Yang Du watched the diesel engine connected to the gas generator and finally understood how a single town could use electric lights like a major city. Having resolved his biggest doubt, he braved the cold wind with the escorting militia and set foot on the road to Yangjiatun.

Yangjiatun was a flourishing village. The village chief was surnamed Zhang, and the village party branch secretary was surnamed Yang; both were young men. Yang Du produced the official documents. The branch secretary discussed the latest general mobilization order with Yang Du, while the village chief went to notify the militia captain, production team leaders, and others to come for a meeting.

After listening to Yang Du's introduction of the order's content and asking in detail about the latest payment regulations for work, the branch secretary couldn't help but shake his head and sigh. "If the higher-ups insist on doing this, our village definitely won't hold the town back. We just hope the war ends quickly so we can go back to living our lives."

Yang Du had expected to meet shrewd workshop owners, or perhaps rough men clumsily imitating grand principles, or even cunning *baojia* officials. The Secretary Yang before him possessed a kind of rustic openness that left Yang Du unsure of how to respond.

The secretary wasn't considering national righteousness or national security. Yet, his thinking undoubtedly aligned with national righteousness.

As Yang Du pondered, he heard Village Chief Zhang shouting from outside, "Everyone, hurry up! It's cold out there, come inside and get warm."

Amidst the sound of footsteps, a number of people entered the village office. The village chief introduced them to Yang Du one by one; they were all village cadres. The group greeted Yang Du openly and generously. They didn't curry favor just because Yang Du was sent from above, but they all stared at him. Yang Du could tell that these people wanted to know what news he had brought, so he read the official document to everyone.

After Yang Du finished reading, several people asked for the document and huddled together to read it. They could actually read official documents. Yang Du was no longer so surprised by this. Just as he was about to explain, the production team leader asked, "Comrade Yang, the higher-ups mentioned the new payment regulations. Did they say how many orders they're giving us?"

Yang Du then remembered that his task wasn't just to deliver bad news. He hurriedly opened the satchel he had received and took out the other documents. One of them was the order application process. The production team leader took it and started reading; he could read as well.

***

This scene made Yang Du feel that the world was somewhat abnormal. Among the people Yang Du knew, those who were literate and could read and write were not these ordinary people wearing common clothes and speaking in local dialects. Because scholars often read aloud, their voices inevitably had a cadence of rising and falling tones. The rhythm of these ordinary people's speech showed they hadn't done much reading aloud.

The efficiency and let's-get-things-done style these people displayed were completely different from ordinary scholars. In fact, Yang Du had only seen such a demeanor in important figures.

The village cadres finished reading the documents, conferred for a moment, and reached a conclusion. "This is the method for making clothes from a few years ago. The price has gone back to that time too."

"What about the others?"

"I don't know. Comrade Yang, are there any other documents?"

Seeing that these people were not panicked, Yang Du took out the other documents and read them one by one. There were documents ensuring coal supply for the winter of 1922, documents on inspecting winter vegetable reserves, as well as documents on compulsory education screenings and strengthening schooling for children of military families. What made Yang Du feel somewhat warm inside was the arrangement for pension and consolation work for military families.

The Northeast Government indeed made demands of the Northeast populace, but it was vastly different from the purely mercenary recruitment system inside the Pass. Under the Northeast Government's rule, military service was an obligation. Likewise, providing basic living supplies to the people, organizing production, and arranging employment were also obligations. Yang Du had understood this theoretically, but seeing it with his own eyes still evoked some emotion.

After hearing the names of these documents, the village cadres had a rough judgment. A few of them read the content regarding the latest remuneration for production and processing again. The village branch secretary breathed a sigh of relief. "Look everyone, the government explains it clearly in the document. Now that we're fighting a war, we need to buy weapons and ammunition, and a lot of other things. If the government buys at the previous prices, they won't have enough money, so they can only buy at the lowest price."

One cadre frowned, appearing to be thinking hard. "Hmm... the same money can buy more supplies... is that what it means? Comrade Yang, is that what the government means?"

