The sun never sets.

The UK and the Alliance subsequently held several rounds of negotiations and temporarily resolved their differences and contradictions. The UK needs time to restore its national strength, and the Alliance also needs to complete its second five-year plan.

After negotiations, the alliance expressed its willingness to

The number of battleships built each year was reduced to 1.5 per year, with one super dreadnought battleship being built every year and one battlecruiser being built every two years.

The British government would rather the Alliance completely abandon the construction of capital ships, but that is impossible. The Alliance has a long coastline and many overseas interests to maintain, so it must have a certain naval force.

Because the negotiations went smoothly, the relationship between the British Empire and the Alliance was eased, and the economic exchanges between the two sides were strengthened. Some experts and scholars from the Alliance went to Oxford and Cambridge for exchange visits, and similarly, experts and scholars from the UK were invited to Chang'an for academic visits... It should have been so, but the "American Flu" entered its second stage, and the Alliance immediately became strict about exchanges with foreign countries.

The influenza pandemic that broke out in the United States in the spring looked like an ordinary flu, except that the mortality rate was higher and it was more contagious. Except for repeated reports in the league's media, no one took it seriously.

In the autumn, the second wave of the influenza pandemic hit the United States, with many people dying in many parts of America, Africa, and Europe. As trade between the Union and the United States grew, flu symptoms also appeared in many port cities in Asia.

Especially in port cities such as Osaka, Keelung, Shenzhen and Shanghai.

Lin Yongchang discovered the spread of the plague in the alliance at the first time, and bypassed the Ministry of Health and local governments to forcibly blockade several locations where the plague broke out, including Shenzhen and Shanghai.

Because of the outbreak of the plague, Lin Yongchang quickly and efficiently resolved the issue of attacks on Lenin, Dzerzhinsky and others by various forces within the alliance. At the People's Party Congress, he defined the "Finnish Bolshevik" incident as just a conspiracy of a small group of reactionaries.

Not only that, the central government also promoted more cadres from peasants and workers, cracked down on the Tsarist aristocracy, and cleared out generals and officers from aristocratic families in the army. Even Grand Duke Nicholas was deprived of his military power and sent to teach at a military academy.

Within the government, a new round of cleansing of officials and cadres has been launched. The main purpose of this campaign is to combat corruption, abuse of power and idleness, and to remove the rotten meat from various government departments.

Comrade Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky was a Polish-Russian from an aristocratic family, but he lived an extremely simple life. Lin Yongchang sometimes had a big meal, but Comrade Dzerzhinsky "only needed bread and salt." The vice chairman of the Cheating Committee was more famous and more frightening than the chairman of the committee. He did not tolerate any injustice and would pick out any corrupt officials and send them to the execution ground or to a labor camp.

Perhaps because of history and tradition, Comrades Dzerzhinsky and Sverdlov were very direct and sometimes even rough in their methods. For example, when cleaning up the worms and traitors in the party, Comrade Dzerzhinsky wanted to issue targets to various departments, which was a bit outrageous.

Can't the entire department be made up of good and diligent comrades?

Lin Yongchang knew that Comrade Dzerzhinsky's approach had its reasons, and if it was really implemented, it would have a very good effect, but that was not how it was done. If there was real evidence, then it would be fine to remove the person, but forcibly allocating quotas and arresting people based on percentages was a bit wrong, and it was not what a mature political party should do.

The most important goal now is epidemic prevention, followed by production and the "Second Five-Year Plan" that will begin next year. It is not a good idea to make people panic.

As a result, Comrade Dzerzhinsky's report was rejected.

Chapter 715 Four Steps

The league published a series of reports on the "American flu," and soon the world adopted the term. The death rate among young and middle-aged people was particularly high during this flu pandemic, causing panic in many places.

The media in the United States, Britain and other places first blocked the news of the "American Flu", but the Alliance had already carried out comprehensive coverage. This was not the flu at all, but a plague caused by a virus. It was just that the initial symptoms looked like the flu.

Cambridge University was the first to expose this matter, calling for greater attention to the plague and introducing the alliance's approach to dealing with the plague.

This caused an uproar in the UK, with both the opposition and the Labour Party criticizing the government. The British government held an emergency press conference, claiming that nothing had happened, there was no plague, it was just influenza.

However, left-wing newspapers in the United States also began to use "plague" instead of "flu", followed by the French Commune and Spain, which also believed that the "American flu" was a plague. The King of Spain was infected with the plague, and the royal family was very angry at the Americans for spreading the epidemic to the world, and criticized the United States' bad behavior in the newspapers.

