novelones Chapter 308 The Pioneer
Chapter 308 The Pioneer
(Thanks to "Big Fish Little Heart" for the gift king! Thank you for your support! Thank you to "Evil Eyes Poisonous Heart" for the author certification! Two chapters today (one of which is a long chapter)~)
On the surface of the Huangpu River, diesel engines emitted a deep, rumbling sound.
The ferry deck trembled slightly beneath my feet. Through the car window, the murky waters of the Huangpu River slowly receded in the morning mist.
Satsuki sat in the back seat of the black limousine, her gaze passing over the back of the front seats and landing on the ever-approaching opposite shore through the windshield.
Behind us, on the Bund in Puxi, the century-old European-style buildings still maintain their dignity under the gray sky. But ahead of the ferry, in Pudong, which we are about to reach, a completely different scene unfolds.
"Bang."
The wheels rolled over the seam between the gangway ramp and the concrete ground of the dock, causing the heavy vehicle to lurch violently.
The convoy drove away from the ferry terminal, and the smooth road surface came to an abrupt end a few hundred meters away.
Unlike yesterday's convoy traveling from the airport to the city, this afternoon's inspection team crossing the river was significantly larger.
In the conference room, when Endo slammed the proof of the $100 million in cash and the list of 120 heavy industrial equipment on the table, and revealed the bottom line of wholly foreign-owned enterprises, the nature of this investment promotion completely changed.
This massive amount of foreign investment, large enough to influence national-level industrial layouts, has long exceeded the reception and approval authority of a single municipal-level investment promotion bureau.
During a ten-minute break in the meeting, Chen Zhiyuan urgently reported to the city.
Therefore, three black Santana sedans with government license plates were urgently added to the convoy for today's field inspection trip.
The deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Foreign Investment Commission, the director of the planning department of the Pudong Development Office, and the special commissioner of Shanghai Customs were all urgently dispatched to join the joint inspection team heading to the east bank of the Yangtze River.
Satsuki rolled the car window down completely.
The muddy dirt road stretched out from the end of the asphalt highway, its surface riddled with deep ruts made by heavy farm vehicles. Low farmhouses were scattered along both sides of the road, their gray cement walls adorned with faded red slogans. A few speckled chickens pecked at the puddle by the roadside, seemingly oblivious to the passing convoy.
Further on, there was an endless expanse of reeds. The withered yellow reeds bent neatly in the same direction in the autumn wind, as if their heads were being held down by an invisible giant hand.
Satsuki took out an instant camera from her handbag.
"Click."
The camera was focused on an abandoned brick kiln by the roadside. Half of the kiln's arched roof had collapsed, and the exposed red bricks appeared a dull, rusty color in the overcast light.
"Click."
The second photo shows a concrete irrigation ditch about three meters wide on the right side of the road. There are clear water level markings on the ditch wall—the highest water level mark is less than forty centimeters below the edge of the ditch.
"Click."
The third image shows the elevation difference between the road surface and the farmland. The soil cross-section is clearly visible—the surface layer is about 20 centimeters of black humus, below which is grayish-blue silty clay with extremely high water content, and fine water droplets seep out at the cross-section.
Fujita turned his head from the passenger seat and glanced at Satsuki, who was shaking the photographic paper in the rearview mirror.
"Miss, the road conditions aren't good. Should we ask the driver to slow down?"
"No need." Satsuki folded the three sheets of photograph paper together and tucked them into a hidden compartment inside her handbag. "Fujita, the scenery here is hard to find in Tokyo."
"...Young Miss, if I may be so bold, the environment here is worse than even the Japanese countryside."
"Is that so..." Satsuki put away her Polaroid camera and looked with great interest at the desolate riverbank outside. "In my opinion, this place is a goldmine..."
……
Inside the first lead vehicle.
Chen Zhiyuan, sitting in the passenger seat, turned around and unfolded a folded preliminary planning sketch of Pudong New Area, handing it to Deputy Director Liu of the Municipal Foreign Investment Commission and the Planning Director of the Pudong Development Office in the back seat.
"Director Liu, Section Chief Wang. The convoy is currently traveling north along the planned route of Pudong Avenue."
Chen Zhiyuan's finger slid across the drawing, avoiding the small, relatively flat area near the ferry terminal on the riverbank that was also close to the city center.
"According to the city's macro plan, these areas near the city center will be developed into financial and commercial support service areas in the future."
His finger traced directly to the northernmost part of the drawing, a large blank area right next to the mouth of the Yangtze River.
"Considering the massive scale of the Saionji Group's 120 heavy equipment units, and the Japanese side's request in the meeting room for 'independent, contiguous development and large open spaces,' I instructed the driver to take them directly to the Waigaoqiao area."
Deputy Director Liu of the Municipal Foreign Investment Commission frowned deeply as he looked at the circled area on the blueprint.
"Old Chen, there isn't even a decent paved road over there in Waigaoqiao. Isn't it too risky to take people there?"
Deputy Director Liu lowered his voice.
