Chapter 10: The Case of the Eight Hundred Million Yuan Evaporation

  As soon as I entered the room, the municipal party secretary extended a courteous hand to shake mine.

  "Alas, what new situation, all are difficult problems!"

  He motioned for his secretary to leave with a glance, picked up a small notebook from the desk and took out a pen.

  "Then I'll report..."

  "No, no, no......" Upon hearing the word "report", he hastily waved his hand. "Comrade Yu Ming, absolutely don't say that word 'report'. If we talk about age, I'm a bit older than you, but in terms of administrative level, we're equal. Within the party, we're comrades!"

  "Then I'll talk about the situation." I accepted his modesty.

  "This is great!"

  I know what the secretary wants to hear from me. As the municipal party secretary, he is well aware of the difficulties faced by Jiyuan. 65% of enterprises are losing money, with a fiscal deficit of 200 million and an unemployment rate of 100,000 people, not to mention the city's construction debt. However, despite all this, as an optimist, he still hopes to hear some exciting news from me. Of course, there is hope. I started by talking about the steel company, which has just completed a technological transformation project for its special steel products. Once the new product line is launched, it will be of high quality and will attract many orders. The customs department has agreed to restore the company's "exemption from inspection" status. The national key project "Western Line Project" has also promised to give priority to purchasing from this company. When that happens, sales volume will double without a problem. As sales increase and payments are made, the company's operating conditions will improve, and government tax revenue and fiscal situation will also improve accordingly. I talked about the Northern Refinery, which is a central enterprise with industry advantages that can drive local economic development and increase local tax revenue. We need to continue supporting their work and handle our relationship well. I also mentioned the coal mine, although its coal resources are almost depleted, but it has strong management capabilities and technical strength, as well as vast land resources, making it suitable for large-scale transformation. If the central government's 200 million yuan in transformation funds can be allocated, the mining area will become a new growth point for Jiyuan...

  "Good, good, good! You're absolutely right!" Before I could finish speaking, the secretary interrupted excitedly, "I strongly agree with your point of view. We must see hope in adversity. We can't just complain and be pessimistic when faced with difficulties. Take that steel company, we've just adjusted the leadership team, it seems Yang Jian is doing a good job as general manager there. As for the Northern Refinery, we should pay attention to maintaining a good relationship with them. In the past, some of our people thought they could 'control' others using administrative means, but that's not right. However, since they're drinking water and occupying land in our county, they should make some contributions to the local community! Ah, about the mining area, the key issue is funding. Last year, I instructed the Mining Bureau to set up an office in Beijing, mainly to keep an eye on getting money from the central government. I wonder if they've followed up on this?"

  "It's already fallen, but the people they sent are not good." I shook my head and said, "Before I came, I had inquired about this office. I looked for two days and couldn't find it. Logically speaking, after hearing that I was going to be the mayor, they should have come to me first."

  "It seems that this office is going to have a personnel change. They're going to send in the big guns!"

  "That's great!" I slapped my thigh, and the secretary thought the same as me.

  "Also, there's the matter of the mine machinery factory." Seeing the secretary pause, I continued.

  "Ah, 'mining machine'? Let me see..." He patted his head, "This thing almost slipped my mind. Tie Yu called last night and mentioned the 'mining machine'. But he didn't explain clearly. What's going on?"

  "It's clear now, this is a hidden rich master!"

  "Isn't the factory closed down for several years?"

  "Yeah, on the surface it is. But this factory hasn't gone under. All the chapters are handwritten and invited to the house. X S 5 5 5. That old Jin is clever and resourceful. He's doing big things behind the scenes!"

  "Anything wrong?"

  "Yes, he retained all the technical backbone within the factory and secretly set up a modern design engineering system to design the most popular new products. After successful testing, they were outsourced to external factories for production. After the product went offline, their sales network sold them out again. He used a large sum of money to retain more than 100 sales talents, with annual sales of tens of billions of electromechanical products. Now, not to mention that their recovery production potential is huge, even if they only do independent scientific research and design, it's no problem to support thousands of people."

  "What, really?" The secretary's eyes widened. "Comrade Yu Ming, didn't you let him be fooled? This old Jin, sometimes... is a bit mysterious."

  "Secretary, to be blunt, it was Qin Bai and Tie Yu who intimidated Old Jin. That day, if I hadn't been quick-witted, we would have let him continue to intimidate us."

  "Is this... really true?" The secretary still looked puzzled.

  I fell silent.

  My attitude is: if you don't believe it, then forget it.

  I saw the secretary get extremely excited. His body suddenly straightened up and leaned back against the sofa. Then, he quickly stood up again.

  "What is he doing this for?" The secretary paced back and forth on the floor a few times before suddenly stopping.

  I took out that bill.

  The secretary took the bill and looked at it, nodded first, then sighed and said: "In recent years, we have been exploiting him severely. He has emotions... But he did this, the reason is probably not just these..."

  What other reasons?

  "It seems that case... " As I said this, I found the secretary's face changed, "Hmmm, still need to investigate!"

  What's the case?

  "Comrade Yu Ming, this matter may not have been told to you by Old Jin..." He sat down, his emotions calming a bit.

  Whose case?

  "It's like this." The secretary handed me a cigarette. "After the bankruptcy of the mine machinery factory, we obtained 80 million yuan in working capital from the province through Ji Cai Xiu's lover to help the new factory start production."

  "Eighty million. Not bad!" I lit a lighter and handed it over.

  "But in the end, this 800 million yuan used for saving lives was all embezzled."

  "Is it gone?"

  "I don't know who misappropriated it." The secretary spat out a mouthful of smoke and said sorrowfully, "For this, I had the Discipline Inspection Commission investigate. They worked for half a month, and when they came back, one by one, their faces were filled with difficulty. It seemed like there was something unspoken. In the end, they explained that the bank had incorrectly transferred the account number, and it ended up going to the 'Flower World' project. It seems that this matter has caused Old Jin to lose trust in us."

  A huge sum of 80 million yuan was embezzled by transferring it to a wrong account, which is too hard to convince people.

  "Then correct it. Change the account number immediately."

  "But it's too late! 'Flower World' has already put this money to use."

  It won't be that easy. I thought to myself, with funds being so precious now, it's easy to make a name for oneself with 80 million yuan.

  "Hey, Comrade Yu Ming, what's your opinion on this 'mining machine'?"

  "Resume production immediately."

  "Resume production?" The secretary shook his head, "This old Jin is slippery. He won't agree easily."

  "I talked with him. He proposed two conditions."

  "What kind of conditions? Must be very harsh?"

  "Firstly, the government will provide 800 million in working capital as usual..."

  "Hum, he knows we can't afford it. He's blackmailing us!"

  "Secondly, after the factory starts work, government officials are prohibited from entering."

  The secretary was stunned when he heard this.

  Half a day later, he finally sighed and spat out two words: "So what?"

  "Awesome!"

  "You're like that... a fire, blazing flames illuminating me!" My phone rang with a fiery ringtone.

  "Go back!" The secretary looked at me.

  "Not necessary." I hate external interference when I'm getting along well with someone.

  "You're like... a fire that's burning brightly and lighting up my way!" Cai Ling regained her composure once again.

  "Who is it?" I irritably opened my mobile phone, and on the screen appeared "Director of Finance Department Ji Cai Xiu" in seven big characters.

  Take another look at "missed calls", they were all from her.

  Looks like something urgent has come up!

  I hastily pressed the receive button.

  "Mayor Yu, the treasury is empty. This month, we won't be able to pay the salaries of government employees. What are we going to do?" She was sobbing on the phone, as if she were about to cry.

  Really?!