Absolute power in officialdom

Chapter 349 The Pragmatic and People-Oriented New County Magistrate

Liao Chenggong was in a real bind again.

Which private enterprise like Daling Coal Mine doesn't evade taxes?

Tax assessment and tax risk check-up—these sound nice, but aren't they just audits?

He cursed Ding Dakang in his heart, "What an idiot! Why bring up output value and taxation!"

Liao Chenggong forced a smile: "County Chief Wu, our coal mine's accounts have always been in order, and we have paid every penny of the taxes due."

Wu Zhiyuan said calmly, "Then we're not afraid of being investigated. Tax checkups are a good thing; they can help companies avoid risks and standardize their tax practices."

Liao Chenggong forced a smile and said, "We welcome the comrades from the tax bureau to come and guide our work, help us standardize our practices, and improve our tax compliance."

However, let's conduct an internal review first and make sure we pay all the taxes due.

Wu Zhiyuan nodded noncommittally: "Self-examination is necessary, but professional guidance is more important."

Since Mr. Liao welcomes it, I'll have the tax bureau make the arrangements later.

Paying taxes is a legal obligation and a social responsibility for businesses.

As a well-known entrepreneur in Qingyan County, Mr. Liao should take the lead in paying taxes honestly and in accordance with the law, right?

"Yes, yes, County Chief Wu is right," Liao Chenggong reluctantly agreed.

He had an idea in mind.

It seems unreasonable to refuse to pay a single penny on tax issues.

He planned to have the finance department conduct a self-check and pay back hundreds of thousands of yuan in taxes.

He used his connections to smooth things over with the tax bureau.

If Wu Zhiyuan persists in pursuing the issue, then we'll have no choice but to ask Yuan Jin to step in.

But this can't go on.

We need to get Wu Zhiyuan under control.

Liao Chenggong suddenly had a misconception: Was Wu Zhiyuan staring at him deliberately picking on him to give him a warning and indirectly make him show some appreciation?

Many officials use this tactic.

Liao Chenggong had seen it all.

He had an idea in mind.

After seeing Wu Zhiyuan and his group off, Liao Chenggong lashed out at Ding Dakang: "You're more trouble than you're worth! If the tax bureau finds out you've evaded taxes, you can forget about being the deputy mine manager!"

Wu Zhiyuan did not return to the county seat, but continued his research in Daling Town.

"County Chief Wu, shall we go to the conference room first?" Ma Zhenshan asked tentatively.

"No, let's go to a village instead."

Which village are you going to?

Wu Zhiyuan turned his gaze to Deputy County Head Liu Feng: "County Head Liu, I've seen your resume. You worked in Daling Town many years ago. You can decide which village you're assigned to!"

Liu Feng was someone who wanted to get things done and was capable of doing so; he was someone Wu Zhiyuan was trying to win over.

But during today's survey, Liu Feng didn't say much.

Wu Zhiyuan could understand that Liu Feng was in charge of agriculture, forestry, water resources, civil affairs, and poverty alleviation, but neither the cement plant dispute nor the coal mine safety production was under Liu Feng's jurisdiction.

The fact that Liu Feng doesn't interfere or speak much when he's not in charge of something precisely demonstrates that he understands the rules and knows his limits.

Liu Feng smiled and said, "I left Daling Town more than ten years ago. However, during these years as the director of the Agriculture Bureau and the deputy county head, I also came to Daling Town many times."

Let's go to Xigou Village then. It's the most remote village in Daling Town, with difficult mountain roads. County leaders rarely visit it, so the situation there is the most authentic.

To be honest, it's been many years since I've been there. I wonder if anything has changed?

Wu Zhiyuan immediately made the decision: "Okay, let's go to Xigou Village then."

When county leaders go to conduct research at the grassroots level, the town usually arranges which village to visit in advance.

If it is a higher-level leader, such as a city or provincial leader, who goes to a village, not only which village to visit is arranged in advance, but also who to meet and what to say to each person.

The car wound its way along the rugged mountain road, and the road conditions became worse the closer it got to Xigou Village.

The once relatively smooth rural road gradually became bumpy and potholed, causing the car to sway left and right as if it were drunk.

