Returning wealthy individuals develop their hometowns and become rich in the 1980s

The following day, at 9:00 AM, in the municipal party committee meeting room.

On the long conference table, porcelain cups filled with warm tea were placed according to the seating arrangement. Documents that had been hastily typed out at around 8 a.m. were placed next to the porcelain cups, still exuding the fragrance of ink.

Zhou Haimin walked silently into the conference room with his hands behind his back, sat down in the chair in the center, and surveyed the attendees of the Tuocheng Standing Committee with a stern gaze.

Guo Hengwen, Mayor of Tuocheng and Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee.

Liu Guangyuan, full-time deputy secretary.

Ma Anguo, Secretary of the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Organization Minister Liu Changhe.

Publicity Minister Li Fen.

Sun Jianguo, Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

Senior Colonel Fang Zhenhua of the Military Sub-district.

Ma Shenlin, Director of the Municipal Planning Commission.

Zheng Mingda, Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee.

Standing Committee Member and Vice Mayor Xuan Hualin.

Hong Quan, Secretary of the Zhaoyang District Committee.

Lin Deying, Secretary of the Nanshan District Committee.

Wei Yong, Director of the Municipal Land and Resources Bureau; Tan Youlin, Director of the Municipal Finance Bureau; and Guo Hanqiang, Director of the Municipal Urban Construction Bureau, were also present at this Standing Committee meeting. They only had the right to speak, not the right to vote.

The final decision-making power rests with the thirteen members of the Standing Committee of Tuocheng City. They were simply called in to be questioned and attended this Standing Committee meeting without much burden, because they did not have to take responsibility.

When everyone saw Zhou Haimin, the municipal party secretary, enter, they all stopped what they were doing and talking, and looked at Zhou Haimin, who was in the center presiding over the overall situation, quietly waiting for him to speak.

"Comrades, I've decided to temporarily adjust today's agenda," Zhou Haimin said, his eyes sharp and his voice steady and powerful. "Let's put the land reclamation issue aside for now. Our topic today is the renovation of the Xiaogongyuan area in the old city!"

As soon as Zhou Haimin finished speaking, everyone in the conference room was stunned. Except for Guo Hanqiang, the director of the Municipal Construction Bureau, who already knew about the topic, everyone else lowered their heads and started flipping through the documents in front of them.

Mayor Guo Hengwen closed the document in his hand and looked at Zhou Haimin. "Comrade Haimin, we've been discussing the original land reclamation plan for almost a year, and we've done a lot of preliminary work. Why do we suddenly need to adjust it?"

Zhou Haimin nodded and responded calmly, "Comrade Hengwen asked a good question. We have indeed done a lot of work on the land reclamation plan, but I have recently learned about some situations and feel it is necessary to re-examine the feasibility of this plan."

Everyone else's expressions turned solemn. Anyone who had prepared a plan for nearly a year would feel a little angry if their superior had overturned it and told them to quit.

"Secretary Zhou, land reclamation is currently the most suitable solution for our Tuocheng to solve the housing shortage in the city. I don't understand why it needs to be readjusted," said Liu Guangyuan, the full-time deputy secretary, raising his hand to speak.

Standing Committee member and Vice Mayor Xuan Hualin nodded and raised his hand to speak, saying, "Yes, Secretary Zhou, the situation in the Xiaogongyuan area is complicated. If our municipal government were to carry out rectification, the financial expenditure would not be worthwhile compared to land reclamation!"

The other members of the Standing Committee nodded in agreement, while only Colonel Fang Zhenhua of the Military Sub-district sat there with a stern face, and Ma Shenlin, the director of the Municipal Planning Commission, sipped his tea slowly, not in a hurry to express his opinion.

Mayor Guo Hengwen and Mayor Zhou Haimin have been working together for many years. Unlike other municipal party secretaries and mayors who are constantly vying for power, Zhou Haimin and Guo Hengwen cooperate well and support each other.

Seeing that several standing committee members voiced their opposition, Guo Hengwen tapped the conference table with his pen and said loudly, "Everyone, please be quiet. Secretary Haimin's temporary adjustment is certainly not without reason."

As he spoke, Guo Hengwen looked at Zhou Haimin, who was in the main seat, and asked slowly, "Comrade Haimin, the land reclamation plan didn't come about out of thin air. It's because things aren't going well at Xiaogongyuan that we turned our attention to the sea. We've been discussing this at the Municipal Standing Committee meetings for almost a year now. If we suddenly want to change course, we need a plausible reason, right?"

Zhou Haimin nodded and took out a handwritten outline from his briefcase. He had worked on it overnight, and although the handwriting was a bit messy, every point was to the point.

Although he was the Party Secretary of the city and the top leader of Tuocheng, if he forced the promotion down, the standing committee members below would not dare to really go against him, but they would still be outwardly compliant but inwardly resentful.

He had to persuade these Standing Committee members in front of him, rather than using his overbearing power as secretary to intimidate them. Their city, Tuocheng, was a democratic government of the Party, and everyone had the right to express different opinions.

"I have three reasons for abandoning land reclamation and shifting our focus to redeveloping the Xiaogongyuan area," Zhou Haimin said slowly, holding an outline in one hand and raising three fingers with the other. "The first reason is the overall direction for the future economic development of our Tuocheng!"

"Comrades, our Tuocheng is a coastal city and a special economic zone designated by the central government. The port is the major economic hub of Tuocheng in the future. The reason I gave up land reclamation is because it would narrow the area of ​​the inner bay, leading to further encroachment on shipping channels!"

"Comrades, the devastating typhoon of July 69, 7.28, destroyed the Niutianyang seawall in the Inner Bay, tragically claiming the lives of 553 People's Liberation Army soldiers and university students. This is a painful lesson from history!"

As Zhou Haimin spoke, his eyes reddened slightly. "At that time, I was just the full-time deputy secretary of our Tuocheng. Many of the standing committee members present may not have been transferred here yet and may not know about the accident that happened."

"I was standing barefoot in the mud, watching our brave soldiers jump in one after another, they..."

At this point, Zhou Haimin's voice choked with emotion, and Colonel Fang Zhenhua from the military sub-district also looked grief-stricken. Zhou Haimin said sorrowfully, "They were so young, the pillars of our nation, and they sacrificed themselves on the front lines of flood control!"

"For over a year, the Standing Committee has repeatedly discussed the feasibility of land reclamation. Why haven't I made a final statement?" Zhou Haimin patted his chest lightly, "because I have personally witnessed the consequences of unscientific land reclamation!"

The members of the Standing Committee in the meeting room all had solemn expressions and pursed lips. They all knew about the super typhoon of July 69, 7.28, but none of them were eyewitnesses and did not know the enormous pain that this super typhoon brought to the people of Tuocheng.

"We must learn from the past to guide our future. Having learned from our mistakes, we cannot repeat the same mistake," Zhou Haimin said, his voice rising. "Just yesterday, I spoke with Comrade Chen Zaidong of Xiaochi by phone. He told me that the reason the July 69, 7.28 incident happened was because of our land reclamation efforts!"

The Standing Committee members were in an uproar, but Zhou Haimin gestured for him to continue, "I asked Chen Zaidong, what makes you so certain that this tragedy occurred because of land reclamation, which led to the typhoon!"

"Chen Zaidong told me that geological and marine experts in America have studied the 7.28 incident in Tuocheng as a typical example and unanimously agree that it was caused by land reclamation!"