The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

"Think about it, what exactly do you mean by 'protecting His Majesty's legacy'?"

These words reignited Yegor's anger. He stood up abruptly and slammed the documents in his hand onto the table.

“I will protect His Majesty’s legacy until the very last moment—I am willing to pay the price with my life. You may laugh at me, but you’d better not do it while I’m still alive!”

"Vladimir's legacy... I'm quite curious, what is this legacy like in your eyes?"

Qiao Yelan's voice remained calm.

"Back then, in order to set an example, His Majesty took the initiative to burn all the serf contracts, turning them all from slaves into free people. Afterwards, in order to help these people who had nothing but freedom to get through the cold winter of Ursus, His Majesty established the Imperial Ministry of Labor to be responsible for coordinating the resettlement of these new free people."

"After that, the Ministry of Labor became a haven for all the homeless, whether they were refugees caused by natural disasters or escaped serfs. They could come to the Ministry of Labor to report, receive basic minimum living allowances, and then be resettled in factories or newly reclaimed farms—perhaps that's why you consider the Ministry of Labor a 'legacy'?"

"If the Ministry of Labor is not worthy of being called His Majesty's legacy, does the Ursus Council deserve it?"

Yegor said coldly.

"Okay, let's get back to the plan—is there anything wrong with it?"

"Are you sure you want to listen?"

The man countered with a question.

Qiao Yelan extended a hand, indicating that the other party could speak freely.

Now that things had come to a head, Yegor didn't care anymore. He flipped open the plan and began to refute it word by word, frame by frame.

"When did factories start requiring workers to pay rent for accommodation? Even pack animals don't have to pay for their sheds, right? And you're announcing layoffs after a ten-year lease—nine years and eleven months, is that it?"

"Forcing workers to pay for their meals and having them all eat in the factory canteen—I won't even talk about whether the food is good or not, whether they can even get enough to eat is a question!"

"And this, the discounted price for workers? Do you think I don't know what the defect rate is on a newly built production line before it's fully operational?"

"...After all this mess, how much will the workers actually get paid? Even a fool could tell that His Majesty the Emperor would definitely take a cut, otherwise he wouldn't have agreed to lend these workers to Witt's factory!"

"Moreover, these factories have a very low proportion of heavy industry, clearly indicating that the focus is on supporting light industry—so let me ask you, who will consume the products produced?"

"Workers don't get much in wages, and the domestic economy has always been bad, which means that people don't have the purchasing power. As for foreign countries... Hmph, let's not even mention that Ursus's foreign trade has almost stopped in recent years—with the goods from Kazimierz being so good, how could people from other countries possibly be interested in our goods?"

"If the products produced can't be sold and pile up in the warehouse, wouldn't that mean that this so-called industrial reform is a plan with only input and no output? Then the bankruptcy of this plan would have been a foregone conclusion long ago—Great! Now we don't have to wait nine years and eleven months. We can definitely take back the house ahead of schedule!"

"What I'm seeing isn't some rubbish 'Imperial Industrial Innovation Plan'—it's the worst imitation of His Majesty Vladimir's former heavy industry reform plan!"

The man slammed his fist on the table, mocking Qiao Yelan relentlessly.

"Of course, I also saw an emperor who was obsessed with grand achievements, a short-sighted speaker—and an ambitious courtier who only knew how to play with words!"

Pop, pop, pop.

Qiao Yelan clapped slowly.

Satisfied, extremely satisfied.

Yegor Terekin understands all the fancy tricks, knows the basic logic of industrial operation, and even has his own understanding of the economic market problems in Ursus and the whole of Terra—so he can see through all the possible traps with sharp insight.

What incredible luck—Ursus has produced such a talent. Is this a case of things reaching their extreme and then turning around, or a case of things turning from bad to good?

Sure enough, it was the right thing to get the black snake away.

Looking at the furious man in front of him, he didn't make a futile attempt with words, but instead opened the cabinet and took out an old file folder.

It was a file folder style that was once used by the official government of the Ursus Empire, but it had been abandoned decades ago. Yegor had only seen this style of file folder when he was looking through some old documents.

“Open it, Mr. Yegor Terekin. I think you are the only, and perhaps the last, person in Ursus who is qualified to open it.”

Qiao Yelan said calmly.

Yegor glanced at Qiao Yelan with suspicion. Although he didn't trust the man, the seal on the file folder really piqued his curiosity.

That is His Majesty Vladimir's seal.

He reached out, carefully opened the file folder, and took out a document.

The paper of the documents was white, but the moment Yegor took them out of the file folder, they began to yellow and become brittle—as if time, which had been blocked for decades, had suddenly pierced through this dusty history.

The first page of the document is not its name, but a Tsarist decree.

[Whoever holds this warrant is as if I were personally present.]

