Wei Haihe, despite his high status, was very easygoing in his words and actions, and spoke with wisdom and humor. He showed no intention of looking down on Zhou Xuan and Fu Yuanshan because of his status.
Fu Yuanshan was indeed very reserved at first, but he got much better later and could answer a few words. However, while Fu Yuanshan could answer a few words about Wei Haihe, Zhou Xuan was not interested in them. They were all about things that had nothing to do with his life. Although Wei Haihe had said that he would not talk about politics, he would inevitably bring up a little bit of it.
The wine served in the restaurant wasn't any top-tier famous brand; it was just Wuliangye, which cost a little over two hundred yuan a bottle. However, the three of them drank and ate together, and they seemed to get along quite well.
"Yuanshan, how's work going?" Wei Haihe took a sip of wine, his face flushed slightly, clearly indicating that he wasn't a very good drinker, and casually asked Fu Yuanshan.
Fu Yuanshan was taken aback, then quickly replied, "It's alright, everything is going smoothly at work."
"That's good, hehe..." Wei Haihe smiled and said, "Although you've only been in office for a short time, the number of old and major cases you've solved ranks among the top in all previous administrations. Recently, Lao Yuan was transferred to the ministry. Do you have any thoughts on that?"
Fu Yuanshan was stunned. Wei Haihe's words had indeed left him speechless for a while before he realized that the "Old Yuan" he was referring to must be Director Yuan Zezhi, right? Director Yuan's transfer order had been issued last week, and the three deputy directors of the provincial department, as well as several deputy directors of the municipal bureau, were all restless. The director of the municipal public security bureau was at the provincial level, usually concurrently held by the secretary of the political and legal committee. Therefore, the director in office was the most powerful person in the public security system in Beijing. Even if Fu Yuanshan was too inexperienced to become a member of the standing committee, he could still help Wei Haihe control the public security system. However, while these people were making their moves, Fu Yuanshan was the only one who seemed unaffected.
The other two deputy directors and deputy bureau chiefs wanted to move up a level. According to past practice, when the municipal bureau chief was transferred, there was a 50% chance that the successor would be promoted from among the deputy directors, deputy bureau chiefs, and bureau chiefs of the major districts. Those who were still in the same place were more familiar with it. However, Beijing is not like other places. When such an important position becomes vacant, it is not just these few deputy directors and deputy bureau chiefs who are the candidates. It can be said that all forces will be eyeing this position. If a local party secretary does not control important departments such as public security, procuratorate, court, finance, discipline inspection, and organization department, he basically cannot exercise the power of the first secretary.
Zhou Xuan wasn't part of the system, so he naturally didn't understand the reasons behind it. Since Wei Haihe became the secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, he hadn't been able to handle things smoothly in his position. Apart from the Discipline Inspection Commission, which was his people, the other important departments didn't have people close to him. Recently, the old man had secretly put in some effort for him, transferring an organization minister to Beijing. This gave Wei Haihe three votes in the Standing Committee, which was much better than before, but overall, his power was still very weak.
This time, Yuan Zezhi's transfer left a position that Wei Haihe valued most vacant, which naturally caused a great deal of discussion. Moreover, various forces were eager to make their move, and everyone was eyeing this lucrative opportunity. Wei Haihe wasn't very confident, but it was something he couldn't afford not to do. If he could secure the position, his influence would increase significantly. A first secretary in the public security system was like an indispensable right arm to him, a crucial piece that he had to keep under his control. Otherwise, how could he act freely?
The choice of candidate was a long and difficult one for Wei Haihe, who finally settled on Fu Yuanshan. There were several advantages to choosing him: firstly, Fu Yuanshan was already a deputy director-general in Beijing, and a promotion to director-general would be a natural progression; secondly, Fu Yuanshan was Zhou Xuan's man, practically his man. Although the Wei and Zhou families were currently at odds because of Wei Xiaoyu, Wei Haihe understood that blood was thicker than water. His father and brothers knew about Wei Xiaoyu's pregnancy, and Zhou Xuan was a man of great loyalty and righteousness. It wasn't appropriate to push him too far at the moment, and there wasn't a good solution yet, so it was better to wait. However, given the current situation, the Wei and Zhou families were practically one family, so Fu Yuanshan was even less of a concern. Fu Yuanshan's previous transfer to deputy director-general was due to Wei Haihe's secret assistance; otherwise, Fu Yuanshan wouldn't have had the opportunity.
