It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Seeing that the others seemed to understand, Li Cheng tapped the table and continued to explain his thinking: "As far as I know, most cities are too populous to hold open elections, so each district selects about 4 to 10 people to support the municipal officials in the elections."

"Lincoln's votes would probably be even lower, since there was no need to vote for mayor before, and the council members' votes were pointless."

"..."

After giving a brief explanation, Li Cheng scanned the people present and asked, "How was it?"

"Indeed, Lincoln is expected to have only about two councilors in each district, totaling about 40 people."

Principal David affirmed Li Cheng's statement: "Although there are only 5 of our people among them, as long as we further reduce the number of members participating in the election, for example, to 20, we can not only increase our proportion of the number of members, but it will also be much easier to 'change' the members' minds."

The chubby man nodded and said, "It sounds really feasible. The Garcia family would never have imagined that we would go along with their ideas and accelerate things to achieve our goals."

Principal David continued, "And they also followed the 'rules.' If the Garcia family were to hold such a high-profile mayoral election and then become angry and refuse to admit it afterward, even without His Highness Veronica's intervention, the angry citizens and our encouragement alone would be enough to cause them trouble."

"When things get out of hand, Your Highness can step in with a sense of righteousness to mediate between the two sides and reorganize the election, which will be perfectly legitimate."

?

Li Cheng's lips twitched, thinking to himself, "You can't stop talking about Veronica in three sentences, can you? I finally came up with a solution that has nothing to do with her, and you've already imagined a whole ten-thousand-word sequel."

"It's that simple?"

The tall, thin man was a little confused. Although he knew it was probably just his imagination, he couldn't help but have the thought that he could do it himself.

"Many things seem simple, but you would never think of them without someone pointing them out."

Principal David shook his head and said, "I had considered reducing the number of councilors controlled by the Garcia family before, but I never thought that this method could be used to hold the mayoral election ahead of schedule... Tsk tsk, getting old after all."

Seeing this, Li Cheng nodded and said, "It seems everyone understands. I won't go into too much detail. I believe you can all do your best."

Theoretical discussions are easy enough, but in actual practice, who knows how many difficulties one might encounter? Someone like him, who only knows how to frame things (F2A), shouldn't get involved. Besides, if something unexpected happens, he can easily shirk responsibility...

David, Hill, and Rupert all wore expressions that said, "Now I completely understand."

Principal David: "Hehe, Mr. Banana has already gone to such lengths, how could we possibly trouble him any further?"

The chubby man said, "Leave it to us. Mr. Banana, go back and rest, and wait for good news."

The tall, thin man: "I already have a general idea for what's to come..."

Unable to get a word in edgewise, Smith glanced around and, seeing that he was the only one left to speak, managed to squeeze out, "...Me too."

He suddenly understood why he hadn't been able to stay in London or be sent overseas, but instead had been thrown into Lincoln as the chapter president—never mind, you guys talk, I'm listening.

Chapter 211 The decision has been made above.

Seeing that all four agreed with the plan, Li Cheng said goodbye and got up to leave the reception room.

Time was of the essence, so after he left, the three of them had a heated discussion in the room for a while and quickly finalized their next course of action.

After all, their original plan was to stall for time as long as possible. They had already kept the several members of parliament under control in their respective homes, and when questioned, they would find excuses to delay, such as being sick and needing to rest in bed, or having some urgent business to attend to and needing to wait a moment... In short, it would definitely be tomorrow.

But now the plan has taken a complete 180-degree turn, so naturally we have to issue a new notification as soon as possible. And in this era when communication and transportation were not very developed, this alone required some effort.

As for the procedures for the mayoral election, the previous instructions must also be rescinded and the staff notified again to speed up the process.

After all, they had just conveyed the message to delay as much as possible, and if it wasn't delivered properly, they would be digging their own grave.

Incidentally, although the mayor of Lincoln City was a confidant of the Garcia family, they didn't care much about most of the government employees who needed to do the work, which gave David and his gang an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

On the one hand, they quickly went to the homes of their members of parliament to notify them to participate in the election. On the other hand, they screened the other members of parliament who arrived earliest, eliminating the die-hard supporters and then pulling them into private rooms for detailed discussions.

Although many of the members of parliament are leaders or deacons of executive councils, they are successful and respected upper-class figures.

However, given the sufficient price, both parties achieved a satisfactory result.

After all, there are many things that the Garcia family cannot provide for them, especially money. Many landed nobles are not wealthy enough and are extravagant. Compared with the rich and frugal bourgeoisie, they are obviously poor.

Take Newton as an example. Although she was a nominal baron and the owner of a considerable estate, before Li Cheng came, her actual income was so meager that she couldn't afford a large house in London, because a large house meant more servants and expenses.

And so, things proceeded in an orderly manner.

While they were busy making trouble, what was Mayor Giles, the one who mistakenly thought there was a riot in the square where Anne Hathaway was playing and sent military police to disperse it, doing now? Didn't he notice anything at all?

Actually, I didn't notice anything at all.

On the one hand, the mayor himself has almost no right to interfere in the mayor's election process; at most, he can only play a supervisory role.

On the other hand, the mayor himself suddenly received an order from the Garcia family to step down. As a mayor who was obedient, never made any major mistakes, and at most accepted a little money, Giles fell into deep confusion and depression.

He was a commoner who had been promoted; he had little ability and was not even well-educated. In any case, the Garcia family only needed an obedient mayor. Therefore, when he received the order to re-elect the mayor, although he was dissatisfied, he had no choice but to obey.

The only meager form of resistance was to slack off and do less work.

