The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

"This...no, this isn't right—that's not right. This part of the plan never even started before His Majesty passed away. But if we were going to do this, shouldn't His Majesty have implemented the plan much earlier? It couldn't have been delayed until then, could it?"

"Of course it couldn't be delayed until then. In fact, the second half of the plan should have started after the Tenth Uka War, but unfortunately, the problem arose in the time following the Tenth Uka War."

Qiao Yelan sighed, then brought up something that seemed unrelated.

"You should remember what happened before the Ursus-Eastern Kingdom War broke out, right?"

Yegor recalled for a moment, then a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"I remember... it seems that Crown Prince Fyodor is investigating corruption among the nobles..."

He hesitated before giving this answer.

"Yes, the Crown Prince had just begun investigating this matter when the war broke out. His Majesty was forced to have Fyodor suspend the investigation and, despite his illness, begin to focus on the war—and to this day, that investigation has never been restarted."

Qiao Yelan helplessly spread his hands, and Yegor had already realized what had happened.

"These guys... they actually disregarded the future of the empire for their own selfish reasons!"

He slammed his fist on the desk in a fit of rage.

"You know what happened next. His Majesty passed away, and Fyodor was not qualified to succeed him. The great rebellion completely reshuffled the Empire's military, leaving it powerless to control the nobles. The heavy industrial capacity that was originally used to temporarily stabilize the nobles' side was swallowed up by them and turned into their private property."

The deep voice recounted a painful past.

"Seven years ago, we were so close to victory that everyone felt the future of the empire was within reach—so those damned nobles reached out for the fruits of victory on the eve of dawn."

"We have failed, we have failed shamefully. The old order is raging, the hope for the new order is teetering on the brink of collapse. Many have died, many have betrayed us—but at least some are still alive, some are still holding fast to their principles."

He stared at Yegor.

"I've thought about this for a long time, Yegor, a really long time... Why did we lose?"

"Finally, I had my answer—there seem to be a bit too many nobles in Ursus."

"How can you conduct politics if you associate with these insects!"

Yegor also stared at Qiao Yelan and nodded slowly but firmly.

“You’re right—as long as the nobility exists, Ursus will never wake up from this nightmare.”

"We must resolutely and thoroughly destroy this class!"

-------------------------------------------------- ----

The once tidy office now looks somewhat messy, with the project proposal spread out on the desk, and the two people sitting inside are having a heated discussion.

"If we want to target the nobility, we must consider the power within the mobile cities. Within the mobile cities, farmers are almost non-existent. With industrialized hydroponics and animal husbandry, I think they see themselves more as workers than farmers."

Qiao Yelan had just rejected Yegor's suggestion to focus the resistance on rural areas that the nobility could not reach.

“Workers and peasants are classes in the same situation, but in Ursus we cannot unite the peasants—because outside the mobile cities, the land of Ursus is too vast, and the size of each village must depend on the size of the surrounding arable land, not to mention the need to guard against natural disasters.”

"Because of the uncertainty of natural disasters, we cannot ensure that farmers can hold onto their own interests. Simply redistributing land and resisting taxes is not enough, because they must worry about being forced to relocate due to natural disasters. Once they relocate, it will be another mess. So it is difficult for us to truly gain their approval."

Yegor sighed and could only nod.

His idea was to rely on serfs, because serfs suffered the heaviest oppression from the nobles and should be the most active in resisting. In other words, he would focus on places outside the mobile cities that the nobles rarely paid attention to.

"I do not disagree with mobilizing the workers, but as the Minister of Labor, I must remind you that, based on my observations at the Ministry of Labor, the workers are not particularly enthusiastic about opposing the aristocracy."

He told the truth.

The people the nobles sent to their factories were mostly serfs, with only a portion being free citizens. The Imperial Ministry of Labor had no jurisdiction over the serfs—meaning that most of the oppressed workers were not actually exploited by the nobles.

"Do you think that people like Witte, the 'new nobles,' aren't nobles?"

Qiao Yelan countered with a question.

"them......"

“Sometimes, you have to distinguish between enemies and friends, such as our previous cooperation with judges, but sometimes, you don’t have to distinguish between enemies so clearly.”

Yegor nodded slightly. To be honest, his hatred for people like Witte was even greater than that for the nobility.

After all, nobles are always on the opposite side, and these guys rose to power in the footsteps of Vladimir the Great, but after the Great left, they changed their ways and began to exploit the people even more.

"That's why I was determined to wrest this organization from their hands."

Qiao Yelan pulled out a sheet from the scattered plan and placed it in front of Yegor.

All new treatment policies for factory workers must be formulated, implemented, and supervised by the labor union. The labor union has the right to review the implementation of employee treatment measures within the factory and has the power to enforce them. This power will be guaranteed by the Imperial Police.

