immense social influence, clean background, and righteous path, it's no exaggeration to say that it's like "retracing the Long March."

Nowadays, the origins of "cousins" have long since spread from Lingxi Province to western Guangdong, southern Yunnan and other places. Some "cousins" are even the sons or grandsons of educated youth.

Unlike simply bringing people over to work, after bringing them out of the impoverished mountain village, Zhang Da'an had already contacted the local armed forces department to arrange for him to first adapt to society, receive cultural education, and then participate in collective activities, including but not limited to labor and guard duty.

Shazhou City is not a developed city, but it is indeed much better than some mountainous areas in southern and southeastern Yunnan.

Some cultural and lifestyle habits are better adapted to and understood through group activities, so the sudden impact is not as significant.

During this period, the security department of the "Zhang An Industrial Alliance" also accepted the supervision and guidance of Jiangkou Province, and established two militia companies of non-public enterprises in "Zhang An Electronics" and "Zhang Xiaobai Technology Co., Ltd."

The slogan was "Love the motherland, work hard to get rich," and Zhang Da'an originally wanted to add "Don't be jealous," but people from the province begged him not to do so...

The establishment of these two militia companies was, in terms of propaganda, to express patriotism while cooperating with the government and their units and actively responding to unified command.

They also participated in several flood control and disaster relief simulation training exercises.

During the collective training of Jiangning militia members during the college entrance examination season, their military skills ranked among the best. After all, these people are not "cousins," but rather veterans who recently retired from the military in southern and southwestern Yunnan.

The newspaper reports of this incident came out at the same time as Shi Xiangdao's public apology letter. When the "remnants" of the Hu family saw the news in the detention center, they were dumbfounded.

Is this okay? !

However, what they didn't know was that even this wasn't enough for Head Coach Zhang.

"Other militia companies have anti-aircraft guns, so why aren't we even issued submachine guns?"

"Comrade Zhang An."

"Ok?"

"Here's what you're going to do: go to Tangshan. There are hot springs there, and an armory. They have everything. Don't even mention anti-aircraft guns, they have rockets too. Just like I said, I'll give you the weapons and ammunition for a division. You're ready to cross the Pacific Ocean and liberate all of humanity."

"..."

Hey.

The phone hangs up.

The person who hung up on Zhang Da'an cursed, "You little idiot, you think you're so sarcastic? What a load of crap..."

Both are militia, but the militia company in Fengyi County also has anti-aircraft guns. However, Uncle Zhang's is a proper one, while nephew Zhang's is just a token gesture. Would they really give you a "fire poker"?

However, even the most powerful large private enterprises do not rely solely on their own security departments; they do have the necessary armed security forces, albeit public ones.

The importance of establishing a militia organization lies not in whether or not it is actually equipped, but in regular training and unified command.

The key point is "unified dispatch," which is a special emergency response unit at the enterprise level.

The emergency management methods that gradually matured later did not appear out of nowhere; they were based on institutional development, but also on supporting foundations.

The militia organizations have generally performed well over the past few years, especially in flood relief and rescue operations, where they have played a significant role in supplementing the workforce.

If we had to pinpoint the biggest drawback, it would be that unless there's a war, this reserve force would probably never be needed.

Those who retire from the military and are under 28 years old can be incorporated into the core civilian organization, while the rest of the non-retired personnel who are over 18 years old are generally ordinary militia members.

Currently, the two militia battalions of the "Zhang'an Industrial Alliance" have a total of 800 people. The head of the security department of "Zhang'an Electronics" is a formally appointed officer. He is a soldier that Zhang Zhengdong led in his old unit in the eastern district. He used to do odd jobs in a nearby village, but he was promoted by his old squad leader when he got lucky.

It must be understood that in Jiangning, a small area, unlike the "Brahmins" of the city, it is extremely difficult for a suburban area like the East District of the city to rise up smoothly and live off the government's salary.

Twenty years later, with the demolition and relocation of the city's eastward expansion, some people did seize the opportunity, but not many. The suburbs of big cities are all much the same, unless there is a "clan assembly" to get help from the "Brahmin" relatives in the city.

