If not to eat a full meal, who would be willing to rebel? As soon as the People's Party forbade the common people asking to join from looting, some people immediately had thoughts of retreating. Li Zhao, who spoke to the common people, had been in the army for so long that he understood people's mentality very well. Those willing to follow the team forward had a forward-looking attitude, a focused attitude pervading every detail, ready to move forward at any time. Looking at those among the "uprising common people" whose eyes began to look left and right, Li Zhao knew these people were no longer willing to fight purely for the revolution.

Since the People's Party established armed forces in Fengtai County, the soldiers recruited were basically children of good families. Although children of good families might not be able to fight as well as those rogues and hooligans at the beginning, after more than half a year of training, their combat effectiveness improved rapidly, and they were particularly able to endure hardship. After the house distribution in Fengtai County, the spirit of the troops went to a higher level. "Fighting to liberate the common people," this declaration which was almost a slogan, had become a conviction of the soldiers.

If in the base area, everyone was merely obeying the command of superiors. After seeing the disaster situation in the surrounding areas, the soldiers solidly confirmed that their whole families survived from the death line relying on the People's Party, and had today's life relying on the People's Party. The political work system of the People's Party repeatedly emphasized letting the soldiers know that this was not the power of the People's Party; most of the work was done by soldiers and common people, and what the People's Party did was merely stand on the side of the people and serve the people. But contrary to the expectations of the comrades in the political work system, this kind of propaganda made the soldiers unite even more closely around the People's Party.

It wasn't that the soldiers didn't understand that they and the common people bore the heaviest work; it was precisely because they understood this, precisely because the People's Party spared no effort to propagate this way, that the soldiers truly felt the People's Party sincerely wanted to lead everyone to live a good life. Because the common people worked equally hard in the past, but the benefits exchanged for such hard work were negligible compared to now.

In the past, the common people encountered those who belittled the common people as worthless and bragged about the significance of their own existence as miraculous. Following these people, the common people could at most pick up some leftovers. Only by following the People's Party did everyone feel they truly got the bulk of the benefits. Up to now, the soldiers actually didn't understand what revolution meant or what industrialization meant. The only thing the soldiers understood was that all their labor and the fruits of labor mostly fell evenly into the hands of common people just like themselves, not into the hands of those officials of the People's Party. As long as the People's Party was there, everyone wouldn't starve to death, and no one could bully others. based on such simple and true reasons, the soldiers were willing to follow the People's Party sincerely.

Even if they had to face war, face death. The soldiers were still willing to follow the Party.

Actually, Li Zhao's own initial ideal was no different from other revolutionary youths: drive away foreigners and build a powerful China. A large part of the reason for working with Chen Ke was that he couldn't stay in Shanghai anymore, and hearing that there was a magistrate as a backer in Fengtai County, revolution should be very easy. Li Zhao originally didn't understand the needs of the people; the reason for his hard work was quite simple: in such an environment, only by everyone uniting together and working together could they survive. Since Chairman Chen Ke himself charged at the dangerous front line, what else could Li Zhao say?

When Li Zhao also had subordinates, when Li Zhao also had to take responsibility for others, Li Zhao originally thought it was only right and natural for comrades to follow him. It was just that as a political work staff member, he had to learn to understand the thoughts of grassroots comrades. After hard work, when he finally understood this point, when Li Zhao truly understood the true mentality of grassroots soldiers, that emotion exceeded his own imagination. Li Zhao found an uninhabited place and cried.

As long as one works, one can survive; no one can bully others. This should have been a very simple system. As an old party member who founded this new system with Chairman Chen Ke, Li Zhao originally didn't know that the people's demands were actually just this little bit. Li Zhao even always thought that getting the people to follow him in revolution required spending a lot of money to buy them. Chen Ke repeatedly emphasized in political work training that as long as a fair new system with hope was established, the people would follow the People's Party. Li Zhao actually didn't believe it much in the early stage of work. Now he finally believed it.

Of course, Chairman Chen Ke also repeatedly emphasized in political work training that the old system continuously poisoned the people culturally, making people believe that they had the opportunity to become "people above people" who got rich by exploiting others. Facing this group of "uprising common people" roped in by Zhu Sanshui, Li Zhao also believed this judgment. Originally, a greedy light flashed in the eyes of many "uprising common people"; to put it unpleasantly, that was a light very much like wild beasts. When these people heard "no looting allowed," that impulsive and agitated emotion plummeted immediately. Just grabbing a random common person in Fengtai County would be much more presentable than this bunch.

