In the industrial age, Taiwan's geographical location was of paramount importance to China. If China possessed Taiwan, the Chinese Navy could enter and exit the Pacific Ocean at will, and Japan's southward maritime passage would be firmly blocked by China. The so-called maritime alliance of Japan, Britain, and the Netherlands would instantly become a joke.

Everything has two sides. After China seized Taiwan, it would bring about a complete change in the situation in the Western Pacific. The United States was the biggest variable in this. The United States had always tried to break up the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. After China retook Taiwan, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance would exist in name only; Taiwan and the Philippines would cut off the maritime coordination between Britain and Japan.

Contradictions are constantly transforming. The contradiction between the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the United States might very well shift from being the principal contradiction in the Western Pacific to a secondary one. Facing China, an increasingly powerful Western Pacific power, what choice would the United States make? As the world's number one industrial nation, the United States was currently plagued by the economic crisis, and isolationism was prevalent domestically. But this was only the internal cause for the United States not wanting to participate in world changes; it did not mean that the United States lacked the ability to participate in world changes.

Regarding the strategic change, one could understand it just by looking at the map. Regarding the attitude towards the United States, the Politburo found it strange why Chen Ke looked down on the British so much. In this era, Britain was still the world hegemon, and the United States was just one of the great powers. For Chen Ke, to express it in crude words, "Britain ain't shit!"

China at the time of Chen Ke's birth had no tradition of looking up to Britain. During Chen Ke's growth process, the British had never been an existence capable of influencing or threatening China. In this spacetime, it took Chen Ke several years to establish the concept that China and Britain were actually genuine neighbors.

Chamberlain back then was definitely not a fool who was deceived. The British upper echelons were very clear that as soon as World War II started, whether Britain won or lost, the British Empire's hegemony would end. So Chamberlain, who adopted the appeasement policy, returned to London and received unanimous praise. As for Churchill, he was only blown up so high after the victory. If they had really followed Churchill's hardline policy of "even if the last Indian dies, the British Empire will not yield" from the beginning, Britain would definitely have died a miserable death.

In 1933, China's crude steel output would break through 30 million tons, while the American crude steel output in 1916 had already exceeded 40 million tons. Chen Ke was very clear that in 1944, the US steel output would easily exceed 80 million tons. With China's current iron ore exploration and development capabilities, it could at most reach the level of 60 million tons.

If China could comprehensively change the situation in the Western Pacific, the United States had no reason not to have other ideas. Isolationism sounded scary, but as long as there were sufficient interests, American capitalists were not incapable of changing this trend. So Chen Ke never cared about what the British would do; the British were done for either way. But the Americans were completely different; the Yanks really had the strength and were just waiting for an opportunity.

The Japanese comrades of the People's Party did not care what the British thought at this time, nor did they care what the Americans thought. Their goals were all focused on how China prepared to treat Japan. From 1905 to 1933, among the Japanese cadres in the People's Party, there were Garrison Political Commissars, Ministers of Agriculture, and even Provincial Governors. These old men, nearing 60, had joined the Chinese revolution as early as 28 years ago. Now some even had grandsons, and some comrades had even died of old age, but the original intention, the goal of liberating Japan, still seemed far away.

These people were all mixed in the middle and high levels, and they were naturally clear about the recent situation. China was determined to solve the Japan problem. But to what extent would it be solved? The old men's idea was naturally to liberate all of Japan and establish a People's Republic of Japan. However, considering it from a strategic perspective, China might not be willing to fight such a comprehensive war. So the Japanese comrades, led by Garrison Political Commissar Heidao Ren, formally submitted a request to the Party Central Committee, hoping to solve the Japan problem.

Heidao Ren, representing the Japanese comrades, proposed: liberate Japan, establish a republic, and join the subsequently established Western Pacific Socialist Alliance. This was completely in line with the initial thoughts of the Japanese comrades.

