Me! A high-ranking official!

Upon hearing this, Guo Nanguo's brows furrowed into a deep frown. He sat on the sofa, his fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest, and remained silent for a long time.

"That Wang Yongchun, his behavior is really too disgusting!" Guo Nanguo finally spoke, his tone filled with obvious dissatisfaction. "The overall economic environment in our county is already bad, and our investment attraction efforts have been at the bottom of the city year after year. County Chief Du has already slammed his fist on the table several times at county-wide cadre meetings about this, repeatedly demanding that all localities optimize the business environment! And this Wang Yongchun, for his own town's meager financial gain, resorts to this kind of underhanded trick. Isn't this going against the grain?"

Zhao Jianguo sighed and said helplessly, "Who can argue with that? But they're holding onto the official seal for the filing and approval. As a village cadre, I can't fight city hall."

Guo Nanguo pondered for a moment and said, "Jianguo, I'll call Wang Yongchun later to discuss this and see what he's really thinking. We're all section-level cadres, so let's see if he can give me, the deputy director, some face."

At this point, Guo Nanguo sighed and shook his head: "However... I doubt it. Five million isn't much in the city, but in our poor county, it's not a small amount, though it's not a lot either. Right now, the finances of the various towns are like starving ghosts reincarnated. They're green with envy at the sight of meat. With such a big piece of fat right in front of them, they won't let go so easily unless they get a bite."

Zhao Jianguo knew what was going on, and said with a wry smile, "Then I'll have to trouble Director Guo for now. If it really doesn't work, I'll think of another way. At worst, I'll go to the town and plead with them."

"What's the trouble! You're the soldier I sent down. If I don't help you with your problems, who will?" Guo Nanguo waved his hand and said magnanimously, "Don't worry, if Wang Yongchun really doesn't follow the rules and doesn't give me face, I'll find a way to communicate with the county leaders indirectly. County Chief Du is currently worried about attracting investment!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Jianguo nodded repeatedly, seizing the opportunity, and said with a smile, "Yes, yes, yes! If the county leaders knew about this, even if they just mentioned it in a meeting, or gave our Luo Family Village a shout-out, this matter would be much easier to handle!"

Guo Nanguo was holding a water glass, about to take a drink, when he heard this and paused. His eyes flickered slightly as he looked Zhao Jianguo up and down a few times. Suddenly realizing what was going on, he pointed at Zhao Jianguo with his finger and said with a laugh, "You little rascal, Zhao Jianguo! So that's what you were planning all along! You had it all planned out in your mind all along, but you insisted on putting on this act of self-inflicted suffering to trick me into bringing it up, weren't you?"

Zhao Jianguo, having his thoughts exposed, wasn't embarrassed at all. He grinned and scratched his head.

In fact, he had already figured out a way to break the deadlock on his way to the county town.

Since Wang Yongchun is going to use the administrative power of the town to obstruct him, he must find a way to elevate this project to a higher level and use the banner of the county level as a shield!

If this project catches the eye of the county's top leaders and becomes a key project under their attention, even if Wang Yongchun had a few extra lives, he wouldn't dare to openly obstruct it. At that point, not only would the approval process be blocked, but the town would probably have to offer up all the necessary benefits!

However, there is a difficulty here. A five million investment project is an astronomical figure in Luojia Village, but in a county with a population of several hundred thousand, it is just a tiny project to the county leaders and is not even qualified to be reported directly to the county head.

Therefore, he needed a mouthpiece, and Guo Nanguo just happened to have that qualification and position.

As long as Guo Nanguo can subtly promote the village when reporting to county leaders, such as emphasizing that the extremely remote and impoverished village successfully attracted hundreds of thousands of yuan in road construction advances and five million yuan in industrial investment, it would be a typical example of optimizing the business environment at the grassroots level.

As long as it catches the attention of county leaders, even if it's just a casual compliment at a county-wide meeting, or a chance visit to the site on a leisurely day...

As long as they can take advantage of the county's favorable winds, the resistance from Wang Yongchun's side will immediately crumble!

Having made up his mind, he temporarily set aside his worries about the town and changed the subject, asking curiously, "By the way, Director Guo, you said something happened at the bureau earlier. Did something great happen?"

Upon hearing this, Guo Nanguo couldn't help but smile, leaning back in his chair and saying, "This is absolutely fantastic news! These past two days, our county party secretary and County Head Lian have been running around to the city, haven't they? They finally secured that zoo project! It's been officially approved and will be located in our county!"

Guo Nanguo paused, then held up two fingers, his tone brimming with excitement: "The municipal finance department has allocated 20 million yuan in construction funds! This afternoon, County Head Lian will convene a meeting with relevant departments, specifically mentioning our Culture and Tourism Bureau, and demanding that we do a good job in the preliminary preparations and reporting."

Upon hearing this, he was overjoyed; this was the county's most important project this year! He instinctively leaned forward and blurted out, "How about... I go help the bureau finish a report now? I have a lot of the preliminary information for this project memorized."

Seeing his warm-hearted manner, Guo Nanguo smiled and waved his hand, "No need." He picked up his teacup, took a sip, and said earnestly, "Jianguo, you have now been officially assigned to the village. When we were submitting reports to the city leaders to secure projects, no one in the bureau was more familiar with the business than you. At that time, we really couldn't do without you, and I could only make you do the hard work. But now the situation is different. The project has been launched, and the 20 million yuan funding is secured. This is a piece of fat meat that's already in the pot."

Guo Nanguo pointed towards the office area outside the door and lowered his voice, saying, "These guys in the bureau who're all just writing all the time are all talk and no action. It's time to give them a real test. We can't expect you to handle all the big documents by yourself, can we? Besides, once that five million yuan base project you're working on starts, you'll be splitting in two. How will you have the energy to manage all this stuff in the bureau?"

Upon hearing this, a warm feeling welled up in his heart. He knew that Guo Nanguo wasn't complaining that he didn't have enough energy; he was clearly protecting him on purpose.

The zoo project has become a hot commodity, and Zhang Baocheng will definitely try to take all the credit. If I were to join in writing the reports now, I would just be doing free labor. If I did well, the credit would go to someone else; if I did poorly, I would have to take the blame. Guo Nanguo is helping him out so that he can focus on his own grassroots achievements.

"I understand, thank you for considering my needs, Director Guo." He nodded gratefully.

Guo Nanguo smiled, then sighed as if remembering something and said, "Jianguo, regarding the 200,000 yuan in support funds that I personally promised to give to your village... I had a meeting with Director Baocheng to discuss it."

Guo Nanguo shook his head with a wry smile: "You know the current situation. The bureau is indeed short of funds. I pleaded and haggled with him for a long time before he finally reluctantly agreed to approve 70,000 yuan."