Chapter 679

The reason for choosing to come to He Lun City for research is that Municipal Party Secretary Zhou Haoshu, although he is a grassland person, is relatively tough, upright, and principled; most importantly, he did not collude with Gu Yunhao and others, nor be in cahoots.

Recruiting talent requires mutual affection and shared aspirations. Lu Fan, in his talk with Zhou Haoshu, showed goodwill, smiling and said: "I have looked at several of your main economic indicators this year: GDP over 1700 billion yuan, up 7%; per‑capita GDP reached 75,000 yuan, up 7.5%; fixed‑asset investment 460 billion yuan, up 15%; general public budget revenue 120 billion yuan, up 15.0%; total annual grain output 6.62 million tons, up 2%; the province received 30 million domestic and foreign tourists, with tourism revenue of 520 billion yuan."

It's clear you have put in a lot of effort and achieved remarkable results!

The Provincial Party Committee adheres to "reward the excellent", using rewards to promote positive motivation, further increasing rewards for outstanding units and individuals, especially frontline units and personnel with outstanding contributions, to set examples and boost morale!

Zhou Haoshu is a veritable "old hand", having weathered many storms and seen much; he naturally lacks no political wisdom—how could he fail to notice the "olive branch" the leadership has thrown out?

He has remained standing on the grassland for years by solid, down‑to‑earth hard work, his performance always flawless; otherwise he would have long been shoved into a remote corner.

Upon receiving the notice from the Provincial Party Committee, Zhou Haoshu began to ponder carefully. He knew that, on this uncertain path, without a strong "backing" he would have hit a ceiling; if he still harbored higher political aspirations, he would have to go with the flow and start choosing his political stance—in other words, to "pick a side".

On the grassland, Gu Yunhao, Yun Junjie and others are deeply entrenched, but the divergence in their political philosophies is an unbridgeable chasm; Zhou Haoshu simply does not see eye to eye with them.

After Secretary Li Xingyuan took office, Zhou Haoshu once entertained the idea of leaning on him, but after observing for a while he decisively gave it up. As for Governor Luo Shiyu, he also considered it, yet he still harbored many reservations because he could not see clearly.

After Secretary Lu came to the grassland, he launched work with vigor, starting with anti‑corruption; like a sudden storm, he swept away a large number of people with thunderous force, shaking the entire grassland and showing a tendency to take control of the situation—his methods were certainly not soft.

Zhou Haoshu closely followed every move of the Provincial Party Committee, deeply agreeing with Secretary Lu's governance philosophy and work style; he thus made up his mind and replied without hesitation: "The modest achievements of He Lun City are all due to the correct leadership of the secretary and the Provincial Party Committee. Especially the anti‑corruption struggle and the special campaign against 'empty rations', which have attracted widespread social attention and won broad popular recognition and support, laying an exceptionally solid foundation for future vigorous development."

The two exchanged a smile; everything was understood without words!

Zhou Haoshu struck while the iron was hot, acting on the principle "the crying child gets the milk", and probed: "Secretary, in this special campaign against empty rations we identified over 2,100 people and seized more than 70 million yuan of illicit funds; per the Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee's requirement, all of it has been turned over to the committee's integrity account. Could you have pity on us and return this money to the city? At year‑end and the start of the year, there are too many expenses; our municipal finances are robbing Peter to pay Paul, and we are barely getting by."

Lu Fan gave a slight smile and said: "Don't try to win my sympathy with poverty talk here—even a landlord's family has no surplus grain! After the New Year I plan to reform the medical sector of Grassland Province; the required funds are enormous, and I have big use for the money in the integrity account, so you needn't worry about it. However, this year the province will focus on developing tourism and animal husbandry, increasing policy and financial support; He Lun City possesses exceptional natural resources and is a key target for cultivation. You must work hard in these two areas and make the Great He Lun Grassland a world‑renowned tourist destination that is both acclaimed and well‑attended."

When it came to work, Zhou Haoshu could be described as having everything firmly in hand; he immediately launched into a fluent report: "Secretary, He Lun City plans this year to build 60 A‑class scenic spots, create two all‑domain tourism demonstration zones, three national‑level ski tourism resorts, ten national key villages for rural tourism, five national‑level leisure agriculture and rural tourism demonstration points, and eighty star‑rated hotels. Our ancient city walking street has already been rated as the second batch of national night‑time cultural and tourism consumption clusters. The city has won the 'Top Ten Ice‑and‑Snow Tourism City' award nine consecutive times; the He Lun Great Snow Plain brand already has strong influence and recognizability in the domestic ice‑snow tourism market, and the 'He Lun' tourist train launches an original ecology far‑north journey."

