Stepping onto Chinese soil, He Rui instinctively felt very relaxed. Even when the plane encountered turbulence several times, bumping up and down, He Rui felt completely at ease. At the airport, Wu Youping personally welcomed him. When shaking hands with Wu Youping, He Rui felt there was much to discuss. But after getting into the car and exchanging only a few words, He Rui actually fell asleep.

When he woke up in the car, the secretary told him that Wu Youping had gone back first. He Rui, still groggy, returned to his room and fell straight asleep. He slept soundly for eight hours, and it was already 1:00 AM when he woke up.

Wearing pajamas and sitting in the living room, He Rui looked at the environment that was both familiar and strange. He had lived here for over a year, yet this scrutiny revealed many details he had never noticed before. Just as he was experiencing this feeling of familiarity mixed with strangeness, footsteps sounded, and the duty secretary walked in and asked, "Chairman, the Premier called to ask if you were awake. If you are, he will come over now."

He Rui wanted to tell the secretary to let Wu Youping sleep first, but felt that Wu Youping definitely wanted to talk immediately, so he asked, "Where is the Premier right now?"

"In his office," the secretary replied instantly.

Ten minutes later, Wu Youping appeared before He Rui like a whirlwind. Upon meeting, he said, "Chairman, I took a nap at nightfall, I'm not sleepy now."

He Rui stepped forward to shake hands with Wu Youping. "Sorry, sorry. I don't know why, but I was so sleepy I felt like my head would fall off."

Wu Youping shook his head repeatedly. "This successful cooperation has shortened our industrial gap by decades. If you rest for a few more days, Chairman, we would actually feel more at ease. Regarding how to arrange this work next, we all hope you can preside over it."

"I do not plan to preside over this. The comrades can solve it."

"At least point out the direction for iterative upgrades, Chairman. That is the key."

Most of the time on He Rui's journey back to China with the French President was spent working on the direction of these iterative upgrades. The specific execution would naturally be carried out by managers, engineers, and scientists. This was the so-called "Production, Education, and Research." However, as a person from another timeline, He Rui had a very visceral understanding of the direction of future technological development. Technology iteration has many directions; roughly determining the future outcome can improve investment efficiency. This advantage is enormous.

He Rui had his secretary bring out the written documents. "Many of these are just my conjectures, involving a large number of new components. These cannot be treated as designs; at most, they can be seen as some random thoughts."

Wu Youping knew He Rui never bluffed, so he answered decisively, "The experts won't know this was proposed by the Chairman."

He Rui laughed. "Wouldn't that become using government authority to oppress experts? Laymen leading experts?"

Hearing this, Wu Youping steered the topic to what he really cared about. "I heard you want private enterprises to intervene in this industrial transfer as well?"

"Correct. The technical equipment imported from France is all civilian goods; no military goods were imported. On the contrary, we imported complete sets of submarine technology from Germany. presumably, Germany would want to iterate and upgrade their submarine technology together with us."

"I am very worried about how many people just want to cheat the state for support."

"Management of personnel, management of funds, and timely grasp of project progress—I don't believe these people can be more formidable than the government. If there really are a few such smart people, that's also very good; we can accumulate experience too."

Hearing He Rui's tone was different from usual, Wu Youping, who was thinking about this matter, looked up. He saw He Rui with his arms crossed over his chest, a smile on his face, but his gaze was extremely bright. Seeing He Rui looking like a man-eating tiger, Wu Youping felt much more relaxed.

Profit-seeking merchants, or rather guys whose sole purpose is profit, all have similar ways of doing things. When they encounter problems, they first cry about how hard they have it. Clearly, they want to push the risk onto others. If it were just private interactions, Wu Youping wouldn't care; growing up in a local merchant group, he had seen too much of this.

But when these business people want to play these tricks in front of the government, they have really chosen the wrong target. Facing the army and government accustomed to military-style management, the affected mannerisms of businessmen made the comrades extremely disgusted. These people might not lack ability, but they certainly aren't good birds. So Wu Youping knew that the comrades actually did not understand, or rather were dissatisfied with, He Rui's decision.

As for Wu Youping, he felt that as long as He Rui didn't waver on principles just because private enterprises played the victim, there was nothing to worry about.

