Before Jiangsu's new Governor Yu Chen submitted his application to the People's Party Central Committee, comprehensive intelligence regarding Jiangsu had already been placed before the relevant departments and personnel of the People's Party. Judging by the results of this bourgeois revolution up to February 1924, Jiangsu's new ruling group could be said to have done quite well. They carried out targeted eliminations of enemies within the parliament, and when entering the rural grassroots, they effectively seized the lifeline of the traditional landlords' "usury." According to intelligence gathered by agents, all of this had been planned by Wang Youhong before his death. Wu Xiangyu couldn't help but marvel at Wang Youhong's capability.

As the highest official responsible for Jiangsu affairs, Li Shouxian naturally would not ignore this. The People's Party's economic policy revolved around capital operations, but since he had never managed a completely capitalist system, it was hard for him to judge Jiangsu's future development. The only thing that was certain was that Jiangsu still hadn't seen any outstanding professional talent in economics.

The People's Party's economic thinking came from Chen Ke. Logically speaking, Chen Ke should have returned to China by now. However, that was not the case. The Central Committee, of course, had to keep Chen Ke's whereabouts secret. According to the reply Li Shouxian received, Chen Ke had not yet returned. Li Shouxian felt very disappointed. If Chen Ke were in the country at this time, there would be no need for military means; relying solely on economic means, he could mold Jiangsu into whatever shape he wanted.

Since Chen Ke was not present, Li Shouxian adhered to the Central Committee's strategy and ordered Wu Xiangyu and Ji Ye to negotiate water conservancy issues with Jiangsu.

This was a very sensitive task. To engage in water conservancy construction, massive field surveys were required. The People's Party's aircraft had long since taken a large number of photos of Jiangsu and produced quite a few maps. If the goal was a military offensive, these maps were sufficient to fight into Jiangsu. However, the advantage achieved through technology did not mean that the People's Party's survey personnel would find it convenient to enter Jiangsu.

"Comrade Ji Ye, I have a concern. If the diehards in Jiangsu are unwilling to accept defeat and resort to attacking our engineering personnel, what should we do?" Wu Xiangyu discussed this issue with Ji Ye.

In military matters, Ji Ye was far more experienced than Wu Xiangyu. She smiled and said, "We can ask Jiangsu to hand over part of the management rights of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal first."

"Brilliant!" Wu Xiangyu nodded repeatedly. While the People's Party was building railways extensively, they also fully utilized various waterways. Since ocean transport faced the possibility of attacks by Japanese warships, the People's Party had renovated the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The canal was widened and deepened, and the embankments were built with cement and stone. For this purpose, the machinery department had developed a specialized category early on: dredgers. However, a very important section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was in Jiangsu. Although Jiangsu dared not do anything to the People's Party's fleet, the issue of the river channel being in disrepair for years greatly restricted the scale of the People's Party's shipping. The request Ji Ye proposed was extremely reasonable. If this problem could be solved, the People's Party could recover all its investment in Jiangsu just through the increased total transport volume.

Yu Chen had completely not expected the People's Party to play this hand. He originally didn't really want the People's Party to do anything; this application was merely to express an attitude to the People's Party and gain their recognition and support. Vital canal transportation was not within Yu Chen's scope of consideration at this time. But the canal was closely related to water conservancy, and now he couldn't even find a good excuse to refuse. As a last resort, Yu Chen could only adopt the "stalling" tactic.

If Yu Chen could stall, the People's Party could stall even better. Wu Xiangyu and Ji Ye were already very busy with their work. Since Jiangsu was like this, they were happy to have less trouble. They could move to deal with Jiangsu at any time, but the government affairs in Zhejiang could not be delayed. So this matter temporarily calmed down.

At this time, in Moscow, thousands of miles away from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, if Chen Ke knew that his comrades could "stall" things so easily, he would certainly be very envious. Some things could be stalled, but some things could not.

At the end of 1923, after inspecting the work in Hebei, the Northeast, and Inner and Outer Mongolia, Chen Ke took a train to the Soviet Union. Accompanying Chen Ke to the Soviet Union were one hundred thousand tons of instant noodles.

After acquiring palm oil plantations in Malaysia, the People's Party had also leased a large amount of land from the Netherlands for planting oil palms. Palm oil had many uses. Besides making fried foods for McDonald's and KFC, which had not yet appeared, it could also be used to make instant noodles.

