Rebirth of the Rising Sun

Although some people present already knew about Feng Sizhe's affairs, some people were still not very clear. For example, the commander of the city military sub-district, Guo Pingchuan, knew very little about local affairs because he was in the military district. When he heard Ruan Guiben talk about this matter, he was shocked.

Director Bei Jinlong, who was called upon to attend the meeting temporarily, stood up and began to read a stack of sorted materials.

As a department-level cadre, Bei Jinlong seldom had the opportunity to speak openly in occasions like the Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee. This time he cherished this hard-won opportunity very much, or he enjoyed the feeling of speaking in front of the Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee. In short, he spoke very loudly when reading the manuscript.

From the information read out by Bei Jinlong, it seems that Feng Sizhe's demand for a bribe of 300,000 yuan from the Northeast Agricultural Trade Corporation's Lianhua City branch has become a fact. The facts are so clear and the evidence is so sufficient that it is an ironclad case that no one can change.

After more than ten minutes, Bei Jinlong finally finished reading the materials in his hand. Then, contrary to his usual behavior, he nodded gracefully to all the members of the Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee, and then slowly returned to his original seat.

After Bei Jinlong finished reading the document, Ruan Guiben spoke. He looked very upset and said, "Comrades, you can't judge a person by his appearance. I used to think that Comrade Feng Sizhe was a courageous, noble, and pure cadre. I also thought that everything he did was for the good of Lianhua City. Even when some old comrades in our municipal government had a conflict with him, I spoke up for him with Secretary Xia Xiang. But who would have thought that behind those noble sentiments he was actually such a greedy person? Well, it's because he's young and can't stand the temptation of money."

Everyone present knew that what Bei Jinlong meant by the conflict with the old comrades in the municipal government were naturally referring to the former deputy mayor and director of the Education Bureau Wang Xibo and the former deputy mayor and director of the Municipal Finance Bureau Ni Dahong. These two people were promoted at the suggestion of Ruan Guiben, but were later taken down because of Feng Sizhe's relationship. Now, Feng Sizhe has always appeared as someone who serves the people wholeheartedly, which makes it impossible for anyone to find any fault with him. But today, he finally caught him screaming in pain. Would Ruan Guiben let go of such an opportunity? Obviously, it is impossible.

Ruan Guiben seemed to be very sad to finish saying this, and Zhu Jinkui, the secretary of the Huabei District Committee who always followed his words, spoke up. "Yes, what Comrade Feng Sizhe did was indeed too unexpected, but this just reflects a fact, that is, he is not good at talking and is not reliable in doing things, and it's all because he is too young. Young people sometimes work with a burst of enthusiasm, and after the enthusiasm, once they are tired, they want to enjoy material life, and how can the good or bad of material life be separated from money? So I am not surprised at all that he would ask for bribes. I can even say that if we investigate carefully, maybe this incident is just a very ordinary incident. Behind this incident, there may be many times of asking for bribes."

"Secretary Zhu is exaggerating a bit. We cadres speak based on evidence. Let me ask you, do you have any evidence to prove that Mayor Feng has other facts of soliciting bribes? If not, don't talk nonsense. This may lead to mistakes." Hearing what Zhu Jinkui said, Standing Committee Deputy Mayor Dong Yongzhao was a little unhappy.

Among the municipal party committee leaders present, he had the longest working experience with Feng Sizhe. He was very clear about Feng Sizhe's personal efforts for the economy of Lianhua City. It was all thanks to the fact that he was a young man. Otherwise, he would not be able to keep an eye on him. He could not believe that such a young man who served the people wholeheartedly and worked hard for the economy of Lianhua City would be a cadre who solicited bribes.

"Mayor Dong is right. Secretary Zhu, do you have any evidence? If not, you are just spreading rumors, you know." After Dong Yongzhao, the commander of the city's military sub-district, Guo Pingchuan, also pointed his gun at Zhu Jinkui. He naturally didn't believe whether Feng Sizhe really asked for a bribe this time, because he didn't believe that Zhao Lao's grandson would ask a businessman for 300,000 yuan. With his status, he shouldn't just ask for this little money. But this was just his idea. He didn't have enough evidence to prove Feng Sizhe's innocence, so he could only say this.

As soon as Dong Yongzhao and Guo Pingchuan finished speaking, Zhu Jinkui was furious. Just as he was about to refute something, the municipal party committee secretary Bei Lianxiang spoke up. "Okay, comrades, don't talk about other things. I think we should get back to the topic of the meeting and study Comrade Feng Sizhe's problem. Now Secretary Xia has reported this matter to the provincial party committee, so why don't we take advantage of this opportunity to vote on this matter? In this way, the provincial party committee will not say that our Lianhua City has not made any moves, and our Secretary Xia will not be so passive when he goes to the province to work, right?"

