Chapter 56 Thugs

When Chen Yang happened to see Vice Premier Li Yang's signature in a document sent by the National Development and Reform Commission to Huahai City on the project, he was worried that Li Yang would personally come to Huahai to supervise the battle. Although they are all high-ranking cadres, it is obvious that after a series of events in Xizhou, Chen Yang, the rising red star in the domestic political arena, obviously has an unspeakable gap between the Li family, a major faction in China, after all, Wu Zhenbang of the old Li family died in the hands of Chen Yang, although Wu Zhenbang is mainly to blame, but Chen Yang's approach is indeed too flamboyant and out of line, and there is no room for the Li family. In short, this is a dead knot that cannot be untied.

After mercilessly killing Wu Zhenbang, Chen Yang was of course retaliated against by the Li faction, and not long after that, he was forced to be recommended to study at the Central Party School from the post of secretary of the Xizhou Municipal Party Committee, who did a smooth job, and did not have any official position in the party school, and was silent for more than a year, before he was able to recover by chance, to be honest, if he didn't have a deep regimental background, I'm afraid that the energy of the Chen family alone may not be able to keep him, after all, his practice has broken the unspoken rules in this circle.

After this incident, it is a good fate for him to take a break for ten years and eight years and then come back to work. In fact, Chen Yang was already prepared for this thought after communicating with the old man, but his luck was not bad, coinciding with the replacement of the top scepter in the domestic political arena at that time, the principal was on the throne, and something happened to happen to Huahai's side, everyone knows that although the principal has been on the throne, but at this stage the domestic political arena is still the world of Huahai, to give a very simple example, among the more than 200 members of the Central Committee of this session, more than a quarter have worked in Huahai, or have Huahai's imprint.

And the principal naturally won't miss this opportunity, but for some reason the principal personally named his general, so that he was able to resume his work, otherwise, even if he could work again, it would definitely be impossible for him to sit on the throne of Mayor Huahai all of a sudden.

Of course, Chen Yang knew very well in his heart that the position of Mayor Huahai was a throne, but at the same time, it was also a crater, and if he didn't pay attention to it, he might be carried here, and after that, it would mean the end of his political life. Everyone knows that Huahai is the foundation of the Huahai system, and broadly speaking, the Li system and the Huahai system are the same concept. Therefore, Rao is Chen Yang's background is all over the sky, and I am afraid that he will definitely not retreat so easily.

It's far away, back to the topic, fortunately, the situation that Chen Yang is not willing to face finally did not happen, just after the New Year, the country began to make a big fuss about the revitalization of the old Northeast Heavy Industry Zone, as the vice premier Li Hui, who is mainly focusing on industrial revitalization, was naturally involved in a large part of the energy over there, in comparison, Huahai's local project is not so important.

However, other things are not as Chen Yang expected, after nearly ten rounds of negotiations, Huahai's negotiations with the company gradually began to involve the core content, the two sides did not back down, the negotiations gradually came to an impasse, and this project even in the National Development and Reform Commission can be ranked in the top few large projects, privately involved many interests, so once the two sides of the negotiation reached an impasse, there are bound to be more stakeholders will jump out.

However, Li Hui didn't have time to come, it doesn't mean that Yanjing doesn't pay attention to it, in fact, a trace of wind and grass in the negotiation process on Huahai's side will quickly spread to Yanjing, everyone knows that the background of Zhongji Company is not simple, and there will naturally be no fewer people who care about this big project.

Sure enough, under the pressure of Chen Yang from all sides, he did not intend to let go of his concessions, and put on an ambiguous negotiation posture that could be delayed, the Chinese side obviously couldn't wait to take action. …,

Soon, in mid-March, the National Development and Reform Commission sent a working group to Huahai to help Huahai carry out targeted work on this project, the specifications of this working group are quite high, in addition to the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission Chen Dong personally led the team, in addition to the director of the Overseas Investment Department, a number of deputy directors, and energy investment experts and so on more than 20 people, which is enough to see that the state attaches great importance to this overseas energy investment project.

