Jiangsu Governor Yu Chen didn't know exactly how the People's Party was calculating its moves regarding Jiangsu, but he had been feeling quite confident lately. After Zhang Jian passed away in 1927, most of the industrial and commercial figures under Zhang's banner had defected to Yu Chen's camp. Land reform had encountered countless troubles, but they remained just that—troubles. Jiangsu implemented land reform following the policies left behind by Wang Youhong. Yu Chen mortgaged Jiangsu's raw silk exports to the United States and Britain in exchange for foreign currency. He then exchanged this foreign currency with the People's Party for Renminbi to pay the wages of the engineering corps of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.

This was truly withstanding pressure. Internally, Jiangsu had no way to utilize that foreign currency; it was just a string of zeros in bank accounts or a pile of paper money useless to the province. In theory, that foreign exchange could be converted into gold, but Jiangsu had no ability to exchange gold from foreign banks, let alone transport it back to Jiangsu. The industrial and commercial sectors in Jiangsu knew about this, but as soon as the ordinary members of the provincial assembly heard "there's money," they automatically associated it with currency usable within Jiangsu.

Fortunately, Zhang Jian was still around at the time, and with great difficulty, he managed to solve this knowledge gap through some educational outreach. Then the Jiangsu assembly members immediately questioned: what was the use of getting a pile of money that couldn't be spent? Upon learning that Jiangsu was to use this money to pay the People's Party, the assembly members were "filled with righteous indignation," and some even publicly shouted that Yu Chen was a "traitor to Jiangsu."

When the People's Party's water conservancy engineering troops finished the project after more than a year, everyone in Jiangsu, from assembly members and gentry to the common people, was dumbfounded. They simply couldn't imagine that human transformation of nature could reach such earth-shattering levels. The Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal had been widened to over fifty meters, allowing four boats to sail abreast, with riverbanks entirely reinforced with cement and stone. The newly built irrigation system functioned for both irrigation and flood discharge, and reservoirs ensured a backup water source at all times.

Southern Jiangsu was already a fertile land, and after this overhaul, it looked completely brand new. In particular, the bridges erected over many waterways greatly facilitated transportation in Jiangsu. Everyone high and low in Jiangsu knew that with the pittance of a salary paid to the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army engineering troops, if Jiangsu were to build these projects themselves, achieving one-third of the result would have been their limit.

Land reform was ultimately rolled out by imitating the People's Party's method—three *mu* of land per person. The remaining land was public land. The state was responsible for allocation, while local organizations were responsible for actual operations. Taking the raw silk trade as an example, the Jiangsu government compressed the transaction links; the government forcibly set prices for each link and took charge of raw silk production and acquisition. After a large consortium took over the operation of raw silk, meaningless consumption in Jiangsu was greatly reduced. Aside from those who lost control over the original links being extremely dissatisfied, everyone who participated in the labor was actually quite satisfied. The ordinary common people were especially satisfied.

Laborers originally relied on selling their strength to earn money, and various unexpected problems always plagued everyone. Now that the risks were borne by this new consortium, the common people worked with extreme effort, free from worries about the future.

Most of those who lost their privileges were loan sharks. Now the Bank of Jiangsu had fully taken over these businesses, providing low-interest loans to the people. Private lending was still dominated by gold and silver, but Jiangsu promoted paper currency, which instantly squeezed gold and silver lending out of existence. These usurers, having lost their channel for making money, naturally wanted to oppose Yu Chen. for a time, Yu Chen's reputation as the "Money-Grabbing Commander" resounded throughout Jiangsu.

Wang Youhong's plan had long anticipated this, and Yu Chen's method of dealing with it was simple: "kill to establish authority." He ordered various departments to carry out forceful strikes against those market bullies, killing almost everyone they caught. These market bullies had close relationships with the loan sharks originally; seeing this group executed one by one, the voices of opposition from the usurers immediately vanished.

Such efforts still couldn't completely resolve Jiangsu's financial gap. Mortgaging the future income of the raw silk trade meant spending next year's money this year. Yu Chen then allowed foreigners to invest and build factories in Jiangsu, using this foreign exchange to pay off debts.

Before his death, Zhang Jian did one other thing: he opened several stock markets in Jiangsu, selling shares of some government-run Jiangsu enterprises to raise funds. At the same time, private individuals were allowed to issue stocks in the market to raise money. Initially, the loan sharks invested their funds into these stock markets, and the investors saw bountiful returns. Making money with money, without lifting a finger, and seemingly backed by the Jiangsu government along with a whole set of policies favoring property owners.

Soon, funds from all over Jiangsu were attracted into the stock market. The loan sharks were quite astute; they turned into brokers, soliciting funds for the stock market. Since these people had already obtained huge returns from their investments, the ignorant common people, as well as the country bumpkin landlords and gentry, naturally trusted them quite a bit. Not only was capital from all over Jiangsu sucked into the Jiangsu stock market, but "former property owners" within the surrounding People's Party-controlled areas, unable to compete with the People's Party in industry, either invested their funds in the Jiangsu stock market or raised funds from it.