After visiting Komsomolsk-on-Amur (Sunset Komsomolsk City), Chen Ke was unsure if ethnic Russians had a low tolerance for spicy food. After "extensive human experimentation," Chen Ke found that this record was quite accurate. So, the seasoning packets in the instant noodles contained non-spicy seasoning. Modern commerce requires researching customer needs. After "extremely extensive human experimentation," the People's Party's instant noodle factory discovered that Russians preferred fresh and savory flavors, such as caviar. Once the target was set, with the superb level of Chinese cuisine, finding similar seasonings was easy.

In China's food aid to Russia, instant noodles were a "strategic material" ranked just after Erdaoniang liquor. This stuff required absolutely no complex logistics; as long as you carried instant noodles, you could eat them dry. If there were conditions to boil water, heating a few slices of black bread by the fire would make for a hot and delicious meal. If there was meat, throwing a few beets into the instant noodle soup would meet and exceed the gourmet standards of the Russian people. If such a meal was accompanied by Erdaoniang... there were already Soviet state-owned enterprise workers eating this every day for 180 days straight and still being perfectly satisfied. So on Comrade Belkov's list, "priority supply" was highlighted after Erdaoniang and instant noodles.

There wasn't much to eat on the train, especially in the Soviet winter. Not only did the Soviet comrades eat instant noodles, but the Chinese delegation also ate them. The Soviet comrades could also share some pickles like pickled cucumbers from the Chinese delegation, and alcoholic beverages were in open supply, so the relationship between everyone quickly became harmonious.

Chen Ke truly witnessed how much the Soviet comrades could drink. After finishing a bottle of vodka, a few Soviet comrades patrolling the roof of the train could still walk vigorously on the shaking train. Before his time travel, Chen Ke's limit was a little over one jin (500g), and that was when he was helping someone block drinks at a brother's wedding banquet. After drinking several large glasses, he went to the toilet and vomited until the sky went dark. Seeing the prowess of the Soviet comrades with his own eyes, Chen Ke genuinely admired them.

Upon arriving in Moscow, Comrade Lenin had completely lost the ability to take care of himself after a stroke. It was very difficult to communicate with Comrade Lenin. Even so, seeing this great man, this demigod of the Soviet Communist Party, with his own eyes, Chen Ke still felt very excited. The two only truly "discussed" one issue, which was that China would resist attacks from the east, specifically suppressing potential attacks on the Soviet Union by Japan and Britain. After receiving Chen Ke's formal guarantee, Comrade Lenin clearly looked much more relieved.

After visiting Comrade Lenin, Chen Ke finally met all the comrades of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Especially the six comrades mentioned in Lenin's Testament: Stalin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, and Pyatakov.

After meeting these people, Chen Ke finally intuitively felt why "Iron Man" Comrade Stalin was able to purge these five. The strong impression Uncle Iron Man left on Chen Ke was that this was a man who did things! It was hard to describe because Uncle Iron Man never cared how others viewed him, nor did he care what impression he would leave on others. Confucius said, "At forty, I had no doubts; at fifty, I knew the decree of Heaven." Uncle Iron Man was two years "older" than Chen Ke; he was 45 in 1923. This man had completely entered the realm of "knowing the decree of Heaven."

According to the teachings of Chen Ke's family, that meant if he carried a manure bucket on his back, he could be Shi Chuanxiang; if he held a broom, he could sweep the streets; if he held a small flag, he could direct traffic at an intersection. Average people would show signs of imitation, but Uncle Iron Man had absolutely no such tendency. He truly knew the decree of Heaven, living his own life, doing his own things. Not for money, not for profit, not for reputation—he was just such a pure leader of the CPSU, leading the Soviet Union down the path Uncle Iron Man believed to be correct. Compared to Uncle Iron Man, the others could also be called heroes, but they lacked that pure element.

