Qi Tongwei arrived in Qingping Town in a bus, bumping along the gravel road.
When he had previously gone to report to the Jinshan County Organization Department, the county seat itself had seemed rather dilapidated...
Only this time, no county cadres accompanied Qi Tongwei to his new post.
He seemed somewhat unwelcome, so Qi Tongwei had no choice but to travel to Qingping entirely alone, carrying his own luggage...
Looking at the surrounding environment, the muddy dirt roads slick from the rain, and puddles everywhere,
he saw only low, single-story houses, with very few structures made even of grey bricks.
Watching all of this, Qi Tongwei fell deep into thought...
If he wanted to accomplish anything here, fixing the roads definitely had to come first.
There was good reason for the saying: "If you want to get rich, build roads first."
While this phrase highlighted the importance of infrastructure to economic development, much also depended on a region's local economic potential...
Yet Qingping possessed a foundation for development, sitting not far from several major economic provinces.
How could basic commuting be such a problem with traffic like this?
How could anyone talk about development?
Logically speaking, the current County Party Secretary of Jinshan was Yi Xuexi, and the County Magistrate was Li Dakang...
It was prime time for road construction. At this thought, Qi Tongwei's mind began to spin.
He would definitely need to seek support from the county; otherwise, once Li Dakang was transferred, things would become even more difficult.
Just as Qi Tongwei was pondering how to make connections with Li Dakang, the bus came to a halt.
At the border of Qingping, a man in his forties stood at the intersection, followed by three or four others. The moment Qi Tongwei stepped down, the group waved to him.
Qi Tongwei had a lingering feeling that they did not come with good intentions.
Still, he hurried over in a trot, shook hands with the leading man, and said, "You must be Secretary Wang. I am the newly appointed Mayor of Qingping by the Municipal Party Committee. I'll need your guidance and support in the future."
Wang Kang looked at Qi Tongwei, surprised by his youth and the subtext hidden in his words...
Wang Kang: "Welcome, Mayor Qi, to Qingping to oversee our work. Mayor Qi truly enjoys the deep favor of the organization—even your appointment was issued directly by the municipal authorities, while the county committee only received word afterward."
"Come, Mayor Qi, let me introduce you: this is Yu Lei, Party Committee Member and Chairman of the People's Congress."
"And this is Aidan, Deputy Party Secretary; Wu Chengxing, Secretary of the Town Discipline Inspection Commission; and Chen Jian, Deputy Mayor."
One by one, the group shook hands with Qi Tongwei...
Wang Kang continued, "We have a few others out working in the field who couldn't make it back on such short notice. These are Qingping's veteran cadres who have worked together for many years, so I wanted to introduce them to Mayor Qi first."
"Did Mayor Qi happen to come down with a specific mission this time?"
Qi Tongwei felt a trace of vigilance at these words. Although he didn't know what Wang Kang was getting at, judging by the way Wang Kang had just flexed his muscles, it wasn't hard to guess that something fishy was going on here. But what exactly was this mission?
Qi Tongwei felt he shouldn't act too hastily; he still needed to observe the situation.
After some polite pleasantries, Qi Tongwei completed his paperwork, making his position official.
Over the next few days, Qi Tongwei pored over Qingping's data.
The figures were simply shocking. Qingping's registered population was only a little over eighty thousand—making it a relatively large town.
Yet the town's entire cadre exceeded one thousand people, meaning roughly every eighty residents had to support one cadre. If you factored in schools, hospitals, and other institutions,
the overstaffing of cadres was severe, and no one knew how many ghost payrolls were hidden within.
The town jurisdiction encompassed three communities and twenty-five administrative villages.
Yet Qingping's industrial and commercial enterprises were practically nonexistent, relying almost entirely on agriculture and handicrafts.
The sole township enterprise—a brick factory in Shitou Village—was facing a financial crisis and struggling with restructuring, though this restructuring had caught Qi Tongwei's attention.
Every set of data Qi Tongwei examined tightened his chest a little more, especially when he saw the budgets allocated to groups like the local militia.
Qi Tongwei knew there was likely something fishy going on behind the scenes.
Before Qi Tongwei's seat had even grown warm, a staff clerk came running in: "Mayor Qi, it's bad..."
Qi Tongwei hurried outside: "Wu Hao, what happened?"
Wu Hao: "Something's gone wrong at the brick factory in Shitou Village... A group of workers are trying to haul away the factory machinery by force, and the militia have surrounded them entirely. If we're not careful, this is going to turn into a mass incident."
Qi Tongwei was startled. He knew very well that at this point, the militia still carried real firearms. If any ordinary citizens were injured or killed,
then with him being a brand-new mayor who had just assumed office...
he might as well just submit his resignation and be done with it.
Qi Tongwei: "Have you notified Secretary Wang?"
Wu Hao: "Secretary Wang went to a meeting at the county seat. He left about an hour ago."