Chen Yang is certainly no stranger to the National Development and Reform Commission, when he was still in Jiangnan Province, he once served in the inspection office under the Jiangnan Provincial Planning Commission, the predecessor of the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, and also went to the National Development and Reform Commission many times to run projects when he was in charge of the development zone, and Liu Haiquan, who is currently the director of the National Development and Reform Commission, has an extraordinary relationship with him. On this project, he had communicated with Liu Haiquan in private, but this time, he did not get enough support from Liu Haiquan, according to Liu Haiquan's meaning, it was obvious that Chen Yang was also required to do his best to complete the project.

And from the vague meaning revealed in Liu Haiquan's words, it is not difficult for Chen Yang to imagine that Uncle Liu is estimated to have been under great pressure from all sides this time. However, in the final analysis, the NDRC only guides the work here, and the specific implementation and negotiation and signing are still on the Huahai side.

It can be said that in the context of all aspects of the project, if the project is finally yellow, Chen Yang will definitely become the target of Qianfu. For the adjustment of the national energy industry policy, vigorously encourage companies from all over the world to invest in oil fields abroad, Chen Yang of course agrees with it in his heart, but he is now suffering words, the other party's request is difficult for him to accept, once he relieves his mouth a little and agrees to the other party's exaggerated shareholding requirements, then in the future, if a qiē shun lì, the project makes a lot of money, hello, hello, everyone, then forget it, but once the project implementation is not smooth, the Chinese side has invested billions of dollars but has not seen the benefits. At that time, there is no doubt that Mayor Chen will be the first person responsible.

All in all, the time has come to test his ability to govern.

For the arrival of the high-level working group of the National Development and Reform Commission, Huahai naturally attaches great importance to it, don't look at Huahai as a domestic financial center, and its status is transcendent, but many big policies need the help of the National Development and Reform Commission.

On the day of the arrival of the working group, Gao Ming, secretary of the municipal party committee, immediately presided over a meeting of the standing committee.

This time, the Standing Committee did not have any other superfluous agendas, and all the contents of the Standing Committee only revolved around one topic, that is, the issue of the negotiations with the China Foundation Company.

Due to the large number of people who came to the working group, the meeting was moved to a large conference room on the eighth floor of the city party committee, where the 12 members of the city's standing committee, except for Li Gang, political commissar of the military subdistrict, were all 11 members of the standing committee, and in addition, people from the government side who participated in the negotiations also attended the meeting as observers.

It must be mentioned here that since the anti-pornography operation led by Chen Yang accidentally knocked out a deputy secretary of the municipal party committee a few years ago, this position has been vacant until now. To this end, Gao Ming has of course done a lot of work, but he only has the right to build the position of deputy secretary of the municipal party committee, but has no decision-making power. Obviously, the position of deputy secretary Hua Hai is a sweet spot, and for a while, all kinds of cadres with ideas and qualifications have sprung up like spring insects, showing their magic and finding their own ways. Moreover, I heard that in addition to the cadres of the local faction who broke through the heads this time, there are also many qualified competitors in the ministries and commissions above the central government, and I am afraid that the threshold of the Central Organization Department has been broken for a while. The competition is so fierce, which also leads to the fact that this position is still undecided, and the central government is obviously very cautious. …,

After all the participants were seated, Gao Ming took the lead in speaking: "Comrades, I think you already know the purpose of today's meeting, I don't want to say more than that, now, the leading experts of the National Development and Reform Commission are also at the meeting, and they have made a special trip to guide our work in Huahai. ”

After a brief opening remark, Gao Ming immediately glanced at Chen Dong, the chubby deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, who was sitting beside him, and said, "Well, let's ask Director Chen to give us work guidance now." ”

When Chen Dong on the side heard this, he waved his hand with a smile and said: "Hehe, Secretary Gao, you are laughing at me, I can't afford to guide the work, so let's do it, I still want to listen to everyone's opinions first, especially the opinions of the comrades who participated in the preliminary negotiations." ”

Although Chen Dong came down from the central government, and his identity is not trivial, he is a high-ranking deputy minister, but at this time, he does not have the arrogance of the minister, but puts his posture very low, and as soon as he speaks, he casually relaxes the atmosphere of the venue that was originally slightly tense.

It is no wonder that Hua Hai's status is special, and its importance is self-evident, Gao Ming's authority as a prince is obviously incomparable to Chen Dong, and in terms of official position, Gao Ming is a senior cadre at the ministerial level, a dignified member of the Central Committee, and Chen Dong, the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission who has just taken office, can't catch up.