With these improved infrastructure facilities, our reception capacity has greatly increased. Ice‑snow wonderland, soul pasture, dream‑building ice‑snow—this year we aim to receive over 20 million tourists and achieve tourism revenue above 20 billion yuan, confident of ranking first in the province.

Lu Fan was very pleased with Zhou Haoshu's performance; the development of the grassland needs cadres who have ideas, initiatives, and thoughts, who dare to think, dare to act, and dare to innovate.

In the subsequent meeting, Lu Fan expressed satisfaction with the performance of Mayor Huang Hongwen, Deputy Municipal Party Secretary Wei Ruodai, Discipline Inspection Committee Secretary Li Jun, and others; this trip to He Lun achieved the expected effect.

On the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, the Provincial Party Committee held its final standing committee meeting of the year, arranging the deployment of safety work and listening to the report on the year‑end target responsibility assessment results and rankings.

Although Gu Yunhao and others were not fully in agreement with the assessment results, this is the work of the Provincial Party Committee's Organization Department; they could not openly question the fairness of the scoring and could only grudgingly accept it. At this point they had not yet realized the seriousness of the problem, nor did they expect Lu Fan to dare to remove two of their key cadres based on the assessment results.

The last item on the agenda was a report from the Provincial Party Committee General Office on the Spring Festival holiday duty roster.

After hearing the report, Lu Fan remarked with feeling: "Lately many people have been grumbling in private about holiday duty—this yearly farce is back again. Those making the schedule are worried sick, while those on duty are fuming. Some grassroots cadres joke that this is practically an annual play testing one's character. Today we will talk about the performance of this 'false diligence'."

What is the true significance of duty? For posts directly related to public safety—police, traffic police, fire, medical, emergency—Spring Festival duty is an unshirkable obligation, a matter of course. But for some departments, so‑called duty is merely a distorted form of roll‑call attendance; a routine phone call suffices and all is well.

Many grassroots cadres complain that holiday duty means being cooped up all day in an empty office just to cope with surprise inspections by superiors. Obviously a mobile phone online would guarantee a timely response, yet they insist on pinning people to their chairs to put on a show for whom?

Many units treat duty as a "necessity" but ignore compensation—never seeing any overtime pay, no time off in lieu, and even the most basic rest time being devoured by various "emergency work".

Grassroots cadres spoke the truth: it is not that they are unwilling to do duty, but they are weary of having their efforts taken for granted and their hardship ignored. Without respect, their effort only breeds widespread resistance.

The three words "look at the arrangement" are like a Sword of Damocles hanging over grassroots cadres' heads. A single remark from a leader can decide who enjoys a warm family reunion and who must sit alone in an empty chair. Priority for time‑off in lieu goes to the "insiders", while delay goes to the "outsiders"; this subtle differential treatment has become an invisible yardstick for measuring cadres' status, and even turned into a leader's disguised patronage.

This distorted allocation of power has completely stripped the duty system of fairness. Some people bribe officials at midnight to swap shifts; others, having offended a leader, spend three consecutive Spring Festivals on duty "fulfilling their duties loyally". Most ironic is that the time‑off‑in‑lieu system, which should embody labor dignity, has instead become a battleground of intrigue among grassroots cadres.

The lower the level of power, the more fertile the ground for bureaucratic excesses. This unwritten rule of judging by facial expressions—how much longer will it continue to poison the work environment of grassroots cadres?

Duty itself has never been the crux of the problem. The real malady is formalism cloaked in the guise of "system", which turns duty into a meaningless "display of loyalty", makes grassroots cadres pawns in power games, and reduces holiday reunion to an empty promise.

When duty becomes a tool for leaders to inspect posts, when time‑off‑in‑lieu turns into a bargaining chip, and when grassroots cadres' efforts go unrecognized—these are the true problems that must be confronted. Formalism is like an invisible chain that binds the enthusiasm and vigor of grassroots cadres, turning holiday duty into a pure waste of time and energy.

Comrades, what grassroots cadres desire is not to shirk responsibility, but a fair, transparent, and dignified work environment. This seemingly simple demand has long been buried under layers of formalism; addressing formalism is imperative.

I suggest that the General Offices of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government study which departments should keep a duty presence, which should maintain open communications, and which need not duty at all, then issue a document to guide all levels and departments across the province on Spring Festival duty.

Furthermore, leading cadres should at this time exemplify their style, voluntarily shoulder heavy responsibilities, become the main force of duty—especially the top leaders, free up cadres' time so they can go home and enjoy several years of peaceful New Year celebrations!

After the meeting, the two offices urgently consulted on a duty plan and issued on the 27th of the twelfth lunar month the "Guidelines for Spring Festival Duty in Grassland Province".

Upon seeing this document, the grassroots cadres erupted in cheers, shouting that the province had finally done something "human"! This also greatly boosted Lu Fan's prestige in an intangible way.