Credit is accumulated gradually. After the work of cutting bamboo was completed, Li Shouxian convened a work meeting for transporting bamboo. When the masses learned that the remuneration for this labor was one jin of salt for transporting one hundred bamboo poles, people signed up immediately. Li Shouxian wasn't in a rush either; he took out the sample again to let the masses see—it was white, fine salt packed in oil paper bags. With the salt right before their eyes, plus the satisfaction the masses felt after trying out the newly obtained farm tools, polite remarks like "Would we still distrust Captain Li?" came out one after another. Impatient ones began asking when work would start or how this labor would be arranged.

Facing such a situation, Li Shouxian was very happy in his heart. Although he was currently just a work team captain, as a graduate of the Cadre School, Li Shouxian knew the Party's plan for Guangde County. Growing crops in the Jiangnan mountainous areas wasn't easy, but mulberry trees could be planted. The immense profit of the raw silk trade was clear to all People's Party cadres. The bottlenecks restricting it were nothing more than the various checkpoints and likin taxes of the Manchu Qing. There was no such thing as likin tax inside the People's Party's Base Area. State-owned mulberry gardens and silk factories were even less likely to have various exploitative taxes. The Base Area could rely on armed forces to protect its raw silk and transport it directly to Wuhan, Anqing, and Wuhu to trade directly with foreigners. The money obtained from the trade would be used to purchase machinery and equipment to strengthen the industrial power of the Base Area.

The cadres of the Cadre School had, without exception, visited the industrial zone in Fengtai County. The rumbling machines, various ingenious designs—although the industrial varieties at the current stage weren't many, they were all what the Base Area needed most. For example, ironware, cement, glass, and electricity-driven textile mills. Li Shouxian didn't know much about industry; precisely because he didn't know much, after witnessing such scenes, Li Shouxian developed a blind trust in industry. He firmly believed that an industrialized Base Area would definitely have a bright future. And Li Shouxian himself was one of the capable generals participating in this bright future.

Among the masses, there were some people Li Shouxian paid more attention to. During the investigation in Lijiaji these days, the work group continuously gathered intelligence, and a few names appeared more and more frequently in the reports. If judged by general views, these few people counted as "capable"; that is to say, they occasionally acted as brokers, occasionally solicited some business, or did some shady buying and selling. There were no large clans in the mountainous area. Because of poverty, there weren't many shamans either. So these few people appeared particularly conspicuous.

Since Li Shouxian arrived at the front line to work, he had always kept in mind a lesson Chen Ke taught in the People's Party Cadre School, "Why can't China be managed well? Why does everyone feel there is so much suffering? One of the most important reasons is that there are too many middlemen exploiters. When common people want to exchange the fruits of their labor for a better life, they are inevitably exploited layer by layer by forces like the government, gentry, and secret societies. In the end, not only can they not achieve a better life, but they can't even preserve their original life. In the new system we want to establish, power belongs either to the state and government or to the people's self-governance. Any stratum other than these two must have its current social power deprived until not a bit is left. In the future China, the ruling class will be the alliance of laborers, and those guys who are not laborers must either honestly shut their mouths and take some leftovers to keep from starving, or we will make them shut their mouths."

Whether those few "capable" people in Lijiaji chose to become laborers or had other plans, Li Shouxian was prepared to wait and see.

While Li Shouxian continued to push the work with full confidence, Ji Ye also had her own considerations for the future. She had begun to get used to the style of the People's Party. She calculated how she should imitate this model after returning to Zhejiang, but after thinking it over and over, she couldn't find a precise direction. It was really too difficult for a seventeen-year-old girl to construct a social system by pure imagination. First of all, Ji Ye wasn't clear where the People's Party got so many iron farm tools. In fact, Ji Ye herself completely didn't know the difference between pig iron, wrought iron, and white cast iron. If Ji Ye knew that these farm tools were transported from Wuhan thousands of li away through the People's Party's logistics system, the little girl would probably scream in fright.

The workers of the steel plant located in Hanyang didn't know that the farm tools produced by the factory could actually be sold to Guangde County. In fact, the vast majority of Hanyang Iron Works workers, as well as the vast majority of Hubei people, didn't know that in the current Great Qing, there was such a place called Guangde County. A place a few hundred li away was out of reach for these ordinary common people. Even with steamships now, those who could travel far were still the minority.

Recently, Hanyang Iron Works finally knew a bit more about Anhui. This understanding didn't come from rumors about the Anhui People's Party. Rumors were like myths; they actually didn't bring a shred of knowledge. A batch of Anhui people had recently joined the Hanyang Iron Works. Although the leaders were Northerners speaking Mandarin, the workers and technicians below were solid Anhui people.

From the technical department to the front-line workers, these people were assigned to various posts in the Hanyang Iron Works. What surprised the steel plant workers was that these people's posts would also change. For example, people from the engineering department would enter front-line work, while those from the technical department would go to work in engineer posts.

Regarding the origins of these people, Hanyang Iron Works workers at most used it as gossip material after tea and meals. However, Viceroy of Huguang Lord Zhao Erxun couldn't help but send people to monitor closely. Zhao Erxun wasn't some "fledgling" in officialdom. Ever since Sheng Xuanhuai hurriedly rushed from Beijing to Wuhan during the Spring Festival and specially had a fleet of large ships take away over a hundred thousand tons of steel, he knew there was a transaction hidden behind this matter. Only the People's Party could dispatch such a fleet now. Sure enough, not long after, he heard that the New Army captured by the People's Party "fought their way out" of Anhui and returned to Xuzhou.

Lord Zhao Erxun sniffed at such petty tricks. The New Army became captives of the People's Party even when fully armed. How could they fight their way out after becoming captives? Who were they trying to fool!