When Chen Dong spoke, Chen Yang was also silently observing this fat man, in Chen Yang's impression, this Chen Dong should have been the director of the Economic and Trade Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, but Chen Yang had no dealings with him, let alone any friendship, although they were all surnamed Chen, but this Chen Fat Man had nothing to do with Chen. And Chen Yang seemed to be able to feel that Gao Ming and this fat man Chen should be quite familiar with each other from the short two-sentence conversation between the two, and they may even have a deep relationship. Of course, this feeling is only due to one of his officialdom instincts.

After Gao Ming heard this, he nodded his head and said to the cadres present: "Okay, let the comrades on the government side talk about their views first." As he spoke, he turned his gaze sideways to Chen Yang, "Well, Mayor Chen?" ”

For Gao Ming, before Chen Yang arrived in Huahai, he, the secretary of the municipal party committee, was used to taking care of everything, or meddling in many things that should have been managed by the municipal government, and Chen Yang was obviously two types of partners with his predecessor Xue Rui, and the domestic political situation had also undergone drastic changes with before. He won't ask how to do it, he just waits to hear the results.

Chen Yang knew that this matter would eventually fall to the government, and he did not prevaricate, but because of the previous negotiations, he had been dragging out and did not participate in person, but just hung up the title of the leader of the negotiation team, and the specific affairs were all handed over to the executive vice mayor Zeng Aihua to take the lead, although Zeng Chunhua would report to him in detail after each round of negotiations, and he was also familiar with the negotiation process, but at this time he still didn't plan to say anything for the time being, but turned his head to look at Zeng Aihua with a grim face on the side, and signaled: "Old Zeng, You have the most contact with these Hong Kong people, so let you talk to the leaders of the NDRC first. ”

Although Zeng Aihua's face was cold and seemed to be calm, he had already scolded his mother in his heart. At the beginning of the discussion of this project at the executive meeting of the government, Chen Yang decided to let him, the executive deputy mayor, take the lead in negotiating with the other party, he faintly felt a trace of inappropriateness in his heart, but he couldn't say what was wrong, but it was normal for Chen Yang not to come forward to talk to the other party in person first, which was also a kind of negotiation technique, and also left enough way back for his side, so that once the negotiation reached an impasse, Chen Yang would come forward again, and the effect would be much better. But as the negotiation process deepened, the two sides tried it repeatedly, and the other party also made small concessions in the details, which showed a lot of sincerity, and when he reported to Chen Yang several times for instructions, Chen Yang always set the principle very hard, so that he had no room for maneuver at all, and then thought of the attitude of the previous mayor Xue Rui, he gradually smelled a trace of unusual flavor from it. …,

Obviously, according to Chen Yang's requirements, it is impossible for him to negotiate with the other party, and the cooperation conditions between the two sides are far apart, and according to the usual practice, there has been no negotiation for a long time. In this case, Chen Yang still refuses to let go of his mouth, so there are only two possibilities, one is that Chen Yang is too naïve and really regards Renzhongji Company as a philanthropist, and the other possibility is that Chen Yang is very wary of Zhongji and does not want to talk to the other party at all, or Chen Yang does not want to negotiate with the other party now.

Of the two possibilities, he prefers the second one.

On the one hand, the municipal party committee has already made instructions for this project, and it is necessary to reach an agreement with the other party as quickly and well as possible, and even when he reported to Secretary Gao, Secretary Gao even hinted at him that if necessary, Huahai can make some concessions, on the other hand, Chen Yang's side can be delayed, and in the reality that the two main leaders do not have the same ideas, it will be difficult for him to do things specifically.

But no matter what, at this time, he had to bite the bullet and introduce the negotiation situation first.

