Zhang Yu was one year older than Wu Youping, in his early thirties, young and aggressive. Hearing this guy say 'rest and recuperation may not be suitable for Shaanxi,' Wu Youping felt that Zhang Yu was letting his emotions get the better of him.

Amidst the silence of everyone, Wu Youping pondered for a moment before speaking, "Comrades, do you feel confident in turning the following meeting into an academic discussion?"

Hearing the term 'academic discussion,' the crowd at the meeting was not used to it, but the participants knew what an academic discussion was. Within the scope of academic discussion, only facts were discussed, and personal emotions were not allowed. If there were personal emotions involved, the meeting could kick this person out.

This was also the situation Wu Youping wanted. If Wu Youping wanted to deal with Zhang Yu politically, he only needed to let Zhang Yu continue to jump, and Zhang Yu would force himself to the opposite side of the current economic thinking. So Wu Youping had to help Zhang Yu out of the trap first to let the work continue.

The first to see that Wu Youping wanted to give Zhang Yu a chance was the Governor of Shanxi Province. This burly man from Tianjin looked quite rough, but was actually very delicate inside. Since Wu Youping wanted to help Zhang Yu, the Shanxi Governor said with a Tianjin accent, "Let's try to hold an academic discussion; let me learn too."

Someone gave a chance to step down, so Wu Youping built the steps. "An academic discussion needs to set a topic. I will set the first topic. This topic is called: What is rest and recuperation?"

Zhang Yu felt a bit of shock in his heart. He had just said that rest and recuperation might not be needed in Shaanxi. If he was refuted, wouldn't it prove that his idea was completely wrong! But since everyone agreed, Zhang Yu also knew that he must not jump up to oppose so many people. He could only follow honestly.

Wu Youping didn't look at Zhang Yu either and spoke first, "Rest and recuperation is not lying down and not working, nor is it choosing not to work when one can choose to work or not."

Speaking of this, Wu Youping turned to Zhang Yu. "Comrade Zhang Yu, I think the comrades in Shaanxi and other northwestern provinces are working hard. Shaanxi Province sent out more than two thousand comrades; you almost sent out all the capable soldiers and strong generals in your hands, right?"

Although Zhang Yu was young and aggressive, he was not stupid. At this time, he knew very clearly that Wu Youping was giving him a way out, and naturally knew he should be grateful to Wu Youping in his heart. However, working in Shaanxi for this year, Zhang Yu himself had accumulated a lot of experience. Even with equal goodwill, Zhang Yu felt he must make it clear.

Calming his emotions as much as possible first, Zhang Yu said, "Premier, I can understand the meaning of rest and recuperation. However, the situation on the Loess Plateau is worse than we thought. It's not just building some small silt dams that can solve the problem. In very many areas, what is needed are high silt dams of more than ten meters or even tens of meters. Each county needs several or even dozens of silt dams."

Speaking of this, Zhang Yu felt he couldn't take all the responsibility, so he turned to the governors of other northwestern regions. "The geographical conditions of each province are different, but areas by the river often have such needs. Comrades, since it is an academic meeting, everyone express your opinions?"

Seeing this guy Zhang Yu being so cunning, some governors couldn't help smiling bitterly. But Zhang Yu's cunning was not that he was good at dragging others into the water, nor did Zhang Yu have any malicious intent. Everyone had worked for a year, read the plan proposed by He Rui seriously, and carried out relevant execution.

Everyone looked at each other for a moment but didn't speak. But Wu Youping had already seen from everyone's eyes that they indeed encountered problems similar to Zhang Yu's. Encountering this specific problem at the beginning of the inspection work, Wu Youping only felt joy in his heart. This inspection was originally to better understand the current situation of the country, and the process of solving specific problems was the process of deepening the understanding of the country.

Wu Youping took over Zhang Yu's words. "Comrades, since it is an academic meeting, let's just discuss it. If no one wants to speak, then let's speak one by one in the order of provinces from east to west, from north to south."

