Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 802 I'm not kidding you.

With the money secured, construction on the Hongqi Reservoir project officially began. Xia Lin set a timeframe of one to two months, with the project being jointly undertaken by three major engineering teams from Fuliang.

However, this reservoir is quite challenging. First, it is built at a high point upstream, and it requires a valley formed between three mountains as the foundation of an artificial barrier lake, with rammed earth and concrete as the dam body. This way, resources can be saved as much as possible while storing more water.

This plan has never been tested before. It is novel and complicated, but as for safety, there is definitely no problem. This method of enclosing a mountain to form a lake is the safest. Moreover, it is not a wall, but a dam made of concrete nearly 20 meters thick.

"Headmaster, the timeframe you've set is a bit too short. I think it should take at least five or even ten years."

"Give me a lot of people, no matter the cost." Xia Lin jabbed the map hard at that area: "Even if the cost is ten million, it's fine."

Everyone thought Xia Lin was crazy, but Xia Lin knew that if this method really worked, then this huge man-made dammed reservoir would be the greatest wonder of mankind in the seventh century, without exception.

Are wonders detrimental to a nation? Of course not. This is one of Xia Lin's wildest ideas: the world's first fully electrified city and the first fully water-connected city. All of this requires massive spending, regardless of cost. Such monstrous infrastructure development requires manpower, financial resources, and technological capabilities; none of these can be lacking.

Think of this.

Damn it, when will the Silver Ship arrive?

While Xia Lin was cursing, the first batch of silver had been smelted and was being shipped to Ningbo Port. The silver and other goods that came this time were worth a total of 52 million taels.

It's certainly more satisfying to take from outside, but this can't be considered plunder; at most, it's trade revenue. After all, how can helping others mine not be called assistance?

However, Xia Lin has not been notified of this matter yet. After all, it is so difficult when there is no instant communication method. Shortwave radio can indeed be used, but the range is not suitable for making cross-sea calls.

Xia Lin, pretending to be a big shot, said that no matter how much money or how many people were involved, this matter would be done, even if it meant the government was in debt, because his words carried far more weight than the emperor's.

Once the plan was decided, the entire urban construction system of Fuliang immediately began to operate at full speed. However, many places were experiencing a labor shortage, so it seemed that it was not easy to find workers for the time being. But that was okay, Xia Lin was willing to spend money.

With millions of dollars being distributed, how could there be any shortage of people?

It's important to know that there hasn't been a large-scale, all-out war since Emperor Hongbao took over. Regional conflicts won't cause too much population loss. In addition, the food rations have exploded since Xia Lin took over, and the population is currently at its absolute peak growth period.

As the first cargo ship, escorted by the convoy, sailed into Ningbo Port, the construction of the giant reservoir in Fuliang finally commenced.

A construction team of tens of thousands of people, countless materials, and even some of the materials intended for the construction of the new Xianyang were intercepted and used to build this giant reservoir.

Next came the blasting and digging, shaping the mountain into the desired form before pouring concrete. This amount of work was so massive that it would have taken two or even three generations to complete in any dynasty.

Xia Lin, however, disagreed. He consistently advocated focusing on major projects and then spending money recklessly, since this phase was inherently a money-burning phase, so they just had to work like crazy. As a result, what everyone initially perceived as a slow process now appeared to be progressing rapidly, giving the impression of America before the Great Depression and China during its super-fast and volatile era, emphasizing speed, accuracy, and stability.

During the initial pandemic, approximately 40,000 people were involved in construction, but now, after Xia Lin mobilized both military and civilian personnel, he has organized approximately 150,000 people.

150,000! This number sounds extremely exaggerated, but it's actually not a big deal, because it's the off-season for farming, so they're doing big-budget productions right now.

The money was flowing in like water every day, and the original plan of seven million taels was already stretched thin in less than ten days. But just at this time, the overseas assets arrived!

There's really no question about this luck. After dividing the stolen goods on the spot, Xia Lin immediately took out 40 percent of his share and continued to invest it in the construction of the giant reservoir.

As he watched those mountains being gradually enclosed by concrete into an impenetrable valley, he felt a surge of excitement standing on the high ridge.

Students from several colleges worked alongside him without any rest, and finally, they officially began storing water before the winter solstice.

To say that Xia Lin was somewhat orphaned is an understatement. Autumn and winter are usually dry seasons with little rain, but who knew that this winter would bring so much rain that it was terrifying.

They had only managed to store less than a third of the water themselves, but the continuous rain over the past half month had replenished their reserves by more than a third, and this rate was still accelerating. Behind the hundred-foot-high wall, the sound of crashing waves could be heard. Xia Lin, standing on the mountain, felt that this was all too crazy.

Regardless of him, no one in the world considered him a normal person. If Xia Lin hadn't had enough influence and power, he could have been sentenced to immediate execution and the extermination of his entire family.

After all, in the current understanding, this operation is tantamount to murder. Once this thing is breached, the entire pontoon below will be submerged in water, which would be an extremely tragic event.

However, due to the perfect weather, the reservoir is filling up very quickly and is about to overflow. At this moment, the sluice gates are about to be opened. As for whether Fuliang is afraid or not, he is not afraid. What he is afraid of is that something else might go wrong and cause a large-scale man-made disaster.

As for not being afraid, it's because the soldiers and civilians of Fuliang have an almost superstitious obsession with Xia Lin; whatever he says or does is never wrong.

Early that morning, a light autumn rain was falling outside, and the sky was pitch black. Xia Lin was pacing anxiously inside the house because today was the day the No. 2 sluice gate of the reservoir was to be opened, and whether they could light the lamps and enter the house depended on this day.

Multiple water turbines were already ready to go, and the copper wires wrapped in lacquer were connected to the government office of Fuliang County. Looking at the incandescent lights all around, Xia Lin was nervous and restless.

"Chief, everything is ready ahead."

"Open the gates, turn on the power!"

(End of this chapter)