"There are indeed plans for a deep-water port area and a bonded logistics center there, but they're still just on paper. The city is so tight on foreign exchange reserves that even the money for repairing main roads has to be carefully calculated. If you take foreign businessmen directly to that most desolate, muddy area, what if the Japanese come to the site, see that we're fooling them, and turn around and leave? Who are we going to ask for that $100 million in cash?"
More importantly, this huge deal has now been handed over to them. If they succeed, it will be a tremendous political achievement; but if it falls apart under their control, the consequences could be dire…
Director Wang nodded in agreement, took out a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes from his shirt pocket, pulled one out, and put it in his mouth without lighting it.
"Aren't there two vacant plots of land in Minhang? Although they're a bit small, at least the 'seven connections and one leveling' are all in place. Let's keep the people engaged first and get them to sign a letter of intent."
Chen Zhiyuan did not answer immediately. He pulled a folded piece of paper from the sun visor above the dashboard—it was the data of the Waigaoqiao plot that he had marked with a red pencil in his office last night.
"Director Liu, Section Chief Wang," Chen Zhiyuan unfolded the piece of paper, pointing to several numbers on it. "I have a question for you both first. In the Pudong Development Office's initial budget for this year, how much is allocated to infrastructure construction in the Waigaoqiao Deep-Water Port area?"
Director Wang, with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, mumbled a number.
"Thirty-eight million RMB," Chen Zhiyuan said for him, "which is less than eight million USD. What can that money do? Build two kilometers of port access road, lay a 10-kilovolt temporary power line, and lay a section of water pipe. It's not even enough to finish the foundation for the dock."
Deputy Director Liu remained silent.
"You all saw the equipment list the Japanese laid out on the table yesterday," Chen Zhiyuan said, taking back the paper. "One hundred and twenty heavy industrial machine tools, plus a $100 million cash injection. This is the first wholly foreign-owned project of its scale in the entire country of China."
He turned around and looked at the gray river surface outside the windshield.
"What they want is open space, a large area, independence, not crowded with others. Those few scraps in Minhang can be filled with three stamping machines. Only the mudflats of Waigaoqiao can accommodate this."
"But--"
"I know what you're worried about," Chen Zhiyuan interrupted Deputy Director Liu, "that the wasteland will scare away foreign investment. But think about it, what did the young lady of this Japanese conglomerate say in the conference room yesterday?"
He mimicked Satsuki's tone, speaking in a high-pitched voice, "'I want an endless expanse of clean, empty land.'"
Director Wang almost dropped the cigarette from his mouth.
"She wants it deserted." Chen Zhiyuan put away his joking tone. "Then we'll give her the most deserted one. The land in Waigaoqiao, 380 acres, surrounded by water on three sides, backed by the planned deep-water port shoreline. Right now it's reed marshes and fishponds, but in five years, it will be the cargo choke point of the entire Pudong."
Chen Zhiyuan held up one finger.
"The key issue is that the city doesn't have the foreign exchange to start the deep-water port's infrastructure. But what if this Japanese conglomerate, for the sake of its own factories, paid out of its own pocket to build the roads, electricity, and docks?"
The carriage was silent for two seconds.
Deputy Director Liu slowly leaned back in his chair, his fingers unconsciously tracing the edge of the blueprints on his knees.
"You mean... make them pioneers?"
"It's not about giving them up," Chen Zhiyuan corrected. "They want it themselves. We just need to put the land out there, negotiate the terms, and the foreign investors will cover all the remaining infrastructure costs. Once they've built the roads and docks, the surrounding land prices will naturally rise. Then the city will approve the adjacent plots, one after another, and the framework of the entire Waigaoqiao Port area will be established."
"Not a single penny of foreign exchange?" Director Wang took the unlit cigarette out of his mouth and held it between his fingers.
"Not a single penny spent."
Deputy Director Liu and Director Wang exchanged a glance.
"Okay." Deputy Director Liu folded the blueprints on his lap and stuffed them into his briefcase. "Go take a look first. But Lao Chen, let me make this clear beforehand—if the Japanese are not satisfied when they arrive on site, you need to have a backup plan. Don't push things too far."
"Don't worry." Chen Zhiyuan turned around and faced forward. "I've prepared three backup plans. But I bet they won't use the second one today."
The Santana drove onto the ferry terminal leading to Pudong.
……
The convoy stopped in front of an open area surrounded by wooden stakes.
The door of the lead car opened first. Chen Zhiyuan jumped out, his leather shoes sinking half an inch into the soft mud. He glanced down, his expression unchanged, strode around the front of the car, and opened the rear door.
Deputy Director Liu and Section Chief Wang got out of the car one after the other. Section Chief Wang got out of the car and habitually took out his lighter. Just as his thumb touched the flint wheel, Chen Zhiyuan threw a glance at him from the front.
Director Wang paused. He followed Chen Zhiyuan's gaze to the Toyota Crown parked behind them, then, as if remembering something, awkwardly stuffed the lighter and the Hongtashan cigarette he had been carrying the whole way back into his pocket.
