I will be crowned king

Although the momentum was extremely grand, and there had been more than one activity organized by "Red Heart" and the Shotgun Club before; but when it came to the formal citizens' assembly, the once impassioned and ambitious community representatives all became cautious and completely No longer as high-spirited as before.

As a result, the first "Clovis City Citizens' Assembly", which started high but then went downhill, became dull and boring. It no longer had the passionate scene when it was necessary to risk one's life to fight for the passage of the bill.

However, boring also has the "advantage" of boring, that is, the representatives headed by the core members of the Shotgun Club and "True Heart" can methodically come up with the bills that have been prepared one by one according to the prior preparations, and then the sponsors of the bills come to the stage. The relevant content was explained, and finally the votes were cast by representatives of more than 230 communities.

During this period, if a representative suddenly wants to propose a motion to participate in the vote, he or she can come on stage, or wait in line at the back to organize his thoughts and canvass votes to buy time; as for the time, there is no limit, you can take as long as you want, and there are many ways to vote. , it was a real vote at first, and soon developed into a show of hands. In the end, it simply depended on the reaction in the stands. If more than one-third of the votes were in favor, it would be passed.

This kind of random vote soon caused backlash: some representatives said they didn't hear clearly just now, some said they were preparing their own bills and just voted casually, and some regretted temporarily... Anyway, there is only one purpose, and that is to go ahead. All the bills were overturned and everyone was asked to vote again.

As a result, the citizens' meeting, which was originally expected to last only four hours, lasted from morning to evening and only lasted less than one-fifth of the time. However, the representatives were almost exhausted.

This is basically what the members of the "Red Heart" executive committee and Anson expected: after all, this is only the first time. Neither the representatives nor the "Red Heart" who organized this meeting have any experience. Mistakes and accidents are normal. , it would be better to say that there is no accident is the real problem.

To this end, Anson specially arranged for more than two dozen "True Heart" staff members to serve as clerks, and they would work with the executive committee members to take meeting minutes, record all submitted bills, representatives' protests, and deviations that occurred in the original process. And all kinds of accidents are recorded.

When even Professor Erich was exhausted and hungrily announced the adjournment of the meeting, and all the representatives finally left with relief, the total number of bills passed by this "civilian assembly" like a grass-roots team was only three, which was not enough for one bill. Number of hands.

The content is also lackluster, the type that would make street tabloids in outer city shake their heads:

The first item is, of course, to determine the source and use of the budget of the citizens' council. In this regard, "Bare Heart" has given a more complicated plan, but in simple terms it is to draw a sum of money from each community's tax, and the amount is different from that of each community. Population is linked to the scale of wealth, and it only needs to be used to meet the expenses of the meeting, as well as the travel expenses of the representatives plus subsidies.

The second is about the various processes of the Citizens’ Council... After summing up their experiences and lessons, the representatives who suffered deeply finally reached a consensus that the meeting must have a fixed process, including the time, quantity and content of bill submissions, the time of public speeches and Limits must be made on the number of words, the special speaking time for each representative, the number of votes each representative can make, and especially the number of repentances.

Fortunately, the meeting did not have to separate the seats of each representative, otherwise the process would really look exactly like the one in the Privy Council.

The last item is also a bill that most representatives did not expect at all, and no one had considered it beforehand - requiring the Prime Minister's Office to approve special funds to purchase a sufficient amount of coal and butter, and then limit the number of people to the outer urban areas at a price below cost. sell.

Because no representative proposed a similar bill at all, Anson finally had to ask a representative who had joined the "Red Heart" initiative to propose it. There were very few responses, and there was not even much interest in voting.

Fortunately, at least no one objected, and the bill was dragged to the end, becoming one of only three bills that was successfully passed.

After the bill was passed and without waiting for the meeting to officially end, Anson immediately sent a clerk to hand it over to reporters from several newspapers waiting outside. At the same time, he sent the original document to the Prime Minister's Executive Office with great fanfare and in the name of the Citizens' Assembly. Ask the other party to immediately implement the resolutions of the meeting.

The purpose is of course very simple, that is, to put a little "pressure" on the ruling lord, lest he forget to promise himself this trivial thing in his busy schedule.

The "Citizens' Assembly" that had been bustling all day long finally came to an end as the night fell.

……………………

Shotgun Club, Pub.

"...The Ring of Order is up, this damn meeting is over!"

Lying on the wooden bar, the exhausted teacher Erich drank two large glasses of cold beer, but still felt that it was not enough to quench his thirst:

"I used to think that giving theoretical classes to those freshmen at the military academy would be scary enough. Sure enough, the longer a person lives, the more new things he encounters that he has never encountered before."

"I feel the same way." Anson, who was also playing with a rum glass and leaning on the bar, breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, it ended successfully, and we also achieved the most important goal."

"Ensure that the citizens' assembly is truly successful and set an example for representatives from other provinces, thereby expanding the influence of 'True Heart' in other provinces."

Teacher Erich nodded slightly, but the doubt on his face did not disappear: "But I am still worried, is it really enough to just hold a parliament? Just like this, a grass-roots group of citizens' parliament can really shake up The Privy Council system established by the nobles in the past?”

After hearing the question raised by the other party, Anson, who was taking a sip of rum, showed a half-smile expression on his face.

He put down his glass and turned to the uneasy Erich: "Then again, when the representatives proposed the bill today, they seemed to be very conservative. They didn't have the same momentum as when they met at the shotgun club."

"The police on Whitehall Street are not allowed to break into private houses, and the tax collectors are not allowed to extort money at will... Apart from these two items, the mentions are all trivial matters such as 'community health environment' and 'ownership of private houses at street junctions'; it involves requirements. The only thing that funds the money is the 'Coal Butter Bill' that we pushed forward."

