Seeing that Xing Jike finally calmed down and listened to his opinions, Fang Zhicheng finally told him his thoughts. "The sixth line of the Book of Changes is called 'The Dragon in the Sky Will Regret'. It means that when a person reaches the peak, he is in the most dangerous time. What we have to do now is to let Sun Weiming reach that peak as soon as possible, and then let all his shortcomings show. If we don't take action at that time, others will naturally be jealous and make things difficult for him."
Xing Jike showed understanding on his face and said, "I understand what you mean. There is a term called 'killing with flattery'. You mean to make Sun Weiming the target of public criticism and use other people to deal with him."
Fang Zhicheng nodded and said, "Sun Weiming is just a county party secretary. His position in Dongtai may be stable, but in Yinzhou or the whole province, he seems too insignificant. We can't defeat Sun Weiming with our strength, so we have to use the strength of others to suppress him. Of course, the premise is that we need to attract more hatred for Sun Weiming..."
"Attract hatred?" Xing Jike still didn't understand Fang Zhicheng's true intention.
Fang Zhicheng smiled slightly and said, "The so-called flattery is to package Sun Weiming as a perfect person. When a person is too perfect, it will arouse the jealousy and even hatred of many people. With jealousy, doubts will arise. If Sun Weiming is not so perfect, it will arouse the curiosity of the public opinion, and a large number of people will question Sun Weiming's true face."
Xing Jike took a breath and said, "This plan is quite vicious!"
Xing Jike suddenly remembered the previous "Four-Nothing County Mayor" incident. Fang Zhicheng's plan seemed different, but in fact, if you think about it carefully, it is the same.
Fang Zhicheng's intention was to guide public opinion.
At the beginning, public opinion was one-sided and kept belittling Xing Jike, but after clever guidance, public opinion suddenly changed, and the original belittling of Xing Jike turned into praise. Now Xing Jike is still called the "wise but foolish" county magistrate with "four nothings" by many people.
Now, Fang Zhicheng chose to do the opposite. He first tried to praise Sun Weiming, promoting Sun Weiming as an omnipotent and flawless county party secretary, and then slowly raised some questioning voices, which easily led to public opinion criticizing and questioning Sun Weiming.
Xing Jike had personally experienced the power of public opinion, and agreed with Fang Zhicheng's idea, saying, "Zhicheng, I understand your intention, and I support you unconditionally. However, I'm afraid it's not that easy to stir up a topic, right?"
Fang Zhicheng laughed and said, "Who manipulated the public opinion about the county magistrate?"
"Chen Deping?" Xing Jike responded quickly.
Fang Zhicheng nodded and said, "Chen Deping has sufficient resources and is very good at this method..."
Xing Jike took a deep breath and smiled bitterly, "I finally know why you approached Chen Deping in the first place. Did you start thinking about using this trick to deal with Sun Weiming from that time?"
Fang Zhicheng smiled and said, "County Magistrate Xing, please don't say this carelessly. You must not portray me as a conspirator with heinous crimes."
Just as Xing Jike guessed, Fang Zhicheng had actually been thinking about counterattacking Sun Weiming a long time ago. When the news of Dongtai's transformation from a county to a city spread, Fang Zhicheng waited for the opportunity.
Once Dongtai becomes a county-level city, it will attract the attention of many powerful people, who will want to make profits from it. Compared with those forces, Sun Weiming's power seems too weak.
If Fang Zhicheng launches a public opinion bomb against Sun Weiming at this time, it will ignite the fuse. By then, there will be no need for him to exert much effort, as someone will naturally take action against Sun Weiming.
Although Xing Jike was not good at political struggles, after Fang Zhicheng explained to him in detail, he finally faced the reality. Compared with a head-on confrontation where both sides would be at risk, it was wiser to kill someone with a borrowed knife.
In order to reassure Xing Jike, Fang Zhicheng continued to give him a reassurance and said, "County Magistrate Xing, after Dongtai is abolished as a county and changed to a city, if Sun Weiming is squeezed out of the core of power, then you will have the greatest chance."
Xing Jike's eyes gleamed, and he waved his hand, suppressing the joy in his heart, and said, "Zhicheng, I know what's going on with this matter. Just go ahead and do it. I will definitely support you!"
Fang Zhicheng was relieved after successfully persuading Xing Jike. Although Xing Jike had become his puppet, he still needed Xing Jike to support him. Xing Jike was quite obedient, but Fang Zhicheng still had some concerns. After all, people's hearts were difficult to control. If Xing Jike suddenly lost control, the negative impact would be huge.
After Xing Jike left his office, Fang Zhicheng called Chen Deping. Some things could not be said or explained clearly over the phone, so the two of them met in a teahouse in the city and privately discussed the strategy of the public opinion war against Sun Weiming. As Fang Zhicheng expected, Chen Deping was very familiar with the matter, and two hours later, he had drawn up a detailed plan.
