Land reform in history involved measuring land, holding meetings, and distributing land, which was really a very cumbersome matter. After the flood, the vast land was vast and white; all artificially built barriers were destroyed by God (*Lao Tian Ye*). On such completely pristine land, the people were creating a future belonging to themselves.

While the landlords were forced to agree to "lend land" and were conducting various debates for the selection of People's Representatives, the disaster relief work of the People's Party was also unfolding methodically. In such an extraordinary period, the primary problem to solve was personnel management. The core was absolutely not allowing forces outside the "organization" to exist.

The Insurance Corps first underwent a major expansion, expanding from a battalion to a brigade. It had jurisdiction over two regiments, totaling eight thousand people. The name of this eight-thousand-strong brigade was the "359th Brigade," completely modeled after the land reclamation mode of the 359th Brigade in history. The station was near the county town. And the other approximately forty thousand victims organized five Temporary Reclamation Brigades according to the model of military farming colonies (*Jun Tun*), distributed and stationed near Yuezhangji. Since Zhang Youliang was resolved, the vicinity of Yuezhangji was already the world of the People's Party.

"Comrades, I know everyone feels very strange why the land isn't distributed. Many comrades came to me and asked about this matter many times. I want to ask one thing: can every person here who can work get a hoe?" Yuwen Badu shouted loudly to the comrades lined up neatly. This was the troop of the First Battalion of the Second Regiment. In order to ensure labor efficiency, the First Regiment was at least based on the old unit, with a ratio of one to three between old soldiers and new soldiers. But in the Second Regiment, it was one to ten. Plus, the Soldiers' Committee in the Second Regiment hadn't been established for long, so after working for only three days, the Second Regiment began to make a racket. The soldiers were unstable, and opposing emotions were high. The troops had to begin rectification.

The rush-planting and rush-harvesting spontaneously done by the people after the disaster followed the route from easy to difficult. That is, land where water receded early was planted first. Fertile land was planted first. However, after the flood, such land was the minority. More land was muddy land that needed drainage, loosening soil, and plowing. The hundreds of thousands of *mu* of land in Fengtai County now fell into the hands of the Insurance Corps. Everyone naturally wanted to plant good land and was unwilling to spend huge efforts to plant muddy land. In response to this situation, the Insurance Corps adopted the method of dividing and assigning areas.

To restore production as soon as possible, basic drainage projects must be completed as soon as possible. In the internal discussion of the People's Party, it was considered that these heaviest tasks should all be undertaken by the Insurance Corps. With such work arrangement, the comrades inside the Insurance Corps felt very unwilling on one hand, coupled with heavy labor. Soldiers complained loudly, and cadres of various units were under unprecedented pressure. The number of cadres in the Insurance Corps itself was very limited, while the scale of the rapidly expanding "organization" increased dozens of times. This made the young cadres unable to bear it one by one. Comrades generally believed that being able to implement the orders of the Party organization and the Insurance Corps was already maddening work. As for mobilizing the common people and explaining various problems to the common people, that was simply an impossible task.

The People's Party had to specially transfer a batch of cadres to undertake this work, and Yuwen Badu was also selected. He was still lucky; at least he only had to explain the Insurance Corps' policy to the Insurance Corps soldiers. Cadres assigned to the other several Temporary Reclamation Brigades felt like dying now.

As soon as Yuwen Badu finished speaking, someone in the troop began to shout. The general idea was that since everyone was farming, why should the Insurance Corps be responsible for bitter and tiring work like digging pits and ditches? With someone taking the lead, others also followed and made a racket. Below was immediately a hubbub of voices. Facing the clamor of hundreds of people alone, Yuwen Badu really felt his own insignificance. He shouted angrily a few times, but his voice was suppressed by the soldiers' voices as soon as it came out. It could be seen that the soldiers below were extremely dissatisfied. Just then, a roar like thunder came from behind, "The discipline of the troop is to work to eat! If today's work is not finished, meals won't be served!"

This roar was full of energy, and the clamor was instantly overwhelmed. Plus the content really had enough deterrence; hearing that no food would be given, those clamorers all dared not argue anymore.

Without turning back, Yuwen Badu knew it was Hua Xiongmao behind him. There were only three people in the Insurance Corps who could emit a roar of this degree, and Hua Xiongmao's voice could absolutely not be mistaken.

Hua Xiongmao took two more steps forward and stood beside Yuwen Badu. It was unknown whether Hua Xiongmao was taller than Yuwen Badu, or Hua Xiongmao had sufficient momentum; in short, Yuwen Badu suddenly felt confident too.

Hua Xiongmao was now the Commander of the First Regiment. The Commander of the Second Regiment had not been appointed temporarily. Hearing that the troops began to make trouble and the battalion commander couldn't persuade the soldiers, Yuwen Badu, who was engaged in civil work now, was called over, but still couldn't suppress it. The Political Commissar had to invite Hua Xiongmao over.

Hua Xiongmao was very puzzled about such a result. Although the Insurance Corps troops were newly built, in this disaster year, having a mouthful of food to eat and not starving to death was enough. Generally speaking, the common people shouldn't have such fierce opposition. Also being a troop, the First Regiment didn't have this problem. Hua Xiongmao scanned the soldiers below and quickly saw something wrong. Although the soldiers of the First Battalion were also lined up, there was a group of people looking very different from soldiers of other units. In the queue that should be neat, they presented a circular standing position. As soon as the few people in the middle clamored, those dozen people began to echo. With their incitement, a part of the soldiers also followed subconsciously to create a disturbance.

