For more than 2,000 years, no matter how dynasties changed, most Sichuan people worshipped the 'Lord of Sichuan.' Generally speaking, those with 'Lord' in their names were gods, ghosts, or spirits. 'Lord of Sichuan Li Bing' was also a god in the eyes of Sichuan people. It's just that more than 2,000 years ago, this human-god of later generations, Lord of Sichuan Li Bing, indeed walked on the land of Sichuan together with the Sichuan people of that time.

What could prove the existence of Lord of Sichuan Li Bing was the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, personally designed and built by him, which had been running for more than two thousand years.

On April 7, after finishing his inspection of Yunnan and Guizhou, Wu Youping arrived at Dujiangyan by plane. Even though he graduated from the Tangshan Railway Official School, Wu Youping knew about Dujiangyan. Seeing this water conservancy project that had shaped the fertile Sichuan for more than 2,000 years with his own eyes at this time, Wu Youping felt a little disappointed besides being emotional.

Over the past 2,000 years, Dujiangyan had long formed a very complete annual repair system. In the dry season of winter and spring every year, the not-so-wide Minjiang River mouth was blocked by erecting wooden 'Macha' [tripod log structures] as the backbone, combined with bamboo cages filled with stones. This formed a barrage, allowing the river water to flow completely away from the Outer River, enabling workers to repair the main body of Dujiangyan and the Inner River. As for how to repair, Li Bing left six words: 'Dredge the bed deep, keep the weir low.'

People participating in the annual repair had to complete two things. The first thing was to build the weir body with building materials of bamboo cages filled with stones. When repairing the 'Feishayan' [Flying Sand Weir] that removed sediment from the Inner River water, the position of the Feishayan must be kept relatively low to facilitate the removal of sediment. This is 'keep the weir low.' The second thing was to clean up the silt and stones at the bottom of the Inner River so that the bottom of the Inner River was lower than the Outer River. This is 'dredge the bed deep.'

Dujiangyan is an artificial hydraulic structure composed of three parts: the frontmost 'Yuzui' [Fish Mouth], 'Baopingkou' [Precious Bottle Neck], and 'Feishayan' [Flying Sand Weir]. The previous weir body parts were composed of bamboo cages filled with stones, using local materials, which was already the optimal solution under the circumstances at that time. For 2,000 years, in the turbulent Minjiang River water, this artificial material was easily destroyed and required effort to make every year. This also led to a debate on the 'rigidity and flexibility' of the main material of Dujiangyan that lasted for 2,000 years.

There were always people hoping to build a Dujiangyan body that would not be destroyed, eliminating the annual work of building the weir body. People in all dynasties made various attempts. Some attempts failed at the time, and some attempts failed after more than ten years. In short, none succeeded.

Today, what Wu Youping saw was the attempt of the Republic Government's Railway Corps. In the position of Dujiangyan, what appeared was a Dujiangyan dam body poured with reinforced concrete. Tested by war, the reinforced concrete pouring parts completed by the Railway Corps could withstand artillery shells. No matter how big the stones carried in the Minjiang River water were, their power was always incomparable to 150mm artillery shells. This pouring part was dug to a depth of 6 meters at the bottom of the river, making it even harder for the river water to shake.

The Secretary, Governor, and Directors of Water Resources and Agriculture of the Sichuan Provincial Government all came personally to participate in the water release ceremony. The current system had been set: any activity related to Dujiangyan had to be approved by the provincial government personally.

Perhaps accustomed to big scenes, Wu Youping just completed his attendance work as Premier very decently. When the 'Macha' was pushed down amidst the deafening sound of gongs and drums, the river water suddenly surged into the river, rushing towards the gray Dujiangyan weir body. When the water flow submerged the Dujiangyan weir body until only less than two meters remained, exclamations came from the crowd participating in the water release ceremony. This huge and novel weir body obviously held up and was not immediately washed away.