Unfortunately, no. In that case, the Chengdong District is no different from Guichuan County in the capital.

The situation in Chengdong District is slightly better. At least it's convenient for people from rural areas to find work, and the wages aren't terribly low. If you can get into "Zhang'an Electronics," you'll be better off than 95% of families nationwide.

If someone leads the way, then it's truly unstoppable. "Zhang An Electronics" is the head of the security department, but his official rank is under the Armed Forces Department of the East District, which is quite significant.

The villages whose land was expropriated will be able to live off the land dividends for decades to come. Each village will have a security chief who leads two militia battalions, which will basically ensure that those receiving the compensation money won't be taken advantage of.

In this situation, some of the "cousins" who came to Jiangning to work—some to study, some to learn technical skills, and some to continue working as security guards—were all incorporated into the militia battalion and organized across workshops. It was actually acceptable for a large factory with tens of thousands of employees to produce eight hundred militiamen.

The training schedule was packed, fifteen days of training meant fifteen days of training, not a day less. This made the representatives of the armed forces departments of several counties in southeastern Yunnan very happy. After reporting the situation to their hometown counties, the county governments prepared to form a group to solicit donations.

Attracting investment often depends on fate; if you're lucky, things will be easier.

Now, "Zhang An Electronics" and "Zhang Xiaobai Technology Co., Ltd." are destined to meet. What's particularly insightful is that a small county called Jincheng County didn't directly seek investment. Instead, after providing a basic overview of Jincheng County, they saw that "Zhang An Electronics" and "Zhang Xiaobai Technology Co., Ltd." were willing to donate money and materials for assistance, which was great; and they were even more willing to invest despite the difficulties.

At that time, the GDP of Jincheng County was less than that of a single workshop of "Zhang'an Electronics," not even 800 million yuan. Illiteracy was rampant, and there were Miao and Bai ethnic villages in the mountains. Moreover, the language of the Miao and Bai people was not universally understood, and the Zhuang language from the neighboring Zhuang village could serve as an intermediary language to some extent.

Therefore, the difficulties in various aspects of the work are still considerable.

However, fate is hard to predict. There were some former educated youths in this area who did not return to the city. They were mostly from Luzhou and had a good understanding of the local situation. In addition, they had personal connections in Luzhou. So, while Zhang Da'an was forcing Shi Xiangdao to apologize publicly, they echoed him from afar on the media platforms in the southwest.

It was actually of little use, but their attitude was very clear: they were on Zhang Da'an's side.

It should be noted that although Yunnan Province is not particularly outstanding in any aspect overall, it did have its moments of cultural brilliance, namely during the period of the War of Resistance against Japan, when it developed a fairly good cultural dissemination system.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a very interesting "Yunnan Studies Research Association" was formed. It was a local academic society, but it did not form a school of thought and had a completely opposite ideological ecology to the political and legal circles in the southwest region.

The reason for this is that the early intellectual group of the "Yunnan Studies Research Association" included not only writers but also many talented people in the fields of agriculture, industry, and commerce.

Many of those who worked on "hybrid rice" are among them. Many experts at the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences today have ancestral roots in Jiangning. This isn't just a minor highlight from the War of Resistance Against Japan; it goes back to the period of "expelling the Manchus and restoring China."

If they were not stationed in southeastern Yunnan, but in northeastern Yunnan, there would be many surnames that can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty, and traces can be found in almost all of them, which are related to the "salt road", "tea road" and "horse road".

This time, the old educated youth or those who came after Zhang Da'an are considered "retro" in their thinking. They are not pursuing short-term "relief." Of course, they will, but they don't intend to make a quick buck.

"Mr. Fang, thank you so much, thank you so much..."

“I used to be the factory manager of Chengnan Instrument Factory. In a way, we’re practically colleagues.”

"Ah... I really didn't expect that. I never imagined that you, Mr. Fang, had worked at the instrument factory."

"However, I can't be considered a full-fledged technician. I'm from the Department of Economics and Management at Jiangning University. Back then, it wasn't called Jiangning University of Finance and Economics. If I hadn't been assigned a job, I probably would have gone to the grain depot..."

