Outside, disaster victims from other places were making trouble. Inside the room, seeing Chen Ke covering his mouth and forcefully holding back laughter, Shang Yuan felt very unhappy. However, intelligence from outside was coming in one after another at this time, so Shang Yuan couldn't care what Chen Ke meant for the time being. But Chen Ke acted uncharacteristically and just left a sentence: "Brother Wangshan, since the police system is your responsibility, this matter will be handled by you with full authority. After other comrades arrive, you lead them to solve this matter. I'll go outside to see the situation first." After speaking, Chen Ke took his guard and went out.

Shang Yuan never expected Chen Ke to treat this matter like this. Although he completely didn't know what medicine was sold in Chen Ke's gourd [what tricks he was playing], Shang Yuan was extremely unhappy in his heart. "Wen Qing, are you gloating over misfortune?" Shang Yuan thought. However, Chen Ke was never such a person. Although he had such doubts, Shang Yuan didn't dare to be completely sure that what he thought was correct.

Regardless of what Chen Ke meant, now that things had been pushed to this point, Shang Yuan could no longer worry about so much. While sending people outside to check the situation, he asked the cadres of the police department to come and report the situation.

The military person in charge of the police system was Dai Enze. This young man, who had once been reduced to a beggar in the Shanghai era, was promoted quite quickly in the troops. Because of his experience of being a beggar, everyone on the Party Committee felt he should be the comrade who could best understand the emotions of these disaster victims, so they handed the police system to him to supervise. Shang Yuan was actually a hands-off boss. Facing the current situation, Shang Yuan could only let Dai Enze clarify the situation first.

The situation collected by Dai Enze was quite clear. Three days ago, a theft gang ran to steal potatoes in the fields. After being discovered, this group of people tried to escape. The crime scene was very close to the Reclamation Brigade camp. This group of thieves chose the wrong direction; they ran towards the common people who were resting on holiday. Hearing the shout of "Catch thief," the common people immediately rushed up.

According to the confession of the only survivor among the three adult thieves, they originally thought that since it was a disaster year, they might be able to mix into the crowd. As a result, they didn't expect that the clothes of the Fengtai County common people were clean; although there were patches, they were sewn neatly. It was completely different from their ragged appearance. As soon as they approached the common people, their broken clothes, plus the smell on their bodies, acted like indicator lights; the plan of mixing into the crowd completely failed. As soon as the common people saw that outsiders were stealing crops, they immediately reacted like they had eaten gunpowder. Not only did the men strike heavily, but even the women screamed loudly: "Beat them to death! Beat them to death!" Fists and feet fell like raindrops.

Fortunately, everyone didn't have weapons in their hands, only fists and feet. when the Insurance Corps soldiers finally "rescued" these few people, two of the three adult thieves had already been beaten to the brink of death and died not long after. As for the three children, although the common people also beat them, they showed mercy after all; the degree of injury was limited to superficial trauma. The local department guarding the farmland didn't pay too much attention either; after questioning clearly, they handed the living ones over to the police system. The next day, comrades from the police system went to arrest Zhu Cunshui who had slipped through the net, but Zhu Cunshui escaped. The potatoes hidden by Zhu Cunshui were also recovered.

Originally, this wasn't a big deal. Guards were not strict enough during the holiday, but the holiday had passed, and the intensity of the farmland guard system was strengthened. Everyone thought there wouldn't be any major issues. It was impossible to launch a grand operation in the entire refugee camp just to catch a petty thief, right?

But they never expected that on the night Zhu Cunshui's arrest failed, several incidents of malicious destruction of farmland suddenly occurred. The stalks of rice in the paddy fields were broken, and potatoes in the potato fields were also destroyed quite a lot. Although the scale was not large, these destructions were malicious. The perpetrators were not trying to steal things, but purely to destroy. Seeing this situation, the anger of the troops and common people who came to harvest immediately erupted.

Facing such vicious cases, the Reclamation Brigade immediately conducted investigations. The result of the investigation was "This absolutely cannot be done by local common people." Since it wasn't done by local common people, then only the disaster victims who had drifted to Fengtai County would do this. If there hadn't been a comprehensive investigation, only a small number of local masses and soldiers in Fengtai County would have known about this. The result of this major investigation was to spread this news throughout Fengtai County.

Farmers might accept a little grain being stolen, but they absolutely cannot accept someone coming to ruin grain. Let alone in the current disaster year. So the masses' emotions immediately erupted. Actually, the destroyed crops totaled less than one mu of land, but after word of mouth spread, the destroyed crops changed from a dozen mu to a hundred mu, and finally soared to the level of more than five hundred mu.

