The Official Ladder: I ascend to the pinnacle of power, wielding the power of life and death.

Lei Liang attached great importance to, supported, and promoted this work.

After Jiang Yiming left, he carefully studied and revised the plan. He then summoned Xu Qifa, the Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee, and asked him to refine the plan again, adding performance indicators. Focusing on the principles of "quantifiability, traceability, and fulfillment," he incorporated core indicators such as the city's appearance and order compliance rate, the rate of handling public complaints, the response rate to grid-based incidents, and the closed-loop rectification rate of problems into the assessment system. At the same time, he strengthened the application of results, directly linking assessment results to cadre evaluation, performance rewards, and promotions, ensuring that those who "do well" are rewarded and those who "do poorly" are warned, using rigid constraints to force the implementation of responsibilities, the detailed execution of tasks, and the achievement of results.

After the initial plan was finalized, Lei Liang convened a special seminar with some city leaders and key personnel from relevant departments. Based on the opinions and suggestions from the seminar, the plan was further optimized, refined, and made more concrete.

Immediately following this, Lei Liang convened a special meeting of the Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee to review the matter. After the review and approval, the "Implementation Plan for the Special Action of Comprehensive Governance of Urban Appearance and Environment in Jiangcheng City" was immediately issued. He also convened a mobilization and deployment meeting with the heads of various counties and districts, emphasizing the need to solidify the shared responsibility of the Party and government through the "dual-leader system," to take the rectification of "five types of stubborn problems" as a breakthrough, to promote the extension of governance forces to streets and alleys, to cover the nerve endings, and to focus on people's concerns, and to ensure that each task has a responsible party, a time limit, standards, and feedback, so as to truly achieve the goal of discovering problems on the front line, handling them on the front line, and achieving satisfaction on the front line.

After the plan was issued, neither Lei Liang nor Jiang Yiming expected things to go beyond their expectations.

In some counties and districts, the implementation process was over-regulated. When the tasks from the city were passed down to the county level, some counties even doubled the requirements. In order to complete the tasks, townships could only resort to "robbing Peter to pay Paul" and "using fines instead of management." Some even resorted to simplistic practices such as "one-size-fits-all" closures of stalls and surprise cleanups. This not only failed to eradicate the "five types of chronic problems" but also hurt the feelings of the people and damaged the government's credibility.

Some projects, in order to meet the inspections or assessments of their superiors, engage in "vanity projects" and "bonsai-style renovations," giving "quick beautification" to key road sections and window areas, while "maintaining the same neglect" in back streets and alleys and urban-rural fringe areas. They may look glamorous, but they cannot withstand close scrutiny, scrutiny, or testing.

Furthermore, Lei Liang personally conducted an on-site investigation. After the investigation, he directly issued instructions to comprehensively upgrade the greenery along both sides of the road in front of the municipal government, uniformly replacing the trees with landscape seedlings of the same size and species to ensure uniformity and evergreen foliage throughout the year. At the same time, he also ordered the upgrading and renovation of streetlights and lampposts.

In addition, he planned two areas, requiring the construction of a sports park and a leisure park.

These items combined cost over 50 million.

Jiang Yiming was unaware of all of this.

A week after the environmental cleanup work began, Jiang Yiming went to the area he was responsible for to conduct supervision and found that the greenery along the roads had been replaced overnight and was as neat as a military parade formation. The walls of the houses along the road were uniformly painted off-white, the paint so new it reflected light, and even the window frames were painted with matte paint of the same color.

"Mayor, our Tongwen Town has resolutely implemented the decisions and plans of the Municipal Party Committee, the Municipal Government, the County Party Committee, and the County Government. We organized forces to carry out the cleanup as soon as possible, and the environment of the whole town has been greatly transformed. The people have praised this policy."

Wang Wenli, the Party Secretary of Tongwen Town, said with a broad smile.

How much did you spend on your environmental cleanup work?

Jiang Yiming inquired.

"Not many..."

Wang Wenli stammered.

Jiang Yiming stared at Wang Wenli, which startled her so much that she quickly stated the amount.

