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

“Secretary Yiming, please don’t joke around. It is precisely because of the lack of industrial support that Xichuan County has developed very slowly. Without industry, the environment is naturally much better.”

Xu Yongchang smiled and said, "If you could come to our Xichuan County and lead our party members and cadres to start businesses, I believe our county's economy would definitely improve."

He probably never imagined that his words would come true.

While they were chatting, the food was served, and everyone drank and talked.

Xu Yongchang and his companions recounted many absurd events that occurred in Xichuan County.

The dinner party lasted until 9:30 p.m. before everyone dispersed.

County head Zhang Yuntao has been keeping a very low profile recently.

No matter what Jiang Yiming said, he nodded in agreement, becoming a yes-man once again.

"Secretary Yiming, there's something I'd like to report to you."

“County Chief Yuntao, if there’s anything we need to discuss, we can talk it over. There’s no need for a report.”

Jiang Yiming poured the other person a cup of tea and said, "Sit down and let's talk."

Zhang Yuntao took the tea and said, "There's something that concerns me and Wang Xianming. He's already dead, and I wasn't planning to bring it up again. But I'm still uneasy about it, so I think it's better to tell you."

“When Wang Xianming was still alive, he organized a gathering. There were heads of several units, including the Land Resources Bureau, the Water Resources Bureau, and the Environmental Protection Bureau. We sat together in a teahouse. On my way back, Wang Xianming handed me a black tote bag. When I learned that it contained money, I refused it on the spot and asked Wang Xianming to return it. As for whether he returned it to them, I don’t know.”

Jiang Yiming nodded. It seemed that Zhang Yuntao had already learned that Zhang Xiangsheng had reported him to the Discipline Inspection Commission, which was why he had turned the tables.

“It’s very good that you took the initiative to bring this up with me. I will have the relevant comrades from the Discipline Inspection Commission investigate and clarify the matter of those sums of money. If Wang Xianming embezzled them, you will not be implicated.”

Jiang Yiming said, "If there is any other information, we will communicate further."

Now the initiative is in his hands.

If he wanted to escalate the matter, he could report it to the city authorities based on the testimonies of Zhang Xiangsheng and others.

Even if, as Zhang Yuntao claims, the money was indeed embezzled by Wang Xianming, it will still have some impact on Zhang Yuntao himself.

“County Chief Yun Tao, recently many officials have been implicated in the illegal sand mining case and Sun Mingwu’s criminal gang.”

Jiang Yiming said, "In order to ensure the smooth operation of various departments, I plan to make a major adjustment to the cadres in Xinping County soon. I wonder if you have any thoughts on this."

"I have no particular thoughts; I completely follow the organization's advice."

Zhang Yuntao stated.

He is no match for Jiang Yiming now.

Moreover, there are still a few people from the Discipline Inspection Commission who are targeting him, so he has no intention of fighting with Jiang Yiming right now.

He just wanted to get through this period safely.

After Zhang Yuntao left, Jiang Yiming called Hua Wentao in.

"Minister Wentao, I'm planning a major reshuffle of all the county's cadres. Could you draft a plan to implement a presentation and assessment system for the heads of several key county departments and township leaders? The Standing Committee of the County Party Committee will score them on the spot, and those with the highest scores will be considered for further evaluation."

Jiang Yiming said, "The arrangements for other departments will be discussed and made by the Standing Committee of the County Party Committee."

He felt that he wouldn't be working in Xinping County for very long, and was preparing to make one last major adjustment to the cadres.

He plans to select some positions based on a selection process involving on-site presentations and scoring by the standing committee members.

Of course, there are also some positions that, as in the past, are nominated by the various standing committee members, and then discussed by a five-person group before being decided by the standing committee.

"Yes, Secretary, I will arrange it immediately and try to come up with a plan within three days."

Hua Wentao immediately expressed his opinion.

Time flies, and it's already mid-September. There are still two weeks until National Day.

Jiang Yiming and Xia Shining are getting married during the National Day holiday.

Various arrangements have already begun.

Anyone who has been married knows that there is a lot of preparation work to be done before getting married.

Fortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Xia were reasonable people and did not raise any difficult issues.

