Son-in-Law! "Has Mr. Ning made any comments?"

"Do you believe him if he praises you?"

The Yangtze River flowed eastward, the river water outside the ship reflecting the moonlight, gazing at the lights of Jiangning on the distant land. It was the deep night of the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, and few people knew that the principal of the Fair Party, a behemoth that had swept across the Jiangnan region, the core figure that the whole world was watching, would be boating on this dark river, and few people knew that such a meeting would take place on this moonlit river.

Compared to the significance of this meeting, the facilities in the ship's room were surprisingly simple, and the way the two sides conversed was also extremely casual.

"Stop being mysterious."

He Wen reached out and pushed the teacup towards Qian Luoning. Qian Luoning looked at him and smiled, picking up the teacup nonchalantly.

"He really did praise you. He said that your movement is at least progressive."

"I know what 'progressive' means. Does 'at least' mean the same as when he used to say 'at least patriotic'?"

Qian Luoning smiled slightly, acknowledging it, and took a sip of tea.

"Stop joking," Qian Luoning said. "A lot has happened in the Southwest in the years since you left. You should have heard about Old Niu Tou. When this started, Chen Shanjun wanted to pull my eldest brother in, but my eldest brother couldn't go, so he sent me."

He Wen said, "The Madam of the Overlord Saber is an admirable person."

"I expected it to fail there from the start," Qian Luoning said. "But in the two years at Old Niu Tou's, even though I watched it fail, it at least made people feel passionate. In these two years, the Southwest paid attention to the Fair Party, but coming to Jiangning this time, I can't see anything."

"It's at least a progressive movement, right?" He Wen smiled.

Qian Luoning looked at him: "Back in the Southwest, Mr. Ning led everyone in making deductions about the methods of social reform. He deduced them hundreds of times in the interest group. Didn't you look at those things? Or did you forget them after you saw them?"

His gaze was calm, but his tone was quite stern: "Everyone is equal, distribute land evenly, and strike down the local tyrants? Is that great? What's so great about that! Since the slave society began to rebel two thousand years ago, they have all been shouting about everyone being equal. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang in the distant past said, 'Are kings, dukes, generals, and ministers born with a special seed?' Huang Chao shouted 'Heavenly rectification and equalization,' and Saint Gong in recent times said, 'The law is equal, without high or low.' This is still making a show of force, and the rebellions without a show of force, eight or nine times out of ten, are all about equality and land distribution. How many steps are there between shouting this sentence and doing it, how many obstacles are there to overcome, these things have at least been deduced in the Southwest, Mr. Ning had you look at them. But what is this?"

He pointed to Jiangning: "Indeed, with a big chaos and unrestrained killing spree, you at least told these original poor wretches what 'equality' is. This is what Mr. Ning joked about as the least progressive part, but what's the point? Spend two years in a frenzy, smashing everything to pieces, and then returning to the original point. The only lesson learned is to never have this kind of thing again, and then inequality continues to be unequal. Others are fine, the rebels have no choice, but you, the Fair King, don't you?"

Qian Luoning's words were heavy, but in fact, it was the same posture as when they debated in the past. After these words fell, the cabin was quiet. He Wen turned the teacup, his eyes wandering between Qian Luoning and the river water outside the window. After a long time, he nodded.

He solemnly said: "Back in Ji Mountain, I had a confrontational consciousness towards Mr. Ning's things. I thought that the paper deductions were just imagining out of thin air. I didn't look closely when I had the chance. Although I left an impression, I still felt that deduction is deduction, and reality is reality. The Fair Party has many problems in the past two years. Brother Qian is right. Although Jiangning is not the whole picture of the Fair Party, one leaf falling reveals the autumn. I accept Brother Qian's criticisms. You are right, that's the truth."

Qian Luoning's tone softened: "Whether what I said is right or wrong doesn't help the matter. As for you saying it's not the whole picture, what is the whole picture of the Fair Party? I'm waiting for you to tell me."

"Mr. Ning really only said so much?"

"He discussed the Fair Party, but he didn't have anything he wanted me to bring to you. You refused his good intentions back then and abandoned him halfway. There are still many people coming this time who want to beat you."

"There was no chaos between me and Jingmei, don't talk nonsense, don't slander my reputation." At this point, He Wen smiled, "Is Jingmei doing well? I originally thought she would come."

"It's none of your business. The China Army doesn't do things that make people go on missions with feelings. If she came, would she talk to you about feelings or talk about business? How would she do it?"

