Britain did not block the news of attempting to establish an Anglo-Japanese Alliance at all, and some people in China soon learned about it. The Republic did not block newspapers; southern newspapers published it first, and besides official newspapers like the *National Daily*, other newspapers reprinted it one after another. The news soon became known to the public.

However, Japanese intelligence personnel in China were disappointed. There were no fluctuations in China because of this news. Even in big cities with the most enthusiasm for politics, this matter was just a topic of daily conversation. Those who cared more about the accuracy of their newspaper news questioned whether the news was true. Those who wanted to make money from nationalist sentiments cursed Britain and Japan for 'never giving up their intention to destroy China.' Those who tried to look at the problem with a peaceful and impartial attitude analyzed the feasibility of re-establishing the alliance between Britain and Japan.

China was not panicked, nor was daily life affected by this matter. As for things like 'Southeast Mutual Protection,' there wasn't even a shadow of it. Japanese intelligence personnel wanted to know the views of the high-level officials of the Republic, but how could Japanese intelligence personnel contact the high-level officials of the Republic?

'Republic Premier Wu Youping interrupted his inspection in the south and southwest and returned to Beiping. It is possible that it is to urgently deal with the threat of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance to China.' Some Japanese intelligence personnel wrote such a report because they could only make wishful speculations based on the itinerary of the Republic's high-level officials published in the newspapers.

Wu Youping did return to Beiping, and he indeed wanted to hear He Rui's views on this matter. But Wu Youping first handed over two packages of snacks, gifts he brought back from the south. He Rui was not polite either; he opened them and ate two pieces of each, then greeted the secretary and others in the office, "Premier Wu brought them; everyone have a taste."

The office staff knew that He Rui had a straightforward personality and was never hypocritical in sharing with everyone. Facing such kindness, the young comrades naturally couldn't refuse to give face; they thanked him and took the snacks away.

Only then did Wu Youping ask, "Chairman, Britain's action to try to rebuild the alliance with Japan is so slow; what are they worrying about?"

"Probably because Britain calculated and felt they couldn't afford the price," He Rui said, taking out a cigarette.

Wu Youping had also considered such a possibility, so he asked, "Previously, the Chairman judged that Britain would only really invest capital when it was attacked by our army in India and the war situation was very unfavorable. I feel that our army is beating the British army like chopping melons and vegetables now, and recently annihilated nearly 20,000 ANZAC troops. No matter how arrogant the British are, they shouldn't be arrogant to this extent."

"I think the British upper echelon hasn't seen the situation clearly yet. They can confirm domestically that the war has broken out, the combat effectiveness of the British Indian Army is weak, and the combat effectiveness of the ANZAC troops is also inferior to our army. But the combat effectiveness of these two types of troops is inferior to the British native army in the first place. Now there is no evidence to prove that the authentic British native army is not our opponent."

Wu Youping still couldn't understand the thoughts of the British, so he asked, "The Boer War was fought into such a mess; where does the British confidence come from?"

Hearing Wu Youping evaluate the combat effectiveness of the British army so accurately, He Rui laughed, "Haha, the British defeated Germany after all."

Wu Youping knew He Rui was joking. He didn't come to chat casually with He Rui but had a task as the Premier of the country, so he asked, "It was the Allied Powers that defeated Germany! Not Britain alone that defeated Germany. Besides, the German army surrendered on foreign soil. Chairman, are the British pretending not to understand, or deceiving themselves?"

Since Wu Youping was so serious, He Rui also answered the question seriously, "The British upper echelon knows the status quo of Britain very well, but the British public does not know. The British public must obtain satisfaction by maintaining the image of the empire in their hearts. Therefore, even if the British House of Commons sees that the war situation is unfavorable, they cannot propose a proposal to end the war. The time has not yet come."

Wu Youping knew the foreign electoral political system and knew that politicians must get the support of voters to get votes, so politicians must be responsible for the expectations of voters. But the real world will never change because the people of a certain country have some unrealistic views. To give an extreme example, even if more than 40 million people in Britain believe that the sun is triangular, the sun will still appear round.

