Although the Yellow River in August is the main flood season, the amount of water is very large, but the Yellow River is at the junction of Shanxi and Shaanxi, from the meanders to the section of Hejin, because the river surface is wide, the riverbed is relatively flat, although the water flow is very rapid, but it is not turbulent, and the river water is not as turbid as below the mouth of the pot.

On the east bank of the Yellow River, which is wide and gentle, the barren grass that used to grow on the large saline-alkali tidal flats along the river has long since disappeared, replaced by green and golden rice fields that can not be seen from north to south. Looking at the waves of rice that sway with the breeze and smelling the fresh aroma of rice, anyone will be relaxed and full of hope for their future life.

On the bank of the east bank of the Yellow River, every 5 miles or so, there is a stone platform made of granite, on each stone platform there is a row of very long pipes with the thickness of the bowl mouth, these pipes are stuck in the Yellow River at one end, and the other end is in the pool under the stone platform on the east side, the turbid Yellow River water flows out loudly, falls on the bottom of the cement pool, splashes up a cloud of water mist, and under the sunlight, it shines with a piece of strange brilliance.

This is the Yellow River Irrigation Project designed by Cao Ruizhi. This project uses the principle of siphoning to draw water from the Yellow River and use it to transform and irrigate these saline-alkali lands along the Yellow River.

From the meanders of the river in the northwest of Shanxi Province to the Liulin in the middle of Jinzhong, the saline-alkali land of the river beach with a length of more than 300 miles has now been fully developed by the Committee of Agriculture, with a total of more than 750,000 mu and more than 50,000 hectares of paddy fields.

These siphon stations divert the muddy Yellow River water to a low-lying area, or a large artificially built pond, to allow the sediment to settle, and then through the channel, the clean water is diverted to the main canal, and the farmland manager can distribute the water to the fields by controlling the sluices leading to the various branch channels of the main channel. The excess water flows back into the Yellow River in downstream sections.

In some large low-lying areas, fish ponds have also been built to breed Yellow River carp.

According to the COA's soil improvement plan, the sediment sedimentation ponds and fish ponds are drained every winter, and the soil is manually cleared, and the fertile silt is transported to the newly cultivated terraces on the hill for farming.

Feng Rui, Cao Ruizhi and others plan to directly inject a large amount of Yellow River water into the low-lying land and the lowland that has been semi-desertified next year, and they should take advantage of the Yellow River's large cement and sand content to come to the fields, and if everything goes well, not only can millions of acres of fertile land be created, but the climate and environment there can even be greatly improved to prevent the desert from moving southward.

This plan made Song Zhewu very amazed, and also reminded Song Zhewu of the famous ambitious plan to divert the sea to change the Northwest Desert in his previous life, but unfortunately after argumentation, the plan in his previous life was aborted.

If you go south along the river from the meanders of the river, these hundreds of miles of riverbank rice fields and dozens of large fish ponds make people feel as if they have come to the water town in the south of the Yangtze River.

Along the edge of the 750,000 acres of riverbank paddy fields from the meanders of the river to the willow forest, along the foot of the mountain, according to the natural topography, an 8-meter-wide earthen road has been built, mainly for the transportation of personnel, fertilizers, and personnel and materials during harvest.

The scene on the eastern slope of this road is different from that of the riverbank, with the flat terraces built along the mountain, cascading on the hillside, the cold-tolerant and high-yielding corn sorghum erecting patches of green yarn, and the full purple-red sorghum ears raised high, setting off bursts of colorful waves in the wind, which is very beautiful.

In order to allow the crops to better absorb sunlight, some low crops such as potatoes, cotton, soybeans, etc. are also planted in the terraced intervals, and the terraces on the slope are separated by layers.

Some of the hillsides are also planted with alfalfa, and the dazzling purple of the large expanses is even more dizzying.

At the foot of each alfalfa-grown hill is a model farm where flocks of fat, sturdy, beef, and dairy cows graze leisurely.

In the fields above and below the mountain, there are groups of peasants and laborers on each piece of land who are busy nervously and happily, and there is cheerful laughter from time to time.

All of this makes this ancient and strange land full of vitality and endless vitality.

This is the largest demonstration farm directly under the Northern Construction and Development Committee - the Northwest Shanxi Demonstration Farm.

In Xingxian County, Shanxi Province, near the Yellow River, a convoy of dozens of healthy horses and guards drove along the road. Judging from the dyeing of the uniforms, the guards are obviously members of the Fourth Route Army, which is the area of the Taiyuan Administration controlled by the Fourth Route Army.

The convoy in the middle was made up of eight majestic tiger cub jeeps that were now only qualified to be ridden by the senior officers of the Fourth Route Army in the Taiyuan Administration, shining with a bright grass green light. The convoy turned onto a mountain road at the foot of the mountain and drove all the way to a gentle and wide hillside more than 100 meters high before slowly coming to a stop.

There is a three-story cement noodle building on the hillside, surrounded by several rows of red brick houses, which is the site of the demonstration farm in the northwest of Shanxi Province. Feng Rui, Zhao Chengxia, and Cao Ruizhi, the main personnel of the Committee of Agriculture, who had arrived in advance, were already waiting in front of the door.

The person who came was Song Zhewu, but this time there was also a guest who came with Song Zhewu, who turned out to be Yang Hucheng, commander-in-chief of the 17th Route Army and chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Political Axe.

