A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Chapter 894 History always repeats itself. The difference lies in whether you give up or rise up.

In the next room, Jiang Xia listened to Junichiro's vivid and dramatic performance, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. These words sounded more plausible than "purchasing nuclear weapons," seemingly touching on diplomacy and strategic security, but something felt off; it was like an overly ornate but ultimately flimsy garment.

"Promoting peace talks? Ensuring the safety of the visit?" Jiang Xia muttered to himself. The reason sounded noble, but for a family patriarch who prioritized profit, personally risking his life was far too risky. His true, core interests must lie deeper...

"What else could it be! In the end, it all boils down to 'money' and 'power'!"

Old Wang walked in and looked at Jiangxia's scribbles for a while, then shook his head: "You intellectuals always overcomplicate things. Take your time figuring it out. I'll have Zhao Gang stay with you; I need to report what I just pried out!"

"That makes sense! The little notebook isn't having an easy time either; it's definitely trying to make money. Unlike us, it has many ways to do so..."

And so, the silly boy fell into deep thought again, only realizing after a while that Old Wang was still beside him.

"Okay, you go ahead..." Jiang Xia replied absentmindedly, then added, "Wait! This place is too close to that guy, I feel uncomfortable. Find me somewhere else, somewhere absolutely quiet, where I can get some fresh air and think things through."

The cautious, goofy kid didn't want to stay near the venomous snake, so Old Wang took him to the top floor of the building.

Pushing open the heavy solid wood door, a bright and spacious room unfolds before you. It retains the complete luxurious style of the Suzhou-style suite.

A huge crystal chandelier hangs from the nearly four-meter-high dome. Although it is not powered at the moment, one can still imagine its former brilliance.

The lower half of the wall is inlaid with dark cherry wood wainscoting, while the upper half is covered with slightly faded, patterned wallpaper.

Heavy velvet curtains draped beside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking the entire naval port. In one corner of the room, there was a fireplace decorated with colorful mosaic tiles.

"Isn't this place impressive?" Old Wang patted a heavy pillar beside him. "When the Russians handed over the base, this floor was supposedly the temporary residence and command center for their fleet commander. All the good stuff must have been moved out back then, leaving only these old furniture and books that couldn't be moved. They originally intended to leave them for the naval bigwigs, but he didn't want to stay here."

You can think about it here in peace and quiet!

After giving his instructions, Lao Wang left in a hurry, leaving Zhao Gang to accompany Jiang Xia.

Jiang Xia paced around this large room filled with a sense of historical weight, his gaze finally drawn to a huge, floor-to-ceiling mahogany bookcase standing against the wall.

The bookshelf was crammed with various Russian books and documents, most of which were covered in a thick layer of dust.

Looking at the bookshelf, Jiang Xia became interested. He opened the glass cabinet door and ran his fingers along the spines of the books whose gilded titles had become blurred.

"Wow, you've got quite a wide variety!"

"Hey, Comrade Zhao Gang, may I take a look at this book?" Jiang Xia's gaze was drawn to an old file book bound in a mix of leather and canvas.

"Call me Uncle! You're wearing a badge, you can take this apart without any problem!"

Zhao Gang chuckled and agreed, then picked up the velvet curtains and quickly ran his fingers over the desk by the window: "Come look here! It's so bright!"

Jiang Xia laboriously pulled out the folder, blew away the dust on the cover to reveal a few lines of Russian titles, and below that, a line of small English annotations.

Yalta Conference Minutes: Preliminary Framework for Far Eastern Issues and the Post-War Order (Excerpts & Appendices)

Yalta Conference!

Jiang Xia's breath hitched. This was a landmark meeting where major powers were secretly dividing up spheres of influence in the Far East!

I eagerly turned the heavy, yellowed pages, which were filled with densely packed typewriter text and many handwritten annotations.

His gaze quickly fell upon the chapter on the Far East, and a few key lines of text caught his eye:

...Regarding the conditions for the Alliance's war against Japan...Maintaining the status quo in Outer Mongolia...Restoring Russia's rights in the Far East before 1904, including the transfer of southern Sakhalin and neighboring islands to the Alliance...Internationalizing the port of Daryan, and guaranteeing the Alliance's superior rights in the port...

Re-leasing Port Arthur as an Allied naval base...

