Chapter 575: The Official Residence Meeting, Part 1

After finishing those two major tasks, Dong Qiang returned to the Hospital to complete the final piece of work 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: one was the Imperial Medical System's work summary for this year, next year's Planning, and most importantly, the Import Materials Application Form.

The second was a medical summary concerning the Microbial Infectiousness carried by the Transmigrators.

The first part was mandatory, a matter of platitudes; in fact, while Dong Qiang and the others were writing their report, the heads of every other Department were writing the exact same thing... this stuff 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 toxic beings," constantly spewing poison gas and germs; on the contrary, another Part of the Transmigrators 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, weren't they? They had never been to the 17th Century; who the hell knew what the foundation of medieval bacteria was, how infectious they were, and compared to the "Transmigrator Bacteria" carried by the Transmigrators, which was stronger at harming people?

This question actually already fell into the category of scientific research, requiring the cultivation and comparison of both sides' bacteria in a laboratory; as well as collecting first-hand data through clinical observation and other means before a judgment could be made.

So the matter was temporarily shelved.

Now, a year has passed. Master Bai Shuchao, who is daily Responsible For managing that "Cadre Clinic" on Dayuan Island, has finally reached a conclusion on this topic through a Series of experiments and clinical observations, so this part of the content was added to this report.

Overall, the results were still reassuring.

Microorganisms are Constantly evolving with the Environment. In the Later Generations' Environment of flourishing medical skill, the germs that survived the encirclement and suppression of various Antibiotics evolved at an extremely rapid pace.

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

What is the "Thief" route? Strengthen concealment, strengthen the incubation period, strengthen 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 types of germs is stronger or weaker, because the Environments they survive in are different, and the Enemies they need to face are also different.

Now here comes the problem: since a strange event like the Transmigrators exists, what happens when bacteria change their Environment?

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

... Ming People who Survive to adulthood are all strong individuals selected by nature. Thief Bacteria have used their Resources on stealth skills, so naturally, the power of their outbreak cannot compare to their ancestors.

And the effect of Warrior Bacteria on the Transmigrators is equally unimpressive: the fierce, reckless young thugs are indeed ferocious when they erupt, but what kind of people are the Transmigrators? The fiercer the outbreak, the faster these guys will go to the hospital for shots and medicine... actually, a bit of Sulfonamide will take care of it.

Just like the historically godlike performance of Sulfonamide and penicillin when they first appeared, 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, after leaving their respective familiar Environments, lose their original potency inside a "foreign Human Body."

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

The answer here is obvious: the Later Generations' bacteria, which have invested all their energy into incubation and drug resistance, are Be Certain To be outmatched by their ancestors purely in terms of devouring and competing for nutrient Resources — a thief cannot fight a warrior head-on.

Therefore, everyone's worries were unnecessary.

One must Know that before Crossing Over, the 200-plus Transmigrators all underwent detailed physical examinations; they were in good health and did not carry any Infectious Diseases unique to Later Generations.

After these Transmigrators arrived in the Great Ming, they could in fact walk boldly among the Ming People and make contact 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 cultivation.

After the report, compiled through the collective efforts of everyone, was completed, 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 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 very solemn. Dayuan Island was also placed under martial law. All Transmigrators in Taiwan attended the meeting, and some people who were away from the island also conveyed their opinions to their colleagues in advance via radio and USB Drive.

The venue for the meeting 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 people believed a Council Building should be built — circular, very majestic, like the Roman Colosseum, where Councilors could sit with the High Ground, using the building's echoes to heckle the speakers.

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

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

Naturally, the first to appear was the Emperor. In full regalia, Cao Chuan, walking 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 on the platform was necessary for legitimacy.

After Xia Xiang, sitting on the 2nd-tier steps, Announced the opening of the meeting, first, Speaker Luo Lixian, also on the 2nd-tier steps, spoke a few words, and then Zhou Tongcai, the Minister of Justice Responsible For maintaining meeting order, Announced the rules of procedure.

Finally, when the recorder and the sound engineer on the 1st-tier steps 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 executing Cabinet functions, and there hadn't been many personnel adjustments after the founding of the nation, so Xia didn't stumble and directly summarized the Achievements of social development over the past year.

After This, he looked forward to the future: including the Government's anticipated actions and targets for the coming year in industry, agriculture, the military, medical care, 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 the list of Power Bases to continue winning over next year, and the list of Power Bases to deal with...

After reading out this not-very-long report, Xia Xianze quickly returned to his Seat. After all, apart from some statistical figures, everyone actually understood the content of the report; people usually browsed and discussed it on the Forum, so lengthy speeches were unnecessary.

Next, the scene very rudely 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 turns on stage, reading reports and explaining plans.

"These heretics really dare to dream!" Huo Xiong, who had taken off his motorcycle jacket and changed into a purple trench coat, looked somewhat more refined.

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

These people Sitting In the front left of the hall were Basically all members of the Conservative Party. And Opposite them were the "heretics" of the Imperial Han Faction.

As for that Territory near the doorway, needless to say, it was known to be the area occupied by Independents and minor Gang Faction members.

Upon hearing Huo Xiong's whisper, Mi Shuo first swept a glance at Yang Lei, the Newspaper Agency President who was giving an impassioned speech in front of the microphone, and then the flesh on his face twitched slightly: "Yeah, just a paparazzo, or to put it nicely, an entertainment reporter, 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 caustic, full of aggression.

One couldn't blame Mi Shuo for speaking harshly; Competition for interests is never tender and gentle. Yang Lei, that Servant, was both a left-wing "heretic" and was 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 the target of Criticism was a high-probability event.

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

The booing was so loud that Speaker Luo Lixian had to pound his gavel fiercely for a long time before bringing the scene under control.

And the instigator, Yang Lei, having already finished shouting his Brainless theories into the microphone, had already swaggered off the stage with a smug look.

Actually, this Servant was still quite clever. He knew that at this meeting, it was impossible for him to get the Equipment he wanted — 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 Servant did the opposite, simply proposing a Series of even more outrageous demands, aiming to make a name for himself in the community first...

It seemed this time he had succeeded.

After Yang Lei, a bunch of "tertiary industry" experts more or less like him took the stage one after another, each noisily touting their own little trades, 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 indispensable when they first started out, they would find it very hard to get any more Import Quotas — they could just sit tight and wait for the Equipment to be produced domestically.

After all these riffraff had finished their performances, it was already noon. The dignitaries could have their meal at just the right time, 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 get Quotas to some degree, so the afternoon would be a hard fight.

Fortunately, the Cao Emperor would no longer come out to play mascot in the afternoon, so everyone could cast off their restraints and "debate" to their hearts' content.