"Distributing houses!" "Starting to draw numbers!" "Everyone line up!" Grassroots cadres holding big megaphones stood on high places, shouting loudly to the crowd.

Hearing this, the common people immediately scrambled to rush towards the house selection table. "Whoever snatches again will be dragged to the end to pick a house!" A roar came from the big megaphone. Not only verbal threats, but the guard team responsible for maintaining order also forcibly pushed everyone into a long line.

The guard team members were also locals; those unwilling to queue ran over to find people they knew. They said with smiling faces: "Arrange us a bit forward." The guard team couldn't lose their temper with their friends and relatives, so they said pleasantly: "We have tried many times these days; everyone can only draw once. You can't see that number either. Drawing early doesn't necessarily mean ranking in the front."

This house selection was really a major event. In order to avoid the malady of weak organization in such large-scale activities in the past, all common people participated in drills regarding drawing numbers. The purpose of the drill was clear: to tell everyone that everyone would have a house, and drawing a number to select a house was luck. Being in front of the line didn't necessarily mean drawing a number in the front. However, human habitual thinking is like this; although reason and practice told everyone the unreliability of random probability, emotionally they always felt that when there were more choices, the probability of being in the front was greater.

In actual drills, some people drew front numbers, and some drew back numbers. Those who drew front numbers hoped this time was the formal selection and were even unwilling to hand the numbers back. Lu Huitian, who was responsible for house distribution affairs, could understand this mentality, but also found it very funny.

After all, they had lived collectively for more than half a year, and the masses' habit of observing order was basically formed. Lu Huitian remembered Chen Ke's speech at the mobilization meeting: "Everyone should see how enthusiastic the people are about house distribution. The more enthusiastic the people are, the more it shows that the people believe in us. It shows that our work is more successful."

The situation on the scene was indeed as Chen Ke said; although there was nervousness, expectation, and worry, the common people all hoped to be more in front. The purpose of wanting to get the house selection number earlier was not necessarily all thinking they could get a more front number. Getting it earlier meant they could go to select a house earlier, and their hearts could settle down earlier.

After the order stabilized, the number drawing finally began. The first number drawn was 8143. The one who drew the number was a middle-aged man; Lu Huitian felt he had seen him, but couldn't call out this person's name. The staff member shouted with a megaphone: "Number eight thousand one hundred and forty-three! Number eight thousand one hundred and forty-three! Hu Youxiang ranks eight thousand one hundred and forty-third to select a house." The middle-aged man's face immediately fell. A burst of laughter erupted from the crowd; it wasn't clear if it was envy or schadenfreude. Mixed in the laughter was the sound of a woman wailing. This number was really too far back. There were a total of 12,000 houses; Hu Youxiang was selecting a house towards the end.

Looking at the big box in front of him sheepishly, Hu Youxiang really wanted to draw another number from inside to compare with this one of his. He looked up again at the guard team eyeing him covetously next to him; if he drew again recklessly, he would definitely be slapped to the very end. In the number drawing drills these days, discipline was repeatedly declared. The guard team didn't give Hu Youxiang a chance either; everyone pushed and pulled Hu Youxiang to the notary office.

The notary office was composed of six people, all representatives of the common people who supported the People's Party. Their background must be clean. Innocent meant that besides not being property owners above middle peasants, they could not have had bad records; those who stole or fought were all rejected. They could not come from clan families in various villages. Anyone who could represent the power holders of the old era was rejected. People's representatives shouldn't be unable to represent the "more general" people.

These representatives of the common people had mastered Arabic numerals and basic arithmetic knowledge in literacy training. They verified the number, which was the same as the number stated by the announcer. Then this number and name were registered, and the number was pasted on a huge board according to the list.

Next, number "4511" was drawn by the second person. The team finally began to move forward slowly.

Those who drew front numbers would receive a burst of envious exclamations, while those who drew back numbers would trigger good-natured laughter. Especially when number 1 and number 12,000 were drawn, it was a huge stimulation. The roar of the common people drowned out the sound of calling numbers.

House selection was carried out overnight. After the first 100 numbers were picked out, this group of people was immediately organized to select houses. The common people actually had their own ideas in their hearts long ago; those arranged to select houses went straight to the houses in their minds. The impatient ones even moved the bed boards of their straw bunks with their whole families and moved in immediately.

