In the following days, Kita Ikki wandered all over Tokyo. After entering August, the young spy, having learned some basic socio-economic knowledge from Kita, became increasingly close to him. By August 5th, the young spy excitedly told Kita Ikki that the Army Ministry had ended their surveillance mission on him. The young fellow specifically asked if they would switch people to continue the surveillance or terminate it, and the result was termination.

"I am Haneda Sei." The young spy gave his name for the first time. "Mr. Kita, aren't you afraid the government will take action against you?"

Kita Ikki smiled bitterly. "Of course I'm afraid! Which revolution has ever been bloodless? I only fear dying in vain. If the Japanese revolution can succeed, what is my life worth?"

There were plenty of Japanese who spoke such big words. As a spy, Haneda Sei was tired of hearing them. However, the songs Kita Ikki composed and the specific social statistical analysis methods Kita taught him made Haneda respect Kita immensely. Compared to those who simply attacked the government and frantically shouted revolutionary slogans, Kita Ikki gave Haneda the feeling of truly clearing away the clouds to see the sun.

Haneda Sei said seriously, "Mr. Kita, there are many organizations in Tokyo shouting for revolution. If you need their addresses, I can provide them to you. But there are many spies watching these organizations, so please be very careful."

"Thank you very much!" Kita Ikki bowed seriously in thanks.

This sincere attitude made Haneda Sei feel embarrassed. He quickly bowed in return, blushing as he said, "Mr. Kita, even if I want to help you, my ability is limited. But the current situation in Japan is so terrible, and no one can find a way out. On the contrary, Mr. Kita is perhaps the only one who can find a way out for Japan. So please, Mr. Kita, you must do your best!"

Using the list provided by Haneda Sei, Kita Ikki began to contact those "anti-government salon" organizations in Tokyo. In fact, he didn't necessarily trust Haneda Sei completely. Kita Ikki was a Japanese "activist". Like other activists, in his early years, to raise revolutionary funds, he had done many unsavory things. In this regard, Miyazaki Toten, who had now defected to the People's Party, was exactly the same as Kita Ikki; Miyazaki Toten had even joined the Yakuza in his early years. With his understanding of the dark side of human nature and conspiracies, Kita Ikki was by no means a naive and kind person.

It was just that if he didn't trust Haneda Sei now, there was no other way. Kita Ikki did need to contact those Japanese radicals. In the revolutionary theory of the People's Party, revolution is not created by revolutionaries, but needed by the working people. This sentence left a deep impression on Kita Ikki. The People's Party started with just a few people and unified China in name within a dozen years. Even if the speed of seizing power was far less than that of the Beiyang Yuan Shikai, such a miraculous performance could be called shocking.

Kita Ikki had been away from Japan for several years, and China had changed a lot in those years, as had Japan. Without investigation, there is no right to speak. What Kita Ikki needed most now was to reintegrate into society. At least now Kita Ikki was no longer lacking in funds. The Japanese comrades in the People's Party had pooled a sum of money themselves, and Kuroshima Jen had applied for an activity fund from the People's Party. If he were to use money to pave the way like before, finding a tavern or brothel like a "Meiji activist," calling some women to eat, drink, and talk, it naturally wouldn't last long. But for normal food, clothing, housing, and transportation, this money could guarantee Kita Ikki a normal life for quite a long time.

Tokyo in August was hot to death. Just moving a little would cause sweating all over. Kita Ikki walked around under the scorching sun. He didn't hastily contact those anti-Japanese government salon organizations according to the list provided by Haneda Sei. Instead, he joined hands with Okawa Shumei of Takushoku University to organize a summer social investigation, recruiting university students to conduct it.

Okawa Shumei originally thought the Army Ministry was going to arrest Kita Ikki, but the situation did not turn out that way. The Army Ministry completely gave up and generally stopped paying attention to Kita Ikki, which gave Okawa Shumei a reassurance pill. He didn't want to refuse cooperation with Kita Ikki, but the basis of this cooperation was not to drag himself down meaninglessly.

