Occam's razor states a very simple truth: simple is best. Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity. This law was almost always successful in the battles attacking earth-walled forts. Attract the enemy to the position they think needs heavy guarding, then blast a hole in the wall where the enemy's strength is weak. The main attack force swarms in, attacking the fort owner's residence all the way, while another force attacks from front and back to eliminate the enemy forces gathered on the walls near the main gate. The Insurance Corps troops swept away the forts around Fengtai County and between Fengtai County and Hongze Lake, on both banks of the Huai River, relying on this simple tactic.

There is a saying, "One is all, all is one." Because the exact same tactic was adopted repeatedly, the troops' proficiency in every operational step deepened continuously. This level of tactical proficiency made the troops realize the significance of basic military literacy. Commanders had to learn to read maps and understand the geographical knowledge implied by various terrain features. They had to learn to judge the enemy's intentions and operational objectives.

Soldiers, on the other hand, had to learn simple physics. Without understanding the Law of Universal Gravitation, soldiers could not truly understand the significance of the sights on their guns. After mastering this basic military knowledge, they could effectively eliminate enemies. They could effectively protect themselves and survive on the battlefield.

Military doctors had to strive even harder to learn various medical knowledge. It was a disaster year, and there was no lack of corpses anywhere. Human dissection allowed those military doctors who aspired to be doctors or had chosen the medical profession to finally step into the door of true modern medicine after experiencing all kinds of vomiting, panic, and indescribable discomfort. Even if they only mastered correct bandaging and knew how to use clean bandages, it reduced the death rate of the wounded troops by a lot.

Knowledge is power! This sentence was pasted on the walls of various schools run by the People's Party, and written on the walls of large farms that were beginning to show the appearance of large-scale water conservancy construction. And next to this sentence, most of the time there was another sentence: "The revolution must popularize science!"

Chen Ke was extremely disgusted with the debate between "Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science" played by "later generations." He always believed that it was just a game played by a group of boring scholars who only knew how to engage in empty talk. The history of New China proved one thing: knowledge must be allowed to enter the broad masses of the people, and then the old "cultural class" must be suppressed to the maximum extent, or even eliminated, and then the old cultural class must be thoroughly replaced by a new "knowledgeable laborers" coming from the broad masses of the people.

Being a scholar should not be a status. In Chen Ke's view, only one kind of person should exist in this world: laborers. And there is no distinction of nobility or baseness among laborers; they only have different professions, not different statuses. On this point, Chen Ke did not want to compromise with anyone.

At 10:30 am on October 16, 1906, the soldiers finally extinguished the fire in the home of Liu Shengyong, a landlord in Liujiaji. This Landlord Liu was truly a person with a lot of backbone. After the fort was breached, he refused to surrender. No matter how the Insurance Corps shouted, the response given by the Liu family was bullets. The soldiers of the Insurance Corps had to push tables protected by sandbags and blast open the main gate of the Liu family while braving gunfire. Liu Shengyong then set fire to himself. The Insurance Corps captured the family guards and also rescued quite a few people of the Liu family. But Liu Shengyong himself, along with his wife and son, were burned to charcoal.

Watching Liu Shengyong's rescued daughter and son crying loudly over the corpses of their parents and brother, the soldiers of the Insurance Corps did not feel very good.

"Send these people to the base area," Pu Guanshui ordered. After speaking, he turned and left. But from the slight rise and fall of Pu Guanshui's shoulders, it could be seen that he couldn't help but sigh.

"Fellow villagers, our Insurance Corps are not bandits; we are the common people's troops. Before attacking the fort, we said that we attacked the fort so that everyone could survive. Now that we have entered the fort, we still say the same thing to everyone. We will absolutely not touch the common people's things. We won't take a single needle or thread!" The voice of the political commissar shouting to the common people of Liujiapu came from afar. Having broken many forts these days, the political commissars had also gained a lot of experience.

After the battle ended, the comrades of the Discipline Inspection Commission also began to lead the soldiers to confiscate the grain, gold, silver, and soft goods of the fort owner's family. The soldiers might not yet be able to completely understand all the steps of the battle, nor might they necessarily understand the theoretical knowledge the political commissar explained to everyone. But the soldiers participated in the battle, and after the battle, they personally participated in the disaster relief operations. Those common people blocked outside the fort, ragged and thin as living skeletons, could really survive. Saving these common people who were bound to die was the reason the soldiers threw themselves into battle. Seeing these common people who were just like themselves being able to survive, the soldiers were all very happy. Even those soldiers wounded in battle felt that their injuries were not in vain.

Pu Guanshui would go to watch the process of saving the common people every time. He was not enjoying the happy feeling brought by this salvation of the people. Placing his hands on the top of the fort's wall, Pu Guanshui could smell the scent of blood. With the enrichment of combat experience, coupled with the summary meetings after every battle and very targeted training, the combat ability of the Insurance Corps soldiers rose rapidly. At least the standard of killing enemies with volleys had improved a lot. In today's battle, before the wall was even blasted open, several volleys from the Insurance Corps soldiers had killed and wounded quite a few family guards and lackeys on top of the wall. The frontal troops got excited fighting and simply turned the feint attack into a storming attack. They set up scaling ladders on the wall. Under the cover of rifle fire, several particularly daring soldiers actually succeeded in climbing the wall and held the breach. The soldiers behind immediately followed up, so the pincer attack from front and back turned into a frontal breakthrough.