Although the election process was progressing rather strangely quickly, Giles was unconcerned since his orders were to complete the election of the new mayor as soon as possible, and he assumed it was the work of the Garcia family.

"I'm about to step down, why should I keep working so hard?"

Giles swirled the clear wine glass in his hand, thinking rather listlessly, "Anyway, no one will care if I slack off a little."

------

A few days passed in the blink of an eye.

After five council members from David were notified and arrived at Lincoln City Hall, the number of council members present reached 23 as preparations were underway. More than half of the council members were now ready.

David and his two companions knew that it was too late, so they decided to start the election immediately.

But at this point, the three, who had been cooperating selflessly because of the urgency of the situation, finally had a small conflict—about the selection of the mayor.

“I recommend Griffin,” David said in a low voice. “He is honest, reliable, capable, and absolutely loyal.”

His slightly graying hair and weathered face seemed quite convincing.

Upon hearing this name, the chubby man's face twitched involuntarily: "Principal David, isn't it a bit inappropriate to send your distant nephew?"

David showed no embarrassment at being exposed; he calmly explained, "There's no need to abandon a talented person because of family ties."

The tall, thin man sneered, "Heh, we're capable and loyal to you, so we'll risk our lives to mess with us, right?"

"Then how about you suggest one person?"

David glanced at him sideways.

"I'll do it."

The tall, thin man said without fear, "I propose Adams. Although he is not particularly capable, at least he is not my nephew, son, or son-in-law."

Unexpectedly, David sneered and exposed, "Don't think I don't know. Isn't he your wife's distant cousin? You call that no relation?"

The tall, thin man was a little embarrassed that such a secret had been exposed. He cursed, "So what? You old geezer, don't think I don't know what you're planning. Don't force me to tell you!"

Being called an old codger made David's forehead twitch, and he retorted, "Who can you hide your little scheme from? You just want to build a new port but don't want to spend the money, so you want the city to subsidize it for you, right?"

"You make a difference? I heard you recently hired an expert from London to build a school, right?"

"..."

The two were arguing heatedly, but to avoid further arguments, the overweight man decisively withdrew his suggestion and instead began to think of a solution.

Although the three of them have persuaded many neutral or hostile members of parliament, and are likely to achieve a majority, if they cannot reach a consensus, the votes they have won will be split, and failure is also possible.

After working so hard for so long, it would be too shameful to fail and fight amongst ourselves in the end.

"Gentlemen, arguing like this won't get us anywhere."

The chubby man glanced at the wall clock in the corner, trying to end this pointless argument: "Since we can't convince each other, why don't we just find someone who doesn't have a deep connection with any of the three of us and make him mayor?"

David was getting old and couldn't argue with the tall, thin man in his prime. Seeing this, he immediately agreed, "That's a good idea."

Although the tall, thin man had a commanding presence, he lacked experience and was somewhat intimidated by the few words of criticism he had just received. Seeing this, he nodded and said, "I agree. Viscount Rupert, what are your thoughts?"

"I have some ideas."

The chubby man squinted his small eyes and glanced at his two unreliable accomplices: "First of all, that person can't be a relative of any of us, not even a distant kinship..."

The two men, without changing their expressions, said, "Yes, that's very important."

The chubby man paused for a moment, then continued, "But we can't be completely unrelated; at least we can all feel at ease."

"As expected of Viscount Rupert, he is indeed very thoughtful."

"I'm fine with it too."

The two of them agreed in unison.

Seeing that the discussion had finally gotten into a normal rhythm, the chubby man breathed a sigh of relief and smiled with satisfaction: "Well, it's good that we can reach a consensus... It's not just me who's speaking, everyone should give their opinions next."

As he spoke, he stood up, found a quill pen and a piece of white paper on the bookshelf next to him, sat back down, and gestured for the others to offer their ideas so that they could be written down and selected later.

The tall, thin man with a strong desire for control spoke first: "And this person should ideally be incompetent and easily influenced, so that we can control him."

A slightly exhausted David added, "But they can't be too incompetent either; they still have to be able to get things done, otherwise they'll be too stupid and troublesome to use."

The chubby man recorded it on a piece of white paper.

The tall, thin man spoke again: "It's very important that you share the same interests as the three of us."

David added, “Not just the three of us, but also Mr. Banana’s side, so it’s best if this person has some connection with him, can represent His Highness’s interests to some extent, but can’t be too close.”

A man's diary of being overweight due to bloating.

"besides......"

"Oh, right..."

A Diary of a Fat Man with a Puffy Figure

......

Initially, the selection process was relatively lenient and not difficult. However, after the three of them added their own suggestions, the requirements for the candidates suddenly became extremely stringent.

"Is there anyone who can make that convenient?"

The tall, thin man stared at the blank sheet of paper on the table, covered with conditions, and read it aloud with suspicion:

"They need to have some connection with the three of us, Mr. Banana, and His Highness, but not too deep; they need to have some ability, but not too much; they need to have some influence locally, but not too much; they need to be kind and good at listening to opinions, but not too easily swayed; they need to share the same interests as us; it's good if they're older, but not too old—who brought up the last point, was it you, old man?"

David glared at him: "Older people are more stable, don't you understand that simple principle? Do you think it's better for everyone to have a short temper like yours?"

The tall, thin man slammed his fist on the table in anger: "He's definitely steady, but tell me, where am I supposed to find someone like that?"

David fell silent; he didn't know where to find someone like that.

An awkward silence fell over the room.

We finally reached a consensus, but the problem is we can't find anyone like that anymore.