Chapter 85 Farewell

"Are you here to see me goodbye?"

"No, I'm here to ask you."

"sit"

Zhang Yu is about to set off for the Great Northwest to participate in the Yanhuang backbone plan wholeheartedly. This matter is no longer a secret for the senior central officials. They all know that this is Zhang Yu's own choice. A comfortable life is not what he wants, and the rough northwest is where he is willing. The child was sent to the boarding school for children of the central cadres. The free Zhang Yu and his wife Li Xiaoran were both going to the northwest. While packing their luggage, Zhang Yu's guard captain informed him that the new head of state Zhou Qin was coming.

After the two sat opposite each other in the study room, Li Xiaoran brought two cups of hot tea, then left the study room and closed the door. In the quaintly decorated Zhang Yu study room, the bookshelf was filled with various books. The nanmu desk that had been used since Guangxi was also particularly bright due to years of wiping. The desk was no longer full of various documents and materials as before. Now only the pen, ink, paper and inkstone needed for Zhang Yu to practice calligraphy, and only the gentle breathing of the two people were left in the study room.

"Tell me, I have anything to ask for?"

After a long time, Zhang Yu spoke. He didn't know what kind of trouble he had been training for many years, and he had to come to ask him personally.

"I'm very opposed to your trip to the northwest, you know that."

Zhou Qin once again expressed his attitude. In his mind, Zhang Yu was the closest person after his parents. Without Zhang Yu's continuous support and teaching, a small mayor in the past would not have been promoted to the highest power throne. Looking at China, he (she) would definitely support Zhang Yu to continue to be re-elected as president of the country, or even for life.

Therefore, it is not so much that Zhou and Qin won the trust of the people with their personal charm and ability to work, but it is better that Zhang Yu was subject to the legal provisions that must be included in the country. As the leader of the country, Zhang Yu should respect the law more, and it is Zhang Yu who gave Zhou Qin a position to display his talents. However, Zhou Qin did not feel the shame of being given to him. On the contrary, he cherished the trust Zhang Yu gave him more, and wanted to seize the rare opportunity to display his leadership talents on an unprecedented stage, and contribute his own contribution to the prosperity of the country and the rejuvenation of the nation.

Once Zhang Yu goes to the northwest, he will definitely not come back within two or three years. At least during his tenure in Zhou and Qin, he will not appear in Beijing to "disgrace", or to take away the "majesty" Zhou and Qin should have. On the one hand, Zhang Yu is to better supervise the Yanhuang backbone plan, which is of great importance, and continue perfectly. On the other hand, he is also to enrich himself and improve himself. Zhang Yu's future is still very broad. In order to better perform the duties of the head of state in the future, he needs time.

"What I left for you is not a mess, what's there to ask for?" Zhang Yu took a sip of tea and said with a smile.

"The mess is not considered a bad thing, but the business is not necessarily easy to do," Zhou Qin said with a smile. The tea is Longjing in front of the rain, which is quite delicious.

"I know that the world has reached the juncture of changing winds and clouds. If we move forward, it will naturally be like the wind and clouds, and the situation is numerous. If there is no way to judge how the international situation will change in the next stage, no matter how much worries we have, it will be in vain. The plan will never catch up with the changes."

"It seems that you know what I want to ask," Zhou Qin said with a smile.

"So far, there is one last problem left on you that is that you still lack self-confidence in major things. In the past, people had made decisions for you in everything, and you could act boldly, but now you have to face some more difficult and complicated problems yourself. A slight hesitation will have immeasurable consequences. You are always hinting in your heart that you should ask others for advice. You may be wrong. In fact, many times, even if you know that your ideas are 99% correct, you are still very afraid."

"After years of training and growth, your ability and confidence have become more and more complete. Only when more important issues are involved will it stimulate your weaknesses." Zhang Yu looked at Zhou Qin quietly, rubbed the blue and white tea cup, and said, "And now, you are unfortunately finding that everything has become very important. The weaknesses that were almost impossible to detect in the past have been infinitely magnified. I feel like I can't let go. In addition, I am about to leave, so you are a little panicked?"

Zhang Yu's words were like lightning strikes on Zhou and Qin's heart. Zhou Qin, who grew up from the grassroots level, was naturally absolutely excellent in his work ability. However, he had been in the political work system for a long time, and he also had a fatal weakness, that is, his lack of control and control over other fields. The super arms trade incident between China and Russia that occurred this year seemed to be a win-win result on the surface. Zhou Qin, who was the real initiator, did not understand and master the art that the leader should have. To put it simply, most people in the central government of the Republic believe that China-Russia military trade should be based on mutual benefit and mutual benefit, and not on the premise of significantly enhancing the strength of the Russian army. However, in the hands of the executor Zhou Qin, it became an act of "pleasing" military units and army and "showing goodwill" to Russia, exposing the shortcomings of Zhou and Qin.

