Unlike the Leica that was popular among photographers in the 1980s, Tang Ye's camera was a Nikon that became popular in the early 1990s. However, the throne has changed, and by the end of the 1990s, Canon's SLRs had become the absolute mainstream, and have continued into the new century.
The flash of the camera made Wen Huaiming frown slightly, but he didn't care about Tang Ye at this time. He stood on the roof of the car, with a steady figure and a firm expression. His not-so-tall body was very eye-catching at this moment, which not only gave his colleagues enough confidence, but also calmed the restless crowd for a short time. Many people with ulterior motives were confused and didn't know what this official wanted to do. They looked at each other for a while, and the momentum of pushing forward weakened a little.
Wen Huaiming was standing on a high place and immediately noticed this subtle change. He knew that only a small part of the people were causing trouble. He seized this favorable opportunity, swept his eyes across the crowd, and said loudly in a heavy but sincere voice: "Fellow villagers, the municipal party committee and government sent us to Yaoshan, not to fight corruption, but to fight corruption; not to become corrupt officials, but to catch corrupt officials; and not to hinder the economic development of Yaoshan, but to make Yaoshan develop better..."
Since the reform and opening up, especially in the mid-to-late 1990s, with the development of the economy, various social contradictions have emerged, and mass incidents have occurred frequently. In the first decade of the new century, it has reached an incredible level. The official records and figures released to the public alone are as high as more than 87,000 a year, so the number of party and government officials held accountable is countless. Therefore, under the premise of stability as the overall situation, in order to keep the red top and golden chair, some local governments often take more severe measures against mass incidents, such as verbal intimidation, violent dispersal, and post-event accountability, striving to suppress them in the shortest possible time and not to cause bad public opinion. Qingzhou has always had a tough folk style. According to past experience, once there is a group conflict, talking will not solve the problem at all. The official will definitely dispatch a large number of armed police and public security to control the situation as soon as possible. Even if the people have not seen it with their own eyes, they have heard it with their own ears and are familiar with such things. When Wen Huaiming stood up, everyone thought it was the same old story, that attacking government officials was illegal, obstructing official business was a more serious crime, and the lightest sentence for beating a police officer was ten years, etc. However, they didn't expect that this man from the city didn't use any official jargon when he spoke. Just three or four simple sentences touched the hearts of the people. Some of the incited people who didn't know the truth stopped and wanted to hear what he had to say.
One person stopped, two people stopped, herd mentality has always been the root and driving force of mass incidents, and vice versa. The people in the middle and the periphery all stopped as if they were infected, and only the first 10 or 20 people were still working hard, but they were easily blocked by Liu Tianlai and his men.
"Fellow villagers, I believe you have heard about what happened in Shunyi recently! Here I can tell you clearly that the city is indeed investigating Shunyi's grain system! The reason why I and my comrades from the Municipal Public Security Bureau came to Yaoshan today is to prove whether the grain grown by our hard work has gone into the pockets of certain people? Whether the strategic reserves that we ordinary people have contributed to the country by tightening our belts have become the capital for certain people to enjoy corruption?"
Wen Huaiming looked at the plain faces under the front of the car. Among them were old men, skinny and wrinkled; among them were strong men, big and strong, with skin as black as coal; among them were women, bloated, with dull and dark eyes; among them were children, with tears and noses, looking around innocently. All over the country, there are such ordinary people, who have nourished this country and this nation with their hands and hard work from ancient times to the present. They pay the most and get the least. As long as they can maintain the most basic living security, they can endure any shackles and humiliation imposed on them.
This is the sorrow of a nation, but also the greatness of a nation!
Because of this, any rat that reaches into the grain is even more hateful. Wen Huaiming waved his hand, pointed to the distance behind him, and said, "So, the people who support us in finding out the truth, please step back three steps! I, Wen Huaiming, promise to all the villagers that if there is grain in the warehouse today and the accounts are correct, I will resign from my public office and take responsibility for this matter; if there is no grain in the warehouse and the accounts are not clear, please supervise our work to ensure that no bad guy is let off and no good guy is wrongly accused! What do you think, is this okay?"
"good!"
"We listen to you!"
"We understand that the government is doing this for our own good. Everyone should step back, step back."
Wen Huaiming pressed down with both hands, and the crowd immediately quieted down. This showed that in just a few minutes, he had already gained prestige among the villagers.
"Thank you, everyone. Now listen to my command and move back!"
The scene of hundreds of people retreating together could not be uniform, but it also revealed a sense of unity. In fact, ordinary people in the country will never really go against the government. As long as you are willing to reason, the reason will generally make sense.
Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer officials willing to be reasonable, so there are more and more conflicts!
Wen Huaiming's method was extremely effective. The real troublemakers were immediately exposed. The 20 or 30 people in the front felt as if they were stripped naked. They stood blankly in the large open space in the middle, not knowing what to do. In fact, these people were all unemployed people who had interests in the grain depot. There were three types of people involved in the Shunyi grain case. The first was Xin Chunsheng and other bureau leaders, directors of various grain depots, and some leading cadres and staff of the county party and government agencies. The second was the children, relatives, and friends of leading cadres. The third was the ruffians and idle people in society. Cai Hongxiu was arrested early this morning, and the news spread immediately, but no one expected that Cai Hongxiu would speak in less than two hours. When they received the news that the task force was sending a team to Yaoshan, they wanted to transfer food supplies from other places, but it was too late. They had no choice but to take a risk and gather a large number of ruffians to try to stir up public anger and create a major conflict. As long as they could drive away the investigators today and have a night, they might be able to remedy the situation. However, they did not expect Wen Huaiming to be so decisive and control the situation by himself.
In fact, even if Wen Huaiming retreated as they wished, the grain case had developed to this point and it was impossible to save it by human power. However, these people were trapped in the situation and would fight to the end. They did not want to give up hope of survival until the last moment.
Famous sayings always make sense: If God wants to destroy someone, he must first make him crazy!
This is their last fight. Wen Huaiming sees through this keenly. Facing a paper tiger that looks powerful but is actually weak, the only way to win is to muster up the courage and face the challenge head-on!
He did it!
Zheng Ping knew that the situation was hopeless. Thinking of Wen Huaiming's words, he finally made up his mind. He walked up to the crowd, pointed at one of the men with pointed chins, and angrily said, "Li Shuangxi, why are you leading the commotion? Don't you want to die?"
Wen Huaiming looked at Liu Tianlai and nodded calmly. Liu Tianlai received the instruction and rushed over with two people, pinning Li Shuangxi to the ground and handcuffing him. Li Shuangxi was a small town-level thug who had seen a lot of things. Leading the attack just now was his greatest ability. At this moment, he immediately became timid and lay on the ground and shouted: "Secretary Zheng, I know I was wrong. They said that if I could drive the police away, they would give me 30% of this year's share... I was forced to do it. It's unfair. Please let me go..."
The man was so frightened that his speech became incoherent. Zheng Ping ignored him and pointed to a few notorious ruffians in the village. Liu Tianlai handcuffed them all without saying a word. The other hooligans who joined the riot felt their legs go weak, but they did not dare to run away. They obediently lined up and were taken to a room in the granary by a dozen police officers and locked up.
The crowd outside suddenly realized that it was indeed these people with ulterior motives who instigated the situation. Thinking of their impulsiveness just now, they couldn't help but feel scared. These hooligans were used to being rampant, so their arrest caused cheers.
Wen Huaiming jumped out of the car, and Liu Tianlai came to greet him. He was also full of admiration for him, and his expression became more respectful. He whispered, "What should we do next?"
He felt that Wen Huaiming's assurance was too risky. If Cai Hongxiu's words were false, or if the grain depot had already made up the shortage, how would it end? Could it be that Wen Huaiming really resigned for such a thing? But at this moment, he couldn't express his thoughts, so he could only ask Wen Huaiming's opinion in a roundabout way.
Wen Huaiming's eyes were sharp as torches. He strode to the door of the granary, picked up the iron hammer on the ground, raised it high in broad daylight, and then smashed it heavily on the iron lock.
Tang Ye pressed the shutter button in his hand at the same time, and there was another flash of light!
The iron gate was wide open, and the wheat was stomped into rows and rows, but the people outside the gate seemed to be frozen, all standing there in a daze!
Wen Huaiming turned around abruptly and said to the director of the grain warehouse in a stern voice, "Is this the No. 1 warehouse with 20,000 tons in stock?"
The inventory of Yaoshan No. 1 Warehouse is designed to be 30,000 tons, and the actual capacity is 20,000 tons. According to the "Regulations on the Management of Central Reserve Grain", it is necessary to ensure that there is 40-50% of the total inventory in the warehouse, of which 20% is used as strategic reserve grain for the troops, 20% is used for urban residents, and 10% is used as emergency grain for the state. The rest can be put on the market for trading and circulation, but must be reported to the higher-level competent authorities for approval and filing.
But what everyone saw, at the highest estimate, was less than five thousand tons!
