The large conference room of the People's Party occupied nearly a hundred square meters. More than thirty pillars supported simple wooden beams. Straw mats were used as walls outside, and hanging straw mats between various wooden beams could partition it into required rooms. Because of the general meeting of landlords, all straw mats were rolled up and tied with ropes, making the entire space completely open. In the empty conference room, only Chen Ke and Shang Yuan sat face to face.

The two had already talked about their hearts for a while, and the grudge between them didn't exist at all. And the topic also slid rapidly from personal views to work.

"Brother Wangshan, do you have any ideas about the method of selecting cadres?" Chen Ke was somewhat hesitant when asking this question. A big issue like cadre selection determined the future direction of the People's Party. Although the People's Party claimed to formulate directions by the majority, Chen Ke didn't want to make the slightest concession on the Party's basic program. He had decided that no matter what, he must be able to control the direction guidance of the People's Party.

Shang Yuan didn't care about Chen Ke's "leadership status." Chinese political tradition required someone to act as a leader. Chen Ke's status was won by his consistent performance. Shang Yuan didn't have the intention to replace him now. Such a smart person knew very well that now was absolutely not the time to accomplish this. Meaningless seizure of power would only result in a messy dog-eat-dog fight.

"Wenqing definitely has a constitution; let me hear it first," Shang Yuan said indifferently. One of the reasons he didn't quite approve of Chen Ke's ability before was that Chen Ke didn't pay much attention to listening to other words at that time. True Confucian believers like Shang Yuan understood one thing in personal cultivation: if your own heart is full of things, how can you accept others' opinions? As the saying goes, "A prime minister's belly can hold a boat." To put it more elegantly, it is "be extremely open-minded" (*xu huai ruo gu*). Shang Yuan was thirty-four years old, almost ten years older than Chen Ke. He had seen many youths like Chen Ke, twenty-four or five years old, full of desire for revolution. The stuff in these youths' bellies was just so-so. But that desire was endless. The reason Shang Yuan detested revolutionaries like Sun Yat-sen most lay in this.

The reason Shang Yuan could accept Chen Ke in the beginning was that although Chen Ke talked about a path that wasn't very reliable, at least it went deep into the grassroots and engaged in revolution solidly. On this path, Chen Ke only emphasized class contradictions and advocated developing "productive forces" by building a new social system, rather than labeling some people as "counter-revolutionaries" and thinking that getting rid of these people would mean the success of the revolution. If Chen Ke was also full of revolutionary principles but only wanted to ascend to the throne of power in his heart, Shang Yuan would have kicked Chen Ke flying long ago.

Since Chen Ke wanted to propose comprehensive Party building work, as Chen Ke's subordinate, Shang Yuan followed his personal cultivation habit to listen to Chen Ke's opinion first.

"Aim for the top, get the middle. Aim for the middle, get the bottom. What is the Party's philosophy? It is to establish a new world," Chen Ke continued.

Shang Yuan was one of the few Party members in the People's Party who had truly discussed communism with Chen Ke. He wasn't very interested in communism either. But Chen Ke was talking about the principles of Party building, so he didn't refute but just continued to listen.

"But I am not very confident about how to make People's Party members have communist consciousness," Chen Ke spoke his heart.

Hearing this, Shang Yuan just smiled indifferently, "Wenqing, you are just afraid of people dying, afraid that so many people we pulled out with hard work will die or run away. In my opinion, there is no need to worry about this matter. Communist consciousness is invisible and intangible, but we all know what people with communist consciousness will do. We set rules; those who can do it will be promoted and commended, and those who can't will be criticized and educated. Only with clear rewards and punishments will comrades truly understand and learn what communism is."

Although he knew Shang Yuan spoke the correct principle, Chen Ke couldn't help sighing: "This kind of elimination is also a bit too cruel."

Shang Yuan didn't care about Chen Ke's sigh at all. He said with a serious expression: "Wenqing, why do you think everyone has followed you until now? Because you have two virtues: one is setting an example, and the other is strict orders. I won't praise you for setting an example. The strictness of orders lies in that you never trust people lightly; you do everything yourself. Comrades actually don't know what to do. After you did it yourself, you set an example and set the rules. In the future, this kind of thing must be done this way. I really didn't expect our revolution could be pushed to such a stage. Now with a scale of tens of thousands of people, you can't experience everything yourself. So you want to promote cadres now; I think it's very correct. Even if you don't plan to promote cadres now, I would also propose it. Since you want to promote cadres, you must have the breadth of mind to let them make mistakes. Sages make no mistakes twice (*Sheng Ren Wu Er Guo*). If you want them to make no mistakes in everything, wouldn't they all surpass sages? This is illogical."

