Xutang Township, Xingchuan County, Yanning Province.

Xingchuan County is located in a hilly and mountainous area in northern China, and as early as the Ming Dynasty, it was an important iron ore producing area in the north, and there was a history of ironmaking for hundreds of years. In modern times, due to the impact of large industry, the traditional ironmaking method has gradually withdrawn from the historical stage due to the lack of cost competitiveness. After the liberation, the state established a large state-owned iron and steel plant in Xingchuan County, and Xingchuan County itself also established two county-owned medium-sized iron and steel plants, forming a fairly complete steel production system.

In recent years, with the increasing prosperity of the steel market, the towns and towns of Xingchuan County and some private entrepreneurs have begun to focus on the fat of steel. In the mid-to-late 90s, more than 30 small steel mills emerged in Xingchuan County, recruiting retired and in-service workers and technicians from the three large and medium-sized steel plants in Xingchuan to produce steel in a simple way, mainly for some small and medium-sized construction enterprises in the surrounding area.

In the new century, the pattern of short supply in the steel market has not been alleviated, but has become more and more serious, which provides more people with the opportunity to enter the steel market. In 2000 and 2001 alone, more than 100 new steel mills were added to Xingchuan County, as well as an equally large number of coking plants and rolling mills, forming a well-known steel production center.

Some estimate that, excluding three large and medium-sized steel mills owned by one state-owned and two counties, small steelmakers in Xingchuan County can produce no less than 10 million tons of steel a year, almost as much as the steel production of the United Kingdom during the same period. With the technology of that year, it was not uncommon for a steel mill to produce 10 million tons of steel per year, but the 10 million tons of steel in Xingchuan County was the total output of more than 100 steel mills, and the average output of each steel mill was less than 100,000 tons.

The steel industry is the most important for large-scale operations, and small-scale steel plants not only have high energy consumption and low production efficiency. Moreover, the utilization rate of ore and scrap is extremely low, and the pollution is extremely serious. Xutang Township is the area with the highest concentration of small steel factories in Xingchuan County, and when Qin Hai stood on a hill in Xutang Township and looked at it, all he saw was a thick haze that people couldn't breathe.

"Since the year before, we've been like this here, we can't see the sun at all."

Guo Qiushi, deputy director of the Xingchuan County Government Office, stood by Qin Hai's side. Briefed Qin Hai on the local situation.

Xingchuan County is the first stop of Qinhai's small steel management action, and he chose this place naturally because the small steel problem in Xingchuan County is the most prominent, and through the practice in this place, he can accumulate experience and provide guidance for follow-up actions. Of course, because of the climate of Kogawa Prefecture's small steel, the success of this place will have a deterrent effect on other regions.

Qin Hai took the capable team he formed. I came to the county government first. He went straight into the office of Gao Xuejian, the county magistrate, and showed a letter of introduction issued by the State Economic and Trade Commission, which startled Gao Xuejian. Xingchuan County rarely receives several visits from central-level units throughout the year, and a random director from the ministry is enough to keep the local people busy. On the letter of introduction that Qin Hai took out, there were more than a dozen names of the ministries and commissions that were jointly signed, and there was almost nothing written on the first page, all of them were red heads.

I heard that Qin Hai himself is the deputy leader of this extremely terrifying working group. Gao Xuejian has a feeling of looking up at the mountains.

"When did Team Leader Qin come to Xingchuan County? No matter how much we didn't notice in advance, we had to go to the national highway to meet us anyway. That's right. Has Team Leader Qin been to the province, why hasn't the province arranged someone to accompany Team Leader Qin over? After Gao Xuejian beckoned Qin Hai and his party to sit down, he asked timidly.

"Our governance action this time was directly organized by the central government, not through the provincial and municipal levels, and directly met with the grassroots, so we came to Xingchuan before we came. I didn't say hello to your province or city. However, the Economic and Trade Commission has previously issued a notice to all localities explaining the situation of this operation, and you must have received it, right? Qin Hai said.

"Yes, yes, we've all received it." Gao Xuejian replied in a loud voice. The circular issued by the Economic and Trade Commission was issued to all provinces. Provinces are required to forward it to cities and counties. Gao Xuejian remembered that the notice did say that the working group would work directly in the county, and the province also emphasized the need for counties to cooperate with the work of the working group when forwarding the document.

