Wu Youping had spent some time in the Chamber of Commerce. He originally disliked merchants, and after that experience, his evaluation of them dropped even lower. So, hearing a rather commercial term like "investment," he inevitably felt a sense of displeasure.

Although these words were spoken by He Rui, Wu Youping even felt a hint of complaint. If it were He Rui, Wu Youping expected him to be able to use different terminology.

But Wu Youping could not see any intention from He Rui to change his wording, so he could only say somewhat helplessly, "Chairman, I don't like this word."

"What you dislike is the operating principle within it, right? If it were a command-style execution to make China strong, would you like this word?" He Rui replied with a smile.

Seeing that He Rui completely understood his thoughts, Wu Youping's spirit lifted. "Chairman, shouldn't our goal be the rejuvenation of China?"

"For people with a lack of knowledge systems, the word 'rejuvenation' is very attractive. But for you, for Comrade Wu Youping, looking at the problem this way is very narrow. Does 'rejuvenation' refer to a relative status? Or actual existing technology and capabilities? Can you tell me?"

Wu Youping had considered this question long ago and immediately answered, "It is China's status leading the world."

"If it is a leading status, the status of which dynasty? The Qing Dynasty? The Ming Dynasty? The Tang or Song? The Qin or Han? Or the Yu, Xia, Shang, or Zhou?"

Wu Youping was stunned. Every time specific issues were discussed, there had to be a very clear objective. Once entering such detailed links, Wu Youping felt he could not grasp the key points.

The current Q&A was the same. He Rui's definition of "rejuvenation" left Wu Youping unable to parry. For a moment, Wu Youping only felt his face starting to burn, a sense of shame arising spontaneously. He couldn't help but lower his head.

"Do not be ashamed, there is no need to be ashamed. Rejuvenating China is a technical job, a matter in the field of engineering. That China has fallen to today's situation is firstly because China's development stagnated, and technological iteration completely stopped. While foreign countries, by establishing scientific systems, possessed very effective methodologies, causing the speed of technological iteration to greatly increase. Can you understand this?"

Wu Youping was suddenly moved by the term "technological iteration" and immediately raised his head. "Yes! Our speed of technological iteration has indeed stagnated; we must learn from foreign countries."

"Youping, Morrison wants to use investment attraction to gain greater influence. From an individual's perspective, is that wrong? Even looking at it from a normal commercial behavior perspective, did Morrison do anything wrong? If you are very dissatisfied with Morrison, then what is your starting point? Can we analyze it from this angle?"

Wu Youping pondered for a while, not knowing how to express his displeasure with Morrison, so he spoke his mind. "I feel that the money has all been earned by those foreign merchants."

He Rui made no comment on this evaluation but instead asked, "How do you think foreign merchants earned the money?"

Speaking of this, Wu Youping felt he was quite well-prepared. "They first suppressed our prices, and then by providing these products, they made a profit from it. Chairman, I have been thinking it over and over during this time. I feel these devices are indeed important, but they did not teach us how to manufacture the equipment, nor the principles... Right, they did not teach us the ability for technological iteration."

"Everything you said is correct. But I want to ask you a question: what benefits did we actually give them in exchange for the foreign merchants giving us the ability for technological iteration?"

Wu Youping felt his thoughts clarify at this moment. The unhappiness in his heart finally found a reason, and he answered loudly, "So I am very unhappy."

"I spoke about the direction in this regard at the National Congress. How much do you still remember?" He Rui asked.

Wu Youping recalled He Rui's statement. "Um... establish a military industry system as soon as possible... the mining industry must develop..."

"You don't need to recall. I will say it again based on your current view. Based on the current technological level, there are two major directions for the objects we serve. One is the local armies in the British and French colonies in Asia. When Britain and France arm these armies, they will not give them the most advanced equipment. Their purchasing requirements for quality are not high; this is our opportunity. We can use low prices to fight for orders. The other is possible Russian orders. Because Russia's industrial capacity is relatively weak, Britain and France, in order to keep Russia fighting, might give Russia money to let Russia purchase freely."

Hearing this, Wu Youping suddenly remembered He Rui's previous description of this part of the content and couldn't help but interrupt, "I remember now, the Chairman did indeed say that..."

"Let me finish." He Rui interrupted Wu Youping.

Wu Youping pursed his lips and spoke no more, trying hard to focus on listening to He Rui's narration.

