"Holy crap!!! He liked it! Zhao Ye liked it!!! This means he also agrees with the suggestion and wants to turn the Bohai Sea into an inland sea, the world's second largest freshwater lake???"

Netizens were shocked and amazed upon seeing this!

If Zhao Ye dares to undertake such a massive project as the Hongqi River, then what is a mere Bohai Dam?

The incident quickly escalated, becoming a trending topic online and sparking countless discussions.

Even many experts, professors, scholars, and officials have participated in the discussion on this topic.

The construction of the Bohai Dam is closely related to the vital interests of Shandong and Liaoning provinces. When local officials learned that Zhao Ye had praised the suggestion to build the Bohai Dam, it immediately caused a stir. The matter was then reported up the chain of command, and meetings were held to discuss the feasibility of building the Bohai Dam.

A high-ranking official in Shandong said, "I think the idea of ​​building a dam in the Bohai Sea is excellent and should be supported!"

As we all know, northern China is extremely short of water. If a dam were built between Penglai in Shandong and Lushun in Liaoning, it would solve the water problem in the north once and for all.

As is well known, the world's largest freshwater lake is Lake Superior in North America, covering 82,000 square kilometers with a water volume of 1.8 trillion cubic meters. The Bohai Sea, with a surface area of ​​77,000 square kilometers and a water volume of 1.4 trillion cubic meters, would become China's largest and the world's second-largest freshwater lake if desalination were successful.

The other officials nodded in agreement.

One person added, "Based on this calculation, China's freshwater resources will increase by 50%. At the same time, the Bohai Dam will also be able to generate electricity using tidal energy, ocean currents, and ocean wind power, becoming the world's largest and longest dam and the world's largest ocean power station!"

Not all the officials present thought the Bohai Dam project was a good idea.

Someone immediately asked, "The Bohai Dam is hailed as a dam of the century. First, we need to consider whether it's economically feasible. Of course, if Zhao Ye's Wujiang Group is willing to fund it, then that's not a problem. Second, after the Bohai Dam is built, how long will it take to replace the seawater with freshwater? Finally, there's the issue of where the marine life in the Bohai Sea will go. We're essentially turning such a large area of ​​ocean into a freshwater lake; this would undoubtedly be a catastrophe for the native fish of the Bohai Sea..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the officials who were in favor of him were speechless. What do you care about marine life? Is it necessary to be so sanctimonious? After the Bohai Sea is desalinated, can't we just raise freshwater fish?

Several officials then spoke up to answer and explain.

Some argue that if the Bohai Sea's water storage capacity is calculated at 1.4 trillion cubic meters, then the four main rivers that feed into the Bohai Sea—the Yellow River, Hai River, Luan River, and Liao River—can contribute approximately 65 billion cubic meters of water annually. Therefore, these four rivers alone could replace the freshwater in about 15 years. If rainwater and other smaller rivers are included, it might even be possible to completely replace the Bohai Sea in less than 10 years. Of course, this calculation is obviously inaccurate. Freshwater injected into the Bohai Sea will mix with seawater, and even with human intervention, such as pumping out the seawater, the process would still be very time-consuming…

In fact, the construction of the Bohai Dam is not the first of its kind in history.

The reason why netizens came up with the idea of ​​building a dam in the Bohai Sea to turn it into a freshwater lake may be largely due to their inspiration from the Zuiderzee Project in the Netherlands.

The Zuiderzee, located in northwestern Netherlands, is similar to the Bohai Sea in China, extending deep inland with a long coastline, but its waterway to the open sea is very narrow. Between 1927 and 1932, the Dutch constructed a 90-meter-wide dike, 7 meters above sea level, through land reclamation, completely isolating the Zuiderzee from the open sea. They then continuously drained seawater from the bay and collected freshwater from rivers, eventually transforming the Zuiderzee into a freshwater lake decades later, naming it Lake IJsselmeer, the largest lake in the Netherlands.

The meeting began with heated discussions that continued until evening without reaching a conclusion.

However, the majority of officials supported it.

Once the Bohai Dam is completed, the Bohai Rim Economic Zone will form a true closed loop, shortening the driving distance from Northeast China to the Yangtze River Delta by 1,000 kilometers. Furthermore, the introduction of freshwater from Bohai Lake into the Mongolian desert may become possible. Shandong will become a link between the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Rim Economic Zone, potentially becoming China's largest economic province. At that time, with the added freshwater resources, the Bohai Lake region may become one of the most livable and developed areas in China…

...

In the afternoon, Zhao Ye's "like" of the suggestion to build a dam in the Bohai Sea caused a great stir online. Employees of Wujiang Group were also very curious, discussing it in the company office and on social media.

"If we're talking about awesomeness, it has to be our Chairman Zhao! Knowing Chairman Zhao as I do, the fact that he approved the suggestion to build the Bohai Dam means he actually wants to build it! My god, turning the entire Bohai Sea into China's largest freshwater lake, just thinking about it is exciting!!!"

"Chairman Zhao doesn't make a move unless it's absolutely necessary, but when he does, it's earth-shattering. The Bohai Dam is nothing to him!"

"China has a very long coastline and an inexhaustible supply of seawater. Turning the Bohai Sea into a freshwater lake would be incredibly significant! I've seen many people online, including some experts, say that building a dam in the Bohai Sea would have some negative impacts and that it's unnecessary. But I believe these negative impacts are just temporary discomforts, and are actually acceptable. In the long run, turning the Bohai Sea into a freshwater lake would benefit generations to come!"

"The analysis is correct; those negative impacts are insignificant. Besides, while building a dam is expensive, money is just a pile of waste paper if it's not spent. The Bohai Dam is a project of the century, which will inevitably drive the development of surrounding infrastructure industries, alleviate some employment pressure, and increase the speed of economic development... Moreover, after the completion of the Bohai Dam, the Bohai Rim Economic Circle will surely enter a period of leapfrog development, becoming the third 'pole' of China's economic growth and an engine for driving economic development in northern China..."

"..."

For employees of Wujiang Group, both the construction of the Hongqi River project and the Bohai Dam are sources of pride and something to boast about. "Look how awesome our company is! We can even undertake such monumental projects!" they'd say.

Therefore, many Wujiang employees are looking forward to Zhao Ye's decision.

As the workday was drawing to a close, Chairman Zhao's secretary, Liu Yinyin, came to report on her work and couldn't help but ask Zhao Ye, "Chairman Zhao, I heard you liked the suggestion to build a dam in the Bohai Sea. So, are you planning to build a dam in the Bohai Sea and turn it into a freshwater lake? It's all over the internet, could it be true? The comment you liked already has over a million comments..."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ye was stunned, looking completely bewildered. He looked up at Liu Yinyin, thinking, "Just one afternoon, and there are already over a million comments. I only clicked 'like' once..."

(End of this chapter)