Even if he had learned from the Intelligence Bureau that the British were not well-intentioned, Yang Rui had to be a fool and let the British take advantage of them, just as Korea, Japan, the three Central Asian countries and the Soviet Union took advantage of China. Although World War II can make war money, no matter how much money is made, it will be cheaper for the United States, so it is China's best choice to have more time to develop and maintain the international balance of power.

Yang Rui, who expressed his goodwill, received a letter of thanks from British Prime Minister Baldwin a month later - the British are very grateful to China for participating in maintaining the balance of power in Europe and world peace, but this obviously cannot change some of the British practices of vilifying overseas Chinese. At the same time, Yang Rui's last speech won a lot of favor from the conservative forces in the United States, but overseas Chinese in the United States were very dissatisfied with this. For them, the United States is not their roots, but they earn at least a dollar a day here; In China, even if you go to work as a worker in a factory in Shanghai, the daily salary is rarely more than three cents. When the country was founded, he went bankrupt to buy bonds, but now the prime minister is speaking from the position of an American, and it is uncomfortable to listen to it.

Of course, this kind of complaint can't reach Yang Rui's ears for a while, it can only reach Cheng Ying's ears, but even if it does, the decision cannot be changed. In the view of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Intelligence Bureau, just like the wave of anti-Chinese that occurred in the 13th year of Shenwu, overseas Chinese have become a major factor affecting Sino-US relations, and even if these meritorious people are disappointed, the country will not go to war with the Americans because of the 70,000 overseas Chinese.

After returning to the newly built Duke's Palace in Tonghua, only Cheng Ying continued to pay attention to the public opinion of the diaspora, while Yang Rui routinely browsed the copies of international dynamic briefings and scientific and technological briefings provided by the Intelligence Bureau every day. Lu Mei, who is newly out of the door, has nothing to do, and she is tired of being with men every day, which makes Cheng Ying very dissatisfied. Even if you know that this woman is forced by her husband, if she doesn't marry, she is likely to have to go to court. But Cheng Ying still thinks that Lu Mei seduced her husband in front of her, and she is a shameless vixen.

"Beware of idealism!" Yang Rui looked at the briefing on Pravda's critique of his own civilization reincarnation. When I read it, I was serious, but after I read it, I smiled. This article appeared on the front page of Pravda, which was a major criticism of his 'anti-socialism' and 'anti-people's democracy' by the Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia. The article is fundamentally written in accordance with Marxism, that is, human history is determined by the productive forces, production relations, and labor tools, and it develops in the order of primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, socialist society, and communist society...... In Yang Rui's view, the level embodied in the article is not as good as the university Ma Zhe textbook, and it seems that the theoretical level of the Bolsheviks needs to be improved.

Yang Rui read the article and smiled, and Lu Mei, who was sitting in his arms, was curious when he saw this: "What are you laughing at?" None of the above are good words. ”

"Laugh, of course. The more critical the Bolsheviks were, the more they criticized it was precisely in their soft underbelly. Although the woman's appearance does not meet Yang Rui's aesthetics, she will get used to it after a long time. And unlike Cheng Ying, she has not been contaminated by freedom and democracy for the time being, and belongs to the kind that can be educated. "Max's interpretation of history is that the level of productivity determines everything, while my interpretation of history is that the state of mind of man determines everything. The two are relative and belong to the competition in the same market segment, which is why they criticize it with such fanfare, hehe......"

"Is Max's statement wrong?" Lu Mei bit the head of the pencil, and his expression was very cute. - She is now equivalent to Yang Rui's secretary, and she has to circle some documents in advance. In order to improve Yang Rui's browsing speed.

"Not exactly." After more than ten years of Ma Zhe's education, it is difficult for Yang Rui to say that Ma Zhe is completely wrong, "but it is obviously an incomplete theory that does not consider the human factor." The most important thing is not who is right and who is wrong, but that the theory of civilizational reincarnation and Marxism can compete with each other in the same market segment. And can you ask something that is difficult for the Marxists to answer, such as why did Europe evolve from a republic to an empire, and finally degenerate into feudalism because of barbarian invasions? This is not something that the productive forces of Marxism can explain. Could it be that the primitive tribes of the Germans were more productive than the Roman Empire? ”

Yang Rui is a little proud when he talks about this, and he copied Spengler from the decline of the West. But the reincarnation of civilization is the result of his thinking after studying several major civilizations in the world. This will not only resist the erosion of Marxism, but also resist the threat of Western-centrism and total Westernization. By this time. The greater China is truly ideologically stable, which allows her to confidently maintain the quintessence of the country and promote the national culture, rather than throwing herself into the wave of Westernization.

