In name only, I, Gao Yuliang, will sink Handong at worst.

(To be clear, the author is not involved in government affairs, and much of what he wrote was simply imitation; the important thing is that the plot is enjoyable.)

"Teacher, I saw the nomination from former Party Secretary Zhao Lichun, recommending you for the position of Provincial Party Secretary!"

"You'll soon reach that level and become a high-ranking official, and there's even the possibility of rising further in the future," Qi Tongwei said excitedly to Gao Yuliang.

Gao Yuliang glanced at Qi Tongwei, took out a pack of cigarettes from the drawer, took one out, and then threw it to Qi Tongwei. Qi Tongwei quickly took out a lighter, lit one for Gao Yuliang, and lit one for himself as well.

His disciple was still so reckless.

"I've told you countless times that I'm a plant during working hours. Do you really think I can climb the ranks?"

"Gao Zhiwu, isn't this a case of having no outsiders? Who else could it be but you? Governor Liu is about to retire, and you are the third most important person in the entire Handong Province. Who else could it be but you?"

"You should know what should and shouldn't be said about what happened today!"

"I'm the most discreet person."

Looking at Qi Tongwei in front of him, Gao Yuliang thought to himself, "In the TV series, Gao Yuliang also had the intention of pushing his disciple out to take the fall."

In the end, Qi Tongwei did not betray Gao Yuliang, and Gao Yuliang did not let Qi Tongwei down. Now, with Gao Yuliang's early planning, things will certainly not be like they were in the original TV series.

"Zhao Lichun has governed Handong for so many years, people feel that this is Zhao Lichun's territory. How could they possibly let the Zhao family continue to rule Handong? The provincial party secretary must have been parachuted in."

"How could that be? Handong is a disorganized mess, with thirteen powerful figures involved. Not many cities actually listen to the provincial party committee. I've spent a lot of effort reforming the public security system. And now, when I send people here for a meeting, they're just a bunch of people who are constantly trying to undermine us. They're all our enemies."

If Qi Tongwei hadn't controlled the stability maintenance funds, he wouldn't have been able to move this group of people at all. Every operation required funding, let alone Handong, which had already achieved a second-level fiscal system.

The secondary fiscal system started ten years ago.

The reason why Handong seems harmonious now is because Zhao Lichun is kind and honest. He can make the pie bigger and distribute it well. But in private, the whole of Handong is very close-knit, but they just don't show it.

Otherwise, there wouldn't have been a place like Handong, which later had dozens of government apps, one for each city and another for each county-level city under the prefecture-level city. The entire Handong region was betting on new energy vehicle companies, but each city was betting on different things.

During his tenure in Lüzhou, which wasn't the Lüzhou of Handong, but rather the Lüzhou of Shanghai, he frequently traveled to Shanghai to find businesses. Many of the factories in Lüzhou today were actually brought over from Shanghai by him. As for the Provincial Party Committee, what is that?!

Does it sound good to openly curse and complain about fiscal allocation? As for the Standing Committee, that was all planned out in advance, after the distribution of benefits was settled and agreed upon. The Standing Committee is supposed to pass the agreement up to higher authorities. Does it sound good to argue and fight like that?

In his early years, Gao Yuliang thought that people who caused trouble everywhere in the county committees, especially at the township level, were simply unscrupulous, but they would restrain themselves when they went up to the higher-ups. It turns out that the higher-ups just didn't say it outright.

"The key point is not what we think, but what others think."

"Just watch and see. We don't have any blemishes on our records. At worst, we'll just be retiring in a second-tier city. How's your relationship with Liang Lu going?" Gao Yuliang naturally knew what Sha Ruijin's purpose was in coming here.

The goal was to purge the Zhao family's factions, and even label them as part of the Zhao family's faction. However, the person who truly belonged to the Zhao family was Liu Xinjian of the Handong Oil and Gas Group, who controlled a major financial entity in Handong.

Gao Yuliang, Qi Tongwei, and even Li Dakang were not Zhao Lichun's confidants at all.

Gao Yuliang had already prepared everything. He hadn't gotten approval for the food city before, but he finally signed it at the Standing Committee meeting because someone pressured him. And it wasn't a big deal at all.

Neither he nor Li Dakang were Zhao Lichun's people. If he really valued Li Dakang, would he have sent him to Lincheng? Back then, the coal mine collapsed. Was that a place to make political achievements? It was like a Lincheng growing on a landmine! Qi Tongwei was just used as a black glove.

