**Chapter 864: Cute Stalin (1)**

Three days after the discussion in the Central Committee regarding He Rui's concerns about Moscow's logistics, Li Runshi convened a meeting of the Military Commission.

The members of the Commission were already accustomed to He Rui's style: not being seen for days, and then producing a programmatic document at a meeting. Currently, He Rui was on an inspection tour and had no plans to return to the center to preside over affairs in the short term. Even the most dull-witted member knew the purpose of this; thus, everyone remained silent, watching as Li Runshi walked to the Chairman's seat and sat down. For nearly thirty years, that seat had belonged to He Rui. Having a newcomer sit there suddenly left many feeling very unaccustomed, even uncomfortable.

Li Runshi did not speak. Over the past three days, he had completed a report. After the document was distributed, he observed the comrades' reactions as they read. Li held no interest in the status He Rui possessed; his presence in that seat now was solely because he wished to dedicate his all to the nation. Therefore, he needed to gauge the strength of his comrades.

In Li's view, He Rui was not perfect. He believed He Rui's greatest problem was his inability to create a leadership system that could sustain itself. This wasn't because He Rui liked absolute power, but because the situation in China before 1915 permitted no political model other than authoritarianism.

He Rui was no god; he couldn't solve problems through idealism. If he was to persist in the strategy of building an independent great power, the political models available to him were few. Only by utilizing all resources with maximum efficiency could China be transformed from a backward nation into the world's most powerful industrial state in less than thirty years.

To date, He Rui had fulfilled his historical responsibility. Li Runshi believed his own task was to transition China from an authoritarian system to one of People's Democratic Dictatorship.

Although Li had never explicitly asked He Rui's view on this, he believed the Chairman was indeed considering it.

In the preface to *A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy* (1859), Marx wrote: "No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed, and new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society."

Li believed that the genius of He Rui's achievement lay in his ability to continuously formulate policies and, during their execution, lay the foundation for the next stage of productivity and production relations.

If one had to describe it, He Rui's moves were no longer preparing for the next ten steps of the game. Every move he made was preparing for the next *game*—or even the next three games.

Even with his ability to understand He Rui, Li still marveled at his vision that transcended the current era and his precise recognition and control of its development. This was why Li willingly accepted He Rui's expectations and decided to undertake the heavy burden handed to him.

To be the one who says "this is my duty and mine alone" requires not only great confidence but a resolute determination. Li Runshi had decided to dedicate his all to the liberation of the Chinese and global peoples.

The comrades of the Military Commission were unaware of Li's thoughts, and even if they had known, they likely wouldn't have understood. However, their attention was now captured by Li's document, titled *On Protracted War*, leaving no room for thoughts about generational transition.

Within the He Rui government, anyone who reached the high levels was a choice selection. The Commission members were quickly drawn into the report and had no energy or mind for other matters.

In *On Protracted War*, Li Runshi proposed a series of questions and related viewpoints:

Compromise or resistance? Corruption or progress?

The "National Subjugation" theory is wrong, as is the "Quick Victory" theory.

Why is it a protracted war?

The three stages of protracted war; a "dog-tooth" interlocking war; fighting for permanent peace; initiative within war.

War and politics; political mobilization.

The objective of war; offensive within defense; quick decisions within a protracted war; exterior lines within interior ones; initiative, flexibility, and planning; mobile, guerrilla, and positional warfare; war of attrition and war of annihilation; the possibility of exploiting enemy gaps; the question of the decisive battle in the Soviet-German war.

...

The style of *On Protracted War* was vastly different from He Rui's documents. He Rui's style was like that of a man of science and engineering writing a manual—and as a manual, it read like instructions for use, severely lacking in warmth. Furthermore, while He Rui possessed many virtues, over the years a consensus had formed among the comrades: his personality lacked warmth.

They felt they couldn't reach He Rui's level; even if everything he did was to advance the liberation of China and its people, and even if his political philosophy was the liberation of humanity as a whole, He Rui himself didn't display particularly intense emotions. It was as if everything he did was merely the pursuit of a process, not a result.