Wu Youping would certainly be responsible for this aspect of the work. He Rui asked about the thing he was most concerned about: "How is the domestic situation?"

"About the same as previously assessed. The room for improvement brought by land reform and water conservancy construction has just about reached its end. The help brought to industry by a peaceful and stable environment has also just about reached its limit. Now domestic enterprises have generally encountered problems with technological iteration, and schools are about the same. Except for those experts who can get national projects, the others have all encountered a situation of having no money and no projects, so they cannot improve themselves. This Sino-French cooperation has opened up our upper limit channel."

He Rui knew Wu Youping was sighing from the bottom of his heart, but He Rui didn't feel the slightest excitement. He just replied, "I hope it can pull social development."

"En. Chairman, the work for the China Yuan to decouple from the gold standard is ready. At this stage, most precious metals have been collected into the banks. The ban on using silver dollars and gold bars in transactions has also been enforced for a period of time. By June, we can abolish the gold standard for the China Yuan and enter a full fiat currency system."

"Well done," He Rui praised.

"Hehe, the comrades are actually very curious, wondering if the Chairman determined today's situation in advance." Wu Youping said it was the comrades' thought, but he was actually just as curious himself.

"If the comrades ask, tell them it's a coincidence. Because making the China Yuan decouple from the gold standard is a policy we would inevitably execute. If we hadn't reached a cooperation agreement with France, we would still have executed it. It's just that this cooperation happened too fast, leading to us being able to conversely utilize the opportunity with the Franc. I was prepared for the China Yuan to decouple from the gold standard first, and then reach an agreement with France later."

Wu Youping's curiosity was resolved, but he unexpectedly felt a bit lost. Expecting He Rui to have the ability to manipulate the world was undoubtedly a delusion; Wu Youping was very clear on this. But Wu Youping really did look forward to He Rui having such ability, because Wu Youping himself felt great pressure.

There were only so many major issues. After finishing the talk with He Rui, Wu Youping took his leave. Returning home, Wu Youping didn't go into his room but smoked a cigarette by the green belt in front of his house. Previously, the comrades all believed that once China was unified, the economy could develop rapidly, especially completing industrialization rapidly. In reality, compared to the Qing Dynasty and the Beiyang era, China's industrial development was indeed very fast. However, the speed and quality of development had a significant gap with the central government's development. Many regions in China not only lacked the conditions to develop industry, they didn't even possess the conditions to develop agriculture. Thus, these areas only solved the land issue through land reform, making it less likely for people to starve to death. Aside from that, there wasn't much change from the previous Qing era.

Initially, He Rui had explained to the comrades that this was because relying on domestic accumulation to enter the industrial age required a long time to build up the people's consumption power. Wu Youping could understand, but he wasn't completely convinced. After all, the success in the Northeast was too astonishing; it was simply an immediate, shadow-casting change.

Only after truly being Premier for four years did Wu Youping realize He Rui wasn't joking. So when the Sino-French economic cooperation agreement was signed, Wu Youping was indeed pleasantly surprised, but his greater feeling was a stone falling from his heart, his whole person relaxing. Having personally experienced the fluctuations of his inner heart, Wu Youping discovered that the leader's job was to clear the path for everyone, and also to provide a safety net for everyone. So when He Rui clearly stated that he was also just charging forward on a single path, getting as far as he could, Wu Youping felt somewhat lost.

Trying hard to calm his emotions, Wu Youping patted his face, telling himself that since He Rui had already opened up the path, he needed to work even harder. Suddenly, a thought popped up, making Wu Youping tremble slightly. After thinking for a moment, Wu Youping headed straight back to He Rui's home.

Another ten minutes or so passed, and Wu Youping appeared in front of He Rui again. At this time, He Rui was eating a bowl of porridge. Wu Youping immediately asked, "Chairman, previously, our industrialization efficiency was actually very low."

"Correct," He Rui answered immediately.

"More of it had a limited relationship with being drawn into social production and industrialization."

"Yes."

"China's ancient economics was already the most advanced in the ancient world, and it birthed a true civilization."

"Yes."

Hearing this, Wu Youping felt that several matters that had confused him for a long time were all answered. He felt his thoughts clear up and his whole body relax.

