Refugees began to move towards Fengtai County; the People's Party couldn't ignore such a big matter. When Shang Yuan was arranging to settle refugees into the original "Home of Common People" concentration camp, the meeting notice had already arrived. And this meeting was considered a death order; all People's Party members must attend regardless of what work they had at hand.

Comrades who knew the actual situation naturally had to attend, and comrades who didn't know the actual situation also knew something big must have happened. Before Chen Ke entered the venue, all Party members had already assembled.

Because of Shang Yuan's special identity and calm personality, everyone dared not interact with him much. As a woman, everyone was not very willing to talk too much with You Gou either. Not because of dissatisfaction with You Gou, but because they felt it was inconvenient, like tying shoes in a melon field or adjusting a hat under a plum tree (*Gua Tian Li Xia* - avoiding suspicion).

Seeing the solemn faces of these two, plus some grapevine news, everyone basically knew the news that a large number of refugees were pouring into Fengtai County. At first, it was private conversation; everyone's face changed greatly upon hearing this news. With the spread of the news, the conference room changed from buzzing to a hubbub of voices.

There were also many among the Party members who didn't know the severity. "What can refugees do? Didn't we survive the flood too?" someone said.

But how could comrades who knew the severity be bluffed by such childish thoughts, "Do you know how many mouths that is? Now only a few people came; wait until tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people come, you will know the severity. Those are human beings; our little family property is not enough to eat at all."

"Really?"

With the deepening of communication, the comrades' emotions became lower and lower. Impatient military cadres already clamored to lead troops to intercept refugees.

Timid ones were at a loss, either speechless or asking continuously: "What should we do? What should we do?"

"We should have prepared earlier and not let refugees from other places run to us this time," such complaints also appeared.

Some people were completely confused and incoherent, and some even began to question why Chen Ke didn't appear.

Shang Yuan was originally annoyed in his heart; hearing the noisy voices, his emotions became even more unstable. He was just about to get up to maintain order, but saw You Gou get up one step ahead, roaring, "Everyone be quiet!"

You Gou was an old Party member, everyone knew. Moreover, the work You Gou undertook usually was more than most male comrades, so everyone still admired this very much. You Gou suddenly got angry, and the noisy conference room quieted down immediately. You Gou ignored everyone's eyes gathering on her; she strode to the chairman's position, pulled open the stool behind the chairman's position, and then scanned the People's Party members around.

Now the number of People's Party members had reached more than 180. The mode of the venue was a "big table" made of two square tables in the middle. On the periphery, comrades' tables and stools surrounded the central conference table circle by circle. Besides the seven secretaries, there were also clerks who could sit at the central table. Sitting behind the circle of tables near the center were Politburo members, and further out were other comrades without positions in the Party.

You Gou suddenly got angry, and then actually walked behind the chairman's position widely recognized as Chen Ke's exclusive use. Comrades were really startled. Everyone forgot the heavy pressure brought by refugees for a moment and couldn't figure out what scene You Gou was playing.

"Look at your appearances; scared when encountering such a little thing. What are you clamoring about!" You Gou still roared.

Scolded like this, comrades not only didn't quiet down but on the contrary, some people already rebounded. "Such a big thing, is it possible not to be anxious?" As soon as You Gou's voice fell, someone retorted sarcastically.

"On what basis do you stand at Secretary Chen's position?" Someone simply confronted directly.

"On what basis? Based on the fact that I am one of the seven secretaries in the Party." Hearing the questioning of herself, You Gou shouted immediately.

"So what if you are a secretary? You are not Secretary Chen." Someone immediately clashed with You Gou.

"Although Secretary You Gou is not Secretary Chen, Secretary You Gou is also a secretary. The Secretary of the Central Secretariat itself has the authority of the Discipline Inspection Committee. Secretary You Gou asked you to be quiet; comrades have the obligation to obey this order." A clear and bright voice backed You Gou up.

