"I always felt that the enemies in the various provinces were very strong. Why has the situation deteriorated to such an extent?" Xie Mingxian asked very bluntly. Since returning to the base area after the negotiations, Xie Mingxian had received news that wars had broken out between the New Army and the Banner Army in both Fujian and Shaanxi.

When Chen Ke negotiated peace with Yuan Shikai back then, many comrades could not accept it. Even though Chen Ke confidently said, "Watch them build their vermilion towers, watch them feast their guests, and watch their towers collapse," comrades still felt that Chen Ke was being too optimistic. It was just that they couldn't come up with a stronger reason.

Comrades generally believed that after the fall of the Manchu Qing, the various provinces would be able to develop fully and there should be a considerable degree of improvement. The intelligence constantly sent back to the base area from all over the country clearly did not support this view. The situation in the various provinces had not improved in the slightest; instead, chaos began to spread. Jiangsu fell into an economic crisis, Zhejiang was torn apart, and civil wars simply broke out in Fujian and Shaanxi. The Beiyang clique fell into a financial crisis. Only the base area continued to walk step-by-step on the path planned by Chairman Chen Ke.

At the regular meeting of the Hubei Provincial Committee, Xie Mingxian raised this question that confused all the comrades. Why had the situation in the various provinces begun to deteriorate?

"Originally, the Manchu Qing at least had a nominal organization. If there were problems, the provinces pushed them to the Manchu Qing central government, so it looked like it could be maintained on the surface. Now that the provinces are starting to try to solve problems on their own, it would be strange if there wasn't chaos," Chen Ke explained.

"Then why do we look like we don't have any problems?" Xie Mingxian still felt it was incredible.

"We only have more problems than the provinces, it's just that we rely on the organization to constantly solve problems. Of the other provinces, those that can solve problems invariably have organizations. The higher the degree of organization, the faster the speed of solving problems. The reason the base area and Beiyang can hold on is that these two political forces have the highest degree of organization. Jiangsu is trying to build their own organization, and now they are struggling to solve problems. Comrade Xie Mingxian, you went to Jiangsu for negotiations, you can see this problem," Chen Ke continued to explain.

Cadre training is a very arduous task. Chen Ke felt that Commander Xie Mingxian obviously had "insufficient revolutionary consciousness" and still failed to consciously use the dialectics he had learned to look at problems. The history of the People's Party is much easier than the Party in history. The external enemies are weak, and the People's Party only needs to concentrate on building its own organization to succeed. Even so, Chen Ke had exhausted his efforts. It is a very arduous process for a person to broaden their horizons and go from spontaneous to conscious.

Recognizing the social nature of human beings themselves is very arduous. It requires believing that one is part of the great system of society, while human biological instincts will unconsciously treat oneself as the core of the world's operation. A long time ago, Chen Ke always felt that he couldn't understand many of Grandpa Mao's words, such as "We are all screws of the revolution." Chen Ke felt that was just singing high-profile tunes. Now he understands that these are sincere words. Even as the Party Chairman now, Chen Ke is just a link within the large organization and large system of the People's Party. If this system is to operate normally, every link is very important, and there is really no distinction between high and low for every comrade.

For example, letting Xie Mingxian be responsible for negotiations. Even if the People's Party does everything else well, once Xie Mingxian drops the ball, the work of negotiation will be ruined immediately. Chen Ke is now in the early 20th century. He now understands why he repeatedly hit walls and always failed in the early 21st century. That was all because Chen Ke in the 21st century did not understand that he was forever just a link in things. No one can hold up the sky relying solely on themselves.

Why is the social system very important? Because everyone has their own interests and selfishness. To solve the problem of interests, one must rely on the system. To solve the problem of selfishness, one must rely on education, training, and improving everyone's cognitive ability. Chen Ke must complete his job as Party Chairman.

