In 1992, a small village owner became the richest man in the village by owning a car.

Chapter 494 A Worthy Past

As for the equipment factory in the oil city, Taozi is in full charge, but there are some things that still need to be discussed with Captain Lao Ji and Yu Feng.

The relationship here is that Fanfan Repair Shop is the headquarters, while the equipment factory in the oil city and the repair points in the surrounding cities are all branches.

It's worth mentioning that the outlets in other cities of Heilongjiang Province are all accessory stores expanded by Yu Feng. The stores are mostly no more than fifty square meters, and they are filled with distinctive accessory products and some consumables.

This serves two purposes: firstly, it provides a convenient place for maintenance technicians from the Eighth Bureau within the province to work; secondly, it expands the influence of Yu Dawei's parts distribution network.

Anyway, as long as Fanfan Repair Shop makes money, 60% of the profits are used for slow expansion, while only 40% is allocated to Yu Dawei for flexible allocation.

This model was ultimately decided by Yu Dawei, and so far it seems to be working well without any problems.

Besides Harbin and the oil city, there are at least four other branches operating, which serve as bases for maintenance personnel by selling spare parts, and their income is also quite good.

As for whether to expand the store or arrange dormitories later, Yu Dawei left all these things to Yu Feng and the others to worry about, as long as the general direction remained unchanged.

Another month passed, and large areas of heavy rainfall began to appear in both the north and south. Just as Yu Dawei and Duan Dahai had said, floods began.

As expected, the Hetao area northeast of Luhe River flooded, rushing directly towards Yongjun and then the town.

Yu Dawei dared not delay and quickly transported the sand he had just loaded to the riverbank to block the breach in the dike. However, the disaster was more serious than Yu Dawei had anticipated.

In his previous life, Yu Dawei lived in an oil city and didn't know much about the specific situation in his hometown. He only heard from his grandfather when he came back that there had been a major flood in the two Hetao areas.

Blocking the river mouth is useful now, but not very useful, because the rain is still falling, and it keeps falling.

"Master! My dad said that the river mouth downstream is about to breach. Hurry up and transport another truckload of sandbags over there!" A slightly chubby young man drove up in the rain, carrying a sandbag on his back.

"Got it. Go drive to the sand field and find your senior brother. Tell him to transport all the sandbags from the next truck to the Hetao region downstream!" Yu Dawei took out the keys from his pocket and handed them to the young man.

Seeing the young man turn and leave, Yu Dawei quickly continued to help move the sandbags.

This flood control and drainage operation involved not only all the employees of Fanfan Repair Shop and the flour mill, but also various leaders from the town and villagers from various villages who were mobilized.

Yu Dawei was only responsible for bringing over the sand he had painstakingly dug, but for Luhe Town, which was diverting floodwaters at two locations, it was a lifesaver.

After a day and a night of constructing defensive fortifications, the floodgates were barely plugged, but the rain hadn't stopped, and it was hard to say what would happen next.

Now everyone in the village is hoping that God will have mercy and stop the rain.

But how can the forces of nature be shifted according to human will?

It took twenty cartloads of sand and soil, and another half a cartload in the following two days, to finally avert the crisis of the great flood.

However, more than a dozen adobe houses nearby were also destroyed by the flood.

Fortunately, no one was killed, which is a stroke of luck amidst misfortune. As for the other towns, it's hard to say.

Yu Dawei remembers that Yingchun Town, which is next door, also has two river bends. He wonders if it can survive.

When Dawei and the others finally returned to the flour mill, exhausted, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

Grandpa Ji and the master cook from the flour mill had prepared the meal well in advance, just waiting for everyone to come back and eat.

Everyone was silently eating steamed buns and drinking soup in the newly built canteen, no one wanted to say a word.

Yu Feng, who was sitting next to Yu Dawei, was covered in mud and had wet hair. She had also come back from the disaster relief effort with him.

"Dawei, we should be able to relax for the next few days. I heard from the weather forecast that it should be sunny here the day after tomorrow," Duan Dahai said to Yu Dawei while eating a steamed bun.

Yu Dawei nodded, picked up the two large bowls and took a sip of hot soup: "As long as the weather clears up, there won't be any problems from now on."

"Thanks to Brother Duan from Yujiatun. I heard the water is almost at the village. Luckily you arrived in time," Yu Dawei said again.

"We're brothers, don't mention it." Duan Dahai finished speaking and then couldn't help but praise, "The men, women, and children in your village are all pretty capable. Knowing that I was building a dam on the Hetao side, they all went over to help move sand."

"Hehe, according to my grandfather, it's alright. We younger generations all have a bit of blood in our bones, so we haven't disgraced our ancestors." Yu Dawei said, taking another bite of his steamed bun.

The crisis in Luhe Town, including the crisis of Fanfan's repair shop and the old flour mill being hit by the flood, has been resolved.

Fanfan's repair shop started working step by step and was soon on track.

