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

Jiang Yiming brought seven or eight people from the county, and with the help of the township and village officials, the group numbered nearly twenty.

These people surrounded Jiang Yiming in the middle of the crowd, making it look like a grand procession.

Jiang Yiming served as the deputy secretary of Xigou Township, and he liked to conduct research in the villages.

He didn't remember exactly how many acres of rice were in each village, but he knew very well which villages were the main rice-growing areas.

Although it was said that Lu Hansheng was to lead the team, in reality, Lu Hansheng would accompany him to whichever village he requested.

After more than two hours of investigation, Jiang Yiming roughly figured out the situation.

"Secretary Hansheng, Xigou Township has 110,000 mu of rice fields, making it the township with the largest rice planting area in the county. According to the previously assigned targets, Xigou Township was supposed to promote shrimp-rice farming on 50,000 mu, but based on what we just saw, it's probably only 40,000 mu, with more than 20% of the area being watered down!"

Jiang Yiming said with a stern face, "Your Xigou Township reported that you have completed the task. You must give me an explanation!"

He was angry not only because his subordinates had misled him, but also because the agricultural subsidies he had secured from the city had been allocated to the townships, and according to feedback, the funds had already been used up.

This funding was allocated based on a target of 50,000 mu (approximately 3,333 hectares), but now the funds have been used up and the target of 50,000 mu has not been achieved!

What does this mean?

This means someone is profiting from it!

As the deputy secretary of the county party committee, Jiang Yiming's anger was so great that no one present dared to breathe.

Everyone kept their heads down, afraid of being implicated.

“Secretary Yiming, it was my dereliction of duty. After they submitted the data to me, I signed it without verifying the relevant information.”

Lu Hansheng hurriedly said, "Please give me two days, Secretary Yiming. I will definitely investigate this matter thoroughly and give you and the county party committee and county government an explanation."

After Lu Hansheng finished speaking, Wang Siqi, the director of the Fisheries Bureau, immediately apologized, saying, "Secretary, our Fisheries Bureau also bears a great responsibility for this matter. The inspection team lacked sufficient understanding and a strong sense of responsibility, which led to the inspection becoming a mere formality and a perfunctory exercise. I myself also have problems with oversight and negligence."

"Please rest assured, Secretary, after returning from the investigation, I will immediately convene a meeting to redeploy resources, personally take charge, ensure accountability, prevent the inspection from becoming a mere formality, and resolutely eliminate any inefficiencies to ensure the tasks and goals assigned by the county party committee and county government are fully implemented."

"Don't just offer explanations and statements when problems arise; address the issues proactively. We can't always be passing the buck!"

Jiang Yiming said, "The problems you mentioned are all common problems; you haven't mentioned the real difficulties."

“Your Fisheries Bureau is a weak department. There are situations where you dare not supervise, or when you do supervise, the townships below do not listen.”

“At times like this, you should promptly report to the county leader in charge of agriculture or to me. You can’t wait until I go to the site and discover the problem before spouting useless nonsense!”

"I'll let it go this time. I'll give you three days. If I go to the countryside again after three days and the task is still not completed, the top leaders of the townships involved will have to make a self-criticism speech at the county-wide meeting! The agricultural leaders involved will all be dismissed!"

After saying that, he left without looking back.

The others exchanged glances, all at a loss for what to do.

In the end, it was Lu Hansheng who caught up with them.

"Secretary Yiming, it's not easy for you to come to Xigou Township. Although we haven't done a good job, you still need to eat."

Lu Hansheng whispered, "I've arranged dinner. Let's have a couple of drinks together."

"There are quite a lot of people. I'll get off at Xihe Bridge later, and you can pick me up."

If it were any other town, Jiang Yiming certainly wouldn't have given them face. With the work done like this, how could he possibly stay for dinner?

But he still gave Lu Hansheng face.

"Okay, I'll leave five minutes later to pick you up."

After agreeing on the terms, Jiang Yiming got into the car, and the relevant unit's vehicle headed back.

Upon arriving at Xihe Bridge, Jiang Yiming got out of the car and let the other cars go first.

The county-level leaders who were accompanying Jiang Yiming didn't know what he was going to do after getting out of the car. Even if they knew it was for a meal, they were unwilling to stay and accompany him.

After all, having dinner with a high-ranking leader is a very uncomfortable experience.

A moment later, Lu Hansheng's car pulled up.

Jiang Yiming led Wang Lifeng into the car.

"Secretary Yiming, shall we go to the village secretary's house and get some wild game to eat?"

Lu Hansheng consulted Jiang Yiming for his opinion.

"Let's eat at my third uncle's house."

Jiang Yiming laughed and said, "I've already arranged it with him. He'll prepare a table and invite you over for dinner."

“How can that be? You’ve come to Xigou Township, so it’s only right that I make the arrangements.”

Lu Hansheng said, "I'll send a car to pick up Boss Sun."

"You can make arrangements next time. Today we'll have dinner at my third uncle's house. It's been a long time since I've been there."

Jiang Yiming laughed.

"Okay, then I'll join the Party Secretary for a free meal."

Seeing that Jiang Yiming insisted, Lu Hansheng said no more.

“Secretary Hansheng, tell me the truth, has your township misappropriated agricultural subsidy funds?”

Jiang Yiming inquired.

"No."

Lu Hansheng said, "I know you attach great importance to the rice-shrimp integrated farming project and will definitely make sure the task is completed. If I misappropriate the funds, this work will not be able to be finished."

"Therefore, from the very beginning, I demanded that the funds be allocated in full and that no one be withheld."

"The Fisheries Bureau said that your township has already allocated all the funds, but you have only completed less than 40,000 mu of the 50,000 mu target. Where did the remaining funds go?"

Jiang Yiming said in a deep voice, "If it was your township government that misappropriated the funds, it would be easier to rectify the situation. However, if someone profited from it, the nature of the matter would change!"

“The city provides a subsidy of 10 yuan per mu, and the county provides a matching subsidy of 5 yuan. There are still 10,000 mu that have not been implemented, which means that at least 150,000 yuan of funds have not been used, but this money has disappeared.”

"You should conduct an internal investigation into this matter first, and report to me immediately if there are any issues. If the nature of the matter is serious, I will have the disciplinary committee intervene."

"Okay, I'll get back and start investigating."

Lu Hansheng hesitated for a moment and said, "This matter is being handled by Mayor Mingyuan, while the deputy mayor in charge of agriculture is Fei Feng."

"You're probably aware of their backgrounds."

"Zhao Mingyuan was transferred from the deputy director of the government office. He used to be quite close to Secretary Jiang Xuangui. I'm even more familiar with Fei Feng."

Jiang Yiming said, "The year the flood happened, he was the director of the Economic Development Office. He was in charge of measuring the water level. When I went there to find out what was going on, he was fast asleep in the tent and did not report the rising water level in time, which almost delayed important matters. I gave him a good scolding."

“Afterwards, I originally wanted to hold him accountable, but you all persuaded me, saying that he was Wang Xianming’s cousin, so the matter was dropped. Later, Xu Hongfei, the deputy township head in charge of agriculture, was transferred to the industrial park, which created a vacancy. Wang Xianming strongly recommended his cousin, but I voted against it. However, in the end, Secretary Xuan Gui and County Head Yun Tao agreed, and he finally became the deputy township head.”

"If he dares to tamper with the agricultural subsidy funds this time, no matter who pleads for him, I will not give him any face!"