Chapter 42: Pointing at the Scenic Beauty of the Rivers and Mountains, a Young Man Unaware of the True Face of Lushan

  In the streets of Yangcheng, the old general excitedly looked at the new look of this old city where he once led his troops. The high-rise buildings in Yangcheng made it difficult to find any remnants of its former appearance in 1949. At night, Ye Ying and Ye Haodong stood on the top floor of a small hotel on Baiyun Mountain, looking at the night view of Yangcheng below. The old general was filled with emotion and cursed: "Damn it, they've built all over the place, it's all about money, you little thing, tell me how capitalism can be so powerful? Your grandfather, our generation, fought for a lifetime, but in the end, we couldn't beat those colorful notes?"

  Ye Haodong stifled a smile: "The regime you fought to establish by tightening your belts back then, what was it for? Wasn't it just so that the whole nation could tighten their belts together with you? The ultimate goal wasn't still to let everyone eat their fill and live with more dignity? We've developed to the point where we've basically solved the problem of eating our fill, but as for dignity, it's not much stronger than back then."

  "This has solved the problem of people's food, this is the first step of the Long March!" Ye Ying sighed.

  Ye Haodong nodded: "That's right! You started with national construction, and first helped the common people to gain dignity. After cleaning up the bureaucratic landlords and petty bourgeoisie, you also cleaned up the intellectuals. You were so focused on making the workers and peasants masters that you forgot that every group of people has good and bad people, and every group of people has capable and incompetent people. Relatively speaking, there are still more talented people in the intellectual community who can govern the country."

  "Little thing, don't misinterpret my meaning either. At that time, we didn't lack concrete actions, and we also thought about how to solve the problem of people's full meals. It's just that there were more contradictions within the party at that time..."

  Ye Haodong bluntly interrupted him: "Got it, let's not go off topic. As soon as you mention contradictions, I'll have to bring up those times you were imprisoned, but let's not talk about that unpleasantness. Let's focus on the good stuff and discuss the changes in our country now. I'll ask you a question: if our Republic were to fight against the Soviet Union, who would win?"

  Yue Ying first glared and was about to talk about the Korean battlefield, but soon his momentum weakened, and he fell silent for half a day. He shook his head: "Damn it, those coalition forces, their weapons are too advanced, the gap in naval and air power is too great, they don't come ashore to fight, we can only take a beating."

  Ye Haodong shook his head: "It's not that sinister, our air defense and sea defense capabilities are still sufficient to protect the country from foreign invasion, but we're just so capable. Why can't we deal with them? They always let their aircraft carrier show off in front of our door. Isn't it because our technology is backward? Who will inherit and carry forward scientific knowledge if all intellectuals are suppressed? When can we have an aircraft carrier? When can we have fighter jets with performance comparable to those of the United States?"

  Ye Ying furrowed his brow and asked, "So you're saying that everything we did back then was wrong?"

  "Otherwise, how could you have followed your old leader to do bad things back then? But now they won't even give you a chance to clear your name. You never understood it from the beginning. Marxist thought has long said that technology is productive force. You want to build the country, but deny individual creativity and the power of knowledge. From the very start, you've been on the wrong path. Look at the lights of the ten thousand homes below, think again about the returning Macau, can we achieve all this without believing in science, without high-tech national defense construction, without high-tech economic industrial construction?"

  Ye Ying spent more than 40 years in prison, and apart from fighting, he wasn't good at anything else. As for the guiding ideology of building a country, he was indeed a bit out of touch with the times. Fortunately, the old man was still very humble, and when his grandson spoke, he had no words to say. The old man's hard palm heavily slapped Ye Haodong on the shoulder: "You little rascal, you're just a small-time hoodlum and black market boss, an object of attack by the Party and government - what are you thinking about all this?"

  "Hehe, this is called 'knowing oneself and knowing others, winning every battle'! I need to think about what this country and government need. Whoever gains the people's heart will gain the world. If I want to have my own world, I mustn't rely on others to hold me up."

  Ye Ying sighed and asked, "Little thing, do you think that when we first fought for the country, we vowed to let the people be masters of their own homes, establish a strong nation with equality and prosperity, will this dream ever come true?"

  Ye Haodong gazed at the countless lights below, saying slowly: "The people being masters of their own homes is actually just a dream. If it were to be realized, it would have been achieved hundreds or thousands of years ago. Today's life is the choice of the people. In short, whoever guesses the thoughts of the majority of the people can be in charge; as for building an equal and prosperous new socialist strong country, that's a long way off. At least the United States and Western countries wouldn't want us to become powerful. The external enemies haven't been figured out yet, and at home, there are still troubles with corruption, privilege, unequal wealth distribution, social contradictions, natural disasters, and man-made calamities - problems abound. Once all these issues are resolved, we can focus on construction and developing high-tech military technology. I reckon that if you could live to be 200 years old, maybe you'll see that day."

