"Wenqing, don't explain for now. Just say directly what we should do." You Gou had no interest in listening to that nonsense. She simply interrupted Lu Huitian's question. Many people in the People's Party loved to reason and talk logic when encountering emergencies. Where was there so much logic to talk about in this world? Thinking of this, You Gou simply stood up. "Comrades, we have such a scale of organization and troops today because we made it, not because we talked it into existence. Instead of figuring out why the landlords want to attack us, we might as well get rid of the plotting landlords first. What does everyone say?"

Hearing this, some people nodded in agreement, while others had different views. "Nothing in the world surpasses reason; revolution must also be reasonable." Qin Shou had only recently arrived in Anhui. Nominally a water conservancy engineer, he actually held a sinecure. His speech represented the comrades who currently did not have military or political work but were engaged in clerical work.

You Gou didn't support the attitude of these people at all. "Every time we have a meeting, when have we not done it according to Wenqing's final opinion? The results are also laid out here. The situation is so urgent now; if we talk reason, the landlords won't talk our reason. My opinion is to start doing what Wenqing said right now. After solving the matter, we can talk about this reason slowly."

"You are undermining intra-Party democracy!" Qin Shou's reaction was relatively intense.

"We talk democracy; landlords don't talk democracy. Intra-Party democracy doesn't mean irrelevant comrades should also have decision-making power. I feel that at such an urgent moment, someone must be able to make the final decision." This was what You Gou had always wanted to say. In the days when the People's Party only had eight or nine members, they focused on doing things, and lectures and discussions were squeezed out of time. At that time, You Gou was responsible for pharmaceuticals and basically sacrificed sleep to attend meetings. After the scale of the People's Party organization expanded, although everyone had work, the efficiency was lower. Especially Party meetings; Chen Ke had to communicate with comrades for a long time every time. It was fine in ordinary times, but in such a crisis, instead of thinking about dealing with the enemy, energy had to be used to persuade comrades first. If intra-Party democracy was done like this, it would be better not to have it.

It was a pity that Huishen and Xingtai were not here. You Gou felt very regretful. Chen Tianhua was working in the north, and Qi Huishen was still in Shanghai responsible for the work of the Shanghai Party Branch. If these two people were in Anhui, they could at least suppress a considerable number of people with their prestige and connections.

"Then what does Comrade You Gou think we should do?" Qin Shou asked.

"My meaning is to simply elect an Anhui Central Committee, re-elected every year. Everyone's work obeys the command of the Central Committee." You Gou finally spoke her ultimate idea.

Many people gasped. Qin Shou secretly winked at You Gou, and then he also stood up. As a graduate of the Nanyang Navy Academy, this youth who had once gone north alone to serve in Beijing in the *Gengzi* year (1900) and had served as a minor official in the Ministry of Revenue in the capital, actually long hoped to establish a more efficient Party organization. But the timing had never arrived. As a member of the Beijing Party Group and also a southerner, Qin Shou did not reject the Shanghai Party Group. On the contrary, he shared common views with You Gou and others on reforming the Party organization. Although not intentional, his echoing of You Gou was quite tacit.

"If a Party Central Committee is formed, then what should be the relationship between the Central Committee and the Party members? Intra-Party democracy cannot be lost. How to guarantee democracy while ensuring that doing things won't be dragged out? This must be explained clearly." The People's Party could still maintain a certain cohesion in a hodgepodge situation until now; this intra-Party democracy contributed greatly. Precisely because everyone had the right to speak, although everyone might not accept many things, at least there was room for discussion. But once a Central Committee was elected, there would be a distinction between high and low. Many people would definitely worry whether their opinions would be valued as much as now in the future.

"Then I'll ask a question: who does the power of the People's Party belong to?" As an old Party member, You Gou was very clear about the theory within the Party and the theory of institutional construction. This was all thanks to Chen Ke insisting on organizational principles; the People's Party hadn't gone down any crooked path from the beginning.

