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

"I'm going to stay with relatives," He Yuzhu casually made up a reason.

Lin Yang opened the car door and sat in the back seat.

The jeep started up, spewing out a plume of black smoke from its exhaust pipe, and bumped its way towards the city.

The streets of Linan City are narrow, and most of the shops on both sides are state-owned supply and marketing cooperatives and hardware stores.

The road surface was uneven and full of potholes, causing the jeep to sway and rattle, with even the shock absorber springs creaking and squeaking.

"This road is in terrible condition," He Yuzhu complained, gripping the handle on the car window.

As the driver swerved to avoid a large pothole, he sighed, "This is considered good!"

"A couple of years ago, when it rained, you could raise fish on this street."

The driver started talking: "Thanks to our Deputy Chief Steward Lin, he managed to squeeze out some money from the province to repair the road and pave the main road with coal ash."

Upon hearing the words "Deputy Chief Steward Lin," Lin Yang slightly raised his eyelids.

"Is your Deputy Chief Steward Lin well-regarded?" Lin Yang asked casually.

Upon hearing this, the driver immediately perked up.

"Absolutely! Deputy Chief Steward Lin is a ruthless man!"

"When he first arrived, the heads of the agricultural machinery stations in the surrounding towns were renting out their tractors to private individuals for private work, and no one was cultivating the public land."

The driver lowered his voice and said vividly, "Guess what?"

"Deputy General Manager Lin, along with the police, blocked all the tractors at the sand quarry in the middle of the night."

"They arrested three website administrators on the spot and threw them all into jail for half a month!"

The driver clicked his tongue in amazement: "From then on, no one in Lin'nan dared to play tricks under his nose."

As Lin Yang listened to the driver's description, a subtle smile appeared on his lips.

This decisive and incisive approach is indeed typical of the Lin family.

The jeep drove for more than twenty minutes on the bumpy road.

Finally, the view ahead opened up.

A vast factory area came into view.

The towering chimneys were spewing white smoke, and the air was filled with a pungent ammonia smell.

On the factory gate hangs a wooden sign: Linan City Hongxing Fertilizer Plant.

However, the factory gate was completely blocked at that moment.

Dozens of tractors and oxcarts were parked haphazardly on the road.

Hundreds of men, dressed in tattered cotton-padded coats and wearing dog-skin hats, were gathered in front of the factory gate, making a loud commotion.

The crowd was filled with heavy regional accents, and their emotions were running high.

"Stop the car," Lin Yang said in a deep voice.

The jeep stopped a dozen meters away from the crowd.

Lin Yang got out of the car, and He Yuzhu immediately followed closely behind, his right hand unconsciously reaching for his waist.

The two did not stand too close, but rather under an old locust tree that had lost all its leaves, quietly observing the situation.

On the steps at the factory gate, several security officers were standing, sweating profusely as they tried to stop the crowd.

"Why won't they ship the goods to us! We've already approved the order!"

A burly man with a full beard waved a piece of white paper in his hand, shouting until his veins bulged.

"Exactly! Don't the fields in our neighboring Pingjiang County need fertilizer? It's going to miss the planting season for winter wheat!"

"If you don't hand over the fertilizer today, we'll smash down the gate!"

The crowd surged forward, and the security officers' line of defense was on the verge of collapse.

"What's going on?" He Yuzhu frowned.

"They're scrambling for fertilizer quotas." Lin Yang saw right through it.

In the mid-1980s, fertilizers remained an important commodity under unified procurement, and a dual-track system was implemented.

The supply of affordable fertilizers simply cannot meet the demand, and the price on the black market can be several times higher.

Farmers from surrounding counties often resort to physical violence to block the factory gates in their scramble for quotas.

Just when the situation was about to get out of control.

A dilapidated sidecar motorcycle, rattling and spitting, emerged from the factory area.

The motorcycle braked suddenly in front of the steps, its tires screeching as they rubbed against the concrete.

A person jumped out of the car.

He was wearing a faded, old blue work jacket and a pair of canvas shoes covered in mud.

His hair was a little messy, and he had a bluish stubble on his chin.

But the man stood ramrod straight, like a military dagger stuck in the soil.

It was Lin Weidong.

At thirty-one, Lin Weidong has lost some of his ruthless and unruly aura compared to when he was in the Xinjiang Armored Division, and gained a sense of maturity honed by the trials of life.

He strode up the steps and, without saying a word, snatched the tin megaphone from the head of security.

"Shut up, all of you!"

A roar, amplified by the loudspeaker, made the ears of the people at the front ring.

"You want fertilizer? Sure."

Lin Weidong straightened up and held up one finger.

"First, return those fifteen tractors to me immediately, intact. If even a single screw is missing, you'll have to pay for it yourselves!"

"Secondly, have your Director Liu personally come to Linnan to have me sign a document guaranteeing that Pingjiang County will provide 500 laborers to support next year's farmland irrigation projects!"

"Agree to these two conditions, and I'll have the warehouse opened and the goods released right now."

"I won't agree..."

Lin Weidong waved his hand sharply: "Security Section! Anyone who dares to take a single step in is to be arrested on charges of sabotaging a key state-owned production unit and sent to the Public Security Bureau!"

With a whoosh.

More than a dozen security officers simultaneously drew their rubber batons from their waists and took a step forward in unison.

The air froze instantly.

No one dared to take another step forward.

The people of Pingjiang County looked at each other in dismay, their morale completely crushed.

The voice, filled with the murderous aura of someone who had rolled through piles of corpses, instantly stunned the entire scene.

The noisy crowd fell silent for a moment.

The bearded man, emboldened by his numbers, shouted, "Who are you? We want to see your factory manager!"

Lin Weidong looked down at him with a cold gaze.

"I am Lin Weidong, the deputy chief administrator of Linan City."

He slammed the megaphone down on the steps with a loud thud.

"I've been the one who blocked your fertilizer quota in Pingjiang County."

These words caused another uproar among the crowd.

"Why are you blocking our goods?!"

"The officials are bullying ordinary people!"

Lin Weidong sneered, pulled a folded report from his jacket pocket, and slammed it directly into the face of the bearded man.

"On what grounds?"

"Just look at those fifteen Dongfanghong tractors that Pingjiang County borrowed from Linan Agricultural Machinery Station last month, and they still haven't been returned!"

Lin Weidong pointed at the man's nose and shouted sternly.

"We agreed to borrow it for half a month, but Liu Da Nao, the director of your county's agricultural machinery bureau, secretly rented the tractor to a private contractor at a high price to haul bricks behind my back!"

"The machine is worn out beyond recognition; three bearings are broken!"

Lin Weidong's voice, amplified by the loudspeaker, clearly reached everyone's ears.

"You broke the rules first, and now you're trying to reason with me?"

The bearded man's face turned bright red, and he stammered, unable to speak.

Their subordinates were just following orders and had no idea about the shady dealings of their superiors.

"I'll tell you."

Lin Weidong placed his hands on his knees and leaned down, like a wolf eyeing its prey.

"The second phase of the expansion of Linan Fertilizer Plant is at a critical moment, and every bag of urea is being scraped together by the teeth."