The People's Party held many meetings; currently, there were three regular meetings a week. Moreover, there were inevitable meetings before major actions. So Shang Yuan and Chen Ke were both "veterans of meeting venues," but the landlords had absolutely no such experience. Without political parties, there were no meetings. Although the landlords were forcibly gathered together, these landlords were suspicious of each other. Facing strong pressure, they might temporarily have a bit of "consensus" out of class instinct. But once the pressure lessened and their respective pursuit goals differed, the landlords would immediately present a situation of complete disunity.

"Gentlemen of virtue, this official has something to do for the time being and will take two hours (*shichen*) to return. You talk first and clarify the matter of this People's Representative Congress. This official will be back in two hours," Shang Yuan said. After speaking, he didn't stand on ceremony and got up and left with Chen Ke. Leaving a group of dumbfounded landlords in the conference room.

The landlords had absolutely no idea what mystery Shang Yuan and Chen Ke were playing. They watched Shang Yuan and Chen Ke leave the conference room, and then heard Chen Ke say outside: "It's so hot; roll up the mats."

With this order, the straw mats acting as walls were rolled up. They saw dozens of Insurance Corps soldiers standing outside the conference room. The summer sunlight shone in through the wooden frames, making the already bright conference room even brighter. The landlords were all dumbstruck. Ren Qiying had said Chen Ke might "smash a cup as a signal" and rush in with dozens of people to use knives and guns against the landlords. Chen Ke also said, "If I shout, dozens of people can rush in." But the landlords frankly didn't believe it. It wasn't until they saw with their own eyes that these dozens of soldiers outside rolled up the straw mats and revealed their figures that they knew the saying "smash a cup as a signal" was not empty words. After the soldiers rolled up the mats, they left the vicinity of the conference room one after another and returned to their respective posts. Leaving a group of landlords in the room ignored.

One of the important techniques to provoke contradictions among enemies is "boldly let the enemies link up." While cooperation is achieved in communication, contradictions are also produced in communication. Now Chen Ke and the others had successfully planted many things among the landlords. Now they needed to let the landlords ferment and argue by themselves. Chen Ke and Shang Yuan could withdraw temporarily.

"Wenqing, do you think this is really okay? If the landlords can't discuss a result in the end, wouldn't we have to spend more effort again?" Shang Yuan was still not quite confident about letting landlords discuss freely.

"Brother Wangshan, we have already sent people to enclose the land. The result of the landlords' discussion is completely meaningless. We left them here actually just for the convenience of doing things," Chen Ke laughed. Anyway, large-scale rush-planting and forced harvesting had already begun. Whether the landlords agreed or disagreed, the Insurance Corps would not hold any discussion with the landlords.

The two did not stay in the Insurance Corps barracks but went directly towards the county yamen. The two places were only a few hundred meters apart, not far to walk.

"Wenqing, is this revolution? Seizing old power and having the new government wield it?" Shang Yuan was a bit unconfident.

"Brother Wangshan, you have to know one thing. We are engaging in agriculture in an industrialized mode. The labor intensity and total labor volume of the farmers are far from the lazy appearance of the past. It's much harder than before," Chen Ke spoke from his heart, so there was no meaning of joking in his expression at all.

"How do you explain this?" Shang Yuan asked very puzzledly. Since these days, Shang Yuan had shown outstanding performance in administrative work. But Shang Yuan came from an agricultural society after all, and still couldn't understand the agricultural characteristics of the industrialization era.

"How big a landlord does one have to be to build an irrigation system? Moreover, the irrigation systems built by landlords can't go out of the village. Once out of the village, it's other people's land. Do you think they are willing to let others benefit for nothing?" Chen Ke didn't want to speak so clearly. Now what he needed were comrades who could understand him. Issuing orders seemed easy, but in actual operation, one had to face various troublesome matters. Only comrades who could understand Chen Ke's train of thought could take charge of a department alone. Chen Ke was now trying hard to find such comrades.

