Full of joy, returning in disappointment. This was somewhat close to Okamura Yasuji's current state of mind. Kita Ikki obviously did not support the stance and methods of the People's Party, but he was even more opposed to Japan's current political model. Originally, Okamura Yasuji had the task of persuading Japanese revolutionaries in China to act as insiders for the Japanese high-level officials. As a result, Okamura Yasuji found that Kita Ikki was not only unmoved but even tried hard to persuade Okamura Yasuji, the envoy from the Japanese side, to defect to the revolution. This was inevitably "too much," even though Kita Ikki's "Outline for the Reconstruction of Japan" was indeed quite interesting.

After managing to cope with Kita Ikki's enthusiastic explanation for the time being, Okamura Yasuji asked: "Kita-kun, are all the Japanese members of the People's Party like Sagara Aka now?"

"These people are now divided into two types: one is like Sagara Aka, and the other is unwilling to consider Japan anymore, trying to join Chinese nationality and be Chinese from now on." Kita Ikki gave Okamura Yasuji a fairly definite answer.

Since Kita Ikki was very interested in Cai Yuanpei, Okamura Yasuji also adopted the mode of following the conversation. He asked: "What is the attitude of these people towards the execution of Mr. Cai Yuanpei?"

"Either they think this is just an event encountered in the revolutionary process, or they are indifferent." Kita Ikki's tone showed considerable disappointment in this. "Revolution requires ideals. After the People's Party established its own national regime, it stopped talking about ideals and only talked about systems and execution. I originally thought Chen Ke would not support the so-called concept of separation of powers, but aimed at unifying the concept of the whole country. But in recent execution, the People's Party is only unifying its own concepts. regarding the revolution at the national level, they actually proposed the view of recognizing the coexistence of various thoughts and even multiple forms of ownership."

Kita Ikki spoke very passionately, and Okamura Yasuji listened with great interest. This was not pretended by Okamura Yasuji. As a person with considerable learning in the Japanese Army, he never opposed learning. Especially after experiencing that terrible winter retreat in Northeast China, Okamura Yasuji became more interested in the propositions of the People's Party, especially Chen Ke's military thoughts.

Only the advanced and correct can win; Okamura Yasuji firmly believed this. The equipment of the People's Party was not much more advanced than Japan's; Okamura Yasuji learned this through the war. Since the failure of the Japanese army was not caused by weapons with a generational gap, what remained was the gap in military command. There was nothing particularly spectacular in the specific campaign execution of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army; this was Okamura Yasuji's reflection on the war. The clever combination of techniques and tactics came entirely from daily training. The Japanese troops who had experienced the flames of war did not return alive, so one could only learn the tactics of the People's Party after analysis. In fact, Japan was also learning these things.

What Okamura Yasuji truly found difficult to learn was the strategy of the People's Party. The Japanese army had already fallen into a desperate situation before the war proceeded to actual engagement. Unless the Japanese army could accumulate tactical victories to finally reach the point of reversing strategic victory, or the People's Party made huge mistakes in the process of executing tactics, the war situation in the Northeast would have had no other outcome. This was Okamura Yasuji's true feeling after reviewing the Sino-Japanese War in the Northeast. But he couldn't say this out loud.

The commander of the 19th Division committed suicide after returning to Japan, but before he died, he still tried every means to protect Okamura Yasuji. After investigation, the Army Department believed that Okamura Yasuji performed quite well during the campaign. If not for his strong advocacy of retreat, the 19th Division could not have returned to Korea at all. Therefore, the Army Department listed Okamura Yasuji on the reprimand list but did not demote him. Even though Okamura Yasuji was transferred back to Japan to serve as a liaison officer, they seized the opportunity to promote his military rank.

Okamura Yasuji was not disheartened by the defeat. The work of a liaison officer was very leisurely, so he devoted more time to learning. Before being appointed as an envoy this time, Okamura Yasuji also seriously studied the full text of Kita Ikki's "Outline for the Reconstruction of Japan."

Essentially, Okamura Yasuji agreed with Kita Ikki's view that Japan must be integrated into a strong system, and the idea of coexistence of multiple concepts was extremely harmful to Japan. The reason why the Army Department opposed party politics was not entirely because their own interests could not be expanded infinitely; those who had this idea were mostly the upper echelons. For the middle and lower young officers of the army, especially lower-ranking officers, they hated the squeeze and exploitation of the country by big capitalists. No matter how many slogans party politics put forward and how many bills were voted on, Japan's national interests were basically seized by big capitalists, and the Japanese people did not get benefits.

The Japanese upper echelons certainly knew the dissatisfaction and opposition accumulated among the people. Even before the rise of the People's Party, Japan went all out to crack down on socialist concepts. After the rise of the People's Party, the Japanese upper echelons strictly blocked the spread of People's Party thoughts to Japan, especially people's revolution, land revolution, and socialism. Even if it didn't reach the point of "executing the clan of those who talk together," at least it was a state of jittery fear where every bush and tree looked like an enemy. Among the news Okamura Yasuji had heard, anything with the word "society" was banned in Japan; even a book called "Insect Society" written by a biologist was banned from publication because of the use of the word "society." A police officer in Nagano Prefecture once saw a sign of a certain "kaisha" (company in Japanese) hanging at someone's door. He read "kaisha" backwards as "shakai" (society), drew his sword, and rushed into the office to execute his duty! After Japan was defeated in Northeast China, this situation became increasingly intense.

The upper echelons strongly suppressed "non-national thoughts," while Japanese citizens were breathless from cruel exploitation and oppression. Since they couldn't get other thoughts, Japan's existing thoughts began to be recombined and reinterpreted. All parties tried to find a future path from them. The Army Department naturally supported expansionism. Even if they couldn't beat the People's Party, the Japanese military department tried hard to cultivate revenge sentiment. The rise and construction of the People's Party made the Japanese Army Department feel deeply that if they could annex China, Japan could also have an equally glorious future.

