After *Harvest* was published in the *People's Daily*, it triggered a strong reaction. In 1931, Jiangsu suffered a disaster of abundance. After Jiangsu's commerce and industry had already collapsed due to the Great Depression, the Jiangsu government, in order to hold out to the end, adopted a policy of cheap grain exports, shifting Jiangsu's export market to Japan. However, American grain was already so cheap that Jiangsu farmers were completely unable to compete, and Jiangsu's grain exports suffered a devastating blow. To this end, Jiangsu adopted a high-tax policy during the bumper year, frantically raising taxes to exploit the people. The bumper year not only failed to make the people's lives better, but instead saw a large number of farmers go bankrupt because they could not pay their taxes. Through the propaganda of the *People's Daily*, the situation in Jiangsu was finally made known to people all over the country.

The events that followed were even more intense. The Nanjing collective prostitution case was finally released under pressure with Zhang Yu's intervention. Qinhuai was originally a red-light district. After Jiangsu owed huge debts in Renminbi, the Renminbi showed an ultra-high exchange rate against the local Jiangsu currency. Sexual services that could originally only be afforded by the rich could now be enjoyed by middle-income laborers from areas surrounding Jiangsu. And in order to raise Renminbi, the Jiangsu government directly intervened in this trade, doing their best to encourage the sex industry to attract outsiders. The People's Party had completely eradicated the sex industry in their controlled areas. With full bellies comes the desire for carnal pleasures, so group tours to Qinhuai appeared. Among them were consumer groups that included civil servants from outside Jiangsu.

The People's Internal Affairs Commission was not to be trifled with. This matter was quickly discovered and reported to the organization. The *People's Daily* reported the matter, triggering an even more intense reaction inside and outside the Party. Zhejiang and Anhui accounted for the bulk of the group tours, and Zhejiang Governor Wu Xiangyu came under unprecedented pressure. In addition to strictly investigating the matter, Wu Xiangyu also felt that the Central Committee was preparing to move against Jiangsu.

After a nationwide propaganda campaign criticizing Jiangsu's evil system began, people all over the country expressed their positions one after another, believing that the Jiangsu Special Administrative Region had become a sinkhole of filth and that the Jiangsu people living in deep waters and scorching fire needed to be liberated. Yu Chen was no fool. Seeing this propaganda, he understood that the Jiangsu regime had finally reached its dead end.

Yu Chen was naturally very unwilling to accept this; Jiangsu had held out until now. The upper echelons of Jiangsu were not fools either. They knew roughly about the worldwide economic crisis, which at least explained why Jiangsu's foreign trade had completely collapsed. It wasn't that Jiangsu itself wasn't working hard, but that the external environment was too poor. In the external economic storm, China's private business owners had not suffered a devastating blow. Competition in industries like catering and sewing was becoming increasingly fierce, but the scale was expanding again and again. New China's state-owned enterprises propped up the foundation of the economy, and urbanization gave the service industry a huge market.

Jiangsu was now merely utilizing its local advantage in the service industry, yet the People's Party had seized upon this handle. Looking at it now, the People's Party seemed intent on enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven. The Jiangsu Assembly immediately held a meeting. In the meeting, curses against the People's Party for meddling in others' business or harboring ulterior motives occupied most of the first half-hour. These upper-class people had seen clearly that the People's Party was probably going to get serious this time.

A member of the assembly spoke with impassioned generosity, "The Yangzhou Thin Horse is a part of traditional culture with a long history, spanning over a thousand years. The People's Party wants to destroy traditional culture."

" distinctions between superior and inferior, private property, men holding political power—these are all Chinese traditions. Which dynasty or generation in the history books was not like this? The People's Party has learned some heresy from foreigners and doesn't consider themselves Chinese. Instead, they use foreign things to destroy Chinese traditions! Are they still Chinese?"

Denunciations of this kind were endless, echoing within the Jiangsu Assembly.