The representative from Jincheng County is also a representative from Panlong City. There used to be an instrument factory on the banks of the Panlong River, which was a supporting factory for ammunition supply during the "counterattack against Vietnam". Zhang Deli, whose hometown is Luzhou, is not entirely a city dweller, but he is not exactly a countryman either.

My original registered residence was in Dachangpu, which is a little over one kilometer away from Luzhou West Railway Station. Later, China Construction Third Engineering Bureau acquired a small portion of the land, which completely severed my connection with my hometown.

Of course, it's still very clear in the records.

In retrospect, if Zhang Deli had returned to his hometown like most educated youth back then, with his abilities and experience, becoming a true "Shanghai bigwig" would have been easier than drinking water.

However, people are ultimately different.

As the saying goes, "One kind of rice feeds a hundred kinds of people." Zhang Deli had been active in Jincheng County for a long time, and later he also worked in Dongshan Yi Village in Panlong City. There were many Zhuang, Yi, Miao and Bai people around him who became his sworn brothers.

During important festivals in different villages, he would be invited to fire cannons, name items, sign documents, notarize, and so on. He was considered a relatively well-known "scholar."

The only difference is that Zhang Deli has a higher level of blasting skills and is a technician.

In the past, when the village needed to build a road through the mountains, if it was a particularly remote place and it was inconvenient to bring explosives along the road, a black powder factory would be set up near the village.

It doesn't matter if it's less than 2,000 jin, but if it's more than 2,000 jin, he'll be in charge of production.

Small places rely on traditional methods.

Many people have the impression that black powder is outdated and less powerful, but that's because they've seen too many big explosions and don't know their own limitations. In reality, black powder is sufficient for some ditches and obstacles, and piling it up is just as effective.

In some villages in Jincheng County, the roads accessible to tractors were blasted out using traditional methods.

To put it bluntly, the specialized explosives are still too expensive, and small county towns can't afford to use them.

Zhang Deli can still speak the Luzhou dialect, but it is still somewhat different from the "Mingzhou accent" that has become the mainstream in the city. In Jiangning, there are only some elderly Luzhou professors who occasionally utter a few words of the old dialect when chatting with him.

Among the delegations receiving the inspection teams from several counties in southeastern and southern Yunnan, there were actually not many government officials; the majority were entrepreneurs, with scholars as a secondary group.

Zhang Deli can be considered a half-scholar, simply because in Yunnan Province he would definitely be considered a scholar and expert; but in Jiangkou Province, he would obviously not be considered one.

The professors from Jiangning City are mostly from Luzhou, and many of them are civil engineers, with Jiangning Institute of Technology being the main alumni.

"When the Songhuaba Reservoir was being built, I was an assistant. My feet were covered in blisters. The local soldiers and people were really enthusiastic and endured a lot of hardship..."

We were talking about things from fifty years ago, which wouldn't normally be a topic of conversation with Zhang Deli, but why do we say that Zhang Deli, the representative from Jincheng County, was so astute?

Zhang Deli knew that Jincheng County had nothing but also everything it could want, except for the road. To build a road, they had to rely on the state. If there wasn't enough government funding for the time being, they would have to find a way to sell land and local specialties to raise funds themselves.

Zhang Deli was from Jincheng County, but he also had connections in Panlong City. He was familiar with the distribution of all the counties and large villages in the city, and had a basic grasp of the geography. Although he was not a professional water conservancy engineer, he had asked a passing water conservancy engineer to help him survey the area. He concluded that it was possible to build a reservoir in the Mudi River area of ​​Panlong City.

Under normal circumstances, obtaining a qualification or approval is extremely difficult. However, Zhang Deli discovered that the country should enter a wave of infrastructure construction, which might allow for a "get on the train first, buy the ticket later" approach.

The problem is that we don't have money.

There are people who want to invest, but they are all relatives of some people in the province. Zhang Deli is afraid that he won't get any benefits in the city.

Building a reservoir will definitely bring many benefits, one of the biggest sources of revenue being hydropower.

To be precise, it's water and electricity.

