Chapter 200: The Problem of Corruption

“Won’t this involve the Elders?” Jin Zhijiao had vaguely sensed the subtext in Yi Fan’s words, and now she suddenly became nervous.

“With this situation, is it possible not to involve the Elders? You have to know, the final decision-making power is in the hands of the Elders.” Yi Fan said meaningfully, “Absolute power means absolute corruption. You’ve heard this saying, haven’t you?”

“Of course, Comrade Director.”

Yi Fan held something back here. He didn’t tell his deputy that in the safe of his private office in the Fifth Division, there was a red-covered memorandum, filled with the “disciplinary violations” of Elders collected by the Fifth Division during its investigations into various corruption cases.

Compared to the “black materials” that Cheng Dong had handed over to him when the Cheka was first established, these materials were much more “lethal.” After all, those materials were just “procedural issues” like irregular use of funds and incomplete financial procedures, and couldn’t yet be labeled as “corruption.”

But the things in this red-covered memorandum were different. What was recorded inside was out-and-out “corrupt” behavior. Although by the standards of another time-space, the news value of this so-called corruption wasn’t even worthy of a forum post, in Lingao it was an absolute bombshell.

The memorandum grew thicker with his diligent work. While enjoying the pleasure of holding great secrets about others, Yi Fan’s mental pressure also increased day by day. The power to destroy others was also the power to destroy oneself.

“I really don’t understand,” Jin Zhijiao shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Why would an Elder be corrupt? Our government is a joint-stock company, and we are all shareholders…”

“In the past, we were all masters of the country,” Yi Fan said with a sneer, then felt his words were inappropriate. “The problems involving Elders are mostly insignificant small issues. Many Elders probably don’t think there’s anything wrong with it themselves: having a meal, arranging a good position for a naturalized citizen under them, privately buying a female slave, accepting some local products… Of course, by the standards of any time-space, this doesn’t count for much. But as you just said, our Senate is a joint-stock company. Since it’s a joint-stock company, the shareholders are very sensitive.”

Jin Zhijiao decided to remain prudently silent.

Yi Fan stood up, a cigar in one hand, the other in his trouser pocket, and began to pace the office.

“You know, anything involving an Elder is very complicated. I’ll be away for a few months. The work of the Fifth Division can’t stop, but you must be as cautious as possible when you act.”

“I know.” Jin Zhijiao nodded. She roughly flipped through the folder index in her hand. It seemed there were no cases involving Elders inside, and she felt a little relieved. “For the cases that have already entered the investigation and interrogation stage, just let the staff of the Fifth Division continue to work on them.”

“Right, you just need to take charge of the overall situation,” Yi Fan said, nodding. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone this time.”

With a blast of its whistle, the Haitian was slowly towed away from the pier at Bopu Harbor by a tugboat. Its departure was quiet, without the usual send-off party for a departing Elder, and no personal Elder flags were hung on the ship.

“The road is long and the burden is heavy.” In the officers’ lounge of the Haitian, Yi Fan looked out the porthole at the receding Bopu Harbor and said with emotion.

This officers’ lounge had been temporarily converted into the inspection team’s workshop. The Elder members of the inspection team had already gathered here, discussing the specific choice and work content for the first stop.

The members of the inspection team were decided by each department themselves. The main members came from the Cheka and the Planning Committee, and there were also a few auditing experts that Yi Fan had specially borrowed from other departments of the finance and economics sector. But there were very few Elder members. Besides Yi Fan, there were only Chen Baibin from the General Political Security Bureau and Dai Xie from the Planning Committee.

The appearance of Dai Xie seemed to give the Elders a very bad omen, because Dai Xie was the leader of the Planning Committee’s special search team, and had long been dedicated to “property confiscation” activities. He was known as a person who could squeeze oil from a stone. The Planning Committee sending him seemed to imply a thorough “bottom-checking” of all the external stations.

Due to his work, Yi Fan had cooperated with Dai Xie many times, and the two were relatively familiar.

In contrast, Chen Baibin was a complete stranger to them.

This was a tall, thin young man, like a bamboo pole: 180 cm tall, weighing 50 kg. According to Chen Sigen’s opinion, he belonged to the malnourished category in the physical examination evaluation.

Although during the so-called difficult march period, the Elders’ food could only be said to be monotonous in variety and slightly insufficient in fat intake, the overall nutritional level was still quite guaranteed. Coupled with physical labor and healthy living habits, many Elders showed a trend of fat people losing weight and thin people gaining weight, but Elder Chen’s weight had not changed at all.