However, there are several difficulties in promoting Fu Yuanshan to the position of director-general. First, Fu Yuanshan was only recently promoted to deputy director-general and his position is not yet secure. In terms of seniority, let alone transferring someone from outside the region, even if he were promoted locally, several other people would be more qualified than him. The second difficulty is that Wei Haihe himself cannot make the decision to promote someone to such an important position on his own. It must be proposed at the Standing Committee meeting and approved by more than half of the Standing Committee members. Wei Haihe currently controls less than a third of the votes at the Standing Committee meeting, so he is not confident about promoting Fu Yuanshan.
However, in the power struggle at the top, while taking action doesn't guarantee victory, not taking action guarantees defeat. Wei Haihe is the most important person in the Wei faction, and the old man chose him as his successor. He must have extremely strong abilities; otherwise, even with the old man's support, he wouldn't have been able to reach this position if he himself lacked the ability.
Wei Haihe previously served as the provincial party secretary in a western province for five years, transforming a poor province into a thriving and highly praised region. Therefore, when he was transferred to Beijing, the old man only needed to exert half the effort to succeed. However, Beijing was naturally a place fraught with challenges. The old man knew that although Wei Haihe had successfully become the municipal party secretary of Beijing, a successful transfer did not equate to victory or a guarantee of success. In the west, Wei Haihe's effective governance was mainly due to his adept handling of both military and political affairs. In the political arena, the old man had many of his old subordinates, and in the military, Li Lei was in charge of the southwest, and almost all the important personnel in the southwest military region were Li's old subordinates. Therefore, Wei Haihe's success and ease in office were mainly due to the lack of resistance. A first secretary without absolute power would find it inconvenient to do anything, and this was the problem that Wei Haihe currently needed to solve.
Because of Lin Yuefeng's problems, the investigation revealed extremely serious issues. Wei Haihe seized the opportunity to launch an attack, ordering the Discipline Inspection Commission to intervene and investigate the financial system. Although Lin Yuefeng was only the director of the finance bureau of a district in Beijing, he naturally had many people connected to him. This was exactly the result Wei Haihe wanted. He didn't want to root out all the people behind Lin Yuefeng, but a strong attack would force the other side to sacrifice pawns to save their king. The most important person would certainly not be able to be restrained, but it would still cause the other side to be in disarray and overwhelmed.
Wei Haihe wanted to strike while the iron was hot and seize control of the capital's finances in one fell swoop. This matter was entirely thanks to Zhou Xuan. If it weren't for Lin Guodong, that playboy, making a move against Zhou Xuan, there wouldn't have been a chance to intervene. But this one stone thrown into the water caused a huge uproar. Taking this incident as an example, Old Li and the old man launched their attacks simultaneously. If Wei Haihe could take advantage of the chaos to seize control of the finance and public security departments, he would have more weight in the Standing Committee. With the addition of the Organization Department and the Discipline Inspection Commission, perhaps he would truly have the authority of a municipal party secretary when he spoke.
One must eat one bite at a time, and walk one step at a time. Once these two positions are secured, it will be much easier to dominate the weak. The key is this step now. Success in this step will stabilize morale, while failure, even if it's not considered a failure in the capital, will certainly make things much more difficult for him in the future.
So today, Wei Haihe invited Fu Yuanshan and Zhou Xuan over for a meal and subtly hinted at some things. Of course, given his position, he wouldn't say anything too explicitly or definitively; whether Fu Yuanshan could understand was up to him.
However, Wei Haihe was somewhat certain that he finally understood what the old man had told him: Zhou Xuan's abilities were truly a weighty matter for the Wei family.
There are difficulties and challenges in Fu Yuanshan's promotion, but Wei Haihe is well aware of them. During Fu Yuanshan's tenure and after his promotion, some of the cases he handled impressed the higher-ups. At first, Wei Haihe's assistance drew criticism from some people, but now those who had criticisms have shut up.
Fu Yuanshan's ability to solve cases and clear up old and major cases is unmatched by any other official in his career, even among the most outstanding talents in the country. Others naturally assume that this is due to Fu Yuanshan's own exceptional abilities, but Wei Haihe knows that while Fu Yuanshan is indeed very capable, he could never have reached this level. It is all thanks to Zhou Xuan's abilities. Therefore, Wei Haihe is extremely confident that, at any time, those who have made great contributions are the best and most likely to be promoted. If Zhou Xuan helps Fu Yuanshan solve a few more particularly important major cases, in fact, even just one at this juncture would be enough to generate buzz and promote Fu Yuanshan.
