When the low-level personnel of the "counter-revolutionary gang" were brought in by comrades dressed in such a way, their fear was very obvious. The attire of the People's Internal Affairs Commission reinforced this feeling in a sense. This clothing combination originated from one of Chen Ke's many disordered records.

"Making the interrogated feel powerless and fearful is one of the key points to overwhelm them spiritually." Chen Ke wrote in his discussion on interrogation techniques.

This idea was easily accepted by the comrades of the People's Internal Affairs Commission. Chinese tradition emphasizes "majesty and ceremony" most. This little trick of Chen Ke was not an original creation. But the People's Party couldn't put on colorful official robes. Chen Ke's subsequent suggestion for the interrogator's clothing was "simple, powerful, metallic texture, and shiny." Of course, after this passage, Chen Ke heavily wrote the instruction "personal extremely immature idea."

The comrades exerted the People's Party's style of seeking truth from facts. After reading Chen Ke's suggestion, the committee split into two factions at that time. One faction believed that Chairman Chen's suggestion should be implemented to completely overwhelm those counter-revolutionaries in terms of clothing and momentum. The other faction believed that since the purpose this time was to investigate clearly why a part of the masses attacked the grassroots organization of the People's Party, it was better to dress more approachable. Both factions had their own reasons. As the leader of the People's Internal Affairs Commission, Qi Huishen adopted a compromise plan. After comparing various clothing combinations, he finally decided on the military uniform combined with a leather armed belt with a cross-shoulder strap. The armed belt wiped with lard had luster and texture; after fastening it, the whole person also looked more spirited, and the oppressive force increased significantly.

These low-level personnel had been locked up for several days; naturally, they couldn't eat well during the days of detention. Their already thin and weak bodies were held by the powerful arms of the working group comrades; they really felt great fear.

Many of these people were locals, so their personal information was prepared completely. After inquiring about basic information such as name and age, when further asking why these people participated in attacking the base area government, their answers were quite consistent: "For loyalty [Yi Qi]."

"Since Big Brother Liu spoke, and also promised us grain, we followed him." Almost every bottom-level person answered the same way.

regarding such an answer, the working group personnel had to ask: "You survived by eating the grain of our People's Party, and then attacked the fort of our People's Party; do you think doing this is loyal?"

The answers to this question became varied. Some swore solemnly that they didn't know Liujiapu had been occupied by the People's Party before attacking the fort. Some were not skilled in lying, so they could only say they were deceived. Or smiled apologetically saying they had eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai, and resolutely wouldn't do such a stupid thing next time. Of course, there were more bizarre answers; participants said they didn't know they were going to fight at all; they participated just to join in the fun and see something rare. Some even said they were originally sleeping, were woken up from their dreams, went confusedly, and then were captured confusedly.

Regardless of what reasons these people used to explain their actions, no one expressed daring to oppose the People's Party government in the future.

When they finished talking about their own affairs and it was their turn to expose others' affairs, various information and materials began to gush out. In almost everyone's confession, others rushed in front, and they just followed behind as bystanders. In these confessions, the people rushing in front were different.

Thanks to considerable consideration for enduring mental power when selecting the first batch of comrades for the People's Internal Affairs Commission, the people selected were all relatively meticulous. Part of the comrades in the working group were responsible for interrogation, and another part began to cross-compare multiple confessions, screening out content with commonalities. More than a dozen names gradually surfaced in the summary.

"It seems Comrade Lin Shenhe's work was done very well." Qi Huishen couldn't help praising while looking at the lists in front of him. Before the working group came, Lin Shenhe provided a batch of lists he collected; these dozen names that appeared with great frequency in the confessions were impressively on the list. They were the names of the main secret society leaders near Wuhe County. The leaders who rose to oppose the People's Party were these secret society leaders.

Bi Qingshan didn't mean to echo Qi Huishen. He frowned and asked: "Should we comb through the accomplices again? Few of them told the truth. I'm afraid there are still some people who haven't been caught out."

