Chapter 304: Establishing the System (III)

Dressed in a tracksuit and drenched in sweat, Cao Chuan looked like he'd just finished a workout... This one was a bit special — no one knew whether he'd just stepped off the treadmill in a secret room, or had been frolicking with a beauty in a swimming pool in later generations...

Xia Xianze, seeing the main figure appear, hurriedly greeted him and ushered the Emperor onto the imperial seat.

"There's no one else here, just sit yourself down." After Cao Chuan settled onto that hard, square couch, he pointed beside him, signaling Xia to find a seat for himself.

Xia Xianze didn't dare stand on ceremony now: that Old World scene of mutual deferral, smiles hiding daggers, had long vanished from this group. Environment changes people — the Transmigrators were all straightforward folk now; if they had something to say, they said it, if they were pissed, they cursed, if there was no chair, they grabbed one themselves... stand on courtesy and you'd stay standing.

So he hurriedly brought up a backed chair from below the dais and sat down to the side of Cao Chuan.

After wiping off sweat with a towel, Cao Chuan turned his head and said with a smile: "Xia, looking at that dejected face of yours, what's up?"

"Cao Zong... well, uh, His Majesty's eyes are keen as torches!" Xia, born under the Red Flag, still wasn't quite used to this monarch-minister audience mode.

"Just call me Cao Zong, that other thing hasn't happened yet."

"Cough... regarding the Enthronement, the ceremonies and all that are pretty much ready... it's just the Constitution that still can't be finalized."

After a moment of silence, Xia Xianze still spoke the truth.

"I figured it was that. Wasn't there someone downstairs last week shouting they'd rather die than submit? They nearly knocked the rearview mirrors off my two cars — did that happen?"

"It did, it did!" Xia Xianze nodded repeatedly, his face full of anger, instantly transforming into a master informant: "It was that bunch around Bai Hongda — grandstanding, insatiably greedy, without the slightest regard for the bigger picture."

Cao Chuan waved his hand with a smile: "Alright, alright. Exactly which matters are stuck? Tell me, let's discuss them together."

"Okay." This was exactly what Xia Xianze had been waiting for: "Then let's start with the important ones like the national title, national flag, and national anthem. There's a whole string of others after that."

Cao Chuan rolled his eyes at this: "... So you've all been playing house, haven't gotten a single thing done?"

Hearing this, Xia Xianze smiled bitterly: "Actually, consensus was reached long ago, it's just that bunch of lowlife scum making trouble and dragging things out. That's why I'm asking Cao Zong to make the final call today... heh heh, this is called autocratic decision-making!"

"Seems like we won't be done anytime soon." Hearing this, Cao Chuan reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and opened the memo pad: "Let's go through them one by one."

For the remaining time, the two didn't budge from their seats. It wasn't until the lamps first lit, when the Imperial City's self-contained coal-plus-oil power system ramped up and lights came on inside Jianyuan Hall, that people noticed something unusual.

Yet certain people far across the Taijiang River had actually gotten word the very moment Xia Xianze went up to the third floor. When those left in the Imperial City called Bai Hongda on the Dayuan's proprietary LAN phone to report that the BOSS had appeared, he stood up and exchanged a glance with Wei Hu, who had read the message at the same time: the moment to lay cards on the table had finally arrived.

To some extent, Xia Xianze bringing out Cao Chuan was itself the ultimate goal Bai Hongda and his group wanted to achieve. Although theoretically the best outcome of this matter would be Xia Xianze agreeing to their series of unreasonable demands — which was basically unlikely unless the Conservative Party members had all gone mad.

That being the case, dragging out time and forcing Cao Chuan to intervene early to "tilt the scales" — thereby striking at the Conservative Party's prestige on the level of all Transmigrators and laying the groundwork early for future high-level political struggles — became the best effect the Imperial Han could achieve in the constitution-making matter.

Of course, everything has two sides, and doing this carried risks too. If Xia Xianze stiffened his neck and refused to call upon the Cao Emperor, truly botching the Enthronement, then it was foreseeable: although Xia would have no good fruit to eat in the aftermath, Bai Hongda and his crew would have thoroughly and irrevocably offended Cao Chuan.

Could a Constitutional Monarch truly be offended lightly?

It was now 1628; the society the Transmigrators had built was still fundamentally a pyramid, nowhere near developing to the point where later generations' constitutional monarchs were mere figureheads.

Besides, the Cao Emperor was no figurehead at all.

This so-called "Imperial Han, Yellow Left" crowd — that label only applied relative to the two-hundred-plus people within the Transmigrator community.

People like Bai Hongda were, just like Xia Xianze, an amalgam of big bourgeoisie, high nobility, and great landlords; it was impossible for them to represent some loser class and pursue equal rights, progress, democracy, or revolution.

The democracy they spoke of was just a game of taking turns sitting in seats within their own circle; even if they didn't get a position this time, they'd get one when the term changed in a few years... it had nothing to do with anyone outside the Transmigrators.

Therefore, for social development, money and technology descending from the heavens alone were useless. For Transmigrator society to truly stabilize, it had to wait until the first and second generations of elite Natives graduated from school and became the backbone of society — these people would, under the Transmigrators' guidance, slowly engage with politics and parties, gradually turning the two hollow factional frameworks the Transmigrators had set up into reality.

