Yuezhangji was already the headquarters of the Insurance Corps troops. In the northwest corner, the defense was always heavily guarded. That was where the prison was located.

Zhang Youliang's family and the fort landlords captured from various places were locked up there. There was no torture, no interrogation or extorted confessions. The People's Party's attitude towards these captives was to ignore them. Two liang [100g] of rice per person per day, cleaning on time; apart from this, no one here was done anything to.

The landlords never knew that being in prison was such a drag. Since the forts were breached, these people were sent here to sit in prison. Two liang of coarse grain a day; couldn't starve to death, couldn't eat full. The slow state of hunger ruthlessly tortured everyone's soul. The landlords discussed escaping at first. Some people also tried to put the prison break action into practice while they still had some physical strength. However, hunger was far more powerful than these people thought. The Insurance Corps troops guarded heavily; to break through a wall with bare hands required physical strength far exceeding the calorie limit provided by two liang of coarse grain.

Everyone discussed紛紛 at first, what kind of organization this Insurance Corps that suddenly popped up was. Was it bandits or rebels? As the oldest qualification in the prison, Zhang Youliang's family became everyone's source of information. Learning that Zhang Youliang had been locked up for almost four months, everyone was frightened quite a bit. Being able to detain people for a long time at least proved one thing: this organization even had the spare capacity to set up such institutions as prisons.

However, the discussion didn't last too long. One of the effects of hunger is to effectively reduce blood supply to the brain; insufficient blood supply to the brain caused a decline in thinking ability. Moreover, the weather was getting colder day by day. To maintain body temperature, everyone was even less willing to speak, or even move.

Prison life could be said to be dragging on like years. These people soon lost the ability to judge the days, just lingering on in the prison like this.

Suddenly, the Insurance Corps began to pull prisoners out.

Zhang Youliang's family had been locked up the longest and starved the longest. Facing the interrogators, the Zhang family from top to bottom showed a kind of numb and sluggish condition.

The doors and windows of the interrogation room were not large. Although it was daytime, the room was still quite dim, and a lamp even had to be lit. Looking at it gave people a depressive atmosphere. The interrogator in blue clothes at the table was very young; he asked in a voice deliberately pretending to be very flat: "What is your name?"

Zhang Youliang sat numbly on a very special stool. This stool was cut from a whole round wooden stake, big at the bottom and small at the top. It was very uncomfortable to sit on. But Zhang Youliang acted as if he didn't feel it at all; entering the room when told, sitting down when told. When the interrogator asked questions, Zhang Youliang didn't say a word.

"What is your name?" the interrogator asked again. Zhang Youliang remained silent.

"Ask one more time, what is your name?" The young interrogator was already a bit impatient. Just then, the person next to the interrogator put his hand on the interrogator's shoulder. "Comrade Little Zhang, don't worry."

The speaker was Lin Shenhe. The People's Party had issued a task to resolve the issue of blood debts owed by landlords to the people recently. Actually, using a little means to kill the landlords in prison was too easy. But one of the results of doing so was that there was simply no way to mobilize the masses. The purpose of temporarily detaining landlords was mainly to prevent landlords from running to report to the officials. Before the People's Party chose war, the People's Party must avoid sudden military conflicts. By now, the People's Party was ready for war, and the work of liquidating landlords' blood debts could finally be formally carried out.

The person responsible for the interrogation was Zhang Zijie. As the temporary head of the Procuratorate, Lin Shenhe also had to participate in the interrogation. Zhang Zijie was a native of Yuezhangji; from the beginning when the Insurance Corps recruited people, he ran to join the army. Now being able to be responsible for interrogating the former big landlord of Yuezhangji, although he forced a serious face, his heart was extremely excited. Unexpectedly, Zhang Youliang opposite him had no reaction like a wood carving or stone sculpture, not answering after several questions. Zhang Zijie lost his cool instead.

After being reminded by Lin Shenhe, Zhang Zijie knew he had lost his composure a bit. He quickly steadied his mind before continuing to ask: "I ask one last time, what is your name."

Zhang Youliang still didn't make a sound.

"Hmph," Zhang Zijie sneered, "Zhang Youliang, weren't you also terribly arrogant on ordinary days? Why don't you dare to make a sound now when asked what your name is?"

