Pu Guanshui’s days were indeed spent sitting on pins and needles. The direct result of the great victory of conquering Beijing was "water shortage" and "food shortage." Pu Guanshui now thoroughly understood just how pragmatic foreigners could be. On the very day Beijing was conquered, the foreign ministers sent people to "inquire" why the People’s Party was besieging the Legation Quarter.

The young comrades of the People’s Party had been receiving "nationalist" education for years. Chen Ke was not too worried that China’s modern nation-state education would lead to the prevalence of any extremist ideology. History had already proven this; the cultural concept of the Central Kingdom and the extremely pragmatic folk traditions were themselves enough to curb the development of extremism. In history, extremism always arose when countries could not solve their internal problems and were forced to solve them externally. Ordinary people simply did not have the passion to die for the interests of the ruling class. The United States experienced 9/11, and the entire nation’s emotions boiled over, but after ten years of security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the emotions were gone. As long as China’s own policies were sound, extremist attitudes would certainly exist, but they would absolutely not develop to the point of dominating national policy.

The comrades of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army received education every day like "I am Chinese, China is my motherland, I love my motherland." When they encountered the foreign devils coming to "inquire" with such arrogance, everyone from top to bottom exploded with anger.

"I’d actually like to ask, on what basis do you lot of foreigners station troops in China?" Pu Guanshui and several senior commanders called the messengers of the foreign ministers before them and asked back in a tone of extreme disdain.

"We have a treaty for this!" the representatives of the diplomatic corps replied aggressively after hearing the translation and seeing Pu Guanshui’s extremely disdainful expression.

"Bullshit! Go find whoever signed the treaty with you!" Pu Guanshui didn't make a sound, but the Chief of Staff had already shouted.

Before the translator could translate this, the French representative was already fuming with rage. He spoke in a voice full of foreign accent: "You dare to insult me!"

This did not scare the Chief of Staff at all. He jumped up from his stool. "I insult you? I even want to hit you!"

As soon as these words came out, the guards swarmed up.

Pu Guanshui hurriedly pulled the Chief of Staff away. "What are you preparing to do to a group of unarmed people? Where has your sense of honor gone? Don't act tough at a time like this, it’s disgraceful!"

After the Chief of Staff sat back down in his chair, puffing with anger, Pu Guanshui turned around. "The Chief of Staff cursing at you shows his lack of self-restraint. However, I firmly support what the Chief of Staff said. You go find the Manchu Qing to discuss this treaty. Our Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army has absolutely nothing to do with this treaty."

The French representative thought that Pu Guanshui, who had intervened, would bow his head and apologize. He didn't expect Pu Guanshui’s attitude to be even tougher than the Chief of Staff’s. He threatened, "Are you trying to start a war?"

Pu Guanshui stared into the French representative’s eyes and said word for word, "Whether a war is started or not, I cannot make the decision. But right now, I make the decisions in Beijing. I am formally telling you now, at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, I will send people to draw a line for you. Whoever steps outside this line, we will kill immediately. If any of you fire a single bullet from inside this line, we will immediately launch a full-scale counterattack! In our view, everyone inside this line is a combatant! You can go back and report this now!"

"You are too audacious!" the French representative howled.

Pu Guanshui pointed his left hand straight at the tip of the French representative’s nose. "Don't you fucking refuse a face-saving offer! I don't want to hit you, but that doesn't mean I can't hit you! Get the hell out of here right now, or I'll throw you out!"

When had the foreign devils ever suffered such anger in China? But seeing the Chinese soldiers around them with their hands on their gun handles and their murderous gazes converging on them, they truly felt guilty. The British representative left without saying a word, and the representatives of other countries followed him out. The French representative had been cursed at and wanted to regain some face, but seeing that Pu Guanshui had no intention of showing any weakness, he also felt it was meaningless to be left alone. Muttering in French, the French representative also left.

That night, the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army guarded strictly. And the concession area did not dare to use force at all. Early the next morning, Pu Guanshui sent troops to use lime to draw a striking white line around the Dongjiaomin Lane and other areas. With the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army bearing down on the border and the captured Beiyang artillery ready, not a single foreign devil dared to come out and provoke.

After deterring the foreign devils, Pu Guanshui immediately began working hard to solve Beijing's livelihood problems. Beijing had always been short of water, and water delivery was a major industry in Beijing. The reason there were so many bathhouses in Beijing was that the drinking water purchased by most people was simply not enough to take a bath at home. The high price of each bucket of water seemed like a huge joke to the People’s Party.

