Official Career Storm
Chapter 94

Chapter 94: Chapter 94

After Song Guanchao left, Wu Qiangwei suddenly felt a bit irritable.

She took out a box of ladies’ cigarettes from the drawer, lit one, and frowned intensely.

Song Guanchao’s performance made her feel like she couldn’t control him.

Like a wild horse that had broken free from its reins, it could lose control at any moment, slipping from her grasp.

Although he was very capable, she didn’t like this feeling of being out of control.

She also thought about Song Guanchao taking leave to visit Secretary Xu in the provincial capital.

She hadn’t contacted Secretary Xu yet and didn’t know what Song Guanchao had said to him.

"Is there something he couldn’t tell me?"

Wu Qiangwei felt somewhat dissatisfied and sensed that Song Guanchao didn’t trust her enough.

Outside.

Song Guanchao was deep in thought.

His recent words were not spoken in a moment of impulsiveness and had nothing to do with personal grudges.

He truly felt that, no matter from which angle you considered, removing Director Qin was the most correct approach.

As the de facto leader, if he couldn’t control the police power, many tasks were simply undoable.

In a city, the most important departments were finance, police, and the organization department.

Next came the prosecutor’s office and the court.

Departments like the National Development and Reform Commission and education, although also powerful, weren’t as important to the leader as these two.

After all, one managed the money, and the other was a frontline law enforcement agency.

Relative to Wu Qiangwei, the organization department’s influence was there, but not as great as the other two departments.

The organization department’s main impact lay at the higher levels.

If Minister Zhou cooperated and stood with Wu Qiangwei, it would help her stabilize her City Committee position.

But if he sang a different tune from Wu Qiangwei, it would cause doubt about whether she, the de facto leader, truly had the ability to govern Lingjiang.

This would shake her status in the eyes of her subordinates.

Her authority would also face challenges.

Song Guanchao had not dealt with the finance department before, but he had had multiple encounters with Director Qin.

That guy was a rebel, not to be trusted.

Simply cracking down on him would do no good.

It was nearly impossible for a leader of a powerful department to willingly hand over his rights to a newly arrived secretary.

The simplest method was to get rid of him and install someone more compliant.

Song Guanchao stroked his chin, pondering a potential candidate—Vice Director Liang!

However, Director Liang was currently facing the dilemma of solving a case within a deadline.

If the case remained unsolved, Director Qin would definitely find a way to push him back to the second line, thus completely taking control of the Police Department.

Even if the case was solved, it wouldn’t be of much use.

After all, for a veteran in the police force, solving cases was just the basic expectation.

"The situation is quite unfavorable for Director Liang."

Song Guanchao tapped on the desk, silently contemplating.

After a moment, his eyes suddenly focused, and he had a plan in mind.

To take down Director Qin, conventional means were almost useless.

Even slinging mud would hardly have a decisive effect.

Unless he could obtain substantial evidence, it would be tough to remove him on grounds of violating laws or discipline.

The simplest method was to let them engage in an internecine struggle!

Song Guanchao firmly believed in a principle—when facts are in your favor, emphasize the facts; when the law is in your favor, emphasize the law; and when neither law nor facts are advantageous, flip the table and muddy the waters!

Director Qin couldn’t possibly lack political adversaries. As long as there were adversaries, there was an opportunity.

What he needed to do was wait for the right moment; when the time came, he wouldn’t need to do anything himself. Someone would surely kick his adversary while he was down and deliver the fatal blow.

But before that, he needed to protect Director Liang.

...

Liang Jianfeng had been under a lot of pressure recently.

A police officer from the Zhujiang District Police Station had somehow lost his service weapon.

The worst part was that the officer had kept quiet about the missing gun.

It wasn’t until after the incident involving Fu Cheng that the department required all officers to hand in their service weapons before going off duty, which was when the matter finally came to light.

The responsibility for the incident fell on the shoulders of the Vice Director in charge of supervision, but this Vice Director was Director Qin’s man.

After the incident, Director Qin only gave a verbal admonition and eventually passed the buck to him.

When the provincial department sent someone over, Director Qin even had him make a military pledge.

Liang Jianfeng was an upright and unyielding man, but he was no fool.

He had long been aware that Director Qin was targeting him at every turn.

Still, he made the military pledge, setting a deadline of half a month to crack the case.

Director Qin assured the provincial department that if the gun wasn’t found within half a month, Liang Jianfeng’s official cap would be removed.

If it were someone else, they might not take it seriously.

But Liang Jianfeng knew very well that if he couldn’t solve the case within half a month, Qin would indeed take advantage of the situation.

Given his position and power within the department, removing Liang Jianfeng’s cap might not be possible, but sidelining him to a secondary position under some pretext would be no problem at all.

Liang Jianfeng had already heard that Director Qin planned to transfer him to the Judicial Bureau as a vice director.

It seemed like a lateral move, but it was actually a demotion in disguise.

Though the Judicial Bureau was also at the departmental level, it couldn’t be compared to a super-department like the Public Security Bureau; it basically meant being sidelined.

Liang Jianfeng had long since come to terms with these realities. The power factions in Lingjiang City were complex; despite his great ambitions, he was still just one man.

Trying to change the current situation was virtually impossible.

He didn’t make the military pledge out of stubborn pride, nor was he trying to hold onto his position as Vice Director.

He simply wanted, purely and simply, to solve the case.

The missing gun was a major incident; he wasn’t concerned about whether he would be demoted because of it.

What he was worried about was the potential danger the missing gun could pose to the public.

It was a Type 92 semi-automatic pistol, 9mm caliber, with a 15-round double column magazine.

At the time it went missing, the pistol had been fully loaded.

Fifteen bullets—one shot per bullet could mean fifteen lives!

In his many years of handling cases, even when Lingjiang’s security was at its worst and there had been shooting incidents—back then, many figures in the underworld could get their hands on guns.

But as security improved and the crackdown became harder, those from the underworld who could get their hands on guns didn’t dare do it anymore.

These things were no good; if one day they led to a big issue, there would be no way to defend oneself.

There had been previous incidents of lost guns at the police station, but they were typically recovered within 48 hours.

But this time, it had been almost half a month, yet not a single clue had been found.

This was highly abnormal.

What Liang Jianfeng now feared the most was that the gun thief had already left Lingjiang.

If they committed a crime with that gun in another place, its impact would be immeasurable.

The more he thought about it, the more Liang Jianfeng felt a headache coming on.

At this moment, his phone rang.

It was a call from Xiao Chenggong, the Vice Director of the Jianyuan City Public Security Bureau.

Xiao Chenggong had come to Lingjiang City a while ago to pick up a cross-city fugitive, and the two had met.

Both men had military backgrounds, though they served in different branches, they both came from the Nanjiang Military District.

Since then, the two had stayed in contact.

"Hello, Director Xiao."

"Liang, your city had a gun loss case?"

Liang Jianfeng wasn’t surprised at all, since they were sister cities.

Besides, because of this incident, the provincial department had issued an order to the entire province, strictly forbidding any police officers from carrying their service weapons after work.

Those who were a bit more sensitive and inquired within the police system could easily find out what had happened.

Liang Jianfeng responded with a wry smile, "Yes, I’m in charge of this case now."

After chatting for a while, Director Xiao suddenly said, "I have someone to recommend to you, who might be able to help."

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