"Comrades, to analyze the chaos in the various provinces, we must rely on dialectics. We must have a correct understanding of 'On Contradiction'. The problem in Jiangsu is that Wang Youhong is trying to establish a new ruling class. In the process of smoothing this out, the contradiction is who dominates the distribution. Regardless of whether the gentry are plotting for the power of the entire Jiangsu, the gentry demand absolute control over their own one-acre-three-quarters of land. And if Wang Youhong wants to effectively solve problems, he must break the gentry's absolute dominance over private land."

Chen Ke began to analyze the external situation. The comrades listened very seriously and also very relaxed. The People's Party meetings were not just a formality; every time, problems and principles were discussed. Everyone's understanding of economic development and political changes was far higher than other political forces of this era.

"We, the People's Party, have already solved this problem. Through the construction of the People's Party itself, we have dominated the politics of the base area through the Laborers' Alliance. Through land reform, we have greatly socialized land, this means of production. So now we can maximize the development of productive forces. Moreover, we let the benefits obtained turn back to improve people's lives, promoting the development of science and democracy. We haven't done anything amazing; we just did things that conform to the laws. We just conform to the laws promoting social development more than those other provinces. Comrades, guard against arrogance and rashness, and continue to advance."

"Chairman Chen, will other provinces all break out in this kind of struggle for dominance?" Xie Mingxian asked.

Chen Ke praised greatly in his heart after hearing this. Xie Mingxian counted as having grasped the principal contradiction of the future. To grasp the thoughts within the Party, the best method is none other than open discussion. Chen Ke prepared to see to what extent the comrades understood these issues.

"Comrades, the fall of the Manchu Qing is already inevitable. Then there will definitely be adherents of the old dynasty. Facing the future chaotic situation, the adherents will say, 'After the Qing fell, China didn't get better either!' Using this as proof that the Manchu Qing shouldn't have fallen. Since everyone feels that fierce conflicts will break out in the future, and even comprehensive civil war is unavoidable. How does everyone view this chaos?"

The comrades originally wanted to get views from Chen Ke, but they didn't expect to be asked by Chen Ke about their own views on the changes. Everyone couldn't help but frown. Xie Mingxian was the first to answer: "The struggle for power and profit is inevitable, right? Since the original system has collapsed and society needs order, a new system must be established. This process is not a dinner party."

This answer could be considered a passing score. At least Xie Mingxian didn't oppose change at all. Comrades nodded one after another. The People's Party was originally the biggest revolutionary party and rebel organization. Comrades were already quite accustomed to destruction and reconstruction. Everyone nodded one after another, expressing agreement with Xie Mingxian's view.

Lu Huitian, who hadn't said much all along, suddenly spoke up. His voice was loud and his attitude was firm. It seemed he had his own complete thoughts on this issue. "Adherents of the old dynasty hold a rightist view. They fear progress and oppose progress, simply viewing this struggle as the kind of power struggle within the Manchu Qing system, without seeing that this is already a completely different struggle. More political forces have actively or passively been drawn into national operations. This in itself is a kind of progress. More and more people are forced to be drawn into considerations of national operations, forced to open their vision from the small circle before their eyes and cast it into the broader and more comprehensive real world. This is a kind of liberation in thought."

The comrades' eyes lit up after hearing this. Lu Huitian had been relatively dull these days. Now that he suddenly spoke with a firm attitude, a considerable number of comrades were not particularly surprised by this. Since Chairman Chen began to preside over the work in Hubei, Lu Huitian naturally had to retreat to the position of a subordinate. If he were to steal the limelight from Chen Ke, it would be incomprehensible.

But Chen Ke and some commanders who were more sensitive to politics knew that things were by no means that simple. Lu Huitian had always been considered relatively right-wing by Chen Ke. Now that he clearly opposed the rightists, this could be considered a kind of statement.

"Then Comrade Lu Huitian, facing our current situation, what measures do you think we should take?" Chen Ke asked.

