"If victory is impossible, first capital decides to withdraw from the war, then the politicians decide to withdraw, and finally the people decide to withdraw." He Rui felt that since Ishiwara could say this, it showed that Japan had already conducted a serious analysis of the war's future outcome.

"Judging from the historical performance of various countries, Ishiwara, your description isn't entirely precise. However, those who suffer the most in war are inevitably the first to generate the idea of withdrawing. Modern governments have very strong operational capabilities. Under the influence of media propaganda and institutional punishment, a considerable portion of the populace will become the group that is hoodwinked until the very end."

He Rui did not analyze this further, but instead offered a perspective from a broader direction. "Ishiwara, there will be a consensus at this conference. China has no intention of eliminating capitalism through this war. The enemies of the world's people in terms of ideology and systems are colonialism, imperialism, and racism. The economic enemy is bureaucratic capitalism, which is to say, privilege. The competition between capitalism and socialism does not require meeting on the battlefield."

Ishiwara nodded slightly. Like most European countries, China called itself a socialist country. China's socialism was vastly different from the Soviet Union's socialism, and also vastly different from the socialist countries of Europe. Japan had never called itself a socialist country. Although Japan had also learned from China and carried out land reform through violent revolutionary means, Japan's economic system was generally considered to be that of "capitalism."

Japan, which chose the capitalist economic model, and China, which chose the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, did not break out into war because of their different economic models. Instead, they coexisted peacefully under the Asian Economic Community model.

However, Japan had indeed eradicated the policy sources of colonialism and imperialism through violent revolution. As for racism, with Europe and America before and China now, reality did not support the theory of Japanese racial superiority. Present-day Japan merely looked down on Korea and non-industrial countries, but this degree of prejudice was completely understandable. Disliking the poor and loving the rich is a common part of human nature; it is not just Japan that holds such views, but countries all over the world are much the same.

He Rui continued, "I believe the standard for whether this conference is successful is not whether certain agreements are reached, nor is it whether countries choose to end the war and achieve peace. The standard for the success of this conference is whether it can allow the scholar class of countries around the world to understand the position of the World People's Liberation Army in this war. At this stage, the majority of the public in various countries thinks that the current war is merely a war of colonialism to carve up the world. As long as the people of the world know that there is another new choice, then so many casualties will have had value."

Ishiwara shook his head. "Teacher, do you believe the people of the world can understand that this war is a war launched by the just, and not, as in the past, a war launched by villains? Even if some people really believe it, in the face of nationalism, and under that political propaganda, do the people of various countries have the ability to remain calm?"

Hearing Ishiwara finally get to this point, He Rui laughed. "That is where the problem lies. Can we truly establish a brand-new world order? If we can build it, the people of the world after the war ends will be able to understand the significance of this war. And they will understand that the victims in the war were merely hoodwinked by their own countries' reactionaries into going to the battlefield.

"If we ourselves are indeed as the propaganda that slanders us claims—engaging in hegemonism, colonialism, and racism across the world—then even if we win the war, the order established will be overthrown. When facing real interests, the eyes of the masses are sharp!"

Ishiwara originally wanted to refute this for a moment, but abruptly shut his mouth and said nothing. Because he suddenly realized that He Rui was stating his attitude: Japan should not expect fixed interests or a fixed status. But this result had a huge gap with the expectations of the Japanese cabinet members. These members of the Japanese upper echelon were powerless to change He Rui's position, but they could pressure Ishiwara.

After thinking for a while, Ishiwara asked, "Teacher, I would like to increase the export volume of some Japanese military supplies."

He Rui knew that Ishiwara was preparing to fish for some benefits to go back and appease the Japanese upper crust. Although He Rui personally did not like such practices, Japanese society's economy and culture were just like that. If He Rui couldn't give some benefits, they would definitely stir up something.

Finally, He Rui picked up the phone and connected to Premier Wu Youping. "Youping, Ishiwara will go to your place tomorrow."

Wu Youping on the other end of the phone immediately replied, "It's good that he's coming. I happen to have a meeting; let's invite Ishiwara to attend. What is being discussed at the meeting happens to be the issue of the proliferation of a portion of sensitive technology."

"What sensitive technology?" He Rui was a bit interested. It wasn't easy to make Wu Youping say "sensitive."

"The meeting is about domestic enterprises obtaining a portion of technology from military research institutions. At this stage, we are selecting partners from private enterprises. Part of this is finding enterprises for the processing and production of integrated circuits proposed by the Chairman... Chairman, do you think it is a bit risky?" Wu Youping asked.

He Rui also wasn't quite sure if his decision was completely correct. If it were peacetime, integrated circuit technology could indeed be made into an industry through the state, but in wartime, there was a risk of technology leakage. But He Rui still made up his mind. "I made the decision; go ahead and do it boldly!"

Ending the call, He Rui told Ishiwara, "Go find Premier Wu tomorrow; he is preparing to hold a meeting there."

Ishiwara didn't ask any more questions at all, simply nodding to express his agreement. A moment after the conversation ended, Mitsuko and Ishiwara's wife walked in from outside hand in hand, as if they had just finished chatting outside and were walking in at this moment.

He Rui immediately stood up to shake hands with Ishiwara's wife, and then invited everyone into the dining room to eat. After the meal, Ishiwara's face was very ruddy. He was no longer prepared to discuss those taxing political issues, but rather the military issues he could deal with very easily.

