Chapter 1910

Nie Xin's words brought a smile to Su Xinghui's face. He asked gently, "Comrade Nie Xin, how is the flood situation in Chongjin County this year?"

Nie Xin was a bit stunned. This County Magistrate Su's thinking was too jumpy, right? How did he suddenly ask about the flood situation again? But since he asked, Nie Xin had to answer.

"County Magistrate, the flood situation in Chongjin County this year is still okay. The flood peak water level is not too high, and both the river embankments and lake embankments have held up."

Nie Xin was in charge of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery, and water conservancy work also fell within his scope. He still had a lot of say in this work. The flood season this year had ended not long ago. There was a lot of rain in the early stage, but not much rain in the later stage. The water level was not high, and the flood season this year had passed safely. This also made Nie Xin very fortunate.

Chongjin County's geographical location was surrounded by rivers and lakes. The total length of the river embankments and lake embankments within its territory was nearly 100 kilometers. The flood control work task every year was very heavy, which made Nie Xin feel a lot of pressure every year at this time. If there was a flood and where the embankment broke, he would be the directly responsible person.

Su Xinghui said, "Then what is the current situation of the river embankments and lake embankments in Chongjin County?"

Nie Xin couldn't help but hesitate. Su Xinghui said, "If you have anything to say, just say it directly. The sooner you say it, the better. If you say it early, we still have time to remedy it. If you don't say it, and if there is a flood next year and something happens, you will be the one to suffer the consequences."

Nie Xin remembered that Su Xinghui was now his backer, so he spoke his mind: "County Magistrate, the situation of the river embankments and lake embankments in the county is not optimistic. There are too many debts owed in the past, but the county's fiscal situation is not very good, and not much money can be allocated for maintenance. Fortunately, the floods in recent years have not been too large, so they have barely held up."

Su Xinghui asked, "Then do the river embankments and lake embankments in the county need maintenance, or do they need to be completely rebuilt?"

Nie Xin said, "A part of them can be maintained, but there are still several sections that need to be completely rebuilt."

Su Xinghui said, "Then estimate, if we want to completely renovate the embankment facilities in Chongjin County, about how much capital will be needed?"

Nie Xin said, "Our county's river embankments and lake embankments are long. I estimate that to repair all these river embankments and lake embankments, it will take at least several tens of millions, or even 100 million. This is not a small amount."

Speaking of flood control work, Nie Xin became very serious. He grew up locally and knew all too well how terrifying floods were. He might not be a very dedicated deputy county magistrate, but he didn't dare to be careless about flood control and disaster relief. He invested the most energy in this work.

Su Xinghui said, "What is the flood control standard you mentioned?"

Nie Xin said, "The standard I mentioned is to resist a flood that occurs once every 20 years."

Su Xinghui said, "Then what if we want to resist a flood that occurs once every 100 years?"

Nie Xin was stunned and said, "County Magistrate, is such a high standard necessary? That is a flood that occurs once every 100 years. How could it happen so easily? We only had such a flood that occurs once every 100 years more than 40 years ago. If the standard is set too high, where would our county get so much money?"

Su Xinghui said, "Then what if a flood that occurs once every 100 years happens next year? Can the standard of once every 20 years hold up?"

Nie Xin hesitated and said, "It wouldn't be such a coincidence, would it?"

Su Xinghui said, "When I was in Hudong Province, I read an article published by a water conservancy expert in our county. It said that in recent years, with the frequent occurrence of the El Niño phenomenon, the climate is becoming more and more abnormal. Moreover, because there is more and more silt in the Yangtze River and the lake area is becoming smaller and smaller, the water level will become higher and higher under the same amount of water, so the risk of major floods will also become greater and greater. I think this article makes a lot of sense."

Nie Xin couldn't help but ponder. Although he hadn't read this article, he also felt that what was said in this article made a lot of sense. He had also considered these phenomena; after all, he was the deputy county magistrate in charge of water conservancy.