The Party member questioning You Gou was Zhang Xiuqing. Hearing this, he was even more angry. But this voice itself had a power that Zhang Xiuqing couldn't resist; this was caused by habit. Zhang Xiuqing's boiling angry brain suddenly realized that this was Chen Ke's voice. Chen Ke finally arrived at the venue. Turning his head to look, he saw Chen Ke in front, Hua Xiongmao and He Zudao following behind. The three strode towards their respective positions in the middle.

Comrades looked at the supreme leader of the People's Party as if seeing a savior. Chen Ke led the number one military cadre of the People's Party, Hua Xiongmao, and the number one political work cadre, He Zudao, into the venue together. All comrades had a situation of finding a backer.

You Gou walked back to her position. The reason she stood up and got angry just now was not entirely dissatisfaction with the comrades' panic. What really triggered You Gou's anger was some people's questioning and complaining about Chen Ke. Seeing Chen Ke finally appear and firmly support her, You Gou suddenly felt her nose sour, but she didn't feel like crying at all. Facing the severe situation, as a People's Party member and secretary, You Gou herself must be firm.

Chen Ke didn't sit down. He smiled and said to everyone: "Comrades have heard the general situation, right. Refugees are already coming towards our Fengtai County."

No one answered. Such words had no effect on solving the problem. Everyone hoped Chen Ke would come up with a way to solve the refugee problem.

Hua Xiongmao and He Zudao didn't sit down either. They were busy hanging a map of Anhui on the blackboard behind Chen Ke. After hanging it, they returned to their seats.

"If you ask me, this matter proves one thing. Comrades, our work in Fengtai County is fruitful. Although our Fengtai County is also the center of the disaster area, we can let the common people eat and drink. Today, when people in other places can't survive without fleeing famine, we did very well. Everyone shouldn't panic; first of all, you should feel satisfied with the results of your work," Chen Ke said with a smile.

Shang Yuan was very surprised by Chen Ke's opening remarks. He never expected Chen Ke to still have the mood to joke with everyone. But looking carefully at Chen Ke's calm and composed manner, these words didn't look like pretending to be calm and magnanimous. If Shang Yuan wasn't anxious in his heart, he would firmly believe Chen Ke was really praising everyone.

Even so, these unexpected words still made the comrades feel a burst of relief. Chen Ke didn't tell lies or big words; what he expounded was precisely the fact of the base area. In such a disaster year, the situation in Fengtai County was indeed outstanding.

"Secretary Chen, then what should we do next?" An impatient comrade continued to ask.

"Yes, even if we do well, one place like Fengtai County can't feed so many refugees. If tens of thousands of refugees come, they will crush us all at once."

"Comrades, encountering a problem, first of all, we must know how the problem happened. Whether you like it or not, you must face the problem realistically and analyze the problem. Does everyone know how refugees are formed?"

"No food locally, naturally have to go out to find food. This creates refugees," someone answered.

Chen Ke asked: "Then why don't refugees go elsewhere but come to our Fengtai?"

"This..." The speaker was stumped.

"Because they know our Fengtai County has food," other comrades added.

Regarding this question, Chen Ke asked: "How did the refugees know? Who told these refugees?"

"This..." The speaker was stumped again.

In such questions and answers, others discovered that they actually didn't understand the reason for refugees moving towards Fengtai County. The original blind panic mentality immediately reduced a lot.

Chen Ke patted the table and said loudly: "Comrades, no investigation, no right to speak. Encountering a problem, don't just look at the surface and then take it for granted yourself. Taking it for granted won't do. People say there are no two identical leaves; everything has its regularity and its uniqueness. Just thinking blindly here is useless."

Zhang Xiuqing offended You Gou just now and was also criticized by Chen Ke. Hearing Chen Ke's words, his heart also settled down at this time, and a sense of shame arose spontaneously. The thought of wanting to make amends for his faults immediately popped up. He stood up hurriedly and said: "I apply to go now to understand how the refugees knew Fengtai County has grain."

"No rush. The matter of refugees is not a small matter. If you go rashly like this, it's just extorting confession; the common people may not tell you the truth. Let's research the refugee problem thoroughly first. Only by clarifying the problem can we shoot the arrow at the target. Flustered like this, I'm afraid instead of solving the problem, new troubles will arise."

