Chapter 13 chapter Five

If it is not counting the informal talks that the members of the council had with Mr. Doulwin on this occasion, today is only the second time that Harding has participated in the council meeting.But Harding knew very well that before that, they had held a council meeting at least once, at most two or three times, but he just didn't receive the notice of the meeting. Harding also knew that if it hadn't been for receiving the ultimatum, he would still have no part in this meeting. The document recorded in the imaging device, on the surface, seems to be a friendly letter of greeting between the two leaders: but in essence, it is an out-and-out ultimatum.

Now Harding is running his fingers over the document, which begins with the ornate greeting: "His Majesty King Anakrion of Holy Majesty, To His Friend and Brother - Encyclopedia Number One Foundation Council Chairman Dr. Louis Pihaner..." The end of the letter was even more contrived, with a huge colored seal on it, because the symbols on it were so complicated that it was almost impossible to see what it represented. Regardless, it remains an ultimatum. Harding said: "It proves that we didn't have a lot of time. It was only three months. But even if we had that little time, we ended up wasting it. The document only gave us a week. What are we going to do?" manage?"

Pihaner said with a sad face: "There must be something wrong here, it is simply impossible. Lord Dorwin has just assured us of the attitude of the emperor and the empire towards this matter, and they already know it. An extreme method?" Harding immediately launched an attack: "I understand, you have already informed the king of Anacreon of the so-called 'attitude between the emperor and the empire', right?" "I did, but I put this proposal to the council for a vote and it was unanimously in favor." "When was the vote held?" Pihaner restored the dignity of the chairman and said to Harding: "Mayor Harding, I don't think I have any obligation to answer your question."

"Well, anyway, I don't have much interest in knowing. I just think that your diplomatic letter conveying the precious opinions of Lord Dorwin," he grinned and said with a fake smile: "It's us The direct reason for receiving this 'goodwill response', otherwise they may have delayed a little longer. But according to the consistent attitude of this council, I think even if there is still time, it will not be of any help to Terminus." At this time, Yate Fuhan said: "Mr. Mayor, how did you come to this amazing conclusion?" "My method is actually quite simple. I just use something that everyone ignores—common sense. Do you know that there is a science in human knowledge called symbolic logic, which can eliminate all obstacles that confuse meaning in ordinary language? Things are eliminated one by one.”

"So what?" Fu Han asked. "In my busy schedule, I took the time to analyze this document with symbolic logic. In fact, for myself, there is no such trouble at all, because I understand its true meaning. But I think for you five scientists, I It's easier to explain with symbols than to say it outright." Harding spread out the papers that had been under his elbows: "By the way, I did not do this myself. As you can see, the signature under this analysis is Muller Houcker from the Logic Department. " Pihaner stood up and leaned against the table, trying to get a better look.Harding went on to say: "The real information revealed by Anacreon's letter is actually very easy to analyze, because the person who wrote the letter is not holding a pen but holding a gun. So it is easy to distill, and let the naked The meaning is revealed. What you see now is the symbolic expression of the analysis results. If it is translated into ordinary language, the general meaning is: give us all we want within a week, or we will resort to force."

The other five directors began to study the symbols line by line, and remained silent for a while.Then Pihaner sat back in his seat, coughing wistfully.Harding said, "Is there anything wrong, Dr. Pihaner?" "It seems not." "Okay," Harding put away the few pieces of paper, and took out two other documents: "In front of you is a copy of the treaty signed between the Empire and Anacreon—signed on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor." The treaty happened to be Mr. Dorwin who visited this planet last week, and the next picture is its logical analysis."

The treaty had five pages printed in tiny fonts, but the analysis revealed only half a page of flamboyant manuscripts. "You can definitely see that, after analysis, ninety percent of this treaty has been distilled, because those are all meaningless diplomatic rhetoric. The rest of the content can be expressed in two sentences. Interesting words to summarize: "Anakreon's obligations to the Empire: none! "The empire can exercise power over Anacreon: none!" Then the five directors studied and analyzed anxiously, and also checked the original text of the treaty.When they were done, Pihaner said in a disturbed tone, "That seems right, too."

"Then you admit that this treaty is nothing less than Anacreon's Declaration of Independence, and it also comes with the official recognition of the Empire?" "It seems so." "Don't Anacreon understand this? They must be eager to emphasize their independent status, so any threat from the empire must feel like a thorn in the back. Especially the current situation is obvious, the empire is powerless pose a threat to them, otherwise they will never acquiesce in their independence." "But," interjected Seth, "how is Mayor Harding going to explain Lord Dorwin's assurances that the Empire will support us? These assurances—" He shrugged, and then added: "Honestly, listen It seems to be useful."

