The news of new ships joining soon spread through the fleet commanded by Meichuan, and there was much excitement in the unit. However, Meichuan Shangyi discovered that what the soldiers focused on was quite different from the beginning. When working in the logistics department, Meichuan was responsible for the breeding farm. As a Japanese, Meichuan had never thought of one thing: under the management of the People's Party, the standard of living of the disaster victims in Fengtai County was actually not much different from that of ordinary Japanese people. At least the standard of living of the disaster victims was definitely not lower than the daily food of the Japanese lower class. The disaster victims could at least be half full, and the Insurance Corps could be seventy percent full. Whereas the Japanese lower class was generally only fifty percent full.

At that time, once the soldiers learned that a fleet had arrived, their first consideration was how much grain could be brought in. Before joining the Water Detachment, Meichuan was the section chief responsible for agricultural and sideline products in the logistics department. He not only had to lead more than fifty soldiers in labor, but he himself also had to do everything possible to provide food for the base area to the maximum extent.

After this great flood in Anhui, animal manure and miscellaneous leaves were absolute rarities; even human waste was not in sufficient supply. Although he was assigned the task of raising earthworms, the earthworms in the plain areas had already been "exterminated." Meichuan took the comrades of the breeding farm to the mountainous area near Fengtai and spent a whole day struggling to get dozens of live earthworms from the barren land.

Meichuan had the obedience peculiar to the Japanese. Chen Ke asked him to raise earthworms, so Meichuan raised earthworms completely according to the manual. It was not until Chen Ke inspected that he discovered this fellow Meichuan's rigid style. So, in addition to waiting on the earthworms every day, Meichuan was assigned the work of raising water grass, river algae, and small fish and shrimp. The biggest problem at this stage was to increase the supply of protein and carbohydrates. "Living off the mountain when by the mountain, living off the water when by the water"—at this stage, the greatest resource the base area could utilize was this Huai River.

During these hundred-plus days, every morning as the wake-up call resounded through the entire barracks, Meichuan would climb up from his straw mat and, carrying a heavy shoulder pole like his comrades, go to prepare breakfast for the pigs, chickens, and ducks. Because of the lack of meat and fat supply, everyone soon dripped with sweat under the heavy labor. Meichuan was the only one who never complained. He buried his face in his sleeve and rubbed it, wiping away the sweat that was about to flow into his eyes, then lifted a swill bucket filled to the brim and poured the contents into the feeding trough. Only then did he go to the washroom to wash up, and then go to the public canteen to eat.

Because of the nature of his work, he was also among the last batch of people to eat, so after eating, he could conveniently bring back the swill from the canteen. Because it was now a disaster period, there wasn't really any oil or fat left in the canteen either.

After finishing this busy work, he also had to lead comrades to push carts into the county town to collect human waste from every household, used to produce humus soil and increase the fertility in the earthworm fields and ponds. Next, he had to go salvage water grass and small fish and shrimp. After finishing all this, if there was still time, Meichuan had to collect some green fodder. Generally speaking, by the time this dirty work was done, it was already dark. If this Japanese high school graduate still had a bit of energy at this time, perhaps he would go to the public bathhouse to take a bath, but most of the time he just went straight back to the only collective dormitory for humans in the pig farm and fell asleep.

Increasing grain production, increasing nutritional supply. This was Meichuan's only work, his only thought.

The Chinese soldiers completely lacked geographical knowledge. They knew that the cadre with a strange accent had a strange name: Meichuan Zhengyi [Plum River Justice]. He was a Japanese. However, these soldiers thought Japan was the name of a Chinese province. And later, everyone simply shortened Meichuan Zhengyi's name to the two characters "Meichuan." Now, the originally strange name became a very common form of address. Soldiers who joined the agricultural and sideline department later only knew that their section chief was surnamed Mei and called Meichuan.

The shock brought to the base area by the harvest not long ago was something Meichuan could not have imagined at all. Meichuan suddenly discovered that the army's food supply had increased by nearly half. The most direct manifestation was that after every meal, the soldiers still habitually licked their bowls clean. Everyone would also rinse the bowl with boiled water and drink the water. Because the dishwashing water was collected centrally, Meichuan knew very well how clear the large buckets of dishwashing water used to be. But now the dishwashing water actually started to be slightly turbid, and the smell of human waste also became strong.

