The People's Party's information on the Beiyang clique was almost transparent to them, while Beiyang's information on the People's Party was not transparent enough. For example, Zheng Wenjie, who had taken office in the Army Ministry's Intelligence Office, had once again connected with the People's Party, almost wholesale transferring general information to them. This intelligence wasn't particularly top-secret, but it had the advantage of covering a wide range, from military organization to various problems encountered. The People's Party liked this kind of intelligence; through detailed analysis, they could not only deduce many of Beiyang's military arrangements but also understand many details about Beiyang.

Zheng Wenjie's betrayal of Beiyang this time was voluntary. After learning through his own channels that the "Memorandum on Far East War Operations" had been signed and reading its terms, he understood that Yuan Shikai was going to proclaim himself emperor. Zheng Wenjie was extremely repulsed by this. His reason for opposing Yuan Shikai's monarchy was simple: "None of the Yuan family descendants look capable."

To Zheng Wenjie, Yuan Shikai becoming emperor himself wasn't an issue. Whether it was ability, magnanimity, or sense of belonging, Zheng Wenjie would support Yuan Shikai becoming emperor. However, the title of emperor represented not just the power over life and death, but also that the Yuan family would become the imperial clan. This was what Zheng Wenjie could not accept. The next generation of the Yuan family, from Yuan Keding to Yuan Kewen, none caught Zheng Wenjie's eye. Thinking of such a group becoming crown princes and then ascending to the throne, Zheng Wenjie felt a burst of extreme disgust.

Of course, before resuming cooperation with the People's Party, Zheng Wenjie had struggled psychologically until he figured one thing out, which relieved him. Originally, Zheng Wenjie felt that Yuan Shikai taking the title of emperor was no big deal. If "Emperor" was just an honorific title and didn't involve hereditary power, then how was it different from the current President? Even if President Yuan Shikai was re-elected or became President for Life, Zheng Wenjie wouldn't have a single complaint. If it was just about Yuan Shikai personally gaining unlimited power, why would he go to such lengths to create so much trouble? No matter what was said about Yuan Shikai only wanting the righteous title to exercise power more effectively, didn't the current Yuan Shikai already possess such a righteous title? Wasn't the power possessed by the Grand President equivalent to an emperor not enough? Since he wanted to proclaim himself emperor, an imperial clan would naturally appear. With an imperial clan, there would be bloodline succession. Then, no matter how you put it, Yuan Shikai was placing the rise and fall of his family above the Beiyang group. Zheng Wenjie certainly couldn't support that.

Facts proved that Zheng Wenjie wasn't just thinking blindly without reason. "Sima Zhao's intent is known to everyone on the street." There were already people in Beiyang shouting support for Yuan Shikai to become emperor. There were plenty of smart people these days.

Since Zheng Wenjie had determined that he absolutely would not support Yuan Shikai's son becoming emperor, his choices were limited, perhaps to only one: Yuan Shikai must absolutely not be allowed to eliminate the People's Party. Zheng Wenjie reached a conclusion on this choice very quickly. Yuan Shikai and the People's Party had reached a situation where coexistence was absolutely impossible. Since that was the case, one either supported Yuan Shikai or the People's Party. Given Yuan Shikai's perverse acts and the strength of the People's Party's military forces, Zheng Wenjie quickly connected with the People's Party's Beijing intelligence department. The People's Party never forced defectors like Zheng Wenjie to get secret documents. As long as Zheng Wenjie could provide information on Beiyang's organization, garrisons, and the relevant data and characteristics of commanders at all levels, that was enough.

In the past two years, Beiyang had expanded its army ferociously. Zheng Wenjie discovered that the People's Party had actually already infiltrated the Beiyang Army. As a mid-level officer in the Army Ministry's Intelligence Office, Zheng Wenjie absolutely couldn't spend all day copying and writing. The copying work was handed over to a new clerk, and this clerk was a People's Party intelligence agent. After a private investigation, Zheng Wenjie discovered that the clerk had actually come through Xu Shichang's connections. This made Zheng Wenjie give up hope completely. It wasn't that Zheng Wenjie thought Xu Shichang would betray Yuan Shikai, nor that Xu Shichang would collude with the People's Party. It was that Beiyang's overall incompetence had reached such a level that even people in the Premier's faction could be infiltrated by the People's Party. After discovering this fact, Zheng Wenjie had even fewer illusions about Beiyang's future. One had to know that Beiyang's intelligence work had not been able to infiltrate the People's Party to this day. Meanwhile, the People's Party had already begun to enter quite critical departments of Beiyang.

