Chapter 350

March 1, County Party Committee Deputy Secretary Wang Zhikun, feeling excited, went to the Municipal Organization Department to report for duty, taking up his post in Extended Water County!

Before departing, he specifically went to the office of County Party Committee Secretary Lu Fan, and they talked for over an hour, expressing his deep gratitude to Lu Fan.

Lu Fan admonished him not to forget his original aspiration, to forge ahead, to regulate his words and deeds with the standard of 'wholeheartedly serving the people,' to have passion and enthusiasm for his career, and feelings and sincerity for the masses. Upon becoming county chief, he should establish an execution consciousness of keeping one's word and seeing results, always maintaining the tenacity, drive, and pioneering spirit of undertaking and entrepreneurship!

In the afternoon, Li Yu, section chief of the Cadre Section of the Municipal Organization Department, brought to Ganshui, escorting Du Wenlong to take up his post, and at the same time Zhang Qianyuan was adjusted to become Deputy Secretary of the County Party Committee.

Li Yu held Lu Fan in great respect, deliberately cultivating a good relationship, because there were already rumors in the city that the promotion and heavy use of Zhang Yuxuan, the Executive Deputy Minister of the Municipal Organization Department, had Lu Fan playing the most important role!

After completing the procedures, Li Yu returned to the city; he had already made up his mind to frequently visit Ganshui, whether there was business or not, to get close to Secretary Lu.

After everyone left, Du Wenlong sat opposite Lu Fan, excited with a hint of nervousness.

Lu Fan said with a smile: 'How do you feel?'

Du Wenlong's face rarely showed a smile as he said: 'Trembling and cautious, like walking on thin ice, afraid I won't do well. Secretary, if I do anything wrong, you must criticize and correct me at any time!'

Lu Fan said: 'Your work nature hasn't changed; you're still handling cases, only now you need to oversee the whole situation. Combining my own understanding, let me talk about how to be a good Discipline Inspection Committee Secretary.'

Discipline inspection and supervision work is a job with strong political and policy nature; investigating and handling cases, dealing with problems means dealing with right and wrong, correct and incorrect, and may encounter human resistance and pressure, often being at the forefront of storms and in the vortex of contradictions. Therefore, you must be politically steadfast and ideologically clear-headed.

Currently, the higher-level Discipline Inspection Committee's requirements for grassroots discipline inspection and supervision organs are very clear: 'There are tracks ahead and ruts behind'; learn from above, follow above, curb corruption, and tighten discipline.

In Ganshui, my attitude is very clear: Zero Tolerance, investigate and deal with every discovered violation of discipline, fostering an atmosphere where one dare not be corrupt, putting power into a 'cage' of systems, gradually achieving the goal where one cannot be corrupt.

As a Discipline Inspection Committee Secretary, you should be good at planning and dare to take responsibility. You must uphold principles, be fair and upright, only then can you speak and act openly and aboveboard. When investigating cases, do not believe in evil, do not talk about personal feelings, do not fear offending people, do not fear retaliation, dare to tackle tough issues, dare to break through the 'network of connections', and withstand the 'wind of intercession'.

Ganshui is small in scale, personnel relations are complex, and nepotism is quite serious. To enforce discipline impartially, you must be an incorruptible official, use power fairly and justly, consciously pass the tests of fame and gain, power, and money, and forge the image of a fair and upright Discipline Inspection Committee Secretary.

At the same time, you must lead the team well, strengthen the workforce, and build a high-quality discipline inspection and supervision cadre team. In work, require discipline inspection cadres to 'enforce discipline strictly and dare to tackle tough issues', forging an impartial iron face, iron fist in enforcing discipline, and iron shoulder in bearing responsibility. In life, strengthen communication and contact with discipline inspection cadres, cultivate tolerance through sincere exchange, convey trust through being accommodating, and win respect and support with your broad-mindedness and personal charisma.

This year, your main task is to severely investigate the 'bad apples' in the business environment, deal with leading cadres whose implementation of the County Party Committee's decisions and deployments is unfavorable, crack down on various forms of 'eating empty rations', rectify lazy cadres, and you must remove personnel; I have set a target for you—starting with 50 people, to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys.

Also, you need to uncover talent; this year recommend four outstanding discipline inspection cadres to the Municipal Discipline Inspection Committee.

First, familiarize yourself with the unit's situation; if you want to adjust personnel, you directly connect with the Organization Department, and I will fully support you!

Oh, by the way, pay more attention to the Executive Deputy County Chief Yang Chengyu!

Du Wenlong put down his pen and said: 'The pressure is great; I will adapt as soon as possible, change my role, and strive to enter working condition early.'

Lu Fan laughed: 'No pressure means no motivation; I believe you can quickly enter working condition.'

After the conversation, Lu Fan summoned Organization Department Head Guo Tongyu and had him escort Du Wenlong to take up his post at the Discipline Inspection Committee.

As the school opening was imminent, the principals for the merged township schools had not yet been decided, and the Organization Department and Education Bureau had delayed opening public recruitment, causing a strong public reaction with all kinds of opinions.

Lu Fan, who had many eyes and ears in the county, quickly learned of this and then summoned County Chief Yuan Weiwei, Deputy Secretary Zhang Qianyuan, Organization Department Head Guo Tongyu, and Education Bureau Director Cao Chunlei to the office, slightly dissatisfied, asking: 'In just a few days school will start, yet you haven't decided on even a few principals? Who will manage the schools when school starts? Who will organize registration? This year involves school mergers, with many matters needing the principals to coordinate and arrange; do you plan to hire principals only after school opens?'