He Rui would occasionally speak of his expectations for the future, but those expectations were too close to the origin, always possessing an inexplicable distance from reality. The more he pursued the origin, the further he grew from daily life.

In contrast, Li Runshi possessed far more warmth. In *On Protracted War*, Li also used highly theoretical dialectics to judge the Soviet-German war. But this theorizing was built upon intense emotion; it was vivid and filled with human feeling that others could understand.

After the comrades finished browsing the document, Li began his explanation. The reason the USSR could not achieve a quick victory lay in the massive gap between the industrial and military professional levels of the two nations, a gap that could not be erased in a short time. The USSR could only solve the problem gradually through serious and meticulous work.

This narrative was also He Rui's style. But the Commission members clearly felt that while Li's logic and methodology were similar to He Rui's, He Rui's policies were more detailed and easier to implement in terms of practical operation.

Li's *On Protracted War* provided more guidance and room for maneuver at the methodological level. At this level, the Commission members were quite proficient. Therefore, they actually preferred Li's style.

Once Li finished explaining the key points, Hu Xiushan—who usually disliked taking a stance—was the first to express support: "Vice Chairman Li's *On Protracted War* has extremely high operational utility."

But after saying this, Hu added, "However, is the Soviet side capable of understanding it to this degree?"

Li Runshi immediately shared his view: "The Soviet political model dictates that the Central Committee *can* certainly understand it to this degree. But whether they choose such a methodology is determined by their management model. If they believe certain points in *On Protracted War* would weaken their leadership, they will not choose them!"

"If there's a better way, why would they refuse?" Hu asked. This was a point of confusion for most of the members.

Li explained: "In the twenty years since the founding of the USSR, one of the CPSU's greatest administrative achievements was the construction of what traditional Chinese thought considers a true bureaucracy. For China, our ancient bureaucracy has many problems. Compared to Western civilization, however, bureaucracy is very advanced.

A fully developed bureaucracy is a rigorous functional system for implementing organizational management. It turns the entire society into a massive, impersonal machine, basing all social action on functional efficiency relationships to ensure the organization maximizes economic benefits. Under such a system, the people believe the maintenance of public spirit is thanks to the bureaucrats and officials."

*Heh.* Some Commission members couldn't help but chuckle. Although the leaders of the He Rui government were also bureaucrats, China's long history with the system meant they fully understood its problems.

Li knew their feelings and continued: "For Chinese civilization, bureaucracy is an ancient system, so we fully understand its issues. But for Europe and America, it is a very new concept. The USSR is a very new nation; compared to the aristocratic system, bureaucracy at least turned the bearers of public interest into ordinary people who attained office through a republican examination system rather than being born into it. One could say it was a revolution of 'Are kings and nobles born to their status?'"

At this level, the comrades fell silent. Answering such theoretical questions required deep historical and philosophical foundations. To date, even among the high-level officials, not everyone had the leisure to figure these things out.

With the others silent, Hu Xiushan found the space to speak again: "Does the CPSU realize this problem?"

"They do," Li replied, again affirming the caliber of the Soviet Central Committee. "But their economic development does not support them in conducting reforms. Because the USSR has industry, but no 'sectors' (chan ye). Therefore, they cannot use industrial policy to regulate the national economy."

Mentioning this, the comrades were even less willing to speak. One of the major breakthroughs of the He Rui government in communist research was the establishment of the function of managing industrial policy.

Once China possessed this capability, a split in attitude had appeared within the Party. The attitude toward industry had created near-hostility among many comrades.

Those who favored pushing industrial policy felt the government should build the stage and let those in industry perform.

Those who opposed it thought the people on that stage were all singing absolute nonsense!

Hu Xiushan was a centrist. He believed most industry people were "singing nonsense," yet also believed they still had to be allowed on the stage. He asked further: "Since the USSR has shifted to a war model, can't they execute the ideas in *On Protracted War*?"

