Chapter 325: Meeting (I)

After handling two major matters, Dong Qiang returned to the Hospital to begin the final task before year's end: gathering several Transmigrator Doctors to co-write a report.

This was prepared for the General Assembly.

The report's content was divided into two parts: first, the Imperial Medical System's summary of this year's work, next year's Planning, and most importantly, the Import Materials Application Form.

The second part was a medical summary regarding the Microbial Infectiousness of the germs carried by the Transmigrators.

The first part was mandatory and a familiar refrain; in fact, while Dong Qiang and a few others were writing the report, the heads of every other department were all writing the same thing... This thing was meant to be read aloud publicly at the General Assembly.

The second part was an "assigned topic essay."

Because One Part of the Transmigrators believed that after arriving in the 17th Century, they had become "super toxins," constantly spewing poison gas and germs; on the contrary, another part felt they had become weaklings who would die at any moment under the jaws of savage primitive bacteria, so the Great Office had originally commissioned several doctors to explain this issue to everyone.

But the doctors were dumbfounded too, right? They had never been to the 17th Century; who the hell knew the origins of medieval germs, what their infectiousness was like, and compared to the "Transmigrator Bacteria" carried on the Transmigrators, which was stronger at harming people?

This question actually already fell into the category of scientific research, requiring bacterial cultures and comparisons from both sides in a laboratory, as well as clinical observation to collect first-hand data before a judgment could be made.

So the matter was temporarily shelved.

Now, a year has passed in the Current Age. Master Bai Shuchao, who routinely managed the "Cadre Clinic" on Dayuan Island, finally reached a conclusion on this topic through a series of experiments and clinical observations, so this part was added to the report this time.

Overall, the results were reassuring.

Microorganisms constantly evolve with their Environment. In the medically advanced environment of Later Generations, the germs that survived the encirclement of various Antibiotics evolved at an extremely rapid pace.

Facts have proven that the overall evolutionary direction of these germs followed the "Thief" path.

What is the "Thief" path? Strengthened concealment, strengthened incubation period, strengthened drug resistance. That is to say, compared to their 17th-century ancestors, the bacteria carried by the Transmigrators are like a thief encountering a berserker — both sides had long since embarked on different evolutionary paths.

There is no saying which of these two germs is stronger or weaker, because their survival environments are different, and the enemies they must face are also different.

Now here comes the question: since a strange event like the Transmigrators exists, what happens when the bacteria change environments?

In fact, neither side fares well: after Thief Bacteria enter a Ming person's body, the Ming immune system, accustomed to dealing with fierce Warrior Bacteria, will annihilate these weaklings at the First Moment symptoms appear.

... Ming people who survive to adulthood are all strong individuals selected by nature. Thief Bacteria invested their resources into stealth skills, so when they flare up, their potency naturally cannot compare to their ancestors.

And the effect of Warrior Bacteria on the Transmigrators is equally unimpressive: the fierce, reckless young ones are very fierce when they flare up, but what kind of people are the Transmigrators? The fiercer the flare-up, the faster these guys will go to the hospital for shots and medicine... actually, a little Sulfonamide will handle it.

Just like the historically godlike performance of Sulfonamide and penicillin when they first appeared, the ancient bacteria will quickly be eliminated inside a Transmigrator's body.

In short, throwing a lion into the sea and throwing a shark onto the grassland is the same principle: bacteria from two planes with different evolutionary directions, upon leaving their familiar environments, lose their original potency inside an "unfamiliar human race's" body.

Now for the final item: placing both types of bacteria into the same petri dish.

This answer is obvious: later-generation bacteria that put all their energy into stealth and drug resistance are certainly no match for their ancestors in terms of pure phagocytosis and Competition for nutrients — a thief cannot fight a warrior head-on.

Therefore, everyone's worries were unnecessary.

One must know that the 200-plus Transmigrators all underwent detailed physical examinations before Crossing Over; they were healthy and did not carry infectious diseases unique to later generations (such as Ebola and AIDS).

After these Transmigrators arrived in the Great Ming, they could actually walk among the Ming People and interact with them without worry — common cold germs cannot do much to the Ming People.

The above is the conclusion Master Bai reached after a year of clinical observation and bacterial culture.

After the report was cobbled together by pooling everyone's efforts, Dong Qiang polished and revised it once more, and finally, the several doctors all signed their names on it.

Next was waiting for the meeting.

New Calendar Year 1849, Old Calendar December 22, 1628. The First Grand Council after the Empire's establishment began.

This was both the Year-End Work Summary Conference and the First Noble Council, so it was quite solemn. Dayuan Island was likewise placed under martial law; all Transmigrators in Taiwan attended the meeting, and some people stationed elsewhere also relayed their opinions to colleagues in advance via radio and USB drives.

The meeting venue was naturally Jianyuan Hall.

At present, aside from this place, there was no other high-class venue capable of accommodating over 200 people.

Although many believed a Council Building should be constructed — round, very majestic, like the Roman Colosseum, where Councilors could sit on High Ground and use the building's echoes to heckle speakers.