Harding sat back in his chair and replied, "You know, this is the funniest part of the whole thing. I admit that when I first met the grown-up, I thought he was the dumbest ass in the galaxy." , I found out later that he was actually the smartest and a very experienced diplomat. I took it upon myself to record everything he said." This sentence immediately caused a panic in the venue, and Pihaner was so frightened that he couldn't even close his mouth. "What's the big deal?" Harding said, "I understand that doing this is very contrary to hospitality, and it's a way that a gentleman would not do, and if caught by an adult on the spot, there will be very unpleasant consequences. But he After all, I didn’t find it, so I said I succeeded, that’s all. I made a copy of the recording and sent it to the logic department, and asked Hou Ke to help me analyze it.”

Ludin Crist immediately asked, "What about the analysis report?" Harding replied: "The results are very interesting. There is no doubt that this recording is obviously more difficult to analyze than the other two documents. After two days of non-stop work, Hou Ke finally succeeded in removing all nonsense, useless rhetoric, and Speech without substantive meaning. To put it simply, it is to peel off the cocoons and discard the chaff and keep the essence. As a result, he found that there is nothing left, and all the propositions cancel each other out. "Dear fellows, Lord Dorwin didn't let go of a single fart during the five-day discussion. However, he made all of you stupefied by his words. This is what you have learned from the great empire." guarantee."