He Rui looked at Wu Youping's expression, which was overjoyed yet contained some regret and emotion. He felt his persistent education had finally borne fruit; the doctoral student finally possessed the ability of a doctoral advisor. His heart was both happy and relaxed. He couldn't help but want to further solidify Wu Youping's thinking.

"Ancient Chinese economics was built upon agricultural production. If a society can make it very difficult for anyone to starve to death, if social management can reach below the county level, if all taxes that should be collected can be collected, if national fiscal balance is maintained, if the privileged class is very small, if the level of government talent is high and the supply of talent is sufficient, and if foreign wars can be won without greatly affecting the national economy—that is a Golden Age (*Shengshi*). On the basis of a Golden Age, if every household can still provide two laborers annually for corvée labor, and the government can still produce clear policies and execution power—that is an Orderly Reign (*Zhishi*)."

Although Wu Youping was the Premier, as a member of the Civilization Party, he still felt he couldn't quite figure out the subject of 'Civilization' and confidence in Chinese civilization. Listening to He Rui speak now, Wu Youping felt these concepts were completely within his knowledge system, so he nodded in agreement.

"Therefore, agricultural society believes that the wealth of the world is a fixed number. And this conclusion is indeed correct. Under the productivity levels of that time, wealth growth was too slow, and the upper limit was very low. So in the final stages of all Chinese dynasties, they entered a stage of internal stock competition. Cruel internal struggles would erupt.

"But industrial society is different. Industrial society has created a brand-new lifestyle. Because its production has no upper limit, a situation arises where any commodity produced by humanity will eventually be in surplus. Therefore, the wealth of industrial society exists on the basis of this industrial lifestyle. Once the industrial lifestyle collapses, this wealth—even if we don't say it becomes worthless—will at least shrink massively.

"Youping, if a large-scale war breaks out, where will the population go?"

"The countryside," Wu Youping answered without hesitation.

"Correct. When war breaks out, the wealth the city can bring to the countryside is worthless. And most of the wealth left in the city has limited value in that kind of era. Therefore, industrialization is extremely great progress. One could say industrialization has turned humans into two different species. However, European and American culture is very backward, very low-level. Industrialization is great, but the backward civilization of Europe and America will not become advanced just because of industrialization; this is something in their bones.

"However, this contrast of civilizational advancement is built on the foundation of both being industrialized nations. If you really feel I seem to have always walked on the correct path, that is only because all my planning has only one core: to let China industrialize as quickly as possible, to let the Chinese people participate in industrialization to the maximum proportion, and be brought into the industrial society."

At this moment, Wu Youping felt only emotion, not excitement. He even felt somewhat exhausted. "I understand, Chairman. I just suddenly thought of something. The strategy of Sino-French cooperation you pushed has expanded the coverage of China's industrialization to the maximum we can reach, and raised the efficiency of industrialization to the highest point currently attainable. This is true industrialization, not that line of thinking that assumes letting the people touch industry counts as industrialization."

He Rui confirmed once again that Wu Youping's cognition had greatly improved, and couldn't help but say happily, "Brother, realizing this, your level has completely surpassed Zhang Zhidong and Li Hongzhang. They thought having factories, sailing warships, and using foreign guns and cannons was industrialization. It's not that at all."

Wu Youping nodded with emotion. "Indeed. That can at most be called National Defense Modernization. Modernization does not necessarily require industrialization. But an industrialized nation is certainly modernized."

"That is it; it is exactly so." He Rui was also emotional. But his emotion was that the Central Government finally had a truly qualified Great Power Premier. With a qualified Great Power Premier, the level of the Vice Premiers and Ministers could also enter the same level. As more people possessed this kind of cognition and practical work experience, China's intensity and strength in thought would become higher.

Looking at Wu Youping, He Rui asked, "Do you want to chat a while longer?"

A look of joy appeared on Wu Youping's face, but a moment later he replied, "Let me go back and reflect first, smooth out my thoughts. Plus, I have to work tomorrow, so I need to sleep a bit."

"Good. Then see you tomorrow."

"Hehe, actually it's today." Wu Youping cracked a joke with He Rui.

He Rui wasn't amused; he just stood up, walked in front of Wu Youping, and suddenly gave him a big hug. He patted Wu Youping's back forcefully, then grabbed Wu Youping's shoulders. Looking at Wu Youping's somewhat surprised face, he smiled, "Good, then see you in the morning."