It must be admitted that a large part of what these people said was fact. Even in the timeline Chen Ke originally came from, there were quite a few "public intellectuals" who shouted things like "Traditional culture is in Taiwan, traditional culture is in Hong Kong." Such traditions were indeed in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In New China, these things were being crushed along with the revolution and industrialization. Under the protection of their foreign daddies, Taiwan and Hong Kong took away Chinese traditions, but the only thing they didn't take away was China's spirit as a great power. If the members of the Jiangsu Assembly had the ability to travel through time and see the public intellectuals of Chen Ke's timeline, they would probably sigh and say, "Our path is not solitary."

But the People's Party could not be toppled just by cursing. The Jiangsu assemblymen knew this well. Watching the People's Party's propaganda offensive becoming fiercer and fiercer, the Jiangsu assemblymen also felt chilled to the bone.

"The ones taking boats to the Qinhuai River are also their People's Party officials. What does this have to do with our Jiangsu? Can they send troops to attack us over this?" an assemblyman said, seemingly aggressive but actually weak.

"We are doing our own business. Nobody forced them to come. Has this become our fault instead?"

The assemblymen discussed it repeatedly but couldn't come up with any result. After all, according to Jiangsu's logic, they couldn't see where Jiangsu was wrong in any way. The Jiangsu assemblymen believed that Jiangsu's only fault was simply that they were no match for the People's Party militarily. Amidst much anxiety, the Jiangsu assemblymen had no solution; they could only drag things out for the time being.

The People's Party reacted relatively quickly and didn't just stick to propaganda like before. Formal organizations of the People's Party soon appeared in Jiangsu. The People's Party Jiangsu Provincial Committee first hung out its shingle, and then began political propaganda, ideological agitation, and running study classes. The initial scale was not large, starting in a few major cities in Jiangsu, but these activities were completely open.

The Central Committee had already decided to resolve the Jiangsu issue, not by adopting military means, but by adopting the model of mobilizing the masses. With strong military and economic backing, getting rid of Jiangsu's existing upper class was just a matter of time.

The bunch of assemblymen in the Jiangsu Assembly panicked. The change in the People's Party's policy really scared them. In the past, no matter what Jiangsu did, the People's Party had never conducted any substantial activities in Jiangsu. Jiangsu's politics and economy were all run by Jiangsu itself. Now that the People's Party had formally established a Party organization in Jiangsu, their intentions didn't even need to be guessed.

"Should we ban all activities of the People's Party in Jiangsu?" an assemblyman made such a suggestion in terror.

Those assemblymen who had not yet lost their reason were scared by such a stupid proposal. Publicly banning the People's Party's activities in Jiangsu would be tantamount to declaring war on the People's Party. If they didn't let the People's Party use civil means, they would only force the People's Party to use martial means.

Jiangsu Governor Yu Chen decided to burn his bridges. "Gentlemen, everyone has been in Jiangsu for so long. The People's Party is a newcomer to Jiangsu. Are you so afraid that the People's Party can agitate the common people of Jiangsu? If they can agitate, can't we agitate too? In comparison, will the Jiangsu people believe us, or believe them? If the Jiangsu people really believe the People's Party, that only proves we deserve to lose! Gentlemen, what we need to do now is not to be afraid, but to solidly handle Jiangsu's affairs well and not give the People's Party any opportunities. Them coming to our Jiangsu, I think it's actually a good thing. Let the Jiangsu people take a good look at what kind of virtue the People's Party actually has! Aren't they just a bunch of characters who run to Jiangsu to sit on flower boats as soon as they have a few coins in their pockets? The People's Party dares to expose its own ugliness, so why should we be polite?" Thus, various stories about People's Party members sitting on flower boats on the Qinhuai River in Jiangsu soon began to circulate.

The working group responsible for Jiangsu work saw some personnel changes; some new personnel were added, and some were transferred out. Jiangsu's rapid reaction immediately caused some impact on the working group. Jiangsu's public opinion war made the working group feel somewhat caught off guard. Comrade Wu Xiangyu was very capable, but he was a relatively rigorous person. Like the mainstream cadres of the People's Party, he belonged to the Puritan type of character. Being splashed with such a bucket of dirty water right on the head, Wu Xiangyu felt a sense of humiliation.