Hearing it was a social investigation, Okawa Shumei thought it was feasible. The rise of China and the establishment of the Soviet Union put great pressure on Japan, which bordered these two countries. Social systems different from capitalist countries had a particularly huge impact on Japan. "Laborers are the masters of the house!" Even without knowing what such a country really looked like, just this simple slogan could greatly arouse the longing and enthusiasm of the laborers.

In Japanese universities, many professors taught socialism and communism as part of "Western democratic systems" to students. The Japanese upper class had always had high "class control awareness," and the government had always stood firmly on the side of property owners, suppressing proletarian resistance strongly. Facing universities, the breeding ground for the reserve force of the ruling class, while they attached importance to it, their reaction was slightly slow.

The social investigation was not under various supervisions. Kita Ikki's investigation plan did not involve political content at all, covering price indices, wages, rent, and land leasing fees—completely simple economic data. The students were confused, and Okawa Shumei was also at a loss. But seeing Kita Ikki's confident appearance, the investigation managed to proceed.

The People's Party's social investigation method was actually "inherited from Europe and America." Thanks to Chen Ke, who only knew a few terms, analyzing the terms allowed for reverse engineering the direction. The economic department of the People's Party discussed and formulated the rules. Kita Ikki had studied these courses systematically in school. In Japan, where economics and economic analysis were not yet developed, this appeared particularly advanced.

At a private university like Takushoku University, even if the students weren't rich or noble, they were by no means ordinary poor people. After the data was analyzed, the students compared these data with what they knew, and Japan's economic situation in recent years immediately leapt onto the paper. The investment proportion of the Japanese bourgeoisie was too large, national wages were low, and the domestic market was extremely weak. Once the European and American markets weakened, these investments would immediately become idle. Idle investments occupied the vast majority of Japan's wealth; industry didn't run, and the economy immediately plummeted.

After having the general direction, Kita Ikki did not criticize political economy right away. Instead, he turned to sample surveys on more specific content. "Why are investments idle?" This was the first topic the economic analysis group had to solve.

Okawa Shumei was completely baffled. From the perspective of liberals or anti-government figures, finding the reason for the bad economic situation was already sufficient reason to curse the government. In fact, the young university students were full of vigor, and many had already started cursing the Japanese government for inaction and sitting by while the economy declined. With just a little incitement, a new anti-government group would form. Unexpectedly, Kita Ikki actually let go of such a good opportunity and wanted to conduct a more detailed investigation and analysis instead.

"Kita-kun, what exactly do you want to do?" Okawa Shumei asked Kita Ikki seriously.

"Seek truth from facts." Kita Ikki replied. After saying this, Kita Ikki laughed himself. During the training at the People's Party cadre school, cadres including Kita Ikki, upon seeing social investigation data, would immediately start making critical comments, guessing what happened based on their own imagination. The cadre school teachers would ask comrades to do more detailed investigations and seek truth from facts. At that time, Kita Ikki was quite unconvinced. Unexpectedly, after returning to Japan, Kita Ikki himself was now acting in the role of asking others to seek truth from facts. This contrast was truly laughable.

Okawa Shumei could not understand Kita Ikki's thoughts. He felt Kita Ikki might be harboring evil intentions, preparing some deeper conspiracy. But after carefully reading the investigation plan, Okawa Shumei couldn't see any problems in it. Knowing the economic situation was bad, conducting specific sample surveys on what specifically happened was also a legitimate method of scholarship. The only problem was, why would an anti-government guy, clearly holding enough inciting material in his hands, instead seriously engage in scholarship?

The students didn't think so much. They felt the investigation provided a brand new way to understand society, especially those students whose families owned factories; they felt this particularly strongly.

The sample survey was conducted according to educational background. People with university education, high school education, apprenticeship education, or family trade skills were divided into seven or eight different types, and each type was subject to a special investigation of unemployed or suspended personnel.

