"Recently, some comrades have brought up an experience, calling it 'Raising silkworms on lettuce leaves is better than raising them on mulberry leaves.' The whole article is full of vague and mysterious talk. And as I see it, the reason why raising silkworms on lettuce leaves is considered excellent is actually that 'this is the method recommended by Chairman Chen, so it must be good, it is just good.'" Speaking of this, Chen Ke's tone had already become somewhat acrimonious.

"When I proposed raising silkworms on lettuce leaves, I might not have made it clear. When I was a child, raising silkworms was a biology homework assignment. At that time, there were no mulberry trees where I lived, and silkworms wouldn't eat elm leaves. Later, I heard people introduce that silkworms also eat lettuce leaves. after experimenting, I confirmed it was true; the silkworm babies ate very happily and could spin silk and form cocoons normally. Now in the base area, we lack mulberry trees. You have to let the newly planted small mulberry trees grow strong. Everyone has received basic education in botany; if you pick all the leaves off a small mulberry tree, the mulberry tree will die. If you pick a batch of leaves, the small mulberry tree won't grow fast. But we now need to export raw silk in exchange for money to buy machinery and equipment, so I suggested using the method of large-scale planting of lettuce to make up for the shortage of mulberry trees. Substituting lettuce leaves for mulberry leaves is to solve a problem, not for everyone to sing my praises!"

The several cadres of the Fengtai County Organization Department listened to Chen Ke's criticism with dark faces one by one; no one dared to utter a sound. Accompanying the fierce expansion of the base area, the problem of the shortage of cadres in the People's Party also exploded more fiercely. Within the ranks of party cadres, it was once thought that the base area would go all out to promote a large number of cadres to work in the localities. But Chairman Chen Ke not only didn't do this, but instead began to strengthen cadre training. In the newly expanded base areas, even if military control was maintained in various places, purely maintaining the status quo, construction was not fully rolled out.

It wasn't that there were no cadres who performed well in the construction of the base area. After selection by the Organization Department, nearly a thousand outstanding cadres at all levels were chosen. Chairman Chen Ke selected more than five hundred of them. These comrades were transferred to work in the newly opened territories. New cadres successively took over the positions vacated by these cadres in the old base area. But after a few months of work, problems emerged. Especially since a large batch of reports stating "raising silkworms on lettuce leaves is better than raising them on mulberry leaves" were handed up from the old base area in Fengtai County. Chen Ke, who had been inspecting and arranging work in various places, attached great importance to this matter and specially rushed back to Fengtai County to handle it.

"Comrades, we formulate policies to solve problems. Without mulberry trees, we can only use lettuce. When the lettuce is harvested, the silkworm babies eat lettuce leaves every day, and the troops and organs eat lettuce every day. As far as I know, comrades have had lettuce without any change for many days in a row; this isn't exactly done willingly. In the plain areas, we can still solve the problem through this kind of mandatory means, but planting lettuce in the mountainous areas is very terrible. There is no suitable land, and there aren't that many people to eat this lettuce. comparatively speaking, planting mulberry trees is definitely more suitable. If this method is promoted throughout the entire base area, what kind of farce is this going to cause?"

A cadre from the Organization Department said, "Chairman Chen, isn't this also a discussion..."

"Discussion is of course allowed, but the argument cannot be 'Chairman Chen said so.' Chairman Chen also said to 'Seek Truth from Facts'; how come I don't hear anyone saying this now?" Chen Ke directly refuted back with a tone like a violent storm.

The young cadres of the Organization Department all fell silent with gloomy faces. They wanted to say something, but everyone knew that saying it would definitely hurt the harmony.

Looking at this group of people, Chen Ke really felt helpless. No wonder that during the War of Liberation (Chinese Civil War), with such strong capabilities and so many loyal and reliable cadres, the Party still encountered quite a few problems after liberation. During the War of Liberation, accompanied by the fierce expansion of territory, the original cadres were simply not enough. A large number of unqualified cadres entered the revolutionary ranks, creating a pile of messy matters.

Now, the experienced "old cadres" of the base area had all been substantiated to the frontline grassroots. Chen Ke once thought that the cadres left in the rear could do their jobs well according to the rules set before, so that the comrades working in the toughest frontline grassroots could have no worries about the rear. Facts proved that Chen Ke was really too idealistic.

Chen Ke could probably guess the reason the cadres of the Organization Department didn't dare to speak out. Wasn't it just fear of losing face when criticized and educated? Moreover, this matter also involved "Chairman Chen." In case someone took a chicken feather as a warrant arrow (treated a trivial order as a serious command) and used "lèse-majesté" as an excuse to refute, the Organization Department was now a group of young cadres; they really found it hard to speak up.

