In recent years, whenever Wang Youhong encountered a problem he couldn't solve, he would turn to the People's Party's various documents. No matter how complex the issue appeared, as long as he found the corresponding text, there would be a corresponding solution. Faced with the parliament's attempt to "rebel," Wang Youhong habitually began searching for relevant lines of thought within his mind.

The documents Wang Youhong used most frequently were *Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society*, *A Concise Principle of Political Economy*, and *Summary of Marx's Surplus Value*. However, what Chen Ke wrote was sometimes inevitably too profound. Take *On Practice*, which Wang Youhong liked very much; he felt he understood it every time he read it, yet the feeling of understanding was vastly different each time. As for *On Contradiction*, that thing Chen Ke himself required People's Party comrades to study in various speeches, Wang Youhong found it simply like reading a book from heaven. This was also why Wang Youhong wanted to take a female teacher from the People's Party as a concubine. When taking a wife, one looks for virtue; when taking a concubine, one looks for talent. If a concubine wanted to gain her husband's favor, she had to show something that satisfied him. Either being good-looking, knowing how to serve people, or being able to help her husband intellectually.

The struggle with the parliament was so troublesome that even after calming down and thinking repeatedly, Wang Youhong actually couldn't figure out the full picture of the problem at all. His mind was filled with the dancing figures of Jiangsu's many relationships: the gentry, the tax police, the army, the parliament, and the newly formed Citizens Party. Wang Youhong felt dizzy; the relationships between these people seemed simple, but the demands of every force were vastly different, and many demands were fundamentally contradictory. Trying to build a balance between these forces was simply like trying to keep ice and charcoal in the same furnace; a suitable method couldn't be found at all.

Wiping his face hard with his palm, Wang Youhong sighed deeply and casually picked up the pamphlet titled *On Contradiction* in front of him. Wang Youhong wanted to change his mood by studying this most profound article.

There were a few sentences marked in red on the pamphlet, for example: "In battle, one army is victorious and the other is defeated; both the victory and the defeat are determined by internal causes. The one is victorious either because it is strong or because of its competent generalship, the other is defeated either because it is weak or because of its incompetent generalship; it is through internal causes that external causes become operative." Wang Youhong could understand this passage.

As for another passage: "Contrary to the metaphysical world outlook, the world outlook of materialist dialectics holds that in order to understand the development of a thing we should study it internally and in its relations with other things; in other words, the development of things should be seen as their internal and necessary self-movement, while each thing in its movement is interrelated with and interacts on the things around it. The fundamental cause of the development of a thing is not external but internal; it lies in the contradictoriness within the thing. This internal contradiction exists in every single thing, hence its motion and development. Contradictoriness within a thing is the fundamental cause of its development, while its interrelations and interactions with other things are secondary causes. Thus materialist dialectics effectively combats the theory of external causes, or of an impulse from without, advanced by metaphysical mechanical materialism and vulgar evolutionism. It is evident that purely external causes can only give rise to mechanical motion, that is, to changes in scale or quantity, but cannot explain why things differ qualitatively in thousands of ways and why one thing changes into another. As a matter of fact, even mechanical motion under external force occurs through the internal contradictoriness of things..."

Wang Youhong couldn't understand such words, which were obviously meant as a general program, no matter how he read them. This wasn't that ambiguous classical Chinese, but vernacular. Yet this vernacular used many nouns Wang Youhong simply couldn't understand. Nouns like "motion," "metaphysics," "mechanical materialism," and "materialist dialectics" had appeared in Chen Ke's other articles, but Wang Youhong hadn't been able to understand them.

Suppressing his impatient mood, Wang Youhong flipped through several pages in a row, and another passage marked in red appeared before his eyes: "Qualitatively different contradictions can only be resolved by qualitatively different methods. For instance, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is resolved by the method of socialist revolution; the contradiction between the great masses of the people and the feudal system is resolved by the method of democratic revolution; the contradiction between the colonies and imperialism is resolved by the method of national revolutionary war; the contradiction between the working class and the peasant class in socialist society is resolved by the method of collectivization and mechanization in agriculture; contradiction within the Communist Party is resolved by the method of criticism and self-criticism; the contradiction between society and nature is resolved by the method of developing the productive forces. Processes change, old processes and old contradictions disappear, new processes and new contradictions emerge, and the methods of resolving contradictions differ accordingly."