"Are Marxism as competitive as liberal democracy?" Lu Mei was a little puzzled by the man's elevation of Marxism to such a height. According to this logic, the defeated generals of Japan and Soviet Russia are not good representatives of their Japanese-style individualism and Russian-style socialism, and only the universal democracy of the United States and the constitutional monarchy of Britain are still in the eyes of public opinion, and the American-style democracy preached by those who study in the United States has a certain influence in the hearts of young people.

"Almost, they're essentially the same." Yang Rui said. "Marxism is the predecessor of Li-Ningism, and at the same time it is the future direction of democracy, while American-style democracy and Russian-style democracy are only separated by a wall. In other words, there is only a wall between universal democracy and populism, and populism is the precursor to authoritarian tyranny, so in this sense, the more democratic it is, the more unguaranteed freedom is. The example of Russia could not be more obvious: after the February Revolution, soldiers, peasants, and workers had the right to vote and to be elected, and there was complete democracy. Universal democracy evolved into autocracy, the future of the Roman Republic was the Roman Empire, and in today's Russia, there are Chekas, where workers do not work overtime, soldiers do not charge, there are political commissars, and peasants do not grow grain and have collective farms......"

Yang Rui didn't want Lu Mei to get too involved in political things, but since he talked about this, he had to explain - women have to be completely conquered both physically and mentally, Cheng Ying is body has been conquered, but the spirit of Cent is still stubborn, and Xianfeng, who has never read any books, has never had any thoughts at all, men are her heaven, so that Yang Rui does not have much pleasure of conquest; Now Lu Mei has the great reputation of the beauty of the Republic of China, and she is a thoughtful person, who conquers her with all her heart and trains her. Let Yang Rui feel a sense of achievement.

"My lord, Master Tao from the Ministry of Agriculture and Master Zhang from the State Bank are visiting......," Yang Ruizheng said. There was a knock on the door, and a visitor had arrived.

The knock on the door made Lu Mei, who was sitting in the man's arms, immediately change his position. Her face began to flush as well—the posture she had just sat in was almost indistinguishable from that of love, and she could even feel the man's ....... Women are like this, Yang Rui stood up and straightened his clothes as if nothing happened, and only went out to meet guests when he was calm, Tao Shouhe and Zhang Kun should have come a long time ago.

The late summer and early autumn are still scorching sun, and the living room with the charm of Jiangnan gardens makes people's hearts cool, but what is cooler than the charm of Jiangnan is the air conditioning, Tao Shouhe and Zhang Kun are waiting comfortably in the living room at this time. Among them, only Tao Shou is still idle in the Ministry of Agriculture, and Zhang Kun is no longer an official.

"Sit down. Have a seat! Yang Rui, who came with Lu Mei, looked at the two people who stood up and saluted, smiled, and waved a fan to let them sit down. The weather is too hot, Lizhong, the seven northern provinces are going to suffer from drought again, right? ”

"Yes, my lord......" Tao Shouhe was stopped by Yang Rui as soon as he shouted to the adult, and he said: "I am one year older than your father, since I am at home, I don't want to be an adult, too outside." He said and looked at Zhang Kun again. "Don't call you any adult." ”

"Yes, uncle." Zhang Kun smiled slightly, and Tao Shouhe nodded in agreement. After the death of his father Tao Chengzhang, Yang Rui took good care of the Tao family. Now both brothers are government officials. "There are indeed signs of drought in the seven northern provinces, and there was not enough rain in early spring, but fortunately there were artificial rains in some places. But more places are still suffering from drought. ”

"Hmm." Yang Rui nodded, although he is no longer the prime minister. But he still remembers the drought in the northwestern provinces for five consecutive years, although it completely solved the problem of immigration in the northern courtyard of the Western Regions. But the repeated droughts in the north are really a big trouble.

