"Lord Yuan, as they say, 'the stone from another mountain can polish one's own jade.' The People's Party has risen so rapidly that it must have its strengths. Moreover, I don't see a lack of sincerity in their desire to cooperate. At the very least, they’ve proposed sharing profits with our Beiyang instead of demanding we wait until the loans are repaid to discuss the matter. For our Beiyang, this allows us to observe how the People's Party operates the wool industry, receive a share of the profits, and handle the Boxer Indemnity first. Letting them have their way for a while isn't out of the question." Yang Du had once been responsible for negotiating the wool industry with the People's Party and had held his own thoughts on the matter ever since. However, he knew deep down that he couldn't personally interfere in the seemingly lucrative wool industry. Now that he could once again exert influence, he was quite concerned.

Yuan Shikai remained silent, deep in thought. He didn't actually want to bother with such minor matters; his primary concern was the 70 million taels of silver. Yet the People's Party clearly did not view this as a small matter. Yang Du had previously calculated for Yuan Shikai: if one jin of wool could earn ten copper coins, then ten thousand tons of wool—twenty million jin—would earn 200 million copper coins, which was only 200,000 taels of silver. This was a pittance. Compared to the 70 million taels, it was hardly worth mentioning.

However, if the People's Party took root in Inner Mongolia, uprooting them would be something no amount of money could easily settle. This was a politician's calculation. Yang Du's enthusiasm for new things was diametrically opposed to such cold political logic. But politicians also knew very well that they could do nothing without money. Since the People's Party was willing to pay, Yuan Shikai had no choice but to temporarily accept future difficulties. "Huzhan, have Tang Shaoyi find out exactly what Chen Ke is planning."

"Comrade Zhang Yu, Comrade Qi Huishen, which of you is willing to take charge of the negotiations with Tang Shaoyi?" Chen Ke was also assigning tasks. He couldn't handle every negotiation himself; eventually, a professional diplomatic department would take over.

Zhang Yu and Qi Huishen looked at each other. Zhang Yu said, "I'm not very confident. Perhaps Comrade Qi Huishen should take the lead."

"Why the lack of confidence?" Chen Ke had no intention of letting Zhang Yu off so easily.

"The economic arrangements you’ve proposed are too complex, Chairman Chen. I can't thoroughly research them in the short term." Zhang Yu was very frank.

Hearing this, Qi Huishen added, "Chairman Chen, I can't research them thoroughly in the short term either."

"Very well. Then you two will divide the work and cooperate. First, research this thoroughly. This itself involves the model problem of a complete economic system. Understanding it well will be of great benefit to your work," Chen Ke replied.

Zhang Yu's eyes lit up. "Chairman Chen, do you intend to develop our strength in Mongolia?"

"That depends on how the situation changes. Can we trust what Yuan Shikai says?" Chen Ke did not deny Zhang Yu's point.

"But we aren't familiar with the situation in Mongolia."

"The more we go, the more familiar we'll become. As I've said before, revolution is always bred among the people; it's just a matter of how we find the people's needs. Relying on fantasies will never achieve a revolution."

Chen Ke had said this many times. In the past, Zhang Yu and Qi Huishen would have felt at a loss, but they no longer felt that way. They exchanged a glance, both wondering exactly whom Chen Ke would send to Mongolia.

"Don't worry about that for now. Settle the negotiations first," Chen Ke said.

Tang Shaoyi hadn't expected Chen Ke to pull the trick of "changing generals mid-stream," putting two fellows even younger than Chen Ke in charge. Regarding the payment to the British, the conditions proposed by the People's Party were worth pondering. The People's Party divided the one-year period in the middle of the payment term into two stages. Starting from the second day of the first payment date, during the following six months, the People's Party would judge whether to continue cooperation based on Beiyang's cooperation method. Regardless of the outcome, there would be a four-month negotiation period for both sides. The People's Party would inform the British two months in advance whether they would pay the bill for Beiyang.

Such a principled payment method surprised Tang Shaoyi. The People's Party's seriousness exceeded his imagination. After all, by doing this, Beiyang still had a chance to swindle the People's Party. But that thought quickly vanished. Zhang Yu clearly told Tang Shaoyi that formal negotiations would not begin until the Manchu Qing fell. If the Manchu Qing still existed when this National Assembly session ended, the People's Party would have no choice but to use force to overthrow them. As for borrowing money, that wouldn't even be considered.

