Chen Ke had scraped his way into the position of leader by copying the correct answers for over a dozen years, so he was particularly adherent to the teachings in the *Analects of Confucius*, "Xue Er". Zengzi said: "I daily examine myself on three points: whether, in transacting business for others, I may have been not faithful; whether, in intercourse with friends, I may have been not sincere; whether I may have not mastered and practiced the instructions of my teacher."

After positioning himself as a plagiarist and a learner, Chen Ke gradually understood where his true advantage lay. This advantage was absolutely not that Chen Ke had some profound theoretical foundation, but that he knew how to build institutions, he understood some practices of institutional operation, and he also understood how he, as a "bastard who had made mistakes but could still be educated," could crawl out of the abyss of shameful failure.

When the Soviet comrades asked Chen Ke to give a speech, Chen Ke scratched his head a bit. First, Chen Ke's own understanding of communism was vastly different from the communism of this era. Second, Chen Ke had seen the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he really couldn't prescribe a miracle cure for it. Finally, Chen Ke simply smashed the broken jar; anyway, the people cursing Chen Ke already numbered in the millions—too much debt to worry about, too many lice to itch. Chen Ke could completely accept a few more Soviet comrades cursing him.

The content of the public speech was very simple. Chen Ke spoke about the practical application of *The Communist Manifesto* in China. China had not yet entered the capitalist system; before the revolution, it was a semi-colonial agricultural society. The People's Party had to resist imperialist invasion on one hand and engage in industrial construction on the other, while also solving the domestic feudal old system. This involved many complex contradictions. The People's Party, adhering to the attitude of seeking truth from facts, did not handle problems simply and crudely. All policies were conducted around modern capital operation laws, or in other words, according to the three main development directions pointed out by Marx in *The Communist Manifesto*.

*The Communist Manifesto* explicitly pointed out: transactions covering the scale of the entire society, global trade, large-scale industrial production, and large-scale urbanization. In Chen Ke's original timeline, China also solved its own problems step by step in this way, and naturally, Chen Ke handled problems in the same manner.

Chen Ke also specifically quoted Engels: "The ultimate causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought, not in men's brains, not in their growing insight into eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the modes of production and exchange. They are to be sought, not in the philosophy, but in the economics of each particular epoch. The growing perception that existing social institutions are unreasonable and unjust, that 'reason has become unreason, and right wrong,' is only proof that in the modes of production and exchange changes have silently taken place."

The speech turned into a report meeting. Chen Ke recounted the People's Party's course over more than ten years, which included the characteristics of Chinese society itself, transaction models, and ownership models. The new capital operation model established by the People's Party, and how this operation model was promoted to the whole of China through socialist revolution, and how it thoroughly changed China's modes of production and exchange.

The Soviet comrades never expected Chen Ke to pull such a move; the report went on for a whole day. Even the original meeting of the CPSU Central Committee was temporarily cancelled. The Soviet comrades kept asking questions, and Chen Ke's answers always revolved around one core: "Communism is not a comprehensive reaction against capitalism; it isn't that if capitalism goes east, we go west. Communism, socialism, is a more comprehensive liberation of productive forces. Socialist countries are more efficient and more reasonable than capitalist ones. And all of this is built upon science and democracy. Science comes first, democracy follows. The path to realizing communism is science, and the method and means to condense the state and society is democracy. The sequential relationship between these two cannot be mistaken..."

The CPSU did not know much about the People's Party, and understood the characteristics of the People's Party itself even less. In the eyes of most Soviet comrades, the People's Party seemed to be selling dog meat while hanging a sheep's head, and the People's Party leader Chen Ke was a politician and scientist full of schemes, sinister and ruthless, and with a hard hand. What the Soviet comrades didn't expect was that Chen Ke was truly a learner of *The Communist Manifesto*, and was building China according to the road pointed out in those few thin pages of *The Communist Manifesto*.

At the end of the report meeting, Chen Ke proposed the concept of a ruling party. As the ruling party of a socialist country, it absolutely must not be foolish enough to be a "party of the whole people." Moreover, no matter how much internal debate or even dispute there is, the political party is not allowed to split. There must be iron discipline in execution.

Chen Ke noticed that after hearing these words, Trotsky's face looked a bit bad, while Comrade Stalin's expression did not change at all.