When Uncle Iron Man negotiated with Chen Ke, he was also open and aboveboard, using all the necessary tactics. For example, the common tactic of giving Chen Ke a display of authority first, loudly accusing Chen Ke and the People's Party of letting the Soviet Union down. The next day, as if he had never said those words, he would talk intimately with Chen Ke about cooperation between China and the Soviet Union like brothers. For a guy like Chen Ke who was already "shameless," these tactics were useless. Like Uncle Iron Man, Chen Ke firmly believed that this world was material. In other words, everything depended on strength. So when Uncle Iron Man played tricks with a calm heart but an agitated exterior, Chen Ke was completely unmoved.

Since childhood, Chen Ke had received countless beatings. After beating him, his mother would start her ideological education: "Startling the snake by hitting the grass, startling the snake by hitting the grass. If someone hits the grass, you jump! Isn't that looking for death? Don't talk about hitting the grass; even if someone eats the grass, you have to hide in the hole and not move a muscle. As long as you have poison fangs in your mouth, anyone passing through your territory has to think about the consequences."

China had gained its current status by relying on its own strength. As long as it had poison fangs, it wasn't afraid of others coming to its territory. If the opportunity was right, it could bite even the King of Heaven to death. No one wanted to provoke unnecessary trouble. As long as China didn't court death itself, other countries would naturally respect China sufficiently when they needed it.

Following "On Contradiction" and his family education, after struggling with Uncle Iron Man for several rounds, Chen Ke hit it off with him. Without so much nonsense, once the two casually exchanged a few words, they knew what the other was thinking.

Like Comrade Lenin, Uncle Iron Man hoped to have a stable East, with China helping the Soviet Union withstand all possible attacks in the Pacific. And Chen Ke could even hear that Uncle Iron Man intended to "sell out teammates." For the interests of the Soviet Union, Uncle Iron Man was probably prepared to use some petty tricks against China as well.

On this point, Chen Ke simply pointed it out directly: "China can protect its own security by relying on itself. So, as long as the Soviet comrades do not provoke a meaningless substantive war, we can understand whatever the Soviet comrades do."

If it were other Soviet comrades, such as Comrade Trotsky, hearing Chen Ke say this would probably make them feel very uneasy. If it were Comrade Bukharin, he would probably feel that Chen Ke had ulterior motives and might even fly into a rage feeling insulted.

Uncle Iron Man was completely different. He just nodded, indicating he had understood Chen Ke's meaning. Then he began to discuss the next issue with Chen Ke. The translator's face, however, looked very bad. Those who could serve as translators at meetings of this level were extremely outstanding talents; he couldn't possibly fail to understand what Chen Ke was actually saying.

After attending the Soviet National Day celebration and the military parade, Chen Ke went to visit the Chinese comrades providing medical aid in the Soviet Union. Seeing Chairman Chen Ke come personally to visit them, the aid comrades were moved to tears. Of course, some comrades who couldn't hold it in also took the opportunity to criticize the various bad behaviors of the Soviet comrades.

"Comrades, I am aware of your hardships and grievances. I thank you here for your hard work; you are making a major contribution to the revolution. But I still have to say, comrades are here to do aid work. If the Soviet comrades were doing very well in this area, then you would be here to learn, not to aid. Since we are here to do aid work, we must complete the aid work."

"The Soviet comrades always make a pile of unreasonable demands! When something happens in our country, we always control the situation first so it doesn't deteriorate further, then study why it happened. If it can be completely solved, we solve it completely. If it can't be solved, we set up a project and have long-term systems and methods to deal with it. But the Soviet comrades' attitude is unscientific. When something happens, apart from shouting and looking for someone to blame, they do very little else. After the matter is resolved, they shelf it as if it never happened. I find this attitude unacceptable!" A representative of the aid members stood up and said loudly. Seeing his red eyes and indignant tone, it seemed he had suffered a lot of anger.

The comrades of the medical aid team all stared at Chen Ke; it seemed these words represented everyone's heartfelt thoughts.

Chen Ke looked at the aggrieved comrades and felt sympathy in his heart. The simple and crude style of the Soviet comrades—Chen Ke had read about it many times in books. He knew this was not a problem that could be solved overnight. The full name of the Cheka that Comrade Lenin suggested establishing was the "All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage." This crude style was actually sabotage, behavior that had a special commission to handle it. As for Uncle Iron Man, after he took full power, he simply used criminal penalties to deal with various forms of sabotage. It was useless for Chen Ke to talk about such things. In fact, not only in the Soviet Union, but the rectification training and study currently being conducted within China also had one of its goals as striking against "lazy elements."

