Comrade Belkov had already met with Zhang Yu and was very clear about the stance of the People's Party. The All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) also knew that there was a political organization called the People's Party in China, which was said to be guided by Marxism. However, the two sides had no opportunity to establish contact at all. The Second International in Europe was almost completely split during the World War, so there was even less opportunity to learn more about the People's Party.

In this era, Marxism and socialism were by no means insignificant schools of thought in Europe. Basically, every European country had socialist parties and Marxist parties. Therefore, the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was very interested in what policy the People's Party held. Based on the information Belkov had learned, he believed that the People's Party was not so much a Marxist party as it was more similar to the Social Democratic Party in Europe. Lenin had instructed Belkov that if the People's Party was a Social Democratic Party, then he must pay extreme attention to the nationalist tendencies of the People's Party.

Sure enough, as Lenin predicted, on the matter of withdrawing from the World War, Chen Ke flatly rejected Lenin's suggestion. "We have always opposed imperialist wars, so we will not send any troops to Europe to participate in the war. However, we will not withdraw from the Entente Powers either. No matter what differences and conflicts Russia has with Europe, Europe still regards Russia as part of Europe. But we, China, need to join the world. As Marx described in the 'Communist Manifesto,' globalization is the inevitable direction of the world's future."

The term "globalization" did not appear at all during World War I, so Belkov was very interested in this unfamiliar term that had never appeared in the "Communist Manifesto." However, based on the understanding gap of one hundred years between the two sides, Belkov finally only roughly understood what Chen Ke meant after discussing the specific content of the "Communist Manifesto" with Chen Ke.

...The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere.

The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilized nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old wants, satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature.

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization. The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image. ...

This was the prediction of globalization in the "Communist Manifesto" officially published by Marx in February 1848. Chen Ke actually saw how accurately this prediction was realized.

Even though Belkov had not seen the appearance of the 21st century, in 1918, 70 years after the publication of the "Communist Manifesto," he indeed felt Marx's profound insight. Similarly, changing his initial impression of the People's Party, Belkov had to admit that the leader of the People's Party in front of him was by no means a simple leader of a Social Democratic Party. Judging from what Chen Ke said, Chen Ke was indeed a figure who had truly studied Marxism and was influenced by Marxism to a considerable extent.

Regarding the political platform of the People's Party, Chen Ke did not hide it either. The People's Party believed that scientific communism could definitely be realized, but China with backward productive forces could not realize "public ownership of the means of production" for the time being. Therefore, the People's Party could only temporarily manage the means of production in the form of a socialist system and allow multiple forms of ownership of the means of production to exist for a long time. This is the viewpoint of historical materialism.

Belkov was not in charge of ideology in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). If he were a comrade in charge of ideology, he could not have been sent to China from thousands of miles away. This would waste several months on the road. Regarding Chen Ke's firm explanation, Belkov did not have much room for full discussion. Moreover, Chen Ke had flatly rejected the request of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) hoping that China would withdraw from the World War together. Next, he proposed the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia. Once diplomatic relations were established, Russia was willing to cancel all privileges in China and cancel all "secret treaties" signed between Russia and China that were harmful to China.

Chen Ke didn't want to say anything unpleasant. Comrade Belkov's attitude of loyalty to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was commendable. If he didn't have such loyalty, Chen Ke would have felt disappointed. However, Chen Ke also regretted that Comrade Lenin, the old fox, played such tricks. There is a saying in history that Comrade Lenin proposed to abolish all "secret treaties" signed between Tsarist Russia and China. Chen Ke had not a bit of interest in these so-called "secret treaties."

Regarding Comrade Belkov's proposal hoping for the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia, Chen Ke rejected it on the grounds of Politburo discussion. At the end of the meeting, Chen Ke entrusted Comrade Belkov to bring his congratulations to Comrade Lenin and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Chen Ke expressed his belief that the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) would definitely be able to achieve the liberation of the entire Russia in the shortest time.