It turned out that after the Olympic selection games, Song Zhewu did not stop in Taiyuan, but began to inspect the construction site of the Taiku Railway non-stop.

In order to build the Taiku Railway as soon as possible, the Taiku Railway Administration, with the strong support of Jia Jingde, divided into three sections: Shanxi Section, Biguan to Baotou Section, and Baotou to Baiyun Obo Section for simultaneous construction. With the efforts of hundreds of thousands of road construction troops composed of hundreds of thousands of disaster victims in Henan and Shaanxi, the construction speed of the Taiku railway is very fast, and it is estimated that the section from Taiyuan to Pianguan Shanxi will be completed and opened to traffic by the end of the year.

The construction speed of the Taiku railway is so fast, which is inseparable from Song Zhewu's strong support. Although the Taiku Railway Administration is not short of funds, the procurement of a large number of materials still needs to be solved by Song Zhewu and the Northern Construction and Development Committee.

The same is true of the issue of migrant workers, who are now involved in road construction with the help of Jia Jingde's instructions from the Transportation Committee of the Northern Construction and Development Committee. Even the large amount of grain needed by these people was also sent by Jia Jingde to help purchase and transport.

Song Zhewu inspected the construction site of the Taiku Railway this time, and because of the section of the railway line from Yangqu Gao Village north to Xin County designed by Xie Zongzhou, deputy chief engineer, and others, there was a disagreement between the line selection and the director of the project, Li Qichang. Xie Zongzhou believed that the foundation of this section of the river was not good, and it was estimated that it would be difficult to build a road, so he designed it to go east from Gaocun to Dingxiang to Yuanping without passing through Xin County, "abandoning the bowstring and walking the bowback". Li Qichang did not agree with this plan, so he personally led people to investigate, thinking that from Gaocun to Yuanping through Xin County.

This matter finally came to Ling Hongxun, and Ling Hongxun had to go to the scene to investigate in person. After Song Zhewu heard about this incident, he was also very curious, he had heard about this matter in his previous life, but he didn't expect that with the appearance of him, a traverser, this incident still happened.

After Song Zhewu followed Ling Hongxun to personally inspect that section of the line, he finally supported Li Qichang's point of view, and this section of the line was calculated according to Ling Hongxun's calculation, because it was not rerouted, saving 2 million yuan. After Xu Yiqing learned about this, he rewarded Li Qichang with 10,000 Tang yuan on the spot.

not only encouraged Li Qichang, but also comforted Xie Zongzhou and Ling Hongxun together.

Because Xie Zongzhou attaches great importance to the quality of railway construction, the reason why he changed the line is mainly from the perspective of the quality of railway construction. At the same time, Song Zhewu asked Ling Hongxun to reward Xie Zongzhou with 1,000 yuan in the name of the Transportation Committee and encouraged him to continue to strictly control the quality of road construction, which made Xie Zongzhou very moved.

When he was still at the railway construction site, Song Zhewu learned that Yang Hucheng Weifu had come to Taiyuan.

It turned out that since Yang Hucheng received the help of Song Zhewu last year, he found gaps and interspersed them, preemptively attacked and occupied Longmen, and then seized Tongguan to occupy Shaanxi, Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to appoint Yang Hucheng as the commander-in-chief of the 17th Route Army and the chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Political Axe.

Getting the position of chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Political Axe made Yang Hucheng and his generals very happy.

Since Yang Hucheng left Feng Yuxiang last time to join Chiang, he was only appointed as the commander of the Nanyang garrison, and he had no power over local affairs.

This made Yang Hucheng very envious of Han Fuyu, who presided over a province, and always looked forward to the day when he could be in charge of a province alone, and he could improve the situation of the army with local financial resources, but he had been suffering from no chance.

However, what he never expected was that Song Zhewu, who had never met him, would take the initiative to help him with this great favor and fulfill his dream. not only helped him enter Shaanxi, but also sent him food, weapons and ammunition twice, which made Yang Hucheng and several of his brigade commanders grateful.

Although Yang Hucheng knew in his heart that Song Zhewu did this for Song Zhewu to develop more steadily in Shanxi, after all, with him who was grateful to him Song Zhewu across the river from Shanxi, Song Zhewu would be much more at ease. Even Yang Hucheng still thought in his heart that Song Zhewu did this because he wanted to join forces with himself to fight against Chiang Kai-shek's exclusion of dissidents when necessary.

However, in any case, Song Zhewu helped himself after all, and it can even be said that his provincial chairman was not given by Chiang Kai-shek, but by Song Zhewu.

Originally, Yang Hucheng wanted to go to Taiyuan in person to thank Song Zhewu in person, and he could also have a close relationship with Song Zhewu, so that he could rely on Song Zhewu's big tree to enjoy the shade in the future.

It's just that the famine in Shaanxi is serious, and many villages and towns are empty, and he is not only busy raising money to help the victims, but also thinking about how to restore production and appease the people, and he is very busy.

In May this year, Yang Hucheng, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, just wanted to come to Taiyuan, and caught up with Lei Zhongtian, a former general of the Northwest Army, to raise the flag against Chiang in Lanzhou. Yang Hucheng was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to arrange for troops to enter Gansu to crusade against Lei Zhongtian, which was almost a year, and he was not satisfied with it until now.

The reason why Yang Hucheng came to Taiyuan this time was because Yang Hucheng had a mystery in his heart......

(To be continued)