Fengyang Prefecture is on the *yang* [sunny/south] side of Fenghuang Mountain [Phoenix Mountain], hence the name. If not for Zhu Yuanzhang, this place wouldn't be very famous originally. Moreover, the famous part in the *Fengyang Flower Drum* is also "Since Zhu Yuanzhang came out, nine years out of ten are famine." Because floods are frequent here, Fengyang Prefecture is actually just a general name. Even the prefecture seat changes with frequent floods.

In this sense, it might be more appropriate to view the Manchu Qing's rule in Fengyang Prefecture as a feudal colonial authorized tax collection system. Backward productive forces made the common people exhausted just coping with floods, unable to engage in production. This was also a fact of Fengyang Prefecture.

As soon as the troops disembarked, a large number of common people were already waiting on the shore. Everyone had seen many ragged disaster victims, but these disaster victims were quite different; carrying various "weapons," they were quite spirited. Seeing the soldiers of the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army, there was no surprise common to people in other places on their faces. On the contrary, these common people all had radiance on their faces. The People's Party had not yet opened a base area in the Fengyang County area for the time being, but this did not mean the people of Fengyang County did not know the existence of the People's Party. A young man in a long gown stood in front of the common people; beside the young man was the liaison officer of the People's Party. Seeing the team of the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army dock, the two went up to welcome them first.

The young man looked gentle and refined. He cupped his hands at the people on the fleet and shouted loudly: "I am Zhu Sanshui, from Yaozhuang. May I ask which one is the leader of the People's Party?"

The commander of this military operation was still Zhang Yu, and the fleet commander was Yan Fu. The two were on the foremost boat. One reason for choosing to dock here for this operation was that Zhu Sanshui volunteered to lead the locals to participate in the battle to attack Fengyang Prefecture.

Zhu Sanshui's joining was completely unexpected. The new base areas didn't want to be too conspicuous; although the furthest base area had already reached Hongze Lake, they temporarily didn't press too close to Fengyang Prefecture. Zhu Sanshui ran to the Tianhe Base Area on his own initiative to ask to join. One selection point for the People's Party to develop base areas was to be by the water. Because of the flood, the common people by various lakes were the most miserable.

After the persons in charge of various base areas arrived at the base areas, they all found that the situation they faced was completely different from Fengtai County. One of the most important differences was that there was no longer time for rush planting and rush harvesting. Although forts were taken, there was no reason to immediately start gathering people for labor. Farming must start next year, but the people's stomachs were starting to get hungry now. The only coping method was to form "Reclamation Brigades" and adopt centralized living to save grain supply quantity.

For the secretaries of various districts of the People's Party, this was a last resort. For the common people, this was the only way to save their lives. So various rumors began to spread at great speed. The People's Party had countless grain; as long as one was willing to depend on the People's Party, everyone would have food and shelter. Previously in Fengtai County, the common people were already living centrally, so news didn't spread fast. Now that the base areas expanded, the range of contact with disaster victims expanded greatly.

Zhu Sanshui was a scholar, but failed to pass the examination for Xiucai before the court abolished the imperial examination. Fortunately, there was a little thin field at home; with no hope for official rank, farming should be okay. As a result, when the flood came, there was no hope for farming either. After hearing the rumors of the People's Party, Zhu Sanshui immediately felt that this newly rising force was by no means "good men and believing women" [harmless people]. In these years when the government didn't even relieve disaster, for a non-governmental force to spontaneously organize so big, their heart was definitely not to serve the court.

Having studied for so many years without getting a degree, Zhu Sanshui had completely despaired of the court. After discovering the "suspicious" political force of the People's Party, Zhu Sanshui's choice was to defect immediately. He first went to the Tianhe Base Area to inspect on the spot, saw those blue-clad troops, and also tried to get food twice. He confirmed that this group of people and the court were not the same thing at all.

Zhu Sanshui had studied after all and knew that defecting empty-handed was useless. There was still some surplus grain at home, so he simply asked to see the leaders of the Tianhe Base Area. The secretary of the Tianhe Base Area was Qin Wuan. Qin Wuan, who came from Fudan Public School, was from Shaanxi and had the personality peculiar to people from Guanzhong: frankly speaking, refreshing; badly speaking, impetuous. He was very interested in Zhu Sanshui's proposal to "join the partnership." In the conversation, Zhu Sanshui didn't understand the people's revolution mentioned by Qin Wuan; Zhu Sanshui originally only cared about whether the People's Party wanted to rebel. Since the People's Party wanted "revolution," Zhu Sanshui simply proposed that he could use all his family property to organize the people of Longzihu to participate in the "revolution."

If not for the People's Party having already decided to attack Fengyang Prefecture, Zhu Sanshui's end would very likely be "supervised" for investigation. Now time was so tight, and Qin Wuan was also impatient, so he simply went with Zhu Sanshui to the Longzihu area for an on-the-spot investigation personally. The investigation result was that the local area completely had a revolutionary foundation.