"Handle our own affairs well first." Lu Huitian's voice remained loud. "After the fall of the Manchu Qing, China's most reactionary political force was overthrown. Our contradiction with other forces has shifted from a secondary contradiction to the principal contradiction. Then, before these contradictions thoroughly intensify to the point where they must be resolved, we handle our own problems well first. Just as 'On Contradiction' says, in a war between two armies, one wins and one loses; so victory and defeat are both determined by internal causes. The winner wins either because of their strength or because of their correct command; the loser loses either because of their weakness or because of their improper command. External causes become operative through internal causes. But the core point is that society is progressing and developing. What we need to do is to constantly push the revolution forward, instead of treating the current situation as immutable, or even trying to play some meaningless tricks because the situation seemingly looks favorable to us now."

Chen Ke's eyes lit up. Lu Huitian was making a statement, and it was based on extremely profound cognition. Not only Chen Ke, but the comrades' eyes also lit up. When Lu Huitian talked about contradictions, everyone didn't feel there was anything very special. But Lu Huitian placing the emphasis on the key point of "social progress and development" really made people's eyes light up. All the achievements of the People's Party were built on the foundation of promoting social development. Chen Ke had said this countless times. The comrades also truly recognized this problem.

Discarding delusions about the current external situation and standing firmly on the basis of self-development is indeed the best method.

However, unifying thought is not a simple problem. Zheng Wenguang asked: "Our biggest future enemies are the European and American countries. Their strength is far greater than ours. 'On Contradiction' mentions that they have the ability to support forces within the country that oppose us. So how should we deal with this contradiction?"

This view immediately received the agreement of the People's Party cadres. The more the People's Party dealt with the foreign devils, the deeper everyone's understanding of the foreign devils became. Everyone had fewer puzzles, but now the worries right before their eyes were more numerous. The situation where struggle and cooperation with foreign devils existed simultaneously made many comrades feel worried. On one hand, the current People's Party needs the foreign devils' technology, equipment, and markets. Although the trade balance policy means that the contradiction between the People's Party and the foreign devils presents two sides of a struggle. But compared to the foreign devils, it is also an indisputable fact that the People's Party is in a disadvantageous position.

Recently, many comrades have raised many questions about this. Chen Ke had been suppressing them and not giving an explanation. Now that someone raised this question again, Chen Ke felt it wouldn't do not to give the comrades some confidence. He looked at the participating comrades and then said seriously: "My words following this are of the highest level of confidentiality regulations. All comrades are not allowed to mention this matter to anyone. Do you hear me?"

The emotions of the comrades at the Party meeting became excited. When Chen Ke made such a request, it meant he was going to speak about many key expectations for the future. These contents were also major contents of Chen Ke's strategic considerations. The meeting recorder changed the recording notebook; that was the top-secret recording notebook.

"Within five years, or even within four years, a great war will occur in Europe. In this great war, Europeans will divide into camps and drag the whole world in. Regardless of what thoughts European countries actually have about our People's Party, this war between them is where the biggest contradiction lies. All other contradictions must give way to this war. As long as we stick to our stance unwaveringly and don't give the enemy a chance to exploit loopholes, European countries will definitely choose cooperation. Everyone doesn't need to worry about this problem."

Although Chen Ke always claimed to speak science, his frequent predictions that were accurate like a miracle worker constructed a feeling of "not scientific enough" in the hearts of the comrades. Since Chen Ke predicted so firmly that a war would occur in Europe within five years, everyone really believed that a war would occur in Europe within five years.

If the strategic basis is placed on the outbreak of war in Europe within five years, with the current theoretical knowledge of the People's Party cadres, everyone can indeed analyze clearly that it is impossible for Europe to have a real military conflict with the People's Party.

"Then what is the reason?" Xie Mingxian couldn't help but ask.

"Because of economic crisis," Chen Ke answered. He had an indescribable feeling about economic crises. In the history of the Republic, China had always had various shortage crises and hadn't really had a true surplus crisis yet. Even in the era most likely to cause a surplus crisis, China's economy remained very robust by joining the world trade system, selling Chinese goods globally, plus the drive of domestic infrastructure construction. So Chen Ke's feeling about economic crises was very strange.