After the Public Trial Rally in Fengtai County this time, the troops held various symposiums; everyone thought the trial was very fair. The only complaint was feeling the Public Trial Rally should have been held earlier; the common people actually had been worried whether the People's Party would be like the previous government, walking together with landlords. Quite a few soldiers proposed that some bad people from before should be arrested. Facing the political cadres' explanation of "judicial justice," that is, without evidence, the judicial system cannot arrest people, the soldiers expressed comprehensive approval and enthusiastically reported crimes.

Li Zhao firmly believed that such Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army soldiers would absolutely not participate in looting actions during the war. The common people didn't look forward to troubled times, nor did they hope for crime to run rampant. So Li Zhao would not let these common people with impure motives participate in this military operation no matter what.

"We came to fight to liberate the common people. Fellow villagers, if you want to overthrow corrupt officials and smash this man-eating world, we welcome you to join our team. If you just want to loot and kill people, you don't need to follow us. After taking Fengyang Prefecture, firstly we want to relieve disaster victims, and secondly we absolutely do not allow bandits to run rampant."

After hearing this, quite a few "uprising common people" looked at Zhu Sanshui with dissatisfied eyes. Zhu Sanshui didn't say this at the beginning; "Fight into Fengyang Prefecture, confiscate all the dog officials' family property" was the slogan Zhu Sanshui used to agitate.

A common person already asked in an expectant tone: "This leader, after you take Fengyang Prefecture, how will the dog officials' family property be distributed?"

Hearing this, Li Zhao was already a bit unhappy in his heart. He suppressed his mood and answered loudly: "Part of the officials' family property will be distributed to the common people, and part will be confiscated. After taking Fengyang Prefecture, we have to relieve disaster victims; a lot of grain has to be bought from outside."

"That means we fight, and then get nothing distributed? Then can I quit?" The common person just now shouted loudly.

Hearing this, Li Zhao couldn't help breathing a sigh of relief. This military operation mobilized nearly two thousand soldiers; just relying on this military strength was enough to easily take Fengyang Prefecture. If they were all soldiers of the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army, military discipline could be guaranteed instead. Li Zhao didn't want to create incidents of common people participating in looting; such things happened when attacking forts, and the effort the Revolutionary Army spent to suppress looting was not much less than attacking forts. He smiled and said: "You can. You can quit."

Hearing this, immediately a hundred or so people quit the team. Many of the remaining common people didn't know whether it was better to quit or stay here. Just at this time, suddenly a middle-aged man strode up to Li Zhao and knelt down with a thud. His attitude was correct, kneeling straight, which startled Li Zhao. Li Zhao wanted to help him up, but the middle-aged man insisted on kneeling on the ground. While the two entangled, the middle-aged man said loudly: "This leader, I want to participate in fighting Fengyang Prefecture this time, not for looting. I want revenge. The yamen runner of Fengyang Prefecture has a grudge against my family; they wronged my older brother to death. I only beg for one thing: after breaking Fengyang Prefecture, hand that yamen runner over to me; I want to dig out his heart and liver to avenge my brother."

"We don't allow indiscriminate killing, nor can we let everyone take private revenge like this." Li Zhao finally pulled the middle-aged man up forcibly. "If you have a grievance, after we break Fengyang Prefecture, you can come to us to state your grievance. Rest assured, we will absolutely not let go of a bad person. No matter who it is, as long as they owe blood debts to the common people, we will recover them for you."

"Really?" The middle-aged man heard Li Zhao didn't agree to his request directly and was half-believing and half-doubting about Li Zhao's words.

"According to what you said, that person owes a blood debt. Then he absolutely won't owe a blood debt to only your family. After taking Fengyang Prefecture, other wronged common people also want revenge. If you kill that yamen runner privately, other common people will think that yamen runner ran away privately."

Seeing the middle-aged man still half-believing and half-doubting, Li Zhao asked: "Although that bad person only has one life and can only die once, we will hold a Public Trial Rally, letting everyone who was wronged state their grievances in public, letting everyone know the sequence of events of us killing him. Isn't this exactly the best祭告 [memorial ceremony/announcement] to the dead?"

