"I support Comrade Zhang Yu's point of view. Even if they haven't learned to tell the truth, we cannot force comrades to tell lies." You Gou expressed her clear support for Zhang Yu. "The problem we face now is that most comrades simply don't know what to say, so they speak according to the methods of the old era. It's not that they intend to do this. If we force comrades to tell lies, that would be putting the cart before the horse."

"That implies there are major problems with the work of the Organization Department," Qi Huishen said with a frown.

You Gou had no intention of attacking Qi Huishen. "Having problems is the norm; having no problems is what's impossible. If we were to discuss all the problems in the industrial sector up to now—considering that over a thousand people have died in industrial accidents—if I, as the person in charge, were dragged out and shot, it wouldn't be seen as an injustice. Therefore, the system must conform to reality and to theory, and the theory must naturally be explained clearly. We cannot demand that comrades immediately raise their standards to a theoretical level completely. And indeed, the system is not perfect. But the reason for most industrial accidents is not that those comrades didn't understand the theory, but that they didn't follow the system."

Qi Huishen still frowned. "This is asking comrades to admit that they indeed have gaps compared to other comrades that cannot be closed. It's a gap stamped with a label, likely a gap they can never cross in their lifetime. This is detrimental to unity."

"We might as well just say the competition is too cruel," Shang Yuan replied. "The human heart is a very dark thing. If one participates in competition and ends up with a conclusion that they might never catch up in this lifetime... Destroying what others have that one lacks, dragging others down to one's own level—this is a very common mindset. Egalitarian ideas are deeply rooted in the human heart."

"The rectification work within the Party and the government still needs to focus on anti-feudalism. Drawing a circle on the ground to make a prison is the most basic instinct; even animals know to mark their territory with scent. When this instinct is projected onto social nature, feudal systems naturally emerge to regulate such views. The focus of ideological work in the near future remains anti-feudalism, striving to promote steps to eliminate feudalism within the system," Chen Ke replied. "In history, the United States pushed through a series of extremely important acts, doing their utmost to wipe out local protectionism, local monopolies, and later even introduced anti-trust laws and estate taxes. That the United States could later become the world's number one power, leaving other nations far behind, was absolutely not due to pure luck or mere geographical advantage. A world-class power must have world-class institutions."

"Anti-feudalism is a good entry point. I agree," Shang Yuan replied. "Offering auspicious omens is standard feudal stuff."

You Gou replied, "Let's promote anti-feudalism in tandem with the scientific system. Not a comprehensive scientific system, but the scientific nature of each functional department, especially the scientific process of investigation and reporting. Let's not be hasty; we'll complete it item by item."

"Anti-feudalism means we want democracy. Our progress on the democratic process hasn't been very good. Theory and practice are too disconnected," Zhang Yu replied. Constitutionally speaking, the power of the People's Republic comes from the people, but the reality is that the People's Party controls all power. The disconnection between theory and practice is not just a minor issue.

Zhang Yu continued, "Exactly what power should be handed over to the People's Congress, to the people—this is a big question. I feel it would be better to hand over the right of supervision to the people first."

"The crying child gets the milk?" Chen Ke smiled. He wasn't opposed to Zhang Yu's idea, but rather, he was reminded of professional medical disturbers.

Zhang Yu did not misunderstand Chen Ke's meaning. He also smiled. "Since we are popularizing freedom of speech, the right of supervision is precisely a part of freedom of speech. Isn't the practice of freedom of speech exactly the practice of the people's right of supervision?"

You Gou immediately followed up, "The practice in state-owned enterprises is also a part of it. The workers' right to speak in the enterprise is both a scientific practice and a democratic practice."

"If we can complete the layout on this matter in the next few years, that would be quite remarkable." Chen Ke had a sufficient prediction of the arduousness of the work.

The "offering auspicious omens" incident ended roughly like this. There was no circular of criticism for the various provincial governors and provincial party secretaries. The Party Central Committee and the government issued an order: unconventional production increases and special crop data must not be reported as good news. The Politburo members believed it was inappropriate to adopt the method of circulated criticism. Criticizing these comrades did not mean senselessly starting struggles in every province. Especially in a period when a foreign war was likely to break out.

