Chapter 42 - Beauty of governance should prevail

As Feng long progresses in his journey to Wuxi in the morning, Huangshan was rolling out unrestricted mass testing. Zhang Xiaofan was helped by soldiers to mix the solutions in large barrels, and he opened over 100 testing stations around the empire. As people tested positive for the disease, they were moved to local quarantine centers. The counselors were mad at Ding Qi, and invited him for a new assembly, this time with members of the general public.

Ding Qi accepted and brought Zhang Xiaofan with him to discuss. The counselors were so mad that they refused to bow to Ding Qi when he entered the space. He then sat in his throne:

-Well, no one is behaving formally in this imperial space anyway, so please go straight to the point, I have other things to take care of.

One of the counselors is chosen as the speaker. He gets up and moves in front of Ding Qi:

-You... you turned our empire into a dictatorship, how long until you send everyone to jail?

-You must be kidding me, no one is being jailed. 

-They are... They are having their freedom stripped away by the palace, under the promise of containing the epidemic, while our cases are growing.

Zhang Xiaofan bows to Ding Qi:

-Your Majesty... Everything is being carried out without harming people... We sometimes are bolder with those who resist, but it only represents a very small fraction. And the caseload is growing because we started to test more. 

-You may rise. What can you say about Zhang Xiaofan's speech? Is he lying to me or not?- Ding Qi smiles at Zhang Xiaofan.

-Of course, he is lying to you, as Zhang Yi and Yu Lexuan lied to you! Let's face it, Feng Long wants to take our empire! Can you imagine the consequences of this powder being spread over our land? Can you imagine the economic slowdown we will face because a small number of people might die? Hear what Anhui has to say, they have developed a cure for it!

-Preposterous! - Ding Qi screams - We must be grateful to Zhejiang! The economic slowdown will happen anyway, this is inevitable, as the infection is inevitable in the long run, but we could slow it down and buy time to get a working medicine for it before it is too late. Our health minister already said that the medicine used in Anhui is ineffective, that's why our caseload is building up, literally everyone coming from Anhui is infected. 

-But if it is inevitable, why not go the opposite way and let it go even faster?

-Because this is the position of a coward, weak leader. We are strong, we can stop it, and the cooperation with neighbors will help us get it done. As I said many times, you haven't proposed any viable solution, so much that I had to put Zhang Xiaofan in a position that we didn't even have before. 

-We have correctly advised you in the last ten or so years. 

-Yes, you are right. Until this crisis began. Until you have felt threatened. Until you felt the pressure from some individuals only concerned with their own profits in disregard of everyone else's wellbeing. Until you began believing in misinformation purposely spread to cause damage to us. Until you began opposing me and saying preposterous things... I won't hear your voices anymore. I can't stand being the fucking emperor and having unruly subordinates trying to say that I'm closed to new ideas, only because they are clearly stupid. The beauty of the governance principle will standstill at the end of my life. I'll hear anyone, even Feng Long if I think appropriate. 

-So we will need to inform His Majesty Bai Chongye that you are refusing to follow his own directives.

-Which directives? Bai Chongye does not care, this is clear to see. We must develop and deploy our own directives, and not obey something coming from hundreds of li away. It is obvious that the way he is managing it does not work, and also that he does not care that much about our wellbeing. We must stand on our own feet and keep fighting this before we reach a point where we can't come back.

-You do not fight it ruining people's lives, closing businesses, and disrupting supply chains around the empire!

-What would you suggest that might work better? You are all only complaining. We have a solution, we deployed it, and we are getting good results. Damn, our city has alone fifty thousand people, we may lose over a thousand lives for being careless. 

-Why not rely on individual responsibility instead of issuing orders?

-Our health minister has already told you: this epidemic only spreads due to individual action. Everyone is far from doing it on purpose, many don't even realize they have a pathogen inside their bodies infecting themselves, their family, and friends. We must act, we must guarantee their most basic right, their own life. And, yes, after this epidemic passes, we will lift all restrictions we are having to put in place. Not doing this will result in a serious amount of externalities that will destroy our economy in the long run.

The entire room remains in silence for a couple of minutes. Ding Qi then moves:

-This pointless assembly is over. 

He left the room, accompanied by Zhang Xiaofan. The counselor board remains silent, and also leaves the room shortly after.

...

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