In China's political hierarchy, "petty officer" is the joint name they share. When the devastating quake killing nearly 70,000 Chinese people occurred last May, they were thrown into the front-line of an intricate battle, rushing to appease diversified public appeals and juggling economic recovery with social stability.

A few, unable to bear the stress from acting Superman after losses to their families, gave up their lives. Most of them managed to move ahead, with refreshed knowledge of the challenges facing their posts at or below township level.

"The May 12 earthquake has completely changed our working situation," said Yang Yong who was tapped for the secretary of Qingxi Town Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC)in January 2007 in the worst-hit Qingchuan County. "Our workload has multiplied. Problems we face are much more complex. The job is definitely more demanding，" he said.

With 28 dead and 339 injured, the small town of 15,000 people suffered 590 million yuan in direct economic losses to the worst earthquake in China in half a century, about 295 times as much as its 2007 fiscal revenue and six times as much as its 2007 GDP.

As the rebuilding costs come close to the aggregate investment the town has made since the founding of New China in 1949, Yang admitted that he and his staff felt stressed almost every day.

"Rebuilding is not for going back to the past but to upgrade the backward and establish a good starting point for future. This has forced everyone of us to learn quick and learn well," he said.

A Chinese town authority runs a broad sphere of affairs, including city planning, finance, environmental protection, sanitation, medicare, public order, education, governmental relief and public utilities.

"We can't be experts in all of these areas. But we are held responsible for the whole rebuilding process, from initial layout to implementation. Thus many of us employ micro-managing to elevate quality and efficiency," Yang said.

The side-effects, he said, include overwork, being absent from families and stress. Yang himself, for instance, did not have time to see his four-year-old son and 80-year-old parents until July when the aftershocks finally trailed off.

SERVE NOT RULE

For thousands of years, deeply rooted in Chinese minds was a governance philosophy proposed by thinker Mencius -- an advocate of Confucianism -- more than 2,000 years ago: Those who use their minds rule; those who use their muscles are ruled.

In the quake zone, however, many petty officers like Yang are stretching themselves sometimes beyond their physical and mental limits, in part because of duty, in part because of the rewards and punishments meted out by higher authorities.

To ferret out corrupt officials, the Sichuan Provincial Communist Party Committee's Commission for Discipline Inspection opened a telephone hotline two days after the earthquake to take public complaints. Two weeks later, six officers were removed from their posts for failing to perform their duty.

A typical case is Kang Dong, head of a neighborhood committee in the Yuying New Village of Mianyang City, who was widely criticized for not doing his best in relocating disabled and low-income residents.

In the following two months, as official statistics showed, a total of 28 local officers have been punished for failing to fulfill their duty while another 213 were promoted for their outstanding performances.

Lin Jianhua, deputy chief of Zundao Town of Mianzhu, for instance, was advanced to replace the former secretary of township committee of the CPC who died in the earthquake. The laurel came after he voluntarily took over organizing an emergency squad and had more than 1,100 victims rescued.

Village head Liu Changjiang was allowed to jump across several ranks to take up the post of deputy chief of Hanwang Township in Mianzhu because he had walked hundreds of mile on foot and brought out the first message on the severe situation in the then isolated town, regardless of the safety of his own family.

"Frankly speaking, officers at my level all hope to quickly and properly resolve the problems facing residents," said Yang Yong from Qingxi Town.

"For one thing, we are also quake victims and share the people's woes and pains. For another, rapidly evolving grass-root democracy has made the public fully aware that they are justified to complain whenever their needs are not well taken care of. Our motivation and pressure to serve the people are both enormous, " Yang said.

In Wenxian, the worst-hit county in Gansu Province, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week has turned county chief Zhang Hong into a chain smoker. "I used to smoke one pack of cigarettes a day. Now I need three packs. There is no regular life. I could doze off sitting on the ground, but anxiety could also make me sleepless for several days."

TROUBLE-SHOOTING

Be responsible and be unconventional! This type of troubleshooting has helped many local officers crack tough problems.

In the first 30 hours after the earthquake when communications were out and roads were broken, many government employees fanned out to discover the losses in towns and villages and to organize the emergency relocation of survivors to safety.

"Almost every officer was on his own. There is no one to ask for directions. All I can do is to tackle whatever problems come my way and then move on," said Li Kaiming, executive deputy chief of Qingchuan County, one of the worst-hit in Sichuan.

For him, one "unforgettable moment" was the afternoon on May 14 in Guanzhuang Town. "Because of the rising water levels at a nearby quake lake (formed after the earthquake) and frequent aftershocks, people are fleeing the town in fear. It was a stampede, more injuries or deaths might have occurred, " he recalled.

To remedy the situation, Li mobilized the trucks coming in with relief materials to take the panicky victims out. "This is very unusual as traffic rules forbid trucks to carry people," he said.

In another relocation case in Beichuan County in the evening of May 12, Jiang Shan, head of the Beichuan Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, jumped onto a bulldozer of someone he knew to get rid of the mudslide that blocked the only path for residents to flee the dangerous town.

"People were stuck. They could not go ahead. But none of them would retreat. I saw my friend on the bulldozer. So I rode it in to clean out the road," Jiang said.

When the traffic flow finally moved, Jiang started to turn back and race against the crowd to get into Beichuan. When the quake occurred, he was out of the town for a meeting. The return trip, usually a drive of 30 minutes, took him 14 hours this time, not just walking, but rolling and scrambling.

Recalling that night, Jiang said he would do the same if he had a second chance. "I can't leave my staff there. I told myself: be worthy of your title," he said.