Director of the Merchants Bureau, Morrison, found his low spirits dissipating within a mere hour. Before the end of the workday, he received a call from He Rui's office, asking if he would like to join him for dinner that evening. Morrison asked calmly, "Where to?"

"Do you have a preferred restaurant, Director Morrison?" the office staffer inquired.

Morrison thought for a moment. "I find the food at Canteen No. 3 in the government office dining hall quite good."

Half an hour later, He Rui and Morrison were seated in a private room at Canteen No. 3 of the Northeast Government's office dining hall. Neither mentioned their previous minor conflict. Given their respective statures, bringing up such a trivial matter again would only signify a complete falling out. The very fact that they were sitting here eating together was a statement in itself.

"This Qingjiang fish is truly tender," Morrison praised comfortably after finishing half the dish.

"Indeed," He Rui agreed, then lowered his voice. "I don't know what happened recently with that 'Big Plate Chicken' (Da Pan Ji); the meat has become rather dry and tough."

Morrison nodded repeatedly. Canteen No. 3 had once won great acclaim for its Big Plate Chicken, but it had fallen out of Morrison's favor as the soft, succulent chicken meat began to become "chewier."

As a polite gentleman, Morrison, like He Rui, chose not to vocalize his criticism. There were plenty of people who preferred a chewier texture, so Morrison's preference for tenderness could not be taken as the universal standard for taste.

Having eaten their fill, the two clinked glasses. He Rui then asked, "If we implement a tiered tax rate for enterprises, how significant do you think the impact will be?"

Morrison had heard rumors of this. As Director of the Merchants Bureau, he naturally had to consider what favorable conditions could be used to attract investment. Morrison felt he had learned much on the job. Five years ago, the Northeast attracted investment by relying on high returns. That phase ended with the conclusion of the European War and the end of profiteering. Afterward, the Northeast continued to secure investment by offering stable and predictable relatively high returns.

This could no longer rely merely on opportunity, but rather on the Northeast's excellent business environment. For instance, the Northeast's good public security, smooth logistics, and government officials who did not engage in graft or extortion. More importantly, investors had to believe that the Northeast Government led by He Rui would not suddenly change its tune and strike a deadly blow after luring capital in.

As the Chinese saying goes, "No one's money comes from the wind." Morrison had fully sensed the difficulty of continuing to expand investment attraction. With the Northeast's finances currently quite tight, implementing a tiered tax rate would have a negative impact on attracting new investment and on those who had already invested.

Morrison calculated for a moment before voicing his projection. "It likely won't worsen the situation, but some people will be worried."

He Rui understood Morrison's thoughts and smiled. "In any case, I cannot possibly offer privileges like extraterritoriality. Just do your best, Director Morrison."

Hearing this, Morrison felt there was a link between these words and He Rui's attitude toward the Anhui merchants. A thought suddenly popped into his head, and Morrison asked in a low voice, "Is the Chairman considering unifying China?"

He Rui smiled without speaking, inwardly appreciating Morrison's vision. Once the war with Japan was fought, provided the outcome was as He Rui anticipated, Japan would temporarily lose the ability to interfere in China's unification. The next step would be to liberate all of China. Therefore, the Northeast absolutely could not fall into chaos.

Driving away investors was pointless, but unless that group intended to never invest in China again, they would have to behave themselves before the new regime. Since that was the case, there was no reason to go easy on them at this stage. This was also why security and management were being strengthened now.

Adjusting tiered taxation based on income would not only solve the Northeast's tax pressure but also serve as a way to separate the wheat from the chaff. China was, after all, a society based on relationships (guanxi), and one naturally wanted many friends. And friends, as entities, were of course better the smarter they were.

He Rui picked up his chopsticks again and continued eating, speaking as he did. "The purpose of doing this is to resolve fiscal pressure. Do you have any suggestions?"

Morrison answered while eating. Although not gentlemanly, time was truly precious for both of them. "What does the Chairman think about negotiating with Britain to introduce more equipment? That way, we could directly apply for loans from Britain, or issue bonds directly after reaching an agreement."

This suggestion was a very common way to raise capital. Morrison had actually considered establishing a stock market to attract foreign investment. Surprisingly, such an effective method was rejected at the government meeting.

It was evident that He Rui had no interest in it, and that he had seriously considered the pros and cons. A significant portion of the Northeast Government personnel only knew the basics of stock market financing from their studies, whereas Wu Youping, the Chief of Government Administration who had a clear understanding, was decisively opposed.

"The people of the Northeast have only just experienced a few days without hunger. The small commodity economy hasn't developed yet, and the people haven't been able to understand the methods and internal logic of investment. Starting a stock market now would have a far greater negative impact on the economy than any positive promotion. There is also an objective reality: of the nearly forty million people in the Northeast now, over ten million are immigrants who arrived less than two years ago. A portion of them will likely return to their hometowns in the north in 1922. They came to flee disaster, not out of a desire to migrate. Therefore, I oppose establishing a stock market at this time."

