NCCnovel Chapter 947 Qi Tongwei, who was taken advantage of.
Chapter 947 Qi Tongwei, who was taken advantage of.
Gao Yuan was surprised that Niu Xiaobing's prediction had actually come true.
When he introduced himself, Deputy Director Lai of the government office, who was in charge of receiving him, appeared enthusiastic but actually politely declined his request to visit Qi Tongwei.
"I'm so sorry, Director Gao, our mayor has gone down to inspect the area and may not be back for a day or two."
Gao Yuan said, "Could you please make a call for me and tell him that I need to speak with him urgently?"
Deputy Director Lai still wore his formulaic smile. "I'm afraid that won't work. As you know, our mayor is going abroad for an inspection tour next week, and it will be quite a long trip."
Therefore, he had to hurry and squeeze out time to arrange his work after leaving the area, leaving him with virtually no time to meet with guests.
"How about this, Director Gao, I'll speak to the Municipal Party Committee Office on your behalf and arrange an appointment with Secretary He."
Gao Yuan was taken aback. Although he didn't pay much attention to the situation in Beishan City, he had heard that the Party Secretary of Beishan City didn't make decisions on major issues, and it was useless for him to contact him.
Helpless, he could only take out his phone to call Qi Tongwei, but when he opened his phone, he realized that he had not saved Qi Tongwei's number at all.
Gao Yuan thought about it and realized that he had been drunk that night and hadn't had a chance to stay.
"Hey, Director Lai, what's Mayor Qi's phone number? Can I call him?"
Seeing that Gao Yuan was so uncooperative, Deputy Director Lai had no choice but to give him a work phone number.
When Gao Yuan called, it wasn't Qi Tongwei who answered; it was Wang Wenjie.
It's only because Wang Wenjie knew about the relationship between Gao Yuan and Qi Tongwei that this became another hurdle.
Qi Tongwei was slightly surprised to learn of Gao Yuan's visit.
He was paying attention to this Director Gao, and he heard that he was making a big fuss about it at the Grain Bureau.
Upon taking office, he established many new rules. The new director of the Municipal Grain Bureau complained to him about the heavy workload, pressure, and difficulties in carrying out the work, and was even criticized by him.
Qi Tongwei believed that those rules were legal, compliant, and beneficial to the country, and therefore he should support them.
Qi Tongwei asked his secretary to invite the other party in.
Soon, Gao Yuan entered, led by his secretary.
"Comrade Tong Wei."
"Comrade Gao Yuan, it's been a long time." Qi Tongwei stood up, shook hands with the other party, and led him to sit down on the sofa.
Gao Yuan looked around Qi Tongwei's office.
It's very simple. Apart from the filing cabinet, the usual desks and sofas, and a few thriving green plants in the corner, there are no other decorations.
This improved his impression of Qi Tongwei even more.
No wonder he became mayor at such a young age; he doesn't have the frivolous air that young people should have.
In his grain bureau, he noticed that many cadres' offices had huge fish tanks and calligraphy and paintings with phrases like "tranquility leads to far-reaching goals," which immediately gave the impression of being fake and impractical.
"Comrade Tongwei, it's really not easy to see you." As soon as he sat down, Gao Yuan complained with a wry smile, "You're in the city, but the people below say you're not here."
Gao Yuan didn't think too much about it, assuming that his subordinates were only paying lip service.
Qi Tongwei explained with a smile, "I'm really sorry, but I'm scared. You don't know, ever since Beishan has improved, there have been more and more people trying to take advantage of us."
It's either this department or that bureau; if I don't meet with them, people will think I'm putting on airs and offending them.
Upon meeting, before they had even exchanged a few words, they suddenly encountered difficulties.
It's making me wonder if I made things difficult for them.
"So how did you handle it?" Gao Yuan asked with a smile.
"What else can we do? The top leader has come to us. We have to give him something, no matter what, otherwise we'll offend him."
Gao Yuan listened with a smile, but no one knew what he was thinking.
Qi Tongwei continued, "Later I realized that it was a completely wrong decision."
Once the news spread, even more people came, including some public institutions who came to me asking for donations, using all sorts of bizarre excuses.
A few days ago, the Party Secretary of the Provincial Writers Association stopped me at the gate and talked to me at length about the benefits of publicity.
They said their provincial writers' association was responding to the province's call to strongly support the province's "Strengthening the North" plan.
"They want to help me publish an autobiography and a city image book for Beishan. They even brought samples." Qi Tongwei stood up, picked up a brochure from the table, and handed it to Gao Yuan. "This is it. They said they'd help us distribute 100,000 copies. They'll cover the production costs for free; they just need me to sponsor some printing fees."
Gao Yuan flipped through the book; the picture book was exquisite, containing stories of famous people from Beishan and depictions of mountain scenery. "This is very well made. How many do they want?"
“Five million right off the bat.” Qi Tongwei held out his palm.
"Five million!" Gao Yuan's eyes widened. Good heavens, this was faster than robbery.
“I ignored them, and they lowered the price to one million themselves. In the end, I only gave them eight hundred thousand and told them to get it out of the factory within a month.”
"Eight hundred thousand?" Gao Yuan estimated. "Then they didn't make much money."
Qi Tongwei laughed and said, "They made money everywhere, at least 500,000." He pointed to the picture book, "If it were a book, they definitely wouldn't make any money, but with just these 20 or 30 pages of pictures, they made a fortune."
Gao Yuan realized, "It really is."
"So, you give me a tap, I give you a tap, and last month alone, I was asked for nearly ten million in donations. I can't afford to mess with them now, so I can only hide."
Gao Yuan smiled and shook his head.
Qi Tongwei suddenly realized he'd gone off on a tangent, "By the way, Comrade Gao Yuan, what brings you here this time...?"
Gao Yuan hesitated to speak. If Qi Tongwei hadn't said those words, he wouldn't have thought anything of it, but now it was putting him in a difficult position.
After a moment of silence, Gao Yuan revealed his purpose: "Comrade Tongwei, to be honest, I've come here to ask for your help."
"Help?" Qi Tongwei waved his hand and laughed, "No problem, given your relationship with the teacher, as long as I can do it."
"I would like to borrow some money from your city."
Qi Tongwei stopped laughing. "How much?"
"Eight hundred million!"
"How much? Eight hundred million!" Qi Tongwei almost thought he had misheard.
Eight hundred million is no small sum, and Beishan has only seen some improvement in the past year or so.
If it were a year ago, let alone 800 million, it would have been difficult for Beishan to even get 80 million.
"Comrade Gao Yuan, eight hundred million is no small sum, this..." Qi Tongwei hesitated.
Beishan itself also needs to develop, and lending out such a large sum of money could very likely affect Beishan's development speed.
Gao Yuan smiled bitterly and said, "I know this is a lot of money, but I urgently need this money to save lives and the lives of ordinary people. I promise that I will pay back this money within a year."
Qi Tongwei did not agree immediately, but instead inquired about the specific use of the funds.
It turns out this was related to the heavy rains in Heji County during this period.
Due to the impact of torrential rains, wheat could not be harvested in time, resulting in huge economic losses for farmers.
This era was unlike later times, where one could work odd jobs everywhere and even earn more than by farming.
Many farmers rely on the harvest from their fields to make a living all year round.
This heavy rain has essentially wiped out six months of the farmers' hard work.
If this problem is not addressed in time, the plight of farmers could very well affect social stability.
Therefore, Gao Yuan wanted to use the name of the Provincial Grain Bureau to purchase sprouted wheat that had sprouted after being soaked by heavy rain, in order to reduce the farmers' losses.