this man is not calm

Chapter 386 New Idea
Whether you are a profit-driven businessman or a passionate entrepreneur, you should know that you should go with the flow.

Fighting against kerosene lamps in the electrical age, clinging to sailing battleships in the age of steel warships and cannons, fighting against battleships while aircraft carriers are showing off their power, etc., are all ways to die.

As the trend of global division of labor continues to rise, adopting a conservative strategy means making money slowly and having your floating wealth diluted by inflation, which is the same as losing money and falling behind.

The main domestic problem at present is the continuous expansion of the trade surplus. It is imperative to establish a financial reservoir. The two major industries of real estate and finance will usher in a magnificent era.

But one thing needs to be noted, storing water does not mean it will just sit there idle forever, creating hype and bubbles, and sooner or later it will be consumed. If there is only input and no output, sooner or later no matter how big the "reservoir" is, it will collapse. If it expands too much, it will turn into a sword hanging over your head, ready to fall at any time.

It is necessary to use it, and use it in the right places, and play its role reasonably, legally and efficiently, so that all the people can enjoy the benefits brought by economic development.

From the perspective of national governance, speculation in real estate and the prosperity of the financial industry are only stopgap measures and minor details. How to effectively convert the abundant currency into physical objects will benefit our compatriots more.

Without much thought, Jin Shang came up with the only answer.

"This is the only way to build a large infrastructure. It can not only benefit the people to the greatest extent, but also achieve wealth redistribution, and benefit all participants through the "trickle-down effect."

Anyone with a little common sense in economics understands the importance of getting as many people as possible involved in social distribution.

Back in 1997, people could not imagine how spectacular a mega-project worth hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars would be. At the same time in the previous life, the smooth closure of the Three Gorges Dam was a huge success, with a total investment of more than 200 billion yuan, almost regardless of cost. It also had other symbolic significance, as design, construction, engineering vehicles, construction, etc. were all completed independently, which was remarkable.

This generation's water conservancy infrastructure hub is still on paper, and controversies still exist, such as ecology, environmental protection, and the impact on the geology of upstream Sichuan and Shu.

But in Jin Shang's view, these are secondary. The key is that the economic foundation of the two lives is different.

There is no doubt that the conditions, national strength and comprehensive potential of this life are obviously superior. The population is over 300 million less, but the economic foundation, academic conditions and infrastructure capabilities are better.

For more than 600 years, domestic water conservancy facilities have been effectively improved and rarely damaged.

The development history of the Chinese nation is, to a large extent, a history of fighting against floods and droughts. Due to the relatively complete small-scale infrastructure in various places, the economic stickiness and strength of local towns are still very strong. For example, the appearance of such "local tyrants" in the home of my girlfriend Li Xuan and the home of my second uncle Zhang Hua proves that the local economic vitality is actually not bad.

Local areas have strong self-sustaining capabilities, relatively balanced development, and the trend of urban concentration is not obvious.

From a higher perspective, there is no absolute economic and cultural center in a large area. There is no need to sacrifice a certain place to protect the provincial capital and key cities. There is no urgent need to have a single center, a strong provincial capital, and concentrate resources to accomplish major tasks.

While visiting Li Xuan's hometown, Jin Shang took a look around the area and found that there were many wells in the area, the irrigation canals were well maintained, the disaster prevention and famine preparedness capabilities were extremely strong, and most of the small workshops and factories in the towns and villages were equipped with old-style boiler machines, diesel generators and other equipment.

There are many self-built small and medium-sized hydropower stations, but large hydropower stations are very rare.

It is conceivable that after hundreds of years of improvement, "small infrastructure" has been completely sufficient under the past model. The sufficient supply of coal and natural gas means that the energy self-sufficiency rate is extremely high, and the demand for building super-large hydropower stations is not so urgent.

As for basic people's livelihood, imbalances still exist, but except for those in the deep mountains and forests with inconvenient transportation, people can basically guarantee enough food and clothing, receive basic education, and those with better conditions can even buy some home appliances, which is considered pretty good.

The problem is that in the future, with the active World Trade Organization, it is only a matter of time before China becomes the "world factory" of the new era based on domestic conditions. The "siphon effect" of large cities with convenient transportation will become stronger and stronger, and the gap between first-tier cities and other regions will continue to widen, gradually evolving into a series of super cities.

This changes the situation.

Big industry, big infrastructure, big development, running is not enough to describe it, it is a leap forward like flying.

Correspondingly, the demand for basic materials, energy, industrial water, and skilled workers will become increasingly greater, and highly efficient super factories will emerge one after another.