Handing a roster of officers for Beiyang's newly organized troops to the clerk to copy, Zheng Wenjie glanced at the clerk again. This young man in his twenties was reticent but didn't seem antisocial. He did whatever he was told every day; even if people didn't like him, they wouldn't dislike him. Who would have thought such an honest person was actually a People's Party spy? The clerk responded after receiving the task and started working, his behavior no different from an ordinary clerk. Zheng Wenjie liked this kind of focus and obedience.

Sitting back in his office, Zheng Wenjie couldn't help but think: The People's Party must be very clear about the changes in the current situation. How exactly would they respond to such changes? How cruel would the future war become? As a civilian official, Zheng Wenjie was unlikely to go to the battlefield personally, but he couldn't help but fear the final decisive battle that would erupt in the future.

The People's Party obviously had no emotion of fear, or perhaps the situation at hand left no room for the People's Party to fear. "Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?" Reality no longer required strenuous consideration. At the end of "Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society," there was the clearest statement: "In summary, it can be seen that all warlords, bureaucrats, comprador classes, and big landlord classes that collude with imperialism, as well as a part of the reactionary intellectual circle attached to them, are our enemies. The industrial proletariat is the leading force of our revolution. All semi-proletariat and petty bourgeoisie are our closest friends. As for the vacillating middle class, its right wing may be our enemy and its left wing may be our friend—but we must always be on guard against them and not let them disrupt our front."

Whether one "colluded with imperialism" was the fundamental standard for distinguishing between enemy and self. Beiyang and its vassals had undoubtedly already colluded with imperialism. Some comrades within the People's Party had once doubted Chen Ke's "prophecy," but facts had proven that Chen Ke's prophecy was not wrong at all. Beiyang eventually changed from the self-proclaimed leader and guardian of China into a vassal of imperialism, completely standing on the opposite side of the people's revolution.

Chen Ke had always hoped that comrades could liberate their minds. The development of the situation indeed allowed comrades to see the truth of the facts. For Chen Ke, this was a supreme joy. On January 16, 1915, the People's Party held the Third Plenary Session of the Second Central Committee in Wuhan. At the plenary session, besides continuing to confirm Chairman Chen Ke's leadership status within the party and the guiding status of the people's revolution ideology, Chen Ke made a report titled "Strategic View from a Global Perspective in the New Era" to all central representatives of the People's Party.

"...China can no longer continue to be isolated from the world. Imperialism comes from all over the globe. If China's people's revolution lacks a global strategic vision, it is destined to misjudge the situation. The collusion between the Beiyang clique (and its vassals) and imperialism in the stance of suppressing the Chinese people's revolution is an inevitable choice based on their respective interests. On this point, the whole party must have a profound understanding. There are individuals who betray their class, but there is no class that betrays its interests. As long as the Beiyang clique and the vassal groups continue to insist on maintaining the old order that oppresses the people, they will constantly seek collaborators of the same class and constantly attempt to suppress the people's revolution. With such a group of enemies, we have no possibility of compromise. No matter if they raise their swords against the revolution, or if they try to kneel and beg us, what these people demand is absolutely the preservation of the old land system and the preservation of the privileged status they possessed under the old system..."

Chen Ke had made such speeches clearly distinguishing enemies from friends more than once, but this time it touched the comrades particularly deeply. Originally, comrades hadn't expected that the landlord class, which had once opposed imperialism, would really join hands with imperialism. No matter what kind of "hardships" they had, joining hands with imperialism meant a betrayal of China. If previously some People's Party members still dared to put in a good word for landlords, and some members didn't speak up but were still lenient towards landlords within the allowable range of the system in their actions, today, no one dared to have any objections.

"Comrades, I emphasize again. The competition between the industrialized socialist system we want to establish in the people's revolution and the agricultural land private ownership system is a competition between two systems, a competition between two ways of life. In such institutional competition, the loser must exit the stage of history. This does not shift according to our personal will; this is an ultimate interest competition at the social level. In such a social-level competition, whether participating actively or passively, whether consciously realizing it or being in a state of ignorance, this competition is either-or. There is no neutral space. Either it is long live the capital owners, or long live the laborers. There is basically no third road to take."

