"Three thousand *li* of rivers and mountains, three thousand *li* of blood and tears, is it?" Chen Ke looked at the latest report on the situation in Korea and spoke in a tone as if reading an expository text.

The comrades of the Central Committee had somewhat stunned expressions on their faces. The report naturally described the appearance of the Korean insurgents being killed, with corpses piled up like mountains. However, the report wrote that when Korean patriots like Jin Liuling and Piao Youxi fled to China, they knelt on the ground and kowtowed until they bled, wailing loudly. This part, which didn't really need to be specifically written clearly in a report, appearing in the report was enough to explain how much stimulation the tragic state of affairs at the time gave to the comrades in the Northeast. The comrades had long heard Chen Ke predict Japan's movements, but when they really saw the description, even if their hearts were like iron and stone, it was hard not to feel compassion. After all, China had also experienced such miserable days. The comrades were quite surprised by Chen Ke's indifferent reaction.

Chen Ke's expression remained calm, "The Northeast Military Region has already provided guns and supplies to help Korea organize guerrilla units in the north. My view is that the Korean comrades must learn to mobilize the masses and not adopt the methods of the Yuewang Society or the Guangfu Society in making revolution."

Hearing Chen Ke mention the old secret society methods of making revolution, many Central Committee comrades revealed smiles that couldn't be considered friendly. If Chen Ke hadn't mentioned it, everyone wouldn't have even recalled these past events when discussing Korea.

If other comrades' smiles could be considered not very friendly, Zhang Yu simply sneered. He had taken over Southern Anhui completely starting from the Second Battle of Anqing, and the process of thoroughly, thoroughly eradicating the Yuewang Society had cost him a lot of thought and effort.

The Western Zhejiang Branch of the Guangfu Society was at least an ally of the People's Party now, so comrades tried to avoid mentioning them when speaking, "How can we be sure the Korean patriots won't become a second Yuewang Society?"

Chen Ke didn't even need to imagine the miserable state of being squeezed by Japan. Knowing the cruelty of early capitalism and the things Japan had done in China, Chen Ke knew what Japan would do, so there wasn't a trace of fluctuation in his heart. He simply said matter-of-factly: "Korean patriots dare to sacrifice, but I believe they definitely hope even more that China will send troops to help them restore their country. When we are fighting the Japanese army in the Northeast, if the Korean people launch an uprising throughout Korea, the opportunity for combat could be caught. But as the saying goes, 'When the time comes, heaven and earth join forces; when luck leaves, the hero is not free.' So after the combat opportunity is lost, we cannot send troops at this stage; Korea can only rely on itself. Japan is a stronger enemy than the Manchu Qing. If the model of people's war is not adopted, Korea can never achieve liberation by itself. We ourselves must also see this point clearly: even if we send troops, it requires the Korean people themselves to pursue national liberation."

Zhang Yu was also very calm, "I want to confirm one more time, we won't adopt a policy of annexation towards Korea, right?"

This topic lifted the spirits of many people. The People's Party had also analyzed the reasons why Korea had fallen to this state. Among the captured personnel in Beijing, there were quite a few who understood the Korean situation. If one must evaluate the current miserable state of Korea, saying "it's their own fault" from China's standpoint wouldn't be excessive. So if a huge price was paid to liberate Korea, how to deal with Korea afterwards was indeed a question worth discussing. Moreover, Korea's political system could also be described as "counter-revolutionary."

"Annexing Korea is meaningless. Even though it was China's tributary state for thousands of years, Korea has at least always been independent. From an international perspective, we want to recover lost territories right now; this 'eating posture' is still very important. Foreign countries might be able to accept China retaking its old spheres of influence, but they won't accept China expanding rapidly. Now is not the time for that. We have absolutely no necessity to create unnecessary troubles. However, for Annam, we cannot adopt the Korean method." Chen Ke didn't care what tragicomedies were happening in Korea. The foundation of strategy is strength, regardless of how much the Korean people suffered or how much sin was committed. Regardless of whether Korean patriots like Jin Liuling and Piao Youxi kowtowed until they bled or committed seppuku. Before Korean anti-Japanese organizations are established, before Korean anti-Japanese organizations can substantially fight Japan and achieve predictable, credible combat results, no expectations can be used as a basis for strategic measurement. This is the basic of seeking truth from facts: anything that does not exist in reality cannot be considered to exist just by relying on fantasy.