This was the so-called "bureaucratic style," right? Chen Ke thought very skeptically. At this moment, Chen Ke finally understood what was meant by "elite forces all sent out, fire breaking out in the backyard."

Calming his emotions slightly, Chen Ke said, "Let this group of comrades conduct a self-criticism. In addition, I want to ask, what has the Party Committee been doing? Was such a conclusion discussed collectively by the Party Committee? Or did some people just slap their heads and come up with it for me?"

After saying this, Chen Ke also felt very dejected. Actually, this should be under the jurisdiction of the Discipline Inspection Commission, but the Discipline Inspection Commission was also filled with a group of young comrades, and the ones who picked out this matter were also comrades from the Discipline Inspection Commission.

"This is still because there is too little labor!" Chen Ke left this sentence behind and let the comrades of the Organization Department hurry to handle the matter.

Chen Ke was originally full of anger, but he quickly regained a certain degree of calm. This was still due to too little labor, especially too little social labor. How did capitalist countries become more powerful than the Manchu Qing? To put it plainly, the total amount of per capita participation in social labor was greater than in China. When capitalism destroyed feudalism, those labor forces originally constrained under feudal lords entered a broader society. After feudal lords and landlords transformed into capitalists, they also had to intervene in more social labor.

The capitalist system "cares not for people, believes not in gods." It completely decides who is the victor and who is the loser through the bloody slaughter of quantified capital. Regardless of what individual will is, if one cannot have sufficient understanding of society and science, one will fail in the competition. If these cadres were sericulture capitalists, beat them to death and they wouldn't think that "raising silkworms on lettuce leaves is better than raising them on mulberry leaves." Because this is destined to fail in competition.

"Seek Truth from Facts" is talked about every day and every year in the People's Party. It definitely cannot be said that it hasn't been said, but to make the cadres open their eyes to face reality, it seems that it hasn't been talked about enough yet. For the socialist system to defeat the capitalist system, it is truly an incomparably arduous task. The selection and training of cadres, the perfection of the organization, this is a matter that requires great effort.

Rectification is definitely not that simple; this must be a systematic job. Suppressing the impulse to rectify fiercely in Fengtai County, Chen Ke set off for Anqing to participate in commercial negotiations with the foreign devils.

Ever since the base area formed a tacit understanding of "maintaining the status quo" with the foreign devils, the People's Party began to do business with the foreigners. There were not many bulk commodities the base area could trade, mainly raw silk, tea, pig bristles, and cigarettes. With the recovery of trade lines, Anqing became a bustling treaty port again. Because the People's Party reached a tacit understanding with the foreign devils, after the People's Party seized Wuhu, the base area's bulk commodities went along the water route through Chaohu Lake, then down the river directly to Wuhu for trade.

Trade revenue seemed to be quite a lot, but compared to the People's Party's imports, it appeared extremely insufficient. Whether it was the Wuhan Consular Corps or the Shanghai Consular Corps, it was the first time in China they saw a Chinese leader explicitly propose "expanding trade volume on the basis of trade balance." Chen Ke clearly expressed to the foreign consular corps and merchant groups that the People's Party had no intention of engaging in a trade surplus. Of course, they also didn't have the courage to borrow large foreign debts. The People's Party was willing to work with foreign countries to promote a trade model of exchanging bulk raw materials for mechanical equipment.

Such an enlightened local leader really surprised the foreign devils. Of course, they also looked down on Chen Ke, this rebel leader, and the merchants just wanted to scam Chen Ke. Chen Ke's understanding of this era was limited to World War I. However, economic crises broke out frequently before WWI, and Chen Ke knew a little bit about that. If not for these frequent economic crises, there would have been no internal driving force for WWI to break out.

For the quotes from the foreign devils, Chen Ke directly slashed the price to one-third. Merchants from established capitalist countries like Britain, France, and Germany naturally wouldn't be threatened by a rebel leader. But the United States, this shit-stirring stick of the early 20th century, saw unlimited business opportunities.

As soon as he arrived in Anqing, the trade representative of the American merchant group was already waiting there in advance. But Chen Ke didn't go to see the American representative first; instead, he went to see the British representative as agreed. What the base area needed most now was iron farm tools. So far, iron farm tools had always been one of the biggest factors for farmers to join cooperatives. The four provinces of the base area added together had more than fifty million people. Calculating conservatively, that was five million households. Each household needed six catties of iron farm tools; that was thirty million catties of iron. The iron farm tools needed by various farms in the base area were no less than the civilian demand. In other words, just the first round of popularization of iron farm tools required thirty thousand tons of iron.

