Hirohito finally "overcame all dissenting opinions" and produced a statement supporting the Japanese socialist revolution. He applied to the People's Party, wanting to use the People's Party's channels to speak to Japan.

After reading it, Chen Ke was reminded of something. Historically, after the end of World War II, the United States wanted to draft a new constitution for Japan. At first, the US was quite polite, letting the Japanese modify it themselves, thinking they would pass it once it was about right. Unexpectedly, in the new constitution submitted by the Japanese, they had only changed a few decorative adjectives, leaving the content of the constitution completely untouched.

There was no change this time either. Hirohito's idea was fundamentally not to support the socialist revolution, but to support his own restoration to supreme power. In his statement, Hirohito indicated that if he regained all supreme ruling powers, including legislative, executive, and judicial powers, he could consider recognizing the majority of the legitimacy of this "Showa Restoration."

"What does this guy think Kita Ikki sent them to me for?" Chen Ke couldn't help but ask Shang Yuan.

Shang Yuan really didn't know what to say after reading it. Originally, he thought Chen Ke's plan to destroy Japan, which looked like a world-ending scenario, was quite scary. After glancing at Hirohito's statement, Shang Yuan suddenly felt that using that method to destroy the Japanese upper class, including Hirohito, wasn't such an unacceptable thing.

But at this moment, Shang Yuan couldn't join in the ruthlessness. He laughed: "Wenqing, your original intention was to just casually perfunctorily deal with Hirohito, and then send him back to Japan to continue his confinement. Why are you starting to care about him again now?"

Chen Ke was a bit helpless, "I originally knew he was this kind of stuff, and I didn't want to ask for trouble. But since I've already intervened, I can't just muddle through anymore. If I deal with this perfunctorily, what will Comrade Kita Ikki think?"

Shang Yuan started joking, "Comrade Kita Ikki might think we are interfering in other countries' internal affairs, right?"

Chen Ke replied: "At this point, if we say we aren't interfering in other countries' internal affairs, no one will believe it. Since that's the case, we might as well give it a try."

"Give what a try?" Shang Yuan felt that Chen Ke probably had some ideas of his own.

Chen Ke took out a piece of paper and handed it to Shang Yuan. A paragraph was written on it:

Article 1:

The Emperor shall be the symbol of the State and of the unity of the People, deriving his position from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power.

Article 2:

The Imperial Throne shall be dynastic and succeeded to in accordance with the Imperial House Law passed by the Diet.

Article 3:

The advice and approval of the Cabinet shall be required for all acts of the Emperor in matters of state, and the Cabinet shall be responsible therefor.

Article 4:

① The Emperor shall perform only such acts in matters of state as are provided for in this Constitution and he shall not have powers related to government.

② The Emperor may delegate the performance of his acts in matters of state as may be provided by law.

......

After reading it, Shang Yuan asked Chen Ke, a bit between laughter and tears, "Are you preparing to make Hirohito accept this kind of constitution?"

Chen Ke replied leisurely: "Looking at the current situation, Hirohito will have to admit this constitution sooner or later. Rather than letting others publish it and forcing Hirohito to acknowledge it, it's better to let Hirohito promulgate it himself. This is good for everyone. If Hirohito makes this decision himself, we can even help him a bit. What he cares about is not abolishing the Emperor system, and not excessively restricting the Emperor's power. We'll help him get this done. If this can be accomplished, Comrade Kita Ikki will also be happy."

"Who will you ask to be the lobbyist?" Shang Yuan asked while continuing to read the document.

"Comrade Zhuo Xiansheng, Secretary of the Hebei Provincial Committee, what do you think? This comrade's work was quite outstanding when he presided over land reform in Taiwan. When fighting landlords, his grasp of principles was very firm, and his methods were also very high."

Shang Yuan put down the document, "I haven't directly touched government affairs for a long time, and I know very little about these comrades. It's better for you to decide this matter."

"There's nothing special to decide, it's just a temporary transfer of personnel now. Treating a guy like Hirohito, sometimes it's hard to get through by reasoning." Chen Ke also felt quite regretful.

Historically, Hirohito relied on the Showa warlords to grasp power, but before launching World War II, this guy worried about being liquidated after failure and tried every means to hide himself behind the scenes. After the end of World War II, he worried every moment about being liquidated, treating MacArthur like a eunuch serving the emperor. Three times a day, morning, noon, and night, he would bow three times in the direction where MacArthur was. Only then did he win MacArthur's favor, and MacArthur let Hirohito off the hook.

During the Korean War, MacArthur lost power and was transferred back to his country. He invited Hirohito to see him off, but as a result, Hirohito "caught a cold" that day, was inconvenienced in movement, and couldn't go to see him off.

