The Director of the Guangdong Department of Industry stood before the office of Li Runshi, Secretary of the Southern Bureau, hesitating for a moment. He turned to look at Xia Minghan, the Director of the Guangdong Department of Education, beside him. He wanted to say something but couldn't get the words out. Xia Minghan, wearing a stern expression, didn't even look at the Industrial Director; he pushed open the office door and walked straight in.

The Industrial Director followed helplessly. Just as he had expected, Li Runshi placed the report on compulsory education in the Guangdong region in front of him. The report indicated that factories in the Pearl River Delta, operating at full capacity, had not only largely cancelled time for adult education but had also relaxed the age requirements for workers.

Over the past two years or so, due to insufficient domestic market demand, the state had invested heavily in education and shortened working hours, resulting in remarkable educational achievements. However, with the liberation of Southeast Asia, market demand had exploded, and a labor shortage had begun to emerge. The industrial sector had thus adjusted the schedules back.

The Industrial Director wasn't about to "plead guilty" willingly. After skimming the document, he said, "The Department of Industry has already sent personnel to strictly investigate the use of child labor and wage arrears. Secretary Li, although there are problems in the industrial production sector, these problems can be solved."

Li Runshi knew that the comrades responsible for economic work in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta were quite "principled" in their methods, using GDP and employment data as their assessment standards. Although the country had indeed been strict in these two areas over the years, the thorough implementation of these standards still depended on the officials in these two major regions.

Xia Minghan looked at Li Runshi with a serious expression. Seeing that Li Runshi showed no sign of backing down, he decided to remain silent for the moment. Sure enough, Li Runshi replied, "Education is a long-term national policy. At this stage, we are not facing a situation where 'if we miss this village, there's no such shop ahead'—our trade with Southeast Asia will only get better. But education is staged. If education at a certain stage is not completed, the cost to make up for it later is too high. Is it necessary to compromise long-term education plans for this immediate demand?"

Hearing this, Xia Minghan nodded slightly. His view was the same as Li Runshi's: education involved the country's century-long plan. When formulating national policy in 1924, He Rui had determined that it would take thirty years to raise the educational level of the Chinese people to the point where everyone possessed a junior high school education. After seventeen years, China was on the verge of ensuring that all age-appropriate adolescents held a junior high school diploma. Xia Minghan would absolutely not accept compromising the people's right to education due to industrial prosperity. The full name of the Compulsory Education Law was the "Mandatory Compulsory Education Law." "Mandatory" meant that even if one did not wish to finish junior high school, they had to. Let alone allowing students who hadn't finished junior high to go work in factories due to economic demand.

As for the value of adult education, it had been highlighted over the past decade or so. Adults who had not performed particularly well during their school years, after accumulating work experience, had entered a phase of targeted learning. If they failed to receive sufficient education, it would greatly impact their progress.

The Industrial Director certainly knew that the decision of the economic departments conflicted with education policy, but he wasn't truly afraid. For the past three years, Guangdong's economy hadn't been good. Now that China had liberated the hundreds of millions of people in Southeast Asia, Guangdong's economy had gained an unprecedented opportunity for development. Facing Li Runshi's view, the Industrial Director replied, "Secretary Li, we have already submitted the economic development plan to the State Council, and it has been approved by the State Council."

Hearing this, Li Runshi did not continue to apply pressure. After sending the Industrial Director away, Li Runshi said to Xia Minghan, "Director Xia, the Department of Education can only strengthen education. I plan to make a trip back to the capital."

Xia Minghan was overjoyed. "Chairman Li, if you can see Chairman He, please be sure to explain the current choice to him. I believe any regression now will cause the people to form a wrong understanding."

Looking at Xia Minghan's expression, Li Runshi nodded. "Rest assured, this is essentially the Chairman's attitude. The accumulation of people's wealth is built upon the foundation of an industrialized life. Completing compulsory education and receiving a more complete education is inherently a part of industrialized life. The development of industrialization is intended to realize such a lifestyle, not for the industrialized lifestyle to make way for industrial development."

Xia Minghan had nothing more to say; he simply stood up and replied, "I will go back to work."