Inside the base area, there are crises everywhere now. It's an agricultural country, after all; it's in an economic crisis every day. The economic crisis of an industrial country is really a luxurious worry.

The comrades had heard Chen Ke talk about economic crises. From the perspective of the base area, there was shortage everywhere, yet an economic crisis could still be produced; this was really a problem that couldn't be understood. The base area never had a tendency towards egalitarianism. Chen Ke detested that set of "egalitarianism" of the small peasantry; that was a sign of formalism. Demanding superficial fairness meant huge unfairness within the system. If superficial fairness was taken as justice, the result would be disastrous.

But the more they could understand the equality of laborers, the less comrades could understand the problem of "economic crisis". No matter how Chen Ke said "The purpose of the capitalist system is for trading; capitalists wish they could put a clear price tag on all behaviors in society," comrades still couldn't quite understand this matter.

As in the past, the discussion on economic crisis this time still deviated from the main theme.

"Why are capitalists so bad?" This question was raised again.

Chen Ke was helpless. The capitalist system itself is not for evil and cruelty, but this system leads to terrible cruelty and evil at the current stage. However, in terms of productivity levels, the base area is far from reaching the height of developed capitalist countries, so this kind of moral evaluation is very inappropriate. This easily confuses the issue.

"Comrades, this has nothing to do with personal likes and dislikes. If capitalists cannot obtain profits, they will be eliminated by competition," Chen Ke continued to explain.

"Then why don't the people rise up and resist?"

"They resisted, and then they were suppressed. Moreover, capitalist countries also provided some opportunities to their own oppressed people by plundering colonies. Cruel internal suppression includes exile and beheading. At the same time, they plunder colonies, suppress raw material prices, and dump goods. They earn huge profits. These profits are used to maintain state violence apparatuses and also give the people a bite of food to survive. Even so, Europe doing this now has reached its end. Their internal pressure cannot be released, and the war in Europe is about to begin. This is the inevitable result of the capitalist system."

"Then do we just watch such a good situation in vain and not intervene?" Xie Mingxian raised this representative question.

"Comrades, I have always believed that the socialist system does not exist to oppose. If one thinks this way, one is too self-degrading. Just like our People's Party's revolution, it is not to oppose the Manchu Qing, but the revolution needs to overthrow the decadent and backward Manchu Qing. Revolution is a kind of social development that constantly moves forward. Just like the revolutionary parties in many provinces now believe that as long as the Manchu Qing falls, the world will be at peace, and China can become a powerful country overnight. After so much revolution and construction in the base area, everyone has seen that this is impossible. If we also defined our people's revolution this way from the beginning, then what kind of situation would it be now? It would definitely be like many provinces, helpless in the face of reality. The socialist system talks about the constant development of productive forces and the constant promotion of science and democracy. Instead of first describing a perfect heaven on earth and then letting everyone do it according to this. This is a problem that absolutely cannot be confused. Comrade Lu Huitian said it very well: development, progress, this is the only theme."

Hearing this explanation, the comrades finally pulled their train of thought back to the track. Chen Ke also breathed a slight sigh of relief. The Party started the revolution with the stance of saving the nation and survival back then. The harsh reality made the Party incomparably strong. in an era where external pressure was not as great as in history, Chen Ke could only barely hold the situation through theoretical education. But with the progress and development of the times, many comrades would gradually become numb to the fact that "the times are constantly progressing".

Why was Grandpa Mao able to be so great? Chen Ke now believes that he was a person who was incomparably strong spiritually and was a person who always moved forward. If one thinks that "the people are masters of their own house forever", Grandpa Mao never thought that anything should be for all eternity. This is his greatness, and also the place where he is most easily misunderstood. The gap between a true great man and a mortal like Chen Ke is just this big. Chen Ke relied entirely on the traversing person's instinctive desire to return to the familiar industrial age to constantly move forward. Even coming from the downstream of history and firmly following the Party's trajectory, advancing along the path of liberation pointed out by Grandpa Mao, Chen Ke could only barely understand these.

