Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

De Gaulle suddenly wondered if the Chinese government was deliberately doing this for him to see.

It's actually a show.

"Quite a bit."

Luo Weilin immediately said, "Our problem is nothing. The most difficult issue right now is the severe water shortage in some mountainous areas of Henan. We're digging ditches and reservoirs to address this water shortage. This is where the cost is high, the number of participants is large, and the work is the most tiring."

"General Wei, can I go and take a look?"

Charles de Gaulle was intrigued.

He wanted to see if other places were the same as here.

"Okay. Comrade Weilin, you make the arrangements. We'll go take a look."

"Then let's go to Weihui and Huixian in Xinxiang. They're carrying out a major reservoir renovation there, and Comrade Zhang Wentian is on site."

Zhang Zongsheng stayed at the scene, and Luo Weilin accompanied Wei Hongjun and De Gaulle to Xinxiang.

On the way, Luo Weilin reported his work to Wei Hongjun.

Although Wei Hongjun was no longer in charge of agriculture, Luo Weilin was still used to it. And even though Wei Hongjun was no longer in charge of agriculture, he had been in charge of Chinese agriculture for nearly a decade. Luo Weilin still wanted to hear some of Wei Hongjun's advice.

Luo Weilin is indeed ambitious.

他的目标就是，在1960年之前给河南增加700万亩以上的新耕地，打造2000万亩左右的良田。让河南的全年粮食产量在1960年的时候达到650亿斤左右，比现在增加近300亿斤。

He also considered purchasing more tractors to mechanize agriculture and deploying more labor to support transportation and water conservancy projects. Henan, as the Central Plains, should become China's transportation hub.

Wei Hongjun listened to Luo Weilin's report and agreed with it as a whole.

But the workload is really huge.

It is really not easy for the people of Henan to complete these projects.

But it's not too aggressive.

Luo Weilin's plan was quite cautious and scientific. The amount of engineering he planned was less than a third of the amount undertaken in Henan during the Great Leap Forward. However, Wei Hongjun ultimately advised Luo Weilin not to focus solely on increasing grain production but to seriously lay a solid foundation.

If we make good use of manpower and develop transportation, fertile land and water conservancy, then grain production will naturally increase.

We can't just issue various instructions to subordinates just to make the grain production data look good. Wei Hongjun likes Luo Weilin very much and doesn't want him to be blinded by his achievements after coming to Henan.

More than two hours passed quickly.

Although de Gaulle had been mentally prepared, he was stunned when he arrived in Weihui and Huixian. He saw a dense crowd of people along the entire route. According to de Gaulle's own estimate, he saw at least 100,000 people along the way.

China is very backward.

This was de Gaulle's idea.

He saw many construction projects along the way, but very few construction machines, only a handful. There were also very few cars. For such a large project, transport wasn't common. Most of the work was carried on shoulders, with a few oxcarts, horse-drawn carriages, and small carts.

Chinese engineering is really primitive.

But these people were surprisingly enthusiastic.

They sang and worked, their faces beaming with enthusiasm. Charles de Gaulle had never witnessed anything like this. When the French government hired workers to work, he only saw impatience on their faces, but in China, he saw joy on the faces of the workers. He didn't know how to describe this. Being in this environment made his blood boil, and he wanted to work right along with them.

This made de Gaulle very alert.

This is the current state of socialist New China. Backwardness is indeed true, but amidst this backwardness lies a vibrant vitality. The entire country, from top to bottom, is permeated with an inexplicable spirit that is both thrilling and terrifying. Such a country must be treated with seriousness. Zhang Wentian and Geng Qichang approached.

"Comrade of the Red Army."

"Secretary Wei."

The two people's situations are similar to Luo Weilin's.

He was covered in dirt. Wei Hongjun looked at Zhang Wentian and couldn't help but say, "Comrade Zhang Wentian, you have to take care of your health."

Zhang Wentian is already quite old.

Zhang Wentian is 57 years old this year, and he is also a scholar.