Watching Xia Minghan's retreating figure, Li Runshi felt the gratification that his path was not solitary. He Rui understood this principle very well. Many central leadership comrades also understood it very well. But social progress inevitably faces trade-offs, and in these trade-offs, many comrades chose to disregard everything else to get the economic numbers up first.

From the national perspective, these comrades couldn't be called bad people, and their actions indeed had their rationality. So this divergence in lines made Li Runshi somewhat disappointed in many comrades. He very much hoped these comrades could truly understand that for the country, the personal progress of the people was the most solid foundation. Leaving aside the Communist ideal of the liberation of all mankind, even early Confucianism firmly believed that "the people are the most important, the state comes next, and the ruler is the least." And those who always spoke of Greece should at least have read the foreign viewpoint: "A great nation must be based on great citizens."

Now, many leading cadres in the country had become simple "economic data faction" members. Although these comrades were indeed very hardworking and even had outstanding merits, Li Runshi resolutely did not support their line of thinking regarding the country's general direction.

Soon, a special plane was arranged, and Li Runshi boarded the plane and headed straight for the capital. Upon getting off the plane at the capital airport, he saw the airport was bustling with traffic and people coming and going. Many soldiers in uniform were waiting to board planes. Although the people dared not cross the cordon to approach the soldiers, they all cast affectionate looks towards them.

Li Runshi even heard a child say to his parents, "Dad, Mom, I want to be a soldier in the future too!"

The mother looked a bit nervous, while the father sighed, "Wait until you grow up first."

Li Runshi could completely understand the feelings of these parents. Ever since He Rui built the modern Chinese army and defined soldiers as "the people's own soldiers" (Renmin Zidibing), Chinese soldiers had been linked with honor, morality, and ideals. Moreover, over the decades, Chinese soldiers had indeed implemented these concepts. So much so that the Chinese people generally believed that the National Defense Force, as their kin, was naturally born to possess a moral level higher than that of society.

Those who could ride airplanes also respected soldiers, but they did not hope for their own children to face danger on the battlefield. Li Runshi didn't feel there was anything wrong with this, because China had a conscription system where all youth had the obligation to serve. It was just that the size of the Chinese military was limited, and even during wartime, only outstanding youth could join the army. When the war ended and the Chinese military scale returned to around one million, the threshold for joining the army would be extremely high.

Leaving the airport and driving along the highway, he saw giant power stations beside the industrial zones along the road, spewing white mist. With the development of China's industry, the old-style power stations with tall chimneys belching smoke and fire had been replaced by huge cylindrical power stations with a certain inclination. The tops of these power stations no longer emitted thick black smoke, but white mist, and the smell of sulfur had also been greatly reduced.

Combined with the water supply and drainage systems built in the cities, as well as sewage treatment systems, the quality of urban life had improved rapidly. It had completely surpassed the living conditions in the countryside.

As a core member, Li Runshi knew that the Chinese government was promoting universal social security. This was a social security system costing vast sums of money; if China could not win the war to liberate the world, China definitely could not afford to build this system. Thinking of this problem, Li Runshi felt a complex emotion regarding He Rui's inner world.

To the upper class of China's old era, He Rui was a heroic lord whose administration was extremely harsh. To China's industrial class, He Rui was a national leader they both hated and anticipated. To the Chinese people, He Rui was a member of the working people who made them both happy and uncomfortable, as well as the guide of China's vanguard.

This was not an image He Rui deliberately created. In Li Runshi's view, He Rui did not realize that he was actually very arrogant. He Rui's arrogance was not looking down on people, but that He Rui firmly believed he had mastered the most correct lifestyle for the current stage. Li Runshi had exchanged confidences with He Rui several times, and he found that He Rui never believed in a savior, nor in gods or emperors. To achieve human liberation, one could only rely on the people themselves.

Therefore, whether it was praise or opposition, it could not affect He Rui's policy decisions. He Rui relied on the immense political influence he wielded, exhausting his wisdom to turn China and even the world into the appearance he expected.

Because He Rui wanted to push the world into the next era, most people of this era actually could not understand He Rui—even the people He Rui loved the most could not understand his ideals.

