The People's Party transferred all comrades of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong origin to work in the aforementioned three regions. Zhou Shuren, Lin Juemin, and others were on the transfer list. There were nearly ten thousand comrades from these three regions. Excluding those in the army, the other six thousand or so all received training before returning to their hometowns.

The person in charge of legal training was Xu Dian, President of the Supreme Procuratorate. This legal expert no longer held the "supremacy of law" ideas of his youth. At the training meeting, Xu Dian frankly told the comrades, "We face two major issues in this work. The first is resolving criminal cases. We cannot copy the laws of the Liberated Areas to the three southeastern provinces. This must be emphasized again and again. Our basis for handling criminal cases can only be the basic consensus in traditional Chinese culture: murderers die, and those who injure others are punished. Whoever owes a blood debt to the people must pay it back. I want to repeatedly emphasize this point. When working, comrades must absolutely not publicize how our People's Party will do this or that. I hope comrades can grasp this basic point."

Zhou Shuren and Lin Juemin happened to be sitting next to each other in the Party School auditorium. The organization had arranged for Zhou Shuren to return to Hangzhou to be responsible for establishing the Hangzhou Medical College and its affiliated hospital, based on the existing Hangzhou Hospital. Lin Juemin was to return to Guangzhou to be responsible for establishing the Guangzhou local government. Hearing these cold and ruthless words, a trace of unbearable emotion appeared on Zhou Shuren's face, while Lin Juemin gave a low, cold laugh.

Hearing this laugh, Zhou Shuren turned to look at Lin Juemin. He saw that Lin Juemin's expression was not mocking Xu Dian at all; instead, there was a great fervor within that coldly smiling face. Zhou Shuren could guess that Lin Juemin supported the implementation of the "blood debt paid in blood" policy in various regions.

After Xu Dian explained the main points of the purpose and methods of this work to the comrades from a legal perspective and a legal execution perspective, the class went into recess. Zhou Shuren couldn't help but strike up a conversation with Lin Juemin. Everyone had their name on the badge on their chest, so one only had to look to know how to address the other. Zhou Shuren asked, "Comrade Lin, I feel you firmly support this action?"

"Why not support it?" Lin Juemin asked back.

Zhou Shuren actually couldn't find a reason not to support it either. After pondering for a good while, he replied, "Some people could be spared from death."

Lin Juemin looked at Zhou Shuren for a while and then suddenly laughed. "Comrade Zhou, I think what many comrades are truly worried about is that after our People's Party establishes this rule, the common people will use this method to solve all problems in the future. After all, this is not the era when Liu Bang made a three-article agreement with the elders of Guanzhong. Perhaps you feel that if the common people stand up and speak, there will be mixed blessings."

Zhou Shuren was stunned. Lin Juemin's words struck directly at the thoughts deep in his heart. Some self-evident things hadn't even occurred to Zhou Shuren himself before hearing these words, yet they perfectly matched his thoughts. Zhou Shuren carefully examined Lin Juemin. Judging from his appearance, Lin Juemin was less than 30 years old.

Just then, another young man with "Fang Shengdong" written on his chest badge leaned over. "Juemin, why are you sitting here?"

Lin Juemin laughed, "I came late and there were no seats. How could I dare to be picky? I sat down as soon as I saw an empty seat, otherwise, wouldn't I be asking for a scolding?"

At this time, the recess had ended, and everyone came back to listen to the lecture. Seeing an empty seat here, Fang Shengdong simply occupied it and sat down. Young people like to make friends. Upon hearing that Zhou Shuren was a hospital director and studied Western medicine, Lin Juemin and Fang Shengdong were even more willing to befriend him.

Zhou Shuren loved quietness, and having not been in the People's Party for long, he didn't have any close friends. During lunch, he was dragged by Lin Juemin and Fang Shengdong to join the comrades from Guangdong. These two and some other comrades were all people Chen Ke had found based on the Huanghuagang list he remembered. However, these young comrades initially had their own views on the People's Party, so some of them went back. During the seven or eight years of revolutionary career, some Guangdong comrades died in battle or from illness, and some were imprisoned or executed for violating laws and crimes. There were few left of that group of youths who had come to the base area together. However, those who could persist until now were not ordinary figures.

After talking for only a short while, everyone grew to like Zhou Shuren. Lin Juemin said, "Comrade Zhou, originally I always didn't understand the art of judging people, always feeling that one may know a person's face but not their heart. Now, with the attitude of seeking truth from facts, I feel I can understand someone at a glance."