When the water flow became regular, Wu Youping, the Provincial Party Secretary, the Governor, and others visited Dujiangyan under the guidance of the Director of Water Resources. Dujiangyan is a damless water diversion project. The most exquisite core lies in making full use of the shape of the river channel and the weir body to automatically remove sediment from the Minjiang River water while diverting water, introducing clear water into Baopingkou to irrigate millions of *mu* of fertile fields on the Chengdu Plain.

In the era without Dujiangyan, Sichuan was a 'red basin,' with floods and droughts occurring one after another, and the Chengdu Plain was a disaster area where 'people might become fish and turtles.' With Dujiangyan, the Chengdu Plain became a place where floods and droughts followed human will, knowing no famine, and having no lean years, which could be called the 'Land of Abundance' in the world.

The comrades of the Railway Corps watched the water movement nervously. When a vortex with a diameter of several meters formed in the Inner River water in front of Feishayan, rolling the sediment in it and making the river water entering Baopingkou clearer and clearer, the comrades of the Railway Corps couldn't help cheering.

This new plan was formulated by He Rui. Because the length of the Dujiangyan weir body was greatly extended and reinforced concrete was used, it was difficult to modify, and the comrades were very worried about defeating their own purpose. Now seeing Dujiangyan running well, everyone's uneasiness faded, and only joy remained.

Wu Youping was not so excited. Although he knew that blind trust in He Rui was unscientific, Wu Youping always felt that He Rui's decisions would be correct. If it was incorrect, it must be a problem with the executor, who executed He Rui's good plan badly.

After completing the water release, Wu Youping immediately summoned comrades for a meeting. Although Dujiangyan was important, for the current China, there was more important work. Moreover, the Dujiangyan water conservancy project had been successfully completed after precise calculations with the help of computers, so they had to race against time to complete other work.

"Now the Cheng-Yu Railway is about to be completed, and next we have to complete the Cheng-Kun Railway project," Wu Youping said to the participating comrades of the Railway Corps.

When talking with the Railway Corps, Wu Youping was very relaxed, and the comrades of the Railway Corps were also quite relaxed. Because everyone felt that the other party was one of their own. The comrades of the Railway Corps were mostly young, and their accents were mostly northern accents. This couldn't be helped; after all, there were only two main railway schools in China before. One was the former Tangshan Railway Official School, which had been renamed Beiping Railway College, and this school was also Wu Youping's alma mater.

The other one was the 'Northeast Railway School' opened by He Rui after he went to the Northeast. Later, the Northeast Railway School moved from Siping to Shenyang and was renamed Shenyang Railway College. A large number of teachers at Shenyang Railway College came from Beiping Railway College. The two were of the same lineage, and the source of personnel was concentrated in the North. It was inevitable that the personnel composition at this time was mainly northern.

In the eyes of the Railway Corps, Premier Wu Youping was undoubtedly the second most respected senior alumnus. As for who was ranked first? Naturally, it was Mr. Zhan Tianyou, the current Dean and Chief Engineer of the China Railway Research Institute.

Hearing the senior alumnus talk about the Cheng-Kun Railway, the comrades of the Railway Corps couldn't help showing a difficult expression. This railway was of course very important; once completed, it would open up the great artery of the Southwest. But building a railway in high mountains and lofty ridges was a difficult challenge for the Railway Corps.

Wu Youping certainly knew this. He continued, "Comrades, the upcoming war does not need the Cheng-Kun Railway; the Cheng-Kun Railway is preparing for the next war. So the State Council has instructed the Ministry of Education to complete the plan for building Chengdu Railway College and Kunming Railway College. In the school opening season this year, the two railway colleges will start recruiting students."

This was the real good news, and the comrades of the Railway Corps finally smiled. Wu Youping struck while the iron was hot and announced that he would stay in Chengdu for a few more days. Although he could not attend the opening ceremony of the Cheng-Yu Railway, he would personally award medals and prizes to outstanding comrades.

