Chapter 60: The Struggle in the Standing Committee (1)

  At 8:45, Liu Fei followed Jiang Zhengyuan out of the door and walked towards the provincial party committee conference room.

  The provincial party committee and the provincial government are in a large courtyard, within a 5-minute walk from each other.

  At 8:50, Liu Fei followed Jiang Zhengyuan into the provincial party committee meeting room. Inside the meeting room, there was an oval-shaped conference table. Jiang Zhengyuan sat down in the third chair from the right. Liu Fei sat in a seat against the wall behind Jiang Zhengyuan. After a while, the meeting room was filled with people. Liu Fei observed carefully and saw that the first person on the right was a middle-aged old man who looked over 60 years old, wearing a pair of reading glasses, but he had an air of authority about him without even trying.

  This should be Director Cui, right? I didn't expect him to look so majestic. Then Liu Fei's gaze shifted to the second chair, although he could only see the back of the person, but he could feel that Vice Governor Ma was emitting a strong and intimidating aura all over his body today! Only the third one, his own leader Jiang Zhengyuan, sat there with a calm and gentle demeanor. The position at the head table remained empty.

  Just as it was about to be 9 o'clock, the door of the conference room opened and a tall man walked in. Liu Fei's eyes lit up involuntarily! The man looked over fifty years old, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with an elegant demeanor, a hint of a humble smile on his face, and deep, wise eyes. Liu Fei even felt that when he came in, he seemed to have glanced at himself, but quickly withdrew his gaze, so fast that if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't notice. But just in that brief glance, Liu Fei's calf muscles twitched slightly.

  Liu Fei's gaze had been closely following the man in front of him, because he knew that this last person to enter was the one standing at the very top of the power pyramid in Hebei Province - Provincial Party Secretary Xu Guangchun! Remembering that he had once refused his call, a chill ran through Liu Fei's heart! But it quickly passed! However, seeing Xu Guangchun sit down lightly, Liu Fei felt that although he was sitting there, he gave off an aura of being lofty and unapproachable.

  The moment Xu Guangchun entered the house, the room that was still slightly noisy suddenly fell silent!

  Although Xu Guangchun had not yet fully grasped control of Henan Province, the dignity of a provincial Party secretary was unmistakable at this moment. Even Cui Yusheng, the governor who often clashed with him at Standing Committee meetings, could not help but bow his head!

  Xu Guangchun's gaze swept around the room, then fell on a man with some gray hair, and smiled: "Everyone is here, we can start the meeting. Secretary Zheng, you preside over the meeting!"

  "Comrades, Secretary Xu, Governor Cui, and everyone, hello. Now I'll first brief you on the recent main work of the provincial party committee..." Secretary Zheng began to speak, reporting one by one on the work, he spoke quickly, after finishing, he smiled and said: "My work report is finished, which comrade will speak next?"

  "Let me say a couple of words!" Vice Governor Ma Ao Wen leaned forward and said in a loud voice.

  Secretary Zheng made an inviting gesture.

  Ma Ao's expression was one of indignation, and he said loudly: "Leaders, today I will make a serious criticism of Governor Jiang's secretary Liu Fei at this meeting!" After Ma Ao finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became heavy.

  Liu Fei's eyebrows furrowed, and the corner of his eye caught Cheng Hui turning his head slightly, giving him a cold smile full of disdain and contempt. Liu Fei's mouth twitched, but he didn't respond to him. His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Ma Ao Wen, although he could only see his back, but Liu Fei could sense that Ma Ao Wen would soon unleash a barrage of harsh words to attack him.

  As expected, Ma Ao continued: "Just yesterday at noon, in the cafeteria during lunch, Comrade Liu Fei disregarded the friendship between comrades and suddenly used violence to knock down Comrade Cheng Hui, causing a very bad influence among the masses and seriously affecting the unity of comrades. Therefore, I suggest that Comrade Liu Fei be subject to disciplinary action and removal from office, so as to prevent similar incidents from happening again in the future! Let's purify our secretarial team, for such a troublemaker, we must discover and deal with them together, absolutely no tolerance! That's all I have to say."

