Chapter 2 Special Records
Jiang Feng's first move after taking office was to organize all leading cadres and convene the "City-wide Economic Work Conference". Jiang Feng pointed out that this year, the city's economic and social development has shown characteristics of "faster growth rate, better benefits, stable investment returns, and improved people's livelihoods", but the city's economic development potential has not been fully tapped, and the speed of development can be even faster, and the benefits of development can be even better.
The city's leadership requires all leading cadres to further clarify the current work priorities, grasp this year's three hard tasks: the handover of work, the creation of a civilized city and economic work. Huang Hehong said that the city's current economic volume is relatively small, requiring all departments at all levels throughout the city to be tightly focused on development at all times, creating a good atmosphere of "comparing enthusiasm, comparing progress, comparing achievements, and comparing transcendence" throughout the city. We must further enhance our ideological understanding, focus our thoughts on grasping the economy, aim at the economic and social development goals set at the beginning of the year, compare them with the progress, and single-mindedly grasp implementation and effectiveness.
On how to grasp the next stage of economic work, Jiang Feng emphasized that our city should focus on doing three aspects well. First, we must promote projects to land as soon as possible, focusing on solving the problem of project site selection from the source. Second, we must improve the service level of government departments and quickly start the service coordination mechanism. Third, we must rapidly reform the existing system and mechanism, focusing on decentralizing power to towns (streets) and parks (districts). It is required that all levels and departments in the city firmly grasp the theme and main line, further strengthen confidence, focus on key tasks, and effectively achieve more clear goals, clearer thinking, and more effective measures. We must focus on project investment growth, tackle the "three major battles" (namely, infrastructure construction with a focus on transportation, strategic industrial platform construction, and poverty alleviation work), modern industrial system construction, development problem-solving, and government efficiency improvement. Ensure that the third quarter is better than the second quarter, the second half of the year is better than the first half, and strive for this year's GDP, general budget revenue, and fixed asset investment to be among the top three in Guangdong Province's mountainous cities.
Jiang Feng is indeed a master of economics, his analysis is thorough and to the point. The party and government leaders of all counties (cities) under the jurisdiction of Changning City attended the meeting, many leading cadres expressed strong recognition of Jiang Feng's economic analysis and future key work, frequently nodding their heads, thinking that Jiang Feng is a talent for economics, Changning's economy will usher in a new spring, everyone was busy taking notes, afraid of misinterpreting Changning's highest instructions.
But at the meeting, Zhou Qiball, the county party secretary of Yongsheng County, looked disdainful, looking around, with a big butt twisting back and forth, as if his butt had hemorrhoids, so bored that he was drawing something on his notebook, after half a day, he finally completed his masterpiece at this economic conference, a turtle, and there were two words written on the turtle's body, Jiang Feng.
It seems that Zhou Qiball is still mentally resistant to Jiang Feng's work in Changning, perhaps due to the influence of his predecessor Liao Chunsheng. Zhou Qiball has become lawless and unscrupulous in Changning.
This week, Zhou Qiball's career can be said to have been smooth sailing. An unremarkable typist with no talent or virtue, he accidentally boarded Liao Chunsheng's big ship and, under Liao's manipulation, transformed from a typist into an official cadre, getting promoted every three years until he became the Secretary of Yongsheng County Committee.
But Zhou Qiball was still very dissatisfied with this position, thinking that he had done two terms in Yongsheng County and achieved a lot of results, suffered a lot, and this time his old superior Liao Chunsheng promoted him and left without helping him to get another deputy minister position, so he was very angry.
Jiang Feng has just arrived in Changning City as the Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, and this appointment from the Provincial Party Committee has left Zhou Qiball stunned. He thinks that Jiang Feng was once a subordinate who lost to him and Liao Chunsheng, an incompetent university student. Perhaps Liao Chunsheng's understanding of Jiang Feng only stopped at what he knew over a decade ago - "after three days, people change beyond recognition". The current Jiang Feng is not the same as the one from back then. Zhou Qiball was initially shocked and even felt a lingering fear about the shady dealings he had with Liao Chunsheng over a decade ago. However, upon further thought, he remembered that his superior, Liao Chunsheng, is now a member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee and the Minister of United Front Work. Who's afraid of whom is still uncertain! With this thought, Zhou Qiball's expression changed to one of delight once again.
