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

Jiang Yiming led Lu Hansheng, Wang Lifeng, and other members to visit six counties and districts, including Dongchuan County, Xishan County, Yunyang District, and Mingyang District. They visited one place per day, not only during the day but also at night to conduct unannounced visits and investigations.

They conducted on-site inspections at the certificate processing windows, held discussions with business leaders, and chatted with local residents to gain a comprehensive understanding through multiple channels and perspectives.

Yiyang City has one park, four districts, and eight counties, totaling 13 county-level parks. They visited nearly half of the city.

The findings revealed that some places had instances of extortion and bribery, while others had staff who were dismissive, arrogant, and even domineering. Businesses seeking permits were treated like children begging their grandfathers.

In some places, there is laziness, inaction, and slow or no action in government. When businesses seek government assistance, they are met with constant delays and excuses, such as missing documents or other materials. After making numerous trips, a single approval process remains unresolved, pushing businesses to the brink of collapse without obtaining the necessary permits.

At the same time, it set an example.

The positive example is Mingyang District, which has done the best overall in optimizing the business environment, with only a few minor issues.

A negative example is Xishan County. As a nationally designated poverty-stricken county, instead of actively seeking development and changing its status quo, it is rife with corrupt officials. Not a single outside enterprise in the entire Xishan County can survive for more than three years.

Xishan County's approach is to actively attract enterprises, and then relevant departments such as land, local taxation, agriculture, fire protection, health, development and reform, and public security take turns to inspect the work every few days, never leaving empty-handed.

Even the most profitable companies can be hollowed out within three years.

Despite the city issuing a notice to launch the work to optimize the business environment, the timeframe remained unchanged, and the county continued to act as it pleased. Even the county's study and dissemination of Secretary Wei Shanghua's speech was merely a formality, let alone the formulation of a county-level work list in accordance with the work plan.

On Sunday, Zhu Jun led the research and supervision team to meet again.

The materials inspection team and the on-site investigation team reported on their work in turn.

"Your two groups have carried out their work very thoroughly, especially Director Yiming's group, which has been running around everywhere and working very hard."

Zhu Jun said, "However, we have gained a lot from this research and supervision, and we have also discovered many problems, which have played a great guiding role in our next step of promoting the optimization of the business environment. The comprehensive coordination team will work hard to finish the materials in the next two days and try to deliver them to me and the two deputy directors by Tuesday. After the three of us reach a consensus, we will hand over the research materials to the secretary and wait for his review before we proceed with the next steps according to his instructions."

After the work was assigned, Zhu Jun had a meal with Jiang Yiming, Lin Guo, Lu Hansheng, and several other responsible persons.

That evening, Jiang Yiming returned to Xinping County.

On the way back, I received a call from my senior, Li Muyao.

"Junior brother, do you have time tomorrow? I'd like to do a special report on you about optimizing the business environment. Yiyang City attaches great importance to this work, and the province has also received the news, asking our Dongjiang Daily to follow up and report on it in a timely manner and increase publicity."

Li Muyao smiled and said, "After hearing that you were the interviewee, I volunteered. I hope you will do me the honor of accepting my interview."

"My senior sister came to interview me personally, so I have to cooperate no matter what the big deal is."

Jiang Yiming laughed and said, "You are the party newspaper of Dongjiang Province. Not to mention me, the deputy secretary of the county party committee, I'm afraid even the city leaders would love to be featured in your Dongjiang Daily. Since you're here, I can't refuse you."

"Then it's settled, see you tomorrow."

"Okay, call me half an hour in advance so I can take care of what I'm doing and make a special trip to receive you."

After the matter was settled, Jiang Yiming returned to Xinping County to rest.

The next morning, a long queue formed in front of Jiang Yiming's office.

He hadn't been in the county for a week, and many people were waiting to report to him and get his signature.

Around eleven o'clock, Secretary Liu Weimin hurriedly walked in.

"Secretary, something has happened."

"what's up?"

"After our county's recruitment information for public sector positions was published online and in newspapers, it caused a great deal of controversy. Many people called the county to report that our recruitment was not fair and just and that there was a 'favoritism' phenomenon."

Liu Weimin quickly reported.

How could this happen?

Jiang Yiming frowned. The "radish pit" recruitment had always existed, but he had never seen so many complaints before. Why were there so many complaints this year?

“I just looked at the job posting, and some of the job requirements were too obvious.”

Liu Weimin handed the recruitment notice to Jiang Yiming.

After reading it, Jiang Yiming slammed the newspaper onto the table.

"What are the Organization Department and the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau doing? How dare they put such ridiculous recruitment requirements on the job board?"

Jiang Yiming was so angry he almost fainted.

These people are too reckless and audacious.

The job requirements are so poorly written that even a three-year-old could see the problem.

The recruitment announcement states that the position of management personnel in the Land Market Management Office requires applicants to have a major in "economics, public administration and music performance", and that applicants must be "demobilized soldiers who are not formally employed in the county system" and have "more than one year of experience in land and resources work".

The recruitment scope for the professional and technical personnel position at the Information Surveying and Mapping Center is strictly limited to "employees directly under the county system" and requires "more than one year of experience in land and resources technology work";

The recruitment scope for the management position in the same unit is "non-established staff of county-level public institutions", and applicants must have "more than 8 years of grassroots work experience".

It's a bit far-fetched for a land market management office to recruit music performance majors.

The key point is that most of these recruitment requirements require internal work experience, or even to be an employee hired outside the established staffing quota.

Openly recruiting to the public but requiring internal staff qualifications—no wonder they get reported!

Of course, Jiang Yiming guessed that the public's complaint might be due to another recruitment condition.

The job posting for a township office position in Gaotai County specifies the following requirements: female applicants must be 25 years old, 166 cm tall, weigh 53 kg, have a background in fashion modeling, hold a college diploma from a provincial university, be a member of the Communist Party of China, and have prior experience working in government agencies.

These job requirements are outrageous; they're practically asking for your ID number!

"Immediately notify Xia Ziyang, the head of the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, to come to my office."

"Okay, Secretary."

Jiang Yiming then personally called Hua Wentao, the Minister of the Organization Department.

"Minister Wentao, come to my office."

"Okay, Secretary Jiang, I'll be right there."

Not long after, Hua Wentao and Xia Ziyang arrived at Jiang Yiming's office one after the other.

On their way there, the two had already guessed what was going on, and even before entering Jiang Yiming's office, they had already spoken on the phone.

"Secretary Jiang, what are your instructions?"

Hua Wentao asked aloud.