Chen Ke's reason was convinced, or rather he knew this long ago. But his emotions couldn't accept it. Shang Yuan might not know how cruel the future path would be and what major sacrifices there would be. But Chen Ke knew; the data recorded in Party history coldly expounded this fact. And the even crueler fact was that the more loyal the Party members, the more sacrifices, and the earlier they sacrificed.

In 1906, if the Party organization could be made close to the toughness of the Party led by Grandpa Mao back then, it could be said there were simply no opponents. Chen Ke believed that the gap between China and the world was completely widened to almost irreparable after the completion of the Second Industrial Revolution. The emergence and popularization of electricity and internal combustion engines greatly developed productive forces. In the late Qing Dynasty, the gap between China and industrial countries armed with steam power was not too big. Even that group of Red Army soldiers holding very backward weapons couldn't be defeated by the powers in the interior line operations of defending the country. But after the Second Industrial Revolution, the gap between China and the world was completely widened. The Eighth Route Army had to rely on infantry tactics far superior to opponents to resist invaders while paying a huge price.

As a time traveler, Chen Ke believed he could effectively develop Chinese industry and let the army master advanced infantry movement tactics. China's losses would be small. But even so, these early Party members, and those excellent Party members he tried hard to develop, would inevitably pay the price with their lives. At the current stage, Chen Ke couldn't accept the sacrifice of these people emotionally no matter what.

"Does Wenqing have any doubts?" Shang Yuan asked seeing Chen Ke silent.

Chen Ke sighed for the third time rarely, "Brother Wangshan, let's do it this way. Can I entrust you to handle the first draft of these specific requirements? I have to go comfort the troops and can't find time temporarily."

"I can write the original draft of the civil officials' regulations. I don't understand things in the army. You have to write the draft of those parts yourself, Wenqing," Shang Yuan answered very seriously.

"Good, I'll go prepare for comforting the troops now. I will hold a meeting in Yuezhangji and produce the manuscript within ten days."

"I'll also take ten days."

Neither Shang Yuan nor Chen Ke intended to continue chatting. Having confirmed the work arrangement, they each went to do their own things.

After the news that Brigade Commander Chen was coming to comfort the troops was brought back to the troops by Chai Qingguo, it spread at extremely fast speed. There were many artists in Anhui, and everyone had heard of "rewarding the three armies" from various literary and artistic channels. That night, the atmosphere in the troops was very excited, and the soldiers looked forward to tomorrow's reward very much.

As an ordinary soldier of the First Regiment, Zhao Chengnian listened to the excited discussion of comrades in the campsite, but his heart was somewhat apprehensive. He was the son of an ordinary tenant farmer in Yuezhangji. His parents were alive, and he had a younger brother and a younger sister. His family actually had two *mu* of land, but five people couldn't feed themselves relying on these two *mu* of land at all. So his family simply rented the land to others, and then farmed for others themselves. For such small households with very little land, the rented-out land yielded at least some harvest, and farming for others also yielded some harvest.

When the People's Party was still in Shanghai, in the social investigation conducted in the name of Huangpu Book Society, this social characteristic was discovered. The People's Party's report evaluated this as follows: "It is not that these farmers are unwilling to farm their own land while renting others' land to farm. It is because rural land presents a scattered layout. Two *mu* of land might be divided into four or five places, far apart. For ordinary families, farming these lands simultaneously and taking good care of these lands simultaneously is a very difficult thing. So the strange situation appeared where landlords also rent out land, and poor peasants also rent out land."

And what made Zhao Chengnian apprehensive was that his family's land deed was soaked and ruined in the flood. After experiencing the flood, all land ridges were gone. It was basically impossible to find back one's own land accurately. In this situation, they should have relied on the prestige of clan elders, but after such a year of great disaster, those clan elders would definitely consider their own family's interests first. If it were a big clan, it would be easier to say. The Zhao family was a small household locally and couldn't compete with those big families at all. His family's land definitely couldn't be recovered much. Fighting couldn't beat others; what was the use of risking one's life?

When the Insurance Corps' boats came to save people, Zhao Chengnian's father had already prepared to throw himself into the water to commit suicide because he lost the land deed in the water. He even dragged an Insurance Corps soldier into the water with him. Fortunately, the Insurance Corps' protection for soldiers was in place; everyone was connected by ropes at the waist, and finally, both people were saved. The Insurance Corps fleet sent the rescued people to Yuezhangji. Zhang Youliang refused the rescued masses outside the village, so the Insurance Corps had to take them back to the county town.

