The impact of words spoken by a man versus a woman is completely different. When You Gou proposed that the landlords' land must be taken out and cultivated by everyone together, and the harvested grain distributed equally among the common people, Yuwen Badu suddenly felt a mixture of surprise and joy in his heart. If these words were spoken by Chen Ke, Yuwen Badu's feelings would have been more of fear. But when You Gou said such words in pleasant-sounding Shanghai dialect, for some reason, Yuwen Badu felt more joy in his heart. His voice was trembling a bit, "Comrade You Gou, do you mean this?"

"Why would I lie?" You Gou could understand Yuwen Badu's excitement. She had personally gone to the countryside during the rural social investigation last year and had a good understanding of the hardships of farmers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This was a terrible era; not only did landlords occupy more than 70% of the land in rural areas, but they also tried every means to shift various tax burdens onto ordinary farmers. Land rents as high as 60% and usury with annual interest rates of over 100% ruthlessly exploited the farmers.

And the cities were not much better. Under Chen Ke's leadership, the People's Party's enterprises had substantial income, enough to support such a large association. But You Gou herself came from a comprador family, and with more than a year of study, she could already see through the exploitation of urban workers: about 80% of the profits were taken by the bosses. Even so, China's handicraft industry was still crumbling under the ruthless impact of foreign goods.

"No idle fields across the four seas, yet farmers starve to death!" Precisely because she could see these social realities clearly, You Gou felt the necessity of revolution even more. In such a pitch-black era, such an era of internal and external difficulties, if China did not rise up in revolution, the future would definitely be complete destruction.

"Yuwen, are you afraid of death?" You Gou asked.

"This... of course I am." Yuwen Badu had never been a person who loved to tell lies.

"Do you think we have no way to force the landlords to take out the land? Or are you afraid that this new system cannot be maintained in the future? Even if we force the landlords to take out the land this year, the landlords will retaliate with double the force next year?" You Gou continued to ask.

This time Yuwen Badu didn't speak immediately. Looking at the only woman in the Central Secretariat Committee saying the things he was truly worried about, he was actually speechless.

"Yuwen, you know what we want to do, right?" You Gou asked another sentence.

Yuwen Badu didn't dare to utter a sound. He knew about the People's Party's struggle goals and the means to be adopted. This group of urban youths were not some benevolent souls; Yuwen Badu knew this after dealing with Chen Ke for the first time. And Chen Ke was absolutely not a person who deceived others.

Yuwen Badu worked for Chen Ke with his fellow villagers. At first, everyone was not used to it, but after more than a month, everyone got completely used to it. Although there were various things in between, those fellow villagers all had a common feeling: working under the People's Party, they were living with more and more clarity. It turned out that many things could completely be handled by different methods. If not for this, these people would not have agreed to follow the People's Party back to their hometown.

"Those landlord clans have deceived everyone for dozens of generations. With such a big disaster, following the old way is definitely death. To survive, can the farmers die if they stand by and watch once?" You Gou said sternly, "We will do the fighting and killing; it's enough if the farmers believe us just once. Just this once is enough."

Yuwen Badu swallowed a mouthful of saliva with difficulty. He had only formally joined the People's Party recently. Before, Yuwen Badu positioned himself as a "collaborator." Chen Ke was ruthless in dividing and absorbing Yuwen Badu's "former engineering team." By now, Yuwen Badu had completely lost his appeal to the "former engineering team members." That was why Yuwen Badu joined the People's Party without hesitation. Humans have inertia; Yuwen Badu didn't have the decisiveness to leave a familiar group resolutely.

"Be a man and be straightforward. Say it, will you do it or not?" You Gou had no intention of using a long speech to persuade Yuwen Badu at all.

At this point, it was not the time for Yuwen Badu to look ahead and behind anymore. Yuwen Badu looked up at Fengtai County Magistrate Shang Yuan sitting on Chen Ke's left. Even the county magistrate had joined the People's Party; what did he have to be afraid of? If the sky fell, there was someone taller to hold it up. What the hell was he afraid of?

"I'll do it!" Yuwen Badu gritted his teeth and said.

"Very good, then let's all listen to Wenqing's instructions. Obey discipline, listen to command." Seeing she had persuaded Yuwen Badu, You Gou left the final order.

"Comrade Yuwen Badu, since you said there are landlords who want to move against us, can you talk about it?" Chen Ke finally asked.

Since he had made up his mind, Yuwen Badu no longer hid anything. He confessed everything he knew like pouring beans out of a bamboo tube. There was a big fortified village in Yuezhangji Town west of Fengtai County. The leading landlord, Zhang Youliang, had let out words that he had designs on the existing grain of the Insurance Corps.

"Haven't we been to Yuezhangji?" Chen Ke was a bit strange.

Fengtai County was north of the Huai River. This flood caused the Huai River to surge, and Yuezhangji was also flooded. The People's Party struck out in all directions and saved many people. Yuezhangji was also within the scope of disaster relief.