So Chen Ke could only say, "Comrades, I can completely understand your feelings. Our Party's organizations are all established and organized with science and democracy as core points. So I must tell you now, we follow systems. My purpose in coming today is to comfort everyone, listen to your hardships, and bring the respect of the motherland and the Party to you. Our medical aid unit is also organized. I believe you must have received responses from the organization, and our organization has surely made suggestions to the Soviet comrades. Whether the Soviet comrades accept them is their business. In my position, I can only listen to the situation you recount from the perspective of my position, and within the scope of my position, use allowed methods to strive to solve and push for the resolution of these matters. But in actual execution, I absolutely cannot command across levels. This does not conform to the organizational system."

The comrades were a bit stunned. With Chen Ke "speaking official jargon" like this, anyone would feel uncomfortable. The most important thing in Chinese tradition was "reaching the heavenly hearing" and "the Blue Sky Official." In present-day China, no one had a higher status than Chen Ke. If even Chen Ke refused to personally intervene in this matter, then there was probably no way to solve it.

Looking at the disappointed expressions of the comrades, Chen Ke had to review the arduous process of establishing China's medical system, the design ideas and principles of its establishment, and the means and methods adopted in various execution processes. Then he compared China's medical system with the Soviet Union's current medical system. After hearing this, the comrades finally understood that Chen Ke was not shirking responsibility, but that he really could not forcibly interfere. The medical aid team was working in the spirit of revolutionary humanitarianism to save the dying and heal the wounded, not to be masters in the Soviet Union. When encountering difficulties, they could only push forward through hard struggle, not simply find a few "Blue Sky Officials" to solve problems through the upper echelons.

Finally, Chen Ke said, "I am really happy to see that comrades are still healthy here today. Facing so many difficulties, you have solved so many problems through hard work and saved millions of patients. The motherland thanks you! The Party thanks you! When you return to China, we will definitely welcome you with red sashes and flowers, warmly welcoming comrades who have completed arduous tasks. Everyone is a hero of the revolution! On behalf of the Party Central Committee, I thank you again. You have worked hard!"

Warm applause represented the comrades' mood. In any case, Chen Ke did not use big empty words to respond to the doubts and grievances of the medical aid team. This point alone made the comrades feel the sincerity of the Party Central Committee represented by Chen Ke.

After the meeting ended, the responsible comrade of the medical team grabbed Chen Ke's hand and started crying, "Chairman Chen, thank you so much. If you had put on airs and said something else, we wouldn't have been able to go on living!"

After saying this, the responsible comrade couldn't hold back and cried loudly. It seemed the simple and crude style of the Soviet comrades had really almost driven the responsible comrade of the medical team crazy.

By mid-January 1924, Chen Ke had finished his visit and was preparing to return to China when Comrade Lenin passed away. Now the original plan had to be changed, and Chen Ke attended Comrade Lenin's funeral. Meanwhile, the contradictions within the Soviet Central Committee intensified rapidly. Trotsky and some members of the CPSU Central Committee actually wanted to use Chen Ke to "balance" the internal contradictions of the CPSU.

This annoyed Chen Ke to no end. The reason Trotsky gave was that after seeing Chen Ke's meeting and conversation with the Chinese medical team, he felt Chen Ke's evaluation of the Soviet system was very pertinent, so Trotsky hoped Chen Ke could give a speech at the Soviet Central Committee discussing the Chinese comrades' views on the communist revolution.

If it were anyone else, they might have enthusiastically participated in a major event that could influence another country's internal affairs. But Chen Ke, a guy from downstream in history, detested doing this. "Watch him build a tall building, watch him feast his guests, watch his building collapse." This was Chen Ke's consistent style towards the outside world. Plant a seed, have a good sleep, and wake up to find the seed has grown into a towering tree; this was the feeling of a history-downstreamer towards history. What Chen Ke wanted to utilize was history; what he wanted to change was China. To be suddenly dragged into a storm he shouldn't have been involved in at all was completely contrary to Chen Ke's thinking.

What surprised Chen Ke was that Comrade Stalin also expressed the same intention to him.

What exactly did this bunch in the CPSU Central Committee want to do? Chen Ke was truly confused.