The number of people eligible to move into houses in the entire Fengtai County was finally determined to be 67,000. Among them, 12,000 people needed to live in collective dormitories because they joined the civil servant team and the troops. So finally 55,000 people could move into new houses. Everyone hadn't had their own houses for a long time. Because the number of houses was limited after all, a family could only live in one room. The People's Party guaranteed that they would build houses non-stop in the near future. Within four months, every family would have their own house.

Everyone hadn't lived together as a whole family for a long time; needless to mention this excitement. Every family reunited, and soon they found that there were not many daily necessities in the new home now. A few simple broken beds, thin quilts; everyone didn't even have a kitchen. Even so, everyone didn't feel discouraged. The new-style red brick houses were also quite different from traditional Anhui houses. But no one was disappointed. Because many common people were living in real brick houses for the first time. Compared with low adobe houses, red brick houses were big and bright. Especially the glass on the windows; that was really a rare thing. Transparent glass windows were much stronger than window paper. Adults and children gathered in front of and behind the glass to look; such transparent stuff had never entered ordinary common people's families on such a large scale. The common people looked at the glass with surprised and even worshipful eyes. Quite a few people even thought about how much money they would make if they dismantled the glass and sold it to others.

The base area could not produce high-transparency glass for the time being; the glass provided now was relatively turbid, which also saved curtains. But on the same day, there were incidents of glass being smashed. So the common people learned a new term "Supply and Marketing Cooperative Property Management Company." The Property Management Company was responsible for the installation and replacement of items such as glass. The common people who applied to the Property Management Company for glass replacement trembling with fear received two pieces of news. The good news was "glass can be replaced for free once a year"; the bad news was "replacement more than once requires money. Changing glass once requires paying half a jin of wheat."

Breaking glass was just a matter of husband and wife quarreling or beating a child in the family. A more important matter was placed in front of the common people: land distribution was about to begin.

The charter for land distribution was very simple: every common person, regardless of gender, could be distributed three mu of land, and the Land Certificate bore the individual's name. Regardless of marriage, funeral, or marriage, this land belonged to the individual, not the family. Land was not allowed to be bought or sold within three years. After three years, land could be bought and sold with the government.

This policy, which should have caused a monstrous wave, actually had no one strongly opposing it. Women naturally didn't oppose; most women received property under their own names for the first time. Men didn't strongly oppose either; the wife married in would bring land, what a good thing this was. Everyone basically had sons and daughters; marrying in brought land, and although marrying out also meant accompanying land as dowry, it could be balanced through betrothal gifts and the like. Instead, they didn't suffer a loss.

Moreover, the common people actually lacked confidence in how long this new policy could last. The armed force of the Insurance Corps was the most powerful existence in Fengtai County now; everyone knew opposing was useless. Anyway, these lands were all good lands that everyone participated in constructing with their own hands; the difference was limited. It had only been a few days since the disaster year passed; everyone's memory of the miserable days was fresh. Now no matter how the land was distributed, it was so much better than before. The land hadn't been distributed yet; who would be willing to look for that trouble for no reason?

Haggling over every ounce is for one's own things. Now that the land hadn't arrived in hand yet, and the common people didn't have much confidence in how long this system could be maintained, opposing the People's Party and the Insurance Corps at huge risk seemed overly foolish.

Before land distribution, the Public Trial Rally was officially convened.

Since the fort was breached by the Insurance Corps, Zhang Youliang had made up his mind to die. But when he was really pushed onto the stage of the Public Trial Rally and saw tens of thousands of common people gathering around the stage, Zhang Youliang truly understood one thing: he was finished.

Zhang Youliang hadn't studied the revolutionary program of the People's Party; what he had was experience killed out with real swords and spears. For oppressors, their power and influence, to put it bluntly, had always been power facing a minority of the people. Without being able to fully organize, the people were always powerless facing landlords and bullies like Zhang Youliang. History has recorded countless times that tens of thousands of common people were always at a disadvantage facing a minority of elites.

Zhang Youliang's military history was a war between well-trained and untrained. Li Hongzhang's Huai Army troops grew up continuously in battle. From being more undisciplined than the Taiping Army elite at the beginning, to gradually having discipline. After bloody battles one after another, especially after accepting the reorganization and training of foreigners, the Huai Army became more and more regularized and disciplined.

Zhang Youliang became rich and returned to his hometown. He bought, organized, and trained hundreds of elites. Plus the Zhang family clansmen, defeating thousands of common people's movements in the countryside could be said to be a piece of cake.