Fortunately, with Zhang Yu's support, this matter was resolved quickly and smoothly. However, Zhou Qin's leadership behavior of "a big victory in tacticality and a strategic mistake" deepened the thought in many people's minds, that is, "the Republic must not be without Zhang Yu." But in fact, Zhang Yu, who knew Zhou and Qin well, understood his difficulties. If a country's leader cannot win the support of the widest population and more collective interests, especially the support of the military, then this leader will appear very embarrassing and passive, so Zhou Qin is not wrong.

"You should understand one truth: believing in yourself is more important than believing in others."

"Your words just now made me very educated," Zhou Qin said after holding his glasses, sitting in a straight position: "Today is here, on the one hand, to see you off. I know that you cannot change your intention to go, so I have to send you my most sincere blessings. In addition, I really want to hear your opinions, but you will have to leave for many years. For such a huge country, no one loves her more than you."

Zhou Qin's words made Zhang Yu suddenly feel reluctant, his eyelids pounded involuntarily, suppressing the small fluctuations in his heart, and his face kept changing, answering without changing his face: "The country has been developing so far, and it seems that it is the absolute king of Asia on the surface, and it is difficult to find a country that is comparable to it even if you look at the world. But in fact, you and I know that a country that has been poor and weak for half a year cannot heal in too short a time, and construction in all aspects cannot slow down at all, let alone shake. In summary, I only have four requirements for you."

When Zhou Qin heard this, he sat closer to the desk, and even took out a notebook and a pen from his arms like a primary school student. He looked like he was going to be an old student. Seeing this scene, Zhang Yu shook his head with a smile. It seemed that the only one in the world could subdue this girl. When Zhou Qin was preparing, he also took a sip of tea, sorted out his thoughts, and then he told the story.

"Economic strength is the basis of Pepsi. We must never give up national economic construction at any time. The financial crisis seems to have brought an unprecedented disaster to the world, but it is a rare opportunity for our country. Western countries have accumulated over the years since industry, and the wealth and national strength they have are still incomparable to our country. To give a simple example, how long did the United States take to catch up with the United Kingdom, the world's old capitalist power? It started working hard in the middle of the 19th century, and it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that it successfully surpassed Britain and became the world's largest economy."

"There are also factors that have been weakened by the European war, and of course the role of our autonomous region. Otherwise, with the strength of the United States, it will take at least twenty or thirty years for the United States to win the world's first place with the strength of the United States. However, an unprecedented financial crisis broke out, and countries have fallen into a period of economic sluggishness. Our country should rely on its strong domestic consumption demand, world-leading industrial advantages, and a more sound economic system to take every step forward. This is like, the whole world is sailing against the current, and many countries are even retreating. As long as our country takes a small step forward, it will definitely take a big step away from the world."

"Can you explain this in detail?" Zhou Qin did his duty as a student, and his good quality of asking if he didn't understand was beyond words.

"Affected by the financial crisis, what causes certain losses in my country is foreign trade exports. Under the high trade barriers, countries are still competing to stimulate exports. The future of international market profits of various commodities is worrying. Under such a background, taking a step back will lead to a better development prospect."

“You mean…”

Zhou Qin understood what Zhang Yu meant. Since major countries in the world have fought a trade war in the fields that have been regarded as traditional by China, and there is no future in the bad competition, they naturally cannot go on. The Republic should boldly take a step back at this time, implement the strategy of "grasping the big and letting go of the small", take the opportunity to transform areas that have lost their competitive advantages, and comprehensively improve their comprehensive competitiveness. In short, all countries have made their heads and wanted to squeeze into high-profit areas that have been occupied by China for many years, such as automobiles, home appliances, pharmaceuticals, machinery, etc. The former high-tech things have now become ordinary goods. Countries have supported their domestic companies to squeeze into these industries, completely dividing the original rich cake into pieces, and these countries are still holding the domestic market tightly.

In this way, enterprises in various countries should compare with who has more technological and cost advantages. In the international economy under the chaotic chaos, the republic should not be confused. They should firmly grasp the pulse of the times, firmly grasp the direction of high-tech development, and truly enhance the core competitiveness of major industries. They should see a longer future, rather than caring about temporary gains and losses.