"Well, Director Chen, since Secretary Gao and Mayor Chen have asked me to talk first, then I will first introduce the specific situation to you and the experts." After a pause, he continued to say calmly, "Well, for this project of cooperation with the Chinese and basic parties, before contacting the other party, the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee has set the tone, and then, our government has also immediately begun to make detailed preliminary preparations, because we have talked to the other party many times last year, so some materials are ready-made, and after the study of the Standing Committee of the government, Mayor Chen personally took charge, and ordered my general, let me first contact the other party as a representative of the government." Well, the negotiation delegation of the Zhongji Company should have arrived in Huahai on February 20 after the Lunar New Year, and after that, together with the comrades of the government working group, I would basically communicate with the other party every other day, and counting it, as of the day before yesterday, there have been a total of 13 formal negotiations with the other side, including the last two, the meeting with the chairman of the board of directors of the company, etc., but unfortunately, the negotiations have not made much progress. ”

When he said this, his face, which had been calm, couldn't help but show a hint of discoloration, although it didn't have much to do with him if he couldn't talk about it, but after talking for so long, he couldn't make any progress, and his face as a specific operator was also dull. However, as mentioned earlier, he often publishes economic articles in the Central Internal Reference, and the level is of course good, but at this time, he still excused himself without a trace.

And Chen Dong, who had been listening quietly to the introduction, glanced at Chen Yang as if he was inadvertent. Obviously, from his point of view, Chen Yang, as the person in charge of the Chinese side with the right to sign, did not participate in more than ten rounds of negotiations, and even the chairman of the board of directors of others flew over from Hong Kong to talk a few times, even to leave room for maneuver, it seems that he has gone a little too far.

As for Chen Yang, although he knew very well in his heart that his deputy was definitely not his confidant, and he didn't plan to ask Zeng Aihua to take the lead, but when he heard his words, he was still surprised that this old Zeng actually rushed to shirk the responsibility first, and he didn't mean to put himself in his eyes, everyone here is an officialdom expert, no matter how vague this old Zeng is, no matter how vague this old Zeng is, no one can hear it. It seems that although he has been here for more than half a year, it is obvious that even in the Standing Committee, even in the acre and third of the land of his own government, he still has a long way to go if he wants to establish his prestige.

Immediately afterwards, Zeng Aihua continued to introduce slowly: "After the previous negotiations and contacts, we have already touched the basic conditions and the general bottom line of the other party. ”…,

"Oh, Mayor Zeng, tell me more about it."

Chen Dong was very clear about this point and grasped it very clearly, and a faint smile appeared on his fat face.

"Well, the other party has put forward a lot of specific requirements, I will first say a few more difficult to reach an agreement, first of all, the other party put forward, in order to persuade the Angolan military government to withdraw the cooperation with the Indian oil company, the other party has invested a lot of money in advance to do the work of the Angolan government, in addition to some public relations costs, which also includes the construction of a medium-sized hospital in the capital of Angola, this part of the initial costs add up to a total of about 80 million US dollars, the other party proposed, If an agreement is reached with us, then this part of the cost must be borne by both parties, and the specific proportion can be negotiated, but the other party definitely does not plan to pay all the money. ”

It stands to reason that the Chinese side originally used the relationship with the Angolan government to exchange the shares into shares, that is, they were responsible for getting the project in hand, and how much money it spent was their business, while the Chinese side was only responsible for the infrastructure construction of the investment project, and now the other party is obviously beyond the scope of China's acceptance.

Moreover, when Chen Yang visited Hong Kong for the first time, the other party did not mention this issue at that time, and now it seems that the project has dragged on for too long, and the attitude of the Angolan government has changed.

And when Zeng Aihua mentioned the other party's request, in addition to the people from Hua Hai, the faces of the people from Yanjing all changed drastically, and even some experts shouted in a low voice, even Chen Dong's face was obviously stunned after hearing it, he knew the inside story of the negotiations between the two sides last year, obviously, in last year's negotiations, the other party did not make any demands on this fee. However, he did not interrupt silently, and his face immediately became calm.

Zeng Aihua continued: "The second request put forward by the other party is that it is most difficult for us and the other party to reach an agreement in the current negotiations, and the other party has proposed that in the future oilfield joint venture projects of the three parties, the company will have a 30% stake, and all the oil well infrastructure will be invested and built by the Chinese side. ”

Compared with this second point, Chen Dong did not have much surprised expression after hearing it, after all, last year's negotiations were also stuck on this key point, indeed, the other party's appetite is too big, it is not impossible to exchange the relationship for shares, but 30% is really a bit excessive, to be specific, that is, Angola out of oil and gas resources into shares, naturally will not estimate and have no money to make an upfront investment, this is normal, after all, the resources are someone else's, and the whole company is a broker, However, like a locust, it wants to take a 30% stake in this project with an investment of nearly $3 billion, that is to say, after the establishment of the tripartite joint venture, Zhongji has obtained nearly a billion dollars in assets without pulling out a dime, not including the huge profits generated every year after the project is put into operation.