Although it felt ridiculous, Wu Youping had to face reality; Britain was indeed such a mess.

After asking this, Wu Youping asked again, "Chairman, during my inspection in local areas this time, comrades felt that are we too lenient towards Japan? I think Japan will eventually choose some kind of de facto Anglo-Japanese Alliance. At that time, why don't we march south and seize the entire Korea? Previously, our navy was inferior to Japan, and we worried about Japan landing. Now our army advantage has completely overwhelmed Japan, and the Japanese navy is very likely not to dare to use capital ships to cover the Japanese army landing."

This was not only said by comrades below; more people in the central government had said it. He Rui said calmly, "Youping, if our next work fails to achieve the goal and Japan completely turns into a fascist regime dominated by the army, then needless to say, we must liberate Korea, completely defeat Japan, and forcefully transform Japan. However, Japan is currently facing a choice of paths. There are still some people in Japan who share common values with us. I expect this group of people with common values to lead Japan onto the correct path."

"...Common values?" Wu Youping repeated He Rui's words.

The Civilization Party attached great importance to the 'Three Views,' that is, worldview, view of life, and values. Because this is the fundamental basis for determining a person. Although He Rui was very kind when with comrades, he would definitely not use vocabulary indiscriminately when it involved issues of the Three Views. Since He Rui emphasized 'values,' he must be talking about values.

Recalling the situation in Japan he knew, Wu Youping felt that there didn't seem to be many common values between China and Japan, not enough to establish a solid alliance relationship between Japan and China.

In front of He Rui, especially during such a conversation between the two, Wu Youping always asked if he didn't understand. "Chairman, I don't see what kind of values can build a solid ally relationship between China and Japan."

He Rui gave an answer immediately, "Aiming at economic development is our common value for external cooperation."

"...But many imperialists also say this."

"So we must distinguish these reactionaries from those who truly take economic development as their philosophy. Imperialists and colonialists, although they also say they want to develop the economy, the purpose of developing the economy is for external plunder. Just like Japan, if Japanese who share common values with us are in power, how could they engage in an Anglo-Japanese Alliance? I'm not saying these people are traitors to Japan; these Japanese are true patriots of Japan. From the perspective of economic development, the war between China and Japan is harmful to Japan."

"...Indeed so." Wu Youping replied with a somewhat heavy heart. He had joined He Rui's team for ten years. Initially, Wu Youping recognized He Rui's academic ability and believed that He Rui could lead China out of the tragic situation of being invaded and oppressed.

Seeing the Northeast flourishing day by day, Wu Youping had also fantasized that a revived China would take revenge and whip the world. Spreading national prestige globally, making the powers bow their heads.

But this inspection shook Wu Youping's feeling of wanting revenge. As He Rui said, if economic development was the core purpose, although it wouldn't make Wu Youping an anti-war activist, it forced Wu Youping to recognize that war was harmful to economic development.

So far, He Rui had been planning wars. But the purpose of every war was not war, let alone an imperialist war for plunder. The wars launched by He Rui broke the shackles, liberated the people, and achieved peace. After peace arrived, the people could live and work in peace and contentment, striving for a better life.

Therefore, while agreeing with He Rui's philosophy, Wu Youping also had a doubt, "Chairman, can Japan really reach such a level of civilization?"

He Rui answered decisively, "Relying on Japan itself, it definitely can't be done. So we have to help them."

Wu Youping nodded slightly; he could now understand why He Rui cared so much about Japan.

He Rui was afraid that Wu Youping couldn't fully understand these, so he explained the future a bit, "In the world, a country cannot develop alone; most of the world must be under common values. To liberate the world, we must first liberate Japan."

"...It's really hard." Wu Youping sighed sincerely.

Seeing that Wu Youping could already understand the difficulty of politics, He Rui was quite gratified. "Difficult is naturally difficult, but it is a passable path. Given the current direction of the world, even Marshal Pétain of France understands that the Treaty of Versailles is not a treaty that brings long-term peace, but just a 20-year armistice agreement. Six years have passed from 1919 to now. There are only 14 years left."