Bei Lianxiang was very good at speaking. He spoke for the sake of Secretary Xia Xiang and the entire Lianhua Municipal Party Committee and Government. After she said this, no one else could say anything. After all, they would not offend Secretary Xia Xiang and discredit the entire Lianhua Municipal Party Committee because of a person who made a mistake.

As soon as Bei Lianxiang finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room became serious. Everyone seemed to be thinking about what should be done about this matter now, and how to make Lianhua City's work in the provincial party committee less passive and its image not damaged.

Ruan Guiben also seized this opportunity. Seeing that everyone was convinced by Bei Lianxiang's words, he struck while the iron was hot and said, "Well, now that things have come to this, I think we should not waste any more time. Let's vote and decide on this matter quickly."

Under the joint efforts of Ruan Guiben and Bei Lianxiang, the eleven members of the Lianhua Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee began voting on the issue of Feng Sizhe.

It can be said that this was an election without clarifying the true situation, so the result is naturally wrong. It would be strange if the result was right if it was wrong at the beginning.

In the following vote, except for the deputy mayor Dong Yongzhao, the commander of the city military sub-district Guo Pingchuan, and the surprisingly abstained Organization Minister Cheng Dashan, everyone else voted in favor, which meant that Feng Sizhe's position should be suspended first, and the city people's congress would veto Feng Sizhe's deputy mayor position. As long as the city people's congress has a stance, the next step is for the provincial party committee to announce the removal of Feng Sizhe's title of the Lianhua Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee. In that case, Feng Sizhe would become a problematic cadre.

There are a total of twelve members of the Lianhua City Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee. Except for the Municipal Party Committee Secretary Xia Xiang who went to the provincial capital to report on his work, and Feng Sizhe who was detained in the Municipal Public Security Bureau, Dong Yongzhao, Guo Pingchuan, and Cheng Dashan abstained from voting. The remaining Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee Ruan Guiben, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission Chen Zhenghai, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission Huang Lin, Minister of Propaganda Song Jian, Minister of United Front Work Ding Yi, Secretary General of the Municipal Party Committee Bei Lianxiang, and Secretary of the Huabei District Party Committee Zhu Jinkui all voted in favor. The result was seven to five, which was passed by more than half, so the first ruling against Feng Sizhe took effect immediately.

Seeing the result of the meeting, Ruan Guiben's face was filled with a triumphant smile. Finally, Feng Sizhe was taken down, so he no longer had any worries.

After the meeting reached this result, the Standing Committee asked the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission Chen Zhenghai to go to the Municipal Public Security Bureau to announce the result to Feng Sizhe, and then asked people to go to the Municipal People's Congress to let them vote on the resolution of the Municipal Party Committee. If Feng Sizhe was to be taken down, the Municipal People's Congress must first remove him from his position as deputy mayor. Everyone was busy with their own things, and then the meeting was adjourned.

The result of this temporary meeting of the Lianhua Municipal Party Committee spread like a gust of wind throughout the Lianhua Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government Building, and many cadres quickly learned of the result. When Secretary-General Niu Ben, who was on duty at the Municipal Government, heard that things had turned out to be unfavorable so quickly, he immediately picked up the phone and reported to Xia Xiang, the Municipal Party Committee Secretary who was rushing to the provincial capital.

Xia Xiang had just entered the provincial capital and was heading towards the provincial party committee building when he received a report from Niu Ben about the bad news.

"What? When did this happen?" Xia Xiang was so angry that his head almost exploded when he heard that the Lianhua Municipal Committee made such a wrong decision after he left.

"Secretary Xia, this is what just happened. I heard it from Mayor Dong Yongzhao. It can't be wrong." Niu Ben answered in a serious tone. If this matter was not absolutely true, he would not dare to report it casually.

Hearing that it was Dong Yongzhao who said this, Xia Xiang knew that the story was true. After thinking quickly, he said to the phone, "Okay, I know about this matter. I'm in the provincial capital now and can't go back for a while. So, you go to the Director Sun of the National People's Congress immediately and tell him that it was me who asked the National People's Congress to postpone the meeting on the issue of Deputy Mayor Feng Sizhe for one day. You must wait for me. Remember, you must tell Director Sun that this is my intention. It's considered that I begged him. Do you understand?"

Xia Xiang was really afraid that the National People's Congress would really act according to the results of the Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee. If that happened, it would be too late for him to speak for Feng Sizhe in the provincial capital.

"Okay, don't worry, I'll take care of this." Niu Ben nodded. The reason why he took on this job so happily was very simple, that is, because Director Sun was his father-in-law. It was Xia Xiang who introduced this marriage. Because of this, the relationship between the National People's Congress and Secretary Xia has always been very good, and they can be in step with each other on many things.

After hearing Niu Ben's affirmative answer, Xia Xiang finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then he said to the driver, "Let's go to Mr. Hua's home first, and then go to the provincial party committee." Xia Xiang changed his mind temporarily. He wanted to report the problems that occurred in Lianhua City to Mr. Hua. He wanted to hear the old leader's opinion.