In the past, the common people's battles had neither common interests nor good organization. Individual bravery was meaningless facing well-organized oppressors. Two fists can't beat four hands; a good man can't withstand many people. But without organization and discipline, even when facing battle, the people habitually wanted to preserve their own lives first. The number of those daring to fight was actually less than the enemy. After these backbones died in battle, the remaining people's team scattered in an uproar. That was why Zhang Youliang could become a hegemon in Fengtai County so easily. Para-military non-governmental forces were simply not something civilian common people could resist.

So after seeing the more disciplined and more numerous People's Party troops, Zhang Youliang's feelings were deeper than anyone else's. Having fought east and west for so many years, Zhang Youliang's gaze scanned several important locations in the venue. He saw soldiers of the Insurance Corps, which had thoroughly destroyed Zhang Youliang's fort, at key points. Following Li Hongzhang to fight east and west, Zhang Youliang had also learned "formations." Formations were not the magical "Eight Trigrams Formation" in *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*. To put it bluntly, formations were a configuration method chosen to maximize the combat effectiveness of one's own troops. Facing various situations, the military formation could adopt corresponding methods to ensure the troops exerted sufficient combat effectiveness.

The Insurance Corps' Public Trial Rally this time could be said to be a simple military formation. There were guards holding the line at the four corners, and even simple watchtowers were erected. Teams of soldiers were used to command the subordinates to maintain order. The group guarding the public trial stage could be temporarily regarded as the central army. Just looking with a soldier's habit, Zhang Youliang knew he was dead for sure. For an armed force possessing such ability, the reason for bringing him on stage was just to kill him to establish prestige. Zhang Youliang didn't expect anyone to come to "raid the execution ground." If anyone were to raid the execution ground, they should have come long ago. It had been almost four months since Zhang Youliang was captured. The Insurance Corps not only had leisure to ignore people like him. That meant the Insurance Corps simply hadn't encountered any real challenge.

Since he was a soldier, Zhang Youliang naturally had some soldier's backbone. Hands tied behind his back, even tied up firmly, Zhang Youliang's waist was still straight. Things having reached this point, stretching the head was a slash, shrinking the head was also a slash. There was no reason to let those poor ghosts below the stage look down on him. As if he had done something wrong.

Being brought up with Zhang Youliang were several backbones of the Zhang family, and several other landlords with human lives on their hands. They were all guys who were arrogant and domineering in the countryside on ordinary days. Except for a few Zhang family children who listened to Zhang Youliang's order not to submit to the Insurance Corps absolutely—so although they saw so many people below the stage, they could barely stand straight—the other landlords were already scared into kneeling on the ground. In their whole lives, they had never seen so many people in the same place. Especially these people were the poor people they had bullied on ordinary days. Before being brought here, the Procuratorate team led by Lin Shenhe had already interrogated these landlords; these landlords all knew why they were brought here.

Originally, the landlords still held illusions; among those cooperating with the People's Party and Insurance Corps, there were quite a few landlords. It was nothing more than giving a bit more money to appease the families of the deceased, and then being extorted a large sum of money severely. Unexpectedly, the people interrogating them only asked them to confess their "crimes" and turned a blind eye to their requests to pay ransom and compensation.

When the landlords completely didn't know how this bunch of people would deal with them, they were pressed onto the Public Trial Rally. Although there were still illusions in their hearts, thinking these people just wanted to display them to the public. But just the scene below and the emotions among the masses made this bunch of people intuitively know that things were bad.

What gave their spirits the final blow were the people who dragged them up. Identifying carefully, they were actually all family members of the common people killed by them. Things having reached this point, the landlords already knew they were basically dead for sure.

Hu Xingzhi was the only landlord who came to watch this public trial. This time the People's Party started arresting landlords, but unexpectedly no blood debts of Hu Xingzhi's family were found. Hu Xingzhi was also a big landlord in Fengtai County. Zhang Youliang took the violent route, while Hu Xingzhi took the clan route. Clans were originally also objects to be hit heavily this time, but clan issues were more complex, and such straightforward class struggle methods couldn't be adopted. So Chen Ke specially entrusted Ren Qiying to invite Hu Xingzhi specifically to come and watch the Public Trial Rally.

Landlords were unwilling to come to watch, and Hu Xingzhi naturally was unwilling too. When Ren Qiying came to invite him in person, Hu Xingzhi was all smiles. "Miss Ren, you aren't arresting me, are you?"