The middle-aged man seemed to be persuaded by Li Zhao. He suddenly knelt in front of Li Zhao again and kowtowed repeatedly. "This leader, you are the Blue Sky Great Master."

Li Zhao quickly pulled the middle-aged man up again, and then said to everyone: "Fellow villagers, we are not rebelling; we are here to save the common people and uphold justice for the common people. We can't say we want to beat bad people on one hand, and do bad things like bad people on the other hand, right?"

Watching Li Zhao's mobilization, Yan Fu couldn't help nodding slightly. He hadn't participated in the People's Party's battles yet. Although Chen Ke had said some basic situations, emphasizing that the People's Party troops stressed politics and absolutely did not fight to stir up disturbances. But Yan Fu was still worried that this revolution would cause the chaos of the past. Every revolution involved killing officials; Yan Fu didn't have much sympathy for former colleagues either. But Yan Fu still cherished his reputation very much. If Chen Ke said one thing and did another, Yan Fu wouldn't follow Chen Ke down a dark path. Seeing Li Zhao's mobilization goal was clear and indeed very political, Yan Fu praised it very much.

Finally, only more than fifty of the more than three hundred people remained to volunteer for the battle. Zhang Yu didn't let them fight in the vanguard either, but handed the task of leading the way to them. Although the map of the base area was detailed enough, it wasn't detailed to the point where even roads were marked clearly. It would be much more convenient with locals leading the way; this was also an important reason why Zhu Sanshui's joining was accepted for this operation.

After rectification was completed, the troops began to march.

In the books Zhu Sanshui had read, marching was described with one phrase: "shouts of men and neighing of horses." The march of the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army was quite different; the soldiers pursed their lips tightly one by one, marching with their heads down without making a sound. Looking at the pace, it wasn't very fast; Zhu Sanshui could withstand it at first, but a moment later, Zhu Sanshui couldn't quite keep up. He was slower than the soldiers at every step; after a hundred steps accumulated, Zhu Sanshui was already left far behind by the team he could keep up with at the beginning. Just as he was panting and wanting to catch up, he saw two soldiers suddenly catch up from behind, lift Zhu Sanshui up, and walk forward. With someone to help, Zhu Sanshui immediately felt much more relaxed.

But he saw that no one in the whole team spoke; everyone buried their heads in rushing. Except for the sound of footsteps, there were actually no human voices. Zhu Sanshui wanted to ask, but just keeping up with the team had exhausted his strength; where did he have the strength to talk too much? Not only that, as the march continued, Zhu Sanshui found that as long as he thought about other things in his mind, his steps immediately became heavy. On the contrary, if he didn't think about anything and just rushed forward with the main force, his steps could be much lighter. Zhu Sanshui also gradually gave up all distracting thoughts, just concentrating on rushing with the help of the soldiers beside him. At first, Zhu Sanshui was restraining himself not to think too much, but after walking for an unknown amount of time, Zhu Sanshui's mind was completely empty. The huge consumption of physical strength made him feel a bit collapsed; he didn't even have the energy to use his brain to think about things.

Zhu Sanshui couldn't remember clearly whether they rested twice or thrice on the road. Anyway, every time he collapsed on the ground panting, before he fully rested, he was pulled up to continue marching. The weather was also cold; when walking, his body was dripping with hot sweat, but when resting, being blown by the cold wind made it appear exceptionally cold. When the city wall of Fengyang County, the head county of Fengyang Prefecture, appeared in his field of vision, Zhu Sanshui only felt his eyes go black; the high city wall seemed to be shrouded in a layer of black mist. When he collapsed on the ground panting, he saw the troops reorganize slightly and continue to advance. But the formation was somewhat different from when marching.

Zhu Sanshui didn't know; this was the result of lowered body function caused by collapse. He had begun to lack the ability to distinguish and think.

When the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army arrived at Fengyang Prefecture, they saw the city gate was not closed. Looking through the telescope, the defense on the city wall was also very loose. Zhang Yu and Pu Guanshui, who came along, discussed slightly and decided to adopt the first plan: use fake New Army to trick open the city gate. As soon as the military order was issued, a team of troops in New Army uniforms advanced rapidly towards Fengyang Prefecture.