For such a vacillating bird-man, Chen Ke didn't think that presenting facts and reasoning could explain things clearly to him. If Hirohito really had such lofty ambitions, he could participate in Japanese politics in the future and gain his true status through serving the people. If this fellow still wanted to hide behind the scenes and control everything from on high, then there was no harm in giving him a good scare. Comrade Zhuo Xiansheng, who had served as the Secretary of the Taiwan Provincial Committee, actually didn't have a very good "reputation"; the Taiwan landlords called him "Zhuo the King of Hell."

One of Comrade Zhuo Xiansheng's "hobbies" was to invite landlord families to Taipei for a "travel and heart-to-heart talk." By the time the landlords' travel and heart-to-heart talk ended, the land reform back home had already been forcibly completed. For unreasonable people, or for people who didn't identify with the People's Party's principles, Comrade Zhuo Xiansheng had plenty of methods.

Seeing Chen Ke was very confident, Shang Yuan also agreed to hand Hirohito over to Comrade Zhuo Xiansheng to deal with.

Comrade Zhuo Xiansheng lived up to expectations. After three days of forgetting food and sleep to present facts and reason, Hirohito finally wavered. On the fifth day, Hirohito finally yielded. When making the work report, Comrade Zhuo Xiansheng believed that he should have been able to solve the problem in the first two days. It was just that even after hearing Chen Ke's judgment of Hirohito, Comrade Zhuo Xiansheng still thought too highly of Hirohito. There was still a considerable distance between this guy and a stone in a latrine pit.

Since Hirohito finally identified with the socialist revolution, the draft of the "Constitution of Japan" issued in Hirohito's name was sent out from the People's Party's side and circulated throughout Japan. Released together with this "Constitution of Japan" was Hirohito's complete affirmation of the Showa Restoration. After receiving such support, the big stone in Kita Ikki's heart was finally put back into his stomach.

Compared with the "Constitution of the Empire of Japan," the biggest change in the new "Constitution of Japan" was that while the Emperor could theoretically lead the Cabinet and the Diet, in reality, any administrative order had to be the responsibility of the Cabinet and the Parliament. Hirohito could use his transcendent status to influence the Cabinet, and theoretically, he could even concurrently serve as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet himself. However, all of Hirohito's orders could only be issued in the name of the Japanese Cabinet.

In other words, without Hirohito, the cabinet controlled by Kita Ikki could go all out; with Hirohito, the cabinet controlled by Kita Ikki could still go all out. Japan's constitutional monarchy system finally turned into a constitutional monarchy system.

Kita Ikki naturally welcomed such a change warmly. This was something Kita Ikki couldn't do with a free hand; he had sent Hirohito to China seeking exactly this result. Obviously, after witnessing how powerful China behind Kita Ikki really was, Hirohito and the old upper class still yielded.

As soon as Hirohito yielded, Kita Ikki immediately began to push for the one thing he cared about most: a fundamental adjustment of the Japanese military system. He completely broke the barrier preventing soldiers from being promoted to officers. The latest Japanese military system completely imitated China's, and soldiers all gained the opportunity to be promoted to cadres. In addition to adjustments in service length, at least half of the quota in military academy admissions was targeted at candidates from soldier backgrounds. If soldiers were willing to continue staying in the army after their service period expired, they could transfer to become volunteers, that is, technical non-commissioned officers. Or they could try to take the exam for military academy. The army was no longer a situation where soldiers and officers were clearly separated.

In the army, the status and treatment of volunteer soldiers were also significantly improved. Military ranks were weakened into purely military titles, and a mandatory retirement system was implemented. This was to sweep away redundant officers inside the army, and it could be counted as completely breaking the possibility of warlords appearing within the army.

On February 1, 1940, arriving in Beijing along with this news was the major happy news that the Kra Canal had finally finished excavation. China carried out large-scale blasting in the mountainous area of the Kra Isthmus. Over 100,000 Chinese engineering troops and 100,000 Japanese laborers, more than 200,000 people fully utilizing tools and fully exerting manpower, finally opened up this canal through the mountains.

From now on, the Chinese Navy could use Cambodia, which they had managed for a long time, as a home port to directly enter the Indian Ocean for combat. Originally, if the Navy wanted to go west, it had to go south first, pass through the Strait of Malacca, and then enter the Indian Ocean. With the Kra Canal, the time required for combat was reduced by at least two days.

The Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands, China could not possibly hand these two enclaves over to Britain. After completing the naval bases on this archipelago, China could be considered a two-ocean country in some sense.

