When the mayor was away, the executive deputy mayor, commonly known as the “first deputy mayor”, usually performed the mayor’s duties.

There used to be two executive deputy mayors in Chengzhou, but now they were all gone, namely Zhou Qian and Qian Qiming. Now Jiang Xiaochuan was in charge of the economy, which was considered an important municipal department, but the finance had been handed over to Wu Ju. He and Wu Ju should be regarded as the two executive deputy mayors after Zhou Qian and Qian Qiming. Other cities only had one executive deputy mayor, but Chengzhou had two. This was also the political characteristic of Chengzhou.

It turned out that Zhou Qian and Qian Qiming were powerful because they were the executive deputy mayors, in charge of the more important departments of the Chengzhou government, and they also sat on the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee. They were elected at the original Municipal Party Committee meeting.

Now they had lost their positions. The vacant seat on the Standing Committee should have been filled by the person who took over the position of executive deputy mayor. However, Jiang Xiaochuan failed to become a member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee, and the person who took the position was Wu Ju.

So, in terms of official rank, even if Fu Peng fell, Jiang Xiaochuan would still be second in the municipal government, but he was a truly powerful figure.

There was a widely circulated saying in the officialdom, that was, whether an official had real power or not depended entirely on how busy the official was. Wu Ju was naturally not as good as Jiang Xiaochuan. He was promoted by the lower-level city construction department and should be someone with a backstage background, but Jiang Xiaochuan was not bad either.

Now that Fu Peng was no longer the backbone of the municipal meeting, according to convention, the executive deputy mayor should preside over the work, but – should Jiang Xiaochuan or Wu Ju take over?

For a moment, no one spoke.

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Even though the news that Fu Peng was under investigation came suddenly and many people found it difficult to accept, they tried their best to calm down and began to think about the stakes.

This was the trouble in Chengzhou. One mayor had to have two executive deputy mayors. The mayor was relaxed, holding a bowl of water and had a triangular relationship with the two executive deputy mayors. Comparatively, it was stable and there wouldn’t be any big troubles; but after all, that was when the mayor had nothing to do, and if the cadres at the department level fell, the impact would be a series of consequences.

Now that Fu Peng had fallen, the two executive deputy mayors had also fallen out a long time ago. Now Jiang Xiaochuan and Wu Ju had to be replaced. One of them would take over the mayor’s duties.

The Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee would do a meeting. When Fu Peng’s position was vacant, they would appoint one person to become the acting mayor, and he would continue to act as mayor until the mayor was back or the next Chengzhou Municipal People’s Congress was convened – but who among Jiang Xiaochuan and Wu Ju could become the acting mayor?

The atmosphere at the work meeting was completely silent.

No one spoke.

Everyone was weighing in their hearts which way they should fall. Xu Weiguo’s eyes flickered between the experienced and steady Wu Ju and the young and steady Jiang Xiaochuan, but he couldn’t help but pinch the seam of his pants.

Fu Peng was falling down…

But the position of acting mayor would never fall to Xu Weiguo, so he would have to choose between Jiang Xiaochuan and Wu Ju.

Xu Weiguo was definitely not alone. There were many people who needed to choose sides.

Although Jiang Xiaochuan was now a powerful person, he had not been on the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee after all. He was ranked behind Wu Ju. Although Wu Ju was on the Standing Committee, he did not have enough connections in the Chengzhou Municipal Government.

Xu Weiguo heard that the organization minister was also on the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee. He didn’t even have a good relationship with the organization minister, but he had a close friendship with Jiang Xiaochuan…

This situation was really difficult to handle.

No one dared to ask Jiang Xiaochuan or Wu Ju to preside over the meeting. It was unwise to take sides before the situation was clear.

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Seeing that even the meeting was about to reach a deadlock, Jiang Xiaochuan finally spoke first.

“Since Mayor Fu can’t come back due to some matters, the meeting still has to go on. I’m not very good at speaking. Mayor Wu was the champion of our speech event. Why don’t we let Mayor Wu preside over the meeting on Mayor Fu’s behalf?”

Unexpectedly, Jiang Xiaochuan would say this, and everyone looked at him with suspicion and inquiry.

Wasn’t this giving the opportunity to others?

It was really unwise, but Wu Ju’s eyes flashed with secret joy. Although he didn’t understand why Jiang Xiaochuan did this, he was not afraid even if Jiang Xiaochuan had any conspiracy. The right to host this meeting was between him and Jiang Xiaochuan. This was the first battle. If this battle was fought beautifully, everything could have a good start.

He followed the current and climbed up directly along the ladder given by Jiang Xiaochuan. He coughed a few times, straightened his voice and began to speak, presiding over the meeting in a decent manner.

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After the meeting, when Jiang Xiaochuan left, he was with Lin Shanyi. Lin Shanyi looked at Jiang Xiaochuan with a half-smile, and asked a bit bluntly: “Is Mayor Jiang going to retreat?”

Fu Peng fell down, and the hot things hadn’t happened yet. As the situation got colder, people in the municipal government would begin to think about Fu Peng’s successor. As a leader, Fu Peng must have thought about who his successor should be. Jiang Xiaochuan could feel that Fu Peng valued Wu Ju very much. This was Wu Ju’s early advantage, but after Fu Peng fell, on the contrary, it would become Wu Ju’s disadvantage.

When he fell, everyone who had anything to do with Fu Peng had to distance himself from Fu Peng for fear of being implicated, so at this time Wu Ju was just winning on the surface. Jiang Xiaochuan already controls half of the government in the municipal government, and his connections were perfect. However, this time the battlefield might not be in the municipal government, but in the municipal party committee.

The Municipal Party Committee, Li Dakai, and some members of the Standing Committee…