Section 8: Ten Questions (Revised)

  The rivers and lakes are treacherous, Zhuang Jihua is flipping through the newspaper in his hand in the reading room, sighing, and there are still a few newspapers scattered on the table. For several days, he has been flipping through newspapers to check for responses. He sadly found that they were all bricks without any tops. The right-wing bricks were thrown at equal status; the Communist Party's bricks smashed towards restricting workers and peasants. The right-wing was based on "Minguo Daily", "Guangzhou Group Report", and "Fragrant River Weekly", while the Communist Party mainly relied on "Guide".

  These bricks not only hit Zhuang Jihua, but also began to affect the Whampoa Military Academy. The Guangzhou Group Report questioned whether the Whampoa Military Academy was run by the Nationalist Party or the Communist Party, and whether it was cultivating talent for the Nationalist Party or the Communist Party. Liao Zhongkai and Chiang Kai-shek were either members of the Nationalist Party or the Communist Party.

  The "Group Report" pointed out that after Huangpu Military Academy, some discussions were generated in the military school. However, it is worth noting that those who knew Zhuang Jihua was a classmate of the author all kept silent. Jiang Xianyun and He Zhenhan would run to Guangzhou city every day after class and wouldn't come back until nightfall, apparently the Qingjun Association will develop rapidly; Li Zhilong rehearsed plays every day, and suddenly had a good relationship with external schools, performing continuously outside the school.

  Zhuang Jihua was thinking while looking, someone patted his shoulder from behind, he turned around and saw it was Zeng Kuocheng. Zeng Kuocheng didn't say anything, just handed him a paper with the four big characters "Soldier's Friend" printed vertically on the top left, this is a recent mimeographed newsletter hosted by the Political Department, edited by Yang Qigang, which Zhuang Jihua also knew.

  Zhuang Jihua solemnly picked up the paper, with a look of reverence, ever since "Guide" started throwing bricks, he knew that there must be bricks flying around inside the military school, but for several days without seeing any reaction, he was somewhat puzzled, now it finally came.

  "Unwavering Cooperation between the Nationalists and Communists" by Chen Hao, "What Does He Want to Change?" by Yu Saodu; both of these people were known to Zhuang Jihua, Chen Hao was from the first period, while Yu Saodu was from the second. Zhuang Jihua met him several times at Li Zhilong's place, this person, in a past life, would be considered very aggressive, fighting to be the lead actor, and if he couldn't get it, he would pick on the lead actor, giving Li Zhilong a headache. However, his eloquence and image were not bad, so Li Zhilong couldn't bear to give up on him.

  "Let's see how much gold is in the brick." Zhuang Jihua muttered, Zeng Kuoxin didn't hear clearly on the side: "What did you say, brick?"

  Zhuang Jihua shook his head as he read, "Sigh, this brick didn't hit the vital spot: 'Sigh, it's well-written, full of slogans and passion.'"

  Yu Shaozhu condemned Zhuang Jihua in the article for attempting to use government suppression against the workers' and peasants' revolution. He believed that the main purpose of establishing a national government was to develop and consolidate the achievements of the national revolution, both of which required fully mobilizing the masses. Zhuang's banner of protecting workers and peasants actually restricted them, ridiculing Zhu Jihua for being intimidated by the surging workers' and peasants' revolution, attempting to uphold the bourgeois law to maintain the interests of the bourgeoisie, unaware that this cloak was only made of paper, which would be blown away by the wind. The article finally called for learning from the French Jacobins, resolutely striking down all retreats and compromises, carrying the Chinese Revolution through to the end, refusing to stop until the goal is achieved.

  Look at him, Zeng Kuai's expression was somewhat dissatisfied: "You're still smiling, what are you smiling about, even a fool knows better." In his anxiety, his Sichuan accent slipped out.

  Zhuang Jihua's mouth twitched with a hint of mockery: "Big Brother Kuai, what's the hurry? Can you really shut people up and stop them from talking?"

  He's not anxious or afraid, his mental quality was tempered in the previous life. The bricks on the previous life forum were more vicious than this, those with poor psychological quality had been slapped unconscious long ago. So, fellow travelers who intend to cross over, must post more often.

  Despite this, Zhuang Jihua took it as an excuse to stop managing the preparation of the Qingjun Association and wholeheartedly handed it over to Jiang Xiyun and He Zhenhan.

  Zeng Kuang looked at him and said helplessly, "You've been beaten to a pulp, don't you think of counterattacking?"

  Zhuang Jihua understood what he had come for and asked with an unchanged expression, "Counterattack who? Is it 'The Guide' or 'Group Report'?"