The Chinese side had a very high evaluation of the 100,000 Japanese laborers; the Japanese attitude toward labor was very correct. After negotiating how much work to do for how much money, the Japanese laborers exerted all their strength to work there. At the beginning, the Chinese side had no intention of making things difficult for Japan at all, but the project was so tight that the arrangements for labor protection supplies were not so prompt. As a result, when the first batch of work gloves was distributed, half a month had already passed since the Japanese laborers first received work gloves. In half a month, most Chinese engineering soldiers had changed three or four pairs of gloves. The Japanese side had used their gloves until they were tattered and out of shape, but every Japanese laborer still had gloves on their hands.

This incident shocked the leadership department of the Chinese Engineering Corps. A campaign to "Learn from Japanese Workers" was launched within the Engineering Corps. It was necessary to guarantee the distribution of labor protection supplies, and also to guarantee the preservation of labor protection supplies. On the Chinese side, it was "you go get it, and it's there." There had been "trade-in" plans before, but implementation was always quite ineffective.

But according to Japanese habits like this, trading in the old for the new was no longer just a possibility, but something that could be completely accomplished. Don't look down on a pair of gloves; for hundreds of thousands of people to spend one more pair of gloves every week was a very not-small expenditure. Regarding the performance of the Japanese side, the Chinese Engineering Corps was truly shocked.

This shock was mutual. The Japanese laborers were also quite shocked by the Chinese side's powerful engineering machinery and complete labor protection. Participating in excavation in Japan, perhaps apart from tools, everything else had to be borne by themselves. Periodic physical examinations, receiving medical treatment after getting sick, issuing shoes, issuing clothing, issuing gloves, issuing medicine to prevent mosquito and insect bites, and conducting various tropical protection education and training. Besides this, there was ample food—white rice, steamed buns, meat, vegetables—enough to eat and fill up, and after meals, there were often changing varieties of post-meal fruits. The most important thing was the "not insignificant" remuneration.

What surprised the Japanese side extremely was that China absolutely did not allow labor contractors and gangs to deduct workers' wages. When paying wages, everyone collected it themselves; there was no such thing as collecting on someone's behalf.

Moreover, the Japanese gangs mixed in the labor teams were also ferreted out and dealt with by the People's Party. Unlike in Japan, dare anyone extort laborers?! This seemed to touch the People's Party's reverse scale; the extortionists were dragged out, punched and kicked, and then bound with ropes to undergo struggle sessions. The Japanese laborers were originally led by Japan's own teams, but they were soon broken up and reorganized. China dispatched labor captains, and the Japanese side also selected their own captains.

The laborers only had to work every day and didn't have to worry about income issues. If they encountered problems, they reported to their superiors. Although there were always delays, problems could always be solved. From letters coming back from home, the laborers learned that the remittances made at the Bank of China had arrived at home in full. Now, the laborers' hearts completely settled back into their stomachs. Labor conditions far superior to Japan's, and receiving full remuneration. Since the Chinese paid in Renminbi, with the Yen depreciating now, having these hard currencies in hand was much, much better than taking Yen remuneration.

After working in China for a year, seeing the project ending, the Japanese laborers couldn't help but send representatives to ask if there were similar projects. If there were, they wouldn't mind working for another year.

War could always make a country enter a state of full employment. Even for China with a population of 800 million, after completing the first step of the strategy to go south, the entire country completely entered a state of full employment. 100,000 tested laborers were a team that could not be ignored.

Finally, the two sides signed another agreement. More than 20,000 Japanese laborers who believed that wealth and honor are sought in danger, for higher wages, took ships to Ceylon to participate in China's construction of ports and the local railway network in Ceylon. Another part of the Japanese laborers who were willing to take a steady stream arrived in Borneo and other places to participate in local civil engineering construction.

These 100,000 people drove the trend of domestic Japanese workers going to China. in the hot and humid southeast area, a situation appeared where a large number of Japanese laborers participated in Chinese engineering teams.

Of course, there were also some opinions on this domestically. They believed that the wages of Japanese laborers were slightly high. Of course, their labor performance was worthy of such remuneration. And the Chinese management department asked one question, "Chinese laborers have pension insurance, do the Japanese have it?"

This one question shut the questioners up.

The labor exchange opened since then certainly allowed Japanese laborers to get a lot of income. As proof of the catfish effect, the Japanese laborers who did things more seriously and meticulously also caused a not-small impact on China itself. For example, Japanese renovation teams once almost monopolized the renovation market in northern China, and the performance of the Japanese logistics industry also taught their Chinese peers a good lesson. During the period of peaceful competition, Japanese enterprises became, in a certain sense, good teachers and helpful friends to the Chinese side.