NOVPUB
Chapter 1072: 943
August 19th.
Mu Zhiwen had finished his inspection and left the Myanmar Economic Zone.
He did not return by the route he had come.
Instead, he directly crossed the confrontation area that had been discussed earlier.
Transitioning from an asphalt road to a dirt road so abruptly and directly made the change feel so sudden that Mu Zhiwen still couldn’t adjust. After seeing the Myanmar Economic Zone, he looked at the villages in Shan State.
The gap was huge.
So huge that he felt as if he had just returned from a developed country, even though the construction in the state capital of the state was decent, the terrible transportation throughout the state was enough to suppress the little stubbornness left in his heart.
"Things must change."
This was the most persistent thought in Mu Zhiwen’s mind at that moment.
Whether for others, or for himself.
It had to be done.
Starting next week, Ling’s people would begin to clear mines in the border areas, many of the locations of the mines had been forgotten. Only then could they say that it was safe to produce.
Not daring to go to the mountains on his own land, he thought, was ironic.
He drove through the messy village roads.
The car got on the main road of the state, and the speed increased significantly, but it still took all morning for Mu Zhiwen to reach the provincial capital of Shan State. The places that had looked good to him before now seemed somewhat suffocating.
Mu Zhiwen returned.
Pan Cong personally came out to greet him and took him to his office.
"Come on, tell me, how was it there? Did you find anything?" Pan Cong asked curiously as he poured a cup of tea for Mu Zhiwen.
"I really opened my eyes, Leader Pan Cong, you should really see it for yourself. You don’t know how massive the gap is between cold numbers and the vibrant reality. These are the photos I brought back."
"Look, this is their checkpoint, big, isn’t it? Thirty-two inspection lanes. This is their highest standard highway, sixteen lanes in each direction. This is what their rural areas are like, even their village roads are better than ours here..."
Mu Zhiwen proudly pulled out a series of photos.
They were his ’achievements’ from the past few days; apart from special places, such as government office buildings and the mining areas and their staff, there were no restrictions on their photography elsewhere.
"Also this, is the port between the Myanmar Economic Zone and Huaxia, reportedly the daily truck traffic has exceeded three thousand. Even before we were fully blocked by Lang Cai, our daily traffic didn’t reach five percent of theirs." As he said this, Mu Zhiwen’s eyes were glowing.
"That many?" Pan Cong was incredibly surprised.
Mu Zhiwen exclaimed, "Yes, this data they only shared with me in person during my visit. In Ling’s reports, there are only aggregate economic data, and even those might not be accurate."
"You mean Ling is hiding his skills?" Pan Cong immediately grasped the key point.
Mu Zhiwen nodded.
"Possibly, but it’s just speculation because Ling does not seem like a person who tells the truth about everything. Sometimes, I feel like I have seen through him, but upon deeper thought, I find myself surrounded by a thick fog."
"It could also be that their development is so good that reality exceeded your expectations by a lot, so it created an illusion," Pan Cong said with a smile.
"Perhaps."
...
As Mu Zhiwen was reporting back to Pan Cong.
In Lang Cai’s office.
Although the economic work conference had ended several days ago.
Lang Cai was busier than before.
Stimulated by Ling, all departments and the government started operating frantically. Their data for the first half of the year, which had looked very promising, now seemed like ’dereliction of duty’ compared to the Myanmar Economic Zone.
How could they stand this?
They all buckled down with renewed energy.
The hope for the year-end summary meeting was not to be overshadowed again, but with a GDP of over 200 billion dollars, it was ridiculously unreasonable; even halving it would still be out of their reach.
At that moment, Lang Cai was holding a document.
The more he read, the more furrowed his brows became, and his expression grew increasingly grim. A middle-aged man was standing in front of Lang Cai’s table, with a composed demeanor and sharp eyes, clearly no simple character.
His name was Bi Wan.
Another of Lang Cai’s trusted aides.
He controlled the department that made all civil servants in Myanmar tremble---the Judiciary.
Myanmar had studied the systems of Western countries and did not have a Discipline Inspection Department like Huaxia. If one must say they had anything, it would be the criminal investigation agencies within departments such as the judiciary.
"Is this information true?"
Lang Cai put down the document and stared intently at Bi Wan. Although Bi Wan was his confidant, the issues involved were indeed significant.
"Absolutely true," Bi Wan asserted confidently.
"Hiss..."
Lang Cai took a deep breath.
He silently lit a cigarette.
Then, leaning back in his chair with his eyes half-closed, he silently began to smoke. Bi Wan stood patiently in place, waiting for Lang Cai’s decision, knowing that it was indeed a tough choice.
Bi Wan held this position.
One of his tasks was to monitor on behalf of Lang Cai, to hand him the metaphorical knife when needed, and to report to Lang Cai periodically so that he was aware of what his subordinates were up to.
And the content of this report was about the various compromising materials collected from different departments during this period.
Corruption.
Bribery.
Extortion.
Interest conveyance.
Lang Cai was aware of the existence of these in Myanmar’s various departments, and he knew that these were unavoidable. When interests lay before one’s eyes, who could remain unmoved? Since ancient times, this had been unending.
In the past,
he had turned a blind eye.
As long as their acts were not too egregious, he simply did not care, and Myanmar was poor, with everyone having little to skim off—a country with a GDP of just over one hundred billion dollars.
No matter how much they embezzled, there wasn’t much to take.
Last year,
the GDP of the neighboring country to the east had already exceeded two trillion dollars.
With a disparity of two hundred times, the word ’poverty’ aptly described the internal situation in Myanmar before, a sad reality for an agricultural country where nothing fetched a high price.
But in this past half-year,
huge sums of money had been poured in.
Frantically stimulating many people’s nerves.
They started to take action, relying on substantial investment, major families, and various interest groups gradually grew stronger, eventually involving almost the entire upper echelon of Myanmar, each with their own backing interest groups.
Lang Cai simply could not stop it.
Just like the United States and other Western countries,
behind politics, it’s actually capital. Capital is essentially comprised of these big and small interest groups that provide funding for elections and speak on their behalf.
Lang Cai knew a lot of things.
For example, that Kundun had previously argued with Ling over raw material import quotas because he had accepted benefits, and even owned stakes in some of these companies. He also knew about the interest conveyance between Chong Xin and Kundun.
Knew that Chong Xin always transferred money to Kundun’s UBS account.
Lang Cai did not care about these things.
It was just a bit of money.
What’s the big deal?
But from the report Bi Wan had provided, Kundun’s actions were not just these minor issues; he had even begun to aggressively expand his own influence. In the government of Myanmar, it was already underway.
From now on, they would all be Kundun’s subordinates, and the transfer of power had already begun.
However,
he could not tolerate Kundun’s infiltration of the military.
This was something that was supposed to start in the first half of next year. Kundun, so anxious to curry favor with some people in the Myanmar military, completely disregarded him. It seemed necessary to seriously warn Kundun.
What’s in his hands, given to you, is yours.
What’s not given, you can’t take.
And at the same time, to deter those itching to ride on Kundun’s coattails. Lang Cai had not yet resigned.
