Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? This is the primary question of the revolution.

Whether it was Jiangsu's Wang Youhong or the People's Party's Wu Xiangyu and Ji Ye, once foreign relations were considered, this sentence would certainly pop up first. Ji Ye had long since withdrawn from the Restoration Society and joined the People's Party; she was now the Chairwoman of the Zhejiang Women's Federation. Most of the young comrades in the Western Zhejiang branch of the Restoration Society had made this choice. On the other hand, Xu Xilin and Qiu Jin remained in the Restoration Society; currently, Xu Xilin was the Chairman of the Restoration Society, and Qiu Jin was the Vice-Chairwoman. The Restoration Society was also the first registered democratic political party in New China to be officially recognized by the People's Party.

The constitution stipulates that the people have the rights to assembly, demonstration, procession, and association. Like freedom of speech, since these are legal provisions rather than inherent attributes of birth, the scope of use for these rights guaranteed by law is also limited to within the bounds of the law.

For example, if one wants to use the rights of assembly and procession guaranteed by law, one must first apply to the public security department. Only assemblies and processions agreed upon by the public security department are legal processions. Those without an application cannot be said to not be processions, but they belong to actions outside of legal protection. If the law enforcement department believes that these actions outside the scope of legal protection have affected normal social order, then the law enforcement department can ban them according to the law.

The legal system of human society is not a patch; since the law is the embodiment of the will of the ruling class, the ruling class naturally has the power to regulate and constrain it. This was explained very clearly in the political textbooks of the People's Party starting from junior high school. Chen Ke was never afraid that the people would understand this; he was only afraid that the people would not understand the naked, cruel essence of society.

Therefore, the same applies to forming associations and parties. Anyone can apply to form a party; this is the people's right. But whether to approve it or not is within the authority of the judicial department. Political party organizations approved by the judicial department can obtain various advantages within the authority prescribed by law. So far, only the Restoration Society has been approved. It is not that there are no other organizations claiming to be political parties, but they all belong to the unregistered category. Any idea of attempting to use government-owned venues in various places for activities will not be guaranteed.

Ji Ye was not in the judicial sector and had no interest in this. Her task this time was simple: to assist Wu Xiangyu as the deputy leader in dealing with various applications that Jiangsu might submit to the People's Party. This working group consisted of six people: the leader and deputy leader, plus a recorder-cum-witness, and three liaison officers.

Ji Ye, who had been through life and death since her teens, found this matter rather headache-inducing. What made her scratch her head even more was that Li Shouxian threw her a copy of the *Communist Manifesto* and asked her to read it in contrast to the situation in Jiangsu. The *Communist Manifesto* was a manuscript written by Marx for the Communist International, first published as a pamphlet in London in February 1848. By 1923, it had a history of 75 years. This smacked heavily of reading an old almanac.

Ji Ye read it repeatedly several times, feeling quite muddled. On the other hand, Wu Xiangyu studied this work repeatedly and seemed to gain great benefits from it. "If you don't know, learn; if you don't understand, ask"—this is the basic working method adhered to by People's Party members. Ji Ye simply went to ask Wu Xiangyu what insights he actually had.

Wu Xiangyu immediately highlighted a few paragraphs for Ji Ye.

*In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.*

*The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.*

*Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.*

...

*We see then: the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.*

*Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied by a corresponding political advance of that class. An oppressed class under the sway of the feudal nobility, an armed and self-governing association in the medieval commune: here independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germany); there taxable “third estate” of the monarchy (as in France); afterwards, in the period of manufacturing proper, serving either the semi-feudal or the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise against the nobility, and, in fact, cornerstone of the great monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of the world market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.*

*The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part.*

*The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”.*

...