"Three, more than three million..."

Wang Wenli said, forcing herself to speak.

"More than three million?"

Jiang Yiming frowned and asked, "Where did this money come from?"

"One part is our government funds, another part is 'charitable donations' spontaneously raised by the people, and the third part is voluntary sponsorship. Our government funds account for less than one-tenth."

Wang Wenli said, "Everyone is very supportive of the environmental improvement work and is actively participating. Some even donated their unused flower pots and old bricks to decorate the street corners."

“The residents of Tongwen Town are all quite conscious.”

Jiang Yiming said.

"Of course, we always keep the people in mind, take them seriously, and put them into action. So the people are very supportive of our work. Besides, when the environment is improved, the people live comfortably, travel safely, and are satisfied with what they see. They are the biggest beneficiaries, so they will naturally participate actively."

Wang Wenli said with a smile.

"Secretary Wenli is doing a great job. You should all learn from her."

Jiang Yiming said.

The leaders who were following him nodded repeatedly.

Hearing the mayor's praise, Wang Wenli's smile widened, and she straightened her back even more. She quickly said, "Thank you for your recognition, Mayor Jiang! It's all thanks to the excellent leadership; we just had to execute and implement it effectively."

Jiang Yiming didn't reply, but said, "Park the car on the side of the road, let's go for a walk."

The car stopped at an intersection.

Jiang Yiming got out of the car first and walked along the road toward the village.

Wang Wenli's expression changed slightly, and she quickly followed.

"Mayor, the road ahead is difficult to travel. Let's take a car instead."

Wang Wenli quickly tried to persuade her.

The roads here are too narrow for the Coaster to fit in; you can only walk. So she suggested taking a car, which would prevent us from going in and seeing what's inside.

Jiang Yiming worked his way up from the grassroots level. Although he no longer works on the front lines, he still has a very clear understanding of the situation in rural areas.

"The road is difficult to travel on, why isn't it repaired?"

Jiang Yiming said, "If the villagers can leave, why can't we?"

He ignored Wang Wenli and continued walking forward.

After passing a row of houses along the road, the true scene behind them came into view: large patches of blue brick walls had peeled off, revealing the gray-black mud beneath; several courtyard gates were crooked and half-hanging, their hinges rusted and green. The road was full of potholes, with gravel and loose soil mixed in, and walking on it kicked up a choking dust cloud, covering the group's black leather shoes with dust.

In front of many courtyards, weeds grew wildly to the height of calves, with stems as thick and hard as iron wire. White garbage swirled in the wind, while some piled up together, emitting a pungent, sour stench. In the ditches behind the houses, the silt was black and smelly, and livestock manure was slowly flowing into the canal.

A few meters ahead, some villagers were working. Jiang Yiming said to the people behind him, "You wait here, I'll go take a look."

Then, he walked over alone.

"Sir, are you still busy?"

Jiang Yiming handed him a cigarette and asked.

"Yes, we're about to plant rice, and we need to prepare for seedling cultivation."

The old man took the cigarette, his fingers still damp with mud, and dirt stuck in his fingernails. After lighting the cigarette with a match, he asked, "Is there something you need?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I was just passing by and wanted to chat for a bit."

Jiang Yiming asked, "How many acres of rice does your family grow?"

“A little over five mu. I’m too old to plant too much. I planted eight mu the year before last, but last year my back hurt so badly I couldn’t straighten up. My son was working in the city and couldn’t come back, so I couldn’t plant any more and gave the land to my husband to plant.”

The old man said casually.

“I see that your village is carrying out environmental improvement work, but there are no changes here.”

Jiang Yiming asked, "Is there any commotion in the village?"

"What kind of noise could there be?"

The old man said disdainfully, "There's farmland everywhere, what can you expect it not to grow? I don't know which cadre is out of their mind, insisting on tidying up the weeds on both sides of the village roads. It's ridiculous. The weeds along the roadside are of different kinds, and in a few days they grow unevenly. They just sprout up again after being pulled out, growing faster than the cadres' hair. We can't cut the grass every day, can we?"