Kita Ikki was assigned a university graduate named Maeda Ryoichi. This Maeda Ryoichi was the young master of a small machinery factory in Tokyo, a graduate of Tokyo Imperial University's mechanical engineering department. The family factory had stopped work last year and hadn't started up yet.

In 1923, when university students were scarce, it wasn't hard to pull strings among students. After someone introduced them, Maeda Ryoichi agreed to accept the investigation.

Similar to mainstream Japanese factories, the Maeda family's factory was also a family-style workshop. Entering the factory converted from their own courtyard, Kita Ikki noticed that the power source of this small factory was actually a hot-bulb engine produced in China. The machine was maintained with considerable care. Despite not running for nearly a year, the parts that needed oiling were carefully oiled, and the places that needed organizing were cleaned and wiped spotless. These were enough to prove that the Maeda family's machinery factory was by no means a sloppy operation that only cared about production.

The supporting parts for the hot-bulb engine were complete. The machine provided its own power, generated electricity, and there was also a gas generator—everything was there. Even with a worried face, when Maeda Ryoichi talked about his family's factory, that seriousness made Kita Ikki identify with him quite a bit.

The small machinery factory mainly provided parts for Tokyo's shipyards. Starting from the year before last, the shipyard business had been in decline all the way. During the naval arms race, many warships were started. But the ones producing supporting parts for warships were all large enterprises; the Maeda family's small factory had absolutely no chance to intervene. Warship construction squeezed out the construction of civilian ships at the shipyards. Although they tried hard to maintain it, the Maeda family's factory still had to close down.

Other investigation results were basically the same as the Maeda family's. Japanese large enterprises had now taken almost all national orders, and the survival space of small enterprises was greatly squeezed, leading to almost comprehensive bankruptcy or suspension of work.

"Mr. Kita! This is completely the government's responsibility!"

"The government is corrupt and incompetent, only knowing how to favor the interests of the zaibatsu."

"This really is disregarding the life and death of the common people!"

Without Kita Ikki needing to incite, remarks attacking and cursing the government rolled out. With flushed faces and furrowed brows, the young people were filled with righteous indignation.

"That's not necessarily true," Kita Ikki replied. Japanese production enterprises were very similar to private enterprises in Wuhan, an important industrial center of the People's Party. The scale of the enterprises was not large, and they were easily impacted by economic turbulence. In the People's Party's territory, these small enterprises also had a hard time. The People's Party's large state-owned enterprises easily suppressed China's small and medium-sized enterprises to the point of breathlessness. However, the People's Party's economic model had essential differences from Japan's. "In this regard, the government's biggest responsibility is completely denying small enterprises the opportunity to participate in the social mass production system."

Hearing Kita Ikki attack the government like this, the young students were greatly surprised.

"Mr. Kita, what does this mean?" the students asked.

Kita Ikki replied, "I have stayed in China, and this situation exists in China too. But as long as small enterprises have production capacity and are willing to transform their production equipment and technology, the Chinese government is still willing to give them a hand. Through government investment, private enterprises are transformed into public-private partnerships through a shareholding system. However, what the Japanese government does is to be indifferent to small enterprises, letting them live or die on their own. I am not saying that these small enterprises have no problems themselves, but the government simply does not help enterprises improve their production level; this is indeed indifference."

"The state helping enterprises? The state sold enterprises cheaply to the clans long ago; how could they possibly help these small private enterprises?" a student sneered.

In the late Meiji Restoration, Japan sold a large number of state-owned enterprises cheaply to the clans and gave these large consortia various financial supports. This was the reason for the rapid development of Japan's large enterprises. Now, except for some military enterprises that must be controlled by the state, there were no other state-owned enterprises. Even banks were mostly privatized. With the financial industry joining hands with large enterprises, how could they bother to support small enterprises?

Kita Ikki's words triggered even greater dissatisfaction among the young people towards the government.