Handong: Sha Li wants political achievements? I'll shut down the entire province.

Li Dakang's mind went blank with a loud "buzz," and his ears were filled with a piercing roar.

He shoved aside his secretary, Xiao Jin, who was slumped on the ground, and rushed to the French windows in a few steps.

He pressed his hands firmly against the cold glass, as if he had been frozen in place.

Following the direction of the little golden finger, Li Dakang saw a scene that made his scalp tingle.

On the main road of Jingzhou, the roar of huge engines tore through the silent night sky.

Hundreds of heavy excavators, road rollers, and dump trucks are lined up in a long line that seems to stretch as far as the eye can see.

The blinding yellow warning lights stretched into a sea of ​​fire, illuminating half of Jingzhou City.

These are all heavy machines that were working hard at the Guangmingfeng construction site during the day.

Now, they are driving in a grand procession onto the ring expressway, heading out of the province without looking back.

Li Dakang's breath caught in his throat, and his eyes widened like saucers.

"It's fake, this is definitely an act!"

He clenched his back teeth tightly, the muscles in his cheeks bulging, and his eyes twitching uncontrollably.

"Yan Qingfeng...you dare to play this trick on me?"

Li Dakang suddenly turned around and kicked the broken teacup pieces on the ground.

The leather shoes made a teeth-grinding scraping sound as they stepped on the broken glass.

He grabbed Xiao Jin by the collar and yanked the secretary up from the ground.

"Go! Summon Sun Liancheng, the district head of Guangming District, and Old Ma from the traffic police brigade to the small conference room!"

Li Dakang's voice was hoarse, as if it had been sanded.

"In less than thirty minutes, I skinned them alive!"

At 2 a.m., the small conference room of the municipal party committee was brightly lit.

The atmosphere was so oppressive you could hear a pin drop.

Sun Liancheng was wearing a wrinkled old cadre jacket and yawning constantly, clearly having been dragged out of his warm bed.

Traffic police detachment leader Ma Changlin was covered in sweat, sitting in a chair constantly wiping his forehead with tissues.

Li Dakang stood in front of the whiteboard, clutching a black marker in his hand, almost crushing the pen barrel.

"Look at this, everyone! They're trying to make us look bad!"

He pounded on the Jingzhou transportation map on the whiteboard, making a dull "bang" sound.

"All the workers and machinery from the more than one hundred infrastructure projects at Guangming Peak have fled!"

Li Dakang's eyes were sharp as he stared intently at the two men sitting below, pretending to be ostriches with their heads down.

Sun Liancheng shrank back and slowly said, "Secretary Li, this matter has become too big of a fuss."

He rubbed his sleepy eyes and sighed with a worried expression.

"I just asked around and found out that not only did they remove the car, but the penalty for breach of contract was also deposited into the government's treasury account."

"This means they weren't joking; they really are leaving," Sun Liancheng muttered to himself.

"Bullshit!" Li Dakang slammed his hand on the table, making the teacup lid bounce.

"Sun Liancheng, Sun Liancheng, you've been the district head for so many years, how come you can't even see through the tricks of capitalists?"

Li Dakang walked around the long table, strode up to Sun Liancheng, and pointed at him condescendingly.

"Businessmen prioritize profit, that's an ironclad rule! He invested nearly 20 billion yuan in our Handong in the early stages."

"The foundations were already half-built, and he just says he doesn't want them anymore? Is Yan Qingfeng some kind of reincarnated god of wealth?"

The more Li Dakang spoke, the more he felt his logic was impeccable.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and regaining his usual confident demeanor.

"What do you call that? That's called bluffing!"

He turned to look at Ma Changlin and let out a cold laugh.

"These business owners have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves. They can send hundreds of cars for a spin around the streets and make a big splash."

"They're just trying to put pressure on me, trying to squeeze more tax breaks and policy subsidies out of me on the Guangmingfeng project!"

Li Dakang picked up the new thermos cup that his secretary had just replaced and slowly blew on it to warm it up.

"I've seen this kind of tactic of using capital to blackmail the government countless times. All bark and no bite!"

"As long as we hold our ground, Yan Qingfeng will definitely have to apologize to me within three days."

Sun Liancheng opened his mouth, wanting to say a few more words of advice.

After all, the Lingxiao Consortium's decisive and efficient style doesn't seem like they're just playing house.

But seeing Li Dakang's stubborn and unyielding demeanor, he ultimately swallowed his words.

It's a battle of the gods; what business is a district head like him getting involved? He should just go back and look at the stars.