However, after hearing what Wei Hongjun said, Zhang Wentian simply waved his hands and said with a hearty smile, "I'm fine, I'm doing very well. The Chairman used to say that if the weather isn't favorable, I'll just go against it." I never fully understood this before. But after arriving in Henan, I completely understood it. If we don't change the situation in Henan, how can the people have a good life? Many counties in Xinxiang are seriously short of water resources. If we don't dig ditches and reservoirs, once a drought occurs, not only will there be enough water for the agricultural needs of the arable land, but even the water needed for daily life will not be enough. In order to change this situation, Xinxiang has mobilized more than 20 people to participate in this great project. How could I not participate?"

Zhang Wentian is in very good mental state.

Wei Hongjun even felt that Zhang Wentian's current mental state was even better than when he was at the Central Committee. He felt as if he was free to leap freely in the vast sea. Zhang Wentian pointed to the cadre next to him and said, "Comrade Hongjun, this is Comrade Geng Qichang, the First Secretary of Xinxiang. Old Geng, this is Comrade Wei Hongjun, you should know him."

"know."

Geng Qichang nodded immediately.

It wasn't Wei Hongjun's first day in Henan. Furthermore, he appeared regularly on the front page of the People's Daily, so Geng Qichang certainly knew him.

Geng Qichang and Wei Hongjun are the same age.

But he joined the revolution much later than Wei Hongjun. He joined the revolution during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and joined the party in 1938.

But he has good abilities.

During several of Chairman Mao's previous inspection tours south, he had heard Geng Qichang explain agricultural work in Henan and had a very positive impression of him. Therefore, at the Eighth National Congress, China decided to send a group of cadres to the Soviet Union to study agriculture, and Geng Qichang was among them.

After returning to China, he served as a member of the Henan Provincial Party Committee and the first secretary of the Xinxiang Prefectural Party Committee.

Wei Hongjun said, "This is General Charles de Gaulle. He wants to know what you are doing."

"We have a technical team."

Soon Wei Hongjun saw a familiar figure.

Yang Yongfu brought a few people to Wei Hongjun and said, "Secretary Wei."

"Comrade Yang Yongfu, can you tell Comrade de Gaulle what you are doing now?"

Wei Hongjun didn't ask why Yang Yongfu was here.

Yang Yongfu immediately pasted a design drawing on it and said, "Weihui and Huixian have two serious problems. One is that if a flood occurs, the water cannot be retained at all. The floodwaters will easily flow out of these two places, affecting the safety of Xinxiang. The other is that if a drought occurs, the rivers in Weihui and Huixian will easily dry up, leaving the people here without even enough water for daily life. Therefore, the original intention of the Provincial Party Committee was to relocate the people here and build a reservoir here."

"However, this involves nearly 30 people. Given Henan's current situation, it's impossible to come up with such a large sum of money to relocate so many people. Therefore, the Xinxiang Prefectural Committee decided not to relocate the population. The two counties will join forces to build a reservoir on the site to address floods and droughts."

"To achieve this goal, after discussion, we plan to build one large reservoir, three medium-sized reservoirs, and 12 small reservoirs in these two counties. This is our design drawing."

Geng Qichang stepped forward to add to the story and told de Gaulle how many people would be needed for each project, how much money it would cost, etc.

Wei Hongjun grabbed Yang Yongfu.

Asked: "Why are you here?"

"This time, the main areas for disaster relief in Henan are Xinxiang and Anyang. It's been almost two months, and our relief work is complete. What remains is post-disaster reconstruction. However, the main problem in both Xinxiang and Anyang is still poor natural conditions. To change the situation, we must address these harsh natural conditions. One approach is to improve transportation, and the other is to build water conservancy projects. While we were providing disaster relief in Xinxiang, they coincided with the construction of a reservoir there."

"But they've got too many problems with reservoir construction. In particular, they lack a professional team, and their reservoir construction technology is very poor. If we continue to build reservoirs according to their ideas, I'm sure more than half will fail to hold water and will be abandoned. It just so happens that I brought a group of students to Xinxiang, including several who specialize in water conservancy construction. Their expertise is quite good, and they pointed out many problems with reservoir construction."