The signature below is—Vladimir Ivanovich.

And that unique imperial seal.

Yegor suddenly looked up, his face full of shock as he stared at Qiao Yelan.

“Keep reading, Mr. Yegor. As I said, we have a lot to talk about. And I will answer all your questions.”

Qiao Yelan's voice remained calm.

Yegor also put aside all other thoughts, carefully set the warrant aside, and then began to carefully examine the document.

The more he looked at them, the more rapid his breathing became. Before his hands could tremble uncontrollably, he put down the documents to prevent them from being damaged by his rudeness.

"This...this is—!!!"

He spoke haltingly, his words now barely coherent, a far cry from his previous sharp and fluent rebuttals to Qiao Yelan's plan.

But clearly, the latter half of this document is exactly the same as Qiao Yelan's plan.

The problem is that the latter half of this document is identical to Qiao Yelan's plan.

He had seen the first half of it—it was in the archives of the Imperial Ministry of Labor, packaged in an identical file bag.

—That was the Imperial Industrial Reform Plan, personally directed and implemented by Emperor Vladimir the Great.

Chapter 173 Comrades

"This...how is this possible? This is...this is actually His Majesty's plan? But why is it with you? And what about Chief Zhang?"

Yegor was pale and panting heavily as he looked at Qiao Yelan, words failing to describe his feelings at that moment.

However, he now hopes that Qiao Yelan can keep his word and explain all his questions and doubts.

“As you can see, Yegor Terekin, this plan, no, this half-plan, comes from His Majesty Vladimir—and from my own hands.”

"But you...you're clearly just a young man. You were probably only just coming of age when His Majesty passed away! How could you possibly have obtained such a warrant, let alone have been involved in the planning!"

Yegor's voice was extremely hoarse.

"Lady Kosiché doesn't look very old, so why haven't you ever asked her the same question?"

Qiao Yelan did not answer directly, but instead asked a question in return.

The man's expression froze; he suddenly remembered what the man's job title was when he first met him—

Chief Administrative Officer of the Deputy Royal State of Siberia.

Yes!

Grand Duke Kosiché has never really managed her own territory, so what could make her feel more at ease than having an immortal like herself look after it?

Grand Prince Kosiché never contradicted His Majesty Vladimir.

"I see."

He looked down at the old document in his hand.

This is actually a plan approved by His Majesty... That means these methods and measures are real, and not just empty promises to fool people!

Seeing Yegor's previously stiff expression gradually relax and even regain a bit of excitement, Qiao Yelan was very satisfied.

Indeed, the deceased "white moonlight" was the truly invincible being.

The plan I came up with was called "Clumsy Imitation," and the opponent was able to analyze the jungler's problems frame by frame.

But what if this plan comes from His Majesty Vladimir—

"Now that you've brought up His Majesty's plan, you're obviously not just going to put on a show, and there won't be so many flaws—so I'd like to hear your real thoughts."

Yegor carefully put the old plan back into the file bag, and together with the Tsar's order, respectfully handed it back to Qiao Yelan. He then carefully collected the document he had slammed on the table and placed it neatly on the table.

"A so-called flaw is nothing more than a loophole that can be exploited. As long as we can seize that loophole, it is naturally no longer a flaw."

Qiao Yelan explained.

"Ursus' new industrialization reform is imperative. It's not a matter of old versus new, but rather that without this second part of the reform, Ursus will never be able to escape its current predicament."

"I think you can also sense that the empire Your Majesty built has collapsed to such an extent in such a short time. This is actually quite incomprehensible. We have won so many wars and seized so much territory, yet in just a few years after Your Majesty's death, it has collapsed to the state it was in before Your Majesty ascended the throne."

Yegor nodded solemnly.

No reform, even a failed one, even one that was later countered and retaliated against, could collapse to the point where only the Imperial Ministry of Labor remains in such a short time—especially since Emperor Vladimir's reforms in Ursus began before his ascension to the throne and continued until his fall.

So he was always puzzled as to why, after such a long time, he always felt like he was fighting alone, and why he always felt like he was the enemy of the world.

However, the Ministry of Labor had too much work and too heavy a workload. He could only run around dealing with one person after another who wanted to leech off him. Naturally, he could only keep such doubts to himself and did not even have the opportunity to confirm them.

"Because everything before, including the first half of the industrialization reforms, the de-serfdom policy, and even so many wars, was paving the way for this second half of the plan."

Qiao Yelan gave a wry smile.

"What we are going to transform is a vast empire and an equally vast noble class. How can we dare to be unprepared if we want to accomplish such a feat that has never happened before?"

"So this also means that all the backup plans and countermeasures are actually in the second half of the plan—and once this part is not started, everything done before can easily become someone else's advantage."

Yegor stared at Qiao Yelan in disbelief.