Moods were different, so performances were different. Chen Ke temporarily had no hope for the officials, so he was more open. The four-person team consisting of a revolutionary, a revolutionary guard, a former official, and a captured official continued to advance. They paused in front of a large color poster to appreciate it for a while. The team officially entered the bustling construction site.

Yan Fu was an extremely excellent talent in modern times. The impact Fengtai County gave him was not just this bit of construction achievement. The scenes Yan Fu had seen with his own eyes were absolutely incomparable to Fengtai County in terms of investment scale. What really surprised Yan Fu was that Chen Ke could actually create such a scale of manpower in this disaster year.

After reading Chen Ke's book, Yan Fu already understood the thesis proposed by Chen Ke that "the fundamental driving force of social development is productive forces." But the Beiyang Navy and Tianjin Machinery Bureau that Yan Fu experienced were all state-invested projects. They were smashed out with tens of millions of taels of silver over more than ten years, completely different from Chen Ke's purely civilian behavior.

From afar, they saw the scene of thousands of people working together. Fengtai County was mostly plain area with high groundwater levels and fertile land. When Chen Ke carried out the overall design, he highlighted the consideration of centralization and convenience, completely aiming to facilitate large-scale agricultural production and life. Various government agencies and social service institutions were designed in the central town area. Government offices, police stations, schools, kindergartens, squares, gardens, sports fields, and shops, especially the future highlight—the factory district—all had unified planning. So the water supply and drainage systems were also planned. Although it wasn't a hard road surface now, digging ditches later would still be in time.

The common people of Fengtai County at least had the experience of working together on a large scale, plus the weather was cold, so everyone didn't resist the assembly-line house building mode. But various complaints were inevitable. Third Master Zhang panted as he transported red bricks to the school, muttering complaints non-stop: "They say 'an ugly wife, nearby land, and a tattered cotton jacket' [are treasures]. This land is more than ten li away from where we live; when can we rush to the fields?"

He had been nagging for a good while. From the engineering arrangement being completely grouped, not letting everyone go back to watch their own houses being built, but having to exchange labor for houses. To making everyone build houses of unknown use. But no matter how he complained with his mouth, Third Master Zhang dared not leave the team on his own initiative. It wasn't that no one did this, but those who did were all caught. As early as when house building started, the cadres explained clearly to everyone that in order to improve efficiency, these houses would be drawn by lot after being built. So everyone must work and complete the prescribed workload.

Lazy people exist everywhere, and they were all dragged out and criticized in public. And those caught being lazy three times would be sentenced to choose houses last. Everyone wanted to choose a house first and move in first. So everyone started working like their lives depended on it.

A new term circulated among the common people: "Those black-hearted little devils of the People's Party" arranged everyone like a small mill, ordering them around in circles. A slight relaxation would easily lead to falling behind the team.

"Third Master, can you save a breath to warm your stomach? If you don't speak, no one will treat you as a mute." Finally, someone couldn't stand it and said. Third Master Zhang's chattering disturbed this person's attention very much. "The sign says clearly, that is a school. The place where dolls go to school. You have so many children; just work well."

Someone contradicted him; Third Master Zhang was naturally unhappy. But hearing this was building houses for the school, Third Master Zhang shut his mouth. The common people all thought reading and understanding principles was a very sacred thing; building houses for the school was very face-saving. Third Master Zhang really didn't dare to shout and scream at the school.

The foundations had already been dug. Laying corners, hanging lines, and building walls were all done by professionals, or at least workers who had received professional training. Among them, the soldiers of the Insurance Corps accounted for more than 80%. Yuwen Badu was the professional among professionals at this stage. He led people to patrol back and forth on the busy construction site again and again. As long as someone's movement was not standard, Yuwen Badu would go up and criticize them. If it were ordinary house building, workers would inevitably be lazy, but the army stressed discipline most; as the saying goes, military orders are like mountains. Plus building houses for themselves, and choosing houses only after completion—if they cut corners and this house was chosen by their own family, that would be terrible. Plus the big cadre of the base area, Yuwen Badu, personally supervised the project, so the work attitude on the construction site was quite serious.

After Yan Fu walked around the construction site, he asked Chen Ke: "I see quite a few people with short hair also working; those are all your People's Party people, right?"

Chen Ke had lost interest in Shen Zengzhi, but was very interested in Yan Fu. If Yan Fu was willing to join the revolution, Chen Ke would immediately appoint him as the principal of the naval school. Since Yan Fu asked, Chen Ke answered truthfully: "Yes, I require party members to participate in grassroots labor, starting from moving bricks and mixing mud. If they don't know how houses are built, they won't know how to manage these houses in the future. Moreover, I require these comrades not to speak, but to listen to what the common people say. Since we are building houses for the common people, it won't do not to know what the common people think."

"It looks like these houses have a northern layout." Yan Fu's gaze was torch-like; he saw the key at a glance.

"Reasonably speaking, with Anhui's climate, we should use the Anhui roof mode, but it's really too late now. We will continue to improve the roofs next year."

"I see the houses are built so fast; how did Wen Qing coordinate it?"