This also allows Wei Haihe to respond to others more fairly, appointing the capable and prioritizing those with less seniority, and recruiting talent without being bound by convention.
Fu Yuanshan was genuinely taken aback by Wei Haihe's words before he understood that Wei Haihe wanted to promote him to the position of Public Security Bureau Chief. After a moment's hesitation, he replied, "Secretary Wei, this matter... it's not a matter of whether I have the determination or the ability. To be honest, it would be a lie to say I don't want to, but I really haven't thought about it right now. After Director Yuan was transferred, the other deputy directors were all lobbying, and the people in the Municipal Bureau are definitely lobbying too. I haven't made a single move because I know I don't have enough qualifications. Trying to force my way in is absolutely impossible. I'd rather use the energy I would have spent on lobbying to do more practical work. Anyway, someone has to do the work, and doing more work is much better than doing things that I think are insignificant. My personal view is that I will face things that come through legitimate channels with equanimity and will never show weakness about my abilities, but if it has to be obtained through lobbying, then I will absolutely not reach out."
Wei Haihe looked at Fu Yuanshan with admiration, tapped his finger on the table, and smiled, "Not bad, I agree with your idea. I used to think the same way. When you're young, you're full of energy, but the more setbacks you encounter, the more you realize that having ideals and ambitions is good, but ideals and ambitions can never be obtained with passion alone. The more you want to do something real for the people, the harder it is. The higher your position, the more you can do for the people, but if you want to stand high, you must first train yourself to be an invincible iron man. Do you understand what I mean?"
Zhou Xuan didn't understand, but Fu Yuanshan, with a look of melancholy in his eyes, nodded slightly and said, "Secretary Wei, it's true. There are many things I'm willing to do but unable to. Within the system, it's not like I can do whatever I want."
Wei Haihe smiled faintly and said, "This is what they mean by 'man proposes, God disposes.' Yuanshan, Xiao Zhou isn't an outsider here today. I treat him like my own nephew. Hehe, I've had a few drinks, so let me tell you this: if you want to do something practical for your ideals, then follow me. I'm intentionally promoting you this time, but it's going to be quite difficult. I won't hide it from you. Whether we can succeed is unknown, but some things have to be done. Wait until you've trained yourself to be strong and ruthless enough, even to the point of being immune to all poisons, before you talk about ideals. Now, do you have any thoughts on working with me to do practical things for the people?"
Although Zhou Xuan wasn't part of the system, he couldn't help but feel his blood boil after hearing Wei Haihe's words. Wei Haihe truly was a born leader; even his way of speaking was more artful than most people's.
Fu Yuanshan blushed, not from shyness or fear, but from excitement. He stood up abruptly, panting heavily, before saying in a deep voice, "Secretary Wei, you decide. I'll do it. I don't care about promotions or anything else. As long as it's as you say, and we can truly do something practical for the people, I'm willing to follow you."
Wei Haihe chuckled and reached for the wine bottle, but Zhou Xuan, with sharp eyes, snatched it away in a flash. He then stood up and filled all three glasses. After pouring the wine, Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "Second Uncle, what you said is truly inspiring! It makes me want to become an official, but alas, I am too incompetent to do so."
Wei Haihe laughed, whether in jest or seriousness, and said, "You want to be an official? That's easy enough! It's just that you don't want to. I do know that one of my father's subordinates in the National Security Special Operations Group invited you to work for the National Security, but you politely declined. Now you come to me saying you want to be an official."
Zhou Xuan immediately felt embarrassed. He remembered that incident as soon as Wei Haihe mentioned it. The senior executives of Lan had indeed invited him before, but he had refused. He was wondering how Wei Haihe knew about it. It turned out that it was because of the old man's connection.
Wei Haihe didn't bring up the matter again, and said with a smile, "Yuanshan, it's a pleasure to cooperate." He then extended his hand, and Fu Yuanshan quickly extended his hand as well to shake Wei Haihe's hand.
The conversation between the two ended during this handshake. Wei Haihe then waved for them to sit down and said, "Yuanshan, the matter of advancement mainly depends on yourself. If you do something remarkable and surprising in the next few days, then I can go along with it, and things will be much easier."