Wang Youhong could understand this passage. He just didn't understand why Chen Ke, such a high-and-mighty ruler, wanted to stand on the side of the "proletariat." While that group of gentry like Zhang Yutong envied the base area's extremely low official taxes, Wang Youhong envied the base area's powerful administrative organizational capability. Now that the landlords and gentry had been swept clean, the People's Party was the only high-and-mighty ruler inside the base area.

If he had such powerful administrative organizational capability as the base area, Wang Youhong firmly believed he would do better than Chen Ke. Wasn't it just not collecting taxes and giving more benefits to the people below? As long as there was money in hand, who wouldn't know how to do such things? Wang Youhong felt he just had worse luck than Chen Ke. If he could have seen through the trend of the Manchu Qing's collapse earlier, if he could have planned more for himself earlier, the situation in Jiangsu wouldn't have become so chaotic.

*Is it that my own hand is too soft?* Wang Youhong thought. *Am I too gentle in dealing with this bunch of gentry?* If it were before, when Wang Youhong only controlled the army, he had shouted "Property owners, unite!" because he had no choice but to compromise. Now that the situation in Jiangsu had stabilized and the People's Party showed no intention of annexing Southern Jiangsu, Wang Youhong felt his status in Jiangsu shouldn't be this low. Those in power should be unrestrained; this was Wang Youhong's view. When he served as a bodyguard alongside Zhang Xun, he had witnessed the majesty of Empress Dowager Cixi; that was truly a case where a single word could determine a person's life or death. Now Zhang Xun was in Jiangxi. When the People's Party seized Jiangxi, the reason was simple: "The Governor of Jiangxi is a staunch royalist." In fact, the Governor of Jiangsu at that time had nothing to do with the royalist party, let alone being a staunch one.

With an army and status, one should be able to do whatever one wanted. Perhaps rulers should be good to those below, but at the same time, rulers should also have the power to punish subordinates at will. "Thunder and rain are all the monarch's grace"—Wang Youhong had established such a notion when he was a bodyguard, and he believed he should possess such power when he was in charge.

"Sigh..." Wang Youhong let out a long sigh and casually closed the pamphlet of *On Contradiction*. In this world, things go against one's wishes nine times out of ten. Even though he had become this Governor of Jiangsu, he still couldn't exercise power as he wished. This fact made Wang Youhong feel despondent.

While Wang Youhong regretted that his power wasn't great enough, the councilors of Jiangsu felt that Wang Youhong's power was somewhat excessive. He Sui was the second-in-command of the newly established "Citizens Party." Now, twenty percent of the councilors in the Jiangsu Assembly had joined the Citizens Party. There were at least another twenty percent who were very supportive of the Citizens Party but hadn't joined due to various concerns. Those with various connections to the Citizens Party accounted for as much as seventy percent of the Jiangsu Assembly.

After the assembly meeting ended today during the day, the backbone members of the Citizens Party held a meeting. Zhang Yutong had already clarified his stance during the day. The Citizens Party hoped that the power of taxation could be transferred to the hands of the gentry. This was also one of the main stances when the Citizens Party was established. Another main stance was "protecting the private property of citizens from infringement."

"Gentlemen, back in the day, Jiangsu had a Governor, a New Army Commander, a Provincial Administration Commissioner, and an Education Commissioner. Great power was not in the hands of the Governor alone. Now Jiangsu only has the Jiangsu Governor and the Assembly, and this Jiangsu Governor should have been elected by the Assembly to begin with. All authority should be decided by the Assembly. But now, the only person in charge in Jiangsu is the Jiangsu Governor." When He Sui reached this point, he couldn't help but sneer, "Rather than calling him the Governor of Jiangsu, it's better to call him the Governor of Southern Jiangsu. If he could protect the territory and pacify the people, that would be one thing, but facing the People's Party, our Jiangsu Governor can only sit and watch, doing nothing. Even when the People's Party reached out to intervene in his own matter of taking a concubine, he didn't dare to utter a sound."