All Party members had heard this content in Party classes. When You Gou asked this, they immediately began to frown and contemplate. Qin Shou said clearly: "The power of the People's Party belongs to Party organizations at all levels. Party organizations at all levels are elected based on fair voting. Within the same level of Party organization, the principle of minority obeying majority is adopted. Between Party organizations of different levels, the rule of lower levels obeying higher levels is implemented. Superior Party organizations have the obligation to provide explanations for the questions of subordinate Party organizations."

After listening to Qin Shou's explanation, the comrades remembered this organizational regulation proposed by the People's Party. At this stage, the People's Party did not have any Central Committee. Even before everyone arrived in Anhui, there wasn't even a Party Branch. So this kind of organizational rule was only heard of. While everyone was worrying about the possible attack by landlord armed forces, they completely didn't expect that these seemingly tit-for-tat disputes between You Gou and Qin Shou would actually lead to the formation of the Party organization. Many people actually didn't understand what was going on.

"With the great enemy in front, orders cannot come from multiple doors. We must elect the Party Central Committee and fight in coordination under the command of the Central Committee." Shang Yuan stood up and expressed his stance.

"Correct. Before, discussing a problem took several days to reach a result. It is really inappropriate now." Hua Xiongmao was very smart; he knew You Gou's meaning as soon as he heard it. Seeing Shang Yuan had expressed his stance, he also immediately stood up to express support.

"I also support electing a Party Central Committee. It won't be too late to discuss in detail after getting rid of the landlords." He Zudao immediately followed up.

Several important figures in the People's Party and the Insurance Corps expressed their support, and others had no reason to oppose. Inexplicably, the theme of the meeting changed from going to the countryside for work to how to conduct an election.

However, now was also considered a good timing. Except for less than ten Party members in several guard departments who didn't have time to attend the meeting, the comrades of the Anhui Branch of the People's Party were basically all present. So an election regulation was formulated. Since Anhui gathered the majority of People's Party members, in the election system, if more than two-thirds of the formal Party members voted in agreement, a final resolution could be formed. If more than three-quarters voted to pass, they could even propose amending the Party Constitution.

This meeting temporarily passed two major intentions. First was to establish the People's Party Central Committee. Party branches in other places must obey the command of the Party Central Committee. Second was to prepare to elect a Temporary Party Central Secretariat Committee with a term of half a year. All this would be voted on in the general meeting of all Party members formally convened tomorrow.

The meeting had to end here. Although the matter of landlord armed forces was urgent, all military forces of the People's Party's "Insurance Corps" were now in the county town. And they had already taken responsibility for guarding the safety of the county town, especially the safety of the warehouses. Various warning systems were also in place. Thanks to the benefits of collective meetings, everyone was very clear about these things, so they were not too worried.

Since there would be a meeting a few hours later, Chen Ke announced the adjournment, and comrades went back to rest respectively. Among the likely personnel for the Temporary Central Secretariat Committee, Chen Ke was definitely going to be elected First Secretary. There was not much suspense about this matter. It was not convenient for Chen Ke to keep some comrades for private discussion either. At such a subtle juncture, every move of an individual would be regarded as selfish even if there was no selfishness. Iron-core supporters of Chen Ke like You Gou and Hua Xiongmao went directly back to their residences. He Zudao thought over and over again and finally swallowed the matter of the small friction between Xiong Mingyang and the sentry back into his stomach. This matter could completely wait until after the committee was elected.

On July 27, 1906, the general meeting of the Anhui Party Branch of the People's Party was formally convened. The meeting elected the People's Party Central Committee. The Temporary Central Secretariat Committee was composed of seven people. Chen Ke, Shang Yuan, Hua Xiongmao, You Gou, Qin Shou, Yuwen Badu, and Lu Huitian were elected as members of the Temporary Secretariat Committee.

