"Marxism has never been warm and fuzzy, because warm and fuzzy things are never meant to tell the truth, but to cover it up. From my personal perspective and experience, I believe Marxism is a thought system that most helps personal interest, because what this system pursues, first and foremost, is the self-liberation of the individual. A person who has achieved self-liberation is at least their own master. A person who has achieved self-liberation is also bound to become a member of the future ruling class."

When Chen Ke examined his own heart, he never considered himself a saint, let alone a moralist. After studying Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought and truly turning them into his own standards of conduct, Chen Ke discovered for the first time that his personal interests were guaranteed. In the Marxism and Mao's Selected Works that Chen Ke saw, there was never any talk of saints or great men. Instead, in the *Internationale*, it is sung: "There has never been any savior, nor do we rely on immortals or emperors! To create human happiness, we must rely entirely on ourselves."

If Marxism cannot satisfy human self-liberation and the pursuit of personal interests, then it is certainly not universal. Chen Ke looked down on the "universal values" touted by the elites in Europe, America, and China for a very simple reason: there is no common ground between sheep and wolves. It is absolutely impossible for there to be a common liberation and interest between the exploiter and the exploited. To maximize personal interest, one must rely on a theoretical system that can liberate everyone.

At least within the systems Chen Ke had encountered, none were more universal than Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought. Even from an extremely revisionist perspective, after learning Marxism and Mao, a commoner could turn into a meat-eating wolf rather than a sheep to be eaten.

"Comrades, please don't laugh. We People's Party members are first and foremost materialists. As materialists, we have certainly all realized where our personal interests lie. The difference between People's Party members and others is that we believe the way to realize personal interest lies in labor, not exploitation. To put it simply, the land reform policies we have implemented so far have basically won the support of the broad masses. The support I speak of is that the people have accepted this policy and are working hard to create their own interests under it. Taking the land reform you've all participated in as an example: after land reform, total grain production in the base areas has increased significantly, and the people's standard of living has also improved greatly. The grain and materials collected by our People's Party have also reached unprecedented levels. So, what is the core of this new system? It is to promote the development of productive forces, not to strengthen exploitation."

Hearing Chairman Chen Ke talk at length about the realization of personal interests, the comrades couldn't help but laugh. The hard work of the People's Party was unprecedented. There were many educated members among the party, and even more who knew the story of Da Yu taming the floods. After the records of Da Yu were translated into the modern Chinese promoted by the People's Party, everyone realized just how much hardship this great ancestor of the Chinese nation had endured. The People's Party had started from the flood disaster, and the comrades had all personally experienced the hardships of this great predecessor.

The actual effects of land reform indeed made these comrades feel proud. Once large-scale socialized production began, its power was terrifying. Vast stretches of farmland, irrigation systems spread throughout, the promotion of improved seeds, pesticides, and iron farm tools, as well as the various agricultural side-industries and industrial construction supported by agricultural income—under Chairman Chen Ke's leadership, these appeared in the base areas like magic.

Very few of the People's Party's cadres came purely from urban backgrounds; the vast majority had direct or nearly direct connections and understanding of the countryside. This thirty-percent tax of the People's Party was a low tax rate unseen for hundreds of years. The benefits gained by everyone from the People's Party government to the grassroots masses were something the comrades had never seen before.

These comrades had all worked on the front lines and were very familiar with the situation. While the achievements were worth being proud of, no one felt it was much to celebrate. Because the labor everyone put in was also unprecedented and unheard of. Labor created everything in the base area, and labor created the current flourishing situation. Correspondingly, everyone deeply felt the hardship of labor. If such laborers were the future ruling class of China, it didn't seem like something particularly worth celebrating with toasts.

Chen Ke also never felt that such a ruling class was particularly enviable. In fact, under the system of socialized production, an individual's self-awakening begins first with an understanding of the world. Those who understand the world must first see the cruel reality of the world. After Chen Ke himself recognized this cruel reality, he found that many "humane" things in him had withered away first. This was the price of the transformation of a "humane" society.

"Comrades, I've heard a very interesting saying: 'One doesn't get rich without killing the poor.' This is the truth of the exploiting class; nothing is faster than institutional exploitation. Working hard to earn money through labor is described by a saying: 'Money is hard to earn, and shit is hard to eat.' But relying on exploitation, on seizing others' wealth to accumulate one's own, the speed is much faster. Of course, some say the risk is also greater. But Marx said that if capital has a fifty percent profit, it will take risks; if it has a hundred percent profit, it dares to trample on all human laws; if it has a three hundred percent profit, it dares to commit any crime, even at the risk of being beheaded."

