Henan Governor Zhang Zhenfang was from Xiangcheng, Henan, and was a cousin of Yuan Shikai. Unlike Yuan Shikai who didn't obtain an imperial degree, Zhang Zhenfang became a stipend student in the 10th year of Guangxu (1884), a tributory student the next year, and the first place (*Jieyuan*) in the provincial examination in the autumn. In the Ren-Chen year of Guangxu (1892), he became a *Jinshi* at the age of 29, fulfilling his ambition to become an official.

Born into an old bureaucratic family, he was raised with strict discipline. Consequently, his thinking was quite conservative. During the Boxer Rebellion when Empress Dowager Cixi fled, the capital officials scattered. Zhang Zhenfang initially couldn't catch up with Cixi's entourage, so he ran back to his hometown to prepare travel expenses before chasing after them. He traveled day and night, enduring hardships, and finally caught up with the imperial carriage at Tongguan. He was appointed to the Shaanxi Department, serving the two palaces. This earned him Cixi's appreciation, becoming the last Governor-General of Zhili in the Qing Dynasty.

Historically, in the 33rd year of Guangxu (1907), Yuan Shikai, as the Governor-General of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang, controlled the six divisions of the New Army and held immense power, which led to impeachment by censors. He voluntarily resigned from 8 positions including the Minister of Army Training. The Qing court promoted Yuan to Grand Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, secretly stripping him of military power. The Governor-General of Zhili was acted by Zhang Zhenfang (Rank 1b).

After Yuan Shikai seized power, he sent his cousin Zhang Zhenfang to Henan as the Henan Governor. Zhang Zhenfang wasn't exactly a corrupt official, he just opposed the revolution and was extremely fearful of the People's Party. The intelligence gathered by the People's Party's intelligence department evaluated Zhang Zhenfang as "not a pity to kill". Zhou Zhentao didn't have a high opinion of this Henan Governor from a military perspective either. The Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army internally believed, "Twenty thousand men are enough to annihilate the Henan Beiyang Army."

In 1912, the provincial capital of Henan was Kaifeng. Zhengzhou had not yet reached the era where it could suppress Kaifeng and Luoyang on its own to become the new provincial capital. And Kaifeng, this provincial capital, was less than 100 *li* away from the area actually controlled by the People's Party. The Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army had once formulated a military plan to raid Kaifeng. Riding along the way, Zhou Zhentao observed the conditions along the road and couldn't help calculating the feasibility of this plan in his mind.

Seeing Zhou Zhentao remain silent, the accompanying Beiyang Army officer also stayed silent. It wasn't until the second time they rested temporarily at a roadside shop that Zhou Zhentao felt this person wasn't annoying, so he opened his mouth to ask: "May I ask your surname?"

"My humble surname is He, called He Tong." The officer smiled.

"Where is Mr. He from?" Zhou Zhentao exchanged pleasantries.

"Zhengxian." He Tong said proudly.

Zhou Zhentao didn't quite understand where He Tong's pride came from, he also smiled, "Zhengxian, seems to be Chairman Chen's fellow townsman."

Chen Ke claimed to be from Zhengzhou, which was widely known. Zhengzhou was currently named Zhengxian (Zheng County). Chen Ke's claim was quite suspected because the address didn't match the situation at that time.

Hearing Zhou Zhentao say this, He Tong's proud look immediately vanished without a trace, he quickly waved his hand and said: "I dare not climb connections with Chairman Chen Ke."

Zhou Zhentao understood a bit more at this time, he smiled: "Then Mr. He must have joined Beiyang early on to serve... President Yuan Shikai?"

He Tong then recovered some spirit, "I joined the army four years ago, serving under the President."

At this stage, the Beiyang Army was still an army mainly composed of locals from Shandong and Hebei Zhili. The soldiers selected by Yuan Shikai were all from landed households, at least good sons of self-cultivating farmers. It was very different from the Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army, which was initially gathered from revolutionary youths from all over the world, and later implemented universal conscription with troops coming from the four provinces of the base area.

Zhou Zhentao found that he couldn't help comparing what he saw and heard with the base area. Thinking that he had already chosen to leave the base area, Zhou Zhentao felt a wave of melancholy. The interest in talking that had just risen also faded. After drinking a few mouthfuls of tea, Zhou Zhentao proposed to continue the journey.