The cabin was slightly silent, and then He Wen nodded: "I'm being petty here. This is also where I can't compare to the China Army. I didn't expect Mr. Ning to consider these things."

He poured himself a cup of tea, raised both hands to Qian Luoning in a gesture of apology, and then drank it in one gulp.

"You stayed in the Southwest, so I don't have to hide some things from you."

Seeing him like this, Qian Luoning's expression had softened: "In recent years, the China Army has been deducing the situation of the world, and there are two major directions. One is that the China Army wins, and the other is that any of you win. Based on these two possibilities, we have done many things. Chen Shanjun wanted to rebel, and Mr. Ning took the consequences and let him go. After the Chengdu conference last year, various ideas and technologies were opened up and given to Jin, the small court in the Southeast, Liu Guangshi, and even leaked to Dai Mengwei and a few guys in Lin'an, without being stingy."

"This is taking into account: If the China Army wins, we will take over the results you have accumulated. If the China Army really loses, then these results have already been spread throughout the world. Everyone has already seen the various benefits of the development of natural philosophy, information dissemination, and the enlightenment of the people."

"Mr. Ning has always had this kind of courage," He Wen said.

"When you use this method to sweep the entire world, and smash the entire world to pieces, and you die, and we pick it up, at least we don't have to say again why everyone should be equal. This is the progress that Mr. Ning is talking about, but to ask people for their opinions on this kind of progress is nothing more than pitiful and sad."

Qian Luoning paused: "A dog will bite when cornered, and a farmer who can't survive will kill, but this is just the initial instinct, it won't accomplish anything. What can be accomplished is the rule that conforms to the principles of heaven and earth, the calm observation, the rejection of selfish reason, and the objective improvement of the rules. When Mr. Ning was in Xiaocang River and the Southwest, he often mentioned a word called 'revolution,' do you remember?"

"Heaven and earth change and the four seasons are formed, Tang Wu's revolution, in accordance with heaven and responding to the people," He Wen nodded, and then shook his head slightly, "The Book of Changes says that reforming the destiny and changing the dynasty is called revolution, but Mr. Ning's usage is actually larger. He seems to call a more thorough era change a revolution, just changing the dynasty is not enough. This can only be understood by oneself."

Qian Luoning also nodded.

"I was in Old Niu Tou a couple of years ago, and I actually saw some things there more deeply. When I came this time, and talked to Mr. Ning about these things, he talked about the rebellions in ancient times, the failed ones, the ones with a little momentum, then Old Niu Tou, and then the Fair Party on your side. Those rebellions without any momentum also said that they wanted to resist oppression and wanted everyone to be equal. These words are indeed correct, but they have no organization, no rules, and their words stay on their lips. After smashing, looting, and grabbing, they quickly disappeared."

"Mr. Ning said that anyone can be fanatical, anyone can smash, loot, and grab, and anyone can shout that everyone is equal, but this kind of fanaticism is useless. But those with a little momentum, there are always some people in the middle who truly have lofty ideals. They set the rules, talked about the principles, and had organization, and then used these to confront the laziness and fanaticism in people's hearts. These people can create some momentum."

"In Old Niu Tou, Chen Shanjun gathered a group of people. They themselves had very lofty ideals, and they also learned the China Army's organization, but what they wanted was the purest equality. They really wanted to implement the equality of the means of production, but throughout the entire process, those around them who were not so lofty were actually hindering them in all aspects, and even accelerating their corruption. In the end, it was a failure. These people can't successfully complete a revolution and open up a new situation that has never been seen before."

"Regarding your side, Mr. Ning doesn't have a very specific judgment yet, but he said two sentences, probably to be said to you."

He paused here, and He Wen sat up straight, listening to Qian Luoning saying:

"The first sentence is: All fanatical and radical movements, if they do not have a strong core to restrain them at any time, will eventually be dominated by the most extreme people. These people will expel the opposition, then expel the neutrals, and then further expel the less radical factions, and finally burn everyone to ashes in extreme revelry. As long as the extremists gain the upper hand, there is no room for others to survive. After I came here, I have already seen this point in Zhou Shang, the 'King of Hell' on your side. Are they now about to become the most powerful group?"

He Wen smiled: "There are indeed many people, but recently the Da Guangming Sect has risen again."

"That Lin Fatty will kill him sooner or later," Qian Luoning muttered.

He Wen said, "What is the second sentence?"

"The second sentence is..."

Qian Luoning looked at him.

"All so-called revolutions that do not take human self-renewal as their core will ultimately end in farce."

