Chapter 1732: Fellow villagers are not enemies

After Qin Feng finished speaking to Cao Changsheng, he took a bottle of water and a piece of bread from the staff, walked to the center of the field again, and shouted with a megaphone: "Comrades police officers, everyone is gone, go to the side to get water and bread, everyone has worked hard, take a break."

After Qin Feng finished speaking, everyone standing next to him became nervous.

"Secretary...this...this is not okay, right?"

There were more than a hundred "mobs" around, and the police had a hard time separating and surrounding them. If the police were to withdraw at this time, the consequences would be disastrous.

"Why not? Those sitting here are our common people, our masses, our elders and fellow villagers, not enemies. I asked you to stop them just to hope that you would not do stupid things and not be too impulsive. I didn't ask you to treat them as enemies or criminals."

"All police officers, move aside." Qin Feng deliberately shouted into the loudspeaker.

Regardless of whether Qin Feng's words were a deliberate show, at least the people present had an increased impression of him.

Naturally, no one dared to disobey Qin Feng's order. All the police officers withdrew from the villagers and retreated to the side.

Although the police officers were withdrawn, Xie Jiankai did not dare to withdraw all of them. He specially arranged seven or eight special police officers with live ammunition to surround Qin Feng and protect the safety of Qin Feng and Cao Changsheng.

"What are you doing? Didn't I tell you to evacuate all the people?" Qin Feng asked Xie Jiankai with his eyes wide open.

"Secretary, this... is for your safety..."

"Why am I unsafe? I've made it very clear, these are our fellow villagers, not enemies. Evacuate them all." Qin Feng shouted loudly, and then whispered to Xie Jiankai: "If you don't evacuate them, the people will feel alienated from you and will regard us as enemies. Evacuate quickly."

Xie Jiankai did not dare to disobey Qin Feng's wishes and obediently withdrew all the police officers.

After all the police officers left, Qin Feng walked to the middle of the villagers with a piece of bread in one hand and a megaphone in the other, and stood with them. Then, Qin Feng was the first to sit on the ground, cross-legged, and eat bread. While eating, he said to the villagers around him: "No matter what, everyone should eat first. If it's not enough, I'll ask them to buy more."

The villagers at the scene had never seen such a people-friendly county party secretary, and their perception of Qin Feng as a leader had changed greatly.

Many villagers followed Qin Feng's example and sat cross-legged on the ground to eat. It was already past eight o'clock in the evening and everyone was starving.

"My fellow countrymen, take your time eating. While you are eating, please listen to a few words from me. If you like what I say, just listen. If you don't like what I say, just treat it as me chatting."

After Qin Feng saw that the people's emotions had stabilized, he handed the half-eaten bread to Zhou Liang who was following him, and took the loudspeaker from Wang Jun again.

"So far, we still don't know what happened, what kind of injustice you suffered, and we don't know what you are going to do in Tai'an County."

"I just said that if you still insist on going to Tai'an County after you finish eating, we won't stop you, but I still hope that you can tell me what happened before that, and what kind of grievances and unfair treatment you have suffered."

After Qin Feng finished speaking, he took out a cigarette from his pocket and distributed it to the people sitting next to him. Then he asked, "On the way here, the comrades from Songshan Town just told me that this afternoon, a dozen villagers in our Shuitou Village died in large numbers because of the death of fish in the fish pond. They suspected that it was related to a chemical factory in Tai'an County, so they went to negotiate with the chemical factory."

"Then these ten or so villagers were arrested by the Tai'an County Public Security Bureau. You were going to the Tai'an County Public Security Bureau to rescue them and seek revenge on the chemical factory."

"Here I hope everyone can tell me one thing, that is, is the death of fish in the village pond really related to the pollution from the Tai'an County chemical plant?" Qin Feng asked while smoking.

Qin Feng asked this deliberately. First, it was to find out the truth of the matter so as to solve the problem fundamentally. Second, it was to clarify the pollution issue and reach an agreement with the masses. At the same time, it was also to disperse the villagers' desire for revenge.

"It must be them, if not them then who is it?"

"Yes, we have lived here for generations and have never seen fish die like this. It's not just their fish that died. Starting more than a month ago, almost all the fish in our village's ponds have died."

"That's right. I now suspect that the water we drink has problems. Old Yu's children got cancer at a young age. I suspect it's because our water is polluted."

"..." The villagers talked at once, becoming more and more angry.

Qin Feng didn't say anything either, but listened patiently to the villagers' complaints.

"Please pause for a moment. Let me ask you a question. As far as I know, although Shuitou Village is adjacent to Tai'an County, it is actually quite far away from this chemical plant, separated by two mountains. Why do you think that the fish deaths here are caused by industrial pollution? And it is the industrial pollution caused by this chemical plant?" Qin Feng asked.