By evening, the group finally entered the ancient city of Kaifeng. The architectural style of Kaifeng was very different from Xuzhou, which interested Zhou Zhentao quite a bit. "Lord Bao sits in Kaifeng Prefecture", this opera line is the same whether in Shaanxi or Xuzhou. Although he couldn't see the appearance of Kaifeng Prefecture in the night, Zhou Zhentao still had some interest. It was just that it was getting late, He Tong arranged Zhou Zhentao's accommodation, and the plan to visit Kaifeng Prefecture could only wait until the next day.

The next day, Zhang Zhenfang personally received Zhou Zhentao. Zhang Zhenfang was exactly one year short of 50 this year. His appearance was quite clear and bright, revealing the self-restraint of someone from an official family. Even when Zhou Zhentao was accustomed to stepping forward to shake hands when meeting Zhang Zhenfang, Zhang Zhenfang only frowned slightly, but didn't show the slightest anger.

For Zhou Zhentao, Zhang Zhenfang, the Henan Governor, was nothing special. The common view of the People's Party high command regarding surrounding forces was "Fight now, or fight later." Anyway, they were going to fight, so there was no need to maintain overly hypocritical etiquette.

After the host and guest took their seats, Zhang Zhenfang said: "Commander Zhou, we heard that you are not serving in the People's Party. Is this trip to return to your hometown?"

The People's Internal Affairs Committee are all useless! Zhou Zhentao thought, even such news could be leaked. After secretly cursing the People's Internal Affairs Committee, Zhou Zhentao replied: "I was kicked out, I can only go back to my hometown to farm."

Zhang Zhenfang laughed: "Commander Zhou, the People's Party is now famous far and wide, relying entirely on talents like Commander Zhou. Since Commander Zhou is not employed by the People's Party, wouldn't it be burying your talent to go back to farm? Our Henan temple is small and cannot accommodate a great talent like Commander Zhou. However, I am willing to make a recommendation for Commander Zhou to take a position in Beijing. What do you think?"

Zhou Zhentao pondered for a moment before replying: "Thank you for Governor Zhang's kindness. It's just that I left home at eighteen to study, and it has been nine years now. Although I haven't made a name for myself, I haven't seen my parents for many years and miss them very much. Now that I am finally free of official duties, I really want to go back and serve my parents to fulfill my filial piety."

Seeing Zhou Zhentao refuse so decisively, Zhang Zhenfang was not surprised, "Commander Zhou, Shaanxi is very chaotic now. There are constant conflicts between the People's Party and the local governors. If a great talent like Commander Zhou returns to Shaanxi, I'm afraid the tree desires stillness but the wind will not cease. Why ask for trouble? A young and promising person like you will definitely be reused in Beijing. At that time, bringing your parents to Beijing will also make the elderly happy."

"Hehe," Zhou Zhentao laughed helplessly, "Governor Zhang, I heard that you are a *Jinshi* and have served as the Governor-General of Zhili, so you should see the affairs of the world clearly. When the People's Party started its uprising, I also contributed. If I say some insincere words, you can also see through them. So I will tell you the truth. Both Beiyang and the People's Party want to unify the world. This has nothing to do with the good or evil of their propositions. There are no two suns in the sky, and no two rulers in a country. You want me to join Beiyang, but Beiyang has to be able to hold up. Compared now, Beiyang has no advantage. This year the People's Party has already conscripted 200,000 soldiers. Once the recruits arrive, there will be 600,000 troops. These 600,000 people are all regularly trained, weapons are all self-made, and food and pay are no problem. Beiyang, including the newly formed miscellaneous troops in various places, has less than 120,000 people in total, and weapons and ammunition have to be imported. Equipment, training, logistics supply, all are inferior to the People's Party. In terms of numbers, the People's Party's army can fight five against one against Beiyang. Although I am not working with the People's Party anymore, I also want to save my life to serve my parents. I hope Governor Zhang can understand."

Even though Zhang Zhenfang was very cultivated, his face couldn't help but look ugly at this time. Some of the situations Zhou Zhentao mentioned he hadn't heard of, but he knew most of the content. Beiyang was defeated disastrously when its numbers exceeded the People's Party. Now the People's Party's numbers also exceeded the Beiyang Army, and they even fought the Germans in Qingdao. Hearing Zhou Zhentao list these numbers, Zhang Zhenfang was actually scared. Henan directly faced the People's Party's Huaihai Province. Counting the Beiyang 2nd Division and other troops, there were less than 30,000 men at full count. The Huaihai Military Region had a crowd of 100,000. Facing the Huaihai Military Region, any disturbance scared Zhang Zhenfang enough.

