As the time approached for Mitsuko to depart for Shenyang as arranged by the *Asahi Shimbun*, she hadn't slept well for several days. When in front of others, Mitsuko could distract herself with work. But lying alone in bed at night, she would think of the other world that had unfolded before her.

Those at the pinnacle of power wielded immense authority and shouldered enormous expectations. Mitsuko had originally felt they were imposing and mysterious, but after listening to Professor Taira's explanation, she realized that these people were actually acting involuntarily, and were even somewhat pitiable.

Of course, the people used by them were also pitiable. As one of the used, Mitsuko inevitably felt aggrieved for herself. On the night two days before her departure, Mitsuko suddenly sat up. She had figured out something, something she had never thought of before.

If the Army Minister or the Chief of the General Staff were to issue an order, they would certainly order the officers. The Prime Minister would order his subordinate ministers and other personnel. Mitsuko felt she was just an ordinary woman, but in reality, she was already equivalent to an officer or an official, possessing a task that only she could perform.

That is to say, although Mitsuko was not a member of high society in Japan, she was a part of the upper echelon.

Thinking that she had unknowingly attained such a status, Mitsuko didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Finally, she lay back on the bed. The most important piece of the puzzle regarding her self-perception—her status and responsibility in Japan—had been found. Not long after lying down, she fell asleep without realizing it. When she opened her eyes with satisfaction, it was already bright daylight outside.

After washing up, and with a good appetite, Mitsuko finished two bowls of porridge in one go. For so many years, Mitsuko had only eaten one bowl.

She walked briskly to the *Asahi Shimbun* office. From a distance, she saw people coming in and out; there must have been big news. In the past, Mitsuko would inevitably have wanted to know what had happened. Now she didn't care; she would take things as they came. Mitsuko walked into the *Asahi Shimbun* office.

She ran into the Vice President walking quickly. Upon seeing Mitsuko, he immediately waved her over. When Mitsuko got close, the Vice President said nervously, "Prime Minister Hara has been assassinated!"

Hara Takashi had indeed been assassinated, and in broad daylight. At shortly past 7:00 PM on November 4, 1921, while Hara Takashi was boarding a train at Tokyo Station, a young man suddenly rushed out from the crowd and stabbed a short sword directly into Hara's left chest.

The short sword had been carefully sharpened and was extremely sharp, piercing directly through Hara's heart and lungs. Although the assassin was immediately subdued by those around Hara, Hara had already fallen. He passed away not long after.

When the news reached He Rui, he was not surprised. He had a certain degree of identification with Hara as a person, but he didn't care much about him. The Japanese "2.26" soldiers killed many key ministers; this was simply a characteristic of that era in Japan.

Ito Hirobumi was also a talent, yet wasn't he assassinated all the same? And by a Korean in Northeast China, no less. One Hara Takashi really didn't count for much.

Although He Rui didn't feel much about Hara, it concerned Japan after all. The Central Committee of the Civilization Party held a meeting to analyze future changes in Japan.

Since even He Rui didn't care about Hara, no one in the Civilization Party cared either. Everyone was concerned about whether Japan's future situation would change drastically due to Hara's assassination. The comrades knew that He Rui had quite a few connections in Japan, so all eyes were focused on him.

He Rui first posed a question: "Comrades, Japan's domain clique politics are being weakened, and party politics represented by Hara Takashi have come to the fore. what do you think is the reason for Japan's party politics reaching this point today?"

"Chairman, just say it straight. I think Japan's domain clique politics and party politics are actually the same medicine in a different broth," Cheng Ruofan was the first to speak his mind.

Everyone agreed with Cheng Ruofan urging He Rui to reveal the thread of the issue as soon as possible. Many also agreed with Cheng Ruofan's personal view that Japanese politics was 'old wine in new bottles.'

He Rui felt that Cheng Ruofan's view was rough but correct, yet also too simple and crude. But in the current situation, with only a little over a year left before the deadline He Rui had planned for war against Japan, the Central Committee—whether they knew about the war plans or not—were all responsible for a piece of the overall plan. Everyone was busy as bees; who had time for detailed political analysis?

So He Rui could only make a concluding statement. "There are still people in Japan who use military force for external expansion; these people have not been able to dominate Japanese politics for now. Japan is currently like a pressure cooker, with domestic pressure almost impossible to release. The path Hara Takashi wanted to take was a relatively peaceful one: to obtain China's market and capital."

Wu Youping, the Chief Executive of the Northeast Government, couldn't help but sneer. The Northeast Government indeed had no money in hand right now, but it possessed a market worth billions of silver dollars. Massive amounts of wealth were flowing through this market, acting as a carrier of general equivalents, moving back and forth in various production sectors of the Northeast. It provided capital for production, wages for teachers in infrastructure and basic education, and currency for students' free lunches. Or it entered the hands of laborers as wages, becoming purchasing power in the market.

The Northeast Party, government, and military had put their full effort into managing and maintaining this to achieve the current situation; how could they let foreigners dip their fingers in? If anyone wanted to do so, Wu Youping would jump out and resolutely oppose it. What was a Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi worth?

Other comrades did not have as detailed an understanding of the Northeast economy as Chief Executive Wu Youping, but everyone could understand that the Northeast was undoubtedly a piece of fat meat in Japan's eyes. As members of the Northeast Government, everyone was extremely disgusted with Japan.