Ma Changlin swallowed hard and stood up tremblingly.

"Secretary Li, what should we do about all those cars outside?"

"What should we do? Let's follow our rules!"

Li Dakang put down his cup, a fierce glint in his eyes, like a wolf eyeing its prey.

"Didn't Yan Qingfeng want to withdraw? What is your traffic police detachment doing?!"

Li Dakang strode back to the whiteboard and jabbed his finger heavily at several highway exits leading out of the city.

"Dispatch the police immediately! Set up roadblocks at all exits from the city and checkpoints on the national highways!"

"Check for overloading, check for fatigued driving, check all kinds of operating permits, even check for environmental emissions!"

Ma Changlin was stunned, his face showing difficulty: "Secretary, this kind of investigation is so forceful, but there's no supporting documentation..."

"What documents do you need? Can't you just do routine road safety checks?"

Li Dakang rudely interrupted him, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"I didn't tell you to impound the car, I told you to stall for time! Slightly delay their departure approval process!"

A smug smile curled at the corner of Li Dakang's lips, as if he could already see Yan Qingfeng's discomfiture.

"Thousands of heavy machines, tens of thousands of workers and drivers, are all stuck on the road, burning fuel and doing nothing."

"I want to see just how thick Yan Qingfeng's wallet is, and whether he can afford to waste this money today!"

"He can't continue this show as long as the car can't get out!"

Li Dakang waved his hand and gave a direct, death order: "Ma Changlin, if you don't handle this matter properly tonight, you're fired as the squad leader!"

The meeting ended unhappily.

Ma Changlin put on his peaked cap, jogged out of the municipal party committee building, and led the traffic police brigade to the front line at top speed.

Li Dakang returned to his office and sat down in the boss's chair with an air of authority.

He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

Amidst the swirling bluish-white smoke, Li Dakang's expression gradually relaxed.

He glanced at the red landline on the table, already planning how to handle Yan Qingfeng when he called to beg for mercy.

Time passed by, second by second.

At 2:30 a.m., the phone didn't ring.

At three in the morning, the phone remained as silent as a piece of scrap metal.

Li Dakang burned his finger with his cigarette butt. He snapped back to reality and shoved the cigarette butt into the ashtray.

My eyelids started twitching uncontrollably, and a sense of unease spread through my heart.

What's going on? Old Ma has been gone for almost an hour, why is there still no word from Yan Qingfeng?

Could it be that Yan Qingfeng is a blockhead and is still stubbornly holding on?

Li Dakang stood up and paced back and forth in the office, his leather shoes making no sound at all on the carpet.

Just as he could no longer bear it and was about to call Ma Changlin to inquire about the battle situation.

"Ring ring ring—"

The red landline phone on the desk suddenly started ringing like crazy.

The shrill ringing of the bell echoed in the empty office, startling Li Dakang.

He let out a long sigh, a cold smile creeping onto his lips.

You're still young, Yan Qingfeng. You couldn't hold on any longer.

Li Dakang straightened his tie, deliberately let the phone ring three more times, and then slowly picked up the receiver.

He cleared his throat, adopting the airs of a municipal party secretary.

"Feed? I'm Li Dakang."

The voice coming from the other end of the phone was not Yan Qingfeng giving in.

Instead, it was a desperate roar from traffic police chief Ma Changlin, accompanied by the sounds of wind and engine, almost bringing him to tears.

"Secretary Li! Our people can't hold the city gates at all!"

Ma Changlin's voice was completely cracked due to nervousness.

The sneer on Li Dakang's face froze instantly, and his hand gripping the microphone tightened suddenly.

"Ma Changlin, you can't even stop a few dump trucks? What use are you to me!"

"No, Secretary Li! The chief legal counsel of Lingxiao Group is blocking the highway exit with dozens of lawyers!"

Ma Changlin was so anxious on the phone that he kept stamping his feet, with the background noise of heavy trucks roaring past.

"The truck wasn't overloaded or exceeded height limits, all the construction waste was completely covered, and even the driver's medical examination report was just done yesterday!"

"All their departure procedures and business registrations are legal! The penalty for breach of contract has been deposited into the government's treasury account, so we can't even find a pretext to issue a ticket!"

Li Dakang felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, and his head was buzzing.

He ripped open two buttons on his collar and gasped for breath.

Ma Changlin's final, tearful report was like a heavy hammer blow, shattering all of Li Dakang's pride.

"Secretary Li, we can't stop them! The convoys for over a hundred projects have all crossed the border. There's not even an old man left to guard our Guangming Peak plot!"