"In terms of politics, your grassroots experience is much richer than mine. In terms of how to build a harmonious society, build a service-oriented government, and promote social development, I can only say that you must pay attention to the cleanliness and integrity of the political system." While Zhang Yu spoke, he kept knocking on the table, and it was obvious that he was very disgusted with things like corrupt officials.

"The faster the society develops, the more prosperous the economy is, it is both a blessing for the country and the people, but also a pain for the government. My opinion is to stop the occurrence of corruption than to stop it. For a long time, we have been practicing a view or idea, that is, the civil service system. When we consider the personal and family life issues of the people's public servants, we should also note that rights must be more effectively restricted and supervised."

Speaking of this, Zhang Yu looked at Zhou Qin and said with a half-smile: "I know you are a new official and have three things to do to let go. Just look at the problem of solving the government's fiscal deficit for many years, it will definitely offend many people, but it is indeed a good thing."

What Zhang Yu is talking about is a central document approved by Zhou Qin recently. The main purpose and content of the document point to a problem, that is, in recent years, the fiscal revenue of the central and local governments has been seriously inconsistent with expenditures, and the fiscal deficit over the years must be effectively resolved.

Why is there a fiscal deficit for many years? It depends on how heavy the burden on the Republican government is. The first is education expenditure. It can be said that education expenditure accounts for nearly half of the government's fiscal budget every year. The Republic, which implements free education for all, can join the society every year and become useful talents, but their growth does not cost a penny at all. Government expenses are everywhere, and the government pays the bill.

From elementary school, middle school to university, and even graduate students and doctoral students, the biggest feature of the Republic's education system is not the sound education system and the abundant talents, but the government's financial pressure is too great. If the annual expenditure of each student is calculated as hundreds of yuan regardless of where the students are studying and what stage of education they receive, then among the more than 500 million people in China, at least tens of millions of students are supported by the government. That is to say, the government must spend at least tens of billions of yuan every year for education. This is a huge number. It is equivalent to the Republic building ten large hydropower stations in the west every year, or building electrified railways worth tens of thousands of kilometers...

However, the burden on the government's shoulders is not just about education expenditure.

The second place in the government expenditure list is social security expenditure. As the first republic in the world to build a system of welfare protection for all citizens, this welfare system has already begun to exist when it was an autonomous government. It does not lack supervision and implementation experience. What the government lacks is the money to continue.

It is impossible for someone to deliberately discount their legs and let the government support themselves. It is impossible for a company to hope that their employees will have an accident and then lose some money and throw it to the government for maintenance. It is impossible for someone to be willing to continue minor illnesses and often come to the hospital every day to increase the burden on the government... Even so, high welfare and high medical insurance, compared with the security funds paid by citizens, the government has to pay for money every year. As a result, the government does not lack the courage to continue, but does not have enough money to continue.

Of course, it is not possible to reduce part of education expenditure to eliminate the government's complex and heavy burden. Zhou Qin's second fire was to increase the amount of social security benefits paid by citizens, and cut off the situation where medical expenses that had been troubled and hot in the past required the government to subsidize, and in contrast, of course, the country's minimum living security has been greatly improved. At the same time, in the construction and management of public facilities, Zhou Qin's second fire was also a prairie fire.

More projects are contracted to private enterprises to ensure the quality of the project and the construction cycle, and some public facilities are also handed over to private enterprises for management, further reducing the scale of government work and staffing, and improving the returns on public works efficiency. For example, letting private enterprises enter railways, aviation, highways, energy (mainly electricity) and other operations and management is much better than the government's efforts everywhere, and the effect is much better. At least by reducing the losses caused by corruption, the social benefits brought by public works are better than before.

The government's fiscal expenditure pressure was significantly reduced by these two fires, while the release of the third fire was a "infamous" measure to further alleviate the pressure.

For a long time, in order to stimulate the development of the industrial and commercial economy, the tax rates imposed by the Republic on private enterprises were very low. In some fields, enterprises engaged in import and export trade not only enjoy low tax rates preferentially, but also a lot of export tax rebate subsidies. Raising the tax rate collection standards can not only increase government fiscal revenue, but also add a hidden restrictive measure to some repetitive construction projects, high-energy-consuming and high-pollution enterprises.

Of course, this move naturally suffered a lot of criticism. Small and medium-sized enterprises that are used to favor are particularly fierce. However, in fact, they did not add much burden to them, bringing electricity costs and fuel expenses caused by transportation. When the price rose, these enterprises did not, but as soon as the tax rate was adjusted, they began to play big shows. They had no other intentions except to win the attention and sympathy of the government.

