What is "righteous spirit" (*zhengqi*)? There are many explanations, but the spirit displayed by a person when seeking welfare for the people should be called "righteous spirit." From this perspective, Hua Xiongmao should be awe-inspiringly righteous at this moment. But obviously, these people at the Yuezhangji dock did not think so. In their view, an outsider from who-knows-where, visiting the prominent figure of Yuezhangji, Old Master Zhang Youliang, for the first time, actually brazenly demanded that Old Master Zhang's land be taken out for the common people to farm together, and even demanded no rent. This was not "righteous spirit" at all; this was authentic "foolishness."

So when Hua Xiongmao asked to see Old Master Zhang, the people on the two boats blocking Hua Xiongmao had no intention of reporting it at all. Since the other party made this attitude clear, the meeting between this person and Old Master Zhang would definitely end unhappily. Old Master Zhang had long threatened to get grain from the "Insurance Corps" in the county town. Although it was said that the Insurance Corps had many people, Old Master Zhang might not do anything to this person this time. But if Old Master Zhang got angry, the person who reported it would probably suffer afterwards.

Hua Xiongmao knew what these people were thinking at a glance. He simply ignored them and shouted to the people on the dock: "Fellow villagers! The flood has caused such a mess. If we don't hurry up and rush-plant and rush-harvest now, what will everyone eat to live? Our Insurance Corps has grain in hand; this is true. But even if we give all our grain to everyone, it won't last through this winter. Are you afraid to plant crops now, or are you preparing to go thousands of *li* away to flee famine? Everyone knows how difficult the road to flee famine is, right? When you return from fleeing famine, will your land still be yours? I think everyone has seen this before, right?"

Hearing Hua Xiongmao say this, the faces of the people on the two boats in front changed immediately. These words were ruthless enough. Zhang Youliang's becoming the largest local landlord was very closely related to natural disasters. After every disaster year, his family's land would expand significantly. A big reason why many people currently had absolutely nothing to eat at home but still refused to leave Anhui was that these ordinary people were very worried that after they left, their land would be gone when they returned. So they tried every means to stay at home. Many of this group of people worked for the Zhang family on the dock. Hearing Hua Xiongmao's words, it was inevitable that the people on the dock heard them and had other thoughts in their hearts. They first looked at Hua Xiongmao in astonishment, and then started making noise in unison.

"What are you saying?"

"You are farting!"

"How dare you speak ill of Old Master Zhang; do you want to die?"

Hua Xiongmao laughed loudly; his clear and bright voice instantly suppressed the voices of those few people. "Whether what I said is the truth or not, the fellow villagers know clearly in their hearts. Since you refuse to announce me today, forget it. I will come to visit again the day after tomorrow." After speaking, Hua Xiongmao turned back and made a gesture. The Insurance Corps members on the boat shouted a chant at the same time, rowed the oars, and the boat headed back the way it came. Those two boats of bewildered lackeys just watched Hua Xiongmao and the others leave leisurely.

The Insurance Corps comrades were often on the water these days and were well-trained. The boat rowed fast on the water. Before long, the dock was left far behind. Yuwen Badu praised: "Zhenglan was really majestic just now."

Hua Xiongmao did not respond to such praise. He actually wanted to enter this earthen fortified village today to have a look. Among the People's Party's data, Zhang Youliang was almost seventy years old this year. It was actually quite surprising to Hua Xiongmao that such an old man dared to threaten to deal with the Insurance Corps. Logically speaking, people of this age were conservative. Hua Xiongmao knew the strength of the Insurance Corps. Everyone traveled thousands of *li* from Shanghai to Fengtai County, Anhui, then from Fengtai County to Anqing, underwent a month and a half of military training, and then walked back to Fengtai County. In the disaster relief operation, the performance of the Insurance Corps was quite impressive. Chen Ke had explained the theory of military construction in detail. Hua Xiongmao was a military degree holder (*Wujuren*), plus during the Anqing training, he had seen the level of the Anhui New Army. In Hua Xiongmao's view, except for weapons, the Anhui New Army and the Insurance Corps were about the same—six of one, half a dozen of the other. A rural landlord was at most a bandit leader. Daring to plot against the Insurance Corps, did he take the wrong medicine?