"To ensure that the various forces across the country do not misunderstand the People's Party's attitude or think we are just posturing to intimidate them, our People's Party will soon begin a new round of conscription to bring our total strength to over 400,000 men. Please explain this point to Beiyang, Mr. Tang," Qi Huishen said with a smile.

Faced with such a blatant threat, Tang Shaoyi narrowed his eyes slightly. Even without 400,000 troops, the People's Party's current strength of over 100,000 already left the bordering provinces with no ability to resist. If they expanded to 400,000, it meant the People's Party was truly prepared for war. As long as 200,000 troops remained in the four provinces, Beiyang could only hope for self-preservation, let alone attacking the People's Party. As for other provinces, Beiyang would find it impossible to rescue them.

"Don't you think the revolution is being a bit too aggressive?" Tang Shaoyi asked.

"Our Chairman Chen has said: 'A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.' Mr. Tang, I don't know how you view the Manchu Qing, but given all the suffering it has caused China, it should have been thrown into the dustbin of history long ago." Zhang Yu's answer was quite elegant yet straightforward.

Tang Shaoyi had heard of the People's Party's negotiation style—rumored to be irreverent and lawless. If he felt he had learned a lot while negotiating with Chen Ke, he truly felt the People's Party's hardline side while negotiating with Zhang Yu and Qi Huishen.

Confronted with such a situation, Tang Shaoyi thought of something completely unrelated to the negotiations. From his careful observation these days, the People's Party's organizational model was quite unique. Chen Ke never "put on airs," which was something Tang had never seen before. Even in his communication with "revolutionary comrades," Chen Ke showed no trace of condescension. Zhang Yu and Qi Huishen likely didn't notice that their attitude toward Chen Ke was not the habitual subservience of a subject to an emperor, nor the "stars following the moon" loyalty Beiyang showed Yuan Shikai. In those cases, the distinction between leader and led was crystal clear.

Between Chen Ke and his subordinates, it felt more like a master and his disciples. Chen Ke attempted to teach his revolutionary comrades everything he knew, and they in turn worked hard to learn everything from him.

To prepare for his negotiations with Chen Ke, Tang Shaoyi had researched him, read his books, and knew that a Nobel Prize carried considerable status and recognition in the scientific community. When a scholar who already far surpassed ordinary men stood above them as a commander, he possessed immense influence. By imparting all his knowledge to his comrades, Chen Ke had gained the transcendent status of a teacher. In Tang Shaoyi's eyes, the People's Party leadership was more like the legendary "Ruler-Teacher Unity" model.

"Ruler-Teacher Unity" (Junshi Yiti) was the organizational model most anticipated by Chinese literati. Rationally, the teacher's morality, knowledge, and discipline, as well as the equality among disciples, were satisfied. Emotionally, the teacher's protection and tolerance for the disciples were also fully met in this model.

Such an opponent was quite difficult to deal with; the methods used in Beiyang were completely inapplicable here. Any internal disagreements within that group of People's Party fellows would succumb to the "Ruler-Teacher Unity" system, while their attitude toward other forces remained completely unified, leaving no opening to exploit.

Thinking of this, Tang Shaoyi didn't want to waste any more words. "Then let us adjourn. I will convey this to Beijing."

Upon seeing the news that "the People's Party will expand its army to 400,000," Yuan Shikai's first feeling was neither fear nor shock, but a sense of bewilderment. Beiyang's current army of 70,000 in six divisions had already brought Beiyang's finances to the brink of collapse. Was the People's Party's 400,000-man army planning to live off the north wind? No matter how he looked at it, the People's Party shouldn't have that much money. That was 400,000 troops! In the Manchu Qing's unfinished—and now impossible to finish—New Army construction plan, the entire national New Army was only 36 divisions, or 450,000 men. The People's Party planned to support 400,000 men with just four provinces. Thus, Yuan Shikai only viewed this as a declaration of intent—an intent to overthrow the Manchu Qing. Nothing more.

Yuan Shikai had long prepared for the People's Party's excuses. If he had previously harbored a shred of doubt about keeping the "Manchu Qing" facade, financial pressure had completely dissipated it. He had raided the Manchu Qing's house, including the Emperor's treasury, obtaining many jewels and curios, but those weren't worth much in hand. The actual gold and silver were relatively limited, and Beiyang's financial crisis had not fundamentally turned around.

"Have Tang Shaoyi formally invite Chen Ke to participate in the National Assembly in May," Yuan Shikai ordered.

"Lord Yuan, is there really no need to care about what the People's Party said?" Yang Du asked.

"There's no need to care about such bluster," Yuan Shikai replied. "Invite the Minister of the Army over."