Hearing He Sui fiercely attack Wang Youhong's incompetence, a crowd of Citizens Party councilors couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Councilor He, if our Jiangsu Governor just wants to be a tyrant at home, we have no other way. I'm just afraid the Governor finds us truly meddlesome."

"I've heard a story. Two brothers went to shoot a wild goose. But one thought the wild goose should be steamed, and the other thought it should be braised in soy sauce. The two argued endlessly about this. By the time the wild goose had flown away, they still hadn't argued out a result. Although the People's Party is detestable, the People's Party at least knows to expand the raw silk industry first. Our Jiangsu has just caught its breath, yet Governor Wang stares at the tax revenue without letting go. If the industry can't be built up, how can we talk about income?"

"However, I see that Governor Wang is not unconcerned about this Silk Company matter," Zhang Yutong said. He still clearly remembered Wang Youhong pressing for the articles of association of the Silk Company during the day.

He Sui was very disappointed with Zhang Yutong's naive performance. "Councilor Wang, can't we organize the Silk Company ourselves? In this matter, apart from acting as an introducer when the People's Party came here to discuss cooperation, how much effort has Governor Wang himself actually contributed? The reason we want to form this Silk Company is for tax reduction. If the taxes remain the same as before after it's formed, why are we wasting this effort?"

After Zhang Yutong mentioned this, other councilors also found the key point. Wang Youhong was only interested in how to form the Silk Company; he didn't talk at all about the tax exemption which was most important for the Silk Company. This attitude could be said to be wanting to understand everything fully, but it could also be said to be an implicit opposition to the tax reduction matter.

"To make the Silk Company big, there must be benefits that everyone can see. There are so many people in our Jiangsu who plant mulberries and raise silkworms. Without this clause of tax reduction, how can we get everyone to join the Silk Company, and how can we get everyone to abide by the Silk Company's rules?" He Sui asked.

"Shall we send someone to discuss it with Governor Wang privately?" Zhang Yutong said.

"If such a matter has to be discussed privately, then what do we need this assembly for? Some things can be discussed privately, but this matter of the Silk Company concerns the foundation of the entire Jiangsu; discussing it privately among a few people is inappropriate to begin with. If people found out, they would think we are only planning for ourselves. Moreover, this assembly was established precisely to decide Jiangsu's affairs. If everything has to be discussed privately, what do we need this assembly for?"

He Sui spoke decisively and with resonance. The councilors of the assembly all felt their spirits lifted after hearing this.

"Councilor He makes sense. It's just that for such a matter, I'm afraid we can't make the decision right now, can we?" a councilor asked.

"That's why I said earlier, in the past there was a Governor and a Provincial Administration Commissioner. The Provincial Administration Commissioner was in charge of financial matters. Now, where in our Southern Jiangsu is there still the position of Provincial Administration Commissioner? At that time, we thought the People's Party was very likely to attack, so we didn't persist on this matter but agreed to establish a Governor with total control. Looking at it now, this was truly a mistake," He Sui replied.

"Then what is Councilor He's intention?" Zhang Yutong felt a sense of danger revealed in He Sui's words.

"My meaning is, if Governor Wang is unwilling to yield on the Silk Company's taxes, then we must pass through the assembly to establish an official position specifically in charge of finance," He Sui replied.

"This..." Zhang Yutong didn't believe Wang Youhong could agree to this matter.

"I naturally have a plan for this matter; it's not convenient to explain it yet. But presumably, there will be news very soon. When the news comes back, I will definitely explain it to everyone," He Sui laughed, and within this smile, there was a strong self-confidence.