The sliding door of the Coaster minibus opened, and several cadres in dark jackets filed out. The customs' white van also came to a stop, and two uniformed officers stood beside the vehicle, holding folders in their hands, looking around at the wasteland.
Endo got out of the car first and opened the door for Satsuki.
Satsuki landed on her little black leather shoes. The heels dug into the soft soil, and her body leaned forward slightly, but Fujita's hand firmly supported her elbow.
"Thank you." Satsuki steadied herself, released Fujita's arm, and looked around.
This is an open area surrounded by low shrubs and withered reeds. The terrain is flat and the view is excellent—looking north, you can see a gray concrete embankment, behind which lies a larger expanse of reeds. To the east, the outlines of several high-voltage transmission towers are vaguely visible, but they are very far away, at least three kilometers away.
Waigaoqiao, the first and largest bonded zone in China...
Satsuki took a few steps outside.
It won't be long before this place is surrounded by barbed wire, will it? This land is unacceptable...
She turned to look at the front of the convoy.
Chen Zhiyuan walked over with Deputy Director Liu and Director Wang. His pace was a beat faster than when he was in the city, and his tone was as warm as a host introducing his own home.
"Mr. Endo, Miss." Chen Zhiyuan pointed to the embankment to the north. "This plot of land is numbered 'Pudong Waigaoqiao A-03', with a total area of 380 mu. It is adjacent to the planned deep-water shoreline on the south bank of the Yangtze River Estuary on the north side, and the reserved port access road corridor is on the east side."
He waved his arm in the southwest direction.
"The straight-line distance from here to the landing point of the planned cross-river bridge is only three kilometers. After the bridge is completed, the drive from here to the city center of Puxi will take no more than twenty minutes."
The translator translated this passage into Japanese. Endo took out his notebook from his briefcase, turned to a new page, and began to take notes.
"Three hundred and eighty mu." Endo looked up. "That's about 250,000 square meters in total. And the length of the northern shoreline?"
Chen Zhiyuan looked at Director Wang beside him. Director Wang subconsciously touched his jacket pocket—the bag of Hongtashan cigarettes he'd been holding in all morning was still lying quietly inside. He withdrew his hand and pulled a crumpled little notebook from his inner jacket pocket, flipping through it a couple of times.
"The shoreline is 1,100 meters long. Of this, about 400 meters is a hard riverbed section suitable for building berths."
Endo wrote down the numbers and drew a horizontal line under "400 meters" with his pen.
Satsuki stood still, not participating in the conversation. She raised her Polaroid camera, aimed it at the embankment to the north, pressed the shutter, and then turned to take a picture of the distant high-voltage towers to the east.
After taking the photos, she put down her camera and began walking north along the boundary line marked by wooden stakes. Fujita followed silently two steps behind her.
I walked about fifty meters.
Satsuki stopped in her tracks.
Her nostrils twitched slightly. Then, a hand wearing a beige silk glove rose up and covered her mouth and nose.
"What does it taste like?"
Satsuki frowned, her voice muffled from behind her gloves. She turned her head, her gaze locking onto a ditch about thirty meters to her left.
The ditch was much wider than the agricultural irrigation canals seen along the road, its water a dark green, almost black. The soil on both banks had been eroded into jagged sections, the exposed layers containing rotting plant roots and grayish-white sediment of unknown origin. A foul stench, a mixture of humus and industrial wastewater, was carried by the autumn wind from the direction of the ditch.
Chen Zhiyuan quickly caught up. As he approached, he also smelled the scent, and the smile on his face froze for a moment, but he quickly recovered.
"Young Miss, this is a temporary agricultural irrigation canal." Chen Zhiyuan pointed upstream. "There are several duck-raising farms upstream, and their drainage goes directly into the canal without treatment. Once the development officially starts, all these canals will be filled in and replaced with an underground drainage system."
"don't want."
Gaoyue lowered her hand from her mouth and nose, turned around, and faced Chen Zhiyuan. Her expression showed obvious displeasure, and her lips were slightly pursed.
"There's a stinking ditch here. I don't want this land."
Her tone was crisp and decisive, leaving no room for negotiation. After speaking, she turned and walked back towards the parking lot, her steps shuffling through the muddy ground. Fujita immediately followed, taking a folded handkerchief from his pocket and handing it to Satsuki.
Satsuki took the handkerchief, covered her nose, and quickened her pace.
Chen Zhiyuan stood there, watching the girl's retreating figure, and a twitch appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Deputy Director Liu leaned in from behind and whispered, "Old Chen, what did I tell you? This kind of rich heiress—"
"It's alright." Chen Zhiyuan put his hands in his pockets, turned around and glanced at the stinking ditch. "We have two backup plans. Let's go to the second one."
He walked quickly back to the convoy, opened the door of the Santana, and turned back to say something to Director Wang.
"Notify the lead vehicle ahead to change course and go to plot B-07."
Director Wang was taken aback. "B-07? Isn't that the mudflat closest to the river? There isn't even a dirt road there—"
"Let's go there." Chen Zhiyuan bent down and got into the car, "to the most desolate part."