Forged in the fires of war: The Qi family's generals rewrite the fate of eastern Hebei.

Today, there are only three people in Ji Changming's family: himself, Qin Siyuan, and Qi Tongwei.

The three of them sat together at noon, drinking and chatting.

Qi Tongwei gave the opportunity to his senior, Qin Siyuan, while he sat quietly to the side.

Qin Siyuan took a sip and then spoke to Ji Changming.

"Old Ji, before I came to your house, I had already met Secretary Gong at the Municipal Party School Guesthouse. Secretary Gong told me that the Xujia Kiln coal mine collapse must be thoroughly investigated. Do you have something in your hands?"

Qin Siyuan stared intently at Ji Changming, a gaze that made Ji Changming feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"Heh! How did you know I had something in my hand?"

"Prosecutor Wu specifically mentioned that I should come to Lincheng to contact you."

"So what do you want?"

"A transaction between Yuan Kangde, chairman of Tianhua Coal Mine, and Qiao Ning."

"Do you think I would know about their deal, something so confidential?"

"Old Ji, even at a time like this, you're still hiding things from me. If there's no deal, is there something else?"

Ji Changming slowly took a sip, then let out a long sigh of relief.

"Yuan Kangde and Qiao Ning of Tianhua Coal Mine are related by marriage. I don't know what kind of deals they've made behind the scenes, but I received a tip that there were some inside stories during the bidding process for the Xujia Kiln Coal Mine contract, but..."

"You just suppressed it, didn't you?"

Ji Changming gave a wry smile; his old classmate understood him best.

"Qiao Ning is the municipal party secretary. Do you think I can afford to offend him?"

Who is the whistleblower?

"I've kept the materials I reported about Zuo Wenxiang, the chairman of Jinxiang Coal Mine Co., Ltd., at home. But you don't need to look for Zuo Wenxiang anymore; he died last August."

Qin Siyuan exclaimed in surprise and exchanged a glance with Qi Tongwei, both of them seeing shock in each other's eyes.

"That's right. Something happened at Jinxiang Coal Mine in the middle of last year. Zuo Wenxiang committed suicide by jumping off a building."

"whats the matter?"

"The cash flow has broken down. I heard that Zuo Wenxiang lost a lot of money gambling. Some people also say that Zuo Wenxiang was set up and got trapped deeper and deeper."

After saying that, Ji Changming went into his bedroom.

After a while, he took a brown paper file bag from the bedroom and threw it on the dining table.

"Look! This is all the information about Zuo Wenxiang that we've reported."

Qin Siyuan took the file bag, and Qi Tongwei also stood up from his chair and stood behind him.

After opening the file bag, the two examined the information in detail.

When the Xujia Kiln Coal Mine was put out to tender, several major private companies in Lincheng City received the tender notice. Naturally, these companies valued this large coal mine highly and were all eager to win it over.

The Lincheng Municipal Party Committee and Government also have requirements for bidding.

I. The starting bid price for the operation and contracting is 750 million yuan per year.

Second, the miners at Xujiayao Coal Mine must continue to have their jobs guaranteed.

These two points are the two most crucial requirements. As for the other points, they are all fixed requirements and not major issues.

The contracting of the Xujiayao Coal Mine was a grand and ambitious undertaking.

But behind the scenes, undercurrents were running deep.

According to Zuo Wenxiang, he was threatened privately and someone prevented him from attending the bidding meeting.

Moreover, multiple departments, including tax, fire, and labor, launched surprise inspections on him, leaving Zuo Wenxiang completely bewildered.

As a result, Jinxiang Coal Mine missed the registration deadline.

According to Zuo Wenxiang, in addition to their Jinxiang Coal Mine, several other private coal mining companies that were preparing to participate in the bidding also encountered similar problems.

Ultimately, three coal mining companies participated in the bidding, one of which was Yuan Kangde's Tianhua Coal Mine.

Tianhua Coal Mine ultimately won the bid, with the price only slightly higher than the starting bid.

