There is a story in Lu Xun's works. A family had a child, and when the baby was one month old, they held a grand banquet. Friends gave various blessings to this child. As a result, one person spoke the truth, "This child will die." This statement can be said to be a truth, an "absolute prophecy" destined to come true. And it is also absolutely discouraging.

Chen Ke originally knew that problems would definitely arise; he just wanted to gain benefits from failure. Hearing Shang Yuan say this, unlike Qin Tongren's hidden depression, Chen Ke became alert. At this moment, Shang Yuan's sharp gaze swept across Chen Ke's face. Chen Ke only felt something was wrong; from Shang Yuan's expression of gaining some insight, it could be seen that Shang Yuan had already understood quite a few things.

Shang Yuan then began to narrate "why it can't be done." He was completely persuading Qin Tongren at this time and ignored Chen Ke at all.

The focus of Shang Yuan's narration was the "contribution" (*baoxiao*) system. The "contribution" system mainly referred to enterprises having to provide money unconditionally to the Manchu Qing government. Enterprises required to provide contributions to the Qing government involved transportation, mining, telegraph, textile, banking, steel, and other industries. In fact, industries that were slightly effective in operation or deemed profitable by the Qing government at that time were all required to provide contributions, and the stipulated contribution amount was quite large.

Starting from the Westernization Movement, the Manchu Qing government indeed set up many modern enterprises. Due to the lack of a modern commercial system, the early enterprises were state-run rather than merchant-run. Before 1895, the Manchu Qing's fiscal revenue and expenditure could still be balanced. But after 1895, due to the heavy burden of war indemnities and the increasingly difficult financial situation, plus the emergence of many new-style enterprises, private enterprises began to rise. Demanding contributions from enterprises and forming it into a system became one of the methods for the Qing government to reduce its financial burden.

"Does Tongren know how big this contribution actually is? When the Mohe Gold Mine was founded in 1889, the government provided 200,000 taels of capital. By this year, in six years, the Mohe Gold Mine provided 600,000 taels of contributions. Last time you talked to me about this honeycomb briquette factory, I felt it could definitely make a lot of money. But you are in the capital at the foot of the Son of Heaven; this contribution is absolutely not something you can bear."

Shang Yuan spoke clearly and plainly. Chen Ke nodded slightly. Having such insight, Shang Yuan was probably not an ordinary Provincial Graduate (*Juren*).

Qin Tongren didn't care much. "It's just 'getting something for nothing' (empty glove trapping white wolf) anyway. I don't care about money."

"Pedantic!" Shang Yuan said angrily. "Even if you don't care about money and feel it's getting something for nothing, as soon as this project starts, you should be able to imagine how many people wish they could eat your flesh. They will absolutely smash your factory. Do you think they will just stop after smashing your factory? They will also try every means to splash dirty water on you, making you unable to turn over for eternity."

"Brother Wangshan, these words are a bit alarmist," Qin Tongren was somewhat puzzled.

"Alarmist? I know a little about this Mr. Chen's affairs. He made a new medicine for treating syphilis in Shanghai. The efficacy was miraculous, curing the disease immediately. Then he immediately made the formula of the new medicine public. Why do you think Mr. Chen did this? Could it be that he has a merciful heart of hanging a pot to save the world (practicing medicine)?" Shang Yuan sneered.

"Wenqing, there was such a thing?" Qin Tongren was quite surprised.

Chen Ke admitted frankly, "Brother Shang is right; indeed there was such a thing. Moreover, I made the new medicine formula public just for self-protection. If I monopolized the formula, I don't know how many people would want my life. I dare not offend those people."

Seeing Chen Ke admit frankly, Qin Tongren felt something was a bit wrong, but no matter how he looked at it, the current project wasn't that exaggerated. He said doubtfully, "Honeycomb briquettes are not some technological secret."

"Not a secret? Precisely because it doesn't look like a secret, yet you can make the most money, those people will absolutely not let you off." Seeing Qin Tongren still didn't understand, Shang Yuan was even more angry. "This Mr. Chen is not an ordinary person. I know Tongren you are devoted to your work; presumably, you haven't read Mr. Chen's book much, right?"

"En, indeed so." Qin Tongren nodded in response.

"This Mr. Chen has profound learning and holds the world in his chest. If Tongren, you bookworm, can't understand it, that's one thing. But I absolutely don't believe this Mr. Chen can't see it clearly either. I don't know what tricks he is playing in the capital, but don't mess around with him."

These words were very heavy; Qin Tongren couldn't understand anymore. "What exactly did Wenqing do? What was written in that book? Brother Shang, I don't understand what you are saying."