When facing the people, He Rui's view was extremely pragmatic. Had the people received education? Had the people obtained employment opportunities after completing education in their youth? Had they continued to receive adult education after working? Plus medical insurance and social security, as well as giving the people opportunities to participate more deeply in socialized mass production.

In He Rui's view, the people must receive political and economic education including "the state is a tool of rule for the dominant class," "law is a tool to realize class rule," and "China must never have class solidification." Afterwards, the people would achieve their own development through labor. What the state needed to provide was a bottom-line guarantee, not welfare to satisfy emotions.

Such a super-pragmatic attitude was acceptable now that China's economy continued to develop, because the effort indeed yielded returns. But Li Runshi believed this attitude was too pragmatic, lacking in idealism, and unable to point out the future direction to the people.

In his heart-to-heart talks with He Rui, Li Runshi discovered another kind of arrogance in He Rui. He Rui was very clear about the problems of current policies, but He Rui insisted that he was fully capable of completing global liberation and building a fair international order. At that stage, China could shift from a phase prioritizing efficiency to a phase prioritizing fairness, determining a new stage for China's ideological ideals.

Li Runshi was certain he was an idealist. He Rui's attitude clearly had the suspicion of subjective expectation overriding objective reality. Even though Li Runshi greatly admired He Rui's profound understanding of political economy and agreed that He Rui's views were not wrong, this attitude still seemed too arrogant to Li Runshi.

However, this arrogance, of which he himself was unaware, was not necessarily all bad. At least He Rui would not back down when facing matters of principle. Since He Rui's goal was to let the Chinese people live a modern industrialized life, He Rui could not possibly allow the people to give up schooling to go to work early.

Things were about as Li Runshi had thought. After He Rui heard the report, he immediately telephoned Premier Wu Youping. Soon, Wu Youping arrived at He Rui's side. After hearing He Rui's question, Wu Youping just paused for a moment, then used the phone in He Rui's office to invite the Minister of Economic Affairs over.

Hearing of this matter, the Minister of Economic Affairs' expression changed slightly. He explained, "Chairman, the problem of labor shortage is very serious at this stage. Moreover, the conscription drafts outstanding youth, so labor efficiency is also a big problem."

He Rui asked, "Shouldn't the means to improve labor efficiency be education? The country hasn't carried out a general mobilization; must the economic operation rely on child labor? Are ordinary people to be deprived of even the opportunity to study?"

The Minister of Economic Affairs was speechless for a moment. He Rui continued, "I very much agree with Comrade Li Runshi's view. The lifestyle must be consistent. Going to work without finishing one's studies—once this opening is made, how will the masses see it? I know many people say that the masses feel raising students costs too much money and is too difficult. The way to solve this problem is not just to reason, but to exert compulsion—students of school age must complete their education! Only by making the people realize that they must let their children complete their studies will that kind of nagging become meaningless and eventually be abandoned by the masses."

Hearing this, the Minister of Economic Affairs knew He Rui could not change his view and immediately replied, "Chairman, we need more budget."

Li Runshi felt the Minister of Economic Affairs seemed a bit insincere; most leaders would feel paralyzed as soon as budget matters were mentioned. Money is hard to earn, just as shit is hard to eat—it has been so since ancient times. From the perspective of pursuing efficiency, earning the money first before talking about spending it is the rational attitude.

He Rui was not scared by the budget problem. He immediately gave an explanation. "The reason the budget hasn't been brought out for so long this time is because I made a request. To formulate the budget based on 80% of China's population living in cities."

Li Runshi saw a look of shock on the Economic Minister's face. Li Runshi himself had been equally shocked when he first heard this plan. The basis of this plan was that China would definitely win the war. To consider it this way right at the start of the war was one of the reasons Li Runshi thought He Rui was too arrogant.

However, He Rui possessed immensely huge political influence, and promoting China's complete urbanization—the plan itself—was not wrong. So Li Runshi had no way to refute He Rui's request. Because He Rui, as the Chairman of the Republic of China and the Chairman of the Civilization Party, indeed had the power to decide national policy before the change-of-term elections. Even if He Rui's request looked astonishing, as long as the main basic concept was fine, the comrades had to execute it.

