Chapter 27 Acting Township Chief Again
Hu Jiao was alone in the conference room. Guilan came and brought him a bowl of egg noodle soup.
I didn't try to persuade him, I just sat there quietly with him in a daze.
"Has everyone left?" Hu Jiao's voice was a little hoarse because he smoked too much.
Guilan nodded, "Old Red Army soldier Chen called Deputy Secretary Li of the county party committee and reported some situations. Now he has left."
"What did Secretary Li say?"
Guilan shook her head. "He didn't let the township answer the phone. Bai Yachao guessed that Secretary Li was just trying to comfort the old Red Army soldiers. He probably didn't give any specific instructions."
Hu Jiao put out the cigarette in his hand and said, "Change the route! Promote it as planned. I will go to the county in person."
Guilan stood up hurriedly, "No! You can't go now. I think we should leak the news first and see the reaction."
Hu Jiao shook his head. "If I go now, I can still take the initiative. If I don't go... Hey, it's okay if I don't go!"
Guilan nodded and pointed at the noodles and said, "Eat some first. We'll go to Lixia Village later and talk to the old Red Army soldiers."
Halfway through the noodles, Bai Yachao rushed in, "Secretary Hu, Secretary Tie of the county party committee is calling."
Hu Jiao threw down his chopsticks and rushed out.
"Secretary Tie, I'm Hu Jiao."
Tie Xiangqian did not lose his temper , and spoke in a very steady voice, "A reporter from the provincial newspaper stationed at the Phoenix Station wrote a report about what happened to you this afternoon, and recorded in detail your conversation with the old Red Army members. The manuscript has been sent to the Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department, you... should be mentally prepared."
Hu Jiao gently put down the phone, turned around, and floated back to his office like a breeze. On the way, Gui Lan and Bai Yachao did not dare to make a sound to disturb him.
Chen Xilai.
This name flashed through Hu Jiao's mind, and he felt sad. He was not unaware that someone in his team had leaked the information, and he also guessed that it was related to Chen Xilai.
But he was never sure, and he did underestimate Chen Xilai's methods.
Unexpectedly, the afternoon conversation was recorded and handed over to a reporter from a provincial newspaper. With the appearance of a reporter from a provincial newspaper, the person behind Chen Xilai was about to be revealed.
How could Chen Xilai, with his own strength, invite reporters from the provincial newspaper? Moreover, the manuscript went directly to the provincial party committee, bypassing the county and municipal party committees.
Wu Hao.
The county magistrate appeared in Hu Jiao's mind, and Liu Jie, who had been transferred to the News and Publicity Department of the Provincial Party Committee Office, was also thinking about this name.
Every day, all the flagship articles in the provincial newspaper that involve the provincial party committee and government must first pass through her. Regardless of whether it is criticism or praise, she will first put forward her opinions based on the content of the article and have it reviewed by the Minister of Propaganda, the deputy governor, the deputy secretary, or directly by the governor or secretary.
I received a call from my husband in the afternoon, saying that he had asked a friend to write a press release and asked her to review it carefully.
After reading this article, Liu Jie's bright forehead dimmed instantly. Her current position is somewhat similar to that of the provincial party committee's external news spokesperson, at the deputy director level. The current Minister of Propaganda and Secretary-General of the Provincial Party Committee's General Office were both promoted from here.
Hu Jiao, the name that appears most frequently in press releases.
Obviously, this is a sharp news commentary. Liu Jie doesn't need to use many brain cells. As long as this article is published, even if Hu Jiao can barely pass, he will have no chance of promotion in the next three to five years.
Liu Jie had a headache, a very severe headache.
If she rejected or suppressed the report, what would Wu Hao think? She knew her husband too well. He seemed to be impeccable, but in fact he was narrow-minded and intolerant.
Ever since Fenghuang came back from handling the case, Wu Hao heard rumors from somewhere that there was something unclear between her and Hu Jiao. It was impossible for Liu Jie to take the initiative to explain anything to him. Nothing had happened in the first place, so what was the point of such an explanation?
Wu Hao didn't ask any questions. He heard it, kept it in mind, and pretended to be calm.
Now, the press release before us is a question, a silent question, a sharp question.
Other provincial party committee leaders would basically not reject Liu Jie's reports. This was a common practice, and most leaders did not have the time or energy to carefully review them, unless it was something special, or some special policies, or it involved a cadre who needed to be promoted or punished in advance.
