"Sir, Chief Li is here," the old doorkeeper at Yu Chen's home announced to Yu Chen, who was eating breakfast. Yu Chen didn't care for a luxurious life. During his years as a soldier, he had come to understand one thing: if one gets used to a comfortable life, it becomes very hard to accept hard times again. However, as the Chief of the Police Department, he couldn't live in the barracks. It would seem affected and be inconvenient for work. He rented a decent house in Nanjing city and hired an old doorkeeper.

"Let him in," Yu Chen replied. "Chief Li" referred to Li Yunrui. Since Yu Chen became the New Army Inspector, Li Yunrui had been his deputy. Skilled with the staff, he was known as the "Double Flower Red Staff" in the army. As long as Li Yunrui stood there, unless someone was drunk or blind and looking for a beating, offending soldiers would obediently submit to the Inspector's punishment. When Wang Youhong promoted Yu Chen to Police Chief, Li Yunrui was promoted by Yu Chen to Head of the Discipline Division.

Li Yunrui entered and sat down opposite Yu Chen without standing on ceremony. Yu Chen asked, "Have a bite?"

"No need," Li Yunrui replied.

Yu Chen knew that Li Yunrui's daily life was extremely regular; he would absolutely not eat unless it was mealtime. At this hour, Li Yunrui had certainly already eaten. Yu Chen didn't stand on ceremony either, burying his head and finishing his meal in a few bites before asking, "Any news?"

Li Yunrui nodded, "Chief, do you know what those Citizens Party people have been saying the last few days?"

"Aren't they clamoring about perfecting the laws?" Yu Chen replied.

The Citizens Party was a political organization established in Jiangsu last year. Under the current situation in China, Beiyang inherited most of the Qing system, adding some reformist elements championed by Beiyang since the late Qing. The People's Party created its own system. The situation in other provinces was awkward; the rulers didn't want a *good* system, but one that could maintain their existence. As a result, Jiangsu walked at the forefront of political reform.

Beiyang implemented universal suffrage for males over 18. The People's Party was more radical, implementing universal suffrage for all adults regardless of gender. As for Jiangsu, Wang Youhong implemented the "Citizen System." Anyone who declared their property to the state, possessed property exceeding a certain amount, and paid taxes on time could obtain "Citizen" status. With Citizen status came the right to vote and be elected. They could run for local grassroots assemblies and participate in the formulation and amendment of laws. In this era, forming parties was a trend, and on the basis of the Citizen System, the emergence of a Citizens Party was the most normal thing.

When mentioning the Citizens Party, both Yu Chen and Li Yunrui looked sarcastic, even disgusted. There were two major forces in Jiangsu: one was the landlords and gentry, now the budding Citizens Party, and the other was the army under Wang Youhong. One side believed they were the foundation of Jiangsu, while the other believed that without the army, Jiangsu would have long been swallowed up by others. Yu Chen and Li Yunrui were both from the army, so they naturally had no good feelings towards these gentry.

"I heard the Citizens Party delegation that went to inspect the People's Party areas has returned. Among other things, these people are clamoring to learn from the People's Party in sericulture. The news I got is that they want to build some 'Sericulture Production Base'," Li Yunrui said.

Yu Chen frowned slightly. This name sounded like something learned from the People's Party. He wasn't clear on exactly what it meant.

Li Yunrui didn't intend to keep him guessing. He immediately added, "It means there are many places in Jiangsu suitable for sericulture, and they want to use all these places for planting mulberries and raising silkworms."

Hearing this, Yu Chen's frown deepened. Planting mulberries and raising silkworms was a huge source of profit. Two years ago, the People's Party's sericulture industry exploded, once dealing a heavy blow to Jiangsu's sericulture industry. Under Wang Youhong's mediation, Jiangsu and the People's Party reached a purchase and sales contract. Jiangsu bought silkworm eggs from the People's Party, sold all the raw silk produced to the People's Party, and allowed the People's Party to establish joint-venture filatures in Jiangsu. Everyone originally thought the People's Party would use various black-hearted methods. Unexpectedly, the People's Party did business very "righteously." Whether it was silkworm eggs, filatures, or purchase prices, everything was quite fair. In less than a year, Jiangsu's sericulture industry walked out of its previous trough and recovered to its former levels.

As the saying goes, "no merchant is not treacherous." Seeing that filature enterprises were very profitable, many Jiangsu merchants invested in building filatures in various places. Foreigners, especially Americans, had a huge demand for raw silk. Although there was a purchase and sales contract signed with the People's Party, merchants still privately sold raw silk to Americans. Besides this, merchants also constantly sent delegations to the People's Party areas to learn local sericulture production methods. Now they actually wanted to create a "Sericulture Production Base." Yu Chen felt these people were being a bit too bold.

"Chief, we can't control how these people mess around. It's just that the Police Department is so short of money now. Should we speak to Governor Wang first and have him keep a larger share of the tax revenue for us?" Li Yunrui said.

