Before learning to surf the internet, Chen Ke once believed Lenin's words about returning all Chinese territories seized by Tsarist Russia, and thought that Stalin later reneged on the debt. Later, when he learned to surf the internet, especially after various relatively professional discussions began to appear online, Chen Ke realized that these words were lies.

Back then, Soviet Russia wanted to withdraw from the war and signed the "Treaty of Brest-Litovsk" with the Germans. This treaty fully demonstrated how crafty and cunning the great Comrade Lenin was.

The Bolsheviks had always been a minority. Lenin led the Bolsheviks to success truly because of Comrade Lenin's outstanding personal ability. At that time, the situation in Russia participating in World War I had deteriorated to the point where the people had no clothes or food. The people's greatest desire was a truce, hoping that the country could focus all its energy on national construction and at least let the people have food to eat.

Comrade Lenin saw through the situation at that time. If the Bolsheviks could not gather their strength in a very short time, once the war in Europe ended, Soviet Russia would inevitably perish. So Comrade Lenin signed the "Treaty of Brest-Litovsk" with Germany. The signing process was full of twists and turns, and the Germans asked for a very high price in the treaty. The Bolshevik Central Committee was unwilling, so the first and second votes rejected Lenin's opinion. Among them, Bukharin jumped very actively and took the lead in opposing several times. This was probably one of the reasons why the line "Bukharin is a traitor" later appeared in "Lenin in October."

Lenin eventually threatened to withdraw from the government and the Central Committee. Bukharin didn't care about this, and Stalin did not waver. Trotsky disagreed with Lenin's opinion, but to prevent Lenin's resignation and the party's split, his attitude changed. Under his influence, there were 4 abstentions. As a result, Lenin's proposal was passed with 7 votes in favor, 4 abstentions, and 4 votes against.

On February 24, the Soviet Russian government sent a negotiating delegation again to negotiate with Germany.

On March 3, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was formally signed. According to the treaty, Soviet Russia ceded 3.23 million square kilometers of territory and paid an indemnity of 6 billion marks. Trotsky was dismissed from the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

After Germany's defeat, it signed an armistice agreement with the Entente Powers on November 11, 1918. The Soviet Russian government immediately announced the annulment of this treaty on November 12, making the content of the treaty practically a piece of waste paper.

Soviet Russia, which withdrew from World War I first, seized precious time to complete the gathering of strength. Therefore, the ruthless and decisive means of the Bolsheviks in eradicating enemies were also greatly related to the situation at that time. Having studied this history, Chen Ke certainly would not believe the bullshit that Comrade Lenin really wanted to spit out all the Chinese territories occupied by Tsarist Russia.

The People's Party had not paid attention to Russia because Chen Ke did not know whether the October Revolution would break out. Now that the October Revolution had broken out, Chen Ke certainly would not be stupid enough to believe Comrade Lenin's words.

"Do the Bolsheviks also believe in Marx's communism?" The comrades of the People's Party didn't know much about the Bolsheviks. In fact, the People's Party had no time to pay attention to the northern neighbor.

"Yes," Chen Ke replied. "There are some extraordinary talents in this political party."

Being called a talent was already remarkable, and being defined as "extraordinary" above talent was even more formidable. Especially since this was an evaluation made by the leader of the People's Party, the comrades at the plenary session of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the People's Party immediately perked up.

"Chairman Chen, have you been to Russia?" You Gou couldn't help asking.

"I read Comrade Lenin's articles; this person is very formidable," Chen Ke replied lightly. The People's Party had contact with the Second International. Although the relationship was not great, the Second International provided the People's Party with many publicly available documents.

"Then how do we deal with this Russian matter?" You Gou continued to ask.

"I want to reach a good-neighborly and friendly relationship with Russia, provided that China and Russia can restore the Treaty of Nerchinsk. If possible, I still hope that the birthplace of our great poet Li Bai can return to the Chinese map." Chen Ke still replied lightly.

No one in the Central Committee of the People's Party misunderstood Chen Ke's attitude. Although everyone didn't want to use the method of observing words and expressions to win Chen Ke's favor, everyone knew that the more lightly Chen Ke spoke, the more ruthlessness filled his heart. Everyone saw it right; there was a look of unfocused gaze in Chen Ke's eyes, and there was not a trace of expression on his face. This was enough to prove that Chen Ke was also considering how to deal with the future situation.

This was also where the comrades found Chen Ke very interesting. He seemed to be able to enter an indescribable state at any time. In that state, Chen Ke would look at the world with a vision that the comrades couldn't imagine. In this state, Chen Ke could even talk to everyone basically normally.

"We don't have the troops to fight Russia at all right now. Even with emergency mobilization, we can at most maintain 300,000 troops in the Northeast," Hua Xiongmao said.