So most of the time, the news content reported by Liu Jie basically got the green light.
Hu Jiao knew Liu Jie's current position. He picked up the phone several times, but finally hung up in frustration.
Liu Jie also mentioned the phone number several times, she wanted to call Wu Hao.
Communicate? Explain? Plead for Hu Jiao?
Whatever thought flashed through my mind, it was inappropriate.
Liu Jie had to make a choice based on the questions Wu Hao asked: either report it and clarify her relationship with Hu Jiao, or not report it and, regardless of the reason, indicate that she did have a relationship with Hu Jiao.
As for what the relationship was, Liu Jie believed that Wu Hao would not be interested in it and would definitely not listen to it.
Liu Jie finally dialed the number, Wu Hao's father Wu Chengjing.
She explained the whole thing in a light-hearted manner over the phone. No one knows a son better than his father. Liu Jie asked for advice from the elders as a daughter-in-law.
After listening to Liu Jie's words, Wu Chengjing said, "I understand. I won't report it for now."
After hanging up the phone, Liu Jie sighed softly.
Just as she was about to continue reading the manuscript, her secretary came in and said that the Deputy Minister of Propaganda had invited her, and asked her to bring today's news review content.
Liu Jie's heart skipped a beat and she looked extremely strange.
No matter how long this night is, it will eventually pass away. For Hu Jiao, this is the first and most difficult sleepless night in his life.
For Liu Jie, the past is flying around and the complicated emotions are spreading in her heart like weeds.
No one can explain.
On April 27, 1995, the Nanzhao Daily, in its supplement on Party Conduct and Clean Governance, published a news commentary titled “Old Red Army Slogans against New Secretary.”
The article first introduced in detail the project application for the Tieshu Revolutionary Education Base, the project construction plan and its significance, and then went on to the preliminary publicity work and certain actions of the Tieshu Township Party Committee and government. It positively promoted the provincial tunnel highway project, but secretly instructed township cadres to spread rumors and incite the masses to cause trouble with feudal superstitions in an attempt to overturn the tunnel plan.
That morning, Provincial Party Secretary Chang Aijun instructed that the Phoenix Municipal Party Committee send a working group to investigate the incident, follow up on the situation, and report to the Provincial Party Committee.
In the evening, an investigation team led by Sun Shijing, Secretary General of the Phoenix Municipal Party Committee, arrived in Tong County.
Tie Xiangqian finished his fifth cigarette and finally chose Hu Jiao.
Huang Yu also chose Hu Jiao.
The investigation team returned to the municipal party committee the next day. In the afternoon, the municipal party committee secretary Tian Fumin went to the provincial party committee in person to report to the provincial party committee secretary Chang Aijun on the incidents caused by the Tieshu Revolutionary Base.
The Fenghuang Municipal Party Committee characterized this incident as improper working methods and improper handling of the incident. It was due to his youth and lack of grassroots work experience. It is recommended that the Tong County Party Committee remove Comrade Hu Jiao from the positions of Tong County Committee Member and Tieshu Township Party Committee Secretary. Gui Lan is recommended to serve as Party Committee Secretary, and Comrade Hu Jiao as Tieshu Township Party Committee Member, Standing Committee Member, Deputy Secretary, Deputy Township Head, and Acting Township Head.
The provincial party secretary did not raise any objection to the handling opinions.
On the third day, Tong County held a standing committee meeting in accordance with the municipal party committee's document and conscientiously implemented the municipal party committee's suggestions. The standing committee decided to remove Hu Jiao from the positions of Tong County party committee member and Tieshu Township party committee secretary, and appoint Comrade Hu Jiao as Tieshu Township party committee member and deputy party committee secretary.
Comrade Hu Jiao serves as deputy head of Tieshu Township and acting head of the township.
Comrade Chen Xilai was removed from the positions of member of the Tieshu Township Party Committee and deputy township head, and was appointed as deputy director of the Tong County Meteorological Bureau.
The Standing Committee also discussed and approved the establishment of the Tieshu Township Revolutionary Education Base Construction Command, with County Mayor Wu Hao as the commander-in-chief and two deputy county mayors as deputy commanders.
The command center members include Hu Jiao, acting head of Tieshu Township, the county construction bureau director, the county education bureau director, the county transportation bureau director, and the county culture and sports bureau director.
It has an office, with Hu Jiao as the director.