Chen Ke raised a few questions. First, would China enter Japan as a liberator or a compeller? Second, the People's Party stresses seeking truth from facts; to eradicate the Japanese feudal system, exactly how many people would have to be killed?

These were very real questions. The Chinese People's Revolution had been going on for nearly 30 years. Chen Ke talked about it every day and every year, and only then was an understanding of the feudal system constructed in the minds of the Chinese people. Anti-feudalism had a system of theory and practice. With Japan's current status quo, where industrialization was closely combined with the feudal system and mixed with a large number of capitalist industrial operation elements, if a storm-like revolution were to come, heads would really roll.

Revolution is certainly not a dinner party, and the purpose of revolution is not the complete physical elimination of "bad people." What kind of structure and relationship the post-war socialist alliance would be is a big question. At the same time, the post-war territorial division, and the contradictions that would inevitably erupt from it, were also very tricky.

"We in China do not want to become Japan's overlord. I think the Japanese comrades can definitely understand this," Chen Ke said seriously to a group of Japanese comrades who looked no different from Chinese people.

Based on China's attitude towards Korea, the Japanese comrades could naturally understand this. After the liberation of Korea, China did not implement any interference in Korea's internal affairs. Apart from taking the initiative to help Korea establish a household registration system under the modern industrial mode, and some help in forming an army, Korea managed its own affairs. Based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, China and Korea established a new relationship different from the old tributary system.

Japan was unlikely to follow this old path. Without China, there would be no Korean independence; Korea was willing to move closer to China and learn from China. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army fighting its way into Japan, slaughtering a large number of Japanese, and then posing as liberators—such a scenario seemed nondescript no matter how one looked at it. The Japanese people needed an improvement in their current painful state; they needed raw materials and markets, not introspection on how they had been poisoned by the feudal system. This was just like the people of Anhui throwing themselves into the revolution back then; they couldn't survive anyway, and since death was certain either way, following the People's Party wasn't some unimaginable thing.

If considered from this angle, the Japanese comrades had to admit that the Chinese people were really great enough. Many oppressions that the Japanese were accustomed to were unbearable in the eyes of the Chinese people. The question "Are kings and generals born with noble blood?" from thousands of years ago had already completely opened a new chapter in Chinese cultural thought. But the Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty failed to eventually turn the imperial examination system into Japan's national policy.

But Chen Ke's wisdom seemed almost infinite to the Japanese comrades, so they frankly asked Chen Ke what ideas he actually had.

"I think Japan can build a socialist country with Japanese characteristics," Chen Ke gave the answer. Just like the People's Party's constant struggle in Jiangsu recently, while having a comprehensive military advantage, the People's Party launched an all-out struggle based on the needs of the Jiangsu people and the actual situation in Jiangsu. Now, one-quarter of the members of the Jiangsu Parliament were members of the Jiangsu People's Party Branch or councilors who stood with the People's Party. in the political and economic struggle, many changes that were not thought of at all originally were happening. The propertied class was not devoid of merit, especially those propertied classes who realized that the feudal system was unreliable. When they evolved into the higher capitalist field, quite a few showed a rather remarkable level in labor. For example, the garment industry, shoe industry, catering industry, and so on.

Heidao Ren was worthy of being a political commissar; he quickly figured out the key to the matter. "Then Chairman Chen's meaning is to destroy the Japanese military forces, then let Japan agree to legalize the communist party, and use the universal suffrage system now established in Japan to transform Japan in a long-term struggle?"

"That's always better than killing millions of people all the way through Japan. We are revolutionaries, not executioners," Chen Ke replied.

Hearing this, Heidao Ren took a lot of effort to let his mindset keep up with Chen Ke's mindset. This was a very difficult thing to explain. Although the People's Party didn't kill millions at once, the total number of various killings added up to millions. But viewing this problem from Chen Ke's mindset and train of thought, every killing was "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and curing the sickness to save the patient." It belonged to the category of setting rules. Just like in the process of implementing the "Marriage Law" that ended not long ago, those who killed women who wanted to divorce—regardless of whether these people were the woman's husband, the husband's family, or her maiden family—were all sentenced or executed for the crime of murder.

