In June 1907, the Party Central Committee of the People's Party established the Northern Bureau. Shang Yuan served as the Secretary of the Northern Bureau, with main cadres including Chai Qingguo, Chen Tianhua, and some comrades willing to work in the north. Relying on the armed forces established by Wu Xingchen in Shandong, the Northern Bureau became the first external base area in the true sense.

Shandong belonged to Zhili (province directly under central government) and was the territory of Yuan Shikai's Beiyang clique. From the establishment of the Northern Bureau, the Central Committee's suggestion was for the Northern Bureau to take root in the Yimeng Mountain area, launching revolutionary work in the poorest area where enemy forces were weakest. Revolutionary work was not to overthrow the Manchu Qing, but to guide the spontaneous revolutionary needs of the masses to conscious revolutionary needs step by step. And then achieve the revolutionary goal of overthrowing all oppressors pressing on the people's heads.

The Northern Bureau developed methodically. Unlike the greenwood heroes (bandits) who dared to rise up and pull the pole in Shandong, greenwood heroes pursued getting rich overnight, hoping to rely on force to become perpetrators overriding everything. This was vastly different from the people's revolutionary organization like the Northern Bureau, which willingly sank down and struggled to eke out a living from the soil together with the people.

The Shandong base area and the Anhui Central Committee were a thousand *li* apart; a round trip for reporting would take more than a month. So actual instructions were meaningless. In a sense, the first "mountain stronghold" (faction) within the People's Party in the true sense was established. No matter how strange the Northern Bureau's way of raising revolutionary funds was, as long as there was no problem with the general direction, Chen Ke had to wait and see the effect. And couldn't make a direct judgment at the time.

The comrade who came to report was naturally extremely proud of the development of the Shandong base area. Even facing Chen Ke, he was still full of confidence. Chen Ke also listened attentively. Until the report ended, Chen Ke raised doubts about the matter he cared about most: to what extent had the Party building work in the Shandong base area been done?

The reporting comrade answered frankly: "Chairman Chen, all our Party members have entered the grassroots now. Helping the masses solve various life problems. Although our Shandong base area eliminated the Manchu Qing government office and suppressed local tyrants and bullies, and the people's living standard has improved. But overall, the Yimeng Mountain area is still too poor. To improve the people's living standard, we still need the Central Committee to support more agricultural technology. Especially the breeding industry; the scientific breeding promoted by Secretary Chen Tianhua in the base area has very good results. Secretary Shang Yuan asked, can iron and steel smelting be carried out locally in the Yimeng Mountain area? Or does the base area have a way to provide metal farm tool products? The bonds issued this time are intended to be used to purchase metal products."

Getting metal products was really an extremely arduous task in these years. If in the previous agricultural era, the demand for metal products was actually limited, so trading could barely be carried out towards the big market of rural areas. But with the development of Chinese cities, the demand for metal grew explosively. This also greatly destroyed the metal sources of old-style rural areas. Selling metal to cities was more profitable than selling to rural areas. Even if the price wasn't high, the demand for metal in cities was large, and transportation was convenient. It was far more profitable than transporting metal products to rural areas. Without multiple times the profit, merchants were simply unwilling to transport ironware to poor places like the Yimeng Mountain area with great difficulty, and multiple times the profit directly led to the people masses in the Yimeng Mountain area being unable to afford it.

"Is the Yimeng Mountain area so lacking in metal products?" A comrade from the Politburo asked. Not only Chen Ke was listening to the report, but comrades from the Politburo were also listening.

"A few days before I set off, an evil bully group was just executed in the base area. Someone inside opened a shop, first giving credit to the masses who couldn't afford daily necessities. After the debt accumulated, he began to collect debt. The masses couldn't pay it back, so the usurers in this evil bully group issued usurious loans to the masses. The masses had to borrow usurious loans to repay debts, and as a result, this became a vicious circle. This group of people colluded with bandits (*Xiang Ma*). If the masses refused to repay debts, they would come to snatch men and dominate women, plundering land."

Listening to such vivid examples, the comrades of the Politburo all smiled bitterly. Like the Anhui base area, forcibly promoting metal farm tools in rural areas through the state system was unique in the whole of China. Relying on trade, merchants only pursued profit maximization; who cared about the life and death of you farmers? Under the impact of the industrialization era, the Manchu Qing and local gentry could no longer maintain the old order in the countryside, and the bad gentry among the gentry rose taking advantage of the situation. Plundering the locality through economic means.

Chen Ke had long talked about this process of "bad gentry driving out good gentry." Because the base area promoted the new system, this situation basically had no soil to occur. The content narrated by the Shandong comrade gave the committee members a profound practical lesson.

The Shandong comrade had seen quite a lot of such things. He said proudly: "When we knocked out this batch of evil bully groups, quite a few masses just felt that finally someone made decisions for them. The people masses are really very kind. The evil bully group didn't treat the masses as fellow villagers, but the masses still treated them as fellow villagers. Some among the masses even suggested letting these people spit out the benefits plundered from the masses, and spare their lives. After we did deep work, telling the masses that these people used the system to commit crimes, and the system behind this group of people was evil. The masses' level of political understanding improved a lot. The masses finally realized that what bullied the masses was this system. Fair trading is one thing, but using the system of fair trading itself is evil. When this batch of evil bullies were all shot in the end, it was really empty alleys (everyone came out to watch). This struggle session was held very fiercely."