"The demand for this part of the equipment is at most for two million people. If we can secure fifty thousand of that, we should thank Heaven and Earth. Just as you can understand now, due to exploitation at every level, the money we earn from it is very little. But the reason we want to continue attracting investment is to obtain foreign complete factory construction, complete sets of equipment, and the production management brought by their accompanying experts. Learn first, then through reverse engineering, establish our own team of workers and engineers."

Wu Youping completely recalled the content He Rui had spoken of at this time, and for a moment felt ashamed again. This was the third or fourth time listening to He Rui explain this content. Wu Youping discovered that listening the previous few times, as well as reading the First Five-Year Plan documents multiple times afterward, he had actually failed to understand completely.

Just then, Wu Youping heard He Rui say again, "Do not treat shame as the most important thing right now. If even you have to go through several times to understand more, then other comrades are the same as you. It is even possible that while you need four times, they need five, six, seven, or eight times. This is the process of human learning and progress; there is nothing to be embarrassed about. As the Secretary of the Siping Municipal Committee and as the Mayor of Siping, if shame makes you feel a deep impression, then remember, comrades are about the same as you when recognizing new knowledge. You must learn to understand the comrades."

"...Yes," Wu Youping answered reluctantly.

He Rui sighed in his heart. Wu Youping was already considered quite good; the current work was still too much pressure for this idealistic youth. But this was also something that couldn't be helped. From an organizational perspective, those leading the work should be idealists as much as possible, because idealists will firmly believe that the status quo must change. This endogenous power is their advantage, though of course, it also brings disadvantageous influences.

"Youping, I want you to tell me frankly. If we set aside Morrison and foreign merchants, what do you feel is most unacceptable right now? Say whatever comes to mind; you don't need to look for any deeper meaning according to your currently known knowledge. Because no matter how deep you dig, it is all content generated based on your current knowledge system."

Wu Youping felt He Rui's words made sense, so he tried to find the object of his displeasure. Soon, Wu Youping found the content he disliked very much, but he hesitated again.

"Say whatever it is," He Rui urged, taking out his pocket watch to check the time.

Now Wu Youping dared not hesitate again and answered, "The comrades have strong opinions; they feel we haven't made any money."

"Heh, go back and announce that this year's wages will be raised by 10%."

Wu Youping was completely stunned, feeling deeply ashamed of his loose tongue for a moment. But the words had already been spoken, and Wu Youping had no way to take them back, so he could only try to say, "...Chairman, that's not what I meant."

He Rui did not feel there was anything to be embarrassed about at all. "I know that's not what you meant. I am speaking of the solution to the comrades' dissatisfaction. After we complete the land reform in the entire Northeast and establish a relatively complete system, we must formulate more detailed wage standards."

Wu Youping was very resistant in his heart. "How can one care so much about remuneration when serving the country? Moreover, the current wages are already not low."

"Youping, you are a staunch patriot, a comrade willing to spare nothing for change. Of course, you are also very wealthy and do not care about livelihood at all..."

Wu Youping was initially surprised by He Rui's praise, but hearing He Rui mention not lacking money, he became even more unhappy. This unhappiness was not directed at He Rui, but because Wu Youping knew that many comrades actually had strong opinions on this matter. So Wu Youping wanted to state his position, but before he could speak, He Rui interrupted him, "Listen to me until I finish!"

"Yes!" Wu Youping decided to listen to He Rui finish first, and then express that he wanted to donate his family assets.

He Rui continued, "If I haven't guessed wrong, you want to donate your family assets."

Wu Youping was stunned; he completely hadn't expected He Rui to say such words.

"Our Civilization Party will absolutely not accept private donations. Everything has pros and cons; for a political party to accept private donations is harmful. Moreover, so-called philanthropy, scattering one's family fortune, can be seen as personal behavior to those outside the organization. Within the organization, it will definitely be treated as an organizational behavior. This is also a matter where the harm outweighs the benefit. Furthermore, donating family assets is a struggle of sentiment. Do you think it is appropriate to engage in struggles of sentiment within the organization?"

Sentiment surged in Wu Youping's heart, and he finally answered reluctantly, "Inappropriate."

After saying this, he still felt somewhat aggrieved and added a sentence, "It is already very strenuous to quell struggles of sentiment within the organization."

"So we will talk about this issue later when there is a chance. Let's return to the current problem. You are definitely not the only one in the Northeast dissatisfied with foreign merchants; most comrades are dissatisfied. But where is the reason? In our attracting investment, are we earning money from the domestic market or the foreign market?"

"Earning from the domestic? No!" Wu Youping tried hard to make a judgment. "The Chairman said, we are now earning money from the foreign market."

