Hearing that Kita Ikki had sent things to so many people in the Japanese cabinet, Takahashi Korekiyo felt both relieved and slightly jealous that he hadn't received anything. He asked, "What exactly did Kita Ikki say?"

Saionji Kinmochi laughed, "What he said is not important. What's important is that I have sent people to openly contact those Japanese in China."

From a tactical point of view, this method was actually not bad. The problem was that only a high-ranking and powerful Japanese like Saionji Kinmochi dared to make such a decision. If it were anyone else, they would probably have been labeled with the crime of colluding with China long ago.

Even so, Takahashi Korekiyo couldn't help but say in a contemptuous tone: "Do those unpatriotic people still have the concept of the Imperial State? I'm afraid they have long regarded themselves as Chinese now, right?"

Takahashi Korekiyo couldn't be blamed for this. Among those who defected to the People's Party, except for Kuroshima Jinichirō, now renamed Kuroshima Jin, who still claimed and was said to have the blood of the Southern Court imperial family of Japan, and even self-proclaimed to be "the only peerage in three thousand years," the origins of the others were basically similar to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's. However, the current status of these guys was vastly different. Group Army Political Commissar, Vice Minister of Agriculture, Deputy Governor, Deputy Mayor, Deputy County Magistrate, Party Secretary, Bureau Chief, Director, Division Head—there were many who managed tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people under them.

According to investigations, among the relatives who ran to China with them to make a living, little brats had even been born who joined Chinese nationality and couldn't even speak Japanese. When these people were in Japan, they had to bow and scrape when seeing officials. Now, when middle-ranking Japanese officials saw them, they had to bow and scrape instead. The Japanese upper echelons hated these Japanese traitors who defected to the People's Party to the core.

Saionji Kinmochi didn't care about the changes in the status of the Japanese members of the People's Party. He said: "We can always provide some channels of communication through these people. If we look for them so openly, presumably these people will also be in a difficult position."

Takahashi Korekiyo agreed with Saionji Kinmochi's idea. As Japanese, following the People's Party in hostility against Japan, if the Japanese side officially sent people to contact them, these people would definitely feel uncomfortable all over. In the eyes of Japanese and Chinese, no matter what they did, they couldn't change their bloodline.

"Then I'll leave it to you, Saionji-kun." Takahashi Korekiyo neatly pushed all the troubles in his hands to others.

But Saionji Kinmochi and Takahashi Korekiyo were obviously wrong. The Japanese members of the People's Party didn't feel difficult at all. Even Kita Ikki, who hadn't joined the People's Party, didn't show the slightest embarrassment when facing the envoy sent by Japan. On August 14, 1917, when Kita Ikki saw the Japanese envoy, he didn't even avoid suspicion and said directly: "I'm going to the court. If you are willing, come along. If not, come back another day."

Being able to highlight the relationship between the Japanese members of the People's Party and Japan was one of the tasks of the Japanese envoy. With this rare opportunity to show his face, the Japanese envoy certainly wouldn't let it go. As the two walked out, the Japanese envoy couldn't help asking first: "There are so many houses to be built in Hangzhou City?"

"It's like this everywhere in China now." Kita Ikki said simply and neatly. Since the People's Party didn't want to adopt any slum solutions during the industrial development stage, and Chen Ke made arrangements in the manner of a "hundred-year plan," building residential communities and industrial zones became the norm in major cities recently. Hangzhou had many water systems. Compared with the major cities in Hebei and Henan that Kita Ikki had visited, the civil engineering of the People's Party in Hangzhou was just a sprinkle.

"What are you going to the court for, Kita-kun? To report me?" the Japanese envoy asked with a smile.

"Mr. Cai Yuanpei will be shot in a few days. I want to go to the court to make a final effort," Kita Ikki replied.

"You want to save Mr. Cai Yuanpei?" The Japanese envoy was very surprised. He thought Kita Ikki would at least firmly support the policies of the People's Party.

"How is that possible? I think Mr. Cai Yuanpei should not be sentenced to death for murder, but should be sentenced to death for counter-revolutionary crimes. But the People's Party's attitude is too firm, so I'm going to the court to make a final effort this time," Kita Ikki replied. "If the court doesn't work, I'll go to the People's Congress to propose a motion."

