Special forces soldier demobilization: Starting from the county government compound, a meteoric rise

The prosperity of the city is just a glamorous facade.

Peel back this facade, and you'll find a shocking array of holes underneath.

The hollowing out of industry has led to the closure and shutdown of many factories, leaving workers with no choice but to flock to the service sector to earn meager wages; exorbitant housing prices are like a crazy blood-sucking machine, draining the last bit of vitality from young people; and foreign capital and local oligarchs are colluding to form an impenetrable monopolistic interest community, tightly strangling the city's throat.

This is a hundred times more complex and dangerous than Ningzhou back then. Ningzhou was cracking down on organized crime and corrupt officials, while Haishi is facing a super-capital behemoth that operates under the guise of legality and manipulates financial rules.

The "ten-year plan" proposed at the Standing Committee meeting was merely a trial balloon; Liu Ming's real weapon is still sheathed.

It was a weekend morning, just as dawn was breaking.

Liu Ming changed into an inconspicuous casual outfit, wore a baseball cap, and without notifying the Municipal Party Committee Office, took only Tank, who was also dressed in casual clothes, and quietly left the Municipal Party Committee compound.

Instead of going to the Bund to see the towering skyscrapers, they ventured into the oldest alleyways of the city.

The air here is thick with the smoke from coal stoves and the lingering musty smell. In the narrow alleyways, overhead are a dense web of power lines and clothes drying in the sun.

"Boss, this place is like heaven and earth compared to the Bund." Tank was a big guy who had to duck to barely walk past the clotheslines. He frowned and muttered.

"This is the most authentic mirage." Liu Ming looked at the elderly people queuing to empty their chamber pots at the entrance of the alley, her eyes deep.

The two walked to a breakfast stall selling pan-fried buns and sat down. The stall owners were a middle-aged couple, who moved quickly, but their faces were etched with the marks of life's hardships.

"Boss, two servings of pan-fried buns and two bowls of wontons, please," Liu Ming called out skillfully.

"Okay, coming right away!" The proprietress wiped her hands and served the steaming hot breakfast.

Liu Ming took a bite of the pan-fried bun and casually started chatting with a middle-aged man at the next table who wore thick-rimmed glasses and looked like a technician.

"Brother, judging by your attire, you must work in the High-Tech Zone, right? Why do you live in this alleyway all the way away?"

The middle-aged man gave a wry smile and pushed up his glasses: "I used to work in a chip factory in the high-tech zone. Later, the factory was acquired by 'Dingsheng Group'. They thought that doing R&D was too slow to make money, so they simply leveled the factory area and built luxury apartments."

All of us tech people have been laid off. With housing prices so high now, we can't even afford a toilet in the city center. We have to rent in alleyways and squeeze onto the subway for three hours every day to do outsourced repairs for foreign companies to make a living.

Liu Ming paused slightly as she picked up the steamed bun, her eyes darkening.

Dingsheng Group.

This is the largest local real estate tycoon in Shanghai, and it goes without saying who's behind him.

"Is this Dingsheng Group so domineering? Doesn't the government care?" Tank couldn't help but interject.

"Manage? How?" The middle-aged man lowered his voice as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world. "Wang Haiba, the boss of Dingsheng, is practically the 'half-underground mayor' of Hai City."

They have connections everywhere; supposedly, they have a life-or-death relationship with several high-ranking city officials. They never need to bid for land; whichever plot they want, the government has to give it to them. If ordinary people dare to cause trouble during demolitions, their security companies are more ruthless than the old-school organized crime.

After breakfast, Liu Ming left the alley with the tank and took a taxi straight to Lujiazui, Shanghai's financial district.

In stark contrast to the dilapidated alleyways, this place is a world of fame and fortune where money and desire intertwine. Financial elites in Armani suits hurry about their business, and in the cafes, they discuss projects worth tens or hundreds of millions.

Liu Ming walked into an upscale coffee shop and found a corner seat to sit down.

