Great Power Technology

Along with other senior leaders of the Pastoral Organization, Yang Wei was taken aboard a large transport plane. During the several-hour flight, the harsh noise and near-zero low temperature almost caused her to collapse. But fortunately, the torture ended quickly and the plane finally landed. At some airport she didn't know.

After getting off the plane, she met again the man who talked to her in the club, Lin He.

"Where are they taking us?"

Yang Wei asked slightly uneasily.

Lin He looked out through the window of the bus. After a long time, he hesitated and said:

"Judging from the terrain, we should be in a desert now. There are not many places in the country with deserts like this. Coupled with what they said before, I think they probably want to throw us into the Corps to control sand. "

"Sand control?? We?? Where are we??"

Yang Wei had a horrified look on her face. In fact, when Qin Chuan said, "Let you live an idyllic life," she had already vaguely guessed the other party's plan to deal with people like her, but when she In their thoughts, at most they would throw her to work on a labor camp, at most they would deprive her of basic entertainment rights, or even further, at most they would cut down on food supply.

Such treatment does not frighten her, but sand control?

The desert is always associated with death. What is the difference between letting an inexperienced person like myself fight against an environment that is extremely arid and desolate, and the death penalty?

A voice from a movie suddenly appeared in her mind:

Death penalty, or exile?

She had no choice, someone made the choice for her.

The death penalty was carried out by exile.

Looking at her expression, Lin He answered:

"Judging from the terrain outside, we should be near the Gurbantunggut Desert now - the Jungar Basin Desert. You see, there is the typical Yadan landform area. The entire desert is full of wind erosion structures. It should be a scenic spot, near Tuoling Mengpo, I remember I’ve been there before.”

"Desert control work has been done in this area for several years, and the environment is pretty good. If we continue to go north into the hinterland of the desert, there is no need to worry. There is a high probability that we will be thrown into the Shihezi 150 Regiment Field, at least not He died here inexplicably.”

There was a hint of comfort in Lin He's expression. After hearing the words "150 group field", Yang Wei's expression finally relaxed a little.

Yes, even though she is full of prejudices about this country, objectively speaking, she still thinks that the army is the purest place in this country - especially the army here.

"What are they going to make us do?"

"I don't know. Just wait. It's just sand control. It won't be too difficult. However, our career is completely ruined."

"Continuing deeper into this area, it can be said that we have entered an isolated no-man's land. Human nature and morality are rare here. Death competition between living creatures is the mainstream - but it's okay. We are at the top of the food chain after all.”

Hearing this, Yang Wei's relaxed mood became tense again.

She always thought that she was strong, noble, and could sacrifice for her faith and future at any cost, but until this moment, when she faced her own ending, she suddenly discovered that she could also lose control of her emotions.

Will he spend the rest of his life in this deserted desert?

To her, this is a reality more terrifying than death.

During the several-hour drive that followed, her fingers never stopped trembling. It wasn't until the staff took her out of the car and was in the desert, feeling the cold air, that she came back to her senses.

Yang Wei raised her head and looked around. What appeared in front of her was a camp with low houses scattered around. There were some greenery between the houses. They were glass greenhouse-style vegetable gardens developed by the residents here.

The water source is obviously precious, because she saw the drip irrigation measures in the vegetable garden, which made her extremely curious. After all, she had grown up in a big city, and this was the first time she had seen such a pair of water. For her, facilities only exist in books.

She was about to step forward to watch, but the staff member who got off the car immediately stood in front of her.

"Don't move, stand your ground!"

"Starting from today, you will be incorporated into the Xinhu Farm Desert Control Workstation, which is where you stand."

"You will work here with the local military and civilians to complete the 200-kilometer desert retreat project. No one can leave until the project is completed."

"Your basic livelihood will be guaranteed by Xinhu Farm, and you will still enjoy basic civil rights until your final judgment is handed down."

"Except freedom."

"Do not attempt to sabotage or escape, otherwise the charges against you will be escalated."

"The project lasts for five years. During this period, we will conduct inspections on you. If the inspection results are excellent, you may be allowed to leave early."

"Now, I will hand you over to Xinhu Farm, and someone will take you to familiarize yourself with the environment. We will meet again in 6 months."

After that, the staff turned around and left, leaving Yang Wei and everyone standing there looking at each other.

