"The kind of voting we have now is simply deciding which clothes to wear to put out the fire when the eyebrows are burning. Xiao Jing said a little unceremoniously, "Speaking of the Senate system, I was actually against it at first, but in front of this large group of comrades who also came from the old world, there was no choice but to follow the crowd. ”

"Why are you doing that?" Zhang Yuan asked with his eyes on the blackboard, Xiao Jing laughed and said, "The Senate is from the Roman Republic, please note that I am talking about the Roman Republic, not the Roman Empire." The Roman Republic was a republic of tribes that arose in the Apennine Peninsula and adopted a system similar to the Senate we have now. At this time, Rome would be arguing with us in the Senate in the case of foreign wars in order to decide whether to go to war, and a lot of manpower and material resources were wasted for this. Later, they discovered the drawbacks of this great democracy and decided to jointly elect a dictator to dictate the affairs of the Senate in times of war, so as to avoid too many opinions from influencing the Senate's decisions. ”

"It's indeed a little," Du Yande glanced at the chaotic venue now, and then looked at Xiao Jing, who shook his head slightly, "The dictator who came to power later was Caesar, and Caesar found that power was a good thing after he came to power, and he didn't want to let go when he got it, and finally he was stabbed into a sieve by a large number of elders." However, this did not affect the succession of his successor, Octavian, to the dictatorship, and soon the Roman Republic evolved into the Roman Empire. But herein lies the problem, during the previous Republic, Rome did not make much progress in foreign expansion and wars, and often had to give up many vested interests because of internal disagreements within the Senate, but when it became the Roman Empire, the scope of its rule expanded more than tenfold, and the Mediterranean Sea was incorporated into Rome's inland sea, and it was almost invincible in foreign wars. ”

"Hey," Yang Minghuan hurriedly nudged Xiao Jing gently, "Don't talk nonsense about this kind of topic, it will cause disgust among the elders." ”

Xiao Jing spread his hands, "Of course I know, but in the current situation, it is the first time that I feel the disadvantages of our 'democracy'." ”

"That being said," Du Yande squeezed Xiao Jing lightly, signaling him not to say any more, "Even if it is from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, it has been so many years, and we have only just arrived in this world for more than a year, so everything has to be taken step by step, right?" Take your time," Xiao Jing wanted to speak, but was patted on the shoulder by Du Yande, "I know what you want to say, but now the system of the Senate has been discussed and decided by us before we cross, and we have experienced so many meetings, everyone is from the same place, and there is no distinction between high and low." But now if it is suddenly said that the senate system will be abolished, then the first to rise up against us is the senators, right? Now is the great enemy, and it is the time to seek common ground while reserving differences and pursue stability and unity, but don't make a fuss. ”

Xiao Jing smiled helplessly, and said to the blackboard, "Look, now the votes of the two sides are basically equal, and this is the first time to vote." Even if we limit each speaker to a maximum of three minutes to speak, and only 100 veterans are willing to speak on the stage, it will take at least five hours, not including the time for both sides to debate and present evidence. Speaking of this, he couldn't help but wipe it in front of his eyes, "I feel pain when I think about it." ”

"Chief!" The naturalized people who were in charge of counting the votes came over and saluted, "Report to the Executive Committee, the counting of votes is complete." As he spoke, he handed over a piece of paper with both hands, Yang Minghuan nodded and took it, looked at it carefully, and then said to him, "You go get busy first," and handed the paper to Zhang Yuan, who was probing his brain next to him.

"I'll go, only five votes away!" Zhang Yuan shouted directly, his voice attracted the attention of many veterans who were chatting around him, and they all stopped chatting and looked over, and the elders in farther places didn't know what was going on, so they also stopped and focused their attention here.

