The Heroic Age of the Late Qing Dynasty

But there was no rush now. Without a clean place, the work couldn't be carried out at all. From leaving the base to looking through the documents from the Governor's Office over the past few days, I found myself facing countless troubles. The first was that the number of victims far exceeded my imagination.

More than half of the prefectures in Sichuan were severely affected by the disaster, and some places had already reached the point of having no harvest at all. Moreover, the Boxer Rebellion had already started to spread like wildfire in many places. Although Zhang Yinghao knew that the Boxer Rebellion in Sichuan would not have much influence in the end, he was still surprised to see so many places showing signs of Boxer Rebellion. There were also riots in many places, that is, our

They commonly called it a rebellion.

Zhang Yinghao now understood why Kuijun and his men ignored Yunshen Shi Shunqing's misdeeds. They simply couldn't care less. Furthermore, the Zhang family was constantly impressed by the great wisdom of Kuijun and other high-ranking officials of the Qing Dynasty. Even now, they still sit on the Diaoyutai. In the past, Sichuan still had to bear the brunt of the Boxer Rebellion.

Although Sichuan was tasked with paying an indemnity of more than two million taels, it was not until the Railway Protection Movement that it completely fell into chaos. It must be said that this was a miracle, and this miracle was created by the vast landlord class in Sichuan.

Zhang Yinghao himself couldn't come up with a specific solution for these Boxers, but he was clear about what to do in the end: either divide the land and let them farm honestly, or eliminate them. However, these armed groups had their ups and downs, and the chances of them disappearing on their own were very high. If they didn't disappear on their own, they would inevitably end up as bandits.

Although Zhang Yinghao knew that those who were rebelling were troublesome, he was not anxious because his hands could not reach such a far place. Zhang Yinghao now knew that his most important thing was to do in Guang'an.

The same thing happened with the training of cadres. Zhang Yinghao now felt that even splitting one person into two was not enough, and land reform was not something that could be accomplished overnight.

After resolving the problems in Chengdu, a basic force remained to maintain law and order, while other troops were immediately dispatched to address the landlord militias that had been identified. Wherever the troops passed, landlord militias, bandits, and tyrants surrendered. However, the local people were not immediately elated by the revolutionary army's actions against these individuals, as they had no understanding of the policies of the Forward Party or the revolutionary army. In fact, in many places, land reform was simply not an option.

Chapter 163:

Liu Dongqiang is currently leading the land reform efforts in Xiaomiao Village. After the army eliminated the local landlords and bullies, Liu Dongqiang led the land reform team into Xiaomiao Village. Liu Dongqiang is one of the people transferred from Guang'an to join the larger force. He knows that Guang'an's staff has reached a minimum, with a large number of staff being transferred, and he knows that many more will be transferred in the future.

Liu Dongqiang's team, including himself, consisted of only five people, and he knew of many teams with even fewer. They were already stretched thin in terms of manpower. When Liu Dongqiang arrived in Xiaomiao Village, the locals were completely unfamiliar with him. So, when Liu Dongqiang passed by them, while they didn't reject him or welcome him, they tended to avoid him, intentionally or unintentionally, and some even harbored a hint of hostility.

Liu Dongqiang didn't take the villagers' looks seriously; it was the same look anyone would give a stranger. The first thing Liu Dongqiang and his team did upon entering the village wasn't to distribute land, build water conservancy projects, or even repair roads. Instead, they immediately investigated what resources were available within and beyond the village.

There's an old saying: "Live by the mountain, eat by the mountain; live by the water, eat by the water." Liu Dongqiang and his team had to first investigate how the villagers supported themselves and, secondly, what resources were available for sale. Liu Dongqiang still vividly remembered the first time he led a team to distribute land. He had divided the land among the villagers, but they refused to claim it. Instead, they remained silent in response to Liu Dongqiang's request.

The land distribution reminded him of a training session he had attended. The lecturer had said, "Just because we're wholeheartedly working for the people doesn't mean they'll buy into our efforts. Just because we distribute land to the villagers doesn't mean they'll happily accept it, nor will they express gratitude. Some even think we're disrupting their lives and feel resentment and rejection."

