"What defines a true industrial nation? What defines a true enterprise? A true industrial nation means its industrial system is capable of self-replication, self-upgrading, and self-expansion." Chen Ke was lecturing on the stage, while the classroom below was packed with heads of various factories under the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense from Hubei and even Anhui. Being able to listen to the personal lecture of the highest leader of the Popular Party and the base area, everyone was very excited. Chen Ke couldn't quite judge whether this excitement was directed at the knowledge or at Chen Ke's status.

"Comrades, seeking truth from facts is our Popular Party's style, our guiding ideology, and the foundation of our materialism. Everyone here has practical work experience. No matter how blood-pumping the theory sounds, or how intoxicatingly beautiful the future looks in imagination, once you enter the factory, issues pop up one after another. Reality is very cruel! Therefore, as enterprises that form parts of the industrial system, how can we manage ourselves well? What I want to say is..." Just as Chen Ke reached this point, he saw He Zudao, a member of the Military Commission Standing Committee, push the door open and gesture to him.

Chen Ke knew something major must have happened. He apologized to the students and walked out.

"Chairman Chen, we have annihilated the Japanese 6th and 7th Divisions, and the Japanese 19th Division has fled. By now, we have basically driven the Japanese out of the Northeast." He Zudao didn't show an overly excited expression; he simply stated the facts. "The Military Commission is preparing to hold a meeting. Please go and attend the emergency meeting."

"Understood!" Chen Ke also didn't react with excessive excitement. After speaking with He Zudao, he strode back into the classroom and continued addressing the students: "Any enterprise that cannot adapt to such changes and cannot survive in competition, there is no need to forcibly maintain its existence. This involves the issue of asset restructuring. Moreover, within this category of topics, there is also the issue that monopolistic state-owned enterprises related to people's livelihood construction must exist. That's all for today's class. Class dismissed."

"Stand up!" All students stood up.

"Goodbye, students!" Chen Ke said.

"Goodbye, teacher!" The students shouted almost in unison.

Chen Ke packed up his lecture notes and left with He Zudao. The Party School was not far from the Military Commission. The group of students watched Chairman Chen Ke and Chief Political Commissar He Zudao walking away together, and many faces showed envious looks. In their eyes, these two leading cadres of the Popular Party truly possessed a demeanor of calmness and steadiness.

But in fact, this was just the students' imagination. On the way to the Military Commission, He Zudao explained the latest situation in more detail. Chen Ke breathed a slight sigh of relief, his face showing a rare look of fatigue, but he quickly recovered his usual energetic appearance. He smiled and asked, "Zudao, have you thought about getting married?"

"Ah?" He Zudao was stunned; Chen Ke's question was really strange.

Chen Ke wasn't just saying this casually. He continued on the topic, "Recently, I've been spending more time working with Comrade You Gou. You Gou is already 34 this year, which makes her 36 by nominal age. It's not appropriate for her to remain unmarried. You must be around 30 this year too, right?"

"31, just had my birthday," He Zudao replied somewhat embarrassedly, but he quickly felt something was off. "Chairman Chen, it's not yet time to put the weapons in the arsenal and release the horses to the southern mountains."

"Revolution is like life; there is no end. Revolution must continue, and life must also continue," Chen Ke advised earnestly. "I can't say your Sister You Gou is waiting for you; that wouldn't be seeking truth from facts. But everyone knows your feelings. You should at least go and try."

"Sigh!" He Zudao let out a rare sigh. "Chairman Chen, I always feel that Sister You Gou is far better than me. I don't dare to go. If she rejects me, I won't be able to adjust. Besides, I definitely won't give up then, and wouldn't that be even more painful?"

"You're a boy! Don't be afraid!" Chen Ke said even more earnestly. However, Chen Ke's elder-like tone actually made no sense; he was only 36 this year, and He Zudao was only 5 years younger than him.

He Zudao avoided this topic that made him very embarrassed. "Chairman Chen, you've basically focused entirely on industrial construction during this period. Will we really not encounter major challenges in military affairs anymore?"

"It's not that we won't encounter them again, but to solve the problems we encounter in the future, we need stronger industrial capabilities as support." Once Chen Ke and He Zudao started talking about work, that elder-junior tone instantly vanished, and the conversation atmosphere directly turned into a discussion between comrades. "Industrial construction also involves a system issue. The socialist system is not about doing the opposite of the capitalist system, but about comprehensively surpassing the capitalist system. I've said many times, if going east is wrong, then going west is definitely not right either. To solve problems, we can only go up. But going up definitely doesn't mean making people pull themselves up by their bootstraps; it doesn't mean making people ascend to heaven on the spot."

He Zudao rarely heard Chen Ke complain about anything, but he had also heard from You Gou that Chen Ke encountered huge difficulties when rectifying the industrial order and streamlining industrial production. Now it seemed these difficulties were so great that they even made Chen Ke think military victory was no longer the top priority.