Although Morrison could not attend the Civilization Party committee meetings, he did participate in government work meetings. He naturally knew that Wu Youping spoke the truth and understood that Wu Youping's objection was raised from a comprehensive perspective. Morrison did not persist with his view. His feeling at the time was simply one of mild surprise; Wu Youping was only thirty years old this year, a young man among Chinese officials.

Currently, the strongest power in China was the Zhili clique, sitting on Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Hubei. After their leader Feng Guozhang passed away, Cao Kun and Wu Peifu took control of the Zhili clique.

The Anhui clique warlord leader Duan Qirui was still around, and although his reputation was illustrious and he seemingly controlled Anhui, Shandong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Shaanxi, the Anhui clique was internally a hodgepodge. Its cohesion was far inferior to the Zhili clique, which had reunified after the turmoil following Feng Guozhang's death.

The third was naturally the force outside the pass commanded by He Rui. Wu Youping was the only administrative chief of a civil government with a genuine political party background among these three major forces. Although China's national conditions differed from those of Europe and America, from a Western political perspective, Wu Youping's superficial elected status, and the government he now led—selected through civil service examinations rather than military appointments—was already an advanced and valuable government.

In Europe, a country with three million square kilometers of land and a population of forty million would be a solid great power. Reaching this position at the young age of thirty was already an anomaly. To be able to view problems from the perspective of the government as a whole, he would be considered above qualified even among the "Prime Ministers" of major European powers.

Proposing to He Rui now to first negotiate with Britain and then issue bonds based on the results of the negotiation to raise funds was already a second-best choice.

But He Rui shook his head. "Not for the time being."

Morrison was somewhat puzzled. "Does the Chairman feel that British equipment and technology are not advanced enough?"

"How could that be?" He Rui laughed.

Morrison felt He Rui was being evasive, so he decided to get to the bottom of it. "Even by the standards of the Second Industrial Revolution currently proposed by the Northeast, Britain was the first country to develop electric equipment. Moreover, establishing a closer friendly relationship with Britain now would be more beneficial to the Northeast."

Seeing Morrison getting serious, He Rui looked at the main dish which was mostly eaten, ordered a portion of cumin lamb, and then said, "In terms of current scientific research, Britain naturally leads the world. But the transformation of scientific research results requires large-scale application and a vast number of supporting manufacturers. In this regard, the United States walks at the forefront of the world. Of course, I could point out a few things, for example, American equipment is rough around the edges. Although America stimulates its economy through massive railway construction, British and German railway experts were dumbfounded and left speechless by the excessive tonnage and weak power of American-produced trains. I am aware of such things."

Morrison couldn't help but smile. But he was also very clear that He Rui would absolutely not learn American train manufacturing technology. As the Director of the Merchants Bureau of the Northeast Government, Morrison would rather introduce German train manufacturing technology than suggest He Rui introduce American train technology. He Rui mentioning this was just an opener.

Sure enough, He Rui continued, "But the American automotive industry is doing truly well. Assembly line production itself implies the ability to adopt larger-scale socialized production. In this aspect, no matter how high British technical standards are, they are not prepared for mass assembly line production. Director Morrison, comparing geography and territory, do you think the similarity is higher between China and the United States, or between China and Britain?"

Morrison gave a wry smile. This comparison was indeed interesting. From any angle, the similarity between China and the US was higher than that between China and Britain. But Morrison still advised, "If looked at from an international political perspective, importing British equipment is more helpful for relations. The United States is a mercantilist country; their goal has never been to establish a stable world situation. Does the Chairman's geopolitical theory produce a different analysis?"

"Heh. Geopolitical theory is not that mysterious; it is merely a tool to explain the world from physical reality. From a geopolitical perspective, the United States, rather than being a continental country, is actually an island nation. The World Island is composed of the Eurasian continent and Africa. North and South America hang isolated overseas, separated by oceans. This leads to it being very easy for a single power to dominate on this large island. In this respect, although China is a piece of the Eurasian continent, it has natural geographical barriers isolating it from other regions of the continent, possessing a significant semi-closed state. This is the point of contrast where China is more similar to the United States. Furthermore, both China and the US have already embarked on the journey of the Second Industrial Revolution. The US started a bit earlier, and its experience is exactly what can be borrowed."

Morrison hadn't expected He Rui to be so confident. In the eyes of the world powers, China wasn't an industrial nation at all; it hadn't even figured out the First Industrial Revolution, let alone the Second.

But at this moment, Morrison didn't want to nitpick. After all, He Rui's strength was unquestionable. A leader capable of proposing the Second Industrial Revolution and possessing a self-consistent explanation for it might just make the rapid development of China's industry a possibility.

The cumin lamb arrived. The two chatted for a while longer, swept the food clean, and left with satisfaction.

The Northeast Government's desire to introduce the American automotive industry was genuine. A year ago, personnel had been sent to the Ford Motor Company for inspection. They had even purchased several Ford cars for disassembly and reverse engineering.

