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

"Bowing and apologizing? What's going on here?"

Liu Xinbin and Ding Xuede were stunned for a moment, then quickly stood up and bowed.

Du Weizhong and Liu Yuanjie were at a loss, unsure whether to sit or stand. They had never expected Jiang Yiming to apologize to all the villagers.

Jiang Yiming's words sparked heated discussions among the villagers.

"Yes, we've been cheated so badly over the years. Out of so many villages, our village has paid the most grain tax."

"Secretary Jiang is absolutely right, we are indeed living in dire straits."

"What's the use of an apology? If apologies were useful, what would be the point of laws? The real culprits should be arrested."

"Arrest him? You're too naive! It's always been a case of officials protecting each other. I think Secretary Jiang is just putting on a show!"

Seeing that the villagers' emotions had been stirred up, Hu Decheng's face turned ashen, and he roared, "Shut up, all of you!"

Hu Decheng had been exploiting the people for years, and the villagers were so frightened that they fell silent instantly.

Hu Decheng then pointed at Jiang Yiming and cursed, "Jiang Yiming, you bastard, I'm not done with you! How dare you slander me in front of the villagers! I will definitely go to the county to demand an explanation!"

"Secretary Jiang, how can you make such baseless accusations in this setting without any evidence? Do you know the consequences of such reckless statements? How much impact will this have?"

Du Weizhong said with great dissatisfaction, "How will Hu Decheng carry out his work in the village in the future?"

“Secretary Jiang, you are acting too impulsively and have no political sense. You may feel good about yourself by spouting nonsense, but you have put Hu Decheng in a passive position and put our entire industrial park in a passive position.”

Liu Yuanjie seized the opportunity to criticize Jiang Yiming.

Those present nodded in agreement.

After all, this is a very serious matter; we need to provide evidence and not just make things up.

Jiang Yiming did not explain, but looked in the direction of Tang Guangyong and said, "Please have the comrades from the county discipline inspection commission intervene."

Four men in dark uniforms then stood up.

When he saw the disciplinary committee members come out, Hu Decheng looked somewhat flustered.

Liu Xinbin looked somewhat surprised, clearly indicating that he, the leader in charge of the park's discipline inspection, had not received any news at all.

Du Weizhong and Liu Yuanjie were also somewhat taken aback, neither of them expecting that Jiang Yiming had already communicated with the people from the Discipline Inspection Commission.

"Secretary Jiang, this is no joke."

Hu Decheng's eyes twitched wildly as he looked at Liu Xinbin and said, "Director Liu, you have to save me!"

"Hu Decheng, cooperate fully with the disciplinary committee comrades. If you are suspected of embezzlement and bribery, no one can save you. If you are innocent, no one can deal with you."

Liu Xinbin stood up and said passionately, “Everyone should take this as a warning and always be vigilant. Everyone must understand who gave us power and for whom it should be used to benefit us; anyone who abuses power will be punished. We must keep this alarm bells ringing, constantly reminding ourselves that power is used for the people, benefits are sought for the people, and our hearts are with the people. Only in this way can we withstand the temptation of money and forever maintain the true nature of public servants. We must find our own guiding principles in this complex society and never deviate from the course of serving the people, otherwise it will be too late to regret!”

Just when everyone thought the disciplinary committee members were there to arrest Hu Decheng, four disciplinary committee members stood in front of Liu Xinbin.

"Comrade Liu Xinbin, please come with us!"

Wow!

The entire audience was in an uproar. No one expected that the county discipline inspection commission officials had come for Liu Xinbin.

"You...you've got it wrong, haven't you?"

Liu Xinbin's face was pale, and his voice trembled slightly.

"Are you kidding me? We'll find out after the investigation."

The leader said sternly, "Please cooperate with us to avoid embarrassment."

Liu Xinbin's spirits immediately deflated, as if he had aged ten years.

He finally raised his head and looked at Jiang Yiming.

His eyes were filled with doubt, anger, and resentment.

He couldn't understand why, when he was the first person to express his loyalty to him and Jiang Yiming had entrusted him with important responsibilities, handing over the work of Liu Yuanjie to him, it had all turned out this way.

Jiang Yiming looked him straight in the eye and finally sighed, "Comrade Xinbin, cooperate well and strive for leniency."

He was also very surprised by Liu Xinbin's downfall.