*The French and English aristocracies, by their historical position, were called upon to write pamphlets against modern bourgeois society. In the French July Revolution of 1830, and in the English reform agitation, these aristocracies again succumbed to the hateful upstart. Thenceforth, a serious political struggle was altogether out of the question. A literary battle alone remained possible. But even in the domain of literature the old cries of the restoration period had become impossible. In order to arouse sympathy, the aristocracy was obliged to lose sight, apparently, of its own interests, and to formulate their indictment against the bourgeoisie in the interest of the exploited working class alone. Thus, the aristocracy took their revenge by singing lampoons on their new masters and whispering in his ears sinister prophecies of coming catastrophe.*

*In this way arose feudal Socialism: half lamentation, half lampoon; half an echo of the past, half menace of the future; at times, by its bitter, witty and incisive criticism, striking the bourgeoisie to the very heart’s core; but always ludicrous in its effect, through total incapacity to comprehend the march of modern history.*

*The aristocracy, in order to rally the people to them, waved the proletarian alms-bag in front for a banner. But the people, so often as it joined them, saw on their hindquarters the old feudal coats of arms, and deserted with loud and irreverent laughter.*

*One section of the French Legitimists and “Young England” exhibited this spectacle.*

*In pointing out that their mode of exploitation was different to that of the bourgeoisie, the feudalists forget that they exploited under circumstances and conditions that were quite different and that are now antiquated. In showing that, under their rule, the modern proletariat never existed, they forget that the modern bourgeoisie is the necessary offspring of their own form of society.*

*For the rest, so little do they conceal the reactionary character of their criticism that their chief accusation against the bourgeois amounts to this, that under the bourgeois régime a class is being developed which is destined to cut up root and branch the old order of society.*

*What they upbraid the bourgeoisie with is not so much that it creates a proletariat as that it creates a revolutionary proletariat.*

...

Ji Ye read these paragraphs; she had actually read them at least dozens of times, but no matter how she read them, she felt completely bewildered. Ji Ye did not understand what exactly had happened in England and France. Even after looking through the People's Party's materials, she only understood that revolutions had occurred in both England and France. Cromwell killed a bunch of people in England, and later after he died, the English aristocracy came back and killed a bunch of people. As for the French Revolution, it was a case of "you sing and I take the stage." Starting from the storming of the Bastille, Ji Ye could associate the killing of Louis XVI with the fall of the Manchu Qing, but the Girondins, the Jacobins, the Thermidorians—they rose and fell rapidly, slaughtering each other like a revolving lantern until they were killed off. It was only the rise of Napoleon in the end that terminated France's turmoil.

Ji Ye found it quite easy to associate this great figure who shone brilliantly in France with Chen Ke. It was precisely Chen Ke who ended China's turmoil and brought China back onto a glorious path. Although she wouldn't say it out loud, if Chen Ke wanted to proclaim himself emperor, Ji Ye would absolutely raise both hands in approval.

So Ji Ye didn't understand what exactly Wu Xiangyu had seen in it.

Wu Xiangyu had actually spoken privately with Li Shouxian, and Li Shouxian had asked Wu Xiangyu to "help educate my wife." Born into a family of officials and legal advisors in Zhejiang, Wu Xiangyu was free-spirited, intelligent, and eager to learn, and he was also willing to serve the country. He naturally understood Li Shouxian's meaning. This was neither to gild Ji Ye nor to secretly plot against anyone; the existence of Ji Ye and the other comrades was to provide protection for Wu Xiangyu. Wu Xiangyu could handle this matter alone, but without the testimony of other comrades, whether Wu Xiangyu did a good job or not would trigger too many discussions. After all, he was only a 25-year-old young man this year.

"Comrade Ji Ye, just these few paragraphs are enough to explain the current problem in Jiangsu clearly." Wu Xiangyu explained patiently. The six-person team was now all present, and Wu Xiangyu would not do something foolish like having a private conversation during a process that required a meeting for discussion.

Wang Youhong represented traditional feudal power. No matter how Wang Youhong whitewashed himself, his power came from military force and the inheritance of power under a feudal model like the Jiangsu Governorship.

As for Yu Chen, he was the power successor designated by Wang Youhong. If there were no changes, he would also be in the same vein as Wang Youhong.

