Historically, the days of crown princes have never been easy. The heirs to the immense power in the hands of the supreme leaders have always had to face a large number of opponents. Yu Chen, the successor designated by Jiangsu Governor Wang Youhong, clearly felt such pressure.

Ever since Wang Youhong forcibly sent his sons to Tianjin, the rumors that the Wang family was engaging in hereditary succession dissipated. As long as one was not an idiot, everyone in Jiangsu could see that Wang Youhong intended to hand over power to the current Commander of the Jiangsu Defense Force, Yu Chen. Thus, a voice appeared in the Jiangsu Parliament: "Is military interference in politics beneficial to the healthy development of democratic politics!"

Yu Chen had never held the parliament in high regard. It was still within an acceptable range for these members of parliament to consider their own interests. To cover up their naked intentions for profit, they found high-sounding reasons for various proposals, which showed that the guys in the parliament knew that being a true villain was wrong, and at least they should be hypocrites. Yu Chen knew that human nature was like this. If the personnel of the Jiangsu Parliament could completely ignore their personal interests and focus on the country like Chen Ke and the People's Party, Jiangsu would not have muddled along to its current state.

But this time, the parliament's expression made Yu Chen first completely despair of the parliament, and then feel very confused. What exactly did this group of people in the parliament mean? Were they preparing to seize power? Preparing to completely oppose Wang Youhong? Or were they trying to muddy the waters to make Yu Chen make concessions?

Educating the successor is the leader's task. Wang Youhong just listened to Yu Chen simply mention the parliament's performance, and then sneered and said, "This is just because the People's Party has made no move until now, and these people have become obsessed."

After saying this, Wang Youhong said with the anger of a selfish person, "So I said, these people in the parliament are not even fit to carry shoes for the People's Party!"

Yu Chen did not feel that the members of parliament were so unbearable. With a casual pointer from Wang Youhong, Yu Chen understood the key to the problem. In the past, the Jiangsu members of parliament were honest because after the People's Party fought over, they would carry out land reform and divide the land. Under such heavy pressure, the members of parliament dared not make a fuss. Now that the People's Party had ignored Jiangsu for a long time, the People's Party certainly knew the news that Wang Youhong was about to die. But the People's Party was able to sit firmly on the fishing platform, completely unmoved.

Yu Chen originally thought that holding still was the most beneficial method for the People's Party. Seeing the People's Party's calm and composed performance, Yu Chen realized that there were indeed people with long-term vision in the world. The People's Party's unresponsive posture, even if it made that group of members of parliament feel uneasy, also encouraged their petty thoughts. Under the situation of "no harm done", those members of parliament definitely felt it was necessary to play some little tricks beneficial to themselves.

"Governor Wang, regarding these members of parliament..." Yu Chen asked.

Wang Youhong's face was extremely ugly. He said fiercely, "Sometimes I think, if I defected to the People's Party and then killed all this bunch of members of parliament, I wouldn't feel like I suffered a loss."

Yu Chen was completely unsure whether Wang Youhong meant this sincerely or as a joke, so he could only listen quietly. After Wang Youhong vented his dissatisfaction, he said, "Yu Chen, you don't need to worry about so much. Directly preside over the tax work in the parliament."

It was easy for Wang Youhong to give orders, but doing it was a completely different matter. Yu Chen braced himself to preside over the Jiangsu Parliament in the capacity of Governor Wang Youhong's agent. As soon as the request for tax increase was proposed, the members of parliament immediately opposed it strongly in the parliament. When Yu Chen returned to his office, various lobbyists came one after another.

The first batch to come were personnel from the army. The Jiangsu Defense Force had a conscription system, and all citizens had the obligation to serve in the military. This batch of citizens were naturally the propertied class and owner-peasants. The tax increase was definitely aimed at this group of people, so the officers ran one by one to Commander of the Defense Force Yu Chen to intercede.

It was easy to talk within the army. Yu Chen called more high-ranking officers, closed the door, and then slapped the table hard, "Your families are also farming. With the current water conservancy facilities in Jiangsu, do you still have the face to compare with Northern Jiangsu?"

This angry shout immediately awed this group of officers. The water conservancy facilities in the areas where Jiangsu bordered Northern Jiangsu were worlds apart. The natural conditions in Southern Jiangsu were considered quite good, but compared with the previously poorer Northern Jiangsu, Southern Jiangsu had already fallen behind.

The officers were silent for a while, and finally someone murmured, "Commander, but you can't treat us as coolies."

Yu Chen had originally thought of persuading and educating them as much as possible. After hearing this big honest truth, his anger rose, and he couldn't help but shout, "Then isn't the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army coolies? Is it so difficult for you to do something for the locality? After building water conservancy, won't your own families benefit?"