"I don't think this will work. If Xinxiang mobilizes so many people to build the reservoir and it ultimately fails, what a waste of manpower and resources it would be. Later, after discussing this with Comrade Geng Qichang, I reported this to Comrade Luo Weilin and Comrade Zhang Wentian. Comrade Zhang Wentian personally stepped in and recruited a group of water conservancy technicians from across the province, as well as students from Henan's major universities and technical secondary schools specializing in water conservancy. Comrade Zhang Wentian asked me to serve as the technical team leader to oversee these students."

Wei Hongjun nodded.

Such a large project must follow scientific laws.

Wei Hongjun patted Yang Yongfu on the shoulder and said, "How are those students?"

"Secretary Wei, I think you're right. Students should be trained in this kind of vast environment. In such a bustling construction environment, there's no time for complaints. This is my work log. I've recorded all the suggestions from the students here. And, surprisingly, their suggestions have only gotten better in a short while."

Wei Hongjun took the work log handed over by Yang Yongfu.

There are quite a few suggestions.

Sure enough, it is much more down-to-earth now.

They were all suggestions for work. Moreover, these students had active minds, able to think of many things that the veteran cadres from the war years hadn't thought of. Wei Hongjun returned the work log to Yang Yongfu and said, "Give feedback on their opinions. Accept the good ones, and tell them what's wrong with the bad ones. You can hold a meeting every two or three days to exchange ideas. I think your work log is good. You can have these students keep work logs as well, and observe their growth. You should summarize this and use it to train these young student cadres from good universities. This will be a useful experience."

"Yes."

While Wei Hongjun and Yang Yongfu were talking, de Gaulle decided to move on.

He wanted to go further into the scene to take a look.

Wei Hongjun did not stop him either.

Charles de Gaulle's expression grew increasingly serious throughout the journey. He stayed here for three days, visiting many places. When he left Xinxiang, he had only one thought: he could not become an enemy of China.

This is a rising great power in the East.

1018

It took de Gaulle twenty-six days from the time he left Beijing to the time he left China.

Including the ten days he spent in Beijing, de Gaulle spent over forty days in China. This was a rare occasion in his life. However, de Gaulle hadn't officially emerged from retirement yet, so he had plenty of time to explore. He left Henan, where large-scale water conservancy, agricultural, and transportation projects were underway, and traveled to the industrial city of Wuhan. There, he witnessed the strength and potential of Chinese industry.

Wuhan is currently an important industrial city in China.

There are a lot of factories here.

At the start of the First Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union had already built eight large factories, along with nearly 30 supporting small and medium-sized factories. Later, chemical fiber and fertilizer plants were acquired from the Soviet Union and Europe, including one fertilizer plant and two chemical fiber plants in Wuhan.

Last year, Zhou Bin went to Eastern Europe and reached a cooperation agreement with Poland on machine tools.

The factory was established in Wuhan again.

Of course, in addition to these, there are also some factories invested by China itself.

Therefore, there are quite a few heavyweight factories in Wuhan.

If de Gaulle saw in Henan the unity of the military and civilians, the involvement of millions of people in transforming the harsh natural environment, and the courage of the Chinese people in their struggle against nature and earth, then after arriving in Wuhan, de Gaulle saw China's industrial development.

They are all heavy industrial factories.

Perhaps, in terms of proportion, China cannot compare to industrialized nations. Industrialized nations have a very high proportion of industrial output to their GDP, but China's proportion is not as high. However, Charles de Gaulle knew one thing: China was a great power.

No matter how low the proportion of industrial output value is, the total value will not be too low.

This is the industrial situation in China.

So after visiting several important cities in Hubei, Charles de Gaulle realized that although China could not yet be called an industrial country, its industrial strength could not be underestimated.

After leaving Hubei, I entered Hunan.

Charles de Gaulle was very interested in China's second automobile plant in Zhuzhou.

This was because, during his visit, Charles de Gaulle observed many Chinese projects, but few construction machinery and transport vehicles. Although China has been producing trucks and construction machinery itself in recent years, and has also imported considerable quantities from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the overall quantity is limited, and in a country as large as China, it seems remarkably small.

So Charles de Gaulle was very interested in China's automobile factories.

The Second Automobile Plant was located in Changsha.

However, during the actual construction, it was located in Zhuzhou.