Hearing Kita Ikki's answer, the Japanese envoy almost stumbled. Kita Ikki didn't care about whether to kill Cai Yuanpei or not, but cared about under what name Cai Yuanpei was killed. Such a move gave the Japanese envoy a feeling that could only be described as ridiculous. Cat playing with mouse was nothing more than this, right? The envoy was Japanese, and he was particularly puzzled by the implications contained therein. Moreover, since the envoy was dispatched by Saionji Kinmochi, he could understand that the People's Congress was equivalent to the Japanese Diet, but the political organization of the People's Party obviously ranked above the People's Congress in status. In his view, exercising this dictatorship in the posture of a political party was quite similar to the combination of the characteristics of the Japanese Army and Navy. Kita Ikki, who had always been a supporter of the socialist system, seemed not to care about this at all, which was also something the envoy didn't understand.

Kita Ikki's action obviously ended up with no result. The court staff seemed extremely annoyed with Kita Ikki's action, and their tone could be called quite impolite. Seeing that they couldn't persuade Kita Ikki to leave, the young staff of the court simply told Kita Ikki, "If you think the law is unfair, then go to the People's Congress. Our court only executes the law, not makes the law."

Even though he had seen many strange things in the People's Party, the Japanese envoy was stunned by this extremely constitutionally conscious answer. One of the biggest characteristics of the bureaucratic organization is to push people from one place to another when encountering unsolvable things. But to find a reasonable basis from the Constitution, this level was truly breathtaking. Looking carefully at the age of the court staff, she was at most a young woman in her early twenties. The Japanese envoy was really confused. Could it be that the number of talents in the hands of the People's Party had reached such an extent?

Kita Ikki didn't waste any more words either. He left the court with the envoy and went to the People's Congress near the court. The location of the People's Congress was at the original Jiangsu Provincial Assembly. Kita Ikki asked to see the Standing Committee member of the People's Congress, but the receptionist didn't appear for a long time. The one who came out was a soldier. Kita Ikki laughed angrily at first sight, "Sagara Aka! What are you doing in the People's Congress?"

Because Kita Ikki used Japanese pronunciation, the Japanese envoy was stunned. Sagara Aka was a relative of Sagara Sōzō of the Sekihōtai back then. His original name was Kojima Horigorō. After coming to China to join the revolution, he changed his name to Sagara Aka (Xiang Lechi). He was now a division-level cadre of the People's Party. This Sagara Aka was also on the Japanese envoy's visiting list.

"I am a member of the Preparatory Committee of the People's Congress. Why can't I come to the People's Congress?" Sagara Aka answered Kita Ikki with a smile while sizing up the Japanese envoy. "Presumably, this is one of the envoys sent by Japan, Mr. Okamura Yasuji, right?"

Hearing Sagara Aka call out his name directly, Okamura Yasuji also stepped forward politely and bowed, "Sagara-kun, I am Okamura Yasuji."

Different from Okamura Yasuji's Japanese etiquette, Sagara Aka stepped forward and shook hands with Okamura Yasuji. His entire demeanor showed no trace of being Japanese, completely consistent with the style of the People's Party.

After shaking hands, Sagara Aka smiled in Chinese: "Let's talk inside."

The location of the former Zhejiang Provincial Assembly was very simple from inside to outside. Apart from necessary tables and chairs, there were no superfluous things. Even the walls collapsed by artillery fire had not been repaired, only the broken bricks and stones had been cleaned up. Okamura Yasuji didn't avoid suspicion at all. He laughed: "Is the People's Party so frugal?"

"No, this place will be demolished soon." Sagara Aka poured tea for the two while answering. The place of conversation was an empty small meeting room with nothing but a dozen tables and chairs. The staff who brought in the teacups and teapot didn't leave after entering.