The British government finally had to hold a press conference again, claiming that "there may be a plague, but the government will not take action" because the country's economic situation is very bad and it cannot withstand another turmoil.

This statement cannot fool the British elite. Plague does not discriminate between high and low status. Anyone can be infected. Didn’t you see that the King of Spain on the Iberian Peninsula was infected with the plague?

The alliance has taken emergency measures, calling on people not to gather or travel unless necessary.

A blockade was established in the area where the plague broke out to ensure that the plague would not spread to other places.

The central government emphasized to other provinces that they should pay more attention to the plague, but the plague still spread. The local mayor and the party secretary have been placed under double supervision. The central government airlifted special envoys to take over relevant affairs in other provinces and sent troops into the city to impose martial law.

If nothing unexpected happens, the two main leaders and a group of leading cadres can pack their bags and prepare to go to Siberia or the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. As long as they are confirmed to be not infected after 30 days of isolation, they will set off.

The "American Flu" caused some casualties in the league, but because it was quickly brought under control, the death toll was not high. However, in the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the epidemic was not brought under control and soon caused a large number of deaths.

In the poor areas of London, people suddenly collapsed on the road while walking, which was called "road collapse". Because there were so many deaths, there were more and more criticisms of the government in society. If only the Labour Party was dissatisfied, it could still be fooled, but students from Cambridge and Oxford University got involved, which made the government very passive.

Therefore, the British government had to hold another press conference. This time the speech was different from the last time and the one before that. "Maybe what is happening now is a plague, but we know very little about it. We don't know how it spreads and how far it spreads. We can't carry out targeted treatment and we can't do anything for the time being."

The spokesperson finished reading the script with an expressionless face, did not take any questions, and hurried off the stage, leaving behind the noisy reporters.

The "American Flu" caused terrible damage around the world. It was the most terrible and deadly infectious disease in history, causing a large number of deaths. The US government strictly controlled the plague, and the American people also spontaneously carried out prevention and control. In major cities such as Boston and Seattle, tram attendants refused to let people who were not wearing masks on the bus.

Various tips on epidemic prevention were circulated in towns, but even so, 20 people died from the "Great Flu" in the United States within a month. This was only the confirmed number in large cities. In many places, the bodies were directly burned and no one counted them.

Most cities restrict people from going to public places, and cinemas, bars, dance halls and sports venues are all forced to close. In some places, militias patrol the roads wearing masks and rifles, and they will fire warning shots when they see people without masks.

It is said that some people were shot by police or militia for not complying with the order to wear masks. Compared with the crowd shouting "freedom" in another time and space, the American people of this era are more pragmatic.

In the UK, the plague caused more deaths, and the government resorted to the last resort, "........maybe we could have done something, but now it's too late."

The plague caused terrible infections and deaths around the world. The infected areas covered most of the earth. People died from the plague everywhere, and the whole world fell into panic.

Although the plague brought a large number of deaths, it also brought peace to some places. The war between Austria and Hungary was fierce when the "American flu" came. Under the command of the German officer corps, the Austrian army played an extraordinary combat effectiveness and had already crossed Lake Balaton, but the plague suddenly broke out in the army.

The army of this era already paid great attention to hygiene, but because the battles were too intense, the hygiene regulations could not be enforced. In order to win the battle, generals always piled more troops and technical weapons to the front line until the soldiers on the front line began to starve.

Plague was rampant in the Austrian army, and the same was true in Hungary. However, the Hungarians were much more resilient than the Austrians, and they were able to persevere even when a large number of people were infected with the disease. However, the Austrian army could not hold on any longer, and the number of deaths from disease exceeded the number of deaths in battle. In Austria, many cities had stopped operating, and the front-line troops could not get supplies, so the war could no longer continue.

As the plague continued to spread, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor had to accept the fact of Hungary's independence, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was officially declared dissolved.

The "American Flu" broke out in the United States in March and spread to the world within a few weeks. By June, a large number of people began to die, and people were helpless to do anything about it.

In many parts of Europe and America, the word that the end of the world is coming and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have appeared in the world has spread like wildfire. The so-called Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse come from the last chapter of the New Testament of the Bible, Revelation, which are plague, war, famine and death.

The World War was the largest and most deadly war in history. The war brought widespread hunger, and now there is an unprecedented plague. All three have brought endless death, exactly the same as described in the Book of Revelation. It is no wonder that the saying of the end of the world is so widely circulated.