"union?"

"Yes, the union."

Qiao Yelan tapped the paper.

"Two years ago, Fyodor and Grand Duke Nicholas made a deal. In order to get his beloved son out of that cesspool, Nicholas had to give up the strength of an army group, plus the position of Imperial Police Chief. The person in that position is now loyal to Fyodor."

"With this premise, I was able to persuade Fyodor to agree to establish a union. Of course, the reason I gave was that it would allow the police to keep an eye on these factories and prevent Witt and his gang from doing anything underhanded, such as tax evasion. Therefore, an anonymous reporting function was also added."

Yegor understood Qiao Yelan's words; after all, when it came to being adept at navigating social situations, he was skilled in all sorts of ways.

Qiao Yelan must have persuaded Nicholas first, and then, by using Nicholas's influence, intimidated Witte and forcibly linked the union system to the emperor, granting it a certain degree of law enforcement power, thus ensuring that the institution could operate without too much interference.

The most crucial point is that this agency is subordinate to the Imperial Ministry of Labor.

Therefore, the workers will only see that the union fought for those rights and benefits for them, and that the union supervises those bloodsuckers, forcing them to reduce their exploitation—and even stands up for justice for them.

However, since Qiao Yelan has involved the Imperial Police, it means something else—

Yegor raised his head, met Qiao Yelan's eyes, and spoke, word by word.

"This union, are you planning to link it with His Majesty Fyodor... or is it sufficient to simply place it within the Imperial Ministry of Labor?"

This is a treasonous question, and Yegor could be arrested by the Ursus Empire Security Committee for treason on this very issue.

“I don’t want the union to be associated with His Majesty Fyodor, and I also have ways to make His Majesty Fyodor feel that this is a thankless task and actively distance himself from it.”

Qiao Yelan spoke casually, slowly and deliberately, with a confident and righteous tone.

Yegor stared at Qiao Yelan, looking at him, and then suddenly grinned.

"—What a coincidence, I didn't want that either."

He spoke in the same slow and deliberate manner, with the same self-assurance.

After saying this, his entire demeanor seemed to change. In front of Qiao Yelan, he was no longer pretentious at all, as if he had completely washed away all pretense.

"It seems we're now accomplices—if caught by the Ursus Empire Security Committee, we'll both be executed on the same day."

Qiao Yelan smiled knowingly.

I'd rather call this relationship—

"Comrade."

Chapter 174 Father Joe Joe

"Please allow me to offer my sincerest apologies to you and to this plan."

Yegor stood up and solemnly bowed to Qiao Yelan in apology.

"I was far too rude and disrespectful to you regarding this plan before. I spoke ill of you and this plan before I even understood your aspirations."

“There’s no need for that, Mr. Yegor. I also want to apologize to you, because I deliberately presented this plan without revealing my intentions—my purpose was to test your resolve.”

Qiao Yelan also humbly lowered his head.

"I think that way, we're even—we should be friends now."

"Of course, we're comrades."

Yegor chuckled and warmly shook Qiao Yelan's hand.

He sat down again, his expression and attitude completely different from before, and thus his way of thinking also changed completely.

"The situation is now completely clear. This industrial reform plan is a large-scale internal struggle in which Fyodor and Witte join forces to counter the nobility."

Now that things were out in the open, Yegor didn't even bother with any pretense of respect and addressed the Tsar by his first name.

“I understand the Emperor’s reasons. He has just acquired the organization of the First Army Group and is eager to rebuild it, so he is very short of money. Whether it is the political donation you promised or this industrial reform plan, it can help him get enough funds.”

"So what I'm concerned about is... how exactly did you convince Islam Witt that this guy was willing to cooperate with Fyodor at this time, and even strongly support him—I wonder if Mr. Joe would be willing to enlighten me on this."

The man voiced his doubts.

Fyodor's predicament was right there on the table, and the conflict between himself and Fyodor stemmed from this very issue—the Tsar was desperate for money.

However, Speaker Witt... Yegor really couldn't find a reason for the other party to support Qiao Yelan's plan.

This guy is not short of money.

Even if it were to confront the nobles, he didn't think Witte would willingly accept Qiao Yelan's arrangements—after all, at least on the surface, the benefits he was about to cede to Fyodor were indeed far too many, to the point that they seemed unbelievable to him.

"What do you think is the main conflict that caused Fyodor and Witte to be able to maintain a cooperative relationship before, but now begin to drift apart?"

Instead of answering directly, Qiao Yelan asked Yegor a question.

For the geniuses he admires, he prefers to encourage them to think logically rather than give them direct answers, because this is more conducive to their growth and will eventually help them share the burden and stand on their own—for example, the twin queens of Letania.

The negative examples are also quite obvious...

A black snake that was delivering a message suddenly sneezed.