Leaving Tong Bokang's office, Mo Yang felt a bit unhappy in his heart. Sitting down in his own office, Mo Yang first sulked for a while, then felt this anger was quite baffling. People have different ideas, and there seemed to be no fundamental contradiction between him and Tong Bokang.

Near the end of work, Mo Yang arranged the content of tomorrow's newspaper, then went to the door of Tong Bokang's office and knocked on the half-open door. When Tong Bokang looked up, Mo Yang asked, "Want to have a late-night snack?"

"Which place?" Tong Bokang asked.

"Let's go to the Hui Merchant Guild."

Hearing this place, Tong Bokang couldn't help smiling.

Even in the Northeast, where the Shanxi merchants were powerful, the Anhui merchants [Hui merchants] also had their own guild. The Hui Merchant Guild's restaurant in Fengtian was called Tongfu Restaurant. The two old classmates found a seat. Hearing the familiar southern accent, Tong Bokang couldn't help chatting a few sentences with the waiter in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang dialect.

Before long, a man wearing a long gown and mandarin jacket walked to their table and bowed first. This capable-looking man asked, "I am the shopkeeper of the restaurant, surnamed Qian. May I ask this brother's honored name?"

Tong Bokang was a friendly person; he stood up, stated his name, and invited the shopkeeper to sit. After chatting for a moment, Shopkeeper Qian became somewhat respectful. "I didn't expect the two gentlemen to be colleagues of President Zhao Tianlin. Disrespectful, disrespectful."

Mo Yang and Tong Bokang looked at each other; neither answered, just waiting for Shopkeeper Qian to continue. Sure enough, Shopkeeper Qian paused for a moment. Seeing that neither of them picked up the thread, he smiled apologetically. "Gentlemen, we businessmen dare not talk about Marshal He. Besides, there are so many people talking about Marshal He; one less of me won't matter. But President Zhao Tianlin's great name is known to everyone in families with children of school age. I have two children at home who are about to enter higher primary school. If I said something that caused a misunderstanding, it was because I didn't explain clearly."

Only then did Mo Yang and Tong Bokang reply, "We also arrived in Fengtian not long ago and aren't clear about schooling matters."

Seeing the misunderstanding resolved, Shopkeeper Qian stood up and said, "I was presumptuous. Your dishes are coming up, so I won't disturb you."

After Shopkeeper Qian left, both Mo Yang and Tong Bokang wanted to say something but didn't know how to start. When the dishes were all served, Tong Bokang finally said, "I originally only saw the land reform. I didn't expect the changes in the Northeast to be much more than what I saw."

Mo Yang understood that his old classmate wanted to resolve the conflict and responded, "Indeed. I also only saw a small part of the changes outside the pass; it's inevitable to be incomplete."

Both were sensible people. A few sentences untied the knot, and the two began to eat. The chef at Tongfu Restaurant had good skills; even using ingredients from outside the pass, one could clearly feel that Jiangnan flavor. The two chatted while eating, discussing the need to ask for advice and clarify He Rui's arrangements before setting off.

The next day, the two went to see He Rui again. He Rui also arranged for comrades to go with them to establish the *Northeast Daily* branch stations in Shanghai and Tianjin.

Hearing He Rui asking the branch stations in both places to write more advertisements, especially "soft articles" [advertorials], Tong Bokang was puzzled. "What is a soft article?"

"We want to recruit skilled workers. Just stiffly publishing recruitment news is indeed useful, but the effect isn't too good. If we change the method, for example, writing about the happy life of skilled workers who arrived in the Northeast—living in a pigeonhole room [cramped apartment] in Shanghai, but having a suite or even a separate small courtyard in the Northeast. Even if living in a community, the community has various greenery, convenient shopping, and convenient transportation. It looks like writing a character report, but the purpose is still to promote the Northeast. This is a soft article. To spark everyone's interest."

Tong Bokang knew this news model, so he replied, "That is a good method."

He Rui laughed. "Are you worried we can't achieve it?"

As a reporter for *Shen Bao*, Tong Bokang had seen too much false propaganda and naturally had such worries. But since He Rui asked this way, Tong Bokang chuckled but didn't answer.