According to the inspection team at Ford, the boss of Ford had once again boasted about his inspiration during several meetings.

One day in the early 20th century, Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company, was deeply inspired while visiting a slaughterhouse in Chicago. Live cattle were sent onto the slaughterhouse's assembly line, and after a series of slaughtering and cutting processes, they emerged from the terminal as pieces of fresh beef. Moreover, the workers in the entire factory were each responsible for only one step, resulting in extremely high efficiency.

Others saw a mechanized slaughtering process, but Henry Ford saw a brand-new car production model. He imagined that if he could copy this model to his own car factory, it would solve the efficiency and cost problems that had plagued him for years.

At that time, car manufacturers worldwide had already popularized the assembly line mode. Although efficiency was better than the pure manual mode, workers still needed to walk around different process workshops. Ford Motor Company was no exception.

In fact, compared to competitors' selling prices of thousands of dollars, the Model T produced by Ford initially sold for only 850 dollars, which was already very cheap. But Ford was not satisfied. To cater to market demand, he was always looking for ways to improve efficiency. Inspired by the trip to the slaughterhouse, Ford went back and began to study a more efficient production model.

In 1913, Ford's Detroit factory adopted the famous "moving assembly line" production mode, transforming the original assembly line to be driven by conveyor belts. Workers only needed to be responsible for a single process. After completion, the product would enter the next process with the conveyor belt until the car assembly was completed.

The advent of the assembly line simplified the assembly process of the Ford Model T, simplifying the process involving 3,000 assembly parts into 84 processes.

According to the report, the Ford boss did not finish telling the other parts. Before the Northeast Automobile Inspection Team set off, they had actually received corresponding training. Ford's 84 processes were only the processes of the Ford car assembly line.

The "3,000 assembly parts" of the entire car were distributed to countless factories for production. Ford proposed a parts standard, and the United States had a large number of accessories factories to produce these components.

The United States had a vast number of industrial enterprises. Ford Company could choose cooperative parts suppliers by comparing prices and other methods, and could also suppress their parts prices to a very low level through bidding.

Ford Company personnel kept their mouths shut about this part, as if their components fell from the sky, or suddenly appeared in Ford Company's warehouse after waking up from a nap.

The Northeast inspection personnel were actually very dissatisfied with this matter. The political commissar of the inspection team even wrote a report on white racist superiority, the lines filled with intense disgust.

He Rui could well understand the comrades' emotions. If Qing officials had gone for the inspection, they genuinely wouldn't have understood industry, so their attention would have been attracted to the parts that triggered physical interest.

This was very similar to poor students in school. When teachers asked, "Do you have any questions?", it wasn't that they didn't want to learn well, but that they didn't know where their problems lay at all, so naturally, they didn't know what to ask.

Good students were different. Before the class, they already knew what they wanted to learn and what they intended to study. Under this prepared situation, after listening to the lesson, various questions naturally emerged.

Before the Northeast Government delegation set off, even if they hadn't seen a real assembly line, they had at least seen the car factories introduced from Britain and knew how cars were manufactured. They had also learned in class what an assembly line was. This time, at least visiting Ford's assembly line, they naturally understood the key points.

This was actually He Rui's real purpose. As long as everyone had seen and understood the assembly line, they could actually attempt to produce.

Moreover, the foundation of the assembly line—massive numbers of industrial enterprises—did not exist in the Northeast. Once the assembly line was started, it would be very easy to encounter the problems encountered by the Soviet Union and China: a single assembly line would sweep through the country with overwhelming superiority, and then continue unchanged for ten or twenty years.

Once it encountered the impact of products from other world industrial powers, this single seedling, or the few seedlings arranged by administrative order, would be unable to withstand the challenge of powerful industrial nations.

So, seeing it and knowing it satisfied the goal. If they really negotiated to bring back a few production lines, He Rui really wouldn't dare to sign the order. This was truly something they couldn't afford to play with.

Once the beginning of the year passed, the New Year would arrive in a month. The Northeast Government's fiscal year was not bounded by the beginning of the calendar year, but by the New Year. The demand for paper in various departments skyrocketed, and everyone was desperately completing their department's annual summary.

Among them, the Water Conservancy Department was almost the department with the highest digitization rate. Since it was responsible for the water conservancy construction of the entire Northeast, the majority of the work in the Water Conservancy Department was how to use labor.

This labor came from various sources and involved a wide range. When He Rui came to the Water Conservancy Department, the department felt immense pressure.

He Rui made no evaluation and left after listening to the report. The cadre responsible for the report breathed a long sigh of relief as he watched the back of He Rui's car. They did not expect that He Rui's next stop was the General Staff Department.

Chief of General Staff Cheng Ruofan saw He Rui arrive and submitted a plan. In the plan, the scheme on how to use water conservancy projects to build fortifications in the first half of 1922 had been finalized.

Looking at the dense defense lines along the Yalu River on the map, He Rui sat down and ordered, "Talk in detail."