Actually, this time Jiang Feng not only grasped the economic work but also focused on rectifying the corrupt behavior in Changning City. For so many years, Jiang Feng has been secretly collecting evidence of Liao Chunsheng and Zhou Qiball's crimes. He knew that Liao Chunsheng and Zhou Qiball were not clean officials, they came to Changning, not only prolonged the evil atmosphere, but also put public power above the Party Constitution and laws. Many ordinary people wrote anonymous letters, but the procuratorial organs did not intervene in the investigation, perhaps because the evidence of the report was insufficient or the procuratorial organs were also restricted by unwritten rules. Officials protecting officials.
Liao Chunsheng, being an old hand, considers things thoroughly before and after doing them, and on the surface, there is nothing improper to be seen. In the words of the Discipline Inspection Commission, he hides very deeply. However, Zhou Qiball was different, not only buying and selling official positions, playing with women, corrupting and rotting away. Not only did he himself fail to learn from his mistakes, but also brought down the team of cadres in Yongsheng County. In Yongsheng County, there is a head of the underground organization department named Liu Yazhen, who is a local geomancer and fortune teller with some reputation in the area. It's unknown when he got hooked up with Zhou Qiball, but they colluded together. According to Zhou Qiball's private revelation, this "Liu Half Immortal" was truly a divine person! Because "Liu Half Immortal" had accurately predicted his rise and fall in officialdom and had helped him get through a political crisis once before, Zhou Qiball looked at Liu Yazhen with different eyes.
After a long time, in the circle of Yongsheng County's officials and businessmen, everyone knew that this "Liu Half Immortal" was a godly figure. Of course, the officials and businessmen of Yongsheng County didn't really think Liu Yazhu was a divine being, but they knew that Liu Yazhu could get along well with County Secretary Zhou Qiball, and their relationship was very close. In Yongsheng County, things that were done through Liu Yazhu would absolutely be accomplished, as long as you were willing to spend the money.
This week, Zhou Qiball not only bought and sold official positions, but also had a hobby of playing mahjong. He was so good at it that he became known as the "Invincible General" in Yongsheng County's history. No matter how bad his hand was, Zhou Qiball could always manage to play a good game, never losing a single match. Of course, afterwards, Zhou Qiball also knew that these friends were just flattering him, letting him "serve" them. Sometimes he felt that the mahjong games were too boring, but thinking about it again, if he let himself lose money, wouldn't that be even more unbearable? So Zhou Qiball continued to indulge in this hobby with relish.
As time went on, many things in Yongsheng County were settled at the mahjong table. For example, when the Public Security Bureau didn't have enough funds to handle a case, the director would play mahjong with Secretary Zhou and lose some money, giving him an excuse to allocate funds, which would then be approved a few days later. Similarly, if you wanted to get promoted, you could challenge Secretary Zhou to a game of mahjong, but you had to be prepared to lose. When you were about to lose, Secretary Zhou would show mercy and say something like "Nowadays, cadres don't earn much, so let's just stop here," and then your promotion would be taken care of under his patronage. However, the practice of conducting official business through mahjong games became a notorious example in Yongsheng County's history of corruption.
In Yongsheng County, if you want to get things done, there are two clear paths. The first path is Liu Banshan's path, which is more commonly used by ordinary people, because Secretary Zhou generally doesn't deal directly with the common folk, saying it's not reliable and also involves risk. The second path is for county officials, he knows that in order to make those officials keep quiet, they must be pulled into the water first, if you're all at the gambling table, would you dare report the secretary?
Zhou Qiball is really terrifying in his way of making money. He has harmed the interests of the masses, and should have been struck down by the disciplinary authorities. However, he has served as county party secretary for two terms, as stable as Mount Tai. The collective silence of the disciplinary authorities cannot help but make one think deeply.
After Jiang Feng arrived in Changning, through various means of understanding, he knew that overthrowing Liao Chunsheng and Zhou Qiball was a breakthrough. The only way to do this was to crush Zhou Qiball's will, making him a slave with no ability to resist, and then proceed step by step according to plan, while preventing Liao Chunsheng from interfering. This was indeed a headache for Jiang Feng. The only solution was to make the matter bigger, getting the Central, Provincial, and Municipal Disciplinary Committees involved, so that Liao Chunsheng would be unable or dare not interfere, and then take down his entire network of followers at once.
But after all this, Jiang Feng considered that he must retreat completely and absolutely cannot perish with Liao Chunsheng. His political ambitions had just begun, and at the age of 40, he should serve the party and the country even more. Thinking about his future career, it seemed that his heart was a bit panicked, but how could he calm his mind without avenging this hatred? Moreover, people like Liao Chunsheng and Zhou Qiball were the harm to society, and killing them would make the ordinary people applaud, which also conformed to the central government's spirit of being tough on corrupt elements and investigating to the end. In the end, Jiang Feng steeled himself, with one word: do it.