Thinking of this, Hua Xiongmao turned his head again to look at that earthen fortified village. It was very far away. Looking from afar, the earthen fortified village didn't look like anything special. Used to seeing buildings in Shanghai, this earthen fortified village looked crude and dilapidated to Hua Xiongmao. In this flood, the original houses outside the fortified village had long been completely soaked and collapsed. Anyway, when Hua Xiongmao was saving people, that place was already a wave of water. Now some people had built new houses there. Set off by this crude and dilapidated earthen fortified village, those incomparably crude houses outside the fortified village looked completely insignificant.

"It would be great if we had binoculars," Hua Xiongmao suddenly sighed.

"What?" Yuwen Badu didn't understand. He hadn't participated in the Anqing military training and hadn't seen binoculars. He couldn't understand Hua Xiongmao's mood at this moment, having used binoculars before.

"Wenqing said we can make glass in the future, and we will also try to make binoculars then. You'll know then." Hua Xiongmao gave an answer that wasn't an answer.

This obviously aroused Yuwen Badu's curiosity. Just as he was about to ask in detail what those binoculars were, he heard Hua Xiongmao say: "Yuwen, what do you think that old thing Zhang Youliang is thinking right now?"

Zhang Youliang, called "old thing" by Hua Xiongmao, wasn't thinking about anything at this moment. He was listening with bursting anger to the person in front of him reporting the process of Hua Xiongmao's visit.

Actually, there was a misunderstanding between Hua Xiongmao and Zhang Youliang. Hua Xiongmao, who had started preparing for revolution with Chen Ke more than a year ago, never considered the Insurance Corps as some "semi-bandit" armed force. In his view, the Insurance Corps was a regular army. Plus Chen Ke's army building model and the large number of university student officers in the Insurance Corps, Hua Xiongmao never felt this armed force had any relationship with bandits.

But in Zhang Youliang's eyes, this "Insurance Corps" that popped out from nowhere was an out-and-out bandit armed force. Different from other bandits, it seemed the prominent figures of these bandits had some connections with the government. The flood not only destroyed the countryside of Yuezhangji, Anhui, but also completely cut off Zhang Youliang's information channels. So his understanding of the Insurance Corps still stopped at the time before the flood, when the Insurance Corps had just arrived. Let alone Zhang Youliang, other people's views on the Insurance Corps were exactly the same. And Zhang Youliang also had an armed force similar to an insurance corps under him. Both sides were directly in a competitive or even hostile relationship in "business." If not for the sudden heavy rain and the subsequent flood, Zhang Youliang would have long let his people test the Insurance Corps' background.

And in the flood, the Insurance Corps' act of rescuing people made Zhang Youliang feel the Insurance Corps had unpredictable intentions even more. At that time, the Insurance Corps wanted to send the rescued people into the fortified village. Zhang Youliang's first reaction was that this bandit armed force wanted to take the opportunity to capture the fortified village. So he unhesitatingly shut the Insurance Corps and those people out. Of course, Zhang Youliang was also very clear that there was selfishness in this. His first reaction was that after more people died, the Zhang family's land could expand a lot again. If these people were let in, after all, they were fellow villagers; taking action would always require many complicated processes. Moreover, if these people refused to sell their land desperately, it wouldn't be easy to handle. Whether for public or private reasons, shutting the Insurance Corps and those fellow villagers out was a very good choice.

Now the Insurance Corps people actually came to the door and made such outrageous demands. After listening to the slightly trembling report from the subordinate, Zhang Youliang only felt the blood-surging emotion that hadn't appeared for a long time actually came back like this. "Take out one's own land for the people to farm, don't collect rent, so everyone can survive the disaster year." What did this gang of Insurance Corps think they were? A group of bandits actually made such a treasonous and heretical request! Let alone the Insurance Corps, even the county magistrate wouldn't dare to propose such a presumptuous thought.

Zhang Youliang was sixty-eight years old this year. Since he followed Li Hongzhang's Huai Army to campaign everywhere at the age of eighteen, only those "Long-Haired Rebels" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had similar demonic words. Paying rent for farming land was an unalterable principle. Taking the land out for those disaster victims to farm—should he go drink the northwest wind himself?

