Shang Yisheng certainly had no good will towards the People's Party, but he understood profoundly that at this critical juncture, he absolutely could not reveal this hostility. Shang Yuan held a high position within the People's Party, yet even he could not save the Shang family's land. The smiling-tiger demeanor displayed by Chai Qingguo only proved that Chai would not hesitate in the slightest to slaughter the Shang family.

Thus, regarding the Shang family being concentrated in the camp, the family dared not utter a single word of complaint. Shang Yisheng repeatedly emphasized to his clansmen, "Right now, the People's Party holds the handle of the knife. Anyone who wants to die can go find a rope and hang themselves; don't drag down the hundreds of people in the Shang family."

When comrades from the People's Internal Affairs Committee came to inquire about the grain tax, Shang Yisheng cooperated with utmost effort. However, he was very curious as to what the People's Party's intentions were in investigating this matter.

"For areas that have already started land reform, we want to implement a tax refund. We only collect thirty percent tax. The Henan government collected fifty percent from everyone. For all villages implementing land reform, we must return the intermediate twenty percent to everyone," the Internal Affairs Committee comrade replied.

Shang Yisheng looked at the Internal Affairs Committee comrade as if looking at a rare animal. "Comrade, you aren't joking, are you?"

"What would we be joking about with this?" The young comrade was somewhat puzzled.

"Allow me to be bold and say a few words. Buying people's hearts doesn't need to go to this extent. As long as you explain now that next year you will collect according to the thirty percent tax rate, the common people will be very happy. Doing this instead is somewhat like drawing legs on a snake—superfluous," Shang Yisheng explained. He normally wouldn't be this radical, but at this moment, he had to show submission to the People's Party no matter what; Shang Yisheng had to make some kind of gesture.

"Collecting thirty percent tax and collecting fifty percent tax makes little difference to us. If we want to increase the total tax revenue, we have to let the masses grow more grain. If grain production can double, the total amount from a thirty percent tax will be more than the original fifty percent. Moreover, in the process of helping the masses increase production, we do a lot of real work for the masses, and the masses naturally trust us. Isn't this much better than raising taxes?"

Shang Yisheng had managed so many field properties, so he naturally completely understood these words. It was just that hearing a young man say it so casually, Shang Yisheng couldn't help but reveal a trace of mockery.

"Mr. Shang, you definitely think we are blowing our own horn. How can doubling production be so easy? Saying it is easy, but actually doing it is naturally difficult as can be," the young cadre laughed.

"Oh? If it doesn't waste everyone's time, could you explain it to me in detail?" Shang Yisheng really became interested.

After all, the Shang family were relatives of Shang Yuan and a major local clan. Even the comrades of the People's Internal Affairs Committee preferred to convince Shang Yisheng through reason. If they could get such a local tyrant to cooperate, many problems would be easier to solve.

"Land reform has never been able to generate wealth. Equalizing land gives the broad masses a sense of belonging. It gives them confidence in our administrative execution ability."

Hearing this, Shang Yisheng nodded repeatedly. He praised, "Indeed, that hits the nail on the head."

"To increase the total production of the entire agricultural region, we must improve agricultural efficiency." The People's Internal Affairs Committee didn't just arrest people; every member had to go to the front lines to work. Quite a few comrades were even forcibly kept on the front lines because of their outstanding performance.

He explained how, by collecting agricultural tax, they supported industrial workers who had separated from agriculture, and then fed back into agriculture through industry, continuously improving agricultural efficiency. This included large-scale construction of basic water conservancy projects, maximizing the stability of agricultural production while also providing a large number of employment opportunities to solve the problem of hidden unemployment in rural areas. It involved the total circulation of the entire national industry and agriculture, continuously promoting the progress of the entire country.

Shang Yisheng listened with dazzling fascination, nodding repeatedly. He completely understood the meaning of "labor." If not for the hard work of so many laboring masses on the Shang family's land, the Shang family could never have accumulated such a massive family fortune. He also completely saw through the core of the People's Party's policy: the grain and wealth that originally went to landlords and the government were all being utilized by this massive organization of the People's Party and used for the construction of China.

