When Pu Guanshui saw the chaos inside the fort and rushed to the vicinity of the Liu family residence, the corpses had already been covered with white cloth. The blood of the eldest Miss Liu had not yet completely coagulated. Liu Guangyi, who had fallen into a sluggish state, had already been dragged into the team of captives by his relatives. Xiong Mingyang was commanding the troops to verify the list of the Liu family clan. It would be too shameful if any remnants of the Liu family were left behind.

"In all things, what is feared is seriousness, and we People's Party members are the most serious," Xiong Mingyang shouted to the party member calling the roll.

This was Chen Ke's "famous saying." If a person doesn't think about how much they will gain after finishing a task, but puts all their attention on the task itself, then they can burst forth with infinite subjective initiative.

The members of the People's Party all had this kind of awareness. Based on the characteristics of human nature, the roll call first separated the children. Then the children were asked to call out their parents' names. Children are not good at lying; after being led alone into a group of strangers, many children were already trembling with fear. As soon as they were asked to find their parents, shouts of "Dad, Mom!" rang out one after another. Those parents, seeing their children being taken away, were already scared out of their wits. When those "bandits" wanted to take Liu Guangying away just now, these Liu family clansmen wishfully thought that these bandits just wanted young women. They didn't expect that after the "bandit chief" spoke some "heretical fallacies," he would kill Liu Guangying, who dared to strike, just like that. Such an action made these people understand that Xiong Mingyang and these "bandits" who called themselves the Insurance Corps were masters who wouldn't spare even chickens or dogs. It wasn't that no one held great grief and indignation over Liu Guangying's death, but when expressing this grief and indignation required paying the price of death, those people lowered their hateful gazes.

Children were not sensible and were terrified seeing such a tragedy. When told to find their fathers and mothers, the children invariably showed strong urgency and hurriedly pointed out their parents. Through this identification, the Liu family was gradually separated by household units.

After the first screening ended, it was numbering by name. According to the pre-assigned numbers, signs were sewn onto these people's shoulders. The Liu family members showed great panic towards this sign. The soldiers responsible for managing the captives immediately told them that if one person in the family took off the sign, the whole family would have to go hungry for a day. Since they had already been separated into family units, even if the parents wanted to take it off, they had to consider the punishment of collective responsibility. They ultimately submitted.

These people were then subjected to a second screening by representatives of the disaster victims. The living and the dead of the Liu family were matched to their numbers, and then the dispersed escort began.

The fleet transporting the captured personnel began to concentrate towards the base area. The Liu family members were neither the first nor the last batch. On the large ships shuttling back and forth on the river, what was transported back was soft goods and property; they dared not transport a single grain of food. If the Insurance Corps dared to transport grain from the disaster area back to the base area, once discovered by the disaster victims, it would cause a terrible shock. To avoid trouble, the Insurance Corps brought their own grain instead of eating in the disaster area. Since the People's Party wanted to take over these areas, any action that ruined their image had to be prohibited for them.

The fleet of the Water Detachment had specialized prison boats. The modified awning boats had divided cages, and the conditions were not too bad. All enemies needed to be eliminated according to plan, but Chen Ke really had no intention of exterminating the landlord families completely. At the same time, Chen Ke was not prepared to let the landlords stay locally, making the newly opened areas constantly need to be on guard.

Class struggle has always been very cruel. The fort landlords and their families captured everywhere were sent to the base area for centralized management. With these usually influential people forcibly concentrated, the possibility of the common people resisting in private was greatly reduced. With these former powerful figures captured, no matter what the people inside the forts wanted to do, they would remain temporarily quiet under this deterrence.

The fleet set out with the captives that afternoon. These captives were locked in cramped cages, completely unaware of what the outside world was like. But the escort personnel of the Insurance Corps could not be so careless. The people on the bow were looking far into the distance, ready to discover suspicious signs at any time.

The commander of this operation was Meichuan Shangyi, a probationary platoon leader of the 4th Platoon, 2nd Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment. Under Chen Ke's personal order, this Japanese revolutionary finally temporarily left his work at the breeding farm. Comrade Meichuan Shangyi was incorporated into the work of the Canal Detachment. Even though the soldiers of the Canal Detachment had received sufficient compulsory education, comrades like Meichuan who had received a high school education were still very scarce. Moreover, Meichuan had been the head of the breeding farm and managed dozens of people; in terms of rank, he should be a company-level cadre. However, due to his lack of combat experience, he was appointed as a probationary platoon leader and undertook the work of fleet transport scheduling.

Meichuan Shangyi was neither happy nor disappointed by the job transfer; he just didn't understand why Chen Ke did this. But the party organization's orders could not be disobeyed. And Meichuan didn't have time to consider so much. The fleet's many regulations forced him to put all his attention into understanding these regulations. Meichuan, who had attended high school, at least had sufficient knowledge, and Meichuan was only the scheduling chief; actual work was handled by specialized personnel. What Meichuan needed was to issue instructions and take responsibility for these orders. So Meichuan was under great psychological pressure.