"It's not time to solve the problem militarily yet." Chen Ke's eyes still looked unfocused, but he rejected Hua Xiongmao's suggestion.

"Then when do we wait until?" Hua Xiongmao asked.

This question finally made Chen Ke close his eyes. A moment later, Chen Ke opened his eyes and looked at Hua Xiongmao with sharp and spirited eyes, "Even if the northern territories cannot be reclaimed, it is not a problem. It is better to put our precious national strength on the present. Moreover, if the goal is just to add some trouble to Comrade Lenin, there are too many ways."

Even if they didn't know how Chen Ke planned to add trouble to Comrade Lenin, the Central Committee of the People's Party already understood that the tone had been set on how to treat the Bolsheviks led by Comrade Lenin and Soviet Russia at present.

The People's Party had little experience in treating allies so far. After determining Comrade Lenin as a potential enemy, the comrades of the People's Party felt much more relaxed. Zhang Yu asked: "Comrade Lenin's envoy has arrived here; how should we treat him?"

Chen Ke replied: "Tell them that we always oppose imperialist wars, but for the interests of China, we cannot withdraw from the Entente group. This is the multifaceted nature of interests. Please ask Comrade Lenin to understand our difficulties."

"Oh? You actually want to tell the truth to Comrade Lenin!" Zhang Yu immediately became interested. If the other party could really understand these words and face the attitude of the People's Party realistically... he would really be a remarkable character.

Chen Tianhua frowned slightly, "But as a political party believing in communism..."

"First of all, we must seek truth from facts." Chen Ke cut off Chen Tianhua's words, "Marxism emphasizes materialism first. What Marxism wants to liberate first is the Marxist himself. We should not be constrained by vague theories because we live in a material world. Revisionism certainly cannot be engaged in, but can we walk the path of socialism and even communism relying on metaphysics? Socialism and communism are advanced primarily because they are science, not religion."

"Then how to talk about the scientific nature of Marxism?" Chen Tianhua was very interested in this topic.

"The primary characteristic of science is falsifiability. The essence of non-science lies not in its correctness or not, but in its unfalsifiability. So I said that mathematics and logic are non-science because they do not use any experience to verify them. If we want to prove that socialism and communism are sciences, we need to be able to prove that they are falsifiable. There are ways to prove that they are wrong. If we can verify these errors one by one, what is left? What is left is the correct method." Chen Ke couldn't help but talk about these things that were a bit too far off topic, but as a guy who believed in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Chen Ke couldn't help but talk about these after receiving news from Lenin. The example of the Soviet Union was too great and too hard for Chen Ke to let go. If Grandpa Mao hadn't forcefully cleared the Soviet model within the party in history, heaven knows what terrible results would have appeared in China.

But these words were inevitably too mysterious. As a political party believing in Marxism, wanting to falsify Marxism sounded suspiciously like deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors. The comrades looked at each other, very puzzled by Chen Ke's meaning.

Chen Tianhua said: "Chairman Chen, can you explain it in simpler words?"

Chen Ke snorted coldly and said loudly: "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth; the named is the mother of all things. Therefore, let there always be non-being, so we may see their subtlety, and let there always be being, so we may see their outcome. The two are the same, but after they are produced, they have different names. They both may be called deep and profound. Deeper and more profound, the door of all subtleties!"

This is the opening of the "Tao Te Ching," condensing the basic attitude of Chinese philosophy towards science and the world. Reading it was much more mysterious than the "Conjectures and Refutations" plagiarized by Chen Ke.

Chen Tianhua didn't become a Standing Committee member of the party branch for nothing. While other committee members either frowned in deep thought or were simply dumbfounded, Chen Tianhua laughed: "Mold clay to make a vessel; from its non-being (in the center) comes the utility of the vessel. Cut out doors and windows to make a house; from its non-being comes the utility of the house. Therefore, profit comes from what is there; utility from what is not there."

"Exactly so. Marxism believes that truths in the world are relative and dialectical. We persist in Marxism; we persist in using theory to practice. We believe that productive forces are the driving force for social development. We believe that labor created man himself. We also want to learn the advanced parts of all cultures. However, we must absolutely not invite Marxism to be a god or a memorial tablet. If we can't do this, we can't fight imperialism, let alone Comrade Lenin." After saying these, Chen Ke breathed a long sigh of relief as if exhaling poison gas.

Chen Ke said this far, and even if the comrades didn't understand the classical Chinese, they had fully understood Chen Ke's attitude. "On Contradiction" repeatedly stated that contradictions exist eternally. Since the Bolsheviks led by Comrade Lenin contacted the People's Party, contradictions existed at the moment such a relationship was established. What remained to be done was how to solve old contradictions and meet new contradictions. In the eyes of Marxist revolutionaries, contradictions are all the truth of the world. At least Chen Ke instilled this into the comrades, and everything in the past proved this fact.