Hearing this, Zhang Youliang's eyes, which had been numb all along, moved slightly.

"Then I continue to ask you, how did Zhang Gongliang die?"

This name did not completely touch Zhang Youliang; he remained silent. regarding this indifferent and resistant attitude, Zhang Zijie could no longer maintain his calm. He slammed the table fiercely. "I'm asking you! Do you think you can not speak by playing dead dog? You just say it straight, how exactly did Zhang Gongliang die?"

Zhang Youliang's eyes finally blinked. Because there was only two liang of coarse grain every day for these four months, Zhang Youliang was already skinny as a stick. His Adam's apple moved up and down, and a dry voice came out slowly: "I knew long ago you wanted to kill me. Kill if you want to kill; what excuse are you looking for? Do you still want to say you are enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven?"

"Zhang Youliang, if we wanted to kill you, we could have killed you early on. But our People's Party doesn't love killing people. You are just a country landlord; saying a few crazy words is nothing big. Now there are common people who want our People's Party to uphold justice. Who killed Zhang Gongliang? How did he die?"

Zhang Youliang's answer was very simple. "He refused to pay rent last year. I had someone beat him dozens of times with a stick. He died."

Zhang Zijie completely didn't expect Zhang Youliang to say it so readily; he was quite surprised. After recording Zhang Youliang's confession, Zhang Zijie continued to ask: "Who did you ask to do it?"

"Hmph, I asked people to drag Zhang Gongliang out and beat him in public at that time. As for who exactly did it, you can ask others. I don't know." Zhang Youliang still spoke slowly. After speaking, he suddenly smiled. "Zhang Zijie, you kid are lucky. You stole half a bag of grain from my house at the beginning of the year. I sent people to catch you then, but didn't expect you had already run away. Later you actually went to defect to the Insurance Corps. If not for this, Zhang Gongliang would be your end. You would definitely have been beaten to death alive too."

Lin Shenhe completely didn't expect Zhang Youliang to speak of this past event. Although his face didn't change color, he felt a sudden realization in his heart. These days Lin Shenhe was relatively close to He Zudao. Establishing the Procuratorate needed manpower, and Chen Ke said to liquidate the blood debts owed by landlords to the common people. Lin Shenhe proposed to He Zudao, hoping He Zudao would support some politically strong comrades. He Zudao recommended Zhang Zijie; the recommendation was "daring to struggle." Looking at it now, the struggle between Zhang Zijie and the landlord was quite profound. If Zhang Zijie hadn't defected to the People's Party, it would be another murder case now.

Facing Zhang Youliang accusing him of theft, Zhang Zijie didn't mean to be overwhelmed at all. On the contrary, Zhang Zijie laughed loudly. "Zhang Youliang, you took away my family's tenancy rights, so I took back half a bag of grain from you. Relying on this half bag of grain, my family managed to hold on until the People's Party arrived in Fengtai County. You owe everyone so many lives; now is the time for you to pay them back to everyone. I also want to tell you one thing: the People's Party is about to distribute land soon. As long as they are ordinary common people, everyone can be distributed land. And this land, you can never take it away again. This land will forever belong to the common people. The good days for you man-eating tycoons and gentry are completely over."

If Zhang Youliang could still maintain calm at the beginning, after hearing this, his breathing immediately became rapid, and the indifference in his eyes as if he had seen through everything disappeared completely. Zhang Youliang's chest heaved fiercely, as if preparing to rush up and tear Zhang Zijie opposite him to pieces. Zhang Zijie looked at Zhang Youliang with composure. The four legs of the interrogation room table were buried in the cement; it couldn't be overturned at all. Zhang Youliang's excited performance satisfied Zhang Zijie very much. The desperate performance of this Zhang Youliang, who used to be majestic and could arbitrarily decide the life and death of Yuezhangji residents, was like drinking a bowl of hot wine in winter; every pore was comfortable. The wonderful pleasure of revenge made Zhang Zijie unable to help laughing out loud.