  Zeng Kuang pointed at the oil-paper umbrella in Zhuang Ji Hua's hand: "Who else can, we don't care about outside, it's not their turn to speak here, they think Huang Pu's twin heroes are vegetarian."

  Zhuang Jihua said with a faint smile: "Oh, then it's even more impossible. The principal has said that we must be sincere and united, and our class should set an example for the younger students."

  Then softly and with a concerned expression, Zeng Kuai comforted him saying: "Big Brother Kuo, for the time being it's best to keep your distance from me, otherwise you'll get dragged into this mess. I'm now a hub of trouble."

  Zeng Kuang's expression was a mix of laughter and tears: "You're such a country bumpkin, don't peek at people through the door crack - you'll flatten them."

  "When in trouble, true feelings are revealed; and indeed, my elder brother is righteous and a good friend." said Zhuang Jihua with emotion.

  The two of you chatted idly, one sentence each, and Zeng Kuaiying intervened to help Zhong Jihua get out of trouble.

  A group of people entered the reading room, and neither of them noticed. They continued to read the newspaper and chat, occasionally letting out low laughter. The group looked over this way, recognized Zhuang Jihua, and whispered among themselves. After a while, a square-faced man walked out from among them and directly approached the two: "Zhuang Wenge, did you write 'The National Government, Constitution, and National Revolution'?"

  Zhuang Jihua looked up and thought to himself, "Speak of the devil, Cao Cao is here." He nodded his head: "It's me." Then he asked casually, "Why didn't you go to rehearsal? Aren't you guys supposed to rehearse a new play today?"

  "This is none of your business, have you read my article?" Seeing Zhuang Jihua nodding: "What do you think?"

  "Not bad, very passionate." Zhuang Jihua seemed to ignore the other's rudeness and joked: "Tian is rehearsing now, if you don't go, I'll go grab the lead role."

  "It doesn't matter about the performance," Yu Saodu's eyes flashed with a hint of resentment: "I want to debate with you, do you dare?"

  Zhuang Jihua felt strange in his heart, what's wrong with Yu Saodu?

  He knew that Director Zhou had written a new play "Revolutionary Youth" for the Blood Flower Drama Society, and Yu Saodu had barely managed to grab the lead role. Now he wasn't even going to rehearsals, but instead came to argue with him, this demand for progress was too excessive.

  Yu Shaozu was originally practicing his lines according to his own ideas, not following the script, and would often "steal the spotlight" on stage. This led to criticism from Li Zhilong, and Deng Wenyi insisted that he be replaced. This had nothing to do with Zhuang Jihua, but strangely, when criticizing Yu Shaozu, they repeatedly mentioned "during the Cultural Revolution, it was said...". As a result, Yu Shaozu believed that this was a case of students from his school taking revenge on him because he had published an article criticizing Zhuang Jihua. In his pride, he refused to perform.

  "What's wrong with you? Who do you think you are?" Zeng Kuai's voice was filled with great joy.

  "What's there to debate?" Zhuang Jihua picked up the newspaper: "Debate this. What's there to debate, different people have different views; let everyone keep their own opinions." Zhuang Jihua didn't want to be used by others.

  "Hum, Zhuang Wen'ge, don't think that just because someone is protecting you, you can be arrogant. I'm the one who pointed out your name." Yu Saodu was extremely dissatisfied with Director Zhou's deletion of Zhuang Jihua's name from the article. He believed that Zhuang Jihua was a banner figure for the school's rightists and that they couldn't defeat the rightist students' attack without taking him down.

  "Oh, the name, it's either for people to call or for people to write, otherwise what's the use of a name? You can continue." Zhuang Jihua now knew that the director of the political department was still taking care of him.

  At this time, the crowd had already surrounded them, and Zeng Xiang saw that they were all second-year students. Zhuang Jihua's nonchalant attitude made Yu Sai feel disrespected, which made him even angrier.

  "Zhuang Wenge, aren't you known as one of the twin heroes of Huangpu? Why don't you dare to debate with me now? Is it just an empty reputation or are you simply a coward?" Yu Saodu taunted loudly.

  "Don't tarnish the reputation of our Huangpu Military Academy, you rightist element! We'll petition the principal to expel Zhuang Wen'ge!" someone in the crowd shouted.

  The incident attracted the attention of others in the reading room as well.

  "Who dares to talk about ending the Cultural Revolution?" A voice came from behind the crowd, but no one was seen, however, Zhuang Jihua smiled, it was Hu Zongnan's voice.

