"I will not liberate the India region in isolation, nor will I dismember India in isolation. These two complement each other; only when combined do they constitute our strategy for the India region." He Rui explained frankly to Zhao Tianlin.

Zhao Tianlin felt a throb in his heart. He had already felt shocked when he heard Professor Li's view, but he didn't expect Professor Li's view to be exactly the same as He Rui's. For so long, the comrades had always followed He Rui's train of thought; never had there been anyone who could make the same judgment as He Rui regarding the strategy for a single future region.

Just as he wanted to ask more, he heard He Rui say: "I would like to invite Professor Li as a guest."

Zhao Tianlin felt this was exactly how it should be, so he rose to take his leave. After Zhao Tianlin left, He Rui invited Wu Youping over and asked directly: "Do you want to hear the judgment first, or the specifics of how to do it first?"

"...Hear the judgment first." Wu Youping decided to hear exactly how He Rui wanted to criticize the delays at the Northeast Bicycle General Factory.

He Rui intended to criticize people anyway, so at this moment, he said unceremoniously: "We are not a feudal dynasty where anyone who wants to do profitable business must obtain our consent. In the field of industrial production, whatever is not forbidden by law is permitted. Do these comrades think that making money is their privilege?"

Wu Youping was stunned; his initial thoughts were still different from He Rui's. The set of standards ultimately produced by the Northeast Bicycle General Factory was incomparably detailed. Wu Youping himself came from an engineering background; one look and he knew this was setting a threshold. Such a threshold was unfavorable for quickly introducing private capital into the field of industrial production.

However, He Rui's view was another matter entirely. It actually sounded like they shouldn't place restrictions on domestic factories producing bicycles. From this perspective, Wu Youping actually began to support the approach with certain restrictions more.

Composing himself and thinking for a moment, Wu Youping asked: "Chairman, our bicycles are provided with installment plans."

"Why should we let private enterprises participate in installment plans? With current management levels, can we manage all that?" He Rui asked.

Wu Youping hadn't thought of this much and was stunned for a moment. Struggling to consider it for a while, Wu Youping felt he had a line of thought, "Chairman, do you mean that we produce our bicycles, and do not place any restrictions on private capital investing in the bicycle industry?"

He Rui answered immediately: "Correct. That is exactly it! The bicycle industry is an industry with very mature technology. Future development will mainly be the replacement of materials; the basic mechanical principles of the bicycle will not see any changes. So as the market saturates, bicycles will enter a process of crazy price cutting. our work now is to cultivate the domestic market. Through building bicycle factories and through loans provided by the government, we will satisfy the travel needs of domestic people as soon as possible. With so many jobs, more domestic markets are created. And the route our state-owned bicycle factories should take is not to wait until the bicycle market is saturated and then fight to the death with other domestic capital, but industrial upgrading! Bicycle factories will gradually develop towards the high end, developing into the field of motor vehicles like motorcycles."

Wu Youping felt what He Rui said made a lot of sense, but he felt these words couldn't convince the comrades. Unless He Rui personally issued orders to the comrades, subsequent development would follow He Rui's train of thought.

Thinking of this, Wu Youping asked: "Chairman, why?"

"First, never underestimate domestic capital. As long as there is a market, they will desperately lower costs, ultimately suppressing the price to a degree where our state-owned enterprises cannot compete. This is an inevitability; whether you wish for it or not, it will happen."

Hearing this, Wu Youping felt a burst of discomfort in his heart. Following He Rui for ten years starting from the Northeast, state-owned enterprises had never encountered an opponent domestically. Technology, equipment, scale, treatment—in every aspect, state-owned enterprises crushed everyone across the board. How could a situation suddenly appear where state-owned enterprises were inferior to private enterprises?

But the person saying this was He Rui. Following He Rui from one victory to another, seeing various impossibilities become possible, Wu Youping would instinctively believe He Rui's views. However, long-term experience and He Rui's judgment actually conflicted, and Wu Youping felt a strong sense of discomfort. Finally, Wu Youping asked again: "Why?"

He Rui gave the answer directly, "Average productivity will always fluctuate. The Northeast has the Northeast region's average productivity. The Northeast does not equal China; we cannot directly take past experience and use it."

Wu Youping recalled He Rui's terminology. Average productivity refers to the ratio of the quantity or quality of labor completed by the production sector within a certain period per unit of product (i.e., the labor-hours consumed directly to produce a certain item) (Output is also called actual output or total output completed per unit weight).

However, saying that the efficiency of state-owned enterprises was lower than that of private enterprises—Wu Youping did not agree with such a view.

He Rui did not answer immediately. The debate over whether the efficiency of state-owned enterprises is higher or lower than that of private enterprises is a problem that is both very complex and not complex. The non-complex part lies in the fact that state-owned enterprises are inherently products of socialized mass production, and their efficiency is destined to be higher than private enterprises. The complex part lies in how to define the scope of the field of socialized mass production.

If one lacks the ability to distinguish, one is destined to fall into a chaotic mess. Therefore, He Rui adhered to an attitude of 'no debate' as much as possible in these aspects, because socialized mass production is also constantly changing. In 1926, a regional economy could count as socialized mass production. In 2026, the internal economic cycle of a single country might not necessarily fully fit the definition of socialized mass production.

Wu Youping frowned and thought for a good while. He Rui took the time to approve three documents. Just as he was preparing to pick up the fourth, Wu Youping asked: "Chairman, specifically what should I do?"