Because he understood these, Chen Ke could understand what a fallen bastard he used to be. Realizing this, Chen Ke could become humble, cautious, and tolerant.

Facing the comrades' nonsense, Chen Ke remembered the education of his junior high school chemistry teacher back then; she was a winner of the May 1st Labor Medal. She described the path of students understanding chemistry like this: "The first stage, memorize equations. The second stage, start making up new equations based on equations. The third stage, have the maximum degree of imagination and understanding, while extremely abiding by basic principles."

This was a teacher who truly understood chemistry education. The principles of the world are all interconnected. Revolutionaries should actually be like this too, possessing the maximum degree of imagination and understanding, but extremely abiding by basic principles. In his university days, Chen Ke could sit in front of a reactor for 40 hours meticulously and record data every 20 minutes. But when he got into society, he actually completely deviated from this correct attitude, always hoping to obtain a permanent comfortable life through a decisive victory.

And holding this kind of thought was not only Chen Ke. Most of the other political forces in China now are like this. Including People's Party members, they also started to have similar thoughts.

Although "On Contradiction" repeatedly emphasized that when contradiction ends forever, it is the time of death. But countless people run all the way towards death, still thinking they are advancing towards a bright future. This kind of extreme seriousness and absurdity made Chen Ke really want to explain this truth thoroughly to everyone, but he also felt that everyone really wouldn't believe that the only "once and for all" that exists in this world is death.

Looking at the comrades discussing animatedly, Chen Ke sighed. No wonder the Party loves to hold meetings, and Grandpa Mao also opposed dogmatism the most. If meetings weren't held, and goals couldn't be determined in stages, then it would inevitably make big jokes, and was destined to guide the revolutionary work into a situation of eternal damnation.

"Comrades, since Europe has already extended its tentacles to the whole world, then let us discuss the work in Hubei with the outbreak of the First World War in 1905 as the basic strategic consideration." Chen Ke used a realistic reason to interrupt the discussion that was obviously not scientific enough.

With specific conditions, the discussion got on the right track. Since Europe cannot launch a comprehensive war of invading China, cooperation is indeed the mainstream at the current stage. The struggle with Europe has turned into not giving Europe a chance to intervene in China, and the current situation in China must be stabilized to ensure basic unity.

The discussion soon had the first conclusion: the relationship of continued cooperation with Yuan Shikai must be confirmed. And the People's Party has completely abided by the contents of the agreement with Yuan Shikai in the previous stage up to now. Then this lays a solid foundation for the cooperation in the next stage.

Of course, some comrades also raised questions. "Since there were no problems in the cooperation in the previous stage, why do we have to discuss the next step of cooperation with Yuan Shikai?"

"Because the basis of cooperation has changed," Lu Huitian answered. "In the previous cooperation, Yuan Shikai's purpose was to stabilize the situation to facilitate his seizure of central power. Now the situation has developed to where the fall of the Manchu Qing has become a foregone conclusion. And the provinces are in a mess internally. What Yuan Shikai is concerned about now is his complete control of the situation, not simply stabilizing the situation. If we don't negotiate further with him at this time, Yuan Shikai will instead have many misunderstandings about us. Cooperation, firstly, is to eliminate misunderstandings."

"But won't we eventually have a decisive battle with Beiyang?"

"This is a consensus, not a misunderstanding." It seemed Lu Huitian had really read "On Contradiction" thoroughly. "The contradiction of ultimate dominance between us and Beiyang always exists unless one of our two sides disappears. Before the contradiction between the two sides develops to the degree of military conflict, it is necessary for us to carry out cooperation to the maximum extent. This is not us wanting to compromise with Beiyang. The reason for doing this is that deep contradictions also exist between us and other forces. To solve these contradictions, we must cooperate with Beiyang."

Speaking to this point, the comrades had no more objections. The remaining problem was the candidate for the delegation.

"Comrade Lu Huitian, are you interested in leading the team to Beiyang?" Chen Ke called the roll.

"I obey the organization's arrangement." Lu Huitian answered very crisply.