"May I ask, comrade, what position do you hold in the People's Party?" Shang Yisheng couldn't help but ask.

"I cannot say my specific position, but I am just an ordinary staff member of the People's Party," the People's Internal Affairs Committee comrade replied proudly.

Shang Yisheng naturally didn't believe it. He said seriously, "But listening to what you said, it is logical and organized, completely not armchair strategy. How could a figure like you be an ordinary member of the People's Party? Don't make such jokes."

"Everything I said is the strategy formulated by our People's Party Chairman Chen Ke. Everyone in our entire Party must study it and must learn it. Mine is truly armchair strategy; when it comes to execution and solving problems, Secretary Shang Yuan is the truly amazing one," the staff member laughed.

"Everyone in your People's Party has to learn this?" Shang Yisheng asked in disbelief.

"Exactly. We all have to learn this. This is one of the most basic political educations. Not only do we have to learn it, but these are also written into the People's Party's middle school textbooks and are mandatory exam content. Even in the elementary school curriculum, we have relevant education."

Shang Yisheng felt a wave of dizziness. He hurriedly asked, "I heard that under your Party's rule, you strive to make all children go to school. Does that mean as long as they go to middle school, they have to accept this education? Must take exams?"

"One of the political platforms of our People's Party is that the broad laboring people are the ruling class of the country. Therefore, every child must accept such education; this is their obligation. Everyone has an obligation to become a qualified member of the ruling class." When the young comrade from the People's Internal Affairs Committee reached this point, he couldn't help but look solemn, his tone grave.

"What kind of country do you want to build?" Shang Yisheng already felt his brain was muddled.

"The state is a tool of class rule. The state's system and laws are all formulated to realize the interests of the ruling class. The country we want to build is a country where the broad laborers are the masters..."

Listening to these incisive expositions, Shang Yisheng felt his eyes light up. The way of rule he knew was nothing more than making the common people obedient. To make the common people obedient, whether it was the government or the gentry, they all had to maintain a system. But what the People's Party described were secrets passed down by word of mouth within the ruling class. Now, the People's Party was completely exposing these secrets to the world, and actually making everyone understand and accept them in a semi-coercive manner.

Half sincere, half feigned, Shang Yisheng stood up respectfully. "Comrades, I didn't know before that the People's Party had such breadth of mind, such magnanimity. I am convinced!"

Shang Yisheng originally thought the young men in front of him would be moved by such a gesture. Unexpectedly, the young men just smiled slightly. They first asked Shang Yisheng to sit down, and only then did the leading comrade speak: "Whether you are convinced or not, saying it with your mouth is useless. Within our base areas, to be acknowledged, one must first be a laborer. If you can do your work well, you will naturally be recognized by everyone. If you can lead everyone to do the work well, everyone will choose you to hold public office. In the final analysis, whether you consider yourself a laborer just like everyone else is the condition for whether you can be accepted. Whether you praise our People's Party or curse our People's Party, we ourselves don't care."

Shang Yisheng's heart shivered. The maturity of these young people was far beyond his imagination. He now finally somewhat understood why Shang Yuan could hand over the Shang family's land with a clear conscience. If the People's Party were just a few extremely excellent figures leading a group of accomplices, that wouldn't be anything remarkable. But if the grassroots personnel of the People's Party all had such insight, then they really were difficult to oppose.

Shang Yisheng hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed. "I have learned much, I have learned much. Listening to your words is truly better than reading books for ten years. Comrades, you have delayed quite a bit of time to enlighten a muddled egg like me. Ask whatever you want to ask; I will definitely say what I know."

Since Shang Yisheng was behaving so smartly, the People's Party comrades didn't waste any more time. "We want to ask first, exactly how much grain did Mr. Shang hand over? Rest assured, however much grain you handed over is a matter between you and the Beiyang government; we absolutely will not pursue Mr. Shang's responsibility on this matter."