The base area was preparing to build railways and open mines, and the manufacturing of hot-bulb internal combustion engines was basically on track. Compared to Hanyang Iron Works' current annual output of 80,000 tons, the demand was far from being met.

Since expanding production was imperative, the first big deal had to be done with the British.

The British representative had a face full of the flavor of the British Empire, which is to say, that kind of poker face putting on airs that they once mocked Manchu officials for. Chen Ke also became serious. Matters discussing money were very serious. A price difference of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver; any fluctuation up or down was a large sum of hard-earned money for the base area.

The negotiating representatives who came along were Qin Tongren and Wang Bin from Shanghai. Wang Bin had been in a German trading firm in Shanghai and knew various prices very well. Originally, he could only help the People's Party purchase small mechanical equipment in Shanghai. Not long ago, Chen Ke let You Gou go to Shanghai specifically to persuade Wang Bin to formally join the People's Party. Wang Bin and Chen Ke were old acquaintances, having cooperated with the People's Party since 1905. Discerning people could now see that the legalization of the People's Party was only a matter of time. Wang Bin readily and formally defected to the People's Party. You Gou served as Wang Bin's introducer, and now Comrade Wang Bin was a probationary member of the People's Party.

When the talks began, the British representative unexpectedly mentioned something no one had thought of. "Mr. Chen Ke, do you know the Nobel Prize?"

"That Swedish Nobel Prize?" Chen Ke asked.

At such rich knowledge, a trace of surprise finally appeared on the British representative's face. "Yes, that's the one. The Swedish Embassy entrusted us to find you. Congratulations to you and Mr. Ehrlich of Germany for jointly winning the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine."

"Huh?" Chen Ke never expected such a thing to happen. He was actually stunned.

In 1905, in order to make money, Chen Ke copied Ehrlich's historical contribution and took the lead in producing "606" and "914." Chen Ke was alone and weak at the time; in order to save his life, he published the molecular formula and simple synthesis method in Shanghai newspapers. This detailed information also traveled to Europe with the traffic between China and Europe and America. In these years, syphilis was rampant, and this drug immediately caused a huge sensation in Europe and the United States.

Chen Ke was a Chinese man, so initially, this research was subject to quite a bit of questioning. European universities couldn't possibly spend too much energy finding Chen Ke, who was ten thousand miles away. And Chen Ke had already gone to Anhui for the revolution at that time, leaving no trace. There was not just one or two scientists in Europe who wanted to claim this result for themselves. But Chen Ke had made his research results public; newspapers and other printed materials were all there. The molecular formulas and equations were very complete. Those foreign scholars who wanted to overturn this concept all failed to justify themselves.

In the end, it was Ehrlich who conducted systematic research on Chen Ke's results and proved that the drugs Chen Ke produced were actually two types, "606" and "914." Plus, Ehrlich's "side-chain theory" was also confirmed. The Nobel Foundation in Sweden then let Chen Ke and Ehrlich share the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The British representative didn't know too much about this either and could only recount it roughly. The Nobel Prize wasn't as famous a prize back then as it was in later generations. After explaining, the British representative told Chen Ke that since Chen Ke was absent, it was impossible to award him the prize again. The Nobel Foundation entrusted the Swedish Embassy to find Chen Ke, and the future medal, certificate, and prize money would all be sent to him.

Chen Ke was originally a "thief," so this stolen honor didn't make Chen Ke very excited. What he cared about was the prize money.

"If the contract is settled, can I request that this prize money be remitted to the UK?" Chen Ke asked.

The British representative never expected that this rebel leader-cum-scientist before him would say such words. After a pause, he answered, "That is of course no problem."

"Then let's finish discussing the issue of this factory expansion before talking about other things." Chen Ke laughed.

The Manchu Qing invested five million taels of silver to set up the Hanyang Iron Works back then. Chen Ke wanted to expand the steel plant; this wasn't simply duplicating one. Instead, it was a targeted expansion of many production departments of Hanyang Iron Works. The types of equipment required were numerous, and the thick list of requirements had already been shown to the British.

Perhaps the Nobel Prize proved that Chen Ke was a scholar; the British representative was really much more polite this time. The price was also lowered a bit. At least the prices of the core reverberatory furnaces were significantly reduced. Factories stress "matching." The defect of the Manchu Qing in doing industry lay in having no concept of "matching." Equipment couldn't be used for thousands of generations; it had to be replaced after its service life ended. If not replaced, problems would occur.