After arriving at the park management committee the day before yesterday, he met Xiaoyuan and her grandson. Through their petition and Li Quanyou's account, he was almost certain that Hu Decheng, the village party secretary of Yunhu Village, had serious problems.

So they asked the county discipline inspection commission to conduct a secret investigation and prepared to have Liu Xinbin, who was in charge of discipline inspection, assist the county discipline inspection commission.

But as soon as he said that, he was rejected by the county discipline inspection commission, who said that they could investigate the matter without the cooperation of the industrial park.

He was also tasked with calming Liu Xinbin down.

Although he was surprised, he did as instructed.

Therefore, when assigning tasks, the responsibilities that Liu Yuanjie was in charge of were handed over to Liu Xinbin in order to lull him into a false sense of security, keep him at ease, and make him lower his guard so that the disciplinary committee could investigate.

Last night, he received confirmation that not only Hu Decheng, but also Liu Xinbin, who was in charge of discipline inspection, had violated the law and accepted bribes.

This included accepting bribes from Hu Decheng.

Liu Xinbin was the youngest member of the leadership team, only 41 years old, and had a bright future ahead of him, which he found very regrettable.

But the law is impartial. It's a pity, but since Liu Xinbin took the bribe, he has to pay the price for the mistakes he made because of his greed.

Therefore, he did not step forward to protect him.

Many people present were still in shock when they saw Liu Xinbin being taken away.

Liu Xinbin's impassioned words on fighting corruption and promoting integrity still resonate in our ears!

But his men were suddenly arrested!

Irony, utter irony!

This event was so sudden that it had a very strong deterrent effect.

Unlike the others who were shocked, Hu Decheng breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as if he had survived a disaster.

"Damn, that almost scared the crap out of me! Thank goodness they weren't after me!"

Hu Decheng spoke first: "Jiang Yiming, it is only right that you apologized to everyone just now. As the person in charge of the park, you are also responsible for having corrupt people under your command!"

“However, it’s a bit much that you’ve targeted me. I’m a law-abiding citizen, not only an outstanding grassroots worker in the industrial park, but also one of the county’s top ten outstanding village directors. You’ve ruined my reputation in front of so many people, you must apologize to me!”

"Do you deserve it?"

Jiang Yiming said coldly, "The law you broke is far more serious than Liu Xinbin's. You will surely face the full force of the law!"

"Jiang Yiming, you bastard, you're not even fully grown yet, and you dare to arm wrestle with me? You're still too green!"

"Don't think you can slander me just because you're the deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee. If you don't give me an explanation today, I'm not done with you!"

Hu Decheng was so angry that his face turned ashen. He stood up and was about to rush towards Jiang Yiming.

Tang Guangyong said, "Make your move!"

The two police officers behind him immediately rushed over and pinned Hu Decheng to the ground.

Hu Decheng was completely dumbfounded.

"Why are you arresting me? I was just talking nonsense and said a few words to Jiang Yiming. You're not arresting me for that, are you?"

Hu Decheng looked somewhat flustered and immediately tried to explain.

"You know the bad things you've done."

Tang Guangyong walked over and said, "Take him away!"

"What right do you have to arrest me? Even if I broke the law, it's the disciplinary committee that should be investigating. What gives you the right to arrest me?"

Hu Decheng shouted, "You are breaking the law knowingly! I'm going to report you to the county authorities!"

"Ha, why didn't you follow the law when you were committing crimes? But when you got arrested, you started showing off your half-baked legal knowledge."

Tang Guangyong sneered, "Today, Secretary Jiang invited us to give everyone a legal education session, so I'll use this incident as a starting point to give you and everyone else a proper legal education."

"For illegal and criminal acts of village party secretaries, different reporting measures can be taken depending on the circumstances: First, for illegal acts by village party secretaries in managing villagers' affairs, they can be reported to higher-level government departments; second, for village party secretaries violating party discipline, they can be reported to higher-level discipline inspection commissions; third, for village party secretaries suspected of committing crimes, they can be reported to public security organs and procuratorial organs; fourth, if it is a civil dispute, they can file a lawsuit in court."

"The reason why our public security organs are here to arrest you today is because you are suspected of criminal activity. As for your violation of Party discipline, there will be Party disciplinary punishment later."

"Nonsense! I'm a law-abiding citizen. When have I ever broken the law? This is slander! I won't accept it!"

Hu Decheng shouted, "Jiang Yiming, you must have framed me! I'm not done with you! I won't let you get away with this!"