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

"Please rest assured, Secretary, I will definitely follow your instructions and resolutely complete the task of poverty alleviation in Xichuan County within three years."

Jiang Yiming immediately made a guarantee.

After chatting with Wei Shanghua for a while, Jiang Yiming left Wei Shanghua's office.

Because he had to rush back to handle some matters, Jiang Yiming declined Li Xinhou's invitation and returned to Xichuan County.

After a short rest, Jiang Yiming went to Niu Baogen's office to report on his work.

"County Magistrate Yiming, how's the road construction going?"

Niu Baogen already knew the outcome.

"I was unable to persuade Linjiang City, and the road construction project has been temporarily shelved."

Jiang Yiming said.

“Road construction is not an easy task, so don’t be discouraged.”

Niu Baogen said, "Many things cannot be accomplished with just enthusiasm; they must be combined with reality."

Jiang Yiming knew that Niu Baogen was criticizing him for being too ambitious.

In fact, he was confident he could have successfully persuaded the mayor if he had been replaced.

However, he did not provide an explanation.

"Secretary, let's put the road construction on hold for now and focus on promoting the planting of grapes and vegetables. Time waits for no one. If we don't take advantage of the month before the Spring Festival and start working on it after the holiday, we'll be in a rush."

Jiang Yiming said, "I propose that we draw on the best personnel from all departments in the county to go down to the villages and groups to do ideological work with the farmers. After all, it is difficult for farmers to change their ingrained mindset and invest a lot of money to do something they have never done before. Only by doing ideological work with them can we successfully promote it."

“Okay, let’s go with your idea. Your government will draft a plan, and when it’s submitted to the Standing Committee, if the Standing Committee has no objections, then it will be implemented immediately.”

Niu Baogen made no attempt to stop him.

"Yes, Secretary, I will arrange for someone to write the proposal immediately."

Jiang Yiming left Niu Baogen's office and asked Wang Lifeng to notify the Organization Department, Publicity Department, Discipline Inspection Commission, Finance Department, Bank, Agriculture Department, Civil Affairs Department, and the deputy county head in charge to come to a meeting.

An hour later, all attendees had arrived.

"Relevant provincial and municipal departments attach great importance to our county's poverty alleviation work and have provided financial support. Relevant provincial and municipal leaders have required our county to make a good industrial development plan and regard the agricultural industry as the key to farmers' poverty alleviation and prosperity."

"Therefore, I gave a special report to Secretary Baogen, and he agreed to develop grapes and vegetables as key industries for the whole county. In order to encourage farmers to grow grapes and vegetables, our relevant departments need to formulate corresponding guarantee and incentive measures."

Jiang Yiming said, “Let’s go through it one by one. Let’s start with the funding. The people in our county are very poor, and the cost of growing vegetables and grapes is much higher than that of growing ordinary crops. This raises the question of where the start-up capital will come from. Although the relevant provincial and municipal departments have provided some funds, they can only be used as subsidies to alleviate some of the financial pressure on farmers, but they cannot completely solve the farmers’ need for funds.”

"State-owned banks such as the Agricultural Bank of China and the Construction Bank of China must resolutely shoulder the social responsibility of state-owned enterprises and actively formulate financial policies. For example, regarding microloans, my suggestion is to grant each farmer a credit line of 6,000 yuan, allowing them to apply for loans based on their actual circumstances. With start-up capital, they can then make investments. For some cooperatives, the credit line can be increased to encourage them to grow bigger, stronger, and better, thus playing a demonstrative and leading role. As for interest rates, they must be reduced to the lowest possible level."

"Director Zhao, the Finance Bureau will allocate some funds to subsidize the interest on farmers' loans, aiming to reduce the interest rate to the lowest possible level, ideally zero."

"Yes, County Head. Our Agricultural Bank of China Xichuan County Branch has formulated a plan for small loans in accordance with your instructions, and will do our best to keep the interest rate as low as possible."

The head of the Xichuan County branch of the Agricultural Bank of China responded.

"Our finance bureau has made every effort to allocate funds to subsidize loan interest for farmers."

Finance Bureau Director Zhao Yuan responded immediately.

"Next, let's talk about technical services. The Science and Technology Bureau, in conjunction with Hengxin Grape Base and experts and professors from research institutes such as the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has developed technical manuals, conducted technical training, and established technology service teams, with one team assigned to each township. The Agriculture Bureau invites agricultural experts from the province and city, as well as local experts, to provide on-site guidance, with no fewer than two technical service teams in each township."

Jiang Yiming continued to assign tasks.

"Yes, County Chief. I will get back and implement this immediately, and strive to equip the technical service team within two days."

"Our Science and Technology Bureau will strictly follow the county head's instructions, go all out to implement them, and do a good job in technical training and publicity."

Officials from the Agriculture Bureau and the Science and Technology Bureau subsequently made statements.

"The Publicity Department has set up a publicity team to increase publicity efforts, do ideological work with farmers, and strive to get 60 percent of the farmers along the road involved in this activity."

"The Organization Department made good use of the personnel selection work in the county, and selected eighty party members and cadres from various county departments to participate in this special project, adhering to the principle of 'selecting the best people'."

"The discipline inspection commission will strictly enforce organizational discipline and severely punish any Party members or cadres who neglect their duties, violate discipline, or break regulations. There will be absolutely no leniency."

After Jiang Yiming finished speaking, the attendees from the relevant departments immediately made their statements.

"Alright, that concludes today's meeting. The government office should focus on collecting and following up on the proposals. We should strive to compile all the proposals within three days so that they can be submitted to the Standing Committee as soon as possible."

As the year draws to a close, various assessments are coming one after another.

Without even looking, Xichuan County's rankings in 2004 were definitely at the bottom.

“County Chief Yiming, you are the deputy director of the Leading Group Office for Optimizing the Business Environment. Your score carries significant weight. Please do your best to ensure that our county does not rank last in the assessment of optimizing the business environment.”

County Party Secretary Niu Baogen approached Jiang Yiming and shared his ideas.

“Secretary, they are the ones who are mainly doing this work. I usually only provide guidance and supervision and do not participate in scoring. I'm afraid this work will be difficult.”

Jiang Yiming politely declined.

If Xichuan County were similar to other counties, he could also make this request and try to secure a ranking for Xichuan County.

However, Xichuan County lags far behind in all indicators, with a considerable gap even compared to the second-to-last place. They can't just lie with their eyes closed. Not to mention that other counties and districts would disagree, the municipal party committee and government probably wouldn't allow them to act recklessly.

It was really inappropriate for Niu Baogen to bring this up with him.

"It seems we'll be speaking as a negative example again this year."

Niu Baogen sighed, turned around and walked out.

When it was time to convene the relevant meeting, Niu Baogen took sick leave and asked Jiang Yiming, the county magistrate, to attend the meeting instead.

At the city's economic work conference, Gao Wenchang, secretary of the Xinping County Party Committee, delivered a speech as a positive example.

Xinping County's economy saw another significant boost in 2004, further narrowing the gap with the top-ranked county.

As Xichuan County ranked last in the city, Jiang Yiming was used as a negative example in the meeting.

However, no one present laughed at Jiang Yiming.

Everyone knows that both Jiang Yiming and Gao Wenchang are newly appointed.

In fact, Jiang Yiming built up the economy of Xinping County, while the economy of Xichuan County had always been at the bottom. When Jiang Yiming went there, there were still half a month left before 2005, so it had nothing to do with him.

Following the economic work conference, an annual summary meeting on optimizing the business environment was held immediately.

Xichuan County, where Jiang Yiming is from, once again spoke on stage as a negative example.