Chen Ke stood up and walked to the front of the map of Asia, pointing at the map near Annam as if ordering from a menu, "The French control the three countries of Annam, Laos, and Cambodia. We want to merge Laos, making it Chinese territory. Cambodia needs to sign a military alliance treaty with us. As for Annam..." Chen Ke swiped with his pointer, "We want the northern mountainous areas to be incorporated into our territory, but we don't want a single bit of the plains areas. For the border areas between plains and mountains, we only want the high ground."

"Why?" Zhang Yu asked. The pens of the recorder and some comrades were swishing and tapping on the paper. These comrades knew they knew nothing about foreign strategy, so none of them wanted to argue with Chen Ke. However, according to organizational regulations, even Chen Ke's decisions needed to be passed by the Party Committee to be executed. Every vote by a Central Committee member meant responsibility.

"The mainstream of the world in the next thirty years is waging war and preparing to wage war. There is only the question of fighting and how to fight, not the question of whether to fight or not." Chen Ke did not think that a Second World War wouldn't break out. If not for the terror balance of nuclear weapons, a Third World War would likely have broken out long ago. The beautiful wishes of an individual or a group of people could not change the world situation at all.

The pointer drew a circle on the map, completely encircling the area from China's northernmost point to Southeast Asia, including Australia and New Zealand, "China must liberate the entire West Pacific. This European war... no, after the United States and China join the war, this will be a World War. It is the First World War. This great war is fundamentally not the end; there will still be a Second World War. After the Second World War, which will be almost destructive, China needs to rely on the entire West Pacific to obtain victory for the Chinese Socialist Alliance in the long-term competition that follows. Of course, barring any particularly miraculous events, I'm afraid only the extremely long-lived comrades among us will be able to see the day the competition is decided."

This batch of the People's Party's first generation comrades were all of the age of 1880 or 1890. To live until 1990 indeed required an age of a hundred years. Chen Ke was not optimistic that China's changes could alter the rhythm of the competition between the world's two mainstreams too much.

"This European war is just a beginning?" Although Zhang Yu had long accepted the fact that Chen Ke was a monster psychologically, he was still frightened by Chen Ke's such bold "prediction." As for the other comrades, for a moment they didn't even know what to say. The European war was raging like fire and tea; ordinary comrades couldn't even be completely sure of the outcome of the European war, yet Chen Ke dared to predict a more distant war with such certainty. Although Chen Ke always talked about seeking truth from facts, many of Chen Ke's own actions often seemed to prove that seeking truth from facts might not always be correct.

"Then what are the specific steps?" Lu Huitian never cared what Chen Ke's predictions were; he cared more about what should be done right now and what steps to take.

Chen Ke walked back to his seat, "In Korea, the Japanese owe the Koreans a blood debt; we help the Korean patriots organize guerrilla units. In the Northeast, we continue to liberate the entire Northeast. In the South, those landlords and gentry owe the people a blood debt, and it is also time for it to be repaid."

Hearing Chen Ke mention the blood debt of Jiangnan, or more accurately the monstrous crimes committed in the three places of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong during the April 12th incident last year, the comrades' gazes all became sharp.

While the wars to liberate Hebei, Shandong, and even the advance into the Northeast were raging like fire and tea, Jiangnan was rarely relatively calm. Wang Youhong in Jiangsu had an ambiguous attitude, remaining silent from beginning to end and burying his head in making money. Feng Guozhang in the south originally thought the Beiyang main forces in Hebei could capture Huaihai Province controlled by the People's Party, then he would wave his army north to force Wang Youhong in Jiangsu to surrender, and then launch a full-scale attack on the People's Party from east to west. Plus, the People's Party's control center was in Wuhan, too close to Zhejiang. So Feng Guozhang mainly focused on defense in Jiangnan, and no major battles actually occurred between the two sides. Waiting and waiting, what they waited for was Yuan Shikai dying of illness, the People's Party seizing Hebei and Shandong, and sending troops outside the pass. The situation where the Beiyang remnants in Hebei fled to Shanxi. Feng Guozhang had already completely torn his face with the People's Party; there wasn't even a possibility of a ceasefire. Judging from the intelligence obtained by the People's Party's intelligence agency, the three Beiyang provinces in Jiangnan led by Feng Guozhang were frowning and trembling with fear all day long.

