Era: I was a farmer at the foot of Yaoling Mountain

Time flies.

It's that time of year again – the coldest season.

Nowadays, everyone uses honeycomb briquettes for heating, and this is also the most common way to start a fire. Chopping firewood is a very troublesome task, and nowadays the income of the commune members is sufficient to support the use of more efficient energy sources.

Gas cylinders are now widely used in major cities, but they have not yet been popularized in rural areas.

Fang Wei lit a stove in his office, and it goes without saying that he wouldn't feel cold at home.

Fortunately, the cold weather in the area doesn't last long. Back when conditions were tough, we managed to get through it, didn't we?
The company's finance department is busy with year-end settlements, the experimental fields in Yao Village are continuing to test and cultivate new rice varieties, and Pan Lianhua's thoughts have long been on her two children.

Fang Wei quietly went to Xiangshan to celebrate the official establishment of the Electrical Appliances Group Co., Ltd.

In Xinlin County, Chen Xuejun, who had been doing little, suddenly launched an attack on Yaoling Agriculture, accusing Fang Wei and others of creating a fake collective while actually following the old path of privatization.

One of his main criticisms was that Fang Wei moved the company headquarters to the provincial capital, thus hollowing out the so-called cooperative.

Another argument is that Fang Wei moved the most profitable electrical appliance group company to Xiangshan and gradually restructured it into a non-collective enterprise.

"He's undermining the collective, and when the time is right, he'll go down the wrong path of privatization."

Taking advantage of his criticism of Yaoling's industry and cooperatives, Chen Xuejun began a sweeping personnel reshuffle.

Cui Yiming's original plan was completely disrupted. Suddenly, the relationship between the county and several cooperatives became tense, and many people did not understand what Che Chenxuejun was trying to do.

Fang Wei rushed back from Xiangshan and chaired a joint meeting of the heads of the three cooperatives and the company's senior executives.

"He's being opportunistic, trying to establish his authority by stepping on us. As the saying goes, a barking dog doesn't bite, so everyone should be careful and not repeat the mistakes of the past."

This is a bad sign; Chen Xuejun's sudden attack was not an isolated incident.

Nowadays, there are many enterprises in society that are ostensibly collective but are actually owned by individuals. Many people have their eyes on township enterprises, and some have even set their sights on state-owned enterprises.

In the past two years, the clash of different ideas has been particularly intense.

“Secretary, we were just unlucky! When the land was distributed to individual households, some people criticized our collective economy and said that we should continue to eat from the same pot.”

Now, however, the tables have turned. They're accusing us of trying to seize collective assets for ourselves, and they're even using two isolated cases as pretexts for their attack. I think this Mr. Chen is trying to dig up our roots.”

People spoke out, expressing their dissatisfaction with Chen Xuejun's actions.

But how to deal with it next is a problem. After all, most of the company's production units are concentrated in Xinlin County. If the other party deliberately creates obstacles in the future, everyone will feel very uncomfortable.

"Don't be afraid of difficulties. What is not difficult? Now let's talk about how we should deal with it. Let's not talk empty words, let's come up with some concrete strategies."

Fang Wei and the others had finished talking and couldn't help but tap on the table.

What we need to do now is not to express anger, but to come up with practical and feasible solutions.

Otherwise, what's the point of everyone sitting in the meeting room and arguing all day?
After discussing for a long time, they came up with several measures.

First, we should decentralize the breeding process. We could consider sending some of the breeding work to other counties to avoid production problems should the conflict with Chen Xuejun escalate.

Second, we should accelerate the pace of establishing production bases in other counties. Aren't some counties insisting on introducing breeding and production? Then we should conditionally agree to their requests and complete the expansion as soon as possible.

Third, we will file a complaint with the relevant authorities and will never accept Chen Xuejun's unreasonable accusations.

"Everyone's suggestions are very good, so let's take action based on these points."

Fang Wei has never been the type to go without fighting back. He has no grudge against Chen and would never become a stepping stone for someone else.

After the meeting, Cai Tong followed him to his office.

“Secretary Fang, this situation is not optimistic. The other party’s sudden attack must have been carefully planned. Have you considered that if they can successfully dismantle the cooperative, then the company’s very foundation will be gone?”

In fact, Cai Tong was more pessimistic. He wondered if his concerns were unfounded. He believed that the other party couldn't just be venting their anger; there would definitely be concrete actions to follow.

The company's weakness lies in its cooperative. If the members are not united and the cooperative falls apart, then Yaoling Agriculture will face an unprecedented crisis.

This is something we must be wary of.

“It’s unreasonable to forcibly dissolve the cooperative. I will fight this lawsuit to the end, no matter where it goes. But you’re right, internal collapse is the most terrifying thing. Fortunately, the plan to repair everyone’s houses has been finalized. I will have someone do ideological work with everyone.”

Fang Wei remained silent for a while, then decided that some things should be prevented from happening in the first place.

Take the Yaoling Cooperative for example. It has tens of thousands of members, and if it were to be instigated, the consequences would be unimaginable.