"Damn it!" Jiang Xia slammed his fist on the desk, his voice hoarse, his eyes blazing with barely contained rage. "Robbers! Utter robbery!"

Zhao Gang was startled by his sudden outburst of anger and quickly came over: "What's wrong?"

"It says here that behind our backs, they used our land and ports as bargaining chips to divide them up privately!"

Jiang Xia's fingers gripped the book pages tightly, his voice trembling:

"Outer Mongolia, Sakhalin Island, Daryan, Port Arthur... which of these is not our territory and rights? They are discussing how to divide our things, but they haven't even informed us!"

There's not even the most basic respect! Is this what they call a 'great power agreement'? Is this what they call the 'post-war order'? It's all utter bullshit!

He became more and more agitated as he spoke, his chest heaving violently: "Those who constantly tout 'alliances are allies' should really have this agreement shoved into their heads! Let them see what it means for a weak nation to have no diplomacy! What it means to be slaughtered! How much blood we shed to drive out the invaders, only to be stabbed in the back by our so-called 'allies,' who treat our homeland as a commodity!"

Yes, that's the essence of the Yalta Conference.

If this is a shameless secret deal between major powers, it is more accurate to say that this is naked power politics!

Several powerful nations, sitting in distant Yalta, like dividing a cake, decided the fate of vast swathes of our territory and sovereignty without our knowledge or consent!

Lushun, Dalian, the Middle East Railway... these vital cities that are related to the national economy and people's livelihood were so easily given away as bargaining chips!

They divided up our land and trampled on our dignity, yet they couldn't even be bothered to inform us!

……

Zhao Gang looked at the agitated Jiang Xia and leaned closer to the open folder. As an officer who had received submarine training in the Soviet Union, those Russian letters were all too familiar to him. His gaze quickly swept over the key clauses, his face growing increasingly grim, and his fists clenched involuntarily.

He spat heavily: "I knew it all along. Back when we were training in Leningrad, those instructors kept talking about internationalism, but they had already divided up all our belongings behind our backs!"

Then, Zhao Gang patted Jiang Xia on the back to comfort him: "Don't be angry, don't be angry, it's all in the past. We're strong now, no one dares to bully us like this anymore! Look, we're getting this base back, aren't we!"

"Hoo..." Jiang Xia exhaled a long breath, forcing himself to calm down.

Anger solves nothing; only by remembering history and becoming self-reliant and strong can we overcome these challenges!

As my gaze swept across this luxurious room that once belonged to the commander of the Allied Fleet, I felt that the crystal chandelier, cherry wood wainscoting, and mosaic fireplace now seemed full of irony.

Jiang Xia reached out again in frustration, wanting to shove the suffocating Yalta Conference minutes back onto the bookshelf.

Just as I was pushing aside several heavy books to make room, a hard-covered, oddly colored booklet was squeezed out from the gap and fell to the ground with a "thud".

Пpaвдa 1950

Pravda?

Jiang Xia subconsciously bent down to pick it up. The yellowed newspaper unfolded, and on one page, a title was prominently circled in red pen:

Пpeдвapnteльhыe kohcyльtaцnn пo 3aпpeщehnю rдephыx ncпыtahnn — pa3hoглacnr meждy пpeдctaвnteлrmn cwa n cccp в Жeheвe

"Uncle Zhao, what does this say?"

Jiang Xia scratched his head. He recognized "cwa n cccp," but he was a little unsure about the preceding words...

"Oh, it's about preliminary consultations on a ban on nuclear testing... the differences between the two countries' representatives in Geneva..."

"They weren't planning to let other countries conduct nuclear tests back then, thankfully our young lady came along..."

Zhao Gang, who was about to hand the newspaper back to Jiang Xia, suddenly noticed that Jiang Xia had frozen in place.

Yalta's betrayal... Great power rivalry... Private deals...

Nuclear test ban... Geneva consultations... Divergent disagreements...

These keywords collided intensely in Jiang Xia's mind.

He grabbed the bound volume of Pravda, staring intently at the headline marked with a red circle, his anger gradually replaced by a sense of clarity.

I understand! I understand everything!

Junichiro, that old fox, his Ice-Melting Project and the little mascot's visit to China were all a smokescreen! His schemes were exactly the same as Yalta's!

These are all dirty deals made by major powers under the shadow of nuclear weapons!

"Uncle Zhao! Did you see any strange-looking equipment on the early tide level?"