"Well done!" Some Politburo members already praised with a smile. Shang Yuan and Chen Tianhua were both extremely driven comrades. Shang Yuan had extremely strong work ability; everyone was convinced.

Seeing the Politburo members expressed great approval, the Shandong comrade finally defended the action of "issuing Anti-Qing National Salvation Bonds." The Yimeng Mountain base area had no industrial technicians at all. Although they brought quite a lot of scientific and technological materials, what could really start to be promoted was related to agriculture. Even if agricultural cooperatives were established, wanting to improve the productivity of the base area relatively quickly was extremely difficult. As a last resort, to solve current problems and improve the quality of farm tools. Only by getting a sum of money temporarily, the base area organized its own transport team to get iron farm tools. Getting these farm tools to the maximum extent before spring plowing would be of great help to this year's agricultural production.

China's current iron smelting center in the true sense was only Hanyang Iron and Steel. The Politburo from top to bottom knew Chen Ke's plan to utilize Hanyang Iron and Steel to the maximum extent. Listening to the Shandong comrade elaborating on the various realistic difficulties encountered by the Yimeng Mountain base area, the desire of the Politburo comrades to take down Hanyang Iron and Steel increased a lot immediately. The significance of Hanyang Iron and Steel needed no elaboration now; how to take it down most efficiently was the most realistic problem.

"After we entered the countryside, a large number of masses joined the peasant association. The original secret societies (*Hui Dao Men*) were cold-shouldered. The relationship between these people and us is getting worse and worse. Even in some areas, incidents of secret societies inciting the masses appeared." The Shandong comrade introduced the biggest contradiction recently.

"Against these people, we must struggle to the end. We must snatch the masses back from their hands." Chen Ke never had a good impression of these organizations.

"Okay, Chairman Chen." The Shandong comrade hurriedly recorded Chen Ke's instruction.

"In addition, there seem to be quite a few Taoist temples in the Yimeng Mountain area, right?" Chen Ke asked.

"Yes."

"As long as this Taoist priest doesn't talk about reincarnation of life and death, but only talks about becoming an immortal and cultivation, they belong to the objects we can win over. If the Taoist temple is relatively dilapidated, some of our comrades can enter the Taoist temple to work as little Taoist priests temporarily. Shandong has many Taoist temples; using the identity of a Taoist priest as cover is relatively convenient." Chen Ke said this partly for work, and partly because he had a relatively natural affinity for Taoism. Chen Ke had recited the full text of *Tao Te Ching* hundreds of times; he respected Laozi very much.

"Then should Buddhist temples be treated like this?" The Shandong comrade asked.

"Anyone who talks about reincarnation of life and death, anyone who talks about the world after death, can basically be treated as a cult. Even if it's a Taoist priest, if they talk about this kind of thing, no need to be polite."

The Shandong comrade could feel Chen Ke looked highly upon Taoism. Although still a bit strange, he couldn't ask more. He could only answer: "Yes. Chairman Chen, I remember. There is another thing; some people from the Tongmenghui came to Shandong recently. This group didn't go to Yimeng Mountain but was active in other areas. Secretary Shang is collecting intelligence. After sorting out a clue, it will be sent to the Central Committee." The Shandong comrade notified the People's Party Central Committee of this content.

Since explicitly refusing to have relations with the Tongmenghui before the Second Counter-Encirclement, the organization Tongmenghui had completely faded out of the People's Party Central Committee's thinking. Suddenly hearing the news that the Tongmenghui ran to Shandong for activities, the comrades' biggest feeling was a bit surprised. Chen Ke didn't have any feeling about the Tongmenghui either. In history books, the Tongmenghui was also famous, and the Tongmenghui in this spacetime didn't change much. Taking advantage of the chaos under heaven, the Tongmenghui's lobbyists looked for cooperation partners everywhere.

"We focus on entering rural work. As long as the Tongmenghui hasn't entered the countryside, then we don't need to care about them at all." After Chen Ke finished this sentence, he threw the matter of the Tongmenghui completely to the back of his mind.

After this report from the Northern Bureau, the People's Party Central Committee discussed and decided to support a batch of iron farm tools to the Shandong base area. There was the convenience of the canal from the base area to Shandong. The People's Party didn't lack Beiyang Army uniforms at all now, nor did they lack Beiyang Army seals. Ten thousand farm tools and repair tools were enough to be transported by a small fleet. The transport troops planned to take the canal, and after passing Xuzhou, put on Beiyang Army uniforms. As long as enough money was given on the road, try not to alarm the Beiyang Army as much as possible.

"If discovered and intercepted, then simply declare our name. There is still a batch of Beiyang Army officers detained in our hands. They dare not do anything to us. If this batch of farm tools can be transported to Shandong, we must enrich the agricultural cooperatives as much as possible. Being closely connected with the people is the foundation of the base area." Although knowing Shang Yuan and Chen Tianhua would definitely do so, Chen Ke couldn't help exhorting repeatedly.

"Don't worry, Chairman Chen. I will definitely complete the task."