He Rui didn't make any guarantees either. He called the two to go to the Fengtian Arsenal with him. Arriving at the arsenal, seeing that relocation was underway, He Rui ignored the workshop matters and took the two straight into a large factory building.

There was no roar of machines in the huge factory building. Inside, it was divided into four sections, each with a dismantled machine in the center. A large number of workers were busy around the machines. He Rui greeted the workers and shook hands warmly with the technicians and workers.

The leader was heard saying, "Marshal, we have completed the measurement of 70% of the parts. In another four or five days, we can finish measuring."

He Rui replied, "That's good, no need to rush. Slow work yields fine products."

At this time, the workers gathered around one after another. He Rui shook hands with the workers one by one, speaking words of encouragement.

Seeing that he had shaken hands with almost all the workers, he saw a few workers wiping their hands vigorously with cotton yarn. He Rui stepped forward and directly held the worker's hand. Tong Bokang saw the worker's hand was stained with a lot of oil stains, looking dark and unclean. But He Rui held the worker's hand high, letting everyone see clearly.

Immediately, He Rui stood on a high place and said loudly to the gathered workers: "Some people think our workers deal with oil and dirt every day and are unclean. Those who say such things, no matter how clean they look, have dirty hearts. The laboring people are the most beautiful because the laboring people dare to work in such an environment and dare to get their hands dirty. If hands get dirty, they can be washed clean with soap. Can those with dirty hearts be washed clean with soap?"

The workers' emotions were obviously aroused, and they applauded and cheered one after another. Seeing He Rui speak calmly and naturally, seemingly from the heart, Tong Bokang couldn't help but feel admiration.

When He Rui came out, Tong Bokang asked, "Marshal, what is the purpose of this trip to the factory? If we write news, where should we start?"

He Rui asked back, "Haven't you considered the purpose of so many people measuring machine parts?"

"This..." Tong Bokang didn't understand for a moment. After thinking for a while, Tong Bokang and Mo Yang couldn't help looking at each other. Suddenly, Mo Yang remembered something and asked hurriedly, "Could it be to copy foreign machines?"

"Hehe, this isn't called copying; this is called reverse engineering," He Rui laughed.

The three chatted along the way and returned to He Rui's office. The three continued to chat for a long time. Tong Bokang listened with beaming brows, but soon frowned again. "Marshal, you also said this requires a lot of foundation; there is no way to simply copy."

"A part of reverse engineering is copying, but copying is not the whole of reverse engineering. I asked you two to go to Shanghai and Tianjin to run *Northeast Daily* branch stations and asked everyone to write soft articles; the purpose is to obtain more skilled workers as soon as possible."

Mo Yang understood his responsibility at this time. He only felt this responsibility was quite heavy, but he was happy in his heart. "Please rest assured, Marshal; there are plenty of skilled workers in Tianjin..."

After speaking, he remembered many recruitment advertisements and became a little unconfident. "It's just that skilled workers live very well in Tianjin locally. Those willing to come outside the pass are probably those who find it hard to get by locally."

"Don't be afraid; we have political reviews [vetting]. As long as they can pass the political review, slightly inferior skill is not a problem. Aren't we running education outside the pass to improve everyone's knowledge level through education? Arriving outside the pass, there are plenty of learning opportunities."

Tong Bokang thought of Shopkeeper Qian coming to strike up a conversation while eating at Tongfu Restaurant, just to let his children attend the school run by Zhao Tianlin. Moreover, the political review work was very meticulous and would definitely not recruit hooligans to the outside of the pass, so he felt more confident. "Please rest assured, Marshal. With the current practical work in the Northeast, I am not worried at all. As for writing some soft articles, this subordinate makes a living by this and will definitely not let the Marshal down."

Seeing his old classmate speak like this, Mo Yang also felt he might have worried too much, so he made a guarantee along with him.

He Rui laughed. "It is a good thing that you two are so confident. However, you two should think more now about what other doubts and concerns there are. If we don't believe the words we say ourselves, how can we make others believe them?"