Hearing this, Yu Chen finally understood Li Yunrui's plan. He didn't care about other things, he was just thinking about getting more money. If Yu Chen didn't know that Li Yunrui wasn't a greedy person, his expression might have changed. Establishing a police system really cost money. Although Northern Jiangsu had been taken by the People's Party, Southern Jiangsu still had a large population and developed commerce. To manage these places, at least 30,000 police officers were needed. Currently, the army and police in Jiangsu combined were only 40,000 men. The team Wang Youhong originally started with was actually tax police, and currently, there were over 6,000 of them in the Jiangsu army alone. The New Army 9th Division had over 14,000 men, the Jiangsu New Army had over 14,000 men, and the remaining 6,000 police were simply not enough.

To get people to work, besides boosting morale, having no money wouldn't do. The problem was that the Assembly was controlled by the gentry, and they didn't want to pay a penny more in taxes. Wang Youhong tried every means to expand revenue sources, and the tax police became the main force. However, catching criminals and stabilizing the market on weekdays relied on the police. Seeing the tax police earning a handsome income, many police officers sharpened their heads trying to get into the tax police. This was a major worry for Yu Chen. Hearing Li Yunrui's suggestion, although Yu Chen showed no expression on his face, his mind became active.

Li Yunrui knew Yu Chen very well. Seeing Yu Chen like this, he knew Yu Chen was moved. He quickly asked, "Chief, how is Governor Wang's mood lately?"

Yu Chen knew Li Yunrui was referring to the matter of Gu Wei and Gu Renyu. He laughed, "Governor Wang isn't as petty as you."

"Yes, a Prime Minister's belly can hold a boat," Li Yunrui also laughed. But after just a brief grin, Li Yunrui put away his smile and asked, "Chief, is the People's Party deliberately picking a quarrel? Making such a big fuss over a woman doesn't look right no matter how you look at it."

This was a common worry among many officials in Jiangsu. The People's Party's move was so strange it was hard to accept. The reason given made people laugh even harder: "Protecting women's rights?" Gu Renyu might have some money, but with his background, his daughter Gu Wei becoming Wang Youhong's concubine was really climbing up the social ladder.

So no one believed the People's Party was really doing this for a woman; many worried the People's Party was just finding an excuse to use force against Jiangsu. But the People's Party even fought the Germans occupying Qingdao, and the Germans didn't dare do anything to the People's Party. It wasn't like Jiangsu hadn't been beaten before. Since they knew they definitely couldn't win, these people in Jiangsu just accepted it.

Yu Chen wanted to sneer. He had met Gu Wei personally. If Gu Wei were a man, Yu Chen would have wanted to recruit her. Calm in the face of danger, reasonable and restrained—such people were not easily met. And in the People's Party, women could also be officials. Yu Chen didn't believe the People's Party would act for a woman, but for an outstanding talent, the People's Party writing to Wang Youhong and going through legal procedures to solve the problem wasn't considered making a big fuss.

It was just that explaining this clearly wasn't easy, and this matter indeed made Wang Youhong lose face. Yu Chen said, "Let's not talk about this anymore. Send people to pay more attention to the Assembly's movements. Let's confirm this matter first."

"That's naturally no problem," Li Yunrui laughed. The guards in the Assembly were all sent by the police system; getting firsthand news was the easiest thing for the Police Department. After speaking, Li Yunrui couldn't help but ask one more question, "Chief, will the People's Party really not attack?"

"In my view, the People's Party's mind isn't on this matter at all. No need to be suspicious. You are not allowed to mention this again in the future," Yu Chen didn't want to dwell on boring thoughts, so he gave Li Yunrui a firm order.

Jiangsu now only had Southern Jiangsu left. The territory wasn't large, and transportation was convenient, so the Assembly adopted a model of meeting regularly every month. If there were special matters, temporary meetings would be called. After all, these assemblymen were people with their own businesses and couldn't focus their energy on the Assembly for long periods. This time it happened to be the scheduled Assembly day, so everyone came running to attend the meeting.

Although the main topic was the centralized sericulture issue, initial questions about the People's Party's troop movements and whether military action would be taken against Jiangsu kept the assemblymen who stayed in Jiangsu surrounding those who had just returned from the Base Area. Only after getting relatively definite news—"The People's Party Base Area, at least the Anhui Base Area, is completely normal"—did the worried assemblymen feel much better.

"Our biggest feeling after coming back from Anhui this time is that the People's Party attaches extreme importance to the sericulture industry. Wherever we went, there wasn't a place where we didn't see mulberry trees. Wherever we went, there wasn't a place without filatures and silk factories being built. Our Jiangsu can't compare to them, and it's not just because of the People's Party doing business with foreigners. It's because our Jiangsu government is far less attentive to this matter than the People's Party. I and the other assemblymen who went to Anhui feel that on this matter, we must catch up," delegation leader Zhang Yutong said loudly to the Jiangsu assemblymen.