Fu Yuanshan paused for a moment, then asked, "You want me to do it myself?" He wondered what he could possibly do. Was he supposed to lobby other Standing Committee members? That wasn't his forte, nor was it something he was willing to do.
"We'll need Zhou Xuan's help with this," Wei Haihe said, pointing at Zhou Xuan with a smile but saying nothing.
"Me?" Zhou Xuan was also taken aback. He was just an ordinary citizen. What help could he possibly be? The only people he knew besides the Wei family and the Li family were those two families with the most power. But as for the Li family, why would Wei Haihe ask him to speak on their behalf? His relationship with the Li family was like that of a family member. There was no need for him to say anything.
Fu Yuanshan didn't understand either, but Wei Haihe smiled and said, "Yuanshan, when you were promoted to deputy director, although I secretly helped you, it was mainly because you solved some difficult and major cases and successfully prevented that bombing. If it weren't for those great achievements, even if I wanted to help, it wouldn't have been easy. So what I'm saying..."
Fu Yuanshan suddenly realized and said, "Oh, I understand now, Secretary Wei, you want Brother Zhou to help me solve a very important case?"
Wei Haihe chuckled, raised his glass, and said, "Cheers!"
Fu Yuanshan and Zhou Xuan both breathed a sigh of relief. They would not have been willing to beg for help, but it was not difficult for Zhou Xuan to help Fu Yuanshan solve a major case. In fact, it was something Fu Yuanshan liked to do the most.
It turns out that Wei Haihe wanted Fu Yuanshan to start with his own political achievements, and then he would give him a push from behind, which is why he said that he had to do this himself.
Fu Yuanshan glanced at Zhou Xuan, downed his drink in one gulp, and said in a deep voice, "Alright, Secretary Wei, you don't need to tell me this. I always do it this way. Let me be frank with you, the real hero behind all that work is actually Brother Zhou. I'm just taking credit for his work. Brother Zhou doesn't want to take the credit, so I shamelessly pinned it on myself. But seeing one major case after another solved and one wrongful conviction after another overturned makes me genuinely happy. Even if I don't get credit, I have no complaints. I just do my best."
Wei Haihe smiled and looked at Zhou Xuan again, saying, "Little Zhou, what do you think?"
Zhou Xuan naturally had no problem with this. Leaving aside his relationship with the Wei family, he also had to give Fu Yuanshan his full support. The reason he had such an ironclad relationship with Fu Yuanshan was because he wanted to build a solid foundation for himself, and now it seemed absolutely necessary. Regardless of how much Fu Yuanshan could actually accomplish, the incident involving Lin Guodong was a perfect example. And he wasn't the only one like that. Today he brought down Lin Guodong, tomorrow there would be Zhao Guodong, Zhou Guodong, Yang Guodong… The higher Fu Yuanshan rose, the better he could guarantee his family's safety. Wei Haihe and the others talked about doing more practical things for the people, but he was much more vulgar, prioritizing his own family above all else. "Every man for himself!"
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Volume 1, Chapter 530: Officer Zhou
Chapter 530 Officer Zhou
"Of course I have no problem. Anyway, I'm just sitting at home with nothing to do. I really don't want to get involved in business matters. I'm just a lazy person. Why don't I get together with Brother Fu?" Zhou Xuan replied with a smile.
Wei Haihe couldn't help but smile, took a small sip of wine, and then said, "Yuanshan, you need to hurry up with this matter. The Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee meeting is in three days, so I can only give you three days. Within three days, you need to solve a major case for me. Also, Xiao Zhou's coming and going from your place might cause some unnecessary trouble. I think it would be best to give him a police officer's identity and then make a transfer order. I also suggest that you temporarily take over the duties of the Municipal Bureau Director. You and Xiao Zhou will go to the Municipal Bureau at the same time, and Xiao Zhou will need to conceal his identity."
For Fu Yuanshan, this was a minor matter. Arranging a police identity for Zhou Xuan was not difficult. Wei Haihe's arrangement for him and Zhou Xuan to be transferred to the Municipal Bureau at the same time was indeed a good move. Now, his transfer to the Municipal Bureau is only temporary, and Wei Haihe still has that power. But the key point is that, generally, people who are temporarily appointed in this situation have an 80% or higher chance of being given a real position later. Therefore, Fu Yuanshan's transfer to the position of acting director of the Municipal Bureau, even if it is only temporary, will arouse the vigilance of other city leaders with ideas and will also create and put difficulties on Fu Yuanshan.