Why are some of our people so unreasonable? Why do some people not welcome us? This question deserves deep reflection from each of us. Once you understand this question, you will know how to do mass work.

At that time, Liu Dongqiang thought a lot, but still couldn't find an answer. It wasn't until he attended a training session with Chairman Zhang Ying and Zhang Hao that he finally found the answer. He still remembers Chairman Zhang Yinghao's words: "...Many ordinary people, even if they work as long-term laborers for wealthy landlords, as long as they can make a living, don't want anyone to disrupt their stable lives. Because this era is so cruel, losing a job can mean the difference between life and death for an entire family."

Why should these people believe us and give up the chance to survive that they have now? Are they just relying on our empty words? Whether the distribution of land is good or not is a matter for the future, but the people have to eat every day. Once the people make a wrong choice, the whole family may suffer from cold and hunger. Therefore, the risks that our people can bear are very small. A small change may make them and their families in danger.

How can we convince the people to trust us? Empty words won't do. So what will? That's working alongside the people. How do we work? We have a saying: "All talk without action is fake." All action without talk is foolish. And then there's the real deal: talking and then doing. If we go into a village and start preaching to the villagers, even if we say a lot, they'll still be skeptical. If we go into a village and say nothing, and just work with a few of our own team, the villagers will definitely think those people are idiots!"

"Ha ha ha ha."

"How much work can just a few of us do? Even if you work yourself to death, you still can't accomplish much. Even if you were made of iron, how many nails could you screw? That's why we have to both talk and do. Talking means making it clear to the people what we want to do, what we want to achieve, and how we're going to do it. Talking means calling on the people to work together and organizing them to do it.

How do we gain the trust of the people? Not by saying it, but by working alongside them. Only when you work alongside them, sincerely serving them, will they recognize you, listen to you, and know you truly want to improve their lives and help them. Only then will they support and like you.

Whenever we arrive in a place and begin our work, we must understand the local situation. Once we have a clear understanding, we can then tailor the best approach to the local situation. We must combine the short-term and long-term interests of the local people.

For example, some villages have abundant bamboo. Could you contact our bamboo products company to purchase the villagers' bamboo? We also need bamboo for building bridges and roads, right? This would increase the villagers' income in the short term, and they would trust you. For example, some villages have large areas of tung trees. Could you contact the supply and marketing cooperative to purchase the tung oil from the villagers? These are ways to increase villagers' income immediately. Long-term benefits include building bridges, paving roads, and developing water conservancy projects.

Liu Dongqiang knew that what Chairman Zhang Yinghao said was absolutely right. Previously, when he was in Guang'an, he led a small team to a village covered in bamboo. They simply contacted the bamboo factory in the base area and brought considerable profits to the villagers by cutting bamboo, thus gaining the trust of a large number of local people.

Afterward, whether it was land distribution, water conservancy projects, or bridge and road construction, the local people were extremely cooperative. Especially during the local conscription period, a large number of young people enthusiastically signed up to join the army. This was also due to Liu Dongqiang's outstanding work, which is why he was selected as one of the first batch of people to be transferred to Chengdu to carry out the work.

Liu Dongqiang led his team on a tour of Xiaomiao Village, but found no local specialties. Families earned income by growing vegetables and selling any leftovers at the market, selling eggs, or raising pigs. They had no other income.

Liu Dongqiang urgently needed to consider how to gain the villagers' approval as quickly as possible. Although it was generally possible to organize the local people for water conservancy projects, Liu Dongqiang found this village to be unique. It was built on a mountainside and had no foundation for damming the river.

Liu Dongqiang refused to believe he couldn't find a breakthrough. The next day, he wandered around the area alone. He stumbled upon a dilapidated temple. He walked inside, unsure of the deity being worshipped. Then, looking around, he realized the temple's location was incredibly good, nestled between several villages.

Liu Dongqiang then recalled the name of the village, Xiaomiao Village, and took a few people to visit some of the elderly there. During the conversation, Liu Dongqiang, intentionally or unintentionally, steered the conversation towards the small temple. Sure enough, the elderly expressed regret and wanted to repair the temple. They also told Liu Dongqiang that it was a shared worship site for several nearby villages.

