Reborn as Zhao Ruilong of Handong, I will defy fate.

Chapter 108 Can't stop Zhao Lichun? Then thoroughly investigate Huilong Group!

"why are you laughing?"

"Have you already come up with a solution?"

When asked by Elder Ge, Zhong Zhengguo quickly shook his head.

"No, no, I was laughing at myself."

"I fought Zhao Lichun in Handong for five years, but I couldn't stop him from making progress."

"Now that I've been transferred to Yanjing, and a genius son has appeared by his side, he's even more difficult to deal with."

Old Ge looked at Zhong Zhengguo, who had a face full of shame.

A feeling of pity suddenly arose in my heart.

"Okay, don't blame yourself too much, sit down and let's talk!"

"Okay, thank you, Professor Ge."

After Zhong Zhengguo sat down, the first thing he did was to make tea for Old Ge.

Looking at the lush, rolling green mountains, Old Ge said in a low voice:

"Zhao Lichun is a master at managing the economy."

“You worked in Handong for five years and caused him a lot of trouble, but he still managed to keep Handong’s economy growing rapidly.”

"Now that he has a son, Zhao Ruilong, who can be described as a genius, to assist him, he is even more powerful and seems unstoppable!"

Zhong Zhengguo nodded silently.

Looking back, the land contract system greatly mobilized farmers' enthusiasm for production.

However, the expenses for infrastructure, healthcare, education, and administration in rural areas are borne by the farmers.

In addition to agricultural taxes, farmers also have to bear many other fees.

The burden on each person is as high as more than 200 yuan, which is naturally a considerable burden for farmers.

Therefore, the crude and simplistic methods of debt collection and cracking down on births exceeding the permitted number of children have led to frequent serious crimes in rural areas.

Is it about understanding the hardships and difficulties faced by farmers, or about cold-blooded, strict law enforcement?

Zhong Zhengguo was caught in a dilemma.

But Zhao Lichun is different.

Faced with difficulties, Zhao Lichun did not back down.

The three of them, in one car, managed to travel to every town and village in Handong, wearing out several tires in the process.

After in-depth investigation and research, we listened extensively to the opinions of farmers, rural teachers and grassroots staff.

Ultimately, Zhao Lichun decided to apply for a pilot program for rural tax and fee reform in Handong Province to effectively reduce the burden on farmers.

He merged small villages into large villages, small towns into large towns, and concentrated many village-run primary schools in townships.

Through a series of measures to reduce personnel, tasks, and expenses, the goal of cost reduction was achieved.

At the same time, he secured hundreds of millions of yuan in special funds to ensure the smooth operation of grassroots units during the restructuring period.

Considering that agricultural tax is levied on land area, farmers' income from farming is not high, the tax burden is quite heavy, and the cost of tax collection is also considerable.

Since farmers have grievances and tax collection is difficult at the grassroots level.

Since the tax revenue we'll ultimately receive isn't much anyway, we might as well just cancel it altogether.

This way.

Handong Province thus became the first province in the Dragon Kingdom to allow farmers to "not pay taxes on their crops".

Zhao Lichun has abolished the more than two-thousand-year history of farmers farming and paying taxes.

Therefore, the farmers of Handong were overjoyed, their burdens were greatly reduced, and they were naturally very grateful to Zhao Lichun.

In no time, countless letters of gratitude flew into Handong Province like snowflakes, filling baskets every day.

Many praised Zhao Lichun's tax and fee reform in rural areas, calling it a people-loving initiative, a policy to enrich the people, and a virtuous act of governance!

but……

The farmers were unaware that the main reason they were exempt from taxes and fee reductions was Zhao Lichun's successful "open source" strategy.

He encouraged the development of township enterprises and all enterprises in the province to actively undertake foreign orders and develop foreign trade exports.

In other words, Zhao Lichun is essentially supporting the development of the commercial economy.

If more taxes are collected from industry and commerce, then naturally there's no need to collect taxes from farmers.

therefore.

Zhao Lichun's meteoric rise to power is indeed a testament to his ability and drive.

Now he is piloting high-quality economic development.

