Winters in Jiangnan were far warmer than in the north, but the winter of early 1930 seemed far colder than previous years.

Yu Chen, still a few years shy of fifty, sat blankly in his empty residence. It was as if his vitality had been exhausted. Aside from his haggard appearance, Yu Chen's posture was more like that of a severely frightened animal; any disturbance seemed capable of startling him, yet his overall reaction was numb and dull.

Jiangsu Governor Yu Chen simply could not comprehend what the changes of the past two months truly meant. The beautiful scenes of blooming flowers and full moons, of singing and dancing, had instantly turned into a gloomy scene of wailing ghosts and howling wolves. Those sought-after factories, those buildings in the new cities that Jiangsu, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, and other places had begun to build a few months ago in imitation of Shanghai, had all once been objects of public adoration. How many people had fought madly for these places to gain a chance at a new life? People buying property in Nanjing and Zhenjiang had even queued up days in advance. The mighty long lines had stretched out for a great distance. Now, most factories had stopped work, and no one was interested in the properties. No, to be more accurate, everyone was trying hard to sell off these assets in exchange for cash.

The Jiangsu financial center had once been a transit station for foreign capital to acquire Renminbi. After Jiangsu used the foreign exchange in its hands to cope with the foreign exchange withdrawal run, they faced a heavy Renminbi withdrawal run. Jiangsu was still part of China, yet the local currency of Jiangsu was not Renminbi. Outside Jiangsu, everyone had Renminbi in their hands; inside Jiangsu, Renminbi was already an extremely rare existence.

Yu Chen's groggy thoughts were mixed with indescribable regret. in Wang Youhong's posthumous policy, Wang Youhong had proposed that Jiangsu give up its own currency and apply to the central government to use Renminbi. After Wang Youhong's death, this proposal encountered great resistance in the Jiangsu Assembly, coupled with the People's Party's indifferent refusal, and then there was no follow-up. Yu Chen had done his utmost to execute Wang Youhong's policies. Before encountering today's devastating blow, this monetary policy was a plan that Yu Chen himself could not fully accept. In Yu Chen's view, that was tantamount to a disguised surrender. When it was rejected by the People's Party, Yu Chen had even felt a burst of relief. Now Yu Chen finally knew just how far behind Wang Youhong he was. If Wang Youhong's policy could have been realized, Jiangsu would not have reached such a desperate situation now.

If Jiangsu were currently using Renminbi, even if Jiangsu was now in a state of de facto independence, there would still be ways to forcibly raise Renminbi locally through taxes and other methods. The People's Party officials had never opened the exchange between Renminbi and Jiangsu's local currency, and Jiangsu's private exchange was simply insufficient to raise Renminbi cash. Recently, the repayment of Renminbi debt had been immense. People everywhere in Jiangsu who held Renminbi had long since hidden these Renminbi away like treasures; how would they be willing to circulate them in the market?

Someone walked in with heavy steps outside. Hearing this sound, Jiangsu Governor Yu Chen shuddered as if whipped. He could no longer bear any more blows. Raising his head, he saw it was the current Commander of the Jiangsu National Defense Army, Li Rui. Li Rui, face full of anger, said to Yu Chen, "Governor, we caught a few more treacherous merchants reselling Renminbi. You have to make the decision to kill them!"

"Kill who?" Yu Chen asked somewhat dazedly.

Li Rui was someone Yu Chen had promoted. He was shrewd and straightforward, and his character was naturally beyond reproach. He had contributed greatly when Yu Chen wiped out the local bullies in various business channels a few years ago. Privately, he was considered a strong contender for Jiangsu Governor after Yu Chen. This was not completely groundless. Since Wang Youhong would rather drive his family back to his hometown in Tianjin and die alone than hand over the position of Governor to anyone but Yu Chen, Yu Chen felt he had no reason to choose a relative as his successor for Jiangsu Governor. Li Rui was indeed one of the successors Yu Chen favored.

Li Rui did not think that much. His anger undiminished, he said, "Governor, we have already issued orders that private individuals are not allowed to hoard foreign exchange and Renminbi; they must be deposited in the National Bank. Yet there are some treacherous merchants who hoard Renminbi privately and sell it at high prices in the black market. After receiving a report, I destroyed a black market, and it turned out that among the people inside were actually a few prominent assemblymen. Governor, these people absolutely cannot be let off!"

