Even by September 1906, Pang Zi still wasn't clear how Chen Tianhua, as an outsider, spent four months from May to September to build Peasant Associations in Gaojia Village and several surrounding villages. Pang Zi had read the constitution of the Peasant Association; it was concise and to the point. To put it plainly, it was the line written on the wall of the Peasant Association, "Common people's affairs, common people decide."

All affairs of the Peasant Association were decided by collective voting of Peasant Association members. Chen Tianhua told Pang Zi a very novel term called "People's Representative Congress." It was said to be a fresh thing proposed by Chen Ke far away in the south. Pang Zi didn't like Chen Ke, so he immediately lost interest in understanding it deeply. And Chen Tianhua relied on that pile of strange things to turn the Peasant Association from a small breeding farm into a major force in Nangong County spreading over five or six surrounding villages.

According to the news provided by Jing Side, Pang Zi indeed found Chen Tianhua working in the earthworm field. The two hadn't met for more than a month actually. When Chen Tianhua raised his head to look at Pang Zi, Pang Zi suddenly realized one thing. For almost a year, every time he saw Chen Tianhua, he would strongly feel that there was a very obvious change in Chen Tianhua.

In the beginning, Chen Tianhua obviously didn't want to stay in Nangong County very much. At that time, Chen Tianhua was still in a student suit, with neck-length hair, full of "Japanese flavor." As soon as this foreign student opened his mouth, it was "country," "revolution," "constitutionalism," "foreign countries." Although interesting, it sounded like storytelling.

Later Chen Tianhua cut his hair into that extremely short style of Chen Ke, and changed his clothes to Hebei farmer's clothes. His speech and actions also changed gradually. After starting to build the breeding farm, Pang Zi also worked with him for a while at first. Chen Tianhua began to become haggard. Besides the fatigue brought by physical labor, the whole person became somewhat anxious and neurotic. Those farm works obviously made him extremely unaccustomed. Sometimes Chen Tianhua liked to speak loudly, and sometimes he would mutter to himself in Hunan dialect. Besides working, he would hold the thick pamphlet written by Chen Ke to read, brows frowning tightly. A look of great bitterness and deep hatred.

The work of the breeding farm was tired and cumbersome. Pang Zi couldn't persist for too long and ran away too. It wasn't until the breeding farm could start providing poultry and eggs stably that Pang Zi came more times. Chen Tianhua became cheerful, and there was a smile on his face. When with Pang Zi, he never mentioned the previous "country," "revolution," "constitutionalism," "foreign countries" again. Besides specific breeding farm work, Chen Tianhua actually didn't talk about anything else.

Not only that, there was a very major change in this young man. He was finally willing to listen seriously to others talking about small things completely unrelated to national affairs. Pang Zi had experienced before that no matter what he talked about, although Chen Tianhua was listening, he would eventually pull the topic to "revolution." Now Chen Tianhua absolutely didn't mention "revolution," but listened seriously to others talking about specific things, and then would discuss with others how to solve these things. That young man who was once high above and always tried to be others' "teacher" seemed to have become another person, a simple farmer, an ordinary farming youth.

In September 1906, after Pang Zi saw Chen Tianhua, he felt very keenly that Chen Tianhua had changed again. A familiar thing began to reveal itself in Chen Tianhua. That was something Pang Zi had seen in Uncle Jing Tingbin, something Pang Zi envied most.

When Chen Tianhua held a hoe, he was really working, and "merely" working. That was an indescribable focus, both calm and gentle. As long as seeing Chen Tianhua, everyone knew what he was doing. Most importantly, everyone knew Chen Tianhua knew very well how to do the current farm work best.

Among the people Pang Zi had seen, Uncle Jing was such a person. Every word and deed of his was full of a kind of persuasiveness. When everyone didn't know how to solve the problems back then, Uncle Jing Tingbin might not necessarily know either, but everyone believed Uncle Jing could definitely find a way. Could definitely solve these problems. Although Pang Zi didn't know if Chen Tianhua could really achieve the level of Uncle Jing Tingbin, Chen Tianhua's every move now let Pang Zi, who had followed Uncle Jing Tingbin for many years, see those familiar movements and eyes.

Realizing these, Pang Zi couldn't help being in a daze.

"Captain Pang, long time no see. It's great that you came; I was just saying I wanted to find you. Wait for me a moment." Chen Tianhua shouted. After speaking, Chen Tianhua explained a few sentences to the Peasant Association member working together. The Peasant Association member didn't fully understand Chen Tianhua's meaning. Chen Tianhua was not anxious either; he listened to the member's question seriously first, thought for a while, and then put forward his own opinion. Since that Peasant Association member understood, he continued to work. Chen Tianhua watched from the side for a moment, feeling the Peasant Association member had truly grasped the correct method, before walking out of the field.

"Mr. Chen, I'm going back to the county town immediately. I just wanted to see you before leaving, so here I am." Pang Zi laughed.