That evening, Liu Dongqiang presided over a meeting and said, "Comrades, I plan to use the temple renovation as a breakthrough point for this project. I'm going to gather people from the nearby villages to help repair their small temple. This way, we can connect everyone in these villages. What are your opinions?"

"Isn't building a temple indulging in feudal superstition? One of the tasks of our Progressive Party is to break down feudal superstition. Doesn't this go against our original intention?"

"Of course, this is a bit contradictory, but we must seek truth from facts. Building temples isn't our goal, but a means to an end. It's a way to connect us with the local people. As long as we're connected with them, the rest of our work will be much easier. During the training, Chairman Zhang Yinghao specifically stated regarding religious beliefs: We have freedom of belief. This means you can believe in it or not, and you can worship in temples or not. Just don't use deception or intimidation to coerce the people, and that's fine."

"What is deception or intimidation?"

"Well, for example, if you believe in me, you'll have eternal life, go to heaven, go to the Western Paradise, and be free from illness and disaster forever! That's deception. If you don't believe in me, you'll go to hell, your soul will be scattered, and so on. That's just intimidation."

"Well, Captain Liu, how do we do that?"

Liu Dongqiang persuaded his team members and then he had a plan in mind. He took his team members to visit local villagers in other villages. Then he organized the villagers to elect the village chiefs and village party secretaries in each village, and then called these village chiefs and village party secretaries together to hold several meetings to raise funds for the engraving.

The Debei approach solved the initial funding problem.

Over the next two days, Liu Dongqiang and his team gathered able-bodied laborers from several villages, bought some bricks, lime, tiles, and wood, and in just half a day, they rebuilt the small temple. After just half a day's work, the villagers no longer viewed Liu Dongqiang and the other team members with the same repulsiveness they had before; instead, they began to treat them more like one of their own.

During this half day, many villagers came to ask about the land distribution issue. Liu Dongqiang was very happy about this. Liu Dongqiang had received high-level training, so he knew the purpose of land reform. At the same time, he had personally participated in several land reforms and knew the methods of land reform. However, he knew that he could not

They are anxious because the villagers themselves don’t know what will happen after the land reform.

Land reform wasn't particularly appealing to those who owned some land. While land reform involved redistributing all the land, it involved reclaiming it and then redistributing it. Even if they knew their land would be reclaimed and redistributed, they still felt uneasy.

With the merit of repairing the temple in hand, Liu Dongqiang invited the villagers to

The villagers would be embarrassed to refuse the job. He struck while the iron was hot and found two springs on the mountain with his fellow villagers, built several wells, and dug canals to divert water to the corresponding villages.

The villagers were organized to dig several large ponds at the village entrance. This greatly improved the drought resistance of these villages. Although they could not guarantee a stable harvest during drought or flood, they could at least survive minor disasters. The villagers were immediately organized to fetch water to fight the drought and ensure food production.

After these steps were completed, the land distribution process became a complete success. Land distribution has a chain reaction: once one village begins, other villages will follow suit. Therefore, teams like Liu Dongqiang's are no longer like they were in Guang'an, with nearly every village having a team. Instead, they are working individually and individually, with a task-based approach.

When Liu Dongqiang's land reform report came up, Zhang Yinghao also read it. Repairing the temple was just a means, what did it count for? However, completing the land reform was only the first part of the work. How to lead the masses to engage in production and prevent them from starving was the real test for these comrades.

The struggle has actually reached its most brutal stage. Some landlord militias have begun to burn and kill people on a large scale, attacked and killed people sent to carry out land reform work, and retaliated inhumanely against some villagers who helped the Forward Party. Work in some places has once come to a standstill.

Zhang Yinghao had no immediate solution for the landlord militias left behind to wage guerrilla warfare after the mop-up operation. While Zhang Yinghao knew these guerrilla groups would be short-lived, they were led by young men from landlord families, all of whom had been raised there, making them difficult to disintegrate. More importantly, the people in the areas being expanded were completely unfamiliar with the Forward Party, and work in some areas was not proceeding smoothly.