"I'll kill you!" Zhang Youliang suddenly grabbed that oddly shaped "stool," preparing to pick it up and smash it at Zhang Zijie opposite. But the odd shape of this stool suddenly played a role. The cylindrical exterior made of a whole log was quite smooth; there was simply no place to grip. Zhang Youliang bent down wanting to hug this "stool" up, but found another difficulty: this "stool" was big at the bottom and small at the top, heavy at the bottom and light at the top. Sitting on it was very stable, but wanting to hug it up made one lose balance completely. Plus his physical strength was very limited, Zhang Youliang's efforts to find a weapon all failed. Hearing the sound, the guard at the door had already rushed in. Seeing Zhang Youliang hugging the "stool" and swaying like pulling a radish, the guard came up and kicked Zhang Youliang down along with the stool, then tied Zhang Youliang up firmly.

Lin Shenhe couldn't help grinning. This kind of stool was a style provided by Chen Ke. Including the construction method of the interrogation room, it was also provided by Chen Ke. Tables buried in the cement floor were for the convenience of handcuffing prisoners to the table if needed. Some people thought there was no need to give prisoners stools to sit on; Chen Ke's answer was "making prisoners stand is very inhumane." Lin Shenhe had sat on that stool; the stool surface was not big and it was quite uncomfortable to sit on. But unexpectedly, when the prisoner prepared to use the stool as a weapon, it was actually completely unusable. Chen Ke had no experience as a policeman; this could be judged from conversations with Chen Ke. However, completely unexpectedly, besides being able to provide various theoretical supports, Chen Ke could actually come up with so many ingenious ideas on such designs of a "dark nature." Thinking about it was really quite scary.

Zhang Youliang had fallen into a state of madness, struggling and cursing at the same time. Zhang Zijie said to the guard: "Take him down first; bring Zhang Youliang's son up."

The evidence collection work was much easier than imagined. Zhang Youliang's crimes were not committed secretly at all; for landlords with such forts, their arrogance even exceeded Chen Ke's imagination. The benchmark for this trial was the murder cases committed by landlords against the people within three years. Comrades didn't quite understand this specific requirement at first; Chen Ke had to state his considerations.

Before speaking, Chen Ke asked Chen Tianhua to introduce in detail the impact of the breeding farm in Xingtai, Hebei on the small peasant economy. Everyone listened with relish. Just a village-run breeding farm could create such a huge influence in a county or even farther areas, even very likely forcing many families to be broken and destroyed. The weirdness of the economy also made the comrades shudder.

After Chen Tianhua finished speaking, Chen Ke was satisfied with the shock of the comrades. He said: "This is the trading system. The characteristic of the small peasant economy is to avoid trading as much as possible. Because the means of production are distributed in the hands of countless small producers, everyone's choice is the same: first farm and eat full. Very few surplus materials are traded. The scale of trading using those surplus products is small, but this little money happens to very likely determine the fate of a family. You need money to see a doctor; you might need money to buy cloth. As for going to school, you need money even more. And these trades, in front of mass-production competitors, simply cannot compete. The commodities farmers use for trading cannot be sold; they spent effort in vain to produce these products, and finally couldn't exchange for money. If not for the peasant association organized by Comrade Chen Tianhua, I'm afraid many families of these common people would have had big problems."

Looking at the discussing People's Party comrades, Chen Ke said: "Comrades, why do we want to overthrow the old system and establish a new system? Because industrialized production needs a matching system, and this system is very complex. The Chinese people are great people; everyone knows they can't trust things they haven't seen. So we ourselves must understand this system first, and then build the framework of this system first. Only when the people enjoy the benefits of this system can they gradually believe in us. Everyone continue to work hard."

The persuasive effect of this speech was excellent. Although many comrades had things they wanted to say, to let them thoroughly understand the effect of mass production on the small peasant economy, everyone had more things to figure out. So everyone simply stopped saying much and focused the problem back on the initial question: why focus on investigating murder cases within three years.