Anyway, the Zhao family was not any influential figure in Yuezhangji. Since the Insurance Corps took them back, they accepted it. As soon as Zhao Chengnian heard that the Insurance Corps was recruiting people, he joined with his younger brother Zhao Chengri without hesitation. In this era, having people means having power. His purpose of joining the Insurance Corps was simple: "It's good to enjoy the shade under a big tree." The Insurance Corps had many people and great power. As long as he worked hard and got appreciated, he would have some backing to ask for his family's land back in the future.

So the Zhao brothers worked very hard in the Insurance Corps. What made them feel lucky was that although the leaders, big and small, in the Insurance Corps couldn't be said to be very approachable, they never bullied people. Most importantly, although the work everyone did was tiring, they were always given food. However, Zhao Chengnian was not used to one thing, and even somewhat worried. That was, whatever the Insurance Corps soldiers ate, the leaders also ate. There was absolutely no appearance of leaders eating meat, drinking wine, and being happy as in legends. This showed that the Insurance Corps was not that wealthy. If not wealthy, it would be difficult to last long. This Insurance Corps might not necessarily be a future backer.

But later, when Zhao Chengnian saw that Magistrate Shang Yuan, the "Marquis of a Hundred Li" of Fengtai County, and the Insurance Corps were in the same group, he finally felt relieved. Locally, the magistrate was the royal law; the magistrate's word was heaven. With Magistrate Shang Yuan backing them up, his family's land could definitely be solved. People are naturally very different when they have hope. Zhao Chengnian worked even harder. Instead, Zhao Chengnian's brother Zhao Chengri became somewhat lazy. He didn't work very hard but liked to get close to the cadres in the troops more. The Political Commissar of the troops was He Zudao, who just didn't buy this. He scolded Zhao Chengri several times for not working seriously. Zhao Chengri put his hot face on a cold butt. The whole person completely slackened.

When the Insurance Corps attacked Yuezhangji, Zhao Chengnian followed the main force but didn't catch the hard battle. Eliminating Zhang Youliang, the Insurance Corps occupied Yuezhangji. Then came the major troop adjustment. The Insurance Corps expanded the army greatly on one hand, and on the other hand, cleared some people out of the team. Among these people was Zhao Chengri. Perhaps implicated by following his brother, according to Zhao Chengri's performance, he should have at least muddled along to become a squad leader. But he just didn't; he was still an ordinary soldier now. [Note: The text implies Zhao Chengnian (the POV) is the one who didn't get promoted, or maybe "Zhao Chengri was cleared out... Among these people was Zhao Chengri... According to Zhao Chengri's performance... he is still an ordinary soldier." This part is contradictory in the source. "Cleared out" usually means removed. "Still an ordinary soldier" means still in. I will translate literally, assuming "cleared out of the *main/combat* team" into the reclamation team, hence "still an ordinary soldier" in the new unit.]

In this Insurance Corps reclamation, seeing that everyone's land was occupied first regardless of whose it was, but not mentioning anything about land distribution, made Zhao Chengnian very awkward. What exactly did the Insurance Corps want to do? Zhao Chengnian knew many soldiers had complaints about this, which was also the reason for the fluctuating hearts in the troops recently. Although the troop cadres explained it again and again, saying distributing land would take a long time now, and if time was spent on distributing land, would there still be rush-planting and rush-harvesting? Everyone understood this principle in their hearts, but understanding the principle didn't mean being able to accept it.

Hearing that Brigade Commander Chen Ke was coming to comfort the troops, Zhao Chengnian felt he should ask the Brigade Commander how this land would be handled exactly. He had been in the Insurance Corps for a few months. Although work was hard, he didn't have much time for Soldiers' Committee work. But having attended so many meetings, Zhao Chengnian dared to speak in public at any rate. He had seen Brigade Commander Chen Ke, such a tall and big youth, looking very majestic. Although he was fierce when working, he was a very easy-going person normally. Zhao Chengnian hoped in his heart that Brigade Commander Chen Ke could uphold justice. But really thinking about going to beg Brigade Commander Chen Ke, Zhao Chengnian was afraid again.

In apprehension, Zhao Chengnian heard the troops blow the lights-out bugle. Platoon leaders and squad leaders began to assemble the troops, then led the troops to sleep. Now the troops were considered semi-camping. The ground was wet, and earthen walls couldn't be built either. It was just simple straw sheds. Straw was spread on long broken wooden boards, and everyone slept just like that.

Although he wanted to think more, the labor during the day was too heavy. Zhao Chengnian's mind suddenly went blank, and he fell asleep.