Surrounding them were only soldiers with loaded weapons and dust-covered desert control personnel.

No one knew what they should do, and no one stepped forward to guide them. Everyone just stood in the cold wind for half an hour. When Yang Wei felt that her body was almost unconscious, she finally had a job that looked like a leader. Personnel came from a distance and took them to temporary accommodation.

The next day, Yang Wei and her team followed the farm into the real desert and began to do the desert control work that was torturous for them.

The time now is early February. According to the normal work plan, this time has not yet reached the tree planting season, but this does not mean that their work becomes easier. On the contrary, the early land leveling and embankment walls Construction work is the heaviest part of the work.

This work team implements the model of old leaders leading new ones. Yang Wei was assigned to work with a middle-aged man named Wu Xuan who looked to be about fifty years old. Although he knew the identities of Yang Wei and others, he was not interested in the work team because of the The simple kindness still took the initiative to take over the work in Yang Wei's hands when her physical strength was exhausted to the point of collapse.

This also made Yang Wei's favorable impression of him rise a lot. She sincerely thanked him, and the latter sighed and said:

"No need to thank me. To be honest, this is the first time that outsiders like you have come to this place. Let's renovate it well. We will work on it for one year this year and one year next year. By the year after that, our project will be basically over. ”

"When the time comes, you can go back to where you came from. It depends on what the leader wants. What you have made is not a big mistake. As long as you can educate yourself well, you will still be one of our own."

Yang Wei was stunned for a moment.

She had never thought that the man opposite her would feel that she and him were "one of our own".

"Thank you. However, I don't actually think we made any mistakes - but thank you for your kindness."

"How could you be thrown here to be reformed if you didn't make any mistakes?"

Wu Xuan looked at Yang Wei doubtfully and asked.

Yang Wei sighed and replied:

"It's just a different route. It's just like that time."

Wu Xuan frowned and said seriously:

"Different routes are not a small problem. If you take an anti-people route, then we are not on the same page."

"Of course not. On the contrary, we want to save people - but there are some problems with the method. Maybe we are too radical and unacceptable."

Hearing this, Wu Xuan couldn't help but feel a little curious. He filled the last handful of soil into the embankment wall, then sat down aside, took out his cigarette case and asked:

"Smoke?"

Seeing Yang Wei shaking her head, he lit himself on fire, and then continued:

"Tell me about your route."

An excited look appeared on Yang Wei's face. She was keenly aware that this was an excellent opportunity. If the people on this farm could be started and transformed at the ideological level, then it is very likely that this place would become Pastoral's next secret base.

The base that nurtures the future of mankind was born right under the official's nose.

Thinking of this, she couldn't wait to sit down next to Wu Xuan, tried hard to calm down her emotions, and then started from the invasion of adjacent dimensions, and explained the concept of Pastoral step by step.

During this process, the man always maintained an attentive attitude. When Yang Wei finally stopped, he asked with some confusion:

"So, the purpose of your organization is to lower the living standards of ordinary people and then let smart people solve the crisis?"

"You could say that, but the reduction in living standards is temporary."

Before she finished speaking, Wu Xuan interrupted:

"So what did ordinary people do during this crisis?"

". Live your life."

"Live your life?"

Wu Xuan laughed and then asked:

"Do you know what life is to us?"

"Like I said, pastoral songs, men farming and women weaving, lowering desires."

"Pastoral? Are you worthy of talking about pastoral?"

The expression on Wu Xuan's face suddenly became angry. Before the other party could answer, he continued to question:

"Do you think our life here is an idyllic one?"

"Of course not, so it is for this reason that we are trying to persuade the officials to abandon such a huge project that consumes a lot of manpower and makes you miserable."

"Desert control is not a necessary action. Even without this desert, wouldn't you be able to live on? Are all the 9.6 million square kilometers of this country desert? Can't you find another livable place? ?"

Hearing this, Wu Xuan's expression changed from anger to sadness. At this moment, he finally understood the reason why the woman in front of him was thrown here for transformation.

After taking the last puff of cigarette, he put out the cigarette butt on the ground, put it into his pocket, and then asked:

"Do you know how many people in China are affected by desertification?"

"You don't need to answer. I can tell you that it is 120 million people."

"Among these 120 million people, more than 80% are poor. In other words, more than 40% of the poor in China are concentrated in the northwest sandy area!"