At this time, the plan to attack Fengyang Prefecture had been formulated. The result of the Party Central Committee's research was that Zhu Sanshui's defection to the revolution should be sincere. Agree for the time being at this stage. But the premise lay in sending someone to see if Zhu Sanshui could obey orders and scatter the surplus grain in his home to organize local people. The result of observation was that Zhu Sanshui indeed obeyed orders and, under the command of the special commissioner, organized a team of hungry people.

Finally, Zhu Sanshui was temporarily allowed to join the revolutionary ranks.

Before departure, Yan Fu expressed he was not very assured about this team joining rashly. Zhang Yu didn't have so many worries. The common people couldn't survive; if rebelling could let them live, the common people didn't care about attacking the government. According to several contacts, the news brought back by the liaison officer was that quite a few local people chose to join the battle spontaneously. If Zhu Sanshui expressed defection alone, there was still some possibility of a scam. If local people chose to join in large numbers, the possibility of them being court running dogs was minimal.

Seeing Zhu Sanshui coming to welcome them, Zhang Yu shouted loudly: "I am the commander of the People's Party. Is this friend Zhu Sanshui?"

"I am Zhu Sanshui! Thank Heaven and Earth, I finally looked forward to the arrival of the King's army." Zhu Sanshui shouted loudly.

After the troops disembarked, according to the prior arrangement, the grain given to these "uprising common people" was also transported down. The base area didn't have much rice or wheat; the transported grain was all potatoes. Everyone didn't say anything else; for anyone volunteering to participate in the battle, distribute twenty jin of potatoes per person first.

Zhu Sanshui never expected the People's Party to act so righteously. One of the reasons he didn't pass the Xiucai exam back then was that he liked listening to operas and reading various novels. This practice of distributing grain to the common people before rebelling was really an excellent strategy to buy people's hearts. While touched in his heart, Zhu Sanshui vaguely felt a kind of fear; this group of People's Party people acted very methodically. Through grain distribution, they directly took away a lot of the common people's goodwill. Zhu Sanshui mobilized so many people because he scattered the surplus grain at home. Now it could be seen that the grain in the hands of the People's Party was far more than his, plus the number of blue-clad troops exceeded a thousand. They had guns and grain; how could they take him, a person who defected rashly, seriously?

This thought didn't last too long; Zhu Sanshui soon got over it. It's good to take shelter under a big tree. Now these common people didn't sincerely want to rebel, but were forced by inability to survive. How much grain could Fengyang Prefecture have? Even if they conquered it, they couldn't eat for long. Let alone that after conquering Fengyang Prefecture, the common people would scatter like birds and beasts after looting grain and wealth. He couldn't gather many people at all.

"What's wrong, Comrade Sanshui? You look like you don't understand why we do this." Qin Wuan appeared beside Zhu Sanshui at some point.

Zhu Sanshui said hurriedly: "Mr. Qin, oh, Comrade Qin Wuan, I just feel that our People's Party really has too much grain. I admire it from the bottom of my heart." Although he was in a state of complete ignorance about the People's Party, in the People's Party, everyone addressed each other as comrades regardless of status; Zhu Sanshui liked this characteristic very much. Even if he was new, outsiders couldn't tell.

Qin Wuan's tone was full of pride. "What we want is political power, not wealth, and even less to learn from the Manchu Qing to exploit the common people. So we naturally want the territory to be as big as possible. These grains were all grown by the common people of Fengtai County after the flood. The bigger the territory, the more common people we can benefit."

Zhu Sanshui had heard these things from other comrades of the People's Party, but he was half-believing and half-doubting. It wasn't until he saw these potatoes still stuck with mud, especially since the potatoes were not big, that he really believed it. Since Qin Wuan was so confident, Zhu Sanshui praised half-sincerely and half-hypocritically: "If only the People's Party comrades had come earlier. How many fewer people would have died in Fengyang Prefecture."

"Aren't we here now?" Qin Wuan said loudly.

Zhu Sanshui nodded hurriedly.

And the next action of the People's Party was even more beyond Zhu Sanshui's expectations. In his opinion, since the People's Party had already given the common people grain, it could be said that the money for selling their lives to join the partnership had been paid, so they should gather as many common people as possible. Unexpectedly, the cadres of the People's Party actually gathered the common people near Longzihu who participated in the "rebellion" first. More than three hundred people came this time, all poor people who couldn't survive.

"Fellow villagers, we are going to attack Fengyang Prefecture now. Our purpose in attacking Fengyang Prefecture is firstly not to kill officials and rebel, and secondly not to rob grain and money. We attack Fengyang Prefecture to give the common people a way to live. From the flood until now, has everyone eaten a mouthful of life-saving grain relieved by the government? Before the flood, did the government give everyone a bit of benefit besides collecting taxes? We conquer Fengyang Prefecture, and in the future, our People's Party will organize the government. Everyone will never be bullied again. Because our People's Party is the team of the common people."

The common people hugged the potatoes distributed to their hands tightly one by one. Listening to these inexplicable words, they didn't know how to respond. Most of these common people were young people, and also desperate people who took risks. The reason they came to participate in this rebellion was originally that they were forced to be unable to live. They prepared to rob some life-saving grain and money after breaking through Fengyang Prefecture. Unexpectedly, this group of people actually wouldn't allow it.