Hearing this, a complicated expression appeared on Shang Yuan's face. He knew Qin Tongren definitely hadn't had time to read it because this set of books was at his house now. And if Qin Tongren read this book, with the profound understanding of industrialization in the book, I'm afraid Qin Tongren would really defect to Chen Ke's side. However, with Qin Tongren's personality, since he knew this book was extraordinary, he would absolutely read it carefully. In a moment of indignation, he had spoken wrong. Thinking of this, Shang Yuan glared at Chen Ke, pondering how to speak.

Seeing Shang Yuan perform like this, Qin Tongren was even more confused. "Brother Wangshan, Wenqing, what on earth is going on?"

Chen Ke felt he had to explain. "I wrote a book, which discussed the development of industrialization in detail. It seems Brother Shang doesn't quite agree with the views in this book."

"Not quite agree? Haha." Shang Yuan sneered. "Mr. Chen is too polite. I didn't disagree; I quite agreed. After reading that book, I admired Mr. Chen quite a bit. It's just that Mr. Chen is such a great talent, yet engages in this factory like this; I feel Mr. Chen harbors malicious intentions."

Qin Tongren had already seen some clues. Shang Yuan wasn't persuading him not to run this factory at all, but simply wanted him to fall out with Chen Ke and stay away from Chen Ke completely. It seemed Chen Ke must have extraordinary points, so much so that Shang Yuan didn't dare persuade him in private. Thinking of this, Qin Tongren simply asked seriously, "Brother Wangshan, what exactly is going on?"

Seeing things had reached this point, Shang Yuan simply said directly, "This Mr. Chen is a revolutionary." Speaking of this, thinking this statement might not reflect the seriousness of the problem, he added emphasis, "He is not the kind of revolutionary advocating some constitutionalism, but a genuine revolutionary."

"Uh! Wenqing is a revolutionary? Ha, haha." Hearing this, Qin Tongren actually laughed out loud. "If Wenqing is a revolutionary, I think this revolution isn't a bad thing."

After hearing Shang Yuan expose his true colors, Chen Ke didn't feel much in his heart. Being a revolutionary was a fashionable thing these days. With the Manchu Qing court's actual control deteriorating day by day, as long as you didn't rise up to rebel or publish excessively fierce remarks to overthrow the government, even if you claimed to be a revolutionary, no government officials would come to arrest you. The Manchu Qing first lost to Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War, then experienced the Gengzi Incident (Boxer Rebellion), committing too many unforgivable mistakes. The court itself also knew very well that its reputation was unparalleledly poor. Consecutive failures made the legitimacy of the Manchu Qing extremely questioned. Under such circumstances, the Manchu Qing government dared not use any high-pressure means to deal with intellectuals anymore.

As for Chen Ke's own book, the full text of hundreds of thousands of words didn't mention revolution at all. Even if used as evidence, it wouldn't have any effect. Articles dozens of times more fierce than Chen Ke's book could still circulate in the world.

What interested Chen Ke was Shang Yuan's attitude. His fierce approach seemed wrong no matter how one looked at it. Since Shang Yuan had challenged him, Chen Ke felt he had to accept the challenge.

"Brother Shang, I have heard about Brother Qin's affairs: fighting foreign devils and guarding the Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau. I respect Brother Qin's character very much. If you say I want to entrap Brother Qin, that is absolutely impossible. In fact, two days ago I mentioned to Brother Qin that this business is not easy to do. If you don't believe it, you can ask Brother Qin."

Qin Tongren still remembered Chen Ke's words, but after listening to Shang Yuan's rhetoric, he also couldn't quite figure out Chen Ke. Shang Yuan and Qin Tongren were good friends; he knew Shang Yuan wasn't a person who bluffed. Since he evaluated Chen Ke like this, Chen Ke must have something amazing. At this moment, he was somewhat confused.

"If you want to deceive a gentleman like Tongren, I will never forgive you." Shang Yuan didn't appreciate it at all. "Since Mr. Chen says he has his own plans, I want to ask, why does Mr. Chen want to open this factory in the capital?"

"I want to recruit some talents in the capital. Next year I will go to Anhui to do some things. Without this factory, how would I know the level of the talents recruited?"

"Anhui?" Shang Yuan and Qin Tongren asked almost simultaneously.

"Where in Anhui?" Shang Yuan pressed.

"Probably around Huainan. It hasn't been determined yet." Chen Ke felt the attitude of these two was a bit strange.

"Hmph! This is interesting." Shang Yuan sneered.

Chen Ke looked at Shang Yuan inexplicably, but seeing Shang Yuan refused to explain, he looked at Qin Tongren again. "Brother Wangshan is about to take office in Huainan." Speaking of this, he paused again. "Brother Wangshan actually sought me out, wanting me to go to Huainan with him to do some things."