This aroused Zuo Wenxiang's suspicion. After the bidding ended, Zuo Wenxiang privately investigated and found that the other two coal mining companies that participated in the bidding with Tianhua Coal Mine were actually shell companies.

To put it bluntly, this is bid rigging.

Zuo Wenxiang is a stubborn person. The other coal mining companies acted as if nothing had happened, but he insisted on reporting them.

The report wasn't just filed with Ji Changming; multiple departments, including the Lincheng Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Lincheng Municipal Public Security Bureau, also received reports.

It all came to an end when Zuo Wenxiang committed suicide by jumping off a building last August.

After reading it, Qin Siyuan couldn't help but drink all the wine in his glass.

After finishing his drink, he let out a long breath and then looked at Qi Tongwei and said.

"Tongwei, how do you think this case should be investigated?"

"Senior, I think it's not wise to alert them now. Neither Qiao Ning nor Yuan Kangde are people we should be investigating."

"So who do you want to investigate?"

"Didn't Zuo Wenxiang mention in his whistleblower report that he accepted threats? I think we can follow this line of investigation, including Zuo Wenxiang's death."

Qin Siyuan shook his head after hearing this.

"If you want to investigate a murder case, you have to let the Public Security Bureau handle it. Can the Lincheng City Public Security Bureau be trusted?"

"Senior, what if we need to transfer police officers to another location?"

"You mean?"

"I do know someone who could help."

"Wang Xin, the captain of the First Criminal Investigation Detachment of Yantai City."

Chapter 158 The Opportunity to Bring Down Qiao Ning

To be honest, this name was unfamiliar to both Qin Siyuan and Ji Changming.

From Ji Changming's perspective, he was working in Lincheng, while Wang Xin was in Yantai. There was no overlap between them, so it was normal that they didn't know each other.

From Qin Siyuan's perspective, Wang Xin's rank was still somewhat low. Although the public security system generally has higher-ranking personnel, meaning that Wang Xin, as the head of the criminal investigation team, was a section-level cadre.

However, for Qin Siyuan, the position of a section-level captain in the municipal public security bureau was still somewhat low and a bit too distant.

Qin Siyuan did know the head of the criminal investigation branch of the Yantai City Public Security Bureau.

So after Qi Tongwei brought it up, Qin Siyuan asked with some doubt.

"Is this Comrade Wang Xin capable of shouldering such a heavy responsibility? If anything goes wrong, we'll lose the best opportunity to bring down Qiao Ning!"

“My uncle mentioned to me that this Captain Wang is a veteran criminal police officer. He was originally in the railway criminal police department and was later transferred to the criminal investigation branch of Yantai City Bureau. He is quite capable. If we let him come, he will definitely be able to handle it.”

"Your uncle? Your uncle knows Comrade Wang Xin?"

Qin Siyuan and Ji Changming exchanged a glance, and when their eyes met, they both saw a hint of surprise.

In the officialdom of Handong, everyone was speculating about Qi Tongwei's background, but no one really knew the details.

Qin Siyuan himself was very curious, and as the conversation progressed, he couldn't help but ask.

"Secretary Qi, which leader is your uncle?"

Now Qi Tongwei has come to understand that some things, no matter how hard you try to hide them, will never be hidden.

In the future, many people will ask who their uncle is.

Leaving aside Qin Siyuan and Ji Changming, who have already passed Secretary Gong's test, these two are currently only at the division-level cadre level. Even if they knew their uncle's identity, what could they say? What could they do?

It is perfectly reasonable, legal and compliant for me to become Secretary Gong's secretary. After all, his academic qualifications speak for themselves, and it's hard to find fault with them.

As long as it gets approved by higher-ups, revealing one's uncle's identity won't cause any problems; on the contrary, it can help one find another powerful figure to rely on in the officialdom of Handong.

With his uncle and Secretary Gong protecting him, his future will be smooth sailing.

Having figured this out, Qi Tongwei smiled slightly and then said.

"My uncle's name is Fang Zhenhua. He is the commander of the Long Live Army of the Beijing Military Region."

This name is so familiar.

