The "Autumn Tiger" [Indian Summer] was very fierce. Hua Xiongmao took off his blue soft cap, wiped the sweat from his forehead with the towel around his neck, and then put the soft cap back on his head. The handsome face of this Jiangnan man was now tanned dark. With the sun beating down on their heads and the moisture steaming under their feet for several months, the Insurance Corps, from top to bottom, all had healthy dark skin. Compared to that fine complexion, Hua Xiongmao's callous-covered palms looked very rough. After holding gun handles, they held hoe handles; callous-covered hands were also a unified feature of the Insurance Corps.

"Comrades, rest for a while!" Hua Xiongmao shouted loudly. Hearing the shout, the soldiers working together in the fields finished the last bit of work at hand, then put down their tools one after another and sat on the slope to rest. Everyone took off their blue soft military caps; some wiped their sweat, and some used the military caps as fans to fan the wind beside their heads.

"Comrades, wipe your sweat dry, then put your hats back on. The wind is strong now, it's easy to catch a cold," Hua Xiongmao shouted. As the nominal highest military commander of the Insurance Corps now, Hua Xiongmao didn't look like he had any official airs at all. He was even more approachable than when he was a Military Graduate a year ago. Although his voice advising everyone to take care of their health was loud, there was no domineering flavor in his tone.

Hearing Hua Xiongmao's advice, the soldiers wiped their sweat with the unified standard military towels one after another, and then put their hats back on their heads.

"Brigade Commander, I have something I want to say to you." A soldier walked up to Hua Xiongmao and said with a very embarrassed look on his face. Hua Xiongmao had finally become the Vice Brigade Commander of the 359th Brigade as he wished, and everyone's form of address changed accordingly.

"What is it? Let's hear it." Hua Xiongmao answered with a smile.

"Brigade Commander, I want to cut my queue. I want to have short hair like everyone else." The soldier had a difficult look on his face. "But I'm afraid my father will scold me. When the time comes, Brigade Commander, you have to plead for me."

More than a quarter of the soldiers in the Insurance Corps had already cut their hair into the short military style. regarding hair cutting, Chen Ke had never forced it. Except for People's Party members, the Insurance Corps did not force anyone to cut their queues. In the eyes of the revolutionary parties of 1906, the queue meant extreme evil. But Chen Ke was not a person of this era; as a youth of the late 20th century, men having long hair or even braiding it was not such an evil thing. Moreover, the reason for rural men in Anhui in 1906 to keep queues was definitely not loyalty to the Manchu Qing, but just a habit.

The Insurance Corps emphasized hygiene. Soldiers had to bathe, wash their hair, and remove lice regularly. Compared with queues, the superiority of short hair was obvious at a glance. As of now, the proportion of people cutting queues in the Water Detachment was very high. Those who decided to follow the Party, especially those who applied to join the Party and those who had already joined, mostly kept soldiers' short hair. However, the most thorough hair cutting was actually in the engineering team following You Gou. Doing work like firing cement and glass, queues were often scorched or even burned under high temperatures. As a woman, You Gou herself had cut her hair short, and the male soldiers also felt that keeping queues was too uncomfortable, so they simply all cut them short.

China has an attitude of paying attention to social traditions and habits; forcibly cutting queues would only trigger comprehensive resistance. When cutting queues could make life and work more comfortable, Chinese people would instead accept it logically. On this point, Hua Xiongmao felt Chen Ke was very right. After listening to the soldier's words about cutting his queue, he laughed. "If you want to cut it, just cut it. Your father will definitely scold you. If I go to plead, your father might think you are using me to suppress him. When I leave, I'm afraid the old man will scold you even harder."

Hearing this, many soldiers laughed. The soldier who spoke just now smiled awkwardly with some embarrassment. "That's true too." He scratched his head with a smile.

However, seeing that the soldier had no intention of leaving, Hua Xiongmao felt that the matter of cutting the queue might not be what the soldier really wanted to say. He asked gently, "If there's something, just say it straight. A man doesn't need to be so hiding and tucking."

Encouraged by Hua Xiongmao, the awkward smile on the soldier's face turned into an expression mixed with expectation and uneasiness. "Brigade Commander, I heard that land is going to be distributed soon."