After pausing for a moment, Zhang Zhenfang asked: "Does the People's Party intend to march into Henan?"

Zhou Zhentao suppressed his laughter and managed not to be rude. Holding back his smile, Zhou Zhentao said: "Governor Zhang, thanks to you sending someone to pick me up, and since I am not working under the People's Party now, I will answer truthfully. You have collected taxes in Henan to this extent, the people below immediately have no way to live. Whole villages bordering the People's Party are defecting to the People's Party. The common people ask for nothing else but not to pay taxes to the Henan government anymore. If it weren't for the premise that defecting to the People's Party requires land reform and land distribution, I'm afraid even the people outside Kaifeng City would have defected. If you use force against the People's Party, the People's Party would be overjoyed. If the People's Party starts first, they carry the charge of destroying peace. If Henan starts first, the People's Party can fight freely. The principle of the People's Party forces is absolutely never fire the first shot, but they will not let the enemy have a chance to fire a second shot."

After listening to Zhou Zhentao, Zhang Zhenfang could no longer maintain his calm appearance, his face turned somewhat pale. Barely suppressing the emotions in his heart, Zhang Zhenfang said: "May I ask Commander Zhou, if the People's Party is to take action against Henan, when will it be?"

Zhou Zhentao had held back a bellyful of anger in the People's Party. Seeing Henan Governor Zhang Zhenfang scared like this, he couldn't help but feel a kind of pleasure in his heart. He replied: "This depends on you, Governor Zhang. You dare not fight directly now. If you take the path of political solution, the People's Party won't listen to the Beiyang government either. Henan's problem is that taxes are too heavy. In the current situation, the people can't live, so they will defect to the People's Party. If Henan's total tax amount remains unchanged, and the places where you, Governor Zhang, can collect taxes become fewer and fewer, then you can only increase taxes in other parts of Henan. Once taxes are increased in other parts of Henan, the people's lives will be even harder, and the speed of defecting to the People's Party will be faster. As long as this tax is not lowered, the places the Henan government can control will become fewer and fewer. Governor Zhang, when the People's Party talks about you, they always say you are the People's Party's best friend in Henan. Propagating revolutionary principles to the common people, the common people either don't understand or aren't interested. But with your way of collecting taxes, Governor Zhang, the People's Party just says one sentence: land revolution, everyone eats their fill. The people can understand, and naturally they defect to the People's Party."

Having said this, a doubt suddenly arose in Zhou Zhentao's mind. These were all words Chen Ke usually told the comrades. Zhou Zhentao always thought he didn't believe them, or at least wasn't willing to care about them. So why did he seem to say these words logically now, and Zhou Zhentao firmly believed these words were correct? Acknowledging these words, wasn't it acknowledging the thoughts Chen Ke used to instill in the comrades in various ways? Since all the undertakings of the People's Party were built on the foundation of the people, what reason did Zhou Zhentao have to think that "revolutionary meritorious ministers" should naturally possess more privileges?

If revolutionary meritorious ministers should have privileges, then what kind of privileges should Chen Ke have? Since Zhou Zhentao believed he should have privileges, shouldn't Chen Ke, the greatest meritorious minister, have the privilege to make all People's Party comrades accept Chen Ke's will?

If Zhang Zhenfang hadn't been scared by what Zhou Zhentao said, with his usual rigor and seriousness, Zhang Zhenfang should have been able to see the doubt in Zhou Zhentao's heart. However, Zhang Zhenfang was completely flustered. The content narrated by Zhou Zhentao completely terrified Zhang Zhenfang.

What Zhou Zhentao said, or the People's Party's understanding of Zhang Zhenfang expounded by Zhou Zhentao, hit the core point. Zhang Zhenfang must collect enough taxes. Zhang Zhenfang was not a corrupt official, at least Zhang Zhenfang considered himself a relatively honest person. Zhang Zhenfang never operated tax collection for his own private gain. If Zhang Zhenfang had heard Chen say "There are individuals who betray their class, but no class that betrays its interests," Zhang Zhenfang might have felt like he found a confidant.

