After ending the conversation with Premier Wu Youping, the core party and government personnel at the ministerial level of the Zhili Ministry did not go home for two consecutive days. The lights in the conference room were on all night, and a team of experts responsible for researching enterprise lifespan was invited to give lectures.

After the study and discussion, Xiao Hanshan was very tired, but his heart was much more relaxed. Originally, he thought Wu Lingpu's problem was being too politically opportunistic and radical, thus triggering displeasure from above. Now looking at Wu Lingpu's problem, although it was still opportunism, it was not that Wu Lingpu offended someone or displeased the central government. With Xiao Hanshan's current understanding of central policies, he believed Wu Lingpu indeed executed a direction conflicting with the central economic thinking.

And Wu Lingpu still insisted that his direction was right, so the inspection team naturally had to come for inspection.

The current situation made Xiao Hanshan feel very difficult. He leaned back on the sofa, unable to think of how to handle Wu Lingpu's matter for a moment. After thinking for a while, Xiao Hanshan finally decided not to intervene anymore. If the higher-ups thought Xiao Hanshan was unqualified, Xiao Hanshan had no choice. When the time came, he would make a self-criticism if needed, or be removed from office if necessary. Xiao Hanshan felt that no matter what, he hadn't made mistakes to the extent of being removed from office.

At the same time, Chenzhou Mayor Wu Lingpu felt differently. There were procedures for using financial allocations, and investigation immediately identified the handlers at each level. The handlers at each level certainly didn't want to offend Mayor Wu Lingpu, but they were even less willing to offend the Central Inspection Team. Soon, Wu Lingpu and the leading cadres who supported him in doing so were identified, and interviews began immediately.

Wu Lingpu didn't know what would be asked, but he wanted to know very much what those who supported him would be asked. It was late at night, and there was finally a knock on the door of Wu Lingpu's house. Wu Lingpu wanted to go himself, but after standing up, he said to his wife, "You go open the door."

Before long, footsteps sounded. It was Wu Lingpu's driver bringing in Director Niu of the Finance Bureau, who was interviewed today. Director Niu looked a little uneasy, but overall he was calm. Sitting in front of Wu Lingpu, he didn't fear anything. After the driver was led to the kitchen by Wu Lingpu's wife to eat something, Wu Lingpu asked, "Director Niu, what did the inspection team ask?"

"Nothing special. The inspection team said not to tell others about these things," Director Niu replied.

Wu Lingpu felt Director Niu was quite good at pretending; since he shouldn't tell others, he shouldn't have come. But this couldn't be said out loud. Wu Lingpu didn't ask about this anymore but turned to the stance, "Director Niu, when the Municipal Committee met, we specifically discussed investing in rural areas. Now the masses don't know what factories to build, so the government must lead the masses to increase income. At that time, the comrades of the Municipal Committee were all in favor."

Hearing this, Director Niu felt Wu Lingpu was prepared to stick to his view, so he stood up and replied, "Mayor Wu, the inspection team asked which meetings decided those allocations. They should have gone to retrieve the meeting minutes; what was said at the meeting should be recorded. Mayor Wu, you are tired too; I'll go back first and won't disturb your rest."

Wu Lingpu was furious, but at the moment he didn't even have the thought of how to deal with Finance Bureau Director Niu. It wasn't that Wu Lingpu was morally noble, but Wu Lingpu was made very nervous by the news Director Niu gave him, having no energy to consider Director Niu. If the inspection team really made an issue out of the meeting minutes, there would really be some problems.

At the meeting, Wu Lingpu indeed confidently stated, 'Build Chenzhou (Zhoukou) into a socialist demonstration zone'. To achieve this goal, the 10 years of experience in the Northeast had to be compressed into 3 years to realize. According to Wu Lingpu's words, "Men and women must be used as livestock! Work big and fast!" This was obviously very different from the central government's policy, but Wu Lingpu felt that since nothing was said before, there should be no problem now... Maybe.

After a few days of work, the inspection team basically mastered all the main situations. According to the economic policies at this stage, the matter could be roughly determined. Wu Lingpu adopted radical policies, and it was Wu Lingpu who proposed such ideas. Although the inspection team had the authority to contact the Central Inspection Team immediately in an emergency and propose emergency handling, this matter was already very clear. Moreover, the meeting minutes were complete, and the fund allocation handling procedures also met the norms, requiring no special process.

Seeing the inspection team acting resolutely and leaving without dragging their feet, the Chenzhou government even felt it might just be an ordinary investigation. Even Wu Lingpu felt the matter was probably over. According to the news Wu Lingpu received, the inspection team's investigation didn't mean to find any crimes. If conviction relied only on the content of these municipal government work meetings, it would mean something big happened.

The inspection team left Chenzhou on September 18. Wu Lingpu lost his temper at the municipal government meeting on the 19th, criticizing several bureau directors who made him uncomfortable; Director Niu was one of them. This made the members of the Chenzhou municipal government uneasy, wondering what Wu Lingpu, who should have escaped a disaster, would do next.

On September 20, the Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government held a meeting of all cadres at the bureau level and above. Director Niu looked at Wu Lingpu sitting in the main seat and saw Wu Lingpu actually looking over. After their eyes met, Wu Lingpu actually looked away first, with some hesitation in his expression. This surprised Director Niu; it shouldn't be like this.

Other bureau directors also quickly felt that Wu Lingpu's arrogance had disappeared, which meant something definitely happened. The directors who had been scolded by Wu Lingpu finding an opportunity were both happy and nervous, waiting for the meeting to start and reveal the answer.