He Rui did not deliberately provoke emotions. The Northeast Party, government, and military personnel were already full of hostility towards Japan. This was a contradiction based on national interests; if anyone identified with Japan, that person could basically be confirmed as a traitor.

From the perspective of academic research, one could avoid discussing good and evil or right and wrong. But as people in reality, they had a motherland. Moreover, what Japan was doing was completely different from the Communism that transcended the motherland; it was the imperialist robber logic that Communism opposed.

He Rui continued to explain, "Hara's death proves that Japan's domestic economic situation is deteriorating. Under the worsening economic situation, the line struggle has intensified. There are two ways to solve economic deterioration. One is to solve it internally: cut expenditures that are meaningless to the production sector, such as military spending, while increasing effective expenditures. But this method is completely unsuitable for current Japan because Japan's resources are not enough to support Japanese industrial upgrading. If Japanese industry cannot upgrade, it cannot compete with European and American goods. Not to mention Europe and America, even when Japanese industrial goods compete with ours, their cost-performance ratio is already starting to lose out. You all should have a sense of this, right?"

Many of the comrades in the Central Committee engaged in administrative and economic work laughed out loud. This was true; Northeast China's industrial development really felt like it was advancing by leaps and bounds.

Industrial Minister Zhuang Jiaxiong couldn't help but praise in his barely passable Mandarin, "The development path set by the Chairman is good."

This could indeed be taken as flattery, but everyone was genuinely happy to flatter. Because Zhuang Jiaxiong's words were also a fact.

In the beginning, many factories in the Northeast were purchased as complete sets from Britain and France, and large sums were spent to hire European and American engineers and technicians to commission and run the machines. He Rui ordered the selection of bright, observant workers; one foreign technician was assigned three trainees to learn from them.

In the process, the Party Committee constantly summarized learning experiences and figured out methods to learn the capabilities of those foreign technicians as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, local Chinese engineers, including He Rui, provided theoretical knowledge, attempting to move from theory to practice to understand the principles and operating essentials of foreign equipment in the shortest possible time.

The first three years could truly be described as 'humble and cautious.' But the Chinese people were very smart. In three years, as foreign engineers and technicians continued to leave, local Northeast engineers and technicians had completely mastered the use of existing equipment.

At the beginning of introducing equipment, He Rui had invested tremendous effort into the construction and research of materials science. With the investment of time and money, huge progress had been made. Parts for many foreign machines had been localized. With localized parts and a thorough understanding of design concepts, imitation naturally occurred, followed by redesigning equipment and production lines according to the Northeast's 'metric units.'

In the eyes of technicians trained under the Northeast Government's metric education system, the British imperial system truly felt somewhat anti-human.

By this time, everyone understood what 'gap' meant. Laymen and experts couldn't discuss gaps, and it was hard to describe the gap between outsiders and insiders. Only between beginners and forerunners could one talk about a gap.

A gap—one is only qualified to talk about a gap if one understands how the other party works and what they have done.

Just like materials science, one must start construction from the mining industry, beginning with aspects that require massive research and are extremely boring, like ore composition analysis. He Rui had made huge contributions in this field. Many ingenious ideas pointed out the direction for manufacturing analytical instruments.

Just knowing it is iron ore without knowing the ore's composition, relying only on the naked eye or god-knows-what shamanistic judgment methods—it is impossible to figure out the ore composition no matter what. Apart from guessing, it is absolutely impossible to manufacture the materials needed for various components.

Having the ability to figure out the composition lays a solid foundation for industrial technological development. Smelting, refining, and post-processing are just processes that require time and funds to pile up results.

He Rui waited for the noisy discussion to subside before quieting the comrades. "Comrades, the essence of imperialism is internal oppression and external plunder. Solving economic deterioration from within is what I just mentioned. The other method is to export contradictions externally. Therefore, imperialist countries without exception must build a powerful army for external plunder. In the claims of the Japanese right-wingers, the suffering of the Japanese people should be transferred outwards and borne by foreigners. Japan, this pauper imperialist, actually doesn't have the ability to achieve such a goal. Due to their insufficient industrial technology, before they can forge an army capable of wantonly invading other countries, Japan's domestic economy will collapse first. Therefore, Japan's military construction will be subject to huge limitations. This limitation is not due to a lack of determination by that group of people, but is limited by Japan's own industrial strength. So no matter how powerful the Japanese army is on their own paper, in reality, it must be what they can build before their economy collapses."

The latter part seemed a bit too theoretical. However, after analyzing it, the comrades understood what He Rui meant.

The comrades in the military had actually learned this part of the judgment and analysis method long ago. Precisely because they had analyzed and learned it, they had lost their fear of the Japanese army.

The reason for fear lies in 'not understanding.' Since they had figured out Japan's upper limit, they could come up with ways to solve problems encountered in war.

Seeing that everyone understood, He Rui then said to the Central Committee members, "Since Japan's current economic situation cannot be changed, Hara's death represents the failure of Japan's line of solving problems domestically. Striking first—we absolutely cannot wait for Japan to be ready to fight us before seeking a counterattack."

Those Central Committee members who did not know about He Rui's plan for war against Japan were hearing his war decision for the first time, and they couldn't help but show expressions of surprise.