"The hearts of men are made of flesh!" Xu Dian said with a rare sentimental tone during his interim report to the Central Committee regarding the grand trials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. "The Chinese common people are truly very easily satisfied. Once justice is served, they are really too kind."

The People's Party originally did not want to engage in mass killings. Theoretically speaking, those accomplices, regardless of whether they had personally killed anyone, could all be sentenced to death. Once the grand trials began, the anger of the masses quickly shifted from the grassroots perpetrators to the planners of the massacre.

Xu Dian recounted the changes in the situation. "For these masses, they originally could not touch the ringleaders. Those people were high above; the masses had never even seen them, and didn't even know their names. Now that we have kicked these people down from the clouds and made them kneel before the people to accept judgment, the masses' hatred towards the specific implementers has actually lessened at this stage."

"Does that mean those small fry whose hands aren't stained with blood might not die?" Organization Department Minister Qi Huishen asked.

Xu Dian nodded. "That depends on how the Central Committee decides to handle this matter. If we are determined to let these people die together, it would still be very easy to manipulate public sentiment to sentence them to death. If the Central Committee believes that fixed-term imprisonment is sufficient as punishment, these people can survive."

Lu Huitian laughed. "I don't think so. It's already October, and the land reform in Western Zhejiang is about to begin. Life for these people won't be easy during the land reform."

Land is the lifeblood of farmers. Even families without blood feuds might have bloody conflicts fighting for the land they desire in their hearts, let alone when there is already an existing blood feud contradiction. The Party Central Committee might be able to view the problem with an attitude of "one thing at a time," but grassroots comrades would have to face countless troubles in actual operation. Lu Huitian had extremely rich administrative experience; once he said this, the comrades in the Central Committee could all imagine what would specifically happen.

Lu Huitian continued, "Life must go on, and people have to eat no matter how many blood feuds there are. We originally thought about moving the families of the landlords and gentry away, but looking at the situation now, these surviving revolutionary people are actually the minority. If we speak from the perspective of efficiency, we have to consider moving the surviving revolutionary masses and their families away."

Hearing Lu Huitian's proposal, the expressions of the comrades in the Central Committee were a bit unhappy. But no one criticized Lu Huitian's line as being wrong, because Lu Huitian was telling the truth. The land reform implemented by the People's Party in other regions had been able to unite the majority of the masses. After the tragic class struggle in Western Zhejiang, the majority in Western Zhejiang were actually not the revolutionary masses. To put it more bluntly, from the People's Party's perspective, the majority of the masses in Western Zhejiang belonged to the "guilty." Leaving the revolutionary masses and their surviving families in Western Zhejiang would easily form a situation where the minority oppresses the majority. If it were a regime like the Manchu Qing that deliberately provoked local conflicts, they would certainly be happy to do this. The People's Party would absolutely not choose such a method.

Even though the attitude of seeking truth from facts was implemented, the sense of justice in the hearts of the Central Committee comrades was still stimulated. No one would feel comfortable with such a situation.

After a moment of silence, Chen Ke asked Xu Dian, "What does Comrade Li Shouxian think?"

Xu Dian replied, "Comrade Li Shouxian said that this responsibility is too great; a single sentence could determine the life or death of over a hundred thousand people. He cannot bear this responsibility. Therefore, Comrade Li Shouxian hopes that the Central Committee can first make a strategic decision."

Now, the comrades of the Central Committee fell silent again. Everyone understood that Li Shouxian was right to do this. If the families of the revolutionaries were moved, the matter would not be so easy to handle. No one wants to leave their native land; after leaving their native land, everyone would have a strong sense of resentment in their hearts. A large part of the power to decide the life or death of those accomplices lay in the hands of these surviving families. If they didn't leave their native land, the families might consider that they would continue to be neighbors with the others in the future; as long as the compensation was satisfactory, they might show leniency.

But once they left their native land, what politeness would these families have left? At most, they would never interact with them again; it was completely imaginable that they would demand the execution of all participants. It was like an infected wound; no matter how it was treated, the pus that had formed must come out.

Everyone was clear about Li Shouxian's administrative ability; what the Central Committee could think of, Li Shouxian definitely thought of as well. His decisive choice not to bear the responsibility was indeed correct. The reason the Central Committee was the Central Committee was that the Central Committee had to shoulder the responsibility, rather than the Central Committee taking the benefits while the subordinates carried the bad consequences.