"Within these three years, there were signs of large-scale foreign goods entering Fengtai County. Many landlords in Anhui had their own businesses. Landlords couldn't cope with the challenge of foreign goods, and some foreign goods were also very important to landlords; landlords also needed more money to trade. On one hand was the bankruptcy of landlord workshops; on the other hand, landlords needed more money. Apart from squeezing more grain from farmers to exchange for more money, landlords had no other way. Moreover, there are many forts in Anhui; the degree of arrogance of these big landlords can be imagined. The landlords had the most murder cases in these three years. Moreover, many of us are not locals; we have little information about many cases from three years ago. I'm not saying cases from three years ago shouldn't be investigated, but investigating cases from three years ago might not be as clear in facts as these cases within three years. Since we want to handle cases, we must handle them with clear facts. We cannot handle cases just to pursue results."

And the final result was truly surprising. Within three years, Zhang Youliang's family alone committed more than a dozen murder cases in Yuezhangji. Several other landlords also had murder cases in their hands. As for cases of seizing fields and seizing tenancy rights, there were hundreds. This was just cases near Fengtai County. For the surrounding forts conquered by the base area, the owner of every fort had murder cases on their hands. If this was considered the category of class struggle and easy to define, gangs were prevalent in the Huai River North area; armed fight cases triggered by various civil contradictions caused hundreds of deaths. These armed fight cases involved more people; even some soldiers in the troops were involved in these things.

"Grasp the principal contradiction first now. The contradiction between landlords and the people is the principal contradiction. Focus on handling these cases first; freeze the others temporarily." Chen Ke issued instructions.

Xu Dian didn't object this time. These murder cases were all cases before the base area was established. Those involving class struggle could be said to have people's demands, but for civil dispute cases, the People's Party hadn't appeared at that time, and legally they were not qualified to manage so much.

"Comrade Xu Dian, I asked you last time to arrange the trial of those who stole from the farmland. When publicly trying landlords this time, this group of people should also be 'accompanied binding' [displayed as warning]. After trying the landlords, try them publicly too. This group of people has been arrested and subjected to forced labor for so long; the time of this stage should also be counted as prison term."

Xu Dian didn't object. He asked: "Chairman Chen, when will this public trial be held?"

"As soon as the iron-transporting fleet returns, hold it immediately."

"Yes!" Xu Dian's eyes were full of enthusiasm. This was his first time practicing the duties of a judge; his excitement could be imagined. "I will go back now to confirm the legal provisions more. Prepare more perfectly before the fleet returns."

Under Yan Fu's command, the fleet finally arrived at Hanyang. There were many more checkpoints along the way. If not for the fleet having the Anhui New Army flag and the escort of some New Army comrades who had volunteered to join the People's Party, they would definitely have been extorted miserably. Even so, the fleet gave quite a few benefit fees to the checkpoints along the way. During the Anhui flood, the government not only didn't provide relief but increased the intensity of exploitation. regarding such a status quo, the Water Detachment was filled with righteous indignation from top to bottom.

Water Detachment Political Commissar Li Zhao specially held a mobilization meeting. This mobilization meeting impressed Yan Fu deeply.

"Comrades, I know everyone hates these checkpoints to the bone. Because the money everyone gives them is money earned hard by our Party, money earned by the common people of the base area breaking their backs. Those corrupt officials do nothing but sit there and collect money for nothing. Should everyone be angry at this bunch of bastards? Everyone should be angry! Because we are all People's Party members, all People's Party soldiers. We want to save the people and completely eliminate these corrupt officials!"

Yan Fu listened and watched quietly. The People's Party comrades were all very young; the oldest was less than forty. Listening to Li Zhao's mobilization, everyone had anger on their faces. Even Zhang Yu, who usually didn't like to show expression, had a face gloomy like water.

"Of course, in the eyes of this bunch of people, after the flood, these people's lives are miserable. The daily extortion has no source; except for collecting money on the river channel, they have no other livelihood. Comrades, this bunch of people never thought that facing disaster, as long as we unite, as long as we sincerely want to save the common people, there is nothing we can't do. Didn't we do it in Fengtai County? Moreover, Fengtai County had the worst flood; we have so many rivers and lakes here. As the saying goes, people go to high places, water flows to low places. Water from everywhere came to us. But were we afraid? I have to say, I was afraid at that time, but seeing so many fellow villagers about to die in this flood, saving people was too urgent; I didn't have time to be afraid of this or that either."

The comrades of the Water Detachment were all old comrades; many had experience saving people. Everyone nodded one after another.