""

Qian Luoning's words were spoken one word at a time. He Wen, who had a smile on his face just now, had a serious look in his eyes. He looked at the river water by the window, and complex thoughts were surging in his eyes.

After a good while, he stood up, walked to the window, and took a long breath.

"Brother Qian, do you know how miserable these people in Jiangnan are after the Jurchens left?"

"In troubled times, who in the whole world isn't miserable?"

He Wen reached out and tapped the window lattice, and said, "After the young emperor in the Southeast ascended the throne, he dragged the Jurchens around Jiangnan starting from Jiangning. The Jurchens burned, killed, and looted all the way. When these things ended, tens of millions of people in Jiangnan were homeless and had to go hungry. When people start to go hungry, they have to compete with others for food. The Fair Party started its uprising at the best time, because fairness is the best slogan to compete with others for food. But just having a slogan is actually meaningless. The biggest advantage we had at the beginning was actually playing the name of your Black Flag."

He looked back at Qian Luoning.

"Actually, how could I not know that for such a big force, the most important thing is rules." His eyes were cold, "Even if I didn't know it back then in Jiangnan, I have heard it countless times since I came back from the Southwest, so from the beginning, I have been setting rules for the people below. I have killed a lot of people who violated the rules! But Brother Qian, look how big Jiangnan is? How many people have no food to eat? And how many people could I use at the time?"

"With the flag of China, the entire Jiangnan quickly became full of people from the Fair Party, but my territory was only one piece, and all the other places were all kinds of people who took the opportunity to rise up. Killing a rich household is enough to feed dozens or hundreds of homeless people. Do you think they can bear not to kill? I set some rules, first of all, of course, it was the Fair Canon, and then I took in some people during the gathering of righteousness, but at this time, the momentum of the other families had already risen."

"In less than half a year, most of Jiangnan had already been burned. Brother Qian, do you know how fast this speed is? Even if the other families completely surrendered to me, I couldn't manage them, so I could only pretend to cooperate under this flag. Because at this time, I felt that at least I was still the boss, and I would have a chance to slowly reform them. I formed some law enforcement teams to patrol everywhere, investigate their problems, and then negotiate and put pressure on them. Of course, it was useless at the beginning. When everyone finally connected together, things were slightly better. But in more places, they had already formed their own game methods. Because the spread of this stall was really too fast. Two years, we almost leveled Jiangnan and reached Xuzhou."

The night wind blew from the river, and he looked at Jiangning over there, and paused slightly. Qian Luoning also came over to the side: "Fair King, are you telling me that you messed things up and how much you had to endure?"

He Wen shook his head: "I made a few mistakes."

He said: "First of all, from the beginning, I shouldn't have issued the Fair Canon, I shouldn't have told them that those who follow my law are my party brothers. I should have done what Mr. Ning did, set the rules and raise the threshold, and drive out all the bad things. At that time, the entire Jiangnan was short of food. If I did this at that time, the people who ate with me would willingly abide by those rules, as you said, renew themselves, and then confront others—this is what I regret the most."

The wind wailed, and He Wen paused slightly: "And even if I did this, in the first year, when the various parties gathered together, I could have made the rules stricter and excluded some people who were doing evil under the banner of the Fair Party. But to be honest, I was dizzy with the speed of the Fair Party's development."

He took a deep breath: "Brother Qian, I'm not like Mr. Ning who knows everything from birth. He can stay in the mountain ditch in the Southwest, run cadre training classes year after year, carry out endless rectification, even if his subordinates are already strong and powerful, he still has to wait for people to come and fight him before he finally kills out of Da Xiao Liang Mountain. In one year, the Fair Party bloomed everywhere, and everyone called me the Fair King. I was a little carried away. Even if they have some problems, it's because I didn't have the opportunity to correct them more. How can I not first give a little understanding? This is my second big mistake."

"When everyone's territory is connected together, I am the real Fair King. When I send law enforcement teams to enforce the law everywhere, Brother Qian, they will actually give me face. Whoever commits a mistake will be strictly dealt with at the beginning, at least it will be dealt with for me to see—never retort. And in this process, today's Fair Party—now the five major systems—is actually dozens of small factions becoming one. One day I suddenly realized that they had begun to influence my people in reverse."

He Wen's voice was cold, and speaking of this, it was like a dark omen, crawling up people's backs.

"What you see in Jiangning City today is not all of the Fair Party. Now the five systems of the Fair Party each have their own territory. In the places I originally occupied, I actually protected some things, but no one can stay out of it. From the first half of this year, the atmosphere of indulging in ease and comfort has become more and more common on my side. Some people will talk about how the other factions are, and they have begun to disobey my measures in the process of distributing land evenly. Some people with high positions and heavy weights have begun to rape women and transfer a large amount of good land to their command, giving themselves the best houses and the best things. I have investigated some, but..."