This idea was very good, but building such a thing on a desolate island was too unrealistic; it would have to be in a major city like Guangzhou City, right?

So in the end, everyone still sat down in Jianyuan Hall, adopting a traditional Left Civil Right Military meeting layout.

The first to appear was naturally the Emperor. In full regalia, Cao Chuan walked slowly out from a hidden door Behind the Scenes, smiled, and waved his hand, signaling the officials, who had all risen to their feet, that they could sit down.

This scene was the prototype for the future "Imperial Council": on major occasions concerning state affairs, the Emperor's presence was necessary to be considered legitimate.

After Xia Xiang, Sitting In the second tier, Announced the opening of the meeting, first, Speaker Luo Lixian, also on the second tier, said a few words. Then, a Minister of Justice named Zhou Tongcai, Responsible For maintaining meeting order, Announced the meeting rules.

Finally, when the record-keeper and the sound engineer on the first tier gave a thumbs-up to indicate OK, the meeting officially began.

The first item was naturally the Government Work Report delivered by Xia Xianze on behalf of the Cabinet.

Although strictly speaking, the Government had only been Established for just over a month, the previous Great Office had actually been performing Cabinet functions, and there weren't many personnel adjustments after the nation's founding, so Xia didn't stumble and directly summarized the social development Achievements of nearly the past year.

After This, he looked ahead to the future: including the Government's expected actions and targets for the coming year in industry, agriculture, the military, healthcare, science and technology, culture, and all other aspects of society.

Finally, foreign relations: the relationship with the Great Ming and various Power Bases, as well as a list of factions to continue winning over next year, and a list of factions to deal with...

After reading out this not particularly long report, Xia Xianze quickly returned to his seat. After all, apart from some statistical figures, everyone actually understood the report's contents; people usually browsed and discussed them on the Forum, so lengthy speeches were unnecessary.

Next, the scene crudely entered a mode of individual Battle: based on the previous year's import volume, from low to high, each department needing Assigned Import Goods took the stage in turn to read reports and explain plans.

"These heretics really dare to dream!" Huo Xiong, having shed his motorcycle jacket and changed into a purple windbreaker, looked somewhat more refined.

At this moment, he was sitting in the back row of the crowd, legs crossed, lightly tapping the report in his hand, tilting his head to whisper with Comrade Mi Shuo beside him.

The people sitting in the front left of the hall were basically all Conservative Party members. And Opposite them were the "heretics" of the Imperial Han Faction.

As for the Territory near the doorway, one need not ask to know it was occupied by Independents and the Gang Faction.

Upon hearing Huo Xiong's whisper, Mi Shuo first swept a glance at Newspaper Agency President Yang Lei, who was passionately orating before the microphone, then the flesh on his face twitched slightly: "Yeah, just a paparazzo, or an entertainment reporter if you're being polite, but his tone is bigger than a toad's!"

In this moment, Mi Shuo completely lacked his usual chubby, good-natured appearance; his words were sharp and mean, full of aggression.

One couldn't blame Mi Shuo for his harsh words; the struggle for interests is never tender. That bastard Yang Lei was both a leftist "heretic" and now standing on stage clamoring to import a full set of Laser Typesetting and Inkjet Printing Equipment, completely disregarding the self-production status of consumables, so being sprayed with Criticism was a high-probability event.

Sure enough, before this guy finished making a racket on stage, the first "collective booing" since the Council's establishment erupted from below... even those from the same Imperial Han faction weren't polite, for there were also many cliques within the Great Gang.

The booing was so loud that Speaker Luo Lixian had to slam his gavel hard for half a beat before bringing the scene under control.

Yet the instigator, Yang Lei, had already finished shouting his Brainless theories into the microphone and was now swaggering off stage, immensely pleased with himself.

Actually, this guy was still quite clever. He knew it was impossible to get the Equipment he wanted at this meeting — various consumables were simply not something his low-ranked industry could apply for, such as the toner cartridges and ink cartridges for printers.

So this guy did the opposite, simply putting forward a series of even more outrageous demands, first making a name for himself in the wider community...

It seems he succeeded this time.

After Yang Lei, a bunch of "tertiary industry" experts much like him took the stage one after another, each touting their own trade, hoping to snatch a bite of meat from next year's resource allocations.

Yet their hopes were destined to be dashed. Aside from the core equipment absolutely essential when they first started out, they would find it very hard to get any more import quotas. They might as well sit tight and wait for the equipment to be domestically produced.

Once this pack of riffraff had finished their performances, it was already noon. The dignitaries could have their meal, then resume battle in the afternoon.

The afternoon session, however, would not be so relaxed. Some middleweight contenders would take the field... These departments could not be brushed aside; they would all receive quotas to some degree, so the afternoon promised a hard fight.

Fortunately, the Cao Emperor would not be coming back out to serve as a mascot in the afternoon, so everyone could cast off their restraints and "debate" to their hearts' content.