"That makes sense. Wenqing, although my family has some land, a few thousand *mu*, it is absolutely impossible to let my family build water conservancy. Between landlords, it's fighting for water sources and fighting for existing good land. If it's building new land for nothing, don't even think about it. We absolutely won't do it." Shang Yuan was really a sensible person; what he said was completely on point.

Chen Ke was very happy. He said excitedly: "Therefore, this time we cannot let the landlords lead this matter. It's not that they are unwilling to do it, but that they simply can't do it. Now with such a large territory, more than a hundred thousand *mu* of land, which landlord can consider these lands as a whole? Moreover, do they have the guts to manage these lands well? Without a powerful armed force, managing more than a hundred thousand *mu* well makes it a piece of fat meat; everyone wants to come and take a bite. Humph. Our People's Party, our Insurance Corps, wants to organize these lands well, and no one should think about dipping a finger in these lands."

"Mn!" Shang Yuan didn't answer this question; he just nodded very spiritedly. Landlords in this era, if you had a few thousand *mu* of land, you were "fat meat" in the eyes of various forces; everyone wanted to come and cut a piece from you. It wasn't that landlords had such high enthusiasm for official careers. If there were no children from official backgrounds to keep up appearances, the days of big landlords wouldn't be easy. Moreover, as a descendant of landlords, Shang Yuan really wanted to try the taste of managing more than a hundred thousand *mu* of land. To be honest, Shang Yuan really hadn't thought about getting a shred of profit from this more than a hundred thousand *mu* of land. As long as he could personally operate such a scale of operation, Shang Yuan felt satisfied.

Chen Ke could understand Shang Yuan's thoughts very well. He had a friend in the twenty-first century who was a descendant of the Mou family in Shandong. The Mou Clan Manor of the Mou family in Shandong is one of the largest and most complete feudal landlord manors preserved in China. It was built in the first year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, owning more than 5,500 pieces of real estate, 60,000 *mu* of land, and 120,000 *mu* of mountains. Currently, more than 480 halls and pavilions are preserved, covering an area of more than 20,000 square meters. The Mou Clan Manor has a rich historical and cultural deposition. And this friend had discussed the reasons for the Mou family's prosperity with Chen Ke: it was because the Mou family had produced over a hundred Jinshi (Imperial Scholars) over generations and always had enough power and influence in the imperial court. Only then could they endure for hundreds of years without declining.

The Mou family donated all their land to the government after the liberation. Their family leader could see the situation very clearly. Facing a super power like the Party, they had absolutely no thought of resistance. But Shang Yuan's family obviously didn't have such a scale. He looked forward to personally operating a large farm of more than a hundred thousand *mu*. Although he didn't say it with his mouth, the kind of excitement filling his expression already revealed his mind.

"Brother Wangshan, do you know the difference between an industrial country and an agricultural country?" Chen Ke asked.

"Wenqing, you talked about it; it's the problem of the degree of machinery usage," Shang Yuan answered. Chen Ke had mentioned the significance of establishing an industrial country many times in People's Party meetings. This was not Chen Ke having foresight, but a summary made by many of Chen Ke's "Maoist" friends. Since the establishment of New China, the countryside had been in a situation of continuous "blood loss" of labor. Although accompanied by the increase in average life expectancy, the rural labor force seemed to "expand continuously" in the first thirty years. But compared with the population growth in rural areas, the population in cities increased even faster. This increased population was not the result of the urban population reproducing itself. Instead, it was the result of the city constantly "drawing blood" from the countryside and arranging a large number of laborers to enter the city.

Especially in the last thirty years of the Republic, with the substantial improvement of labor education levels and the rapid improvement of labor quality, it was not too difficult for rural labor to find jobs after entering the city. Even in "sweatshop" factories, there were still enough employment opportunities. And compared to the "flesh and blood factories" of the twentieth century, the sweatshops of the twenty-first century were like heaven.