By that time, the middle class and wealthy class would have grown up too, the elites would finally have classes they could represent, and everyone could finally happily tear at each other in Parliament.

However, it was now 1628, and all those visions were still very far away: the Cao Emperor's authority, in this era, even without factoring in the superhuman boost from the Ring, was far beyond what those so-called monarchs of later generations could compare to.

In fact, the figurehead kings of later generations weren't actually as powerless as imagined... the key was whether they wanted to act.

The British old lady only remained a figurehead because she was genuinely old and lacked the energy.

Comrade Big Hammer Charles, however, was different.

Over a long standby career spanning decades of effectively "supervising the state," the energetic old crown prince Comrade Big Hammer participated in policy formulation and implementation across all aspects of government — between 2004 and 2005, Big Hammer Charles wrote as many as twenty-seven private letters to the Labour government alone.

These letters, addressed to then-Prime Minister Blair and ministers of multiple government departments, covered a wide range of fields including military affairs, agriculture, environmental protection, herbal medicine, and student nutrition; they reflected Big Hammer's broad and deep concern for numerous public issues, but also sparked controversy over whether he had deviated from political neutrality and interfered in government affairs.

Yet the controversy was of no use — the King... the old crown prince had the energy and the will to meddle in politics, and if he did it, he did it; no one could do anything to him.

... Even the social system of later generations, so mature, could not stop a figurehead from lecturing the government on its work — let alone now, in 1628 Dayuan, with the Cao Emperor at the height of his power?

So, Bai Hongda's bunch were also walking a tightrope: even if the Cao Emperor didn't blow up, even if he merely felt disgust, the consequences were not something the few of them could bear.

Now that they had finally received word that the Emperor had come out of his cave, truth be told, these people playing with fire actually breathed a sigh of relief — if Old Thief Xia had really dragged things out another three to five days, they might well have knelt and surrendered.

The next morning, Imperial City, conference room.

Xia Xianze, looking much better, was sitting at the head seat listening to a bunch of his party followers shouting nonsense.

At this point in time, the people who could sit in this conference room were, without a doubt, all Conservative Party stalwarts, future Cabinet Members.

People like Wang Liguo, designated Chancellor of the Exchequer, Cai Feiming, Foreign Affairs Minister, and Feng Jun, Home Secretary — all were in the conference room at that moment, each with a relaxed expression, discussing how to thoroughly crush the rebels so they could never rise again.

"Alright, stop daydreaming. Bringing Cao Zong in was to solve problems, not to be your hired muscle."

After listening for a while, Xia Xianze found that this bunch couldn't produce any constructive ideas, so he rapped the table: "I'll say it again: we must maintain balance! That bunch is already the Minority Party, they were supposed to lie low anyway — what's the point of you stomping on them a few more times? What you're consuming is our own political resources."

"Also." Seeing everyone's eyes focused on him, Xia Xianze then said solemnly: "Since we can secure the substance today, don't fight over superficial things. We have to let them gain something."

At this point, he raised his hand to check his watch, then stood up: "Time's almost up. Remember, on inconsequential issues like the national title, just let them have their way. Even if they call it the Phoenix Empire, so what? They'll be in power in a few years anyway — if Bai Hongda doesn't find it disgusting, what do we have to fear?"

... The party hacks then followed behind Xia Xianze, discussing in low voices as they climbed to the third floor and collectively entered Jianyuan Hall.

The atmosphere in the palace at that moment was not very good: the several Imperial Han members led by Bai Hongda and Wei Hu were already seated in a row of chairs on the right, adopting the posture of a civil-military audience.

Seeing the Imperial Han members' rather grim faces, the Royalist Party crowd naturally showed no courtesy, sitting down arrogantly opposite them — the moment their rear ends touched the chairs, lines like "You still have the gall to come? Deceiving the monarch is a capital offense!" were already being hurled across.

The Imperial Han members were all battle-hardened, making their living in the Edo by verbal sparring — how could they be intimidated by this sort of talk... So the familiar daily routine of mutual criticism once again began playing out in the great hall.

Fortunately, today was a bit special: before everyone could trade more than a few barbs, the hidden door in the screen wall behind the throne opened, and the next moment, Cao Chuan, dressed in a tracksuit, walked out from behind it.

The great hall instantly fell silent.

Extending an arm and pressing downward, signaling everyone not to rise, Cao Chuan seated himself on the Dragon Throne.

First nodding to Xia Xianze in the first seat on the left, Cao Chuan then turned his face with a smile to Bai Hongda in the first seat on the right and said: "I hear you've had a lot of complaints lately? How long were you planning to drag this out?"

... Despite having ample mental preparation, the hearts of Bai Hongda and Wei Hu, who sat beside him, were indeed gripped by panic at this moment: Cao Chuan's undisguised attitude of assigning blame undoubtedly brought immense pressure upon them.

"It's mainly some technical disagreements between the two parties; consensus has been reached on most of the content. We absolutely have no intention of dragging things out..."

"Enough." Before Bai Hongda could finish, Cao Chuan directly cut off his statement: "Dragged out or not, it's come to today. Let's all cut the crap."

At this point, Cao Chuan smoothly pulled out his phone and opened the memo pad: "First item, national title. How many candidates does your Minority Party have?"