The financial resources of the Shi Dekuan family were quite substantial, substantial enough to allow Shi Dekuan and his cousin to study in Japan. In the Yuewang Society, Shi Dekuan held the position of "picket," which required traveling everywhere. Without a substantial family property, one simply couldn't bear the many expenses on the road. After receiving the order to lead some gentry to the People's Party in Fengtai County to ask for people, he immediately went to see the people from those gentry families.

Among these people were stout men in their forties and young men in their twenties, all wearing long gowns. Seeing Shi Dekuan, a 27-year-old young man, coming over, they stood up one after another. Everyone's behavior and conversation were considered polite, but that anxiety and dissatisfaction from the bottom of their hearts could not be hidden no matter what. Since the war in Anqing on February 2, their daughters had been missing; it had been almost a month now. The families of these women inquired everywhere and begged everywhere. With great difficulty, they got an accurate reply: the current owner of Anqing City, the "Yuewang Society," sent someone to lead these families to retrieve those female students. But now the leader was actually a young man less than 30 years old, which made these people feel uneasy again.

However, the families of these female students did not know that in the view of the Yuewang Society, this was a recognized hard job. In days of war and chaos, taking a group of family members to travel hundreds of li to the territory of the People's Party in Fengtai County to ask for people—no one in the Yuewang Society was willing to take this task. The Yuewang Society cadre who had been dealing with these family members hurriedly said a few words to Shi Dekuan, pushed the matter to Shi Dekuan, and left in a hurry. This attitude made these family members feel even more bleak about the future. Of course, if the families of these female students knew some inside information, they would probably feel even more desperate. In the Yuewang Society, someone even proposed a suggestion: since these female students had already been kidnapped by the People's Party anyway, the People's Party would definitely extort a large ransom or something. Rather than letting the People's Party extort ransom, the Yuewang Society might as well take advantage of the family members' ignorance of the situation and ask these people to "donate" a sum of revolutionary funds first.

Fortunately, Chen Duxiu was not muddled. He immediately rejected this suggestion, reprimanded this smart-alec guy in public, and strictly ordered that absolutely no extortion of the families of these female students was allowed. So these poor parents temporarily avoided the crisis of losing money. And the side effect of Chen Duxiu's strict order was also obvious: since the families of these female students had no profit to offer, the Yuewang Society kept them at a respectful distance.

Shi Dekuan had heard a little about this. regarding someone proposing such an unpromising idea, Shi Dekuan was quite disgusted. Of course, Shi Dekuan didn't know that the reason why he was appointed to this task was partly because Shi Dekuan was from Shijiaji, Shouzhou, very close to Fengtai County. A more important reason was that Shi Dekuan, as a picket, was quite serious. regarding various illegal acts in Anqing City, as well as behaviors of Yuewang Society members that did not conform to revolutionary morality, Shi Dekuan fully fulfilled the responsibility of a picket. This made him a thorn in the eyes of many people. Taking advantage of the opportunity of this hard job, many people enthusiastically recommended Shi Dekuan. They extremely hoped that Shi Dekuan, this "rash young fellow," would disappear from Anqing City quickly.

"Mr. Shi, your Yuewang Society has always said that the ones who kidnapped people are some People's Party from Fengtai County. But we have never heard of such a secret society in Fengtai County. Moreover, your Yuewang Society could conquer Anqing; how come you can't even manage a secret society?"

This was the question the family members had been asking but could never get an accurate answer to.

"The Girls' School was run by Teacher Qiu Jin; where is Teacher Qiu Jin now?" Some parents were completely disappointed with the Yuewang Society; they hoped to find Qiu Jin, the person in charge of the Girls' School.

Young people care about face. Hearing these two questions from the families of the female students, Shi Dekuan only felt his face burning. He couldn't say directly that the Yuewang Society was simply not the main force attacking Anqing, and its role in this war was even negligible. He couldn't say directly that after the Yuewang Society took over Anqing, the first thing they did was to squeeze the forces of the Guangfuhui out of Anqing City.

