Chapter 666

Two deputy directors and four key department heads of the Provincial Health Commission were rounded up in one sweep by the Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee at the meeting; the news was explosive, spreading across the province before work ended. Now everyone knows that Secretary Lu has turned his anti‑corruption focus to the health sector—a tremendous boon, with many cadres and the public discussing it with relish.

Upon hearing the news, Yun Junjie rushed to Gu Yunhao's office; as soon as he entered, he saw the room in disarray, showing how high Governor Gu's anger was.

"Junjie, Lu Fan is bullying people outrageously; he now acts with utter impunity. Do we have no one left on the grasslands? He arrests whoever he wants. If this continues, he'll dare to strike at us! We can't just wait for death—the medical sector must not be thrown into chaos!"

"Helpless, Yun Junjie said: 'He's waving the anti‑corruption banner, so he has a pretext—we can't very well stop him from fighting corruption, can we? This man is impervious to persuasion, dead set on opposing us. Now Li Xingyuan is on leave, Luo Shiyu's attitude is ambiguous—sigh, I can't think of a good way to deal with him!'

"Gu Yunhao said fiercely: 'If he's inhumane, don't blame me for being unjust. What do you think of this? Mobilize the cities and provincial departments, give him a taste of 'outward compliance, inner defiance,' make his 'farts silent,' and keep his orders from leaving the Provincial Party Committee!'

"Yun Junjie shook his head and said: 'It's useless. Since he took charge of the Provincial Party Committee's work, he hasn't really been seizing posts or power; his main focus is anti‑corruption. I can see he's just waving the anti‑corruption banner, constantly conquering territory. Look—the Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee is totally under his control, Ximeng has fallen to him, and next is the Provincial Health Commission. Yunhao, we absolutely must not let him grow; we need to 'block' him in the staffing of the Health Commission leadership, no matter what, to prevent Lu Fan from getting his way!'

"Gu Yunhao nodded heavily and said: 'Alright, we'll split up and act…'

"Momentum is intangible—you can't touch or see it—but it truly exists, and it waxes and wanes like a tide as the two sides contend.

"Anyone with clear eyes can see that Secretary Lu's momentum is growing stronger. By comparison, Governor Gu seems somewhat unable to keep up, being pressed down a notch.

"Lu Fan clearly understands that to utterly overwhelm Gu Yunhao in momentum, the best way is to defeat him in a direct confrontation, then, through word‑of‑mouth, he can gradually gather talent.

"People admire the strong, not pity the weak. Only when you yourself are truly strong will you, like a huge magnet, continually draw in better and better people and embrace finer scenery.

"On November 25, after Lu Fan consulted Secretary Li Xingyuan by phone, he began preparing the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee meeting. One agenda item was 'Sprint for the Fourth Quarter, Win the Closing Battle,' to be reported by Executive Deputy Provincial Governor Gu Yunhao, who oversees economic work. Another important agenda item was the staffing of the Ximeng leadership team.

"This was the first Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee meeting convened and chaired by Lu Fan, and it attracted considerable attention.

"On November 26, Lu Fan invited Governor Luo Shiyu and Organization Department Head Li Yuenning to his office to discuss the staffing of the Ximeng leadership team, and they reached a consensus.

"What struck Li Yuenning as odd was that Lu Fan did not mention the issue of staffing the Provincial Health Commission leadership.

"On November 28 at 4 p. m., the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee meeting convened, with Deputy Secretary Lu Fan presiding.

"Three minutes early, Lu Fan entered the venue and took the left‑hand premier seat, without 'occupying' the chief seat—that belongs to Secretary Li Xingyuan.

"At 4:00 sharp, the Standing Committee meeting opened on schedule. Lu Fan cleared his throat and said: 'Comrades, let's begin the meeting! Entrusted by Secretary Li Xingyuan, I am chairing this Standing Committee meeting to study and deploy current major tasks. Now we proceed with the first item: I will organize the dissemination and study…'

"It is essential for leading cadres to study the spirit of national policies, guidelines, and documents. While the study was underway, Lu Fan glanced around with his peripheral vision and noticed some people frantically scribbling notes, others staring thoughtfully at the documents but with their minds already wandering to Java.

"Half an hour later, the study session ended, and Lu Fan said: 'Now we move to the second agenda item: Comrade Yunhao, please report on the province's fourth‑quarter economic performance and plan the year‑end "closing battle".'

"Gu Yunhao opened the materials and read: 'According to the meeting arrangements, I will report on the completion status of our province's economic indicators up to now: among the 38 major industrial categories province‑wide, 16 have achieved growth; the service sector fell 3.0% year‑on‑year in the first three quarters and 0.9% for the full year. As the economic situation keeps improving, the provincial economy finally managed a successful counter‑attack in the fourth quarter, achieving positive growth. After stripping out price factors, residents' per‑capita disposable income actually rose 1.2%, outpacing GDP growth by 1.0 percentage point…'

"He droned on for half an hour, and the frowns of Lu Fan and Governor Luo Shiyu grew tighter; anyone who understands economics could see that this report card is pretty poor!

"Lu Fan lifted his gaze to Luo Shiyu, a hint of worry showing in his eyes, and said: 'Governor Luo, please share your thoughts!'