Now, eyes fell on Inner Mongolia Governor Ma Zhaofeng first. Seeing that he couldn't escape, Ma Zhaofeng said decisively, "Premier Wu, Inner Mongolia indeed needs to build dams, but Inner Mongolia was liberated early, so let other comrades speak first."

Other comrades were not willing to speak first either, so they let Shaanxi Governor Zhang Yu, whose Loess Plateau terrain was the most obvious, speak on behalf of everyone.

Zhang Yu didn't decline either; he took out a report and handed it to Wu Youping. "Premier Wu, you are right. The Shaanxi Provincial Government indeed sent all capable soldiers and strong generals to promote it. With insufficient personnel, we also asked comrades from the army to provide surveying and mapping troops. This is the data provided to us by the surveying and mapping troops. This is just a rough statistic. Why don't you take a look first?"

Wu Youping took it and browsed it, and couldn't help but sigh greatly at the comrades' work. Currently, in order to restore order in each county as soon as possible, a battalion of troops was arranged in each county. The Air Force built airports everywhere and had its own reconnaissance aircraft units. The report in Wu Youping's hand was jointly produced by the Air Force and the surveying and mapping officers and non-commissioned officers in the army.

The overall plan proposed by He Rui can be simplified as follows: due to long-term soil erosion, most of the land on the current Loess Plateau is either high or low. The purpose of governing the Loess Plateau is to lower these high parts, while the low parts gradually accumulate and rise due to the mud blocked by silt dams. After more than ten or even decades, it will eventually become a relatively flat area.

According to the report provided by Zhang Yu, given the current situation in Shaanxi, a large number of silt dams with heights of more than ten or tens of meters needed to be built.

When Wu Youping finished browsing the document roughly, Zhang Yu supplemented the situation, "Premier Wu, our Shaanxi Provincial Government has some comrades from the South. They worked in Shaanxi for a few months and had very profound views. In the South, as long as there is land, one can survive. In Shaanxi, having several times the land of the South may not guarantee survival. I am not opposing rest and recuperation, but in too many places in Shaanxi, they can't rest and recuperate even if they want to. Even if land is distributed, the lives of the masses will not change much."

This statement was a bit excessive. Wu Youping couldn't let Zhang Yu continue like this, so he focused the topic on rest and recuperation. "Comrade Zhang Yu, I think your saying this is failing to use terms with the method of analyzing specific problems specifically. Having no ability to rest and recuperate is not the same thing as opposing rest and recuperation. Shaanxi has rest and recuperation with Shaanxi characteristics; Hunan has rest and recuperation with Hunan characteristics. Believing that rest and recuperation with southern characteristics is not suitable for Shaanxi is analyzing specific problems specifically. Opposing..."

"Premier, I know. I was wrong!" Zhang Yu interrupted Wu Youping decisively.

Wu Youping smiled bitterly at Zhang Yu's reaction, but knowing that Zhang Yu understood that he had said something politically very wrong before made Wu Youping relieved.

This 'academic meeting' lasted for two days. The governors of the northwestern provinces reached a consensus on governing the Loess Plateau. In the meeting summary on the afternoon of the second day, Wu Youping made a concluding speech, "Comrades, everyone needs the state to invest heavily in infrastructure construction. I will ask the State Council to discuss this request. Please believe in the State Council; we will definitely treat this matter very seriously."

As soon as these words came out, the governors were very happy. However, Wu Youping's job was never to make governors happy, because in the government organizational structure, the Premier is not responsible to the governors, but the governors are responsible to the Premier. So communication between the Premier and governors is extremely important. Wu Youping added in a tone that the governors didn't like, "All provinces must submit local data according to the information collection norms required by the State Council to ensure effective analysis of economic development."

The governors didn't want to be saddled with such a laborious job, but since the State Council was willing to approve money, they naturally couldn't openly oppose it. Everyone listened to Wu Youping continue, "The purpose of the current rest and recuperation is to increase people's income and enhance consumption power. In the reports I saw, the people are too poor. After land reform, the people can only barely avoid starvation by farming and have no money to consume. Comrades should understand this very well."

