Chapter 44: Blocking the Road and Crying Out for Justice
Hu Jiao also held his wedding before the Spring Festival, so this time he had no choice but to go no matter how busy he was.
As for getting married with pregnancy, Juanjuan is already pregnant.
The wedding was not a grand affair. There were five tables of banquets, mostly attended by close relatives and friends. Red envelopes were not collected. On the third day after the wedding, Hu Jiao was busy coming back to participate in the preparations for the National People's Congress and to keep an eye on the business management of the enterprise after its restructuring.
The statistical report for the first quarter finally made Hu Jiao breathe a sigh of relief. This was his top priority as the head of the Tong County government and also the first political achievement he personally oversaw.
In the words of Wang Jianxin, if we fail to succeed under such a governing environment, it would be unjust!
Now the work focus of the county party committee and government has temporarily shifted to Tieshu. Li Mingyong is coming, and he also hinted on the phone that they should try their best to get one or two members of the provincial party committee standing committee to attend the ceremony.
This was a project he approved personally. After being elected as vice governor, Li Mingyong was temporarily in charge of science, education, culture, health, and publicity. He ranked fourth in the provincial government, with two vice governors ahead of him, one of whom was a permanent official and the other a member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee.
Another reason is that Li Mingyong attended the ceremony to support his son-in-law and his secretary at that time.
Putting aside the intense preliminary preparations in Tong County, after Li Mingyong communicated with several deputy secretaries of the provincial party committee and the governor, only Wu Changjun, secretary-general of the provincial party committee office, had time to attend.
On April 1, Li Mingyong and Wu Changjun arrived in Fenghuang at the same time, stayed there for one night, and then went to Tong County with the cadres of Fenghuang City.
The accompanying team this time is quite large in number. The central news organizations have also sent reporters to follow, the provincial TV station and several major newspapers have focused on tracking the incident, and the city of Phoenix has also mobilized all its forces.
In the motorcade, there were seven vehicles occupied by various media outlets alone. Accompanying members of the Phoenix City Government were Secretary Tian Fumin, Deputy Mayor Deng Shengni, and Organization Minister Huang Yu.
Mayor Gao Li led an inspection team to learn from the coastal areas and was unable to make it to the launching ceremony.
Li Mingyong and Wu Changjun rode in one car, leaving another for several reporters from the provincial TV station.
Hu Jiao led the county public security bureau chief Lu Dawei to Fenghuang to greet them in person. Lu Dawei's police car led the way. Hu Jiao got on Tian Fumin's special car and reported the details he had reported on the phone to Tian Fumin in person again.
It is mainly a safety issue. Tian Fumin has repeatedly stressed that no accidents must happen.
Passing by Tong County, Li Mingyong signaled not to stop and went directly to the general's tomb.
The Tieshu Revolutionary Education Base and the Tong Railway ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held there.
Looking at the former one-way street, it has now become a two-way four-lane street. The white paint line divides the newly built asphalt road, and the green asphalt road is flat, wide and smooth.
Li Mingyong had been to Tieshu several times before and had a deep impression of the transportation here. The changes today really made him happy.
Along the way, he and Wu Changjun recalled the tragic scenes of those years, and the two of them burst into laughter from time to time. As they were about to reach the destination, the lush and green bayonet edge across the mountain and the semi-circular general's tomb shaped like a marching tent were faintly visible.
At this time, Tong County Public Security Bureau Chief Lu Dawei was sweating profusely.
Through the intercom, they called the criminal police not far away to come over quickly. 14 farmers knelt on the ground one after another in the middle of the road. Fortunately, the driver of the motorcade led by the provincial party committee did not dare to drive too fast today, so no tragedy occurred.
14 people suddenly jumped out of the forest. You should know that the biggest feature of entering Iron Tree is that there are many trees, dense forests, high mountains and dangerous slopes.
Even though the speed is slow, it is still fast compared to the bad roads before. No matter who drives a good car on a good road, they will always speed up unconsciously.
Only less than a meter away, more than a dozen farmers were unafraid and held up the notice boards in their hands: "Suffering from injustice!" "Unfair!" "Please ask the government to take charge of the victims!"
The people at the back knelt and held up two white cloth banners, while the others had words written on cardboard crying out for justice.