Wu Youping didn't answer. He recalled that He Rui had said when formulating the Five-Year Plan, "We only have the peace time of three Five-Year Plans." At that time, Wu Youping didn't care much about this sentence because before unifying the whole country, China had actually fallen into civil war for more than ten years. Even if there were only 15 years of peace, it was a good time for China.

Now, Wu Youping felt a strong sense of urgency. Before the war broke out, to what extent could China prepare?

With this sense of urgency, Wu Youping turned the topic back to his work. "Chairman, the development progress of the Southwest this time is faster than planned. Although the resistance of local old forces is fiercer than imagined, we have a large number of troops locally, which happens to give those old forces a devastating blow."

He Rui could completely imagine that situation and couldn't help sighing in his heart. Although China's unification looked very rapid, in fact, the civil war had not completely ended. The Central Committee of the Civilization Party decided to deploy a battalion of troops in every county, and the first stage was three years. The purpose was to deal with the civil war.

Now the whole country couldn't feel that civil war broke out every day, only because millions of troops were distributed in every county, and militias were established in towns, townships, and villages locally. All troops cooperated with each other and reacted quickly. Enemies rose and were destroyed instantly, without any chance to roll and develop. Since the late Qing Dynasty, soldiers and bandits ran rampant in China. Compared with that precarious chaos, the people didn't even feel surprised by such rebellions that were extinguished in a short time.

But from a political perspective, the new government was experiencing a civil war covering the whole country. Although the old forces were opposing the new order, as long as they were given a chance, they would counterattack. Such a situation would continue for a while.

Wu Youping couldn't see the compassion in He Rui's heart; he continued to narrate the recent developments at this time. With the construction of roads and railways in the Southwest region, logistics was vastly different from before. Originally, it was thought that not many materials could be purchased locally, but unexpectedly, in terms of 'labor' material, the supply in the Southwest region exceeded imagination.

At this time, various local tyrants in the Southwest region, who had been in a barbaric and simple social environment for hundreds of years, rose up one after another. They saw all changes as challenges to themselves, vainly attempting to continue controlling the people and 'taking a cut' from the people's income. With the progress of land reform and the vigorous strikes of the army, the Southwest region took on a new look. It was truly washing away the filth and clearing the stream.

Locals in the Southwest never earned much money, so they lacked the habit of saving money. Money earned by participating in government-contracted projects was immediately bought into commodities, so that local economic data showed abnormal prosperity. If Wu Youping hadn't inspected the local area personally, he couldn't have imagined the situation would be like that.

After finishing his optimistic view of the Southwest region, Wu Youping turned to the South again. "Chairman, the economic recovery in the South is faster than we thought, but this group of Jiangnan gentry in the South is quite insidious. I think it is very difficult to transform their thinking."

Seeing Wu Youping still revealing the impulsiveness of youth, He Rui laughed, "Transforming thinking is done by popularizing education and instilling new ideas into children and youth. This is a matter for schools. How could the thinking of old guys be changed so simply? Give up."

One of the reasons Wu Youping said this was that he encountered some things during the inspection that made a science and engineering man like Wu Youping, who considered himself rational, unable to hold back his killing intent.

But Wu Youping knew very well that He Rui would never accept such means, so he probed. Hearing He Rui express opposition as expected, Wu Youping said, "Chairman, those people are desperately maintaining the clan system to counter our policies."

He Rui didn't approve of tough policies, so he advised, "That's because you stand at a higher height than them that you think so. In the eyes of those people, they are just trying to maintain themselves under the new impact."

"Chairman, those people in Jiangnan have accumulated too much experience in countering the government over hundreds of years, not only in the Manchu Qing era but starting from the Ming Dynasty."

He Rui's expression became serious. "I still have that attitude: are they passive or active? If they are active, they naturally need to be knocked down. If they are passive, we can only struggle with them. After all, we are the active party, and we are latecomers."

Wu Youping knew he couldn't persuade He Rui, so he simply told He Rui what happened below. "In Suzhou, some people have already started trying to gain their power by helping government officials improve their political achievements."