Hearing Chen Ke's words, Zhang Xiuqing felt very puzzled. He suspected Chen Ke deliberately cut his face (embarrassed him) as retaliation for his gaffe just now. In the discipline of the People's Party, problems should be spoken to the face. Zhang Xiuqing couldn't help asking: "Secretary Chen, I go to ask a question and can cause trouble? How do you explain this?"

"How do you plan to ask? What preparations to make?" Chen Ke asked bluntly.

"What preparations are needed for this? Mn, I won't find many people to ask at the same time. But ask one by one. For preparation, I need a batch of soldiers to go with me," Zhang Xiuqing answered.

As soon as the voice fell, a sneer was heard. Zhang Xiuqing looked towards the laughter; it was You Gou. He saw You Gou turn her head and say: "Secretary Chen also said just now, now we have to block the news that Fengtai County has grain. You should at least block the refugees' residence first. In case your questioning scares some people away. Isn't this clearly making the news leak faster?"

This "face slapping" was loud and crisp. Zhang Xiuqing's face didn't just turn white, but turned iron-green.

Chen Ke saw Zhang Xiuqing's face change greatly. He said: "Comrade Zhang Xiuqing, don't feel I want to target you, and don't feel Comrade You Gou targets you. We must first analyze the cause of the problem clearly. Only in this way can we come up with effective methods. So don't be anxious to act. Clarify the cause of the matter first. Listen attentively now. If there is anything wrong with what I say, you must remind me in time."

After speaking, Chen Ke didn't care so much and began to narrate the problem of refugees. The formation and spread of refugees is a vicious circle. Heavily hit areas impact lightly hit areas; after lightly hit areas are eaten up, refugees continue to spread. Although this principle is simple, comrades had never really considered it like this. After Chen Ke finished explaining these, except for a few people like Shang Yuan, most people had expressions of suddenly realizing.

Chen Ke saw everyone basically understood the basic law of refugees, and answered a few more questions. Seeing no one continued to ask, only then did he say: "This place Anhui, especially this place Fengyang, is known as nine years of famine out of ten. Anhui has a tradition of fleeing famine; Fengtai County is absolutely not the first choice. Why large groups of people come to our Fengtai County definitely has a reason. Generally speaking, Anhui fleeing famine goes to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Some go north to Henan or Hubei. This time we must first investigate clearly what situation exactly made refugees start coming to our Fengtai. Comrade Zhang Xiuqing, are you willing to participate in this investigation team?"

Zhang Xiuqing didn't expect to be assigned a task by Chen Ke so quickly. He said hurriedly: "I am willing."

"Very good. We will discuss how to form this team later." Chen Ke smiled encouragingly at Zhang Xiuqing. Seeing this smile, Zhang Xiuqing suddenly felt his heart put back into his stomach. Chen Ke was originally a tolerant person; as long as his recklessness just now was forgiven, Zhang Xiuqing believed he could definitely restore Chen Ke's confidence in him through work.

Chen Ke continued: "Comrades, I want to ask a question now. Do you think the common people of Fengtai County should starve to death?"

This question was really greatly beyond others' expectations. If such a question like nonsense came from other comrades, the participating People's Party members, especially these comrades whose nerves were highly excited by the refugee problem now, would definitely curse loudly. Isn't this obvious? Why should the common people of Fengtai County starve to death? The People's Party recruited many local comrades in Fengtai County. Although the absolute number was not large, the proportion in the People's Party was not low. Everyone naturally didn't think Fengtai common people should starve to death. And other comrades from outside spent half a year in Fengtai County, racking their brains and shedding blood and sweat to build Fengtai County. For a place where they poured so much effort, everyone naturally didn't think the common people of Fengtai County should starve to death.

But the person asking this question was Chen Ke, the recognized leader of the People's Party. Everyone felt there must be deeper meaning in Chen Ke's words.

Chen Ke continued to ask: "Those who think the common people of Fengtai County should starve to death, please raise your hands."