Originally, everyone was very dissatisfied with providing grain to disaster victims for free; giving grain to these people meant that the common people's rations were cut. Originally, disaster victims were isolated near the county town; out of sight, out of mind. Last time disaster victims stole things and ran near the Reclamation Brigade camp, the local common people immediately struck hard. Hearing that outsiders destroyed grain, the attitude of the local common people was very consistent: these foreign white-eyed wolves [ingrates] must be driven out, and they can no longer be given food.

Forced by this pressure, the police system also had to temporarily strengthen security efforts and began large-scale inspections of suspicious persons. And at this time, a rumor began to circulate in the refugee camp. This rumor was fabricated quite cleverly: "Fengtai County has harvested this time; they are afraid disaster victims will eat their grain and are preparing to drive all disaster victims away. The common people who ran here to hide from the disaster will definitely not be able to survive."

Fengtai County didn't have much relief grain for disaster victims to begin with; the disaster victims were always in a state of semi-starvation. After hearing this, even the most honest disaster victims felt panic in their hearts. Winter was coming soon; everyone had no house to live in, no clothes to wear, living under that "ventilated" thatched shed, eating that thin porridge, it was hard to survive this winter. And once driven away, they would definitely die.

And the key point in this "rumor" was that the situation in the "rumor" was actually true. "Fengtai County indeed harvested," "Fengtai County common people are indeed afraid of disaster victims eating Fengtai's grain," "Fengtai County common people indeed want to drive disaster victims away."

Since the members of the police system were also locals, not only the common people, but the police's emotions were also quite agitated. "If you don't tell the truth, we will drive you all away." Such harsh words were used very frequently when interrogating "suspicious elements." And after the "suspicious elements" were released, the information brought back confirmed the "rumor." So the entire refugee area was in turmoil.

Dai Enze reported the above sequence of events to Shang Yuan. After hearing it, although Shang Yuan was very dissatisfied with these disaster victims in his heart, he also looked at Dai Enze's ability with new eyes. If it were an ordinary person, they would have made a fuss long ago. One of the reasons Chen Ke strongly advocated for Dai Enze to preside over police work was that Dai Enze had suffered great hardships and knew the desperate mood of those with no way out. Shang Yuan felt this made sense; when encountering the actual situation, Dai Enze's performance indeed did not disappoint everyone.

"Comrade Dai Enze, how do you think the current problem should be handled?" Shang Yuan asked.

Looking at Shang Yuan's slightly nervous expression, Dai Enze said cautiously: "Secretary Shang, as the Magistrate, you have to appear in the capacity of Magistrate and go personally among the common people. Tell everyone this is a misunderstanding; Fengtai County will absolutely not drive the common people away."

"This is not difficult." Shang Yuan nodded.

"Now these disaster victims are just worried. Our Fengtai County common people at least have something to look forward to, so they won't really cause trouble no matter what. But if these common people want to survive, someone has to take care of them at least this winter, otherwise they are dead. Rather than saying they listen to rumors, it is better to say they were already very worried, and now they are just showing it." Dai Enze continued to explain. He actually knew the psychology of these common people very well. Back then, he wandered in Shanghai as a beggar, really having today but not tomorrow. To survive, he followed the Insurance Corps, whom he had never met before, to Fengtai County. Moreover, after following the Insurance Corps at that time, Dai Enze did not feel fear about following strangers. His only fear was not being able to get rid of the despair of seeing no future when he was a beggar.

Based on this understanding, Dai Enze concluded: "Secretary Shang, as long as we don't back down and don't use force, plus you go to appease them, we can at least calm them down temporarily."

Shang Yuan expressed agreement. There was no other good way now; if he were really asked to order armed suppression against nearly a hundred thousand disaster victims, Shang Yuan absolutely couldn't make this decision.

Seeing Shang Yuan frowning slightly with a solemn face, Dai Enze knew Shang Yuan had made up his mind. He mentioned another issue somewhat hesitantly: "Secretary Shang, after this matter calms down, we can't rely solely on our own police. We have to recruit manpower from the disaster victims. If our own people manage the disaster victims, first, they are not familiar with the disaster victims; second, we definitely can't be that ruthless."

Shang Yuan didn't expect Dai Enze to actually propose such a suggestion. Just as he wanted to speak, he heard footsteps, and Hua Xiongmao rushed in directly from outside. Seeing this Military Graduate's handsome face full of anger, as soon as he entered the door, he first scanned the room and asked, "Where is Wen Qing?"