"Precisely," Yang Du said. Then, worried the village cadres wouldn't understand, he explained, "Originally the government had 100 *wen*. Before, one bun cost 10 *wen*, so they could buy 10. Now with the war, one bun is 5 *wen*, so they can buy 20. Therefore..."

As Yang Du spoke, he realized the village cadres had little interest in these explanations. When he mentioned the war, the cadres couldn't help but reveal expressions of disgust. Yang Du felt somewhat awkward and could only stop explaining.

After a moment of silence, the village chief said, "Just tell everyone it's the same as five years ago. Once the war is over, the days will return."

The production team leader looked helpless. "These days have gone back again." After sighing, he looked at Yang Du. "Comrade Yang, did the higher-ups say when this war will end?"

Yang Du felt that country folk just couldn't understand major events. From any angle, this great war was a national war and could potentially last for several years. Since he couldn't explain it clearly, Yang Du simply went along with the atmosphere and replied, "Surely the sooner we win, the better. Please tell the... masses in the village that we will definitely win."

Hearing these simple words, the village cadres' acceptance was much higher than for Yang Du's somewhat lengthy explanations. Everyone discussed it briefly, then went to convene a villagers' meeting. The secretary also reminded them, "Specifically call those who accept orders from the city and town to a separate meeting."

Yang Du felt a sense of incongruity again. These ordinary people who detested war, these country folk who were unhappy about the reduced income, nevertheless made no comment on the hardships of war they were about to shoulder, and unhesitatingly stepped up to handle it.

...Or perhaps, had he actually been assigned to an extraordinary place?

This final thought was obviously wrong. Sunjiaying and Yangjiatun were merely ordinary villages and towns in the Northeast. The Northeast Government's system would absolutely not create anything special just for Yang Du alone. Over 99.999% of the Northeast Government's organization members didn't know Yang Du at all.

The purpose of Total War was to direct government resources toward the war. Since it was impossible to complete the war based on current tax revenues, they could only adjust the industrial chain to prioritize meeting military industry demands. The increase in military expenditure would be offset by cutting civilian consumption. Cutting wages was just a measure adopted at this stage. If the war proceeded to a more cruel stage, there would be further measures to sustain the war.

100% of the administrative units under the Northeast Government were carrying out the same work as Yangjiatun. The economic capillaries began to change their mode of operation, diverting resources into the vessels of war. The controls for these changes were the administrative agencies at all levels.

***

Once the grassroots reports were completed, they were submitted, aggregated, and statistically analyzed before reaching Wu Youping in the form of a highly summarized consolidated table. Wu Youping worked ceaselessly. Aside from a dozen minutes for meals and six hours of sleep every day, he endlessly processed various problems reported to him.

Although not yet thirty, white hair had already appeared at Wu Youping's temples. Yet Wu Youping seemed addicted, immersing himself in work. Because as soon as he had a moment of free time, a problem would surface. The Military Commission estimated that the number of serious injuries and deaths in this war would reach 800,000. Whenever he thought of this number, Wu Youping couldn't breathe.

Apart from work, there was no other way for Wu Youping to temporarily forget this heavy price.

There was another matter that compelled Wu Youping to use work to drive away other thoughts. Over the past seven years, the Northeast Government had indeed achieved tremendous development, but it had also accumulated debt several times the size of its development results. He Rui had used methods that Wu Youping considered almost equivalent to fraud—tearing down the east wall to repair the west wall, using one lid to cover five pots, applying it wherever the emergency was.

If the amount of funds the Northeast Government invested in economic construction was set at 1000, the grain, minerals, and industrial products the Northeast could obtain added together only amounted to 200. This wasn't to say someone had embezzled the 800; that 800 had turned into infrastructure, industrial facilities, the education system, and personnel wages.

If not for the war, if not for the general mobilization acting to freeze the economy so that those debts wouldn't explode, the Northeast would have been blown apart by its own accumulated astronomical debt within a year and a half at most.