With these three fires, the fiscal revenue and expenditure of the Republican government can be balanced, and even a lot of money can be spent every year. After all, the reputation of the world's number one industrial manufacturing power is not blown up. However, these three fires really made Zhou and Qin's reputation a bit messed up, although he did nothing wrong.

"The third issue I want to talk to you is military construction." As he said this, Zhang Yu stood up, went to the bookshelf to retrieve a world map, and spread it in front of the two of them. With Zhou Qin's somewhat surprised expression, he pointed to a place and said, "Do you know where this place is?"

"Know, Persian Gulf"

"It's the Persian Gulf." Zhang Yu's middle finger hit the table hard and said with half the volume: "For a country's economic prosperity, it is as important as education. What will it be? It is energy and the most precious oil among non-renewable resources. The Persian Gulf has the massive amount of oil we need, and the entire Africa, which is like a primitive society, is rich in oil."

Then, Zhang Yu pointed to another place and said without asking Zhou Qin: "This is Kazakhstan. Going north is the Erqi River Basin in Russia. There is a place called Tyumen. Kazakhstan and Tyumen also contain oil. You also know that many places in our country also have oil, but we cannot mine it. Our contemporary people cannot eat the food of their children and grandchildren."

"I understand this, and I firmly support it."

Zhou Qin himself participated in the formulation of the national strategic reserve resource storage plan. With Daqing's oil, Shanxi's coal, rare earths from the two lakes, iron ore from Sichuan, oil from Xinjiang, etc., many regions have found gratifying resource reserves, but they have been sealed up without exception, creating China's reputation as the world's largest resource importer. Some outsiders even jokingly say that if you want to destroy China's industrial prosperity, you only need to cut off China's overseas energy and trade channels.

"The bathtub in Asia is too small. If our nation wants to resurrect prosperity in the new era, it should seize the peak of science and technology and grasp the energy that affects human progress. I don't need to teach you how to do it in detail, but one thing that must be noted is that the construction of the four modernizations of the army after the expansion of the army cannot be relaxed for a moment. Seeing that the world is changing rapidly, monkeys in the bathtub in Asia cannot be jumped randomly."

Zhang Yu's words were very direct. At that time, the Republic was tolerant of everything and was subject to lack of strength. Now on the Asian stage, China is already a well-deserved boss, so it can no longer let the little people jump up and down. The fourth point Zhang Yu said next is about international relations.

"There is a saying that goes - there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests." When Zhang Yu put away the map, he said to Zhou Qin in a teasing way: "The truth that one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers has been passed down through the ages. China and Japan, without direct disputes of interest, will sooner or later, and this battle will definitely determine who will be the king of Asia like the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The struggle with Japan is just a harmless act of a major power. Be wary of Japan in Asia and establish a solid surrounding environment. In the world, if the United States is brought to the United States, it cannot be the target of public criticism."

"What you mean is that the world will become a necessity to move towards multipolarization. What follows is not calmness, but a huge change in the world?"

Zhou Qin asked back, he was not a time traveler. Even though he was extremely smart, he could not predict the future. One of the major advantages of being a time traveler is that no matter how history changes, time travelers can always judge the direction of historical development from an observation angle that ordinary people cannot have. Just like Zhang Yu could easily know what will happen after the outbreak of the financial crisis and the current corruption?

He naturally knew that countries like Germany and Japan would go completely militarization, and the rapidly expanding great powers and counter-invasion wars were all specialties for militarization countries to divert social conflicts, and then provoking World War II became an inevitable trend. The only thing Zhang Yu couldn't understand was Russia, which might have hidden for many years, overthrew the Tsar one day, and a powerful polar bear appeared behind China, which was a bit difficult. But in grasping the direction of the general trend, Zhang Yu must have surpassed Zhou and Qin.

"No matter how the world changes, as long as strong strength is the key to the final victory or defeat." Zhang Yu did not sit down again, and drank the tea in the teacup in one breath. He was interested in seeing off the guests. He said to the understanding Zhou Qin, and finally said: "Before leaving, I will give you a word - I am confident that I will live for two hundred years and will be a three thousand miles away."

After saying that, Zhang Yu turned around and stood silently facing the huge map of China on the wall, while Zhou Qin quietly withdrew from the study. That afternoon... Zhang Yu and his lover flew to Lanzhou...
Chapter completed!