Zhang Yinghao knew that if he couldn't mobilize the masses, everything else would be in vain. While mobilizing the masses was easy, simply mobilizing them would only cause destruction, not order and construction. All of this would take time to repair. However, Zhang Yinghao now occupied Chengdu. While a few had slipped through the nets of the army's sweep, they could no longer shake Zhang Yinghao's foundation.

Chapter 164:

Before Zhang Feng had finished finishing up his work in Chongqing, he received a telegram from Zhang Yinghao and his men appointing him to Chongqing temporarily and ordering him to immediately recruit soldiers to form a new 7th Division. Zhang Feng could only leave some troops behind to hold the fort and select some soldiers to serve as instructors for the new recruits. Then, according to the established plan, he swept across Chongqing from both directions, one division on each side.

Meanwhile, two divisions had left Chongqing and were marching directly towards southern Sichuan, led by Ouyang Jun. The other division was led by Zhang Yinghao's old friend, Wang Daniu, now a division commander. Of course, to compensate for these lacking experience and ability, multiple deputy positions were created. Furthermore, a division commander couldn't act unilaterally; after all, the Party Committee could revoke the position and appoint someone else to replace him.

However, deploying an army was no small undertaking. Fighting far from a base was extremely detrimental to logistics. Therefore, preparations were considerable. We needed to gather weapons, rations, and other essential supplies, and even recruit civilians from Chongqing to help carry the baggage. Fortunately, Liu Xinsheng had done a solid job preparing for the expedition in Chongqing. Coupled with the strong organizational skills of the relevant personnel and the support of businesses and funds, preparations for the deployment were completed quickly.

The real reason Zhang Yinghao was so anxious to dispatch troops was that the Manchu Qing forces in Sichuan were at their lowest point, and the foreign powers were still in the capital, unable to intervene in the Sichuan revolution. Furthermore, they needed to be dealt with swiftly before the Manchu Qing could react and before the landlord militia could organize. Therefore, much of the supplies had already been transported from the base. If they had been requisitioned on short notice, it would have been impossible to dispatch troops so quickly.

Another very important strategy in foreign wars is to rely on the enemy for food.

Since Zhang Yinghao had no intention of compromising with the landlords and gentry, any landlord who had committed a blood debt against the people would inevitably face public trial. In fact, this kind of public trial was a very good way to mobilize the masses.

As for the landlords who had not committed blood debts, all their families were arrested and taken away from their original residences.

It was too high. Before the clan issues and land reform were resolved, these people had to leave the area, otherwise land reform would be affected. Ouyang Jun no longer had the cautious approach he had taken in Guang'an. He knew the most important thing now was to eliminate the hostiles with weapons and leave the civil affairs matters to the comrades who would follow.

Ouyang Jun led the army to capture each place, arresting people according to the list provided by the intelligence department, and then leaving a few people to gather the masses to briefly try these people and then execute them. The troops did not stop for a long time and continued to march to the next target.

Through the early work of the intelligence department, the army's actions are generally able to be targeted. And this time, the Ouyang Army is targeting southern Sichuan.

The first goal was to obtain salt from southern Sichuan. This was also the focus of the Progressive Party. Ouyang Jun still remembered what Zhang Yinghao had said before:

Salt is a necessity for everyone. It is indispensable. Lack of salt will make the whole body weak and cause various diseases. But the reality is that everyone

Even though people didn't consume much salt daily, the Qing Dynasty, driven by profit, adopted the Ming Dynasty's system of official supervision and merchant sales for salt, a necessity for the human body. Originally, officials supervised, while merchants sold. However, in reality, officials became the salt merchants' protectors, and the salt merchants became their moneybags. Officials extorted money at will, and if the salt merchants failed to make more money, they would be extorted to ruin.

Therefore, salt merchants, through collusion between officials and businessmen, monopolized the market and then arbitrarily raised salt prices to exploit the people. To maintain their monopoly privileges, these salt merchants gave officials gifts of tens or even hundreds of thousands of yuan. Money alone was not enough; they also gave them collectibles, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and even beautiful women. Salt merchants often relied on marriage alliances to maintain their privileges.

