Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Zhou Shuren sat at his desk, fishing out a cigarette and matches. Since defecting to the People's Party, Zhou Shuren found that although his salary had not increased but decreased, the prices within the People's Party's liberated areas were far lower than in other regions. In terms of pure purchasing power, his wages had actually increased a bit. Zhou Shuren had no hobbies; the only thing that could be called a pastime was cigarettes, which he could now smoke freely every day with his current wages.

Lighting a cigarette, Zhou Shuren looked at the outline of "A Brief History of Chinese Fiction" he was writing. Literature had been Zhou Shuren's strong suit since childhood. Although he took up medicine because of his father, for livelihood, and with the feeling of "curing the bodies of Chinese people," Zhou Shuren understood that what he truly loved was literature.

Because of the People's Party, Zhou Shuren turned around and finally returned to the path of literature. Plus, after writing the articles commissioned by Chen Ke, Zhou Shuren re-read "The Three Heroes and Five Gallants" and other novels, and couldn't help but start writing this research paper. However, official work seemed to have no pause. Now, in order to deal with the literati, one of the People's Party's "war of words" contestants was Zhou Shuren.

He had just finished writing the evaluation of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" on the manuscript: "Trying to show Liu Bei's generosity makes him seem fake; describing Zhuge Liang's wisdom makes him seem like a demon." Zhou Shuren smoked slowly, and finally couldn't help picking up his pen and adding the two characters "Chen Ke" above "Zhuge."

Chen Ke's acerbity towards literati absolutely could not be described as "generous," but his wit in adapting to circumstances and striving to dominate the situation was quite like Zhuge Liang. Moreover, in terms of winning over the masses, Chen Ke could be considered to be adapting to the times. As long as there was an opportunity to contact the masses, Chen Ke would not let it go easily.

Zhou Shuren didn't understand the army. Since joining the People's Party, he couldn't fully understand why the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was invincible. However, in political propaganda, Zhou Shuren did feel the fundamental difference between the People's Party and other forces. Other forces thought they were superior to the people, but the People's Party truly stood with the people. Who wins and who loses need not be discussed; Zhou Shuren was just worried about the future of the literati.

Those attempting to rescue Cai Yuanpei this time were spread almost all over the country, but ironically, few people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang dared to make a sound. Even so, recently some people had come to Zhou Shuren to intercede, hoping that Zhou Shuren could "give Mr. Cai a hand." The reason was simple: "After all, Mr. Cai didn't kill anyone with his own hands" or "Mr. Cai was just deceived by others."

In a nutshell, it was "Stealing books can't be counted as stealing... Stealing books! ... Can a scholar's affair be counted as stealing?"

The People's Party's struggle strategy seemed complex, but it was simple to describe: "A thief is a thief; a scholar stealing things is also a thief. If there are scholars who think they are not thieves even if they steal, then these scholars are just thieves who haven't had time to steal yet."

Zhou Shuren certainly knew the reasons why scholars were dissatisfied with the People's Party, and could also guess the reaction of scholars after seeing the People's Party's contemptuous evaluation of them. They would definitely fly into a rage and rise up to counterattack. What the People's Party was waiting for was this reaction from the scholars.

Zhou Shuren's eyebrows were tightly knit together. He himself was a scholar who mocked scholars. Essentially, Zhou Shuren still hoped to leave some dignity for scholars. But now these scholars had brought themselves to a state of disgrace, so they really couldn't blame the People's Party for being ruthless.

But is it really good to do this? Zhou Shuren was very skeptical.

In Chinese history, scholars were the backbone of China, no matter how many scums appeared. There were always those who showed their ambition by death and sacrificed themselves for the law. Even Chen Ke had evaluated, "On the brink of the destruction of Chinese civilization several times, how many literati advanced wave upon wave to fight to preserve Chinese culture. Without them, there would be no continuation of Chinese culture." Zhou Shuren agreed deeply with this evaluation. However, if the storm destroying traditional scholars came from China itself, Zhou Shuren was not sure who could persist to the end this time. Because the comrades chosen by the People's Party were the working people.

Lighting another cigarette for himself, Zhou Shuren simply stood up and walked to the window of the study. It would be the Spring Festival soon, and even in the courtyard in Jiangnan, there was no abundant vitality. Such a courtyard fit Zhou Shuren's mood at this moment quite well.

In Chinese tradition, literati were a class. Whether in the temples or among the people, the gentry firmly held the lifeline of this country. Any dynasty had to rely on the gentry class to implement control. But in the current "great changes unseen in three thousand years," a political force attempting to end this system seemed to have really appeared.

The People's Party chose the masses who did not master knowledge as their allies and comrades-in-arms. The leadership of the People's Party might have come from the literati class, but without exception, they all betrayed the literati class. Zhou Shuren saw clearly that the People's Party educated the people and cultivated the people according to its own political philosophy. At the same time, it firmly regarded the literati class as an object that must be eradicated.