Europeans and Americans were in a panic over the coming of the end of the world, but the League never believed in this. Starting with the People's Government, it vigorously cracked down on all evil spirits. In the era of the People's Revolutionary League, the crackdown on religious forces became even more severe. Religions that dared to promote the end of the world were all labeled as cults, and their core members were all exiled to Siberia.

Chapter 716: 25th Plan

The Alliance has been keeping a close eye on the "American Flu" and has invested a lot of manpower and material resources in research after the outbreak, but the

The central government has come up with a lot of new biological technologies and theories, which has made a big step forward in the biological science of the [People's Revolutionary League], but there is still no good way to deal with the plague.

What really worked was isolation and blockade. Thanks to the high efficiency of military control and the efforts of medical staff dispatched by the central government, the situation in Taipei, Shenzhen, Shanghai and other places was quickly brought under control, and the plague did not spread.

Because of the plague, the league forcibly promoted a new hygiene system, and drinking boiled water and washing hands with soap were promoted throughout the league.

However, the situation in Southeast Asia is worse. Kalimantan, Sumatra, Indonesia and other places have seen varying degrees of spread of the disease. The local governments are unable to control the epidemic and can only seek help from the People's Revolutionary League Central Committee and request military intervention.

The central government of the alliance followed suit and blocked and quarantined several places where the plague broke out. It also sent a fleet to transport a large amount of food and other daily necessities, effectively ensuring the lives of the people in the blockade area.

While the scientists of the alliance were working overtime to study the plague, the "American flu" quietly left after ravaging the world. It was not known whether it was because of the effect of herd immunity or because of the hot weather.

At this time, Chinese scientists had isolated the virus of the "American flu" and named it "pneumonia A virus." Although the plague had dissipated worldwide, the central government still allocated a large amount of funds to study the virus, not to sneak it around the world like the Americans did, but to better prevent and control it.

The strict blockade has been gradually lifted and life seems to be returning to its normal track.

In this "American flu" that swept the world, it is roughly estimated that the number of people infected exceeded 10 billion and the number of deaths exceeded 2000 million, which is almost the same as the number of deaths in the world war.

Because of this plague, the already bad situation in Europe suffered a severe blow, becoming even worse, and the population decreased significantly again.

Originally, European and American powers did not care much about the lower classes, but the world war made many countries understand the importance of manpower. Why was Germany able to suppress the British and French coalition forces? It was because Germany had a large population.

At the beginning of the war, the French army was in high spirits and once made the German army cry out in pain. The defense line was almost broken by the French army. However, the French army was outnumbered by the German army and lacked strength in the follow-up. It was the magical operation of the French high-level that reversed the situation on the battlefield.

Unlike the Third Republic, the French Commune was not so keen on finance, but invested its funds in industry and formulated a large number of policies that were beneficial to the working class. After all, the leadership of the French Commune was the trade unions.

In terms of epidemic prevention, the French Workers' Syndicate was much better than Austria and Hungary, where the epidemic was rampant. In addition, due to the policies designated by the French Commune, after the epidemic ended, millions of workers went to the French Commune with their families to make a living.

Because of the war, the economy of the French Commune was not good, but the trade unions killed big businessmen and bankers and obtained a large amount of funds. In addition, with the assistance from the People's Revolutionary League, the industrial and agricultural production of the French Commune recovered quickly.

Huge sums of money were invested in the construction, creating a large number of jobs, and workers from Britain, Germany, Italy and the former Austro-Hungarian Empire poured in, effectively filling the gap left by the French population lost in the war.

During the World War, China sent 20 workers and farmers to France to help the French with industrial and agricultural production. After the war, France recruited more workers and farmers from China.

The rapid recovery and growth of the French Commune caused anxiety in Germany. In order to prevent the outflow of population, the German government increased the blockade of the border and restricted the flow of population to the French Commune. This was not a bad thing, as it prevented the outbreak of the plague again.

The French Commune was happy to see the influx of population, which could strengthen the strength of the trade unions, but it put great pressure on epidemic prevention. Neighboring Spain lost 800 million lives during the outbreak of the "American Flu". Because of its strong control over the grassroots, the French Commune did not lose 800 million people like Spain, but the number of infections and deaths was not small.

Fortunately, after September, the plague gradually disappeared. The Europeans and Americans, who were still in fear, finally got rid of the fear of the end of the world, and their hearts gradually settled down.

In the far east, the Central Committee of the League formulated its second "Five-Year Plan", preparing to invest 1919 billion yuan in the construction of 873 large industrial enterprises, as well as infrastructure and education starting in 1500.

The League has always attached great importance to education, and in the first "Five-Year Plan" it spent a lot of manpower and material resources on higher education and literacy. [People's Revolutionary League] The illiteracy rate in the Asian part has dropped to below 5%, while the illiteracy rate in the European part is still 60%.