Immediately after Harding finished speaking, a huge commotion erupted in the audience. Now even if he put a stink bomb on the conference table, no one would pay attention to it.He began to wait patiently for the commotion to subside, growing impatient the longer he waited.Finally he began to draw conclusions: "You conveyed the message of Lord Dorwin to Anacreon, that is to say, you deliberately threatened them with the empire, and the only result was to anger the one who knew the situation better than you. King. Of course he had to take immediate action and send this ultimatum right away. Which brings me back to my original question, what the hell are we going to do with only a week?" "We seemed to have no choice but to agree to Anacreon to build a military base here," Satter said. "I agree with that," Harding replied, "but how do we kick them out when the opportunity arises?" Yate Fuhan's beard twitched: "It sounds like you have made up your mind to use force to deal with them." Harding retorted: "Force is the last resort of the incompetent. But I definitely don't intend to roll out the red carpet for them and invite them into the house as guests of honor." "I still don't like what you say," Fu Han insisted. "It's a very dangerous attitude, and it's all the more dangerous as we've noticed lately that large groups of people seem to be following your proposal blindly." ...I can tell you, Mayor Harding, that the Council is not entirely ignorant of your recent activities." He paused, and the other four directors agreed.Harding's response was to shrug his shoulders and act nonchalant. Then Fu Han continued: "If you are going to incite the whole city to use force, it is tantamount to killing yourself-we will not let you do it. Our policy has only one basic principle, and that is that everything is encyclopedia The most important thing. Any decision we make, whether it is to take or abandon a certain action, the starting point is to protect the security of the encyclopedia." Harding said, "So, your conclusion is that we're going to go ahead and do the same thing?" Harding said. Pihaner said in a resigned tone, "You yourself have just proved that the Empire cannot help us, although I still don't understand the details. If there must be a compromise..." Harding felt as if he was having a bad dream, running like hell but getting nowhere.He bellowed, "No compromise at all! The military base nonsense is just a poor excuse, can't you see that? Rhodek has told us what Anacreon really wants - a total annexation Terminus, forcibly imposed their aristocratic fiefdom system and small-scale peasant economic system on us. I bluffed and said that we have nuclear energy, so I can only let them be wary, but they will act sooner or later." After finishing speaking, Harding stood up excitedly, and the others immediately followed him to stand up, except Jude Farah. Farrah finally said, "Sit down, everyone, please? I think we've strayed too far. Come on, there's no point getting angry like this. Mayor Harding, none of us intends to betray Terminus. " "I don't believe it!" Farah smiled gently and said, "You know this is not the truth, please let me speak?" Fala's clever little eyes were half-closed, and greasy sweat came out of his wide round jaw: "This council has reached a resolution, which seems to be nothing serious. That is about the issue of Anacreon. Wait until six When the Queen's Vault opens, we should have a solution." "Is this your opinion?" "yes." "So we don't have to do anything, do we? Just wait in confidence, and the unexpected savior will jump out of the vault?" "It's my idea to filter out your emotional phrasing." "Obvious escapism! Dr. Farah, you are such a stupid genius. It's not someone as smart as you, so I really can't come up with such a brilliant suggestion." Farah smiled indifferently: "Your sarcasm is really interesting, Harding, but this time it is in the wrong place. In fact, I think you should remember that at the meeting three weeks ago, I was very angry with the dome. make inferences." "Yes, I remember. I don't deny that it's not a stupid idea if you take it logically. Last time you said--please correct me if I'm wrong--that Hari Seldon was The greatest psychologist in this star field, so he can foresee all kinds of difficulties we are encountering today. Therefore, he built the dome, the purpose is to tell us how to seek good luck and avoid bad luck." "You get my main idea." "Would you be surprised if I told you that I've given you a lot of thought over the past few weeks?" "Very honored, how did it turn out?" "It turns out that logical reasoning alone is not enough, and a little bit of common sense is also needed." "For example?" "For example, if Seldon had foreseen the troubles that Anacreon would bring, why didn't we be placed closer to the core of the galaxy? We all know now that it was Seldon who used tricks to lure Chuan Toto's Public Safety Committee decided to base it on Terminus. But why would he do that? If he pre-calculated that the connection in the galaxy would be broken, we would thus be cut off from the main body of the galaxy and surrounded by strong neighbors, and Terminus is so starved of metal that we cannot be self-sufficient, so why did he bring us here? That's the most important point. Then again, if he could have figured this out fifty years ago, why not Warn the original campers early? They may still have time to prepare. He will never wait until we have one foot off the cliff before jumping out and telling us how to rein in the horse. "And don't forget that if he could have foreseen the problem then, we can see it just as clearly now. So if he could have figured out a solution then, we should be able to do it now. Seldon is not What kind of magician, we can't solve the difficult situation, and he can't do it with any magic." "But, Harding," Farah reminded him, "we really can't do it!" "But you haven't tried it, you haven't even tried it once, how do you know? At the beginning, you refused to admit the existence of the threat, and then clinging to your blind trust in the emperor, and now you turn your hope to the emperor. On Seldon—from the beginning to the end, you either relied on authority or the ancients, and never made your own decisions." Harding became more and more excited, and he clenched his fists involuntarily: "This has created a kind of pathology, a kind of conditioned reflex, when encountering the need to challenge authority, the ability to think independently is completely shut down. In In your minds, His Majesty the Emperor is undoubtedly more powerful than yourself, and Dr. Seldon must be wiser than yourself. This is simply absurd, don't you think?" I don't know why, but no one wants to answer Harding's words anyway. So Harding continued: "Actually, it's not just you, the entire galaxy is the same. Pihaner has also heard Lord Dolwin's views on scientific research. He believes that the only thing a good archaeologist should do is to read all relevant Books written by people who have been dead for hundreds of years. He also believes that the solution to the riddle of archaeology is to weigh and compare the theories of various authorities. Pihaner heard it all that day, but said nothing Opinion. Don't you think there is a problem here?" Harding's tone was still pleading, hoping for some response, but there was still no answer. Harding had to go on: "You people, and half the inhabitants of Terminus, are just as bad. You sit here and think that the encyclopedia is everything, that the ultimate and greatest goal of science is to organize the past. I admit that this is very important, but shouldn’t we continue to research and develop? We are going backwards, as the saying goes, if you don’t advance, you will retreat. Can’t you see it? Nuclear energy is no longer used in various areas on the outer edge of the galaxy. On a planet in the Andromeda 3 galaxy, a nuclear power plant melted due to poor maintenance. The dignified Chancellor of the Empire can only complain about the lack of nuclear technicians, but what is the way to deal with it, train more novices? Didn't even think about it! The only measure they took was to limit the use of nuclear energy." Harding reiterated for the third time: "Don't you think it? This is a pan-galactic phenomenon-respecting the past and nostalgia for the past has become obsessed, and it is just not changing the past and stagnating!" After speaking, Harding looked at each director one by one, and the others stared at him intently. Farah was the first to return to normal, and he said: "Well, these esoteric principles are useless to us, we should be more practical. Mayor, do you not believe that Hari Seldon can use psychological techniques, Easily calculate future historical trends?" "No, of course not." Harding roared: "But we can't expect him to provide us with a solution. At most, he can only point out the crux of the problem. If there is a solution, we must try to find it ourselves. He absolutely can't do it for us." Fu Han suddenly said, "What did you mean by 'pointing out the crux of the problem'? We all know what the problem is." Harding turned to him and said, "You think you know? Do you think Anacreon is the only thing that worries Seldon? I don't think so. I tell you, Councilors, that up to now, you haven't figured it out at all." Be clear about the situation." "Do you understand?" Pihaner asked in a hostile tone. "I think I know!" Harding jumped up again, pushed his chair aside, and said sharply and grimly. Everything we have discussed is more important. Please think about it yourself, why the first batch of personnel who came to the base back then was only a first-class psychologist, Bohr Ai Luyun? But he was careful, just Teach some basic lessons, and never pass on the essence of the doctrine to the students?" After a short silence, Farrar said again: "Well, why do you say?" "Perhaps because psychologists can see behind everything, they will see through Seldon's arrangements too early. Now we are poking around, and we can only get a vague glimpse of a small part of the truth. I think this is Seldon's real intention." After finishing speaking, Harding sneered loudly: "All directors, I am leaving!" Then he strode out of the meeting room.