Although the literati class might not be able to understand the attitude of the People's Party, they intuitively felt the changes of the times. Under the rule of the People's Party, the literati class faced the fate of rapid marginalization. If it weren't for the People's Party being in power, one wouldn't even need to imagine how a new dynasty established at this time would "treat worthy men with courtesy"—just take the recently fallen Beiyang government as an example. The Beiyang government respected literati very much. Zhang Taiyan, who came from the Guangfu Society, often cursed Yuan Shikai in Beijing and fiercely criticized many of Yuan Shikai's policies. This "scholar's demeanor" of "not fearing power" was highly esteemed by literati. Literati, after all, were teachers of emperors! Entering the court as ministers, going out as generals. Even if they couldn't leap over the dragon gate and succeed in the imperial examinations, they had to be able to speak up locally and lead the ethos of a region.

Some time ago, at Chen Ke's request, Zhou Shuren read the History of Song in order to write an article. He yearned for the past when "the Emperor ruled the world together with the scholar-officials." And Zhou Shuren knew very well that even in the Qing Dynasty where literati were treated as slaves, the status of slaves was at least above the slaves that were the people. Before Chen Ke led the People's Party to respond to the calls of the people struggling in the status of slaves, literati took it for granted that they were nobler than the people. This was also the reason why so many people pleaded for Cai Yuanpei.

The people Cai Yuanpei personally designated to be killed were all those who tried to betray the gentry class and stand on the side of the people. Just for this point, in the eyes of literati, Cai Yuanpei's crime did not deserve death. This was not only the literati's support for Cai Yuanpei but also the literati's intentional or unintentional resistance to the People's Party. If Cai Yuanpei could be saved, or at least Cai Yuanpei's "good reputation" could be preserved, the literati would have won a victory against the People's Party.

Chen Ke undoubtedly saw through the literati's tricks and decided to counterattack unceremoniously. Zhou Shuren was thus pushed to the front line of the battle.

Sighing again, Zhou Shuren returned to his seat and sat down. Various thoughts cluttered his mind. He wrote casually on the paper. After writing for a while, Zhou Shuren put down his pen, read what he had just scribbled, and then saw a paragraph he wrote, "Those who were once rich want to return to the ancient ways; those who are currently rich want to maintain the status quo; those who have never been rich want reform. It is generally like this. Generally! What they call returning to the ancient ways is returning to some years ago that they remember, not to the times of Yu, Xia, Shang, and Zhou."

"Hmph! Heh heh! Haha!" Zhou Shuren couldn't help laughing out loud. Zhou Shuren wasn't sure if this was self-mockery or for some other reason. But Zhou Shuren knew very clearly that no matter what, he couldn't stand on the side of the literati this time.

Having stayed in the People's Party's liberated area for so long, Zhou Shuren saw that the People's Party dedicated all the fruits of the revolution to the working masses. To the literati, the People's Party was extremely stingy. Seeing that they didn't share the dividends of the revolution, the literati were naturally extremely dissatisfied. It was just that these literati didn't have the backbone to pick up weapons and fight the People's Party, so almost the entire literati class tried to "rescue" Cai Yuanpei, who had once risen to fight. This was also the logic literati should have.

Pondering for a long time, Zhou Shuren finally picked up the pen again.

A few days later, Yuwen Badu found Chen Ke with a manuscript in a rage. Chen Ke unfolded it and saw a paragraph heavily marked with a red pen, "Revolution, counter-revolution, non-revolution. The revolutionary are killed by the counter-revolutionary. The counter-revolutionary are killed by the revolutionary. The non-revolutionary are sometimes taken for revolutionaries and killed by counter-revolutionaries, sometimes taken for counter-revolutionaries and killed by revolutionaries, or sometimes taken for nothing and killed by revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries. Revolution, re-revolution, re-re-revolution, re-re..."

Ignoring Yuwen Badu's angry face, Chen Ke was amused by this paragraph full of Lu Xun's style and laughed loudly.

"Chairman Chen, you can still laugh?" Yuwen Badu said angrily.

Chen Ke managed to stop smiling and said in a barely normal tone, "Why can't I laugh? Comrade Zhou Shuren described it very vividly. Isn't this the status quo in Western Zhejiang?"

Seeing that Chen Ke didn't set his stance correctly, Yuwen Badu became even more unhappy. He pointed to a paragraph and read: "'The non-revolutionary are sometimes taken for revolutionaries and killed by counter-revolutionaries, sometimes taken for counter-revolutionaries and killed by revolutionaries.' When did we ever kill the non-revolutionary?"