After joining the Water Detachment, real war began. The soldiers' craving for food decreased a lot; combat required guns and ammunition, and powerful explosives. Learning that a large fleet had arrived, the soldiers discussed one after another how many weapons were on these ships and how many forts they could take down. Transferring from the grain department to the military department, Meichuan felt as if he had suddenly arrived in a completely different world.

Before coming to China, Meichuan was just a fresh high school graduate with no distinctive features in any aspect, having neither a prominent family background nor any outstanding ability. Since his family background was merely the lowest rank of samurai, the word he said most was "*Hai*" [Yes]. Various rich and powerful people, or even seniors just a few grades above him, could order him to do things.

Meichuan happened to catch up with the partition period after the Meiji Restoration. The Japanese government did its utmost to extract money, even conscripting women on a large scale to engage in the prostitution industry in Southeast Asia and China. Plus the industrial system built up with various loans was now being sold to big zaibatsu at extremely low prices. Meichuan's family didn't qualify to mix into the level of zaibatsu at all. They couldn't even get the leftovers. Taxes were as heavy as ever, and the stipend that could originally be obtained from the feudal lord was gone. Relying on ten mu of land was simply not enough to maintain a livelihood.

Just like this, Meichuan, who had huddled uselessly in high school for a few years, could have entered a government department to get a job. But his spot was snatched away. Although it wasn't that there was no work, after calculating the meager salary, Meichuan found that he would have to work for five years without eating or drinking to earn back the money his family had spent on his schooling these years. The young man was angry; exactly what kind of New Japan was the Meiji Restoration trying to build?

Meichuan was not the only one with such doubts and anger; many Japanese youths felt such dissatisfaction. Although Japan seemed to have risen, the people had not received any benefits. In such a state of being an "angry youth," Meichuan happened to meet a senior, Heidao Renyilang [Kuroshima Jinichiro]. Senior Heidao had always looked after Meichuan. He wanted Meichuan to come to China with him to "learn revolution." Meichuan actually didn't know how to carry out a revolution, so as soon as the senior made the request, Meichuan said "*Hai*" and came to China, to Anhui, to this not-very-famous small county town by the Huai River, and started engaging in revolution by feeding pigs.

Although the work was hard, it was unexpectedly not annoying. There were no beatings or scoldings, no strict hierarchy. For a long time, family education had told him to keep a low profile, do whatever the higher-ups told him to do; the higher-ups were his masters, and he only needed to learn to say "*Hai*" at the appropriate time and do the things assigned by the higher-ups well, and perhaps one day the higher-ups would look at him with favor, and this descendant of a small samurai could turn his fortunes around. Just like this, Meichuan Shangyi naturally took the People's Party Insurance Corps as his "master." Although he didn't quite understand why the People's Party made him do such a job as feeding pigs, which didn't look like work a high school graduate should do no matter how you looked at it, he still said "*Hai*" and had been doing it until now.

There were a few times when Meichuan suspected whether he had been forgotten in the various breeding farms and fields. But as a Japanese, no matter how dissatisfied Meichuan was, he would still act according to regulations and rules. In Fengtai County, what was least lacking were regulations and rules. Unlike Japan, absolutely no one inflicted cruel and humiliating corporal punishment just because Meichuan did something wrong. Making mistakes was not feared, as long as things were done right according to the regulations.

But at some dusks, just when Meichuan put down the last empty swill bucket, that loneliness of being forgotten would pop up again. Meichuan suddenly felt a bit of a sour nose. Leaving Japan for a few months to come to such a small county town in China thousands of miles away—he couldn't say whether it was worth it or not.

Then, at dusk more than ten days ago, Meichuan looked cautiously and with a slight fear at the young man in front of him, namely Chen Ke, the First Secretary of the Fengtai County People's Party. He wore a blue military uniform of the same style as Meichuan's. The tens of thousands of people in the People's Party and Insurance Corps all wore such clothes, and Chen Ke, as the Brigade Commander, had no difference in attire from the soldiers. Except for rank badges, the Insurance Corps did not distinguish rank through external apparel like clothing. This was something Meichuan had known for a long time, but for this ruler of Fengtai County whose word was law to be like this too—this was a bit beyond Meichuan's long-held understanding. And Chen Ke's first sentence, "Comrade Meichuan, sit down," made him even more unable to grasp Chen Ke's true thoughts.

