Courtyard House: From Deputy Division Commander to Civilian, Progressing All the Way

Pei Yihong pointed at the burly men leading the shouting outside the gate, his eyes blazing with fury.

"You bunch of factory parasites! You secretly sold high-quality ore to illegal workshops in the surrounding towns, then filled the old blast furnaces with scrap iron slag to make up the numbers! By blowing up the blast furnace, I'm taking away your livelihoods, you bloodsuckers! As long as I, Pei Yihong, stand here today, the old blast furnaces of Hanjiang No. 3 Factory will never be able to be lit again!"

A brief commotion broke out in the crowd. Several burly men whose thoughts had been exposed by Pei Yihong changed their expressions, and a sinister glint flashed in their eyes.

These leaders were not real steelworkers at all. They were malignant tumors that leeched off the massive industrial behemoth that was the Han River. During those years of chaotic management, they amassed a fortune by colluding with certain powerful leaders in the factory, falsely reporting losses, and stealing special steel and coal from the country.

After Pei Yihong was parachuted into Hanjiang as Vice Governor and Director of the Industry and Information Technology Commission, his first move was to target these outdated production capacities.

He swiftly destroyed eleven outdated blast furnaces that had no economic value and directly froze the salary accounts of 30,000 "ghost workers" who were nominally working in the factory but were actually receiving salaries without working.

This cut was too deep and too ruthless. It directly severed the deeply entrenched local interest chains in Hanjiang Province.

Thus, today's organized and premeditated encirclement and suppression took place.

"Stop your fucking nonsense! You, this high-ranking official transferred from elsewhere, don't care about our lives at all! Everyone, don't listen to his nonsense, rush in! Pull the main switch on the new workshop!"

A man with a scar on his face hid in the middle of the crowd, shouting hoarsely to incite them.

A clod of frozen soil, about half the size of a brick, suddenly flew out from behind the crowd, accompanied by a whistling sound, and landed precisely on Pei Yihong, who was standing in the jeep.

boom!

Unable to dodge in time, Pei Yihong was hit hard on the forehead by a chunk of frozen soil.

Blood gushed out instantly, flowing down his brow bone and into his eyes, staining half of his cheek red.

"Director Pei!" Several accompanying staff members screamed in fright and tried to pull him out of the car.

"Don't touch me!"

Pei Yihong flung the officer's hand away. He didn't touch his bleeding forehead, or even wipe it.

He let the blood drip onto his gray jacket, his eyes, like those of a lone wolf, fixed on the dark mass of people outside the gate, his body still standing straight, without taking a single step back.

"Trying to storm the factory? Fine!" Pei Yihong gritted his teeth, his voice like a demon crawling out of hell. "Today, if any of you dare to cross this retractable gate even half a step, I guarantee that not only will you lose your jobs, but I, Pei Yihong, will risk my life to send you all to prison!"

The sight of blood and iron bones caused the frenzied crowd to hesitate for a moment.

And in a private room on the second floor of a teahouse less than one kilometer away from the Hanjiang Third Factory.

Liu Tieming, the vice governor of Hanjiang Province in charge of industry, was sitting by the window with the director of the Hanjiang City Public Security Bureau, holding purple clay teacups and coldly observing the farce at the factory gate.

"Governor Liu, that man surnamed Pei is bleeding. If our people don't step in to maintain order, and someone dies, we'll be blamed by the higher-ups..." The police chief wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, getting restless.

Liu Tieming slowly blew on the tea leaves on the surface of the tea, a sinister smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"What's the rush? The people's anger needs to be vented. Doesn't Pei Yihong pride himself on being a reform pioneer in the Ministry of Heavy Industry? Doesn't he have the special funds from the central government to buy out 30,000 workers? Since he likes to be the villain, let him be the villain to the end."

Liu Tieming put down his teacup, his eyes revealing a shrewd, bureaucratic calculation.

"If he doesn't blow up the blast furnace and take away those people's livelihoods, how will those township enterprises supply our city's finances? This kid has severed the entire province's pig iron profit chain with one stroke. If he doesn't die, who will?"

Liu Tieming snorted coldly: "Tell the men to wait another half hour. We'll step in when Pei Yihong is cornered by the crowd, or when he orders the factory security to forcibly suppress them. Then, we'll slap a big label of 'violently escalating public conflict' on him, and his position as director of the Industry and Information Technology Commission will be over. Even the Ministry of Heavy Industry behind him won't be able to protect a madman who instigated a province-wide riot!"

This is the most vicious "Tai Chi push hand" in local officialdom. Using someone else's strength against them, killing without shedding blood.

However, despite all his careful planning, Liu Tieming overlooked one thing.

That was the man standing behind Pei Yihong, who never played by any unspoken rules of officialdom. He was not only the former Minister of Heavy Industry, but also the current Chairman of the Modern Reform and Development Committee, who wielded immense power and controlled the nation's entire macroeconomic lifeline.

At the same time, at Hanjiang Railway Station, an internal military platform that is not open to the public.

A special express train with only three carriages slowly glided into the platform like a silent steel dragon without any whistle.

As the car door opened, a biting cold wind rushed into the warm carriage.

Lin Yang was wearing a pure black cashmere coat, without a hat. He strode down the metal platform, his leather shoes making a dull, crisp sound as they hit the cold concrete.

Shen Yan followed closely behind Lin Yang, carrying a black confidential briefcase in his hand.

On the platform, apart from twenty fully armed Central Security Bureau guards with eyes as sharp as hawks, there were no local officials to greet them.

Because Lin Yang's trip to the Han River was conducted without any prior notification from the General Office of the State Council. This was an absolutely confidential surprise visit incognito.

"Chairman, we just intercepted an internal communication. Something's happened at Factory Three." Shen Yan quickly walked to Lin Yang's side, lowered his voice, and reported the news very rapidly.

"Director Pei Yihong was surrounded at the factory gate by thousands of unidentified idlers and laid-off workers. A violent clash broke out, and Director Pei was hit in the head with a brick and bled. However, the riot police brigade of Hanjiang City Public Security Bureau is currently stationed at a standby point two streets away from the factory and has not yet intervened."

Lin Yang walked without stopping for a moment, but the surrounding air seemed to have been sucked dry and cooled down in that instant.

From those deep, icy eyes, an uncontrollable, ferocious killing intent burst forth, powerful enough to tear the heavens apart.

"Good, very good." Lin Yang's voice was terrifyingly low, each word sounding like ice shards squeezed out from between his teeth.

"It seems that these local tyrants on the Han River think that the emperor is far away and that the knife of the Modern Reform and Development Committee can't reach their necks."

Lin Yang strode to a bulletproof Hongqi sedan parked at the edge of the platform.

Instead of reaching for the back door, he abruptly turned around and looked at the twenty guards behind him, standing as straight as javelins.

"Everyone get in the vehicle. Load the guns and release the safety."

Lin Yang's orders were devoid of any superfluous embellishment, revealing only the purest iron-bloodedness and ruthlessness.

"Target: Hanjiang Third Factory. Ignore all traffic lights and police along the way. Cut in as fast as you can!"

"Anyone who dares to block our way, just smash them through!"

"Yes!" Twenty guards roared in unison, their battle cries shaking the heavens.

The car door slammed shut.

Three bulletproof Hongqi sedans, like three black dragons breaking free of their chains, roared with deafening engines as they burst out of the train station's internal passageway, speeding towards the Hanjiang Third Factory with an aura of crushing everything in their path.