After giving this report, Chen Ke prepared to return to China. Comrade Stalin asked to speak with Chen Ke alone again. This meeting had no polite formalities; Uncle Steel proposed the intention of establishing a comprehensive Sino-Soviet alliance. Chen Ke rejected it right then and there.

"Comrade Stalin, all things develop in struggle. Between two countries, and even between different regions of the same country, there exists cooperation and struggle. The People's Party believes in the globalization predicted in *The Communist Manifesto*. Cooperation between China and the Soviet Union will increase, and contradictions will also increase. In the process of resolving these contradictions, China and the Soviet Union will naturally move closer. When it comes time for a comprehensive alliance, I believe everyone will know the time has come. When there is a lack of a foundation for cooperation, forcibly establishing a guiding future direction does not conform to the laws of development of things."

Uncle Steel understood Chen Ke's meaning very well. To ensure he hadn't misjudged Chen Ke's attitude, he still asked one sentence: "Has China really decided not to engage in any military confrontation with the Soviet Union?"

Chen Ke replied: "From a strategic perspective, the initiative for this decision actually lies in the hands of the Soviet Union. If we have a military conflict with the Soviet Union, the ultimate goal would definitely be to destroy the Soviet Union. Since the People's Party has absolutely no such intention, small-scale military conflicts are meaningless waste for China. So I believe the initiative actually lies in the hands of the Soviet comrades."

Even with such an unfriendly attitude, Uncle Steel could understand it completely. Based on cold strategic thinking considerations, it could actually rule out many meaningless things. Chen Ke was right; unless the People's Party changed its strategic concept, small-scale conflicts between China and the Soviet Union had no practical significance. If they wanted to train troops and show off strength, they could just hold joint military exercises. Playing little tricks on the border was meaningless for the overall strategy of great powers like China and the Soviet Union.

Uncle Steel lit a new bowl of tobacco in his pipe, took two puffs, and then continued to ask: "What plans does the People's Party have for future wars?"

"China liberates the Western Pacific, the Soviet Union liberates Europe. What do you think, Comrade Stalin?" Chen Ke did not hide anything.

"Will the Chinese comrades make the first move?" Uncle Steel was very sharp regarding this strategic judgment.

"We will definitely strive to make the first move!" Chen Ke gave a clear answer. Uncle Steel was far shrewder than a fox; Chen Ke hadn't thought at all about taking advantage of the Soviet Union, that was simply impossible.

Seeing Uncle Steel's thoughtful look, Chen Ke said: "China will definitely adhere to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence reached with the Soviet Union, please rest assured on this point."

Even with such a straightforward dialogue, there was nothing more to say at this point. Uncle Steel thought for a while before continuing: "I will appoint Comrade Belkov to be responsible for cooperation with China."

Has Comrade Belkov clearly taken a stand to follow Uncle Steel? Chen Ke thought. But this couldn't be asked. Chen Ke nodded and replied, "Comrade Lin Bao is responsible for liaison work with the Soviet Union."

Having ended the meeting with Comrade Stalin, Chen Ke took the train back to China according to plan. On the way, Chen Ke admired Comrade Stalin's political maneuvering very much. Chairman Mao said, "With grain in hand, there is no panic in the heart." grasping China's aid and trade in hand, this was a very useful card.

By the time Chen Ke returned to China, it was already mid-February. An important link in the People's Party's eastward strategy, the work of supporting Korea in waging the people's liberation war, had always been important content. At this time, Korea had also reached the season when ice and snow melt, and a new round of battles against the Japanese occupation forces was about to begin.

Before Chen Ke went to the Soviet Union, he inspected the Daqing Oilfield area. Before time-traveling, Chen Ke had visited friends in Daqing and visited the place where the oil worker Mr. Wang Jinxi had fought. Of course, he also slept with a Russian girl in the local entertainment facilities along the way. Later he went to Dandong and played a few hands in a casino opened on the North Korean side. Chen Ke didn't love gambling, but he loved adding content to his life experience.

This experience gave him a rough idea of Daqing's location. The biggest problem with oil drilling was where in the vast area it was best to drill. With a rough area, a large amount of cost could be saved. Now that the Yumen Oilfield had been developed, if China wanted to promote industrialization faster, it had to develop the Daqing Oilfield. Without an annual production of 15 million tons of oil, there was no way to support a total war.

The Soviet issue had been resolved. Expelling Japan from Korea was the precondition for ensuring the safety of the Daqing Oilfield.

