On the second day of the Northwest Peace Talks, Wang Shizhen still attended the meeting. Duan Qirui also appeared at the venue on time, just looking at his gray face and bloodshot eyes, he knew that Duan Qirui had not slept all night.

After sitting down, Duan Qirui said: "Mr. Jidao, if the peace talks are successful." I want to go back to my hometown in Anhui to retire. I don't know how. ”

"Nope." Yan Fu replied very simply, "Brother Zhiquan is now the most appealing person in Beiyang. Things in the northwest are indispensable to Brother Zhiquan. ”

Wang Shizhen's heart was relieved, and the People's Party forced Duan Qirui to work, indicating that he really didn't want to treat Duan Qirui well.

Duan Qirui didn't see it as much as Wang Shizhen, he said: "I know that the rules of the People's Party are very different from ours in Beiyang, if we do something wrong, I don't know how the People's Party will deal with it." ”

Yan Fu said: "I also know some of the rules of Beiyang, and it is indeed difficult for a strong man to say that he will completely follow the methods of our People's Party for a while and a half. The following things can still be done according to the Beiyang method, but the above must adopt the democratic centralism of our People's Party. Everything has to be discussed by everyone. Once a resolution is reached, everyone has to act in accordance with it. You may not be able to do what others say, but you can always do what you want to say. ”

Duan Qirui glanced at Yan Fu and felt that Fang Cai's words had a deep meaning, could it be that Yan Fu was going to use a military order to solve the problem? It's just that he can't find anything wrong with this, and Duan Qirui will no longer dwell on this detail.

After talking about many conditions with difficulty, Yan Fu raised a new question, "We want to appoint Brother Zhiquan as the chairman of the CPPCC of the five northwest provinces, but we don't know what Brother Zhiquan wants?" ”

Duan Qirui was stunned, Yan Fu kept saying that the People's Party would not seal the official and make a wish, but now he actually broke the original statement and promised the chairman of the CPPCC of the five provinces. Duan Qirui didn't know what the CPPCC did.

Yan Fu continued: "In addition, Brother Duan, the prime minister, also has to be changed, and he should be the vice premier in charge of the five northwest provinces. ”

This next paragraph Qirui is even more confused, and the vice prime minister has no real power. Being a deputy prime minister with real power is not a bargain compared to the prime minister. As for the position of chairman of the CPPCC, after discussing it for a while, Duan Qirui realized that he actually wanted to use the CPPCC to replace the current local councils of the five provinces, which belonged to an institution that was excessively oriented to the people's congress.

No one from Beiyang likes the parliament, and after summing it up in his heart, Duan Qirui found that although the People's Party said ruthlessly, it actually allowed Duan Qirui to control the parliament, the army, and the government, and the power of the three, and the actual power did not suffer any special losses. It can even be said that with the support behind the People's Party, Duan Qirui's real power has actually expanded.

If you don't surrender, you die now, and you die later. Not to mention the fact that the BJP offered quite favorable conditions. On the third day, Duan Qirui symbolically convened a meeting of the remnants of Beiyang. Those Beiyang army leaders had long been panicked, and after listening to the conditions conveyed by Duan Qirui. One by one, these people showed their true colors as good deeds.

Except for a handful of Duan Qirui's cronies who simply questioned whether the People's Party was sincere or false, the others all began to bargain over this condition, as if they were really capable of rejecting it.

Duan Qirui is a smart person, after being scolded by Wang Shizhen, he has a great sense of awakening, seeing the performance of this group of birdmen, Duan Qirui directly put down his words, "If you think it's okay, then don't say anything more." If anyone thinks it can't be done, then I'll give up this position, and you can sit in this position. ”

Good deeds, especially incompetent good deeds, are all virtuous, and when they encounter things, they are noisy and happy, let them take responsibility, and one by one they will be completely soft.

Listening to Duan Qirui's cruel words, who would dare to talk nonsense again. Some capable people simply kept silent, and those who couldn't help but defend themselves a few words, trying to convince others how loyal they were to Beiyang and how worried they were about everyone being deceived. Duan Qirui didn't even have the urge to scold these guys. It was a simple order to adjourn the meeting.

The People's Party does not expect these people in Beiyang to succeed at all, as long as they are not defeated. In order not to stimulate the nerves of the remnants of Beiyang as much as possible, the People's Party did not send troops in Shaanxi County into Shaanxi. However, it turns out that sooner or later, the good guys will swallow the bitter fruit of their own making.

Yan Fu left Xi'an and just got on the train from Shaanxi County to Zhengzhou. The news of Duan Qirui's successful peace talks with the People's Party reached the Beiyang defenders in Tongguan. In the past, in order to control the soldiers, the Beiyang Army could only use the core troops to guard the unstable soldiers. Now that the Beiyang is relaxed, even the hardcore Beiyang Army has no heart. As for those soldiers who didn't want to give Duan Qirui their lives for a long time, they seized this opportunity and swarmed towards Shaanxi County from Tongguan.