Another burst of laughter followed, filled with understanding of what this meant. Actually, they didn't necessarily want to laugh, but besides laughing, there seemed to be no other way to respond. Everything Chen Ke said was the truth, leaving no room for rebuttal. After the comrades finished laughing, many slightly furrowed their brows. This subconscious action was actually the expression of most comrades after Chen Ke's lectures.

"Therefore, as I said before, does our Party stand on the side of the propertied class or the side of the laborers? In the New China that our People's Party will create in the future, what kind of people will the ruling class be? Only when these things are understood can there be class consciousness. Of course, whether this consciousness is that of the propertied class or the proletariat depends on your own choice. However, I want to state that our People's Party is a proletarian revolutionary party. The regime our People's Party wants to establish is absolutely not one where the propertied are the masters of the house."

The courses Chen Ke personally taught to the senior cadres of the Party were by no means warm and fuzzy. In the following three days, the comrades finally gained a certain level of understanding of Chen Ke's other side. If many comrades had previously thought Chairman Chen Ke was a "capable good man," as the course progressed, no one regarded him as a "good man" anymore. Chairman Chen Ke knew so many "means of exploitation" and so many "means of wrongdoing." Most importantly, Chairman Chen Ke knew how to establish the state as a "tool of class rule" and how to implement various hair-raising policies through the operation of this state tool. The comrades with rich practical experience knew very well that what Chairman Chen Ke said was not mere fantasy. It wasn't something that could be dismissed with a laugh. Following such a figure couldn't help but cause a great shock in the hearts of many comrades.

Of course, Chen Ke was not without supporters. During the group discussions, Shang Yuan explicitly expressed his support for Chen Ke. Facing the dejected comrades, Shang Yuan appeared exceptionally energetic. He pointed to the People's Party flag and said, "Comrades, when we swore allegiance to this flag, perhaps many of us thought the path we were to take was a glorious revolutionary road. Given the achievements already made, we are bound to have even greater achievements in the future. Our enemies look weak and laughable. But this is only part of the revolutionary process. The world we live in now is full of tyranny, cruelty, and shamelessness. How we should deal with the tyranny, cruelty, and shamelessness in this world is already a daunting challenge. Even more difficult is how we ourselves can break free from this tyranny, cruelty, and shamelessness, and abolish all injustice with a firm attitude. For us revolutionary comrades, for those of us who aspire to change the world, this is very difficult. Because we ourselves also possess this tyranny, cruelty, and shamelessness. After gaining class consciousness, we might become even more tyrannical, more cruel, and more shameless."

These were words that Teacher Li Hongqi had once used to lecture Shang Yuan. Shang Yuan had finally achieved "revolutionary consciousness," but that didn't mean other comrades could reach that level of consciousness in one step.

"The world is just this bad; there are no good people left!" Chai Qingguo shouted loudly.

No one echoed him. Chen Ke had not beautified the People's Party's own regime. The methods by which the People's Party gathered social surplus wealth were explained very clearly in the meeting. "If other regimes gather wealth by collecting taxes in kind or in currency, we, the People's Party, possess everything today by gathering labor. This is the greatest utilization of basic Marxist principles, and only after truly possessing class consciousness can these things be understood and such results achieved."

Many comrades of the People's Party truly believed that they had given the people great benefits. Through Chen Ke's analysis and narration, everyone finally realized rationally that the People's Party was the organization in China, and even the world today, that was most adept at "extraction." No wonder Chen Ke repeatedly emphasized, "Everything we have is created by labor, and everything we have is given by the people." At that time, many comrades felt that Chairman Chen was speaking in high-sounding platitudes, emphasizing political correctness. But it was clear that Chairman Chen Ke was neither speaking in platitudes nor was it about emphasizing political correctness. Chairman Chen Ke was merely stating a fact.

For this, Chai Qingguo especially couldn't accept it psychologically. When a person who firmly believes they are a giver suddenly discovers they are the biggest recipient, this massive psychological gap cannot be reversed overnight or in a few words.

Chai Qingguo's mentality represented the mentality of a considerable number of comrades. Those with simpler minds felt a great deal of discomfort. Those with more complex minds felt a deep sense of fear. "If the people knew these truths, would they still support us?" Cadres from civil affairs backgrounds mostly had such fears.

The People's Party held the vast majority of assets in the current base areas. No comrade anymore considered Chairman Chen Ke's "three *mu* per person" land reform policy to be some kind of benevolent governance. Chairman Chen Ke had long seen the "capital scarcity problem" the People's Party was destined to encounter. Thus, through the "three *mu* per person" policy, vast amounts of land capital were brought into the hands of the People's Party. This truly was a leader with "high class consciousness." The People's Party relied on this massive land asset to quickly establish and continuously improve its fiscal system.