Guo Tongyu and Cao Chunlei exchanged a glance, both showing embarrassed expressions.

Lu Fan clearly understood that the sole reason for the current situation was 'uneven distribution of spoils'! He then said: 'Cut through the tangled mess with a swift blade; give you one day's time, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month we will hire principals, I, County Chief Weiwei, and Deputy Secretary Qianyuan will serve as judges, televised live, with public deliberation, teacher evaluation, on-site scoring, and on-site announcement of scores, absolutely no falsification!'

On that day, decide on the tentative hires, assume office the same day, supplement the appointment letters later, and absolutely cannot affect work!

Once the leaders gave instructions, the matter was settled; their execution ability posed no problem, so they went ahead and prepared in full swing.

Lu Fan kept Yuan Weiwei behind to discuss investment promotion-related matters.

'Weiwei, this year's Silk Expo is the main event for Ganshui's investment promotion; you should focus on petroleum equipment manufacturing, tourism development, specialty agriculture, breeding industry, the industrial chain of the silicon carbide project, Ganshui tofu, and Mei water spring development advantages, and plan projects in advance. Moreover, our wind power quota must be exchanged for high-quality manufacturing industry projects, considering per-mu efficiency, output value, and tax revenue; all investments must pay full deposits, to be refunded after the investment is in place.'

Weiwei quickly recorded and said: 'Okay, Secretary, the county government will immediately start planning; I will personally oversee it.'

Lu Fan smiled and said: 'Weiwei, the success or failure of this year's investment promotion for us rests on you!'

Weiwei asked doubtfully: 'Secretary, what do you mean? I'm still worried about the 3 billion task and have no clue yet!'

'Weiwei, you're sitting on a treasure mountain without knowing it, still riding a donkey looking for a horse! Let me tell you frankly, my 5 billion investment has already been secured, thanks to Vast Sea's help; a couple of days ago they called me, and the second phase of the silicon carbide project has been decided to settle in Ganshui, and I've pocketed my 2 million reward!'

Then Lu Fan said with a smile: 'I know you have a good relationship with Dragon Soaring Technology's boss Wang Hongwei; Dragon Soaring Technology plans to relocate entirely to Perpetual Peace, and the focus of its industrial layout will definitely be in our Qinchuan Province. If you give us one or two major projects, that would be enough for Ganshui to eat for years! Moreover, Secretary Hong Tao has built a trillion-yuan pharmaceutical industrial park; what does that mean? Nearly half of the nation's major pharmaceutical enterprises will settle in Perpetual Peace, not lacking traditional Chinese medicine enterprises, while we in Nangou Town are vigorously developing medicinal herb cultivation—this is hardly a match made in heaven? As long as Secretary Hong Tao says a word, getting us a small medicinal herb base is a piece of cake!'

Weiwei, these two heavy tasks only you can tackle! For the development of Ganshui, you must increase your coordination efforts! Sometimes face-saving isn't that important; letting the ordinary people of Ganshui get by is truly substantive, and it is also our inescapable responsibility!

After long contemplation, Weiwei sighed: 'I'll listen to you, and for Ganshui's development I'll thicken my skin to seek out Hongwei and Hongtao! Hongtao may be hard to say, but Hongwei will at least give some face; getting one or two projects is no problem, I'll do my utmost to strive for them! Secretary, your intelligence work is truly excellent!'

Lu Fan smiled faintly and said: 'For Ganshui's development, we must leave no stone unturned; investment promotion is like warfare, with the same preferential conditions, what makes others choose you over us? Besides striving to improve the business environment, sometimes we also need to 'scheme, deceive, and trick', and you need to strengthen this aspect; being too honest won't beat those old foxes in other counties and districts!'

'So, Secretary must grasp the big direction; I will quickly improve and upgrade, sometimes I really feel I'm too honest, and I can't bring myself to lose face in whatever I do.'

On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, the county government raised 260 million yuan in funds, cleared all government debts under 10 million yuan to zero, and repaid the remaining 49 debts at a 20% ratio, in one move pressing Ganshui's government debt down to 440 million yuan.

Now Ganshui became lively again; bosses started to live it up, and big restaurants, KTVs, and foot massage parlors were packed!

Lu Fan liked such a scene; he wasn't afraid of bosses being extravagant, but afraid they wouldn't be extravagant—money flowing back and forth eventually ends up in the pockets of the common people.

Lu Fan grew increasingly satisfied with Weiwei; this county chief's execution ability is beyond reproach, besides being naturally cautious, never doing anything out of line, and having strong political ambition, basically no need for him to worry.

In the afternoon just after work began, the Education Bureau issued an announcement, the principal recruitment officially launched, with the registration deadline at 8 p. m., and the Education Bureau really was working overtime.

As the workday was ending, Municipal Discipline Inspection Committee Secretary Wu Xiaohua called, saying: 'Lu Fan, the provincial Discipline Inspection Committee has fed back leads on issues concerning your Executive Deputy County Chief Yang Chengyu; Wang Baoguo has shown significant meritorious performance, possibly allowing him to retain his public office!'

Lu Fan breathed a sigh of relief, feeling he could now give an explanation to Wang Yewei!

'Brother Wu, I won't say thanks; everything is understood without words!'

'Don't thank me for this; it should be that Director Xiao Bin left some leeway, and I don't know what plan you have in mind. Oh, by the way, tomorrow the Municipal Discipline Inspection Committee will go to Ganshui to take measures against Yang Chengyu; your County Party Committee and County Discipline Inspection Committee need to cooperate.'

'Okay, have your people come directly to me; tonight I'll have Wenlong keep an eye on Yang Chengyu.'