"Luo Shiyu said: 'We are now at the final critical stage of year‑end, the last push to close the books. All economic departments must overcome difficulties and forge ahead decisively, battle to the year's end and then push forward. The provincial government should focus on its core responsibilities, serve the broader development agenda, fully exert its coordinating role, actively go to the front lines, take charge, strengthen point‑to‑point scheduling and face‑to‑face service, and drive the implementation of all indicator work thoroughly, meticulously, solidly, and in place.'

"We must solidly advance the 'weekly report, monthly evaluation' mechanism, breaking down progress into specific items and timelines; division leaders should track, supervise, and guide, targeting the resolution of practical problems in work progress. Comrades must firmly hold confidence and sprint forward, strengthening scheduling, shoring up weaknesses, anchoring to the annual goals and tasks to achieve the best possible outcome.

"Lu Fan looked at the others and said: 'In the first three quarters the province's economy maintained a steady, healthy development trend, with major indicators within a reasonable range, but in the fourth quarter the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. As Comrade Yunhao just reported, out of the 38 major industrial categories, 16 showed growth; I want to emphasize that 22 indicators are in negative growth, and of the 16 growing indicators, 8 failed to meet targets—meaning that of the 38 key indicators, 30 are in a state of overall laggardness; the situation is extremely serious!'

"Comrades, we must strengthen the sense of crisis that 'falling behind invites punishment,' firmly eradicate the complacent, get‑by‑just‑fine mindset, and thoroughly overturn the lukewarm, lackadaisical work style.

"We must comprehensively review all indicators, fully tapping the growth potential of the weak ones. On the basis of wholeheartedly boosting economic indicators, we should continuously strengthen upward coordination, especially for non‑standard indicators, by real‑time tracking of data submissions to win support and recognition from superior departments, working together to push our rankings upward and strive for advancement.

"Comrade Yunhao, this is your core duty and also the work target and task assigned by the Provincial Party Committee. Please lock in the annual scheduling target, hold firm confidence, face difficulties head‑on, eliminate any fear of difficulty or even a 'lying flat' mentality, and spare no effort in pushing every task forward and driving every indicator ahead, ensuring the full fulfillment of all set goals and tasks.

"If the task isn't completed, the Provincial Party Committee will mete out punishment!"

"At this point, Lu Fan deliberately paused, then gave Gu Yunhao a meaningful look.

"At this very moment, Gu Yunhao's face turned unusually grim and stern; he suppressed the blazing anger in his heart and silently cursed: 'Damn it, even Secretary Li Xingyuan has never criticized me like this—you, a mere "temporary worker," are really taking a chicken feather as a command arrow? What the heck!'

"Today, Lu Fan has resolved to suppress people with authority and pressure; even if he is a "temporary worker," that authority is still granted by the organization, you may dislike it but you must accept it—this is the organization's principle.

"After taking a sip of water, Lu Fan continued: 'Governor Luo's opinion was excellent; Comrade Yunhao, please strengthen monitoring and scheduling, maintain the weekly economic‑operation scheduling system, jointly with the relevant departments personally study and personally schedule, and solidly grasp economic‑operation work.'

"At the same time, Comrade Yunhao must fully realize that grasping projects is grasping development, and developing requires grasping projects—whether dealing with state‑owned or non‑state enterprises, one must take the initiative to visit, provide good service, and ensure that governmental promises made are kept; embody the building of a new "close‑clean" government‑business relationship in serving enterprises, in helping enterprises relieve worries and solve difficulties, and in fostering a sound business environment.

"I emphasize once more: the provincial government must focus on the annual targets, identify and fill gaps, reverse‑schedule timelines, concentrate effort, with the attitude of "do it right away," the spirit of "driving in nails," and the fearless "grass‑horse" spirit, to fully implement all work.

"The Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee will strengthen supervision and accountability; for leaders and departments that are ineffective or inactive, responsibility, effectiveness, and integrity must be pursued in accordance with law and regulation—dereliction, inaction, and misconduct themselves are intolerable corruption! Sitting in this position, you must be worthy of the wages the common people pay you, and worthy of the trust the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government place in you!

"Everyone had expected Lu Fan to announce the next agenda item, but to everyone's surprise he warmed up and continued: 'The business environment is a locality's important soft power, also its core competitiveness, and even more the soil for enterprise survival and development, as well as the "weather gauge" of economic development.'

"Our Grasslands Province is endowed with outstanding energy and natural resources, yet its economic development has long lingered in the nation's mid‑to‑lower tier, which is directly related to our deficient business environment.

"In the first half of the year, the *National Urban Business Environment Report* was officially released; our provincial capital, Qingcheng City, scored 70.11 points, placing 46th—this is still the best ranking among cities in our province. With such a poor business environment, how can one not feel anxious?"

"Having said this, Lu Fan once again turned his gaze to Gu Yunhao and earnestly urged: 'Comrade Yunhao, as the deputy provincial governor in charge of the business environment, your shoulders bear a heavy load—you must know shame before you can be brave! The business environment concerns the province's overall economic development and the well‑being of the grasslands people; it must never be treated lightly!'