"Do you know what kind of life they lived before?"

"There is no water, no food, 365 days a year, and more than 200 days are windy and sandy. The first thing you do when you get up in the morning is not to wash up, but to clean up the sand and soil blown by the wind at the door, because if you don't clean up, it will continue to If two sandstorms come, you may not even be able to open the door the next day!”

"You asked me why they didn't move away. This really means why not eat minced meat. How to move? What to move with?"

"Moving requires money and risks!"

"A family that has just barely solved the problem of food and clothing, how can they afford the risk of moving?"

“In 2002, when I was in Mu Us, I was still a young man. Seeing the extremely difficult living standards of the people there, I asked the same question as you. Do you know how they answered me? "

"They said that they could barely survive if they stayed in the sandy area, but if they moved out of the sandy area, they would definitely die."

"Do you know why? Have you ever heard of a story called the descendants of a shepherd boy?"

"The descendant of a sheep-herding boy, all he can do is herd sheep. He has absolutely no extra resources or energy to try to cross his own class and change his own destiny like you said!"

"Because there are only so many resources in that land. If you want to feed their bodies, you can't feed their spirits."

"This is a spiral of poverty, and no individual can break this spiral on his own."

"But should they be content with poverty and what you call a life of low desires?"

“You may have heard the story about a little girl’s grandmother who cooked her a bowl of instant noodles on her birthday. The reporter advised her not to feed the child such unhealthy food, but what’s the answer?”

"It doesn't matter, I only eat it once a year on my birthday anyway."

"What you consider unhealthy is already the most nutritious food they can get."

"You don't really think that the so-called pastoral pastoral means planting the fields, singing songs, and having enough food and clothing, right? You are too naive."

"Pastoral pastoral is about thinking about where the next day's food will come from every night before going to bed, about carefully taking a bath with a cup in the windy sand, and about losing one's life trying to find a sheep lost in the wind and sand in the sea of ​​​​sand!"

"Have you ever seen a real countryside? Have you ever seen a father who was overwhelmed and bought pesticides to poison the whole family because his son was clamoring to eat meat? Have you ever seen a child of school age walk barefoot in order to save a pair of shoes? Is it bloody and bloody? Have you ever seen the people in the sand area look at your off-road vehicle with fear and fear, obviously curious but not daring to get close?"

"You didn't. You just looked at these people from above and said coldly, 'You must save resources and buy time for the real elites.'"

"You forget, they are human beings too."

Having said this, Wu Xuan took a long breath and then continued:

"In more than 20 years, we have transformed 80,000 square kilometers of sandy land and planted more than 30,000 square kilometers of various types of forests, a considerable part of which are cash crops."

"At least 40 million people have been lifted out of poverty because of what you call 'unnecessary' mega-desert control projects, and 10 million children have been able to attend school normally because of the improvement in the regional economic level."

"After the desert turns green, all measures to revitalize the economy in animal husbandry, planting, and tourism will have a foundation, and people here have hope of breaking the poverty spiral."

"Now, you go to Mu Us and take a look - no, you don't even need to go to Mu Us. Just where we are standing, walking 20 kilometers south, you can know the difference between a desert and an oasis!"

"And you actually dare to say in front of me that such a project is unnecessary?"

"In my opinion, it's not only necessary, it's not even sufficient - that's why we have the Tongtian River project."

"Yes, I can understand your thinking, and I can understand that your starting point is also to solve the crisis of invasion from adjacent dimensions - at this point, you are indeed nobler than those who are purely for profit."

"But you are just as arrogant as them."

"You want ordinary people to live a life of low desires? What about yourselves?"

Looking at Yang Wei who was speechless, Wu Xuan lit another cigarette and said:

"A life with low desires cannot solve our crisis. On the contrary, only by pushing forward with strong desires can everyone gather their strength, prevent this society from collapsing under the crisis, and give everyone hope. .”

"We are willing to choose hope, and you have no right to make decisions for anyone who has hope."

Yang Wei stared blankly at the angry Wu Xuan. After a long time, she looked away and silently picked up the shovel beside her.

At this moment, there was a crack in the elitist logic in her heart. The crack was not too deep, but maybe this was the beginning of the collapse.

What she didn't know was that thousands of miles away, in the cell where she once stayed, after a full 40 hours of hard work, the spider in the corner had already formed its web.