Sagara Aka said to Kita Ikki: "Brother Kita, don't mention that the Zhejiang People's Congress hasn't been elected yet. Even if the Zhejiang People's Congress is elected, it's useless. The Zhejiang People's Congress cannot violate the Constitution. The Constitution stipulates that there are no political prisoners and no counter-revolutionary crimes. The crime related to political prisoners is subversion of state power, which has a special law. But this law doesn't apply to Cai Yuanpei at all. When he was arrested, he was still an opponent in the civil war, and subverting the state was Cai Yuanpei's right. Even if you ask the National People's Congress to hold a meeting, the People's Congress cannot discuss Cai Yuanpei's matter. The People's Congress has to amend the Constitution first before determining Cai Yuanpei's counter-revolutionary crime. You can understand if I say it this way, right?"

Hearing this, Okamura Yasuji couldn't hold back anymore. His voice was slightly excited as he said: "Sagara-kun, please forgive me for interrupting. Did you come up with these things yourself?"

Sagara Aka was honest, "No, I didn't come up with this. We learned this during meetings."

"So that's how it is." Okamura Yasuji nodded repeatedly. He understood less and less what the People's Party wanted to do. In fact, whether it was the Japanese Army, Navy, or Diet, the purpose of all political forces was only one: to achieve their own interest goals. As for what specific means to adopt, it was entirely based on what kind of power each force possessed. They would all choose the political structure and means most suitable for exerting their power.

As Japan's current "China expert," or more accurately "People's Party expert," Okamura Yasuji himself had studied all the People's Party materials and documents he could collect, and knew the term "procedural justice." However, being able to reinforce "procedural justice" to this extent through meetings really made Okamura Yasuji nod and sigh.

Kita Ikki was not moved by Sagara Aka's rhetoric at all. He said relentlessly, "Counter-revolution inevitably exists. Cai Yuanpei is a counter-revolutionary! We cannot bury our heads in the sand."

Sagara Aka laughed: "We discussed at the meeting that counter-revolution and revolution are a pair of contradictions. This involves a question: what is counter-revolution? How to define it? Even for the People's Party, which persists in communist revolution, socialist revolution, and People's Party revolution, even if the attitude has always been firm, in various stages, the counter-revolution in the eyes of the People's Party is also constantly changing. More than ten years ago, those who supported the continued existence of the Manchu Qing government were counter-revolutionaries. So at that time, Yuan Shikai could choose to overthrow the Manchu Qing, and he was not a counter-revolutionary. What next? Whoever opposes land reform with arms is a counter-revolutionary. But as land reform ended in most areas, counter-revolutionaries were eliminated. Now the definition of counter-revolution is different again. Even Cai Yuanpei was once a firm revolutionary. There is no way to use such hard-to-define things as laws."

Kita Ikki was very impatient with such words. He said: "Then wouldn't it be fine to formulate counter-revolution for each stage in each stage?"

Hearing this, Sagara Aka shook his head, "Counter-revolution is a title meaningful only to the past and present, but the world is constantly changing. Through our current efforts, the future social situation is constantly changing. We cannot let everyone live under the shadow of the past forever. If the crime of counter-revolution is forcibly formulated, you will find that most people are counter-revolutionaries at every stage. If raising the matter to the level of principle, such a judgment can absolutely be drawn."

Hearing this, Kita Ikki snorted coldly, obviously disagreeing with Sagara Aka's view.

And Sagara Aka also disagreed with Kita Ikki's view. He stopped smiling and said seriously: "Brother Kita, our People's Party is the vanguard of the broad working people. What we want to create is a bright future belonging to the working people, not to turn the working people into various counter-revolutionaries. This is our most basic political stance. I always feel that your problem is that you always want to establish a kingly paradise that is once and for all and eternal. Do you think unchanging things can really become a kingly paradise? This kind of thinking is not seeking truth from facts."

Kita Ikki still didn't agree with Sagara Aka's idea, but Okamura Yasuji next to him agreed with Sagara Aka's view quite a bit. As a soldier, if one thinks that war has an eternal mode and military technology is fixed in the present, it only proves that this soldier is unqualified.

Of course, originally as an envoy, Okamura Yasuji's task was to cause some trouble for the Japanese members of the People's Party and create some discord. Now Okamura Yasuji felt this idea was too naive. If the feasibility of implementation was not considered, the best way at present was to send people to kill all the Japanese members of the People's Party. This would best serve Japan's current interests, or rather, the interests of the Japanese upper echelons at present.