Yang Du wanted to say more, but seeing that Yuan Shikai had no intention of continuing the discussion, he could only follow the order and invite Wang Shizhen.

After reading the news Tang Shaoyi sent, Wang Shizhen remained silent. Yuan Shikai was somewhat surprised; he had expected Wang Shizhen to also speak of the People's Party's mass conscription.

"Pinqing, I want to ask you: do you think Chen Ke is someone who fishes for fame and reputation?" Yuan Shikai asked. He actually had another evaluation of Chen Ke as being "tender-hearted like a woman," but thinking of Chen Ke's ruthless slaughter of the gentry, Yuan Shikai didn't say it.

In these negotiations, Yuan Shikai naturally couldn't reveal all his thoughts. He had only confirmed one thing: Chen Ke was quite afraid of warlord infighting, which was puzzling. Powerful men in troubled times usually wanted things to be as chaotic as possible. Chen Ke was certainly not someone who couldn't see this; at the very least, in the "Hebei Mounted Bandit Uprising" that helped Yuan Shikai seize central power, Chen Ke had accurately grasped the essence of "chaos." Yet when it came to creating national chaos like "warlord infighting," Chen Ke was even more resolutely opposed than Yuan Shikai.

Regarding this loan, Yuan Shikai was partly forced by circumstance and partly wanted to test Chen Ke's attitude. If Chen Ke truly wanted to create chaos but was just waiting for the right moment, he would have taken the opportunity to mess with Beiyang. But although Chen Ke negotiated in a complex manner, overall, he still wanted to cooperate and do business. Most importantly, he still wanted to lend money to Yuan Shikai.

For a rebel who feared warlord infighting, the only logical explanation Yuan Shikai could find for these various irrational practices and views was that Chen Ke was someone who "fished for fame." This didn't mean Chen Ke was naive, but rather that he was attempting to seize the moral high ground and use it to seize final power. This was a man harboring great malevolence.

Wang Shizhen was in no hurry to answer. Whether Chen Ke fished for fame wasn't important. The true mastermind behind these negotiations was Wang Shizhen. He knew far more about the internal situation than Tang Shaoyi. Regarding the negotiation amount between the People's Party and the British, the 100 million pounds was the British opening their mouths wide; the amount proposed by the People's Party was only 40 million, increasing year by year.

After a long while, Wang Shizhen finally said, "Lord Yuan, as I see it, Chen Ke has a very long-term vision. Fishing for fame is absolutely impossible. If you say he fears chaos, I don't believe it for a second. He is best at profiting from chaos. The more chaotic a place is, the more he is like a fish in water. I just don't know what opportunity he has seen that allows him to be indifferent to all these things. Only the people in the People's Party know what they're considering."

Since Yuan Shikai had seized central power, Wang Shizhen had become increasingly reticent. Yuan Shikai knew Wang Shizhen's character; there was surely something he hadn't said. He pressed, "Pinqing, just speak plainly. What kind of trick do you think Chen Ke is up to?"

Wang Shizhen wasn't entirely sure himself. However, as one of the few sensible people in Beiyang who had little interest in seizing power, he indeed felt a strong sense of unease. "Lord Yuan, the People's Party mentions 'the people' in every breath. They even named themselves the 'People's Party.' I'm afraid they might think 'the hearts of the people' can be used."

"The hearts of the people?" Yuan Shikai was perplexed by the term. As the "People's Butcher" of the late Qing, he had never had any good feelings toward such a thing. Whether it was the gentry or commoners, they only considered themselves and never took national matters to heart. Once such "hearts of the people" were used, the state would only collapse. Thus, Yuan Shikai found such flowery talk laughable—absolutely laughable.

Wang Shizhen didn't find it laughable at all. "Lord Yuan, Chen Ke saved the people from fire and water. The people of the four provinces were saved by him, allowing them to survive. So he has truly used the hearts of the people in those four provinces. I'm afraid he thinks the hearts of the people in other provinces can be used the same way."

"You mean Chen Ke can predict the future 'heavenly timing'?" Yuan Shikai said in a joking tone.

Common folk loved to attribute extraordinary abilities to capable men. Among Chen Ke's actions over the years, there were too many oddities. As time passed and stories spread among the people, they became quite terrifying. Chen Ke had already combined the strengths of a sorcerer, Zhuge Liang, and Gongsun Sheng. Yet only ten years ago, everyone was still following "Elder Brothers" to drink talisman water and draw charms, firmly believing they would be invulnerable. Believing in such things was quite normal. Thanks to the Manchu princes' frantic seizure of *The Life of Cixi*, the story that the Empress Dowager and the Emperor had breathed their last after reading something Chen Ke wrote had become even more miraculous.