Someone raised a hand. The astonished eyes of all comrades in the venue immediately fell on that person. Seeing everyone's gaze was by no means kind, that comrade thought about Chen Ke's words again and hurriedly put his hand down. He shouted repeatedly: "I heard wrong, I heard wrong. I thought it was raising hands for thinking they shouldn't starve to death."

Chen Ke was furious. He suppressed his anger forcibly and shouted, "Keep your attention focused; don't take it for granted for me." No one laughed in the venue; more than half of the people didn't even have a wry smile.

Calming down his anger, Chen Ke continued to ask: "Those who think common people in other places should starve to death, raise your hands."

Hearing this, all comrades' faces became graver. Many people had already guessed the meaning Chen Ke didn't say. Since the common people of Fengtai County shouldn't starve to death, then there is no reason for common people in other places to starve to death either. But the current situation was that Fengtai County simply couldn't feed so many common people. For comrades, if someone must die, they would rather the common people of other places die. However, although the reasoning was so, no one dared to raise their hands. Such immoral things could be done when forced, but absolutely couldn't be said.

Someone tried to divide the matter into two aspects to speak, "Secretary Chen..." As soon as they opened their mouths, Chen Ke, with a stern expression, interrupted their words directly, "If you have any opinion, raise your hand to indicate. No need to tell me reasons of having no choice."

Everyone remained deadlocked like this for a full five minutes. No matter how cloudy or sunny the comrades' faces were, although some people's arms moved back and forth, not a single person raised their hand.

"Comrades, what is the name of our political party?"

"Chinese People's Party," You Gou answered.

"Why is it called this name?"

"Because we represent the interests of the Chinese people, representing the vanguard of the Chinese people pursuing revolution and justice." It was still You Gou's clear and bright voice echoing in the conference venue.

"This time, why didn't a single comrade ask why not ask the government for help through Comrade Shang Yuan, asking them to allocate grain to us?" Chen Ke continued to ask.

No one spoke. Although some people's eyes lit up, they soon dimmed. Everyone knew the government simply couldn't save the common people. If it could save, the disaster relief grain should have been transported to Fengtai County long ago.

"Our People's Party is a revolutionary party. How is our People's Party defined in the Party Constitution?" Chen Ke continued to ask.

Reciting the Party Constitution is the basic obligation of Party members. The words in the Party Constitution had already emerged in many people's minds, "The Chinese People's Party takes the comprehensive liberation of all Chinese people as its sole goal."

Chen Ke recited word by word, "The Chinese People's Party takes the comprehensive liberation of all Chinese people as its sole goal." This was the Party Constitution he participated in drafting personally.

"We are in Fengtai County now, but it doesn't mean we will be in Fengtai County, this one place, forever in the future. To liberate the people of the whole of China, we have to travel all over China. Now facing refugees from surrounding areas coming to us to beg for a living, if we ignore them and let them live or die, or even use force to prevent refugees from surviving. When this flood passes completely, when we have grain and can go outside. At that time, in the areas surrounding Fengtai County, do we dare to say to the common people that we are here to liberate you? If the common people shut out by us didn't starve to death, hearing our words about liberating them, and then spitting on our faces, do we dare to wipe it? Even if we wipe the spit on our faces clean, do we dare to say we have a clear conscience in our hearts?"

These words were very heavy, but no one expressed the slightest dissatisfaction. Because Chen Ke was not wrong.

"Comrades, when we first arrived in Fengtai County, our People's Party and the Insurance Corps were mostly outsiders. When we fought Zhang Youliang, most of the Insurance Corps soldiers were locals. But until now, has anyone said we are outsiders inciting locals to fight locals? Has anyone?"

Hearing Chen Ke's words, still no one answered.

"We forced the landlords of Fengtai County to lend their land. Have any Insurance Corps soldiers told local common people that we outsiders want to make a fortune in Fengtai County and get land for ourselves? Has anyone?"

The venue was still silent. If an outsider couldn't see the venue full of people, he would even think it was empty here.