The more Zhang Youliang thought, the angrier he got. He slapped the table in front of him fiercely. With a *pa* sound, the reporting lackey family servant shivered. This Old Master Zhang had been in the army for almost twenty years, killed countless people, and had a violent temper. Especially when encountering such "unruly" things, he always cursed as soon as he opened his mouth and hit as soon as he raised his hand. Seeing Old Master Zhang angry like this, the family servant was deeply afraid Old Master Zhang would vent his anger on him.

"Call someone here; go to the county yamen to file a complaint. I heard this Insurance Corps has some connections with the county magistrate. I'll just see how the magistrate will handle these people!" Zhang Youliang said loudly.

"Old Master Zhang, I think we shouldn't do this yet regarding this matter. Since this Insurance Corps dares to say this, I'm afraid they already know we want their grain. This is to come and scare us first. If we go to file a complaint, I'm afraid we'll show weakness." A middle-aged man beside him said quickly.

"Master Wu, then what do you think?" Zhang Youliang looked at this Master Wu askance.

"My meaning is we first send people to regain face, then talk about reporting to the officials. Old Master, think about it; those people dare to be so unscrupulous, it must be related to the magistrate's support. Now in the flood period, that magistrate is probably still using them to guard against bandits, so he definitely won't be willing to offend these people. It's useless for us to report to the officials temporarily. Moreover, empty words are no proof; what do we say?" Master Wu stated his own idea.

"Humph, this is your scholar's thinking. Those bandits just think we don't dare to report to the officials; that's why they are so arrogant. We are going to report to the officials this time, not really to make the government do anything to them. Rather, we want to blow this matter up. That gang threatened us like this; we will spread their words about demanding land to be taken out for people to farm. Not to mention anything else, what will the gentry think? In this year of great disaster, many people are already desperate and harboring evil intentions. It would be fine in ordinary times, but in these days, can everyone tolerate this gang acting so recklessly? As long as the gentry can join hands, the magistrate won't dare to shield them anymore. Then when we take action again, it will be much easier."

Master Wu didn't quite understand Zhang Youliang's thinking. Since Zhang Youliang knew the people's hearts were floating in the disaster year, wouldn't doing this make Zhang Youliang appear unbenevolent? Thinking of this, Master Wu looked somewhat uneasy.

Seeing Master Wu didn't understand his meaning at all, Zhang Youliang just snorted but didn't speak anymore. After participating in the Huai Army, Zhang Youliang could be considered to have crawled out of piles of dead people. After experiencing life and death, Zhang Youliang looked explosive, but actually his mind was very meticulous. In such a disaster year, there would definitely be civil unrest. It wasn't something landlords could avoid by making slight concessions. And this Insurance Corps saved victims everywhere during the flood, and now proposed this kind of proposition similar to "equalizing the rich and poor"; there must be someone instigating behind the scenes. Moving against the Insurance Corps directly now would not only have no benefit morally but would instead let those starving poor people see an object they could rely on. So, now he must first unite the gentry in the county to force the magistrate to state his position, and then force the magistrate to get grain out of the Insurance Corps.

As long as this goal could be achieved, the poor people in the local area would feel the Insurance Corps could be bullied. At that time, they could incite the people to rob this Insurance Corps. In the eyes of the people, if the Insurance Corps could concede once, they could concede a second time. What could the Insurance Corps do then? If they took action against the people, he could unite other gentry and demand the magistrate punish the Insurance Corps severely.

Of course, such methods couldn't be explained in detail to Master Wu. So although very dissatisfied in his heart, Zhang Youliang just asked Master Wu to write the complaint, and then shouted at the family servant, "You guys watch the water well for me. No one can let them go ashore these days." The family servant felt as if he had been granted amnesty; after responding, he ran away in a puff of smoke.

And at this time, Zhang Youliang didn't know that besides Hua Xiongmao coming by water for a frontal confrontation, the pathfinding team led by He Zudao was working hard to find a land passage to Yuezhangji. And a small fleet composed of two other small boats circled a bigger bend, landed west of Yuezhangji, and several people got off the boat, circling to the north of Yuezhangji, preparing to approach Yuezhangji, which had almost become ruins, from there, and preparing to infiltrate the fortified village. This small squad was the work team sent by Chen Ke to understand the situation of mobilizing the masses in Yuezhangji.