Having revolutionized with Chen Ke for so long, He Zudao understood Chen Ke more and more. In the Popular Party, most comrades believed that Chen Ke worked with extreme patience and had the most far-reaching vision in the party. However, He Zudao didn't completely think so. Precisely because Chen Ke had far-reaching vision, He Zudao could always faintly sense Chen Ke's inner anxiety or even angst. The huge gap between reality and ideals required countless arduous efforts to fill. Facing the job of rectifying the Popular Party's massive industrial system, even Chen Ke's patience seemed to be running out. This couldn't help but make He Zudao feel a trace of worry. He couldn't help but persuade, "Things naturally have their own laws of development. Theory combined with practice—at least there must be practice first. This process is definitely not something that can be achieved overnight."

"Hehehehe!" Chen Ke laughed somewhat weakly. What He Zudao said was the truth, but Chen Ke really hoped to make China's industrial development more scientific and effective. This would require far more effort than in history.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this. How is the training of those Germans going?" Chen Ke changed the topic.

"The Stormtrooper tactics have been discussed and practiced with the Germans many times. I think they have understood and mastered them. The problem is that these Germans are prisoners of war. How much influence can they have on the German army after returning to Germany?" He Zudao replied.

"That's not really a problem. As long as we can send them back to Germany, they will definitely want to wash away the stigma of being captured. Moreover, Germany has suffered millions of casualties now; they are also short of people," Chen Ke replied.

This was Chen Ke's means of attempting to influence World War I. For the German troops captured in Shandong and those besieged in Beijing, the Popular Party had done some mobilization work on them. On the basis of guaranteeing to find ways to send these Germans back to Germany, the Popular Party conducted some technical exchanges with the German army. It had to be said that the Germans, after all, had the foundation of military construction starting from the era of Old Moltke, while the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had only preliminarily built its own war system and knew its deficiencies through practice. Even if these German personnel held back while conducting military exchanges with the Popular Party, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army still benefited greatly. Of course, the Germans also received brand-new trench warfare concepts and methods from the Popular Party.

Chen Ke was very clear that the "Stormtrooper" tactics the Germans began to implement on a large scale in 1917 were initially just research conducted spontaneously by a few officers. Due to a lack of practice, the theoretical basis of these tactics was not solid. It wasn't until after WWI that these tactics were summarized by the German army, combined with the talented Little Mustache's strategy and military construction framework, and finally turned into the "Blitzkrieg" that once made people tremble with fear in Europe.

In WWI, the biggest problem Germany encountered was that because the Stormtrooper tactics had no broad foundation and theory, although many units with carefully trained Stormtroopers achieved great results when first used, after these members were exhausted in the war, the German army lacked follow-up strength, and their efforts finally failed. In order to bleed Britain and France more, Chen Ke adopted the method of "military exchange" with captured German personnel to try to influence the process of WWI.

He Zudao certainly knew Chen Ke's thoughts; the devil is in the details. Chen Ke never placed high hopes on such limited tactical means; he always handled them lightly, doing it once or twice occasionally. But often, these insidious and ruthless little tricks were exactly what the guys Chen Ke wanted to use urgently needed. Thus, the exploited guys would utilize these little tricks to the limit like clutching at a straw. Through their efforts, the Popular Party could easily reap huge benefits in the end. Although He Zudao knew that everything ultimately depended on themselves, he was still often fascinated by these little tricks of Chen Ke.

"Will the Americans take the bait? If they don't cooperate, these Germans can't return to Germany smoothly," He Zudao couldn't help asking this question.

"Everyone's interests in different matters are diverse, let alone that there are so many interest groups in such a big country like the United States. So we only need to consider the interests of the American consortiums cooperating with us on this matter." Speaking of this, Chen Ke couldn't help but preach to He Zudao again, "But the greatest institutional guarantee for our Popular Party to win lies in the fact that for our Popular Party members, organizational interests are paramount. No one can override the organization, this actually existing entity. This point absolutely allows for no wavering!"

He Zudao couldn't quite understand Chen Ke's slightly murderous words. Chen Ke obviously had things he was worried about, but He Zudao didn't think he should pursue it now. In He Zudao's experience, assuming enemies before things happened was a very foolish behavior.

The emotions of the Military Commission comrades were much higher than those of Chen Ke and He Zudao. As soon as they entered the door, they heard laughter. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's achievement of annihilating three Japanese divisions and severely damaging one division indeed had the value to make comrades so happy. The Military Commission had discussed strategic issues many times. Driving Japan out of Korea would complete the goal of driving Japan out of the Asian continent. From then on, the Japanese army could only rely on naval operations. Such a Japan, rather than being a major threat, was more of a huge trouble. A huge trouble is very tricky, but compared to a major threat, it's not as tricky. So the current issue became the strategic deployment of how to march into Korea.

After Chen Ke arrived, the meeting convened immediately. As usual, the first thing Chen Ke raised was the logistics issue. "How many troops can we maintain fighting in Korea now? Has the Military Commission calculated it?"

This question was quite practical. Defense Minister Hua Xiongmao immediately replied, "We haven't calculated it yet; we will start immediately. The result of the current discussion is that we can send small units into Korea to fight first."