"Heh, assemblymen..." Yu Chen smiled bitterly. When had these assemblymen ever done anything good? When there was profit to be made, they were never absent. When the country faced difficulties, they ran away without a trace. As for this kind of private buying and selling, it had happened plenty of times when Wang Youhong was alive. Yu Chen also read various newspapers and publications of the People's Party. The People's Party did not compile a history of the Qing Dynasty, but there was an article called "Resolution on Certain Historical Events Since Chongzhen". Although the article was not signed by Chen Ke, it was the People's Party's evaluation of the Manchu Qing.

The *Resolution* stated that the most corrupt gentry at the end of the Ming Dynasty dominated the court, leading to the Ming Dynasty's destruction. The Manchu Qing colluded with the corrupt gentry to create a centralized, autocratic, and corrupt system, pushing this system to its peak. Regarding the gentry and the gentry system, the People's Party upheld a consistent attitude, believing that if you killed nine out of ten, there would still be some who slipped through the net. In the People's Party controlled areas, the gentry class had already been uprooted. So with such a blatant total negation, surprisingly no one dared to come out and oppose it.

Yu Chen did not like the gentry either, but after reading the People's Party's articles, he also felt the People's Party was a bit excessive. Now, experiencing a great catastrophe, Yu Chen finally understood that the People's Party's view was actually correct. This gentry system born under a completely feudal theoretical train of thought indeed had original sin; killing them was no pity.

Even if he believed in his heart that killing them was no pity, Yu Chen could not just start a massacre like this. Jiangsu's system was built upon the alliance of the gentry and the industrial and commercial figures transformed from the gentry. If he laid a murderous hand on this system, Jiangsu might as well just join the People's Party, or it would be cutting its own roots.

But seeing the murderous look on Li Rui's face, Yu Chen ordered, "Lock them up first. You be responsible for this matter. Whoever pleads for them, lock them up together."

Having finally sent Li Rui away, Yu Chen returned to his initial state. What Yu Chen needed now was to find a solution to the problem. If the debt was only to the private sector or the stock market, he could just let them sink or swim. Now the Jiangsu government had also intervened and owed a large amount of debt. When the creditors came knocking, would the Jiangsu government also collapse along with them?

amidst hesitation and fear, a personal guard ran in and whispered, "Governor, someone has delivered intelligence."

"Oh?" Yu Chen immediately regained some spirit. He stood up and ordered, "Bring it in quickly!"

What was brought in was a letter. As Yu Chen read it, his face actually regained some vitality.

In Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Wu Xiangyu asked the comrades in the office to archive the file after reading the latest intelligence. The news was simple: some private enterprises in Shanghai were preparing to group together for warmth and inject capital into Jiangsu. At the same time, comrades of the People's Party in Shanghai also sent news that the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce held a meeting, hoping to save Jiangsu. The Chamber of Commerce was full of private business owners; several leaders believed that if Jiangsu fell, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce's investments in Jiangsu would be lost entirely. Since what Jiangsu lacked now was cash, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce would raise cash for Jiangsu to relieve Jiangsu's urgent need. It could be resolved leisurely later.

Wu Xiangyu had an impatient nature. Since getting married, with his wife's help, Wu Xiangyu had improved quite a lot. Looking at the national capitalists trying to group together for warmth to tide over the difficulties, Wu Xiangyu actually wanted to say to them, you guys should just take a break, don't do this useless work.

Now Wu Xiangyu had finally officially become the Governor of Zhejiang Province. His old superior Li Shouxian had been promoted to Vice Premier of the country. There were rumors that Premier Li might become the Premier of the country in the next term. But Wu Xiangyu had not expected that Li Shouxian was surprisingly not included in the 12-person meeting in Beijing that decided China's future direction.

Wu Xiangyu himself did not care about this matter at all; this was his personality. Wu Xiangyu never thought that official position represented anything amazing. Official position represented work and responsibility. As a revolutionary, a revolutionary did whatever the organization needed them to do. Wu Xiangyu of course knew that he had already entered the ranks of the future leadership echelon of the People's Party. His attitude towards this was limited to a state of "understood". There were three young comrades attending the meeting. Wu Xiangyu found that the performance of the other two comrades was exactly the same as his own; they believed they were there to work, and apart from work, attending such a meeting had no other significance.

So Wu Xiangyu continued to be his Zhejiang Governor and continued to be responsible for Jiangsu work. The Party had long seen through Jiangsu with incomparable clarity. Wu Xiangyu had originally thought Jiangsu might produce something different. Unexpectedly, Jiangsu staged a classic textbook economic crisis. Comparing the Party's predictions, economics textbooks, and Jiangsu's intelligence, Wu Xiangyu found that Jiangsu's changes did not have even a single surprise.