  Ma Ao-wen finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room became even more solemn. Jiang Zheng-yuan's hand gently grasped the water cup, rotating it lightly, but his eyes had already narrowed, and his right foot tapped the ground lightly.

  Liu Fei's face turned pale with rage. What Ma Ao said was too severe, too biased! What did he mean by "harm to the group" and "purify the secretarial team"? This was simply a **naked personal attack**! Liu Fei was so angry that he wanted to rush up and beat this old man severely, but he didn't move because he knew that in this place, he had no right to speak. The 13 people sitting here were all top figures in Hebei Province, and if they just stomped their feet, the entire province would tremble! Now, Liu Fei could only be like a piece of meat on the chopping board, waiting to be slaughtered at will!

  "I support Governor Ma's opinion! Comrades, Liu Fei is just a deputy secretary at the department level, but he dared to beat up Comrade Cheng Hui, who is at the bureau level and also serves as the Deputy Director of the Secretariat of the Provincial Government Office. He is Liu Fei's direct superior, can you imagine what kind of comrade he is? Does he have any concept of leadership or organizational discipline in his eyes? What is he if not a troublemaker?"

  At this point, flames of anger burst out from Liu Fei's eyes, his fists clenched tightly, almost biting through steel teeth! What a sharp tongue and what discipline in the organization! Must he be framed by Cheng Hui and expelled from the provincial government to show that he has leadership in his eyes and a sense of organizational discipline? It's simply nonsense! The blue veins on his forehead bulged out, Liu Fei had an urge to go berserk!

  "Now that everyone has bullied me to my head, I'll say a few words too!" Jiang Zhengyuan gently put down the water cup in his hand, straightened his body and said coldly: "Governor Ma, have you figured out the ins and outs of this matter?"

  Ma Ao Wen sneered coldly: "Isn't it already clear what happened? Liu Fei and Cheng Hui had a disagreement and started fighting, many people present can testify to that!"

  Jiang Zhengyuan immediately retorted: "This matter was because Cheng Hui designed to frame Liu Fei first, and Liu Fei was furious and hit people, which is understandable!"

  Secretary Zheng couldn't help but furrow his brow, somewhat discontentedly saying: "Two provincial governors, now we're holding a standing committee meeting, right? The standing committee is where we discuss major decisions and personnel changes for the province. Isn't it a bit inappropriate to bring up this kind of thing at a standing committee meeting?"

  Secretary Zheng has a very deep background and has always been in a neutral position, so neither the Secretary faction nor the Provincial Governor faction is willing to offend him. He has always been fair-minded, so both factions have great respect for him. Although his words were somewhat severe, Ma Ao-wen and Jiang Zheng-yuan did not take offense.

  However, Cui Yusheng had already decided to bring this matter up at the Standing Committee meeting. If he didn't, even as a provincial leader, he couldn't just fire a deputy governor's secretary at will, especially since this involved Ma Ao's and his own face-saving issue. Think about it, if a secretary of a vice-governor was beaten by someone else's secretary, and the vice-governor didn't make any statement, how would others view him? How could he win the respect of his secretaries in the future? Everyone knew that Ma Ao and Cui Yusheng were close allies. If both of them remained silent, what would those department-level officials think? You can't even protect your own people, who will still follow you?

  Cui Yusheng glanced at Xu Guangchun, finding that this provincial leader was as calm as Mount Tai, with a faint smile on the corner of his mouth. He didn't say a word, his eyes fixed only on his tea cup. It was clear that up to now, he had not expressed any opinion about what was happening in front of him! Cui Yusheng sneered inwardly: "Don't think you're as calm as a mountain, wait till I finish talking about Liu Fei's matter, the next one will be about the personnel issue of Tangshi City's Politics and Law Committee Secretary. Let's see how I'll win this from you!"