Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty-Four: Personnel Changes

The decision regarding Dugu Qiuhun was quickly posted on the internal BBS. Subsequently, all departments received the official document. Dongmen Chuiyu sat in his office at the Dongmen City Commercial Hall and opened the document.

“In the name of the Senate and the People…”

Dongmen Chuiyu was taken aback. What was this? A closer look revealed that it was the Tribunal’s document regarding Dugu Qiuhun’s crimes and punishment.

“Dugu has been completely stripped of his uniform this time,” Dongmen Chuiyu felt a sense of regret. He and Dugu Qiuhun were somewhat birds of a feather. “It’s a pity about the German Wehrmacht and SS uniforms he brought.”

He already knew that the new police station chief was Mu Min—her name was currently being publicly announced online. If there were no objections within three days, she would be officially appointed.

He had seen this woman, Mu Min, before. She looked like a particularly capable and formidable woman. Dongmen Chuiyu thought to himself that with her permanently stationed in Dongmen City, it was hard to say whether he, the “Great Official of Dongmen,” could cooperate as closely with her as he had in the Dugu era. At this thought, he felt a little dispirited. In fact, he had long been thinking of leaving. The Dongmen Market was now almost completely on track, and there was nothing new and interesting to do. Moreover, it was rumored that Yi Fan’s Cheka would conduct a large-scale financial inspection of all departments after the New Year. When he was in charge of Dongmen City, he had handled land sales and leases, as well as real estate development. It would be strange if there were no problems during the inspection.

But if he wanted to be transferred, he needed a destination. Dongmen Chuiyu thought that since he had been involved in commerce recently, a transfer to the Ministry of Commerce would be a good fit for his expertise…

As he was thinking, he suddenly heard a commotion outside the door. Dongmen Chuiyu opened his office door and saw Dugu Qiuhun arguing with two new police cadets at his office door. Dugu Qiuhun wanted to go in and get his things, but the cadets firmly refused—they had received orders not to let anyone in until the new chief arrived to take over.

“I can’t even get my personal belongings?! Who made this rule!” Dugu Qiuhun’s face was red with anger.

“We are following orders, Chief,” the two newly assigned police cadets repeated the same sentence over and over.

“Dugu, don’t be anxious! Come and sit in my office for a while!” Dongmen Chuiyu greeted him. “I’ll call Ran Yao and ask when Mu Min can come over. If she doesn’t come, it’s also fine to have someone else come and open the door.”

Dugu Qiuhun sat down in Dongmen Chuiyu’s office, fuming. Since he was taken away by the General Political Security Department, he had been treated like a rat crossing the street, with everyone shouting at him. Although he had now regained his freedom of movement, the people he met on the street either glared at him or ignored him, pretending not to know him. Even some people who had gotten along well with him in the past now put on a face of “drawing a clear line” with him.

Dongmen Chuiyu called Ran Yao and asked if someone could come and open the door first, so that Dugu Qiuhun could take out his personal belongings.

Dongmen Chuiyu put down the phone, “Ran Yao told you to wait. You have to wait for Mu Min to arrive before you can handle the handover. It’s better for everyone to do it face to face.”

“What’s the point of a handover?” Dugu Qiuhun said angrily. “I’m just short of being dragged to the square for a struggle session. The keys to the safe and the filing cabinet have already been confiscated, and they haven’t even returned my pistol. Why are they still playing these formalistic games?”

“Don’t complain so much,” Dongmen Chuiyu sympathized with Dugu. “It’s already like this. For now, just let it be.”

“Hmph, I don’t care about others, but I didn’t expect Director-General Ma to sell me out without a second thought, and so cleanly!” Dugu Qiuhun said, pouring out all the details of Ma Qianzhan’s cold attitude towards him.

“I was so loyal to him back then! I didn’t expect him to be so heartless!”

Dongmen Chuiyu shook his head, “Qiuhun, if the Director-General didn’t do this, he couldn’t even protect himself. Are you still blaming him?!”

“What does it matter to me if he can protect himself or not!” Dugu Qiuhun’s anger towards Ma Qianzhan had not subsided. “If you piss me off…”

“If he can protect himself now, he can protect you in the future,” Dongmen Chuiyu lowered his voice. “If he goes down with you, you’ll be a farmer for the rest of your life!”

Dugu Qiuhun was stunned for a moment and said in disbelief, “No way…”

“Alas, you,” Dongmen Chuiyu sighed. “If only you had told me when you were about to send troops that day, I would have definitely stopped you…”

“What’s the use of saying that now?” Dugu Qiuhun stood up impatiently and paced around. “When do you think they’ll let me be the head of the police team again…”

“Don’t even think about it.” Just as Dongmen Chuiyu said this, he heard Mu Min talking loudly to someone in the corridor outside. He stopped talking. “You should go and pack your things first. I’ll visit you later.”