The siege of the past few days made the water supply in Beijing even more strained. Military control brought the night soil collection industry to a halt, and coupled with the hot weather, the entire city of Beijing had become stinky.

The Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army did not lack engineering troops. The combat engineers had also received a lot of engineering training and had ample experience in municipal construction. Coincidentally, the troops captured a batch of cement produced in Tangshan. With this good stuff, the troops began to build an overhead aqueduct to temporarily provide drinking water to Beijing starting from the 14th. After fully considering road green spaces and various redundancies, the troops began construction immediately with the unique fortitude of the army. Various sweet water wells were immediately requisitioned, and the army built simple water towers, water delivery pipelines, and water storage areas at super high speed. By the 16th, Beijing residents in water-scarce areas found that they could collect water with water tickets near their homes.

As for the food problem, the troops copied the population data of the Beijing localities. Residents of all districts could receive a temporary household registration booklet as long as they registered their household with the People’s Party. With the household registration booklet, they could receive grain tickets. The masses of Beijing could first go to the People’s Party "Bank Exchange Office" to exchange silver dollars and copper coins for Renminbi. Then, relying on the daily grain tickets, they could use Renminbi to buy enough food to feed themselves at a fair price.

The People’s Party’s military control remained strict, but the lives of the Beijing masses recovered rapidly. In particular, the factories that the People’s Party had once opened in Beijing, which had been confiscated by the Beiyang government, resumed work if they could. With the roster, factory workers could continue to go to work. Most of the People’s Party’s factories were in the southern city, where the poorer people of Beijing lived. As long as they could go to work and earn money, even if they were paid in Renminbi, it was better than starving to death at home. After the implementation of many military and civil administration measures that had long been tried and tested in the People’s Party base areas, even if Beijing did not return to normal, it quickly regained its calm.

By August 18th, the Beiyang troops in Handan and Xingtai had received Duan Qirui's order. Knowing that Beijing had been conquered by the People’s Party, the Beiyang army left their wounded behind and retreated on a large scale towards Shanxi. The Henan Military Region troops commanded by Chai Qingguo did not pursue them forcefully. So many Beiyang troops fleeing to Shanxi would inevitably create tremendous pressure on Shanxi. Why waste human lives in vain at this time?

The Henan Military Region troops trailed the Beiyang army to prevent them from playing any tricks. At the same time, they began to urgently reorganize the railway.

On August 20th, a train fully loaded with grain arrived in Beijing. The transport of the grain train was done with great fanfare. The Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army not only restored many civil administration facilities but even restored the police stations and courts. Fourth Master Chang, who had cooperated quite well with the People’s Party, had a large number of things confiscated during the brief control. What could be found was returned, and for what couldn't be found, they could only tell Fourth Master Chang and the others that the People’s Party had done its best, and everyone just had to accept their bad luck for now.

As a major transporter in Beijing, Fourth Master Chang, thanking them a thousand times with tears streaming down his face, raised his arm and called out, and the news of large quantities of grain entering Beijing spread throughout the entire city. This not only stabilized the hearts of the people in Beijing but also gave solid support to the Renminbi. Originally, when every family exchanged for the Renminbi to buy grain, they calculated carefully, exchanging only enough Renminbi for the amount of grain they bought each day. Now, many families dared to exchange for Renminbi for at least two or three days' use at one time. As for the masses in the southern city, they originally had no income. Since the People’s Party issued Renminbi, they could only use Renminbi.

By the 21st, acting Hebei Provincial Party Secretary Chen Tianhua entered Beijing. However, he only stayed in Beijing for one day before continuing to the liberated areas of Hebei. Pu Guanshui was very puzzled by this. Chen Tianhua laughed and said, "One knows one's own affairs. I have a strong inertia. If I enter the city and live a comfortable life for two days, it will be extremely difficult to go down again. I would rather basically solve the work below first before talking about entering the city. I leave the work in Beijing to Commander Pu."

Pu Guanshui naturally knew this was a joke. Not to mention that Beijing might immediately turn into a battlefield, the People’s Party’s land reform in Hebei would definitely proceed from south to north, so Chen Tianhua actually couldn't do anything squatting in Beijing. Moreover, Pu Guanshui couldn't even open his mouth to ask Chen Tianhua for local cadres. Pu Guanshui would be thanking his lucky stars if the localities didn't ask the army for cadres.

