Chapter 1216 - The Way of Balance

The cover of the document was very monotonous. Except for the white paper, it was just a line of large, black text – “NAC Colonial Regulations”

When they saw this line of words, everyone silently mourned the passing of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance.

At this moment, NAC no longer disguised its intention to annex the region and even gave up any attempt to mask their intention, the insensitive word “colonial” was especially telling.

Besides, the council members could not do anything. While they certainly had a few guns in their hands, even if they combined all their forces, they were still far inferior. Especially now that NAC accepted the Pingan Street City Defense Troops into its ranks and the Second Militia surrendered.

Not to mention the whizzing fighters and the terrifying electromagnetic pulse cannons.

Against the humongous force, they did not have the might to resist.

Even Archbishop Xu Tiannan sat there in silence.

Zhao Qiuran, who sat behind Jiang Chen, was starting to feel anxious as she examined those powerful and influential people in the conference room.

Then, her uneasiness began growing exponentially when she discovered that Mei Zhiyong, the owner of Dorsett Hotel, seemed to be a member sitting at the conference table. When she escaped, she collapsed half of the hotel and forced the entire Pingan Street to be placed under martial law to capture her.

Fortunately, the owner of the Dorsett Hotel seemed to have forgotten about this nobody and did not look to her direction.

Zhao Qiuran breathed a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, telesthesia did not allow her to read minds. She did not know that Mei Zhiyong would love to chop her alive. The collapsed Dorsett Hotel resulted in direct damages of over one million crystals; he would not make it back even by auctioning her 100 times!

However, because of the man sitting in front of her, Boss Mei disguised his murderous desires and pretended not to know her.

Of all the people sitting around the conference table, probably only one person had the most relaxed expression

It was Jiang Chen sitting at the head of the table.

He already presided negotiations of distributing interests countless times, and this time, he was still the one leading the conversation.

While looking around the table at all the eyes with differing intentions, Jiang Chen spoke.

“Do you disagree with the document in front of you?”

No one made a sound.

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded with satisfaction.

“Is there no objection? It seems that our meeting today will go smoothly.”

Jiang Chen then coughed before speaking again.

“First of all, allow me to introduce you to your future new mayor, Mr. Liu Wendi.”

Liu Wendi immediately stood up, his expression was slightly reserved as he bowed.

“I’m Liu Wendi, and I am very happy to work with all of you.”

WIth how unnatural he looked, he was greeted with rather quiet applause.

Jiang Chen was not surprised. After all, many people eyed the mayor’s position and did not expect a dark horse to come out. In the end, no one was elected and a merchant in the fur trade sector somehow sat on the mayor’s throne.

Many people were still wondering if he chose the mayor with careful consideration.

After he sat back down, Liu Wendi moved around restlessly and turned to look at Jiang Chen.

However, Jiang Chen did not look at him at this time but continued.

“The matters we’re discussing today are related to the future of Pingan Street. Therefore, I hope that you will listen carefully to every word so you don’t make the same mistake as the predecessors of this place or cause unnecessary misunderstandings. ”

The short, yet imposing words turned the vibe in the room into a chilling state as everyone waited for him to continue.

“First of all, from today, Pingan Street will become a jurisdiction of NAC. In line with the principle of adapting to local conditions, we will not interfere too much with the internal affairs and the council will continue to serve its function.”

“Of course, we can’t completely ignore it.”

“From today on, the mayor of Pingan Street will be directly nominated, appointed, and removed by the NAC. The council no longer has the power to vote and dismiss the mayor.”

As soon as this statement came out, the room was rattled.

What kind of joke is this? If the mayor is directly appointed by you, what’s the purpose of the council? Just watch you perform your one-man show while enjoying some tea? You might as well dissolve the council directly since voting is meaningless now.

As he scanned at the congresspeople who were chatting in the room, Jiang Chen quietly waited for them to finish their discussion before he continued.

“The mayor enacts a bill, and the council still has the right to vote against the bill. Also, to prevent the abuse of power, Pingan Street will establish a new speaker who will preside over an anonymous ballot, maintain the order of the council, and exercise supervision over the mayor. ”

Many people were confused about the decision.

Didn’t you just say that the council can’t remove the mayor, why did you just create another supervising role?

But soon, Jiang Chen answered the confusion of everyone in his next sentence.

“If the mayor has serious misconduct, the speaker can call the council and initiate the impeachment proposal. If more than two-thirds of the members support the impeachment, the motion to dismiss the mayor will be submitted to me by Lu Fan, the head of the Northern Division. Then, I will sign to approve the motion.”

A glimpse of shrewdness appeared in Xu Tiannan’s eyes before disappearing. He had to compliment him in his mind.

Smart, very smart.

After the fall of Ding Liwei and Wan Peng, the entire council of Pingan Street was now dominated by one force, and it was himself, Xu Tiannan. Because of this, he was acting with extreme caution. He knew that Jiang Chen would eventually go back to Wanghai, and after he left, Pingan Street would be under his control again.

After all, the bureaucratic class of Pingan Street was already a fixed system. Without the support of the council, while NAC can control the system with its force, it can not allow the city to run with maximum efficiency.

Jiang Chen could try and replace every gear of this machine with a new one, but the idea was simply not practical.

Now, Jiang Chen’s decision removed the puppet mayor from the council’s hand and formed its own power, but he did not completely get rid of the council and give complete control to the mayor.

The political awareness he displayed was not fitting for his age.

Xu Tiannan even already guessed Jiang Chen’s next move.

The next move would be to expand the size of the council that includes civilians, small merchants, and factory owners as council members. Or else the two-third number he discussed would be meaningless. The current council members could easily work together and fool him hundreds of kilometers away.

And the most crucial factor was these people would become the natural allies of Mayor Liu Wendi, weakening the influence of the existing council.

Jiang Chen did not know how Xu Tiannan evaluated himself, even if he knew, he would have just smiled.

Because he has heard similar evaluations countless times already.

“As for the speaker, Qi Shushan is selected as the candidate.” Jiang Chen looked at the man sitting behind the conference table, watching the expression on his face change from horror, overwhelmed, unexpected, to surprise. Then he looked at the expressionless Xu Tiannan with a smile, “The head of the tax bureau previously served by Wan Peng will be taken over by Archbishop Xu.”

After giving so many sticks, it was time to give a carrot.

The city defense chief previously served by Ding Liwei was castrated and given to Song Chengyu, so now the head of the tax bureau was left. Although the Tax Bureau’s power was limited, it was a sweet carrot for Xu Tiannan that did not manage to be chosen for the position of mayor or speaker.

After the personnel appointment, Jiang Chen smiled and looked at the councils with varying expressions while he appreciated his own work.

At the moment, Qi Shushan was giggling and his face flushing red. He was oozing with joy and proudness, bathing in the breeze of triumph.

From a prestige perspective, Qi Shanshan was nowhere close to Xu Tiannan, from a strength’s perspective, his power was not worth mentioning in front of the Guardian Sect. However, being assigned the position of the speaker completely stunned him.

As for Xu Tiannan, when the position of the head of the tax bureau fell on his head, his stiff expression finally eased.

As for the other members, they were either disappointed, or content, or chatting, or whispering…

At this moment, it seemed that all the emotions in the world were concentrated in this ten-square-meter vanity fair.

People were happy, angry, sorrowful, content with the gains and losses of their interests, and together they painted a vivid and realistic picture of the complex human being…