Tian Fumin looked at the banner raised in front of him, glared at Hu Jiao, and snorted, "Go and deal with it quickly."
Hu Jiao's face turned green and he was burning with anger. He had been busy with the preparations for so many days, but they were ruined by a dozen farmers. He now wanted to eat someone's flesh.
The police who received the order from Director Lu came running quickly. The long team looked messy and awkward because of the different running speeds.
Some ran with one hand on their hats, while others held their hats in one hand and put their other hand on the guns at their waists.
Hu Jiao opened the car door and quickly walked to Lu Dawei, speaking in an icy tone, "Director Lu, what's going on?"
Lu Dawei smiled bitterly. He was in the dark and didn't understand anything.
Hu Jiao wanted to kick him. Lu Dawei's secretary and several criminal police officers pulled up one of the people who were crying out for justice and made another one kneel down.
Hu Jiao could only sigh, turned around, and faced the farmers. "I am Hu Jiao, the county magistrate of Tong County. Fellow villagers, are you from the Iron Tree?"
None of the 14 people spoke, they all lowered their heads and held up the signs with all their might.
Lu Dawei glared at his men who were running over and waved his hand to signal them to stay alert.
Hu Jiao had no choice but to continue speaking, "Fellow villagers, do you have any grievances that you can tell me?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Tian Fumin came forward with a gloomy face, "I am Tian Fumin, secretary of the Fenghuang Municipal Party Committee. Farmers, if you have anything to say, just say it. I assure you that no one here dares to make things difficult for you!"
Among the 14 people, an older man raised his head tremblingly and said, "We want to see the provincial party committee leaders!"
Tian Fumin and Hu Jiao were almost fainted from anger.
But now it's too late to back down. If I pull them away by force, how will the two people behind feel?
Besides, today is a good day for Tieshu. These are the neighbors of the late general. If someone spreads something unpleasant...
Wu Changjun and Li Mingyong came forward under the protection of the police.
Li Mingyong looked at Hu Jiao with a complicated expression. When he looked up, Tie Xiangqian, who had been waiting there, had already arrived by car.
These two guys...
Wu Changjun's eyes swept across the faces of Lu Dawei, Hu Jiao, and Tian Fumin in turn. It seemed that no one knew what injustice had happened.
Li Mingyong gestured to the policemen around him, "Help him up! Fellow villagers, I am Li Mingyong, the vice governor of the provincial government, and this is Secretary-General Wu of the provincial party committee. I heard that you want to see us?"
The old man who had spoken earlier burst into tears and said, "We are innocent..."
Lu Dawei hurriedly led the police forward, separated the crowd, and then brought the crying old man to the leader. With the comfort of everyone, the old man slowly calmed down.
After questioning, the whole matter was finally made clear.
It turned out that long before the construction of the Tong Railway began, Hu Jiao became the acting village chief because of his mistakes in working methods. With the support of the old Red Army soldiers, he signed a logging compensation agreement with the farmers who owned the forest land along the road.
There is nothing wrong with this, and people along the way also agree with it. After all, it was agreed by the old revolutionaries, and it was to promote the pride of the iron tree.
However, during the construction period, someone instructed criminals to sneak into the forest to cut down century-old timber.
The people of Tieshu are simple and honest, but they are not afraid of trouble. They will never go back on their word or make things difficult for others. But once they are irritated, they will fight and kill.
The incident happened the day before yesterday. The forest behind the general's tomb belonged to 14 families who were protesting their injustice. The old farmer who petitioned was named Chen Youfu. He had a habit of counting the trees in his own forest every six months. He knew how many century-old trees there were in his forest better than how much money he had.
But unexpectedly, once they entered the forest, they discovered that two century-old trees had been cut down.
The old man was so angry that he ran back to ask for help. Fourteen families rushed to the township government overnight to seek an explanation. They suspected that it was done by an outside road construction team.
But the construction team has withdrawn from the site, all work has been completed, and even the final acceptance has been completed.
Where can I find someone?
In addition, leaders from the provincial and municipal levels would soon attend the launching ceremony, and the county had issued repeated strict orders that no accidents should occur.