"Standardized construction," Chen Ke explained. This was something Chen Ke was quite proud of. A significant feature of the industrial age completely crushing the manual age is that in terms of exquisiteness, products of the manual age far exceed industrial production products, but the concept of industrial production is efficiency. To allow workers to improve efficiency, every movement on the production line has to be tempered thousands of times. This house building was the same. Chen Ke didn't intend for these houses to exist for decades at all; if Chen Ke's revolutionary plan could succeed, there would be a new large-scale infrastructure construction in less than twenty years. So he just wanted to pursue efficiency.

After listening to Chen Ke, Yan Fu looked at the construction nearby again, and only then did he suddenly realize. If a person kept bending down to take a brick, then digging up a lump of cement mortar to lay on it, putting the brick on the cement mortar, and knocking the brick well with a trowel... it wouldn't take long for backaches to occur. A large number of construction workers were soldiers of the Insurance Corps; everyone was not a professional construction worker originally. So engineering management divided these steps. Someone specifically transported bricks to reach, someone was responsible for putting bricks in position, and someone was specifically responsible for laying cement and knocking the brick position well. Including inspection, special personnel were responsible. Rest time was decided according to workload. Allowing everyone to ensure their bodies wouldn't be overly fatigued.

Looking at the many people, it wasn't chaotic at all, and work efficiency was greatly improved. Standing there for not long, watching a wall rise up whoosh-whoosh. Yan Fu had never played computer games, so naturally he didn't know that in Chen Ke's view, the scene before him was quite similar to some construction games that paid attention to detail.

After walking around such a big circle, the sun also began to slant west. The four simply ate dinner in the canteen. Yan Fu and Shen Zengzhi watched very attentively but didn't speak. The system in Fengtai County was strict; this could also be seen from the long food line in the canteen. Chen Ke originally thought Yan Fu and Shen Zengzhi would have some comments on queuing, but he didn't expect the two just ate dinner without saying a word. They didn't even raise any questions about the one duck egg per person in the meal.

On the way back, Yan Fu asked Chen Ke about his plans for that iron again. Chen Ke also told the truth: make farm tools and distribute them to the common people. Yan Fu had read Chen Ke's discussion on money as a "general equivalent." Learning that Chen Ke prepared to build a modern bank to operate the base area economy, he was very enthusiastic. The Manchu Qing's national currency management was dregs; until the Manchu Qing's destruction, there was no sign of modern state banks being built at all. Yan Fu listened with relish. Especially regarding the "fiat money," this currency symbol promoted by the state, as well as the currency issuance, circulation, and withdrawal of modern banks, and how this mode was combined into the current environment of Fengtai County. Yan Fu was extremely interested.

Shen Zengzhi was a great scholar, proficient in Chinese and Western culture, but not proficient in economics and civil administration. Listening to Chen Ke narrate in detail how to effectively improve productivity by introducing scientific production modes, and then through the "fiat money" issued by modern banks, allow common people lacking hard currency to effectively participate in the transaction system. Shen Zengzhi was already very dissatisfied with Chen Ke; the more reasonable Chen Ke spoke, the stronger his aversion and uneasiness became. Later, he finally couldn't help saying a sentence: "Excessive accumulation [extortion]."

Chen Ke was not angry either. He laughed, "Excessive accumulation refers to the currency issued by the bank not being withdrawn. Just extracting the people's materials and labor by issuing currency. But the base area withdraws currency through the government providing various services and goods. The people paid labor, earned currency, and then purchased other services and goods through transactions. Just like iron plows, if the people insist on getting a wooden stick, or simply farming by hand, we don't force the people to buy iron farm tools. But if the people are willing to use iron farm tools, and the price of our farm tools is not expensive, and the people can borrow money to buy if they have no money. How can it be called accumulation? 'The true king enriches the people, the hegemon enriches the soldiers, the barely surviving state enriches the officers, and the perishing state enriches the coffers and fills the treasury.'"

Shen Zengzhi knew that Chen Ke quoted Xunzi at the end. If according to what Chen Ke said earlier, it wasn't unreasonable. But he flatly refused to praise Chen Ke. So he simply remained silent.

Chen Ke's words were actually not meant for Shen Zengzhi. He turned to Yan Fu. "Mr. Yan, we expropriated the landlords' land. Because in this new system, if someone seeks profit by monopolizing land, then it is equivalent to opening a bottomless pit. The share of the common people in this transaction system will become smaller and smaller. In our system, only laborers can earn money and become rich. If one wants to become rich by exploiting others, the new system will absolutely not allow it."

Hearing this, Yan Fu smiled faintly. "Wen Qing, my family also has a few mu of thin fields. But since I studied, I served the country or taught. I lived by my own labor and haven't eaten any land rent. If Wen Qing is worried that I oppose 'land to the tiller,' it is quite unnecessary."

Being said so by Yan Fu, Chen Ke's face blushed slightly. "Mr. Yan, I respect you very much. So I very much hope to get your approval for these implemented systems."

Chen Ke's words were very sincere, and Yan Fu was not really angry. He nodded slightly. "I have seen Wen Qing's talent, and I know Wen Qing's ambition. But I want to ask Wen Qing a sentence: have you ever thought of proclaiming yourself Emperor?"

Today, Chen Ke's purpose was to try to persuade Yan Fu to join the revolution with facts. He never expected Yan Fu to actually throw out such a question as "whether to proclaim yourself Emperor." After listening to Yan Fu's question, Chen Ke was immediately stunned on the spot.