"I stated my view in the section on corruption versus progress. The primary goal of the CPSU is its own victory. In the struggle against the Nazi invasion, the CPSU's victory is the USSR's victory. Its failure is the USSR's failure. However, whether they can grasp the proper degree of this will determine the speed of their victory."

Having shared his view, Li felt some disappointment. He lit a cigarette to calm his excitement before continuing: "Chairman He's focus on the Red Army's logistics is a way of seeing the large within the small. Stalin bears immense responsibility for the early defeats, so he is very anxious to reverse the situation quickly. But the victory of the Soviet-German war and the victory Stalin personally expects do not perfectly overlap."

These were heavy words, but in a discussion within the Chinese Military Commission, Li wouldn't coddle Stalin. He explained further: "In our wars, we indeed consider political issues, but we never allow political needs to distort military command. Before war breaks out, the military plan is already fully subordinate to political and economic needs, which is why our military victories become great political ones. Stalin, on the other hand, hopes to use military victory to compensate for political failure. If we speak in terms of principles, this is political corruption."

The Commission members had been executors of every war the He Rui government launched. Because Li's description was so precise—economics first, then military, with military victory yielding full political and economic returns—they hadn't thought deeply about it. Now, hearing it from their new leader, Vice Chairman Li, they felt a sense of sudden enlightenment.

Li had already considered these issues thoroughly and felt no such emotion. He continued: "According to our intelligence, Hitler has decided to engage the USSR in a protracted war. But Stalin wants to reverse his political failure. As long as the Central Committee fails to realize their strategic error and continues to expect a quick victory, the Red Army will only encounter more defeat."

Hu Xiushan had no specific preference for the next leader of the party. Having followed He Rui for nearly thirty years, he only hoped the successor would possess strategic judgment in warfare. Li's views to date had satisfied all his expectations, so he simply nodded and asked no more.

But having reached this point, many of the other members finally felt like engaging Li in discussion. Someone asked, "Does Stalin realize he is being very 'un-serious' regarding the war?"

Before Li could answer, another member scoffed, "Heh, the Chairman said it: whenever there's a major war, Stalin looks 'cute.' I think that 'cuteness' means feeling wronged whenever a problem arises."

The members found the description vividly accurate, and laughter broke out.

A few, including Hu Xiushan and Li Runshi, did not laugh. Since Stalin had rejected He Rui's pre-war advice, they had already felt he was simply not up to modern warfare.

Of course, they didn't judge him too harshly. For in their eyes, He Rui was the premier strategist and military mind in the world. That Stalin couldn't understand his advice was not strange, but perfectly normal.

Hu Xiushan suddenly remembered something and asked, "Vice Chairman Li, in which newspapers will your *On Protracted War* be published?"

Li replied confidently, "In the *National Defense Force News*, the *National Daily*, and others. We want the whole world to see our views—especially the Soviet Union."

On December 16th, *On Protracted War* was published. On December 18th, *Pravda*, edited by Bukharin, published an article titled "The Red Army Will Cleanly and Thoroughly Defeat Nazi Germany."

Because trade with China had provided immense help to Soviet construction and prevented domestic contradictions from boiling over, Bukharin had escaped the fate of being labeled a "traitor." His article was meant to counter Li's.

Li Runshi's signed article truly provoked the Central Committee members. This desire to "compete" was not Bukharin's alone; most members shared it.

One member even voiced a view at a meeting that, if translated with its emotional weight into Chinese, would be: "Who do you think you're looking down on!"

General Secretary Stalin, though highly displeased, was reminded once more of the advice the He Rui government had given before the war.

Although over half a year had passed, the memory still pained him. Judging by the results, while the Red Army would still have suffered losses due to the disparity in strength, they wouldn't have been nearly this large!

Though Stalin made no decision at the meeting to harm relations with China, once it ended, he called Beria and ordered him to identify the "Pro-China faction" within the CPSU.

Beria immediately understood Stalin's intent. Without needing it stated explicitly, he took the order and left. He knew well that Stalin, who already viewed China as a threat, had decided to eliminate the danger posed by the pro-China elements within the USSR.