And an industrial country is one that can provide mechanical equipment to be invested in the agricultural field. Although the rural labor force continues to "lose blood," and the labor intensity and total labor volume in the countryside continue to rise, the development of mechanization effectively solves the "labor" gap in between. Chen Ke had conducted a simple investigation of rural areas in Henan. Although most of those engaged in farming in Henan rural areas were women and the elderly, with combine harvesters for sowing and harvesting, every household had tractors and other machinery for other farming operations. It was not just the use of machinery; the change in technology was even more obvious. Chen Ke saw in the countryside that the situation of "flood irrigation"—(that is, traditionally pouring water into the ground, which uses a large amount of water and has low efficiency)—was decreasing, and the scale of sprinkler irrigation was getting larger and larger.

The popularization of mechanical equipment and agricultural technology greatly improved rural production efficiency and reduced the demand for the "absolute number of laborers." And the total labor volume in the countryside increased many times.

But now it was 1906. Although Chen Ke knew the changes in agriculture well, he couldn't conjure up these mechanical devices out of thin air. Not to mention the matching agricultural technology. The only mode Chen Ke could adopt was the mode of the first thirty years, which was the "Ten Thousand People Water Conservancy Campaign" publicized countless times. "Water conservancy is a ten thousand people campaign."

"Then what do we need to do now? What is the most urgent?" Shang Yuan asked. Since meeting Chen Ke, Shang Yuan felt that Chen Ke possessed "foresight" that he couldn't reach. Shang Yuan was not a very ambitious person. Like other bureaucrats of the same era, Shang Yuan didn't think following a "wise master" was shameful. Following the strong and striving wholeheartedly to build a powerful China was a common thought of intellectual bureaucrats like Shang Yuan. The hostile emotion of these bureaucrats towards "revolution" was very simple to explain because until now, among "revolutionaries," there hadn't been a "wise master" that these bureaucrats could look up to. Meeting Chen Ke, reading Chen Ke's book, and listening to Chen Ke recount the blueprint of a future "Industrialized China," Shang Yuan felt he had already met a "wise master" worthy of his loyalty. If not for this mentality, asking Shang Yuan, who was over thirty, to submit to Chen Ke, who was over twenty, would be unthinkable.

Chen Ke didn't consider Shang Yuan's psychological activities too much. He was full of his own train of thought now, "Brother Wangshan, we must ask for help from one person now, that is Pu Guanshui in Anqing. To engage in agriculture, we must build water conservancy facilities. For these more than a hundred thousand *mu* of land, the flood has just passed. The drainage system must be built, and the future irrigation system must also be built. To do these things, there must be surveying. If we don't figure out where the terrain is high and where it is low, the irrigation system built will definitely be a big joke. I have sent people to Anqing to ask Comrade Pu Guanshui to bring relevant technical personnel to our Fengtai County as soon as possible. Moreover, we not only want Comrade Pu Guanshui to bring people here, but we also want to organize our own surveying team and hurry to select enough manpower to learn surveying. This is also necessary for marching and fighting."

"Where do we find people to do surveying ourselves? This has to be undertaken by those with some cultural foundation. Although landlords can elect People's Representatives, the old guys have no future. We have to select people from those little guys. Those young people may not necessarily like their fathers' lifestyle. Pulling them into our team can also make the landlords dare not oppose us too much. At any rate, their children are with us; on one hand, it makes them feel we won't be ruthless to them. Moreover, landlords may not be willing to place righteousness above family loyalty either," Chen Ke laughed.

Hearing this, Shang Yuan nodded. Shang Yuan was essentially not a person who "helps the poor and succors the distressed" at all. As a landlord bureaucrat, if the people died, they died; Shang Yuan didn't even have much sympathy. What Shang Yuan was loyal to was the "People's Party Government," and the policy of the People's Party Government was to save the common people, so Shang Yuan did his best to save the common people. In Shang Yuan's mind, the interest of the People's Party came first, and other considerations came second.

The two entered the county yamen, where several people were already waiting for them. Seeing Shang Yuan and Chen Ke come in, several people stood up and said respectfully: "Lord Magistrate, you are here."

Shang Yuan and Chen Ke sat in the seats of honor, and then Shang Yuan asked several people to take their seats. Then he asked: "Speak, have you thought it through or not?"