Naturally, "concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks" and improving efficiency will become the mainstream.

As we all know, the South has no shortage of water and has a developed industry, but the reserves of coal, oil and natural gas are very scarce. There is only the Hongji Coal Mine on the Indochina Peninsula which is of a relatively small scale, and the oil fields, coal and steel near Jiangxia have some development value. It is better not to mention the others.

As for the legendary north-to-south power transmission and west-to-east power transmission, these days, UHV technology is still in its infancy. It is not like the situation twenty years later in the previous life when all the world's UHV technology patents and standards were in the hands of domestic companies. The losses in long-distance power transmission are astonishingly large. The legendary new energy technologies such as wind power and photovoltaics are not particularly mature yet and the costs are too high.

After all the calculations, only large hydropower stations have some potential.

Therefore, the need to build hydropower stations in river sections with abundant water and large drop in elevation, such as the Yangtze River and the Pearl River, is becoming more and more urgent.

Although there seems to be a lot of controversy now, Jin Shang feels that construction should start within two years at the earliest and within five years at the latest, and it will not be postponed any further.

Judging from the mainstream media, cities with a high level of industrialization are consuming more and more electricity, and there are occasional power outages during the summer peak season. In the past, there was very little news like this.

Electricity is just a microcosm of the development of the times, and there are also traffic, transportation, roads and bridges, logistics, shipbuilding, mining, metallurgy and water conservancy facilities.

Now we have no money, not enough strength, and no need, but who can guarantee that in the future, super projects such as "water from Tibet flowing into Xinjiang", "North Sea flowing south", or even blowing up the Himalayas will not really be started?
Two hundred years ago, who would have thought of such an outrageous thing as digging canals between Suez and Panama?
The story of a "land boat trip" can be boasted about for countless years.

Technology is constantly developing, and the power of industry has brought people endless ability to transform the planet. Crazy imagination is always there. More than 70 years ago, there was an early fantasy novel in China that had a dam built across the Bering Strait to connect North Asia and North America, blocking the Arctic Ocean cold current from moving southward and completely improving the too cold climate of the North Pacific. It is said that the media discussed it seriously more than 20 years ago. Unfortunately, Jin Shang was born too late and did not catch up with that crazy era.

"Since it is confirmed that the era of large-scale infrastructure is about to begin, where are my opportunities? My second uncle Mei Yingnian is betting on real estate and finance, supplemented by shipping logistics, tourism and culture, etc. In which direction should Jinxi Culture focus its efforts? "

The Internet IT industry is definitely not wrong, but distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.

Shipbuilding, home appliances, and consumer electronics seem to be promising, but they are too diverse and messy, and it is not good to have no focus.

"The heavy industrial cities in the south are too far from the energy centers, and the northern cities are too far from the water sources. The places with a lot of fresh water are basically in the high-altitude cold regions with sparse population. Even if the factories are moved there, they will have to face at least half a year of ice and snow freezing weather, and the labor costs will be high."

This is very difficult.

It is estimated that only industries such as data centers, automated factories, power stations, and chemical plants will be able to persist and have higher profits.

Can you imagine how such a big province, where the total population of its largest city is just over 200,000, can develop large-scale industry?
I guess the only thing they can do is open mines or run large farms and ranches, nothing else.

"It's difficult, especially for me. To lay a solid foundation, I must establish myself locally and then look for opportunities to expand. It's impossible for me to abandon everything in the north and go to the south where development is faster and the business environment is better. I can make money, but the priorities cannot be reversed. The Gyeonggi region is my base."

Scratching his head, Jin Shang suddenly realized why the capital should be established here. If there was no capital here, only the excellent port cities in the Bohai Sea area would have some foundation, and the others would collapse.

If we don't balance the east, west, south, and north, I'm afraid the gap and estrangement will grow. "It would be nice to have a Great Lakes like the five Great Lakes in North America nearby."

Jin Shang couldn't help but sigh.

Last month, Hao Qilian attended a hearing and explained to relevant departments the plan to build a large data center in Beijing. There is no need to elaborate on the process. The difficulties lie in energy consumption and water resource allocation.

Industrial water is relatively expensive, and once the quantity is too large, you may not be able to buy it even if you spend money.

Residents can use increasingly mature desalination plants to provide drinking water, and large amounts of purified water can be transferred from other places to supplement mine water shortages and bottled water. But where can we find cheap and large amounts of industrial water?

No wonder the “South-to-North Water Diversion” project, which had been abandoned for a time, is back on the agenda.