Okamura Yasuji might not fully support the views of the Japanese military department. Just blindly clamoring "seven lives to serve the country" and "loyalty to the Emperor" could absolutely not win victory. Okamura Yasuji fully understood how terrible rigid thinking was before implementing the retreat. The People's Party never shouted slogans like "communism" or "socialism" to the people; they said directly "land revolution," "people's liberation," and "class struggle." Just these three points and various execution policies made the People's Party invincible.

In Kita Ikki's "Outline for the Reconstruction of Japan," Okamura Yasuji didn't care much about Kita Ikki's understanding of the socialist system. What Okamura Yasuji cared about was the set of practical methods proposed by Kita Ikki. After all, having stayed in China for a long time, Kita Ikki combined the practice of the People's Party with the Japanese situation in his mind and proposed a complete set of practical measures. If the content of cracking down on and suppressing big capital and landlords was cancelled, simply on the reorganization mode of Japanese society, Okamura Yasuji believed that Kita Ikki's views were very reliable.

Okamura Yasuji believed that the current problem in Japan was that capital owners seized all benefits. Kita Ikki believed that a strong government implementing a ticket system to give Japanese citizens minimum guarantees, while rewarding diligence and punishing laziness, combined with nationalist education, could purify the thoughts of Japanese citizens, let Japanese citizens recognize who the enemy was, and unite to overthrow all enemies domestic and foreign.

Combining the practice and theory of the People's Party, Okamura Yasuji believed that the biggest problem of the Army Department lay in their neglect of the people. These people were too accustomed to commanding and even oppressing the people, but never thought of integrating the entire Japanese people under one concept. Okamura Yasuji had studied Chinese since childhood and had high attainments in Chinese. He saw a very interesting sentence when the People's Party recently criticized Cai Yuanpei: "All people are equal, but some are more equal than others." After reading it, he suddenly felt a sudden enlightenment about politics.

Let alone achieving the subtle state of "some are more equal than others," the Army Department couldn't even shout the slogan of the first step, "all people are equal." In this regard, Kita Ikki's "Outline for the Reconstruction of Japan" at least systematically proposed how to shout the slogan "all people are equal" in Japan, and systematically explained how to interpret the slogan "all people are equal" under "one concept."

This execution method was what Okamura Yasuji believed the Army Department truly needed.

So after listening seriously to Kita Ikki's remarks attacking the People's Party's "gradual revolution, but continuous revolution," Okamura Yasuji found time to ask: "Kita-kun, don't you plan to go and see Cai Yuanpei off? After all, he will be executed by shooting in three days."

"I have no good feelings for Cai Yuanpei himself at all; why should I go to see him off?" Kita Ikki asked, feeling very strange.

"If you are not interested in him, then I would like to talk to you about your book," Okamura Yasuji said.

Kita Ikki didn't expect that Okamura Yasuji would be very interested in his book. After hesitating for only a moment, his gaze became enthusiastic.

While Okamura Yasuji and Kita Ikki were conducting an in-depth discussion on the "Outline for the Reconstruction of Japan," a gathering of parting in life and death was taking place inside the Hangzhou prison where Cai Yuanpei was detained.

Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren sat opposite Cai Yuanpei. Both looked complex and were quite emotional. Opposite them, Cai Yuanpei, even wearing handcuffs and shackles connected by an iron chain, remained quite calm. He could even say to the two with a miserable smile: "Seeing that you two are still well, a big stone in my heart has fallen. You two once supported me, Cai, and I am very grateful."

Huang Xing had a straightforward nature. His two whiskers trembled slightly, "Mr. Cai, I came this time to ask one thing: was the person who assassinated Duke Tao really Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Zhiqing)?"

Hearing this, Song Jiaoren's breathing became slightly heavier, and his sharp gaze fell on Cai Yuanpei's face. The assassination of Tao Chengzhang was the prelude to this April 12 Great Purge in Western Zhejiang. If Tao Chengzhang hadn't died, Cai Yuanpei, fearing the consequences, might not have dared to implement the purge so wantonly. After all, Tao Chengzhang's prestige was there. If Tao Chengzhang was determined to oppose it, many people in the Guangfu Society might not have dared to really jump out under Tao Chengzhang's accumulated prestige.

Hearing this question, Cai Yuanpei's expression dimmed, "Huanqing's death indeed had nothing to do with me. Based on the testimony obtained in this trial, it seems that Chen Qimei had a great relationship with Huanqing's death. I am not aware of the rest."

After a moment of silence, Cai Yuanpei continued, "If you two don't believe me, Cai, you are free not to. Thinking about it now, I, Cai, indeed have a great responsibility for Huanqing's death."

In fact, Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren didn't really fully believe that Cai Yuanpei would lay hands on Tao Chengzhang. However, since they publicly declared their willingness to die with Cai Yuanpei, many people who came to visit the prison mentioned this matter. Even if it didn't reach the point where repeated slander makes gold melt, the two couldn't help but have doubts in their hearts.

Song Jiaoren hesitated for a moment and finally couldn't help asking: "Mr. Cai, I want to be bold and ask you a question. If Huanqing had not been assassinated by Chiang Kai-shek, would he be on your purge list?"

Hearing this, Huang Xing's body trembled slightly, and he also stared at Cai Yuanpei with burning eyes. However, Cai Yuanpei's performance couldn't help but make Huang Xing feel uneasy, because Cai Yuanpei lowered his gaze and actually remained silent for a long time.