Ending the meeting, Chen Ke immediately convened a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Politburo. He said straightforwardly: "I personally think that the Russian Communist Party is already considering the issue of those territories bordering China."

The comrades of the People's Party naturally knew that Chen Ke wanted to recover those territories, but they didn't expect Chen Ke to propose this idea so simply and clearly.

"Are we going to fight?" You Gou immediately became nervous.

Chen Ke laughed: "Our civil war hasn't ended, and the Russian civil war hasn't ended either. Even if there is a war, it won't be our turn to fight the Russians first. Now we just have to start preparing. The Northeast Military Region will march north immediately when spring begins. The Hebei Military Region will start marching into Inner and Outer Mongolia."

"Until where will the march to the north go?" You Gou cared about this very much.

Chen Ke answered very simply, "Restoring to the Treaty of Nerchinsk will be enough. I have no interest in Russian land."

Chen Tianhua had read some materials about the Russian Communist Party. Although the materials were very limited, Chen Tianhua was still quite interested. "That depends on what kind of war the Russian Communist Party will fight with us? The Northeast is already that cold; how cold will it be further north? If Russia loses the Far East, it will be difficult for Russia to maintain a large-scale presence in the East. From the perspective of social operating costs, if Russia wants to maintain a balance of power with us, the cost is too high."

Chen Ke nodded, "As long as the Treaty of Nerchinsk can be restored, I don't want to have any war with the Russian Communist Party. That would be a war where the loss outweighs the gain. Have you all seen our reports on Laos and Northern Vietnam? Why don't we go south instead of consuming precious national strength meaninglessly in the north?"

The Politburo had certainly read the report on Northern Vietnam. After the People's Party occupied Hong Gai in Quang Ninh, the local coal mines almost drove the mining experts of the People's Party crazy. This was high-quality anthracite never seen before. Just expanding the local port casually could transport it to Qiongzhou Island (Hainan), where it could be directly used for iron and steel smelting. The newly built steel and iron directly solved a large part of Qiongzhou Island's demand. Moreover, Northern Vietnam also had iron ore and limestone mines, plus abundant water volume, fully possessing the important conditions for a coal-iron complex industrial base.

Not to mention that the rich resources of Southeast Asia and other places were now completely open to the People's Party. The originally inexplicable coconut trade had now become the source of a very influential industrial chain in China. Coconut candy, coconut oil, coconut meat, coconut shell, coconut palm—this industrial chain provided nearly one million jobs, most of which were jobs that women could handle. The price of buttons in the People's Party base area was so low that in less than ten years, it eliminated buttons made of traditional fabrics for thousands of years in a huge range. As for the Malaysian palm oil development that had already begun, Chen Ke estimated that it could provide more than five million tons of oil to China every year. What a huge profit this was.

Reality had made the Standing Committee members of the Politburo realize how rich the returns trade could bring. Southeast Asia was an important market for the industrial products of the People's Party. Precisely because trade allowed local merchants and colonists in Southeast Asia to make big money, they also attached more importance to trade. It is no exaggeration to say that trade with Southeast Asia changed the economic form within the People's Party liberated areas in a very short time. Under such a situation, having a meaningless war with the northern Russian neighbor was indeed a very stupid thing.

"Giving up no inch of land, Russia might not be willing to suffer this loss." Chen Tianhua was not confused into thinking that Russians were soft persimmons that could be kneaded at will.

"So we have to do a lot of preparatory work," Chen Ke replied.

"Speaking of preparatory work, Britain and France have already asked us to provide more anti-gas drugs," You Gou said. The People's Party from top to bottom, and even people of insight in China, had an instinctive aversion to stimulants. Even if this drug was almost more expensive than gold, You Gou didn't like this trade at all.

"How much more do they want?" Chen Ke asked.