First the stock market collapsed, then the debt market was in imminent danger. The exhaustion of cash led to a plummet in industrial product prices, followed by a plummet in the prices of industrial equipment like factories. After the unemployment rate climbed sharply, people were unemployed in large numbers. To solve the problem, the government adopted coercive means to start "rectifying economic order", and at the same time prepared to raise taxes. In short, all actions were to solve the chaotic situation, yet the more they solved, the more chaotic it became. Of course, it had not yet reached the stage of social unrest and total collapse. But such a prospect was only a matter of time.

The Central Committee had already made a prediction that this economic crisis would last for several years. Since the Central Committee was so certain, there must be a reason. In a situation where Jiangsu could not obtain external funds and orders, it was bound to lead to a total collapse. Wu Xiangyu's job was to record this process as important material for the People's Party's social research.

When he returned home after work, Wu Xiangyu talked about these things with his wife. It wasn't revealing secrets, but pure lamentation. "Chairman Chen seems never to make a fuss. No matter how terrible the thing is, in Chairman Chen's eyes, it all seems very normal."

Wu Xiangyu's wife put a chopstick of green vegetables into Wu Xiangyu's bowl. "That is because the height at which Chairman Chen stands is different. From his height, things themselves certainly have various characteristics and are worth paying attention to, being surprised by, and researching, but the occurrence of anything is normal."

Hearing his wife's words, Wu Xiangyu suddenly felt moved. When attending the meeting in Beijing, the People's Party discussed specific things that would happen in the future, and everyone had their own emotions. Towards good or bad things happening in the future, all attendees were fearless. Although his wife had not attended such a meeting, it was as if she had seen it with her own eyes. Wu Xiangyu put a not-large piece of pork strip into his wife's bowl, then continued eating without saying a word.

After that, the development of events was exactly the same as the Party Central Committee's prediction. After Jiangsu received Renminbi cash support from Shanghai, it temporarily stabilized its position. However, the external situation became even worse. The People's Party's chemical fiber products had gradually occupied the short silk market in recent years. As soon as the economic crisis arrived, foreign consumption of raw silk shrank rapidly. Jiangsu's largest export commodities were raw silk and silk fabrics; these two products could only be sold at reduced prices. Initially, there were some foreign speculators who wanted to hoard low-priced raw silk and silk fabrics to make a profit after the market recovered. The foreign market continued to be sluggish for more than half a year, and these speculators eventually disappeared.

Cutting off the external market was a fatal blow to Jiangsu. Private enterprises in Shanghai were also hit by this terrible economic cold current. External demand continued to decline. In order to survive, they could only sell products at reduced prices. However, this price reduction was a beat slower than the price reduction sales of foreign peers. Foreign factory owners and merchants with rich experience in economic crises had long begun to sell frantically at reduced prices. Chinese private enterprises had never experienced such a tragic stage. The United States could sell at a reduced price of one-half or even one-third of the production cost; Chinese merchants could not do such a thing. By the time they made up their minds to do so, they had long lost the opportunity for price-reduction sales.

The private sector was in a depression everywhere, yet unexpectedly, the vast majority of those who could still have a stable income at this stage were in China. State-owned enterprises in the People's Party controlled areas operated normally as usual, and rural life was not affected. For the cash that private owners craved, factories still paid it out on time. The prerequisite was that one had to be a worker in a state-owned enterprise. For several years, private owners had been "peacocks flying southeast", fighting with their old lives to go to Jiangsu to manage their lives. Now they ran to the People's Party's areas in a swarm. Making money was one of the purposes; hiding from debt was also another very important purpose.

In September 1930, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce applied to Shanghai Mayor Lin Shenhe for government relief several times to no avail, so they simply went to the streets to demonstrate. Holding flags of "Against Hunger, Against Unemployment", a large number of private owners who owed a buttload of debt blocked the entrance of the Shanghai Municipal Government requesting government relief. These people knelt on the ground, their cries shaking the sky. Besides large slogans, there were also some small slogans: "Government banks discriminate against private industry and commerce", "State-owned enterprises engage in unfair competition". All kinds of banners that had nothing to do with ordinary commoners vented the indignation of the private owners.

Lin Shenhe naturally knew long ago that this kind of thing would happen. As a former Shanghai patrolman, Lin Shenhe knew the Shanghai underground financial industry deeply. A few years ago, Lin Shenhe had prepared to sweep away this gang but was stopped by the Central Committee. Waiting until today to see this gang unable to muddle along anymore, Lin Shenhe's heart was filled with malicious pleasure.