Seeing Wu Youping annoyed by this matter, He Rui laughed, "Isn't this the tradition of Jiangnan gentry for hundreds of years? Where is this now? In the future, Jiangnan will also try hard to let their children become officials. Through influence on officials' political achievements, they consciously cultivate their power and finally can influence politics. It's an old tradition of hundreds of years; it's not rare, not rare."

Wu Youping knew He Rui was a northerner and hadn't been to the south. Moreover, He Rui never mentioned that he had studied the traditions of Jiangnan gentry, so he was a little surprised for a moment. He asked, "Chairman, did the comrades of the Organization Department give you a report?"

He Rui wanted to tell Wu Youping that he gave lessons to the comrades of the Organization Department. But it was inappropriate to say this, so he laughed, "If you have time, you can chat more with the comrades of the Organization Department. Or find time to learn about the history of Shaoxing Masters."

Wu Youping could only nod and made a summary, "Going out this time, I feel that economic development is very gratifying, and the war has little impact on the economy. It's just that the people's lives were too miserable before. I wonder if there are other ways to invest more."

He Rui immediately expressed his attitude, "At this stage, we must go through the process from small peasant economy to small commodity economy. We cannot force the people to join socialized mass production. If the economy has not developed to that stage, pulling up seedlings to help them grow does more harm than good."

Wu Youping knew He Rui was right, but seeing the people's lives still so difficult, Wu Youping felt uncomfortable and wished he could immediately let the people live a better life.

Suppressing his impulse, Wu Youping said, "Chairman, I will try my best to restrain myself and not let local areas invest indiscriminately."

After Wu Youping left, He Rui asked someone to call the Organization Department to see if the latest assessment was out. Since even Wu Youping was so unhappy, presumably the comrades of the Organization Department wouldn't be happy either. He Rui wanted to see what happened.

Just then, news came that the Japanese side increased troops on the Yalu River. After the Sino-Japanese Armistice Agreement was signed, the Chinese side of the Yalu River had completed the defense line. Even if several divisions of Japanese troops rushed up, it would be suicide. Japan only maintained a very small number of troops on the Yalu River. Now Japan suddenly increased troops. Although it did not pose a huge threat, it was a very realistic signal.

After reading this news, He Rui thought for a moment and ordered, "Call Wang Bin."

In less than an hour, Intelligence Bureau Director Wang Bin appeared in front of He Rui in a black uniform. He Rui ordered, "Have you heard the news of the Japanese army increasing troops on the Yalu River?"

"...Now I know," Wang Bin replied. He spoke the truth. Recently, the main force of the Intelligence Bureau was placed in India. Because too much force was drawn away, the reaction to Japan's actions was much slower.

"Let the Japanese country know about this," He Rui issued an order.

"What is the purpose?" Wang Bin raised a question. From various intelligence, Japan had made no war preparations at all. Increasing troops on the border was a demonstration action, a political action.

"We need to promote changes within Japan, especially now. We need to use the power of the Japanese people. With the level of political understanding of the Japanese people, they will see such mobilization as preparation for war. If the Japanese people feel that the time to make a final choice has come, they will make a choice."

Wang Bin thought for a moment and understood He Rui's idea. At this stage, the Japanese upper echelon had not made a final choice. If the Japanese people felt that the time to make a choice had come, public sentiment would naturally be agitated. This pressure from the people would in turn prompt some people in the Japanese upper echelon to think that the time to make a choice had come.

As long as some people in the upper echelon start to act, others have to act too. The so-called 'self-fulfilling prophecy' is exactly this.

Wang Bin saluted immediately, "Understood." Leaving He Rui's office, Wang Bin understood that He Rui was ready to start promoting changes in Japan. As for what the result would be, Wang Bin himself was not sure. However, based on his trust in He Rui, Wang Bin believed that things would develop towards the result He Rui expected.

Returning to the Security Bureau, Wang Bin immediately called the section responsible for Japanese intelligence and assigned the task.

On June 29, news appeared on the streets of Japan: 'The Japanese Korean Army began to move north and is assembling on the Yalu River border.'