The leaders of the base area's industrial department had always worshipped Chen Ke very much precisely because Chen Ke instilled the concept of the "industrial chain" into everyone. Everyone finally understood what a complex industrial chain the coal-iron complex actually was.

After reaching a preliminary consensus with the British on core equipment, Chen Ke consulted with the American representative. The evaluation of American goods in the world market in 1909 was similar to the evaluation of Chinese goods in the world market a hundred years later: low quality and low price.

It seemed the American representative also knew about Chen Ke winning the Nobel Prize. After expressing his congratulations to Chen Ke, the American representative wanted to see what exactly Chen Ke prepared to purchase from the United States.

"If I asked you to provide a set of factory equipment similar to Hanyang Iron Works, how would you quote?" Chen Ke's question was straightforward.

The American representative swallowed a mouthful of saliva. A single order of several million taels of silver was a sky-high big order for the United States. The British method of monopolizing the world market was that if a country worked hard to build industry itself, the British could provide a full set of equipment and even technical support. But if a country wanted to intervene in the world market and use products to compete freely with British goods, then the British would step in to block it. The Americans proposed that the great powers share interests in China through the "Open Door Policy" just hoping to get a share of the pie in the big market of China.

The impact of cheap American goods directly triggered China's strong resistance against foreign goods, and the Americans also had a headache. Now that such a huge pie was about to fall, the American representative's eyes immediately became as sharp as a bald eagle seeing prey.

"Mr. Chen, I cannot help but remind you that you strongly demanded trade balance." The American representative's words had significant warning meaning.

Chen Ke knew very well that what the American representative actually wanted to ask was "Does the base area have that much money?" His answer was equally clear, "This is a very big business deal, so we will also try our best to improve our export capacity for bulk commodities. On this point, our side's attitude has never changed."

"We think you need other, more numerous factories and equipment. This investment now is really a bit too large. Everyone knows that your side needs to expand the production scale of Hanyang Iron Works..." The American representative persuaded.

"Hehe, the industrial standards adopted by your country after its founding are different from other countries. If I purchase matching products from your country on the basis of the existing industry, even the screws won't fit. The steel plant we want to build this time may not necessarily be located in Hanyang. Introducing a complete set of equipment from your country, don't you think this is beneficial to everyone? Moreover, after this factory is built, we have an even bigger technical cooperation we want to conduct with your side. If there isn't this cooperation, I don't think your side will easily believe me when I speak empty words about future cooperation."

"What cooperation exactly?" The American representative became interested.

"Chemical industry requiring high-temperature and high-pressure equipment. I can only say this much for now." Chen Ke laughed. He wanted to cooperate with the Americans on synthetic ammonia development. The importance of synthetic ammonia to China didn't need to be emphasized at all. This wasn't just a fertilizer issue; once WWI, this terrible industrialized war, started a few years later, the demand for explosives would be massive. The reason the British thought the German krauts wouldn't last long before WWI was that the British thought the Germans couldn't get enough gunpowder. As a result, the Germans developed synthetic ammonia and completely solved the source of nitro-explosives. Instead, it was the British and French who had problems with their gunpowder supply.

However, high-temperature and high-pressure equipment could only be relied upon via imports. Rather than letting Britain and France know this secret, it was better to cooperate with the shit-stirring stick, the Americans. The initial synthetic ammonia production line had no concept of catalysts, and Chen Ke didn't want to leak this secret at all. After using effective catalysts, Chen Ke's synthetic ammonia equipment could operate at much lower temperatures and pressures; he had even thought of how to set a trap for the Americans.

"Mr. Chen, is this big plan of yours a spur-of-the-moment idea? Or are you really prepared to do it?" Although the American representative didn't know Chen Ke's plan for the future, he had great sensitivity to the problems currently faced.

Chen Ke laughed, "We are about to start building railways. Whether it's rails or trains, a lot of equipment needs to be purchased. But we have no money, nor do we have any assets that can be mortgaged. The quality of the things we build ourselves is indeed not as good as your country's, but the good thing is we don't have to spend hard currency to import them. When we have money in the future, we will naturally expand foreign imports. At this stage, we can only invest money in limited fields."

The American representative naturally didn't understand the concept of "concentrating forces to do big things" of this socialist country, but the People's Party, being rebels, definitely had no money. Chen Ke's solid trade balance was not some commercial evil deed. The direction of the negotiation immediately tilted towards this big order.