After a long while, Nie Xin said, "But, County Magistrate, if we want to follow the standard of once every 100 years, the construction cost might increase by several times. I'm afraid two or three hundred million won't even cover it."

Su Xinghui said, "You don't need to consider the funding issue; I will find a way. You organize people from the water conservancy department to come up with a plan for embankment renovation as soon as possible in these two days, the faster the better, otherwise the flood season won't wait for anyone."

Nie Xin was a bit excited. This County Magistrate Su was indeed powerful; he didn't even take the funding of two or three hundred million seriously. If the embankments were really repaired on a large scale, this errand would naturally fall on him. This was a lucrative job.

He nodded vigorously and said, "Alright, County Magistrate, I will organize people to come up with this plan as soon as possible."

Su Xinghui said, "Besides repairing the embankments, other work you are in charge of cannot be left behind. Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery, including wild animal protection, must all be implemented."

Nie Xin nodded and said, "County Magistrate, I will definitely work hard."

Su Xinghui said, "Alright, then you go and get busy first."

Nie Xin stood up, nodding while retreating backward, until he bumped into the door. Only then did he turn his head, opened the door, nodded to Su Xinghui again, and went out.

Looking at his appearance, Su Xinghui couldn't help but laugh.

Su Xinghui was also very satisfied with today's harvest. Duan Qi was a person who could be used, Li Zhongwen also had value for cultivation, and Nie Xin, although a bit slick and having quite a few shortcomings, was generally able to do things and was not in the same camp as Yuan Yifu and the others. Su Xinghui was just in the time of needing people. If he gave Nie Xin a good beating, this person could also be used.

If Nie Xin could seize this opportunity and not mess around, Su Xinghui wouldn't mind giving him a hand.

After Nie Xin came out of Su Xinghui's office, he hurried back to his office. He didn't see that several pairs of eyes were staring at him, hiding behind the windows of several offices with closed doors.

However, even if Nie Xin knew that these pairs of eyes were staring at him, he wouldn't care. Since he had already decided to defect to Su Xinghui, what did it matter if these people saw him? He didn't care about others' opinions at all now.

He had stayed in Chongjin County for so many years and knew County Party Secretary Yuan Yifu's character all too well. This person was a cold-hearted person. He threw the blame on him today, which had already made Nie Xin hate him to the bone. Nie Xin would never trust Yuan Yifu again.

After Nie Xin returned to his office, Wu Zhengjing came out of his office, looked around, then knocked on the door of Yuan Yifu's office and slipped in.

Yuan Yifu was sitting behind his desk, his feet still on the table, leaning comfortably against the back of the chair. Seeing Wu Zhengjing come in, he didn't even blink his eyelids. He took a puff of his cigarette and exhaled a smoke ring with a very comfortable expression.

Wu Zhengjing didn't look surprised at all when he saw this. He stood in front of Yuan Yifu's desk and whispered to Yuan Yifu, "Secretary, Nie Xin just entered Su Xinghui's office. He stayed for almost an hour before coming out and has now returned to his own office."

Yuan Yifu said, "He was quite happy, wasn't he?"

Wu Zhengjing said, "He was quite happy."

Yuan Yifu viciously stubbed out the cigarette that still had more than half left in the ashtray and said resentfully, "This ungrateful white-eyed wolf!"

Yuan Yifu never thought about how he treated Nie Xin. In his philosophy of life, he would rather betray the world than let the world betray him.

Wu Zhengjing said, "Secretary, I think he must have defected to Su Xinghui. What do you think we should do?"

"What to do?" Yuan Yifu squeezed a sentence through his teeth: "Nothing! Does he think he will have a good ending following Su Xinghui? Don't look at the fact that he has the governor as his backer; in our small place, it still won't work!"

Wu Zhengjing said, "Secretary, we must give that Su Xinghui a warning; otherwise, how can we have any face left?"