"Uncle," Tao Shouhe didn't want to mention bad things as soon as he came, but since he talked about the drought in the north, he had to say: "After the peasant associations and township cadres were reduced, the governments of the three provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Henan were almost powerless to provide disaster relief. Some of the irrigation facilities that were built before have also been repeatedly stolen and destroyed by the people, and there are also people who disregard the laws and regulations, divert water from the Yellow River without authorization, dig wells without authorization, and frequently ......fight for water, and the local garrison has already been dispatched, and now the south of Shaanxi, Gansu and Henan is almost under military control, and Premier Song is in a hurry......

"It's normal." Yang Rui fully understands Tao Shouhe's position on populism, and he and his father Tao Chengzhang are in the same line. "The problem in Shaanxi, Gansu and Henan is actually a problem that the social system is completely supported by the bureaucracy, and once the imperial power does not go to the countryside, the people will be in chaos. Lizhong, what do you think of Shanxi? ”

"Shanxi ......" Tao Shouhe certainly knows the difference between Shanxi and Shaanxi, Gansu and Henan, he said: "Shanxi is the best, extremely orderly, Rehe again, Zhili second, Shandong again." However, the people of Shaanxi, Gansu and Henan suffered greatly from the drought, and the local gentry had limited prestige and could not effectively enforce the decrees......"

"Objectively speaking, it might be a good outcome to die those who are messing around." Yang Rui said quietly, and his words shocked the three people present, "I said last time in the drought, you can't unite quickly in a crisis, and you can't reach a high degree of mutual trust between people, but you cheat me, there is really nothing to save such a person, after all, you can't save it twice." ”

"Yes...... But human life is priceless. Tao Shouhe said, his voice was very soft.

"But slaves have a price." Although his voice was soft, Yang Rui still heard it, and his direct counterattack made the atmosphere in the living room instantly embarrassing. But what is unexpected is that Lu Mei actually spoke up, and she said with a smile: "Since there is a shortage of water in North and Northwest China, why can't you dig an irrigation canal?" I remember that in the past, when our country signed the Petersburg Peace Treaty with Soviet Russia, the right of way of the Vladivostok and Trans-Siberian railways was exchanged for an irrigation canal with Lake Baikal as its water source. ”

When Lu Mei spoke up, Tao Shouhe and Zhang Kun, who didn't dare to look at her before, had to look at her. Although she said it very unprofessionally, it was a new topic, so as not to embarrass everyone.

"Sir, the diversion of water from the north to the south is indeed a great thing." Zhang Kun, who was not familiar with water conservancy, also began to interject, agreeing with the newspaper's comments on the post-Petersburg Peace Treaty, saying that the right of way for irrigation canals was a real achievement, especially for the continuous drought in the north.

"The elevation of the surface of Lake Belga is only more than 400 meters, and it is difficult to achieve the current technical conditions to pump water across the Mongolian plateau and lift it by more than 1,000 meters. Another option is to draw water from the middle reaches of the Selenga River, which has an annual runoff of just over 28 billion cubic meters and less than two-thirds of the water in the middle reaches. Even if the downstream agrees to transfer half of it, it will not exceed 10 billion cubic meters, compared with the project investment. This is really not a good deal, let alone build another Yellow River. At the very least, we should build a sea river. Yang Rui didn't expect Lu Mei to speak, so he didn't care and turned the topic to the north-south water transfer. In his view, this should seem like the thing to do in the next century, and all that can be done now is to accumulate data and develop rough plans.

"The problem in North China is that we can only find solutions in three aspects: the first is to plant drought-tolerant crops, the second is to establish a qanats to store rainwater, and the third is to implement water-saving irrigation. Diverting water from the Yellow River and pumping water from wells are all crooked ways, not to mention that once the drainage is not good, the land will become salinized. What if the Yellow River breaks out? Yang Rui said earnestly, "In the past 4,000 years, the Yellow River has been broken thirteen times, the earliest is the Xia Dynasty Emperor Gui ten years when it was broken, and then the forty-third year of the King of Zhou, the second year of the Zhou You King once broken, the Western Jin Dynasty Huai Emperor Yongjia three years of the broken once, four times the broken flow of the king of the country, it can be said that the Yellow River is indeed a sign of national destruction."

