official career

"It's been more than six years, so you're considered an old Tai'an man. Comrade Zhicheng, I'd like to hear your opinion on Tai'an County." Qin Feng asked Yuan Zhicheng while leaning back in his chair and smoking. This was the standard way of conversation between superiors and subordinates.

In fact, Yuan Zhicheng didn't expect Qin Feng to pay attention to him today, let alone expect Qin Feng to find him for a private talk, so he was not mentally prepared at all.

He was not stupid. He knew that Qin Feng's question about his opinion on Tai'an County was definitely not just about the question itself, so the answer to this question was very important to Yuan Zhicheng.

"Tai'an County is completely rotten." Yuan Zhicheng thought for a long time, and finally mustered up the courage to look at Qin Feng and said.

"How bad is it?" Qin Feng was not surprised at all. Instead, he continued to ask Yuan Zhicheng very calmly.

"The entire Tai'an County has been turned into a profit group headed by Wu Zhitao. This interest group implements an exclusionary policy, and will try their best to exclude and suppress anyone who is not one of their own, and then kick them out of the core circle of power."

"Over the years, this group of people headed by Wu Zhitao has committed all kinds of evil in Tai'an County. Everything they do is for the purpose of gaining benefits. They don't care about party discipline, national laws, or the lives of ordinary people. Their deeds are too numerous to list."

"Take the Yanggang New Village project, which you know roughly, for example. It was built in this state and was accepted. It is simply lawless. But in Tai'an County, nothing is impossible. It's not that there are no voices of opposition and reporting, but the cadres who opposed this practice and the people who reported it were brutally attacked by Wu Zhitao and others with violence, and no one dared to speak out anymore."

"The problem in Tai'an County is by no means limited to Yanggang New Village. Compared with other things, Yanggang New Village is not the most serious or worst." Yuan Zhicheng began to accuse Wu Zhitao of his crimes.

Yuan Zhicheng took a huge risk by saying this. He was gambling. He was betting that Qin Feng came here to completely clean up the problems in Tai'an County. If he bet right, he would be able to win Qin Feng's favor. If he bet wrong, what he said would most likely ruin his own political future.

Qin Feng smoked a cigarette and savored Yuan Zhicheng's words carefully. Yuan Zhicheng was very politically acumen. Throughout the whole process, he only directed his criticism at the dead Wu Zhitao, and characterized Wu Zhitao as the "leader". He did not mention who was backing Wu Zhitao, and did not mention Deng Xiaogang when mentioning Yanggang New Village. Obviously, Yuan Zhicheng saw the matter of Wu Zhitao's death very clearly.

"How many people do you think are involved in Yanggang New Village?" Qin Feng asked bluntly.

"One-third of the team members were involved, and even more people from the county government were involved."

"What about you? Are you involved?" Qin Feng asked with a smile.

"I guarantee with my party spirit that I, Yuan Zhicheng, have not done anything illegal or disorderly." Yuan Zhicheng stood up and "swore" solemnly.

Qin Feng believed what Yuan Zhicheng said, and even if Yuan Zhicheng wanted to get a piece of the pie, Wu Zhitao would not agree.

"Tell me about Yan Yibin and what you think of him." Qin Feng continued to ask.

Half an hour later, Qin Feng, accompanied by Yuan Zhicheng, walked into the small conference room of the Tai'an County Party Committee. All the leaders of Tai'an County were sitting in the conference room, not only the Standing Committee members, but also leaders of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

When Qin Feng walked in, everyone stood up, and Yan Yibin even ran over and pulled out a chair for Qin Feng.

As a county magistrate, and the biggest leader in Tai'an County today, his behavior was a bit too "flattering", and the suspicion of flattery was too obvious, but Yan Yibin, who was eager to save his life, could not care about these things now.

Qin Feng didn't even look at Yan Yibin, he just walked up to the chair Yan Yibin had pulled out and sat down.

Qin Feng sat at the first seat at the rectangular conference table. Yan Yibin and the deputy secretary-general of the municipal party committee who followed Qin Feng sat on his left and right respectively. Yuan Zhicheng sat next to Yan Yibin. This arrangement was naturally to show respect for the deputy secretary-general of the municipal party committee.

"Wu Zhitao is dead. He died at home without any warning. He died of an overdose of sleeping pills and committed suicide." Qin Feng said slowly, then paused and looked at the people in Tai'an County one by one.

All the people in Tai'an County lowered their heads, and no one dared to look Qin Feng in the eye.

"It is totally unreasonable that a county party secretary took sleeping pills and committed suicide at home for no reason. This made the municipal party committee's work very passive and also caused great damage to its image."

"As a team, as a group of colleagues, none of you reported Wu Zhitao's abnormality to the municipal party committee in advance or warned the municipal party committee. This is your dereliction of duty. You all have to bear this responsibility. You cannot escape it."

"After the incident, your Tai'an County was in complete chaos. You did not immediately block the news and effectively control the situation. Instead, you allowed the matter to spread wildly, which is why there are rumors everywhere. I heard that the entire county party committee and government are in a panic, and many units are no longer working normally."

"With the death of Wu Zhitao, the entire Tai'an County is in complete chaos. Is this the combat effectiveness of your Tai'an County team? What do all of you here do? Yan Yibin, what do you do as the county magistrate? And you, Yuan Zhicheng, what do you do as the deputy secretary of the county party committee?"

"You guys are all little chicks under Wu Zhitao's wing, right? Once Wu Zhitao dies, you won't even know how to walk?" Qin Feng's words became more and more serious.

"Now I have two things to announce. First, the Municipal Public Security Bureau has basically completed its investigation into Wu Zhitao's death. Wu Zhitao died of an overdose of sleeping pills. Preliminary investigations have confirmed that the reason for his suicide was that he was frightened when he learned that the provincial government investigation team was coming to investigate the relocation project for poverty alleviation in Yanggang New Village, so he committed suicide out of fear of punishment."

Qin Feng paused again after he finished speaking, and everyone present stared at him with wide eyes.

Why did Qin Feng announce this? This was to announce to everyone present on behalf of the Municipal Party Committee the Municipal Party Committee's investigation into the cause of Wu Zhitao's death, and also to express the Municipal Party Committee's attitude towards Wu Zhitao's death and Tai'an County.

Generally speaking, Wu Zhitao is already dead, and there would be a decent explanation for him, just like what Zhang Jun said before, that Wu Zhitao died because of too much work intensity, worrying about the country and the people, and overwork.

But Qin Feng refused to do so. Not only did he not give a "praise" conclusion, he did not even give a neutral conclusion. Instead, he concluded that the man committed suicide out of fear of punishment. This shows the attitude of the Municipal Party Committee towards Tai'an County, and this is why everyone was shocked.