"How so?" Zhou Shuren knew Lin Juemin was praising him as a talent, and he became a bit interested. Moreover, at such a time, even if just to join in the fun, he had to ask for the details.

Lin Juemin laughed, "Comrade Zhou's speech is never exaggerated. He speaks of things that have happened. He doesn't speculate, and he doesn't treat inferences as facts. This is not something ordinary people can do."

Zhou Shuren had a nature of speaking the truth and doing practical things, so he didn't feel much about Lin Juemin's praise. He asked, "Comrade Lin, since you are responsible for the work of the Organization Department, you should understand the sentiments of the people quite well. In this April 12th incident, if we had only followed Mr. Cai... Yuanpei's original intention of purifying the party, absolutely not so many people would have been killed. Later, when rivers of blood flowed, the vast majority were killed by various localities for the sake of profit. This time, the People's Party is taking 'blood debt paid in blood' as the guiding ideology. It is hard to guarantee that such things will not repeat themselves. I feel we must be cautious."

Lin Juemin nodded. "In this cadre rectification, the first thing mentioned is to persist in the style of seeking truth from facts. If we seek truth from facts, we won't believe there are once-and-for-all solutions in the world. A matter has a beginning and an end; this is the process of things. Doing personnel work in the Organization Department, the biggest problem I encounter is always involuntarily hoping to do things perfectly. Now it seems that being able to finish a matter from beginning to end is already not bad. So, understanding one thing at a time may seem inefficient, but it actually increases efficiency."

If it were someone else, they might feel Lin Juemin's words were far off the topic, but Zhou Shuren understood Lin Juemin's attitude as a member of the Organization Department. "So, Comrade Lin means that blood debts are blood debts, repayment is repayment, compensation is compensation, and development is development. They absolutely should not be mixed together?"

"Exactly so," Lin Juemin replied.

Zhou Shuren nodded. If this could really be achieved during execution, it would indeed avoid a lot of trouble. It was just that this requirement for the People's Party was too high. Normal people hope for once-and-for-all solutions or just muddling through. What Lin Juemin said would encounter countless troubles during execution.

Seeing the doubt on Zhou Shuren's face, Lin Juemin laughed, "We threw ourselves into the revolution back then to sweep away the filth of the world and build a bright universe. Such things must be done no matter how troublesome. Not only must they be done, but we must also do our utmost to promote these methods of doing things to the whole world. If every common person could do things this way, how great would that China be!"

One of the important reasons Zhou Shuren had not chosen to join the People's Party until now was that he felt the People's Party's political philosophy was too profound. If one followed the People's Party's requirements, everyone would be a talent, even if they couldn't become generals or ministers. Such an ideal was certainly worthy of respect, but for a normal person to achieve this step, they must experience countless hardships and pain. Taking this step was indeed an extremely difficult thing.

With such a difference in understanding, the subsequent conversation was not so congenial. Moreover, the lunch break was not long, and the comrades went back to class after eating. this meeting did not make them close friends.

The training classes were mainly aimed at non-class struggle areas. Western Zhejiang, where class struggle had erupted, was under complete military control. after the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army liberated the three southeastern provinces, there was considerable debate regarding the handling process.

All social actions require costs, and the cost of imprisoning criminals is even greater. Some comrades proposed that those lower-level executors had fewer implications. Since various issues had basically been investigated clearly, they should simply be executed first to give the common people an explanation.

Similarly, another group of comrades believed that if the goal was just to close cases simply, then everyone arrested now could be taken out and killed. If killing was necessary, start with the ringleaders. Otherwise, once the ringleaders pushed the responsibility onto the guys who had already been killed, it would make things complicated. More importantly, there was the attitude of the masses. If the executors were killed first, they might not care about the crimes of those planners they had never seen.

Both attitudes made sense. However, a significant number of criminals had not been brought to justice. Some had run to the area controlled by Wang Youhong, and some had run to the concessions. Missing this group of people, the entire April 12th criminal system lacked witnesses. Finally, someone asked the representative of the People's Internal Affairs Committee if they could restart the torture model on a large scale.

This suggestion was directly rejected by the representative of the People's Internal Affairs Committee. In recent years, the People's Party had emphasized science and democracy. Within the People's Internal Affairs Committee, the result of applying science was to try not to create unjust, false, and wrong cases. Creating unjust, false, and wrong cases was a great harm to revolutionary work. Through a large amount of practical accumulation, interrogation methods increasingly targeted factual inquiry, using normal processes to determine guilt. Hearing about restarting torture, the People's Internal Affairs Committee felt greatly insulted.