"What's so strange about this?" Erich looked at him inexplicably, and said in a completely reasonable tone: "Ignore other bills, this is a major matter that will directly take money out of the pockets of those adults!"

"Despite the loud chanting of slogans, no one here knew that the bill could be passed. It was just that the adults were forced by the situation and had no choice but to agree. How long and to what extent they could tolerate it, no one had a clue."

Teacher Erich sighed and looked at Anson who was still calm: "So the Citizens' Assembly Bill...can it really get the attention of those adults as you said at the beginning?"

"Yes, I will certainly do it." Anson nodded slowly:

"The key to how much power a person or an organization can have is not what he or she is, but how many people believe in you; when people are unwilling to believe in you, even if you are a king, you will not get anything. of attention.”

"On the other hand, although the current Citizens' Council really looks like an unreliable grass-roots team, with only a few hundred guys claiming to be 'representatives' gathering to entertain themselves; as long as there are hundreds of thousands of people in Clovis City, The public believes that it really has the power to say the truth, and the adults in the Privy Council believe that it does."

"Then..." Eric's throat twitched:

"What should I do to make everyone believe it?"

"It's simple, just get the bill passed by Parliament and implemented."

Anson said in a light tone: "As long as the Prime Minister's Office that received the bill actually takes action in accordance with the parliamentary bill and provides cheap coal and butter to the poor people in the outer city, everything will fall into place."

After hearing this, Eric's pupils shrank slightly and his breathing suddenly became rapid.

"You, do you mean you..."

"I have reached a private agreement with the Ludwig administration." Anson nodded slightly: "That bill will definitely be passed, and then everyone in Clovis City will know that the Citizens' Council is not talking about itself. It’s a grass-roots team, but a brand new system that is completely different from the past!”

"I said at the beginning of the Assembly that the success of the Citizens' Assembly would be the forerunner of the National Assembly... Erich, this is a bloodless war, and if it succeeds, we... will overthrow the entire kingdom, overthrow the past thousand years, The system established by the Church of Order and the Empire continues unchanged to this day.”

Eric, who said nothing, lowered his head, clutched the wine glass tightly in his right hand, and made a "click, click, click" sound with the knuckles of his left hand holding his knee.

"Anson...Bach." His voice was trembling: "You know, when I first decided to join you, it was really just because the skirmisher department had been in decline for too long, and you were the first person to join the skirmisher department so far. Graduate status, someone who becomes a general.”

"I have thought that if I get too close to you, the dignitaries of the Continental Army School in the War Department will definitely not give me a good look; but I don't care anymore, after all, they are all in such a miserable state now, How much worse could it be?"

"But then... haha, to be more precise, it was after the War Department was destroyed that I finally discovered that you are actually ambitious; you didn't just want to get your innocence back, but took the opportunity to climb up!"

Anson looked at him quietly and took a sip of rum.

"But having said that, as long as there is a chance, which soldier doesn't want to go further, or even dream of establishing a military government and a dictatorship?" Erich smiled:

"I have seen careerists, and I have seen young people with dreams, but this is really the first time I have seen a careerist with dreams like you."

"If you are just competing for a certain position, although it is difficult, you may not have no chance to fight for it in front of Major General Ludwig; even if you take ten thousand steps back, I heard that you are already a member of the Free Confederation in the New World. One person is inferior to ten thousand people. Even if he does not come back, he is at least the governor of the colony."

"Anson Bach, what do you want to do?"

At this moment, the drunken Erich even had a bit of fear in his eyes.

He is not afraid of trusting a promising young man, nor is he worried that he is following an ambitious man, because these are things he can understand; but what the other person is doing now has completely exceeded the limit of his cognition. .

When asked, Ansen met his gaze and seemed to be stunned for a moment in silence.

Then...in Erich's hazy pupils, he suddenly burst into laughter.

"You know... there was once a very annoying novelist who said this about me, saying that I am not the type who is used to being swept away by storms. As long as I have the opportunity, I will definitely try to control the storm in my hands."

Anson turned to look at Erich, with a meaningful smile on his face: "But actually, he was only half right."

"……half?"

"I am indeed not used to being swept away by storms. As long as there is the slightest chance, I will try to hold my own destiny in my own hands instead of being manipulated by others; as long as the situation is not exhausted, I will try my best to take advantage of it. situation and maximize your own interests to the greatest extent possible."

"It was like this in Thunder Castle, it was like this in Hantu, and it was like this in the New World..." Anson said word by word:

"But when I try again and again and struggle to grasp my own destiny, I always feel various forces restraining me; to be fair, I don't object to the world operating under certain established rules. I object to it. , when I have to follow certain rules, some guys can just ignore them."

"If this is a rule, if this rule is to oppress me, to oppress those like me, to allow some people to be unscrupulous and others to follow the rules, then I will break it."

"Not just control your destiny in the storm, but...become the storm."

"I am the storm."

There was dead silence.

Staring at Anson, Teacher Erich was stunned.

He lifted the wine glass to take a sip, but found that the glass was empty. He raised his head in a daze: "Um... did you smell anything strange?"

"weird smell?"

Anson raised his eyebrows when the topic was suddenly changed: "You mean..."

Plop——

Before he could finish his words, Erich fell down on the bar with "Bang!"; in less than half a minute, thunderous snoring could be heard in the bar.

In the empty tavern, he was the only one left awake.

Pulling the corner of his mouth slightly, Anson turned his head and looked outside the door of the dark tavern:

"After listening outside for so long, don't you plan to come in and have a couple of drinks? Dear..."

"…Your Excellency the Archbishop."