Zhang Zhenfang could refrain from forcibly adding or deducting taxes for himself, but Zhang Zhenfang had to collect enough taxes for the Beiyang clique in Henan. Yuan Shikai far away in Beijing could be ignored for the time being, but the tax of 100 taels per person per year for the 12,000 officers and soldiers of the Beiyang 2nd Division must be given in full. This was 1.2 million taels of real silver. A Beiyang Army soldier needed at least 30 *jin* of grain a month, 4.32 million *jin* of grain must be given in full every year. The food and pay for other local troops must also be collected in full. This meant that to raise this bunch of "*Qiu Ba*" (soldiers), Zhang Zhenfang needed to try every means to collect more than 2 million taels of real silver and 8 million *jin* of grain. The total number of officials in various places in Henan was about 100,000. For Henan with a population of over 50 million, this number was only one five-hundredth. These people needed to eat and drink. If their expenses were all borne by the Henan provincial government, it would be more than three times the expenditure of less than 30,000 troops. Even with the same salary as these "Soldier Lords", Zhou Zhentao, this Henan Governor, would have to spend 10 million taels of silver and 40 million *jin* of grain every year.

One must know that the Qing court's annual income was only 100 million taels, most of which was customs revenue. Where could Henan, a province with undeveloped trade, get 10 million taels of silver for the salaries of the army and officials? For the army, Henan Province had to grit its teeth and find ways to scrape it together. For the income of local officials, they could only let them figure it out themselves.

It wasn't that Zhang Zhenfang didn't know the ferocity of local exploitation, but he was just one person, and he didn't know the magic of excreting gold and urinating silver. Where would the money come from? let alone local officials, even those around Zhang Zhenfang himself, who didn't come for official positions, promotions, and various official benefits? Who truly cared about the interests of the people? Even if there were people with such ideals, such ideals were long smashed to pieces by reality.

The People's Party mocked Zhang Zhenfang as "the People's Party's best friend in Henan". Zhang Zhenfang felt very wronged. If one had to say who was the People's Party's best friend in Henan, it would be better to say that the current system in Henan was the People's Party's best friend. As long as this system still existed, even if Zhang Zhenfang had a silver tongue like an immortal and could persuade Yuan Shikai to exempt Henan from money and grain for a few years, those people in the localities wouldn't collect a penny less from the common people. The only way to stop this kind of tax collection was for this bunch of people to know that if they continued to collect like this, they would definitely die without a burial place. If these tax-collecting officials had this realization, the result wouldn't be that they would share a bitter hatred of the enemy and face the threat of the People's Party together. The result would inevitably be that these people would abandon the Beiyang government, abandon Zhang Zhenfang, and flee like rats. Leaving only Zhang Zhenfang alone to face the irresistible ending of destruction.

As a scholar, Zhang Zhenfang had said the word "popular support" (*minxin*) countless times, but Zhang Zhenfang discovered how far this bureaucratic group was from "popular support". "All the world bustles for profit, all the world hustles for profit". Zhang Zhenfang sent a large number of spies to Huaihai Province and Anhui Province to gather intelligence. The news brought back by the spies was no different from what Zhou Zhentao said. Compared with the People's Party close at hand, Zhang Zhenfang had to admit that the Beiyang he represented definitely did not represent popular support.

When fear tightly gripped his heart, making it difficult for Zhang Zhenfang to even breathe, he suddenly remembered something. Since the People's Party had such popular support, why did Zhou Zhentao, a senior military officer, choose to leave the People's Party?

As if catching a life-saving straw, Zhang Zhenfang felt as relieved as if he had been liberated, and even the breath he couldn't catch came back. "Commander Zhou, then why did you leave the People's Party?" Zhang Zhenfang asked. Although not long ago, Zhang Zhenfang knew that he shouldn't have taken the initiative to ask this question no matter what.

Zhou Zhentao didn't answer immediately, because Zhou Zhentao was also doubting why he left the People's Party. Originally, it was for a moment of pleasure to tell Henan Governor Zhang Zhenfang about some of the People's Party's basic actions and the theoretical support behind these basic actions. Zhou Zhentao once harbored some malice, perhaps wanting to add a little trouble to the People's Party's seizure of Henan? Or perhaps simply wanting to find someone with relatively high status to bully to dispel the resentment in his heart. But after truly scaring Henan Governor Zhang Zhenfang, Zhou Zhentao didn't feel the thrill of venting, nor even the joy of taking revenge on the People's Party. Zhou Zhentao just fell into a deep doubt, why did he leave the People's Party?

Now Zhou Zhentao was no longer a division commander of the People's Party, just an ordinary commoner unrelated to the People's Party. But just relying on the knowledge learned from the People's Party, he could scare the dignified Henan Governor into a trembling voice. This was the power of the People's Party, this was the power possessed by the organization Zhou Zhentao abandoned.

Zhou Zhentao had to take seriously a fact he had been unwilling to face during this time. Perhaps he really made a wrong choice.