The reasoning was naturally correct, but the Jiangsu Defense Force still couldn't accept it in their hearts. Being a soldier was for eating grain. Protecting Jiangsu seemed nice, but the problem was, after the People's Party fought over, could this army of a hundred thousand defend Jiangsu? The Jiangsu Defense Force had long understood the People's Party's combat achievements against foreigners through newspapers and many channels. Let alone tens of thousands of Jiangsu Defense Force, what could even more than a hundred thousand Japanese troops do? Were they not also beaten by the People's Party until they were utterly defeated and the whole army was wiped out?

Such a situation had happened more than once or twice. Yu Chen was used to it. The People's Party had political commissars, political ideals, professional engineering corps, and strong grassroots organizations. The Jiangsu Defense Force was just a very normal defense force. When facing a strong enemy, this army was not willing to die. They also did not think they should engage in hard work. The meaning of the army's existence was merely to display military force to deter the common people of Jiangsu so that the common people dared not rise up to overthrow the current regime in Jiangsu. This was the Jiangsu Defense Force's cognition of itself.

When Yu Chen was the commander, there was still Wang Youhong above to give instructions, and such an army could barely operate. When Yu Chen placed himself in the position of Jiangsu's leader, he discovered that the bunch of goods he had accepted were completely unreliable.

When glaring at his subordinates, Yu Chen remembered Wang Youhong's joke, "Sometimes I think, if I defected to the People's Party and then killed all this bunch of members of parliament, I wouldn't feel like I suffered a loss."

These were indeed words of anger. If he could willingly defect to the People's Party, Yu Chen would have done so long ago. Commanding the army from high above, even if he died, he would die like a character. What was working in the mud and dust every day?

Yu Chen finally put away his angry look and first ordered the troops to go back and prepare.

As soon as the army people left, the parliament's lobbyist arrived. It was the Vice Speaker and Jiangsu Finance Minister Zhang Jian. Zhang Jian was not as straightforward as those soldiers. He initially expressed support for the plan to build water conservancy facilities, but raised a question that Jiangsu really had no money now, and all money had been invested in market operations. He warned Yu Chen, "If currency is issued additionally now, it will inevitably lead to inflation."

With the People's Party's controlled model in front, it was impossible for Jiangsu not to learn. Foreign countries were on the gold standard, and Jiangsu had no precious metals at all, so Jiangsu adopted a compromise model. The currency had "silver content", but it could not be directly exchanged for gold and silver from the central bank. There was a redemption waiting period of eighteen months, which was actually a disguised implementation of fiat currency.

In addition to learning experience from the People's Party, Jiangsu also borrowed part of the financial system from countries like Britain, and finally implemented Jiangsu's monetary policy in the "national debt" mode. The government-led economic behavior temporarily borrowed money in the form of national debt, and after the second year's tax collection, the Ministry of Finance would redeem the national debt. This model was finally decided by Wang Youhong. Yu Chen knew in his heart that the source of this system was the internal party teaching material on financial models discussed by Chen Ke, which Wang Youhong bought from the People's Party at a high price. Although the People's Party did not implement such a model, they relied on a strict financial budget system as support.

Yu Chen didn't care too much about Zhang Jian's words. Anyway, in the final analysis, it was just one sentence: the Jiangsu Parliament was unwilling to increase taxes on tax-paying citizens. Yu Chen asked, "Then what exactly does Minister Zhang plan to do?"

Zhang Jian replied righteously, "Since the People's Party is the central government, they have the obligation to take responsibility for the construction of local water conservancy facilities."

Even if there were sudden thunder and lightning outside now, Yu Chen would not be more surprised. But at this moment, the sky outside was clear, the sun was shining brightly, and it was a fine day with a gentle breeze and warm sun.

"Central government?" Yu Chen said subconsciously.

Yu Chen's mind was in chaos. Zhang Jian had always been extremely hostile to the People's Party and never considered the People's Party to be the central government. In fact, this bunch of goods in Jiangsu were all the same. They believed that Jiangsu was a completely independent small kingdom, and was forced to submit to the People's Party at this time. So every member of the Jiangsu upper echelon had a strong sense of independence. Unexpectedly, Zhang Jian actually requested the central government to take responsibility for the work of building water conservancy projects.

Various thoughts were messy like a pot of porridge in Yu Chen's mind, but the logically most ridiculous part among them finally occupied the main content, "We have never paid taxes to the central government, why should they help us build water conservancy facilities?"

"That depends on what kind of water conservancy facilities they build," Zhang Jian replied, "What we need now is not detailed water conservancy facilities, but the work undertaken by the engineering corps under the People's Party. I have also seen the efficiency of the People's Party engineering corps construction. For the main project that takes us Jiangsu several months to build, they can finish it in just one month, or even less than one month. Moreover, in the entire arrangement, the People's Party government has always had the engineering corps undertake the main project construction, and other comprehensive supporting construction is completed by the locality. We Jiangsu are merely going to implement it like this."

Zhang Jian spoke clearly and plainly, but Yu Chen felt completely confused. It wasn't that he couldn't understand the method Zhang Jian proposed, but Yu Chen couldn't understand what medicine Zhang Jian had taken to actually come up with such a method.