Era: A college student came to the courtyard house

After Lin Xianghua sat down, he glanced around at everyone and, without wasting any time, went straight to the meeting's topic, pointing at Li Jianye and asking him to give a briefing.

As Li Jianye recounted the events, Fang Yuan finally understood the content of this emergency meeting.

It turns out that the comrades from the steel rolling mill actually beat up the reporter from the Beijing Daily.

The incident began when two reporters from the Daily News went to the steel rolling mill for an interview and report. They had not coordinated with the publicity department beforehand, but because they had all the necessary credentials, they still managed to sneak in through the main gate and head straight to the steel rolling mill, snapping away at the sight of the rolling mill.

Seeing that many non-compliant photos had been taken, the person in charge of the steel rolling mill tried to dissuade them, but to no avail. During the ensuing scuffle, it was unclear whether it was someone from the publicity department or the security department who took the initiative to try to snatch the camera. Inadvertently, the two reporters were injured.

What's most baffling is that this group of people actually failed to snatch the camera, and even managed to get it out of the steel mill.

This has really stirred up a hornet's nest.

These days, the news media, especially journalists, are the uncrowned kings, always one level above officials.

Moreover, in this era where ideology and public opinion reign supreme, they are even more arrogant.

Most importantly, this is the Capital Daily, which reaches a very wide audience, even people from all walks of life have the opportunity to see it, and its influence is self-evident.

Since the top two leaders, Su Haixiong and Yang Songlin, have both gone to Ansteel, the person in charge of the Hongxing Steel Plant is now Lin Xianghua, who was transferred there not long ago. Therefore, this task naturally fell on Lin Xianghua's shoulders.

After the briefing, Lin Xianghua did not immediately define the nature of the matter, but decided to let things develop for a while longer.

The atmosphere in the meeting room became increasingly tense.

"Secretary Lin, this happened in our steel rolling mill. I am the factory director, so I am responsible."

"Our security department also bears responsibility."

Faced with Huang Xianghe and Zhao Wu, the head of the security department of the steel rolling mill, taking the initiative to admit their mistakes, Lin Xianghua shook his head and said, "Don't rush to admit your mistakes. The situation at the scene was complicated. We need to investigate who started it first before we can say anything else."

"The key now is whether there is any way to remedy the situation. If we really want to talk about responsibility, since Secretary Su went out to study and this happened at home, we all share the responsibility, but the primary responsibility lies with me, the one in charge of the work."

Lin Xianghua's words immediately inspired many people present, and they couldn't help but think more highly of this new secretary who dared to take responsibility.

"Let's share our thoughts. Everyone, let's make the most of this time and pool our wisdom."

After Lin Xianghua finished speaking, he gently turned his teacup and stopped talking, but his eyes kept lingering on the faces of the people in the room.

He knew that if this matter was not handled properly, he would definitely lose face with Secretary Su. Moreover, his responsibilities were not yet clear, and if he did not perform well, it would inevitably affect his prestige within the Hongxing Steel Plant.

However, he had only been there for half a month and had been parachuted down from above, so he didn't know much about the Red Star Steel Plant and knew that the big and small leaders below didn't really respect him.

Faced with this sudden "crisis," although he was very anxious inside, he could not show it on his face.

Fortunately, every crisis presents an opportunity.

If this matter is handled properly, it will be the first of his three bold moves as a new official.

Seeing that no one responded immediately, Lin Xianghua was not in a hurry to urge them. He took a sip of tea and pondered the matter. He slowly realized that this assault incident might not be as simple as it seemed on the surface.

First, did the newspaper reporter really conduct an undercover investigation? Why didn't the publicity department have any information? Did they know but not report it, or was someone deliberately concealing it?

Secondly, why did he suddenly appear at this particular time, with the top two leaders absent? Was this a deliberate attack on him?

Before he came, he had learned that Zhou Wencai, the former head of the publicity department, was a strong contender for promotion, and that Director Yang had been recommending him to higher authorities.

Is it because his arrival caused dissatisfaction among some people, who wanted to take advantage of his short time at Hongxing Steel Plant and his unstable position, thus launching a sudden attack to catch him off guard and embarrass him?

Within minutes, the meeting room was filled with smoke.

Fang Yuan noticed that the atmosphere was becoming increasingly dull, so he stood up and refilled the teacups of each of the leaders on the table with hot water. After making a round of the table and opening the window wider, he sat back down.

In such meetings, he only listens and doesn't speak, clearly understanding his role.

His participation in the recording was already considered an exception, after all, this wasn't some kind of commendation ceremony.

After returning to his seat, Fang Yuan began to observe carefully.

Although Secretary Lin was frowning at this moment, his eyes gradually became very calm, presumably indicating that he already had a plan in mind.

Deputy Director Liu from the Publicity Department, on the other hand, seemed to lose too much points. His eyes were anxious and shifty, and his hands kept changing shape, sometimes clenching into fists and placing them on his knees, and sometimes placing them on the table.

As for his superior, Li Jianye, he was acting nonchalantly, completely indifferent to the situation, showing no sense of urgency whatsoever. It was as if he wasn't even a member of the Red Star Steel Plant. In fact, once no one was paying attention to him, Fang Yuan noticed a faint smile playing on his lips, a smile that, no matter how you looked at it, had a hint of schadenfreude.

The question is, who is he gloating over?

This scene might go unnoticed by others, but it was completely captured by Fang Yuan.

Lin Xianghua gave everyone a few more minutes, but seeing that no one spoke up, he knew that he had to push them a little, otherwise no one would easily use their own resources.

This is the difference of not having a trusted confidant. If it were any of the other factory leaders, even those ranked lower than him, they would certainly have someone to lead the charge for them.

Lin Xianghua remained expressionless and tapped the table lightly a few times with his right hand. The others immediately straightened up, as if they were musicians in an orchestra seeing a conductor's baton, and their ears perked up.

"Since no one is taking the initiative, I'll just call them out one by one."

Just as everyone was speculating who would be called first, Lin Xianghua suddenly looked at Fang Yuan, who was sitting in the back row taking notes, and asked, "Fang, you're a college student, quick-witted, do you have any ideas?"

Fang Yuan was surprised to be called on as well, and immediately stood up and remained silent for a moment.

This is not the time for modesty.

We must not easily reveal our weakness.

Taking advantage of this moment, Fang Yuan quickly organized his thoughts and spoke under everyone's gaze: "Everyone here is a leader, and I don't know if I should say these things."

The others laughed and said, "Just say what you want to say."

Li Jianye echoed the loudest, but he was mostly just there to watch the show. In his opinion, what could a kid who hadn't even grown his first hair do?

"I think it can be summed up in one sentence: To shoot a man, shoot his horse first; to capture a thief, capture his king first."

"Capturing the King means working on the newspaper's leaders; if they speak up, the matter can be turned around. Shooting the Horse means a group of people go to the hospital to find the two reporters and personally apologize and explain, since no matter the reason, hitting someone is easy to give others cause for criticism."

In Fang Yuan's view, the power struggles in China over the past five thousand years have boiled down to nothing more than two things:

One is to invite them over for a meal.

Secondly, they were called to a meeting.

If the newspaper's leadership agrees to sit down and have a meal with the people from Hongxing Steel Plant, this matter will definitely be eased.