Chen Tianhua also smiled but didn't exchange pleasantries. "Captain Pang, I want to ask you, have you thought about the matter of the Money House (*Qian Zhuang*) mentioned last time?"

"Money House?" Pang Zi asked with slight doubt. He was either busy expanding territory in distant places recently or busy escorting goods. Thinking carefully, he remembered Chen Tianhua indeed said there was such a thing. "Mr. Chen, we don't have much money now; why open a Money House?"

Chen Tianhua said very seriously: "We want to lend money to the fellow villagers of the Peasant Association; it won't do without a Money House."

"Are we going to lend usury (*Yin Zi Qian*)?" Pang Zi felt very strange.

"Not usury. I want to lend loans to the fellow villagers of the Peasant Association at an annual interest of one *fen* (10%). It's autumn harvest; many fellow villagers want to buy more things and work hard next year. Since we have some money on hand, I think the Peasant Association might as well open a Money House, and we lend money to the fellow villagers. This way the Peasant Association can have some income, and fellow villagers don't need to borrow usury." Chen Tianhua explained.

Pang Zi had no special concept of finance. Asking him to do business was okay, but asking him to run a Money House, Pang Zi completely didn't understand. But Chen Tianhua looked serious; presumably, this matter was not as simple as it looked on the surface. Pang Zi said: "Then let's calculate properly."

In these years, money was getting harder and harder to get. Exorbitant taxes and levies were increasing, and everyone's life was getting harder day by day. One of the reasons Uncle Jing Tingbin led everyone to rebel before was that the Imperial Court distributed "foreign donation" (*Yang Juan*) to the countryside. Uncle Jing stated clearly: I am Chinese; why should I pay this foreign donation? So he raised his arm and called, and all directions responded. According to what Chen Tianhua said before, this was Chinese money being robbed by foreigners. The Imperial Court wanted to scrape money, so they increased taxes on the common people.

Since setting up the Peasant Association, one of the important jobs of Pang Zi's escort team was to use the money earned from selling poultry and eggs to purchase a lot of daily necessities in large quantities. Because Pang Zi's team could go to more distant daily necessity production areas, buying in large quantities, the price was also cheap. These cheap goods were not for earning much money, because poultry, eggs, and livestock were also supplied to Pang Zi's horse team members for free in large quantities. Pang Zi also needed a large amount of these meats to go out and buy people's hearts. Plus the money for buying things was paid by the Peasant Association, so Pang Zi didn't really mean to make a big profit from it.

As a result, Peasant Association members could buy many commodities at prices far lower than local daily necessity trade. It was really a tangible benefit for everyone. Pang Zi actually didn't know that the rapid development of the Peasant Association was closely related to this internal commodity supply channel of the Peasant Association. Joining the Peasant Association didn't require paying money. Farmers didn't spare their strength; in these years, the money earned by selling strength was actually very limited. Being able to get cheap daily necessities through the Peasant Association's freight channel could save a lot of money in itself. The fellow villagers wouldn't let go of such a big benefit.

Pang Zi had no economic knowledge. What he could experience directly was that the commodities the Peasant Association could provide were increasing. These commodities were transported to the canal dock by Pang Zi's caravan and sold directly to Shandong, Tianjin, Beijing, and other places. Taking now as an example, there were already two suppliers of salted duck eggs in the Beijing-Tianjin area. One was Baiyangdian, where duck eggs were basically picked up for free. The basic cost was just the labor to pick up duck eggs. And the other was the breeding farm in Nangong County. Different from Baiyangdian's duck eggs, Nangong County was characterized by uniform duck egg quality, lots of oil, delicious taste, and very stable supply. Beijing and Tianjin were both cities with very strong consumption capacity, and the market demand in these two places was huge. After Nangong County could finally lower the price of salted duck eggs to a level sufficient to compete with Baiyangdian, Nangong County and Baiyangdian had basically carved up the Beijing-Tianjin market.

And those surrounding daily necessity suppliers flattered "King Pang," who was wealthy and bought goods generously, in every possible way. In just half a year, the name of "King Pang" resounded through the canal business world. Pang Zi already looked down on those second-hand and third-hand dealers. The bulk daily necessities he purchased were already transported directly from the production areas in Beijing and Tianjin. This was something even Uncle Jing Tingbin hadn't been able to do.

However, Pang Zi didn't realize what exactly his actions meant. Actually, even Chen Tianhua himself, who proposed opening the Money House, absolutely didn't know before. The manuscript Chen Ke left for Chen Tianhua briefly introduced the formation principles of the Peasant Association and the functions it could exercise. After Chen Ke explicitly pointed out the construction significance of Rural Credit Cooperatives, Chen Tianhua prepared to start one to try.

Although Pang Zi said "calculate properly," he just wanted to listen. Actually, Pang Zi had a bigger plan.

Chen Tianhua said: "The most important thing about the constitution of this Money House is one thing. The Money House doesn't lend money for people to spend, but keeps a share for them in the business provided by the Peasant Association and the caravan. Whoever wants to do any business, as long as we can help them sell things and earn money, we lend money to them to do this business."