Suddenly, Qin Siyuan remembered something that Chief Prosecutor Wu had told him.

At that time, Chief Prosecutor Wu was just the Chief Prosecutor of the Luzhou City Procuratorate.

Because of his outstanding contributions during a crackdown campaign, he was valued by Gong Kaichen, then Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Provincial Political and Legal Committee, and was transferred to work at the Provincial Procuratorate.

Since then, Chief Prosecutor Wu's career has been on the fast track, and he has now become the Chief Prosecutor of the Handong Provincial Procuratorate, a deputy ministerial-level leader.

The reason for that crackdown was that someone had abducted a child.

The child's father is named Fang Zhenhua.

The child's maternal grandfather is named Liu Zhongming, and his uncle is Liu Anguo, who is now the Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Executive Vice Governor of Zhongjiang Province.

Qin Siyuan was genuinely frightened after discovering this crucial factor.

Unexpectedly, Qi Tongwei had incredibly powerful connections behind him.

No wonder he was able to become Secretary Gong's secretary.

He could easily become a secretary, and even if he didn't, he would have plenty of opportunities to rise to a leadership position.

It's just that secretaries are relatively easier to get promoted and advance faster.

Qin Siyuan's political acumen was evident in his later appointment as the director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

After discovering Qi Tongwei's powerful connections, his attitude towards Qi Tongwei changed further.

We initially considered each other just colleagues, but now we've become much closer.

Therefore, Qin Siyuan agreed to Qi Tongwei's suggestion to transfer Wang Xin to Lincheng to secretly investigate Qiao Ning's matter.

"Tongwei, since Commander Fang thinks Comrade Wang Xin is reliable, I think we can report to the higher authorities and transfer Comrade Wang Xin to Lincheng."

Ji Changming looked at Qin Siyuan with some confusion. He didn't understand why Qin Siyuan's attitude had changed so drastically in such a short period of time.

Feeling Ji Changming's gaze, Qin Siyuan glanced over. After so many years of being classmates, Ji Changming knew Qin Siyuan very well.

He understood the message Qin Siyuan was trying to convey in his eyes. That look meant that there were some things he couldn't tell him right now, but they would talk about them later when he had time.

"Director Qin, this time I'm here to follow your and Inspector Ji's instructions. As for the matter of transferring police officers from other areas, you should report it to the leadership."

Qin Siyuan considered it for a moment, then nodded.

"That concludes this meeting. I'll head back to the Party School Guesthouse now. Here's my room number; please call me if you need anything."

Qi Tongwei left the Ji family, but Qin Siyuan stayed.

Ji Changming asked him why he had changed his attitude, and after Qin Siyuan finished speaking, Old Ji couldn't help but gasp in surprise.

"This Secretary Qi actually has such a powerful background?"

"Their connections are incredibly powerful! But these things are none of our business. We just need to focus on doing our jobs well."

"What are your plans regarding the transfer of police officers from other areas?"

“Report to Prosecutor Wu, and then have him contact Secretary Gong. How could I possibly report directly to Secretary Gong?”

"Old Qin, you're so clever!"

After that, Qin Siyuan called Wu Shuqi, the chief prosecutor of the provincial procuratorate, and expressed his idea about transferring police officers from other places.

After thinking it over, Wu Jian agreed to report to Secretary Gong on their behalf.

When Wu Jian reported to Secretary Gong, Secretary Gong had already learned about these matters from Qi Tongwei.

Therefore, Secretary Gong agreed to have the Provincial Procuratorate directly contact the Yantai City Public Security Bureau and have Wang Xin come to Lincheng to secretly investigate Zuo Wenxiang's suicide.

Zuo Wenxiang's suicide may very well be the opportunity to bring down Qiao Ning.

As long as we catch those people mentioned in Zuo Wenxiang's report, those henchmen of Qiao Ning and Yuan Kangde's criminal gang.

That way, we can follow the clues and take the opportunity to eliminate the dark cloud hanging over the people of Lincheng, Qiao Ning.

Yantai City Public Security Bureau, Criminal Investigation Detachment.