"Teacher, how many troops do you think the US military will commit to the Hawaiian Islands?" Ishiwara asked as he lit a cigarette.

He Rui also lit a cigarette. "At this stage, the US military's air force pilot plan seems to be between 500,000 and 1 million. I am actually quite looking forward to the US military really doing this, because this scale of training requires a large number of pilots with flight experience. This would cause the number of pilots the US military puts into the battlefield to plummet."

Ishiwara hesitated for a moment before asking, "Teacher, have you already prepared more advanced weapons?"

He Rui did not answer immediately. Of course, he had prepared more advanced conventional weapons. As for the matter of nuclear weapons, He Rui was preparing to discuss in the Politburo whether to inform the Japanese upper echelon. However, He Rui himself was not in such a hurry, because nuclear weapon tests would generate seismic waves that could not be hidden. China, having already conducted a dozen or so nuclear tests, had rich experience in this regard.

If one wanted to miniaturize nuclear weapons, the better nuclear material was plutonium. China was currently walking on two legs: on one hand, carrying out the miniaturization of uranium-route nuclear bombs, and on the other hand, starting to develop plutonium nuclear bombs.

As long as either the United States or Germany conducted a nuclear test, China would immediately discover it. At that time, even if He Rui didn't want to use nuclear weapons, he would have to conduct nuclear strikes against the nuclear test research centers of these two countries.

However, He Rui did not think it was necessary to tell Ishiwara these things right now. After pondering for a moment, He Rui asked, "What do the more advanced weapons you speak of refer to?"

Ishiwara did not hide it either. "We also have some connections in Britain. According to news provided by some British intelligence sources, Britain is working with Germany on a weapon called a ballistic missile. It is said that it can launch a ballistic missile loaded with hundreds of kilograms of explosives to a designated target hundreds of kilometers away."

Hearing Ishiwara say this, He Rui couldn't help but laugh out loud. If it was this kind of weapon, China not only had it but it was already very mature. It was just that because China currently had no way to produce early carbon fiber, the heavy casing delayed the speed of deployment.

He Rui had seen the sour criticism from Europe and America in the 21st century regarding China's space launches. These criticisms held that the debris generated by China's space launches within the atmosphere threatened the safety of various countries. They also attached some photos. In the photos were parts of the outer casing that had detached according to procedure during the flight of Chinese rockets.

It was also at that time that He Rui discovered through the photos that the outer casing of China's rockets was an internal multi-layered hollow structure. What amazed He Rui even more was that the outer casing, which obviously looked like metal, could actually float on the sea surface. China's progress in materials science truly made a layman in the aviation field like He Rui gasp in admiration.

"If they have it, they have it," He Rui replied after finishing his laugh.

Hearing this, Ishiwara probed, "Teacher, can we in Japan participate in this?"

After speaking, Ishiwara stared at He Rui. The impact of this kind of cutting-edge technology on the Japanese economy was minimal, but as a military strategist, Ishiwara simply hoped that Japan would not be excluded from this field.

He Rui didn't mind too much, because historically, after Japan received carbon fiber technology from the United States, it indeed did quite well for a long time. Seeing Ishiwara's nervous expression, He Rui nodded. "You can."

Ishiwara was overjoyed and hurriedly gave his thanks. In his heart, He Rui was judging whether to transfer a portion of electronic technology to Japan. After thinking for a while, he still couldn't make up his mind.

He Rui was not afraid of Japan surpassing China in electronic technology, because Japan's natural endowments made it impossible for Japan to achieve this.

At this stage, Japan had already started to engage in the corporate management model of lifetime employment and the seniority wage system.

Because talent was scarce in Japan, enterprises robbed people from everywhere. The job-hopping of excellent employees caused great economic losses to enterprises. In order to stabilize the personnel system, Japan's major zaibatsu successively adopted the lifetime employment system, which is to say, the "iron rice bowl." This temptation was great, and the government also strongly supported it.

If you wanted to keep people, you could only give these people regular promotions and pay raises; this was the origin of the seniority wage system. Later, in order to continue to improve labor-capital relations, a peacemaker union was created.

This terrifying corporate cohesion allowed Japanese manufacturing to be world-renowned in the last century. The work philosophy of some employees—self-sacrifice and striving for perfection—was also known as the "craftsman spirit."

But this success had a premise, which was that the technical direction was clear. Japan, like South Korea, adopted the "catcher-up strategy." Because Europe and America had already cleared the path, you just had to try hard to catch up. At this time, this kind of collectivist cohesion could allow Japan to catch up with or even surpass Western multinational companies. Typical industries were steel, chemicals, shipbuilding, automobiles, home appliances, etc.

However, when new technologies arrived, and everyone was on the same starting line with the future technological path unclear and relying entirely on one's own exploration, Japan's problems appeared. Under normal circumstances, Japan's technology development could only be bet on large enterprises. And large enterprises were where the boss had the final say. Whether radical or conservative, the people below simply dared not refute and could only do as they were told. But once a decision was wrong, it would be beyond redemption.

The reason He Rui couldn't make up his mind was that He Rui himself was also under huge internal pressure. Even though He Rui promoted industrial division of labor and cooperation, as well as a competitive system, and no one in the country dared to directly oppose it, there would still be undercurrents surging. To really engage in this kind of cooperation, it would have to wait until after the war ended.

Finally, He Rui sighed, "Ishiwara-kun, let us still strive to end the war."