Morrison returned to the capital from Moscow and immediately attended the State Council meeting. Even Morrison, who usually liked to discuss official business with a serious expression, could hardly suppress the smile on his face, which also made Premier Wu Youping feel relaxed.

"...The dozen or so projects we signed with the Soviet Union are all proceeding according to the model we proposed. Especially in our exchanges with the Soviet Industrial Committee, the questions they raised were also the key points we wanted to explain to the Soviet side." Speaking of this, Morrison couldn't help smiling.

Industry Minister Zhuang Jiaxiong immediately asked, "Did the Soviet side accept our understanding of trade dumping and trade complementarity? Are they willing to accept trade complementarity?"

This was a very serious question. In Sino-Soviet trade, the Soviet Union had a very large advantage in quite a few commodities, such as minerals, timber, and cotton. China had a great demand for these commodities, but China also had its own production capacity for these commodities and could obtain such commodities from other overseas countries. China had exclusivity in more commodities, such as tungsten ore and tropical products.

The Versailles system was a world order built around the British and French colonial systems. Britain and France were blockading the Soviet Union and adopting a hostile stance towards it. In such a world order, the Soviet Union could theoretically import these commodities from other countries, but in reality, the Soviet Union only had China as a supplier.

Out of the Soviet Union's national interests, even if the Soviet Union and China had reached security mutual trust and political mutual trust, the Soviet government could absolutely not accept becoming a dumping ground for China. This is unacceptable to any sovereign country, and even less acceptable to a big country like the Soviet Union. If China did this, the relationship between the two countries would plummet.

Facing Zhuang Jiaxiong's inquiry, Morrison confirmed again, "I think the Soviet government has understood and accepted our new trade model. For this reason, the Soviet government is willing to export a large amount of raw materials to us and open part of the market to us. More importantly, I think the Soviet government believes our new trade model conforms to the Soviet economic development strategy formulated by the CPSU Politburo."

The ministers of the State Council all believed Morrison wouldn't lie, but they still didn't quite dare to believe it completely. Although the Soviet Union inherited the family business of the world power Russia, the situation presented in the industrial field between China and the Soviet Union at this stage was exactly the opposite. The Soviet Union was China's raw material supplier, and China exported light industrial products and a considerable amount of heavy industrial complete sets of equipment to the Soviet Union.

The quality of Chinese goods continued to improve, and they were not sold at high prices. This quite friendly price kept Sino-Soviet trade improving. But the State Council always felt that the Soviet Union was holding back a hand, which could be seen from those small details in trade negotiations. The Soviet Union would always pick faults and create some small troubles that didn't affect the overall Sino-Soviet trade. This attitude proved that the Soviet government always held doubts about Sino-Soviet trade.

If the Soviet Union really accepted the new trade system, these problems would be solved, and Sino-Soviet trade would reach a new level.

After some discussion, the State Council believed they could make a report to He Rui. After a phone call, that evening, Wu Youping and Morrison had a working meal with He Rui. When they arrived at He Rui's place, it was already late. Porridge made of corn grits, two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, paired with steaming white flour mantou (steamed buns); everyone ate happily.

After eating, the three sat on the soft sofa. He Rui asked comfortably, "I'll read the report later. Did Comrade Stalin raise any questions?"

"General Secretary Stalin gave me the feeling that he understands the new trade model very well. Although the purpose of my trip was this matter, Comrade Stalin didn't care about it. Most of the questions he raised were about the changes brought about by the Five-Year Plan we implemented in the Northeast and now nationwide, especially being very interested in data."

Hearing Morrison say this, Wu Youping followed up, "What does the Chairman think about this?"

He Rui answered slowly, "I guess Comrade Stalin wants to seek some experience that can be borrowed from our economic trends. However, the national conditions of China and the Soviet Union are different, and our specific experience is of limited help to the Soviet Union."

Hearing He Rui say this, Morrison immediately remembered a detail. "General Secretary Stalin seemed to pay special attention to our industrial output value. I said that it is estimated that in 1927, China's agricultural output value will account for about 55% of the total industrial and agricultural output value, and industrial output value will be about 45%. I saw that Comrade Stalin seemed to want to ask in detail, but he didn't ask."

Wu Youping was not surprised. The Chinese government also paid attention to industrial and agricultural output values. Since starting to implement the Five-Year Plan domestically in January 1924, according to statistics and forecasts, China's total industrial and agricultural output value might double by 1927. If the monetary model of withdrawing from the gold and silver standard in 1928 was fully implemented, China's per capita industrial and agricultural output value might reach 200 RMB.