Mu Husan, Liu Guange, and Mi Feng were all capable generals of the Northeast Military Region. Regarding the war to liberate Korea, the first request the three put forward was to establish Japanese-style weapon repair and ammunition production enterprises. China's current standard weapons and ammunition were not compatible with Japan's. The future standard weapons decided by the Military Commission were firearms similar to the AK-47 and Type 56. The development of bolt-action rifles had already leaned towards precision shooting rifles, and every squad had to be equipped with a sniper.

The weapons initially given to the Korean comrades were all Japanese-style weapons captured in several major battles. After capturing the Lushun Fortress in '23, there were also some captures. Rifles needed repair, but they also needed replenishment. They couldn't count on the Korean comrades to be like China during the War of Resistance back then, "No food, no clothes, the enemy sends them to us; no guns, no cannons, the enemy makes them for us."

Liu Guange said with some dissatisfaction: "The Korean comrades don't pay much attention to collecting shell casings, no matter how much we say. The consumption of bullets is very large, and they can only rely on us to make them for them."

Chen Ke knew that the pressure on the Korean guerrillas was also very great now. Back then, Kim Il-sung joined the Anti-Japanese Amalgamated Army, and it wasn't until '37 that he led the Amalgamated Army troops back to Korea to fight. The current Korean guerrillas had not been driven out of Korea under Japan's repeated encirclement and suppression campaigns; their performance was already very outstanding.

"I see from the intelligence that there are constant uprisings throughout Korea now," Chen Ke asked.

The Great Kanto Earthquake changed Japan's entire strategic thinking. When the Japanese mainland suffered huge losses, Japan cared very much about Korea and Taiwan, which were under their colonial rule. However, this care changed from rule and assimilation to squeezing them to death.

The guerrillas in northern Korea had been fighting for several years, and now it was the turn of the southern agricultural areas to begin large-scale anti-rent and anti-tax actions. The heavy taxes collected by Japan had reached the point where even the southern landlords could no longer shift the contradictions onto the Korean peasants.

"Now, arming Korean revolutionaries on a large scale can deal a heavy blow to Japan. Given the current situation, we must send troops into Korea to fight," Mu Husan said. "If we let these Korean insurgents be suppressed by Japan, Japan will be able to get a sufficient respite. They might even be able to implement the strategic choice of mass immigration to Korea. At that time, we will be passive."

Engaging in massacres in 1924 wouldn't attract any international intervention. The great powers had been slaughtering people all over the world for hundreds of years; not to mention their unclean buttocks, these countries all had faces covered in blood and filth. Using opposition to massacres as an excuse to interfere in other countries would simply be slapping their own faces.

Just when the Great Earthquake happened in Japan, they were able to organize a massacre of foreigners in the earthquake zone. Now panic had spread to the whole of Japan. With the Japanese people's conduct, wiping out Koreans wasn't something they were incapable of doing. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance guaranteed that Japan could do whatever it wanted in Korea. The People's Party didn't believe the British would stop the Japanese from doing this.

Chen Ke replied: "Apart from sending troops, there seems to be no other way. Then let's organize a Volunteer Army force."

After issuing this order, Chen Ke felt a burst of relief in his heart. Just the noun alone made Chen Ke feel very comfortable.

After several years of construction in the Northeast, the level of industry and agriculture had improved a lot, and bullet factories could easily switch production. The content discussed by the Military Commission fell on the scale of the Volunteer Army. Theoretically, the entire Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army could become a "Volunteer Army." Just like the French "Volunteer Army" helped the United States found its country. Doing it so blatantly now was not good for China. The British could not sit idly by.

"Then let's first determine where we plan to temporarily stabilize the battle line." Chen Ke put forward his own view. He had no intention of creating two Koreas, but northern Korea was mountainous and suitable for mountain warfare. Chen Ke wanted to use this war to fully improve the mountain warfare capabilities of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.

Chief of General Staff Pu Guanshui looked at the map for quite a while. "Liberating Korea completely now would only cause Japan to completely tear off its face with us. At that time, a cornered dog will jump the wall; who knows what Japan might do. It is more appropriate to fight to the edge of the plains first. This way, the Korean patriots will have time to form their own government, and at the same time, Japan's strength can be greatly consumed in various guerrilla wars."

The other comrades only discussed for a moment before agreeing with Pu Guanshui's opinion. Everyone turned their gaze to Chen Ke. Chen Ke immediately replied: "I agree with everyone's view."