  "What a load of nonsense! Go to sleep and let's go see the return of Macau in two days!" Yeh Ying heard this and couldn't help but feel disappointed, suddenly feeling uninterested.

  Ye Haodong gazed out at the countless lights below, his mind still on the conversation he had with his grandfather earlier. Those weren't just empty words; they would be his guiding principle from now on. His ideal was to become a big shot who was both liked and disliked by even more powerful officials. To achieve this goal, he first needed to figure out what kind of people they liked and disliked. Things that strengthened the country's power were probably what they liked, while winning too much admiration from ordinary people was probably what they disliked. Ye Haodong became lost in thought, realizing that from now on, he would have to be able to take down officials who got in his way at any moment, while also becoming a person who inspired fear in the common folk. That way, no one would dare to cross him, and those who could help him would all be beholden to him. With the whole world at his feet, where couldn't he go?

  "The young man makes sense, this is no nonsense. If the old gentleman doesn't mind, may I have a few more words with him?"

  Ye Ying and Ye Haodong turned back to look, a tall and rich middle-aged man with a proud attitude was standing at the entrance of the balcony, smiling at them. Behind him stood a young man, who seemed more like a bodyguard judging from his stance and demeanor.

  Yue Ying arrived at 9:30 and felt sleepy, waving his hand: "Let him be, it seems this kid is not sleepy yet, you guys can chat if you want to, but the old man needs to sleep."

  Ye Haodong looked at the middle-aged man who walked over calmly and smiled: "Do you think what I said makes sense?"

  The middle-aged man nodded, with a very gentle attitude, but always with a few points of being superior: "Hmm, although it's a bit empty, these are the problems we're currently facing and need to solve. What do you think about these issues?"

  Ye Haodong saw that the other person was extraordinary, and looking at his bodyguard, he couldn't help but understand that this person wasn't ordinary. He had a mind to show off a bit and lay down some groundwork for future connections, so he smiled slightly: "Speaking deeply with a shallow acquaintance is actually a taboo in my line of work, but I don't know why, I feel like we click, so let's just chat casually for a bit. I'll talk nonsense, you listen to nonsense, and that's it. In a different setting, I won't acknowledge this conversation."

  The middle-aged man laughed and said, "Young man, you're so young, but your words are very mature. However, you don't have to be polite with me, I'm just an old party member who has just retired from work and has no power or position."

  Ye Haodong: "In terms of technology, I think we should approach it from two aspects. First, we need to start with the basics and focus on cultivating our own talents. As for this aspect, I don't have much insight, as I only studied until high school before dropping out. On the other hand, I think we should adopt a policy of 'importing' technology. The technological prowess of the United States is formidable! A Russian friend once told me that if all the navies and air forces in the world were combined, they still wouldn't be able to match the US military's naval and air power. While others may say this, I believe him because he's an authority on weaponry. What do you think?"

  The middle-aged man nodded: "It's not as big a gap as your friend said, but the things on the table are indeed this way."

  "So, we have to get it from the Mongolian side, but this is not easy to handle. We need to take it without being discovered by others, and even if we are discovered, we cannot let them get evidence. There are many ways to do this, which is what our country's professional institutions are for, I don't understand much about it either."

  The middle-aged man didn't mind his nonsense and smiled, asking: "Tell me more about the internal social contradictions of our society. I think you have a lot of resentment, did something unfair happen to you?"

  Ye Haodong waved his hand, pointing to the tip of his nose, with a somewhat naive and lovely expression in the eyes of middle-aged people. "Me? Encounter unfair things? Do you think I'm the kind of person who gets angry? Besides, there are many unfair things, social phenomena become phenomena because they have been recognized or acquiesced by most people. For example, corrupt officials, ordinary people scold corrupt officials, but if someone is happy to scold them, he will probably be corrupt too, this is a socially established phenomenon, it's not about fairness or unfairness."

  A middle-aged person disagreed: "Oh? So you're saying that corruption doesn't need to be dealt with?"

  Ye Haodong shook his head with a heavy tone: "Cure! Still need to make great efforts to cure, but the main energy cannot be placed on this, it is not something that can be completely cured at this stage."

  "What stage can eradicate corruption according to you?"