It was fine not to mention Chen Ke, but mentioning Chen Ke immediately triggered Shang Yuan's dissatisfaction again. Chen Ke's act of being a hands-off boss made Shang Yuan very resentful in his heart. He answered with a cold face: "Secretary Chen handed over the handling of this matter to me. He has urgent business, so there is no need to disturb him."

Hua Xiongmao completely didn't expect Shang Yuan to answer so toughly. He sized up Shang Yuan with a surprised look, but he didn't raise an objection either. Shang Yuan was not a person who told lies; since he said Chen Ke handed over the handling of this matter to Shang Yuan, then this should be certain.

Shang Yuan ignored Hua Xiongmao either. He continued to ask Dai Enze, "Comrade Dai Enze, just now you said to recruit disaster victims to replenish the police force, and said they would be more ruthless than us. Why is that?"

Before Dai Enze could speak, Hua Xiongmao had already taken over the conversation in a mocking tone. "This is simple. Disaster victims didn't all come from one place. As long as they can eat their fill, they can be even more ruthless. Anyway, the grudges formed belong to our Fengtai County, but if they aren't ruthless, they will go hungry. Hmm, according to what Wen Qing said before, this is called... what was it? Mobilizing the masses to struggle against the masses."

Hearing this, Shang Yuan glared at Hua Xiongmao with a disgusted look. If Chen Ke were here, Hua Xiongmao would absolutely not dare to talk such nonsense. Hua Xiongmao was facing Dai Enze at this time and didn't see Shang Yuan's gaze at all. The police force was initially trained by the Insurance Corps too. Dai Enze was also Hua Xiongmao's subordinate, so he said in a natural commanding tone: "Enze, if force is used, can your people hold up?"

Dai Enze showed a kind of embarrassment. Not knowing if he was worried about the combat effectiveness of the police force or felt it wasn't appropriate to raise objections to his old leader, he still told the truth: "Brigade Commander Hua, these common people might not necessarily start a fight. As long as Secretary Shang goes to persuade them with kind words in the capacity of Magistrate, these people should be honest."

Hearing Dai Enze's solution, Hua Xiongmao was not angry because he was opposed. His dissatisfaction was that he didn't care for this plan. "Tch, I'm afraid these people won't be that honest. Don't you see, most of those fleeing the disaster this time are able-bodied men. Young people are the majority; letting this bunch gather together will definitely cause trouble. You let Secretary Shang go to persuade; those with families might listen, but those single men who came here, I'm afraid they won't be that obedient. If we don't establish prestige, relying solely on persuasion will still cause trouble later."

Hua Xiongmao's voice was loud, and feeling this was the correct principle, he was full of vigor. Before Dai Enze could speak, three people came in from outside. The leader was Zhang Yu, the commander of the Water Detachment. The other two were Li Zhao, the political commissar of the Water Detachment, and Vice Commander Pan Yongxin. Before entering, he had heard Hua Xiongmao's words. As soon as he entered the room, Zhang Yu spoke up to oppose: "This won't do. Quite a few disaster victims are common people from our newly liberated areas. It's not impossible for you to establish prestige here and beat them up. But these people have fled disaster; their hearts are inevitably wild. If they hold a grudge against us now, when they return to their hometowns later, they might not necessarily follow us. Doing this is inappropriate."

Hua Xiongmao turned his head and glared at Zhang Yu. Zhang Yu completely didn't care about Hua Xiongmao's dissatisfaction, but saluted Hua Xiongmao very seriously according to military etiquette. Hua Xiongmao completely didn't expect Zhang Yu to play this hand. Although dissatisfied, he had to return the military salute according to etiquette. Zhang Yu then saluted Shang Yuan, and Shang Yuan also returned the salute. When Zhang Yu turned to Dai Enze, Dai Enze's rank was lower than Zhang Yu's, so he hurriedly saluted Zhang Yu. Zhang Yu returned the military salute just as well-behavedly.

Although this performance seemed very affected in Hua Xiongmao's eyes, he had to admit that the atmosphere in the room immediately became much more peaceful. After everyone greeted each other, Shang Yuan spoke first: "This time Secretary Chen let me handle this matter with full authority. Since everyone is here, let's come up with a charter that can solve the current situation first. Let Comrade Dai Enze introduce the situation first."

Dai Enze had already told Shang Yuan the sequence of events once; speaking again, he was more organized. After listening to the situation, Hua Xiongmao said: "We must be prepared for suppression now; be prepared for any eventuality."

regarding such a common-sense proposal, the comrades could not but express agreement. At this moment, a sharp bell sound came from outside; it was time to serve porridge. Not knowing who rang the bell for serving porridge, soon, the noisy sound from outside immediately became much louder. Hearing this sound, everyone in the room couldn't help but change their expressions.