"Hanyang is a big place with many fun things and rare gadgets. Everyone coming to this place wants to see the world and see rare things. I can understand everyone's mood, but I want to say now, we came to Hanyang this time to transport precious iron back to our Fengtai County. We came to work, not to play. No matter how good or prosperous Hanyang is, it is not the focus of our visit this time. I require everyone not to get off the boat during the period in Hanyang. Big places have various bad people. For such a big fleet of ours, there are plenty of people who want to target us. Once off the boat, someone will try every way to have bad intentions towards us. Even if we can settle these things, it will delay the itinerary. Comrades, after this flood, everyone's family needs farm tools. Transporting this iron back to the base area, our families will have farm tools to cultivate next year. And this winter, we have to do so much farm work on water conservancy; everyone is eagerly waiting for us to transport the iron back. If because we ourselves are playful and delay these important works, do you think it's appropriate?"

"Don't worry, Commissar. We will definitely listen to command. We absolutely won't cause trouble."

"It's not afraid of you causing trouble. I now require everyone that during the period in Hanyang, without orders, absolutely no one is allowed to get off the boat. We came here for work. I guarantee everyone, when we liberate Anhui and liberate Hubei, I will request our party organization comrades to come to Hanyang specifically to play. But, this time, I require everyone absolutely not to get off the boat. The captain of each ship must manage his own ship and his own crew well. We didn't come out to play for ourselves; we came here for our families, for the revolution."

"Commissar, we will definitely obey orders and listen to command."

"If we aren't allowed off the boat, we won't get off the boat."

The soldiers all expressed their attitude.

Yan Fu looked at the soldiers' demeanor; that was definitely not a perfunctory look, but a simple look of complete understanding. The navy stresses discipline most. Soldiers floating on the water all day naturally want to relax when they arrive at the port. The Beiyang Navy even caused human lives in the Japanese flower streets [red-light districts]. Many of these people were soldiers who joined not long ago, yet in discipline, they could already compare with or even exceed the Beiyang Navy. Yan Fu was very satisfied with this.

Zhang Zhidong was very polite to Yan Fu. There was so much scrap iron in Hanyang Iron and Steel Works; the price was naturally negotiable. Of course, Yan Fu being willing to pay with real gold and silver was another reason. The People's Party brought a lot of 914 this time, which sold for a very good price. With the concessions in Wuhan booming day by day, the problem of venereal diseases was very serious. Giving enough money, plus effective bribery, the total amount of steel bought finally reached as much as 20,000 tons.

As a Confucian scholar, to show respect for Yan Fu, a true famous scholar, Zhang Zhidong even came personally when Yan Fu was preparing to load the ships and leave, and sent two officials to pilot the way for Yan Fu, so that Yan Fu wouldn't encounter excessive difficulties in Hubei. And Yan Fu also knew the news that Zhang Zhidong was about to go to Beijing soon.

"Jidao, where did you get such a group of cargo transporters?" Zhang Zhidong originally thought that transporting these 20,000 tons of steel wouldn't be too fast no matter what. Unexpectedly, the people on the ship had a reasonable division of labor and orderly organization. And everyone worked like their lives depended on it. Completely different from those numb dock workers tortured by heavy work. Although Hanyang Iron and Steel Works was responsible for transporting the steel to the riverside, he didn't expect more than three hundred people to work together like crazy. In more than two hours, all the steel was transported onto the ships.

"Lord Zhang, these people were also met by chance. I originally didn't expect to meet such a group of people." Yan Fu laughed.

Originally Zhang Zhidong wanted to invite Yan Fu to have a meal together. Seeing such a scene, and seeing Yan Fu's face full of urgency to get on the boat quickly, Zhang Zhidong laughed, "Jidao, seeing you so anxious, I won't keep you much longer."

Yan Fu was not polite either; he bid farewell to Zhang Zhidong directly.

Watching the fleet sail into the Yangtze River channel, Zhang Zhidong was very puzzled. Who exactly was Yan Fu helping with all his might?

Nine days later, the news that Yan Fu's fleet entered the range controlled by the base area finally arrived at Chen Ke's place, who had been waiting for a long time. Chen Ke immediately convened the Party Committee meeting. At the meeting, it was formally decided that the next step of work begins.