So what is politics after all?

  Politics, in a word, is the communication, coordination and distribution of interests. No matter how you put it, it all boils down to one word: interest. The so-called good and bad, right and wrong, are largely based on consequentialism. The distinction between high and low is nothing more than public or private interest.

  Specifically, for those who want to make a name for themselves and achieve great things, the key to success is not actually about how many people you can kill, but rather how many people support you. Don't be disbelieving, killing is just one of many political means, while the number of supporters and the degree of their support are what truly determine the course of history.

  Why was the Nationalist Party overthrown? Was it really because the PLA was invincible in battle? In fact, from multiple perspectives such as training level and officer quality, the PLA was not as good as the Nationalist Party army. But there was one point where the Nationalist Party's previous advantages were all turned to mud. What was it? It wasn't being afraid to die. The core of the "human wave tactics" that both sides touted during the Liberation War wasn't about having a lot of people, but rather unity of heart. It wasn't just one person who wasn't afraid to die, but rather everyone wasn't afraid to die. They truly achieved unity of thought and action.

  We are puzzled as to why the Nationalist army, with modern equipment and regular training, cannot achieve this.

  Soon we found a very reasonable answer: faith!

  What faith? Nature is not a faith, those who can hold on to this faith are all proletarian warriors, and even if the peasant-born commanders have undergone long-term study, they may not necessarily reach this level. So what kind of faith makes them sacrifice themselves without hesitation?

  It is a belief in life, it is a pursuit of happiness, specifically, it is a piece of land.

  Alas, don't underestimate this piece of land. Having a piece of one's own land gives farmers hope and a future. China's greatest achievement is that it has learned from the lessons of peasant uprisings throughout history, perfectly integrating the emphasis on workers' movements in proletarian revolutions with China's national conditions, distributing land to the people, and making farmers content with their lot. For this piece of land, they enthusiastically join the army, bravely fight against enemies, and are invincible.

  No more nonsense, Wang Zhenyu's mind returned to the present. What kind of political idea should he propose? What kind of political idea would allow him to gain support and endorsement from all walks of life, ultimately achieving his life goals?

  Beat local tyrants and divide land? Wang Zhenyu shook his head, directly denying it. The big revolution failed because of the blind and extreme execution of these six words.

  Think about it, in this era, what kind of people are most military officers? Educated people; and what is the background of these educated people? From wealthy families.

  It's also true that without money, who can afford to read books? Children born in poor families not only have no money to buy books, but their time is also taken up by their parents to chop firewood, carry water, herd cattle and feed pigs.

  So the answer is very clear, most of the officers in the Northern Expedition Army are children of landlord families. When others were overthrowing the warlords in front, you were overthrowing your own father at home! In this way, the question of right and wrong in the revolution simply becomes: supporting the revolution means killing one's own father; if he doesn't oppose the revolution, it means he has no filial piety and is against heaven and human nature.

  With the Shanghai 800,000-strong workers' picket team and Hunan's millions of peasant army still unable to successfully carry out the land revolution, Wang Zhenyu looked at the little power in his hands and decided to put aside the great ideal of fighting against the landlords for now.

  Facing reality, Wang Zhenyu also fell into distress, and he casually picked up the intelligence about Hong Jiang sent by He Jian to take a look.

  Not looking is nothing, but taking a look and it's suddenly enlightening, this Hongjiang really has some meaning.

  According to previous intelligence, Wang Zhenyu had already known that Hongjiang was actually a commercial city, and the power of local merchants even surpassed that of the local government.

  He recalled a single-player game he played in the future, "Guild", which was set against the backdrop of the Italian Renaissance. In this game, almost every city's council and government were controlled by local guilds or powerful merchants.

  Historically, the United States also had a period that fit this game. I still clearly remember a satirical cartoon in history textbooks: several robust and pot-bellied bosses holding US dollars, sitting behind congressmen pointing fingers, while the American congressmen in the cartoon occasionally looked back.

  The theme of this cartoon is a satire of the US monopoly group using money to control the decision-making of the US government, at that time we were very angry, small businessmen, dare to point fingers at the government and use public power for personal gain, it's upside down.

  But now that I think about it, why can't businessmen control the government? He is also a national and a citizen, just because he has money, you can't deprive him of his basic human rights.

  In fact, as long as there is no state monopoly and no micro-intervention, the economic lifeline of a country will inevitably be in the hands of businessmen. There's nothing wrong with that - a group of people who know how to do business controlling the country's economic lifeline is definitely better than a group of state-owned enterprise bosses who only know how to hold office and make money through policies.

  Thanks to the Confucian family, even basic survival is not done well. The Confucians are not only not ashamed of being poor and clean, but also take pride in it, as if everyone becomes poor, frugal, the world will be peaceful, and humanity will be happy. Thus, taking China alone, scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants, merchants are the lowest.

  In past dynasties, officials were treated by merchants as pigs. Let you grow fat first and then cut off some meat from time to time, just like an ATM. Until later when you grew up and got fat, then you could be killed.

  And what about the merchants? Except for the Song and Ming dynasties, from the Han dynasty onwards, there was no political security, and apart from being a cashier for officials, there were no other options.

