Arrival in Beijing for the conference (Part 1)

  It's hard to describe the excitement of Qi Yiming at this moment. The old man in front of him may look frail, but everyone knows that his body holds a magical power that is destined to change the world and create miracles. Qi Yiming had not received pure red education since childhood, and becoming a self-taught expert was entirely a self-discovery process. Before he turned 20, he might have been dismissive of many phenomena and figures, but as he grew older, he developed a deep reverence for people like Taizu and Taizong, which cannot be simply described as admiration.

  The old man held Zhiyi Ming's hand with one hand and patted his arm with the other, encouraging him to smile and say: "Today is actually the first time I've seen you, Comrade Zhi. You have to thank you for your contributions to the country and the people."

  Qī Yī Míng humbly said: "The cause of the matter is the efforts of Zhao Yuanshi, although the process is absurd and unorthodox, but this is also destined to be in our world, the country will take a different and more flat road, it has nothing to do with me personally, what I can do others can also do."

  Ping Lao nodded and smiled, saying: "Not taking credit for oneself is commendable. You young people have such a spirit, which means you are trustworthy comrades. We old folks have been through so much turmoil and hardship over the years, but seeing your generation grow up to become a reliable force for the country and nation, it's truly heartwarming."

  "To be precise, I haven't been born yet."

  Everyone burst out laughing except for Ping Lao who asked carefully: "Have you ever taken care of your family?"

  "Hmm, but I didn't find it. Maybe because of my relationship, this world also has some special changes." Qi Yi Ming said to this point, and his expression slightly dimmed.

  Ping La patted his shoulder and comforted him: "What you've done, no matter which world your parents are in, they will be proud of you."

  Then Ping Lao and several big brothers who were familiar with Qi Yi Ming also attended, each greeting him and having a brief communication.

  Zhi Yi Ming sat among this group of big shots, and suddenly he felt his head had grown a few sizes bigger. The people here were not all members of the Central Politburo, in fact there were only seven people, but these seven people were either veteran figures from the Taizu era or current high-level national leaders.

  Ping Lao spoke first, saying: "Your recent report, we old guys have all read it. To be frank, this is the most important task for us at this time. Domestic stability and unity are always the foundation of our economic construction. You may also have guessed that because things are too complicated and sensitive, the main content has not been spread, including your 9527 project, which is now a top secret among top secrets, and apart from us old guys here, no one else knows."

  His words were quickly picked up by Chen Yun: "Actually, looking at what we think and believe at this time, letting history be the witness is also a beautiful thing. Everyone's original intention is to make the country better, some people are right and some people are wrong, Comrade Qi has brought us such a verification result, now we can push forward from the result, and also know what kind of thing is more suitable for the country."

  Zhi Yi nodded, he also understood that Chen Yun, the second most powerful person after Ping Lao, meant by this sentence. In the 1980s, China's high-level officials had two views on economic construction: one was Deng Xiaoping's "black cat white cat" theory, and the other was this elder statesman's "birdcage economy". The outcome of later generations directly proved that in an era when the economy faced collapse, the birdcage economy could only really trap the bird to death.

  Now Chen Yun knows everything, but he also seems to be in a good mood, calmly thinking that he was wrong and Ping Lao was right. He didn't dwell on it either, shifting his attention to other things.

  "This time, Comrade Ping personally presided over the meeting and began by saying: 'Today, we must all emancipate our minds and discuss in a practical and realistic way what major policies to formulate for the country next, so that we can gradually achieve the goal of prosperity and strength. Today, we have also invited Comrade Xiao Qi, who has personally experienced the entire Chinese society over the past thirty years. He must have many personal insights, and he himself can represent part of the thoughts of ordinary people from that era. Let's reverse the cause and effect, and use our achievements to guide the way forward for future generations.'"

  He made this joke, and everyone else also smiled along with him. From the next thirty years, everyone has already seen the results of development very clearly, and recognized some problems that were not previously recognizable. These big shots may not be able to understand the specific thoughts of future generations of leaders, but they are all extremely astute politicians who can roughly infer what kind of world the future will be like by looking at official media reports and other relevant information disclosures.

