Chapter 599: Disaster Relief Also Requires Methods

He Yuzhu smiled: "The oilfield has one hundred thousand people and they can all be handed over to me. The Rolling Mill only has thirty or forty thousand people; do you think I can't manage it well?"

"I don't think you can't manage it. It's mainly that I think you're too young." Chen Xueru smiled happily.

"I heard you haven't been back to the Siheyuan for a long time?" He Yuzhu asked.

"He Zheng is growing, and in that courtyard, drinking a bit of milk powder or eating some meat leads to people criticizing us." Chen Xueru sighed, "It's just that those young girls like Yushui are having a hard time, and I haven't been able to take good care of them."

He Yuzhu took a thousand catties of Grain Coupons out of his pocket: "You can't store grain here, so just use these Grain Coupons."

Chen Xueru accepted them and said: "My parents don't lack food, it's just that they are too frugal now and keep telling me to ensure the children have enough to eat. Even if I bring back food, they can't bear to eat it."

"Take it slow!" After saying this, He Yuzhu pulled Chen Xueru into his arms.

Early the next morning, He Yuzhu went out to the street to buy breakfast.

Although grain was in short supply, there were still many shops selling breakfast around Qianmen.

He stood in line in front of a breakfast shop.

Xu Damao had just finished buying fried dough sticks and was coming out of the shop; he was startled when he saw He Yuzhu and said with a grin: "Zhuzi, when did you get back?"

"I just arrived yesterday. You don't live in the Siheyuan anymore?" He Yuzhu asked.

"I stopped living there a long time ago. As soon as you walk in the door, you get interrogated by Yan Bugui, and once you get to the Zhongyuan, you have to be scrutinized by Jia Zhangshi. I don't want to go back, I really don't want to go back!" Xu Damao said in a somewhat slouchy manner.

"Not only have you not lost weight, you've even gained a bit. Have you been busy with speculation and profiteering?" He Yuzhu joked.

"Are you telling lies with your eyes wide open? Look at me, I'm just skin and bones." Xu Damao reached out and lifted the undershirt he was wearing.

He Yuzhu waved his hand and said: "I have things to do today, so I won't chat with you. Let's meet at the factory another day!"

Xu Damao said: "Another day, I'll treat you to a meal."

He Yuzhu arrived at the Fuyou Street First Reception House in the morning; just as he entered his room, Man Yatou knocked and came in.

Her eyes were red.

"Girl, you didn't sleep all night, did you?" He Yuzhu handed her two eggs.

Man Yatou sighed: "Brother Zhuzi, the disaster is a bit serious!"

He Yuzhu had never seen Man Yatou look so dejected, so he immediately asked: "Tell me in detail, what exactly is going on?"

While peeling an egg, Man Yatou said: "I got the various statistics provided by Secretary Liu—the figures for public grain delivery, the figures for cadres applying for water pumps, and some figures from investigations he sent people to conduct... I discovered that the problems within these are too serious."

He Yuzhu smiled, "You mean to say that this isn't just a drought, but also involves human factors, for example: some places lack labor because of steel production, some places have hidden grain, and some places are short of grain because of inflated production reports..."

Man Yatou's eyes lit up: "Brother Zhuzi, are you a deity? You know all these problems."

He Yuzhu said: "Once you've spent enough time in society, you'll understand too..."

Man Yatou said earnestly: "Actually, many of the reported figures have no practical value. The disaster situation reports submitted by people entrusted by Secretary Liu from various disaster areas are the most authentic. Based on this limited data, I have basically inferred the disaster situation in each region..."

"Good, very good. Then tell me, how many tens of thousands of water pumps are needed to basically solve the drought problem? And how much grain needs to be released so that we don't..."

He did not continue, and Man Yatou already understood what he meant.

Man Yatou quickly reported a number: "For water pumps, two hundred thousand units is the minimum requirement; five million tons of grain release is the minimum requirement."

He Yuzhu fell into deep thought.

