After a day of discussion, the People's Party Expanded Meeting reached a resolution on disaster relief. The meeting arranged the work, and each department was assigned its own tasks. Chen Ke was in charge of the Military Commission's work. Just as the Military Commission sat down in the room, You Gou pushed the door and came in. Although she was a woman, You Gou had seniority, and the People's Party had long proposed the "equality of men and women." So the comrades did not discriminate against her. They just didn't know what business You Gou, who was assigned to civil work, had.

"I hope the Military Commission will consider the suggestion of establishing a female troop," You Gou threw a bombshell.

The men looked at each other in blank dismay. In these times, it wasn't that there were no women in the army, but those were camp prostitutes and the like. You Gou would absolutely not form such a "troop." The only remaining possibility was a regular army composed of women. Once this thought popped up, all the men were dumbfounded. Let alone others, even Chen Ke was a bit dazed. It wasn't that there were no female soldiers in the PLA, but there were none in the field troops. As for the Red Detachment of Women, Chen Ke's only impression came from movies and TV. What was You Gou's purpose in insisting on forming such a troop? Was You Gou preparing to join the army herself?

Hua Xiongmao knew that You Gou actually had a fierce temper. He asked tentatively: "Comrade You Gou, may I ask what the purpose of your proposal is? Where would such a female army be used?" Although he asked this with his mouth, Hua Xiongmao made up his mind that if You Gou proposed to use this army for military purposes, he would be the first to come out and oppose You Gou.

"Since it's a military agricultural colony army (*Tuntian* army), it's appropriate to have women in it, right?" You Gou asked.

"The *Tuntian* army also has to fight. You won't let those women go to fight too, right?" Hua Xiongmao immediately rose to oppose.

"Didn't Wenqing say that these troops would only fight in the future? At this stage, they are only undergoing military training." You Gou still felt there was a possibility of establishing a female army.

"Let's wait until the next Party Committee meeting to discuss this issue," Chen Ke also followed. Heaven knew how You Gou was hoodwinked by that Ren Qiying. There were female soldiers in the Red Army back then, but that was also out of necessity. Now there were enough soldiers, and it was a flood period; getting women into the army would really be something impossible to explain even with a hundred mouths.

"Then can't our Women's Federation form its own armed force as a training team?" You Gou was still making a final struggle. Now it was disaster time, implementing a model of separate living for men and women. The periphery of the women's living area was patrolled and guarded by the Insurance Corps' armed forces. And the patrol team was very far from the female camp. You Gou put forward her opinion from this angle.

"First, I do not agree to issue guns to women. Second, since women do not have guns, your patrol team has no way to undertake guard duties." As soon as Chen Ke finished speaking, the men of the Military Commission all expressed agreement.

"But the camp is not as easy to manage as you imagine. Without military force, I don't think it's appropriate. Several conflicts have already occurred, and the Insurance Corps guards can't go in to enforce the law, right? I think it is necessary to form a female guard team or something similar," You Gou said. This wasn't an excuse she found; after all, the victims had stayed in the camp for so long, and small frictions had accumulated. After the water receded, the mood relaxed, and conflicts naturally became intense. Not only in the female camp but even more so in the male camp.

"In response to this situation, we will form a police force specifically, but we will not form a female troop." Chen Ke still didn't give You Gou any loophole to exploit.

"Then please form the police force as soon as possible. I bid my farewell," You Gou said. Chen Ke looked gentle, but once he made up his mind about something, he would absolutely not waver in the slightest.

When You Gou left the venue, Chen Ke said with a serious expression as if these things had never happened: "Now let's start discussing the issue of army expansion."

On the army issue, the scale of the Insurance Corps would be expanded to eight thousand people. The existing armed forces would remain unchanged, and the new troops would all be the Agricultural Reclamation Army. Chen Ke's meaning was to build the army according to the model of the 359th Brigade in history.

"The common people feel that the law does not punish the majority. With more people, even if something happens, they won't all be held accountable. Someone will always escape the problem, and the probability of escaping punishment personally will be very high as the number of people increases. This is a general understanding. Although I don't want to comment on whether this understanding is correct, since we want to rise up in the future, the quantity of the army is of great significance." Chen Ke commented thus. Everyone had been a commoner once, so they could accept this statement. After discussion, a charter was produced. While everyone was discussing, Chen Ke observed around; it seemed no one truly understood where the significance of this army expansion lay. Those brave enough to take this responsibility were Hua Xiongmao and He Zudao. Others lacked sufficient interest in the formation of the new army.

This wasn't strange; the existing military forces encountered many troubles during construction. Farmers needed too much training to become qualified soldiers. Before pulling them onto the battlefield, too much training was needed.

After producing an army expansion plan, conscription work was the big head. Chen Ke took the plan to find Shang Yuan, the head of civil affairs work. After Shang Yuan took this plan and finished reading it, his brows actually frowned. "Wenqing, what exactly are you thinking?"