In simple terms, officials took money from merchants, who, in order to make more money, increased efficiency, reduced costs, and raised prices to reap lucrative returns. Everyone knows this from looking at our salt workers: these salt merchants exploited them wantonly, and we could describe them as salt slaves.

In fact, the people are the biggest victims. The money that officials take and businessmen earn is squeezed out of us poor people penny by penny..."

A force of ten thousand men—as the saying goes, "more than ten thousand men, there's no end." Adding civilian laborers, the force totaled nearly fifteen thousand, a massive force. This march into southern Sichuan wasn't simply a war, but an armed parade, an armed demonstration. As the troops advanced, old bureaucrats and landlords were ruthlessly suppressed, and a number of local bullies and hooligans were also suppressed.

After marching for several days, the troops finally reached Luzhou. They had already received the news of Chongqing's capture via telegram. The Manchu forces in Luzhou, as well as the nearby landlord militia, had all retreated to the city and were currently strengthening its defenses, attempting to rely on the city walls to engage Ouyang's army.

Unfortunately, the changing times inevitably lead to the rapid elimination of those who fail to keep up, a situation that is particularly acute in these rapidly changing times. The Ouyang Army is now well-equipped, and the landlord militia is as easy to deal with as an adult beating a child. With one hand in his pocket, he can easily beat the landlord militia into a state of disarray. However, appropriate propaganda is still necessary, and we must always strive to divide and disintegrate the enemy.

Ouyang Jun looked up at the sky. It was almost evening. Even if they attacked immediately, they might not be able to capture the entire city before dark. He ordered the immediate construction of a camp, and the relevant personnel began to shout messages from the bottom of the city wall. Ouyang Jun could easily memorize the content of the message, which was required of all political commissars and military commanders.

Ouyang Jun knew that a lot of the propaganda content was information collected by the intelligence personnel here in the early stage, and a lot of things were now in Ouyang Jun's hands, which would also enable the commander to understand the local situation faster.

"Listen up, people on the wall! You're surrounded. We're not here to fight, but to seek revenge. Is Xiao Degui, the landlord of Xiaoshui Village, here? Listen carefully. Two years ago, in order to obtain a piece of Xiao Shuisheng's fertile land, you ordered your servants to break Xiao Shuisheng's legs, causing him to die in agony. And you took advantage of the opportunity to seize his land. Do you remember?"

Landlord Xiao Degui, listen to me. In order to collect taxes from the Qing Dynasty, you ordered your men to rob food. In the past three years, you have destroyed five families and sold the daughters of at least three families..."

"Lin Tonghe, the landlord, listen to me..."

"...Everyone, stop working for these landlords and bullies. They're nothing but ruthless villains. We're here to eliminate them, not anyone else. Bullets don't have eyes. When we attack, you must quickly hide, or lie flat on the ground with your hands on your head. Otherwise, we can't guarantee your safety..."

"People living in the city, listen up..."

The truth shouted outside the city instantly changed the minds of those inside. In Chinese tradition, bad people should be punished by good people. This is why during struggle sessions, a person must be thoroughly criticized before being brought down. As the landlords and gentry in the city were singled out one by one, the public's perspective on them changed. After all, the landlords' initial propaganda about the Red Bandits was completely different from what they themselves had witnessed.

Since the liberated areas and the revolutionary army were both flying the flag of the Forward Party, the revolutionary army was fortunate enough to be called "red bandits", "red bandits", "red monsters" and so on by the vast landlord class.

The landlords and gentry who had fled into the city had spread the word that those outside were bandits, demons, and would kill without blinking an eye. They used this false propaganda to incite fear of the unknown among the people, making them share their hatred of the enemy. However, now the situation was different. The outsiders were only there for revenge, which was completely different from the previous propaganda.

You have to know that in Chinese tradition, revenge is generally considered a personal grudge, and the person involved should bravely take it upon themselves, and revenge generally does not implicate innocent people. Personal grudges should not involve innocent people in the burial, so the people in the city immediately felt that these landlords were being unkind.

However, the Ouyang army and his men were outsiders after all, so it was best not to allow them into the city. After all, anything could happen there. As for these landlords and gentry staying in the city, without the people taking the lead, it would be impossible to drive them out, so the situation would remain stalemate. However, the Ouyang army had already learned, through previous research on the effectiveness of propaganda, that the mentality of some of the people in the city had changed. When they realized that the Ouyang army and his men were powerless, many of them would immediately give up resistance.