The state is a tool of class rule, and the judicial organs are the violent organs of the state. These violent organs use violence to ensure that the will of the ruling class can be successfully executed. Although the ruling class of New China is the working people, the majority, the violent organs representing the interests of this majority are still violent organs.

Seeing the Japanese comrades falling into deep thought, Chen Ke said: "Comrades, many people who participate in the revolution think that through revolution, a system for the ages must be established, an absolutely correct and absolutely just system must be established. We can understand this revolutionary passion, but this idea is obviously inconsistent with the attitude of historical materialism. The future is definitely not a simple repetition of the past; every day we open our eyes, it is a new world. The capitalist system that Marx saw with his own eyes, criticized, and praised, was finished after this Great Depression. For capitalism to survive, it must also constantly develop itself, and finally, the capitalist system itself must thoroughly bury the feudal system. What we want to oppose and eradicate now is the feudal system. It is those things that draw a circle on the ground to serve as a prison."

Chen Ke never hesitated to sing some praises for the capitalist system. He originally thought that as a time traveler, he should have a vision ahead of the world. Now he practiced, thought, and then discovered that this world was really interesting. Before, Chen Ke had read books written by hardcore believers of the capitalist system. The books wantonly criticized the American system as nonsense, believing that the United States had completely fallen into the trap of crony capitalism. Now Chen Ke thought that perhaps it could be called feudal lineage capitalism, which was the "blue blood noble" system that Americans themselves talked about. The books believed that neither pure capitalism nor pure communism (socialism) would have any interest in monetary policy. The capitalist system cherished currency extremely and would not issue currency indiscriminately, while communism simply looked down on currency, so it would not consider any policy of indiscriminate currency issuance either.

The 1950s and 60s in the United States were a truly glorious era. At that time, the status of workers was very high. Having a job, working seriously, and working hard—that was social status. In those years, the children of the rich also went to public schools, and they never publicized how rich their families were. Like the children of ordinary workers, they studied, worked, earned money, and lived. Not working and only thinking about speculation was behavior belonging to the shameful category.

This ethos reached its peak during the era of space exploration competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Workers and technicians related to the space industry would secretly climb over the wall back to the factory after work to continue working secretly for a few hours without asking for any pay. The United States at that time was really strong enough and glorious enough.

That was why US President Kennedy dared to say those words that were full of hoodwinking, full of the ruling class letting the ruled class go to die, and only those words could become a famous American quote.

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

Heidao Ren certainly didn't know what Kennedy, who was no longer wearing split-crotch pants, would say 30 years later. He simply didn't know nor care that there was an American named Kennedy. What he cared about was Japan's future. "Chairman Chen, does that mean the future steps are divided into three? One, destroy the Combined Fleet; two, force the Japanese authorities to sign a humiliating treaty; three, obtain the victory of the socialist revolution through struggle under military superiority?"

Chen Ke laughed: "Just about. But I'll say it again: it is not revolutionaries creating the revolution, but the people needing the revolution. I believe that the Japanese people need self-liberation."

Having managed to convince the Japanese Party members with great difficulty, Chen Ke held another meeting in the Politburo. After the liberation of Taiwan, the situation would definitely be different. The liberation of Taiwan was not the end of China's foreign wars, but a beginning. With China fighting wars all the way like this, what kind of influence would it have internationally?

Once China really became a target of public criticism in the Western Pacific, the future strategy would have to change completely. Chen Ke had full trust in Uncle Steel of the Soviet Union. Chen Ke firmly believed that Uncle Steel would absolutely not sacrifice a single bit of the Soviet Union's interests; when it came to selling out teammates, Uncle Steel's level was very high. Based on this trust, when China was under siege by the world, there was no need to count on the Soviet Union's help at all. To confront the world with the power of China alone was indeed too strenuous now.