"If Comrade Li Shouxian hadn't stopped it, I'm afraid this would have happened. If you say that no one in Western Zhejiang really suffered innocently, I don't believe it. Every temple has ghosts who died unjustly." Chen Ke still answered with a "not set correctly" stance.

"If you say so, then there are no good people in Hongdong County!" Yuwen Badu firmly disagreed with Chen Ke's view.

Chen Ke asked Yuwen Badu to sit down and poured him a cup of tea before continuing: "Comrade Yuwen Badu, you clearly haven't figured out what kind of stuff those literati are. You think the article written by Comrade Zhou Shuren is nitpicking, right?"

"That's right." Yuwen Badu said angrily.

Chen Ke said pleasantly: "Comrade Badu, if the literati really just found the problems we made, I would really think they have improved. The problem is that literati are dogs that can't stop eating shit. If I guessed correctly, they want to overthrow our People's Party. You think Comrade Zhou Shuren's article is disrespectful to our People's Party. In the eyes of literati, Zhou Shuren is clearly betraying the literati group, which is treason and heresy. He must be fiercely criticized. The literati's thoughts are different from yours, so don't worry about it so much. Just wait and see what the literati group says."

Since Chen Ke said so, Yuwen Badu accepted it angrily for the time being, but judging by his appearance, he would just refrain from actively looking for trouble with Zhou Shuren.

Chen Ke didn't want Yuwen Badu to make a wasted trip, so he said: "Comrade Badu, how many people in Anhui do you think are willing to go to France?"

"Uh?" Yuwen Badu was stunned. After thinking for a while, he said, "It depends on how much money is given. If they can't make money, don't expect many people. We have invested so much in water conservancy these years. Although disasters still happen often, life is infinitely better than before. Counting on the scale of fleeing famine is definitely not feasible."

Seeing Chen Ke falling into consideration, Yuwen Badu added: "Chairman Chen, I'm not saying Anhui people are bad, but those who are willing to work definitely don't want to leave home. Sending people to farms and factories in France, I think it's better to find those who are steadfast and willing to work."

Chen Ke shook his head, "Your idea is wrong. We are sending laborers to work on French farms, not completing a task where doing a passable job is enough. The main thing is that you have to get more worker cadres to go to factories. The opportunity to intern in France is not easy to find. Let's not say learning everything from France, but at least we should learn the work we participate in, right? And to say something that is hard to judge, France lacks people. If our workers do well, maybe they can work in France for a few more years and learn for a few more years. Isn't this saving money and time compared to our own R&D in the base area?"

"If it's really that good, then it's not bad. But what if they refuse to come back?" Yuwen Badu asked.

"So I ask you to select personnel as carefully as possible. If they really refuse to come back, then let them be. But of course, we hope that the more who can come back, the better. This requires organization," Chen Ke said.

Yuwen Badu nodded repeatedly, "I will definitely strictly grasp the organization."

Chen Ke quickly said: "But, but! Comrade Badu, you can't make it a blatant and fanfare organization. If there are really those who refuse to come back, what do you think they will do to stay in France?"

"If they don't want to come back, they just won't come back? what else can they do?" Yuwen Badu said.

"They will sell out our organization to the French." Chen Ke replied. Chen Ke never had any illusions about human nature; humans are extremely weak under temptation. Historically, the Bai Xin couple had also been to France for work-study, and as a result, they fell in love with the French environment. After returning to China, facing the oppression of the White Terror, the Bai Xin couple simply became traitors, causing great losses to the revolution. Peng Pai was arrested and sacrificed because of Bai Xin's betrayal. And the price Bai Xin and his wife demanded for betraying their comrades was just two boat tickets back to France.

Given the French attitude, the number of Chinese laborers provided by China to France this time might reach as many as 500,000. There must be some people who may not want to return to China. So managing too strictly might actually cause problems.

Yuwen Badu said unhappily: "Chairman Chen, why do you take such care of those wavering elements?"

"Wavering elements are more likely to spoil things than to accomplish them. But where do we have hundreds of thousands of steadfast comrades to send to France? If we had so many comrades, we would go to liberate the whole country!" Chen Ke also complained. He chose more flexible measures also limited by the actual situation, not because he genuinely wanted to be harsh on steadfast comrades.

After discussing for a long time, finally Yuwen Badu thought that core members could be dispatched at a ratio of 2%, and other Chinese laborers would be tilted towards the management method of heavy industry factories.

After confirming these, Yuwen Badu bid farewell and went back to work. Chen Ke continued to complete the pile of paperwork in his office.

January 23, 1917, was the Spring Festival. After the Spring Festival, even before the Lantern Festival, newspapers participated by literati in various places began to publish articles, launching fierce attacks against the article published by the People's Party before the Spring Festival as the introduction to the "war of words."

While the People's Party quickly completed its external work, it also began to face the challenge of domestic literati.