Jiang's mother has stopped taking care of Jiang's father's daily life and is now focusing on preparing for her son's wedding.

Jiang Yiming and Xia Shining took some time to go to the city to take a set of wedding photos.

Xia Shining had very low requirements for wedding photos. For her, as long as Jiang Yiming treated her well, that was more important than anything else.

If it weren't for wanting to keep it as a memento, Xia Shining wouldn't even plan to take wedding photos.

After taking wedding photos, Jiang Yiming, along with both sets of parents, ate at a chain restaurant owned by his fifth brother, Jiang Yongchen.

By this time, the Shrimp King brand had become popular throughout the country.

On the eve of the Olympics, Jiang Yiming gave Jiang Yongchen an idea: to sign a contract with Liu Xiang to be the spokesperson for the Shrimp King brand.

At that time, Liu Xiang had not yet achieved great fame, so his brand endorsement fee was not high.

When the Olympics ended on August 29th, the whole nation knew that he had broken the world record, and from then on, the name "Flying Man Liu Xiang" became known to the world.

He became an overnight sensation across the country, and the iconic image of him wearing red clothes and eating crayfish spread throughout the nation.

This allowed the Shrimp King brand to quickly become well-known throughout the country.

Jiang Yongchen has been extremely busy lately, with countless stores proactively seeking to become his franchisees.

However, no matter how busy he was, upon learning that Jiang Yiming's family was coming, Jiang Yongchen declined all his social engagements and had dinner with Jiang Yiming.

"Yongchen, your business is getting bigger and bigger, you've even started a chain brand."

Jiang Yunzhou smiled and asked, "How many have you developed now?"

"We have 19 self-operated stores and 37 franchised stores."

Jiang Yongchen said, "The self-operated stores have already opened, while the franchise stores have only recently joined and need to be decorated in the same style. Currently, only eleven stores are open, and the rest are still under renovation."

“My shop is just a small shop, not comparable to Uncle Yunzhou’s supermarket.”

“You’re just starting out. Once you get going, your supermarket will definitely grow much faster than mine.”

Jiang Yunzhou said, "However, you can't expand blindly. You must control the quality. After all, the biggest fear for chain brands is quality issues. If one store has a problem, it will affect the entire brand."

"Uncle Yunzhou's reminder is correct. I will pay more attention. Yiming also mentioned it to me before."

Jiang Yongchen smiled and said, "I will control the product aspect and provide the raw materials. First, the quality can be controlled; second, it can effectively reduce the costs of each franchise store, allowing them to make a profit; and third, I have the means to control the franchise stores."

"By the way, Yiming, as I open more and more franchise stores, my demand for crayfish will also increase. The current crayfish production in Xinping County can meet the demand, but it may not be enough next year."

“After the survey a few days ago, I asked the Fisheries Bureau to increase its promotion efforts. Everyone is worried about sales and dare not raise fish. Take some time to go to Xinping County. I will ask the agriculture and fisheries departments to bring the cooperatives together and sign a supply and sales contract with you. You can give them a guaranteed price so that farmers will dare to raise fish.”

"Okay, I'll come to Xinping County to find you in the middle of next month, and we'll get this settled then."

Jiang Yongchen smiled and said, "You're getting married at the beginning of next month. I'll sort out what I'm doing and hand it over to others as much as possible. Uncle Yunzhou and the others will help you with the wedding. This is a top priority for our Jiang family."

“Work should be done this way. We should recruit more management talent. As those in charge, you should play a supervisory and motivating role. You can’t do everything yourself, or you’ll be too busy.”

After Jiang Yiming and Xia Shining finished taking their wedding photos, they went to the municipal party committee compound and personally delivered wedding invitations to several leaders with whom they had a good relationship, inviting them to their wedding.

Jiang Yiming invited Wei Shanghua, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee; Luo Zhangwen, Mayor; Lü Tai, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee; Zhu Jun, Executive Vice Mayor; Long Shaolin, Member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee; Ma Qiyun, Minister of the Organization Department; and Yang Zhen, Secretary of the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Mayor Luo Zhangwen and Deputy Secretary Lü Tai invited him for work-related reasons. Personally, he didn't want to invite them, but sometimes you can't refuse, as it's easy to offend people.