He knew that from this year to next, even if he worked at full capacity, he could only produce thirty thousand sets of pumping equipment.

And even if the whole country produced at full capacity, gathering over one hundred thousand units would be the absolute limit—that still leaves a gap of about one hundred thousand units.

The main thing is that time might already be running out for this year; we can only use the ten thousand water pumps from the Liushi Trading Company for emergency relief, and we must distribute these 10,000 units to the places that need them most.

As for grain, even if we go to buy it from all over the world, we would need a large amount of foreign exchange.

He Yuzhu changed his mind; he wanted to take out all 1.5 million tons of grain from the Lingnan Food Factory to fill this year's gap.

After calculating these ideas, he went straight to knock on Secretary Liu's door.

Secretary Liu was in his room drinking a bowl of thin porridge and eating a steamed bun.

He Yuzhu hurriedly took two eggs out of his pocket and handed them over: "My wife asked me to bring these to you."

When Secretary Liu saw the two eggs, his eyes immediately lit up: "Thank you, I haven't eaten an egg in half a month."

He ate one egg in small bites and put the other one into his pocket.

He Yuzhu suddenly said: "Man Yatou didn't sleep all night. She analyzed the various summarized data and found that many figures are problematic..." He Yuzhu then told Secretary Liu everything Man Yatou had told him.

Secretary Liu's face sank, and he immediately asked the same question as He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu stated the most critical number: "To basically solve the starvation problem, we might be short five million tons of grain for the whole year... I've thought about it, and I'm applying to take out 1.5 million tons of grain from the Lingnan Food Factory at once to allocate to those places that are truly suffering from the disaster."

Secretary Liu's eyes lit up: "Why did you suddenly figure it out? Weren't you preparing for the future?"

He Yuzhu said: "The reason I'm doing this is to ensure that by next year, the Rolling Mill alone can produce seventy or eighty thousand sets of pumping equipment, so the whole country can produce one hundred fifty or sixty thousand sets. Therefore, by next year, relying on our water pumps, we can solve the irrigation problem for about 350 million mu of land."

Upon hearing this, Secretary Liu stood up with a start and patted He Yuzhu's shoulder hard: "To tell you the truth, that's what I thought at first too. You've finally figured it out."

He Yuzhu hesitated repeatedly before saying: "Secretary Liu, the steel produced in various places is basically substandard and cannot be used to make water pumps and Diesel Engines. Can you go and tell the leaders of each province to concentrate all that scrap steel into the main Liangangchang..."

Secretary Liu nodded, but looked troubled: "This has already become an indicator for evaluating cadres in various places..."

"My meaning is, whoever contributes more scrap steel will still be rewarded by the state... at the same time, a portion of the refined steel will be supplied to their regions; whoever gives more gets more," He Yuzhu said, stuttering slightly.

Secretary Liu patted He Yuzhu's shoulder and said: "I understand, I will do my best to talk to them."

He Yuzhu smiled: "There is one more thing that needs you to do. Since the grain we can buy from outside is limited... then we should dig for potential internally and dig out those 'rat warehouses' that are hoarding grain."

Secretary Liu smiled and said: "Good, as long as you can calculate where the grain is hidden, I will go and be the villain."

"That's great!" He Yuzhu said.

Secretary Liu suddenly took a slip of paper out of his pocket and said: "A leader asked me for help, wanting me to suppress the grain prices in the Beijing black market. Can you help with this?"

He Yuzhu smiled when he saw the note and said: "Secretary Liu, you are doing work that spans both the black and white paths."

Man Yatou heard this and also smiled.

Secretary Liu said: "If we don't suppress the black market prices, people will steal public grain to sell. Do you know? The price difference between rice and white flour is 20 times."

He Yuzhu was also startled when he heard this; this was definitely profiteering. If this continues, more and more people will hoard grain, which will only make the grain shortage situation worse and worse.

"Don't worry, I'll handle this matter, but if I get caught, you have to protect me!" He Yuzhu joked.