However, as a defeated general, Lord Zhao Erxun was the first of the three route suppression armies to be completely wiped out. Heaven knew what the People's Party was thinking to actually release all the Hubei New Army captives. So Lord Zhao Erxun was the person least qualified to make irresponsible remarks about this.

But Lord Zhao Erxun couldn't help but be vigilant about the subsequent matters. Hanyang Iron Works had always been poorly managed, and Sheng Xuanhuai injected capital three years ago. Now Sheng Xuanhuai had great say over Hanyang Iron Works. The People's Party taking away over a hundred thousand tons of steel clearly was the ransom from Beiyang to the People's Party. Not long after the fleet left, Sheng Xuanhuai placed a large batch of Anhui people into Hanyang Iron Works.

Zhao Erxun had once inquired about this matter indirectly. Sheng Xuanhuai answered with a bitter smile, "These are some Anhui merchants preparing to invest in Hanyang Iron Works."

Afterward, Sheng Xuanhuai even set up a banquet, inviting Zhao Erxun and the "Anhui merchants" to gather.

How were these Anhui merchants? That group of Northerners speaking fluent Hebei or Tianjin dialect had mostly worked in the "Tianjin Machinery Bureau" built by the Beiyang Navy. They claimed to have gone to Anhui to make a living after the destruction of the Tianjin Machinery Bureau. Zhao Erxun looked at this group of "rebels" with dignified behavior, then looked at Sheng Xuanhuai's bitter smile. Then he suddenly realized. The Anhui rebels coveted the steel of the Hanyang plant; they sent people to learn and investigate at the same time.

But even knowing this, Lord Zhao Erxun decided to turn a blind eye. Hanyang Iron Works was built with court funds, and now the main funder was Beiyang's Sheng Xuanhuai. What did this have to do with Lord Zhao Erxun? If the Anhui rebels attacked Wuhan, Lord Zhao Erxun could arrest these people first. But the People's Party colluded with Beiyang; if Lord Zhao Erxun took the initiative to arrest these people, and then the enraged Anhui rebels sent troops to attack Wuhan, wouldn't that be looking for trouble out of thin air?

Since he harbored such thoughts, Lord Zhao Erxun completely let go. The "Anhui merchants" bought a large piece of land in Hanyang; Lord Zhao Erxun turned a blind eye. When the "Anhui merchants" came to ask him for approval, he approved. Lord Zhao Erxun even calmly accepted the "brush fee" (bribe) paid by the "Anhui merchants" according to the rules. Lord Zhao was very smart; since the Anhui rebels were willing to do this, it showed they temporarily didn't want to attack Wuhan by force. Having such a group of people in Wuhan could actually serve as a weather vane to observe the Anhui rebels' thoughts at any time.

However, when the "Anhui merchants" planned this piece of land as a whole, built water towers and tap water pipes imitating the concessions, built sewage systems, built roads, and began to build residential areas, Lord Zhao Erxun was really quite surprised. In his view, rebels were always destroyers and not builders. The performance of the Anhui rebels had always been distinctly different from other rebels who only knew how to incite rebellion. Treating wounded captives, releasing captives, and even not snatching captives' private property. Let alone rebels, even government troops definitely couldn't do to this extent. Lord Zhao Erxun had understood the Hubei New Army; although defeated by the People's Party, when mentioning the People's Party, the Hubei New Army soldiers didn't have any heartfelt hatred; quite a few even admired the People's Party's righteousness.

This was also one of the reasons why Lord Zhao Erxun was unwilling to forcibly move against the "Anhui merchants". If the People's Party came under the banner of "Only killing Zhao Erxun", Zhao Erxun didn't think the Hubei New Army would sincerely defend him.

"Lord Zhao, an accident happened again when Hanyang Iron Works tapped steel today. Several workers were burned to death; one of them was an Anhui rebel." A subordinate spy excitedly reported the latest news to Zhao Erxun.

Hearing this news, Zhao Erxun felt a joy in his heart, "Oh? Those rebels are still working?"

"They have been working all along. Heaven knows what they are thinking. Several people have already died, yet these rebels are still not afraid of death." The spy was disguised as a factory worker, so he knew quite a bit about the steel plant. Working in an environment of over a thousand degrees, the molten iron emitted suffocating heat waves. Workers often had to observe the furnace, walking on the overhead bridge above the blast furnace. A slight carelessness and falling down meant death. Even if very careful, when releasing molten iron and steel, splashing of steel juice often occurred. That stuff splashing on the body meant death or injury; there was simply no way to defend against it.

"Are these people sincerely here to learn steelmaking?" Zhao Erxun was very puzzled about this.

Perhaps the spy wasn't familiar with Lord Zhao Erxun's speaking characteristics, or maybe having to participate in labor in the factory made him somewhat admiring, so he replied, "These rebels are learning seriously. Quite a few are already doing quite well inside the steel plant."

"What? Could it be the rebels have already bewitched quite a few workers?" Zhao Erxun was startled.

The spy didn't know how to answer. The Anhui rebels didn't incite the workers to rebel. Through serious work, they gradually became quite capable members inside the steel plant. Since they worked well and were amiable, whenever ordinary workers asked for advice, these rebels never held back secrets and always answered ordinary workers' questions seriously. The workers naturally admired them.

For some reason, the spy disguised as a worker felt that no matter how he explained, Lord Zhao Erxun in front of him might not necessarily understand this matter. After thinking, the spy answered following Zhao Erxun's meaning, "The rebels haven't started bewitching workers yet, but this lowly one feels they are almost about to start bewitching workers."