After the People's Party signed the agreement with Japan, the troops took advantage of these few months to reorganize and mobilize; preparations to march into Jiangnan were already complete. Helping Korea organize guerrilla units and liberating the Northeast were the tasks of the Northeast Military Region. Marching into Jiangnan was a task directly commanded by the Central Committee. The committee members from the Military Commission in the Center all had eyes shining. Chen Ke's prediction of the world situation in the next few decades could be left for then, but the current war was what the comrades had been looking forward to for a long time.

The situation of Korean patriots kowtowing until they bled in the Northeast Military Region might move the comrades in the Northeast, but the tragic state of the masses in Jiangnan being slaughtered had long made many comrades in the People's Party Central Committee bristle with anger. The focus of discussing Jiangnan affairs quickly skipped over those executioners who participated in the counter-revolutionary massacre. For these people, the meeting minutes only wrote a short line: "Regarding the initiators and executors of the April 12th incident, the Central Committee's resolution is: whoever owes the people a blood debt must pay with their life."

The Central Committee's focus of discussion on Jiangnan concentrated on the participants, more specifically, the members of the landlord armed militias, and the families of the landlords.

Qi Huishen's relationship with the People's Internal Affairs Committee was still "extremely close." He pulled a document out of his briefcase and first distributed the data charts to the comrades. Qi Huishen introduced: "Of the families of landlords suppressed in Anhui, 30% have been executed over the past ten years. Among the reasons for execution, 32% were for sabotaging collective production, 17% were for acting as inside agents for Beiyang, 22% were for various criminal cases involving loss of life, and another 15% were for participating in local triad organizations. Another 3% were executed for participating in feudal secret societies. The rest were executed for various criminal acts like theft and fraud. There were also a small number executed for committing rape."

Three out of ten people were executed; this ratio was not low. Many comrades hadn't specifically researched this data. Looking at the charts and pie charts, everyone's expression was very grave. Qi Huishen said: "However, although the execution rate among these people is high, not many are sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment, less than 3%. In the annual case reviews, due to background reasons, the proportion of unjust, false, and wrong cases falling on these guys' heads is also relatively large. Many local cadres falsified work; in order to close cases, this group of people sometimes became scapegoats. Among these people, there are also many who truly transformed their stance and concentrated on being laborers, producing results. About 3% of these guys became production team leaders in various places, and about 10% continued in business. About 7% became soldiers. These people have a relatively high literacy rate, and 50% of their children have attended junior high school, especially the proportion of girls attending junior high school is even higher. According to the investigation results, they all hope their children can establish a good background..."

In the old society of Anhui, there were many fortified villages (*weizi*) and landlord militias. These people were all kinsmen of the old Huai Army. Added to the fact that natural disasters in Anhui were quite heavy, the old upper class could be said to be full of villains. The war between the People's Party and Anhui local forces was also extremely bloody and cruel. 99% of the Anhui fortified villages were broken by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army using military force. Just in the first three years, nearly 100,000 members of the old forces were killed in Anhui and Hubei.

The People's Party stressed seeking truth from facts, so the People's Party absolutely believed that the families of the old forces weren't crazy. Their land was seized, their relatives killed; the oppressed among them might feel liberated, but overall, it was impossible for these people to happily accept reality. The People's Party's attitude in this regard was "We, the People's Party, have no personal grudges; whoever is the enemy of the people is our enemy." It was only through such a concept that the policy didn't turn into a massacre of former landlords. Even so, an attitude of distrust towards the old upper class was a common mindset within the People's Party. Qi Huishen, a revolutionary from a standard comprador family, especially understood the mindset that taking away someone's wealth is worse than killing their parents. Not to mention the People's Party not only took away their wealth but also killed their parents.

"For these families, I think it's better to move them to other regions. It's better for everyone. As for the participants, hand them over to the people for trial?" Lu Huitian said.

Zhang Yu subconsciously touched his chin, his eyes shining as he looked at the chart. Some comrades frowned, others simply closed their eyes to think. Lu Huitian seemed somewhat indifferent, just looking at Chen Ke.

Chen Ke asked: "Move them to where? And I heard some villages were almost killed off by these people. How can public trial meetings be held in these areas?"

Qi Huishen answered: "They can be moved anywhere, but I still hope not to kill too many people who haven't stained their hands with blood."

Zhang Yu couldn't help but sneer, "We've built Workers' New Villages; are we going to build a bunch of Sinners' New Villages now?"

Hearing this firmly opposed attitude, many comrades understood that this discussion would not end so easily.