However, Zhang Jian was different. He represented the emerging national bourgeoisie of Jiangsu. This bourgeoisie came from within Wang Youhong's system; while accepting Wang Youhong's protection, they also naturally wanted to expand the coverage of this new force. If one simply thought that Zhang Jian was Wang Youhong's enemy, that would be a huge mistake. The force represented by Zhang Jian did not have the overthrow of Wang Youhong as its own interest requirement; rather, in order to survive, they attempted to grasp greater power. If Wang Youhong blocked this path, the force represented by Zhang Jian would engage in a life-and-death struggle with Wang Youhong and his successor Yu Chen.

"If Wang Youhong and Yu Chen not only do not block the development of this class but instead merge with this class, then this class will lift Wang Youhong and Yu Chen to the status of Napoleon. Napoleon was able to deal with all other opponents not because he proclaimed himself emperor, but because Napoleon promulgated the *Code*, establishing the system of bourgeois rule in France by means of a code," Wu Xiangyu explained to the comrades.

"In other words, they are all doing it for their own interests!" Ji Ye connected her reflection on the Restoration Society with the reality in Jiangsu.

Whether one has participated in a cruel revolution or not, the direct result is one's horizon. Regardless of whether Ji Ye could understand foreign revolutions or correctly connect foreign revolutions with the Chinese revolution, Ji Ye knew why she had gone through life and death several times, and why her enemies and friends were constantly changing. Cai Yuanpei and the gentry of Zhejiang had made Ji Ye realize this deeply.

But the other few comrades had grown up within the People's Party; they might be able to understand the People's Party, but they could not understand Wang Youhong.

Ji Ye frowned slightly and thought for a while, attempting to speak several times but failing to do so because she thought of Cai Yuanpei. Finally, she managed to say with difficulty: "Does Wang Youhong not only not fear his own death, but actually want to use his own death as an opportunity to change the dominant force in Jiangsu? Is this person that formidable?"

Now it was Wu Xiangyu's turn to frown slightly. To be able to stand firm for nearly twenty years under the heavy pressure of the People's Party and in the torrent of this era, Wang Youhong could be considered a hero of chaotic times. Prime Minister Li also revealed to Wu Xiangyu some of the Central Committee's views on Wang Youhong and Jiangsu; the Central Committee wanted to keep this force as a living textbook. Without people like Wang Youhong, it would be difficult for the Central Committee to lecture comrades on the *Communist Manifesto* and for these comrades to understand the essence of society pointed out by Marx's concise and accurate language.

Also battle-hardened, it was hard for Ji Ye as a staunch revolutionary to understand what exactly had happened in Jiangsu. Only when Ji Ye connected the ups and downs of the Restoration Society with the affairs of Jiangsu could she slightly understand the social development and the class struggle between landed feudal lords and the bourgeoisie described in the *Communist Manifesto*.

Thinking of this, Wu Xiangyu suddenly somewhat understood why Li Shouxian had said "help educate my wife." Apart from Ji Ye, the other four comrades, who wore expressions of enthusiasm and focused demeanors, all revealed the characteristic fussiness of people who completely failed to understand what situation they were facing.

Wu Xiangyu could not remain silent forever, so he could only tell the truth. "Wang Youhong is very formidable. In the materials provided by the intelligence department, Wang Youhong started learning from our People's Party more than ten years ago. From his performance, although this person stands on the standpoint of the propertied class, he is not ignorant of historical development. Someone who can see the veins of history can be considered a figure."

Ji Ye's eyes lit up. "Exactly how formidable is this person? And what is the Central Committee's attitude?"

Wu Xiangyu did not want to reveal the Central Committee's plans. If this news were to leak out carelessly, it would probably cause an uproar, so Wu Xiangyu replied: "Whether he is formidable or not depends on to what extent he can revolutionize. It depends on whether he can establish a new order in Jiangsu. Let us just watch and wait."