Hua Xiongmao pointed at those people and shouted: "You guys come out."

Those people didn't expect Hua Xiongmao to order like this and were slightly stunned. But Hua Xiongmao didn't give them a chance to react either. Hua Xiongmao didn't come alone; soldiers from the Reconnaissance Company came with him. These soldiers were all reliable soldiers selected through screening. As Hua Xiongmao pointed one by one, the soldiers of the Reconnaissance Company dragged people out. These soldiers had all participated in the battle of attacking Yuezhangji and had also participated in the work of personnel separation. With experience, these people were also nimble, and soon brought out all the people pointed out by Hua Xiongmao.

These people were obviously a gang. After being brought out, they subconsciously leaned together. Hua Xiongmao ignored them. He shouted to the remaining soldiers: "If today's work is not finished, the troop won't serve meals. Does anyone have anything to say?" These soldiers had only "enlisted" for a few days. Being frightened like this, one by one they stopped making sounds.

Since no one opposed anymore, Hua Xiongmao shouted: "First Battalion Commander, take your people to work." The First Battalion Commander was Lan Yinglong, who belonged to rocket-speed promotion. Seeing Hua Xiongmao had stabilized the situation, he began to shout to let everyone continue to work.

The twenty-odd people brought out saw the soldiers starting to move and immediately became anxious. A middle-aged man among them shouted loudly: "Folks, don't be deceived. They said no food if work isn't finished. Now it's already like this, can folks finish the work? Since there's no food whether we do it or not, folks don't be silly."

This kind of incitement was really effective. Hearing this, the footsteps of some soldiers stopped immediately. Hua Xiongmao waved to the Reconnaissance Company, "Take them all away." In the Insurance Corps, everyone had to work, and the Reconnaissance Company was no exception. Being transferred out this time delayed work, and everyone just wanted a quick decision. Hearing the order, they were not soft-hearted either. They immediately took out ropes and tied up these twenty-odd people. Ignoring whatever they were shouting, they dragged them away. A moment later, those people were taken far away. Only various shouts came faintly. Waiting a moment longer, even the shouts couldn't be heard.

"I want to ask everyone a sentence. In this year's harvest situation, besides here, where else gives you food to eat?" Hua Xiongmao asked loudly. The soldiers were silent one by one. Hua Xiongmao was right. Except for the Insurance Corps providing food on a large scale, there would simply be no such opportunity elsewhere.

Hua Xiongmao raised his hand high; several large blisters worn out on his palm were clearly visible. "The Insurance Corps stipulates that officers and soldiers are one; everyone must work. Are there any cadres below who don't work or slack off?"

The soldiers still didn't speak. But Hua Xiongmao could see that the soldiers were not convinced.

"Wenqing, you are still a bit wishful thinking," Hua Xiongmao thought secretly in his heart. In the People's Party meetings, Chen Ke believed that as long as food could be provided and officers and soldiers worked as one, they could get everyone's support. Even if the support wasn't that enthusiastic, at least orders could be prohibited and enforced. Those Party members from city backgrounds also basically expressed support for this. But in reality, things were not as everyone thought. Providing food merely ensured the troops didn't fall apart. Officers and soldiers laboring together merely ensured everyone could work with the officers. As for work enthusiasm and work attitude, there was completely no guarantee. If supervised tightly, everyone did a bit more; if supervised loosely, various slack-off (*mo yang gong*) things came out.

In just these few days, the little prestige the Insurance Corps had accumulated with great difficulty over several months showed a state of rapid consumption. The old troops were better, but the work situation of the new troops was so bad that it made the People's Party members feel extremely dissatisfied.

But this was the fact. Hua Xiongmao had also conducted investigations. There was a common view among the soldiers that the land seized by the Insurance Corps now was not their own, so it would definitely be seized by others. Soldiers were exerting so much effort now, but there would be no income to speak of in the future. Anyway, it was disaster relief. As long as there was a mouthful of food to eat, working more would make one hungry faster. Why risk one's life?

The collection of these situations was from investigations of the old troops. Only "one's own people" would tell you some truth. Other soldiers just resisted passively and simply wouldn't tell you any truth.

Hua Xiongmao could understand these people. He was a core member of the People's Party after all, and he knew the difficult situation faced now. Chen Ke had made so many preliminary preparations, plus the "help" of natural disasters. Being able to achieve this degree was already extremely remarkable. But revolutionary principles were meaningless to the common people. If the common people couldn't be full, who would sell their lives for you? Facing these situations, many grassroots comrades began to complain. New soldiers were actually common people, and these common people "couldn't be ordered around." Unable to reason with them; this was the common view.

Precisely because he was in the high level, Hua Xiongmao knew he couldn't blame Chen Ke. It was impossible for Chen Ke to raise the banner of equal distribution of land now. Once this banner was raised, he would be the public enemy of Fengtai County, the public enemy of Fengyang Prefecture, and the public enemy of Anhui, and even China. Chen Ke also had to compromise and solve problems through the "United Front," and such methods required time. But in this critical period now, time was more precious than gold and silver.

Hua Xiongmao looked at these "soldiers" in front of him, calculating in his heart how exactly to convince them. At least let them win this harvest together with the Insurance Corps. But Hua Xiongmao didn't have any too good methods either. He could only treat the head when the head aches, and treat the foot when the foot aches. If he encountered trouble-makers, he arrested them. If everyone didn't obey, he intimidated them with no food.

"Wenqing, hurry up and come up with a solution!" Hua Xiongmao couldn't help shouting in his heart.