Will the Boat Sink the Water?: The Life of China's Peasants by Chen Guidi, Wu Chuntao

cadre, “The watering fee of 4,000 yuan for our rice paddies had been paid in full, so why was four thousand yuan held back for this same expense from the land-sale revenue?” The man, having no answer, flew into a temper, leaving the auditing at an impasse.
    Not long afterward, word got about that the auditing at Zhang Village was in its final stages, and that they had found nothing on Zhang Guiquan, the murderous deputy village chief. After that, word filtered out that “some of the representatives [those doing the auditing] themselves may well end up behind bars.” What’s more, Zhang Guiquan’s son number four threatened, “It’s too early to call a truce, there must be some more bloodletting!” It seemed as if an evil wind was blowing stealthily through the village, carrying the smell of blood, chok-ing the inhabitants.
    Zhang Jiayu was a Party member who was an upright man and had been actively involved in protesting the excessive taxes all along. As a member of the audit group, he was the one who
    the village tyrant

    dared to raise questions without mincing words. Deputy Village Chief Zhang Guiquan hated Zhang Jiayu to the very marrow. On the day of the killings, Zhang Guiquan and his sons, after killing four people, thirsted for more blood, and the first person they had in mind was Zhang Jiayu. Son number six had shouted, “C’mon, let’s deal with Zhang Jiayu! Don’t leave anyone in his family alive!” Luckily for Zhang Jiayu, he was not home; he had gone off to report the atrocities being committed, and thus escaped being killed. To this day, Zhang Jiayu has no peace and feels himself to be in danger on a daily basis, possibly being followed. Sometimes he sees suspicious-looking characters lurking outside his house.
    As to the murderous village tyrant Zhang Guiquan, his fam-ily was still a power to be reckoned with in the village. Besides, Zhang Leyi, number seven son, was still on the loose, and who knew when he might show up again. The villagers, especially the victims’ families, had no sense of security. The old mother of the murdered brothers was inconsolable. In one afternoon she had lost two sons, and her grandson Pine had been wounded. A happy family was destroyed. And the nightmare was not over. The old mother said, showing fear and trepidation, “No one dares go out at night. Even in daytime, no one dares go far. Too scared to tend the peanuts, even in broad daylight.”

    The Press Arrive at Last

    What next transpired was beyond imagination.
    As mentioned, the township had dispatched cadres to call a general meeting at Zhang Village to warn the victims’ family members not to “blab.” The county TV station and the provincial newspapers referred to the killings as “manslaughter,” the result of “fighting among ignorant peasants.” Of course these pronouncements did not carry legal weight. Even the inhabi—
    will the boat sink the water ?

    tants of Zhang Village, who were not well versed in legal issues, knew that the last word on the matter would be had by the People’s Procurator and the People’s Court. Yet, strangely, when the case started to unravel, the legal machinery failed. The local court degenerated into a representative of local special interests. It was at this point that the inhabitants of Zhang Village were truly overcome with fear and despair.
    When the Bengbu Intermediate Court began to try the case, they had no intention of informing the victims’ families. When the families did finally hear about it, their legal representatives did not even have time to hire a lawyer.
    Zhang Jiayu, the Party member who was village representative, swore by his twenty-five years’ Party membership that the court investigators had never even set foot in the village, let alone interviewed witnesses regarding the facts of the case. No one had a clue as to what charges the prosecution had filed. The victims’ families and witnesses only knew through hearsay that the trial was