Although Yi Fan’s department was the second best-informed department about the Senate and the Elders, and he had consciously collected basic information about the Elders, he knew very little about this Elder Chen. He only roughly knew that this person was a student from an unknown normal university in the country, and his major was unknown, but he had a large amount of knowledge in geography, history, economy, culture, military, biology, chemistry, physics, and other fields—in other words, he was basically an armchair politician who loved to pontificate on the internet.

Since this person was in the malnourished category, although he was reduced to “basic labor” for a long time, he had never done any heavy work, so naturally no one wanted him when it came to job assignments. He had to hang around the Great Library for a long time. Although his normal school education once made Hu Qingbai take a fancy to him, he ultimately did not take up a post at Fangcaodi.

So he went to the General Political Security Bureau. Zhao Manxiong really has some tricks, Yi Fan thought. He recruited people one by one without a sound, and I, his father, didn’t even know a thing.

When this Elder Chen entered the General Political Security Bureau, and what he did in the bureau, was probably only known to the people in his bureau and the people in the organization department.

“Since we’ve already set off, let’s talk about work first.” Yi Fan returned to the long table. The table was already covered with folders and files.

“I don’t need to say much, everyone should be very clear,” Yi Fan said. “The focus of this inspection is Hangzhou.”

A subtle expression appeared on the faces of the several Elders around the table.

But no one said a word.

“There is a lot of dissatisfaction in the Senate with the Hangzhou station, or rather, with Zhao Yigong. If we slowly start from Leizhou and go up the coastline station by station, Leizhou, Guangzhou, Taiwan… then it will inevitably lead to questions from the Senate about our inspection work. After all, inspection and audit work takes a lot of time. Adding up each place, it will be at least one or two months before we get to Hangzhou. This obviously cannot meet the expectations of the Senate.”

“So I propose that the first stop be Kaohsiung,” Yi Fan said. “What do you all think?”

Going directly to Hangzhou from Lingao would be too disrespectful to Elder Zhao. Disrespecting Elder Zhao was a small matter, but disrespecting certain Elders in the Senate and the Executive Committee was a big deal.

Stopping over at Kaohsiung for a week or two, and then going to Hangzhou, would be logical. It would also look better for everyone involved.

“I have no objection,” Dai Xie said. “What about Little Chen?”

“I don’t have one either,” Chen Baibin said expressionlessly. “I will follow Group Leader Yi’s arrangements.”

“Alright, since that’s the case, our first stop will be Kaohsiung. Now let’s talk about some specific work arrangements.”

Before setting off, Yi Fan had already visited all the members of the Executive Committee and had private exchanges with various political factions and societies in the Senate. He had roughly grasped the current general views of the Executive Committee and the Senate on the external agencies.

Although the various issues of the Hangzhou station had caused a storm of saliva in the Senate, in the Executive Committee, it was calm.

The members of the Executive Committee had long been aware of the problems of the external stations, but how to set the authority of the external stations had always been a difficult matter for the Executive Committee.

The so-called “solo run” problem of the dispatched Elders, in the eyes of the gentlemen of the Executive Committee, was essentially a conflict between central and local power sharing. It was by no means as simple as replacing a few station masters and canceling a few projects.

The Elders who were now slamming the table in the Senate and demanding an investigation into the “solo run” tendency, if they themselves became the head of an external station, would “go solo” faster and stronger than anyone else.

The external stations were different from the county offices on Hainan Island—a typical central-local relationship. The various counties on Hainan Island, including the Sanya Special Administrative Region they established, were tightly connected to the center of Lingao by highways, regular shipping lines, and wired/wireless telegraphs.

These counties had basically the same local power as in the Ming Dynasty. Almost all important powers were in the “center,” including the most important financial power, which was fully submitted and fully allocated. If the local authorities wanted to carry out any project, they had to go through the planning and approval of departments such as the Planning Committee. The required materials, funds, and even manpower also needed to be allocated from Lingao. If the local Elders wanted to develop the economy on their own, they had to go to Lingao to “run the ministries.”

Once one left Hainan Island, although the Senate had wireless telegraphs and the fastest merchant fleet and fleet in this time-space, its control inevitably declined. In particular, the lack of qualified naturalized citizen administrative personnel and technical workers made the Senate’s local administrative and business activities highly dependent on the dispatched Elders.

Because the resources that could be allocated to the dispatched Elders were limited, and the waiting time was long, this made the dispatched Elders almost without exception form the idea of “doing it yourself to have enough food and clothing.” Taking in refugees, educating children, training their own administrative personnel, and then engaging in commercial and handicraft enterprises—almost every external station followed this model. Even a simple mining base like the Hongji Coal Mine had to engage in tricks like rice trafficking and taking in refugees.