In just a few years, stories of overnight riches and figures spread north and south of the Yangtze River. After being suppressed by the People's Party for twenty years, Jiangsu finally shook off its past predicament and instantly became a holy land in the hearts of property owners, a symbol of the new China.

No one cursed Yu Chen as a "traitor to Jiangsu" or "Money-Grabbing Commander" anymore. Now, everyone within Jiangsu's borders believed Governor Yu Chen was simply Marshal Zhao Gongming reincarnated, possessing the Midas touch.

Yu Chen was a few years younger than Chen Ke. Regarding this tide of flattery, although he very much wanted to laugh it off, he couldn't quite reach that level of detachment. When executing Wang Youhong's posthumous strategies, Yu Chen had also been apprehensive. He hadn't expected that after a few years, he would actually be able to create such a situation. Yu Chen felt it was simply like falling into a dream. Sometimes he couldn't help but think, if they had understood twenty years ago that doing this would lead to such a situation, how could they have let Chen Ke's People's Party hold today's dominant position? It was unknown whose hand the deer would have died in.

However, Yu Chen was somewhat of a figure after all. After giving birth to such thoughts, he also knew that in reality, this was not realistic. Even if Jiangsu's current policies were vastly different from the current People's Party, they were no different in terms of eliminating landlords and usury. If this policy were placed twenty years ago, it would be exactly the same "rebel party" behavior as the People's Party. To implement such a policy in Jiangsu, how many people would have to be killed just within Jiangsu? The very group that now steadfastly supported and worshipped Jiangsu's current policies—twenty years ago, probably more than ninety percent of them would have had to be killed.

So Yu Chen abandoned his delusions and focused his attention on immediate matters. Don't look at how Jiangsu was currently like oil added to fire, flowers added to brocade; Yu Chen still felt an unspeakable unease. The greatest unease lay in the fact that ever since Wang Youhong died, Jiangsu could increasingly no longer understand the People's Party's policies.

Like Wang Youhong, Yu Chen also subscribed to some of the People's Party's major newspapers. When Wang Youhong was alive, Yu Chen would discuss the People's Party's policies with him whenever he had the chance. Whether Wang Youhong approved or mocked them, he could always analyze a reasonable explanation roughly. Jiangsu would then make some corresponding countermeasures. Ever since Wang Youhong died, Yu Chen found that no one could play such a role anymore. Let alone someone to resolve doubts for Yu Chen, Yu Chen had to be responsible for resolving doubts for others.

For example, after March 1928, the People's Party's newspapers began frequently publishing articles mocking the shortsightedness of speculators and rentiers. The core idea of the articles was quite simple: any economic operation is built on the foundation of physical production and sales. The current lively investment and lending craze in China was pouring massive amounts of capital into a very narrow market. This market would soon reach a state of complete saturation, returns on equity would get lower and lower, and market risks would get higher and higher. Money begetting money was just a trick; in the later stages, there would definitely be a total collapse.

Yu Chen could naturally understand these terms, and he knew the People's Party was mocking Jiangsu as being about to completely finished. This kind of fortune-teller-like prophecy made Yu Chen feel truly sick of it. The People's Party occupied such a large territory and possessed such powerful military force, yet they couldn't improve the lives of the people within their own territory. This led many people from the People's Party's side to run to Jiangsu to invest and buy stocks. If Yu Chen could take charge of China, he would certainly be able to do better than the People's Party.

Currently, Jiangsu did not lack money. Foreigners were lining up to invest and build factories in Jiangsu. Foreigners were also using the Bank of Jiangsu to exchange massive amounts of British pounds and US dollars for the Renminbi held in the bank. With the foreign exchange in Jiangsu's hands, paying off external debts was no pressure at all. With Mentor Wang Youhong gone, Yu Chen certainly felt uneasy in his heart, yet the data clearly proved that there were no problems with Jiangsu's economy. In the end, Jiangsu Governor Yu Chen decided to regard everything the People's Party said as farting.

The People's Party didn't care what Yu Chen thought. Jiangsu's situation seemed lively, but compared to the People's Party's overall plate, it could only be described as insignificant. Jiangsu also played a role the People's Party hadn't originally expected—it became an excellent channel for the People's Party to exchange Renminbi for foreign currency. Regardless of whether Jiangsu could see it clearly, the People's Party saw it very clearly: the foreign devils were shrewd. They didn't want to use the pounds and dollars in their hands to exchange for Jiangsu's local currency at all; instead, they watched for opportunities to exchange for the Renminbi in the Jiangsu market. The Renminbi in the Jiangsu financial market was mostly brought there by property owners from outside Jiangsu; this group of property owners had actually converted quite a bit of their Renminbi into Jiangsu's local currency.