"Find a car immediately and let's go to the site. Move fast!"
"Right, I'll go myself. You go tell Zhang Long to dispatch the police station officers to me, and call Chen Jian—the one in charge of the militia—over as well..."
With that, Qi Tongwei rushed out the door...
The township government only had a few vehicles. The police station needed theirs, and Wang Kang had taken another, leaving Qi Tongwei with no choice but to take a tractor to the site...
As soon as he arrived, Qi Tongwei saw several militia members blocking the entrance of the brick factory, their rifle barrels pointed straight at the crowd.
The leader, a rugged young man, shouted, "What, you still want to shoot? Brothers, go back and grab your weapons, let's fight them to the death!"
Guo Qiang, the militia captain, roared, "You are defying the government! This is rebellion..."
As soon as those words left his mouth, the crowd erupted into a commotion.
There were also onlookers gathered around. Qi Tongwei knew that if even a single gun accidentally discharged, the entire situation would spiral completely out of control.
This era wasn't one where you reasoned things out with words alone.
Every household kept homemade firearms tucked away, and dragging out a few cannons wouldn't have been out of the ordinary.
Qi Tongwei hurriedly shoved his way through the crowd, shouting in a ringing voice: "Put the guns down! Put the guns down! I am the Deputy Secretary of the Qingping Party Committee and the Mayor of Qingping. You can tell me whatever grievances you have."
Amidst his repeated shouts, he finally squeezed into the center of the crowd...
Several people yelled directly: "You're the new mayor?"
Qi Tongwei nodded.
"My brothers, whatever issues you have, just speak up. The government will definitely help you; you have to trust the government. Doing this will only escalate the conflict. Quickly put down those hoes..."
Zhang Long: "I never thought the new mayor would be so young—and still believe in the government! It's precisely because we trusted your government that we lost our factory. Look at Liu Erbao's family—he broke his leg because of the brick factory... And Wang San's family—he lost his fingers."
"This brick factory was built brick by brick by the collective! By what right does the government say it's taking it back? What are we supposed to do when that happens?!"
Listening to them, Qi Tongwei could tell this was clearly an incident triggered by collective restructuring.
Yet having arrived only a few days ago, how could he possibly understand the specific inside story? It was hard for him to take a stance on the spot.
Making a rash decision now would make the situation impossible to clean up later. Right now, Qi Tongwei's primary task was to gather more information.
Fortunately, at that moment, Qi Tongwei saw Chen Jian arrive and stand at the outer edge of the crowd.
He hurriedly grabbed a megaphone and shouted, "Committee Member Chen, hurry and come in here!"
Qi Tongwei sat directly on the ground, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and began handing them out to the ringleaders.
Qi Tongwei began, "I haven't been here many days yet, so I need to understand the specific situation before I can give you an answer. But rest assured, since I'm here, I will definitely resolve your problems."
The ringleaders still stared fixedly at Qi Tongwei, showing not the slightest intention of backing down.
Seeing that the crowd remained unmoved, one man stood straight up and pulled back his trouser leg.
The bullet holes from a gunshot were laid bare right before everyone's eyes.
None of them had expected that Qi Tongwei, looking so young, might actually be a tough character not to be trifled with.
Without paying attention to the man's posturing, Qi Tongwei said bluntly, "I've walked through fire and water against drug trafficking rings—could a few homemade guns and hoes of yours scare me?"
Qi Tongwei: "In Yantai, I matched wits with drug dealers for three days and three nights, barely managing to drag my life back from the jaws of death. I wasn't afraid then, and I'm certainly not afraid of the likes of you!"
"I came to Qingping to build Qingping up well. What are you trying to accomplish by opposing the government like this?"
"Are you rebelling against the government?"
"Even if you broke in today, there is still the county above us, and above the county is the city. Can you really afford to act so recklessly?"
Qi Tongwei's words fell upon the ears of everyone present, clear, distinct, and forceful.
For a moment, the scene grew quiet.
Some of the people following behind were also frightened; they simply wanted an explanation, and they lacked the real backbone to make an enemy of the government...
Some hurriedly lowered their weapons to the ground.
Qi Tongwei let out a slight sigh of relief.
Qi Tongwei turned abruptly and shouted: "You are all militiamen! You came from the people, and those are your fathers and mothers!"
"How can you point your gun barrels at your own parents? Put them down!"
Qi Tongwei knew that although higher authorities had long since ordered the downsizing of the militia, local reserves remained plentiful.
It was hardly surprising that some militia members were still around, but the fact that they were participating in today's incident meant there was definitely something deeper going on.
Seeing Qi Tongwei's imposing manner, the men lost their nerve and hastily lowered their rifle barrels...
At that moment, Qi Tongwei sat down directly on the ground and looked at the crowd.
Taken aback and utterly bluff-stunded, the crowd suddenly found themselves at a complete loss for words.