The People's Party did not slacken its defenses in the slightest, and even though the fleeing Beiyang Army tried to bypass the line of defense of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army still captured them. After these Beiyang soldiers were captured, they only made one request, "I don't want to be a soldier to fight anymore, I want to go home!" ”

Regardless of whether Duan Qirui on the other side would be angry or not, the People's Party sent these fleeing soldiers to the concentration camp for centralized detention and screening, and the soldiers who had no problems after screening were sent back to their hometowns first.

A few days later, the People's Party intelligence system passed the latest news back to Wuhan. Duan Qirui was indeed angry, but it was not aimed at the People's Party, or even at these deserters. With his current financial resources, he can't raise so many soldiers, so it's better for the undetermined guys to flee. What made Duan Qirui angry was that some bold guys actually began to challenge Duan Qirui's prestige at this time, and shouted at the People's Party at the public meeting that these deserters were deliberately instigated by the People's Party.

Without external pressure from the People's Party, Duan Qirui unceremoniously dismissed these people from their official positions. Then the troops in Tongguan were transferred back for reorganization. If they are willing to go, Duan Qirui will let them go. If you don't want to go, Duan Qirui should be promoted, and he should be adjusted. At the same time, the troops were scattered and reorganized.

Originally, there were many factions in the Beiyang Army that fled to the northwest, and Duan Qirui never had a chance to rectify it. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Duan Qirui carried out a major purge of his opponents and promoted those who were loyal to him. Although the size of the Northwest Beiyang Army has been greatly reduced, it has finally reorganized its order and united internally.

The ongoing Politburo committee meeting showed no interest in this change, and Duan Qirui was able to control the situation, which would even be beneficial to the People's Party's advance into the north. In November 1918, the focus of the BJP was on when the world war would end. Another question is the extent to which the BJP's relentless industrial development can support domestic affairs.

Railway! Railway! Railway! With a strong railway system, the country's operating costs can be greatly reduced, and the economic activity can be greatly increased. At present, when the whole country was nominally liberated, it was no longer an era in which strategic goals could be accomplished by merely relying on wisdom, bravery, and even sacrifice. What China needs is strong industrial capacity. The most important thing is that at least the BJP understands what industry can do. The fog that once shrouded us in front of us is lifted, and a vast new world is seen, and everyone's greatest impulse is to gallop through this new world as soon as possible.

All the committee members looked at Chen Ke, the leader of the People's Party, who had led the People's Party to this point and brought China to this point. In front of this new threshold, everyone waited for Chen Ke to issue a new order.

Chen Ke did respond to everyone's expectations, he said: "This round of easy money is over. In the future, it is not the time when all rotten goods can be sold casually, comrades, do a better job of hard work. ”

No one said anything, because most of the comrades could not understand what it meant to "sell whatever rotten goods were".

Chen explained: "As soon as the world war is over and Europe needs to be rebuilt, the United States will become the biggest economic winner in the North Atlantic economic circle because of its geography. Britain and France suffered the heaviest losses, and they will definitely find ways to complete the completion of making up for the losses. We don't have to expect them to be so gentle with us anymore. ”

This is nothing more than common sense, and the Politburo understands it perfectly. As the leader of the industrial sector, You Gou asked on behalf of the comrades: "But what does rotten goods mean?" ”

Chen Ke said with a smile: "In order to make money, the best industrial products in the world will compete with us, do comrades think that the quality of our industrial products is very good?" ”

This is too hurtful to say that the industrial system of the BJP has created more than a dozen times the industrial categories of its predecessors, which have thrived through the First World War. The comrades are still quite proud and confident in the crystallization of sweat.

Chen Ke said with a smile: "After the war, we will import steelmaking technology from France, especially from Germany as much as possible. We have to use the almost billion-pound bond in our hands. In addition, Belgium and the Netherlands have quite good technology. Italy's shipbuilding is doing well, but they are still very poor, and they must fully cooperate with Italy. ”

There is no longer a need for Chen Ke to make "prophecies" like a magic stick, and the People's Party's personnel overseas have already collected a large amount of information and materials. Comrades also have an understanding of these.

"What about the United States?" Zhang Yu asked. As the largest international partner of the People's Party, it is somewhat puzzling that Chen Ke did not mention the United States at all.