The Central Committee's clear but contained approach achieved good results. In the following days, the view of the various provinces regarding the criticism of the governors was essentially that they had slapped the horse on the leg while trying to flatter it—let's not do such stupid things in the future. Realizing that this was a stupid thing to do and that they shouldn't do it was enough to achieve the objective. Doing fewer stupid things would at least reduce trouble. There were already too many actual troubles in life.

When Zhengzhou was decided as the capital, the Central Committee's supporting plan was for the Central Government to directly administer Henan. Various works originally belonging to the Henan Provincial Committee came directly under the leadership of the Central Committee. Although the various cities and counties did not exceed the rank of similar administrative units in other provinces, the administrative unit of the "Provincial Government" no longer existed in Henan. This was also an experiment in the commandery and county system.

On September 17, as the National Day celebrations entered their final stage, Xinyang City also received the government's notice. Regarding this notice, the municipal government didn't watch the drama unfold like other provincial-level units. The Party and government leadership teams were holding a meeting with grim faces. The Vice Mayor's face was pale, sweat seeping out incessantly, his whole body trembling as if he were having a malaria attack.

The Director of the Agriculture Bureau's face was about the same as the Vice Mayor's. And the faces of the city's administrative team were only slightly better than the Agriculture Bureau Director's by a tiny fraction.

The Mayor of Xinyang had a face of iron-blue. He opened his mouth several times wanting to speak, but couldn't say a word. Finally, with great difficulty, he plucked up the courage to ask the Agriculture Bureau Director, "How much does this crop failure incident have to do with the weather?"

The Agriculture Bureau Director didn't understand the implied meaning of the Xinyang Mayor at first. After hearing this, a trace of joy couldn't help but appear on his face. "The weather influence was very significant. We will verify the issue of the weather affecting agriculture."

Seeing that the Agriculture Bureau Director had caught on, the Mayor turned to the comrades from the engineering unit and said with a dry, hoarse voice, "I feel that we didn't grasp the water conservancy construction tightly enough. This is our work falling short. However, time was tight and the tasks were heavy; the lack of overall planning is also due to our lack of work experience."

The comrades from the engineering unit nodded repeatedly with pale faces. "I feel the Municipal Committee indeed needs to strengthen learning on overall planning. We cannot make the same mistake in the future."

In such a vast monsoon region like China, the simultaneous occurrence of floods and droughts is a perfectly normal thing. The purpose of large-scale water conservancy construction nationwide is to guarantee the stability of agricultural production to the maximum extent. This is a problem clearly explained even in cadre schools and junior high school textbooks.

After conversing with the comrades along this line of thought, the Mayor of Xinyang looked at the Party Secretary. "Secretary, as the Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Standing Committee, my work fell short. I wonder what views you have, Secretary?"

The Party Secretary's complexion was no better than the Mayor's. He barely maintained his composure. "Comrades, we encountered a natural disaster. And because water conservancy work was not in place and manpower arrangement was inappropriate, we failed to salvage the losses in time. The lesson is profound! The lesson is profound! I hope everyone can take this as a warning and not make the same mistake in future work!"

The comrades of the two municipal leadership teams nodded repeatedly, then cast their eyes on the Vice Mayor. The Party Secretary stared at the Vice Mayor, his voice containing immense anger. "The Vice Mayor has an inescapable responsibility for the work errors. For now, he is given the punishment of suspension from all duties to reflect at home. What do the comrades think?"

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

The members of the Municipal Committee raised their hands in agreement one after another.

On September 19, a document was delivered to Premier Shang Yuan. The issuing unit was the National Security Bureau. This gave Shang Yuan a start. The National Security Bureau originated from the People's Internal Affairs Committee, and although its functions had expanded to add quite a few domestic responsibilities, when the National Security Bureau was mentioned, the first thought of People's Party comrades was "contradictions between ourselves and the enemy"!

The content of the document was very simple. Xinyang City, because of adopting substandard seeds, resulted in total crop failure in two-thirds of the city's rice paddies.

Two thoughts surged in Shang Yuan's mind simultaneously: How did the National Security Bureau start monitoring domestic administrative issues? And why hasn't the government received a report from the Xinyang government on such a major matter up to now?