In any industry, during a phase of frenzied development, many "shocking" things tend to happen. For example, after the world finally entered a long period of peace, China's television industry saw a massive influx of capital, leading to the emergence of countless "shocking dramas."

For a time, these dramas frequently featured a scene where the protagonist, the villain, the minor boss, or the press-ganger would all say, "Follow me and there will be meat to eat!" By then, the internet had become widespread in China, and netizens would ridicule, "That person must be Australian." Australia was known as China's granary and meat locker. In that place, for a shut-in relying on meat to survive, the cost of living was even lower than eating vegetables.

The internet, a social space without boundaries, never lacks for busybodies, and various verifications soon appeared. Evidence proved that New Zealand, which was almost equated with "kiwi fruit" and other fruit production areas during peace times, was actually developed earlier than Australia. It was also the first region in China to popularize the lifestyle of "having meat for every meal if you want, and eating jerky as snacks when you have nothing else to do."

Young people have different hobbies, but whether male or female, their common hobby is eating. After conquering New Zealand, they had appetites that seemed insatiable, along with heavy daily labor. Large quantities of delicious meat relieved the pressure on the young people. Brothers and sisters from all over the country brought recipes from their hometowns. These recipes blended together, quickly turning New Zealand into a land of gourmet food.

New Zealand's industrial level was not inferior to Australia's. In 1939, the two million Chinese youths not only fully restored New Zealand's old industrial capacity within a few months, but by the end of the year, the production capacity reached the highest peak in New Zealand's history. Even bullet production was on track.

In the year-end report, the New Zealand Provincial Government's work report optimistically predicted that as long as no war broke out before September 1941, by December 1941, New Zealand would be able to withstand a siege of 500,000 enemies from the sea on its own.

This optimistic estimate did not make Chen Ke particularly excited; he made the most pessimistic estimate himself. The fact that the terrible situation of a joint British and American attack had not occurred now did not mean that such a situation would not occur in the future. In the past, Chen Ke often read a phrase called "digesting the war dividend." To digest the war dividend, one must have a big enough appetite.

New Zealand had a good natural environment, a moderate size, and good industry. China's logistical supply was sufficient, and the dispatched personnel were capable. Under many favorable conditions, in an environment without the outbreak of war, China still needed more than two years to make the area initially self-operational. Even so, whether this area could truly withstand the test of war remained an unknown. It was really hard to say what would happen in other areas.

But since the first shot had been fired, the rest could only continue. No matter how difficult it was, they had to bite the bullet and go on.

There was also good news at this stage. In the British "Straits Settlements" and the Dutch East Indies, the local people finally acknowledged that they were no longer oppressed by old colonialists, and China had no intention of turning these areas into its own colonies or territories. The Malayan Communist Party in the Straits Settlements immediately began attempting to take over local political power. The Chinese in the Dutch East Indies finally held their heads high and attempted to grasp political power.

It was a good thing for the local people to be liberated, but the problem was that China had no experience in dealing with such issues. There were all sorts of strange factions within the party. For example, the Malayan Communist Party was very consistent regarding the liberation of Malaya or independence, but once liberated, opinions on what path to take were quite divided.

Opinions within the People's Party on how to handle such issues were not unified. Some believed that China could stay out of it completely. Some believed that different factions should be allowed to carve out their own territories and establish their own countries. Others simply believed in sitting back and watching the disadvantages first, to prepare for intervening in the affairs of these regions in the future.

Chen Ke left all this to Li Runshi and Wu Xiangyu to handle. These two comrades were the least imperialistic people in the party. They also did not have the attitude of "The Celestial Empire, to which all nations pay tribute." In the early stages of the nation-state building process in the industrial age, some things needed to be controlled by comrades with great political ability. Chen Ke felt that dealing with China's affairs was headache enough. Involving a group of foreigners and a group of regions still in the agricultural age but dragged into the capitalist world economic operation, Chen Ke felt he did not have enough strength.

Comrades in the party had subtly different views on Chen Ke's attitude. Zhang Yu was very much in favor of letting young comrades handle these matters. On this matter, Zhang Yu made such a statement, "We have reached this age. In the future, it will still be them dealing with these new countries. It is time for the young comrades to build a brand new world."

Of course, living up to his reputation for being "gloomy," Zhang Yu raised another question to the Central Advisory Commission, "Factional struggles are inevitable. How do you plan to deal with backstabbing?"

At this stage, there were not many old guys in the Central Advisory Commission. The more people reached this time, the less they refused to accept old age. So the only real big shots in the Central Advisory Commission were four people: Zhang Yu, Qin Tongren, and You Gou who had just stepped down. Shang Yuan was nominally a member of the Central Advisory Commission, but he went to Beijing to do academic research and basically never attended the committee meetings.