"With our current production capacity and bargaining power, we cannot earn money from the foreign market. So we might as well cast aside earning currency and adopt a bookkeeping method to conduct barter trade. On the surface, we use pounds, francs, and silver dollars for bookkeeping, but in reality, there is no cash flow in the trade at all. And what truly has cash flow is domestic trade. Although we lack cash, we still have to pay currency to issue wages after all. Adding the currency portion in taxes, the money we truly have in circulation is only this much. If you can understand, if comrades have similar dissatisfaction again, talk to them about this."

Wu Youping followed He Rui's train of thought. He originally felt that although many things were unpleasant, they were still understandable. Hearing He Rui's narration on cash flow, his thoughts suddenly became chaotic.

However, Wu Youping had been doing work in this area for the past year, so it didn't take long for him to understand. After clarifying this new knowledge point, Wu Youping had a feeling of sudden enlightenment. For a moment, emotions of excitement, joy, and shame mixed together, but finally converged into one sentence: "Increasing wages by 10% is really quite a lot."

After saying this, Wu Youping just felt very surprised that he would actually sigh with emotion over money. This was completely unimaginable before.

"That's right, an increase of 10% in cash acquisition is indeed quite a lot. Many comrades look at their own income, and then hear those large transaction numbers; how can their hearts be balanced? So to let the comrades understand this, the Siping Municipal Committee must add this content during training."

Wu Youping felt as if he had just woken from a dream, but also felt something was inappropriate, so he hurriedly asked, "What about other regions?"

"The speed of income increase for the masses and cadres in other regions is faster than you think. I am talking about the speed of increase. Because the land reform system itself, by streamlining production relations and the allocation of means of production, causes the income of the masses and cadres to increase greatly. Furthermore, the Siping region has the highest proportion of non-agricultural and semi-non-agricultural cadres in the entire Northeast. The income of these cadres relies more on government finance; they are the group most sensitive to wage income."

Hearing this, Wu Youping felt he couldn't stand it again. He said, "Wait, Chairman, let me think again."

He Rui sighed but said nothing. He picked up the documents and began reading. Regardless of what Wu Youping thought, the recent news, in He Rui's view, was mostly very good news. For example, the number of workers in Siping had increased greatly, and the technical tackling—that is, the work of measuring all existing equipment and drawing blueprints—was proceeding exceptionally smoothly.

Seeing these reports, He Rui prepared to send people down for spot checks. Things were proceeding too smoothly, so smoothly that He Rui felt it was somewhat unbelievable. If there was no fraud down below, it meant that in the second half of this year, the second half of 1916, they could begin attempting to manufacture replacement parts for existing equipment.

Once processing technology improved during the imitation process, they could begin the formulation of Northeast industrial standard parts.

Currently, Northeast equipment was also a "universal assembly," with British imperial units and metric units. Once the formulation of Northeast standard parts began, it would be equivalent to establishing China's industrial standards. Having one's own industrial standards did not mean having a powerful industry; it was just using 20th-century industrial thinking to build industry.

He Rui was considering these issues when he heard Wu Youping speak. "Chairman, I understand a bit now. But I am very dissatisfied now. Everyone is doing revolution; why is the difference a bit large?"

He Rui looked up. Seeing Wu Youping's sincere expression, He Rui decided to take a bit of a risk. "Comrade Youping, there is a strong idealistic temperament in your character. So I hope you just listen and do not treat what I am about to say as a standard to require of yourself or others. Because at this stage, you do not yet have the ability to control such cognition. Do you hear me?"

Wu Youping immediately answered, "I will do my best."

Looking at this youth who wanted to know more knowledge, He Rui sighed. "The idealistic temperament is a strong endogenous impulse. You think transforming the world into the appearance you expect is a need, but more people do not have such an impulse. What they hope for is to live a bit better and a bit more comfortably in this world. So I emphasize again, after hearing this, just know that such a thing exists. Do not use these terms to require and define yourself and others. That you can know what others want, and others can know what you want, is already very good. Many comrades probably cannot feel the feeling in your chest like a burning fire, and you also cannot feel their expectation for a stable and happy life, as well as the endurance to endure all kinds of unhappiness to achieve that expectation."

Wu Youping was very unhappy in his heart. He Rui's words pointed out many things Wu Youping didn't understand before, making Wu Youping even more unable to accept them.

But looking at He Rui's serious expression, Wu Youping decided to obey He Rui's request, but he still couldn't help asking, "Chairman, do you also have a fire in your heart?"

He Rui couldn't help but smile. "If you feel I understand you very well, then it means I have such a fire."