Chen Duxiu and Bai Wenwei hoped to cooperate with the Guangfuhui, but the young cadres below didn't buy the Guangfuhui's account at all. As a local force in Anhui, the Yuewang Society had an almost instinctive repulsion towards the Guangfuhui from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Tao Chengzhang was also tactful; he took the initiative to lead the people of the Guangfuhui out of Anqing. It finally avoided a more intense conflict. As a main cadre of the Guangfuhui, Qiu Jin naturally withdrew from Anqing with Tao Chengzhang.

All this was the contradiction between the Yuewang Society and the Guangfuhui; the relatives of the female students didn't care about this at all. Seeing Shi Dekuan didn't speak, they continued to press questions. Just at this time, an older middle-aged man temporarily stopped everyone's questioning. He stood up and said: "Mr. Shi, I am Huang Chengxun."

Shi Dekuan was already somewhat unable to bear the pressure at this time. Seeing Huang Chengxun was still refined, he reluctantly got up and cupped his hands. "Mr. Huang, please speak."

"Mr. Shi, now people have been abducted. Your side says the ones who robbed people were not from the Yuewang Society, and Teacher Qiu Jin is not one of your people either. I think we might as well do this: you tell us where Teacher Qiu Jin is, and we will go to visit Teacher Qiu Jin together. Everyone speak clearly face to face, and come up with a charter to save people back. Mr. Shi, what do you think?"

Although this method took some trouble, it was not impossible. Shi Dekuan answered immediately after hearing it, "Okay." Shi Dekuan was a man of action; if asked to do things, he could do them. Asking him to wrangle endlessly with people like this, Shi Dekuan really couldn't bear it.

Everyone didn't expect Shi Dekuan to agree so thoroughly, fearing he was like those people from the Yuewang Society before, just perfunctory with words. Huang Chengxun pressed: "Then when will Mr. Shi set off?"

"How about leaving now?" Shi Dekuan said crisply.

"Good, we set off now." Huang Chengxun answered immediately.

The group took a boat from Anqing down the river first, and arrived at Chizhou in half a day. As soon as they got off the boat, they saw a team of people approaching with rifles. The leader shouted loudly: "Are you from the New Army?"

Shi Dekuan knew that the Anhui New Army uniform he wore aroused the other party's vigilance. He also shouted loudly: "I am Shi Dekuan of the Yuewang Society. Here to visit Mr. Tao Chengzhang and Teacher Qiu Jin."

Hearing Shi Dekuan report his name, the other party snorted from his nose. "Mr. Tao Chengzhang is very busy now; no time to see you."

"Then seeing Teacher Qiu Jin is also fine. regarding the Anqing Girls' School, I have some matters to visit Teacher Qiu Jin about."

Hearing this, the other party hesitated for a while before saying: "You wait first; we'll go report."

Watching those people enter the city, but leaving half of the people monitoring Shi Dekuan and the others, Huang Chengxun couldn't help asking: "Mr. Shi, has your Yuewang Society and the Guangfuhui in Chizhou become incompatible like fire and water?"

Shi Dekuan couldn't help sighing. "That's not it. It's just... just everyone is busy with their own things."

"Then what is the relationship between the People's Party of Fengtai County you mentioned and the Yuewang Society?" Huang Chengxun pressed.

Shi Dekuan hadn't dealt with the People's Party originally. Being asked like this, he couldn't say anything instead. Huang Chengxun misunderstood Shi Dekuan's silence. He thought for a moment, then continued to ask: "Then how is the relationship between this Guangfuhui and the People's Party?"

Hearing this, Shi Dekuan suddenly thought that the relationship between the Guangfuhui and the People's Party seemed quite unusual. This time the Yuewang Society and the Guangfuhui had a very unpleasant quarrel; one of the superficial triggers was that the People's Party gave two cannons to Chizhou controlled by the Guangfuhui when retreating. After Tao Chengzhang accidentally mentioned this matter, the cadres of the Yuewang Society immediately became "filled with righteous indignation." Having mastered the remnants of the Anhui New Army beaten by the People's Party, the Yuewang Society immediately regarded themselves as the Anhui New Army. In their view, all armaments of the Anhui New Army should belong to the Yuewang Society. The People's Party ran away without a trace; the Yuewang Society naturally couldn't find trouble with the People's Party, but with two cannons transported to Chizhou close at hand, the Yuewang Society immediately felt they suffered a huge loss. Everyone in the Yuewang Society seemed to suddenly become artillery experts; they talked about the great significance of these two cannons for defending Anqing from various angles. And how important defending Anqing was to Chizhou.

