Chapter 1912

On his first day in Chongjin County, Su Xinghui caused a major incident by walking out on a banquet, shocking the entire Chongjin officialdom. And on his second day in Chongjin County, he set another fierce fire, shocking the Chongjin officialdom once again.

In fact, this day was originally an ordinary day. Su Xinghui had just taken office, and the county government held a county magistrate's office meeting, which was considered a welcome for Su Xinghui, allowing Su Xinghui to get to know the deputy county magistrates. Moreover, when the county magistrate's office meeting just started, the atmosphere was still relatively harmonious.

The number of deputy county magistrates in Chongjin County was relatively large, with eight people. This was also a major feature of the Jiangyou officialdom. There were many arrangements for deputy positions in various departments, so that more cadres could be arranged. Anyway, there was no strict regulation on the number of deputy county magistrates in the documents, so it didn't matter if a few more were arranged.

Although Su Xinghui caused the banquet-walking incident yesterday, he was, after all, the head of the county government now. Therefore, all the deputy county magistrates still strictly followed the unspoken rules of the officialdom, arriving at the meeting place in advance according to their respective seating arrangements. By five minutes to nine, all the deputy county magistrates had arrived.

The deputy county magistrates were talking and laughing loudly, distributing cigarettes to each other. At two minutes to nine, Su Xinghui strode into the meeting place. Behind him followed the director of the County Government Office, Duan Qi, who was holding a stack of materials.

As soon as Su Xinghui entered the meeting place, the talking and laughing disappeared. Su Xinghui nodded and greeted each deputy county magistrate one by one, then sat down in his seat, and Duan Qi began to distribute materials to each deputy county magistrate.

All the deputy county magistrates didn't take it seriously; distributing materials at a meeting was a very normal thing. They opened the materials casually and began to read. But as soon as they looked, their expressions changed immediately.

Su Xinghui cleared his throat and said, "Hello everyone, today is our first county magistrate's office meeting. First, I will introduce myself. My name is Su Xinghui, 26 years old this year, a 1992 graduate of the Chinese Department of Jiangcheng University..."

Su Xinghui introduced his resume. Although everyone knew he was young, when they heard he was only 26 years old this year, they still gasped in unison. Among those present, some who married early had children as old as Su Xinghui, yet they all had to be his subordinates.

Su Xinghui said, "Today is a meeting for me to meet everyone, but there is also an issue to discuss. Everyone has already read the materials distributed by Director Duan just now. What we are going to discuss today is the issue of the financial reimbursement system of the county government. Everyone, take a careful look. After reading, discuss it. If you have any opinions, bring them up. If there are no opinions, then pass it and implement it accordingly."

After Su Xinghui finished speaking, he picked up his teacup and began to drink tea. The meeting room was dead silent, with only the sound of flipping through materials. Everyone was flipping through the materials with nervous expressions. This financial reimbursement system was related to their vital interests.

Everyone climbed up with great difficulty to become a deputy county magistrate. What for? Was it just for a salary that was not a few dozen yuan more than others every month? Wasn't it for this little bit of privilege? They needed to enjoy the privilege of having a car when going out, having wine when eating, and being able to reimburse whatever they wanted. Such days were so comfortable, but according to what Su Xinghui said, would such days end from now on?

Su Xinghui's actions were too fast. Moreover, to keep this material confidential, Duan Qi had Li Zhongwen work overtime to print it out last night, and not even a whisper of news had been leaked. Before Duan Qi distributed the materials to the deputy county magistrates today, no one knew about Su Xinghui's actions today, not even Nie Xin.

Without any psychological preparation, they suddenly saw this material, which had a huge psychological impact on them. It could be said that they were immediately at a loss.

Nie Xin was a bit stunned because Su Xinghui hadn't even told him about this yesterday. He felt a bit aggrieved because he felt that he had already defected to Su Xinghui and should be considered his trusted aide. How could he not tell himself about such things? Instead, Duan Qi was more deeply involved than himself; at least this material must have been printed out by him.

However, Nie Xin was also someone who knew how to comfort himself. He immediately thought that Su Xinghui must have his reasons for not telling him. Regardless, now that he was his man, he must support him on this matter. He then cheered up and carefully read the material.

In fact, this new reimbursement system didn't have a very large impact on Nie Xin. If the new system were implemented, the person most affected would naturally be the executive deputy county magistrate, Meng Lingguo, because he was originally the deputy county magistrate in charge of finance. Any reimbursement receipts could be signed by him. Under such circumstances, his power was naturally very great.