The sericulture industry, various manufacturing industries, and the various capital in the hands of the People's Party became excellent tools for gathering labor. The masses in the base area, by selling their labor, allowed the People's Party to accumulate an unprecedented scale of wealth. It was this wealth that supported the People's Party in building a massive army and, in a very short time, used the world trade system to achieve a significant degree of industrialization in the base area.

If the masses in the base area realized this and chose to no longer cooperate with the People's Party...

Such thoughts reminded many of what Chen Ke had always warned about: "The support of the so-called silent majority means that the masses under the system follow the order provided by the system. While they strive to realize their own interests, they have allowed this system to develop and expand as never before."

"Serving the people is the best way to save your own life. Only when the people still accept these orders is the government a government. When the People's Party abandons the order, the government is left with only a few people. The so-called 'lonely man' (*dufu*) refers to the kind of person who has been abandoned."

This was cruel! After Chen Ke told the comrades the truth of the world, everyone felt the cruelty. The comrades all realized this, and they then understood why Chen Ke had always been vegetable about many things or simply didn't explain them. If Chen Ke had told the comrades everything at the very beginning, they couldn't be sure if they would have followed him in the revolution so fearlessly. Not realizing these things might also be a form of great happiness.

Shang Yuan's encouragement clearly didn't have much effect. Led by Chai Qingguo's speech, someone soon began to question the content Chen Ke had narrated. This wasn't the usual questioning of Chen Ke's specific implementation, but a real questioning of whether there was something wrong with the theoretical system Chen Ke proposed.

And Chai Qingguo's sentence "The world is just this bad; there are no good people left!" was indeed very summarizing.

"Where is the legitimacy of our People's Party's revolution? Is it to overthrow the Qing? To liberate China? Or what?"

"How do the people's revolution and the work we have promoted and completed so far verify each other?"

"What kind of country will we eventually establish? What will this country actually look like?"

Shang Yuan listened coldly to the comrades' excited speeches, only temporarily recording the questions raised by everyone, without giving a direct answer. Instead, Chen Tianhua, who had been silent, suddenly stood up. "Nothing is achieved overnight. If you are full after eating five steamed buns, does that mean you only need to eat the fifth one and don't need the first four?"

Because of anger, Chen Tianhua's voice became sharp. "Yes, our People's Party indeed knows how to accumulate wealth better than any political force, but this wealth is all used for the development of productive forces. It is all used to improve the capabilities of the masses. This is our justice."

At this moment, Wu Xingchen also stood up. Chen Tianhua was slightly stunned. Wu Xingchen was a comrade who had undergone political screening. Although he was a veteran, this experience was by no means something that could be described as glorious. Was Wu Xingchen planning to stand up and sing a different tune?

"Chairman Chen has repeatedly emphasized one thing: the people's revolution is not our People's Party revolting. First of all, the revolution is conceived within the broad masses. What we need to do is hear the call for revolution from the masses and realize the legitimate demands of the people through revolution. In the speeches of some comrades, it seems their understanding of this issue is reversed. Everyone seems to think that the people's revolutionary demand only existed after our People's Party appeared. I think this view is wrong." After saying this, Wu Xingchen glared fiercely at Chai Qingguo.

Chai Qingguo hadn't said these things after much deliberation; he just couldn't wrap his mind around it for a moment. Being glared at by Wu Xingchen, he knew he must have said something wrong. Standing up, Chai Qingguo said, "I'll state my position here: I absolutely support Chairman Chen and the Party Central Committee. So my speech is not to oppose Chairman Chen or the Party Central Committee; I just feel some things aren't clear. So I hope Chairman Chen can speak more clearly in these areas."

Shang Yuan just stared at Chai Qingguo for a moment. He still didn't say anything and continued recording.

Some other comrades who had raised objections saw Chai Qingguo change direction so cleverly, and their eyes showed a look of disdain.

Chen Tianhua was afraid these things would get out of hand. Shang Yuan looked like he was keeping a "black account." He said, "If there's anything you don't understand, say it clearly. Holding group meetings is to let everyone put forward their own views. Our People's Party's intra-party democracy is first and foremost grassroots democracy and speaking freely. Since Chairman Chen has already spoken about many things, let's put forward our own views and clarify them in the subsequent discussions."

Shang Yuan looked at Chen Tianhua for a while and finally spoke. "Comrade Chen Tianhua's speech is very good. The People's Party is not Chairman Chen Ke's one-man show. I think everyone should explain their thoughts clearly. This meeting was originally intended to discuss the core concepts and political views of the People's Party. There's no need to hide anything."

With these comrades in higher positions setting the tone, the discussion finally developed in an orderly direction.