The game of power begins with the police officers at the local police station.

Recently, Chen Shi has been invited to dinner by many people, but he has refused them all. Whoever has a project is highly sought after, and even people who are completely unrelated to him have suddenly appeared.

Chen Shi was at his wits' end in his office. The government had only allocated one billion yuan, and where was he going to get the remaining nearly two billion yuan?

Whether the municipal finance department can request 500 million is a big question mark, and whether the municipal education bureau can request 200 to 300 million is also a problem.

Even if we could get it, it wouldn't be more than a billion, and the hole would still be huge. Chen Shi sighed, "Even a clever woman can't cook without rice."

Thinking only leads to problems, doing only leads to answers. Tomorrow is Wednesday, I plan to go to the city to make some arrangements, find the relevant leaders, and think of a solution.

If things don't work out at the city level, go to the provincial level to find the relevant leaders. As long as you don't give up, there are always more solutions than problems.

Just as Chen Shi was deep in thought, Wang Zhikai arrived at the office door, which was open, and he still knocked gently.

Chen Shi looked up and saw that it was Wang Zhikai. He called out, "Director Wang, please come in."

Wang Zhikai sat down in the reception room. Chen Shi got up, came to the reception room, and poured Wang Zhikai a cup of tea.

"Director Wang, how's the land acquisition going?"

Wang Zhikai took a sip of tea and said with a troubled look, "Director Chen, I'm here to report on the land acquisition situation."

Chen Shi waited for him to continue.

"The three key high schools involved the requisition of a total of 870 mu of land, including forest land, arable land, and farmland. The requisition fee was 50,000 yuan per mu for farmland, 30,000 yuan per mu for arable land, and 20,000 yuan per mu for forest land. Based on this standard, 120 mu of arable land, 690 mu of forest land, and 60 mu of farmland were requisitioned. The total amount of funds for the land requisition was 20.4 million yuan."

Secretary Li and Director Wang of Zhongshan Subdistrict Office unanimously demanded that the compensation for the expropriated land be transferred to them and distributed so that the villagers would not cause trouble.

This morning I received a call from Director Zhang of the Petition Bureau. Villagers have already come to the bureau to petition, saying that the compensation for the expropriated land is only a few dozen yuan per square meter, which is too low, and they are demanding an increase in the unit price of the expropriated land.

Chen Shi also wanted to reduce the compensation for each mu of land, whether it was farmland or cultivated land, and to collect 20,000 yuan per mu. Some villagers had already petitioned, and he wondered whether he should still implement this idea.

Wang Zhikai placed the land expropriation documents he was holding in front of Chen Shi.

Chen Shi picked it up, glanced at it, and realized that with no money in the treasury, things were difficult to get done. He still made a decision.

"Director Wang, the standards for land expropriation should be lowered. Go and negotiate with Secretary Li Hong and Director Wang Jianming. Whether it's farmland or cultivated land, we should all use the standards for forest land, expropriating 20,000 yuan per mu. For 870 mu, that's a total of 17.4 million yuan. This way, we can save 3 million yuan in expropriation fees."

With finances tight, we need to save wherever possible. I'll talk to the customs bureau later and see if they can transfer the land acquisition funds to the education bureau as soon as possible.

"We'll have a director's office meeting this afternoon. You need to finalize the standards for land acquisition."

Chen Shi sympathized with the villagers. From the villagers' perspective, they would definitely not be willing to pay tens of yuan per square meter, feeling that it was too low. However, from the overall perspective, it was already quite good that the land was not expropriated without compensation.

These lands are not being requisitioned for commercial use; they are for building schools and are intended for public benefit.

In many impoverished counties, school land is acquired free of charge to provide convenience for the children of villagers whose land has been acquired to attend school.

Wang Zhikai said with a troubled expression, "Director Chen, according to the current standards for land expropriation, some villagers have already petitioned. If all the land is expropriated according to the standards for forest land, I'm afraid the villagers will petition the provincial authorities."

Chen Shi said solemnly, "If villagers are afraid to petition, then there's no point in doing anything. The Ministry of Land and Resources has regulations regarding land for education. In many impoverished counties, land is requisitioned without compensation. We have already compensated the villagers according to the standards for forest land. Now the government is short of funds, so we must try our best to save on expenses."