  As expected, a small figure walked in from the back: "Please wish? Do you think this is some kind of place? This is Huangpu Military Academy. Don't bring your habits from local schools to Huangpu. You've been in school for several months and still have the habits of ordinary people. What have you all been doing these few months?" Hu Zongnan had an air of being a big brother, his age was originally relatively old, and among the first batch, only Fan Hanjie could compare with him, while Zeng Xiangqin was one year younger than him.

  The first batch of students were very respectful of these "older" classmates, thinking that they were still able to join the Huangpu at such an "old age", let alone Fan Hanjie who had already become a battalion commander and was willing to start from scratch as a small soldier. This in itself is worthy of respect. Moreover, they also worked hard in military school, especially Hu Zongnan, who after enrolling, was afraid of being looked down upon, so he strived to be the first in everything, and within six months, he was at the top of his class in every subject. Usually, he would only listen to two people: Zhuang Jihua and Jiang Xianyun, because these two were always one step ahead of him in every subject.

  Now seeing Zhuang Jihua being surrounded and attacked by some of his junior classmates, Hu Zongnan couldn't help but step forward to speak up for him.

  "Revolution knows no seniority, and doesn't care about your airs." Yu Sai Du glanced at Hu Zongnan with disdain.

  Hu Zongnan was furious, just about to erupt, when Zhuang Jihua raised his hand to stop him. The students around them immediately calmed down. Only then did Yu Saodu and the others realize Zhuang Jihua's weight in the first period.

  "I'll ask you a few questions, if you can answer them, I'll debate with you, publicly debate, you can come alone or together." Zhuang Jihua saw that the situation might escalate and hurriedly stopped it.

  "This is what you said." Yu Saodu did not back down and was full of confidence.

  "The first question is: how many mu of land does a peasant need to meet their basic needs, including eating and dressing, getting sick, children going to school?"

  Yu Du smiled in his heart, himself from a farming family, how could he not know the reason, just about to open his mouth to answer. Zhuang Jihua, however, immediately raised another question.

  "The second question: What is the minimum wage for workers to meet their needs?"

  Yu felt a great sense of relief in his heart, thinking that this was it. Yang Qigang had made Zhuang Jihua sound too evil, and it seemed that the two heroes of Huangpu were not so impressive after all.

  "The third question: What is the standard for dividing large, medium and small landlords?"

  Yu Du almost burst out laughing, isn't this what he said himself?

  "The fourth question: What is the driving force behind the development of production technology? Why?"

  Yu Shadu felt a bit annoyed.

  "Fifth question: Your article says that we should be the Jacobin faction of the revolution, which means that the Jacobins are the most revolutionary. Then why were the Jacobins who had already seized power overthrown?"

  Yu Shadu's scalp felt a little numb. He only knew the term "Jacobin" from some articles and internal party documents. Did the Jacobins still hold state power?

  "The sixth question: Does Soviet Russia have laws and what is the purpose of its legislation?"

  Yu Shadu began to regret and started believing what Yang Qigang had told him, no wonder only Chen Hao wrote an insipid article in the first issue.

  "Seventh question: Since 2000, China has always been at the forefront of the world, but why did capitalism not emerge in feudal China where it was highly developed, but instead emerged in backward Europe."

  "The eighth question: What social classes exist in China today and what are their respective attitudes towards the revolution? Losing them, what impact would it have on the revolution?"

  I should go back and rehearse the program. Yu Saodu's painful thoughts.

  "Ninth question: Why did the Soviet Union sign a treaty with the Northern Warlord government instead of the Guangzhou-based Grand Marshal's Office? Does this indicate that the Soviet Union compromised with the imperialist-backed Northern Warlord government, and is this contradictory to its support for the Chinese Revolution?"

  "Tenth question: What are the differences in national conditions between China and Soviet Russia, and what impact do these differences have on the Chinese revolution?"

  Yu Du was completely stunned, he had not thought that Zhuang Jihua would ask these questions, he thought Zhuang Jihua would only ask about the article, he thought he had made a thorough analysis of Zhuang Jihua's article, but unexpectedly none of these questions were related to the article, for a moment he was at a loss.

  Zhuang Jihua looked at him and said lightly, "If you can answer them, you can come find me anytime." After finishing speaking, he glanced at Yu Saodu again and said "kindly", "Do you want me to give you a list of books?" However, in his heart, he knew that Yu Saodu would never be able to answer these questions, which covered sociology, economics, politics, history, and law. What's more, some of them were not even proposed until decades later, so there was no solution at this time.

  He then parted the crowd and swaggered out of the door, leaving Yu Shaode's face red with rage.

  Yu Du was unwilling and shouted: "I also have ten questions, can you answer them?"

  "Others' wisdom is of no use, there's no creativity; the challenge is you, and you must dare to respond." Zhuang Jihua didn't even turn his head.