Chen Duxiu and Bai Wenwei and other upper echelons knew they must cooperate with the Guangfuhui, so no matter what thoughts they had in their hearts regarding these things, they didn't say it with their mouths at least. But starting from the middle level, as long as the Yuewang Society could talk to Tao Chengzhang, without exception, they used coercion and bribery, wanting the Guangfuhui to return the two cannons. The matter of cannons, and some other things, made Tao Chengzhang finally decide to take the people of the Guangfuhui to withdraw from Anqing completely.

The People's Party took away a total of four cannons, gave two to the Guangfuhui, and only wanted two for themselves. From this perspective, the relationship between the People's Party and the Guangfuhui was very unusual.

While considering the complex situation, Shi Dekuan suddenly heard Huang Chengxun shout: "Teacher Qiu Jin, you are indeed here." Looking up, he saw Qiu Jin wearing the same short clothes as the armed soldiers of the Guangfuhui, walking with big strides accompanied by several people.

Most of the families of the female students had seen Qiu Jin. In their view, finding Qiu Jin was equal to half of finding their own family members. They left Shi Dekuan aside and scrambled to crowd towards Qiu Jin.

Huang Chengxun rushed at the very front. He shouted with a face full of anxiety: "Teacher Qiu, where exactly is my little girl? Please indicate clearly."

Hearing this, and seeing Huang Chengxun's anxious expression, a look of pain flashed across Qiu Jin's face. She never expected that Chen Ke would actually do such a thing as abducting female students. Not only that, to prevent Qiu Jin from intervening halfway, Chen Ke even used such despicable means as drugging.

But no matter how Qiu Jin regretted misjudging Chen Ke, the thing still happened. When Qiu Jin confirmed it was Chen Ke who abducted the students of the Girls' School, she also sent people to chase. But the People's Party marched too fast; the main force only left two days earlier, and the people sent by Qiu Jin could no longer find the traces of the People's Party. Hearing the news reported back by the dispatched comrades, Qiu Jin was furious. According to Qiu Jin's original intention, she wanted to chase all the way to Fengtai County. No matter what, she had to chase the female students back. But the situation changed extremely fast; the grievances between the People's Party and the Guangfuhui had not been resolved, and the contradiction between the Yuewang Society and the Guangfuhui immediately erupted. As an important cadre of the Guangfuhui, at the critical moment when the Yuewang Society tried to squeeze the Guangfuhui out of Anqing, Qiu Jin must ensure Chizhou occupied by the Guangfuhui.

With this back and forth, the plan to retrieve the female students had to be stranded. But Qiu Jin was always determined that as long as there was time, she must personally snatch back the students robbed by Chen Ke. So Qiu Jin specially instructed the Guangfuhui comrades defending Chizhou that as long as the parents of female students came to find them, they must report to her. If not for this strict order from Qiu Jin, with the current relationship between the Guangfuhui and the Yuewang Society, when Shi Dekuan reported his family as the Yuewang Society, the Guangfuhui comrades would never let him see Qiu Jin.

Qiu Jin still remembered Huang Chengxun, and also remembered Huang Chengxun's daughter Huang Yuyue was her student. "Mr. Huang. Your young lady and other students were taken away by a friend of mine."

Hearing Qiu Jin say the modifier "a friend of mine," Huang Chengxun felt his legs go soft. He originally thought Qiu Jin was an upright teacher; even as a revolutionary party member, she shouldn't associate with bandits who kidnap people. Holding a little illusion, Huang Chengxun asked with a trembling voice: "Were they taken away by the People's Party?"

"Yes. That bastard Chen Ke, my friend, is exactly the Chairman of the People's Party." Qiu Jin answered almost gnashing her teeth.