Chapter 442

"The villagers there went to the city to make trouble two days ago, saying that mining caused the foundation to collapse. The municipal committee promised to solve it as soon as possible. Today, we're accompanying Deputy Mayor Yu to understand the actual situation."

"Oh, so that means the situation is quite serious?"

"A few hundred local villagers from Baishui Town sat at the municipal government gate a few days before New Year's, which attracted high attention from the municipal committee. Otherwise, why would Deputy Mayor Yu, who is so busy, go down to understand the situation personally as soon as the holiday is over?"

"If that's the case, I wonder how the city plans to handle this?"

"I'm thinking the municipal committee will first consider relocating the local villagers because the underground coal seam distribution belt is relatively large. I estimate that relocation will be a massive project. By then, the Heihe Coal Mine and Xiaogou Coal Mine will have to spend quite a bit."

After chatting with Zhang Ailing for the whole journey and roughly figuring out her thoughts and some of the municipal committee's trends, he had a general idea. After meeting with Deputy Mayor Yu at a village next to the Heihe Coal Mine and actually understanding the situation in the surrounding villages, it was just as the villagers had reported: houses and farmland had subsided to varying degrees, which made Deputy Mayor Yu feel that this was truly a matter that gave the municipal committee a headache.

After understanding the actual situation, they drove to the Baishui Town Government and held an ad-hoc symposium. Deputy Mayor Yu listened to some of the ideas and suggestions from the Baishui Town Government and stated on the spot that after returning to the municipal committee and reporting to the mayor, he would hurry to come up with a handling method.

Judging from Deputy Mayor Yu's statement at the ad-hoc symposium, Zhao Desan figured out that the municipal committee had prepared two preliminary plans for this matter: one was large-scale relocation of villagers, and the other was merging the mine shafts. Which plan to choose specifically would have to be decided after the municipal committee meeting studied and considered all aspects.

After returning to Yuyang City, he sent a message to Ma Lan about this matter. Regardless of which plan it was, for Lin Dafa and Ma Lan, the respective owners of the Heihe Coal Mine and Xiaogou Coal Mine, it wasn't a good thing, and both hoped to handle this matter with the least amount of money.

In the evening, Ma Lan invited Zhao Desan to meet at a teahouse and asked him: "What does the city mean?"

"Deputy Mayor Yu held an ad-hoc symposium in Baishui Town today and listened to the opinions and suggestions of the local government. The information revealed from his words is just that: either relocate the villagers or merge the mine shafts. Relocating villagers is relatively not a substantial threat to either of your coal mines; at worst, you'll have to pay for relocation and some compensation, but I'm afraid the villagers won't be willing to move. If they want to merge the mine shafts, the loss will be too serious." Zhao Desan sipped some tea and said.

Hearing him say this, Ma Lan couldn't help but worry. The Xiaogou Coal Mine had taken a lot of effort to snatch from the tiger's mouth of Gao Husheng, and for this, she had even let Tingting be ruined by Gao Husheng. If she lost this mine, it would truly be a loss that outweighed the gain. "Desan, how do you think the municipal committee will finally solve this?" she asked worriedly.

"I don't know yet, Deputy Mayor Yu said he would go back and discuss it with other municipal leaders and make a decision after comprehensive consideration." Zhao Desan said.

"Then what do you think?"

"I think the municipal committee shouldn't consider the second plan unless it's a last resort. These two mines are the lifeblood of Yuyang City's economic development. If closing one of them leads to Yuyang City's economic indicators not going up, I don't think any leader can afford that responsibility, right?" Zhao Desan expressed his view.

At the same time, Zhang Ailing also told Lin Dafa the city's meaning, but Lin Dafa's thoughts were completely different from Ma Lan's. He not only didn't feel this incident was a threat but rather felt it was an opportunity to annex the Xiaogou Coal Mine. The idea he conveyed to Zhang Ailing was to try to let the Coal Bureau mediate and let the municipal committee decide to adopt the second plan—merging the mine shafts—proposed by the municipal committee, with him paying the money, and on the grounds of protecting the ecological environment and the safety of surrounding residents, close Ma Lan's Xiaogou Coal Mine.

Because Zhang Ailing had taken benefits but failed to get things done in the merger of Gao Husheng's coal mine last time, she had always felt indebted to Lin Dafa. After being reminded by him, she verbally agreed to his idea, saying she could propose it to the municipal committee. On one hand, the "grudge" from not getting things done before could be cleared, and on the other hand, she could gain a favor. For both herself and Lin Dafa, it was a "mutually beneficial and win-win" result.