"How's the vote?" Someone asked aloud, "How many yes votes?" How many votes are you no? ”

"This?" Zhang Yuan couldn't help but look at Yang Minghuan, Yang Minghuan smiled slightly, "You tell them." Zhang Yuan handed the paper in his hand to the veteran next to him, and said loudly, "When the British discussed whether to go to war against the Qing Dynasty before the Opium War, the result of the vote was that the number of votes for war was better than the number of votes for no war by five, and the number of votes for our first vote today was less than the number of votes for no war by five. ”

"So this first vote is no war?" Someone asked, Yang Minghuan waved his hand a little weakly and said, "Let's spread the news, this morning's meeting is over, let's have a second round of discussion at two o'clock in the afternoon." With that, he turned and walked out towards the door of the General Assembly Hall.

Half an hour later, the executive committee office on the top floor of the old executive committee building in the old old district. "To go to war or not to go to war, it is indeed a very irritating question now," Du Yande said as he walked to the window and looked at the situation in the port in the distance, "You see, this has not yet decided to go to war, and it is already like this." ”

Xiao Jing walked to the window and didn't even look out the window, "I know that there are almost no Maidno merchant ships that have come to the port in the past few days, there were only three yesterday, and there is not one until now." ”

"Yes," Zhang Yuan said, sitting on a crooked bench, leaning against the wall as if he were sitting in a rocking chair, "In peacetime, there were sixteen to twenty-two merchant ships calling at the port of Dongfang every day, and if it was a cargo ship that was loaded and unloaded in containers, we could even accept thirty-five. The port can handle about 30,000 tons a day, and the industrial sector has a large amount of cargo that needs to be transported to the port every day for loading, but everything has changed since yesterday. ”

"That's right, the factories in the industrial sector are still producing to order and running at full capacity, but the goods produced have lost their sellers for bulk transactions." Xiao Jing said lightly, "We still have raw materials now, and there is still space in the warehouse, if we produce at this rate, we can at least produce at full capacity for ten to fifteen days, but if we can't find a way to sell, our warehouse will be full." ”

"We are an industrial city and an industrial country, and what we need to produce industrial products is dumping, and if we don't sell them, we can't generate profits." Gu Qingqian sat sideways at the desk, the intact office furniture in the entire old executive committee building had been removed and transported to the Bunker Hill administrative district, and now there were only a few lame stools and stumbling tables left in the office, and there were no office tools on the table now, just a thin stack of paper and two pencils.

"I said it's time to rest, and the next phase of the meeting will take place at 2 p.m., and it's only 11 a.m., and there are still three hours left." Du Yande only noticed at this time that he didn't know when Gu Qingqian also followed a few of them into the executive committee office, Zhang Yuan said with a smile, "Isn't there a small train back to the new old district?" The new cafeteria is also there, and there are no people here, so there is nothing good to eat. ”

"You know how to eat!" Gu Qingqian glanced at Zhang Yuan and said, "No wonder you are so fat!" ”

Zhang Yuan couldn't help jumping up from the stool, "What? Am I fat? I'm strong, and no matter how thin I am, I'll be thin like a bolt of lightning! Gu Qingqian didn't even look at him, and said to Du Yande, "I'm too lazy to squeeze the train with the five hundred yuan, the train is running slowly, not to mention, it is full of soot, even if you close the doors and windows, it can still make the people in the carriage disgraced, I don't want to take the train as a last resort." Saying that, she turned to Zhang Yuan, "Now I'm losing weight, and when I have to wait until the canteen over there can't keep the soup master to do something delicious, when the fragrance is smoked, the appetite will be open, and I can't hold my mouth, so it's better to stay here and eat Aunt Tian's food." ”

Tian Hua suddenly sneezed in front of the cauldron, she couldn't help but look up at the condiments on the side of the pot in confusion, and said to herself, "There is no pepper, why do you sneeze?" Xie Mingfang, who was helping beside her, hurriedly came over and said with some distress, "Mom, it's all said, just let the staff do these things, let you rest more, and you don't want to." ”

"This is all what the patriarchs eat, but we can't slack off, it's not easy for everyone to build a new country, they are all half-sized girls, and most of them don't have parents around, so they have to be taken care of." Tian Hua smiled at his daughter as he spoke, and reached out to stroke his daughter's face, "You, you have to care more about yourself, it's been more than half a year, and your stomach hasn't moved yet." ”

