Watching from the simple porridge bell tower as the disaster victims below finally dispersed under the supervision and leadership of the police, He Zudao secretly breathed a sigh of relief. But he didn't go down; instead, he looked at Chen Ke standing by the handrail of the bell tower. Chen Ke pressed his hands on the simple wooden pole, looking down carefully.

Seeing Chen Ke silent for a long time, He Zudao standing behind him couldn't help asking: "Secretary Chen, should we go to the meeting now? Other comrades should have arrived." The one who took the initiative to come and ring the porridge bell was He Zudao. When he received the news, He Zudao was participating in the harvest with comrades in the farmland. Large-scale harvesting had begun these days, and He Zudao, following his usual work habit, took the initiative to run to the fields to participate in harvesting. Hearing the news of the disaster victim disturbance, he threw down the work in his hands and ran all the way to the county town. First he instructed the county town side to continue cooking for the disaster victims, and then took people straight to the porridge bell tower. Going up to the bell tower, he saw Chen Ke looking out from above at a glance. This really startled He Zudao. He wasn't worried about being blamed by Chen Ke, but worried about Chen Ke's safety. Disaster victims were everywhere; if a disturbance really broke out, the conspicuous landmark of the bell tower would definitely be within attack range. No matter how He Zudao persuaded, Chen Ke refused to leave. He Zudao had to stay together. When it was time to serve porridge, it was Chen Ke and He Zudao who rang the bell together. Now that the disaster victims had dispersed, He Zudao hoped Chen Ke would hurry to clean up the mess.

Chen Ke's answer was completely irrelevant to the question. "Zu Dao, did you see how the disaster victims dispersed?"

"Ah?" Most of He Zudao's attention was focused on protecting Chen Ke, and he didn't pay much attention to how the disaster victims dispersed. Hearing this question, he was stunned.

Chen Ke didn't turn his head either. He pointed down and said: "You definitely can't see clearly from below, but if we look down from up here, the disaster victims actually divided into many groups."

He Zudao really didn't have the mind to think about these things. Chen Ke's completely indifferent attitude made him feel scared just thinking about it now. "Secretary Chen, let's go down first."

Hearing such advice, Chen Ke suddenly turned his head. On ordinary days, no matter what situation he encountered, Chen Ke maintained a quite rational attitude; this feeling couldn't be described, but could be seen. Now Chen Ke was full of emotional things. Seeing Chen Ke's face, He Zudao was really startled. He could see that the current Chen Ke was angry.

"Zu Dao, the revolution in Fengtai County is where I have concentrated all my body, mind, and energy. But I am thinking now, if I died suddenly right now, could this revolution still develop according to the situation I hope for?" There was a strong annoyance in Chen Ke's voice.

He Zudao felt frightened by this anger of Chen Ke, but saw Chen Ke return to normal in an instant. "Let's go, go to the meeting."

Following Chen Ke to the conference room somewhat tremblingly, He Zudao saw that the conference room was already full of people. A strange low pressure lingered in the conference room. Standing there speaking was Xu Dian, and standing face to face with him like a fighting cock was Dai Enze.

"According to what you say, I should be responsible for this disaster victim disturbance?" Xu Dian asked loudly. "When recruiting police at that time, the person in charge indeed accepted benefits from disaster victims. What was wrong with me investigating him?"

He Zudao knew about this case. Actually, the idea of recruiting temporary police from disaster victims existed from the beginning; it was Shang Yuan who proposed it. Xu Dian was already the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission at that time, and Chen Ke let him be responsible for party discipline supervision issues. Among the disaster victims, there were also those who had relatives in Fengtai County. among those recruiting police, local staff arranged for some relatives who were disaster victims to join the police force. This wasn't much originally, but what was terrible was that a certain staff member accepted gift money from a relative and patted his chest saying he would help the relative get a position as a small leader.

But that disaster victim was too clumsy and completely unable to integrate into the police system. Not only did this disaster victim show such characteristics, but in fact, those recruited from disaster victims all had such problems. The local police of Fengtai County had all experienced a few months of Insurance Corps or Reclamation Brigade experience. In Chen Ke's view, this group of people in Fengtai County basically had no modern social collective concepts, but those disaster victims from other places who had completely not experienced disciplinary constraints were even worse than these people. Lacking the concept of collective action, the disaster victims were either dull or too slippery. In short, manifested in practical action, their reactions were either too slow, not moving no matter how shouted at, or reactions were too flexible, movements exaggerated, expressions rich—basically deliberately revealing their own existence. In the training team, this group of people was really an extremely eye-catching existence.

And the reason why that disaster victim who paid gift money was dismissed was that when the instructor asked him to keep up with the team, this disaster victim answered slowly: "I will definitely keep up." Then he added: "I came to learn to lead this bunch of people to work; I don't need to learn these, right?" The instructor was speechless at the time; the instructor was here to educate basic police force, not to cultivate masters. So this disaster victim was immediately dismissed. Then this essentially honest and dutiful disaster victim immediately demanded in public that the staff member return the gift money.

Then, the matter blew up. As the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Department, Xu Dian immediately intervened in this matter. The staff member who accepted the gift money was suspended for reflection on the spot and sent to logistics to raise pigs. And those responsible for training the police system were originally very dissatisfied with the performance of the personnel drawn from the disaster victims. Xu Dian ordered a temporary suspension of recruiting disaster victim police officers, and they were happy to save the trouble.