Chen Ke felt that his attitude was very scientific and calm. However, this scientific and calm attitude brought no small fright to the ordinary Politburo comrades. Chen Ke always loved to say that the world is uncontrollable. Yet in international strategy, Chen Ke actually wanted to completely control the enemy. This was not even the level of anticipating the enemy's moves, but an attitude of wanting to take full control. But reflecting on the People's Party's journey, without Chen Ke's unusually comprehensive strategic concept of control, the People's Party could absolutely not have reached this step so easily.

As for the other 11 people participating in China's Australia strategy, knowing that 30 years ago when Chen Ke was just a young lad in his early 20s, he already had a grander strategic concept, they didn't even feel frightened. Since China had already reached this step, they would just walk however they should walk. Everyone was very clear that what Chen Ke wanted to do was merely to release some information to the Politburo, so that the comrades of the Politburo would be mentally prepared before the situation changed.

On June 1, 1933, a small unit responsible for transport by a submarine force prepared to set sail. Mi Feng, who had been transferred to serve as the Commander of the Fujian Military Region at this time, personally saw the comrades off. Alcohol was strictly prohibited inside the submarine. The two hundred comrades used tea instead of wine.

"After arriving in Taiwan, the comrades already in Taiwan will meet you. The battle is dangerous and cruel; comrades must be mentally prepared for this! When everyone comes back, I'll treat everyone to a drink!"

"Give everything for the cause of China's liberation!" the commandos replied in unison. Mobilization meetings had long been held many times; there was no need for Commander Mi Feng to emphasize again what kind of situation everyone would face.

The commander and the commandos raised their teacups and drank the top-quality Fujian tea in one gulp. Someone took the lead in smashing the teacup on the ground. Immediately, a series of sounds of breaking teacups rang out on the cement-paved military wharf. With the determination of no return, the troops lined up and boarded the submarine docked at the port without looking back.

The Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet had already returned to Kure Port from Keelung Port, Taiwan at this time, but the fleet stationed in Taiwan did not relax its daily patrols in the slightest. If the Chinese fleet wanted to force its way across the Taiwan Strait, such a strait could not stop the Chinese landing troops. Japan was thousands of kilometers away from Taiwan, but it couldn't station troops in Taiwan permanently; it could only come to Taiwan irregularly every year.

It was also a helpless choice for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to use submarines to transport personnel. In these years, China had transported personnel to Taiwan many times, triggering great vigilance from Japan. The density of maritime patrols was getting higher and higher. Only submarines could approach Taiwan quietly and unknown to anyone, sending personnel onto Taiwan Island.

In order to coordinate with this action, the People's Navy's special task force did not disband after returning from the Netherlands, but appeared in the waters northeast of Taiwan. The fleet's movement immediately triggered Japan's vigilance. In addition to issuing orders to strengthen alerts, they hurriedly transferred a part of the naval vessels defending southeast Taiwan to the northeast direction to strengthen the guard against the Chinese Navy. At the same time, they notified the Combined Fleet that had already returned to Japan of this latest situation.

Relying on sonar search, the submarine force successfully dropped off the troops in southern Taiwan.

On June 5, the whole world received a clear-code telegram. The content of the telegram was that the Taiwanese people wanted to get rid of Japanese colonial rule and return to China. Such a telegram on the international public channel did not trigger any special repercussions.

By 3:40 AM on June 6, the Fujian airfield was suddenly brightly lit. Large numbers of planes that had long been prepared slowly taxied onto the runway, among which dozens of huge planes were particularly eye-catching. Teams of infantry began to board the planes in an orderly manner from the assembly area. As soon as boarding was completed, the cabin doors were closed. The four large propellers of the aircraft immediately began to rotate. Under the powerful thrust, the aircraft began to move forward along the long runway that seemed to have no end. Finally, the nose pulled up, the tires of the landing gear broke contact with the ground, and the huge aircraft flew into mid-air, flying towards the east, towards the direction of southern Taiwan.