The plan adopted by the project is to carry out road construction in the early stage, widening and expanding the road from Tong County to Tieshu Township into a secondary road with two lanes in both directions.
The second phase of the education base was located at the Red Army Tomb, where an exhibition hall of General Chen Hu's deeds was built, a bronze statue of General Chen Hu riding a horse and bronze reliefs of forty-eight veteran Red Army soldiers charging were sculpted.
The project is divided into two parts and was officially put out to tender on May 1.
Before the bidding ended, Hu Jiao and Gui Lan handed over their work to each other. At Gui Lan's insistence, the two simply changed the office signs.
After the bidding was completed, the work of the Tieshu Township Party Committee and Government returned to its normal track. Liu Shiqun, the former director of the Party Committee Office, was recommended by the Tieshu Party Committee to serve as the deputy township head. With the approval of the county party committee and government, Liu Shiqun was appointed as the member of the Tieshu Township Party Committee and deputy township head.
Chen Xilai went to the county meteorological bureau alone to report, and he has not appeared since the day after the news report.
I heard that when he left, he left alone in a truck.
Chen Fulai and Chen Shoulai went to drink with Hu Jiao for several days in a row. Hu Jiao was fine, but the two of them were drunk.
The engineering team entered the actual survey phase, during which time Hu Jiao's work suddenly intensified, involving compensation for the trees of the villagers along the road, which was specifically handled by Hu Jiao.
Perhaps because Hu Jiao was scolded, the villagers involved this time did not deliberately make things difficult for him. They basically received compensation according to relevant policies and did not make any unreasonable demands.
It was not until June 1st that the survey of construction along the road was completed and all relevant compensation agreements were in place.
Tieshu Township also held a people's congress, and Hu Jiao was successfully elected as the head of the Tieshu Township People's Government, Chen Shoulai was elected as the deputy head, Chen Fulai was elected as the deputy head, and Liu Shiqun was elected as the deputy head.
The next day, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Tieshu Township Revolutionary Education Base was jointly reported by Fenghuang City and Tong County TV stations.
Tian Fumin, secretary of the municipal party committee, personally attended the groundbreaking ceremony and delivered a speech, emphasizing the importance of building an education base in order to inherit and carry forward the fine traditions of the older generation of revolutionaries and cultivate patriotism by learning from their deeds.
Tian Fumin finally put forward requirements for the project, requiring that the quality and construction period must be guaranteed.
Hu Jiao did not attend the groundbreaking ceremony. He was mainly responsible for arranging the construction teams to enter the site. According to the construction party's requirements, a total of ten construction teams entered the site and started work at the same time, striving to fully build the Tongtie secondary highway within four months.
It concerns the logistics and food of the construction team, hiring people to cook, buying groceries, and the temporary tents set up by construction workers, etc.
Hu Jiao was so busy here that he was exhausted. Hu Jianguo was worried about his son in Hongjiang. In the past month, he had not even taken the initiative to call Hu Jiao.
Hu Jianguo always believes that there will be no rainbow without wind and rain.
But I never expected that after a series of events, I thought Wu Hao would not need to find fault.
What's more, they did it so drastically that they submitted the manuscript directly to the provincial party committee without going through the city or county authorities.
Fortunately, Tian Fumin did not add insult to injury, but only removed Hu Jiao from his position as secretary. If anything, he would have been given a disciplinary warning within the party.
Then Hu Jiao’s life would really be over.
Tian Fumin's niece, Tian Chunchun, just graduated this year. According to her original wishes, she was assigned to work in the Hongjiang Municipal Party Committee.
Tian Chunchun had just received her undergraduate diploma from the Chinese Department of Nanzhao University when she received a notice from the Hongjiang Municipal Government, Hongjiang Municipal Government Office, Secretary Department, Confidential Secretary. The notice required Tian Chunchun to report to the municipal government before July 10 to handle relevant formalities.
Li Aiju had no time to care about her son at all. If Hu Jianguo hadn't told her, she would have had no time to inquire about her son's news.
Ma Xiaowu's performance in recent times can be described as "eye-catching".
His grades improved by leaps and bounds. He attended classes on time every day and studied very hard. As the final exam approached, after several baseline tests, Ma Xiaowu's total score had already ranked among the top five in the class.
When something is out of the ordinary, it must be something wrong!
Li Aiju did not let her guard down despite Ma Xiaowu's rapid academic performance.
