Late at night, around nine o'clock, Tan Hengqiang returned to the headquarters after having a few drinks with An Zecheng.

In the lounge, Tan Hengqiang took off his coat and handed it to the head of the guard regiment, bent over and sat on the bed, picking up the stomach-nourishing soup that the other party had prepared for him.

"Commander, are you calling someone over tonight?" The head of the guard regiment neatly hung up Lao Tan's clothes and immediately asked in a low voice.

Tan Hengqiang glanced at him: "No, I'm tired."

Lao Tan has countless properties in The Dragon City Rises, and he can't remember how many houses he has under his name. However, he has rarely returned home in recent years. Although he has a wife, their marriage has long been in name only. He usually resides in the headquarters.

Lao Tan has three major hobbies: power, women, and raising rare animals, but his hobbies are low-key. The small garden is usually limited to himself and his friends to watch, and he enjoys himself behind closed doors with women, never losing his composure in public.

After taking off his coat, Lao Tan was about to rest when a guard walked in from outside the door and whispered, "Commander, someone from the Qingyi Bureau is here."

Hearing this, Lao Tan felt inexplicably irritable: "Who is it?"

"Xing Hai, director of the Qingyi Bureau office," the guard replied.

"Well, let him go to the reception room," Tan Hengqiang said blandly.

"Yes!" The guard saluted and left.

As soon as someone from the Qingyi Bureau arrived, Tan Hengqiang understood that Zhang Ming must have called Kang Dinghuang that evening, and what they wanted to talk about must be the affairs of the code worker association.

"Sigh!"

Tan Hengqiang sighed wearily, looked up and shouted, "Call Mingchao and Lao Zhang over, to the reception room."

"Yes!" The head of the guard regiment immediately responded.

...

Half an hour later.

Tan Hengqiang took his son Tan Mingchao and Chief of Staff Zhang Xunchen into the reception room together.

"Hello, Commander Tan!" Xing Hai, director of the Qingyi Bureau office, immediately stood up and gave a military salute.

"No outsiders, sit down!" Tan Hengqiang gestured.

After everyone was seated, Xing Hai looked at Tan Hengqiang seriously and said, "Commander, I really didn't want to bother you so late, but...!"

"I know, Zhang Ming must have called Xiao Kang," Tan Hengqiang waved his hand, "Just get to the point."

Xing Hai paused: "We still have to fight for the code worker association and help Zhang Ming defend his position."

Tan Hengqiang lit a cigarette and said nothing.

Beside him, Chief of Staff Zhang Xunchen only glanced at the commander's expression and immediately knew what he was thinking, so he followed up and said, "How do we defend his position? Zhang Ming's prestige in the association is very ordinary, and now Jing Yan is dead, which makes people panic. Even if we want to help him, we don't know where to start."

Tan Hengqiang smoked his cigarette, without interrupting Zhang Xunchen. He was indeed losing interest in the code worker association.

First, Zhang Ming does not have absolute dominance within the association. Anyone who wants to help him defend his position has to spend a lot of money to buy votes and maintain relationships, so that he can rightfully continue to sit in the chairman's seat.

Second, there are too few places for the garrison to intervene in local organizational infighting. From administrative units to sub-district management, the city government has the final say. For example, on the issue of taxation, the upper echelons can issue a new policy with a single sentence, which will make the code worker association very uncomfortable. Therefore, Lao Li's team clearly has the advantage.

Third, with Jing Yan's death, the intensity of the infighting within the code worker association has risen to another level. To put it bluntly, even idiots can now see that Lao Li will never give up this piece of fat. Even if he bets all his assets, he will definitely give it a shot.

Considering the above reasons, with Tan Hengqiang's intelligence, it is not difficult to make a choice. It is obviously unwise to use one's weaknesses to attack Lao Li's strengths. Moreover, this matter requires a considerable investment, real money. So Lao Tan felt that the cost performance of this matter was decreasing, and he didn't want to do it so much.

Xing Hai observed Tan Hengqiang's expression and immediately added, "Commander, Minister Kang had already called the upper echelons before I came, and he will apply for a larger amount of funding. You only need to fully support Zhang Ming and back him up."

"It's about money, but it's not just about money," Tan Hengqiang said blandly, "Zhang Ming has already taken almost ten million from the headquarters. It's not that I don't want to invest money, but what kind of result can I get after investing money?"

Xing Hai was silent.

"Don't say 50 percent, do we even have 30 percent certainty now?" Tan Hengqiang sighed, "To close the gap, our investment must be at least two or three times that of the other party."

"There is still room for maneuver. You are the commander of the garrison. If you are a little tougher, and we continue to apply for funding, even if we can't get the code worker association in the end, we can split it, destroy it, and at worst, no one gets it," Xing Hai said with a frown, "The main thing is that we can't let Lao Li get the resources. If an association of nearly 100,000 people is controlled by him and Er Dang... then in the next election, we may not even get 30 percent of the important cadre positions in The Dragon City Rises."

Tan Hengqiang was silent.

"Otherwise, I'll have the upper echelons call you so you can communicate?" Xing Hai asked tentatively.

"Sigh."

Tan Hengqiang naturally knew who Xing Hai was referring to as the upper echelons. He thought for a moment: "Okay, I'll have someone take care of this matter and do my best."

"Yes, Commander!"

Twenty minutes later, Xing Hai left the small reception room.

Tan Hengqiang leaned on the sofa and said with his eyes closed, "Kang Dinghuang must have found the support of the high-level officials of the Chinese Legion to contain Lao Li. I don't want to talk to them too much. Forget it, since they insist on blocking Lao Li, then we will do our best. Lao Zhang, Mingchao, what do you two think?"

The eldest son, Tan Mingchao, picked up his teacup and said very succinctly, "The core issue of re-electing the chairman through a public vote is attracting votes. Throwing money is one aspect, and being a little tougher is another."

"How tough?"

"Give money to those who can be won over, and make those who can't be won over disappear." Tan Mingchao looked fair and clean, but his words were very ruthless, "If the district chairmen don't listen, then remove them, and we win over the second-in-commands; if the second-in-commands don't listen, remove them as well, and we win over the scattered votes from each district. Stop at whatever level they start listening. Yang Dong talked to me about having him draw up a list, and I'll settle the scores one by one."

Tan Hengqiang turned to look at Lao Zhang: "We can't get our hands dirty!"

"There are plenty of people if you throw money around," Tan Mingchao picked up his teacup and replied with his head lowered, "Announce the price to the public and let desperate people do it. Maybe if the price is right, the code worker association will just start infighting!"

"What do you think?" Tan Hengqiang asked the chief of staff.

"No problem," Zhang Xunchen thought for a moment and replied, "Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures! Lao Li has been making a lot of noise recently. If we want to support Zhang Ming, we have to make some noise too."

Hearing this, Tan Hengqiang got up: "You two discuss it! Before the results are out, I don't want to see that dog-headed Zhang Ming again. Tell him to get lost and not bother me."

...

In a teahouse in Xinghai District.

"Bang, bang, bang...!"

Four large money bags slammed on the ground. Wei Xiangzuo slowly opened the zipper, revealing stacks of neat cash inside, and said softly, "Nod, and the money is yours. But let me make it clear first, before the voting starts, your family members cannot leave The Dragon City Rises. That's the rule!"

Beside him, Gu Baishun was drinking tea, looking very quiet.