According to the People's Party's statistics, the personal debt ratio in the entire Jiangsu region was rising in a straight line, practically having broken through 80% and heading straight for 100%. Due to the massive influx of capital into Jiangsu, the return on capital in Jiangsu was also plummeting in a straight line. within the Asian scope, only Japan could compare with Jiangsu. Everything was ready, only the east wind was lacking; a true economic crisis, a capitalist economic crisis triggered by finance, was about to erupt within Jiangsu.

After Zhang Yu made various preparations, he asked a question at the Politburo plenary meeting: "Can capitalist economic crises really not be overcome? Looking at the situation now, it doesn't look like something is about to happen."

Chen Ke, on the other hand, was full of confidence. The People's Party had been systematically acquiring gold and cash internationally over these years. unexpectedly, Jiangsu was able to contribute quite a few pounds and dollars this time, which put Chen Ke in a great mood. "This is something that will inevitably happen under the joint context of domestic and international conditions. We People's Party members are not fortune tellers; we can only know according to laws that this thing will definitely happen, and we can roughly judge the time it will happen. However, we have no way to determine the specific time it will happen. We must view exactly how this large-scale economic crisis occurs with a scholarly mindset."

Over these years, Chen Ke's image as a "stick-god" had faded quite a bit; after all, Chen Ke himself was just a time traveler, not God. The People's Party's line had always remained on the track of science and democracy, with science placed even before democracy. After intelligence materials were collected, summarized, and discussed after the fact, the ins and outs of past events became clear. The comrades believed Chen Ke had keen intuition and penetrating insight into the future, but they didn't think Chen Ke could create many incredible results just by running his mouth.

One of the jobs of the Party leader was to maintain the system, and the second was to lead the direction. The comrades all acknowledged that Chen Ke had completed the workload he should have in the leader's position. No one wanted to argue with Chen Ke about the future direction; what the comrades wanted to know was what to do given that the future direction was determined.

"Comrade You Gou has already made a report. We've tightened our belts for over twenty years to engage in technology and education. By last year, we had already repeated the correct laboratory experiments for basic research from abroad, and we've figured out the principles for most experiments. In the future, we still have to tighten our belts and continue to engage in technology. Many of our technical equipment were obtained from abroad during economic crises; we are constantly narrowing the gap with the world's most cutting-edge technology. If this economic crisis begins, we can make another large-scale acquisition. Then we must digest and absorb these technologies as quickly as possible. We must not only know the how, but also the why, and even master the laws of nature to use them. Crossing this step, China will not just be a large country in territory, population, and military, but also a great power in technology!"

This was just the same old tune; Chen Ke had always paid extreme attention to technological development for many years, and the Republic's technological level had indeed developed very quickly. On this matter, no one wanted to argue with Chen Ke either.

Wait until Chen Ke finished the "talk every day, talk every year" old routine, someone stood up to speak, "Chairman Chen, grassroots comrades in the Party have had a doubt recently. Is what we are doing now building Communism?"

The comrades asked bluntly, and Chen Ke answered frankly, "We are not building Communism right now. To be more precise, we are currently opposing old feudal ideology and lifestyles while promoting industrialization. The principal contradiction in our recent social development is the contradiction between industrialization and feudalism, and the problem of every comrade unable to find their own positioning in the new era. This problem can only be solved in the development of an industrialized society. Personal initiative is certainly important, but if one wants to survive in the industrial age, one can only transform oneself according to the lifestyle of industrialized society, learn knowledge, increase one's level of understanding, and thereby transform one's thinking. Comparison over time will certainly show much improvement due to the development of productive forces. But without competitiveness, comparison across peers will only get worse and worse."

These words were perhaps too honest. If it weren't Chen Ke saying such things, he would probably have faced all-around opposition and attacks. Even with Chen Ke's prestige, quite a few comrades changed their expressions. But Chen Ke was completely unmoved. "Comrades, I don't read many reports, so I'm not too clear on exactly what the grassroots comrades are thinking. I just want to ask one question: Is Communism about getting something for nothing? Or does anyone think that now that it's the Communist era, one can get something for nothing?"

This slightly mocking tone calmed the comrades' momentarily agitated emotions.

Chen Ke did not pause and continued speaking, "The state is a tool of class rule. Since classes exist, contradictions must exist. We are building socialism, and we claim to follow science, so we cannot have an attitude of burying our heads in the sand. Standing on Earth, we might think the sun revolves around the Earth. What is the fact? It is the Earth revolving around the sun! In China, because our culture is advanced, proposing such a viewpoint won't get you killed. In foreign countries, in the era where foreign devils were using science to break the power of the church, admitting such a scientific fact would get you killed. And in our current socialist China, whoever can make a breakthrough in science will not be slaughtered but will be draped in red and flowers and praised by the people. This is social progress. Politically, some comrades genuinely don't understand; they feel unadapted, so they want to spark debate. There are also some who are feigning confusion while understanding perfectly well, wanting to stir up some trouble to fish in troubled waters. Then, as the vanguard of the laborers, how exactly should we in the People's Party view this problem? I think everyone should have a good discussion about it!"