For this request of the other party, I believe that normal people are very difficult to accept, but because the Angolan government signed the agency to the company, others have nothing to do with them. And with the background of Zhongji Company, maybe this is the will of those shareholders with the background of the Taizi Party behind it.

Next, Zeng Aihua successively listed in detail the various harsh requirements put forward by the Chinese and basic parties at the negotiation table one by one at the meeting, although there are many names, and many of them are unacceptable, but because the participants either participated in this negotiation, or the National Development and Reform Commission's group of experts who participated in the last negotiation, it did not arouse much repercussions.

After Zeng Aihua introduced the situation, Chen Dong did not excuse himself, but opened his mouth as a matter of course, after all, he was guiding the work on behalf of the National Development and Reform Commission, and lowering his posture was to give Hua Hai face, but the guidance should not be discounted at all. …,

"Well, as for the tactics and ways and means of negotiation, I believe that Comrade Hua Hai's ability is fully competent, and as for the series of harsh demands put forward by the other party, they are all clichés, and I don't want to say more here."

Chen Dong's opening remarks were very practical, and then he continued: "The specific work is done by the comrades of Huahai, and I absolutely believe that the comrades will do their best to promote this good thing for the benefit of the country and the people. ”

Chen Yang was slightly stunned when he heard this, and subconsciously looked at Gao Ming, who was sitting in the center.

"In recent years, the country has been trying its best to adjust the domestic industrial structure, the National Development and Reform Commission has also issued a lot of relevant policies and regulations, and has achieved a lot of obvious results, but, comrades, the current shape does not allow us to be optimistic at all, the heavy industry base of the three eastern provinces is gloomy, and there is hardly any vitality, a trace of hope for development, I remember that some time ago at the Second Plenary Session of the 15th Central Committee, the general secretary talked about the most one of the issues that the cadres of the whole party should further emancipate their minds, and the general secretary was strategic. Yes, a lot of work has not been done well, and economic development in many places has not picked up, not because our cadres do not work hard, but the key is that our thinking is still in the initial stage of reform and opening up, and they are complacent and complacent, comrades. ”

"Let me make a simple analogy, take our Huahai oilfield project as an example, last year's negotiations with the other party ended in failure, I have been reflecting, what is the reason for this failure, I am very confused, obviously it is a good thing for the benefit of the country and the people, the other party's willingness to cooperate is also very strong, why can't we achieve a win-win situation? At the two sessions at the beginning of the year, the general secretary's speech made me cheerful, yes, the key is here, and it is us here that there is a problem. ”

Chen Dong said as he lightly pointed to his head with his hand, "How to emancipate your mind?" My understanding is diversity, the courage to innovate in work is to emancipate the mind, and the courage to shoulder the burden and be responsible is also to emancipate the mind, for example, in this negotiation, what I see is that our comrades have been caught in a misunderstanding, we have been on paper with each other calculating some gains and losses, as if, as long as we make a slight concession, we are not responsible for the country, that is, it is not complicated for the party, not complicated for the people? But is that really the case? I don't think so, at least, in my feelings, I think that our cadres have not been able to truly emancipate their minds, are short-sighted, and regard official hats as higher than a qiē, but as everyone knows, doing so is the biggest irresponsibility to the party and the people! ”

Chen Dong seems to have really done what he said, and what he said was really false, but the people who could attend the meeting were all middle and high-level cadres who often dealt with the central government, and theoretical issues were the issues that these middle and high-level cadres were particularly concerned about. And Chen Dong is worthy of being a cadre from the central government, and his speaking level is very good.

It's just that when he heard Chen Yang's words, it was extremely harsh.

"Could it be that this dead fat man is a thug invited by Gao Ming, so hard-working?"

Chen Yang secretly scolded himself and raised his eyes to look at Gao Ming.

Gao Ming's eyes were cold and calm, unmoved