While the voice implying the sounding of the decisive battle horn was still echoing in the conference hall, a group of extremely excited comrades had already stood up and applauded enthusiastically.

"Down with Imperialism!"

"Down with the Beiyang reactionary regime!"

"Down with feudal land ownership!"

"Long live the laborers! Long live the working people!"

A beat or a few beats slower, other comrades stood up either actively or passively to applaud and joined the ranks of shouting slogans.

Chen Ke was neither smug nor carried away. His calm gaze swept over the more than three thousand three hundred People's Party national representatives before him. They represented the 660,000 party members and probationary members of the People's Party nationwide. This was the representative body of the most powerful political party in China today. In the near future, Chen Ke would lead these comrades to liberate the whole of China.

Raising his left hand, Chen Ke said loudly, "Comrades, please sit down first."

The party representatives obediently sat back in their seats. "Comrades, the struggle of systems is a struggle between people, a struggle of lifestyles. However, trying to solve this problem purely by physical elimination is useless. We of the People's Party are revolutionaries, not slaughterers. On this point, I hope all comrades can adhere to the principles of revolutionary humanitarianism. For the enemies before us, we certainly have no reason to give up the struggle, but for the enemies who surrender, we must also give them the opportunity to walk the path of laborers. We must have this broad mind of a revolutionary. This speech ends here."

After the meeting ended, Chen Ke managed to extricate himself from the encirclement of enthusiastic comrades with great difficulty. Lu Huitian hurriedly seized the opportunity to discuss recent work with Chen Ke. "What should be done with the captured Huaxing Society members? Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren's attitudes are very stubborn."

This was a completely imaginable result. Revolutionaries who did their utmost to overthrow the Qing Dynasty during the Xinhai Revolution were not necessarily supporters of the people's revolution. Because within the Huaxing Society, there was a group of early Yuewang Society cadres. When liberating Hunan, this group resisted extremely stubbornly, their fighting will even firmer than that of the Hunan government army. If classified, these people couldn't even be called captives, but war criminals.

Chen Ke previously could never have imagined that these renowned revolutionary seniors would become his prisoners. Moreover, according to the theory of the people's revolution, these people could basically be classified as counter-revolutionaries. If it were the Chen Ke of before, he would probably have couldn't help but sigh. Chen Ke replied calmly, "Since they are stubborn, then keep them locked up for a while longer. We, the People's Party, do not need these people to keep up appearances."

"But Qiu Jin and Mr. Xu Xilin have both sent letters..." Lu Huitian said.

Chen Ke looked at Lu Huitian coldly, but this dissatisfaction was less directed at Lu Huitian and more at Chen Ke himself. Politics was not children playing house, but the ultimate competition of interests. Within politics, there was naturally an extremely dark side. Chen Ke had already decided in his heart to sacrifice Qiu Jin and Xu Xilin. And the purpose of sacrificing the two was to more profoundly educate the People's Party. But even with such a calm mindset, Chen Ke still couldn't be sure that what he was doing was absolutely correct.

Lu Huitian was extremely smart. Seeing Chen Ke's attitude, he had his own thoughts. He quickly replied, "I will hold this matter for now and talk about it later. Then, the organization of representatives to visit Wuhan's industrial construction is arranged for the day after tomorrow. Does Chairman Chen want to convene a meeting afterwards?"

The Politburo Standing Committee members had visited Wuhan's industrial construction many times. You Gou, a Politburo member, was simply the person in charge of industrial construction. Convening a Politburo meeting while comrades were visiting was truly a most suitable thing.

"Wasn't this meeting arranged in advance?" Chen Ke was somewhat surprised by this. Theoretically, all schedules should have been determined long ago. How could there be a sudden adjustment for a Politburo meeting?

"It was originally arranged in advance, but recently the intelligence department received some intelligence regarding security. Enemies both domestic and foreign show signs of attempting assassinations. The comrades in the Political Security Department requested an adjustment to the schedule, so a temporary change had to be made," Lu Huitian replied helplessly.

Mentioning security issues, even Chen Ke had no solution. The reactionaries must be jumping over walls like desperate dogs at this time; even if they were destroyed, they would want to drag someone down with them. Originally, the People's Party could have used revolutionary terror to counter counter-revolutionary terror, but Chen Ke simply couldn't deviate from the policy that the Party historically never engaged in assassination. Thinking of this, Chen Ke sighed, "Safety first."