Perhaps seeing Meichuan's restraint, Chen Ke simply pressed Meichuan directly onto the chair opposite the desk. Now Meichuan appeared even more nervous. Chen Ke made no more superfluous movements; picking up a piece of paper from the desk, he said, "Comrade Meichuan Shangyi, the organization wants to temporarily transfer you to work in the Water Detachment."

Meichuan didn't know the significance of such an order, but he also had no thought that he must understand it. Meichuan answered, "*Hai*!"

"Strengthen patrols," Meichuan Shangyi said. As the highest commander of this operation, Meichuan was not unexcited. But he always felt something was wrong; the behavior of the captives in the cabin was not quite right. Their quietness was quite strange. "All comrades, bring weapons and check the cabins again. I always feel something is not quite right. We can complete the mission when we arrive at the base area tomorrow afternoon. Absolutely do not relax now."

Meichuan not only commanded the comrades to do this, but he himself also first organized his rifle and entered the cabin. The lights in the cabin were lit. Many captives were woken up by the lights; they rubbed their sleepy, red, and swollen eyes and looked at the soldiers outside the cages with puzzled expressions. These cages were designed quite humanely. The large awning boat was divided into two; wooden bars formed two large cages, separating men and women, with young children locked together with their mothers. People were put in according to families. Each cage also had an attached toilet with a commode. The women's cage also used straw mats to block all viewing angles from the men's cage for peeping at the toilet, to maintain the women's basic dignity.

The people locked in here, except for children who could eat two liang, were provided with one and a half liang of rice per person per day, plus a tiny bit of salted vegetables. Each person got a ladle of water a day. It could guarantee they wouldn't die of thirst or hunger. Of course, they wouldn't have enough strength to resist either. The captives had been detained here for three days now; hunger had already greatly weakened these people's spirits. Even with so many people coming in to check, the captives didn't make a sound. Meichuan commanded the soldiers to carefully check the cages in the cabin, seriously inspecting every wooden bar and every joint. Because the commodes in the cabin were changed every two hours, and ventilation on the river surface wasn't a problem, the smell in the cabin hadn't reached an unbearable level.

The careful inspection was completed; the cages were as good as new. This made Meichuan Shangyi feel relieved, but an indescribable discomfort made him feel very unpeaceful. It was like an itch that couldn't be scratched; he couldn't say exactly where it itched, but this itch existed all along.

"Sir, keeping us locked up like this, are you still afraid we'll run away?" a middle-aged man inside the cage suddenly laughed.

Hearing this question, Meichuan Shangyi's itching sensation suddenly disappeared. He seemed to understand the reason for his discomfort. He actually didn't know what exactly he had to achieve. In fact, the order issued was very simple: "Deliver these captives safely to the base area. If the captives riot, the commander can take any necessary measures, including shooting to kill."

If Meichuan were Chinese, he wouldn't have any doubts about this. The Water Detachment's orders were very clear, just wanting Meichuan to transport the people there. Moreover, these regulations including diet had themselves already proved the Water Detachment's attitude towards this group of people. Reduce these people's resistance capability as much as possible, and when they arrive at the base area, try not to have any violent conflicts during the personnel handover. In this case, it would be a good thing for everyone.

Captives were captives after all. If the captives were killed or wounded, wouldn't the meaning of keeping captives be completely lost?

As for the future fate of the captives themselves, that would be left to the Party Committee to handle. The Water Detachment completely obeyed the orders and command of the Party Committee. This was also where the discipline of the Water Detachment lay.

But Meichuan was Japanese. In the attitude of a Japanese, he thought too much. The future of these captives seemed to be a responsibility Meichuan needed to bear as well. This is the mistake young people and children like to make most; they always feel the world revolves around them. No matter what happens, they have an inescapable responsibility.

Such an attitude unbalanced Meichuan's mentality. He always hoped that he was not just a screw in the revolution, but a true pillar.