After sending off the grumbling Dugu Qiuhun, Dongmen Chuiyu thought about his own future. He suddenly remembered that Li Mei now had the official status of an elder, and the Women’s Cooperative she was in charge of had been renamed the “Cooperative” since its “nationalization.” This cooperative had an absolute dominant position in the commercial field of Dongmen City. Given Li Mei’s ability and qualifications, she would not only continue to serve as the general manager of the cooperative, but might even become the Minister of Commerce. Even if he went to the Ministry of Commerce, he wouldn’t have much room to play—she was a veteran of the business world, and he was a half-baked person who had started by selling land and renting houses, which was completely different.

If he went to the Ministry of Commerce, he would at most be a deputy minister or something like that. While Dongmen Chuiyu was hesitating, he suddenly received a phone call.

“Are you still a part-time staff officer at the General Staff?” the person on the phone asked.

“Yes, I attend the staff meeting at the General Staff every week—you should know that,” Dongmen Chuiyu said.

“Yes, I am completely confident.” After hearing the words on the phone, Dongmen Chuiyu couldn’t help but stand up straight. “You can rest assured.”

The appointments for personnel changes came down one after another. Mu Min was appointed as the director of the Dongmen City Police Station and no longer served as the director of the Li District Affairs Office. Ran Yao was officially appointed as the national leader of the National Police and no longer served as the director of the General Political Security Bureau. Dongmen Chuiyu resigned from his position as the director of the Dongmen City Management Office and was transferred to the General Staff Department as a full-time staff officer. Li Mei was appointed as the director of the Dongmen City Management Office of the Ministry of Commerce and the director of the cooperative.

Chen Haiyang no longer served as the People’s Commissar for the Navy and was appointed as the Chief of Naval Operations. Ming Qiu was appointed as the People’s Commissar for the Navy. He Ming no longer served as the People’s Commissar for the Army and was appointed as the Army Chief of Staff.

…

The institutional adjustment and personnel changes brought many vacant positions. Many “hatless” chiefs obtained official positions in this adjustment, and their original feelings of being unrecognized were greatly improved. Ma Jia did not go back on his word. The people who had contributed the most to the Law Club successively obtained important positions in the Tribunal. Among them, An Xi became the director of the Tribunal Office, Dong Shiye became a judge of the Public Security Court. Ma Jia originally wanted to give the position of the director of the Tribunal Investigation and Execution Department to Ji Xin, but he declined, saying that he did not want to do this and only asked to be recommended to the Ministry of Education. Ma Jia had no choice but to say hello to Hu Qingbai and recommend Ji Xin.

The position of the director of the investigation department had to be temporarily vacant. This position was very crucial and could not be filled by simply reciting legal provisions. Ma Jia decided to reserve the position until a suitable candidate could be found. Others also received corresponding positions, and the worst also got a position in the Legal Counsel Office.

Only the most difficult position of the General Political Security Bureau had no candidate. Ma Jia repeatedly requested a meeting to discuss the candidate for this position—the position of the director of the General Political Security Bureau was both important and sensitive. Ma Jia felt too much pressure to have the power to choose the person in his own hands. Who knew what these people were thinking!

But the few people in the Executive Committee just kept laughing and talking, and no one mentioned a candidate. Ma Jia had several private talks with the main members of the Executive Committee, but he couldn’t get any specific content. In the end, he had to consider the candidates himself.

This person should preferably have no connection with either President Wen or Director-General Ma. Logically, Mu Min was the most suitable candidate after Ran Yao left his post. Not only was she a complete outsider, but she had also worked in political security in the original time and space, which could be considered a professional match. Ma Jia thought, the problem is that she is too “outsider” and has no foundation at all. She would not be able to convince the public to hold this position, and President Wen obviously did not like female cadres.

Besides, in this way, the power held by the Ming family would be too scary, Ma Jia thought to himself.

Ma Jia sat in his office, drinking cup after cup of strong tea, repeatedly looking at the general roster of transmigrator members that he had obtained from Xiao Zishan. This roster briefly recorded the information and current positions of all transmigrator members. Finally, his eyes fell on a name in the last Z-headed column.

This person should be suitable! Ma Jia thought. Although this person was not from the public security system like Ran Yao and Mu Min, but had studied international politics, he was proficient in the political science and specific practices of the Soviet era, and had a particularly profound research on the purges of the Stalin era and the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs. It should be said that he had mastered enough theory, and he was not a person who liked to show off—this point alone was much better than all the clamoring transmigrator members who wanted to be purgers.

This person was Zhao Manxiongski.

Zhao Manxiongski usually lived in seclusion, rarely leaving the original Internal Affairs Committee compound, and rarely spoke. He almost never attended any meetings of the Internal Affairs Committee. He held the title of director of the policy research office of the Internal Affairs Committee. No one knew what he was doing, but a copy of the documents of all departments of the Internal-affairs-committee had to be sent to him for research and reference. He spent his days constantly reading, excerpting, and writing in a large, locally produced 16-mo notebook.

Zhao Manxiong’s office was gradually filled with these notebooks. The heads of various departments would sometimes go to his office to talk for a while, but his name never appeared on any documents.