Wu Youping was not bragging. Before arriving in Chengdu, he had issued an order for merit assessment to the 3rd and 4th Bureaus of the Railway Corps that built the Cheng-Yu Railway. The next day, Wu Youping personally awarded medals to the personnel who rushed over.

The comrades on stage included engineers and skilled workers. They were tall, short, fat, and thin, but they were highly homogeneous in temperament and educational background. They either graduated from Railway Colleges or Railway Technical Schools. Seeing Senior Alumnus Wu Youping personally awarding medals, the young alumni all beamed with joy. Wu Youping shook hands with the outstanding young juniors one by one and offered a few words of encouragement.

The award recipients either had a scholarly air or the agility of an educated person amidst their shrewdness and capability. This was the Railway Corps. Although it was under the leadership of the Military Commission and had a military establishment, the composition of this corps consisted of only three types of people: management personnel, engineers, and professional skilled workers. In the army, its educational background could only be compared with the Air Force.

Driving trains was only one of the not particularly important jobs of the Railway Corps. Surveying, geological exploration, bridge design and construction, tunnel engineering, and even directional blasting were the most challenging jobs in the Railway Corps.

After the medal awarding was completed, Wu Youping gave a passionate speech, expecting the comrades of the Railway Corps to make persistent efforts and achieve new merits. Amidst warm applause, Wu Youping said loudly, "I expect that in the next twenty years, the average education time of comrades in the Railway Corps can increase by 0.3 years annually. Let the Railway Corps become a truly high-tech team! Do comrades have confidence?"

"Yes!" The comrades off stage responded loudly with a thunderous voice.

But happiness was always short-lived. When Wu Youping held a meeting with the comrades of the Sichuan Provincial Government and the secretaries and directors of the 3rd and 4th Bureaus of the Railway Corps, the atmosphere became solemn.

As early as 1903, the Qing government had the intention of building the Sichuan-Hankou Railway, and its western section was the Cheng-Yu Railway. After the fall of the Manchu Qing, the governments during that period used road construction as an excuse to scrape countless wealth from the people, but the result was only a 'dotted line' drawn on the map.

In March 1924, the Republic National Defense Force marched into Sichuan, and the local warlords collapsed instantly. The first thing the National Defense Force did was to remove the cultural relics on the Yanyu Pile, take a large number of photos and videos as a souvenir, and then blast the famous Yanyu Pile on the Yangtze River into pieces. Since then, except for a few pieces placed by the river as a souvenir, the rest of this huge reef blocking the Yangtze River navigation channel had disappeared into the rolling river water.

The 3rd Bureau of the Railway Corps marched into Sichuan in early April. A large amount of materials went upstream, transporting materials for railway construction to Sichuan through urgently converted transport ships, and railway construction officially began. After 12 months of hard work, the 3rd Bureau of the Railway Corps invested 200 engineers, 1,100 skilled workers, and 180,000 hired local people, and was about to complete this 504-kilometer-long railway.

Facing the comrades' inquiries about the war, Wu Youping introduced the situation, "The Burma Road is about to be completed. This is a road of over a thousand kilometers, employing 500 engineers and 5,000 skilled workers. Maintaining more than 400,000 hired workers locally. To fight, logistics is needed. Sichuan's agricultural condition is very good, and we hope to buy grain nearby."

Before the comrades could speak, Wu Youping's secretary walked in and handed a telegram to Wu Youping. Under the gaze of the comrades, Wu Youping finished reading the telegram and returned the telegram paper to the secretary. The comrades couldn't see anything from Wu Youping's expression, so they continued to ask questions they were concerned about.

Wu Youping answered the questions, but what he was thinking about was this telegram. The content of the telegram was very simple: "On April 7, our army and the Burmese National Revolutionary Army engaged the British army in Myitkyina. Our army annihilated a 200-man mixed British force."

Has the war broken out just like this? Wu Youping didn't know how he should view this matter.