These punks saw that the People's Party did not confiscate their property and enterprises, so they thought they could continue the good days of the past in the new era, and they also ridiculed the socialist system quite a lot. Now retribution had come! Under the global economic crisis, the good days of these guys had finally come to an end.

"What is the reaction of the masses?" After Lin Shenhe finished feeling good in his heart, he called the comrades of the National Security Bureau.

"Haven't seen any masses supporting them." The National Security Bureau had always cared about mass incidents and had long arranged a comprehensive investigation. "These people usually always feel they are amazing and have no mass foundation. But them blocking the government gate without application like this, should we rectify it a bit?"

Lin Shenhe leaned back comfortably in his chair and replied, "No need! As long as the masses don't support them, let them continue kneeling there. When they are tired of kneeling and hungry from kneeling, they will naturally leave. These masters are delicate. In addition, there must be people in the civil service who invested in these people's businesses. With the investment failing, will some people jump over the wall in desperation and give advice to these people? We still have to ask the comrades of the Security Bureau to help investigate."

"You can rest assured about this; this is one of our jobs," the comrade from the Security Bureau on the other side replied.

Putting down the phone, Lin Shenhe stood up and looked down from a height through the window at the black mass of the crowd outside for a while, then returned to his desk satisfied to continue working.

The Shanghai masses were quite delighted to see these rich people fall to their current state. Previously, these people were idols in the hearts of the Shanghai masses. They had money. Although they no longer had their former status, according to Shanghai customs, having money was status. Seeing this gang mixed to such a state now, although the Shanghai masses felt quite surprised—"They probably didn't expect to see such days when they were making big money, right!"—schadenfreude was naturally inevitable.

Not long after, the newspapers published news again. A batch of government civil servants were expelled from public office and held legally responsible for colluding with these rich people and attempting to influence government policy. Now the common people of Shanghai completely understood one thing: in Shanghai, the ones who truly had power and influence were the People's Party government that could let the common people of Shanghai have jobs and food to eat. Those rich people seemed glorious when they were triumphant, but compared to the sufficiently benevolent People's Party government, they counted for nothing.

The People's Party's performance in Shanghai made Jiangsu Governor Yu Chen completely despair. He originally thought that if the propertied classes united, even if they couldn't temporarily overthrow the People's Party government, they could at least keep Jiangsu. Now the propertied classes were unable to even protect themselves under the blow of the economic crisis; they all scattered, showing absolutely no sign of going bankrupt to protect Jiangsu. The People's Party not only adopted an attitude of indifference towards Jiangsu, but also an attitude of indifference towards the bankrupt propertied classes under the People's Party's rule.

Those state-owned enterprises under the People's Party stood tall and erect, acting as if nothing had happened. Cruel reality caused many ideas to appear throughout Jiangsu. Jiangsu could be said to be in imminent danger now, but it could also be said to have stabilized its position. The comprehensive imitation of the People's Party's rural land reform stopped the economic shock at the countryside. Even if the farmers had no business, at least they still had their own land to farm. If they grew grain, self-preservation was still possible. The water conservancy society built with the People's Party's help performed well, reducing the impact of natural disasters to a minimum. Even during the economic crisis when industry and commerce fell into a situation of total collapse, Jiangsu agriculture actually had good harvests for two consecutive years.

Under the comparison of facts, one of the currents of thought in Jiangsu recently was that Jiangsu should simply give up its independent status and defect to the People's Party. Now industrialists and merchants owed a buttload of Renminbi debt, and the Jiangsu government also publicly declared that it would delay debt repayment. If Jiangsu sold all the precious metals in its hands, the money gathered could probably barely repay the debt. It was just that after doing so, Jiangsu's currency would become paper money with absolutely no collateral. If Jiangsu could defect to the People's Party, after Renminbi replaced Jiangsu's local currency, the circulated Jiangsu economy would not be without a chance to repay the debt.

The land reform that had once made Jiangsu's propertied classes hate deeply had now conversely become Jiangsu's life-saving talisman. This was something that gang in the Jiangsu Assembly had never expected originally. So the Jiangsu Assembly quickly reached an agreement, hoping to hand over part of the autonomy to the central government in exchange for Renminbi becoming the official currency of Jiangsu.

Against such a background, Yu Chen went to Hangzhou, Zhejiang to visit Zhejiang Governor Wu Xiangyu.