It seemed Shang Yuan had already seen the clue. Chen Ke asked tentatively: "Wangshan, what do you mean?"

"You are preparing for future purges; don't you think it's a bit early?" Shang Yuan asked straight to the point.

Shang Yuan indeed saw it. Chen Ke felt Shang Yuan was truly an amazing guy. *Could it be that this fellow is also a time traveler?* Chen Ke even had such a suspicion. In the formation of the new army, Chen Ke had already made preparations; the military team of the new army was almost starting from scratch. The choice of officers was all rule-abiding comrades.

Purge of counter-revolutionaries (*Sufan*) and rectification (*Zhengfeng*) were a necessity; this did not shift according to Chen Ke's personal will. He just hoped to control the scale of such things as much as possible. So the new troops were a reserve force on one hand. Even if the frontline troops suffered a relatively large-scale purge, as long as the backbone could be kept and supplemented into the second-line troops, strong combat effectiveness could be restored after a few months of training. Therefore, the second-line troops must be greatly isolated from the frontline troops at this stage. The farther away from the place of right and wrong, the fewer problems there would be in purging these second-line troops in the future.

Of course, Chen Ke absolutely didn't have the intention to start a purge now. But "he who gives no thought to far-flung problems soon finds suffering nearby"; it was better to prepare for some things earlier. The political sense of the Military Commission comrades was really too low; their enthusiasm for forming second-line troops was not high. The highly enthusiastic Hua Xiongmao and He Zudao were completely expressing their stance based on loyalty to Chen Ke personally. Today, when the frontline troops still needed strengthening, Chen Ke didn't dare to transfer them to the second-line troops. Then the ones Chen Ke could choose were all rule-abiding comrades. It was difficult for them to establish personal prestige in the new army, and since they were rule-abiding, it wasn't that easy to bring out bad habits.

But since Shang Yuan saw it now, and Shang Yuan didn't pretend to be stupid and stay silent but spoke so bluntly, Chen Ke had to lay his cards on the table with Shang Yuan directly. In this kind of matter, one was either a comrade or an enemy; standing in the middle camp was impossible. Shang Yuan probably thought this through, which was why he was so straightforward.

"How does Brother Wangshan view this matter?" Chen Ke looked serious. Pretending to be gentle at this time had no meaning; laughing again at this time would really be heartless.

"Wenqing, when you were in Beijing, you used to feign compliance with the comrades of the Party group. I said back then, don't do this in the future. I think comrades can always be educated," Shang Yuan replied straightforwardly.

"Brother Wangshan, class stance is not something you can change just by saying so. I'm just making a preparation." Chen Ke was persuading Wangshan earnestly.

"Wenqing, I'm not saying what you did is wrong. Sometimes one has to suffer some grievances. It is precisely after suffering grievances that one knows who is loyal. I know this." Shang Yuan just had a look of some unbearableness.

*Is my layout a bit early now?* Chen Ke was suddenly a bit doubtful. He wasn't worried about anything else; Shang Yuan shouldn't be stupid enough to talk nonsense. Shang Yuan wouldn't dare to tell others about this kind of thing. If he dared to tell others, Chen Ke would eliminate Shang Yuan at any cost. And Shang Yuan spoke so frankly; there must be something else he wanted to continue saying.

"Brother Wangshan, regarding things like purges, I think it's better not to happen. But you also know, some things are not up to me," Chen Ke said tentatively.

"Wenqing, you also know that some comrades don't wish to treat landlords like this, right?" Shang Yuan spoke somewhat slowly as if choosing words. Chen Ke knew very well that there must be quite a few comrades thinking this way; it would be strange if they didn't think so. So Chen Ke had to do some preparatory work. The army must obey the Party organization's decisions and absolutely cannot be chaotic. The Party's history had long proven the importance of this point.

"It's not wrong for you to make some preparations, but I think, can we choose some other methods? You can't bring yourself to kill this group of comrades; I can be sure of this. But if they know our thoughts, it won't be a good thing after they leave."

"These preparations of mine are only preparations for the army. For other civilian comrades, I have no intention of killing. 'A forced melon is not sweet'; if they want to go, I can only let them go. Where you sit determines how you think; if the butt is not sitting on the people's side, then they will absolutely not do things for the people. Keeping these people may not be a good thing." Chen Ke finally explained his thoughts. Wangshan thought he wanted to cleanse everyone in one go; this was absolutely not Chen Ke's idea. The purge was mainly directed at armed forces like the army; the army must be pure. As for the civil affairs department, there had never been a way to make it clear and transparent. Even a person as capable as Taizu (Mao Zedong) had no way in the end when facing the Central Propaganda Department, this "King of Hell's Palace."

Hearing Chen Ke explain that he didn't want an indiscriminate purge, Shang Yuan stopped talking. A major characteristic of smart people is knowing when not to speak. Shang Yuan was undoubtedly a smart person.