If Xiaowu continues to work hard based on his current performance, it should not be difficult for Hongjiang No. 5 Middle School to produce another student who can be admitted to one of the top ten prestigious universities.
It was Monday and Li Aiju had no classes in the morning. Her nanny had taken leave to go home for the past two days, so she had to get up early in the morning to make breakfast.
Hu Jianguo has always lived a very regular life. When he was in Phoenix, he had to attend drinking parties from time to time and often got drunk.
Now that I'm the mayor, I don't have to cater to others at the drinking table, and I've gradually stopped drinking. In situations that I can't avoid, I drink red wine instead.
After a few months, Hu Jianguo got up at six in the morning, exercised, and had breakfast at 7:30.
The car came to pick him up at eight o'clock and the day's journey began.
Li Aiju likes to read some medical books when she has nothing to do. When Hu Jiao caught a cold and had a fever as a child, she usually gave him injections personally.
So I always have a medical care kit at home.
Looking at the time, Hu Jianguo had not returned yet. Li Aiju clearly felt weak in her limbs and dizzy. After making breakfast, she curled up on the sofa alone and took a thermometer to measure her body temperature.
Just then, Hu Jianguo came in. He was wearing a black sports shirt. After several months of regular exercise, his originally fat belly had slowly flattened out.
"Aiju, are you feeling uncomfortable?"
In the past, the nanny would prepare a towel for wiping the face, but today Li Aiju's face was obviously not well, and Hu Jianguo ignored his sweat and rushed to his wife's side.
"Maybe I caught a cold last night and have a low fever. I'll give myself an injection later. Go wash up, you're sweaty and smelly." Li Aiju pushed her husband away and started to prepare the medicine and pick up the alcohol cotton ball. While Hu Jianguo was washing up, she found the right position with her backhand and gave him an injection in the buttocks.
Before Hu Jianguo left, he was still worried, "Should I take you to the hospital first? You look so tired these days, not as good as when you were young. Or just take a leave and stay at home to rest?"
Li Aiju shook her hand. "You go ahead. I'm fine."
Hu Jianguo couldn't persuade her, so he had to open the car door and drive away. His schedule today was very full. There were a lot of things waiting for him to deal with in the high-tech development zone that was approved by the provincial party committee.
After Hu Jianguo left, Li Aiju locked the door again, planning to go back to have a good sleep and then go to school at noon.
She was not awakened by the phone until eleven o'clock in the morning.
There are two programmable telephones installed in their home. Only Hu Jianguo's secretary and several members of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee know about the landline in the bedroom. Unless it is an urgent matter, no one usually calls it.
Another landline phone, one in the study and an extension in the living room.
The medicine Li Aiju injected contained a sedative, so the ringing of the phone was blocked by the bedroom. If one slept a little more deeply, he would not be easily awakened by the ringing.
As soon as Li Aiju picked up the phone in the study, she heard a frightened female voice, "Oh my God, Teacher Li, you finally answered the phone."
Ma Xiaowu didn’t come to class!
From the morning self-study to the break exercises after the second period, no one saw Ma Xiaowu. Li Aiju specially told several teachers to notify her if Ma Xiaowu did anything unusual.
What's more, I skipped classes without asking for leave from anyone.
Li Aiju felt a chill in her heart. Could it be...
The teacher who called said that she had been calling but no one answered. She had just sent two students who were close to Ma Xiaowu to his home to look for him. When they came back, Ma Xiaowu's father said that he had not returned home last night.
Something happened!
Li Aiju was anxious and regretful. If she had known, she would not have gone back to the bedroom to sleep, but would have taken a nap in the living room.
Without bothering to pack, she just threw on some clothes, tied her hair into a ponytail, grabbed her handbag and rushed out of the house.
Li Aiju prayed silently in her heart that nothing would happen to the child.
The case of Hei San's murder has been preliminarily investigated. It was committed by three prisoners who were released years ago. It is said that these three people had grudges against Hei San and had been slashed by him before. The younger brother of one of them had his tendons cut by Hei San and he still cannot walk normally until now.
However, these three people are currently on the run and have not been arrested.
Ma Xiaowu did not go home last night. He must have received news that either the three criminals who killed Heisan appeared in Hongjiang, or one of them came back.
No matter which situation , Li Aiju is not optimistic.
Either Ma Xiaowu hurt someone and violated the criminal law, or he was hurt by someone and his studies were delayed.