Faced with this question, Shang Yisheng felt rather awkward. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "I handed over a little less, roughly ninety-two percent."

The comrades of the People's Internal Affairs Committee couldn't help but glance at each other, and then continued to ask, "Is it just your family that did this, or did other families do the same? How did you negotiate this with the tax police?"

"Because Shang Yuan is working in the People's Party, my family didn't want to cause trouble, so we handed over relatively more. Other families handed over as little as eighty-five percent. What was said to the tax police at the time was that with so much grain piled up, we might as well count the shortage as loss/wastage. Moreover, we also bought back a batch of grain. The price of this grain was two and a half silver dollars per *shi*. As for where this money went, we aren't clear."

"Two and a half dollars per *shi*?" The young comrade was truly somewhat shocked. Current grain prices were stable; the price of wheat fluctuated between 3.8 and 5.2 silver dollars per *shi*. How was this a buyback? This was naked bribery.

Noting down this situation, the People's Internal Affairs Committee comrades began to question Shang Yisheng on other issues.

After nearly ten days of investigation, a preliminary report on the grain deficit was handed to Chai Qingguo. The tax revenue in Shangqiu exceeded 70 million *jin* of grain. 20 million *jin* was transported to Kaifeng or sold to other places under the orders of Henan Governor Zhang Zhenfang. Local great landlords evaded taxes, and adding their bribery of tax police and local officials, a total of nearly 10 million *jin* of grain was consumed. As for private selling by local officials and the guys managing the grain depots, another 2 million *shi* [sic: probably meant jin, or consistent unit] was lost. The grain that fell into the People's Party's hands was over 30 million *jin*, and there was still 5 or 6 million *jin* of grain unaccounted for. Was this lost in the various transportation and storage links? or did every household hand over less grain during tax collection, accumulating into the current situation? The comrades could not judge based on the clues already mastered.

The People's Party currently did not have the energy to investigate too strictly. Chai Qingguo instructed, "Being able to investigate to this extent, I think is not bad. Comrades, write a report on this; let's stop here for now. Comrades should shift their attention to the work of land reform. This is the most important problem we face right now."

After temporarily interrupting the investigation, Chai Qingguo convened a Party Committee meeting to discuss how to utilize the current situation, especially this matter regarding Henan's tax revenue.

"I believe the grain currently mastered is sufficient for tax refunds. We can currently attack Zhang Zhenfang on this issue. Firstly, we can occupy the moral high ground for criticism; secondly, we can also create contradictions within Zhang Zhenfang's clique."

"Arrest these corrupt officials and kill them to deter internal and external enemies."

These were very orthodox solutions and quickly gained the approval of the comrades.

Gu Lu, however, proposed an idea. "We might as well use the grain to build water conservancy projects. The Air Force has taken quite a few aerial photos. Based on the terrain of Guide Prefecture pieced together from these photos, we can simply carry out an overall water conservancy plan and implement construction in some feasible areas."

"This won't do!" Someone immediately came out to oppose.

"This area of Henan is different from other base areas; water sources are scarce here. Every year, mass brawl incidents occur in local areas just to fight for water sources, and people die every year. Not to mention this area, just look at how many such things happen in Huaihai Province. Chairman Chen mentioned this long ago, and we only noticed these things after arriving in Huaihai Province. Doing this directly in Henan would be too radical."

Someone took the lead in explicitly opposing, and almost all comrades followed suit. Floods were more prominent in the Anhui and Hubei areas, while Jiangxi had many mountains where water shortages and floods coexisted. Although Huaihai Province bordered Hongze Lake and had multiple water systems, the problem of water shortage remained a key issue. Chen Ke, as before, was able to point out problems early on. Even with psychological preparation, the comrades were still burned badly in the rural areas of Huaihai Province at the start. Old grudges formed between many villages over fighting for water ran deep and long. With local landlords and gentry adding fuel to the fire, it caused tremendous trouble for the People's Party's work in Huaihai Province.

