Chapter 760: The Secretary Also Wants to Pull Strings for Him

He took it out and looked; it turned out to be a call from Wang Huai Zhong.

He immediately said, "Hello Secretary Wang, I was just about to call you, but your call came through first. I just finished reporting work to Secretary Guo here, and I was wondering if you're available; if so, I'll come by your office to report."

Wang Huai Zhong chuckled and said, "Enough, you're still trying to be slick with me—I saw you get in the car, are you getting ready to go back? If I didn't call you, you definitely wouldn't call me, because all you're thinking about is rushing back to settle county matters. Don't rush back yet; come straight to my office."

Su Yang didn't even have time to feel embarrassed; after hanging up, he immediately returned to the building and went to Wang Huai Zhong's office.

Wang Huai Zhong's secretary was waiting at the door; seeing Su Yang arrive without time for pleasantries, he promptly led him inside.

"You little brat, you're really not being honest at all—has the title of executive vice county magistrate already made you dizzy? I've told you before, this time your county Party Committee team has basically been wiped out; if you had a bit more seniority, you could directly take over as county magistrate."

"Although being an executive vice county magistrate isn't bad, you still haven't reached a full division-level leadership post. Anyway, let's not talk about that—have you called the senior leader these past two days? How's his health? Is work going smoothly?"

Su Yang said, "Oh, I called my father earlier; he's also very concerned about the situation here in Lieshan County. I told him that, thanks to your strong support, I managed to capture the Geng brothers, Geng Biao and Geng Le, with little risk, thereby basically completing the dismantling of the three Geng siblings. We're now in the final interrogation stage, and I expect results soon. He highly approves of your work here."

Su Yang is now just like Liu Zixuan said—he's also learned to be shameless. It's true that Old Zhou called him, but what he told Wang Huai Zhong might have some exaggeration, since Wang Huai Zhong can't possibly ask Old Zhou to verify, so he simply fawns to curry favor.

Sure enough, Wang Huai Zhong's undisguised delight appeared before his eyes: "Hehehe, the senior leader still remembers me. I'm doing what I should; as a Municipal Party Committee leader, how could I just stand by and watch the county's situation become so terrible? How could I just watch one of our leading cadres fall into difficulty?"

"The reason I called you over isn't for anything else—first, I want to sound a warning in your thoughts. Although the position of executive vice county magistrate is basically secured, your responsibilities have increased with the post. I won't mention anything else, but just speaking of the Twin Ditch Large Koji Winery mess, how are you going to handle it?"

"What about the thousands of workers—how will you resettle them? If you mess this up, you could really get punished. Otherwise, do you think the Municipal Party Committee has so many members, and why did they all agree when they proposed you take the executive vice county magistrate post? It's because there's a hidden danger behind this; if you handle it poorly, not only might you lose the executive vice county magistrate position, you might not even keep the vice county magistrate role."

Su Yang instantly broke out in a cold sweat; it seems he still thought the problem was simple. He had believed that being shameless was enough to qualify as a politician, but now he sees he's far from it.

He thought that with Old Zhou's patronage and Uncle Huang's support, becoming executive vice county magistrate would be a given—but after Wang Huai Zhong said that, he suddenly realized the old truth: opportunity always comes hand in hand with risk.

He quickly said, "Please, Secretary Wang, give me more guidance."

Wang Huai Zhong said, "Your top priority right now is to first stabilize the normal order in the county, ensure the supply of daily necessities and the normal working state of staff, and at the same time use all your connections to settle the winery issue clearly."

"Although the Twin Ditch Large Koji Winery has truly become a mess, a skinny camel is still bigger than a horse—you can think of ways to get the Provincial State-owned Assets Commission to invest, or even fully acquire it. That would both secure those workers' livelihoods and let you firmly plant your feet in Lieshan County."

Su Yang suddenly saw the light; he had originally been thinking of using other methods to solve it—for example, using all the tallied liquor for government receptions and then giving it away below market price; dismantling the production line to sell to other wineries; or immediately launching investment promotion, promising that investing enterprises would get priority use of the winery's staff.

But now it looks like selling directly to the State-owned Assets Commission is simply a perfect plan to the extreme! Of course, such an operation would definitely require mobilizing a lot of connections, and he seems to happen to have that capability.

However, he immediately rejected it in his heart—if that were the case, it would be equivalent to finally passing the buck to the province. At first glance it seems perfect, but from the perspective of Ganzhou Province, it not only fails to solve the problem, it actually makes the burden bigger.

But he still said aloud, "Thank you, Secretary Wang, I'm just afraid the State-owned Assets Commission might not be interested. In short, I should think of a way; if I really can't come up with anything, I'll try to solve it through investment promotion as much as possible. I plan to bring in a baijiu enterprise to take over everything, so that the jobs of those thousands of workers can be secured, and we can continue to support the county's finances."

Wang Huai Zhong sized up Su Yang from head to toe: "Fine, you're much better than I imagined. Letting the State-owned Assets Commission acquire it is just shifting the burden from one hand to the other—from the county to the province; although it could temporarily solve the problem for your county, the issue essentially remains. If you can pull off what you said, that would be even better."

After finishing that topic, the atmosphere suddenly went quiet. As a junior cadre, Su Yang had finished what he needed to report and couldn't just bring up a topic on his own.

After weighing it, he said, "Secretary Wang, if there's nothing else, I'll head back first. There's an investor in my county who wants to set up an agricultural trade market; they said it would be finalized these two days, and I really can't afford to delay even a moment."

As Su Yang was about to leave, Wang Huai Zhong coughed and said, "Su Yang, I heard you're quite familiar with Lai Mi; would it be convenient for you to get in touch with him? If possible, I'd like to treat him to a simple meal."

Hmm, Su Yang's brain almost crashed.

What's going on today? Secretary Guo invited the big secretary to a meal, and now even Secretary Wang is thinking about treating someone to a meal?

Logically, shouldn't we first think of ways to quickly fix the mess in Lieshan County? Or perhaps the leaders, standing high and seeing far, have problem‑solving methods that aren't on the same wavelength?