Given the status of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor who had ruled for decades, the idea that "Chen Ke could curse the two to death by writing a talisman at will" led the princes to search from house to house for charms. Such events, which the masses delighted in, wrapped Chen Ke in a layer of mystery. And this popular sentiment was also penetrating official circles. Quite a few in Beiyang held a strong wariness of Chen Ke.

Even a sensible man like Yuan Shikai was somewhat worried that Chen Ke could predict the heavenly timing. Otherwise, how could Chen Ke effectively grasp the disasters in various places? Why had he not rebelled elsewhere but gone straight to Fengtai County? Although he joked, Yuan Shikai felt some unease in his heart.

Wang Shizhen spoke honestly. "Lord Yuan, I only have this feeling, and I can roughly determine that Chen Ke is up to some scheme. But as for specifically how he acts, I truly cannot imagine."

Seeing Wang Shizhen say this, Yuan Shikai stopped pressing. He had also spent money to bribe people within the People's Party, but with little success. Not that these people were necessarily loyal, but the gathered intelligence contained many things completely beyond Yuan Shikai's understanding. The demand for "equal land distribution" had been shouted for years, not just by rebels and commoners, but even by literati. As for light labor and low taxes, these had become political positions that ministers treated as political correctness.

If certain slogans could be shouted for thousands of years, it meant those things had not been achieved for thousands of years. What the People's Party couldn't understand was how a group of young greenhorns had implemented all of them in just five or six years. With the capability of Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang clique, they knew very well that killing local tyrants was not the path to such a result, nor could dividing the land achieve such an effect. Exactly how the People's Party had achieved these results left Beiyang utterly bewildered.

Regardless of Chen Ke's schemes, it was impossible to achieve anything without interacting with him. Whether it was false courtesy or genuine sincerity, once the money reached Yuan Shikai's hands, it would solve countless problems. Since Chen Ke was willing to cooperate in this regard, Yuan Shikai decided to see exactly what was behind it.

The next day, Tang Shaoyi received a telegram from Beiyang and reached an agreement with Chen Ke.

The two sides signed a memorandum. The signatories were Tang Shaoyi for Beiyang, and Zhang Yu and Qi Huishen for the People's Party. The memorandum essentially put both sides in a bind; if it were ever leaked, the result would be explosive.

After Tang Shaoyi left, Zhang Yu asked, "Chairman Chen, will Beiyang abide by the agreement?"

"Victory depends on internal factors. External factors merely trigger them. Beiyang will do Beiyang's business, and we will do ours," Chen Ke repeated his old refrain.

"But our base area is already strong enough. These internal factors can overwhelm Beiyang," Zhang Yu said, unimpressed by the answer.

"Strong enough? Haha..." Chen Ke couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Qi Huishen and Zhang Yu looked at each other, finding Chen Ke's reaction quite baffling.

"Strong enough? The masses in our base area barely manage to fill their stomachs with rice, flour, and coarse grains. They can't even change into new clothes more than a few times a year. Without cafeterias, workers in the city would starve on their wages. When everyone goes out, they only have those few sets of work clothes and their old clothes from before. We export so much raw silk, and soon silk fabrics too. But how many of the people in our base area can afford silk clothes on the wages we give them? That's 'strong enough'?" Chen Ke laughed quite happily.

This was indeed the reality of the base area. Never mind the ordinary laborers; even Zhang Yu and Qi Huishen only managed to get enough to eat and had military uniforms to wear. Financially, while they weren't destitute, they had no accumulation.

"If we can say the base area has achieved anything, in terms of life, we can guarantee stable grain prices. In terms of management, we are indeed the first in thousands of years of Chinese history to extend management to the true grassroots. We not only manage the existence of the people but also the social distribution. That is what we have accomplished. As for being strong, talk to me again after thirty years of desperate construction."

When Chen Ke said this, Qi Huishen showed a bitter smile, while Zhang Yu looked as if it were only natural. In terms of the ferocity of the extraction ratio, the People's Party likely ranked first in Chinese history. However, this was also because the People's Party employed more advanced methods. Past governments relied on collecting taxes in kind. The People's Party did not collect goods, but rather labor, and combined this with a new system to achieve the maximum accumulation.

Such a world-shaking social transformation was the glory of the People's Party!