Pang Zi could understand lending money for people to do business. Pang Zi didn't understand not lending money for people to spend. He asked Chen Tianhua honestly what this meant.

Chen Tianhua explained: "That is to say, weddings and funerals cost a lot of money. Whoever wants to borrow Money House's money to do this, we won't lend."

"That's bullshit!" Pang Zi answered immediately after listening: "I heard there are plenty of jobs the Peasant Association can let everyone do. Doing anything can earn money. Except for these big events, who borrows money for nothing?"

Actually, Chen Tianhua didn't understand economics either. His economic concepts were all learned from Chen Ke and gradually developed in practice. But Chen Tianhua himself still had some habits of old intellectuals. Didn't like talking about money. Even if he had changed a lot now, he was still a layman in finance. Most importantly, Chen Ke didn't expect Chen Tianhua to reach this extent in Hebei, so the manuscripts left to Chen Tianhua involved very limited economic aspects.

For the Peasant Association Money House, Chen Ke only emphasized repeatedly: absolutely do not issue any consumption loans. Because farmers' repayment ability is limited, once consumption loans are issued, the lending risk is too great. While for productive loans, as long as logistics can be guaranteed, actually cash doesn't need to be provided. Instead, credit loan support can be provided using production tools and other means. To put it more clearly, "money" is just a standard for measurement; actually, money only exists on the books. In practice, it is merely the handover of supplies.

For example, if a farmer wants to buy a new iron plow, he "borrows" from the Peasant Association Money House. The Peasant Association gets the iron plow through Pang Zi's caravan, costing one silver dollar. Then the Peasant Association signs an agreement with this farmer, giving the iron plow directly to the farmer. And the farmer doesn't really have to pay one silver dollar of principal and interest at the end of the year; he can pay with free labor and agricultural products. "One silver dollar" is merely a "general equivalent" used on the books to measure whether these labors and agricultural products are of equal value. "General equivalent" is originally the true face of currency.

Chen Tianhua spent the strength of nine bulls and two tigers and turned two hairs white before understanding Chen Ke's concept of currency. After he understood this concept, Chen Tianhua admired Chen Ke's "profound knowledge" even more prostrately. Standing at this height, Chen Tianhua recalled when he made revolution with Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren, and others back then; everyone just saw the superficial stuff and then messed around. Completely didn't understand the true meaning of revolution.

If it were before, Chen Tianhua would definitely explain the significance of this theory to Pang Zi in detail. After this almost a year of actual revolutionary experience, Chen Tianhua would never do these useless works rashly again. Anyway, the economic operation of the Peasant Association was not under Pang Zi's control now; it was okay to talk about this matter later. He said: "Captain Pang, this matter can be discussed at length. You didn't come just to see me this time, right? If there is anything you want the Peasant Association to do, just say it."

Hearing Chen Tianhua say this, Pang Zi became excited immediately, "I plan to do saltpeter and salt business. Our Peasant Association is also established in Pingxiang, right. I go to deal with those salt police (*Yan Ding*), and the Peasant Association provides people and labor. This is big business; once done, we will be rich. That little money for weddings and funerals counts as a fart. We can buy the land of the entire Nangong County then. The Magistrate can go..."

Pang Zi spoke happily. He originally wanted to say the Magistrate can go to hell. But he immediately thought the Magistrate was his teacher, so he stopped the words immediately. Thinking about the wording, he then said: "The Magistrate can hand over official business to us to handle; he, the old man, can just enjoy happiness."

Unlike Pang Zi, Chen Tianhua didn't become elated after hearing this news. "Captain Pang, doing this, will you offend too many people?" Since opening the breeding farm, Chen Tianhua had already experienced how strong the destruction of "industrialized production" on the small-peasant economy was. The rise of the Peasant Association was on one hand because joining the Peasant Association indeed had tangible benefits. On the other hand, Chen Tianhua also hoped to alleviate the damage of the increasingly prosperous Peasant Association to the regional economy of Nangong County by pulling farmers into the Peasant Association.

Even so, in the intelligence collected by the Peasant Association, the local handicraft industry in Nangong County, which was excluded from the economic cycle composed of the Peasant Association and Pang Zi's transport team, already faced the dilemma of comprehensive bankruptcy. Pang Zi wanted to intervene in saltpeter and salt; this was no longer doing business, but solid robbery. Contradictions would only be more intensified. Chen Tianhua was quite worried about this.

"Xingtai, are you afraid?" Pang Zi laughed, "With my hundreds of brothers backing me up, just those few salt police, if they dare not to know what's good for them, I can beat them to smithereens just by stretching out my hand casually."

Seeing Pang Zi so confident, Chen Tianhua knew he absolutely couldn't persuade Pang Zi to stop. He had to nod, "I will let the Peasant Association provide people and effort when the time comes."

"Then it's a deal. I'll go to the county to prepare first." Pang Zi accomplished his own business and stood up to bid farewell immediately.