After actual inspection, Deputy Mayor Yu returned to the municipal committee and reported the situation to the mayor and other relevant leaders. The high-level leaders held an emergency meeting, and for a while, they couldn't decide on the two plans. This matter was then left entirely to Deputy Mayor Yu, who was in charge of coal work.

Lin Dafa began to calculate his own wishful thinking, while Ma Lan was still completely unaware that Lin Mining was secretly making trouble and wanted to annex the Xiaogou Coal Mine of Xinmao Mining. Zhao Desan was also kept in the dark about the "black-box operation" on Zhang Ailing's side.

The next morning, the deputy mayor called Zhang Ailing and arranged for the Coal Bureau to comprehensively evaluate the two plans, specifically instructing that the implementation of this matter be handed over to the section chief of the Safety and Quality Section, Zhao Desan.

Zhao Desan had done that previous matter flawlessly and hadn't aroused Zhang Ailing's suspicion, so she passed on Deputy Mayor Yu's request to him word for word. "Deputy Mayor Yu personally ordered this matter to be handed over to you, to comprehensively evaluate the two plans and get results as soon as possible. However, in my personal opinion, the first plan is okay, but I'm afraid the villagers won't be willing to move, and how the two coal mines will share the relocation costs is also an issue. Even if the villagers move away, the geological disasters and environmental damage caused by mining are also a hidden danger. I personally think the second plan is better, addressing both the symptoms and the root cause." Zhang Ailing leaned on her boss's chair, finished speaking thoughtfully, and asked him with a faint smile: "Xiao Zhao, what's your opinion? Which of the two plans do you think is better?"

Zhang Ailing's thought-provoking words left him confused for a moment, like a monk who couldn't figure out the situation. Could there be something fishy? Zhao Desan thought while laughing lightly: "I can't compare them for the time being, both plans have their strengths and weaknesses. However, what you said is also right, Bureau Chief Zhang. From the perspective of environmental protection, the first plan addresses the symptoms but not the root cause, and the second plan does indeed address both. But if one mine shaft is closed, will it cause dissatisfaction from Boss Lin and Boss Ren? Besides, these two mines are related to our Yuyang City's economic development."

Bureau Chief Zhang smiled faintly and said: "If we want to protect the environment, we must sacrifice some economic interests. Now the country strongly advocates environmental protection, but our Yuyang City lives on coal and gets rich because of coal. While promoting rapid economic development, it has also aggravated environmental deterioration. As the competent unit, I personally think it's time for us to consider protecting the ecological environment. We can't just care about the economy and ignore the living environment of our descendants."

Hearing Bureau Chief Zhang actually elevate the consequences of this matter to the height of human survival, Zhao Desan felt something was wrong. She didn't usually have such humanitarian spirit, so Zhao Desan smiled wickedly and said: "Bureau Chief Zhang, I understand what you mean."

Zhang Ailing smiled knowingly and asked: "You understand what I mean? Tell me, what do I mean?"

"Boss Lin wants to close the Xiaogou Coal Mine and only keep the Heihe Coal Mine, right?" Zhao Desan asked with a wicked smile.

Zhang Ailing smiled mysteriously, sat up straight, and said noncommittally: "You kid are really smart, no wonder I value you, even Deputy Mayor Yu values you. Don't tell anyone else about this idea, you know?"

Zhao Desan nodded and said knowingly: "Bureau Chief Zhang, I understand."

After figuring out Zhang Ailing's thoughts on this matter, Zhao Desan felt he had a bottom line. He leaked this news to Ma Lan. Hearing that Lin Dafa was secretly trying to annex her mine, Ma Lan became a bit terrified. Thinking of the merger last time, she owed it all to Zhao Desan, so she begged him to help her in this matter.

Without her saying it, Zhao Desan already had an idea. Since Lin Dafa was playing such a wishful thinking game to put people to death, he might as well let him lift a rock only to drop it on his own feet and teach him a good lesson.

For his plan, Lin Dafa arranged for his son Lin Jianyang, who was the secretary to the Shenfu County magistrate, to make trouble, gathered the leaders of the Baishui Town Government and the village chiefs of several surrounding villages where the coal mines were located, and planned many times in secret for the villagers to go to the municipal government gate under the banner of protecting the environment to pressure the municipal government, urging the municipal committee leaders to hurry up and make the decision to implement the second plan. On the other hand, he started from the Coal Bureau and proposed to the municipal committee to adopt the second plan.