Since this path didn't work, the only option was to arrest all criminal suspects as much as possible. And this involved external issues. That was the power of Wang Youhong in Jiangsu. In recent years, after Wang Youhong controlled Southern Jiangsu, he implemented a citizen system centered on tax payment and military service. Whatever policies the People's Party had, especially those related to workers and peasants, Wang Youhong would try to implement in Southern Jiangsu.

Wang Youhong and the guys in Southern Jiangsu had good luck. If not for World War I, simply imitating the People's Party's policies would have led to comprehensive internal chaos in Southern Jiangsu itself. However, World War I led Britain to expand its procurement in China, and Wang Youhong obtained markets and capital. Learning from the People's Party to purchase mechanical equipment based on trade balance and organize machine production, the livelihood situation in Southern Jiangsu had improved significantly.

How to treat Wang Youhong was a difficult problem, neither big nor small. Conquering Jiangsu completely by military force was of course achievable, but no one thought it was necessary to directly take such simple and crude measures. So the discussion result was to first formally propose to Wang Youhong, demanding that he hand over the people.

While the People's Party discussed how to deal with Wang Youhong, in Nanjing, Wang Youhong also gathered the Jiangsu Assembly to discuss how to respond to the current changing situation. This Governor of Zhejiang wore the blue military uniform of the Beiyang Army. Although it seemed a bit out of touch with the times at this moment, no one noticed this point. Wang Youhong's hair was completely white, but his teeth hadn't fallen out, giving him a somewhat transcendent appearance. "Fellow citizens, fellow assembly members. I think there is no need to say more about the current situation. The People's Party loves to say 'seek truth from facts', so let us also seek truth from facts. There are two ways to reason in this world: the first is with the mouth, and the second is with the fist. The situation today is already like this. We definitely want to reason with our mouths, but whether the People's Party is willing to listen, willing to reason with us with their mouths, is something no one can be sure of. I convened this meeting to hear how everyone wants to reason."

This statement was very clear. The expressions on the faces of the Jiangsu Assembly members varied, but the number of assembly members showing grief and indignation was relatively large. Jiangsu absolutely could not defeat the People's Party in a war; every Jiangsu assembly member was very clear about this. Therefore, the sense of grief and indignation from feeling bullied was particularly strong.

"Governor Wang, we will absolutely not surrender!" an assembly member shouted. With this shout, other assembly members began to echo.

Wang Youhong couldn't help but laugh. "Everyone, the People's Party hasn't persuaded us to surrender yet, and we are discussing surrender ourselves. If everyone thinks this way, then I think we might as well just surrender voluntarily."

Mocked by Wang Youhong like this, those impatient assembly members all blushed. However, Wang Youhong didn't want to pursue this point. He said, "The People's Party definitely won't make this request now. I do have a matter that requires everyone to make a decision. The People's Party will absolutely not let go of most of those people who fled to our Jiangsu. And many of those who came to seek refuge are assembly members or prominent figures of our Jiangsu. If the People's Party demands these people from us, should we hand them over or not? This matter requires everyone to make a decision."

"Why hand them over?" An assembly member who had just shown weakness impatiently began to show his "pride". "People have arrived in our Jiangsu. Sending them back means they will be beheaded. How is doing this different from surrendering to the People's Party?"

As soon as the voice fell, another assembly member immediately stood up to refute, "Why should we Jiangsu people shelter Zhejiang guys, Fujian guys, and Guangdong guys?"

An argument ensued immediately. Some assembly members believed this was something the People's Party should beg Jiangsu for, while others were completely worried about Jiangsu's safety. Wang Youhong watched this living drama with an expressionless face, but he was extremely contemptuous in his heart. The performance of these guys could only be described with the phrase "servile yet overbearing". Clearly, they were afraid in their hearts but dared not say it directly. With such a group of subordinates, Wang Youhong completely gave up the idea of armed resistance against the People's Party.

Having seen enough of the assembly members' performance, Wang Youhong waved his hand to interrupt the assembly members' argument. "No matter what the People's Party wants to do, let them submit a request to us with a formal legal document!"

This was a sore point in Wang Youhong's heart. His attempt to take a concubine back then had finally been defeated by a legal document from the People's Party. The dignified Governor of Jiangsu had to bow to the document written by the People's Party's legal clerks. So Wang Youhong decided that no matter how things developed, he would require the People's Party to communicate via formal official documents. Doing this was not entirely Wang Youhong acting on impulse. Although he couldn't completely pinpoint who it was, Wang Youhong knew that someone in the Jiangsu Assembly was in communication with the People's Party. This request was also Wang Youhong's method of testing whether the People's Party had the heart to resolve the Jiangsu issue peacefully.