"Ahh......h Mom, what's all this? Xie Mingfang couldn't help laughing, "I can't let go of the work at hand, you see, the planning of Zhancheng Port has not been completed, the new bridge of Jiehe is still under construction, there are so many things to do here and there, which kind of railway, highway and dock fortifications can leave me?" ”

"Isn't that a bag?" Tian Hua said and nodded towards the west, she actually didn't know where the bag was, but now most of the elders were counting on moving to the new veteran district immediately, so it would definitely not be wrong to move towards the new veteran district. Xie Mingfang looked left and right and said softly, "That bag!" Don't look at him when he says that he is engaged in urban planning or something, but he is still quite blind when he really implements it, and some things still can't help but let me deal with them. Yang Minghuan and I, the child's affairs are not in a hurry, how old is this? It is important to build a new life. ”

"Hey!" Tian Hua said and raised the spatula, "Did you talk like that?" It's all in the new world, is there anything more important than a child? Or when you got married, I said, no matter whether you and Xiao Yang can go to the end, anyway, the child will be pregnant for me first, you and he are both veterans, and there will be at least two veteran seats in the child in the future, and I will pass one to my grandson, that is, three veteran seats, to ensure that our family does not suffer, besides, the child is just for you to conceive, and I will take it after birth. Lady, I've been used to pulling you since I was a child, and now I'm not used to being idle for so many years, let me hold my grandson early, and I'll retire early to take care of my children. ”

"Okay, okay, if you want to say it again, I'll go out." Xie Mingfang said and made it look like he was going out, Tian Hua sighed and said, "I know you don't want to be dragged down by children, but how can a woman not want children?" When I'm my age, will you have any more children? You can't give birth if you want to! Okay, okay, I won't talk about it, you go outside and see how many elders are eating, and I'll prepare noodles. ”

"Pull it down, the people who eat at noodle are all naturalized people from the old district, and most of the elders will squeeze the train back to the new old district as soon as they disperse," Xie Mingfang said with some disapproval, "Now there are at most less than twenty elders outside, plus there will be no more than thirty elders in the executive committee building, you can just do something." ”

"It can't be like this, your mother I know that the tastes of these patriarchs are different, the land is divided into north and south, and the tastes are even more different," Tian Hua pulled Xie Mingfang and said, "Although there are many of our patriarchs here, it is normal for them to get tired of eating pasta every day." That little soup is really well cooked, and it's normal for everyone to like to eat it, don't speak in that tone. You go and count how many elders eat here, I stewed the soup here yesterday, and those who stay here and wait to eat noodles must really love it, but I can't let them down. ”

Xie Mingfang was stunned and hugged Tian Hua, "Mom, you are really a good person, I'll take a look." With that, he walked out.

At the same time, a six-car train was running on the tracks from Orient Harbor to the new old district of Bunker Hill, the chimney at the front of the train spewed black smoke, mixed with sparks from time to time, and even spewed tongues of fire, and the crankshaft of the locomotive spewed white water vapor rhythmically, which could not be dispersed for a long time in this average temperature of less than 15 degrees Celsius, and was slightly blown away by the wind brought up by the carriages dragged behind the front of the locomotive, but still drifted on the railway.

"I said it would have been better to drive back by myself." It was Guo Hao who spoke, today he was a little unhappy, he and a few familiar veterans drove a Rolls-Royce to a meeting, but when he arrived near the venue, he was startled, there was no place to park at all, and in desperation, he could only hand over the vehicle to the "traffic police" who was responsible for traffic diversion and then went to the meeting. He went to pick up the car when the meeting was dismissed, but was frightened by the grand occasion of the temporary parking lot, because this was the first time that the traffic police came to arrange the parking, and there was no veteran to command, so the inexperienced naturalized traffic police crowded the car together, in the dense vehicles he saw his own at a glance, but the car was surrounded by the inner three layers of the parking lot in the innermost, if you want to take the car in order, you have to wait until two hours later, In desperation, he chose to take the commuter train nicknamed the Little Train by the Patriarchs back to the Elder Quarter, where he was now the only one who could eat to his liking.