"Then our recent work is still focused on reducing social operating costs through transportation and infrastructure construction?" You Gou asked somewhat happily. The recent infrastructure construction had achieved remarkable results. The steel and cement industries faced unprecedented pressure, allowing the People's Party to fully recover the investment in the large crusher project. Even if not measuring the problem from the perspective of making money, wherever railways and shipping went, the reduction in transaction costs greatly promoted the development of labor in various places. The development of labor driven by social demand also promoted the social consciousness of the local masses. This is a very simple principle. The masses know very well that outsiders must come to buy things so that the things they originally couldn't sell can be sold. They must know who exactly comes to buy their products. And what they hope most is that outsiders can continue to come and buy their products. Through infrastructure construction such as railways, roads, and water transport, more and more masses finally have more connections with the government-led society.

When the Central Committee of the People's Party talked about economic issues, they would absolutely not be like the People's Congress, knowing neither the how nor the why. The industrial part of the government work report was still proposed by the National Defense Science and Technology Commission. You Gou pointed to the map and said: "The coal-iron complex group in the Northeast, the coal-iron complex group from Beijing to Handan, the coal-iron complex group in Henan, the coal-iron complex group in the Yangtze River basin, and the coal-iron complex group near Zaozhuang have all been laid out. The southern ones have already achieved construction results. But I still feel something is wrong with the coal-iron complex group in Zhanjiang here. Especially why build a coal-iron complex on Qiongzhou Island (Hainan)?"

Chen Ke certainly wouldn't tell You Gou that the high-quality iron ore on Hainan Island was proven during the Japanese invasion of China, nor would he tell You Gou that the book "Lin Gao Qi Ming" on the internet in the 21st century had ample fantasies about developing Hainan Island. Chen Ke just asked, "Did you find iron ore?"

"Found it, the grade is good." You Gou replied.

"Then build it," Chen Ke replied.

You Gou laughed: "How can our industrial department be afraid of investment? We are only afraid that the investment is not enough, but the Ministry of Finance is scared out of its wits now. Chairman Chen, you have to persuade them."

"Do I still need to persuade them? Our People's Party's globalization radiates at most to a part of Southeast Asia. Our tentacles have just reached India. Except for raw silk and heavy chemical products, other products have not been able to enter Europe. I asked the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Finance said that most of the costs are now spent on transportation. Not even mentioning these bulk trades, we can sell as much soda ash as we have. But we can't produce steel for manufacturing high-temperature and high-pressure equipment, which let the Americans earn how much money from us? We have developed electroslag remelting technology for more than six years and spent countless money. Now we can build reaction kettles ourselves, and hasn't our cognitive knowledge of the reactions of various ores improved a big step? This money can be earned back in a blink of an eye."

Hearing Chen Ke criticize him, the Minister of Finance was very unconvinced, "The European war, oh, once the World War ends, the British and French owe a buttload of debt, American production capacity has skyrocketed, and Europe is beaten into ruins. No matter how you look at it, the world market will be in a depression period. With our production scale expanded to such an extent, it would be strange if nothing goes wrong."

"If you think that China after the end of World War I will be exactly the same as now and will not change, your statement is correct. But the world is changing, and China is changing every day. The Second Industrial Revolution is not over now; it is just unfolding." Chen Ke knew very well how fearful China was when joining the WTO. The result was that China was not only not killed by foreign countries, but China killed foreign countries instead. The era the People's Party faced now was very similar to the situation New China faced in the 21st century.

In every link, China was a bit behind the world, but this backwardness could be offset by labor-intensive industries and the advantages of the industrial chain of "the whole country as a chessboard" possessed by China's system. So China had nothing to fear. The problem lay in whether China's industrial R&D could forcibly eliminate backward production methods and technologies at the fastest speed. Whether China could cultivate its own powerful enterprises and entrepreneurial spirit.

If the various feudalistic things that draw a circle on the ground as a prison in the production field could not be eliminated, China would sooner or later fall into the outcome of Europe and the Soviet Union. This was what Chen Ke was afraid of. As for the tragic state of crawling and hitting the head on the ground all the way during the development process, this is the norm of social development. With Chen Ke in the People's Party, this process could absolutely be described as smooth sailing.

The Minister of Finance knew he couldn't twist Chen Ke's arm. He gritted his teeth and made up his mind, "I can only give another 500 million, not a penny more."

"Okay," Chen Ke replied.

Just as You Gou started to smile like a flower, she heard Chen Ke continue: "Regarding the commercial bank loan issue discussed last time, and the credit rating method for all enterprises, I think we can use this 500 million for a pilot run."

Hearing this, You Gou's face instantly turned black. Instead, the Minister of Finance immediately revealed a big smile and nodded vigorously, "Let's do it this way! Let's do it this way!"