So he told Cai Tong to go back to the provincial capital first, while he, along with several directors, Wang Songlin, and Tian Bingyi, went to the homes of the members and communicated with them on an equal footing.

The Yao village is definitely fine, and the Yaoling Cooperative is also okay. The most unstable one is actually the Tian Bingyi Cooperative.

Fortunately, Tian Bingyi Cooperative holds the fewest rights in Yaoling Agriculture, so even if problems arise, it cannot determine the overall direction.

After extensive visits, Fang Wei finally breathed a sigh of relief. The vast majority of employees still supported the company's development and would not easily change their minds due to external changes.

A few days passed quickly.

The company's finance department completed the year-end settlement work for the previous year, and Fang Wei immediately approved the distribution of dividends.

On this day, all the production brigades came to the commune to collect their money, which they then took back to distribute to the commune members. It was undoubtedly a joyous day, and everyone wore a smile.

Fang Wei and Pan Lianhua also received their money, and then they discussed taking Xiao Jie home.

“My daughter doesn’t want me to pick her up in Chengdu. She wants to take the train back with her classmates. It’s not easy to travel by train; it takes dozens of hours. How about we go to the provincial capital to pick her up?”

There is a train from Chengdu to Guangzhou, passing through Chenzhou.

However, train tickets are very hard to buy these days, especially sleeper tickets; you can't buy them at all if you don't know anyone.

Fang Wei's travel was convenient because he used his representative's ID to buy tickets, while Xiao Jie didn't have such advantages. The same applied to air travel; tickets were also difficult to buy, and besides, Xiao Jie wasn't willing to take them.

“Xiaojie wants to go with her classmates, that’s fine. Let’s not go to the provincial capital, we can just pick her up in Chenzhou.”

Fang Wei finally hardened her heart and thought that it wouldn't hurt to let her daughter get some experience.

Going to the provincial capital would be time-consuming and laborious, and Xiaojie wouldn't have much of an easy time either. It would be better to let her continue on her way to Chenzhou.

"Okay, I'll have to call her later and tell her to be careful."

Universities offer student tickets, and traveling by train with a large group of students is relatively safe.

After several years of public security reforms, the social situation has improved a lot, so there's really no need to worry too much.

When the appointed time arrived, the couple first went to Chenzhou to bring their daughter back, and then went to Chenzhou again to bring their son back. The family was reunited, and Pan Lianhua was happy all day long, even happier than when she received the money.

Fang Wei also received a commission, which was another huge sum of over a million yuan.

Although Chen Xuejun pointed the finger at him, he felt at ease taking the money and wouldn't be afraid to accept it just because of other people's criticism.

However, he underestimated Chen Xuejun's audacity. That afternoon, more than a dozen people from relevant departments in the county rushed into Fang Wei's courtyard.

The people who came had all the necessary paperwork and wanted to search Fang Wei's house.

"Why? You're searching me with just a piece of paper? What's your reason? What's your excuse? Is this some kind of baseless accusation?"

"Someone has reported that you have embezzled a large amount of collective property. We have proper procedures, please cooperate."

"Then go ahead and search. If you don't find what you're looking for, don't blame me for making things difficult for you!"

Because of Fang Wei's status as a representative, they dared not arrest him directly, but they did dare to search his house.

Actually, it's not entirely their fault, because they were just following orders. The other party was relatively polite, and they were very careful during the search, not daring to do anything reckless.

Pan Lianhua had her sister take the two children to Sun Daoren's house, while she and Fang Wei stayed close to these people to prevent them from trying to frame or slander them.

The cooperative's directors and the company's security personnel stationed at the cooperative also arrived, keeping a close eye on their every move.

People's hearts are unfathomable; we must never give these people even the slightest chance to frame us.

These people were all frustrated because they weren't Chen Xuejun's confidants at all, and naturally wouldn't resort to framing or slander. After all, Chen Xuejun hadn't been there long, and his influence was still too shallow.

They won't frame anyone, but they also won't turn a blind eye; nobody wants to ruin their own livelihood.

The situation was bizarre; all they found at home were warrants for purchasing employee shares in the electrical appliance group company, some cash, and bankbooks. All of this cash and bankbooks combined didn't even exceed the couple's income.

In addition, they were secretly instructed to see if they could find other physical evidence that was detrimental to the other party.

Unfortunately, they worked until dark but found nothing, not even the weapons that Fang Wei and Pan Lianhua had hidden.

"We need to seize these cash, passbooks, and warrants. Secretary Fang, please rest assured, we will issue a seizure list, and if there are no problems, we will definitely return them in full later."

These people searched inside and out thoroughly, and finally gave up.

However, they demanded that the cash, bankbooks, and warrants in the house be seized, which Fang Wei immediately refused.

“You haven’t found any evidence of wrongdoing, so why are you taking away my legal property? Besides, I believe your search today was illegal, so don’t even think about taking these things.”

Fang Wei slammed her hand on the table in anger, and then called Huang Zhigang in front of everyone.

Huang Zhigang is still in Xiangling City and is one of the main leaders there.

After calling Huang Zhigang, he called the provincial government and then several other representatives. (End of Chapter)