In the Second Five-Year Plan, large sums of money will be invested in education in Russian regions, just as was done in China during the First Five-Year Plan.

Investing in education is not only a pursuit of "fairness" and "justice", but also a need for national construction. If education is good, it can also enhance the combat effectiveness of the army. The strong combat effectiveness of the German Army is inseparable from Germany's compulsory education. Even if it is only at the level of elementary school students, it must be faster than the serfs of the Russian Empire to learn to operate complex

machines and weapons.

The total investment of the "Second Five-Year Plan" will be as high as 873 billion yuan, which is almost equivalent to 300 billion US dollars now that the renminbi has depreciated significantly, which is equivalent to four times the fiscal revenue of the League in 1917.

Taking into account the driving effect of new technologies on the economy, the alliance's fiscal revenue this year is expected to exceed 220 billion yuan, but compared with the total investment of 873 billion yuan, it still seems insufficient.

The fiscal revenue is not a surplus. The Union government has a large fixed expenditure every year. It is not easy to come up with an additional 800 billion yuan for investment. Fortunately, the [People's Revolutionary League] has gained a lot of benefits from the World War. Now 40% of the funds have been raised. The rest can only be found after the start of the "Second Five-Year Plan".

The comrades in the Ministry of Finance and the banking sector were very optimistic and believed that with the Union's economic growth rate, raising funds would not be a problem. Some comrades even thought that Chairman Lin was a bit conservative in the "Second Five-Year Plan" and was not as ambitious as when he formulated the first "Five-Year Plan".

Chapter 717: Shoulders of Giants

The ravages of the "American Flu" calmed the world, and the embers of the end of the World War seemed to be extinguished. It cannot be said that there is no war on the earth, but peace has become the mainstream, mainly because the major powers can no longer fight, so the world naturally entered a period of peace.

Well, it wasn't so peaceful. The civil war in Ottoman Turkey was still going on. The Turks brutally suppressed the uprisings in various places, but the civil war was not over yet. After receiving a large amount of weapons, the rebels broke up into small groups and fought guerrilla warfare in various places. But this has nothing to do with other countries, at least on the surface.

After the autumn harvest of 1919, the Human Revolutionary League announced the Second Five-Year Plan, which included more than 1500 large industrial projects, dozens of large dams and reservoirs, including the Dnieper Dam and the Three Gorges Dam; more than miles of railways to be built and repaired, of which the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the Tiananmen Railway had been under construction for more than a year;

In addition, a large number of roads and airports need to be built. The Union is not short of oil and natural gas, so it can vigorously develop the automobile and aircraft industries. In some areas, using airplanes is more convenient than building railways, and it also saves money.

The international situation the Alliance is facing now is completely different from that of the Soviet Union. As one of the poles in the world, the Alliance does not have such great national defense pressure. It does not need to accumulate most of its resources in heavy industry and military industry, nor does it need to let soldiers carry machine guns to collect surplus food. Therefore, it can slow down its pace and make plans more steadily.

[People's Revolutionary League] The central government plans to use the second "Five-Year Plan" to allow the league to complete initial industrialization. It is only initial industrialization, and it does not mean that it will become an industrialized power in one step.

Lin Yongchang's statement in the newspaper was too modest. Apart from other things, increasing steel production to 6500 million tons per year can only be called the initial completion of industrialization? In that case, except for the United States, other countries cannot be called industrial countries.

After seeing the details of the Second Five-Year Plan, other countries did not ridicule it as they did before the First Five-Year Plan. When China's first Five-Year Plan began, experts from European and American powers criticized the First Five-Year Plan, saying it was completely against economic laws, a castle in the air, a utopian fantasy, and that the Chinese were messing around and that the country would collapse in less than five years.

But reality slapped the experts and scholars in the face. After the completion of China's first "Five-Year Plan", it surpassed Britain and became the world's third largest industrial country, ranking below the United States and Germany. Then, during the world war, it exploded with astonishing production capacity and reaped huge profits.

In the elimination of the Provisional Government and the Soviet Government, as well as in the Battle of Poland, the People's Army demonstrated its powerful strength, so much so that the German Army could only guard the border line and dared not cross the line.

The vast territory, strong strength, and now the huge investment in the "Second Five-Year Plan" have all combined to form a strong attraction for capital. A large amount of European capital has poured into the alliance, hoping to get a share of the alliance's construction process.