*This is too coincidental, isn't it?* Chen Ke felt these two wouldn't be playing a double act to entrap him, right? But looking carefully, it didn't seem like it. He had to laugh, "Really coincidental. Fate."

"Mr. Chen doesn't need to say this. I ask you, since you are leaving next year, why do you still want to make this honeycomb briquette this year? If you succeed, will you just leave such a big family business in Beijing?" Shang Yuan was relentless.

"Whether I succeed or not, I have to withdraw." Since the other party was a clear-headed person, Chen Ke simply told the truth. "In my original plan, I just wanted to find some brothers who can work and cooperate. I didn't expect to meet talents like Brother Qin. Since Brother Shang is worried I entrapped Brother Qin, I might as well speak frankly. Brother Qin, I am a revolutionary."

Hearing Chen Ke's words, and seeing Chen Ke had no intention of deception, Qin Tongren believed what Chen Ke said was true. However, Chen Ke's next words surprised Qin Tongren even more.

"Brother Shang, I can see that you are also a revolutionary."

Qin Tongren stared at Chen Ke dumbfounded, then looked at Shang Yuan. He saw Shang Yuan with a gloomy face, but he didn't deny Chen Ke's words.

"Open people don't speak dark words. Those who can see revolution from my book are all revolutionaries." Chen Ke concluded in a tone of unreserved boasting.

For Beijing citizens, life after the beginning of winter was quite boring. But in the early winter of 1905, a new kind of coal ball suddenly appeared on the market, called honeycomb briquettes. The ones promoting honeycomb briquettes at the beginning were some Bannermen. According to the rules of the Clan Court, Bannermen could not do business. But Bannermen didn't live well relying on that little "iron crop" (guaranteed income). Plus Bannermen loved ostentation; even without money, they would slap their faces to look fat (pretend to be well-off). Anyway, the Eight Banners hadn't been able to fight for hundreds of years. Neither the court nor other armies had any illusions about the children of the Eight Banners, so Bannermen joining the army was already a minority. Among most Beijing Bannermen, the lazy ones spent all day in teahouses muddling along, giving birth to a batch of boring teahouse culture.

But for the slightly more diligent Bannermen, as the saying goes, "policies from above, countermeasures from below." Although Bannermen couldn't do business, driving carts was neither doing business nor a long-term job, so hiring Bannermen was the most convenient. They muddled along in Beijing city all day, familiar with people, and knew every nook and cranny of Beijing. Driving carts everywhere, hiring Bannermen was quite convenient. These Bannermen willing to sell their strength walked around the capital all day, familiar with Beijing, and knew exactly which area's people had what consumption power.

Someone was willing to pay to hire them to promote honeycomb briquettes, allowing this part of the relatively diligent Bannermen to make money quickly.

As Chen Ke expected, the first batch of purchasers of honeycomb briquettes were Bannermen. Bannermen had that little fixed income, but many places to spend money. Don't look down on such small matters and small money as burning coal; they still calculated very clearly. Honeycomb briquettes were cheap and burned fully. Compared with coal balls, honeycomb briquettes showed advantages immediately upon trial. So among low-level Bannermen, honeycomb briquettes spread at a staggering speed.

There was a story in the Tang Dynasty. When Bai Juyi first arrived in Chang'an, someone said, "Rice in the capital is expensive; living (*ju*) is not easy (*yi*)." Not only in the Tang Dynasty, but in any dynasty or generation, the life of capital officials wasn't very good. Their income wasn't high, and in the capital, making money wouldn't fall to them. But capital officials had to maintain their decency even more, so daily expenses were calculated more carefully. If not for this, Chen Ke wouldn't have been able to rent a house in the official district of the capital.

Since Bannermen were responsible for promoting honeycomb briquettes, these low-level officials were their key promotion targets, and the promotion effect was quite good. This could be seen from the busy time every day of the comrades responsible for building stoves externally from the honeycomb briquette factory.

Chen Ke and Qin Tongren personally took the lead. In the first few days, the comrades were divided into four groups, sending one group out to work every day. Seven or eight days later, one group stayed in the factory responsible for production, and three groups went out together to build stoves. And this was built on the condition that Qin Tongren mobilized his own power and invited more than thirty old workmates from the Machinery Bureau from Tianjin.

At the Beijing Party Group meeting, Qin Tongren felt quite incredible about the emergence of such a situation.

That day when Shang Yuan came to the door, seeing the matter had been exposed, Chen Ke simply stated his "revolutionary road" directly. The central government being able to effectively manage the people down to the village-level unit, the layered education system, the integrated government civil servant selection system for officials and clerks, and the state-led economic system. That day, Chen Ke's description of the future China left Shang Yuan and Qin Tongren speechless at the time.