"The goal of our state-owned enterprises is to promote the development of productive forces; the goal of private enterprises is profit. Therefore, government subsidies are not applicable to enterprises with mature technologies like bicycles. To put it bluntly, we will not subsidize private enterprises. If they are responsible for their own profits and losses, why should we interfere with private enterprises engaging in industrial production? As long as it doesn't involve patent fee issues or pollution problems brought by industrial production, we have no need to manage them. As for state-owned enterprises, we have production arrangements and industrial development plans. Just like this tender, if we invite tenders, at the current stage it is to invite tenders for bicycle repair enterprises. To provide bicycle repair services for various localities."

Wu Youping was slightly stunned, then his eyes brightened, "This is also promoting the development of productive forces."

Just as he relaxed for a moment, Wu Youping's brow furrowed slightly again, "But once repair technology is popularized, will we soon have to accept the injection of private capital again?"

He Rui smiled: "For technology diffusion, the faster the better. And what is the Tax Bureau for? Don't just look at those people making money; also see those people paying taxes."

When Wu Youping first heard the tax issue, he originally wanted to laugh it off, but then remembered the tight national treasury, so he raised his own doubts regarding the tax issue: "I feel taxes may not be easy to collect, and there will definitely be many problems in the short term. In order to expand the scale of tax revenue, we have to continue investing resources."

"'Every grain to the granary'—it's okay to talk about such things, but in reality, it's impossible to achieve. We only need to continuously perfect the tax departments according to the economic scale. Youping, there are two paths to making money: one is monopoly, and one is reducing costs. The purpose of monopoly is to raise commodity prices. Do you think state-owned capital is suitable for doing this?"

"...From the perspective of developing productive forces, it is not suitable," Wu Youping answered frankly.

"To reduce costs, the most direct method is to extend workers' working hours and lower wages. Then how incompetent must our government be to condone such things?"

Wu Youping nodded slightly, expressing agreement.

"If we cannot directly exploit workers, we must research how to improve production efficiency. This path is R&D of mechanical equipment and improving production management levels. Isn't this promoting the development of productive forces? Private enterprises have their lifespans; have you ever seen a thousand-year-old private enterprise?"

Hearing this, Wu Youping nodded slightly, feeling much more at ease. However, with the conversation at this level, Wu Youping wanted to chat more relaxedly, "Chairman, but what about our SOEs?"

"The efficiency SOEs exert in the field of socialized mass production is extremely high, far superior to private enterprises!" Speaking of this, He Rui silently recited the phrase 'This is the result of research by world economists' in his heart.

"Therefore, SOEs must invest in high-technology fields and exert their efficiency in fields of the national economy and people's livelihood. And the fields of national economy and people's livelihood are constantly changing. Right now, bicycles are in the field of national economy and people's livelihood. Very soon, motor vehicles will become national economy and people's livelihood. After another period of development, energy, communications, transportation, and infrastructure will be national economy and people's livelihood. Moreover, the country has one constant national economy and people's livelihood, which is education. The country's money is very precious; naturally, it needs to be invested in these industries with large capital requirements, high technical requirements, long cost recovery times, but extremely high rates of return. It is to be used in the field of socialized mass production. Instead of spinning around in those industries that have already become mature fields. For enterprises in such mature fields, elimination is only a matter of time."

Wu Youping really wanted to ask, 'Can national industry really be invested precisely into these fields?'

But at this time, he also felt it was not the time to discuss such overly grand matters, because Wu Youping himself still had a meeting. Moreover, what He Rui said was originally a methodology, not specific execution. Wu Youping needed some time to sort these thoughts out clearly. Asking too much now actually wouldn't have much effect.

Returning to his own office, Wu Youping first called his secretary, wrote an outline for the new thinking on the development of the bicycle industry, and asked the secretary to refine it.

After arranging this work, Wu Youping convened a joint meeting of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Commerce. Recently, the pharmaceutical industry had been very robust in exports. Wu Youping gave the drug export orders provided by the Ministry of Commerce and the demand lists from local health bureaus to the other departments respectively.

The comrades responsible for pharmaceutical work in these two departments originally looked relatively relaxed. Whether it was the Ministry of Commerce's drug exports or the treatment of infectious diseases nationwide, both were completed remarkably well. Everyone felt that even if they didn't get praised, nothing would go wrong.

As soon as the Director of the Ministry of Commerce responsible for this matter saw the aggregated data of demands from local health ministries, his expression turned bad. The same expression soon appeared on the face of the Director of the Ministry of Health.

Wu Youping did not speak first, just waiting for these two departments to express their own views. Both departments had done their work very well. The Ministry of Commerce had every reason to say, 'We earned a large amount of foreign exchange for the country', and the Ministry of Health also had reason to say, 'Human lives are at stake'.

Of course, the solution actually existed, which was increasing production capacity. Thinking of this, Wu Youping suddenly remembered the conversation with He Rui not long ago, and his heart suddenly became much clearer. Whether to export or use domestically seemed like an opposing problem, but intrinsically it was the same problem: insufficient capacity. Moreover, the current cost of drugs was not low. To eliminate infectious diseases nationwide, a large amount of vaccines, specific drugs, and a large number of medical personnel were needed.

After China's unification, national revenue was indeed very high. However, expenditures were even higher. When Wu Youping followed He Rui, his initial expectation was to build a powerful country that could resist foreign aggression externally and let the people live good days internally. In the good days Wu Youping initially conceived, it really did not include the item of eliminating infectious diseases on a large scale.

Now Wu Youping's initial ideals had been completely realized, but Wu Youping discovered that the people were still too far, too far away from good days. If he hadn't become the Premier of the Republic, Wu Youping could still curse the those in power as bastards. Now, the one getting cursed was Wu Youping himself.

Composing his mind, Wu Youping decided to solve the matters before him first. As for the future, as long as he followed by He Rui's side, Wu Youping believed he could definitely solve all problems.

Seeing the comrades from the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Health still silent, Wu Youping knocked on the table, "Comrades, express your opinions."