Yu Dawei has finally fulfilled a regret he couldn't overcome in his previous life. In his previous life, his wife and children lived in the old house in the front yard. Due to heavy rain and flooding in the Hetao area, his family was the first household in Yujiatun to have their house destroyed by the flood.

Back then, it was Old Mrs. Wang next door who was kind-hearted and let them, a widow and her child, stay for a few nights.

Yu Dawei still can't forget the scene when Han Jingfan buried herself in his arms and cried uncontrollably when he rushed home.

She kept crying out, "My home is gone! My home is gone!"

Fortunately, the villagers were kind-hearted and helped his family rebuild the roof and reinforce the adobe bricks afterwards.

There's no way around it, my family is too poor, and I'm drowning in debt. Building a new house? That's just wishful thinking.

In his past life, besides his family, several other mud-brick houses, including Tiezhuzi's grandmother's house and Lao Tian's house at the west end of the village, were also destroyed.

One reason Yu Dawei didn't leave his hometown to develop in the oil city early in his life was to make up for the regrets of the past.

He could not stop the water in the past, but now he can!

Not only did they make their own house impregnable, but not a single house in the entire Yujiatun village collapsed.

"Oh, by the way, it seems that the earthen granary of Old Gao's family in your village was washed away by the rain. I heard it from the people in your village when I came back." Duan Dahai suddenly remembered this and mentioned it to Yu Dawei.

"Uh... forget about the Gao family, they deserve it." Yu Dawei continued eating with his head down.

"Dawei! Dawei!" Just as Dawei had taken a couple of bites, shouts and hurried footsteps came from outside the cafeteria.

Yu Dawei turned his head and saw that the person who opened the door was Boss Liang, who was soaking wet. He looked puzzled and said, "What's wrong? Weren't you in the city leading people in flood relief? Why are you back here?"

Mr. Liang looked rather grim and exhausted as he spoke, "One of the breaches in the Hulan River couldn't be plugged, and the dam has completely collapsed."

"Is it the piece I was talking about?!" Yu Dawei jumped up, his face instantly turning gloomy.

If it really is the tributary upstream of Luhe Town, then all our previous efforts will have been for nothing!
"Yes." Boss Liang nodded with difficulty, then stomped his right foot hard on the ground: "Damn it, I told you that the defenses there were too weak, and we needed to put in more sandbags, more! And the person in charge there still complained that I was annoying?!"

"I gave them so many supplies for free, and you're saying I'm annoyed?!"

Yu Dawei had no interest in listening to Boss Liang's complaints. He turned to Duan Dahai and said, "Brother Duan, we need to move the remaining half of the sand from the sand pit there. If we can't stop the flow, it will hit Yingchun Town first, and then our town very soon."

"Sigh, I understand. I'll take Claw and Biaozi over there to pull the sandbags now." Duan Dahai had lost his appetite and was furious. He had clearly warned them before, so why was there still a weak defense? Now that the water had washed it away, what were they going to do?
What a joke! All the hard work of all the brothers and fellow villagers could be wasted in an instant.

"Is there anything else you need since you came back?" Yu Dawei looked at Boss Liang who was walking over again. Sure enough, his suggestion that Boss Liang keep an eye on the tributaries of Sui City when he had time was correct!

“Some government officials in the city need excavators, in any number they require. They probably want to use the excavators to alleviate the pressure from the overflowing tributaries,” Mr. Liang added.

"Understood, I'll take the excavator over right away." Yu Dawei thought for a moment and then said, "You help me hurry up and tow the flatbed truck, and then have Axe take you to the site and bring all those excavators with you."

"I'll take the two excavators from the factory over there as a temporary measure." After saying that, Yu Dawei lost his appetite and followed Duan Dahai away.

At that moment, everyone realized that things seemed to have become more serious.

After making the phone call from the flour mill office, Duan Dahai quickly ran to the canteen to motivate everyone.

The people at Fanfan Repair Shop are all excellent, young, strong, and in great physical condition. But the flour mill is different; they usually do different jobs, so some of them are not actually suitable for participating in flood relief.

After a quick screening, Duan Dahai led his men, carrying sandbags, straight to the tributary of Sui City for emergency rescue.

1998 was the most tiring year for Yu Dawei after he traveled back in time.

They had to protect everything they had worked so hard to achieve, help the people in the village, the town, and ultimately, inexplicably, the entire city of Sui County, in their flood relief efforts.

He never imagined that this year would be so wonderful.

To prevent the floodwaters from spreading further from a tributary in Sui City, Yu Dawei returned to the village three times to mobilize the men in the village to fight the flood together with the main force.

This includes Yu Damin, Yu Dazhi, Yu Dasheng, Yu Dajiu, and other brothers of the Yu family from the same generation as Yu Dawei, all of whom rushed to the front line.

Yu Dachuan was an exception; he was assigned to the rescue team and worked with the county nurses, helping to bandage wounded people who had been injured during the rescue.

(End of this chapter)