Compared to the Northeast's predicament, vast amounts of capital, resources, and markets throughout China were sitting idle. Winning the war against Japan would allow them to rapidly liberate China, obtaining tax revenue and markets from various regions to fill this massive hole.

That is to say, the original expenditure of 1000 by the Northeast could obtain corresponding realizable physical goods worth 2000 or even 3000. The future Chinese government wouldn't need to plunder these; it could even issue another 4000 or even 5000 in currency to invest in the economic sector, rolling out economic construction across all of China.

Therefore, this war must be won, and can only be won!

General mobilization was just a means; the purpose of implementing Total War was singular: to win the immediate war.

While the not-yet-29-year-old Wu Youping still considered Total War itself, the 68-year-old Japanese Minister of Finance, Takahashi Korekiyo, didn't consider it at all. In Takahashi Korekiyo's life, he had already experienced two total wars: the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. In both wars, Takahashi Korekiyo had served as a key figure in the Ministry of Finance, exhausting his wisdom to help Japan win.

Even with such rich experience, Minister Takahashi was still kept incredibly busy by the "Manchuria-Mongolia War Budget."

The budget amount was huge, but it wasn't complex in itself. The Army Ministry proposed a 1.5 million Army operation plan and also provided the figures for personnel and equipment that needed to be replenished. With these numbers, the rest was just addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Japan's general mobilization was no different from the Northeast's general mobilization. To replenish personnel and equipment according to the war plan and send them to the front lines, they had to purchase equipment, conscript soldiers, and provide personnel wages and training funds.

To reduce expenditure costs, orders had to be issued to production enterprises to purchase equipment at cost price on credit. If enterprises still had funds on hand at this time, the enterprises would pay. If enterprises had no funds to purchase raw materials and hire workers, the state would provide raw materials and allocate workers to the enterprises.

Under the general mobilization system, the property rights of various enterprises did not revert to state ownership, but the operational model of the enterprises themselves was no different from state-owned enterprises. If an enterprise wanted to cut corners to muddle through, there were naturally relevant acceptance and audit departments waiting ahead like tigers watching their prey. Once discovered, the enterprise would be fined into bankruptcy.

In this regard, the Soviet Cheka—full name 'All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage'—existed, and the Northeast Government had military representatives. Japan also had its own relevant departments.

Under general mobilization, it was all the same.

Japan's raw materials relied heavily on imports, so Japan also needed substantial foreign exchange reserves to meet domestic production needs. After satisfying war needs, if there were any surplus products, they naturally had to be exported to earn foreign exchange. Domestic consumer goods would be heavily suppressed. "Enduring hardships together" was the life of the Japanese people at the moment.

Unlike those young cadres in the Northeast Government full of idealism, Takahashi Korekiyo was like an emotionless machine, coldly adjusting plans and the economy. Which expenditures to cut, which taxes to increase. Item by item, piece by piece, proposals were raised by Ministry of Finance officials in the shortest possible time and handed to Takahashi Korekiyo for approval.

One week later than the Northeast Government, a "Manchuria-Mongolia War Budget Amendment Draft" was delivered to Prime Minister Kiyoura Keigo. Seeing Kiyoura Keigo frown, Takahashi Korekiyo knew the Prime Minister was troubled by the draft which had been slashed fiercely, and could even imagine the Army Ministry jumping up and down in anger. Yet there was not a ripple of fluctuation in Takahashi Korekiyo's heart.

If the Army could shit gold and piss silver like a legendary beast, the Ministry of Finance would increase the budget by however much the Army Ministry gave. Since the Army Ministry was purely a money-spending department, they had to endure it.

Kiyoura Keigo finished flipping through the draft and remained silent for a while before ordering his secretary, "Please ask the Army Minister and the Navy Minister to come to my office."

Takahashi Korekiyo sat on the sofa in the Prime Minister's office, quietly waiting for the two ministers to arrive and start a dispute.