"Since the county magistrate Gao has received the documents from the Economic and Trade Commission, our communication will be simple." Qin Hai said, "Xingchuan County is the county with the most concentrated small steel problems, and the media has repeatedly exposed the pollution problem of small steel in Xingchuan County, and the Economic and Trade Commission has also sent several letters to Yanning Province, urging Yanning Province to start solving the phenomenon of small steel out of control, including Xingchuan County." As the head of a county, County Magistrate Gao should know more about the situation in Xingchuan than we do, right? ”

"Well...... this" Gao Xuejian showed a sad look and said: "First of all, we must review our work, the small iron and steel problem in Xingchuan County is indeed a bit serious, although the county has also taken positive measures, taking the responsibility to implement the people, the commission bureau to take care of the township, and also shut down some seriously polluting small factories. However, there is still a certain gap from the requirements put forward by the state, which is a deficiency in our work, and we ask Team Leader Qin to give severe criticism. ”

His remarks, at first glance, sounded like a review, and after careful consideration, it seemed to be showing merit. What the county does is called "taking positive measures", and the existing problems are "some serious" and "there are certain gaps", if Qin Hai continues to follow his words, I am afraid he will have to be praised for his effective work. It's a pity that Qin Hai didn't do his homework before he arrived in Xingchuan County, he knew that Xingchuan County was very slack in the management of small steel, and the problem of small steel was far from "some serious", but extremely serious.

"County Magistrate Gao, according to the information you have, how many small steel plants in Xingchuan County currently meet the mandatory shutdown standards stipulated by the Economic and Trade Commission?" Qin Hai ignored Gao Xuejian's quibbles and asked bluntly.

"Probably...... More than a dozen, or more than twenty......" Gao Xuejian said hesitantly, observing the expression on Qin Hai's face.

"Is it really about two decades?" Qin Hai showed a mocking expression.

"To tell you the truth, counting the relatively small ones, there are almost 40 of them." High school learning.

"This should only be the number of one township in Xutang Township, right?" Qin Hai said.

"Team Leader Qin is really discerning!" Gao Xuejian was exposed, but there was no shame on his face, he stretched out his thumb and gave Qin Hai a thumbs up, and then said as if he was fine: "The amount I just said is indeed a bit underestimated. Some small steel factories have adopted the method of fighting guerrilla warfare with the county, and our staff will go down to inspect them, and they will be temporarily shut down. As soon as our people left, they started again. In this way, we will have some omissions in the statistics. If you count all these small factories, I'm afraid there are seventy or eighty in the county. ”

From a dozen to seventy or eighty, it is really difficult to build a high school. Qin Hai knew in his heart that there were as many as 150 small steel factories in Xingchuan County that needed to be shut down, and Gao Xuejian still concealed half of them when he said this. However, Qin Hai didn't have time to talk to Gao Xuejian anymore, he nodded and said, "There are seventy or eighty, which shows that the problem is still very serious." County Magistrate Gao, can you tell me why Xingchuan County has not been able to curb the trend of small steel flooding? ”

"That's a long story." Gao Xuejian said, "Our Xingchuan place, since ancient times, the folk customs have been extremely tough, and the government wants to do something, and the resistance encountered below is very great." The current people are not easy to manage, and if they don't get it right, they will give you a mass incident and affect social stability.

In addition, Xingchuan is located in a hilly and mountainous area, with little arable land, and the only resources are coal and iron, so farmers can only rely on steelmaking and iron if they want to get rid of poverty and become rich. On the one hand, we must implement the regulations of the state, but on the other hand, we must also take into account the problems of peasant employment and poverty alleviation. If we shut it down according to the regulations, how can we solve the problem of feeding dozens of people?

We have reported to the province and the state many times, hoping to invest in the construction of some key projects in Xingchuan County to increase the income of the people in Xingchuan, but it has always been a failure. If the state can invest in us, and farmers can have other channels to obtain income, then we will have more initiative in the management of small steel. ”

"County Magistrate Gao means that if the state does not invest in Xingchuan, Xingchuan will not be able to close these small steel plants, is that true?" Qin Hai sneered. Gao Xuejian's method is nothing more than to replace defense with offense, and to put the responsibility for conniving at the proliferation of small steel mills on the head of the state. If you were to debate this issue with him, you would end up fooling the small steel mill problem. Qin Hai was already very familiar with this kind of trick, and he wouldn't follow the other party's routine at all.

"No, no, no, Team Leader Qin misunderstood." Gao Xuejian dared to admit it, "I just mean that the peasants in Xingchuan live very poorly, and we also hope that there are some opportunities to help them increase their income and improve their lives." ”

Qin Hai had already gotten the information he wanted, and he didn't expect to be able to solve these problems through Gao Xuejian's consciousness. He said to Gao Xuejian: "That's it, County Magistrate Gao, we plan to do some research in Xingchuan first, and how to solve the problem of Xingchuan will be considered after the investigation is over." Can County Magistrate Gao provide us with some necessary cooperation? ”

"That's no problem at all." Gao Xuejian readily agreed, "I will send Guo Qiushi, deputy director of the government office, to be your guide, and at the same time arrange for the public security department to provide you with security." (To be continued......)