As soon as the meeting started, the Municipal Party Secretary in charge of personnel spoke first, "September 20, 1927. Upon the proposal of Comrade Xiao Hanshan, Minister of the Zhili Ministry, Comrade Wu Lingpu is removed from the post of Mayor of Chenzhou City, and Vice Mayor Comrade Nie Lianshan will temporarily be responsible for the mayor's work.

Remove the Director of the Finance Bureau..."

Everyone held their breath and listened intently to the appointment and removal documents. About one-third of the Chenzhou municipal government officials were removed from office. Wu Lingpu bore the brunt, and the rest included both those Wu Lingpu liked and those he didn't like. There was no special circle.

Listening until the end, the directors who were not named found that a group of leaders in charge of the economy were collectively removed. Now, all the retained directors felt the power of the inspection team. Chenzhou, a not-so-small city, had one-third of its leading cadres removed after only a few days of investigation. The highest rank in the inspection team was only at the division level (Zheng Chu).

Wu Lingpu and Director Niu had long forgotten the conflict between them. They both knew they were in big trouble and roughly guessed that the development method of Chenzhou led by Wu Lingpu was negated by the higher-ups. Their eyes met occasionally at this time, but there was no unhappiness, only panic.

The news of appointment and removal spread quickly in Chenzhou. Yang Xiangqian, Deputy Director of the Chenzhou Labor Bureau, drank with a few friends that night. Yang Xiangqian's face was full of joy, "Damn it, Wu Lingpu, this bastard, should have left long ago. The central government really did a good thing!"

Other friends also liked Wu Lingpu (Note: Text says "Other friends also liked Wu Lingpu", but context suggests they agreed with Yang or were neutral. Wait, text says "Other friends also liked Wu Lingpu". This contradicts the next sentence "However, they felt what Yang Xiangqian said was a bit too harsh". Maybe typo for "Other friends also knew Wu Lingpu" or "Other friends didn't like Wu Lingpu". Or maybe they liked him for some reason. I will translate literally but maybe they respected his hard work).

Wait, the text says: "Other friends also liked Wu Lingpu. However, they felt what Yang Xiangqian said was a bit too harsh, so they couldn't help advising: 'At least he vomited blood from exhaustion. He worked very hard himself.'" This implies they had some sympathy or respect for his effort.

"He vomits one mouthful of blood, others have to vomit ten. Let me tell you now, when that guy was recuperating, he said there was no need to mobilize so much ration; one catty per person per day is enough. Then he said he only ate 3 liang (150g) of rice a day now. When I saw the meal he ate, it was all milk and meat; of course 3 liang of rice was enough!" Yang Xiangqian said indignantly.

Several others heard this for the first time and were stunned. Although they knew Wu Lingpu was ambitious and strove for grandiose achievements, they didn't expect his speeches on these matters to be somewhat inhumane.

Yang Xiangqian didn't dwell on this matter. He raised his wine glass, "It's good that he's gone. A lot of work can start in the future. Recently, I found some enterprises seem to deliberately make things difficult for female workers who want to come out to work. When Wu Lingpu was here, he said everyone should be used as livestock. This gave those enterprises an excuse; this time we can investigate!"

Friends knew Yang Xiangqian was straightforward and couldn't stand bullying. Seeing him ready to display his skills, they could only advise him to be careful, "Xiangqian, will someone sue you if you do this?"

"Let them sue." Yang Xiangqian was not afraid. But in his heart, Yang Xiangqian felt he should be fine. Based on Yang Xiangqian's understanding of the central economic policy, he felt now was the time to set rules. Although some policies indeed looked too lenient, the central intention to set rules was very clear. Whoever violated the rules would be dealt with.

But Wu Lingpu's previous practice was to try his best to mobilize the people in the Chenzhou area to do various jobs with a very large workload. Moreover, Wu Lingpu formulated various things that looked like nonsense just to achieve results. So the work of setting rules couldn't proceed. Originally, they should investigate, visit, and crack down on workshop enterprises that destroyed workers' rights. But Wu Lingpu's own practice was the first object to be struck. No matter how unhappy Yang Xiangqian was, he couldn't attack Wu Lingpu.

Soon, time entered October. In previous years, as soon as the autumn harvest ended, Wu Lingpu would start a massive campaign for water conservancy projects involving 100,000 people in Chenzhou. Yang Xiangqian didn't have much opinion on such water conservancy and land leveling projects; what he detested was that extremely heavy workload. After participating, the mobilized people couldn't recover for half a month after returning.

This year, as Wu Lingpu and that group were removed from office and transferred away, no one in the Chenzhou municipal government mentioned the 100,000-person grand campaign anymore. Everyone who reached this position was no fool. Now it was better to see the situation clearly and wait for the new mayor and bureau directors to arrive and the team to run.

Yang Xiangqian wasn't afraid of anything. The Labor Bureau had arranged inspection work before, and this time no one grabbed it from him. After receiving the official document, Yang Xiangqian immediately set off with his entourage.

Chenzhou has an area of 11,000 square kilometers. Not big or small, basically all plains. Going to the countryside this time, Yang Xiangqian, who originally had no car, actually received a motorized vehicle called 'All-Terrain Motor Tricycle'. That is, a tricycle equipped with an engine. The cargo bed behind was open, 1.2*1.8 meters. There were also two technicians from 'Forever Vehicle Factory' accompanying. Yang Xiangqian knew these two said they were collecting data, but actually they were there to repair the vehicle at any time. He was also very happy. Driving such a big guy out, if it broke down, Yang Xiangqian and his entourage wouldn't have the ability to maintain it.

The tricycle started. With the chugging sound, young technicians and cadres got into the car one after another. As the driving technician twisted the right handle, the tricycle began to drive. In less than half an hour, the tricycle had driven out of the urban area, and vast fields unfolded in front of the young people.