Where had the family guards ever seen such fierce "bandits"? The timid ones had already scattered in an uproar. The bold ones launched a battle against the Insurance Corps under the leadership of the fort owner, Liu Shengyong. From exchanging fire with firearms to hand-to-hand combat with bayonets against spears, the Insurance Corps smashed Liu Shengyong's various resistances all the way until they drove Liu Shengyong back into his home. Such a terrifying battle made Liu Shengyong resolve to fight to the death. This battle ended with a bloody conclusion of Liu Shengyong burning himself to death. And the wounded and dead of the Insurance Corps also hit a new high.

The bloodstains had just dried, and the strong bloody smell made Pu Guanshui feel a bit dizzy. He knew that people die in war; as a soldier, this was a basic realization. Truly seeing the bloody scenes from the siege battle to the bayonet fight with his own eyes, what Pu Guanshui felt during the battle was an indescribable high. Re-experiencing that high, Pu Guanshui couldn't help but press his hand on the wall top. Although a bullet had chipped that brick, and the sharp gap slightly pricked Pu Guanshui's palm, his attention had already shifted to the foot of the wall. Large cauldrons had already been set up there. Based on the experience accumulated over these days, cooking for the common people immediately after the battle was an effective way to satisfy the disaster victims outside the fort.

Pu Guanshui was now a member of the People's Party, and Chen Ke was his introducer. At the Military Commission meeting, as a party member who had "made huge contributions" to the revolution—meaning the credit for providing a large amount of weapons and ammunition—Pu Guanshui obtained the qualification to attend the meeting.

Chen Ke maintained his consistent calmness. "Comrades, the revolution we are going to carry out is a class struggle. Everyone's view on whether those fort landlords are bad people is not quite the same. The matter I am going to talk about next has nothing to do with whether they are good people. I want to tell everyone that the owners of these forts will inevitably become our enemies. Therefore, I believe we must eliminate them."

Pu Guanshui did not know that a person could use such a righteous attitude when talking about killing people. And Chen Ke's tone, expression, and the occasional arm movements while speaking, combined with that steady and clear voice, all seemed to imperceptibly reinforce Chen Ke's correctness.

No one opposed Chen Ke's view, which made Pu Guanshui feel very strange. These cadres of the Military Commission were not standard subordinates like those in the Beiyang Army. From their expressions, it could be seen that these people were very relaxed, and their treatment of Chen Ke was not a kind of unconditional obedience of a subordinate to a superior. Even so, they still unconditionally supported Chen Ke's attitude.

"These fort landlords might not necessarily refuse to take out grain, right?" Pu Guanshui felt he had to make a suggestion. Although before this, he thought he should not speak first when attending the meeting.

Hua Xiongmao pursed his lips and stared at Pu Guanshui with those piercing eyes. On that handsome face of a Jiangnan man, a smile with a slight hint of mockery appeared. Chai Qingguo was originally crossing his arms with his elbows on the table; hearing Pu Guanshui's words, he moved his elbows off the table, then just gave a silent sneer.

Other comrades also looked at Pu Guanshui silently, expressing negation wordlessly in ways that befitted their individual personalities.

Chen Ke did not speak. He just looked at Pu Guanshui with those calm eyes. Pu Guanshui could not see Chen Ke's true thoughts from that calm expression. It was not until he attended more party meetings with Chen Ke that Pu Guanshui learned that Chen Ke never liked to interrupt people. As long as time permitted, Chen Ke would try his best to wait for others to finish speaking before evaluating. But at this time, Pu Guanshui did not know this. He was confused by this attitude of Chen Ke's and didn't know whether he should continue speaking or listen to Chen Ke's opinion.

It was He Zudao who broke this awkward staring match. "If we encounter a fort landlord willing to release grain, we won't touch them for now. Comrade Pu Guanshui, do you think you can encounter such a landlord?"

Hearing this sentence, quite a few comrades of the Military Commission couldn't help but laugh out loud. Hearing this laughter, Pu Guanshui felt his face burning a bit. In this disaster year, finding a landlord willing to release grain was probably harder than finding a three-legged toad. Even if it wasn't a disaster year, landlords couldn't possibly use their own grain to save the common people. A landlord who didn't practice usury was already an existence with extreme conscience. On this point, Pu Guanshui did not want to argue with the comrades of the Military Commission.

The water in the large cauldrons had already boiled, and rice had been put into the pots. Under the direction of the Insurance Corps soldiers, the disaster victims began to wait in the distance. Although he couldn't hear what they were saying, the grateful looks on the victims' faces and the constant attempts to kneel were enough to explain everything.

Pu Guanshui remembered the embarrassment he experienced after being laughed at by almost all the Military Commission cadres at that military meeting, and it was Chen Ke who broke that embarrassment. "Comrade Pu Guanshui," Chen Ke touched his short-haired head, as if considering his wording.

"Comrade Pu Guanshui, in this era, since we want to save the common people, there is no way for the landlords to survive. This is not because we have any natural hatred towards landlords. The things that can be produced right now are just this much. As long as someone wants to possess more, others have to starve to death. In this disaster year, this is even more so. If we want to make a revolution, we have to get rid of this current system. If this system is not got rid of, the people have no way to survive. And the landlords in the forts absolutely support this current system, so we have to get rid of these landlords in the forts."

Pu Guanshui had never thought that speech at the People's Party meeting would be so straightforward. He had never seen this kind of attitude before. Seeing the attitude of other Military Commission comrades who couldn't even be bothered to agree, Pu Guanshui knew that, at least until Chen Ke issued a new order, the fate of the fort landlords had been decided.

However, looking at the hundreds or nearly a thousand disaster victims in the distance who were confirmed to be able to survive, Pu Guanshui had to admit that killing one person to save nearly a thousand people could absolutely not be said to be wrong.