The only one who could lead the Central Advisory Commission meeting as a non-member was Chen Ke. Speaking with old comrades-in-arms, Chen Ke was naturally much more relaxed. He laughed, "First, I can't ask who will jump out. Second, I don't want to ask who will jump out. There has never been a public consensus on right and wrong. I'm not sowing discord, but if Comrade Qin Tongren and Comrade You Gou were still on the front line, the interest groups involved with the two of them would not be the same."

Qin Tongren certainly knew that although Chen Ke said this with a smile, he was not joking at all. So Qin Tongren also smiled, "I have never been in charge of party affairs, so I want to ask a question. Does Wenqing mean that this kind of struggle will never end?"

"When will the struggle ever end?" Chen Ke laughed, "The state is a tool of class rule. Since it is class rule, there must be irreconcilable contradictions. The tool of the state is neither sacred nor mysterious. To put it bluntly, it is a violence machine. According to the Marxist view, this will be the final contradiction of mankind. When we enter the stage of communism, even the form of human society known as the state will wither away. This form will give way to a social organizational model that is more advanced and more capable of developing productive forces."

Qin Tongren was indeed not from a party affairs background, and Chen Ke's words gave him a feeling of being in a fog. You Gou and Qin Tongren had worked in the same department for more than thirty years after all. She smiled, "The ultimate cause of all social changes and political revolutions should not be sought in people's brains, nor in people's increasing understanding of eternal truth and justice, but in the changes in the mode of production and exchange; they should not be sought in the philosophy of the relevant era, but in the economics of the relevant era. The growing realization of the unreasonableness and unfairness of the existing system, that 'reason becomes absurdity, and happiness becomes pain,' is only a symbol, indicating that changes have quietly taken place in the methods of production and forms of exchange."

This passage from Engels had been quoted countless times by the People's Party. Qin Tongren looked thoughtful after hearing this. Zhang Yu's political sensitivity far exceeded that of Qin Tongren. He asked Chen Ke, "Are you preparing to let those people in the liberated areas grope for the path themselves?"

"If you let them grope for it themselves, they will definitely suffer a crop of hardships and endure a crop of sins." You Gou laughed.

"Hehe! Everyone speaks as if they can avoid suffering hardships and sins." Chen Ke laughed.

Hearing Chen Ke's evaluation, which sounded caustic but was definitely not, the comrades who had been tossing and turning in the sea of bitterness for decades couldn't help but laugh too. Some were helpless smiles, like You Gou; some were wry smiles, like Qin Tongren; and there was a kind of mischievous laughter like "you kid have this day too," such as Zhang Yu.

After everyone finished laughing, Chen Ke said: "Imitating others, no matter how much you resemble them, cannot achieve self-liberation, and may even lead to losing one's true self. This is true for individuals, and it is also true for an organization and a country. The biggest difference between materialists and idealists lies in whether they believe in the primacy of matter or the primacy of consciousness. If they are materialists, they first believe in what actually exists, while idealists all believe in the existence of an absolutely correct theory. I think so now. The greatest enemy of Marxists may not even be the capitalist system. Because with the development of productive forces, the capitalist system itself will not be able to sustain itself. Marxism with materialism at its core has idealism as its greatest enemy. As Marxists seeking the ultimate liberation of individuals and even society, we must defeat these enemies."

Qin Tongren actually understood these seemingly profound but actually very simple things far better than complex systems and theories. He understood Chen Ke's thoughts, so he could only smile bitterly, "According to what you said, if the ruling class or ruling stratum of those countries is trying to obtain the result of national prosperity and strength, their days in the future will be unspeakably bitter."

"The Manchu Qing Dynasty, in order to obtain the power of the imperial power and to maintain its own rule, eventually perished. Brother Qin, you are from the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, you should understand this very well," Chen Ke replied.

Qin Tongren said with a bit of rebuttal: "I can understand it now, because at that time I really thought these things could save the country. And even now, I also think industrialization can save the country. What was wrong were those ideas, not industrialization itself."

Chen Ke didn't speak, and You Gou stood up to refute, "It's still that saying, primacy of matter or primacy of consciousness. Does the basis of control talk about science? On the basis of science, does it talk about democracy? This is the root that determines everything. We came all this way like this. If we had talked big about this when the revolution first started, instead of talking about labor, labor, labor, we wouldn't have everything we have now at all."

"Gaining independence and liberation is just a beginning, and not necessarily the beginning of a happy life. The people in those areas have to cross all this themselves. Even if we tell them, they won't understand. Not to mention them, even if we do it all over again ourselves, can we suffer one iota less of the hardships we should suffer?" Zhang Yu made a concluding speech.

Recalling the arduous journey since participating in the revolution, Qin Tongren felt a chill on his back. Even knowing that this road could be walked through, even with a guy like Chen Ke leading the way in front. Qin Tongren also knew that only this road could pass through layers of darkness and move towards the light. But Qin Tongren found that precisely because he knew this, he truly knew fear.