So that's it, Hua Xiongmao thought with a smile. The large-scale harvest was about to begin immediately. Since the People's Party had already fulfilled its first promise—letting everyone have food to eat—the common people trusted the People's Party's promise of land distribution even more. More and more common people ran to see the landscape painting of the future Fengtai County these days. Although some pictures had changed color and the paint had started to peel off under the wind and sun, the enthusiasm of the common people was higher day by day. The hard work of the Insurance Corps on infrastructure construction had begun to take shape. There was still a long distance from the beautiful new rural scenery in the landscape painting, but the roads and water channels, these most important backbones, had already appeared in scale. This gave those people who had paid hard efforts for this something to look forward to.

Looking at the soldier very seriously, Hua Xiongmao answered, "Correct, land distribution will start very soon."

"Brigade Commander, then how exactly is it going to be distributed?" Hearing this, all the soldiers became spirited. Hua Xiongmao, as the Brigade Commander, saying this personally meant he definitely wouldn't be deceiving people. The soldiers gathered around one after another.

Hua Xiongmao pointed in the direction of the land that had already begun to take shape. "Comrades, the land that has already been repaired, we will distribute to everyone's families first." He pointed again to the area that had not yet had time for large-scale water conservancy construction. "Our army's own farms still need us to tidy them up piece by piece ourselves."

Hearing this, some soldiers had looks of rejoicing and encouragement on their faces, while some soldiers revealed disappointed expressions. Hua Xiongmao knew this clearly in his heart. Those who were happy were because their families could finally farm good land, while those who were disappointed felt that the workload of the troop farms was really too great. Having experienced work that risked their lives these past few months, everyone understood the hardship of the work very well. To build such a vast area into the ideal appearance required investing an incomparably huge amount of labor.

Hua Xiongmao said loudly to the soldiers: "Comrades, we are the people's army. Doing construction for the people first is to let the people, let our own parents and brothers, live a good life first. And farming land ourselves is also so that we can feed ourselves. If we eat less of the people's grain, the people can eat a bit more grain. Tell me, is that right or not?"

There was no thunderous response; soldiers either nodded or sighed. But Hua Xiongmao could tell that everyone did not oppose it, because everyone knew Hua Xiongmao was very right. But thinking that they still had almost infinite work to do, no one could cheer up.

"Brigade Commander, I heard a saying. Those who keep queues won't be able to be soldiers in the future," a soldier asked. As part of the current army, everyone couldn't remain completely unaware that the Insurance Corps was now starting to vigorously breach landlord forts outside. However, in the Manchu Qing era, there were rebellions every year. In the late Qing, there were probably tens of thousands of armed peasant uprisings across the country every year. Although the scale was not large, the common people were not too surprised by this. With such a large armed force as the Insurance Corps, it would actually be incredible if they didn't fight outside. Since most of the soldiers going out to fight did not keep queues, such rumors appeared in the troops.

Hua Xiongmao said loudly, "Our troops suggest that everyone cut their queues. Because short hair is easy to wash and doesn't easily grow lice. But up to now, we don't have a policy requiring everyone to cut their queues."

"But Mr. Lu in the New Village said that to be a soldier in the future, one must cut the queue," the soldier said.

Lu Huitian again! Hua Xiongmao couldn't help but sigh in his heart. Recently, especially after the first harvest, quite a few party members who used to just bury their heads in work started to speak frequently. Especially those comrades of student origin, they recently started to have many quite radical speeches.

"Mr. Lu's words are only his own ideas; this is not our troops' policy. Everyone must understand this point," Hua Xiongmao still said loudly.

"But, besides Mr. Lu, there are quite a few other people saying this too. Queues must be cut. It's revolution." The soldier asked with some worry, "I met my family last time, and my family was also a bit worried. Afraid of fighting."

The soldier really treated the troops as his own people. Hua Xiongmao was very moved. Although it is perfectly justified for troops to fight, for the soldiers to be able to speak such almost heart-to-heart words, they were really too lovable.

"Comrades, we are the people's army. Whether we have to fight or not is because of whether we need to protect the people. If not for our common people, what would we fight for? To have everyone die in vain, and then I, Hua Xiongmao, gain benefits? Haha." Hua Xiongmao laughed loudly after finishing.

The soldiers felt this reasoning was a bit convoluted and didn't quite understand. But as long as Brigade Commander Hua had time, he would work together with everyone. If it were really for himself, Brigade Commander Hua could totally let others do the work. Anyway, those powerful and rich officials and landlords were all like that. Since Hua Xiongmao said so, everyone also felt it made a lot of sense.