Chen Ke replied: "At the current level of inflation in the United States, it is clear that it will suffer a loss to expect technology to be imported from the United States. The United States now has a European market, and they won't really care about us either. Comrades, I used to talk about the economic crisis, but now let's look back and see that every time we make a big profit in the international market, it is because of a world economic crisis or a world war. Without these, we would not have been able to accumulate so much before World War I. ”

Hearing this, the Politburo members burst out laughing, both fast and slow. There are many things that cannot be looked back, and when we look back, the BJP either tightened its belts, or accepted seemingly harsh conditions, or borrowed a large amount of foreign debt in fear. Facing the unknowable future, except for comrades who have blind trust in Chen Ke, everyone is uneasy in their hearts. Now the comrades understand how much benefit they made back then.

"Hang the noose of the capitalists, and the capitalists will sell it to us themselves. That's probably what it means. Yuwen Badu couldn't help but laugh. This sparked laughter, something Chen Ke once said. At that time, everyone really took this as a joke.

When everyone had laughed enough, Chen Tianhua said: "Does that mean that the next economic crisis will first break out in these countries that make money from world wars?" ”

"Yes." Chen Ke nodded yes.

"And what about next time?" Chen Tianhua asked.

"The economic crisis is basically a once-in-a-decade thing. No industrial country can escape this fate. Chen Ke elaborated on a simple summary of experience.

"That means we can't escape from China?" Chen Tianhua is very serious about theory.

"Yes. If we adopt capitalism, we will not be able to escape. "Chen Ke has never shied away from medical treatment.

"How?" Chen Tianhua continued to ask.

"Keep pace with the times and cross the river by feeling the stones." Chen Ke replied.

Chen Ke knows that in the 100 years from the beginning of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, the world has really changed dramatically. The most significant change is that the world is becoming more and more flattened. In the 80s of the 20th century, there were eight dealers who resold steel. At the beginning of the 21st century, China's four-way and five-way dealers can still be popular. In the second decade of the 21st century, the Internet age has compressed the living space of the three dealers to an extremely pitiful extent.

In addition to the fact that everyone can really eat enough to have more time to think about other things, the more important reason is that a lot of information has almost reached the level where national leaders and ordinary netizens receive information almost at the same time.

Chen Ke's friends in industry and commerce said that as soon as the Sanlu incident broke out, the local industrial and commercial bureaus began to convene personnel to gather and completed a full set of preparations for the seizure of Sanlu products overnight. The reason why the local industrial and commercial bureaus did not take immediate action was only because everyone was waiting for the order of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Unilateral action without an order is not in line with organizational processes.

The People's Party is only efficient because Chen Ke is able to completely ignore all the normal process of research, analysis, induction, summarization, and finally results. Rely entirely on the cognitive level of his traverser to implement a strong push. Moreover, the comrades had sufficient revolutionary enthusiasm and the ability to act at the heart of the emperor and dare to pull the emperor off his horse. Therefore, the People's Party was able to develop at a speed that was completely inconsistent with seeking truth from facts.

However, in this era when the second industrial revolution is still in the ascendant, China's industrial level in the second decade of the 21st century is still far in the future. Chen Ke can only let himself adapt to this reality. Chen Ke had to find a way to build a more mature organization. An organization that can function even without Chen.

Naturally, it was impossible for the Politburo members to understand Chen Ke's thoughts, and Chen Tianhua asked a very general and representative question, "What about more specific implementation steps?" ”

"In addition to continuing to innovate, we also have to obstale. And it's forced elimination. Chen Ke said. After finishing speaking, looking at the comrades looking at him with a thirst for knowledge, Chen Ke couldn't help but be dispelled if he wanted to say something more conceptual. Crossing the river by feeling the stones is easy to say, but it is extremely difficult to do.

"The most important work in the near future is to improve the national large laboratory system as soon as possible. While you have the money to buy technology for the time being, try to make up for the lack of technology and practical experience in each category......" Chen Ke began to describe the basic approach.

In fact, this was an important part of Roosevelt's New Deal, and in order to save costs, Roosevelt ordered the United States to engage in forced technological unification. All production companies have to pay some money every year to the national laboratory, which then entrusts the development to various schools and technology development institutions. Businesses have the right to share technology from these technology development departments. And every once in a while, production equipment and technology must be forcibly phased out. In particular, in the space competition with the Soviet Union, the United States took this system to the limit.

New China also has a similar system, but because China's technology is too backward compared with the world's first-class level, the result is that this system for a long time mainly digests the technology and parameters imported from foreign countries. In addition, this kind of construction investment is slow to produce results, and it is inefficient compared with the direct introduction of technology. So this system has not played a big role.

However, in Chen Ke's time, there was not such a big technological generation gap between China and the world. Coupled with the accumulation of these years, the People's Party needs such a system to strengthen the development of China's science and technology.

"That's the core of the industrial sector over the next two years, building up our own science and technology system." Chen Ke finally gave the order.

"And what's the name of this project?" You asked.

"Let's call it the Tech Tree Project." Chen Ke replied.