The Party Central Committee had jurisdiction over three branches: the Hebei Party Branch, the Shanghai Party Branch, and the Anhui Party Branch. Chen Tianhua was appointed *in absentia* as the Party Committee Secretary of the Hebei Party Branch, Qi Huishen was appointed *in absentia* as the Secretary of the Shanghai Party Branch, while the Secretary of the Anhui Party Branch was surprisingly assumed by Qin Wuan. Because of long-term contact and cooperation with the Anhui engineering team led by Yuwen Badu, and since this group of people was already the backbone of the Insurance Corps, Qin Wuan's appointment as the Anhui Party Branch Secretary did not encounter any opposition.

After the Party Central Committee was established, the core teams among the three sets of teams of the Party, government, and army had a basic framework. The Party organization did not allow Central Secretariat members to concurrently serve as leaders of Party organizations at various levels, but Party organization members could concurrently serve in government department positions. Shang Yuan concurrently served as the highest administrative officer of the Anhui People's Government.

The army was divided into military command and military administration departments. Chen Ke, following the Party's convention, concurrently served as the Chairman of the Military Commission with the status of First Secretary. There were seven members of the Military Commission: Chen Ke, Hua Xiongmao, Xu Dian, Chai Qingguo, He Zudao, Yuwen Badu, and Kuroshima Jinichiro served in positions on the Military Commission.

This "makeshift troupe" specially established a Logistics Committee. Su Wuming, Mao Ping, and others served as members of the Logistics Committee.

Besides this, a very important department was also established. The full name of this department was the "People's Party Discipline Inspection Commission," also commonly known as the "Ji Jian Wei" by later generations. This department was equivalent to the "Censorate." Chen Ke didn't want this kind of important work to be controlled by those "High-minded Critics" (*Qingliu*) at all, so he simply assigned it personally. The government and the Military Commission provided manpower. Shang Yuan served as the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, and the Deputy Secretary was Xu Dian, a law school graduate.

Elections looked simple, but when the show of hands voting was really implemented time and again, it was truly dry and boring. These comrades had been together for a long time and were familiar with each other. Moreover, the People's Party had not been established for long after all, and internal factions had not yet fully formed. Except for Chen Ke, the two very influential figures in the Party, Qi Huishen and Chen Tianhua, were in Shanghai and Hebei. If they were present, there might have been some struggle. Now that these two were absent, everyone didn't even have the plan to fight for authority. Since the flood began, all Party members had been ordered to work on the front line. Anyway, everyone had to work personally; the distinction in status was not the key issue for the time being.

Once the Party Central Committee was determined, Chen Ke asked various departments to hold meetings first to familiarize themselves with the comrades in their own departments and discuss the department's arrangements and programs. The Central Secretariat Committee members held their own internal meeting.

"This rural work must be launched immediately." Chen Ke said straightforwardly. The efficiency of a seven-person meeting was indeed very different from a general meeting. If it were a general meeting, Chen Ke would at least show a somewhat gentle expression. Facing other Central Committee members, Chen Ke didn't have a trace of a smile.

"Mr. Chen... oh, Comrade Chen Ke, I'm still worried about those landlords plotting against us." Yuwen Badu said quickly. Since he had already told this news, he believed Chen Ke would absolutely not turn a blind eye to it.

"Comrade Yuwen," You Gou omitted Badu's given name and only addressed him by his surname, "The landlords rely on inciting the common people to launch attacks on us. We must now use revolutionary propaganda to counter counter-revolutionary propaganda."

"Revolutionary propaganda?" Yuwen Badu was somewhat puzzled.

"The landlords just say to the common people that we have grain, we are preparing to hoard grain to get rich, and won't care about the life or death of the common people. So, we precisely need to use revolutionary propaganda to counter them now. We have grain, correct. But our grain is simply not enough for everyone to eat until next year. So, in order to let everyone survive, these landlords' land has to be taken out for everyone to cultivate together, rush-plant and rush-harvest together. The harvested grain will be distributed to everyone, so we can survive the disaster year!"