Seeing everyone's expressions return to normal, Hua Xiongmao continued, "Comrades, our troops still follow the old rules. When it's time to distribute land, we will definitely tell everyone first. We will hold a meeting specifically to discuss this matter. People, we have to let them speak, but the rule of our troops is that only things said in meetings are official business. What others say, if not notified by a meeting, if not discussed in a meeting, doesn't count. Everyone must remember this point clearly."

For the past half year, the Insurance Corps had indeed been like this. Hearing Hua Xiongmao say this, everyone felt they had a baseline in their hearts. Then they heard Hua Xiongmao shout loudly, "Alright, we've rested enough. Let's continue working. Today we must finish repairing this ditch according to the plan!" After speaking, Hua Xiongmao picked up his hoe and walked down the slope. The soldiers put on their hats one after another and followed their Brigade Commander down to the construction site.

In the evening, disregarding his fatigue, Hua Xiongmao hurriedly rushed from near Yuezhangji to the county town. Although he was the highest commander of the Insurance Corps, Hua Xiongmao actually found that what he was engaged in was actually military orders and training work. Apart from the battle to attack Yuezhangji, Hua Xiongmao never had the opportunity to actually participate in combat again. The rapidly expanding army plunged this former Military Graduate into endless army construction work.

The army construction plan Chen Ke brought out looked simple, but the actual work required to be invested was almost infinite. More importantly, the practical significance contained in these seemingly simple construction plans was not simple. The people who could understand these were a minority in the People's Party, and those willing to bury their heads and work hard to implement them were even fewer. The Military Commission of the People's Party was now regarded as a gathering place for Chen Ke's diehards. At least two recognized diehard subordinates of Chen Ke, Hua Xiongmao and He Zudao, held charge of military orders and military administration work. Although He Zudao was now the political commissar of the 2nd Regiment, everyone knew in their hearts that the Brigade Political Commissar would sooner or later be He Zudao.

However, regarding Hua Xiongmao, everyone's recent views were not quite the same. Because of the adjustment of the Water Detachment, many people thought that the current detachment leader of the Water Detachment, Zhang Yu, was very likely to become the third-ranked military commander. Although Hua Xiongmao had the most seniority, plus Chen Ke's support allowing Hua Xiongmao to become the Vice Brigade Commander, his status was already above other comrades. Although temporarily no one could challenge his status. But before there was Chai Qingguo—although Chai Qingguo had not been as conspicuous recently as at the beginning—now Zhang Yu appeared, and everyone thought a newcomer had appeared who faintly could drive side by side with Hua Xiongmao.

However, this kind of status competition was not yet obvious; at least Hua Xiongmao himself didn't care. Hua Xiongmao's initial purpose in joining the People's Party was to follow Chen Ke. In this past year or so, Hua Xiongmao felt that this life was becoming more and more flavorful. Not only because he changed from an ordinary Shaoxing gentry into a commander of a team of more than eight thousand people, but more importantly, Hua Xiongmao saw that he could actually accomplish such great things. When in the countryside, let alone eight thousand people, just gathering a hundred people was an incomparably difficult thing. But under the system constructed by Chen Ke, tens of thousands of people could at least be united under one banner. Everyone could actually rely on their own strength to confront such a terrible natural disaster. When the flood occurred, when disaster relief work was underway, everyone including Hua Xiongmao was actually at a loss. Looking around, there was floodwater everywhere; there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. But Chen Ke dared to pilot a boat to save people from that time. After the water receded, facing a patch of mud, Chen Ke dared to plan the development for the next few years.

After the toil, looking back, everyone realized these things were actually just like that. As long as the common people could be organized, as long as there was a military organization like the Insurance Corps, as long as the Insurance Corps could listen to the People's Party, millions of people united as one could accomplish great things. Quite a few comrades within the Party had begun to get carried away; all kinds of "Monday morning quarterbacking" and hindsight wisdom came out one after another. But Hua Xiongmao, who always followed closely behind Chen Ke on the front line, knew very clearly that if not for Chen Ke having a determination that never wavered, if not for Chen Ke and those diehards of Chen Ke following closely on the front line, this group of people now boasting shamelessly would have probably run away long ago.