The director of the grain warehouse was sweating profusely and his thighs were trembling. Under Wen Huaiming's sharp gaze, his legs went limp and he collapsed to the ground.
Under the policy attack of Wen Huaiming, the director of the grain depot quickly confessed some of the criminal facts. According to his confession, there were only more than 3,000 tons of grain left in the No. 1 warehouse, and nearly half of it was stale grain, straw and sand bags, and rotten and worm-infested grain. The new grain had been secretly sold out. Because according to national policy, if the new grain collected by the grain depot every year is not allocated within three years, it will become stale grain, and the state will give subsidies. This group of people sold the new grain at a high price every year, and then bought stale grain at a low price, and then falsely reported the storage volume to obtain subsidies for stale grain. This alone can make money from many ways. It is really hard not to get rich. No wonder people say "The grain depot has no money, it depends on whether you can make money or not." There are really too many ways to cheat.
In the third row of the ninth stomp, everyone pulled out a bag of wheat. Wen Huaiming picked up a shovel and made a hole in it. He bent down, reached in and grabbed a handful, then raised it above his chest with his ten fingers spread out. Under the sunlight, fine sand slowly flowed down and dispersed with the wind!
Tang Ye looked at the scene in front of him and his heart skipped a beat for some reason, but he did not forget to use his camera to record this vivid moment.
The result was immediately reported back to Shunyi Hotel. Niu Guiqing was overjoyed and immediately instructed Wen Huaiming and Liu Tianlai to split their troops into two groups, with one leading the team to Gaozhuang and the other to Chenji. At the same time, other forces were mobilized to conduct a thorough investigation of all grain depots in the county.
At 3 pm, Gaozhuang and Chenji reported victory one after another. At 5 pm, the situation in each township was summarized, and all of them had problems to varying degrees. At 8 pm, other people related to the grain case started to speak up one after another. When Wen Huaiming rushed back to Shunyi Hotel, he happened to meet Niu Guiqing who was preparing to interrogate Xin Chunsheng again.
"Old Wen, thank you for your hard work!"
Niu Guiqing held Wen Huaiming's hand tightly. He already knew the details of what happened in Yaoshan. If Wen Huaiming hadn't handled it properly, there might be more trouble. After all, as someone who knew the inside story of the case, how could he not understand how many enemies were hiding in the dark, ready to seize the opportunity to give them a fatal blow? Once a major conflict occurred in Yaoshan, it would just give people a reason to criticize, and the consequences would be unpredictable.
Wen Huaiming smiled and said, "Lucky! I was also nervous at the time..."
Niu Guiqing laughed out loud. He found himself admiring Wen Huaiming more and more, not only because of his abilities, but also because of his character.
Strangely enough, Wen Huaiming had always been a low-key person before, and gave people the impression of being serious and old-fashioned, but after getting to know him, it was discovered that he was actually a wonderful person.
Niu Guiqing didn't say anything polite and pulled Wen Huaiming into the interrogation room. This was the first time Wen Huaiming met Xin Chunsheng, the man who had caused unrest in Qingzhou. Director Xin couldn't help but be curious about what kind of person could hold on to such strong pressure until today
Xin Chunsheng had aged a lot in just a few days. After learning about the situation at the grain depot and the confessions of his subordinates, he sighed and said, "Secretary Niu, can I smoke?"
Wen Huaiming took out a Zhonghua cigarette and handed it over personally, lighting it. Xin Chunsheng said in a hoarse voice, "Thank you!"
Niu Guiqing and Wen Huaiming sat at the table and waited quietly for him to finish smoking the whole cigarette. Xin Chunsheng threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it with his toes, and said calmly: "Okay, I confess everything..."
At this moment, Xin Chunsheng was deserted by his friends and family, and he was at his wit's end. The provincial aid he had been waiting for did not come to him for some reason. In despair, he told everything. Niu Guiqing frowned more and more, and Wen Huaiming's palms were sweating. The two looked at each other and saw the deep fear in each other's eyes.
After leaving the interrogation room, Wen Huaiming whispered, "Secretary Niu, Xin Chunsheng must be well protected. Don't let anything go wrong! You still have to take command here. I will rush back to Qingzhou and report to Secretary Xu in person."
Niu Guiqing nodded and said, "This is the only way. I will arrange for someone to stay by Xin Chunsheng's side from now on. Don't worry!"
Wen Huaiming left in a hurry. Niu Guiqing was silent for a moment, then returned to his room and made several phone calls. He had his own network of relationships, and he had to have a basic estimate of how deep the muddy water was and whether it was too late to extricate himself.