The formulation of policy is never the absolute practice of a certain truth, nor is it seeking perfection. Rather, it is a balance of various long-term and short-term interests.

The Central Committee had no reason to demand that the slaughtered common people be kinder than the slaughterers.

The Central Committee was also unwilling to cruelly sacrifice the lives of these more than a hundred thousand people due to certain emotional factors when it was possible to spare the lives of those accomplices whose crimes did not deserve death.

As the People's Party Central Committee promoting the concept of equality for all, they could not allow a certain region to form a natural threshold of high and low status.

It was just that all of this was the understanding of the People's Party Central Committee, not the attitude of the people.

Every Central Committee member in the conference room frowned and remained silent. The experience accumulated in practical work made various speculations of possibilities roll through their minds. Which interest should be chosen as the final guiding standard was indeed a very difficult matter to handle.

Xu Dian also had rich work experience, and he fully understood the distress of the Central Committee comrades. And Xu Dian finally understood why he could not become a true core member of the Party Central Committee. This was not just a question of job characteristics; more importantly, he understood that he lacked sufficient decisiveness. After all, at the very beginning, Xu Dian had already expressed his position that he did not hope for too much killing. But Xu Dian had not taken into account the other problems that would be encountered. He merely put forward the view of the judicial department. Even if this idea was the consensus of the Central Committee, faced with the terrible responsibility to be borne, Xu Dian knew he absolutely could not shoulder it.

"Human heads are not chives; they don't grow back after being cut," Chen Ke put forward his own view. Even when the killing intent was at its peak, the Central Committee was unwilling to take the simple path of slaughter, let alone now that the situation was far better than imagined.

The comrades of the Central Committee nodded slightly. Qi Huishen said, "Then should we send a comrade to Western Zhejiang to assist in the work?"

This was very subtle. What is called assisting in work? It was completely the Central Committee sending someone to Western Zhejiang to shoulder the responsibility.

"We should still trust Comrade Li Shouxian," Lu Huitian said. "The current situation mainly exists in Western Zhejiang. For the whole of Zhejiang, our policy has not changed."

Qi Huishen's attitude was still very firm. "Precisely because we trust Comrade Li Shouxian, we must support him even more. If everyone has concerns, we can send a young comrade to Western Zhejiang."

"Oh?" The comrades present immediately felt that Qi Huishen, the Organization Minister, had his own ideas.

"How young?" Hua Xiongmao asked.

"Almost 20 years old," Qi Huishen said calmly. "Graduating from the Political and Law College this year."

Now no one wanted to make a sound. It wasn't without precedent in the People's Party for someone to become a regional leader at the age of 20; it could even be said to be the norm, such as He Zudao who controlled military administration in the Military Commission. In the People's Party, those who took charge of great power only after the age of 30 were actually the minority. But that was 10 years ago. Now that Qi Huishen dared to recommend such a candidate, it showed he indeed had full confidence.

The Organization Minister managed personnel; recommending candidates was within Qi Huishen's scope of authority. At this point, the comrades felt Qi Huishen's attitude was too tough, but there was nothing to say institutionally. Adhering to the tradition of the People's Party, Qi Huishen's skin regarding the pursuit of vain reputation had long passed the stage of thin to thick, and had now entered the realm of thick to non-existent. He said calmly, "This job requires not only talking about principles but also handling interpersonal relationships skillfully while talking about principles. That is what Chairman Chen calls EQ. Many local cadres in Zhejiang might have okay EQ, but there are problems with their principles and the degree of application of principles. Many of our comrades from the old base areas grasp principles very well, but have problems with EQ. This young comrade I want to recommend exceeds the category of excellent in terms of the materialist view of seeking truth from facts, IQ, conduct, and attitude towards striving for progress. More importantly, in terms of EQ, many of us old guys in the Central Committee may not be able to catch up with him. Breathtaking! Breathtaking!"

Chen Ke couldn't reject Qi Huishen's request either. He laughed, "Needless to say, he must be better than me."

The Central Committee members couldn't help but laugh. But Qi Huishen didn't laugh; he said seriously to Chen Ke, "Anyone in our People's Party can talk about interpersonal relationships, but only you cannot. You cannot have interpersonal relationships."

After these words were spoken, the comrades were stunned for a moment, and then the entire venue roared with laughter. Chen Ke also laughed heartily, "Originally, I was worried that my lack of understanding of interpersonal relationships would make everyone dislike me. I didn't expect this to be a good thing."