After that, it was not until the fifth year of Ming Hongwu that it was broken again, and this time it was okay. In the nineth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth years of Chongzhen, the Yellow River was interrupted four times in a row; During the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it was also the beginning of the dynasty, and it was interrupted twice during the Kangxi period. Then came the second year of Guangxu and the third year of Guangxu to cut off the flow twice in a row, at that time it was the Ding Wuqi famine, at least more than 10 million people starved to death. Now the people along the Yellow River are only willing to buy pumps in partnership in order to save money. Not to mention cement pipes, even the simplest mulching with wheat straw to reduce evaporation is not done. Not to mention digging karez, they are going to destroy Greater China! ”

"Uncle!" Tao Shouhe jumped in shock at Yang Rui's last sentence. His face was pale and his head was covered with sweat, which was a heart-wrenching word.

Tao Shouhe was scared half to death by Yang Rui, while Lu Mei secretly pulled Yang Rui's sleeve. In this way, Yang Rui let go of his hatred of iron and steel, and exhaled a long breath and said: "The north-south water diversion cannot be counted on within sixty years, and it should not be a problem after sixty years." Even if Russia would rather lose the Trans-Siberian Railway and would not let us transfer water, then we will divert water from the Songhua River and from the Heilongjiang River. However, for 60 years, it will have to rely on qanats to collect rainwater, water-saving irrigation, and drought-tolerant crops. The drought is as severe as that of Persia, and the reliable qanats have survived for thousands of years.

In addition to this, the poll tax should also be doubled, the poorer the more born, the poorer the poorer, how can there be no barren mountains, how can there be no drought? Fewer births, planting trees, and water-saving agriculture are absolutely indispensable, and these provinces must be under military control for 10 years, otherwise there will be no organization at all, and nothing can be done."

Seeing that Yang Rui's tone was better, Tao Shouhe was relieved. After basically solving the problem of salinization caused by irrigation, as an official of the Ministry of Agriculture, he was also in favor of the people pooling money to buy high-power pumping machines for irrigation, but he never imagined that the Yellow River would be cut off because of this. If it is really like what Yang Rui said, if the Yellow River breaks off, he will be a sinner through the ages.

"Well, these things will be proposed by the representatives of the Inspector's Academy, so you don't have to bother, but you must remember one thing, the Ministry of Agriculture will always be lower than the Ministry of Land, or even lower than the Ministry of Transportation. The Ministry of Soil said that it was not allowed to pump water, so it was not allowed to pump water; If you say you are not allowed to dig wells, then you are not allowed to dig wells. Once the ecosystem in the north deteriorates, at least half of the 200 million people in the seven provinces will die, and they will die when they die, but this land will soon become the Gobi, and then it will become a desert, and the land that has been passed down from generation to generation will be gone, who can afford to pay this responsibility?! ”

Yang Rui's expression was serious, Tao Shouhe's face turned from white to red, beads of sweat the size of beans dripped down one by one, and the front and back of his clothes were already wet. However, Yang Rui didn't look at him, but just sighed: "The drought in the north for several years is still caused by the rapid population growth, uncontrolled industrial and agricultural development, and wanton water use. ”

Yang Rui thought about the diversion of water from the north to the south. Although there are chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the lack of water and soil is still difficult to solve, especially in the north, if it were not for the annual increase in grain production and the government's strong rescue, I really don't know how many people would starve to death. To completely solve the current dilemma, the most effective way to think about it is to dig the canal, but is the canal so easy to dig? According to the report of the Ministry of Land and Water Resources, the best plan for the canal is to take water from the southwest end of Lake Belga at an altitude of 400 meters, and then gradually lift the water to Lake Khusugul at an altitude of 1,650 meters through the Irkut channel of about 200 kilometers, and then borrow the potential energy from the heights and widen part of the original channel to allow water to flow into southern Mongolia.

The plan is very simple, but the engineering difficulty, especially the difficulty of raising the lake water by 1,250 meters, is not solvable at the moment, and then the geological conditions of the river along the way, the power supply required to raise the lake water, the winter ice age problem, and the evaporation problem along the way, all of which will take time to solve.