After listening to the call for a while, Ouyang Jun returned to the temporary combat headquarters to review the collected information. Among them was a map of Luzhou City. Several important locations were clearly marked. The staff had drawn up several copies of the map and distributed them to the troops attacking these key locations.

Attacking the city walls was a forte for the Revolutionary Army. At night, bursts of shouting and screaming could be heard from outside the city walls. Or rather, bursts of shouting and yelling. Under the merest glimmer of moonlight, soldiers draped in black cloth crawled to the base of the city gates to plant explosives. Some soldiers, in a hidden area not far from the city walls, frantically dug tunnels, and before long, they had reached the very bottom.

In the farther place, the artillery unit has been on guard against this time.

The Qing soldiers and militia were so bold that they secretly left the city at night. They were prepared to fire their artillery at any moment. As soon as the shells rang out, the Qing soldiers and militia in the city would lose their fighting spirit. In fact, even now, the artillery shells could be used to directly open the passage into the city. However, for the revolutionary army, it was still relatively valuable, and problems that could be solved with explosive packs were still a problem.

The problem is that the revolutionary army still did not use artillery shells.

The people in the city wanted to launch a surprise attack at night, and even instigated the prefect, but the prefect did not have the courage to do it, and the matter ended in a quarrel. In addition, the militia leader did not want to launch a surprise attack outside the city.

In their eyes, occupying the tall city walls and defending the city is the best option. It cannot be said that they are wrong, but their thinking has completely failed to keep up with the development and progress of the times. They still don't realize that the city walls can no longer provide them with much protection.

Zhang Yinghao had always had a question. In his past life, he'd watched television and seen countless civilian officials choose to hang themselves or take poison rather than take up arms in battle. He couldn't understand why, if you had the courage to commit suicide, you wouldn't have the courage to fight. This question is waiting for an answer online, and it's urgent...

The next morning, preparations for the attack were complete. After breakfast and a half-hour's rest, Ouyang Jun gave the order, and the city gates were instantly blown apart. However, just as with Zhang Yinghao, the gates were already filled with stones. Then, there was a sudden explosion beneath the city wall, and that section of the wall was instantly lifted from the ground like tofu. Those on the wall were practically wiped out, and those nearby died from internal bleeding.

As the charge horn sounded, the squad leader and instructor shouted, "Comrades, follow me!"

The soldiers leaped from the trenches and rushed towards the gap. This charge was just to bully the local troops who didn't have machine guns. If they had machine guns, who knows how many people would have died. But it was useless to think about it now. Ouyang Jun shook his head. He had seen the firepower of machine guns firsthand under Zhang Yinghao's leadership, and his own team also had several machine guns, but Ouyang Jun had never considered using them.

Ouyang Jun knew that this gun had strong firepower, but consumed too much ammunition. Unless it was necessary, Ouyang Jun did not intend to bring the machine gun to the battlefield. Now the remaining forces of the Qing Dynasty in Sichuan did not allow Ouyang Jun to use machine guns.

However, Ouyang Jun still remembers what Chairman Zhang Yinghao said: These machine guns have strong firepower. As a commander, you cannot not use these machine guns in order to save ammunition or feel sorry for money. This is an unqualified commander.

Chapter 165:

The commander's only goal in combat is to defeat the enemy. Everything else is not a concern for the commander. The commander's job is to maximize his advantages and utilize his strengths to the greatest extent possible to defeat the enemy.

The capture of Luzhou was just a small episode in the march into southern Sichuan. After leaving part of the troops to meet the comrades who would arrive next, the troops split into two groups. One group advanced towards Zizhou and stationed in Fushun, while the other group continued to march towards Xuzhou Prefecture.

In the seventh year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1868), Sichuan Governor Chongshi wrote in a memorial to the imperial court: "Sichuan salt wells have recently increased their profits several times over, with Fushun being the most prosperous."