Fortunately, although People's Party leader Comrade Chen Ke's desires were so low that he outdid even the Puritans, Chen Ke was fundamentally not a Puritan. So after Chen Ke learned of Jiangsu's response, he sent a short telegram to Wu Xiangyu with just one sentence written on it: "No investigation, no right to speak. We cannot mechanically apply our own thoughts about the matter to the thoughts of the Jiangsu public."

Receiving Comrade Chen Ke's support at a critical moment, Wu Xiangyu was very grateful. If it were a person with insufficiently firm will encountering this kind of predicament, they would probably immediately start using the leader's name as a shield. Wu Xiangyu did not shirk responsibility or take his anger out on others; he just set to work according to the instructions.

The investigation results were truly surprising. In Jiangsu, rich officials drinking flower wine couldn't be talked about as a romantic affair, nor was it absolutely a shameful thing. Jiangsu's propaganda did not make the Jiangsu commoners feel that the People's Party were all morally corrupt guys. Instead, it made them feel that the People's Party civil servants had money and status, and were all big shots.

The investigation results did not make Wu Xiangyu feel relaxed. Instead, he recognized the situation clearly: the political campaign in Jiangsu would be a real hard battle of changing customs and habits. The Jiangsu people's view of the world and the People's Party's view of the world were indeed two completely different worlds.

Chen Ke had feelings similar to Wu Xiangyu's, but the object was not the Jiangsu people, but directed at the German Communist Party. Strategically speaking, if a Three Red Nations Alliance of China, the Soviet Union, and Germany could be formed, let alone liberating the World Island, even toppling the capitalist system of the whole world would be a fight with a chance of winning.

Little Mustache was indeed a Child of Destiny. This figure, who survived dozens of assassination attempts in his life, still displayed his good luck even amidst drastic historical changes. His rise was not much different from history.

The People's Party never engaged in assassination, and Chen Ke had no interest in it either. War is uncontrollable, and history is uncontrollable too. Chen Ke's greatest advantage was not disrupting history, but utilizing history as much as possible. So after Little Mustache started making noise, Chen Ke did not move to suppress the Nazi forces, but contacted the German Communist Party. Chen Ke suggested that the German Communist Party wage a tit-for-tat struggle against the Nazis and do their utmost to unite and organize the German masses.

Adhering to his habit of copying historical answers, the prescription Chen Ke wrote out for the German Communist Party mainly had three points. First, establish street fighting squads to engage in tit-for-tat combat against the street violence of other political parties in a polite but restrained manner. Second, oppose the rentier class's exploitation of the people in a way the German people could understand, by finding sinners. Third, organize production self-help activities. Maintain the lives of unemployed masses through communal labor and barter trade. Fourth, unite all German progressive forces that can be united.

The KPD was indeed the Communist Party of a developed industrial country; it did have a high-end, magnificent, and classy side. After carefully analyzing Chen Ke's suggestions, the KPD was shocked. Not just shocked, but nauseated to the point of eating a pound of vomit. This policy first required the KPD to participate in street hooligan brawls; second, it was to be anti-Semitic; and finally, it was to make all kinds of "hypocritical promises" to the masses. Anyway, the goal was just one: to seize power by any means necessary. How was this a suggestion from the leader of a great socialist power? This was a plan from an out-and-out conspirator and opportunist. The KPD unceremoniously rejected Chen Ke's suggestions.

The KPD thought Chen Ke was a conspirator and opportunist. Chen Ke wasn't angry; he just felt that the German Communist Party was a classic case of scholars rebelling for three years without success. Germany was ruled by the propertied class, and it was inherently ridiculous for the KPD to hang around in parliament thinking they could seize power through parliamentary struggle. The German Wehrmacht didn't support the KPD at all, and the KPD had no organized armed forces in their hands, yet they acted high and mighty. No wonder the German Communist Party was eradicated by the Nazi Party in history. A tiny Reichstag Fire was enough to finish off the KPD.

As for the KPD actually refusing to be anti-Semitic, this was the most incredible thing. Anti-Semitism was a manifestation of political correctness in Europe. It was okay not to oppose the Jewish nation, but in Germany, at least publicly accuse and publicly oppose the evil deeds of Jewish speculative merchants. Did the KPD think they were Jesus? Could they walk on water just by speaking the truths of communism? Or could they perform the miracle of the five loaves and two fish? Without the ability to realize these miracles, then honestly speak some words the people can understand.