The first two days were very peaceful. In the latter half of the night of the third day, a fleet suddenly appeared ahead. The number of ships in the fleet was quite large; the report from the night guard said they couldn't even see the end of the fleet. Reasonably speaking, the only one on the current Huai River who could employ a fleet of such scale was the Insurance Corps, but the security regulations required maintaining vigilance at all times. The alert personnel immediately notified the small fleet's scheduling chief, Meichuan.

Meichuan was on duty in the cabin at this time. The captives already knew they were being taken to the "bandits'" lair. Although they were very afraid in their hearts, since so much effort was spent to take them away, at least they wouldn't be killed immediately. Otherwise, they could have made their move halfway. It was night time; during the day, the captives either spent their breath begging the guards or simply talked to each other, but at night they were tired after all. In the latter half of the night, they finally fell asleep or became listless. Meichuan took this time to silently recite the fleet's regulations with the booklet in hand.

Upon hearing the news, he hurriedly went to the bow. Looking at the dark ship shadows in the dark night distance, Meichuan, who had absolutely no combat experience, immediately felt nervous. Searching through the regulations in his mind, before he could order the release of signal fireworks, two points of fire flashed on the last ship of the opposing fleet.

"Who are you?" The fleet's signalman translated the signal conveyed by the opposite ship via flag semaphore (lantern signals).

"Is it our own fleet?" Meichuan asked with some disbelief. The Insurance Corps' fleet was now scattered all over the Huai River; how could such a large fleet suddenly pop up?

"Scheduling Chief, besides our troops, who would use such signals?" The signalman was very dismissive of Meichuan's excessive worry.

"Safety first." Meichuan had never participated in real combat, plus being suddenly entrusted with such important work, his psychological pressure was extremely great. He hoped to be safe in everything. "Tell them we are ships of the Water Detachment. And ask them whose troops they are."

The signalman lit the lamp inside the glass cover, then signaled Meichuan's instructions.

After a good while, the fleet over there replied, "We are a fleet directly subordinate to the Party Central Committee, we cannot tell you the designation. Our fleet is slow; if you need to overtake, please keep to the left."

Meichuan and the signalman were both confused by this signal. This dialogue really proved that the other party was a People's Party unit, but everyone never expected that someone would dare to say they were a "unit directly subordinate to the Party Central Committee." This tone was a bit too big. The only unit directly subordinate to the Party Central Committee now was a small garrison unit. Other units were all subordinate to the Military Commission; what mystery was this group playing at?

Doubts aside, everyone indeed needed to hurry back to the base area. The side lights for overtaking were lit, and the small fleet commanded by Meichuan began to overtake. A long line of lights soon appeared on the Huai River. Candlelight burned inside the glass windproof lampshades newly produced in the base area. Except for the guards, other cadres and soldiers of the Meichuan fleet who needed to be on the gunwales all went to the deck. To their shock, there were as many as a hundred points of light inside the glass covers, extending out for several li. This was a massive fleet. There were at least thirty ships. The gunwales of every ship were pressed very close to the water surface, showing they were full of cargo. On the masts and bows, there were flags of the Insurance Corps and the Dragon Flags of the Manchu Qing Anhui New Army. The decks were full of fully armed Insurance Corps soldiers. Although it wasn't very clear at night, many people's figures also felt somewhat familiar.

"Scheduling Chief, I shouldn't have seen these ships before," the signalman whispered beside Meichuan.

"Haven't seen them?" Meichuan Shangyi asked in confusion. "Then where did these ships come from?"

"Five, ten, these ships are very new... fifteen, twenty. These ships are very old..." The signalman's eyesight was very good. As they constantly overtook this strange fleet, he counted and evaluated this strange fleet. It took a long time for the fleet of mixed new and old ships to be left behind. According to discipline, the two fleets extinguished the guiding lights almost simultaneously.

"Scheduling Chief, these should be new ships. Our Water Detachment has new ships!" There was uncontrollable excitement in the signalman's voice. Meichuan could understand the signalman's emotion; having more ships meant possessing greater power. One of the reasons the Insurance Corps could rapidly expand its strength after this flood was that it possessed the largest, and the only organized, fleet on the Huai River. With no rivals, the Insurance Corps transported materials and moved troops, becoming the overlord on the Huai River. The expansion of the fleet's scale could greatly enhance the Insurance Corps' power. As a soldier, learning the news of new ships joining, it was impossible not to be happy. Perhaps because Meichuan had joined the fleet for a short time, his interest in a fleet of such scale was limited. What he felt more curious about in his heart was what exactly the fleet was carrying.

"At their speed, when can they arrive in Fengtai?" Meichuan asked the signalman.

"This... it'll have to be the morning of the day after tomorrow, no matter what," the signalman answered.