Looking at it now, if there were police officers of disaster victim origin in the police team, things would definitely be much easier to handle now. Presumably, Dai Enze mentioned Xu Dian's practice at that time. And Xu Dian also counterattacked immediately.

Dai Enze's temperament was not radical, and he was loyal to the People's Party; after all, he was saved by the People's Party. If it were a more senior cadre, he wouldn't dare to resist, but Xu Dian wasn't an old party member either; he joined the team almost together with Dai Enze. Dai Enze wasn't afraid of this pale-faced scholar. "Everyone has responsibility for what happened then. Now we must quickly recruit new police from the disaster victims. Otherwise..."

While speaking, everyone saw Chen Ke come in. Everyone's face immediately showed joy.

Dai Enze immediately stopped talking and took the lead in saluting Chen Ke.

Looking at the forest of arms of his subordinates, Chen Ke returned the salute simply, then sat down in the vacant chairman's seat. "Comrades worked well; this matter was resolved very well." Although these were words of praise, Chen Ke didn't mean to be happy at all, which made everyone feel very pressured.

"I have been thinking about a question these days," Chen Ke said with a grim face. "If I died suddenly right now, could this revolution still develop according to the situation I hope for?"

These words were a bit too heavy. The comrades who originally had some joy on their faces immediately darkened their faces. Quite a few people even twitched the corners of their eyes slightly. A thought rose in almost everyone's mind: Who is Chen Ke referring to with these words? And many people's gazes immediately fell on Shang Yuan.

Shang Yuan's face turned slightly gray. Chen Ke laughed for no reason this time and quit his job, Shang Yuan felt a very ominous feeling. He didn't expect Chen Ke to say this directly in front of everyone. He had only one biggest feeling, and that was humiliation. He had paid so much for the revolution, but didn't expect the result obtained to be "the revolution after Chen Ke's death absolutely cannot continue." This was a complete negation. based on the time Chen Ke spoke, this was telling everyone clearly that Shang Yuan had no possibility of inheriting Chen Ke's revolutionary will.

Chen Ke didn't care what everyone thought, because he didn't mean to target Shang Yuan either. He felt that his next words would be even more vicious; this bit of grievance Shang Yuan suffered was nothing at all.

"Our People's Party wants to liberate the people and serve the people. Are the disaster victims the people we want to save? As I see it now, everyone doesn't think disaster victims are the people in our eyes. Everyone doesn't need to feel embarrassed about this matter; I also feel that saving these disaster victims requires spending a lot of strength, and what we lack most now is strength. Comrades, we must now devote ourselves wholeheartedly to establishing the Fengtai County Base Area. This is correct; this is our only choice. But, but comrades, we won't just revolutionize in this one place, Fengtai County." Speaking of this, Chen Ke stood up. Chen Ke was the tallest in the room. He looked down somewhat at the bewildered comrades and said loudly: "I have decided. Within fifteen days from now, using the various forts we conquered as strongholds, we will establish extensive base areas. Everyone present must take a small team of people, go to various forts to be District Chiefs, and start carrying out revolutionary work independently."

Everyone never expected Chen Ke to say such words. Quite a few people were immersed in Chen Ke's earlier criticism, while some were shocked by the later decision.

Chen Ke's left hand pointed at the comrades in the air a few times. "If I say that comrades have fully mastered the ability to create base areas independently, do you think you can do it?"

Because they were severely criticized by Chen Ke at the beginning, everyone dared not make a sound. Moreover, asking themselves, everyone indeed couldn't do things as comprehensively as Chen Ke. Not a single person dared to answer Chen Ke's words now.

Theoretically, this decision of Chen Ke violated the organizational constitution. Because any resolution of the People's Party had to be discussed by the Party Committee, but Chen Ke simply ignored these at this time, and none of the comrades thought of this problem either. They just heard him continue: "But, I now require everyone to reach the level of being able to work independently. You are about to go to various regions to be leading cadres. If you don't do well somewhere, then problems will arise somewhere just like this time. Comrades, this is a challenge. I hope everyone can do well. As long as everyone can truly do well, even after I die, I won't worry that our revolution can't go on!"

"Secretary Chen," Hua Xiongmao saw Chen Ke finished speaking temporarily and immediately interjected, "Who do you think is responsible for this incident?" This was what everyone cared about most. Until now, the People's Party had clear resolutions for every problem that occurred. Whose responsibility it was, no one could muddle through. Of course, under Chen Ke's coordination, there was no problem of being a scapegoat, and things like retaliation basically didn't happen. But this matter made such a big fuss, many comrades' thinking was still on the habitual track—first find the person responsible for the problem, then summarize the experience.

"We all have responsibility for this matter. If we must say it, our biggest problem is not having enough cadres to undertake the work. I know the general situation of the disaster victim training issue last time. Comrade Xu Dian was right to rectify discipline. The comrades of the police system were unwilling to accept disaster victims in order to form a combat-effective force as soon as possible; I also don't think it was a bad choice. But the problem of our lack of cadres is very obvious now; this has exceeded our current ability. We really can't produce so many cadres. Talking about responsibility, everyone has it. If you say who is definitely wrong, I don't think so necessarily." Chen Ke almost set the final tone with one hammer.

Hearing this, all comrades except Shang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.

"However, you will face even harder problems immediately. Comrades working in the localities will never be able to get the support of so many tested comrades at any time again. Not only are you unlikely to get support at any time, but they [you] also have to be prepared to solve faced problems at all times, and be prepared to support others at all times. Whether you are willing or not, this is the work that is about to be carried out." Chen Ke set the final tone, issuing an order like a dictator.