Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 435 "The Southward Expansion Plan" (Part 3)
"Let's adjourn the meeting!"

The debate had been going on for two hours in the conference room of the government building.

The rows of long pine wooden tables were filled with people sitting on both sides and behind them, and the air was thick with the smell of tobacco and even stronger gunpowder.

As noon approached, Liu Guoqiang proposed that all participating time travelers hold a final vote, which immediately brought the atmosphere of the meeting to a climax.

Apart from the dozen or so transmigrators who were unable to attend due to their posts elsewhere, there were forty-four representatives present. According to the regulations for resolutions on major matters, a resolution can only be approved and implemented if it is passed by a specific two-thirds majority vote.

In other words, the "Southward Expansion Plan" proposed by the "younger generation" must receive the approval of more than 30 representatives present in order to be included in the government's key work items for the year.

According to Luo Zhenhui, Li Xianqing and others, even though the "younger generation" has been making connections and lobbying the wavering time-travel representatives in the past few days, it will still be quite difficult to obtain a specific majority of two-thirds of the votes.

At least the many transmigrators serving in finance, industry, economy, diplomacy, agriculture, culture, education and health, as well as those in the several counties of the headquarters, would probably not agree with this "plan," so as not to ruin the hard-won good development situation.

Roughly calculated, those "young and promising" candidates could garner at most twenty-odd votes, certainly not more than two-thirds.

However, to everyone's surprise, when the vote began, one representative after another raised their right hands, and even cabinet members such as Meng Shengxin, Li Liang, and Chen Rui, who were relied upon by Luo Zhenhui and Li Xianqing, expressed their approval.

This was completely unexpected, and everyone's expression became serious.

"Thirty votes in favor, fourteen votes against." Zhang Ruosong, who was presiding over the vote count on the stage, read out the final result with a blank expression. "According to the established rules of procedure, the 'Southward Expansion Plan' is... passed!"

It barely exceeded two-thirds of the votes!

An eerie silence fell over the entire conference hall, as if even the air itself had frozen for a few seconds.

Luo Zhenhui slowly leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, frowned, and stared intently at the group of "youngsters" across from him who were cheering.

Liu Guoqiang and Shu Wendong were high-fiving each other in celebration. The confident smiles on their faces reminded Luo Zhenhui of the group of young trainee officers he had seen on the "Breaking Waves" fifteen years ago—the same high spirits, the same... recklessness.

His lips twitched slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just sighed deeply, forcibly suppressing the unease and resentment in his heart.

Li Xianqing's reaction was even more direct. He stood up abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor with a screeching sound, his face so gloomy it was almost dripping with water.

He looked around, his gaze sweeping over the representatives of the "traitors," especially Meng Shengxin, Li Liang, and Chen Rui.

Li Liang noticed his gaze, turned his head slightly to avoid eye contact, but his expression remained firm, clearly indicating that he had already made up his mind.

“Okay, very good…” Li Xianqing felt a bitter taste in his mouth, shook his head, and lowered his voice to a very low level, but it was enough for the people around him to hear clearly, “You all want to cause trouble (is this also a sensitive word?), then go ahead and cause trouble.”

Deng Zhichen, who was in charge of finance and taxation, pushed up his glasses, looked down and quickly wrote something in his notebook, the pen tip almost tearing through the paper, muttering to himself, "These bastards are going to make me lose my mind again..."

In a corner of the conference hall, Dong Xinping, the usually low-key head of education, culture and health, silently tidied up the documents on his desk. His face was unreadable, but he sighed to Duan Guodong, the agricultural secretary beside him, "...This year's medical and health budget will probably have to be revised significantly."

After receiving a nod from Luo Zhenhui, Zhang Ruosong mechanically announced the adjournment of the meeting.

As the crowd began to leave, the younger generation huddled together in small groups, whispering about their next moves, their faces beaming with smug satisfaction. The opposition, on the other hand, walked away silently, their retreating figures revealing suppressed anger and underlying anxiety.

Meng Shengxin paused for a moment, then turned and walked up to Luo Zhenhui.

"Are they planning to nominate you to take my place when the holidays change in January next year?" Luo Zhenhui looked up at him with amusement.

"In fact, expanding southward and further developing the California region would not necessarily have triggered a war between us and the Spanish."

Meng Shengxin did not directly answer Luo Zhenhui's question, but instead defended the newly passed "Southward Expansion Plan," saying, "After the Battle of the Downs, the Spanish navy was almost completely wiped out. They would certainly not engage in a large-scale armed conflict with us for a piece of barbaric land."

"What if there were large gold deposits there?"

“Uh…” Meng Shengxin paused for a moment, “Then the Spanish are willing but unable. Their current focus is on Europe, and they won’t cause any trouble in the Americas.”

"Is that so?" Luo Zhenhui stared at him intently. "Shouldn't we consider the worst-case scenario when making any radical and risky policy? Why are you all so actively promoting the 'Southward Expansion Plan' based on the assumption that the Spanish will not rashly get involved in the conflict?"

"The risk of conflict exists, but sometimes we can't see things as so complicated or so pessimistic," Meng Shengxin said slowly. "In later generations, when the Korean War broke out, everyone thought we shouldn't participate to avoid unnecessary losses and endangering our own safety. But what was the final outcome?"

"..." Luo Zhenhui fell silent. After a long while, he laughed self-deprecatingly, "That's right! It seems I really am getting old."

“Captain…” Meng Shengxin suddenly called out a long-unheard title, “We are just racing against time, and also making early arrangements for a century-long plan for the future. Actually, the situation is not that bad.”

"Even disregarding the potential military threat from the Spanish, have you considered the balance of regional development?" Luo Zhenhui asked. "With the resources we currently possess, we can only focus on developing a limited area, and California is more than two thousand miles away from headquarters. How can we allocate resources?"

"Several years ago, we all realized that spreading our efforts in all directions would inevitably dilute our already limited energy and resources, making it impossible for us to focus our efforts and form effective collective wisdom and economies of scale."

"In our time and space, in order to develop the economy and improve productivity, we still had to designate several special economic zones and a number of key coastal cities, concentrate the country's limited resources and apply preferential policies to build them up, rather than taking a comprehensive approach and promoting them on a large scale."

"Does Xinhua, with a mere population of just over 200,000, really dare to make such a bold policy move, developing the entire area along the thousands of kilometers of the western coast of Xinzhou?"

“In the next ten years, we will continue to focus our development efforts on Xinhua Bay and will not allocate too many resources to other colonization areas.” Meng Shengxin shook his head and said, “However, the extremely favorable agricultural conditions of the California Valley are very suitable for developing into an important grain and cotton production area for Xinhua, which can provide a continuous supply of agricultural products to the core headquarters of Xinhua Bay and help our industrial development.”

“Alright.” Luo Zhenhui smiled, stood up, and walked towards the door of the conference hall. “Since the resolution has been passed and you have a plan, let’s proceed according to procedure. But I want to remind you of something…”

He turned back and gave Meng Shengxin a deep look: "Xinhua is not a save point in a game; there is no chance to start over."

Meng Shengxin found a chair and sat down. He looked around the empty conference hall, sighed deeply, and then fell silent.

The midday sun shone through the glass into the room, casting his shadow long and thin.

"Times create heroes..."

"Or perhaps, heroes create their times?"

"Ah... In any case, history is always written by the victors."
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(End of this chapter)