Of course, if the plan failed, He Rui naturally had to bear the political responsibility. And Li Runshi was very certain that what He Rui feared least was bearing responsibility. From 1915 to 1942, in a full twenty-seven years, He Rui had never had a policy failure. There were many people within the party and the country who did not agree with He Rui's policies, yet even these people habitually believed that what He Rui wanted to do would inevitably be accomplished.

The Minister of Economic Affairs immediately replied, "Chairman, if this plan can be completed, there will definitely be no problem with domestic production capacity. But I have a question: will this lead to a future employment crisis?"

Li Runshi looked at He Rui, and saw He Rui immediately reply, "The current rural labor force is already completely saturated. Even if they stay in the countryside, it's just changing from explicit unemployment to hidden unemployment. The unemployment problem is not substantially solved at all. Only by coming to the cities, joining industrialized production, improving their abilities, and broadening their horizons, can the people possibly obtain faster development. China's population size has already determined that the unemployment problem will inevitably be a long-term problem troubling China.

"If we don't solve it now, it will only be harder to solve later. Given China's current situation, if the people enter the cities, the sky won't fall."

The Minister of Economic Affairs was not persuaded by these words. He continued to ask, "What about household registration (hukou) management?"

"Household registration management should be divided into two parts. One part is leaving a way out. Farmers entering the cities must keep their own land; in case they don't adapt to urban life, they must have a home to return to. The other part is social security—medical care, education, community registration—these all need to keep up. That's why the plan hasn't produced a preliminary framework until now; it's because the source of money hasn't been determined yet. But I think the difficulty of this process is far less than imagined. It won't be long before the number of liberated people exceeds 500 million. Trade with them is an immensely huge market."

Li Runshi supported He Rui in the general direction, but there was one thing Li Runshi was very concerned about. He held back from asking at this moment, but heard He Rui ask, "Chairman Li, do you have any opinion?"

"...I think that only knowing how to study will only make people study themselves stupid," Li Runshi voiced his worry.

As soon as this was said, the Economic Minister's expression appeared not so friendly. It could be seen that this Ph.D. holder did not agree with Li Runshi's view. Li Runshi knew that his view was not popular within the high-degree-holding Civilization Party government. For these people, since the founding of the Civilization Party, gathering China's highly educated talents, studying was a necessity requiring no thought, a firm path dependence.

Li Runshi looked at He Rui, only to see that He Rui not only didn't get angry but nodded repeatedly. "This problem isn't about studying making one stupid, but that without practice, relying only on reading to acquire knowledge will cause the people's imagination to be distorted. Providing enough practical opportunities is very expensive educational content. In addition, to cultivate a large teaching staff that truly understands industrialization and has the ability to correctly understand the direction of social development is also very expensive. And it requires a long time of accumulation. There must also be more convenient information circulation tools. In short, Chairman Li has seen the crux of the problem. This is a problem encountered during development, and can only be solved by continuing to develop."

Without waiting for Li Runshi to reply, the Minister of Economic Affairs asked, "Chairman, do we really have that much money to complete such a... great plan?"

"Money is printed by the Ministry of Finance; we can print as much as we want. But the market cannot be conjured into existence just because the Ministry of Finance says so. Liberating the whole world is to let the people of the whole world live the life humans ought to have. And this kind of life needs to be satisfied through a large volume of transactions to meet people's needs.

"Many people worry that with so many urban people, there won't be enough food. Southeast Asia and South Asia are both grain-producing regions. Their people don't worry about not being able to grow grain, but worry about grain being plundered or not selling for a good price. We worry about industrial products not selling. Cooperation between the two sides can solve everyone's problems.

"Moreover, with the establishment of the World Government in the future, the living standards of the liberated people will constantly improve. They will also upgrade their industries, thereby creating a large amount of economic increment. Our trade with countries around the world will likewise grow larger and larger.

"Why establish a fair world order and help all countries develop? Because only when the world develops can China develop along with it. When the world gets better, China will also get better."

For a time, silence fell over the conference room. At this moment, everyone really didn't know what else they could say besides obeying He Rui's decision. If the speaker were not He Rui, everyone would definitely think these words were merely an ideal... and nothing more.