Director Wang, you must consider the bigger picture. Go find Secretary Li Hong and Director Wang Jianming immediately; I need the results at the meeting this afternoon.

Wang Zhikai cursed inwardly, thinking that he was being asked to do this thankless task, and that he had no choice but to do it because his superiors assigned it to him.

Wang Zhikai originally wanted to strike first. He said that some villagers had petitioned and came to report on the land requisition. He was worried that Chen Shi would lower the standards for land requisition, so he deliberately said that some villagers had petitioned and said that the standards for land requisition were too low, in order to shut Chen Shi up.

Some villagers went to petition, mainly to complain about the difficulty of accessing education and the inability to attend school locally.

The villagers only mentioned that the land acquisition standards were too low.

Seeing Chen Shi's serious expression, Wang Zhikai dared not bargain, stood up, and left dejectedly.

Chen Shi called Yang Xiaobo to his office: "Old Yang, at three o'clock this afternoon, notify the three deputy directors to hold a director's office meeting."

Yang Xiaobo took out his notebook, wrote it down, and quickly arranged for the notification.

After leaving Chen Shi's office, Wang Zhikai called Li Hong.

"Is Secretary Li in his office?"

Li Hong smiled broadly and said, "Director Wang, I'm in my office. Would you like to come over and invite me to dinner?"

"I'm coming over at noon to invite you and Director Wang to lunch. I have some important matters to discuss with you."

After hanging up the phone, Wang Zhikai checked the time; it was almost eleven o'clock. He quickly called his driver to take him to the Zhongshan Subdistrict Office.

Upon arriving at the subdistrict office, Wang Zhikai went directly to Li Hong's office.

Li Hong stood up to greet him: "Director Wang, there's no use in being anxious. I can't do anything about the land acquisition compensation not being paid. If the villagers don't get their compensation, they'll definitely cause trouble, and I can't bear that responsibility."

Wang Zhikai plopped down on the sofa: "Secretary Li, it's not about that. Director Chen said he'll talk to Director Guan about the land expropriation fees and get them to you as soon as possible."

The reconstruction of three key high schools is a project spearheaded by Secretary Liu. It is being handled with special care, and the Land and Resources Bureau has already approved it. Director Huang is arranging the project bidding.

This morning, I reported the land expropriation compensation to Director Chen. Director Chen proposed that regardless of whether it is farmland or cultivated land, it should all be calculated as forest land at 2 yuan per mu.

Li Hong frowned. This was not a good matter. The villagers complained that the land expropriation price was too low, and now the standard was to be lowered. They were afraid the villagers would cause trouble.

"Director Wang, the land acquisition is handled by Director Wang. Go talk to him. I have an appointment with County Chief Zhang at noon to report to the government office. Excuse me."

Wang Zhikai quickly said, "Secretary Li, didn't we agree that I would treat everyone to lunch?"

Li Hong smiled and said, "Secretary Xu just called. County Chief Zhang is only free at noon. Go over and have lunch with County Chief Zhang, and we'll report on our work while we eat."

Seeing that Li Hong had left, Wang Zhikai could only go to find Wang Jianming.

Arriving at Wang Jianming's office, he greeted him with a fawning smile, "Director Wang, are you busy?"

Wang Jianming stood up to greet him: "No rush, Director Wang, please have a seat."

Wang Zhikai sat down and got straight to the point: "Director Wang, I spoke with Director Chen this morning about the land acquisition funds. He will talk to Director Guan and ask him to allocate the funds as soon as possible."

Wang Jianming's face lit up with joy: "That's great! With the funds allocated, we can start arranging the land acquisition."

Wang Zhikai continued, "Director Chen gave instructions that all land, whether farmland or cultivated land, should be expropriated as forest land."

Wang Jianming's smile faded: "Director Wang, if we use the current standards for land acquisition, the villagers may petition the higher authorities, complaining that the unit price of the acquired land is too low. If we lower the standards further, I'm afraid some villagers will cause trouble."

This is a very important matter; you need to discuss it with Secretary Li.

Wang Zhikai said in a low voice, "I just talked to Secretary Li, and he said you're in charge of land acquisition, so he told me to talk to you."

Wang Jianming never expected that Li Hong would pass the buck to him, making him do the dirty work that would offend people.