It's obvious that they tasted the benefits of the rural tax and fee reform pilot program back then.

The first person to try something new faces great risks, but if successful, the rewards are substantial.

According to the plan devised by the father and son, and the current strong momentum of development.

Zhong Zhengguo believes that the probability of the pilot program being successful is naturally extremely high.

Mr. Ge clearly noticed this as well.

"The most troublesome thing now is not that the father and son are advancing triumphantly and unstoppable."

"Instead, more and more people are standing on their side and strongly supporting them."

“Military enterprises, railway administration, aerospace... so many people want to follow the father and son and make a big splash.”

"I never expected that Lao Fu, who used to have a fairly good relationship with me, would actually side with him and his son."

Upon hearing this, Zhong Zhengguo suddenly realized what was going on.

He finally understood why Mr. Ge agreed to stop the blanket ban on the internet cafe industry and instead focus on severely cracking down on illegal internet cafes.

Even though Mr. Fu voiced his opposition, Mr. Ge still insisted.

Wouldn't that be going against my own will?

"No, why would he suddenly make such a statement?"

Old Ge tapped the table lightly with his finger.

"I think it's probably because of his son, Fu Wenbing!"

"Tianhai Huahong Microelectronics, managed by Fu Wenbing, was already suffering from continuous losses due to the bursting of the internet bubble and the plummeting of its chip business. Sakura people were also clamoring to withdraw their shares."

"Unexpectedly, at this critical moment, Zhao Ruilong and his sister's Huilong Group took over the shares that Sakura was selling off and brought in a large number of orders, turning Fu Wenbing's situation around."

Zhong Zhengguo nodded repeatedly.

"Zhao Ruilong offered timely help, and Fu Wenbing reciprocated. No wonder Mr. Fu opposed a blanket ban on the internet cafe industry!"

Old Ge picked up his teacup and took a big gulp.

"Now, Zhao Lichun has not only won over the China Railway Administration to build high-speed rail, but has also won over the Aviation Industry Corporation of China to build large aircraft."

"According to the plan proposed by the father and son, the power grid group should not refuse to cooperate in photovoltaic power generation, wind power generation, nuclear power generation, and ultra-high voltage power transmission and transformation."

"In addition, Handong itself has petrochemical and shipbuilding industries. I think that any large state-owned enterprise with some strength will go to Handong in the future and cooperate closely with Zhao Lichun."

Zhong Zhengguo said with concern, "Yes! These large state-owned enterprises are quite powerful, and they are very likely to enable Handong to achieve high-quality economic development."

“They not only hold high positions, but also wield considerable influence. With their strong support, it won’t be easy for them to take action against Zhao Lichun in the future.”

Old Ge chuckled.

"Touch him? You try it?"

"The internet cafe industry has only been shut down for a few days for rectification, yet it has already attracted countless criticisms and accusations?"

"In the eyes of many people, Zhao Lichun has now become a living god of wealth."

"Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents! Do you believe that we'll be killed before we even harm them in the slightest?"

Zhong Zhengguo nodded emphatically.

Not to mention those large enterprises, there are big projects and engineering projects to be done in Handong.

Even the Dragon Kingdom Academy of Sciences went to Handong to cooperate in scientific research.

Dare to touch Zhao Lichun?

We should first ask those highly respected and influential academicians whether they agree!

Old Ge put down his teacup, his brow furrowed, and muttered to himself:

"It's strange, really!"

"Although Handong is economically prosperous, it is not yet rich to the point of being extremely wealthy."

"Even if Zhao Lichun uses policies to attract social capital, isn't he spending money way too much?"

"Not to mention the many major engineering projects scheduled for this year, the first phase of the Yanhu High-speed Railway alone will require an investment of at least 20 to 30 billion yuan from Handong Province, not to mention the development of large aircraft..."

Zhong Zhengguo hurriedly said, "Some of the investments in these projects were not made by Handong Province, but by the Huilong Group owned by Zhao Ruilong and his sister."

"As far as I know, Huilong Group has raised tens of billions of US dollars in financing both domestically and internationally. The Loongson International chip research base, in which the Longguo Academy of Sciences is involved, was funded by Huilong Group with 1 billion US dollars."