"These problems will have to be solved eventually even if not solved now. Since we have to use military force regardless, we might as well make full use of it." Gu Lu had his own view on this. "What do we lack right now? We lack manpower. With the benefit of this tax refund available now, why not utilize it?"

Railway Corps Division Commander Lv Dali said, "There are two ways to do things: difficult first then easy, or easy first then difficult. On the land reform in Guide Prefecture, I feel we should go from easy to difficult. Director Chai, what do you think?"

Chai Qingguo knew Gu Lu's plan. To win Chai Qingguo's support, Gu Lu had already explained the entire plan to him. Hearing Lv Dali say this, Chai Qingguo said noncommittally, "Why not listen to Comrade Gu Lu finish speaking."

Gu Lu's plan was to organize a local Henan engineering corps, but this force would not be a standing army, but a temporarily organized force. If one had to describe it, it would be a "mercenary army" or "short-term labor group." This force would take advantage of the current slack farming season to do some water conservancy work first.

After hearing this, Lv Dali laughed. "This idea is very good. We discussed it many times when we were following Chairman Chen before. This plan has only one problem: no cadres."

Even the comrades who originally wanted to refute Gu Lu fell silent after hearing Lv Dali's words, and instead looked at Gu Lu with sympathetic eyes. Since its establishment, the People's Party had cultivated a considerable number of cadres. It was just that compared to the scale the People's Party possessed, cadres were always in a state of scarcity. Given the experience and systems the People's Party had accumulated now, simply planning a matter without mentioning the cadre problem was quite easy.

Gu Lu also realized his own problem. He hurriedly said, "I know. I withdraw this suggestion."

After this suggestion was vetoed, the plan returned to the initial conventional considerations. After voting, "publicly killing corrupt officials" and "using this issue to pressure Zhang Zhenfang" became the two plans for striking at Henan's reactionary forces in the near future.

No one thought Zhang Zhenfang would truly resolve the corrupt official problem. Plus, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had captured over a hundred Beiyang spies, so both sides were in a state of quasi-war. Out of concern that sending too few people might lead to a secret attack by the Beiyang Army, the Party Committee agreed to send two cavalry companies to Kaifeng, and also dispatched four airplanes as air cover. Firstly as a warning, and secondly, if combat occurred, it could serve as a means to intimidate the enemy. The comrades of the cavalry companies all knew the chief had specially arranged the Air Force as cover; the comrades already looked down on the Beiyang Army, and now their courage was doubled.

The Air Force was indeed punctual. When the two companies of cavalry troops were nearing Kaifeng City, they heard the familiar humming sound. Soon, the light silhouettes of the airplanes appeared within their field of view. The comrades of the cavalry unit couldn't help but take off their military caps and wave vigorously at the planes. The planes also dipped their wings left and right a few times as a friendly gesture.

The cavalry unit continued forward. Arriving in front of Kaifeng City, they saw the city gates tightly closed, and the city walls already packed with Beiyang soldiers. Each was fully armed, facing the two companies of over two hundred cavalrymen as if facing a formidable enemy.

Leading the team this time was Cavalry Battalion Commander Li Zhengdao. He ordered the main force to stop outside the Beiyang Army's firing range, called over a communicator, picked up a megaphone, urged his horse forward, and shouted towards Kaifeng City, "We are the People's Party troops. We have a letter for Henan Governor Zhang Zhenfang. trouble you gentlemen to announce it."

Li Zhengdao waited for a long time without seeing anyone respond. He shouted again, but the Beiyang Army acted as if they hadn't heard.

"Did you hear me or not?" Li Zhengdao's roar became even louder through the megaphone.

"Before your People's Party completely withdraws from Henan, we will not receive any People's Party personnel." This time, there was finally a response from the city wall.

"Henan Governor Zhang Zhenfang is scared to this extent! He doesn't even dare to accept a letter?" Li Zhengdao was almost amused to the point of anger. Anger aside, amusement aside, Li Zhengdao felt unwilling to accept failure in this mission execution.