After everyone finished laughing, Qi Huishen continued, "Sometimes, seeing extremely excellent comrades, I still can't help but want to hand over harder work to them. Only with pressure is there motivation, but any work must have someone to bear the responsibility. Since I am doing this, I want to put forward three ideas. First, the recommended comrade must be discussed by the Party Committee. Second, the recommender must share the responsibility. Third, the recommended comrade must have a clear scope of use, and the recommender cannot seek special care. If these three points can be achieved, rigorous recommendation is not a bad thing."

These were honest words, and all the Central Committee comrades nodded in agreement. Hua Xiongmao laughed, "This is the work of the Organization Department. You, Minister Qi, must definitely be constantly progressing amidst mistakes."

Seeing that Hua Xiongmao supported Qi Huishen, and Chen Ke had no intention of stopping it, everyone expressed their agreement. A Party Committee resolution; this recommendation must be kept confidential. And it was suggested that all future Party Committee recommendation work adopt a confidential archiving system. Checked by the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. So, three days later, a young comrade named Wu Xiangyu went to report to Li Shouxian with the Central Committee's instruction document.

Li Shouxian was very satisfied after seeing the Central Committee's resolution. The resolution required that when dealing with the Western Zhejiang issue, appropriate means should be adopted to "stabilize the emotions of the masses in Western Zhejiang," and after the trials and land reform were completed, the surviving families of the revolutionary masses would be moved to the cities and arranged for work. Li Shouxian understood very well that this was a method of using both kindness and severity. To put it bluntly, it was to use the existence of the surviving families of the revolutionary masses to make the people in the Western Zhejiang region feel pressure, and complete the trials, land reform, and grassroots organization construction work under pressure. After this work was completed, the government would come forward to move the surviving families of the revolutionary masses out of Western Zhejiang, restoring equality and stability in Western Zhejiang.

What surprised and satisfied Li Shouxian even more was that the young comrade Wu Xiangyu quickly understood the Central Committee's ideas, and without a trace of "surprise." This was not a trait easily found in young people; young people were prone to making a fuss about nothing and viewing the world completely based on their own understanding. But this young comrade Wu Xiangyu had a strange affinity; he easily integrated into the organization and was able to quickly determine his scope of work and work content.

The People's Party was never afraid of comrades failing, but this did not mean allowing comrades to have problems with their ideological starting point when doing work. Doing work was simply doing work; a young comrade like Wu Xiangyu really made Li Shouxian overjoyed. However, the more excellent the comrade, the more they needed tempering. Without a large amount of failure experience, without these failures letting the laborer understand what they exactly "could not do," the political life of an excellent comrade could easily die prematurely halfway. There was no need for the Central Committee to instruct; Li Shouxian knew very well how to use these young comrades.

There was a rule in the People's Party's organizational engineering: a qualified cadre must be able to discover and train their own successor in their work. Treating a position as one's own inviolable territory was a standard manifestation of the feudal system. Without anyone, the earth would continue to turn, and the sun would rise as usual. Since one was a member of the organization, one must consider problems from the perspective of the organization's good operation.

Seeing a young comrade with the possibility of succeeding his position, Li Shouxian felt very gratified. However, this comrade being so young also made Li Shouxian feel that jealousy and envy unique to older people towards young people.

Since the land reform work in Western Zhejiang was to unfold, the trial work also had to be intensified. Fortunately, the huge manpower and material resources invested in the early stage finally saw results. The trials for the upper levels were nearing the end; the Zhejiang Provincial High Court was responsible for trying those high-level counter-revolutionaries. The intermediate and local courts in various places were responsible for the trial work of counter-revolutionaries at all levels.

What the People's Party spent huge manpower and energy to deal with was the group of people who carried out the massacre in Western Zhejiang. After these facts were investigated clearly, the internal slaughter within the ruling class in Zhejiang and even the three southeastern provinces could be put aside for a while. The high-level counter-revolutionaries naturally could not be spared; the reason they were not killed now was that some issues had not been finally clarified. The middle-level personnel of the counter-revolutionaries were also dead for sure; the reason they were not dead now was that there were still some issues with the specific executors below that needed to be completely clarified. The local courts began comprehensive trials of specific executors throughout Western Zhejiang. The leaders among them naturally had no possibility of escaping punishment. Regarding the judgments of accessories and vassals, most were only sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment.

Regarding the judgment of fixed-term imprisonment, Li Shouxian raised a practical operational question to Xu Dian. "How to ensure in actual operation that the masses do not form the concept that labor is a punishment?"