Before leaving, Shang Yuan left a message: "I will come tomorrow to see what kind of revolutionary Mr. Chen is exactly." He really came the next day. He also brought the books Qin Tongren entrusted Shang Yuan to bring over. Chen Ke also let go and simply started to form a new Beijing Party Group. Working on one hand, lecturing on the other.

Qin Tongren had heard of the republican system propagated by Sun Yat-sen and those revolutionaries. His evaluation of this system was—raving nonsense. The reason for opposing the "republican system" wasn't how loyal Qin Tongren was to the Manchu Qing. After the Gengzi Incident, Qin Tongren narrowly escaped death on the battlefield and had long been completely disappointed with the court. The reason he didn't want to overthrow the court now was just that he believed rebellion would plunge China into complete division. With foreign enemies surrounding today, civil war would give foreigners ample opportunities to intervene in China's affairs. In Qin Tongren's view, revitalizing the country through industry was the only way. And the republican system itself would only allow local gentry to rise. Qin Tongren had unusually sensitive and correct views on Sun Yat-sen and those revolutionaries. He firmly believed that once the revolution started according to the "democratic republic" theory proposed by Sun Yat-sen's gang, it would only lead to warlords rising in swarms and China being torn apart.

Shang Yuan's political views were even more interesting. Shang Yuan himself came from a big landlord family in Shangqiu. His views on landlord gentry were so profound that Chen Ke felt a bit embarrassed. He pointed out clearly that the current gentry had no enthusiasm for industrialization itself. The reason they hoped to promote constitutionalism was to seize the power of the court. Then they could rely on land to tyrannize the locality. So whether anti-foreign religion or anti-foreign goods, it was the instinctive reaction of landlords after industrialization hit traditional handicraft industries. If constitutionalism were really promoted, it wouldn't solve the profound contradiction between industrialization and traditional handicraft industries either.

Aiming at this situation, Shang Yuan and Qin Tongren's attitudes were completely consistent: there must be an unprecedentedly strong government to promote industrialization. And the current situation was that the Manchu Qing was at least still a seemingly strongest one. This was also the reason why the two lacked interest in "democratic revolution" extremely.

The political views of the two of them represented the attitude of a considerable part of people of insight in this era. The reason this group of people opposed the republic in history wasn't entirely because they had any deep-seated hatred for the republican system itself, but because they believed the republic advocated by Sun Yat-sen's gang of birdmen couldn't realize the goal of saving the country and the people in practice at all.

Shang Yuan and Qin Tongren, one was a political "centralization faction," and the other was a hardliner insisting on "comprehensive state leadership" from the perspective of "big industry" and "complete industrial structure." Chen Ke's book precisely pointed out a feasible path in theory for guys like Shang Yuan and Qin Tongren, who were called "stubborn reactionaries" in history.

The scale of the Party group was expanding day by day. Shang Yuan and Qin Tongren began to introduce various people to participate continuously. And the participants of this group meeting were thirteen people. The topic was completely linking theory with practice—looking at the living standards of Beijing people from the development of honeycomb briquettes.

But the topic was just talk. Qin Tongren had always been in military industry and had no experience aiming at people's livelihood. Looking at the data on the report, he felt completely incredible. After the power of industrialization was displayed, handicraft industries had no chance to confront it at all. Since honeycomb briquettes started selling, quite a few people tried to imitate them. But just punching holes in honeycomb briquettes was a very "high-tech" job. The honeycomb briquette factory used machines; the efficiency was simply not comparable by individuals. The imitators spent so much effort but couldn't make a few usable briquettes a day. Even if they made them, the labor paid couldn't recover the cost. The result was that the expected manual competitors didn't appear at all, and honeycomb briquette sales rose again and again.

"Wenqing, when do you think this peak value will appear?" Qin Tongren couldn't help asking. He hoped that the curve that seemed to go straight into the clouds would run forever and not stop.

The secretary of this meeting was Su Wuming; Chen Ke dragged him in. He looked up at the report on the blackboard and asked, "Does this have to be drawn in too?" Su Wuming hadn't learned coordinates and felt this thing looked unpleasing to the eye no matter how he looked at it.

There were also a few students from the Imperial University who came with Su Wuming. It is said that when Puyi ascended the throne, such a ballad circulated in the ancient city of Xi'an: "No need to pinch, no need to calculate, Xuantong won't last two and a half years." Whoosh, two and a half years passed, and this Great Qing Dynasty really fell just like that, not ambiguous at all. The backbone of society in these times, even if they supported the Manchu Qing, did so out of consideration for their own interests, not out of how loyal they were to the Manchu Qing. Even students of the Imperial University began to support the revolution; the demise of the Manchu Qing started first from everyone's thoughts. Now it had reached an irretrievable point.

"Wuming, I made several copies of that; just put it directly into the file," Chen Ke replied.