Mentioning this, the expressions of the governors dimmed. These comrades had all experienced hard times and knew the current situation in China. Zhang Yu understood this even more; the people of Shaanxi were truly poor, so poor that they couldn't afford clothes. A set of clothes 'new for three years, old for three years, patched for another three years' was definitely not a joke.

The reason why he had to make the request despite the political risk of 'opposing rest and recuperation' was that Zhang Yu really had no choice.

After the meeting ended, the governors of the Northwest began to write reports. Wu Youping visited urban planning in the capital. Zhengzhou was nothing but farmland except for trains until last year. But this had advantages; a brand-new city could be built on a blank sheet.

New urban construction itself could also provide huge demand. Looking at the patches of beautiful cities on the model, Wu Youping looked forward to seeing this beautiful city appear in reality.

After viewing the planning, Wu Youping continued his work, departing from Zhengzhou to the next destination, Wuhan. The Beijing-Hankou Railway was an important artery for transporting materials for the war against Britain. The Hanyang Iron Works was also an old steel enterprise, and the Hanyang Arsenal would provide a considerable part of weapons and equipment for the frontline.

While waiting for the plane at the airport, Wu Youping's secretary showed Wu Youping the latest schedule in the waiting room. On February 15, Wu Youping would arrive in Wuhan. A meeting of governors of surrounding provinces would be held in Wuhan.

On February 16, Wu Youping waited for the governors to arrive in Wuhan and rested for a day himself. But Wu Youping really couldn't stay idle, so he looked at various latest intelligence sent to him. Seeing the news that Britain, France, Japan, and the Netherlands held a meeting in Saigon, Wu Youping couldn't help sneering. If he guessed correctly, the four countries would make some statement at this meeting.

According to previous assessments, this meeting should have been held long ago. However, Britain and France were previously busy resolving Germany's hyperinflation and the specific execution of the subsequent Dawes Plan. After all, France had to withdraw from the Ruhr area of Germany with Belgium, which required diplomatic efforts. Now that the four countries were meeting, it was about time.

Because of the delay in intelligence information, Wu Youping did not know that at this time, the meeting was only a few minutes away from the final meeting statement.

The Japanese envoy was speaking emotionally at this time, "If the British side is willing to launch a military strike against the He Rui government, Japan will definitely provide logistical support within its capacity."

The French envoy heard the Japanese say what France originally wanted to say, and was very unhappy with the Japanese envoy. But since Japan had already taken the lead, France naturally had to express its attitude, "We France agree with the British view very much. China overthrowing the world order by violent means is likely to trigger a chain reaction. Therefore, we firmly support Britain in launching a comprehensive military strike against the He Rui regime. With the bravery of the British Army and the strength of the Navy, He Rui can definitely be captured and displayed in a cage in London. We hope that after the exhibition in London ends, He Rui can be sent to Paris so that we can also display him."

The Dutch envoy didn't dare to make a sound upon hearing this. That a country like the Netherlands could own large colonies in Southeast Asia was entirely because the Netherlands clung tightly to Britain's thigh. In a sense, the Netherlands was just managing colonies in Southeast Asia on behalf of others. So France could irresponsibly stir up trouble, but the Netherlands absolutely could not.

The British envoy looked exasperated but had to pretend to be tough at this time. After all, Britain had huge interests in China and was the world hegemon. The drastic changes in China's situation not only made Britain lose face but also slapped the British face repeatedly by the He Rui government afterwards. This loss was not only those interests but also made countries question Britain's ability.

Gang bosses are not afraid of getting hurt and bleeding; being able to be called a boss is a status seized by bleeding and fighting.

Britain's various privileges in China were obtained by fighting, and Britain was considered capable of influencing the situation in China. Just as when the Russo-Japanese War broke out back then, it was only after Britain publicly declared 'Britain is unable to mediate the Russo-Japanese conflict' that Japan and Russia dared to fight.

He Rui fought a great war with Japan and then quickly completed unification. It should have started only after Britain's approval, but now He Rui went ahead on his own and not only completed unification but also hanged a large number of British concession personnel from lampposts. Where was Britain's face? Where was the prestige? Where was the dignity?

Where was the strength!!!