But now, this new system stipulated that Meng Lingguo still had the right to sign, but in the end, it had to be signed by Su Xinghui to be reimbursed. Wouldn't that be equivalent to depriving Meng Lingguo of his right to sign?

For Nie Xin, this new system meant at most that he would use less of the car and eat less. The impact was not great. He was a communications officer by origin and had developed a cautious personality. Usually, he rarely reimbursed private expenses, at most using a public car and reimbursing a few meal expenses. This was not a big deal for him.

Meng Lingguo's expression didn't look very good. If the right to sign for finance was deprived, nearly half of his power would be taken away. Moreover, what prestige did he have left? Others respected him because of the power in his hands; he had the right to sign, so he could sell favors to others. Now that he was no longer the decisive person, others wouldn't take him too seriously either.

Meng Lingguo looked gloomy, also carefully flipping through the material, wanting to find some flaws and reasons to oppose this plan.

However, it was not easy to find reasons to oppose this plan. Su Xinghui's reason for implementing the new financial system was upright and in line with the spirit of the central government. This was an open conspiracy; who could oppose it? Whoever opposed it would be exposing their own selfishness.

Therefore, although everyone was very unhappy, no one spoke up. It was one thing that they didn't like Su Xinghui, but it was another thing to let them jump out to take the lead. Su Xinghui clearly had made full preparations. Whoever jumped out to take the lead, Su Xinghui would likely shoot the bird that stuck its head out.

The atmosphere in the meeting room changed from the relaxed and harmonious atmosphere before the meeting to a tense and awkward one. In the dead silence, Su Xinghui was leisurely drinking tea, nodding while drinking. The tea in Chongjin County was indeed good. The hilly environment here was very suitable for growing tea, and since it belonged to a water town, the tea grown in this climate also had good quality.

After waiting for a few minutes, no one spoke yet. Su Xinghui simply called out names: "County Magistrate Meng, do you have any opinions on this new financial system?"

Meng Lingguo gritted his teeth. Although he didn't want to take the lead, Su Xinghui had called his name, so he had to speak. Moreover, if he didn't speak, his power would be deprived. He was naturally unwilling to watch such a thing happen.

Meng Lingguo said, "County Magistrate Su, is it a bit too hasty for us to implement such a new financial system so suddenly? The previous financial system has been implemented for many years and has always been implemented very well without any problems. Why do we need to have such a new financial system now?"

Su Xinghui smiled and said, "Has it been implemented very well? Then, County Magistrate Meng, I would like to ask you, what was the total fiscal revenue of Chongjin County last year? And what were the expenses for official vehicles, reception fees, and other office expenses last year?"

Meng Lingguo had to answer Su Xinghui's question: "The total fiscal revenue of Chongjin County last year was 42.3 million yuan. The expenses for official vehicles, reception fees, and other office expenses last year—the specific number is not clear, but it should be over 10 million yuan."

Su Xinghui said, "Even if it is 10 million yuan, then this expense accounted for nearly a quarter of the fiscal revenue. Do you still say that the original financial system was implemented very well?"

Meng Lingguo was speechless. What could he say? He had been the executive deputy county magistrate for two or three years. He was the directly responsible person for the problem of office expense overruns. Now he was saying more and making more mistakes.

He was now even starting to worry that if Su Xinghui audited the financial revenue and expenditure of the previous few years, he would be miserable. He knew very well that in the previous few years, he didn't know how many bad debts he had signed for, which could not withstand an audit at all. If these things were audited, with Su Xinghui's background, wanting to remove him from his post would be a matter of minutes.

Meng Lingguo stopped talking.

Su Xinghui said, "Our Chongjin County is not a wealthy county. Up to now, the per capita GDP is only a little over 1,000. Looking at this number, how do you feel? I felt a bit ashamed when I saw this number. It is in such a fiscal situation that the fiscal expenses we spend on these aspects every year account for a quarter of the fiscal revenue. Everyone, ask yourselves, should this situation be changed?"

Everyone was speechless. Meng Lingguo took out a cigarette case irritably, pulled out a cigarette, and wanted to light it, but his lighter wouldn't light for a long time. He simply threw the cigarette and the lighter onto the conference table.

Su Xinghui continued, "The table of wine and food I saw at the County Party Committee Guest House yesterday, conservatively estimated, was worth at least 3,000, right? According to the current per capita income in Chongjin County, this is at least the cash income of more than a dozen farmers for a year, yet we just ate it up in one meal. Don't you have even a little bit of guilt in your hearts?"

Su Xinghui's words could be described as deafening, but they didn't have any effect on these deputy county magistrates present. For these people, their hearts were like iron and stone, and no words could move them; instead, it would make them feel funny.