"I led the team," Hua Xiongmao answered immediately. "That landlord was very arrogant. The fortified village was closed tight, and he resolutely refused to accept refugees. We had to bring the refugees back to the headquarters here. Now there are quite a few new comrades from Yuezhangji in the Insurance Corps. Most of these comrades brought their families from there to our headquarters."

"Then what opinion does this Landlord Zhang have against us?" Chen Ke continued to ask.

"I don't know what medicine he took wrong. I also heard this from a few people who just ran over. I had people from Yuezhangji under me originally, and so many people came recently. There should be quite a few people inside who owe Landlord Zhang money." Yuwen Badu made his own deduction.

"Let's investigate first whether this Landlord Zhang was just saying it casually or really has this plan. Clarify this matter. Comrade Hua Xiongmao will be responsible for this matter," Chen Ke issued the order. "And I'll say this upfront: no matter what plan he has, since there are many people from Yuezhangji in our Insurance Corps, it is necessary to make an example of him first. The recent main attack direction is Yuezhangji."

With the direction clarified, everyone's mood relaxed a lot. Yuwen Badu and Hua Xiongmao went to find those fellow villagers who brought the news to ask about the situation clearly. Shang Yuan continued to return to the county yamen to work. You Gou stopped Chen Ke. "Wenqing, I want to introduce a comrade to you."

"There is the Organization Department for introducing comrades; why are you looking for me?" Chen Ke was very strange.

"This comrade is a woman," You Gou answered very crisply.

"A woman?" Chen Ke was a bit puzzled.

After the flood, the People's Party vigorously expanded its human resources, and many children from decent families joined the Insurance Corps. Moreover, they could all apply for their family members to work in the labor groups organized by the People's Party, which counted as "work-relief" in the county. There were quite a few women in here. As a woman holding important organizational duties, You Gou was in charge, and Chen Ke's wife He Ying was also helping in the Women's Federation. With such a large number of women, Chen Ke didn't quite understand what kind of woman could make You Gou care so much.

"She is a childhood friend of Xu Erba. Her name is Ren Qiying. This girl is very unusual."

Just listening to You Gou's one-sentence introduction, Chen Ke also felt she was very unusual. In these times, women who could have their own formal names were definitely not from small families. He recalled Xu Erba's background and then asked: "Isn't Xu Erba from Xujiazhuang, Fengtai County?"

"Correct. This Miss Ren studied with Xu Erba since childhood. In terms of knowledge, she is even above Xu Erba."

"Did this Miss Ren say that?" Chen Ke was somewhat doubtful. Generally speaking, people who blew their own trumpet wouldn't have any real stuff.

You Gou laughed: "I heard it from Xu Erba. As for Erba's learning, well, it's just like that. The reason he could pass the *Xiucai* exam was because Miss Ren kept forcing him to practice calligraphy."

Hearing this, Chen Ke was speechless. One of the important reasons for abolishing the imperial examination in these times was that the imperial examination had no vitality. Taking the imperial examination, especially for *Xiucai*, depended on whether the article was smooth, and the decisive content was whether your handwriting was good. Since Miss Ren had such insight, she wasn't too bad.

You Gou introduced the situation of this Ren Qiying again. This girl had a straightforward nature and was one of the members who joined the women's labor group under the Insurance Corps relatively early. She worked hard. But she didn't like working with women.

"She resolutely demands to join the army," You Gou dropped a bombshell at the end.

"Join the army? This..." Chen Ke was also bluffed. Women joining the army? This wasn't the Red Detachment of Women. Thinking again, Chen Ke replied: "How about this, aren't we going to attack Yuezhangji? I have a plan that might use a girl. You ask her; if she isn't afraid of death and dares to do things, I can help smooth things over. Otherwise, don't even think about it."

Seeing You Gou leaving happily, Chen Ke breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, they were about to formally enter the stage of creating a rural base area. Don't look at it being just a small place like Fengtai County; class struggle had always been extremely cruel. Killing was bound to begin. Revolution was a violent action of one class overthrowing another class, and this was also a chain of events. It was even an earth-shattering event.

As the saying goes, "Cutting off a man's wealth is worse than killing his parents." Once the People's Party created a brand-new social system, even in such a small place, it would absolutely trigger the fiercest confrontation. Chen Ke didn't believe that the people could understand the logic of revolution right now. The people were the most pragmatic; they could "know the how," but generally had no interest in the "why." Back then, regarding the "Three Principles of the People" promoted by the Kuomintang, let alone the people not knowing, even many of the Kuomintang's own people were actually completely in the dark. But the Party's rural propaganda was much simpler: "Class Struggle," "Land Revolution," "The People Stand Up to be Masters." Simple terms explaining profound things, easy to understand.

Thinking of this, Chen Ke couldn't help but look at his own hands. These hands would soon be stained with blood. And there would only be more and more in the future. Although he accepted such cognition completely rationally, Chen Ke had neither emotional excitement nor even any related associations. His thoughts quickly turned to the plan for Yuezhangji.