Although the news of the People's Party capturing Shouzhou was blocked very tightly, after all, it had been more than a month, and some rumors also reached Hu Xingzhi here. Hu Xingzhi knew Chen Ke wanted to rebel; his judgment was that Shouzhou had already been taken by the People's Party. Now the People's Party was arresting landlords on a large scale; Hu Xingzhi thought Chen Ke was going to lay hands on the landlords. When encountering big events, Hu Xingzhi and Zhang Youliang were actually quite similar. He secretly let his sons slip away, while he himself waited at home for disaster to come to his door. As soon as Ren Qiying arrived, Hu Xingzhi simply asked straightforwardly.

Ren Qiying smiled slightly. "Uncle Hu, the two elder brothers left the base area. We were worried the road was unsafe, so we kept them temporarily. I came this time just to invite Uncle Hu to go see the trial of Zhang Youliang and those bullies. Uncle Hu, as an elder in the clan, your character and popularity have always been excellent. Usually mediating rural affairs, there are no blood debts either. It is absolutely impossible for us to have any bad intentions towards you, Uncle Hu."

Hearing his sons were arrested, Hu Xingzhi didn't get too excited either. Even Zhang Youliang could be arrested; Hu Xingzhi's family was even less of a problem. While inviting Ren Qiying to sit down, he asked: "Mr. Chen Ke first told the landlords he wanted to borrow land. I knew this was 'borrowing Jingzhou' [borrowing without returning]. But in the disaster year, the Insurance Corps indeed saved tens of thousands of common people; I have nothing more to say. But now Mr. Chen Ke has started to forcibly arrest landlords. Doing it step by step like this, to what extent does Mr. Chen plan to go? Miss Ren, you are also a cadre of the Insurance Corps now; these tens of thousands of common people in our Fengtai County also know your name. Please, Miss Ren, give me a straight word. Whether killing or hacking, let people have a definite idea in their hearts."

"Arresting those landlords is because they owe blood debts. A life for a life, paying back debts; it is perfectly justified. Our People's Party is just conforming to heavenly principles. As for to what extent we will go in the future, the first thing is to make everyone's life next year double that of this year. Otherwise, what meaning is there in us engaging in this new system?"

By now, Hu Xingzhi also risked everything. He asked loudly: "Then how can I, Hu, be of service?"

"Uncle Hu, you are an elder of the clan. This clan is going to be replaced by the Agricultural Cooperative and the People's Representative Conference. For a reasonable person like you, cooperating with you is naturally the best choice," Ren Qiying answered calmly.

"Isn't this selling me, and I still have to help count the money?" Hu Xingzhi was very puzzled by the request Ren Qiying made.

Ren Qiying stared into Hu Xingzhi's eyes and said very seriously: "Since the old set of clans simply couldn't save the common people, why should we hold on to it and not let go? Uncle Hu, you being this clan elder, disaster relief won't work. The rest is calming disputes in the countryside. And these disputes, at most you can calm some small disputes. Once it gets big, what can you do? Zhang Youliang could kill people in public, but you dare not. What remains are those usual sacrificial festivals. You actually know very well that there are many folk festivals. These festivals all require banquets and sharing wine and meat. This is the time to 'eat the big households' like you. Many festivals are just finding an excuse to sacrifice to some random goddess, king, general, or whatever. The stories are made up as soon as you hear them. Asking about the reason can bring out countless versions; no one knows the origin. But everyone has a good time in this kind of sacrifice, because it needs to be lively, carrying gods out, parading through the streets, setting up banquets, eating good food. If you do it well, it's expected. If you don't do it well, how many people speak ill of you behind your back? Holding onto these clan matters and not letting go doesn't look like something a smart person like you, Uncle Hu, should do."

Hearing Ren Qiying's words, Hu Xingzhi nodded in agreement. What he really wanted to praise in his heart was not this statement, but that this little girl Ren Qiying could see through the true face of things so clearly. And the frankness and composure when talking about this matter. After joining the Insurance Corps, even a little girl like Ren Qiying could become so shrewd and capable; the strength of this People's Party was really not to be underestimated.

"Miss Ren, then why did Mr. Chen ask me to go see that whatever Public Trial Rally this time?" Hu Xingzhi turned the topic back to the initial question.

"Very simple. Your going is to express an attitude, supporting the People's Party to manage the judiciary of Fengtai County from now on. From now on, the clan will firstly not interfere in the judiciary, and secondly not act on its own. Once you speak, the matter of 'eating the big households' will never fall on your head again, and resolving disputes won't make you spend effort and energy. And our People's Party will also save a lot of trouble. Isn't this a good thing where both sides benefit?"