Xinqiao Town, Yangli Village.
Jing Yongli led the town mayor Peng Chaoyang and his entourage to inspect the Xiao Sha River behind the village.
Ever since Yang Jian planned to build the Yaochi Garden, Jing Yongli had put aside all other work to focus on this project.
First, he invited designers from the Hancheng Landscape Garden Design Institute to survey and plan. Once the designers presented a preliminary plan, he immediately applied to the town government for project approval, primarily for land transfer.
A project with an initial budget of twenty million yuan immediately caught Peng Chaoyang's attention. Three days after the report was submitted, he brought personnel from land, agriculture, and other relevant departments to conduct an on-site inspection.
Xiao Sha River is a tributary of Da Xin River, with a total length of over thirty kilometers. It flows through Xinqiao Town for seven to eight kilometers. In the section of Yangli Village, it is two to three hundred meters wide, with riverbanks four to five meters high. During flood season, the river surface is about two hundred meters wide.
However, most of the time, only a four to five-meter-wide riverbed in the middle has water. In dry years, it often dries up, and the riverbanks become pastures for villagers to graze cattle and sheep.
Yang Jian grew up catching fish and shrimp in the river and practicing martial arts on the riverbanks. This place holds his childhood happiness and memories.
Several young people were using instruments to measure on the riverbank; they were surveyors from the design institute.
"Mayor Peng, esteemed leaders, the full name of our project is the Yaochi Agricultural Sightseeing Park. It mainly revolves around the Xiao Sha River system, aiming to create a comprehensive park integrating water activities, sightseeing, leisure and entertainment, and specialty agriculture."
He Guang, a designer from the design institute, was specially invited by Jing Yongli to introduce the design plan.
It was currently the flood season, but due to the drought this year, the river channel was only about ten meters wide. Peng Chaoyang asked curiously, "Can this small river become a water system? You know that by the second half of the year, the river will almost dry up. How can we create water activities?"
He Guang pointed to the narrower river channel in the distance, "We plan to build a rubber weir there. It will discharge floodwater during the flood season and store water during the dry season, thus ensuring that the upstream river channel always has water. This will not only satisfy our water entertainment projects but also play a significant role in irrigating the farmland in the upstream basin."
"Good, this concept is excellent. Currently, rural irrigation relies on groundwater, leading to a severe drop in the water table. If this rubber weir is successfully built, the irrigation of tens of thousands of mu of fertile land in the Xiao Sha River basin will be guaranteed. This is a great deed that will benefit generations to come.
However, building such a large rubber weir, perhaps Jing boss's twenty million investment is not enough?"
Peng Chaoyang's expression was somewhat excited. If this rubber weir could be successfully built during his tenure, it would add a significant stroke to his political achievements.
Jing Yongli smiled and said, "As long as this project is approved, we don't mind adding tens of millions more in investment. Especially for the land transfer along both banks of the river, we need Mayor Peng's strong support, otherwise, this project cannot proceed."
"Impressive, Mr. Jing. As far as I know, your template factory and trading company don't have such great financial strength currently. An investment of tens of millions is not a trivial matter. Is it money that Young Yang brought back from outside?"
Peng Chaoyang lowered his voice when he asked this question. He knew that Jing Yongli was not the real owner of the template factory and trading company, and could not make such a major decision. The actual investor should be Yang Jian.
"Mayor Peng, the construction period for this project will be at least two years. Our template factory and trading company can earn tens of millions in two years, especially the template factory. By the end of this year, our profits should exceed fifty million."
Jing Yongli skillfully avoided the topic.
"Is that so? I heard that Lijian Template Factory's business is very good. New equipment was installed at the beginning of the year, and the scale was expanded, but I haven't had a chance to visit. The tax reports for the first half of the year haven't reached me yet. Based on the output value you mentioned, it should be the top taxpayer in Xinqiao Town."
"It should be. Although there are many board factories in Xinqiao, they are mostly semi-finished product processing. Few have an output value exceeding ten million, let alone profits exceeding ten million."
Jing Yongli's words were somewhat exaggerated. The template factory's current profits were not that large. He was paving the way for Yang Jian's money returning from the casino in the second half of the year.
Last night, Yang Jian had spoken with him. After the casino expanded its scale, the dividends began to surge. Coupled with the earnings from lending money and the share from the liquor business, his monthly income might exceed ten million.
Such a large income needs to be laundered through the template factory before it can be invested, otherwise, it would attract police attention.
After Yang Jian fled, the template factory and trading company were not affected at all; instead, they grew larger. Society had already speculated that Yang Jian had been controlling these two companies all along.
"Good, you are entrepreneurs with broad vision and great ambition. After making money, you think of benefiting the local community. I will fully support this project. After returning, we will hold a special meeting to discuss it, establish a project command center to coordinate with you, and help you with land acquisition and transfer."
Although Peng Chaoyang suspected that this huge investment came from Yang Jian, it was not his focus. The rubber weir was a tangible livelihood project that would benefit the present and future generations.
Since the design drawings were not yet available, Peng Chaoyang could only grasp the concept of the sightseeing park from He Guang's explanation. Therefore, he only took a cursory look along the riverbank before leading his people away.
Jing Yongli continued to assist the design institute's staff in surveying and measuring.
Less than ten minutes after Peng Chaoyang's group left, a convoy of five cars arrived.
Jing Yongli recognized the leading car as Xu Zheng's Q5. This car, costing over 400,000 yuan, was considered a luxury car in Xinqiao at the moment.
"Little Jing, busy?"
The car stopped beside Jing Yongli, and Xu Zheng greeted him with a smile from the driver's seat.
Although there had been some past grievances, they were neighbors who saw each other often. Jing Yongli couldn't show him a bad face and responded with a smile, "Brother Zheng, what brings you here?"
"I signed a contract with the land management office and leased the riverbanks in this area. I plan to open a sand quarry. Today, I've invited a well-drilling master to survey and see where the sand layers are good. I hope we're not disturbing your measurements."
Xu Zheng had a mischievous smile. He had extensive connections and already knew that Jing Yongli was planning to invest tens of millions to build a sightseeing park. Therefore, he had preemptively used his connections to sign an agreement with the land management department, aiming to get a share of the profits from this project.
"Open a sand quarry? Where is the sand here?"
Jing Yongli was a bit confused. Although this river was called Xiao Sha River, the surface of the riverbanks was all soil, with no sand. That's why it became a small pasture for cattle and sheep. There was sand in the riverbed in the middle, but it was mainly composed of pebbles, which was not conducive to large-scale mining. Otherwise, someone would have thought of this idea long ago.
"Yes, I heard from the elders that this Xiao Sha River used to be all yellow sand, but it was later covered by soil. As long as the surface layer is broken, large-scale sand mining can begin. I've also brought the well-drilling master. You'll see if there's sand soon."
Xu Zheng waved his hand, and over a dozen young men began to move tools, surrounding a man in his forties and walking to the middle of the riverbank to drill for samples.
This method is common in plains areas for drilling water wells. It uses a spiral drill bit with a diameter of six centimeters connected to a water pipe with a diameter of six centimeters and a length of three to four meters. The other end is connected to a simple pressurized well. Then, a small water pit about thirty centimeters deep is dug, and someone continuously pours water into the pit.
The master continuously rotates the drill bit, and someone at the pressurized well continuously pumps out the muddy water from the pit.
With repeated pumping and drilling, and continuously adding water pipes, they can drill more than ten meters deep in less than two hours. The sand layers can be identified from the mud and sand pumped out.