"You guys hurry up and scram. I don't want to kill you, but that doesn't mean I'm afraid of you." Curses came from the top of the wall. "If you don't scram, I'm going to open fire."

While they were speaking, the humming sound drifted over. A moment later, the Air Force's four planes had already flown over the People's Party cavalry. Li Zhengdao heard a burst of gasps from the city wall. He was just mocking the Beiyang Army in his heart for their lack of experience when he heard someone on the wall shout: "What are you afraid of? Open fire and shoot it down for me!"

Li Zhengdao was startled, but he already heard the Beiyang Army opening fire.

"Shoot that one under the wall to death for me too." The Beiyang commander howled.

A wise man doesn't fight when the odds are against him. Li Zhengdao couldn't worry about the Air Force comrades anymore; he hurriedly turned his horse and galloped towards the safe zone. Bullets flew *swish swish* from behind Li Zhengdao, some even flying past right against his body. Suppressing his fear, Li Zhengdao urged his horse to run wildly. Only when he regrouped with the main force in the safe zone did he turn his head to ask the comrades, "Where are the Air Force planes?"

"Over there!" Several comrades pointed in several directions. Li Zhengdao looked hard in those directions but actually couldn't see where the planes were.

As the humming sound got closer and closer, Li Zhengdao discovered that the Air Force planes had unknowingly circled around and flown back. This time the planes didn't fly so low; in Li Zhengdao's eyes, the planes were just a few small dots. And below these few small dots, several small black dots appeared unknowingly. With a sharp whistling sound, the small black dots landed directly on the city wall. Violent explosion sounds, flames and white smoke suddenly rising—it was about the same effect as artillery shelling. Li Zhengdao could even see Beiyang soldiers being blown off the city wall by the blast wave of the explosion.

"Withdraw! Withdraw out of the range of the enemy's artillery!" Ignoring his admiration for this terrifying effect, Li Zhengdao immediately thought of the high possibility of being shelled by Beiyang artillery and hurriedly led the comrades to retreat towards the east.

Retreating behind a forest, Li Zhengdao jumped off his horse, ran all the way to the edge of the forest near Kaifeng City, and raised his binoculars to observe. At this time, the top of Kaifeng City was already in chaos. The Air Force comrades had absolutely no intention of being forgiving. The planes dropped a bomb every so often. Although he didn't know how many bombs one plane could carry, Li Zhengdao was full of hope that the bombs could collapse the city wall. Being chased away from the city edge by the enemy like chasing a rabbit was a humiliation Li Zhengdao had never experienced before.

The humming sound and the sharp whistling of bombs falling from the sky did not last too long. The planes soon reformed their formation and flew over the forest where Li Zhengdao was. The three-colored signal lights under the gray wings flashed a sequence; this was the signal that the planes were now returning. Amidst the almost wild cheers of the comrades, the four planes disappeared into the eastern horizon.

Failing to deliver the letter, Li Zhengdao ordered the troops to return to Shangqiu. On the way, the troops were immersed in the terrifying power of the planes.

"I didn't know planes could drop bombs down!"

"It must be a plane designed by Chairman Chen."

"If there are enough planes and they carry enough bombs, wouldn't they just bomb all the Beiyang troops to death directly!"

Listening to the comrades enthusiastically discussing the immense power displayed by the planes, Li Zhengdao slowly put away the smile on his face.

"Battalion Commander, what's wrong?" The battalion staff officer urged his horse up and asked.

"Nothing, I was just thinking, our cavalry unit can't let the Air Force take all the glory," Li Zhengdao replied.

The staff officer had originally wanted to talk about the Air Force with Li Zhengdao; he had an uncontrollable excitement that just made him want to talk about planes. Hearing Li Zhengdao say this, and thinking that the cavalry unit faced a powerful competitor, a strong sense of crisis suddenly arose in the staff officer's heart.