"Ten tons?" Now Chen Ke was also a bit confused. The People's Party had also inhumanely conducted experiments with their own comrades and prisoners. Taking 0.2 grams at a time was enough to stimulate the nerves. One ton is one million grams. Even if the British and French armies used one ton at a time, and the white people in Britain and France were more tolerant to stimulants, needing 0.5 grams per person, that would be enough for an army of 2 million to launch a major offensive. They wanted to buy ten tons in one go; what unprecedented scale of battle were they preparing to fight?

You Gou sneered: "Chairman Chen, do you think those people in Britain and France are like us, unwilling to touch that stuff even when at the end of their rope? I also learned a bit; they are almost relying on this to hang on to their lives now. I also sent people to investigate; now the British and French troops on the war front rely on this to maintain morale. They take it regularly every month to boost their spirits. They have to take it before battle, and after battle, they smoke opium, take morphine, and even inject Dolantin and heroin. Without this method, they can't even maintain the army on the battlefield. I think they want this amount just to maintain daily consumption."

In mid-1917, relying on the "Divine Body Protection Pill" purchased on a large scale from China, the French launched several large-scale campaigns in succession. After a bloody battle, the French could no longer continue fighting. The current French high-level officials were not too worried about the French army lacking the will to fight; the reason they couldn't continue fighting was that they had really bled dry. Young and strong men could no longer be seen on the streets of France; they had all gone to the front line.

France had almost bled dry, so in the second half of 1917, the main body of the offensive became the British army. After a series of battles, with the help of the "Divine Body Protection Pill," the British army exerted unprecedented fighting will. The British army and the cannon fodder troops conscripted from various colonies suffered nearly 2 million casualties. Especially those colonial servant troops; the British inevitably gave them large doses of "Divine Body Protection Pill" before the war, and the casualties of these cannon fodder troops were particularly heavy.

"Britain and France do things quite scientifically; they also did quantitative experiments. White people take between 0.5 and 0.7 grams at a time. Servant troops from North Africa and South Asia take about the same amount, maybe slightly less. Black people need about one gram at a time."

Chen Ke rarely showed a dumbfounded expression. Drugs were really beyond Chen Ke's imagination. His moral outlook really couldn't let him rationally construct a reasonable line of thought.

"In addition, the Americans also know about this medicine. They made a request to buy one ton from us. But they hoped we could be cheaper. Wang Bin has already rejected this unreasonable request." You Gou threw out another piece of news.

Before Chen Ke could understand, You Gou continued to throw out an even bigger flash bomb, "The Germans also sent someone to contact us. As long as we can transport these medicines to Germany, they are willing to pay ten times the price, trading entirely in gold. If we are willing to give them the formula, they promised to give us anything we want. Whatever we want, they give."

As a guy interested in military affairs, as an admirer of the People's Army, and a descendant of the Eighth Route Army, Chen Ke still had a little sacred feeling about war. Since its establishment, the great People's Liberation Army had never fought a battle for aggression. As a citizen of New China, this was also a part that Chen Ke was proud of.

Chen Ke knew that sometimes he had a martyr's mentality. Revolution requires sacrifice, and the altar of history always craves sacrifices. Even knowing that this idea only proved the weakness and incompetence in his human nature, Chen Ke still needed this mentality to balance his emotions. He engaged in intrigue internationally, trying to fully utilize the situation to obtain maximum benefits for China. These means could not shake Chen Ke's confidence in personal morality.

So You Gou's report outlined a picture where the warring parties of the imperialist war tried to rely entirely on drugs to numb their armies to maintain a cruel and bloody war. This couldn't help but make Chen Ke feel like vomiting.

Having suppressed this emotion with difficulty, Chen Ke said: "Didn't we develop several kinds of stimulants? Find one with the weakest effect to give to Germany. What does everyone think?"

With Chen Ke as the backing, You Gou had no problem of conscience at all. She sneered, "Selling to the Germans is fine. According to the conventions of belligerent countries, we have already confiscated all German assets in China. The problem is that the Germans are destined to be defeated. Once defeated, they are destined to be stripped clean by the Entente Powers. What can they use to pay us back then?"