In the early years of the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Ding Baozhen, the Governor of Sichuan, reported: "The amount of salt produced by Fuchang is far greater than that of Jianwei." "In the autumn, winter and spring, Fuchang produces more than one million catties of salt every day. It produces less in April, May and June. However, the total annual output is about 800,000 catties per day." "The annual income of the entire factory is about 5 million taels of silver." This shows the historical status of Fushun well salt at that time.

Ouyang Jun personally went to Fushun to take charge. The arrival of the revolutionary army immediately caused panic in the Fushun area. Of course, it was the salt merchants who were in panic, not the ordinary people. After the army arrived in Fushun, it immediately swept through the local Qing court forces and immediately stopped to rectify the local area and compile local information. Whenever they arrived in any place, the first thing they had to do was to understand the local situation. Without investigation, they had no right to speak.

Although the Forward Party had already investigated the salt industry in Fushun and had a plan for salt industry reform in place before the troops were dispatched, the magnitude of the issues involved was too great for ordinary people to shoulder. This time, many Forward Party members who had previously worked as salt slaves in the base area accompanied the troops to Fushun. These current salt workers had received cultural and political education and were rich in experience in struggle.

Regardless of where they came from, those willing to work as salt workers were almost all from impoverished backgrounds. Their hands were constantly immersed in brine, and many suffered from severe dehydration and deformation of their joints, resembling rheumatoid arthritis. However, as salt workers, they were able to earn a living and didn't have to worry about unemployment.

After investigation, it was found that many salt merchants in Fushun had developed into powerful families in Dongchuan. The influence of these big salt merchants was almost spread throughout the entire Dongchuan, and the interests of these people extended to every corner of the society.

Ouyang Jun read the investigative materials, sensing the thick scent of blood. Shortly after his arrival, the salt merchants sent representatives to invite him to a banquet. Fushun thrived on the salt industry, its wealth second to none in Sichuan. The city served as the headquarters for the major salt merchants, a truly magnificent place, adorned with carved dragons and painted phoenixes. One glance revealed the residents to be either wealthy or noble.

Corresponding to this is the slum area outside the city, with low, dilapidated houses in clusters, and most of the people living in them are salt workers. When the Ouyang army captured Fushun, they did not harm these salt merchants at all, because they always remembered an article written by Chairman Zhang Yinghao, which talked about the problem of primary and secondary contradictions.

Ouyang Jun was well aware that when he first arrived in Fushun, the main contradiction was with the Qing Dynasty. After resolving this contradiction, the secondary contradiction became the main contradiction. And now, the main contradiction was these big salt merchants.

In fact, these salt merchants also knew that there was such a group of rebels in Guang'an.

Selling salt at a fair price. This is completely an act of killing one's parents. It's just that Guang'an is a little far away from Fushun, so the matter was eventually left unresolved.

These rebels have suddenly arrived in Fushun, and the power is in the hands of others. These salt merchants now don’t know what these people’s attitude is towards them.

However, in the eyes of these salt merchants, it was not so. All crows are black. As long as the silver was delivered, there was no obstacle that could not be overcome. After receiving the invitation to the banquet from this merchant, Ouyang Jun had already begun to make arrangements. Shi Cun had worked in the intelligence department in the early stage and had paid attention to this place by Chairman Zhang Yinghao in the early days, so he had already established a certain mass base here and developed some

Comrades, revolution has begun to brew among the people.

Ouyang Jun's goal is very clear, that is, all the salt wells must be taken back. However, these salt wells cannot be destroyed, or they cannot be used to affect the production and supply of salt. At the same time as occupying the salt wells, they can produce a technique that can stop the production. According to the previous plan, all the salt wells will be nationalized.

Anyone who wants to produce salt must obtain a license and pay a deposit.

This was a difficult task. Ouyang Jun still remembered what Zhang Yinghao had personally told him before they parted: "Comrade Ouyang Jun, salt is essential to our lives, and the price must be brought down. The temptations you face in those places will be enormous. I hope you will maintain the spirit of a member of our Progressive Party and resolutely fight those big salt merchants. Take control of all the salt wells there, even if the war destroys them all..."

After Ouyang Jun finished his arrangements, he took his guards and some soldiers to the banquet venue, and other comrades also quickly took secret action.