So now Hua Xiongmao was anxious to see Chen Ke; the purpose was to clarify the recent matters of many people speaking recklessly to Chen Ke. The reason the People's Party and the Insurance Corps had prestige was that they absolutely did not promise easily, and for promises, the People's Party and the Insurance Corps tried their best to do it first before speaking.

If before Hua Xiongmao still felt that after Chen Ke arrived in Anhui, he was conversely not as good as in Shanghai. At that time, although Chen Ke was also cautious, at least he dared to talk about the principles of revolution. Arriving in Anhui, especially during the flood period, what Chen Ke repeatedly emphasized was "The People's Party is the vanguard of the people," "The Insurance Corps is the people's team," and "Bury your head and work." What revolution, what ideals, he never mentioned again. Hua Xiongmao now understood Chen Ke's difficulties. If Chen Ke as the highest leader had been full of big talk at that time, the people below wouldn't know what they might have said. Now just seeing the opportunity to lead everyone to live until next year, quite a few comrades below who used to work hard started to talk nonsense. This trend had to be stopped no matter what.

When Chen Ke was in Shanghai before, he talked about one thing. The revolution must accomplish the work of eliminating old culture. One important aspect was the "official standard." Although the soldiers below knew that the one making decisions in the People's Party was Chen Ke, everyone thought that what those "big officials" of the People's Party said was also the meaning of the People's Party. But in fact, what these people were saying now was not only not the meaning of the People's Party, but these words had never even been truly discussed in party meetings.

Hua Xiongmao couldn't exactly say in public that those people's words were all their own nonsense. Saying that would be undermining unity within the Party. And once the soldiers heard it, they would definitely think: if other "big officials" are talking nonsense, then are you, Brigade Commander Hua Xiongmao, talking nonsense? That would be a devastating blow to discipline. So no matter what, Hua Xiongmao hoped to be able to hold a meeting to discuss this matter properly. Before, during the disaster relief period, Chen Ke repeatedly emphasized that one of the Party's disciplines was that what was said to the people must be unified, and there could not be individual autonomous statements. At that time, everyone could understand and could be considered to have done it, but now that the spirit relaxed, quite a few comrades had no gatekeeper on their mouths. This atmosphere had to be stopped no matter what.

On the way, Hua Xiongmao sorted out the various statements he had heard in his mind once. Who said what, what kind of rumors were among the soldiers, and to what extent the recent work had progressed. Although the journey was not short, because his mind was full of matters, it seemed like there wasn't much distance. Just as he sorted out the report content, Hua Xiongmao had already arrived at the county town.

Seeing the barracks of the Insurance Corps, Hua Xiongmao suddenly thought of a question: does this count as me snitching? Hua Xiongmao had a straightforward nature. Although he knew those petty tricks when walking the jianghu, Hua Xiongmao only guarded against others and never thought of harming others. If it were before, he would never have run so anxiously to report others' improper conduct no matter what.

However, although he had such a thought, Hua Xiongmao felt no wavering in his conscience. If this kind of thing wasn't clarified to the party organization and Chen Ke as early as possible, he was afraid there would be big chaos in the future. Hua Xiongmao only regretted that he had still been careless; actually, from the earliest appearance of some inappropriate rumors, he should have reported to Chen Ke. Reporting now was definitely late. Hua Xiongmao made up his mind that he would never turn a blind eye to these "small matters" in the future.

Registering at the sentry post at the gate of the Insurance Corps barracks, the sentry asked with a smile, "Brigade Commander Hua, who are you looking for this time?"

"I'm looking for Secretary Chen."

"Secretary Chen went to the dock to pick up people. I heard a big fleet came today, with many new comrades inside," the sentry said.

"Oh? Then I won't go in first; I'll go take a look too." Hua Xiongmao turned and left after speaking.

Now there were many new camps inside and outside the county town. The large influx of refugees from other places into Fengtai County caused the population here to surge. Although the People's Party also provided a large number of job opportunities, everyone was worried that once the disaster victims were released into the fields to work, there might be large-scale grain looting problems. So most of the work was in the county town, so there were many people here. To maintain order, the newly built police force also appeared in large numbers among the disaster victims everywhere.

Passing through the crowds everywhere, sure enough, from afar he saw the dock was brightly lit. Hua Xiongmao had good eyesight; rushing near the dock, he suddenly saw two familiar people on the dock. One was Chen Ke, and the other was actually the long-lost Qi Huishen.