Chapter Fifty-Three The First Summon by the Leader

  Time flies, and the new year is just around the corner, with less than 20 days left until Chinese New Year in '92. The roads are barely passable now, but they still need to be rolled again and have another layer of gravel laid down, though that's a task for after the holiday.

  The common people have been busy for a whole winter, and now that it's entered the twelfth month, they're also starting to get busy with New Year's affairs.

  The villagers are quite satisfied with such progress, and it will be enough to repair the road in three or four months.

  The county party representative conference has ended almost a month ago, but the team of Shanhe Township is still the same as before. The county government has not adjusted the leadership team of Shanhe Township as quickly as people expected.

  This has also become an important topic for village cadres to discuss privately, and each one has become the "Minister of Underground Organizations", discussing the candidates for the village secretary and village head.

  As for the reason why the county government has been slow to act, various versions have been circulating in the countryside.

  A more reliable saying is that the township party secretary of Wu Zhonghe has basically been settled, but the adjustment has been delayed because the selection of the township head is difficult. Some people say that now the mountains and countryside are good days, and many people remember this position. Not only do young cadres with development prospects in the county want to come here to make a fortune, but also several township heads who have been troubled by financial difficulties are eyeing this position. Originally, no one came to this place suddenly became a fragrant pastry that everyone loves.

  Some people say that the mountains and people's hearts are also high now, if the county sends a not-so-good township head, everyone may not be satisfied, it is also feared that they will repeat the mistake of Wang Liben being elected away, so they are carefully considering the candidate for the township head.

  Of course, Lu Zhengdong cannot be avoided in this discussion. His achievements and abilities are there, if according to this, he still has a chance, but his age and experience are also there, if looking at this, in the eyes of the cadres, his opportunity to become acting township head is equivalent to winning the jackpot.

  Lu Zhengdong now has a very open view of this, he is also very clear that even if we put aside the relationship between age and experience, even if there are achievements and abilities, it's not necessarily possible to go up, it depends on your position in the leader's mind, how often you appear in front of the leader, only then will the leader think of you at critical moments.

  He has already shown what he should show, as for wanting to show off in front of the leaders, this depends on burning incense often. He is not familiar with the county leaders at all now, and it's not good to suddenly go and hold Buddha's feet, it may backfire and end up hurting himself.

  As for the matter of jumping votes, he did have a mass base and some iron-clad cadres below him brought it up, but Lu Zhengdong flatly rejected it without even considering it. It wasn't that he didn't want to go further, but doing so would be completely unprofitable - because Wang Liben's case came first, and you can't have two number ones. If Wang Liben was an accident, then even if he managed to sneak through the gate successfully, it wouldn't be an accident anymore, and that would also set a precedent in the minds of the county leaders. In the future, he would be relegated to a cold palace. The cost is too great, not worth it.

  He is now a red heart with two hands ready, and it would be better to sit in the position of the head of the village; if not, after the economic development of Shanhe Village has been put on the right track, it will be time to leave. In short, no matter what, while keeping his head down to work, he must also look up at the road. Lu Zhengdong was thinking that the Spring Festival is approaching, and when the time comes, he will still find opportunities to visit the leaders of the county...

  Actually, Lu Zhengdong knew that the one who was most uneasy in his heart right now was Wu Zhonghe. The position of party secretary was right in front of him but had yet to be assigned, it was really frustrating, everyone was clear, as long as the appointment document for the township party committee secretary did not come down, this matter would have a huge variable...

  No matter how anxious Wu Zhonghe was, no matter how the villagers speculated, the county still did not make any moves to adjust the mountain and township teams, but instead held a county-wide economic work conference in mid-January.

  This is a very important meeting held throughout the county after the new party congress, and the county also attaches great importance to it. County Party Secretary Wen Peiyuan, County Mayor Xin Mingzhong, and County Deputy Party Secretary Liao Xuefeng all attended the meeting.

  The meeting was presided over by Deputy Secretary Liao Xuefeng, and the attendees were all heads of county-level departments and party and government leaders of each township, as well as principals of state-owned enterprises and large-scale enterprises in townships.

  Lu Zhengdong is the deputy head of the township, originally he was not qualified to attend the meeting, nor did he know what reason the county had, but he was also notified to attend.

  The meeting thoroughly implemented the spirit of the central, provincial and municipal economic work conferences, summarized the work of the previous year, arranged and deployed the tasks for the new year's economic and social development, mobilized all cadres and masses in the county to take swift action, solidly do a good job in this year's economic work, and strive to create a new situation for the county's economic and social development.

  The leaders on the stage said a lot, and their main focus was also on the achievements of 90 years of work. However, both those on and off the stage understood that none of this could change one fact: the county's financial difficulties not only failed to ease but instead became even more severe.

  Everyone understands that this meeting is focused on one central issue: striving to develop the economy and making every effort to resolve the extremely difficult financial situation in the county.

  The arrangement that the meeting was presided over by the deputy secretary of the party group with a pipe hat instead of County Magistrate Xin Mingzhong, and the serious speeches by Wen Peiyuan and Xin Mingzhong, as well as the county government's specially formulated "Decision on Rewards and Punishments for Key Work in 1992" and "Responsibility Book", all clearly expressed this purpose - if the tasks assigned by the county are not completed, one must be careful with the official hat on their head.

  The meeting also gave the town party secretary of Chengguan Town and the director of the county finance bureau a chance to show their faces, and both made on-site statements.

  One is the largest creator of fiscal revenue in the county, and the other is in charge of the county's purse strings. Letting them make a statement in front of all county officials is actually equivalent to making them take an oath.

  Lu Zhengdong looked at the two people, who were speaking loudly and passionately on the surface, but in reality, many of their words were empty and slogan-like, revealing that they were not confident enough. Not only the two people on stage, but also the leaders below, all had serious expressions, obviously, this task was not a small pressure. Lu Zhengdong was thinking deeply while observing the expressions of others around him, guessing that he was also looking for units similar to his own, calculating how to suppress the opponent and make it easier to deal with them in the future.

  Even Wu Zhonghe, who had just come on stage to receive the heaviest advanced collective award and was praised by the leaders for his work in promoting economic development in Shanhe Township, sat there with a frown - the tasks assigned by the county government to Shanhe Township also exceeded Wu Zhonghe's expectations.

  At noon, the county's department heads and township party secretaries who came to attend the meeting ate their lunch as if they were chewing wax, then went to the small conference room on the fourth floor of the county committee's reception office to wait for a meeting with the main leaders of the county - the task had been implemented in each unit, and everyone had signed and stamped the letter of responsibility, but the county leaders also knew how great the pressure was, so they gave some encouragement while giving pressure, so they wanted to talk to the people below and boost their morale.

  People sitting in the conference room waiting for the leader's summons were either discussing with colleagues from their own unit about reporting matters, or probing into each other's situations with familiar people from other units. Just then, Lin Zhihe, Secretary of County Party Committee Wen Peiyuan, walked in, swept a glance over the conference room and strode straight towards him and Wu Zhonghe:

  "Wu Xiangzhang, Wen Shuji invites you and Lu Xiangzhang to have a talk next door..."

  At that moment, everyone in the room focused their attention on the two of them. Yang, the secretary of Erhe Town, who was sitting next to Wu Zhonghe, couldn't help but say in a low voice with some envy:

  "Wu Lao Di, Lu Lao Di, the leader is summoning you first!"

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