In recent years, foreign capital has been involved in the water supply in various places, including French capital that has been moving around everywhere.

There are many private capital firms with ideas, but they can only have ideas in the place where they started. If they want to expand and take on big projects, they need to have connections at higher levels, especially in the capital. Having local connections alone is not enough.

Now that "Zhang An Electronics" and "Zhang Xiaobai Technology Co., Ltd." have established militia organizations, Zhang Deli has an idea: he plans to recruit a group of grassroots employees in Panlong City and Jincheng County, and then transform them into non-full-time armed forces, that is, militia.

The idea is good, but there's a prerequisite: you need a company to fill the vacancy.

So the idea of ​​building a reservoir came to mind.

Mudi River is not a major river. The largest river in Panlong City is the Panlong River, which has flowed through the city for thousands of years. The best piece of land in the surrounding area is located here.

Before he arrived, he sent the materials he had compiled over the past few years to the chairman's office of "Zhang An Electronics". Whether there was any news or not, it would definitely be after he arrived in Jiangning.

Seeing that the children of veterans had indeed received a completely new education and started new jobs, Zhang Deli was naturally relieved and hoped that the reservoir could be taken over by "Zhang An Real Estate".

It's hard for an ordinary person to say they can get in on the road to hydropower construction, but Zhang Da'an is different; he's spent a fortune in both the Jiangning and Luzhou university circles.

The result of this massive spending is a significant increase in funding for engineering research. Currently, "Zhang Xiaobai Technology Co., Ltd." is one of the major financial institutions affiliated with Jiangning Institute of Technology.

Jiangning Institute of Technology happens to be one of the few large engineering schools that even the "Queen of Electricity" treats with respect. In fact, Jiangning Institute of Technology has already given a rough budget today. Based on the relocation costs of Panlong City and the costs of various materials, and according to the materials provided by Zhang Deli, the total investment in this reservoir will not exceed 25 million.

If the reservoir has a capacity of 50 to 60 million cubic meters, the gross profit from generating electricity would be around 10 million yuan per year.

It's a project that's somewhat useful but not very useful, and the maintenance costs later on won't be low.

However, that's from the capitalists' perspective; from the country's perspective, it's a different story.

"Zhang Deli didn't tell the whole truth either."

In his office, Zhang Da'an was discussing the reservoir project with experts from the Water Resources Bureau. Then, he shook a "List of Western Development Projects" in his hand. "Last year, Yunnan Province packaged fifty reservoir projects into the 'Run Dian Project,' and this 'Mudihe Reservoir' is on it. It's going to be built sooner or later, so why are they thinking of having me handle it?"

"Mr. Zhang, you don't know this, but Engineer Zhang has always been dedicated to the construction of the border region. He has come to the provincial capital before. For example, the local area had plans for water towers for residents and reservoirs for mountain villages. But he always tries to find funding from outside."

The water resources bureau expert smiled and explained the situation to Chief Instructor Zhang, "Firstly, it can save local government funds, and secondly, it can speed up the project's progress and allow it to be completed ahead of schedule. For example, the drinking water problem in some villages has been improving, but many water conservancy facilities were built not long after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and have been used for forty or fifty years, with repairs and maintenance. Now it's time to rebuild them. Many are old, weathered, and unusable. Rebuilding them is not like it used to be. In the past, we could use manpower, but now we can't."

"makes sense."

Zhang Da'an nodded. He was still quite reasonable, especially since Zhang Deli's friends had put in a lot of effort in criticizing the "Shi Xiangdao" group, which made him very happy.

“Nowadays, besides your uncle, Mr. Zhang, there is no one else who can still organize small-scale ‘going up to the mountains and down to the countryside’.”

"I wouldn't dare call it 'going to the countryside'!"

Zhang Da'an quickly raised his hand and waved it, saying, "You're a water conservancy expert, how come your flattery is so accurate?"

Dude, this is my favorite.

When the experts from the Water Resources Bureau saw that "Wenquxing" was in a good mood, they immediately understood and realized that Zhang Deli, a fellow "Wenquxing" from the same clan, might actually be in the right place at the right time.

(End of this chapter)