According to the most optimistic part of the current judgment of the State Council Bureau of Statistics, by 1929, China's industrial output value might reach 50% of the total. Wu Youping hoped this was true very much, but Wu Youping himself didn't dare to be sure, so he asked, "Chairman, our basic political and economic concepts with the Soviet Union are both developing productive forces, but our economic models are different. How much difference will this lead to?"

"I don't think there's any difference. The Soviet Union cannot adopt our economic management model, not because the Soviet model is better or worse than ours, but because the Soviet Union must adopt the management model most effective for them. For example, our current statistics show that in the past three years, about 3% of the rural population has left the countryside to work and live in cities. And in rural areas, 3-5% of the population is also breaking away from agricultural production and engaging in small commodity economic production. Even if our population is around 500 million now, how many people is this 5%?"

Morrison calculated slightly; 5% of 500 million is 25 million. 25 million people is about one-fifth of the Soviet Union's population. Such a huge change in any country in the world would cause a terrible impact, but in China's intuitive feeling, cities are livelier, and there are more people responsible for public security, but otherwise it is not too obvious.

"The Soviet Union is one of the countries with the worst geopolitical situation in the world today, even the country with the worst geopolitics in the world. I'm afraid even Germany is a bit better than the Soviet Union. At least among the countries bordering Germany, France no longer has such strong revanchist sentiments. Poland is hostile to both Germany and the Soviet Union, but Poland is the anti-Soviet frontline, and its strategic direction is inevitably eastward. The Soviet Union bears pressure from the west and the south, and the border line that may be invaded is thousands of kilometers long. I hope comrades consider the Soviet Union's position more from this angle."

Wu Youping and Morrison certainly knew the Soviet Union's geopolitical situation, only they wouldn't think about it that way often. Wu Youping thought for a moment and laughed, "If you say so, our China's current geopolitical situation is actually quite good."

"I think it should be described as very little pressure." As a former columnist, Morrison fine-tuned Wu Youping's wording.

Regardless of the vocabulary, they were actually describing the same thing. Looking back from 1927, the Chinese geopolitical environment that He Rui strived to build in the past 12 years finally bore fruit.

After establishing security mutual trust with the Soviet Union, the long northern border became safe. The offensive against Japan achieved security in the Northeast region. Reducing the security pressure in the north and northeast to the point where only 500,000 troops were needed for maintenance allowed He Rui to strike Britain heavily, achieving security in the south and southwest, and solving the problem of China's status internationally.

As long as the Chinese government was not stupid enough to pursue a policy of 'befriending the distant and attacking the near', China was safe in any direction. External security and internal asset restructuring through land reform were just the right time to develop the economy with all strength. Moreover, the He Rui government was doing its best to engage in the economy and began to make very good progress.

Since there was the current geopolitical environment, Morrison was not interested in delving deeper. He raised the question he cared about, "Chairman, is the Soviet Union's current policy the most suitable policy for the Soviet Union? I did feel the vigorous vitality in the Soviet Union, but I always felt this vitality was somewhat... arbitrary (freewheeling)."

"Arbitrary... Haha!" He Rui was amused.

Although Wu Youping hadn't had much direct contact with the Soviet Union, he agreed very much with the evaluation of 'arbitrary' and couldn't help complaining, "Soviet cadres are indeed undisciplined. But this may be related to their insufficient accumulation in scientific thinking and industrial thinking. Of course, we also face such problems. Our cadres compared to the Soviet Union are half a jin to eight taels (about the same)."

He Rui was very open-minded about this. "This problem can only be solved through training. In engaging in industry, there is absolutely no such saying as haven't eaten pork but have seen a pig walk. Not having eaten pork means not knowing what pork tastes like. So, at this stage, we should send more students to Europe. After graduation, if there is an opportunity to work and intern in European companies, arrange it. We also need to organize cadres to go to Europe for inspection."

Morrison appreciated He Rui's calmness very much. He also had enough understanding of the level of Chinese cadres. Although Chinese cadres worked hard, many cadres, even if they learned the concepts of modern industry, still couldn't quite understand the internal logic of industrial development in practice due to the lack of a sufficient industrial environment.

But Morrison felt it inconvenient to evaluate like this, nor was it necessary. In the decades in China, the He Rui government was already the government with the deepest understanding of industry Morrison had ever seen. Because the Chinese government had institutional differences from the British government, the Chinese government, which had huge leadership responsibilities for the entire society, inherently needed stronger knowledge reserves and understanding abilities. Those officials needed sufficient coordination ability for all industries in the entire region. People with such ability were not just officials or even nobles in Britain, but managers with greater realistic power.

Wu Youping didn't have such concerns. He answered, "Chairman, if you want this, I'm afraid you have to visit Europe first."

"Don't worry, I think it won't be too long," He Rui answered confidently.

"I would like to hear the details," Wu Youping became interested.