Zhang Hongcheng and a group of people walked at the bottom of the dry riverbed.
He bent down and grabbed a handful of the soil under his feet; it was all dry.
"Zhang County, this little river is only a foot deep in the summer, but after autumn it becomes like this."
Old Hu from the well-drilling team is now a celebrity around Zhang Xian. He has been talking all the way.
Zhang Hongcheng listened very carefully. The experiences shared by the elderly in every place were very valuable information for those in power.
"Our area has little water and rain, so there's more snow every winter. Villages and townships rely on the snow in reservoirs and ponds to get through spring plowing."
"When the river flows again in the summer, it will become less flooded."
Zhang Hongcheng smiled, knowing that Old Hu was trying to persuade him in disguise.
Thousands of people from three nearby communes stood on the sandy ground on both sides of the river bank. They were all transferred from the water conservancy construction sites of various communes by Zhang Hongcheng's forced order.
Old Hu wanted to find a way out and let these people go back to repair their own reservoirs to facilitate snow storage in winter.
The local climate is quite suitable for growing cotton, and the only thing that inhibits the expansion of cotton fields is the water problem.
In another time and space, although the quality of local cotton in H County is quite famous, the number of cotton fields has always been controlled at just over 10,000 acres. This is all due to hundreds of wells drilled by the county government in later generations, which consume the precious groundwater resources in the northwest.
But this situation changed in a natural disaster in 2023.
A major earthquake at the end of December that year caused an earthquake lake to appear in H County.
An underground water vein leading to Lin County was forced to divert and change its course due to structural changes within the mountain, and squeezed out of the ground from the crack in the northeast corner of H County...
Zhang Hongcheng did not respond to Old Hu's chattering. He looked up at the middle of a mountain in the distance.
Militiamen from the armed forces were installing detonators there.
He planned to blast open the two to three meter thick rock layer and then fill the bottom of the mountain with stones.
Cough cough cough, he planned to take it without asking and quietly take away at least one-third of the water in the neighboring county.
It's not that he is a bad person, he just can't be more careless...
Besides, Old Yang Shuji also said that he would take responsibility if anything happened.
After several consecutive explosions, half of the hillside collapsed, causing the people at the foot of the mountain to talk about it, but the effect was not satisfactory.
Fortunately, Zhang Hongcheng changed his mind temporarily and asked retired soldiers such as Guo Tao to operate the detonation again, and the situation improved.
After several more explosions, when only a few detonators were left, the mountain was finally blown through. Of course, half of the hilltop was gone, and Guo Tao and his gang all turned into white gray men.
At this point, Zhang Hongcheng no longer hid the secret from the commune directors and told them the next work and purpose.
"Zhang Xian, I'm afraid that what we're doing is a little unkind, isn't it?"
Although the director of Shuangma Commune spoke very tactfully, the people under him were the fastest to run up the mountain.
The director of Lanshan Commune licked the corner of his mouth.
"That's right. If the neighboring county comes to ask for an explanation, what should we say?"
"You two, stop pretending," the director of Ma Tun Commune stamped his foot impatiently, preparing to pick up his hoe and follow suit. "If you want to scold them, scold the county. Let the county deal with them."
"As long as there is enough water, what does face need?"
Zhang Hongcheng chuckled.
"So, the county needs to speak with the commune and township authorities. This was an accident!"
Several commune directors and cadres nodded enthusiastically, yes, that's exactly the reason!
…
D County.
A group of county officials looked solemnly at the winter river flowing around the city.
"Leaders, for some unknown reason, the water level in our river has dropped by two feet since the day before yesterday. Now the river is only 1.5 meters deep at most. This has never happened before."
County Magistrate Huang of County D asked the Director of the Water Conservancy Bureau with a serious face.
“If we can’t find the cause, what will happen if we continue like this?”
The director of the Water Conservancy Bureau discussed with several technicians for a while before giving an answer.
"If the water loss continues, it will affect our spring ploughing next year. Of course, if we can maintain the current situation, the impact on spring ploughing will not be significant, but we may need to invest more manpower."
"I'll give you three days to find out what's causing the changes in the water..."
Before County Magistrate Huang could finish his words, a government worker came running over in a hurry.
"Dear leaders, the reason for the water level drop has been found!"
"what is going on?"
"Reporting to the County Chief, our people from the Water Conservancy Bureau have been investigating all the way to the northwest. They found that the hills in neighboring County H are quite busy, so they went over to take a look out of curiosity."
The staff member's face turned a little red and he looked very aggrieved.
"Who would have thought, who would have thought, it turned out that the people from H County had blasted through the mountain. Thousands of people took turns filling it with rocks, forcing the source of our river to be diverted!"
"Yang, you idiot, I'll RILL you!!!"
An old deputy county magistrate with a bad temper started cursing in anger.
County Magistrate Huang, with a grim face, immediately called the city to file a complaint.
As for that shameless old man Yang Huaisheng, I can never win an argument with him by myself.
But even though the city called repeatedly to inquire about the situation or to mediate and give advice, Yang Huaisheng still pretended to be absent or made up nonsense to buy Zhang Hongcheng an extra day and a half.
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