Due to the adoption of advanced working methods, the lies of this batch of people already interrogated could be seen almost at a glance. Bi Qingshan was very disgusted with the performance of these people; he had quite a mind to investigate thoroughly to the end.

"Qingshan, are you really preparing to kill on a large scale?" Qi Huishen asked. "These people are all disaster victims. It hasn't been long since they returned to the local area, and they haven't joined our grassroots government. Saying they were coerced is not too excessive."

Bi Qingshan did not agree with Qi Huishen's idea. "Coerced? These people were all persuaded back by our local cadres; how could they not know who is in charge in the base area? These people went simply to grab grain. Just not bold enough, wanting to follow behind to get benefits. Just because the local area was fully prepared, they weren't given a chance. If they told the truth honestly, I would think we could let them go. Now that they are caught and still full of lies, what is this? We must teach them a lesson."

Looking at the indignant Bi Qingshan, Qi Huishen knew that what Bi Qingshan stated just now was exactly the reason why many People's Party comrades demanded severe punishment for this group of people. These disaster victims returned to their hometowns under the mobilization of cadres; to accept this group of people, the People's Party did a lot of work. It was impossible for these people not to know that the People's Party was in power in the base area. In such a situation, these people still dared to participate in the action of attacking the grassroots organization of the People's Party; this nature was definitely a contradiction between the enemy and us, not a contradiction among the people. Many comrades advocated killing all these people to eliminate future trouble.

Qi Huishen didn't like indiscriminate killing, and Chen Ke's attitude towards this counter-revolutionary incident was also relatively cautious. He didn't want a consensus of severe punishment to form in the working group first. Before personally commanding the investigation work, Qi Huishen hadn't felt how easy it was to fabricate charges. After personally participating in various inquiries, Qi Huishen felt that as long as there was a preconceived method, plus enough skills, it was really too easy to persecute a person to death. Needless to say these participants with actual counter-revolutionary actions, wanting to use this incident to bring down a batch of cadres in Wuhe County was not a difficult thing. Precisely because he personally felt the power of the People's Internal Affairs Commission, Qi Huishen hoped even more that the department he controlled would never have a strong violent impulse. He couldn't help advising: "In a disaster year, the common people's livelihood is precarious, and there are great changes in the base area. It is understandable that these people don't believe in our new regime."

Bi Qingshan didn't know Qi Huishen's thoughts. His heart was now full of anger towards counter-revolutionaries. "Use heavy punishment in troubled times. If we let these people off easily, what will other common people think watching? Moreover, they are full of lies now; this is opposing us, thinking they can muddle through. This is absolutely not okay."

Hearing this, even Qi Huishen couldn't say anything more. Although he thought there was no need to kill on a large scale, this tolerant attitude also needed a bottom line. Tolerance does not equal indulgence. These captured personnel indeed hadn't shown an honest attitude of admitting guilt so far. The People's Party advocated "leniency to those who confess, severity to those who resist." This group of people still had luck in their hearts and were still resisting the new government. From this perspective, at least their luck mentality had to be dispelled, and they must tell the truth to the working group. Holding a kind of worry, Qi Huishen let Bi Qingshan continue his work.

The newly started second round of interrogation was targeting those contradictory statements. The effect of persuasion with kind words was very unobvious. Seeing that the People's Party didn't use torture, many participants felt they could deny to the end. regarding their contradictory words, many tried to use the excuse that they remembered wrong or said wrong at the time. Some even bolder ones actually said the working group recorded wrong. They didn't say so originally. Facing such a situation, the originally calm questioning quickly became intense.

Qi Huishen looked at the various inquiries and sophistry in the interrogation room; he really felt very helpless. The purpose of these participants was nothing more than to get a better result for themselves, little knowing that their own efforts were pushing themselves in the completely opposite direction. Actually, as long as these people admitted their mistakes with bitter tears, and then honestly confessed what they did at that time, the People's Party could let them go. The sophistry of these people only pushed themselves to a more dangerous situation. What made Qi Huishen feel sad was that there were basically no people willing to admit they were wrong.