Liu Shiqun went to the provincial travel agency to arrange matters related to the first tour group. Bai Yongshu was in a dilemma. Seeing that he could not calm him down, he had to discuss with the police station and take expedient measures while sending police officers to look for clues. After all, it was not an easy task to transport century-old timber.
On the other hand, these fourteen people were temporarily detained and released after they apologized and made amends after the ceremony.
But Bai Yongshu never expected the Iron Tree Man's obsession with trees!
In the middle of the night, fourteen people overthrew the guards and ran back home overnight.
Coincidentally, a woman in one of these people's homes found some wood that had not yet been taken away.
It was yesterday morning that the loggers finally showed up!
If they hadn't seen the person, it might have been fine, but the government ignored it and they were locked up. Now that they saw the thief, they lost the last bit of rationality and started chasing and beating him with their belongings.
There were five illegal loggers in total. One was killed on the spot and four were seriously injured. When the police from the police station came after them, fourteen of them were scared and had to hide in the mountains.
They hid, and Bai Yongshu was so anxious when he saw the murder happening. There was only one day, less than twenty-four hours, when the provincial and municipal leaders came. What should he do when such a thing happened?
The murderer ran away, and Bai Yongshu had no choice but to arrange for the seriously injured to be secretly sent to the county hospital for emergency treatment. Fearing that this group of people would cause trouble, he had to detain their family members...
So what happened today happened.
Hu Jiao breathed a sigh of relief, and Tian Fumin also breathed a sigh of relief.
Lu Dawei reacted very quickly and took the people under control immediately. No matter what the purpose of these people was, they admitted to beating someone to death.
At this time, Li Mingyong helped the old man Chen up. "The situation is clear now. The township government is wrong. I promise you that your family is absolutely safe. However, you must also have the courage to admit your mistakes. The police are here. Will you cooperate and get to the bottom of this matter?"
After wiping away his tears and receiving verbal assurances from the provincial officials, Old Man Chen stiffened his neck and said, "I was the one who beat that guy to death! They are so hateful. I am not a bully. Killing someone means paying with your life, and debts must be paid back... Governor Li, we have a request!"
Li Mingyong said hurriedly, "Tell me, what are your requests?"
“Please ask the government to severely punish those who cut down the trees and investigate the masterminds behind it!”
Li Mingyong looked at Tian Fumin and Hu Jiao. He was the vice governor and could not interfere in local government affairs. Wu Changjun did not say a word from beginning to end.
Tian Fumin patted Old Man Chen's hand and said, "Brother, I promise you that I will investigate this thoroughly and punish anyone involved according to the law!"
Several people understood the tradition of the Iron Tree People in planting and protecting trees. If they failed to convince them and wanted to cut down trees privately, it would inevitably arouse public anger.
Now Hu Jiao was more worried that the incident would escalate, so he called Lu Dawei aside and told him to rush to Tieshu Township to deal with it immediately and try to control the impact of the incident.
To reassure them, Li Mingyong then assigned his secretary to supervise and return to the township government to conduct an investigation.
The fourteen people discussed it and decided that since the governor had sent someone to follow them, what else was there to worry about? They were not afraid of the township government's chaos.
Seeing that the journey was not far, Li Mingyong discussed with Wu Changjun and asked Hu Jiao to free up a few cars to take the people, and the ceremony continued.
Hu Jiao opened the car door for Tian Fumin, looking helpless, "Secretary Tian, I want to apologize to you. I didn't do my job well."
Tian Fumin waved his hand and said, "Get in the car first. Who is the secretary of Tieshu Township?"
"Bai Yongshu. When I was in Tieshu, he was the deputy secretary."
Tian Fumin snorted dryly , "This man is bold and selfish. He concealed such a serious incident. Many people in Tieshu know the tradition that cutting down a tree is more serious than cutting down a person. Doesn't he know this?"
Of course Hu Jiao understood what Tian Fumin meant. How could Bai Yongshu have the courage to do that without anyone saying hello?
"Please rest assured, Secretary Tian, we will resolutely implement your instructions, investigate thoroughly, and never let this go!"
Tian Fumin nodded and looked forward. A gong and drum sounded. Students wearing red belts, shaking big red flowers, and dancing the yangge came to welcome them. Tie Xiangqian led a group of cadres from Tong County and stood on the roadside.