  "We have summarized several elements, the first is to adhere to the main line of economic development and not relax, liberate and develop productive forces, improve people's material needs and living standards, which should be the most important task for our socialist country in peacetime. The second element is how to maintain the purity of our party and state without relaxing under the strong enemy and weak us public opinion environment and international situation, as well as the relatively backward material living standards."

  After listening to the back of a bit, he knew that this was Ping Lao's euphemistic words, and his basic meaning was that some party members and cadres in later generations were simply shocking, and essentially, thirty years later, Da Tian Chao became a centralized state capitalist country. If we only talk about socialist spirit, I'm afraid it's not as good as those social democratic countries in Northern Europe.

  The collapse of national morality and the lack of faith are especially shocking in an era where information spreads rapidly, particularly in a country like China with a population of 1.3 billion, complex social structures, and numerous social problems. Originally, one or two issues might not be particularly serious, but when similar things are repeated to the audience over and over again, it's equivalent to constantly reinforcing negative impressions. Before long, people really do form a deep impression that this country is corrupt and evil beyond redemption.

  At that time, the high-ranking elders were all from the revolutionary era. No matter what private thoughts they had, they absolutely did not want to see a pragmatic country with only a veneer of socialism. In essence, these elders did not accept the "bourgeois liberalization movement", and would not allow this country to change its faith and initial intentions.

  But now the problem is very clear, whether it's isolationism or a birdcage economy, neither can save the country. When other countries' economies are developing rapidly and technology is advancing continuously, if the Celestial Empire buries its head in the sand like an ostrich again, then the elders' revolution will have been in vain.

  Ping Lao said: "Comrade Xiao Qi, you first come to express your views. What do you think our country should do in order to build a strong nation and open economy at the same time, without becoming a deformed socialist country?"

  "From the most basic point of view, continuously consolidating our material foundation through economic construction is the most important thing. This is an absolute that cannot be shaken. Because from the development trajectory of our era, the fifth generation leadership collective has already begun to recognize the problem and has taken action in many aspects such as improving the party's purity, enhancing our governing efficiency, anti-corruption, anti-privilege, deepening reform, and ruling the country by law. At that time, our country's material foundation was already very strong, and the power in hand was also very powerful. Even if there were many unstable factors in society, as long as the leadership collective remained steadfast, this situation would still be constantly reversed, especially with the strengthening of social supervision forces, which has pushed our party to transform."

  The current General Secretary nodded slightly and said: "This discussion meeting is mainly to correct the mistakes made in the past 30 years from the root, so I think the direction of deepening reform afterwards still has great reference value. In terms of material civilization construction, political civilization construction, and spiritual civilization construction, all three aspects must be solid, with economic construction as the center, but other aspects cannot be taken lightly."

  Another big shot, Yuan Zhong, spoke up, "After studying the development situation of later generations, I think that at this time, we should establish the guideline of governing the country by law and strictly implement it. Our current laws are not sound, but we have all kinds of large and small laws established within the past 30 years. We can push out a batch of them during these two conferences, promote the ideas of governing the country by law and people's supervision in advance. Only when the law is fair can society achieve basic justice, and various hidden dangers will be eliminated. Therefore, I think that the fundamental measure to solve those ills should be legislation and law enforcement."

  "That's right, only when our officials at all levels and ordinary people understand what can be done and what cannot be done, and those who do wrong will be punished, the law does not favor personal relationships, then our society will be clear and stable."

  The secretary at the meeting scribbled down notes, and after further discussion on this topic, it was finally decided that Commissioner Diao Zhongyuan would be in charge of making arrangements.

  "In addition to governing the country according to law, I think it is also necessary to actively mobilize and deeply engage with the masses. Due to the impact of the Cultural Revolution, we should reflect on how during this period, we developed a certain fear psychology towards the people, fearing even the slightest unrest. Now that we know our country will inevitably become a major power that cannot be underestimated, we should have the capacity to tolerate different voices. However, how to tolerate is another matter altogether - absolute liberalization is not acceptable."

  Ping nodded slightly and turned to ask Qi: "What does Comrade Qi think?"

  "It's best to take out the 'three represents' concept ahead of time, and I think it's most important for me to represent the masses and the people. Moreover, we need to make it clear that this kind of representation is truly for the people, listening to the people's voices, rather than letting the people be represented."

  Chen Yun smiled and said: "I'm afraid Comrade Xiao Qi used to hate being represented in this way so much that his teeth itched."