"Boss, what are we here for? To watch these white-collar workers showing off?" Tank took a big gulp of ice water, feeling that the air here reeked of money.

"Look at how these white-collar workers are being exploited."

Liu Ming's sharp gaze swept over the crowd in the coffee shop. He noticed that although these people appeared well-dressed, many of them wore expressions of barely concealed anxiety and exhaustion.

He got up and walked to the bar, striking up a conversation with a young woman who was waiting for her coffee. The woman was dressed in a sophisticated business suit, but had heavy dark circles under her eyes and was anxiously checking stock market quotes on her phone.

"Watching the market? The market hasn't been doing too well lately," Liu Ming said gently.

The girl sighed and complained somewhat irritably, "It's not just bad, it's a disaster. We're working on projects at 'Ocean Investment,' working ourselves to the bone every day, and all our bonuses are being used by the higher-ups to fill the holes in the real estate business."

The company forced us employees to pool our money to buy a piece of land. Now the land is tied up, and we can't get our money back. We can't even afford the down payment; we can't go on like this.

Liu Ming calmly memorized the name "Ocean Investment." This was also a financial institution with close ties to Dingsheng Group, and one of the major oligarchs in Shanghai.

Throughout the day, Liu Ming and Tank visited old residential areas, unfinished construction sites, job markets, and the financial district, piecing together a shocking map of power in Shanghai.

Dingsheng Group, Ocean Investment, and Dahua Trading.

These three local oligopolies wield immense power in Haishi. Through their deeply entrenched political and business connections, they acquire land at low prices and sell houses at high prices, using ordinary people's hard-earned money to engage in financial leverage. They suppress and even acquire local high-tech enterprises, turning them into appendages of the real estate industry. They even collude with foreign capital to sell off Haishi's core resources in exchange for huge kickbacks.

They are no longer just businesses, but a malignant tumor parasitizing the behemoth that is Haishi, hijacking the city's economic lifeline.

As night falls, the lights are on.

Liu Ming stood on the viewing platform on the Bund, the river breeze making his trench coat flutter.

Across the river, the dazzling Oriental Pearl Tower and the towering financial center rise into the clouds, while boats throng the river surface. It is a picture of prosperity and grandeur.

But Liu Ming's eyes were filled with icy coldness.

"Boss, we've got the situation figured out." Ghost Hand's call came into Liu Ming's specially encrypted cell phone.

"explain."

"Wang Haiba of Dingsheng Group has been transferring funds to overseas accounts these past two days. He owns three high-end real estate projects, all of which have been halted and abandoned due to a broken capital chain."

Instead of appeasing the homebuyers, he deployed a large number of security guards to suppress the protesting citizens. Furthermore, I discovered that the land approval documents for these unfinished buildings were all illegally approved by Mayor Zhao Dehan.

Ghost Hand's voice carried a hint of seriousness, "Boss, these guys want to make one last quick buck and run away. If these three schemes collapse, the hard-earned money of hundreds of thousands of people in Shanghai will be gone, and it could trigger a large-scale mass incident."

Liu Ming hung up the phone and gripped the railing of the observation deck tightly with both hands.

The money of ordinary people is earned through painstaking effort; it represents their entire hope for this city and this country. Yet these oligarchs treat this hope as a bargaining chip for their reckless spending and their eventual absconding!

It’s tolerable, it’s unbearable!

"Boss, these bastards are too arrogant. Where do we even begin?" Tank's knuckles cracked as he gripped the tank. He hated these scum who preyed on the people the most.

Liu Ming gazed at the brightly lit, luxurious private yacht belonging to the Dingsheng Group on the river. A lavish banquet was being held on board, with Wang Haiba and a group of high-ranking officials from Haishi clinking glasses.

A murderous glint flashed in Liu Ming's eyes as she coldly uttered a single sentence.

"Don't they like to speculate on land and build houses?"

"Then I'll start by taking down Dingsheng, this real estate oligarch! I'll uproot their land!"