Looking at the makeshift venue and the warm welcome atmosphere, Hu Jiao finally breathed a sigh of relief as the ribbon-cutting, opening ceremony, artistic performances, and speeches by leaders were completed smoothly one by one.
After Tian Fumin got off the car, his complexion had obviously improved. It was obvious that the Tong County Party Committee and government had put a lot of thought into the preparatory work.
Huang Yu had been accompanying Li Mingyong and Wu Changjun, acting as a temporary commentator. She had come to see the show several times in advance, and she was smart and had a good memory, so she had memorized the commentary by heart.
Since the convoy did not have a meal when passing through Tong County, according to Hu Jiao's second plan, after the ceremony, leaders at the provincial and municipal levels would be invited to the general's former residence, where a hotel jointly established by the catering group and Tieshu was ready.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the convoy arrived at the general's former residence.
Wu Yulan and Tang Wang were personally in charge of the command. Located at the foot of a small hill next to the general's former residence, the Tieshu Hotel is nestled against the mountain and beside the water, with mulberry fields crisscrossing all around.
According to the itinerary, after having lunch, we held a discussion with the old Red Army soldiers, then returned to Tong County to stay overnight and left the next day.
Bai Yongshu hasn't shown up yet, so Hu Jiao can't take care of it.
It was Bai Yachao who arranged the discussion with the old Red Army soldiers. As soon as Wu Changjun entered the meeting place, he put on a smile, stretched out both hands at the same time, and grabbed the two old Red Army soldiers, "Old revolutionaries! I am here to visit you on behalf of the Standing Committee Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee!"
After expressing his condolences one by one, Wu Changjun did not ask about their living problems as usual, but first pointed out what they were dissatisfied with about the construction of the general's tomb and the general's former residence?
Chen Laohongjun was still the representative to speak, and he expressed a series of thanks. At the end, he pointed at Hu Jiao and said, "Chief Hu is great! He works for the people sincerely, and is modest, honest, and upright. The most valuable thing is that he dares to do things and is not afraid of making mistakes."
Hu Jiao felt embarrassed by the praise and quickly said, "It's my job."
Old Red Army soldier Chen stood up straight with a smile on his face. "Last year, he was afraid that we would not support his work, so he was a little petty. I criticized him severely at that time..."
Wu Changjun laughed loudly and shook his hand enthusiastically, "Old senior, you criticized well, you should criticize!"
"But he accepted it sincerely and corrected it immediately. This attitude is quite valuable! I was worried that the organization would not trust him and would remove him from his position as secretary and no longer use him. To be honest, I regretted it within two days. Young comrades lack experience, so criticism and education are the main thing."
Seeing the provincial and municipal leaders listening attentively, Chen continued, "Look at what happened today. We old guys are satisfied!"
The symposium ended in a warm and cheerful atmosphere.
On the way back to Tong County, Lu Dawei was invited by Tian Fumin to get in the car and listen to the preliminary investigation report of the incident.
"According to reports from several comrades at the county hospital, the four seriously injured people are out of danger. After being examined by Director Li, they were questioned. These people entered the mountain in November last year. There were more than 20 of them in total. At that time, the railway had just been built to the general's tomb. According to preliminary calculations, more than 50 large trees were cut down and smuggled out at night when there was no construction."
Tian Fumin interrupted, "Did you tell me who organized this?"
Lu Dawei licked his lips, "One of them confessed. He is Li Changwu, the boss of the agricultural company. He was the former director of the Agricultural Bureau. After discussion between Secretary Tie and Secretary Zhou, we have temporarily controlled Li Changwu. The specific case still needs further investigation. The several people involved in the beating incident in Tieshu Township were initially determined to have surrendered themselves. Four people were temporarily arrested. The rest, as well as their families, have been released and returned home. There has been no dissatisfaction."
Tian Fumin nodded. "Well, the hospital must be foolproof and no accidents can happen . Tieshu must do a good job of ideological work and no mass incidents can happen. Tieshu is a place like that... Hu Jiao, if the old Red Army soldiers ask about it, you must come down in person and report to them in person."
After returning to the county seat, the former county party committee guesthouse had been renamed Tongxian Hotel, and Tian Fumin personally reported to Wu Changjun and Li Mingyong.