Liu Feng deliberately rode in the same car as Wu Zhiyuan.

"County Chief Wu, I have been away from Daling Town for more than ten years, but the road conditions have not improved, but have gotten worse."

Look, this car is swaying back and forth; it almost shook the yolk in my crotch to pieces.

Liu Feng's joke made Wu Zhiyuan laugh.

"Yes, the road conditions are really bad. If you want to get rich, you must first build roads. Without good transportation, it's difficult for villagers to get rich."

After a bumpy half-hour ride, we finally arrived at the village office.

The village office is a row of tiled houses with a fairly large courtyard.

The surrounding villages are mainly tiled houses, with some multi-story houses, but very few. Some houses are still mud-walled and thatched huts.

In recent years, Wu Zhiyuan has worked and lived in several counties, and it is rare to see mud-walled and thatched houses there.

I saw it again today, which shows that some villagers in Xigou Village are still very poor.

Village Party Secretary Wang Changgui was already waiting at the village office. When he saw the car arrive, he quickly went to greet it.

Wang Changgui is in his fifties and doesn't look like a farmer; he looks more like a shrewd businessman.

"Welcome, leaders, to Xigou Village for your inspection and guidance. It has been many years since county leaders have visited Xigou Village."

Wang Changgui must have become the village party secretary in recent years, because he didn't know Liu Feng.

Wu Zhiyuan grasped Wang Changgui's hand: "Secretary Wang, don't talk about inspection and guidance. We just came to see what's going on, understand the situation, and listen to the voices of the villagers."

Wang Changgui wanted to lead Wu Zhiyuan and the others to the village office, but Wu Zhiyuan said, "Let's not go into the village office to hear the report first. Let's take a walk around the village and talk as we go."

Wu Zhiyuan knew that he wouldn't hear much of the truth from the reports.

Even when you look, sometimes what you see is an illusion.

For example, when provincial leaders go to villages for research, what they see is not necessarily the truth.

After walking a few steps, I saw several elderly people sitting under a big tree, basking in the sun and chatting.

Wu Zhiyuan walked over and asked an old man, "Sir, sunbathing? How are you feeling?"

Wang Changgui introduced Wu Zhiyuan's identity from the side.

The old man was stunned: "County magistrate? Such a young county magistrate? I'm in good health, aren't I?"

"Sir, are your children with you?"

A villager brought out two long benches.

Wu Zhiyuan and the others sat on benches.

The old man said, "My son and daughter-in-law have gone to work in the south and will only come back for the Chinese New Year."

My grandson went along too. My daughter's family also works away from home.

In rural areas, you can't make a living without working; it's hard enough to support a family on those few acres of land.

Wang Changgui said, "County Chief Wu, there are many elderly people like this in Xigou Village who are left behind in their hometowns."

All the young people have gone out, leaving only the elderly and children, some of whom have been taken out by adults.

Some elderly people only see their children a few times a year, and have no one to take care of them when they are sick.

Wu Zhiyuan nodded. He grew up in the countryside and was familiar with rural life.

Wu Zhiyuan nodded and continued to ask the old man, "Sir, who farms your land?"

The old man sighed: "The land? Most of it is abandoned."

My son and daughter-in-law have both gone out to work. This old man of mine can only grow one acre of land to make ends meet; I can't grow more than that.

It hurts to see the land lying fallow, but there's nothing I can do.

Wu Zhiyuan asked Wang Changgui, "Secretary Wang, there are national policies regarding abandoned farmland, requiring it to be transferred or cultivated by the village collective. Does Xigou Village have a lot of abandoned land?"

Wang Changgui said somewhat awkwardly, "There are quite a few. The young people have left, and the elderly can't farm them anymore, so they're just left to lie fallow."

We've considered transferring ownership, but who will do it?

The land in the mountains is scattered in patches, not contiguous, so machinery can't access it, and nobody wants it even if it's offered for sale.

Hearing that the county magistrate had arrived, the villagers gathered in twos and threes.

Before long, a group of thirty or forty people had gathered under the big tree.