"The common people are not stupid. The common people know we are mostly outsiders. The common people know we rely on the support of the common people to suppress the local people who were once insufferably arrogant. But the common people didn't come out to oppose us. Why? Not because the common people don't know those landlords are their fellow villagers. It's because the common people know who is good to them. The common people know we really seek happiness for the common people."

Still no one spoke.

"I know what everyone is worried about. Now Fengtai County is indeed unspeakably suffering." After Chen Ke finished speaking, he raised his own palm. These days of labor had worn calluses and blood blisters on Chen Ke's hands. The blood blisters had almost gone down, but the purple-black marks had not completely disappeared. Many comrades looked at their own palms. In these days, except for comrades who really couldn't participate in labor due to work reasons, everyone had worn calluses on their hands. There was finally some movement in the venue.

Seeing comrades all looking at their own palms, Chen Ke continued: "I am not saying how hard I, Chen Ke, worked myself. Compared with comrades, I didn't go to the fields much these days, and didn't do as much work as comrades. Comrades are harder, and have more blisters on hands. I still remember Comrade Chai Qingguo came to me at that time, let me see the blisters on his hand, saying soldiers eating grain is unalterable principles, now working to death every day, blisters on hands. The soldiers of our Insurance Corps are all soldiers with blisters on hands. All are Blister Soldiers (*Pao Bing*). I told Comrade Chai Qingguo at that time, not enough blisters; after a few more layers, there will be no blisters. At that time I was to boost morale for everyone. Actually, I know everyone is working hard. Very hard. Just because of everyone's hard work, Fengtai County can have today. I want to say, everyone did a good job." Speaking of this, tears couldn't help flashing in Chen Ke's eyes.

Chen Ke's words came from his heart. Comrades could hear it. Thinking of their own toil, tears also appeared in the eyes of many comrades.

"We can stand firm in Fengtai County not by relying on our large numbers. Compared with the common people of Fengtai County, our few people count for nothing. Not by relying on us having read books; common people don't recognize this. We rely on solid work. Relying on Party member cadres taking everyone to work on the front line. And working much, working well. Seeing us working so hard and having some results, the common people believe that we really want to make Fengtai County good. If we all went out sitting in sedans, with concubines in the sedans, holding opium pipes. Hugging while smoking. Speaking to common people through the sedan curtain. Everyone say, can the common people work with us? Probably would have driven us away long ago."

"Pfft," many comrades couldn't help laughing out loud, and some even laughed with tears in their eyes. There was finally some atmosphere in the venue.

"Everyone can't eat enough. Sun scorches during the day, mosquitoes bite at night. Dug ditches with great difficulty, and the land is basically opened. And a new batch of grain will be transported in a while. This life finally shows signs of improvement. Everyone feels able to breathe a sigh of relief. If our People's Party were not a revolutionary party, not wanting to liberate the whole of China. This kind of thought is understandable, and can even be done. But our People's Party is not a political party wanting to die of old age in Fengtai County. Our People's Party is a political party with liberating the whole of China as our sole goal. Then we cannot leave other common people in the lurch. If we leave common people in the lurch, we are not the People's Party. We are not worthy of being called the People's Party." At the end of Chen Ke's speech, his expression became solemn again.

"Why can we accomplish current things in Fengtai County and let everyone have food to eat? Why didn't a single comrade propose asking the Manchu Qing government for relief now? Why, comrades? Who can answer me?"

Comrades exchanged glances. Indeed, no one believed government relief could be counted on. But without government relief, why could the People's Party create such a situation? There was an answer everyone felt they could vaguely grasp in their hearts, but this answer was so vague that they could vaguely feel it when not paying attention, but couldn't find it when thinking carefully.

"Because the government is unreliable. The common people are reliable." You Gou said loudly. These were her heartfelt words. When her brother wanted to use force against You Gou, those who stepped forward to protect You Gou were these soldiers of peasant origin. When You Gou worked forgetting food and sleep, those who could always follow her were also these soldiers of peasant origin. At any time, no matter how many shortcomings and deficiencies the common people looked to have, when you sincerely sought benefits for the common people, the common people were always reliable.