"Liu Chengkun, you won't shed tears until you see the coffin." Not long after Bi Qingshan started the third round of interrogation, he finally couldn't help shouting loudly, "Even if we originally wanted to release you back, listening to you say this, we can't release people instead. Liu Chengkun, do you really feel you did wrong? You are just pretending to be pitiful to me because you feel you were caught. You don't know you shouldn't have participated in this kind of thing at all, do you?"

Liu Chengkun could see that Bi Qingshan was really angry. He tentatively said: "I was wrong, I know I was wrong. Officer, I admit my mistake; can you let me go?"

With a slap, Bi Qingshan slammed the table. He shouted: "Knowing you were wrong, you still tell me lies? You first said you followed to transport grain. Then you said you were at the very back of that group of people. Someone has clearly proved that you were holding a stick and following Liu Yongyi at that time. Hmm, you also said let Liu Yongyi rest assured, you would never be a coward. I asked you several times, and you didn't tell me the truth; is this you knowing you were wrong?"

Hearing this, Liu Chengkun seemed to be scalded by a soldering iron; his face was full of the horror peculiar to having lies exposed. "This, who said this? This is wronging me!"

"Wronging you?" Bi Qingshan patted a stack of interrogation records. "How many things about others have you said yourself; I don't need to read it to you again, right? You can talk about others; won't others talk about you? And we don't talk about what others said. Liu Chengkun, you said seven or eight times here what that Liu Yongren standing next to Liu Yongyi said, what Liu Yongyi said, and how they talked. You said you stood at the end of the team; there were hundreds of people. Are you clairvoyant and clairaudient? Can you see them talking across hundreds of people, and hear what Liu Yongyi and Liu Yongren at the very front said across hundreds of people? Who are you deceiving?"

Liu Chengkun opened his mouth but couldn't speak after hearing this. Bi Qingshan's interrogation skills were quite brilliant. He listened at first, then asked some very fragmented questions, and even indulged Liu Chengkun to ramble on about a lot of true and false things. But these things that seemed completely unimportant, once verified before and after, Liu Chengkun's own lies were immediately thoroughly exposed. Since he could stand next to the mastermind Liu Yongyi, Liu Chengkun was not a small character either. Seeing the situation was bad, he simply lunged forward and knelt on the ground.

"I'll tell the truth. Ask me anything again and I'll only tell the truth. Please spare my life, my lord." This voice was full of fear. If the guard hadn't immediately dragged Liu Chengkun back to the stool forcibly, Liu Chengkun would have kowtowed like pounding garlic.

Seeing Liu Chengkun was finally subdued, Bi Qingshan sneered. "You want to tell the truth, right? Good, Liu Chengkun, then tell me again who those people walking at the very front were and where they were."

Starting from the third interrogation, with Liu Chengkun as the breakthrough point, these participants successively couldn't hold on and submitted. Various relatively true information began to be collected. Many people once considered small characters revealed their true colors, and some of them also began to confess. After comparing and summarizing the confessions of these people, the working group felt they could finally begin to interrogate those leading key figures.

Liu Yongyi, the leader of this counter-revolutionary incident, was brought to the interrogation room for the first time.

Different from the imagined fierceness, Liu Yongyi's appearance did not give a brutal impression. He was not tall, and looked quite delicate. Especially when he tightened his mouth, two dimples would appear on his face. He looked very shy. But in the eyes of the working group, Liu Yongyi did not have such a harmless feeling. Bi Qingshan stared into Liu Yongyi's eyes. From Liu Yongyi's pair of still bright eyes, Bi Qingshan saw a deeply hidden firm hostility and an indescribable ruthlessness. That was a kind of sight only present before a wild beast attacks.

This person is dangerous, Bi Qingshan thought.