"Moreover, many companies that invest in building factories and R&D centers in Handong only need to contribute manpower and do not need to contribute money, because Huilong Group will invest in them, so they don't have to worry about money at all."

Upon hearing this, Old Ge was astonished.

"This Huilong Group is actually that rich?"

"Yes!"

Zhong Zhengguo said with a bitter face, "Didn't Xiao Ai want to deal with Zhao Ruilong and his sister before?"

"She spent a considerable amount of time investigating and discovered that Huilong Group made a lot of money selling PHS phones and running internet cafes."

"But the vast majority of the funds are provided by overseas investors, whose specific identities are difficult to verify because they are all offshore companies, and the funds flow in from Hong Kong."

hiss~

Old Ge clasped his hands together and leaned back.

"It's interesting!"

"I remember that two years ago, our whole country only received a little over 50 billion US dollars in international investment."

"Many of these investment projects required a lot of effort and even a considerable cost to acquire."

"For example, those major hydropower projects received international investment, which required both the purchase of equipment and the repayment of interest."

"What's so great about Huilong Group? It's not listed overseas, so why would foreign investors invest tens of billions of US dollars in them?"

Zhong Zhengguo asked urgently, "Do you think this money is ill-gotten?"

"It's possible, but the logic doesn't hold up!"

Old Ge spread his hands, chuckling sheepishly, and said:

"Many people in China have always tried to transfer assets and illicit money abroad to make it easier to abscond."

"When did people from abroad start transferring money to our Dragon Country? And so much at that!"

“After the funds come in, they are not used to buy land, speculate on houses or stocks, but instead to invest in high technology.”

Zhong Zhengguo nodded repeatedly in deep agreement.

"This is so strange!"

"It's highly unlikely that Zhao Ruilong and his sister could have stolen so much money from abroad!"

"If they were really that capable, they wouldn't have built the Lakeside Garden residential complex in Luzhou before, and they wouldn't have wanted to build a lakeside food city as well."

Old Ge narrowed his eyes slightly.

“A Hong Kong company that originally had little reputation or strength, and acted as a front for the Zhao siblings.”

"It's strange that it has developed so rapidly all of a sudden and managed to attract a large amount of investment from abroad!"

Zhong Zhengguo quickly asked, "So what do you mean?"

Suddenly, Old Ge raised his hand and pointed.

"Check it for me!"

"Aren't they constantly receiving international funding?"

“A large amount of foreign capital is continuously flowing into the group, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange certainly has the right to investigate.”

"Even if their procedures are legal and compliant, I still need to know who their behind-the-scenes investors are!"

Zhong Zhengguo smiled knowingly.

Zhao Lichun was able to successfully reform taxes back then because there were enough industrial and commercial taxes, which allowed him to boldly exempt agricultural taxes.

Today, as he develops a high-quality economy and aggressively recruits businesses and organizations, Huilong Group is acting as his financial backer.

Only those with money can be so fearless!

If we can thoroughly investigate and cut off the source of Huilong Group's funds.

Without the support of huge amounts of overseas funds, can Zhao Lichun still make rapid progress?

"Strike the snake at its vital point!"

"Old Ge, your move was absolutely brilliant."

Even if we can't destroy him, we can at least cripple his finances and slow him down!

Zhong Zhengguo got up with a smile and made tea for Old Ge.

"Since you're already here, why don't you play a few rounds with me?"

"Okay, but you'd better go easy on me, or I won't be able to handle it!"

A gentle spring breeze is blowing.

Inside the pavilion, the two were engrossed in a game of chess.

Two days later.

An express train originating from Yanjing slowly slowed down and headed towards Jingzhou Railway Station.

Chen Yang was assigned to work at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in Beijing after graduating from university.

Because her parents were cold-hearted and could not reunite with Qi Tongwei, she was so angry that she did not return to Jingzhou for many years.

Unexpectedly, I now have to come back with my colleagues to investigate Huilong Group.

"Chen Yang, wake up! The train is about to arrive at the station!"