The real faction behind Gao Yuliang belongs to the Wu family and the Liang family, both of which have declined. As for the Han University Gang, what a load of bull! It's just a bunch of corrupt scholars and students with no background. It's nothing.

It's just internal strife!

As the saying goes, there are no factions, only all sorts of strange things.

How could he possibly compare to the Zhong family, who control the Discipline Inspection Commission, or to those truly powerful and influential families? At most, he was giving the students of Han University a fairer opportunity; many people would be grateful if they just had a chance not to have their advantages stolen.

He didn't just give this opportunity to students of Wuhan University; he gave it to many other people as well.

He was a sent-down youth in his early years and also a soldier in the Vietnam War. Later, he became a professor and had a group of senior students from Wuhan University. The reason he was able to get out of Qincheng Prison in the TV series is also due to this.

He might be able to challenge Zhao Lichun and even some people in Beijing, it's just a matter of whether he's willing to or not. Zhao Lichun is doing well and can unite most of the Standing Committee members, so he's unlikely to target Zhao's people.

"My relationship with Liang Lu is pretty good. Liang Lu is currently homeschooling our child, who is in the third grade of elementary school. He is doing very well in math and is studying with a professor at Handong University, planning to become a scientist. It's just a pity that in vitro fertilization technology is still relatively mature, and she is already in her fifties, so the risks are quite high. Otherwise, we could have another child together."

"I have some connections at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, so it shouldn't be a big problem."

"Why don't you ask Liang Lu and the kids? It would be best if you had one of your children, so they could inherit our mantle! Our political resources will have to be inherited by our children. My youngest son is already in high school, and I reckon he'll get into Tsinghua or Peking University. My older son will be graduating soon too, and we'll need your help to support him then."

Gao Yuliang was a time traveler, who traveled to the time before Qi Tongwei's astonishing kneeling. At that time, he and Teacher Wu were professors, both in their thirties, and had two sons. He had spent a lot of money to support his sons because he had to pay the extra birth fee.

He then instructed Qi Tongwei on how to properly live off a woman, and pointed out that the real person suppressing the other party was Chen Yanshi, not the Liang family. Chen Yang had already gone to Beijing and gotten married. In the TV series, Gao Yuliang had hinted at this to the other party more than once.

Now he's speaking plainly to Qi Tongwei.

They even created a story: after he rescued Qi Tongwei in the street, he was injured, and Liang Lu took good care of him in the hospital. As a result, they developed feelings for each other, which were even reported in the newspaper. Moreover, the age difference between the two was only three years, so it was quite a story.

However, in that era, many people had different opinions.

He was no longer the Gao Yuliang of the past. He wouldn't speak vaguely to his confidants. If he thought someone was promising, he would give them direct and straightforward guidance instead of speaking in cryptic terms. This was a matter for officials, not for his subordinates or his students.

He was truly devoted to his students, especially the good students from the original TV series, particularly Xiao Gangyu, Qi Tongwei, and Chen Qingquan. When Gao Yuliang first learned that they loved learning foreign languages, he went directly to their homes and whipped them for half an hour.

Moreover, Chen Qingquan's wife is a doctor, and he directly taught her how to cut and where to strike, resulting in eighteen consecutive cuts, each causing minor injuries. As the secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, he directly protected this doctor. If Chen Qingquan still dares to do this, then it's not his problem anymore.

Xiao Gangyu was laid off for selling cigarettes twice, which is utterly absurd. This is nothing compared to the fact that when your powerful backer falls, you are guilty even if you only embezzle a few thousand yuan.

This is nothing at all.

The entire Han University gang has always been clean and innocent, but now they've been tied up by Zhao Lichun's side. As for Gao Xiaoqin and Gao Xiaofeng, they seem to have boarded Zhao's ship.

However, Gao Yuliang had already secretly resolved the issue. The entire Han University gang had changed long ago. Everyone in the Han University gang had money, all in stocks. They bought Moutai stock, and they also mined Bitcoin recently. He just used a high-end computer to mine and made some extra money. He didn't use any graphics card clusters.

I just played around with it and only made a few thousand. But it will cost tens of millions of US dollars in the end!

Moreover, he wrote several books related to history. He had no control over the various power struggles in officialdom, nor did he understand them particularly well. Many of his actions were simply imitations of Gao Yuliang in the TV series, which were merely incidental solutions to his own problems.