Chapter 3873

Although Su Xinghui still could not feel satisfied with this result, he also knew that this was the best outcome that could be obtained at the moment.

This compensation of several billion yuan was already much more than in his previous life; at the very least, it could allow those affected children to receive a bit more compensation and make the road ahead a little easier for them to walk.

Furthermore, the number of people held accountable in this life was also significantly higher than in his previous life. According to the information he obtained through communication with Lu Zhenghong, these people would receive the most severe punishments, and once some cadres were dealt with, it would be very difficult for them to be reappointed.

In Su Xinghui's previous life, among the cadres who were disciplined because of the melamine incident, a considerable portion were reappointed not long after, merely changing to a different place to serve as officials, and some even received a promotion in rank.

This was what Su Xinghui found most inconceivable; how could such cadres be reappointed? They might look wronged, but over such a long period, these milk powders had such serious quality problems—where was their supervision? Had they also become a part of the chain of interests? These were all very much worth doubting.

Yet in his previous life, the punishments these officials received were about the same as being fined three cups of wine—raised high, but dropped gently.

In this life, Lu Zhenghong became the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, and Su Xinghui hoped that he could make these officials receive true punishment.

Of course, Su Xinghui did not hold too much hope, because this matter involved too much, and it also concerned the face of the government; in the end, he feared the central authorities would still downplay the matter.

Su Xinghui could only hope that this society would get better and better; at the very least, now, under his efforts, this society had improved much more than in his previous life.

At the very least, housing prices in China were not rising as fast, the momentum of China's high-tech development was much better than in his previous life, and the economies of the several places where Su Xinghui had governed were also much better than in his previous life; the common people in these places could also be considered able to live and work in peace.

Time arrived at 2008. Although the poisonous milk powder incident that shocked the world had occurred in the year that had just passed, most people still felt very happy about the arrival of 2008, and they were also full of expectations for 2008.

This was, of course, because the number 2008 was still very auspicious. Additionally, the first Olympic Games hosted by China would be held in Jingcheng this year; this was a major event that made the people of the whole country pay close attention to it.

But Su Xinghui knew that the year 2008 was not a peaceful year. Many disasters would occur this year, and they would all be major disasters, and this year, a financial crisis would also occur.

Not long after 2008 arrived, the first disaster of this year arrived unexpectedly.

In early January, sudden blizzards struck many southern provinces and regions. Winters in some provinces and regions had been very warm in previous years, but in this year, blizzards that the local people had not seen for decades also began to fall.

This time, the number of southern provinces and regions where blizzards fell reached more than a dozen; the southern provinces and regions were almost all affected. The consequences brought by the blizzards were serious: houses collapsed, water pipes froze and burst, expressways were closed, and power lines were snapped, leading to power outages; in some places, even railways were interrupted.

Large numbers of the masses were affected, large numbers of travelers were stranded at stations, and there was a serious lack of vegetables, food, and drinking water. Some of the masses even suffered casualties because their own houses were crushed and collapsed. Such news kept coming, which also made Su Xinghui's family worry about it.

They called their relatives in Hudong almost every day to ask about the situation. The situation of the maternal grandparents and the aunt and uncle was actually quite good, because they had installed air conditioners in their homes; when the weather got cold, they would turn on the air conditioners and not go out, so the impact was not great.

Although sometimes there would be power outages because the snow was too heavy and snapped the power lines, they had also prepared charcoal at home; when the power went out, they would light the charcoal fire to keep warm. Since they all lived in the countryside, they did not have to worry about food; they had rice at home, vegetables in the garden, pigs in the pigsty, and there was no shortage of chickens, ducks, and the like, so life was not a problem.

After they heard this news, they felt relieved; as long as the people were fine, everything else was not too big of a deal.

The snow disaster in the south was so serious, and there were reasons for this.

In fact, when it came to snow disasters, although the snow in the south this year was heavy, it still could not compare to the snow in Meng Hu Ling in any given year. However, Meng Hu Ling was located in the north, and the government here already had a set of very mature measures for preventing snow disasters, such as water pipe anti-freezing, road snow melting, indoor heating, house anti-crushing, and so on.

These measures meant that no matter how heavy the snow was in the north, it would not become a disaster, and the common people still lived their own lives without any impact. But in the south, such heavy snow could not fall once in decades, so where would they have this kind of experience? Or carry out such measures? Therefore, when a blizzard suddenly struck, they were caught off guard.

However, this could not be blamed on government departments, because carrying out these preventive measures required money, and a lot of money at that. To prevent a snow disaster that only happened once in decades, spending such a large sum of money was not cost-effective. Besides, preventing these things required experience; how much experience could southern cadres have in preventing snow disasters?

The snow disaster touched people's hearts. The central government dispatched large numbers of officers and soldiers to rush to the front line of the snow disaster to help the local masses fight the snow disaster. They helped the local areas shovel and melt snow, rush to repair roads, water pipes, and various lines, helped the masses whose houses had collapsed repair their houses, and transferred them to safe places. Following the '98 flood, the officers and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army once again became the most beloved people in the hearts of the masses.

China Central Television also held a disaster relief gala once again, calling on people to contribute to fighting the southern snow disaster. Those charitable organizations with official backgrounds also called on people everywhere to donate money. They placed donation boxes on the streets of major cities. At this time, quite a few people still trusted official charitable organizations, so many people donated money to these official charitable organizations.

The charitable foundation of Yu Ruizhi and his sister played an important role at this time. They had material storage warehouses in many provinces and cities, and they had been preparing large quantities of disaster relief supplies all year round, including various foods and drinking water, as well as large quantities of blankets, tents, medicines, tools, and so on. At this time, these were the most practical things.

This approach of theirs started from the period of the '98 great flood. At that time, their material warehouses played an important role. From that time on, they established a material reserve system. They stored large quantities of various materials in the warehouses to prevent the occurrence of various natural disasters.

These materials had shelf lives. They would set it so that when there was still half a year left in the shelf life, they would replace these foods and drinking water. The replaced foods and drinking water were directly distributed to those impoverished masses. When a natural disaster occurred, they would directly follow the 'first-in, first-out' method to move the materials out of the warehouse in order and transport them to the disaster area nearby for disaster relief.

Their management system was still very advanced; they used a specialized warehouse management system developed for them by Hanhai Technology, so there had never been a situation where expired food and drinking water were transported to the disaster area.

In this southern snow disaster, the material reserve warehouses they established played a great role. They had such warehouses in major southern cities, which could be transported nearby to transport various materials to the disaster area.

Now, what the disaster area was most in short supply of was still food, drinking water, and various medicines, plus coal for power generation. The charitable foundation had no way to solve the coal for power generation; this required the railway department to think of a way. However, the food, drinking water, and various medicines they transported solved the urgent needs of the masses in the disaster area.

Additionally, the charitable foundation of Yu Ruizhi and his sister also announced that after the snow disaster, they would help those disaster victims whose houses were crushed by the heavy snow to rebuild their homes.