"But your law enforcement team has also begun to be corrupted, right?" Qian Luoning took over this sentence.

"" He Wen was slightly silent, "In the past, some people said, why did Mr. Ning want to kill the emperor, why didn't he first pretend to cooperate and slowly accumulate strength, and even thought that with Mr. Ning's ability and achievements, it was not impossible to become a chancellor one day in the future. At that time, if he killed the emperor and rebelled again, perhaps it would not be as difficult as it is today, but ah, when you become a chancellor in the land of the past Wu Dynasty, how many of your subordinates can keep themselves clean? Those Wu Dynasty officials who had already been corrupted are all your brothers, since they are your brothers, you can't avoid eating and drinking with them..."

"The two things that Mr. Ning said are very right. As long as you are slightly careless, things will go in an extreme direction. Brother Qian, do you know? At the beginning, they all followed me, slowly supplementing the rules in the Fair Canon. They didn't think that equality was a matter of course, and they all did what I said."

"But after doing things for a year or two, the explanations for why people should be equal and why the world should be fair have become richer. Among them, the most popular is that rich households must be guilty and must be killed. Everything in this world must be just and equal. There should be the same amount of rice and grain, and the land should be distributed equally. It would be best to distribute wives to them equally, because worldly affairs are just and everyone is equal, which is the highest principle in this world." He pointed to the top.

"When everyone talks about it, many people don't like Zhou Shang, but when they kill rich households over there, everyone still rushes over. Pulling people onto the stage, saying half a sentence, smashing them to death with stones, and then copying the rich household's house and setting it on fire. If we go to investigate, the other party says that it was the indignant people on the roadside, and did this family have money? They didn't have any before the fire. Then everyone took the money, hid it at home, and looked forward to the day when the Fair Party's affairs were over, and they would become rich people again..."

He Wen sneered: "Today's Zhou Shang, you are right, his men are more and more, they think about nothing every day, just go to fight another battle and slaughter a city. If this matter continues to develop, I estimate that they will soon attack Lin'an without me. And in this process, some of them can't wait, and they begin to filter those who are relatively wealthy in the territory, and feel that the previous investigation of crimes was too loose, and they want to investigate again and devour each other."

Qian Luoning laughed: "It's not a bad thing."

He Wen paused: "So, in the first half of this year, I missed the third opportunity. I should have done something when I realized this."

"What about now?"

"Now the other factions are becoming more and more difficult to deal with. The people under Zhou Shang and Xu Zhaonan have surpassed me, the soldiers led by Gao Chang have begun to adapt to large-scale battlefield operations, and Shi Baofeng colludes with all parties and is enough to challenge me in commerce. And within my Fair Party, they have begun to be dissatisfied with my rules. I have opened some classes to imitate Mr. Ning and tried to rectify the situation, but I always feel that I am willing but not able, and the effect is not great..."

"So you are opening the Jiangning Conference" Qian Luoning looked at him, one word at a time, "What are you planning to do?"

The river wind rustled, gently rocking the ship. He Wen stood by the window, looking at the dim night scene of Jiangning in the distance. After a good while, he shook his head and said in a long voice.

"I haven't figured it out yet."

"Should I kill you now?"

"Is Eighth Master Qian so good at swimming? Can you escape?"

"It's like this, I'll kill you with one hand like this, and then grab the boat, threaten the boatman or bribe him, and directly sail back to Chengdu along the Yangtze River, and report to Chairman Ning, saying that the matter here has been resolved, and the ungrateful bastard is dead, and I feel happy. How is this plan?"

"It's hard not to think there's a reason to it..."

"Fair King, I'm better at being the opposite. In addition, you guys demolished Mr. Ning's and the Su family's old houses, Mr. Ning will be angry."

"Old Qian, I'll tell you something that will scare you. I did it on purpose."

""

""

"Forget it, you're hopeless."

"Ha, ha."

"You're doomed. You should be called King of Seeking Death."

The bright moon was clear, and the sky wind swept across the night sky, blowing the clouds, rolling like a landslide.

Above the waves of the Yangtze River, two figures stood between the dim ship's windows, looking at the distant river bank, sometimes sighing, sometimes shaking their heads, as if they were staging a harmonious but interesting drama.

August 15th is about to pass.

In the distance of their vision, all the chaos that will happen in the entire Jiangnan is just about to begin.