Many comrades, including Comrade Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, were against allowing foreign capital to open companies in the Union, but Lin Yongchang didn't care. As long as foreign public and private enterprises abide by labor laws and do not evade taxes, what's wrong with letting them make money?

"..........We should not fall into dogmatism. As long as it is good, we should use it, regardless of whether it is capitalism or some other doctrine..."

In order to explain the truth in a more popular language, Lin Yongchang also wrote an article and published it in the People's Daily, entitled "Taking the Doctrine". He was very experienced in using this skill, and he wrote it with ease and in one go.

Some comrades want the government to manage everything, including food, clothing, housing and transportation. Theoretically, this is possible and can reduce internal friction, but Lin Yongchang knows that it is just a beautiful imagination. If it really does that, the salesmen will become arrogant and indifferent to the masses, and the cadres will become officials and bully the people.

Capitalism Never Sleeps

Xi Qun: 6949, 3613⑤ It seems good, but bureaucracy is definitely bad.

After writing "Taking Doctrine", Lin Yongchang reiterated the principle that "it doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat." In order to cooperate with the development of the "Second Five-Year Plan", he also brought in a new theoretical thought - "Three Represents".

The specific content is that the People's Party always represents the development requirements of the advanced productive forces of the Alliance, always represents the direction of the advanced culture of the Alliance, and always represents the fundamental interests of the vast majority of the people of the Alliance. "... The important thought of the Three Represents is the foundation of our party, the basis of governance, and the source of strength."

The important thought of "Three Represents" summarizes all the theoretical and practical activities of the Party and the League, including the fundamental direction, fundamental principles and fundamental basis of all work, and becomes the guide for action for the Party and the country in the second "Five-Year Plan".

After the new theory came out, the fierce debate and struggle within the party was temporarily suppressed. Lenin, Bukharin and other theoretical comrades had to admit that Chairman Lin was indeed capable of leading the entire party and the entire alliance.

From the "serving the people" of Lin Yongchang's thought, to the "black and white cat" of Lin Yongchangism, to the current "Three Represents", each time is a theoretical breakthrough. The current alliance has surpassed Marxism and has become a school of its own.

In fact, these theories and ideas may not be flawless, but Chairman Lin has constructed a self-consistent theoretical system and can be reasonably applied to the governance of the Party and the country, which is more remarkable than Marx. Marx and Engels were still conducting theoretical research, which was academic, and there were various difficulties in turning theory into reality, but Chairman Lin turned theory into reality and led the Party and the people to establish an unprecedentedly powerful alliance.

After Comrade Lenin established the Soviet in St. Petersburg, his biggest wish was to last longer than the Paris Commune. However, the Human Renewal League has become a world leader, far superior to the Paris Commune. If the League had not put strong pressure on Germany, the French Commune might not have survived the most difficult time.

There is no way, this is what it means to stand on the shoulders of giants, not to mention the existence of plug-ins.

Chapter 718: Seeking Help

The sun rose and set, autumn turned to winter, and 1918 soon came to an end. During this year, the Alliance suffered from natural disasters such as plague, earthquakes, floods and droughts, which caused considerable losses, but overall, it was a year of good weather and good harvests.

The Union's industrial and agricultural production in 1918 achieved great results. The total output value did not increase much compared with the previous year, but it was not too little either, which was a normal situation. Then, the calendar turned a new page, and the time came to 1919, when the Union officially began to implement its second "Five-Year Plan".

But at the beginning, the plan had unexpected changes. In the spring of 1919, the "American Flu" returned again. Although the infectiousness and mortality rate were not as high as last year's, it made the alliance very nervous.

The re-emergence of the plague caused some deaths in Taiwan and Japan, but soon disappeared. The People's Revolutionary League spent several months to confirm this, and only when it was confirmed that the plague had really disappeared did it lift the alert and begin to focus all its energy on production. However, this caused the progress of the "Five-Year Plan" to fall behind.

The Second Five-Year Plan had a bad start, which seemed like a bad omen and cast a shadow on the second Five-Year Plan. However, Lin Yongchang required caution, or conservatism, when formulating the plan, so although there were some minor problems at the beginning, the impact was not significant.

What is worrying is whether the epidemic will recur?

Although the epidemic in the spring was much weaker than the second wave last year, this does not mean that the next wave will be weaker or there will be no next wave. If the epidemic really recurs, it will inevitably affect the implementation of the "Second Five-Year Plan".

Lin Yongchang believes that the epidemic should not recur, because the epidemic disappeared quickly in another time and space, but he is not completely sure. After all, this is already another world.

Maybe someone is spreading poison everywhere, causing the epidemic to recur?