Wu Zhiyuan stood up and greeted them with a smile: "Fellow villagers, I just came to see you all, to hear what difficulties you have, and what you want to say. Please speak freely."

A middle-aged woman spoke first: "County Magistrate Wu, since you asked, I'll be bold and say a few words."

Our Xigou Village may not have much else, but it has a lot of mountain products.

Wild walnuts, local honey, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear fungus, and dried bamboo shoots are famous throughout the surrounding area. Their quality is much better than what is sold outside, because the air is clean and there is no pollution. City dwellers can't get these delicacies even if they want to.

Vendors come to the village to buy walnuts for three yuan a pound and honey for twenty yuan a pound. They then take the honey to the county and city and sell it for several times the price.

We wanted to take it out to sell ourselves, but the roads were in such bad condition that the car was barely able to move, and the goods were all damaged before we even got there.

Even if it's not bad, we don't know who to sell it to. We have no connections, no packaging, and no one to help us organize it.

They're sitting on a mountain of gold all year round, yet they live in poverty!

Liu Feng whispered to Wu Zhiyuan, "County Chief Wu, many townships in Qingyan County have this problem."

There are many specialty agricultural products, but they are all grown and sold in a scattered manner, without scale, industrial chain, or brand.

When I was working at the Agriculture Bureau, I thought about setting up agricultural cooperatives, but for various reasons, the results weren't ideal.

An elderly man in his fifties said, "County Chief Wu, you saw it when you came here. The road is terrible! On sunny days you're covered in dust, and on rainy days you're covered in mud."

Large vehicles can't get in, and small cars have a hard time moving around.

I almost tumbled into a ditch while driving my tricycle to town to pick up fertilizer before the New Year! If this road isn't repaired, everything else is pointless!

Liu Feng added from the side: "County Chief Wu, the situation in Xigou Village is somewhat representative of the mountainous villages in Qingyan County."

While there are specialty agricultural products, they are produced on a small, scattered basis, lacking branding and stable sales channels. Transportation is the biggest constraint.

A few years ago, the county planned to upgrade and renovate several rural roads, but there was a large funding gap, and remote villages like Xigou Village were never included in the plan.

The villagers poured out their grievances one after another.

"The shiitake mushrooms I grow are of better quality than those sold in the supermarkets in the county town, but the supermarkets simply won't buy from us small-scale farmers. They say we don't have the qualifications or the testing done. How would we ordinary folks know about these things!"

"We don't want to leave our hometown to work elsewhere. Who doesn't want to stay with their wife and children and have a warm bed?"

But apart from a few cement plants and coal mines, there are no other businesses in the village or town.

If we don't go out to work, what will our family eat and drink?

"County Chief Wu, I have something else to report. Petty theft is rampant in our village!"

My family's five-year-old yellow ox was stolen last month at night.

That's the main breadwinner of my family! I reported it to the police, and the police station came, but they still haven't solved the case. I asked them several times, and they said that the mountains are high and the roads are far, there are no surveillance cameras, and no eyewitnesses, so they can't solve the case.

It wasn't just my family; Old Zhang's two sheep in the village in front, and Old Wang's several hens in the village behind, were all stolen. Now everyone's in a state of panic.

"Exactly! Now the village is mostly left with the old, weak, sick, and disabled, so those petty thieves only pick on the easy targets!"

"Many homes in the village have been burglarized, but the police station has not solved a single case or caught a single thief."

The villagers were all talking at once, and their emotions were running high.

Wu Zhiyuan, his expression grave, looked at Ma Zhenshan, the town's Party Secretary, and Fan Xiaoyong, the town's mayor, who hadn't said much: "Secretary Ma, Mayor Fan, the villagers' complaints about theft are so prominent, what measures have the town and the police station taken?"

Ma Zhenshan stammered, "I've heard about this... and I've also asked the police station to increase patrols."

However, rural areas are sparsely populated, police resources are limited, and evidence collection is difficult, resulting in a low case-solving rate. We will definitely strengthen our oversight in the future…”

Fan Xiaoyong nodded quickly: "Yes, yes, we'll hold a special meeting when we get back today to study how to strengthen joint security measures."