But even if these problems are solved, the costs are extremely high: without accounting for depreciation at fixed costs, and assuming that the amount of evaporation along the canal is equal to the amount of water flowing into Lake Khuvsgul and beyond, it would take at least eight kilowatt-hours of electricity per tonne of water to lift 1,250 meters. Calculated at 0.016 yuan per kilowatt-hour [Note 133], one cubic meter of water costs 1 cent, 2 cents and 8 cents, which is more expensive than the tap water in the Shanghai Concession - the water price set by the Shanghai Public Concession in 1905 was 0.044 taels per cubic meter of water for municipal projects, and the price per cubic meter for non-domestic water for new users was 0.066 to 0.088 taels, and the highest was not more than 1 cent and 2 cents per cubic meter. [note 134]

The north-south water diversion project is not mineral water, but agricultural and industrial water. At present, the output of one mu of land is 200 catties, and if only a quarter of the irrigation water needs to be paid, the fields cannot be planted, because the price of water is higher than the price of grain. [note 135]

Yang Rui thought about the bad situation in the whole north, and felt that these problems could only be solved by a descendant, and all he could do was to collect data and make a plan when the time was ripe; The other is to move the capital to the south - since ancient times, they have lived by water, and since there is no water, the increasingly large capital should be moved to a place where there is water.

Thinking about these problems, a cigarette was quickly smoked, and at this time, Yang Ruicai said: "I don't want to think about the problem of water shortage in the north, this is a century-old plan, and it can't be solved in a while, let's talk about the current situation." ”

"Yes, sir." Zhang Kun, who had been waiting for a long time, finally spoke. "Sir, the New York stock index has reached 200 points, changing hands more than 5 million shares every day, we judge that the New York stock market is likely to collapse at the beginning of next year, and now the major market makers are secretly making emergency adjustments, probably preparing to take the opportunity to make a profit."

"Well, it's finally coming." Yang Rui couldn't see the expression on his face, just such a faint sentence, and he stared for a while before he said: "The year before last, didn't the CIA say that we imported a large number of American cement machines, and we were helping the American economy eliminate the bubble in disguise?" ”

"Sir, according to the Sino-US Paris Treaty, although we import hundreds of millions of dollars of American goods every year, we do not buy consumer goods, only raw materials such as cement, asphalt, ores, metals, etc., as well as mechanical lathes and some patents. This will indeed help the U.S. economy to clear the bubble, but we also export a lot of products to the U.S., and the European economy is so weak that they can't buy more American goods. If we don't buy it on a large scale next year, the US stock market will definitely collapse. Zhang Kun said.

The essence of the "next year's ......" Sino-US Paris Treaty is to spend money to buy back the right to rights -- China promises to import more than $200 million of American goods every year on the original basis, and the United States signs the new Sino-US treaty drawn up by China. In recent years, China has been carrying out large-scale infrastructure construction, importing more than $200 million of American goods every year, but the pull of the iron public base will stop one day, and starting next year, the time stipulated in the treaty will come, and the import volume to the United States will gradually fall back to the normal level.

"The first thing I want to do when I want to come to the 31st president of the United States is to visit China." Yang Rui said with a smile.

"That's true, and that's what Wall Street has to say." Zhang Kun nodded, "Regardless of whether the domestic cement, locomotive, and steel production has also risen, the construction of infrastructure projects will also be completed one day......

"The United States will not care about it for now," Yang Rui said, "Let's talk about what kind of losses we will suffer in the event of an economic crisis, which industries will benefit, and which industries will suffer heavy losses, what are the countermeasures?" ”

"Sir, it is estimated that once an economic crisis occurs, export-related industries will suffer. Because our industrial products are mainly sold to the United States, and our agricultural products are sold to Europe, especially Germany, it is estimated that the export value of 2.8 billion Chinese yuan last year will drop by at least 40 percent or more. Most home appliance factories have to shut down, and automobile factories can only switch to the production of wind tricycles......; The price of agricultural products should be cut in half at least......"

Zhang Kun has the rationality of a banker, and downplays the consequences of the economic crisis, but Tao Shouhe is a little excited, Zhang Kun said after he finished speaking: "Uncle, if the economic crisis occurs next year, many tenant farmers will not be able to prepare in the future, many of them have just taken out loans to buy small tractors and tricycles, and if the price of grain is really halved, the loan will definitely not be repaid." (To be continued.) )