Not long ago, Chen Deping was almost placed under double supervision because of Sun Weiming's behind-the-scenes manipulation. Now that he had the opportunity to retaliate against him, Chen Deping naturally mobilized all his resources.
Chapter 0438: The Dream Comes to Nothing
Sun Weiming inexplicably became popular on the Internet. After an article titled "The most honest county party secretary in Huainan" was published on some relatively niche forums, it was serialized in a competitive manner. The reason why this post spread so quickly is that it has several characteristics, including a collection of classic conversations by Sun Weiming in several public occasions.
Sun Weiming once said some very true things in these public occasions, such as "to strengthen the cadre team means to catch those black sheep who are corrupt and embezzle"; "to strengthen economic construction means to catch those state-owned enterprises that do not do practical work and live off the resources, and let them reform and improve"...
In addition, Dongtai had previously produced a "county mayor with nothing", so Sun Weiming quickly became famous as the county party secretary. The mainstream media regarded him as a typical figure and competed to report positively on him, promoting Sun Weiming's shining points and positive energy.
This sudden praise left Sun Weiming confused. He did not realize that this was actually the first step designed by someone.
On Friday night, Sun Weiming accepted an interview with a reporter from Huainan Daily with a relaxed smile on his face. Judging from the recent situation, everything is going well. The news of abolishing the county and changing it to a city has been basically confirmed. In half a year at most, he can become the head of a county-level city and smoothly enter the Yinzhou Standing Committee. Moreover, his future career will be smoother.
No one had expected that something good would fall from the sky. I don't know who promoted me online, causing the media to praise me as the county party secretary who dared to speak the truth the most.
Being an official is about fame and fortune. Now that he is well-known, Sun Weiming is extremely satisfied. He is sure that he has entered the golden period of his life and will develop rapidly in the near future. He even has an idea that it is not impossible for him to be promoted to the level of a full department head within three to five years.
Sun Weiming is currently at the division level. After the city is abolished and the county is changed, he will be able to become a deputy department-level cadre. If he can become a full department-level cadre within three to five years, then he will definitely have the hope of becoming a ministerial-level cadre before he turns 50. For ordinary officials, ministerial-level cadres are already the ultimate goal.
Sun Weiming sat at his desk, slowly reading a lot of news and comments. A famous political commentator said, "Why can the county party secretary who dares to tell the truth become popular? Because there are too few officials who dare to tell the truth. In the past, officials were considered hypocritical and superior, but suddenly an official who can tell the truth appeared, which was enough to arouse people's heated discussion. Many years ago, officials like Jiao Yulu who served the people were deeply loved by the people; many years later, the people have lowered their standards for a good official. As long as they dare to tell the truth and don't tell clichés and lies, it is enough..."
Sun Weiming read it carefully twice, pondered it for a while, and sighed that this news commentator was really mean and vicious. He seemed to be praising himself, but he refuted the officialdom phenomenon incisively and made himself an outlier. This was not a good phenomenon. If a person is too unsociable, he will be easily excluded by the group.
Sun Weiming sighed, called the Minister of Propaganda Lu Yao, and said in a deep voice: "Minister Lu, there is something you need to start dealing with now."
Lu Yao has also been following all kinds of news about Sun Weiming on the Internet. She nodded quickly and said, "Please give me instructions, Secretary Weiming."
Sun Weiming listed several news headlines and comments, saying, "Although most of the comments about me on the Internet are positive and fair, we must also pay attention to those negative news to prevent people from taking advantage of them and turning good things into bad things."
Lu Yao carefully wrote down Sun Weiming's request and said with a smile, "Secretary Weiming, please rest assured. I will carefully monitor public opinion. At the same time, I will use this news event to try to raise Dongtai's profile and influence again."
Sun Weiming laughed happily and said, "You are very experienced. I believe you will be able to complete the task very well."
After hanging up the phone, Sun Weiming stood up and stretched, with a confident look on his face. Looking back on his life in Dongtai for so many years, he had almost relied on his personal ability to move up from the grassroots level step by step to his current position. Not only did he force out the wily Qian Dechen, but the county will soon be abolished and transformed into a city. His name will be forever engraved in the credit book of Dongtai's development, and he has also successfully completed the tasks assigned to him by the organization.
According to the organization's next development plan, Sun Weiming's battlefield will extend from Dongtai to Yinzhou. Of course, Dongtai will always remain in Sun Weiming's hands and become his most persistent position. According to Dongtai's development speed, it is possible that it will go one step further from a county-level city to a prefecture-level city in many years.
Sun Weiming had a grand blueprint in his mind, and he heaved a long sigh of relief. Although there were still some other factions in Dongtai, he felt confident that he had full control. Once the county was successfully changed to a city, he would make major adjustments to Dongtai, and remove people like Xing Jike, Duan Xuan, and Fang Zhicheng from Dongtai. By then, Dongtai would be his.
The ringing of the phone interrupted Sun Weiming's thoughts. After he answered the call, he found that it was Qi Shaoqun calling.