"I will reply to Qiu Jin and Mr. Xu Xilin's letters after a while," Lu Huitian confirmed again.

Chen Ke waved his hand. "No, tell them directly that the current revolutionary situation has changed. Revolutionaries of the past are very likely to become counter-revolutionaries in the current situation. This isn't because they changed, but because the circumstances of the revolution changed. No need to be too implicit."

"What if Mr. Qiu and the others think we are sowing discord?" Lu Huitian asked.

"Then we have no choice. Since we are replying, we have to tell the truth, right?" Chen Ke asked back.

Sure enough, just as Lu Huitian worried, inside the Changxing County Government of the Guangfu Society's West Zhejiang Branch, Qiu Jin and Xu Xilin didn't utter a sound immediately after reading the letter signed by Lu Huitian. After a while, Qiu Jin said, "Wenqing is actually sowing discord too? It's truly unbelievable."

Everyone knew about the conflict between the Guangfu Society's West Zhejiang Branch and the Guangfu Society Headquarters. Lu Huitian's letter had stated it clearly: "Ultimately, is it long live the asset owners, or long live the laborers? This is a fundamental contradiction that can absolutely never be compromised. Since you two in West Zhejiang incline towards the interests of laborers, you will definitely encounter opposition from asset owners. In different times, revolutionaries may look like two different people. Actually, this is absolutely not the case. It is just that in a certain period, overthrowing the Qing Dynasty was the principal contradiction, but feudal land owners have regarded protecting their own interests as their primary goal from beginning to end."

These words clearly indicated that the Guangfu Society's West Zhejiang Branch had already become a thorn in the side and a prick in the flesh of the landlords, wanting the two to see the situation clearly and choose a stance. To Qiu Jin and Xu Xilin, this was naked sowing of discord. Cai Yuanpei was at least a great scholar within the Guangfu Society; his character and learning were beyond question. The People's Party hinting that Cai Yuanpei would stand on the side of the landlords and move against the West Zhejiang Branch—this couldn't help but make Qiu Jin and Xu Xilin feel it was absurd.

"It seems Wenqing is absolutely unwilling to let Mr. Huang Xing and Mr. Song Jiaoren go," Xu Xilin's voice contained some regret.

"Bosun, no matter what happened before, now that the two of them are prisoners, we can't just sit by and ignore it." Qiu Jin was somewhat unhappy with Xu Xilin's attitude. The Guangfu Society, from top to bottom, actually didn't care much for these two people. As early as the Tongmenghui period, these two had engaged in quite a few political maneuvers behind the scenes to push Sun Yat-sen to power. More importantly, the leader of the Guangfu Society at that time was Tao Chengzhang. Tao Chengzhang detested Sun Yat-sen extremely, and had quite a few conflicts with Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren. Xu Xilin and Tao Chengzhang were close friends, so naturally, he couldn't genuinely like Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren. But Qiu Jin was straightforward and generous; she relatively disliked these intrigues. Chen Ke showing such lack of consideration for former revolutionary ambitionists—Qiu Jin found it a bit hard to watch.

Just as they were speaking, a guard came in from outside and said, "Two Sirs, Lord Tao has come."

"Lord Tao is here?" Qiu Jin and Xu Xilin were both overjoyed. The two hurriedly went out to welcome him.

Sure enough, Tao Chengzhang was waiting outside the Changxing County Yamen with two attendants. Upon seeing the two, Tao Chengzhang smiled. "How have Bosun and Jianhu been recently?"

The two ushered Tao Chengzhang into the rear hall of the county yamen. As soon as the three sat down, Tao Chengzhang said seriously, "A big war is about to be fought recently. Have you two heard?"

The decisive battle between Beiyang and the People's Party was no special secret. Qiu Jin and Xu Xilin both nodded.

"Mr. Cai wants us to go to Hangzhou for a meeting to discuss this matter together," Tao Chengzhang said.

"Then there was no need to trouble Lord Tao to come deliver the message," Qiu Jin asked.

Tao Chengzhang replied slowly, "One of the matters Mr. Cai wants to discuss in this meeting is the thorough implementation of rural gentry self-governance. Since I haven't had much to do recently anyway, I simply came over to bring the message to everyone."