The budget for this super project is nearly 120 billion, and the actual total investment may exceed 250 billion. It is a huge pie.

"The original plan was to implement the technology, but we have to add two more things: research and development of ultra-high voltage technology, becoming an important supplier of basic components, which should be very profitable; and seawater desalination technology. We need to be cautious when building a plant, because it may not be very profitable, but the technology is very valuable, such as reverse osmosis membranes."

This stuff, the Beichuan Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Department under Jinxi Culture, actually has a foundation. Many niche categories have very small demand, the market is not big, and the technology is not new enough, but it doesn’t mean it’s useless!
"New technology, new materials, new processes, new energy! They all seem to be promising directions, so... let's try to do it in the surrounding cities first."

For example, in the concentration area of ​​CSSC electromechanical factories, Huangdao District south of Jiaoao, there are a large number of factories, many shipyards, and supporting factories everywhere, but the schools there are very economical in using water, which shows that there is indeed a huge gap in the demand for water resources in that place.

"How can we integrate it with the existing industry? I don't know how much the water plant of my second uncle's family can produce. We can just bring it to the port and use a cargo ship to tow it to Jiao'ao to test the water. Then we can build a desalination plant, use it for ourselves first, and then sell it to the outside world?"

It may seem like you won’t make money in the short term, but its importance is self-evident.

Jin Shang didn't dare to think about investing hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars to build the canal, and it was not his turn to do such a thing. But for others, even if he made less money, as long as he did not lose money, could make up for the original shortcomings, make some pocket money, and support a few more employees, it would be considered a success.

"You can do it!"

With this thought in mind, Jin Shang picked up the phone on the desk and dialed Hong Renquan's number.

"What? The company has seawater desalination and supporting chemical plants, but they are small in scale? That's fine, as long as they exist!"

Because there are too many and too diverse, Jin Shang has never actually figured out how many inexplicable small factories and satellite workshops there are under CSSC Electromechanical, which basically exist to serve the parent company.

The shipbuilding industry not only requires a large number of people, but also consumes a lot of energy and requires a lot of water. Shipbuilding is especially polluting and cannot be done without water.

“So, it was built mainly to save costs for its own use, and also to meet environmental requirements?”

The conditions may be insufficient, but things must be done.

Desalinating seawater to make drinking water requires many steps, but the requirements for industrial water are relatively lower, especially for shipbuilding, which does not require so many requirements.

This... is good news.

As long as you are not starting from scratch and knowing nothing, that’s enough.

"Can we build a larger one in Jingu, near the capital?"

"The bigger the better. My data center has been stuck for a long time. It's so annoying."

In a few years, when the Internet infrastructure matures, it will be okay to build data centers in remote areas of the north. Now, there are no optical cables, and they have not been laid to major cities. No matter how good the data center is built in the ice and snow in Beihai, it will be useless.

You have to take one step at a time and do things one by one. You can't be without a plan, but you can't go too far ahead either.

"Okay, please send someone to inspect it first. Give me the contact information of the person in charge and we can communicate with each other."

After talking for nearly ten minutes, Jin Shang hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief.

For every cent of water used, we get double compensation, is that ok?

The decision to build it in Beijing was also made in consideration of the advantage of being close to the capital, but we did not expect there would be so many difficulties. The construction of a large data center involves many aspects and must be handled with caution.

It is human nature to exchange resources in exchange for certain concessions.

It is important to build the data center as soon as possible so as to establish the foundation of the headquarters and then expand into other markets.

"In addition, we must be careful about the degree of our role. In important areas, we can only serve as an important supplement, but we cannot interfere in other people's affairs, let alone replace them."

Having put his mind at ease, Jin Shang immediately contacted Hao Qilian to see if this matter could be implemented as soon as possible.

If we follow the general trend, there should be no problem.

The number of active Internet users is increasing every month, and the pressure on the server is getting greater and greater. P2P distributed storage technology is not a panacea. The number of visits to Jinxi Mall is also increasing day by day, especially when it involves the flow of large amounts of money.

Network instability and congestion will bring great risks.

Before the end of the get off work day, positive feedback came from Hao Qilian, which made Jin Shang feel relieved.

After get off work, Jin Shang bought a few more dishes and cooked with extra care.

"I'm in a particularly good mood today!"

His girlfriend Li Xuan asked curiously, and Jin Shang answered naturally,
"It would be great if we could finalize the data center issue before the engagement. Now that the general direction has been determined, all that remains is communication and coordination. This is also good news for Jinxi Video's listing."

(End of this chapter)