  What will be the outcome of this? Obviously, they are all Chinese people, but they have been clearly divided into several strata. Among them, the business class is the most embarrassing, not only do they have to serve as cash machines for government officials, but also be portrayed by mainstream media as "tycoons", bearing the brunt of resentment from the lower classes, and this is their fate. Even if businessmen keep donating and doing good deeds, the government will still use them as a shield, discarding them at any time according to the needs of stability and unity. In short: it's just a lack of fraternal love.

  Moreover, if the merchant class cannot become a pillar of a country and be tolerated and respected by society, the consequences will also be very serious. Because merchants are human beings, not pigs, they have their own thoughts, and even if they were really pigs, they would still know how to avoid harm and seek benefits.

  The greatest benefit of globalization is that no one takes me as a human being, my property is not guaranteed, I am destined to have no political status, and in public affairs, I only have the right to pay but not to speak. Forget it, I'm out of here, moving everything to a country where businessmen have status.

  It's just this kind of situation, everyone knows where the root lies, but can only watch as the tragedy repeats itself.

  Can he change all this? Wang Zhenyu couldn't help but ponder. The Republic of China in later generations' textbooks was poor and weak, and it can be summed up with one word: poor. However, Wang Zhenyu, who had studied economics, had his own understanding of wealth. So-called wealth is actually limited to its relationship with money; money is just a currency symbol. True wealth is not money, but goods. Why do they say that many people have great power? It's because many people guarantee the consumption base while also meaning the production base. Production is the only true source of wealth; everything else is false.

  The weakness of the Republic of China was due to the three aspects of production technology, production organization and market environment caused by the turmoil in the political situation.

  But is poverty not equal to being poor? No, because after dealing with Ye Zuweng and others, Wang Zhenyu knew that except for the Northern Government being really poor, a large amount of wealth was in the hands of Chinese businessmen. This can explain why during the Republic of China era, on the one hand, national governments were all mixed up relying on issuing bonds to survive, while on the other hand, various business tycoons emerged endlessly.

  Money in the hands of merchants, how to get it out, do you learn from the Red Guards, go to confiscate property, rob and smash? Sorry, even Ye Zuwen knows that putting money in HSBC is better, can other merchants not know?

  Wang Zhenyu took out a shiny coin and tossed it onto the table, staring blankly at it. But in his mind, he was thinking about a very practical question:

  If you want to develop in Western Hunan, you have to do real business, build roads, develop education... there are too many things. And all of these things can't be done without money. How can we get the money out of the merchants' pockets? Why would they give their money to you? Is it just because you're a government official and you have guns? That's ridiculous!

  That's right, what's the reason! Wang Zhenyu suddenly found the key point of the problem, which is this "what's the reason"?

  Wang Zhenyu discovered that he was also deeply poisoned by traditional education, the most obvious point being that businessmen were treated as non-human.

  Merchants are also human, and it is their nature to seek profit and avoid harm. As long as you can give them a "piece of land" that excites them in the same way that giving farmers a piece of land does, they will certainly be motivated to support you. And once you have won over the entire merchant class with substantial financial backing, what can't you accomplish?

  The key is that this piece can move businessmen to invest in the "land" above, and this land is not naturally land. People have money and want land, they can just buy it with money. So what is it that businessmen in this country cannot buy even if they spend money?

  Wang Zhenyu slapped his thigh and thought of it: "Power."

  For a long time, every Chinese person has yearned to have power, because power is largely equivalent to legitimate destructive force. Those who possess this legitimate destructive force are always awe-inspiring figures. Why do merchants of later generations transfer their assets? It's because of the county magistrate who destroys families and the prefectural governor who annihilates clans. A mere section-level cadre can make you go bankrupt, while a department-level cadre can send you to the guillotine. Private property cannot be effectively protected, and there is no channel for merchants to enter politics except by buying a representative or committee seat with money to avoid low-level physical attacks. To think of entering politics and having equal legitimate destructive force for self-protection is simply a fantasy.

  So if we can provide businessmen with a channel that fundamentally protects their private property from infringement, rather than just verbally, and enables them to gain respect in society, why wouldn't they want to bind themselves to our group?

  But once they've tasted the sweetness and gained benefits, won't they still have to pay with money and contribute with effort?

  So, the core of self-reform can be roughly determined as one: reversing the order, with business first and government second. In today's vernacular, it means building a service-oriented government. Those successful businessmen who feel bored with their business can also become high-ranking officials in the government through elections to lead the government. In fact, the educational background of successful entrepreneurs may not be high, but their abilities are absolutely no less than those of cadres under authoritarianism from grassroots to hall-level, and they are even more practical and efficient. Don't believe it? Just look at the Americans.

  Thinking of this, Wang Zhenyu has already roughly realized that if he really wants to make such changes, it would have a subversive effect in China in the early 20th century. Even if he goes back a hundred years, it's still the same. That would be a complete overthrow!

  So he thought for half a day and still let Song Haomin, who was also his deputy officer, go to the Jingzhou Chamber of Commerce to ask Chen Hongji and others to come over together. This matter needs to be carefully considered by everyone, it can't be rushed.