Holding Chen Tianhua’s hand, Pu Guanshui said from the bottom of his heart, "Secretary Chen, your completion of the land reform in Hebei as soon as possible is the greatest support for our military work!"

By August 22nd, the legations in Beijing finally couldn't help but send people again to negotiate with Pu Guanshui. The French representative from last time was not among the people who came this time; the leader was Sir Humphrey of Britain. Sir Humphrey naturally behaved very calmly. He first congratulated the People’s Party on capturing Beijing, and then he didn't mention anything about the treaty. He simply asked Pu Guanshui, "I have spoken with Chairman Chen Ke of your party many times, and he has always insisted on maintaining the status quo. I believe Your Excellency the General's attitude is obviously not maintaining the status quo."

Pu Guanshui laughed. "How is this not maintaining the status quo? We haven't sent a single soldier into that piece of land where you are. Of course, in a war situation, everything will change somewhat. On this point, we are also powerless."

Sir Humphrey seemed to have completely missed the flavor in Pu Guanshui’s words. He continued to say politely, "However, external communication for the Concessions and the Legation Quarter has been completely cut off. I believe Your Excellency the General needs to improve this status quo."

Pu Guanshui said sincerely, "Cutting off external communication for the Legation Quarter is really to protect you. After all, it is wartime now. If someone were to sneak into your area and cause trouble, or intentionally cause an accidental discharge of firearms, wouldn't that be trouble? On the contrary, adopting technical means of this current high-pressure situation allows the situation to be better controlled."

Sir Humphrey had long experienced this style of the People’s Party, and he was even clear about why he detested the People’s Party’s style so deeply. Because this was a practice that only a sovereign power acting as a Great Power could implement. In Sir Humphrey’s heart, China was not qualified to adopt such a practice towards the British Empire.

"Your Excellency the General, since you also admit that this is a war zone, we request to evacuate foreign nationals," Sir Humphrey said.

"I agree to the evacuation of foreign nationals, and we will also protect your evacuation operation." Pu Guanshui immediately expressed support for Sir Humphrey’s request.

Before Sir Humphrey could feel satisfied, Pu Guanshui continued, "However, foreign nationals are not allowed to carry weapons. Except for clothing and foreign currency, they are not allowed to carry other valuables. All luggage must be inspected by us before it can be released."

Now Sir Humphrey could no longer hold it in. He darkened his face and asked, "Why do this?"

"Because when Beijing was breached, quite a few people fled into the concessions and the Legation Quarter. They carried a large amount of valuables with them. And they had to use these valuables to exchange for food and water in the concessions. Among these valuables, many were stolen from our country by them. For us, we have an obligation to protect China’s interests and cannot let these things flow out to foreign countries. Moreover, inside the concessions, a large amount of forced buying and selling, and even murder for money, must have occurred. We, the People’s Party, also have an obligation to protect our Chinese people. We will absolutely not suspect your clothing and foreign currency. If you want to take away pianos or violins, we will also let you take them. But for other valuables, we must inspect them before releasing them. We will temporarily detain those items with major suspicions. Wait until you can prove to our court that your property rights are legal, and we will release these items for you to take away. Please rest assured on this point, we, the People’s Party, are absolutely committed to the rule of law."

After listening to these words, Sir Humphrey wanted to reach out and strangle Pu Guanshui to death. In China, no one had ever dared to talk to Sir Humphrey about Chinese laws, about China’s state and national interests so unhurriedly.

And Sir Humphrey was equally clear that Pu Guanshui before him was vastly different from previous Chinese soldiers. Previous Chinese soldiers might have dared to oppose foreigners on some small matters occasionally due to personal reasons, but as long as the foreign minister lodged a protest with the then-Chinese government, the then-Chinese government would suppress these Chinese soldiers. Standing behind Pu Guanshui was the People’s Party, and what Pu Guanshui was executing was the policy of the People’s Party. Even if Sir Humphrey now had the Queen of England write a letter to Chen Ke to protest, it would absolutely not harm a single hair on Pu Guanshui’s head.

Could it be that everything Britain had painstakingly spent huge efforts to maintain in China was now beginning to collapse? An ominous thought flashed across Sir Humphrey’s mind.