Above, there was the consensus of property owners and imperialist countries against communism, and the Wehrmacht, the backbone of Germany, didn't care for the German Communist Party at all. It was hard enough to encounter the Great Depression, yet the KPD didn't talk about doing everything possible to expand their influence among the people and do some tangible things for the people, while accumulating military power in the hands of the German Communist Party.

Abandoning these methods to walk the path of parliamentary struggle—did the KPD really believe in historical materialism? This was Chen Ke's puzzlement.

Things having reached this point, Chen Ke had no way out either. If the KPD belonged to the category that could be saved, China could really give them a hand from behind. Since the KPD was mud that couldn't be plastered onto a wall, the People's Party couldn't possibly invest in this direction destined for failure. The People's Party intelligence agency could only regretfully treat the KPD as a failed case. That is, to record in detail the rise of the Nazi Party and the failure of the KPD. As an important case study in social science.

Apart from these matters, Chen Ke did only one thing throughout 1931: establishing the scientific and technological system between national laboratories and production. As a child of railway workers, Chen Ke had quite a lot of understanding of the development of high-speed rail. It could even be said that the masterpiece of China's production and technological innovation was the development of high-speed rail. What China introduced was not only a large amount of technology, but more importantly, the advanced scientific research mechanisms of Europe and America.

In the process of high-speed rail R&D, the role of foreign technology was limited, even very limited. The key was this mechanism: even if a single screw had a problem, it had to be sent to the laboratory for research. The direction of research was not limited to how to prevent problems, but first to figure out *why* the accident happened. To use a simple metaphor, it was "Ten Thousand Whys."

Was it a material problem? Was it a temperature problem? In science, there are no accidents, only inevitable consequences based on laws. This required massive amounts of experimentation to complete. What needed to be studied was not just the small problem that occurred, but the various laws related to it.

For example, the expansion rate under cold temperatures in the north. What this required was not experiments with degrees as the unit, but experiments with tenths of a degree as the unit. The ratio of various metals was not in units of 1%, but in units of 0.01%. Just to be able to precisely control the ratios in these materials was a revolution in materials science.

There were no shortcuts to this basic research; it was just constant delving and experimenting. The People's Party's industrial menthol production was unique in the world. This was from when Chen Ke was in university and Japanese people came to their school to give a report. The reports of the two Japanese professors were nothing special. One professor who specialized in menthol production looked more like a Chinese person in his demeanor. He recounted his problem with developing a catalyst. This Japanese professor experimented hundreds and thousands of times, all failures. Finally, he got a new catalyst just produced from a friend, with the content calculated in milligrams. This solved the problem of industrial catalyst conversion of chiral carbon.

The inevitability of science is the inevitability of chemical reactions. Finding these inevitabilities can only rely on a rigorous scientific attitude, relying on massive amounts of money, personnel, experiments, and data summarization to accumulate bit by bit.

This is a threshold that no one can bypass.

In March 1932, Chen Ke finally preliminarily left this aspect of work. What should be taught and what should be said, Chen Ke had done. The "technology anti-authority, anti-monopoly" line of thought learned from Chairman Mao, Chen Ke also tried his best to implement. Everyone is equal before practice. As long as they are in a team, regardless of seniority or age, everyone should have the right to speak.

Of course, anti-authority does not mean trying every way to get rid of authority so one can become the authority oneself, and then using one's authority to suppress others; that is still the feudal way. As always, Chen Ke also made many speeches in the scientific community that seemed contradictory but were fundamentally not contradictory, such as "anti-feudalism" and "anti-egalitarianism."

Chen Ke held back strongly so as not to propagate the Doctrine of the Mean. The vast majority of people who read the Doctrine of the Mean simply don't understand what the Doctrine of the Mean is actually saying. Moreover, with productivity developed to the current industrial age, the Mean must also be established on a scientific basis. All social behavior and even individual behavior in the industrial age must be established on a scientific basis. This concept is precisely the most difficult to establish.